Leading you down the steps, Jackson kept a strong grip on your hands. He was peering over your shoulder, making sure that you were taking careful steps down and that he wouldn’t accidentally push you too quickly. As soon as you were down the steps you felt a large wave of ‘ this’ come over you. You kicked your feet as Jackson moved you down the hall, Jaebum speaking with Yugyeom as Jackson led.

“I’m really sorry about that,” Jackson spoke up, turning you down another larger hallway. “It’s not everyday we get a deal like this, and it was much easier than going and killing one of their guys.”

You looked up at him, blinking slowly. He let out a small laugh, opening a large set of double doors. Gently pushing you inside the newly found cafeteria, you were greeted by a bunch of ‘Heys!’ as if you had belonged here. You looked around, seeing a large stage and cafeteria tables, both with people on them.

Jackson waited for Jaebum to walk towards you before letting go of your hands and running off to one of his friends.

Jaebum paused in front of you, sticking his hands in his pockets.

“If you want you can roam around the cafeteria and talk with the guys. They’re not gonna bite,” he said, turning to a screaming Jackson. “Maybe Jackson, but it won’t be out of spite.”

Without another word he walked away, giving you a quick smile before conversing with Yugyeom once more. You took a few steps forward, not used to this sort of freedom. Your arms were crossed as you looked at the seven faces in the room; three of them were familiar, the rest were all new.

You took a seat at the end of one of the tables, crossing your legs as you looked around. With a squeak from the table you were joined by one of those newer faces.

“Hello there,” he said, resting his chin on his hand. “You must be the infamous _____?” he asked. You nodded shyly, turning your body towards him.

“And you are?”

“Youngjae.”

His eyes were locked with yours as he spoke, an excited smile on his face.

“Ah,” he sighed, leaning back. “I’m sorry for being so peppy- I completely forgot what just happened with you.” His kind smile turned into a small frown as he grabbed your hand, giving it a small squeeze.

“It really that they would do that, but,” he paused, looking over to Jackson and another boy doing some sort of contest on the stage. “I’m sure that you might like it a little better here?”

You gave him a small smile, amused by what Jackson was doing on the stage. You heard Youngjae let out a small laugh as he took his hands away from yours.

“We were just about to send Mark out to get something to eat.” Youngjae mentioned as this Mark fellow passed by. Upon hearing his name he stopped to look at you, flashing you a smile and a wave before continuing on his way.

“We do a little pot luck kind of thing every now and then!” Youngjae nudged your arm with his elbow, giving you a wink. “You just happened to be here on the right night!”

“I’ll be back soon!” Mark called out, waving goodbye to his friends. His eyes locked with yours, Mark giving you another smile and a personal wave before exiting the cafeteria. By now Youngjae was making ‘ooo’ noises, lightly tapping your thigh as Jackson hopped off the stage.

Jaebum walked over to you, resting a hand on your shoulder and giving you that sweet smile of his.

“Not feeling awkward?” he questioned, beginning to rub your back. You shook your head, a small smile on your face. You were easily getting along with the guys here, and you didn’t mind all the weird looks you would get every now and then.

“The others will be over to talk to you soon, they have some work to do,” he said, referencing to the three boys sitting at the small table in the back of the cafeteria. One of them you recognized as Yugyeom, but the other two you hadn’t met yet.

“That’s BamBam sitting with Yugyeom over there, and across from them is Jr.” Jaebum pointed out, his hand moving back up to your shoulder. You nodded, a small smirk on your face at the sound of his name. It was cute and weird, but then again so was Suga. Suga was in charge of sugar looking drugs, so maybe BamBam was involved in things that went ‘bam’? You covered your mouth, trying to hide the clearly evident smile on your face.

Jaebum ruffled your hair, laughing as you hid your smile.

“Ah, you’re too cute.” he stated, slowly walking away.

“It’s a shame that Taehyung would just throw you away like that.”

