jiseo gasps when she sees the bullet piercing into the hand of the pepertrator. she winces at the bloodcurdling scream he lets out as he lets go of the knife and covers his harmed hand. a face of a stranger comes into her view in a flash of a few seconds after the horrifying and bloody scene. "c'mon! get up!" he alerts jiseo and helps her up. "gotta go before someone else hears the gunshot!" he continues, his voice deep and in a tone of fear yet frustration.

"y-you— you shot him!" she stutters.

"it's just the hand! he's not dead!" the stranger answers and jiseo realizes he's wearing a police uniform. it's a police officer. a bunch of questions immediately cloud her thoughts but she pushes them in the back of her mind and focuses on the current situation. she then looks over to see jungkook, who has already gotten up and is rushing towards her, struggling with his balance a little but he manages. the three of them scurry away from the scene as soon as possible.

upon reaching an unknown destination that is considered a safe zone by both jungkook and the queer police officer, jiseo stops and heaves through her lungs. she tries to catch her breath as the soreness of her bones kick in from all the running. she breathes unsteadily, chest rising up and down rhythmically, face flushed as well. but that's not important right now, the important thing right now is jungko—

"are you okay?!" jungkook rushes into her view in what feels like, faster than lightning. he's panting as well, gasping for air but the look of concern in his face calms down the trepidation in her. the fear starts to whisk away once she sees the boy looking at her with worry flared in his brown orbs. she leers at the cut at the edge of his left ear, and then at his left cheek, which still has a little blood seeping out. it looks a bit deep, probably is going to leave a scar.

"n-not— not hurt anywhere, right?" he asks, grabbing her hands to inspect them, he examines her face as well to see if there are any wounds. jiseo feels her hands go slippery and she sees jungkook's bloody injured hands on hers, those hands that no longer looked soft or filled with warmth. instead, they look broken and burning with pain, those shaky damaged hands that tried so hard to protect her.

"i'm fine, okay?" jiseo reassures him, finding her own voice quite hoarse. she returns the hold on his hands gently but jungkook still flinches as the throbbing pain from his hands won't stop.

"god this fucking hurts," he croaks out, letting go of jiseo's hands to stares at his own in misery.

"yeah, no shit, you grasped a fucking blade," the police officer from earlier voices out and jiseo has almost forgotten his presence since she was so caught up with jungkook.

"gotta go to the clinic or something," he says to jungkook.

"yoongi's a medical major— i'm sure he'll know how to bandage your hands up properly and—" jiseo is cut off.

"it's fine," jungkook sighs. "i'll just put on some ointment, then bandage it up or something," he continues.

"here, wash the blood off," he hands the younger male a small bottle of water, which was on his police belt. jungkook nods and walks a few meters away from the pair to do so.

"jesus christ, that was gruesome to watch," he then turns to jiseo. "what were you doing with kook anyway?"

"i— um—" jiseo gawks, observing the similar navy uniform that she has definitely seen before.

"you know, that kid doesn't really help his allies," he continues. "would've left you to save his own ass, but he didn't. are you his, i don't know, a partner in crime?"

"what?" jiseo furrows her eyebrows. "i'm not—"

"hey, namjoon, thanks for helping," the younger male becomes audible as he comes back into the scene, hands wet but there's still some blood oozing out of the wounds. it looks like he cleaned the cut on his cheek too.

"no problem," the man whose name is namjoon says, "are you okay?"

"yeah, i'm good, need some bandages but other than that, i'm okay, i think," he stares at his own damaged palms.

"that was stupid of you, now you probably can't even hold stuff for like what? a week?"

jungkook chuckles, "i've been told i'm a fast healer," he says. "don't worry, okay?" he sets his gaze on jiseo even though that statement was supposed to be directed to the police officer.

"the patrol team i was with is going to wonder why they heard a gunshot," namjoon then grimaces, "and when i get back to the station, they're gonna bombard me with a bunch of questions and ask what the hell happened to the area i was supposed to patrol."

"just make up an excuse. they're going to run a dna test on that bloody knife and think it's my bullet or something, so they won't know it was yours anyways," jungkook laughs and jiseo hates how he seems so relaxed, like he wasn't going to be stabbed in the face a few minutes ago.

—

jiseo stares at the police officer in the navy uniform, namjoon, helping jungkook bandage his palms. it's 4:46am, it's really late— or early, it depends on your perspective. dawn is a few steps away but jiseo can't help but stay put in her spot, she doesn't want to leave just yet. in some messed up kind of way, she wants to stay with jungkook.

"so," namjoon starts, "what are you? a drug dealer or something?" he directs the questions to jiseo, hands moving gracefully to wrap the bandage around jungkook's hands.

jiseo was about to open her mouth to speak up but jungkook beats her to it, "she's not an ally."

"oh? so you're bonnie and clyde," the older makes an understanding face but jungkook shakes his head, which makes his expression turn into a confused look.

"listen namjoon, she's not like me," jungkook states and namjoon freezes, hands on the unfinished bandage.

"what? you mean, she's—" he pauses, taking in what the younger just said.

when he finally gets it, namjoon looks at jiseo in an absolute flabbergasted way, "why the hell are you involving yourself with.. him?" he points at jungkook.

"i— i believe jungkook's not as bad as—"

"look kid, i don't know what's going on between you two but you shouldn't be doing this," he sighs. jiseo looks at jungkook but she frowns at how he just stays silent.

"he gets into a lot of trouble, might be a hassle for you, ya know?" he continues, she can tell he's trying to sugarcoat it.

"you know what? i'm leaving," jungkook stands up from his seat. it looks like namjoon has finished helping jungkook with the bandages. jiseo doesn't expect him to leave, she doesn't want him to leave.

"where are you going?" jiseo immediately stands up, stepping in front of jungkook to stop him in his tracks. the frown painted on her face grows deeper.

"to take a rest," he replies. "you should rest up too. hey, namjoon, give her a ride home, yeah?" he continues and passes jiseo. jiseo on the other hand can't do anything but to observe the presence of the boy growing furthur and further.

she wishes he could've stayed longer.