“You came!” Annabelle screeches, ambushing me at the door. I halfheartedly hug her back. Over her shoulder, I can see Preet walking out from the living room, grinning. When he sees the expression on my face, however, he stops smiling.

“What happened?” Preet murmurs.

I slowly shake my head. “I’ll tell everyone.”

“Hey, Ami,” Marcus says as I walk into the living room. From the kitchen, Lina calls, “Hey, cheese or pepperoni pizza?”

“Lina, come here,” I say quietly. “We need to talk.”

She comes out from the kitchen, wearing a Snuggie and a confused expression. “What’s the matter?”

“Chanyeol’s a spy from another gang,” I whisper. “X.E. The gang that I framed for implanting a virus into the Yohan network and erasing the surveillance footage of us.”

Annabelle gasps. “What is he trying to do? What did he say?”

“X.E. is trying to figure out what Project Cotton is, too. He offered me a deal: if I hand over some classified documents to him, he’ll give me whatever he finds about Project Cotton.”

“That’s great!” Preet exclaims. “You said yes, right?”

Marcus is studying me with narrowed eyes. “What’s wrong, Ami?” he questions. “Something else happened.”

I look at the floor. “Nothing.”

“Ami.”

“He just said he’d be leaving me a present tonight,” I respond tonelessly.

Lina frowns. “A present?”

“I don’t know. Whatever.”

The four of them exchange worried glances. Then, Annabelle announces, “Alright! Someone get Ami a blanket and a slice of pizza. Let’s watch a movie!”

“Ami, stay away from my parents,” Preet warns. “They’ve heard about how smart you are. If they see you, they’re going to start drilling you on your study habits.”

I laugh, and some of the tension in my chest dissipates. Let me just forget about what Chanyeol said for a few hours, I think. At least until his little “present” arrives.

The five of us spend the entire night watching Donnie Darko and Friends, playing Catchphrase, and stuffing ourselves with junk food. Marcus eats a record 14 slices of pepperoni pizza in 30 minutes. How that boy does it, I don’t know.

“So how’s Jungkook?” Lina asks me, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively. Annabelle snickers.

“What?” I say, trying to ignore the queasy feeling in my stomach at the mention of Jungkook’s name.

“You two make a really convincing fake couple,” Annabelle teases. “Almost too convincing.”

“What are you trying to say?” Preet questions between sips of soda.

“We’re trying to say that Ami has the hots for Jungkook! For real!”

“God, no,” I say softly, shaking my head.  

“I can see it!” Preet says. “Have you noticed how he always runs after Ami? He actually likes her!”

I slam my cup down on the ground. “Jungkook and I will never be a real thing,” I say firmly. “I would never, ever date him.”

Something in my tone causes Marcus, Annabelle, Preet, and Lina to all stop and look at me. For a few moments, the only sound in the room is the episode of Friends playing on TV.

Suddenly, my phone buzzes. I hastily withdraw it from my pocket.

From: Chanyeol

Enjoy!

A video file is attached.

“This is Chanyeol’s gift,” I breathe. “Guys, come here.”

I click on the file and wait for it to load.

A grainy video fills the screen. Blocky white numbers at the bottom righthand corner read a date and a time: 4:14 AM, April 12, 3 years ago. Muscled soldiers clad in grey uniforms are standing in formation inside an enormous warehouse. They are each holding sleek Sig Sauer pistols.

“Chanyeol, what’s your status?” someone off-camera says.  

“Everything’s all clear, Baekhyun,” someone else says. Chanyeol. “Sehun and Kai are delivering the cargo in the back, and all of our guards are accounted for. No sign of the 4 Flames or Seven Stars anywhere.”

“Great.”

Suddenly, a shout echoes from the other side of the room. The camera abruptly shifts up. A sharp intake of breath is audible from Chanyeol.

“Baekhyun, they’re here!” he hisses.

“Got it,” Baekhyun grunts. “I’m deploying.”

Ear-splitting explosions from outside the warehouse shake the entire building. A pale, lanky man sprints towards the camera.

“The 4 Flames is here,” he says urgently. “They sent their BTS squad. Jungkook Jeon is here.”

“,” Chanyeol swears. The camera plunges into the chaos of bullets and gunshots and fighting men and smoke. Everything is shaky and loud and garbled. Suddenly, the camera stops and focuses on one individual- one adolescent boy wearing a black jacket and wielding two knives.

He is slashing through the army of X.E. agents at a breathtaking speed, darting from one man to another. The soldiers are toppling like dominoes, crumpling to the ground after a flash of red. The ground around them is stained with sticky crimson blood. 5 men try to ambush the boy at once, and he swiftly round-kicks one towards another, snaps another’s neck, slits another man’s neck, dislocates the last one’s shoulder with a ringing crack!

And as the camera nears him, I realize with horror that there is a twisted smile on the boy’s face. He is laughing as he leaves a trail of dead bodies behind him, as he takes the lives of everyone within a 3 foot radius of him.

The boy is Jungkook Jeon.

“Baekhyun, send a retreat signal to every one of our men,” Chanyeol says. His voice is trembling. “Sehun and Kai should be done by now. We need to get the hell out of here- we cannot have a repeat of what happened in San Francisco.”

“He’s only 14 years old,” Baekhyun breathes. “We don’t even let kids be janitors before 16. They’ve made a monster out of him.”

There is blood on Jungkook’s cheeks. I feel like vomiting.

“Get out!” Chanyeol roars, throwing open the doors to the warehouse. “Everyone run!”

X.E. agents thunder towards the exit in fear, fleeing Jungkook. Jungkook smirks. He replaces the knives in his hand with 2 guns. I stare at the screen, appalled, as he aims at the backs of the people running away from him-

“Jungkook, I command you to stand down!” someone hollers. My eyes widen. 14-year-old Namjoon is standing behind Jungkook, his hands clenched by his side. Behind him, I can make out traces of another individual- Taehyung?

