They run silently, blades of grass flicking against Taehyung’s face as they sprint across the field. The sky is starting to glow, the one when the sun’s just about to peek into sky, and they don’t have much time. The long stretch of the field is slowly coming to an end, he knows because Jungkook’s steps become a little slower, and then so do Taehyung’s and Jimin’s behind him.

They run in a line, with Jungkook in the front, Taehyung in the middle and Jimin at the end, it’s because Jungkook is the lightest of them and also the fastest, with that Jungkook has the quickest reflexes so he’s the one in charge of their direction. Behind Jungkook, is Taehyung. Taehyung isn’t a very fast runner, but he’s very perceptive so he’s in charge of the sides, he’s also the one who bridges the communication gap between the three of them. Lastly, Jimin runs behind both of them, mainly because he’s the eldest of the trio and he feels responsible for the other two, who’re almost like brothers to him. He’s in charge of keeping a lookout on who’s behind them, which is also the reason that he’s the only one among the three of them who gets to carry the knives that are tightly bound against his thigh in case of an emergency.

They go on runs like these almost every week, twice sometimes when times are bad. It’s illegal to trespass on other districts the way they do, but it’s either this or starving to death (even if Yoongi says that he’ll figure out something, that he’ll get another job or something, they aren’t blind to the growing eye bags under his eyes or the growing pile of bills stashed in the bottom drawer of their bedroom). So the three of them would go on runs like these on weekend nights, when the security on the borders joining the districts is a little loose, not too much but enough for them to slip out if they’re careful enough.

They live in the poorest district, one situated in the outskirts, where the benefits of electricity and water supply aren’t very common, where the land’s almost barren because the soil has lost all the fertility after the several famines and wars, where a fresh loaf of bread comes once in two weeks. They usually slip into the seventh or the ninth district because those were the ones closest to them, but they decided to venture further this time.

Taehyung had convinced them to run till the fifth district, it is only an extra twenty minute run if they take the shortcut passing through the clearing and the forest. It would be the first time they would be trying out the shortcut, it isn’t the best route since the clearing gave them no cover whatsoever, that it’s a hit or miss, anyone could spot them.

They don’t have trouble running in the dark, Taehyung has done it too many times that he quickly falls in line with the ones before him and the ones behind, it’s a rhythm they’ve built over time. They can’t afford to talk, they can’t afford to waste any energy, only pushing their legs further as their chests heave for oxygen.

They’re nearing the clearing and after a few seconds Jungkook pauses, crouching down into the grass, Taehyung does the same a few steps behind him, and he hears Jimin do the same. They sit in silence, waiting for Jungkook’s signal to tell them it’s all clear. It’s about half a minute before Jungkook makes a soft clicking noise with his tongue and then suddenly he’s up and running blindly across the clearing with nothing to cover him. 

Taehyung doesn’t look anywhere, eyes only trained at Jungkook’s black form as he runs behind him and he hears Jimin do the same. He can’t hear over the roar of the wind against his ears, blindly trusting Jungkook and his instincts. It’s only a twenty second sprint before they reach their own district and he hears Jungkook slump against the cold stone wall just as they do.

They can’t stop to celebrate their success, can’t afford to relax even when they’re in their own district, it’s past curfew time and they only allow themselves a short half a minute break before Jungkook is gesturing at them to start moving again. This time is not so much running as much as it’s making their way across the city with their backs pressed against the walls to avoid being found out.

Night raids are never safe, as careful as they might be, at most there’s only an eighty percent chance of survival but they’ve made it in the statistics too many times already that each time feels like their last.

By the time they make it to their house, the sun has already begun to rise and Yoongi’s just leaning against the door waiting for their arrival with a frown on his face.

“Oh, so they come back.” He says, mouth curving downwards in an almost but not quite snarl.

Jungkook and Jimin, by some unspoken solidarity, push Taehyung in front of Yoongi.

“’twas his fault.” Jimin says, but Yoongi doesn’t comment, only looking at Taehyung’s dirty face and sighing.

“It’s not like you’ll listen no matter how many times I tell you not to do it.” Yoongi bends down so that he can inspect Taehyung’s worn out jeans torn at the knees from when he’d scraped on the rubble while they were running back.

Taehyung hisses when Yoongi pulls at the cloth lightly, the fabric is stuck to the dried blood, and Yoongi scowls even more.

“Tell me you didn’t go further than the seventh district.” And at this he glares at the three of them. “You did, didn’t you?”

