I felt really bad leaving you all on the last chapter so... here's a second update for you guys jsjkjkjk
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(Jungkook - 18 years old - same day)

"Jungkook! Wait for us!".

I don't listen to my mates as I rush down the street to reach Y/N's house, the only place where I can imagine getting an answer from.

I can't accept what she said, can't give up on her without trying my hardest to go to the bottom of this situation first, because it makes no sense, no matter from which angle I try to look at it from. Why did that happen so suddenly?

She would never do something like that. I know her too well to believe this shit show she just gave us.

Y/N longs for this bond more than anyone else, she's the most loving soul I've ever met and she would just... suddenly not want us anymore? Because we're too much work for her? Because I always hold onto her like a puppy loves its owner?

Yeah, right. As if I'd believe that.

With Namjoon, Jimin and Taehyung on my heels, I run all the way to her home until I stop in front of the building which I know to be the right one, and what I see once in front of the parted gates has my blood running cold faster than I ever thought possible.

What's this?

The front door was broken down, there are traces of tires spinning off in the overgrown grass and everything just looks... bad, as if this building has been abandoned for years already. Has she been living here for all this time and we didn't know?

She never thought to let us know that her situation was that bad?

"What the hell..." Namjoon murmurs before reaching the entryway in one quick run, and when Taehyung follows behind without any hesitation, Jimin and I follow after them, seeking answers, no matter what sort they might be.

Something definitely happened here, and it doesn't look good. Is what happened here the reason why she rejected the bond?

Was she threatened by someone? Was it her parents? Did they do this to her?

With my fingers clenched on her flower that has so quickly become a pale grey, I begin to search throughout the ruins of the living room while the others move around the other rooms in search of answers, though it's not hard to guess what could've happened with the state of things around us.

This doesn't look like a lived-in house, or rather, not the good kind. There are halves and butts of cigarettes all over the floor besides the couch, and a layer of dust covers every furniture other than the print of what must have been glasses and bottles over the coffee table.

Items were sent rolling against walls and broken pieces of shards can be found here and there, dispersed as if feet kicked them across the floor in a hurry.

The once white walls have all turned yellow, and the smell that fills my lungs is disgusting, toxic.

Nothing like the sharp mint that Y/N always smells of, a scent that always makes me think of her whenever I find something minty outside, a scent that smells like home, that makes me feel her love even from a distance.

My chest is rising with every breaths I take, eyes frantically searching around me with no comprehension of what it is I'm seeing. She couldn't possibly have lived in here, could she? I must have gotten the wrong house.

Or that's what I wish for, but when Jimin suddenly calls us from somewhere up the stairs, his voice trembling with shock and heartbreak, we immediately leave behind us what got our attention to instead join him into a room that has my heart stopping and twisting in my chest.

That's... Y/N's bedroom?

It has to be and yet... is this really her room?

By far the cleanest room in the building, but even then, it's so easy to see that she couldn't keep up with the rotting that claimed home in the walls that used to be painted a pretty shade of blue.

Most of her belongings were pushed to the floor and broken into pieces, but there are things that were left behind, things that she didn't take with her. Things that I know she would've kept by her side no matter what if she only had a choice.

I can see everywhere, on the walls, on her desk, on her bedside table, the pictures that we took together, all of us. Bits and pieces of memories that I remember well because I was a part of every single one of them.

And that's... the presents I gave her, little... worthless trinkets that made her cry as soon as she held them. She said they were her favourite gifts ever, and I just couldn't believe her considering that she came from a rich family.

But this? This isn't the bedroom of a rich daughter.

"Guys? Why's there blood in this corner? It is blood, right? I'm not mistaken?".

Namjoon's question pulls my attention to where he's standing frozen, and when I look down to see the wooden floor at his feet stained with reddish-brown stains that carry some of the mint of Y/N's scent, a deep anger begins to flutter into life as I realize that... in the end, maybe I didn't really know much about her after all.

My sweet mate... my pretty girl... suffered for I don't even know how long and I didn't know.

Was she abused by her parents? Is that why she didn't want me to ever come here? And I listened to her like a good little kitten looking for treats, unwilling to break her trust by fear that she would get rid of me if I did.

"There's a diary here, should we read it?" Taehyung suddenly breaks the silence with his soft question as he picks up a book from her desk, a look of uncertainty over his face. It feels taboo, but at this point, haven't we broken into her home already?

It's obvious that she won't come back here, not with the way she spoke, or the state of this place, so we might as well take anything of hers that we can, if only for when we meet again.

Because one thing that is for sure, is that I'm not going to rest easy until I've found her again.

"Let's get a bag and take some of her things with us. There's clearly something going on that we're not aware of. She didn't reject us because she wanted to, I know she didn't" I state before searching around me to find her favourite backpack, after which I begin to take every pictures I find around the place, pictures that I know mean a lot to her.

"But... she left god knows where. How do we find her when we don't even know where to start? What if something really bad happened to her?" Jimin utters quietly, already on the verge of tears as he sits on her bed to hold one of the plushies he gave her for her birthday, the one that already looks slightly distorted from being hugged too tightly, too often.

Everything that surrounds us feels like a big enough proof that she never meant for this to happen, so what pulled her against the wall so much that she had to reject us? I hate that I can't even come up with a guess.

I have no idea, not a single clue.

I stop what I'm doing when I grab the last picture that I took with Y/N, chin wobbling when her bright smile stares back at me.

It was such a happy day, too. We had shared a shy and sweet kiss for the first time that day, and I remember very clearly the way that her heart started beating like crazy while the taste of her lips filled my mind.

She looked so shy and cute, and I fell even deeper in love with her.

But I never saw her pain.

Never saw that she wasn't in a happy home. Never saw her wounds.

Always and only her smile.

She promised that she would always make me happy, but I never meant for this promise to keep her from sharing her pain with me. It feels as if I failed her, as if I trapped her in a hopeless prison just in order to keep our hearts and souls at peace.

Namjoon takes the diary from Taehyung's, then walks over to me before gently placing it inside the bag that I'm holding before patting my back softly, his eyes seeing and sharing our pain as his own, because while he isn't very expressive at the moment, he is in fact drowning in guilt and despair.

He told her to wait. Told her to wait a little longer until we could all be together. She breached the subject a few times, about moving in together. That she was ready, had the means to participate in the expenses, as if that was ever part of their concern.

He just didn't want her to skip on the love and knowledge that parents can offer to their children. But he never asked her about her relationship with her family, did he? No, he just assumed that she was happy with them, because she was always smiling.

He failed her so badly, didn't see her cry for help when she was the most desperate to find security in the people that she loved.

He locked the door that she'd tried so hard to open, and he kept the key in his pocket, believing that it was for the best. He didn't know that her smile was a mask, a crumbling one at that. But the tears she showed us earlier... that was real.

And it was too late to help.

"She'll be back. And we'll wait for her when it happens, alright? We'll be there to welcome her when she does, just as soulmates are meant to do. I saw in her eyes just how much it hurt her to say what she did, so... I'm sure that she didn't mean a single one of them. We'll get her back one day".

Namjoon's voice breaks as he speaks those words, and Taehyung sits on the floor as he begins to cry again, the sounds muffled into his hands.

I drop the bag on the rug at my feet without a second thought to join my wailing soulmate with a tight hug that I need just as much as he does, and Jimin quickly joins us with a tear-stained face, Namjoon the last warmth to complete the circle as his sobs quietly shake throughout his body.

Gosh... this week feels like a nightmare, and to know that I can't wake up from this one feels like the highest betrayal that life could ever grant me in this life.

Why is this happening to us?

Why is this happening to her?