A/N - This chapter might be a little confusing because it's kind of a fusion of present happenings and flashbacks. For convenience I'll be putting the flashbacks in italics. I hope it's not to hard to read.

THIRD PERSON POV

Loud sirens, panicked screams and a series of honking horns. Yet Jungkook's heart felt so silent, so cold. A barren land deprived of even a tiny dribble of water, that's how his throat felt. And his eyes? Well it seemed like an eternity that they had ran out of tears to shed.

Had it been just moments ago that she was right there in his arms, tight and secure but now, all he was left with was her blood smeared all over his black shirt.

What a cruel turn of events!

"Y/N!?"

Jimin shouted with all the breath his lungs could muster before running towards the fallen girl. Clearly he was the first one to snap out of the dismal trance the the recent abrupt incident had induced, Taehyung following closely behind.

"Hey Y/N, stay with us, please. Here, look at me, come on"

He took her head in his lap and kept slapping her lightly on the cheeks to keep the girl from losing consciousness. By now Taehyung had reached the pair and ripping his shirt off with one strong pull he handed the lacerated fabric to Jimin only for the latter to press it against Y/N's wound in order to contain the blood loss to some extent.

"Yo Y/N, come on, talk to us..."

The sirens stopped as the ambulance pulled a break in front of St. Mary's hospital. The door to the trunk of the automobile flew open with the paramedics hurrying to pull the gurney down, a barely alive Y/N lying on it, struggling so hard to hang on.

The police car charged into the drive way soon after but even before the car could come to a complete halt, Jungkook darted out, tripping on the way and rendering himself on the ground. His knees scarped badly against the rocky street but the boy couldn't care less and he immediately got up and ran towards Y/N's stretcher that was now being pushed into the building.

"Jungkook, be careful-" a worried Namjoon called after the boy whom he cared for like a younger brother who was sadly already too far to listen to his hyung. All Jungkook felt right now was devastation and even though his colleagues tried their best to comfort him and give him hopes, he was too deep into a pit to resurface that easily.

"Yo Y/N, come on, talk to us"

Taehyung took Y/N's hands in his and rubbed them, trying to generate some heat in the uncannily cold surface. Jimin on the other hand had his palms pressed on Y/N's chest with Taehyung's shirt now close to dripping with crimson agony.

"I-I'm sorry guys..." the strain was very apparent in Y/N's voice, the very same strain that was also cascading down her eyes. The girl tried her best to sit up but ended up falling on Jimin's chest who immediately caught her and pulled her closer.

"Don't say that Y/N, nothing's gonna happen to you, just hang on a little longer, ok?" Jimin nuzzled his face into Y/N's neck, trying to find some warmth in her embrace. Her skin was growing colder with every passing second and he didn't like that a bit.

Y/N nodded painfully before turning her gaze to the one that had been silent all this while, still seemingly caught in some kind of bottomless trance. He remained like a statue on the floor where Y/N had pushed him to earlier and he stayed motionless with nonchalance twinkling in his eyes. He didn't move and neither did he show any emotion.

However the glance from Y/N, the tears in her eyes and the distressed yet remorseful frown on her face managed to break him free. Y/N ever so lightly moved her fingers calling Jungkook to her and the boy did nothing other than to oblige. He ran to her and knelt down right in front of her.

"Taehyung, quick, call Namjoon and ask him to bring the cops and the paramedics" Jungkook instructed before grabbing Y/N's hands.

"You have to stay strong Y/N, for us, for me, please..."

A horde of nurses rushed through the corridors aiming straight for the emergency wing. The injured girl had somehow still managed to stay conscious with the help of the pain medications but the intense spasms that was now beginning to hit her body was making everything so much harder that she could barely breathe. The people though hurried to prepare her for an immediate surgery, they didn't take her into the OT just yet, instead they pushed her into the adjacent ICU.

"We will be starting the blood infusion immediately but the operation won't start until and unless Miss Y/N's legal guardian signs on the consent form. Try and bring him in asap. We don't have much time" the doctor's words spawned a storm of turmoil in Jungkook's heart but he couldn't do anything about it. He was familiar with the hospital's terms and there was no way he could force the doctor into an immediate surgery.

Although, luckily for him, he didn't have to stress much about it for the other two of the maknaes who stood close behind and heard the conversation had already comprehended the situation and called home for Y/N's legal guardian, Yoongi.

"You have to stay strong Y/N, for us, for me, please"

It was painful how all the four pairs of eyes shed perennial tears. While Taehyung was pacing around, talking to Namjoon about the whole scenario, Jungkook took his place. Using his left hand he gently caressed Y/N's forehead, wiping off drops of sweat and in his right he took Y/N's hand and brought it up to his lips, kissing it delicately. Dots of blood was scattered all over the place but none of them seemed to care about it.

"I am t-trying Jungkook, I re-eally am. I don't want to leave just yet. But if I d-don't make it, please promise you'll look after my family. Help them get a new life, a happy l-life.....Please-"

The thought alone left their hearts shattered in pieces. The mere vision of losing such a vital part of their group reduced them to shivers. Jungkook was an intruder, he was new but for the other affiliates of the gang, Y/N was like a little sister. She was a crucial part that once brought them all together to form the very family in the first place. So even the idea of a future without her made them weary.

"Don't say such things Y/N, nothing will happen to you. Help is on its way. You'll be saved, I'll save you and after that, we can all have fun with our new lives, including you" even though his own conviction was withering away, Jungkook still tried his level best to shower the girl with hopes and certainty. However, the girl knew better than that.