And at this, Jungkook lets out a soft whimper, “But if we didn’t, then it would’ve- I couldn’t-”

Yoongi’s eyes soften a little, “I know baby, but what if you got hurt severely, what do you think would’ve happened? Did you think about that? You couldn’t have made it back in time, and the officers would have caught you, and then what?”

Jungkook’s eyes tear up a little, “B-but, I- I” Yoongi sighs before pulling Jungkook towards him and ruffling his hair affectionately, “I understand why you did it, but I can’t not worry about you. Well what’s done is done, come back inside so I can patch Tae up and then we’ll see what we can do.”

 

Tae obediently sits on the stool in the kitchen, and there’s a stern silence wherein Yoongi doesn’t speak, which isn’t new, but Taehyung is silent as well, he knows Yoongi is mad at him.

Yoongi cleans his wound delicately (and Taehyung feels even worse because medical resources are scarce but Yoongi always makes sure that their wounds are cleaned and dressed properly because that’ll only result in infections and they definitely can’t afford those). Taehyung doesn’t make any sounds except a small hiss in pain here or there, but it doesn’t stop Yoongi’s hand from flinching whenever Taehyung makes a sound of distress, and his hands are gentle, so so gentle, it makes Taehyung feel even more guilty.

He knows Yoongi worries for them, that Yoongi has to work for hours at end just to barely scrape by and feed the four of them, he knows he worries Yoongi and the thought makes him feel a little choked.

“Hyung” Tae whimpers and Yoongi makes a sound of acknowledgement in his throat to indicate he’s listening while wrapping a bandage around Taehyung’s knee.

“Hyung, are you mad?” He says softly.

Yoongi only holds his knee tightly, placing it on his thigh and finishes dressing the scrape.

“You’re going to get hurt sooner or later.” He says instead, finally looking up at Taehyung. “I know that you want to help, but it’s too dangerous.”

The silence stretches, Taehyung doesn’t speak, he knows that Yoongi’s right but there’s a tightly coiled tension in his chest that doesn’t lighten.

Yoongi only sighs in defeat when he realizes that Taehyung isn’t going to answer.

“Does it hurt?”

“A little” Taehyung pouts and a little smile crawls its way into Yoongi’s face, “You could kiss it better?” He smiles widely and Yoongi only rolls his eyes but there’s laughter in them.

“You big baby” He chides but then he’s bending his head and pressing a kiss to Taehyung’s knee. He leans up so he can kiss his forehead and each of his cheeks, and Taehyung feels his face going inexplicably warm. 

“Come on for breakfast, you have school as well.” Yoongi says as he stands up and heads out of the kitchen.

Taehyung only sits in the kitchen in silence with his hands presses against his cheeks and a bright flush coloring his ears.

 

The day of the attack is still a gaping hole in Taehyung’s mind.

All he remembers are the silent screams, the gunshots and the ground shaking under black boots. And sometimes he still gets nightmares from the day, the mindless white noise piercing through the stillness until he wakes up sweating, sheets curled in his fists and a scream lodged in his throat, silenced before it even escaped.

No one had seen it coming, and as the blazing specks in the sky came closer, the screaming began. Taehyung was six when he saw his house bursting into flames. It was Jimin and Yoongi that had pulled him out of the wreck where he’d been crying and coughing in the smoke.

Yoongi had held Taehyung’s hand and ran to the van that was taking the survivors to the neighboring city. Taehyung doesn’t really remember his family, except for a single memory of coming back home after school and his mother his hair as they lay in the sun, for he’s lived almost the entirety of his life with Yoongi and Jimin, and later Jungkook.

They are a family, they don’t talk about it, and Yoongi never says it either, but they are like brothers to him, they’re all he has. For a while it’d just been Yoongi and Jimin and him, they had left to another city where Yoongi and Jimin’s aunt lived.

But it was only a matter of time because food was scarce and resources limited, it was only so long before they had to live on their own. Yoongi had only been thirteen when he took the responsibility of taking care of them, Taehyung still gets a lump in his throat when he remembers how much Yoongi worked, when there wasn’t enough food and Jimin would start on pebbles, when Yoongi would steal from vegetable shops only to get beatings from sticks, when Jimin would get long lasting stomach aches from not eating for days and they’d have no medical supplies to treat him.

It took them a year, when the government started building the wrecked city again, and they were given a small house and government funds to get proper medical care along with a fixed amount of food supplies every month. That was around the time they found Jungkook, who had still been a small baby, barely four, eating from the trashcan behind their house. 

