part 14

Taehyung stared at Hoseok with a confused expression. He felt his heart sink at the thought of you but he also felt the curiosity bubbling up inside of himself. "What about her?" He finally grabbed the courage to ask but Hoseok didn't answer. "You like her," he said which caught Taehyung off guard. His face flushed and his cheeks burnt pink in embarrassment. As an instinct, Taehyung was quick to deny. "I do not-" but Hoseok was quick to cut him off. "You don't have to lie, Tae. It's obvious to us all that you love y/n." Taehyung opened his mouth to reject his statement but as his lips parted, no words came out. He took a moment to think about his feelings toward you and realized that he couldn't reject Hoseok's claim because he knew it was true; he knew he was in love with you. Hoseok let out a low chuckle at Taehyung's silence since he knew his words had gotten to the younger one. "By we, I meant you too." Hoseok smiled slightly as Taehyung sighed, burying his face into his hands. "Don't deny it, Taehyung."     "I'm not, at least I'm not trying to." Taehyung replied as he rubbed his face with his hands. He couldn't stop thinking about you; the way you laughed during your conversations together, the way you'd smile when you would look at him, the way your eyes would go wide when he'd talk... He missed you and your presence. "I just," he sighed. "I can't stop thinking about her. No matter how much I try my mind always wanders back to her smile and how she laughs so brightly... she drives me crazy." As he talked about you, his heart went soft at the wonderful memories he made with you— he wished he could've made more and spent more time with you. Drowning in his own thoughts, Hoseok spoke up. "Do you want to know what she told me?" Taehyung looked over to his friend as he removed his hands from his face. "What did she tell you?" He asked. Hoseok was silence for a brief moment, carefully picking out his words as he thought back to the conversation he had with you before the incident. "She was extremely annoyed that you took her phone," he chuckled but Taehyung frowned. "She was so angry that she vented her feelings for thirty minutes straight." Taehyung let out a groan in frustration and fell back to lie himself on the bed, staring up at the blank ceiling. "She was that upset?" He whispered. "Why can't she see that I did that to protect her?"     "That's the thing," Hoseok said. "You didn't have to protect her." Taehyung looked over to his older friend, confused and bewildered. "Of course I had to protect her. Didn't you just tell me you knew that I loved her?" He sat up from his lied down position on the bed and stared at Hoseok with a frustrated expression. "You protect the people you love."     "Yes, but do you think she felt love or protection?" Hoseok asked which caused Taehyung to freeze. He thought about his question and his rejections turned into silence, his mind overflowing with confused thoughts. "You weren't thinking of how she felt. You were only thinking of protecting her just to keep her safe but to y/n, you weren't giving her the freedom she sought for." Hoseok continued to speak which made Taehyung hang his head low, finally realizing why you were upset at him. "I didn't mean for her to feel that way..." he closed his eyes, sighing. "I don't want to lose her, I-I... She just means so much to me." Hoseok's eyes softened at the heart broken boy and felt pity run through his veins when he heard Taehyung sniffle. The younger one stood up and took a deep breath before slowly walking towards the door. "Tae," Hoseok called. Taehyung stopped and couldn't bring himself to look at Hoseok— he knew he wouldn't be able to hold in his emotions any longer if he stayed inside of the room. "Don't blame yourself for anything. We'll find her and..." he slowly trailed off. "She needs you as much as you need her."     Taehyung couldn't handle the tears that began to stream down his face and slide down his skin. He didn't reply to Hoseok and quickly left the room, quickly wiping away his tears as the door slammed shut behind him. Calming his own breaths, he walked to one of the empty guest rooms and laid inside there for a couple hours, shedding many tears and thinking many thoughts. As much as he was overthinking, he couldn't do it anymore— he needed to move.

7:12am

     Taehyung slipped himself out of the room and swiftly exited out of the large house toward the backyard after his slumber. It was more secluded and closed, along with the many vehicles sitting there silently. Taehyung had his gear on; all black clothes with black combat boots, a vest filled with weapons and armory, and a black cap to cover his face. He walked toward a motorcycle and continued to load himself up with materials and weapons for his adventure he was planning to take. He found himself missing something and walked back to their van where he knew they kept all of the rest of their armor. As he opened the back doors of the van, he yelled in shock when he saw Seokjin sitting inside with a frown planted upon his lips. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" The older one asked as Taehyung was still recovering from the previous shock attack. "I should be the one asking you that," Taehyung scoffed. "Why are you inside of the van?"     "Don't change the subject on me," Seokjin threatened as he scooted himself out of the van and closed the doors shut, causing Taehyung to frown this time. "Where are you going with all those weapons?" Taehyung's frown grew even larger as he crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm just going on a hunting spree, I need to run a few laps and exercise— ow, ow!" He yelled when Seokjin suddenly rugged at the end of his ear, the pain shooting through the side of his head to his scalp. "That's complete bullshit. Since when did you ever want to exercise on your own will?" Seokjin sighed and dragged the younger one back inside by his ear, ignoring his protests and shouts to be let go.

