“You tamed him. You were the one who made him all soft!” a slap echoes from the room, and Haneul falls back, clutching at her cheek, where a red imprint has already taken form.

“Stop it!” Someone bolts from the doorway, slamming into Haneul’s attacker. The man stumbles forwards, and Haneul gasps as Jimin wrestles the man to the ground.

“Haneullie! Get out! Jin-hyung’s downstairs!” Jimin yells. The man’s gun is hurled a distance away, landing underneath Haneul’s desk.

“B-But, I can’t leave you here!” Haneul cries, confused and worried at the same time. Adrenaline’s fuelling her heart, her mind, and her desire to run, but Haneul knows she can’t leave Jimin. Not when he’s up against a man with a gun!

“JUST GO!” Jimin yells, just as his grip loosens on the man and he manages to lunge out of Jimin’s grasp, diving towards the gun.

“Say goodbye, sweetie!” the man aims his gun at Haneul, and

BANG!

*

Haneul wakes up with a gasp, shuddering a little, but she feels someone’s arm around her, warmth against her back. Hot breaths fan across her neck, and a nose twitches against her shoulder.

All thoughts of Jimin flees her head when she realizes the smell isn’t Jimin’s at all. Instead, it’s very much Jungkook’s. Li’l bunny must’ve had a nightmare again…or he’s just craving warmth.

Haneul turns herself so that her face is buried in Jungkook’s chest, the only thing between her and Jungkook is the stuffed dog that Jungkook’s clutching onto. Haneul takes a deep breath.

That man shot her, and Jimin took the shot.

She never actually saw it happen, but it’s the only way to explain Jimin’s dead body on the ground, but it must have grazed her forehead, leaving that scar that her hair curtains and hides. And it was the story that Hoseok and Seokjin fed her anyway.

She was found by Hoseok, who’d rushed her to the hospital right after, because she was bleeding horribly and her blood had covered her eye.

Haneul opens her eyes, looking up at Jungkook’s moonlit face, eyes closed and lips slightly parted, only inches away from her own. Moving her hand up to cup Jungkook’s face, Haneul traces his cheekbones, down his cheek, to his chin, as if attempting to memorize every shape and contour.

Jungkook stirs a little, pressing his face further into the pillow, fingers curling tighter around Haneul’s shirt.

Trying not to fangirl about how adorable that action was, Haneul smiles to herself as she plants her face in Jungkook’s chest, breathing in his scent, where she remains for the whole night.

*

“I really got to put this on my tumblr and twitter account.”

Haneul awakes to the annoying voice that is Jung Hoseok. She rubs her eyes as she looks up, and glares at Hoseok who has his phone out, and he’s dressed neatly in his school uniform. The A+ student who never skips class and always gets into the top ten percent in the cohort.

“Oppa!” Haneul whines, propping herself up on her elbows, and Hoseok grins at her evilly.

“I totally have blackmail,” Hoseok holds up his phone triumphantly, on its screen which shows a picture of Haneul and Jungkook tangled in each other. “Anyways, it’s getting late for school. I decided not to wake Yoongi-hyung up or else a tempest would be brewing.”

“Oh, alright,” Haneul stretches as she wakes up, and she grabs a sandwich from the kitchen counter, writing a note to Yoongi to remember to feed Jungkook, and she leaves with Hoseok, finding it surprising to see Namjoon standing there alone without Seokjin.

“Eh? Where’s Jinnie?” Haneul looks around for any signs of Seokjin, but Namjoon gives a small smile.

“He’s sick today,” Namjoon says. “Probably something he ate last night.”

“Sick? As in?”

“Ejecting food from his body. From the mouth and .”

“TMI, Namjoon,” Hoseok mutters, as the three of them head on to school, all of them managing to enter the school gates before the bell rings. Namjoon walks with Haneul to their class, while Hoseok meets up with his friends to walk to their class.

“Say, Haneul-ssi, why do you have a hybrid in your house?” Namjoon suddenly asks out of the blue.

“Because he was lonely on the streets and he was practically starving,” Haneul says.

“And he’s the second hybrid you’ve met in your life?” Namjoon looks interested now, but a little too eager for Haneul’s liking.

“Yeah,” Haneul nods as they reach their class.

“Hmm,” Namjoon nods as they walk to their separate seats, but something in that sentence makes Haneul uneasy.

“And he’s the second hybrid you’ve met in your life?”