They’d immediately taken him in, treated the numerous burns and wounds on his body (they still don’t know what happened to the boy before they found him, Jungkook doesn’t talk about it, he probably never will either). Jungkook had been skeptic, living in a harsh world had taught him to not be trusting of anyone’s kindness, and had run away after two weeks only to have been dragged back by Yoongi a day later. He never tried to run again, but it took him almost a month to finally trust them and lower his walls.

These are the thoughts that run through his mind, and there’ll be a wet patch under his cheeks where the treacherous tears had sneaked out. But then Jimin would sleepily wrap himself around Taehyung’s sweating one in search for warmth and Taehyung’s racing heart would calm again. He’d lie awake on the damp sheets and watch the ceiling fan rotate slowly as Jimin’s breaths fall in a rhythmic pattern until he falls asleep to them.

But the thoughts are only buried long enough before they resurface again in the darkest of the sleepless nights.

 

It’s not like Taehyung can’t fight, he can hold his own, but he isn’t like Jimin and Jungkook. He is quick on his feet but he has a smaller frame, thin legs and stick arms, that only make him an easy target. Usually Jimin would stick with him during school and the other kids knew not to mess with Jimin who’d even growl if someone even looked at Taehyung the wrong way.

Jungkook was two grades lower and even though he could fight, Taehyung didn’t really want him to fight kids two years older and nor did he want Jungkook getting into fights, he and Jimin had an unspoken understanding of protecting the youngest (no matter how much Jungkook rolled his eyes and crudely said that he still had the biggest out of the three of them).

But Yoongi had asked Jimin to help him in the grocery store because new stock had come and that meant more customers than usual. It wasn’t anyone’s fault really, because Yoongi wasn’t exactly aware of Taehyung’s problem, and he’d made Jimin and Jungkook swear to not say a word about it to Yoongi. Yoongi already had too many problems on his plate, he didn’t have to deal with Taehyung’s as well.

It wasn’t always bad, sometimes it was just teasing or whistling or just a little roughing, nothing that Taehyung can’t handle. It’s alright. And Taehyung hopes that nothing too bad happens, he just wants to pass through the day with the minimum incidents.

Most of the school day passes like every other day, and Taehyung is glad that no one’s caught him off guard yet, he’s been careful to not enter the boys’ locker room and he avoids the large group of boys that usually hangs around the field, passing a roll of joint, and whistling or calling names whenever they happen to spot Taehyung.

The day ends with little to no incidents except for a little snickering when Taehyung had entered the classroom, so Taehyung is relieved but he should’ve known it wouldn’t end like that.

In all his anxiety, Taehyung had forgotten about the game night. It’s a friday, and word had passed around school about the location and timings of this time’s challenge quest. 

There was a game night every alternate week before the weekend, all the kids of the district would take part in some sort of a challenge quest in the forest towards the edge of their district. Of course nothing was announced officially, because games like these were illegal, the game only managed to gather participants by word of mouth. The right people knew, and that’s all it took for the crowd to gather at the edge of the forest every fortnight.

The games always tend to be a little wild, a little rough, though no one’s got a fatal injury there have been a couple of incidents, and Yoongi has forbidden to participate in any of these events. There would be two teams and they would compete in a challenge and whichever team finished the challenge first won, the winning team won some kind of reward money, it was simple. 

Taehyung hadn’t participated in one, nor had Jimin or Jungkook, it wasn’t like Taehyung wasn’t curious but he knew better than that. So when one of his classmates, one of the girls who always giggle annoyingly and speak in those high pitched squeaky voices, he doesn’t remember her name, stops him by grabbing hold of his upper arm, he isn’t exactly thrilled.

He already knows what she’s going to say, it’s the same thing as every game night.

“Have you changed your mind this time? It’d be fun, come with us.” She says and Taehyung feels irritation coursing through his body.

“No thanks,” He says, jerking his hand free and turning back to the door of the classroom that he was about to exit.

But it doesn’t end there, usually they’d extend the invitation but once he declines they wouldn’t bother him after that, but that’s when Jimin is there with him. So it’s not surprising when he feels a heavy arm dropping around his shoulders and a voice next to his hair.

“Come on, Tae, learn to have some fun, we aren’t as bad as you think.” The voice is annoyingly familiar and Taehyung turns to face the same smirking face of Minsoo, the one guy in his class who had made it his life mission to annoy Taehyung every waking moment of his life.

