I'd planned to stay awake until morning, but I find my eyes fluttering open from sleep a few hours later.

I'm in V's bed, and I can hear Jungkook's soft and even breathing as he shifts to the right. When I look around, I find the actual owner of the room—

Gone.

It wasn't hard to see that he'd arranged the two of us after we'd failed to stay awake, and had left the room for whatever purposes. Where had he gone?

Careful not to wake the maknae, I noiselessly slide off the bed and slip out of the room successfully. Just in case I'd been heard, I wait a few moments outside the door listening for signs of his awakening.

Nothing.

Even though the clock next to me reads seven in the morning, nobody seems to be up yet. All the doors are firmly closed, including Yoongi's next to ours. Everyone was where they were supposed to be.

Except for V.

Maybe he'd gone to eat?

But once I leave to check downstairs, the air is full of silence. The kitchen looks perfectly undisturbed, except for a few unrecognizable stains from last night's dinner.

There wasn't anyone here.

Which also meant that V had left the house.

Something like worry gradually sets in my body as I scan the orderly pairs of shoes, hoping that my suspicions weren't true.

V's shoes were missing.

Where in the world had he gone?

I quickly think— he didn't have an assignment. Nor did he have any leftover business out. And it was still dangerous for him to leave the sanctuary of the house. Why would he just—

Maybe I was missing something.

Swallowing a growing lump in my throat and cradling my aching wrist to my chest, I go back upstairs. It wouldn't help me to just idle around downstairs— there had to be someone who knew about this.

Staying in a position for a long time had made my back stiff and painful. Which also meant that practically every movement I made brought a significant amount of discomfort and pain to my wound.

Gosh, V. I think, half annoyed and half still concerned with his sudden disappearance. Making me worry first thing in the morning.

When I have all the doors in my sight, I quickly eliminate some of my options.

Jungkook and Jimin wouldn't know much— it seemed more plausible that if anyone knew anything about V, it would be Jin or Namjoon. Either the eldest or the strategist. That made sense.

Chewing on my lip nervously, I'm about to knock on Namjoon's door when I hear the front door creak open.

I abandon whatever I was doing, whatever I was thinking. All my concentration goes from one thing to the other, and I nearly fly down the stairs as I barely stop myself from crashing and burning.

V!

He looks surprised when he sees me, instantly hiding something behind his back. To my own shock, he's dressed in full battle clothes, black and sleek and—

Blood spattered.

Now I only realize how much of the sickly scarlet is on him, and I breathlessly rush down to his side.

"What in the world happened?" I demand, my voice high with anxiety and worry. He didn't seem to be in a bad condition— which was good. But judging by the massive amount of blood—

A sudden thought strikes me, and I'm not certain if my reactions should be positive or negative.

The blood was someone else's, wasn't it?

"Did you go on an assignment?" I ask, mopping the blood staining his cheek. The white sleeves of my nightgown are soon awash with crimson as he stares at me numbly.

"Y-you weren't supposed to see me." He stutters. "You—"

"Shh." I quiet him as I finish cleaning the red from his skin. "Let me clean you up. I'm not going to ask what happened— but you have to tell me later on, okay?"

All he does is stare, and I notice that he had been hiding a bloodstained knife behind his back.

Taking that as a yes, I lead him towards the downstairs bathroom. He still looks dazed and in shock as I point out blood in his hair, his clothes, his skin.

When the water turns warm, I wet a clean cloth with it and rid the drying blood on his face. I find a small cut made to his cheek— small enough to pass unnoticed but still deep enough to hurt.

He still looks dazed until I pass him clothes to change into, aiming to wash the red out of the ones he was wearing.

"V, are you alright?" I ask worriedly at his unnaturally unresponsive state. He wasn't normally like this. What was wrong with him?

He seems to find himself after I ask him, nodding as he takes the neat stack of clothes and disappears out of my view.

Not even a minute passes before he emerges in a clean white shirt and dark jeans, his eyes still shadowed and thoughtful.

Taking a towel, I dry his wet hair as I carefully initiate the question I'd been meaning to ask since I laid eyes on him.

"The blood— who does it belong to?"

His body instantly tenses up at my words, uncertainty and doubt flashing across his face.

"I won't say anything." I promise as I give him my whole attention.

Finally the air seems to drain out of him as he admits the owner of the blood. Oh— not owner.

Owners.

"It's from the compound guards."

At his short reply, my face goes stark white with shock. My heart rate escalates at record speed as I grip his large hands, doe eyes wide and alert.

"You went back?"

He avoids my gaze, and I try to force myself to calm down. V didn't deal well with me when my voice was like this— he didn't do well with condemnation. My voice is softer as I sit back.

"That's so dangerous, V! You— you could've gotten captured— killed, if you weren't lucky! Why in the world—"

He gives me a smile at the mention of the compound, and my expression falls more dumbfounded at the lightness of his tone. But that's only the start as my mouth drops open at what he says next.

"The compound doesn't exist anymore. Nor do the guards inside it."

"What?"

"I couldn't forget." He says, lips pursed as he grazes my wrist. "I couldn't— it was too clear. You and Jungkook. What was done to you."

He destroyed the entire compound?

"How did you do that? So the place is gone? Just like that? How did you manage to—"

"Bomb." He shrugs, as if that one word explained everything. "I learned from Jin hyung how to make explosives— he was careful to hide his tricks, but I got them anyway. It's easy to make if you have the ingredients."

"So..." My voice trails, imagining the scene in my mind. "Bomb? The place went kaboom?"

"Yes. It's exactly what you're thinking— it's probably all over the news right now. Don't look at me like that— the Korean government meant to get rid of them anyways. They just couldn't find the resources to get it done."

"You should've taken me along." I murmur, dabbing ointment on his cut. "I would've liked to see the place burn."

He glances at me when I sound sincere. I was as sincere as anyone could get— I really, really had wanted to see the throne my father had built up crumble like ash. I would've loved to witness the fall of the mighty that had brought destruction and chaos to my life.

"Of course not." He says firmly. "Too much risk— too many possibilities. You're still hurt, and that won't change for a while. So until then, I'm not going to let you do anything that involves danger."

I smile.

"Protective much?"

His slanted eyes curve further at my remark, the corners of his lips twitching with amusement.

"Always."