Ivy Gates || PJM || Ivy Book One || ✔

32.

JIMIN

I was being a coward again. After I had gone back into the conference room and apologised, I hadn't even looked at Bee. She was completely innocent. She had done nothing wrong, but I couldn't even face myself, let alone her.

I followed the medic out of the building and down another level.

"This is where the houses we use are," He explained. I could see quite a few other people milling about on the other side of the cavern, but there was virtually no one on this side.

"There's no one here," I pointed out.

"Most of us sleep in the residences on the other side," Jin said, "I stay here because there's a clinic on this level that I tend to, and Yoongi and Daisy stay this side, too,"

"Why don't they stay with the others?" I asked, genuinely curious.

Jin smiled a little sadly, "Daisy gets nightmares," He said, "Of her life before we came here. She doesn't want to wake them up or worry them with her screaming. You should know that a leader has to be strong,"

"Right. What about Yoongi?,"

"He stays in the home next to her, so he can get up in the night and comfort her," I felt even more guilty, but before I could gather my thoughts, Jin stopped walking out side one of the structures that were built into the rock.

"You can stay in this one. It has running water but no electricity. You'll have to use candles,"

I looked up at the top of the mountain, "But its li- oh," As I was speaking the huge lights at the top of the cavern shut off, plunging us into darkness. A few seconds later, a net of lights along the roof and along the walls lit up, dimly lighting the air. Also, there were lights on top of posts within the flat area of the cavern that had the animals and crops, and I stared at them in wonder. They were quite beautiful, like stars.

"The light is rigged with a sensor," Jin explained, "They switch to the dim lights when it starts getting dark, so we don't attract any unwanted attention,"

"That's clever," I said, and he grinned, before opening the door, "How do you even power this place?"

"Hidden solar panels. Sleep well, Jimin," He said, clapping me on my uninjured shoulder, "See you in the morning,"

"Yeah," I sighed, heading into the little structure, "See you then,"

---

BEE

Once it was just Daisy and I in the room, she let go of me and let out a small sigh.

"Let's walk, while we talk," She said, moving to the door and opening it, "I have some things that I want to say,"

Feeling a little nervous, I followed her and she held the door open, before following me out and letting it swing shut. She led me down a level and I sped up so I could walk next to her.

"First of all," She said, "I'd like to apologize for me behaviour before. I just didn't know what to make of you, so to keep my people safe, I had to confine you for just a little,"

I nodded and she let out a breath of relief, "Okay good. Now I want to explain a few things to you. I know that Jimin cares a lot for you; much more than he ever cared for me, and I know you care about him, too, but you're confused, right?"

I was starting to wonder how she could read me so easily, but I nodded again.

"Jimin is a good man," She said, almost sadly, "Everything I said to him was true, but Yoongi was right. It wasn't directly his fault. Jimin was the first man to ever show me any kindness, but at that point he still had ulterior motives. He might have thought he loved me, but he was showing kindness because he wanted me to stop rebelling and act properly. You can ask him. It's true,"

I thought back to how Jimin had told me how he had cared for her and sighed.

"I'm not sure I agree with that," I said softly, "He told me he wanted to show you that not all men are bad,"

"I already know that not all men are bad," Daisy smiled, "And I admire you defending him, but the truth is the truth. He wanted me to be obedient. Moving on," She quickly changed the subject, and I appreciated that. I didn't want to get caught up in a pointless argument.

"I met Tam when we were children. She lived next door to me. Her mother died when she was young, so my mother had to clean and cook in our house, and then go to her house every day, because my Master offered her services to them. She worked herself to death, Bee, and then it was just me and Tam. And do you know what our Masters did? They swapped us,"

My eyes opened in shock and Daisy nodded, "My first sexual experience was when I was sixteen,, and it was with Tams father. And she was only fifteen,"

I could feel my eyes filling with tears and she continued talking, "After that, I tried to protect her, but my Master wouldn't accept it. One day, he caught me hugging her, and he beat me half to death. And the day after, I was put up for auction, because I was eighteen,"

Tears began to steam down my face. I had a hard life, for sure, but Daisy.. Daisy had it so much worse than me. But she had done something about it.

"I didn't want to hurt Jimin," She said, "But it was the only way. I could only escape if everyones attention was on him,"

She paused and took a deep breath, "I went back for her, but she was already gone. By that time, there were soliders everywhere, so I had to just leave the city,"

She smiled and placed her hand on my arm, "I appreciate your tears, Bee, but there is no point crying over the past. Instead, we can fight for the future, together,"

I nodded and she stopped walking. This is my place," She said, "You can have residence 12, but if you really want," She paused, a smile spreading wider on her face, "Your General is in residence 3,"

With that, Daisy went inside her home, and I turned, walking back the direction we had come, debating on which structure I was going to go to.

---

AN: Double update~

It's going to get exciting soon, sorry it's so slow!

Thank you so much to everyone for the support! I really appreciate it! I just want to mention that Wattpad is being stupid, so I'm not getting any notifications for comments in my feed yet, but once they arrive, I promise, I read every single comment!

Also, thank you to everyone who's been asking me about my son. He is much better now, and finally went back to nursery today! Yay! (even though it's a friday lol)