"Hyung. I messed up."

Jimin sat still, playing absently with his fingers as he thought.

Beside him, Namjoon rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"Really? Why would you think that?" the older said sarcastically.

Jimin bit his bottom lip and turned his face away, a huge mix of messed up emotions. He was truly at a loss for what to do. After everything that had happened in the warehouse and hospital, it was like he could see so clearly after being blinded for a long time. Yes, Y/N was his best friend and his longest companion, and she was a shoulder to cry and always there for him for as long as he could remember.

He took advantage of that way too much.

Y/N was all of that to him, but she was also more. She was beautiful and sexy and she made him laugh and made him hot and she was...his soulmate.

He should've known that all along.

"How do I fix this?" the miserable boy whispered to his friend.

Namjoon took a serious look at him and heaved a deep sigh.

"Can you? You really hurt her, Jiminie," the older boy told him. Jimin didn't need to be told that: he knew. He was the one who had to face her down in the hospital room and watch her love for him be shoved down into some deep, unreachable place inside her. He had to watch as she broke apart in front of him, all because of his stupid mistakes.

He knew then that he loved her, at the moment that she stopped loving him.

"Hyung, I'm going to win her back," Jimin said firmly. "I know things now that I didn't know before, and I feel...well, we've gone through too much to give up now."

Tilting his head, Jimin could see the wheels turning in Namjoon's brain as he considered the statement.

"Okay, Jimin," he replied slowly. "I'll do my best to help. I think you're sincere."

"I am." Jimin swallowed and nodded to himself, determined in his resolve. "I've never been more sincere."

***

You and Jae sat side by side in a moment of dejavu, staring blankly out at the school campus below you.

The two of you had somehow ended up on the rooftop of the school, seated peacefully on the edge with your legs dangling. Usually only bad kids came up here to smoke or make out, but you didn't think much about it now.

This was nothing compared to what you had been through.

It had been about a week since you had returned to school from being injured. The mysterious absence of Sehun was a question that none of you could answer, but you didn't have to.

Nobody asked.

Instead, the entire school was abuzz about the suicidal death of Kim Hani, a popular girl who went off the deep end and took her own life in an empty warehouse. That's what everyone else believed, though you, Jae, and the other boys knew better.

After everything in the warehouse had gone down, Namjoon had left the police an anonymous tip from a pay phone that gunfire had been heard in an abandoned warehouse while he was walking by.

They found her body there, and you hadn't heard of anything else since. It was like the case of her death had blown away in the wind.

All of the boys were almost suffocatingly protective of you now. On most days, Jin, Namjoon and Taehyung made a shield-like semicircle around you on the way to class, with Hobi and Jungkook flanking Jae behind you.

Jimin hadn't talked to you.

Every time you looked at his handsome face that you once admired, all you felt was cold and hurt.

You tried to not look at him.

Glancing over, you looked at your cousin asking in the sunshine next to you and smiled. Her relationship with Jungkook had the same stagnant quality as yours and Jimin's. While the maknae of the group hovered over your cousin like a protective mother, his verbal interaction with her was at an all-time low. He almost acted as if he was angry at her, for what you didn't know.

"What now?" Jae's voice shook you out of your thoughts. Your cousin swung her sneakers over the empty air and leaned back, letting her hair fall over her shoulder in a long wave.

"Why do you mean?" you asked in reply.

"It's just that, all of this we've been through...it feels like there should be something else." Jae shrugged.

You gnawed on your lower lip as you contemplated that. "I guess first thing's first, we have to find the research that everyone's talking about. And then we need to find Sehun, and maybe find a way to change Jungkook, Yoongi, and Ji- to change the boys back to normal."

Jae didn't comment on your avoidance of his name.

Instead she sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "How did all of this happen?"

You shook your head. "I don't know, but it's all behind us now."

The door to the roof hurts open at that second and both you and Jae whipped around to see the commotion.

You went pale and Jae grasped your forearm.

"Y/N," Jimin said clearly. "I need to talk to you."

Behind him were Jungkook and Namjoon, looking determined and ready.

"She doesn't want to talk to you, and you're gonna have to do it over my dead body," Jae sneered at him.

Jimin nodded. "I know. That's why I brought backup."

The two of you moved away from the edge of the roof as Jungkook and Namjoon stepped forward with their eyes on Jae.

Your cousin refused to back down and stood protectively in front of you.

"I've got this, hyung," Jungkook said quietly.

"No you don't!" Jaw shrieked as the large boy lunged at her. Even though Jae struggled, Jungkook was way too strong for her and easily hefted her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. His hands grasped the back of her thighs firmly.

"Don't you touch me, you demented bunny rabbit!" Jae screamed helplessly as Jungkook hauled her out the door with a chuckling Namjoon following close behind them.

That left you alone on the rooftop with your worst nightmare.

"What do you want, Jimin?" You come out strong and blunt, staring him down with a blank expression.

Before you could even process his movement, Jimin was directly in front of you. He cupped your cheeks between his hands and crushed your mouths together.

Wait, what?

You could only blink in shock as he deepened the kiss and parted your lips with his, intertwining your tongues.

You forgot how good his touch felt and how good he tasted. Your eyes fluttered shut in pleasure as his warmth rolled over you.

When you began to respond to the kiss, he moaned and grasped your waist, pulling your body into his.

Jimin drew back and mumbled in a husky voice, "I love you, Y/N."

Holy crap.

If there was anything that could've woken you out of your stupor in that moment, it was those words coming out of his mouth.

Now armed with your anger and disgust, you shoved the boy away from your with all of the strength you had left.

"Are you crazy?" you yelled at him in fury. You made a big show of wiping your mouth with the back of your hand and bared your teeth at him.

"I am crazy," Jimin told you breathlessly. "I'm crazy for you."

"Stop it Jimin!" you hissed. Trying to escape him, you moved toward the door, but he caught your arm in a firm grip.

"Y/N," the boy said with desperate, glowing yellow eyes. His lips were a little puffy and shiny with saliva from the kiss. "Y/N, I made a mistake but I'm going to make up for it. I love you. I want you."

How is this happening now, after everything? Why couldn't he come to this grand epiphany before he broke your heart?

"No," you said plainly. "I gave you a chance but you didn't want it."

You had to get out, right then. You started to stomp toward the door and he didn't try to stop you this time.

"Y/N," he called to you right before you walked out. You reluctantly turned to look at him, crossing your arms over your chest with a glare.

You weren't expecting him to be staring at you so intensely.

"Get used to that, Y/N," he growled at you. "Your mine, only mine. That bite mark is there for a reason. I'm going to get you back if it's the last thing I do."

"Then it'll be the last thing you do," you replied angrily. "Because I'm never going back to you."

You marched away from him without looking back, totally consumed by the anger that's swallowing your chest.

That idiot.

He can try as much as he likes, but you won't ever fall for him again.

Not ever.

😘

❤️