Jungkook pauses for a moment, but merely smirks. I can see him mouthing something as he starts shooting into the crowd.

And in the next instant, he has crumpled to the ground.

The camera shakes. “Holy ,” Chanyeol whispers.

Yoongi is standing behind Jungkook, a gun in his hand. Although the video quality is awful, I still make out the anguished expression on his face.

“Did you see that, Baek?” Chanyeol whispers. “Did that kid just-,”

“We’ll discuss more when you return to base,” Baekhyun says, his voice tense.

The video ends.

    Annabelle and I sleep over at Lina’s house. Her alarm clock reads 2:56 AM, yet all three of us are still awake. Every time I close my eyes, I see Jungkook, covered in blood that is not his own and laughing.

Laughing.

    “Are you going to talk to him about it?” Annabelle whispers into the silence. Lina and I both roll over to look at her.

    “I don’t know,” I respond in a flat voice. “I’m not supposed to know about this. I can’t bring it up.”

    Lina reaches over and takes my hand. I squeeze it.

“Everything makes sense now,” I say. “How everyone was so terrified of him... that night he came up to Floor 21, all battered, with that look in his eyes... why he never used to tell me anything about missions. He didn’t want me to know that he’s screwed up.”

“He seems so normal,” Lina murmurs. “Just your average snobby rich jock. I never would’ve thought that he... that the others... were like this.”

I rub my eyes. “It just all became so real. Before, all this 4 Flames stuff was just a stupid game. Erase people, lift weights at Training, hold Jungkook’s hands in the hallways. I didn’t...,” I trail off into silence.

“He was 14,” Annabelle utters. “I was watching the Disney Channel when I was 14. He was working as a trained assassin.”

Lina sits up. “Wait. Jungkook and his friends came to Brookhaven High in the 9th grade, right?”

“Yeah. They moved from... somewhere. I don’t know where. It didn’t matter. Everyone was all over them anyway.”

“That makes sense,” I say. “That’s a few months after that... incident we watched. Baekhyun mentioned that Jungkook was ‘locked up’. I think that meant that he was isolated from the gang and taken off duty.”

“Do you think the rest of BTS are like Jungkook, too?” Annabelle asks softly.

"No way," Lina says immediately. "They can't be. They aren't. Did you see Yoongi's face when he shot Jungkook? I never knew that he had to do that."

    A niggling feeling at the back of my mind tells me that something is off, but I dismiss it as a result of the shocking footage I watched today.

"I think Lina's right," Annabelle says after a pause. "Someone who looked that traumatized after shooting a gun definitely wouldn't take pleasure in killing."

"Take pleasure in killing”. I swallow hard. She’s describing Jungkook.

    It’s strange. I keep replaying all the times that he’s hugged me in my mind. At first it was something compulsory- he only did it in front of his friends and people who were watching. And then he hugged me that night on Floor 21 and then he hugged me in the library and it just started feeling so natural and-

    Oh my god.

    I burrow myself under the comforter.

    I find Jungkook the following Monday at school. “We need to talk.” I tell him tonelessly.

    “If this is about what you heard during my mission-,” he begins coldly, but I cut him off.

    “Let’s break up.”

    Jungkook freezes.

    “What?” he finally utters.

    “It’s been weeks. We don’t need to act like a couple anymore.” I stare at him blankly. “Stop seeing me in school.” I turn around to leave- but Jungkook catches my hand.

    “What the hell are you talking about?” he says in a low voice. “Why all of a sudden?”

    “Don’t touch me,” I hiss, yanking my arm away from him. Jungkook jerks his hand away from me like he has been burned. He stares at me, wide-eyed, for a good minute.

    And then Jungkook’s expression hardens.

    “Fine. It was getting annoying acting like I liked you anyway.”

    I press my lips together and begin to stride away; but something makes me whirl back around.

    “You’re still not going to tell me anything?” I whisper. “The truth about what you do? Who you are?”

    He stares at the wall behind me, his jaw clenched.

    Finally, his eyes shift to mine.

    “Just go,” he utters, and walks away.

    I try to stifle the sadness rising up in my chest.

    The whole school knows that we’ve broken up by lunchtime. The generally agreed version of the story is that Jungkook dumped me because he realized what a loser I was. I don’t bother to correct it.

I just don’t want to act lovey-dovey with Jungkook any longer.

I can’t bear to have him hug me and tease me when I know he’s hiding the fact that he enjoys ruthlessly killing people.

Every single one of Jungkook’s friends- except for Yoongi, who merely gives me a smug smile- tries to approach me and ask what happened.

“You two were doing fine,” Namjoon says concernedly. “What happened, Ami? Are you okay?”

    “I’m fine,” I respond dully.

    “Are you sure?”

    “Yeah.”

    He stares at me for a moment, and then pats my back.

    “I’ll give you a ride to Training today.”

    Even though we weren’t in a real relationship, it still hurts as much as if we broke up after actually dating.

    Which is why it feels like I’m in physical pain after I walk into Chemistry and see Emma sitting on Jungkook’s lap.

    “Oh, hey Ami!” Emma trills in a falsely high-pitched voice. Her arms are wrapped around Jungkook. “Mind if I steal your boyfriend- oh, ex-boyfriend?” The entire room watches me with bated breath, anticipating my reaction.

    I smile sweetly. “Be my guest.”

    And I take a seat at the back of the classroom and pull out my laptop like nothing ever happened.

I don't care.

Or at least, I need to act like I don't care.

I pull out my phone and text Chanyeol: I'm in.

A/N: :^((