“No thanks, I really should get going, thank you but maybe next time.” He tries to shake off the arm on his shoulder but the grip only tightens and Taehyung feels himself being pressed tight against Minsoo’s side.

“Come on, princess, loosen up, I’ll make sure you enjoy yourself.” He says and Taehyung grits his teeth to stop himself from biting off Minsoo’s fingers that seem to have slipped down from his shoulder to his waist and are massaging his side.

“No I-” Tae starts to say but Minsoo’s cutting him off.

“Trust me, you’ll love it.” He says and then he’s dragging Taehyung along with him and the other kids follow them as they make their way to the field where the other kids are already waiting for the game to start.

“Minsoo, I told you I can’t-” Taehyung tries to pull away but Minsoo’s hold is too tight, “Babe, I’ll be with you so you don’t have to feel scared.” Minsoo says it with a smug smile and Taehyung just wants to throw up in a bush near him.

“I’m not scared.” He says and Minsoo laughs like he’s said something funny.

“Of course you aren’t, princess.” Taehyung wants to knock out his teeth.

Taehyung doesn’t find any opportunity to protest or make a run for it since Minsoo has his wrist gripped tightly, and when they reach the edge of the forest, all of Tae’s protests are drowned under all the cheers and jeers of the opposing teams.

The leader of the opposite team is Jiyong, who calls himself GDragon for some reason that Taehyung doesn’t understand. Taehyung recognizes most of the guys present as the ones who were always loitering in abandoned warehouses and causing troubles, his stomach churns in dread.

Minsoo, and now Taehyung, are part of Taemin’s team. Taehyung finds a little comfort in the fact that he knows that Taemin’s a good guy, he’d spoken to older boy a couple of times because Jimin had the biggest crush on the senior and Taemin had been sweet and had indulged Jimin for a summer till the two of them ended it on mutual terms that they were better as friends. 

It's Taemin who sees him and his eyes widen in surprise, but before Taehyung can say anything or shake Minsoo’s fingers off his wrist, Taemin’s jogging towards Taehyung.

“What are you doing here, Tae?” He seems shocked, and if Taehyung squints, there’s a kind of panic in Taemin’s voice.

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that, hyung?” Taehyung laughs, “I didn’t know you went to these things.”

But Taemin doesn’t seem to look very happy, there is a tightness in his eyes and then suddenly Taehyung feels a pull and he looks to his right to see Minsoo pulling him to his side and not so subtly glaring at Taemin’s direction.

It’s then that Taemin spots the grip on Taehyung’s wrist and his eyes harden, Taehyung gulps because he doesn’t want Taemin to get any weird ideas about him and Minsoo.

“Hyung, it isn’t like-” He starts but Minsoo cuts him off.

“Taemin-ssi shouldn’t you be over there with the officer? The game is gonna start, you know.” He says it so steely that Taemin’s eyes narrow at him, and then he’s looking at Taehyung with an unreadable expression.

“Be careful, Tae.” He looks like he wants to say more but he just presses his lips tightly before leaving them to run towards where the leaders of the two teams were supposed to be standing before the opening of the challenge.

He doesn’t get to ask any further because Minsoo is dragging him in the other direction, for what he calls, preparation, for the quest. Taehyung doesn’t really know much about the quests so he lets himself get dragged away, he figures he’ll just make a run for it when the quest starts and Minsoo would probably be distracted by the game. 

Before the game begins, Taehyung is only aware of the basic nature of it, there are two teams, and each team has a flag they have to defend. While they both have to defend the flag, they also have to steal the other team’s flag to win and whichever team steals the other team’s flag first wins the reward money. The game is simple but Taehyung doesn’t understand what the fuss is about.

It’s only a little later that Taehyung understands the actual nature of the game. it’s when Minsoo is dragging him in the opposite direction of the flag that Taehyung asks naively, “Wait, shouldn’t we defend our flag?”

And Minsoo laughs, but says nothing further.

It’s only when Minsoo and some of his friends approach a small clearing and one of the guys, Changsub, starts digging at the base of a wide oak tree that Taehyung pauses to see what is actually happening. The forest is silent except for a few distant screams that Taehyung can barely make out. He’d been busy looking for an opportunity to escape that he hadn’t thought what he was going to if he actually participates in the game.

Changsub stops digging to pull out a bunch of equipment that Taehyung can’t make out in the dark. He steps closer and stops dead in his tracks, his head swiveling to stare at Minsoo who’s