INHUMANE | TAEKOOK

The Fifteenth Chapter

Namjoon popped in, Jennie on his arm, and tapped Rose's shoulder. She panicked, throwing a blast of energy at him, throwing him back and putting a hole in his stomach, aftershocks travelling up his arms and leaving gashes. Blood poured out of him, soaking through his clothes and onto the floor. Rose screamed, and rushed towards him, the force field around Hoseok falling. Jin and the girls looked at me, asking what to do. The room was silent, all fighting had stopped, the only sound were Namjoon's labored breaths and Rose's apologies through tears. I walked over to him, nudging Rose to tell her to move a bit to let me see. Jin scrambled up behind me, tears welling up in his eyes when he saw Namjoon.

He was still bleeding, holding his stomach with one hand, scarlet dyeing everything he touched. Some organs were visible, parts of intestine showing through the wound. Jin let out a sob, falling to his knees and putting Namjoon's head on his lap, stroking his hair. He smiled when he saw Jin, waving his hand so he could say something.

"I'll see you again soon, hyung, I know I will. I'll miss you." Jin sobbed again, holding Namjoon's head in his hands, folding over it and crying.

"No! You can't leave me, not like this, not this soon. Namjoon please, you're the most important thing to me, don't die, not like this." Namjoon breathed, shallow and ragged, smiling at Jin.

"Hyung, hey. You'll see me soon, promise. I love you." Jin stroked his cheek, nodding, a small sad smile spreading across his face.

"Yeah, I love you too." Namjoon went limp then, his last breath caught in his throat, the light leaving his eyes. Behind us, Hoseok stood up as Jackson walked in, applauding with a twisted grin in his face.

"Beautiful theatrics, really, but I think it's time for you all to leave. There's a car outside for you, take that with you, he's staining the floors." He gestured towards Namjoon with a grimace on his face. Jin shot up, rushing towards Jackson, Hoseok and Jisoo holding him back. He struggled for a second, then looked at Jackson, nothing but rage in his eyes, and spat on his shoes. Jackson grimaced again as Jin walked up to him, landing a blow to his jaw. One of Jackson's men rushed up to him as he spat a mouthful of blood off to the side.

"Leave him, Youngjae. I'm fine. Escort them out, make sure their reigning supreme knows what happened here." One of the guys behind Jackson nodded, looking at us and smirking as we all started to turn and walk, Jin picking up Namjoon's body with confusion and horror in his eyes. I gave Jackson one last glance, confident smile and all, and walked out the door, not able to control my own movements until I was on the cold floor of a windowless van.

Once we were in, Jin collapsed, hands over his face. He was leaning over Namjoon, hands on his cheeks. Sobs ripped through him, tears leaking through the cracks in his fingers, collecting in a puddle under him. None of us knew what to do, either that or knew we couldn't do anything. None of us knew pain anything close to what he was feeling. None of us had our lifelong friend die in front of us, knew what it felt like to have that seared into our brains for the rest of our life, flashing into sight whenever we closed our eyes, whenever we blinked. So we let him cry. We let him cry until his voice was gone and he was out of tears. We couldn't have done anything more, nothing would've helped him. When he stopped, after what felt like hours, he just sat there. Cradling Namjoon's head and staring, unblinking, at the hole that went through him. The only sound in the van were the girls whispering, getting more and more heated until Jennie sighed and Jisoo sighed out a "thank you" and walking over to Jin, placing a hand on his shoulder with a calm, almost soothing smile on her face.

"It's gonna be alright," she said, kneeling down to be at eye level with him, "I can help. I know t sounds crazy, but he isn't gone. I need to be at his head though, is that alright?" Jin nodded, wordlessly, letting Jisoo sit where he was, hands on Namjoon's temples, eyes closed. She took a deep breath and looked back at us, a look on her face that I couldn't place.