Yerim stirs awake at the sound of rushed footsteps and the muffled shouts outside her door. Blinking slowly, she allowed her tired eyes to roam her surroundings first before taking in the familiarity of her bedroom walls and its feminine decor. Her eyelids felt heavy as sleep threatened to take her again. She tries to fight it off by stretching her achy limbs, but the blankets that tightly cocooned her in restrained her from doing so.

Her father's distant voice enters her ears once more. Gradually closing her eyes, she was tempted to succumb to the darkness, but didn't when Jungkook's name came up.

Oh! Bolting upright with her purple comforter still tightly snugged around her front, she begins to replay her day like a cassette tape. A faint blush colors her cheeks when she remembers how she ruined Jungkook's uniform shirt.

How embarrassing, she thinks to herself and wonders if there was a rock large enough for her to hide under forever.

She worries because Jungkook would never let her live it down now (Yerim was sure the guy's mental age was that of a five-year old). Additionally, being openly emotional to each other had rarely occurred in their 10-year relationship. It seems she was only doing the guy a favor by providing him even more content for blackmail. Despite these facts, relieving her frustrations by crying to the older boy (albeit by six months) seemed like the better alternative than bottling up her feelings. With something so chaotic and nightmarish that just happened to them a few days ago, a good cry had sounded all the more reasonable. 

In truth, she kind of envied Seulgi for having someone like Jimin—a significant other—for comfort.

All she has is... well, Jungkook.

Suddenly, she is instantly reminded of the night when he came to her, pissed drunk. 

Before she ventured further into that particular memory, she was startled out of her thoughts when the walls behind her gently shook. To a stranger, one would've thought the town was undergoing a low-profile earthquake. To the Kim's, it was just their front door.

She sighed. 

The infrastructure of their little two-story house was so frail and weak, she wouldn't be surprised if a few more slams of the front door would lead to the destruction of their home.

Right, she should probably check on the poor guy and see if he was still breathing. Jungkook's encounter with her father was long overdue. 

They were bound to meet again.

Oh, but isn't her phone in her duffel bag downstairs?

Her eyes traveled to her bedroom door. 

Her heart begins to pound loudly in her ears. 

Nothing could compare to the large and difficult obstacle that awaits for her downstairs. Not even Minotaur, a Greek mythical creature who feeds off on humans for sustenance, could compare to the man who nurtured her all by himself since she was 7.

Finally leaving the comfort of her blankets after a long mental battle with herself, Yerim quietly pads across the room to her photo-decorated door. Peeking outside, she sees no one in the dark hallways and uses this opportunity to discreetly move across the hall and down the stairs. She prays to Buddha, hoping the older Kim was busying himself with his weekly house duties. This included watering their 6ft x 6ft - sized vegetable garden and cleaning up Mo's—their very very lazy Birman cat—litter box.

Kim Dongwan, her father, was not the nicest man when triggered. 

Born with a strong square jaw, naturally tanned skin, and a permanent scowl, people had easily found him intimidating. Her grade school teacher once thought he was a thug when he arrived at her parent-teacher conference casually dressed in a black tank top, sweats, brown-tinted sunglasses, and a pair of sandals. His ninth degree black belt and blonde highlights didn't help his image either. It only made the gossip in the teacher's lounge more believable. As a young father at the time, he was easily mistaken as a gangster and not as someone who fathered a young child. 

Unfortunately, when she reached the bottom steps of the stairs, Dongwan was already waiting for her: hands on his hips and the usual ugly frown set on his face. He was dressed comfortably in his sporty sleepwear, which consisted of a pair of black joggers and a matching black T-shirt with the words '#TaekwondoFoLyfe' printed on the front, a Christmas present she had bought for him some years ago (she actually gifted Jungkook the same shirt as well and always wondered how their encounter would've gone if they ever saw each other in them).

The head of the Kim Household stared down at her with a stern expression, making his natural-born scowl appear even darker. 

She gulped nervously as a weak chuckle slipped pass her lips. 

Honey brown eyes met identical ones. 

"H-Hi, Appa."

"Yah, Kim Yerim..." He pauses for effect before getting to the point. "—what did I say about hanging out with that kid?" 

She frowns. Not this conversation again. 

Yerim refrains herself from rolling her eyes in front of him, knowing she would get an earful about not respecting her elders. Huffing in annoyance, she crosses her arms instead and avoids his piercing glare.

