I'm rlly sorry this is like lousily written :( but i hope u still like it >W<

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“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Haneul hisses as Seokjin puts down the paper.

“No, I’m not kidding,” Seokjin says. “You can’t keep him. He’s a danger to you.”

“He’s not!” Haneul argues back. “I don’t care what the newspaper says. He’s just a little boy!”

“Doesn’t mean he isn’t a threat,” Seokjin says firmly and sternly. “Get rid of him or I will.”

Tears form in Haneul’s eyes. “You can’t do this. I won’t let you! Not after I just got him back!”

“He’s not back!” Seokjin’s voice rises. “You didn’t get him back! He’ll never come back!”

Haneul shrinks back against the couch as Seokjin sits back down. He buries his face in his hands, seeming defeated, and not a word passes between the two of them.

Haneul fidgets with the hem of her shirt, as Seokjin rises from his seat and leaves, slamming the door behind him. Unable to hold in her tears anymore, Haneul pulls her legs to her chest, sobbing silently.

Haneul has absolutely no idea how long she took to calm down, but she did, and she grabbed her phone, tapping in a number. She clenches her free hand into a fist, nails digging into her palm, willing her voice not to break when Hoseok answers, because Hoseok’s going to fret, and he’s not exactly all fluff and sunshine when he’s mad.

“H-Hoseok?” Darn it, Haneul, you failed at the first word.

“Haneul? What’s wrong? You seem…out of it.”

“R-Really? Do I?” Haneul curls up on the couch again, barking out a forced laughter. “Hey, Hoseok…think you can come over? I need to show you something.”

“Sure~! Anything for you~!”

*

The house is silent as Hoseok reads the newspaper over and over again, eyes widening every time it sweeps across the mugshot of Jungkook.

“This is crazy! You’re housing a fugitive in your…house!” Hoseok exclaims, putting the newspaper back on the table.

“Not you too!” Despair grips Haneul. Hoseok has always been an emotionally sensitive person, and he sympathises most with Haneul, even more than Seokjin does.

“No, I’m saying this for your own safety…and for the boy’s,” Hoseok says. “The boy…you don’t want the same thing to happen to him, right?”

“S-Stop it!”

“Haneul, I’m not trying to say that it’s wrong, but it’s just…you have to accept that someone like him…”

“He’s Jungkook,” Haneul’s eyes flash dangerously. “And he’s done nothing wrong.”

Hoseok bites his lip, before sighing, “Fine. I can’t believe I always give in to you.”

It provides little relief for Haneul, however, although she has someone who supports her now. Hoseok nags at Haneul to go to bed, and to deal with the problem in the morning, in which Haneul grudgingly obeys, but not without dinner first.

*

Jungkook heard everything. Haneul thought he was sleeping, but he wasn’t. Now, Jungkook lies in bed, clearly terrified at what he just heard. Is Haneul going to give him away? Are those terrible men looking for him?

What exactly happened?

He pretends to be asleep when Haneul walks over to him to wake him up for dinner. Jungkook pretends to be groggy when she leads him down to the dinner table, and he pretends to not know what the other man, Hoseok, is there for.

“This is Jung Hoseok, Kookie. He’s my friend,” Haneul smiles, gesturing towards Hoseok as she lays down a carrot and potato salad in front of Jungkook. Hoseok waves, and Jungkook returns it, although meekly.

“Where’s the other man?” Jungkook asks.

“Oh, Seokjin?” Hoseok stuffs a spoonful of chicken into his mouth. “He’s busy tonight.”

“Oh,” Jungkook nods.

The three then eat in silence, and Jungkook can’t help but twitch his ears and ponder about his future. It’s true he doesn’t remember anything about his past life, before he got the ears and the tail, if there ever was such a time. Jungkook finishes eating, and places his bowl in the sink, before heading up to the bathroom to bathe just like a good bunny…or boy.

