"Stop! Please-"

Jimin doesn't listen. He throws me onto the floor, knocking down a glass vase in the process. The sound of glass shattering slices through the air around us. When I land on the hard ground, its sharp edges cut deep into my skin.

Thousands of glittering glass pieces become tinted red.

"Look what you've done, Y/n. You've destroyed us."

"It wasn't on purpose," I say weakly.

"But you knew," Jimin seethes. "They were nothing but kind to you. Now all of us are gone, Jungkook and Suga and Jin and everyone else you cared about. Dead because of you."

"They're not dead!"

"They may as well be," he sighs. He turns to face the window. "They're never coming back."

I can't move from pain, but I manage to turn my head to look at him. The moonlight falls upon every perfect strand of his hair, none out of place. It makes his skin a pale white. It illuminates his white shirt, his white pants, and the white walls of the room. Like a painting, almost, or a statue.

The sadness in his eyes is the only thing human about him in this moment, which reminds me of the Jimin I once knew. The compassionate one, the one that always made J-Hope laugh...

"I'm sorry," I whisper.

"You should be." He barely offers me a glance, gaze locked on the outside world beyond the window.

"Jimin. Please," I say. "You're our last hope. Get us out..."

"No. You made the choice that led us here so you need to deal with the consequences." He glances at me. "You'll get to meet Jungkook again, at least. Funny. Isn't that what you want anyway?"

No no no -

He holds up something. It's an object with flickering shadows that I can't figure out, like a glitch. "The Commander ordered me to do this, you realize, so it's not like I have much of a choice. You're such a burden."

I look into his eyes.

The sadness isn't there anymore, just cold darkness.

He lifts up the object. 

~

I gasp sharply.

Heart racing, hands sweaty.

A nightmare.

Around me is the triangular covering of my tent. Dull, boring, and gray. I sigh and sit up. I consider going back to sleep but I know there's no way I'm falling asleep again right after that.

I shrug myself out of the sleeping bag and slowly unzip the tent, lifting the flap just enough to gaze outside and breathe in the chilly night air. The cool temperature calms me down.

My mind wanders to dinner earlier today, before lights out. The tension over the campfire. Their worry.

What if I am a burden to them?

No way. That's just my imagination, a nightmare.

But Jimin's words did have some truth...

I'm annoyed at how shaken I am. Jimin and his attempt at kidnapping me is all I've been thinking about, especially since Namjoon decided not to reveal his plan till tomorrow. He called it a night shortly after we got back, saying we wouldn't be able to sleep if we kept thinking about the plan. We have no choice but to wait till morning.

I sigh. Stupid Freedom Academy.

I lower myself onto my stomach, still holding open the tent flap, and rest my head on my arms. It's really quiet which would usually be nice, but it doesn't quiet my anxious thoughts.

"Like an echo in the forest,
The day will come back around ~"

Jungkook?

I perk up at his voice and open the flap further, squinting into the darkness.

"Like an arrow in the blue sky
Another day flying by ~"

I spot him.

Namjoon's tent is directly across from mine. Sitting a few ways behind and to the right of it is Jungkook. His back is turned toward me.

"On my pillow, on my table,
Yeah life goes on
like this again ~"

His body sways to the music.

Intrigued by his singing, I grab my shoes and leave the tent. It's way colder when I'm completely exposed to the freezing night, so I hug my coat tighter around me as I approach him.

"J-Jungkook?"

He looks around with wide eyes, then relaxes when he sees me. "Oh, it's you."

"Yeah," I smile and sit down next to him. He'd laid out his jacket over the frozen grass. "Aren't you cold?"

"Not really. It's actually soothing in a way, like a distraction."

I nod slowly. I can see that.

Jungkook's eyes soften. "You had trouble sleeping too?"

"Well... yeah," I shrug, deciding not to bother him right now with my Jimin nightmare. "Pretty much."

We sit in comfortable silence. A cold breeze picks up through the night air and we scoot closer to each other for warmth. I hear nothing and feel nothing but his presence next to me, comforting my anxious mind.

Then Jungkook shifts. I lift my head from his shoulder to watch as he reaches into his pocket and holds out smushed four-leaf clovers. Two of them.

"Where did you get these?"