"We've been friends since we were 6. I can't just drop our friendship because of that stupid incident when we were 8! Once upon a time, Appa, he was your star pupil too," The younger Kim argued, reminding the man of his past (and good) relationship with her best friend. 

Dongwan raised a dark brow at his daughter's rebellious display, a very uncharacteristic side that seems to only make its ugly appearance whenever that brat is mentioned. 

"Since when do you talk to your father like that, huh? Jeon Jungkook is trouble and I wasn't talking about that one time when you two were 8!" His voice slowly rose when the subject of the matter was finally identified in conversation.

"What he did two years ago was a mistake!" 

The older Kim scoffed at this rebuttal, which angered her even more.

"Like you said, kids do stupid all the time! Y-You can't define him just by what he did in the past!" 

Pissed, Yerim saw that there was no need to continue this one-sided conversation. Speeding pass her father, she quickly grabbed her duffel bag (which was left forgotten by the door) and slipped into a pair of sneakers before slamming the front door on her way out, leaving her father stunned as he felt the floors shake.

"Y-Yah! Kim Yerim! Where do you think you're going? Yah!"

"Stupid old man..." The dark-haired brunette mutters angrily to herself as she mindlessly walks out onto the streets; her duffel bag tightly strapped across her body and periodically hitting her behind as she strolls along the empty roads with heavy steps.

Shivering from the cold air, she shoves her hands into the pockets of her grey sweats and regrets not bringing a jumper before lamely running out. She then rehashes her argument with her father again in her head to divert her mind away from the cold and thinks that maybe the boy whom she grew up with did have a bad influence on her. 

Because she would've never walked out on her father like that. 

However, it was also unreasonable for him to judge Jungkook just because of what he did during his break from Taekwondo and the discipline that the sport had constantly enforced on its students. She knew her father was secretly disappointed when her best friend suddenly ran rogue and left the martial arts school (though the iron-masked man will never admit it). 

This newfound freedom had eventually lead Jungkook to find comfort in the wrong crowd and to committing wrong (illegal) activities. Everyone in the neighborhood had some sort of gist about the mischief and mayhem that 14/15-year old Jeon Jungkook had caused. They lived in a small town, so gossip and news travelled fast. Despite of their decade-old friendship, there were some things even she didn't know about the guy. He was in and out of her life during those two years. Even his parents received the same treatment as she did—gracing them with his presence every once in awhile (usually for pocket money or food). 

Him showing up at her doorstep on that confusing night, however, was the last of his rebellious and criminal antics.

There was so much that the older Kim had hoped and planned for the both of them. 

She was her father's only daughter and Jungkook had potential to take over his teaching position, but with her desire to study abroad in the field of business and Jungkook's sudden departure from the sport, the family-owned dojang that her father had kept running was just going to have to end its legacy with him.

Before she decided to turn guiltily back around and towards the house to apologize to her aging father, she was immediately pulled out of her deep thoughts when her feet had caught onto something heavy. On instinct, her hands quickly stretched out to prevent her from embarrassingly falling face-down onto the hard pavement.

Hissing at her scratched palms, Yerim blows on them to rid the stinging sensation as she struggles to stand back up. 

She then kicks at the object that tripped her.

"Stupid duffel bag! Who the hell would leave their—"

Her sentence was left unfinished after taking a second glance at the inanimate perpetrator. 

The bag was black with white detailing and her family's Taekwondo logo was printed onto its side. There was something else besides the bag as well and it didn't go unnoticed by the female.

It looked a lot like...

Blood. Within seconds, Yerim grabs the questionable bag in panic and desperately searched along the duffel's strap, hoping to find no sign that would indicate the bag was his, even though she had a sinking feeling it was. However, some higher being was so bored out of his mind that day that he decided to up her night because when she saw the horribly stitched image of a yellow daisy (or it was supposed to be one anyways) on the black fabric, her heart dropped to her stomach.

It was definitely his.

No one else but Jungkook had that ugly stitched flower on their duffel bag strap because she was the one that secretly placed it there herself. 

She was at sewing and everyone in their circle of friends knows this.

Now the question was, where was its owner?

. . .

Barging into the one person bedroom, Yerim yells at an unconscious male awake, who was comfortably sprawled out across his single-sized mattress.

"Yah, Kim Taehyung! Wake up!"

Shaken out of his dream about a certain senior by the sudden holler, the brunette jumps in surprise only to topple over onto his hardwood floors; his blue Doraemon blankets following suit. Groans came from the male. Squinting his eyes in the dark, he could barely make out the petite figure that stood before him in the soft moonlight. Crawling over to his lamp table in a sleepy daze, he searches for his dark-rimmed glasses.