     As they entered the house again, Taehyung saw all of the rest of his friends already gathered together in the living room. They all turned their heads toward him and Seokjin when they entered the room and Seokjin didn't let go of his ear until he was sat down on the sofa, surrounded by all of his friends who had such judgmental gazes. "Geez Tae," Jimin sighed. "You really tried running off by yourself?" Taehyung rubbed his ear that stung from Seokjin's tight grasp and slowly sunk into the sofa's cushions, hoping it would swallow him whole so that he didn't have to deal with the humiliation he felt. "We said that we would discuss our plan in the morning and yet you try going off alone?" Yoongi crossed his arms over his chest while slightly shaking his head. "It's like you want yourself dead."     "You guys wouldn't understand," Taehyung said. "You don't understand how I feel about this."     "We could understand if you just tell us," said Jimin. "We get that you want to save her and we understand that you feel guilty but—"     "This isn't about feeling guilty!" Taehyung rose from his seated position to stand on his own two feet to stare at his six friends, who he thought, knew him like a book. "Y/n means everything to me and she means so much more than me feeling guilt and regret upon myself. She's a literal gem and I don't want to lose someone as great as her in my life!" He exclaimed, his frustrations finally running out like a river. "I didn't mean to look at her this way, I didn't mean to kiss her... Damn it, I didn't even mean to fall in love with her!" He ran his hand through his hair and sat back down on the sofa, looking down at the ground as he hand rubbed his scalp. "I was told to protect her, I was instructed to keep her safe, and now I just want her..." he whispered and closed his eyes, feeling the burning of tears brimming in his eyes once again. "You all have been burdened too much with something that was all my responsibility. I didn't want you guys to feel obligated to go through with this, so I decided to leave by myself..."     The six other guys stared at their friend who was obviously going through a tough time, battling with his own feelings inside of himself. "We're not burdened, Tae." Namjoon said and sat down next to the younger fellow. "We're doing this because we want to. We care about y/n just as much as you do and she's become someone important to us, too." He put his hand on Taehyung's back and to attempt to comfort him, although he didn't think he was doing such a great job. "We lost y/n and we don't want to lose another," Jimin said which made Taehyung lift up his head, revealing his red eyes and pink tinted cheeks. The younger one finally managed to smile as he couldn't express his gratitude enough. "Thank you," he mumbled. "You guys are the best." They all gave him a smile, happy to finally see his mood lighten and just as things were beginning to feel right, Taehyung's phone dings with a notification. He reached into his pocket and saw the screen of his phone light up, showing messages from an unknown number. He felt his stomach churn inside of his body at the messages. The other six boys, being curious as they were, gathered around to look over the messages too.

Unknown:Where are you, Prince Charming?

Unknown:Your princess is desperately waiting.

     The seven boys turned to look at one another and their expressions turned serious when they realized how bad the situation was. They were suspicious of the person on the other side of the line and knew better than to trust what they say rather than fall into the criminal's trap. Taehyung looked up and the six of his friends nodded their heads, telling him to continue texting and see where the conversation may lead to; however, Taehyung had never felt as nervous as he did in that moment than compared to any other situation in his lifetime. He continued to text the stranger.

Unknown:Your princess is desperately waiting.

Him:Who's this?

Unknown:No one you really know, I guess. But I know who you are.

Him:What do you want? I'll block your number

Unknown:That's really pointless.

Unknown:You don't want anything to happen to y/n, do you?

Him:Leave y/n alone.

Unknown:The girl won't stop crying. I tried to shut her up a millions times but she won't come to the realization that she's done for.

Unknown: She says a certain something will come save her.

Him:Don't touch her.

Unknown:Oops... too late.

Him: I'll kill you if you do anything to hurt her.

Unknown:Oooh, big boy with boy words.

Unknown:You act so tough yet you're the reason why she's out here, barely breathing and barely grasping onto her life. You should be ashamed.

Him:Tell me where you are and I'll come over and personally slit your throat.

Unknown:Hmm, sounds like a blast.

Unknown:Stop by xxxxx warehouse. I'm sure you'll have quite the adventure there.

     "A warehouse?" Jungkook questioned. "Why would they be at a warehouse?" Namjoon thought to himself before looking down at the phone screen, scanning over the address that was shown in the text. "It's a trap." The six boys looked to their leader whose eyes were still locked onto the screen of messages. "They just want to lure us in so that they can distract us from what we really care about." Namjoon finally tore his eyes away from the phone and looked up, his serious stare frightening his mates yet they tried to seem strong. "They may not even have her at the warehouse. We need to think cautiously and carefully."     "I agree," Hoseok said. "We can't just fight on instinct and expect to come out with gold. We have to act accordingly."      "Well," Taehyung sighed. "What should we do, then?" The seven boys exchanged glances to one another and they immediately began to plan out their process and procedure of their next mission; save the girl, even if it means turning against her.

7:56pm

     "Are we ready?" Namjoon looked around the van as the six others were gathered around and layered up in their gear and weapons. The six boys nodded their heads and as soon as they were reminded of the plan they created earlier, they were already driving off toward the warehouse. "Stay safe and don't let anyone intimidate you!" Namjoon said while the rest of the boys got their hats and masks to cover their faces. They were ready for what was going to come at them and they were even prepared to die if it came down to it. They had their minds set and determination was written over their hearts. "Let's do this, boys." Namjoon pulled up his mask and pulled down his hat, seeing the warehouse from a distance. "This is our night and our fight."