Haneul shakes the thought out of her head and concentrates on her History class.

*

Taehyung has dreams about Jimin again. Jimin who’ve kept his smile on even in the darkest of times, when they were still on the streets.

One day, Taehyung had gone to steal them some food for them, and someone had taken Jimin away. They’d kidnapped his best friend, and Taehyung was left all alone.

Taehyung had carved out a name for himself in his life in the underground and with his exceptional agility, he turned to killing for a living. Taehyung killed and killed, hands stained with blood, loving the feel of a blade in his hands a gun in his holster slung in his belt.

The next time Taehyung saw Jimin, Jimin’s with a girl. A girl of all things! He grits his teeth in annoyance as he watches Jimin play around with her, ice-cream off her cheek when he sees a smudge of mint green on her. Taehyung’s blood starts to boil. Jimin’s is his. He shouldn’t be with anyone else. Taehyung can barely contain his anger as he punches the trunk again and again, until his knuckles are bruised and bleeding.

Jimin is Taehyung’s, and Taehyung won’t let another human have him.

Although Taehyung had gotten his wish when three scientists approached him one day, for his skills to help in recapturing Jimin, he had failed, miserably. Of course, Taehyung was never going to hand Jimin back to the scientists (after many years of experiments, Taehyung is never going to forget those faces), and he planned to kill the girl and keep Jimin for himself.

No more. Taehyung won’t let anyone stand between him and his mission again…

Well, that the grey-haired man has to be taken care of first, though. Taehyung shrugs off the stuttering of his heart as adrenaline when he thinks about him.

Speak of the devil.

Taehyung watches as another person enters the bar he’s at, eyes trained on him at all times. That grey-haired freak that Taehyung hates with a passion. Taehyung turns back to his drink the moment he realizes the grey-haired man is sitting by his side, and ordering a shot.

For a while, both don’t talk, simply revelling in the sound of the background bass. Until Taehyung can’t stand it anymore and the grey-haired dude is already downing his entire glass.

“Why the are you here?” Taehyung hisses, tail flicking about in annoyance. “There are a million other seats in the ing bar!”

The man surveys Taehyung for a while, seemingly choosing his words carefully before taking another swig. He turns to Taehyung. “What’s your name?”

“Kim Taehyung,” Taehyung grits out.

“Min Yoongi,” the man says. “I believe I didn’t catch your name.”

“You didn’t,” Taehyung affirms. “And neither did I catch yours. Get straight to the point!”

“For starters, why don’t you tell me why you were targeting my friend?” Yoongi now fixes his eyes on Taehyung’s, and Taehyung loathes the feeling of having someone looking into your soul, seeing your very weaknesses and darkest recesses of your mind.

“Well?” Yoongi’s next word snaps Taehyung out of his stupor. “What’s your aim?”

“Are you ing kidding me?” Taehyung smirks, but it looks a little like a grimace. “It’s that girl of course! Who else would it be?”

Yoongi nods, his large gulps turning into smaller sips as he asks the bartender to refill his glass. Apparently, Min Yoongi can hold his liquor quite well.

“I may not know your exact reason, but I will strike you down where you stand if you ing dare touch a single hair on her head,” Yoongi’s voice is soft but low, and there is a dangerous edge to it.

Taehyung clenches his fist.

“But then again, I’m guessing your reason has something to do with a boy named Park Jimin, am I right?” Yoongi asks out of the blue.

Taehyung stops for a moment, appalled, “How did you—”

“Both of you are hybrids,” says Yoongi as a matter-of-factly. “I figured there might be connections between the two of you.”

“What’s your point?”

“Nothing much,” Yoongi continues drinking his drink. “Except I heard that Jiminnie died.” (Taehyung doesn’t like the way Yoongi calls Jimin ‘Jiminnie’. Only Taehyung can call him that.) Yoongi takes a deep breath, before he begins speaking, “Jiminnie died, and from your response, I figure you must know about it.”

“I did,” Taehyung turns back to his own drink, the colourlessness driving him a little mad because he doesn’t have a ing hint as to what Yoongi is driving at.

“What did you feel? Anger?”

“Of course, anger!” Taehyung slams his glass down on the wooden surface of the counter. “I wanted to get rid of that ing girl with Jimin! She killed him! Jiminnie didn’t know how to fight back! He couldn’t maim and kill! And that’s because the girl--!”

“Tamed his heart,” Yoongi finishes. “If Jimin had been a savage, he’d end up just like you.”

