WHITE

"He told us that Jungkook went this way." Jimin stresses, and V sighs out heavily. "Towards those rock cliff-looking things. We have to find him."

"Why would he go there?" I say worriedly, about to start my horse when I press my lips together and fix a harsh glare at the two of them.

"You."

"Get on here." I say firmly to Jimin, motioning at my horse. "You're riding with me. Not V, because I don't want my ears burned apart to pieces."

I'd even caught them with their lips parted, no doubt to start another argument.

"White—"

"It'll be fine, Tae. I'm a good rider. And you know I have my Blessing to protect myself if anything goes wrong."

At that, he finally relents. Jimin looks between the two of us, eyes narrowed. "So are you two saying that if White's horse goes crazy and kicks the two of us off then you're fine with only me dying?"

"That won't happen." I assure, but he still looks skeptical as he gets on my horse.

"Damn, you're such a better rider than Tae." He says loudly just a minute in, and I roll my eyes when V growls in his direction. "Riding with him— I thought I was going to get sick."

"Just be quiet." I say, and he gets silent. But not before he shoots a triumphant smile at his younger brother, who looks like he's about to murder him with his Blessing.

But I still have to hold him once in a while, righting his balance if he swayed more to one side without himself noticing. Being deaf in one ear and eye had messed tremendously with his balance.

We ride until V finally opens his pursed lips, carefully speaking. His tone is different, and I wince slightly as he says what I'd been wanting to tell Jimin the moment he'd suggested riding aimlessly into the Cliffs.

"Hyung— this is pointless. We won't find him this way, you know that."

Jimin blinks widely. "What do you mean? Yoongi told me he went to this direction! You were both there, remember?"

But I can hear his words shaking.

He knows it himself. But he doesn't want to acknowledge it.

"Jimin...." I whisper out, my heart hurting as I look at his expression. It's denial— such complete denial. "Jimin, let's go back home. Jungkook will find us. We can't find him."

"And who said that?" He scrunches his face up, smiling encouragingly. "We can find him! It'll be a good surprise."

I swallow, hardening my voice. I really didn't want to do this, but if this went on, we'd actually be lost in the Cliffs. V had even signaled to me that this was his limit— memorizing the way we'd come so we wouldn't wander around.

"Jimin—"

Then something crosses through the air, and I look up in wide eyes. An arrow. Speeding straight for my face.

And V saves me for the five thousandth time.

He crashes his horse into mine, taking my place and batting the arrow out of
the way with his knife. My horse stumbles, but then breaks into a run when V drives his foot harshly into its side.

Bandits.

"V!" I yell, my voice cracking when I realize he'd sent my horse on a speeding run towards the opposite direction of the bandits. They were shooting from above, between the rocks.

I try to stop the horse, but he'd kicked it so hard it wasn't listening to any of my calls. It just keeps running, so fast I'm barely hanging on. I struggle to keep a hand on Jimin, who's pounding at the horse to try and stop him as well.

It was taking me away from V.

"Turn around!" I hiss at the horse, more desperate than I'd ever been as I shut my eyes tight. "Turn around, dammit!"

I look around, and a terrified scream rips from my lips when I see V's entire body seize with an arrow that'd hit his upper shoulder.

No, no, no.

This can't be happening right now.

Clenching my teeth together, I raise my right foot. Then I swing, a desperate kick towards its side to make it stop.

And everything, everything goes wrong from there.

The horse bucks.

"Woah, woah, WOAH!" I shout, and it's not long before my balance completely goes crazy. The horse bucks wildly again, and before I can even scream out a sorry, he's thrown me and Jimin off.

Towards one of the cliffs— a wide, dark gap in the stone ground.

Holy.

Crap.

It's a heck of a long way down. I instantly wrap my Blessing around myself, but then my eyes land on Jimin. He didn't have anything to protect himself with.

"Jimin!"

I reach for him, but my damn arm's way too short and I miss him by a good feet. And what's even worse, I gasp out loud as my back hits against a stone platform.

I scrabble for the edge, but my fingers slip and then I realize that my Blessing's no longer working. The silver lights had been covering my entire body protectively just a second ago. They'd completely disappeared.

"What the hell?!" I shriek in terror, cursing.

There was one out of ten times when my Blessing suddenly went haywire, refusing to act under my command.

Did that damn one out of ten have to be now?!

__________________________

V

Damn.

A painful gasp tears from my lips at the arrow I hadn't managed to strike down. It'd hit straight through the muscle of my right shoulder— which meant these bastards knew what they were doing.

But at least they were safe.

My eyes flicker, and I can see at least four of them, hidden securely behind rocks. And only getting up for a single moment to shoot.

Too far away for my Blessing's range.

Pain runs through my entire body as I move, knocking down another round of arrows with my knife. But I see my own hand trembling, and I murmur a curse.

Then there's a scream.

My eyes narrow when I hear a short scream of a male, followed by another. I lean heavily against my horse, now breathing in rough gasps as I pull up my Blessing.

There's someone else.

Someone who's killing all the bandits. Another scream comes— the last. My body tenses, preparing to release a wave of pain as soon as whoever reached me.

"Hyung."

And I almost kill him.

But I barely pull back my Blessing in time just as Jungkook appears before me, his eyes gray and tired. There's a bloodied knife in his hand, which he just tosses to the ground.

"Jungkook."

His eyes avoid mine, fixing lower instead. His voice is darker than I last remember it.

"I'm sorry. For everything."

"Jimin's crazy over you." I gasp, smiling bitterly as I press my hand tightly to my shoulder. But then I realize he's staring over me, and the smile disappears from my lips when I follow his gaze.

My mind goes blank.

"White."

The horse has no rider, and it takes me just a second to put together what's happened. My heart crashes to the bottom of my chest, hand slipping weakly from my wound.

"Hyung." He calls again, but I can barely hear him.

"Hyung. Do you think you can catch her?"

"....What?"

"Get ready."

A/n: I just want to say special thanks to @Imthrasher75 for always commenting on my chapters. It always makes me smile :)