They wasted no time in making their way back to The City, leaving that same night and moving quickly through the forests under the cover of darkness. They had the advantage of surprise on their side; no one expected them to be heading back to The City but expected them to be along the border, looking for a way out. The only time they came across another living creature was near the river crossing; they decided to brave a bridge instead of sapping Namjoon’s power to try and take them all across. They waited in the shadows of the forest as a car packed with children and an irritated mother drove over the bridge and into the trees on the other side, and then they made a break for it. Yoongi had listened carefully and said no one else was coming, and Jungkook only hoped they could trust his feline hearing.

The run over the bridge wasn’t too much exertion but by the time he hid in the trees again, Jungkook found himself out of breath. It surprised him; he was athletic and enjoyed running and yet that simple distance had him gasping like a fish out of water. As he bent with hands on knees to try and catch his breath, Hongbin passed and gave him a light nudge on the side. 

“Your power’s coming back,” he said with a wink, and Jungkook reached out a hand to try and catch him and make him explain but Hongbin slipped out of his grasp with a small laugh and moved on. Once Jungkook could move again without feeling dizzy the other boy was nowhere in sight, and Yoongi had caught up with the teen.

“Oh, hey! Long time no talk!” Jungkook cringed inwardly as the overly friendly boy fell into step beside him, and he ended up listening to Yoongi chat away about a plethora of random subjects until the sun rose and Taehyung put them all inside of cover once again. Thankfully away from Yoongi, Jungkook let his head fall against the back of the tree he was standing in, sliding into sleep easily and quickly.

The next morning he made sure to catch Jin to travel alongside him, casting a nervous glance over his shoulder at the rest of the Broken as he did so. Jin gave him a tired smile. “Avoiding Yoongi?” He asked quietly, and Jungkook coughed out a laugh.

“Am I that obvious?”

“Yup.” But Jin didn’t complain and so they travelled together that day. Jungkook thought to ask him about what Hongbin had said but had decided against it; it was nice to talk about mundane things like soccer teams and food and he didn’t want to spoil the moment with questions about power. And so when he woke the next night with a searing pain in his back, he clenched his teeth and toughed it out, listening to Jin’s stories and trying his best to ignore the pain that jarred through his body at every step.

By the next morning the pain was worse and he reluctantly decided to travel with someone else so as not to worry Jin if he showed any signs of pain; he considered travelling with Hongbin but the green jacketed boy was always with Jimin, so instead he picked a random Broken that he hadn’t spoken to before, a boy with black hair in a ponytail and a guarded look in his eyes. He introduced himself as Leo and throughout the day Jungkook came to appreciate Leo’s quiet nature; if he saw the teen flinch anytime he had to bend, he didn’t say a word about it.

The following day Jungkook caught Leo as he left their camp again and fell into ste