"Y-Yeri?" 

Recognizing the younger girl who stares back at him wide-eyed and in alarm, he instantly blushes when realizing his current state of ness. 

She sees this and decides not to roll her eyes since there were more urgent matters right now.

"There's no time for you to be modest here! Jungkook's been kidnapped!" The female shouts in panic and quickly fumbles around his work desk in search of something rectangular and silver.

Covering his body with his blanket, Taehyung fixes his glasses to take a better look at the girl, his mouth agape.

"K-Kidnapped? Jungkook?"

Finally seeking out the older boy's laptop that was hidden under a large pile of papers (most likely unfinished homework assignments), Yerim rushed towards the brunette on the floor with loud footsteps. Her hands shook as she turned the electronic device on. The computer made a couple of whirring noises first before she was greeted with a bright screen.

"He has his cellphone with him. It wasn't in his bag. So if we hack into your dad's work system, we can find him!" Exclaims the younger girl, who's eyes never left the computer screen. She begins to tap impatiently on the laptop now, waiting for the log-on page to pop up.

"C'mon!" She shouts at the laptop. Taehyung winced at her screech.

Tying his blanket around his neck to cover his bare chest like a cloak, Taehyung looks at the girl beside him in confusion; still not fully registering what is happening.

"W-What?"

ing his laptop into his arms after logging in for him, Yerim tries to explain to the brunette again without losing her . "Remember what happened to Seulgi a couple days ago? I-I think the same guys kidnapped Kook. I found his bag a block away from my house and t-there was blood. Taehyung, please, please, tell me you'll help me find him!"

It was a lot to digest considering he was abruptly awaken in the middle of the night and was told that one of his friends was missing. Seeing Yerim's unshed tears, the brunette couldn't ignore his friend's desperate pleas.

Nodding in understanding, Taehyung quickly stood up.

"Y-Yeah, okay, let me put some pants on first!"

Taehyung's father, Kim Sangwoo, is an officer of the law. 

At the age of 11, she and Jungkook became regulars at their town's local police station. Even at a young age, Jungkook was already a rebellious kid who constantly defied the system—a complete contrast to when he first came to her father's dojang. But then again, he was only 6 at the time and didn't know much about how their society and the world worked. She believed it was Yoongi's influence that instilled the idea of rebellion in Jungkook's head (she knew those rap CDs the hip-hop wannabe had lent her best friend was no good). Even so, their routine visits to the station—thanks to Jungkook's large-scale pranks—was how they befriended the chief's son. Her tagging along with Jungkook to the station was only meant to keep her best friend away from serious consequences (and because she always finds herself somehow involved in the boy's problems). 

Being the stereotypical closet nerd, Kim Taehyung was Jungkook's first introduction to the world of anime and online gaming. The brunette was the biggest Gundam/Dragon Ball Z fan and knew all and everything about computers. She was told that Jungkook had once threatened the older boy to find her whereabouts one summer when she went to visit her grandpa in Kyoto (which he ended up visiting as well much to his parents' dismay and expense). Apparently, her best friend had held one of Taehyung's precious Gundam figurines as hostage. Therefore, hacking into Officer Kim's tracking system to find her coordinates became the brunette's first crime as Jungkook's accomplice. With a long experience of helping Jungkook escape the watchful eyes of the law (and Taehyung's father), searching for the said guy should be cake.

It took Taehyung 15 minutes to find Jungkook's location. 

5 minutes of the 15 consisted of the brunette trying to block out Yerim's teasing about his desktop's wallpaper choice (it was a photo of Bae Joohyun).

"Where is he, Taehyung!?" Yerim impatiently asks as she tries to decipher whatever was shown on the boy's screen, but all she saw were green numbers and gridlines (map coordinates to be exact).

"S-Seoul city..." The older male finally answers, his face pale and drained of blood.

Yerim stares at the computer screen for a few moments more before screaming, "SEOUL!?"

. . .

When both she and Jungkook were 9, they dreamt of living in the big city. 

Once upon a time, she aspired to be one of those skinny models she would often see posing in soju advertisements at restaurants. Jungkook always made fun of her saying she could probably pass in modeling for children's juice ads instead because of her height. Even as a kid, she didn't take from nobody. So, one could probably guess how she dealt with her best friend. Her father taught her that Taekwondo was a sport focused on training the mind, body, and soul, but what he didn't know was that she used her martial arts to keep Jungkook in his own damn lane.