Your smile dissipated as you heard that, Youngjae immediately noticing. He grabbed your hands, moving them away from your face.

“Don’t take what he says heavily. He is a little blunt about these kinds of things, I mean,” he looked at you dead in the eye, an angelic smile on his face. “Why would he easily trade a girl like you away?”

You sighed, shrugging and turning your head.

“I can’t really do much other than tag along and be extra weight.”

Youngjae frowned, rubbing circles onto the back of your hand.

“Well if you want, I can teach you a few things while we wait for Mark to come back!” he offered, that beautiful smile back on his face. You thanked him for the offer, but declined.

“It’s alright!” Youngjae said, letting go of your hands. Mark walked in a few seconds later, Youngjae standing up to help him.

“We’re not gonna pressure you into anything. When you’re ready join us up on the stage?”

Youngjae left without another word, grabbing a few bags from Mark as the two climbed onto the stage, the others running over as fast as they could. You sat at the table, sudden thoughts racing into your mind.

They were so nice here, didn’t force you into anything, treated you like a lady, and weren’t trying to get you involved in any plans that they had. In fact, they even felt bad for what had happened to you before. Maybe… Staying here wouldn’t be a bad idea…? You looked over at the boys, who were currently unpacking the bags that were filled with food and drinks.

With a content sigh you stood up, jumping onto the stage and joining the guys as if they had been your best friends for years. You laughed with them, smiling and enjoying the first real meal you’ve had in days. They could tell that this was the case, and offered you anything and everything they could just to make you feel a little better.

After what seemed like a huge feast, you felt like you were going to explode. You haven’t eaten that much since your last break up, and that was a while ago. Jackson and Yugyeom rolled around the floor, crashing into each other and just laying there laughing. Youngjae was chatting with BamBam and Mark was helping Jr. clean up.

You rolled of the stage, watching as you feet hit the floor. Your toes still hurt from the little Jungkook incident, but wasn’t enough to affect your facial features. Just as you were about to talk to Youngjae you felt someone grab your hand and pull you away.

Jaebum had pulled you out of the cafeteria and to the next hallway, standing in front of you with no clear expression on his face. You cringed back as he let go of your hands, expecting to be pushed against the wall. Realizing that you looked like an idiot with your face contorted like that, you opened your eyes and relaxed.

Jaebum’s eyebrows were raised as he waited for you to fully relax, letting out a small sigh as you looked down at your feet.

“What have they been doing to you?” he asked, keeping his hands to himself as he waited for an answer. You didn’t reply, keeping your eyes locked on your feet. Resting a hand on your shoulder he caught your attention. You tapped your foot on the floor, slowly moving yourself to the wall and sliding down, not caring about your skirt riding up.

Jaebum sat next to you, his eyes set on you as he continued to wait for even a meager reply.

“There’s just way too much to explain.” you said, keeping your eyes on your feet as you waved them around in front of you.

“We have all the time in the world.”

You looked at him, noticing his compassionate expression. You felt comfortable talking to him about this kind of thing, and you had no clue why. You had literally been with him two times; once in a hostage situation and this time in a trade situation. With a hesitant nod you began telling him everything.

“And after I ed up there he sent me to Suga right as he was going to go get payment from some guys. He killed them all and I knew something bad was going to happen,” you said, feeling Jaebum’s hand grab yours. With a sigh you continued, “Another ing car t-boned us. Suga protected me as we were hit and then I had to drag him out before the car exploded.”

You let out a small chuckle, the scene replying through your mind as if it just happened an hour ago.

“As soon as we were far enough away I crawled on top of him and covered his ears to keep him safe and-”

“Everything hit you?”

You stared off into the wall, nodding. Jaebum threw his head to the side, seeming completely disgusted with the other group’s actions. A few seconds later, he let of your hand.

“Do you mind if I….” he said, his eyes darting to your back. “See?”