On the way, he catches sight of his face on the newspapers. Definitely him. Even has his number on the bottom. Subject 0613.

Jungkook shivers as he tears his eyes away from the picture and article, and climbs up the staircase.

When he’s halfway through his bath, playing with the rubber duckies and soap bubbles, he hears the doorbell open, and Hoseok’s voice answering, “Yes?”

“We’d like to see the owner of his house, who goes by the name of Kim Haneul. Are you him?”

“What is it?” Jungkook hears Haneul’s voice, as he sinks deeper into the bathtub.

“We have word that the experiment we are searching for, Subject 0613, has escaped to around these parts. Have you caught any sight of him at all? Or do you have any information about this dangerous subject’s whereabouts?” the man continues.

Haneul’s answer is immediate, and Jungkook’s pounding heart calms down a little as he breathes a sigh of relief, ears flattened against his head and his tail twitches. He pulls his knees up to his chest, burying his face in his knees.

Jungkook closes his eyes, and dreams.

*

“Happy birthday!”

“Eomma? Thanks!”

“Here’s for you too!”

“Thank you, appa!”

“Remember, always be happy, okay? Don’t let anyone bring you down, ever.”

“Okay, appa.”

*

Jungkook’s woken up by the knocking of the door, and he quickly wraps his lower half in a towel, before opening it. Haneul’s standing on the other side.

“Kookie? I’d like you to stay hidden, okay?” Haneul smiles, but even Jungkook knows it looks forced. “Some bad people are trying to look for you.”

“Uh-huh,” Jungkook affirms.

“Right, if you’re done, you can go to sleep first,” Haneul says, before closing the door, and Jungkook gets dressed.

That night, Jungkook doesn’t sleep, instead tossing and turning around in his bed, feeling a little too hot for what is supposed to be the cold and windy night. He tries to let the drone of the fan lull him to sleep, but it doesn’t work. The silence of the night makes him wide awake, and his bunny ears are perked up, straightened, and it doesn’t help matters.

Jungkook decides to get up, and go see Haneul. Maybe she’d know what to do. So that’s what he does.

Jungkook grabs a tiny stuffed dog he finds on the corner of his bed, before walking over to Haneul’s room at the very end of the hallway. There, he is greeted by her near-silent breathing, and she’s curled up against the wall, blanket draped over her thin form, and she’s clutching a stuffed dog, one that’s identical to the one Jungkook’s holding.

The first thing that alerts Jungkook that something’s wrong is Haneul’s sniffling. Is she crying? He moves closer to her, bending over her and trying to see what’s wrong.

Indeed, she’s crying, and Jungkook suddenly feels panic taking over. He has no idea what to do. Haneul has comforted him once when he was crying while sleeping, but he doesn’t know what to do when the roles are reversed. He fidgets for a while in the dark room, trying to decide what to do, before crawling into her bed and wrapping his own arms awkwardly around her.

Jungkook snuggles against her, pulling her against his chest, and he can feel her heart beating at an irregular pace, faster and faster as only one name slips out of .

“Jimin…”

*

Haneul wakes up the next morning, a little frightened at whatever she dreamt of the previous night. However, the first thing she notices when she comes to her senses is the pair of warm arms around her middle. The second thing she notices is the pair of fluffy ears against her head.

“Mm…Jungkook?” Haneul turns her head, feeling the boy’s breath fanning against her neck. Nope, nope, Haneul’s cheeks are not heating up because Jungkook’s so close. Definitely not.

Jungkook doesn’t stir, and he hugs Haneul a little tighter.

Haneul nudges Jungkook lightly, “Jungkook-ah.”

Jungkook turns to his side, letting go of Haneul, and Haneul smiles as Jungkook’s still sleeping, bunny ears straightened out on the pillow. He looks like a baby, innocent and fragile against the world’s treachery.