"There's nothing I want more than that Jungkook, but I can't just look past the reality. A-and I also can't change what's about to happen. So please, promise me, n-no matter what happens, you'll take care of yourselves and move on, you all will" it hurt Y/N real bad to think about abandoning her friends. She was having to squeeze her own soul dry to talk about her impending departure but she still had to make sure her family stayed safe and happy, with or without her being around.

"Y/N-"

"P-please"

"We promise..."

Minutes of anxious awaiting went by before the familiar face of the aforementioned individual finally popped up from the crowd. A miserable looking Yoongi came running into the scene followed by an equally stressed Jin and Hoseok.

Without wasting any seconds Jimin took Yoongi to the reception for his needed approval. Meanwhile Jin and Hoseok walked up to Taehyung in search of some clarity regarding this entire horrific episode.

"What happened Taehyung? What did you all do?" a distressed Hoseok squealed with exasperation, eyeing the younger male with resentful eyes.

"I'm sorry hyung, we just wanted to save her and bring her home" Taehyung broke down once again before falling to his knees in front of his hyungs. "We just wanted to bring her home"

"You just wanted? And how did that turn out for you, huh?" even though rage was clear in Jin's voice, somewhere the pain screamed louder. His voice quivered with tears endlessly trickling down his pale cheeks and he too broke down before requesting his maknae for some much needed elucidation.

"Please tell us Tae, what really happened...?"

The police with the paramedics arrived in due time and everything after that was a chaotic mess.

While the cops spread along the scope scavenging for possible survivors in the pile of deads, Jimin with the help of Jungkook lifted up Y/N as gently as he could to not meddle with her wound and placed her on the gurney, there by handing her over to the medical assistance.

On getting her into the trunk, she was immediately attached to several chords that'd enable people to analyze her vitals. However the irregular strokes on her echo-cardiogram only made it worse for her comrades.

"Jungkook, come with me in my car, I have to talk to you" Namjoon instructed making the younger male follow his chief dejectedly, leaving the other two to get into their own car and follow the Ambulance. And just like that a chain of restless vehicles sprinted through the busy streets of Korea lead by a deafening siren.

Yoongi, along with Jimin came back only to find his brothers rendered into a crying mess. Clearly, Taehyung had revealed everything to his hyungs. So Yoongi was about to approach them to gather some update for himself but he had to stop midway when a fuming Jin stood up and marched towards a dispirited Jungkook before crunching the latter's collars into his fists.

"What were you thinking, huh? You thought it was so easy to just barge in defeat the bad guys? We wanted to save Y/N too, you know. Heck she is way more important to us than she is you. You hated her for goodness sake. What did you think, we didn't care enough to fight for her? There was a reason we didn't act on our impulses, we are not stupid like you. You see now, what your bravery got us into?"

The dam of Jin's patience broke apart and at that grave moment, no one blamed him. He was the only one who was truly related to Y/N, the only one that knew her and loved her since the day she was born. And Jungkook, just like everyone else, understood his situation well enough to keep quite and embrace every accusation he threw his way. But in the process somewhere, he too was starting to blame himself.

And the thing that hurt him the most was how Jin called on him for once hating Y/N. Little did he know that Jungkook and Y/N now shared a bond deeper than a mere hatred can ever dive.

"You know what Jungkook, I think you should leave. I've seen how you made Y/N smile, something none of us could do in the past two years and I'm very grateful to you for that. But right now, all I can think about is that you three might be the reason that we never get to see that smile again. So please leave before I do or say anything we all might regret. Leave, all three of you-"

Before Jin could finish his monologue though, a group of nurses ran from in front of them and into Y/N's ICU before pulling the girl out and preparing to take her into the OT. Fortunately, she was still awake, thanks to the timely blood infusion, however, she was fairly weak. She barely managed to hang on to her dear life but she still did so because she had to talk to her friends for she was scared, what if this was her only chance? She wanted to see them once before she gave in to her fate.

So she faintly called out,

"Hey"

Disregarding Jin's warnings, all the six men ran to her, surrounding her stretcher like bees to honey.

"Please don't leave us Kimchi, you know we need you. Are you doing this annoy us?" Yoongi grabbed a hold of her hand before caressing her hair softly.

"D-don't worry Oppa, I ain't going anywh-here. I do know you need me, or else whose braids would you p-pull?"

Crying is hard but smiling through painful tears is harder. Y/N was a smart girl, she knew what her family might be going through and hence she had to try and make the ambience a tad less tense.

"Y/N-" Jin came up to her with tearful eyes but got cut off mid sentence by Y/N for she knew what words lied ahead of that.

"I will be fine" Y/N let out a breathy assurance before flashing a weak smile to her family.

"You promise?"

It was Jimin who put forward the question this time, however, his choice of words made her drift back to a past memory and she remembered the song he had been singing when she first encountered him at their school playground.

"I do, as long as you promise to be your light, you should be your light-" Y/N smiled softly and Jimin immediately realized that she was quoting some of the lyrics of a song he once wrote and he chose to continue what she started.

"So that you won't be in pain, so that you can smile..."

Jimin placed a tender kiss on Y/N's forehead before mouthing a silent good luck and moving away from the gurney. The others did the same, though not everybody. Jungkook stayed back for he still needed a moment for himself.

"You are coming back to me right?" he asked making the girl break into a small giggle.

"I am, so clean my jail cell real good. I don't like it dirty"

"Don't worry, there's no way I'm letting you go in there anymore"

Saying so Jungkook leaned down to press a long but gentle kiss on Y/N's lips which she gladly returned, catching all the other men off-guard.

"Stay strong Y/N-aah" and with that her hand slipped away from Jungkook's as she was dragged into the OT, the light above the door now turning bright red.