“He should have. I would’ve protected him!”

“That’s plain stupid and you know it,” Yoongi says, voice and expression hard. “There are more threats for Jimin—no, anyone—down in the underground world where muggers and assassins run freely than with Haneul!”

“Who the are you to say that?!” Taehyung stands up suddenly, pushing his chair back, but the look that Yoongi gives him is so calm and so full of pity that Taehyung feels a twang in his heartstrings. He doesn’t need to be pitied! By his enemy no less! Without even paying for his drink, Taehyung runs out of the bar.

Yoongi doesn’t follow. Instead, the money slammed down on the bartender’s hand when Yoongi leaves the bar covers for both him and Taehyung’s drinks.

*

“The monkey ain’t any help, boss!”

“Relax. He’s just a pawn in this. And that silly excuse for a best friend.”

“But, boss…”

“Get to work, Jackson!”

“B-Boss!”

“Oh, and deploy Mark if the scheme doesn’t work. We need that bunny back!”

*

Jungkook has gone over to visit Seokjin (at his request, of course, plus the house wasn’t too far away) and bring him medication (basically his waiting servant) and hot water bottles when Seokjin needs them.

“Is this okay, hyung?” Jungkook hands the flabby thing over to Seokjin, and Seokjin beams.

“Yup, this is just the right temperature! You’re really good at this, Jungkook!” Seokjin ruffles Jungkook’s hair as the bunny plops down on the couch. Seokjin’s flipping through channels on the television, finding nothing of interest before he switches to Netflix to watch one of his favourite chick flicks.

“Hey, hyung,” Jungkook suddenly pipes up.

“Hmm?”

“You know, when you really like someone…”

“Eyy does Jungkookie have someone he likes?”

Jungkook blushes a deep red, “Err…umm…”

“It’s okay, you can tell hyung,” Seokjin sniffles as he wipes his snot away with a piece of tissue. “Actually, why don’t hyung tell you? You like Haneullie, don’t you?”

Now the tips of Jungkook’s ears are turning red, if that’s even possible, and Seokjin thinks it’s adorable. “Y-Yeah…So…what do I do, hyung? Does she like me back? I…I don’t know…” His bottom lip is quivering from anticipation, one of his ears twitching.

Seokjin chuckles, clutching the water bottle closer to him. “Maybe you can just go up to her and back hug her and say something really cheesy.”

“Cheesy?”

“Oh, right, you don’t know,” Seokjin says. “Why don’t you watch the movie with me and see if anything appeals to you?”

Jungkook nods, snuggling into Seokjin’s side as he watches the movie.

“What are they doing, hyung?” Jungkook points at where the main boy lead and girl lead are kissing (i.e. Seokjin’s favourite part).

“Kissing,” Seokjin sighs in explanation, and Jungkook has furrowed eyebrows and a scrunched-up nose. “You know, when you really like someone, you kiss them, like you press your lips to theirs…”

And that, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, is how Jungkook is confidently educated in the ways of kissing by Kim Seokjin.

“Oh, okay! Thanks, hyung!” Jungkook looks as excited as a schoolgirl meeting her crush in the hallways. He rushes out of the house without even so much as a ‘goodbye’.

*

“Jungkookie!!” Haneul calls, practically waking up a sleeping Min Yoongi. Yoongi huffs as he rises from the couch.

“The bunny’s upstairs! Keep it down next time!” Yoongi huffs, returning to his nap.

“Whatever,” Haneul ambles up the staircase. Today was a tiring day, and she just wanted to jump in her bed and sleep.

Haneul watches as Jungkook emerges from his room, rubbing his eyes.

“Kookie! I brought cookies for you! Thought you might like to try!” Haneul picks out a bag of cookies from her bag, a little crushed, but still edible. She takes out a piece and handfeeds Jungkook.

Jungkook’s teeth grazes Haneul’s fingers as he takes the cookie bit into his mouth, and Haneul swears her hand visibly shuddered. Jungkook, however, doesn’t seem to notice, and asks for more, before Haneul grins, giving him the whole bag and Jungkook eats it happily, before feeling guilty when he reaches the last piece and realizes Haneul must’ve not eaten at all.

Jungkook holds out the last piece, and gives it to Haneul, who looks a little surprised, but accepts it anyway.

Yoongi pauses at the stairs, watching with a small smile on his face.

The calm before the storm.