An overwhelming sense of protectiveness comes over Haneul, and as she looks at Jungkook, someone else pops into her mind. A cute, baby face with chubby cheeks, puppy ears and a puppy’s furry tail comes to mind, always prancing about with a new dance routine he’s created all on his own, or a new discovery, like a new, hidden shortcut through the different alleyways and private gardens.

Haneul shakes her head. That’s all in the past.

Jungkook wrinkles his nose, before opening one bleary eye. He rubs them, while looking at Haneul the whole time.

He just looks adorable, face puffy from sleep and a red spot from having pressed it into Haneul’s hair the entire night. In his arms is a stuffed toy—a dog-shaped stuffed toy that Haneul recognizes as the same toy she’s given to…

“I’m hungry,” Jungkook breaks off Haneul’s line of thought, and Haneul ruffles his hair, standing up.

“I’ll go get you something to eat,” Haneul pushes herself off the bed, and is about to leave when Jungkook grabs her wrist.

“Who’s Jimin?” Jungkook asks, and Haneul pauses. How did…?

“Who’s Jimin, Haneul?” Jungkook asks again, grip tightening. “I heard you talking about him in your sleep.”

“Jimin is…no one,” Haneul comes up with a reply that can’t even fool a child.

Jungkook, however, doesn’t pursue it. Instead, he nods as he lets Haneul go down to prepare breakfast. Hoseok wakes up on the couch when Haneul nearly trips and crashes down the stairs. He berates her for a moment about her clumsiness, before heading over to the kitchen to help Haneul prepare breakfast.

*

“Do you want to go to see the seaside, Kookie?” Haneul asks suddenly as she’s scrubbing Jungkook’s scalp as he plays with the rubber duck in the water.

Jungkook hesitates, “What’s the seaside?”

“You know, a big body of water called the sea, and there’s a lot of sand too. It’s really pretty,” Haneul describes. “You want to go today?” She splashes a bit of water on Jungkook’s hair, before grabbing the showerhead and spraying water at his hair, washing all the soap suds out.

“Okay,” Jungkook nods. He hasn’t been out of the house in ages.

And Haneul decides that’s the best way to keep Jungkook out of the eyes of the mad scientists who want to take him back. Keep him out of the neighbourhood.

*

“I can’t believe you talked me into this,” Seokjin mutters, who has taken the wheel, and Namjoon’s sitting at his side. Seokjin only agreed to go because Namjoon decided it would be fun, and Haneul and Namjoon hit it off just fine.

“It’ll be fun! Besides, I haven’t seen the beach in a while,” Namjoon pats his boyfriend on the back.

Haneul, meanwhile, is sitting at the back, explaining everything to Jungkook as he points out butterflies, fields of crops, trees and forests on the road. He watches as the car drives over mountain ranges, bridges and over large ravines, before coming to a stop in a parking lot.

The deal is this: Haneul and Jungkook have their fun, and Seokjin and Namjoon have their first, real date.

“See you later, Haneul-yah!” Namjoon calls, and Haneul waves goodbye to the two of them.

Haneul brings Jungkook over to the sea, and the boy holds tightly to her hand as he splashes about, the waves cooling against his skin. Most of the beachgoers are too engrossed in their own activities or themselves that they didn’t notice a boy with large bunny ears trying to make himself comfortable in the big, blue sea.

“Hey, you look weird,” a boy calls out to Jungkook, and the two turn around, facing the young boy with a surfboard, who doesn’t look older than nine years old, and judging from his accent, he’s definitely not Korean, but obviously an Asian.

“You look like a bunny,” his younger sister observes, pointing at Jungkook’s ears, and Jungkook turns a bright shade of red, eyes flicking over to Haneul for help.

“He’s adorable, isn’t he?” Haneul squats so that she’s at eye-level to the two kids.

“Yup!” the girl grins. “He’s so cute. Can I pet his ears?”

“But he’s a weird guy!” the boy protests, but the girl is adamant about it. Jungkook squats down along with Haneul, and lets the girl pet his ears, squealing about how it really feels like a bunny’s ears.