You swallowed hard, giving him a timid nod before removing your back from the wall.

Slowly, Jaebum pulled your shirt up, covering his mouth as he saw all the large cuts that had turned themselves into scars, as well as burns that were still trying to heal. Your shirt went back down, you going to adjust it as Jaebum took a deep breath.

“Please tell me that’s the only bad thing that happened.”

You looked over at him, a sad smile on your face. Jaebum tilted his head, his eyes losing all hope as you shook your head. Without any words he wrapped his arms around you, pulling you into a tight hug.

“I don’t even need to hear the rest,” he said, placing a kiss on the top of your head. “You’ve gone through too much in too little time.” Another kiss. Jaebum pulled you away from him, his eyes on yours once more.

“You didn’t deserve any of that.”

You sighed again, feeling his hands roam to your shoulders.

“How do you even manage to stay with them? Do they feed you? Treat you well?” he questioned. You tried to think of a positive thing to say, the only thing coming to mind were the times you had with Hoseok. Defeated, you shook your head.

Jaebum looked pained as he squeezed your shoulders, biting his lip.

“It might sound weird to you, but, gangs are families. And families look out for each other. You’ve been doing all this for them only to be tossed around like some sort of rag doll!”

You could feel the anguish he felt for you in the air, his anger radiating. He took a deep breath, clearing his face of all negative expressions before looking back to you.

“You deserve something,” he said, his eyes drifting to your lips. “Much,” You felt yourself slowly leaning towards him.

“Better.”

With that final word his lips connected with yours, his hands slowly trailing up to your cheeks to cup them and deepen the kiss. Your arms wrapped around his neck, feeling all of your prior worries and stresses wash away as he pulled away from you, his eyes still lingering on your lips as he smirked.

Just as he was about to give you another kiss BamBam walked in, not taking much notice or care in the position you and Jaebum were in. Jaebum sat there, his hands still cupping your cheeks as BamBam spoke.

“It’s getting a little late, do you think we should show her to her room?”

Looking over at you Jaebum nodded, a grin on his face as he stood up. He held his hand out to you and pulled you up, his hand still connected with yours even after you were up.

“Go ahead and show her,” he said to BamBam. With a nod BamBam took your hand from Jaebum, a cute smile on his face as he lead you through the hallways and to your small little room; although it was the size of a classroom it felt small. The desks were crammed to one side, a little bed you would see in the nurse’s office covered in quilts and pillows.

BamBam bid you goodnight, stepping out of the room with a wave and shutting the door, leaving you in silence.

You threw yourself into the small bed, wrapping yourself in all the blankets they had to offer. You closed your eyes, trying your best to go to sleep before the inevitable thoughts could creep into your mind. Thoughts about Hoseok and Taehyung, Jungkook and Suga’s protest to Taehyung trading you, and how Jaebum and the other guys felt about you. They treated you like they had known you forever even though you were from the enemy side. They didn’t torture you for information or treat you badly– they fed you and laughed with you and treated you like family.

You pulled the blankets over your head, squeezing your eyes shut.

Maybe you would be able to stay here forever?

_________________________

“_____, it’s time to get up,” someone cooed, gently nudging your shoulder. You rolled around, removing the blankets from your face. You heard giggles as you moved the hair out of your face, opening your eyes to see Mark standing over you with a cheesy smile on his face.

“Come down whenever you want. You can go back to sleep if you want, I just wanted to wake you up and tell you that there’s food in the cafeteria.”

At the thought of food you sprung out of bed, noticing that you hadn’t taken your shoes off before you went to sleep. You’d deal with that later, but right now you had to follow Mark to the promise land.

You walked into the familiar cafeteria with Mark, being greeted happily by the other guys, who all swarmed to you. All at once they hugged you, nearly knocking you over in your still half-asleep state. Jaebum watched from the stage, a smile on his face as you were hugged until you were close to falling.