"There was a whole field of three-leafed ones." Jungkook purses his lips. "I saw it while I was... you know. Behind the bushes. Thought it'd be cool if we could each have a four-leaf clover, because they're supposed to be lucky or whatever."

He sighs. 

I watch the mist from his breath fade into the night.

"But you were gone by the time I came back," he says. "I just can't stand the thought of you getting hurt because of me."

"... that's what you've been thinking about?"

"Yeah," he admits. He twirls the four-leaf clovers around in his fingers. "You would've been safe if I didn't get so distracted."

"You shouldn't think that way," I mumble. "It makes me feel guilty when you and the others defend me like that."

"You're part of our family." He says it like it's the most obvious thing in the world.

"But you're all taking sacrifices for me," I insist. "Camping out here, losing Jimin and Suga, all for a random student who happened to end up with you guys when the guards chased us. What do you even get in return from me?" I shake my head. "Nothing. I just... I feel like I've been an inconvenience. A waste of time and effort."

A burden.

"You are not. You were never a burden Y/n."

"But they all keep saying the same thing," I insist, "It's always 'Imagine the boys having fun and being themselves, not having to move around all the time because of you.' Or 'if you're turned in, then the rest of them won't get hurt'. It's always about me, to me, for me, but why?"

The words flow out in a volcano eruption of doubts that have been building up for a long, long time.

"All I'm doing is hurting you guys in the process. The Commander kept saying that in the parking lot. And then Jimin said the same when he took me away -"

"You can't believe them," Jungkook says immediately. "That's emotional manipulation. You're reacting exactly how they want you to."

"But there's some truth to it."

"There isn't. They are spinning it to so you'll decide to turn yourself in. Do you know how much that would hurt us?"

I don't have a response to that.

Jungkook sighs. He leans in to hug me tightly and even without saying a word, I can feel his stress.

"Anxiety makes everything worse," he mutters. "But life goes on. You are not a burden because I care for you. And to tell you the truth..."

He trails off.

I glance at him, wanting to ask why, but I stop myself when I see the distant look in his hesitant eyes.

"... to tell you the truth," he says quietly, tearing his gaze away from the sky to look at me, "ever since that fateful day when I noticed you walk into the auditorium... you've never left my heart."

I hold my breath.

"Y/n?"

"Hm?" 

"I love you."

I look up at him, wondering if it could possibly be a joke and why it came up so suddenly but his honest, chocolate eyes shine with emotion even in the dim night. They hold my gaze with nothing but sincerity .

He'd been holding back till now.

Why till now? Could it be the fear we share? The possibly that things could go wrong, that there's an end to our limited time together out there in the unknown?

I hug him tighter, lost for words. Jungkook seems to understand. 

"Promise you'll keep fighting for me?" His voice is so open and vulnerable, I can't help but nod.

"Thank you," he says, and I smile.

"Always."

We stay in the hug, neither of us letting go, and soak in each other's presence before facing another day tomorrow.

I'll probably never be ready for all the obstacles out there. But with the remaining five of us together, there's still hope... right? And with hope comes a fighting chance, surely...

"We should get some rest," Jungkook says eventually. "It's warmer in the sleeping bags."

"I know," I sigh. "But I don't think I'll fall asleep anytime soon."

"You'll need it for tomorrow."

"True."

Neither of us move.

"... would you mind coming into my tent?"

"Yours?" 

"You don't have to, but I definitely won't mind," he says quickly. I could swear there's the faintest smile on his face. "Maybe it'll help."

And ward off nightmares.

I nod.

Together we get up and sneak past the burnt campfire. Using a little bit of our power to silence ourselves, I grab my sleeping bag before tiptoeing over to Jungkook's tent.

Jungkook holds open the tent entrance so there's some moonlight to work with. It's a little difficult in the darkness, but we figure it out. Soon the tent is zipped shut and we're laying down next to each other again, this time staring at the inside of a boring gray ceiling instead of the sky. Jungkook reaches out and our hands interlace.

"Goodnight Y/n."

"Goodnight."

We snuggle closer. Somehow this reminds me of the time we sat together in the red truck, way back in that getaway fight. I smile and bury myself deeper into the sleeping bag.

Well... best get some sleep for tomorrow.

"Jungkook?"

"Hm?"

"I love you too."