“You wanna try?” the girl asks the boy, and the boy harrumphs, before walking forward and touching Jungkook’s ears. Jungkook’s ears twitch, and he jumps in surprise.

“Can we play with you? Mommy and Daddy are somewhere else,” the girl says.

“Sure, of course,” Haneul nods, and figures that she should probably get Jungkook to socialize a little.

“Okay! Let’s go make sandcastles!” the girl cries, pulling on Jungkook’s wrist and leading him to a patch of sand not occupied by mats and beach umbrellas. Jungkook looks a little overwhelmed, but nevertheless, he helps the girl on her conquest to build the biggest sandcastle, and Haneul challenges them to a sandcastle building contest, in which the girl and the boy, with Jungkook and Haneul in their teams respectively, compete for the biggest sandcastle ever.

“We won!” The boy grins, pumping his fists into the air when their sandcastle is bigger than theirs.

“That’s not fair!” the girl cries, pointing at her brother.

“It’s fair and square!” the boy cries, crossing his arms across his chest.

“Tell him it’s not fair!” the girl looks pleadingly at Jungkook.

Haneul laughs as Jungkook turns really red in the face.

*

It isn’t long before the sun is on the horizon, and they’re all tuckered out. Jungkook is piggybacking the girl, with Haneul holding onto the boy’s hand as he rubs at his eyes, clearly about to fall asleep.

Haneul smiles as she sees two people walking up to them, bearing an uncanny resemblance to the children.

“Oh! Sawako! Aki!” the woman calls for them, and the boy perks up at his name. The girl, meanwhile, is still asleep.

“Are these your children?” Haneul asks, and the father helps take the girl, Sawako, from Jungkook’s back. The boy, Aki, runs over his mother.

“Thank you so much for taking care of them,” the mother says, smiling. “We lost them sometime earlier today and, well, we couldn’t find them.”

“It’s okay! We had fun playing with them anyway,” Haneul bows.

“Thank you once again…I guess we have to be leaving. The sun’s setting and we really need to be getting back before sundown.”

“Have a safe trip!” Haneul calls as the family takes their leave.

Jungkook is sure that the father was throwing him weird looks just now…is it his ears?

Jungkook’s ears flatten against his head, which is bowed as the family leaves. What would life be like without the tail…and the ea—Jungkook’s ears perk up, a slight sound of a shifting body behind him. He turns, as quickly as his bunny reflexes allow him to, but there’s no one there.

Strange. Maybe it’s his imagination?

“What’cha looking at, Kookie?”

Jungkook shakes his head. Nothing’s wrong, his eyes seem to say.

“Okay,” Haneul nods, flashing one of the biggest grins Jungkook’s ever seen, and Jungkook can’t help but think that she has a very nice smile that sparkles. Haneul turns to the sun. “It’s a really beautiful sunset, don’t you think?”

Jungkook turns and catches the blinding sight of a ball of fire sinking into the line where the sea meets the sky. He glances over at Haneul, her eyes still on the sunset, transfixed.

Jungkook wonders. Wonders if he’d ever do this again. Seeing Haneul’s face lit up by the brilliance of the setting sun, standing on the warm, golden sands with waves of blue splashing gently against the shore, clouds drifting lazily past completing the perfect picture.

This is probably one of the best moments he’s ever had in his life.

*

“I trust you.”

“Don’t trust lightly. It’ll only get you killed,” the red-haired man says, scanning the card with his target on it.

“Don’t screw with me,” the man in the black suit growls, and the red-haired man twirls the card in his fingers.

“Whatever,” the red-haired man says. “Give me seven days.”

“Too long.”

“Five. Take it or leave it.”

“Fine,” the man in black says, handing the red-haired man the money. “I need your name.”

“It’s Taehyung,” the red-haired man grins cheekily. “Or you can call me Taetae.”