On the other hand, Jungkook wanted to become a rapper (again, she blames Min Yoongi for this). It was a Kanye video that really did it for him. He thought by becoming a rapper, he would be surrounded by money and pretty women. She had to remind him that they lived in Korea and not in the United States.

Nonetheless, these limitations did not stop them from wanting to leave the small town life and move to Seoul, where opportunities were said to be vast and numerous. 

She just didn't know someone had to be kidnapped in order for them to actually go to the big city.

.

Hanging onto the back of Taehyung's sweater, the brunette pumped his long legs on the bike pedals as they breezed along the waterfront in silence. His breaths could be heard with every forward movement the bike had made. Since neither of them were old enough to drive or be in possession of a driver's license, they were left with Taehyung's bicycle as their only transportation. It was a 15 minute bike ride to the train station and to get there, they would have to eventually pass police quarters.

With their hoods up (Yerim borrowed one of Taehyung's jumpers), they attempted to bike by the police station without being recognized.

"Yah, Kim Taehyung! Where are you going in the middle of the night?" 

Perhaps, they spoke too soon.

Yerim almost flew off her seat when the older boy abruptly braked.

Both heads whipped towards the familiar figure. 

Officer Kim Sangwoo stood outside the entrance of HQ with a cigarette dangling loosely between his lips. With messy dark hair and a scruffy beard, Officer Kim looked like the attractive detective in a Korean drama. She could tell where Taehyung received his handsome looks. Yerim remembered she used to have a big fat crush on Taehyung's dad when she was younger. Officer Kim was close with her family—especially her father (they were high school buddies), making him the only other male figure in her life that wasn't her father nor a guy friend in her social circle. She found out about her father's friendship with the officer when the older man had escorted both she and Jungkook home from the police station (her father went bat crazy on them). One could then easily deduce why she came to crush on the police officer. He was much more mature than any of her male friends combined and she was fed up with dealing with idiots. Jungkook never missed the opportunity to about her crush whenever she accompanied him to the older man's office. 

"U-Uhh, we're meeting up with Jungkook at the internet cafe?" Taehyung hesitantly answered his father, who raised a curious brow. The boy's lack in confidence was sure to expose their true intentions to the officer.

Rather than slapping the brunette for his lame response, Yerim decided to use one of her other personalities she only reserves for when speaking to the authorities.

"Hello, Officer Kim! We were just going to grab some snacks and head on over to the cafe to play some League with Kook. I promise I'll get the boys home by midnight! Don't you worry!"

Gritting her teeth, Yerim flashed Officer Kim a smile before discreetly pinching Taehyung's side, who yelped in pain. 

The pair left quickly before the older man could reply back.

Officer Kim inhaled his cigarette as he digest their short exchange.

"Isn't the internet cafe closed on Wednesdays?"

.

"Idiot! You almost gave us away!" Yerim reprimands the brunette upon entering station platforms. She immediately released her hold on the male's sweater and began scanning the large map of train lines plastered on the cement walls. She checked for the closest running line that would take them straight to Seoul. 

It was going to be a 2 hour train ride it seems.

"I panicked! There's a reason why my dad's a police officer y'know," The brunette said in defense and pouts as he parks his bike at one of the bike racks, while the younger girl went on ahead to purchase their tickets.

"Whatever. Next time, I'll do the talking first—oh ! That's the line we have to take!" Yerim exclaimed and directed Taehyung's attention to one of the parked trains. Taehyung looks in the direction of her finger and a gasp escapes his lips. 

"! The doors are closing!" 

Grabbing their tickets, the two hurried across the grey platform with their hearts beating loud in their ears. Quickly dodging an old couple and their equally ancient German Shepherd, they managed to slip pass the doors of the steel train before it closed. Both breathed out a sigh of relief when they felt the train begin to move forward. 

"Oh my god, this is not good for my heart," Cried Taehyung, who's glasses sat crooked on his face due to all the cycling and running. He clutched onto his cross-body backpack as he tries to catch his breath.

----------------------------
A/N: Hello! I’m alive! I apologize for the late update for B& K and FB. I have a chapter written for FB but it’s still not perfect :/ I’m so sorry! I’ll try to get it up as soon as I can! Your comments have been my greatest motivator and I want to thank everyone who has left one! Your excitement makes me excited XD Anyways, sorry for not having JK in this chapter. I hope you kind of get the gist of Yerim’s & JK’s dynamic relationship as well. Anywho, thank you all for reading and commenting! See you soon! :)