KANG SIAN

My eyes open instinctively when it becomes time for me to go to night work at the store. It's two in the morning, and I don't have to look at the clock to know.

Carefully and as silently as possible, I shift off of the bed, wincing when Taehyung groans and turns besides me. But he doesn't wake, and I breathe in relief as I get my feet on the floor.

There's a dark lump on the ground, and my blurry eyes narrow in surprise when I see realize it's not a lump at all.

It's Jungkook and Jimin.

I can hear their soft breathing, Jungkook sleeping straight as a stick while Jimin has his arms and legs wrapped around the man and is unconsciously clinging onto him like a puppy.

It makes me smile.

Wondering why they were here when there was another bedroom, I pull off my jacket I'd thrown carelessly over the back of a chair and tug it over my shoulders.

Stepping out into the cold night, I walk quickly to the convenience store just right by the corner. When I enter, I see the man who always seem to be dozing off, the shift right in front of me.

"Oh— Oh, you're here." He mumbles, gathering up his things and groaning sleepily as he trudges out of the store.

Without saying a word, I take my place behind the counter and pull out some of the assignments I'd been too busy sleeping to finish during class.

When I'm looking for a pencil, I hear the soft jingle of the bell as the door opens.

My features twist slightly in distaste when a group comes in, their voices too loud in the quiet night. There are two boys and two girls, all of them seeming the same age as me.

Without giving them too much attention, I turn back to my work and try to focus through the obnoxious giggling and shouts.

As they're browsing, I suddenly hear the bell jingle again. The door opens quietly, and I'm stunned when a figure enters, his warm brown hair long enough to brush over his slanted eyes.

Taehyung?

He puts a finger over his lips, mouth curving into a small smile as he stands in front of the medicine row.

"Hey." I flinch in surprise, my gaze breaking from Taehyung as one of the boys slam a pack of cigarettes on the counter. My brows raise as I look closer at his face.

He goes to my school.

"Sorry— can't do that." I cut off, shifting so my hair covers part of my face. I didn't want him to recognize me, even if that was a small chance. "You clearly don't look old enough."

"Just do it." He says stiffly, crossing his arms as the girls behind him snicker. "You wouldn't be working as a store cashier if you weren't such a—"

"Excuse me."

My eyes widen when Taehyung pushes past him, his glance so dark it freezes me to the ground. I'd never seen him give a look like that to anyone. I didn't even think he could even make a look like that.

When he puts down a bottle of painkillers and the the tablets he'd been taking on the counter, the boy growls.

He looks even angrier when the girls gape at Taehyung, their eyes large.

"What the hell? I was here first, you sick %#%@. Go take your damn medication somewhere else."

Taehyung's eyes narrow, and I can tell that he didn't understand. He was too innocent to know words like that.

But I do.

"Get the heck out of here with them." I hiss, my flushing with fury as I point at the people in the back. "I can report you for trying to buy stuff like this when you're underage, you know. You go to a high school, don't—"

Then there's a flash of black, and a heavy pounding in my head.

What the heck...?

Before I can get a hold of the situation, I'm sitting on the ground instead of standing, something wet trickling down my neck.

Taehyung stares at me with a shocked expression.

"You need to learn when to shut up." He says, clicking his tongue. "See, if you didn't act out in the first place, this would've never—"

"Are you crazy?"

Then a loud curse bursts from his lips as Taehyung pulls down his mask from his mouth and slams a fist into the boy's face, his chest falling hard. I quickly get to my feet, alarmed when the boy stumbles back.

"What the &@$&—"

The only thing I hear next are shrill screams as I see the other boy, something silver aimed at Taehyung's back as he hits again.

"Tae!"

My heart stops beating when he doesn't hear me, his eyes wild. There's a coldness that tears at my fingertips when I realize that he's about to get knifed, which instantly means that he was going to die.

Grabbing the nearest thing I can get my hands on, I throw back my arm to chuck it at the boy in desperation when I see another figure in black grab his collar and practically hurl him over his shoulder.

Another?

"Hyung, you know you stepped on my hand, right?"

Jungkook kicks the knife out of his hand, his features stone as he smashes his foot into the boy who'd been holding it. Our eyes meet for a second, and his widens as it fixes on the side of my head.

Wrapping his fingers around Taehyung's arm, he pulls him away as I hear the doorbell ring, watching as the girls run with horrified looks on their faces.

I finally break out from my stunned reverie at the sound of a body meeting the cold linoleum floor.

Jungkook flipped him over.

"Tae!" I rush out from behind the counter when he leans heavily against one of the racks, his breathing rushed and uneven. Jungkook's eyes flicker over to us as he raises himself over the unconscious boy's body.

"Hyung."

Every rough breath he takes is terrifying, because I know it could easily be his last.

I can't even open this stupid thing because my hands are both trembling so hard.

"Hyung!" The sound comes again, and Jungkook's shadow moves quickly behind me as he takes the bottle from my fingers. I hear the click of it opening, a shake of the tablets inside before Jungkook takes Taehyung's flushed face in his hands and slides the medicine into his lips.

But he's already gone unconscious, figure wracking with rolling seizures.

Then the door bursts open, revealing a woman with dark hair and a bright blue streak. Her eyes instantly land on the shaking Taehyung on the ground, then scanning the two of us in urgency.

"Give him to me."

"I know how to save him."