Mark helped you up, leading you to the stage where food was laid out. You looked up to the ceiling, letting out a thankful sigh as Jaebum helped you up.

“You look like you got a lot of sleep.” Jaebum commented, nudging your arm as you went to grab a small container of juice. You nodded as you poked the straw through the hole, taking a sip and watching as the members commented on how cute you were.

Counting them out, you noticed that Jackson was missing. Just as you were about to point it out, Youngjae interrupted you.

“Jackson is on lookout this morning. There were some weird cars rolling around and we don’t want to be surprised.” It took a while for what he said to sink in, but when it did you nodded. Speaking of the devil, Jackson ran into the cafeteria seeming completely out of breath.

“We have a problem.”

Jaebum raised his eyebrows, setting his milk down angrily. He looked to Yugyeom, who nodded emotionlessly.

“Alrighty boys. Grab your guns, it’s time to up.”

Jaebum told you exactly where to go and hide, unlike what Taehyung or Jimin would have done. You went to where he directed - a small closet behind the stage - and shut the door, making yourself comfortable.

You waited for what seemed like forever until the door finally opened, Jackson standing in front of you. He nodded his head, grabbing your hand and quietly leading you through the halls. You could hear the chatter and yelling of familiar voices, and your heart sank.

Jackson kept you behind the corner, mouthing for you to stay silent as the conversation between Jaebum and Taehyung continued.

“Oh no, you don’t get her back that easily,” Jaebum said, a small laugh coming from him.

“If you get ______ back, I get those two back.”

You could hear Taehyung growl under his breath, cracking his knuckles.

“But, I guess if you want you could see her.”

In mere seconds you were gently pushed out into the scene, immediately skittering to Jaebum’s side. He grabbed onto your hand, giving Taehyung a ‘fight me’ stare as you squeezed his hand. You looked awfully timid; standing extremely close to Jaebum, squeezing his hand tightly. It’s as if he was your mother and he was trying to introduce you to his adult friends.

You kept your eyes off off Hoseok and the others, refusing to face them. But you did manage to give Taehyung one glare before moving your attention back to your feet.

“I know!” Jaebum exclaimed turning to you. “Why don’t we let ______ choose who she wants to be with.”

“What is this, some cliche pet thing?” Suga interjected, scoffing at Jaebum.

“You know, she has every right to be able to do this. With what you guys have done to her,” he said, once more getting visibly upset. “She has every right to choose.”

“What have we done?” Taehyung asked, crossing his arms.

Jaebum laughed.

“What haven’t you done? You’ve put her in danger more than a fair amount of times, nearly gotten her killed twice, maybe three times, you keep her held hostage, don’t give her anywhere to go or anyone to talk to except for maybe Hoseok.”

Jaebum sighed, waving it off.

“Let’s just have her choose. _____?”

You stood there, frozen. All eyes were on you as you began thinking about who to stay with. Did you stay with Jaebum and his loving gang who treated you so well, or do you go back with Namjoon’s group with Hoseok and Jungkook and try to repair yourself?

“_____ are you stupid?”

You looked up, seeing Hoseok stare at you. His head was tilted as he stared, his eyebrows furrowed.

“Are you brain dead right now? What’s your choice? You know which one is the right one.”

Your breathing quickened as you looked up at Jaebum. Jaebum looked down at you, giving you a kind smile. He knew what you wanted to pick, and although he wasn’t happy with it, he wasn’t going to force you to do anything. But before you went tearing off, he whispered something to you.

“If you ever want to come back,” he whispered, slipping something into your hand. Without saying anything else he stood back up, giving Hoseok a frown as you quickly walked over to his side. You stuffed whatever Jaebum gave you into your shirt, staring at him as he walked away.

“She made her choice, now let’s leave on good terms.” Jaebum suggested, putting his hands in the air. Taehyung his teeth, turning you around and pushing you roughly towards the front of the school.

“Good terms my , Jaebum.”