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when he wakes up, the sky is the hazy kind of pre-dawn brightness Jin hasn't seen in weeks. he blinks, unwinds his arms from the bunched-up blanket he'd gathered in his sleep. usually he'd be in the kitchens by now, would have been for at least an hour already. it feels strange to rise with the dawn.
rather than before it.
Jin pushes himself up onto an elbow, scrubs his face with one hand, sweeps his bangs out of his eyes and frowns when they fall back limply. his hair is almost long enough to tie back now, with half of it sprawling into a ponytail at the top of his head that Yoongi had always loved to tug at when they were younger. Jin sighs, and drags one hand across his mouth, and finally sits up. the cracks in his spine are systematic and satisfying, as he settles into himself fully. Jin shakes himself out, rubs the sleep out of his eyes.
and looks to the fire to find Jungkook crouching behind it, eyes narrowed, watching.
Jin freezes. the fire is slowly coming alive again, small flames licking up the fresh logs Jungkook has laid down; the chill is starting to shake from Jin's skin from his proximity. for a moment, neither of them move.
Jungkook pushes himself up, dusting off his palms, jerks his head toward where the horses are tied, and stalks away from the fire.
at first, Jin doesn't move. he can feel his own heartbeat angry against his ribs, can taste the slow rise of acid at the back of his throat. Jungkook clears his throat from somewhere behind his back, and Jin scrambles to his feet like there's an arrow pointed at his throat.
when he reaches Jin, bare feet damp with the morning dew, Jungkook has is busy untethering his mare. his hands are gentle against her cheeks, the slope of her nose, the softness of her ears; he whispers a few words in her ear, lifts a few apple slices to her lips, strokes a hand down her flank.
"go on, cooky-ah," he murmurs, and she trots away, still munching. Jin hugs his arms close to his stomach, waits until Jungkook's gaze inevitably falls back onto him, eyes as alert as if it were the middle of the afternoon.
when Jungkook steps forward, Jin resists the urge to retreat back. he keeps his eyes lowered, all the fear jolted back into his body from days before. Jungkook stops a few paces away, so quiet that all Jin can hear is the sound of the forest slowly coming to life around them.
"push your hair back," Jungkook says. he's so still, and Jin has observed him around the castle for long enough that he knows that this is unusual, this is serious. his hands are shaking, when he lifts them to his face.
the longer Jin stands, holding his hair up in an imitation of the painstaking hairstyle Yoongi and Hoseok had wrestled him into, the more his eyes sting, his throat burns. he knows-Jungkook is going to wake Namjoon up, and the whole camp, and he doesn't know if they'd have him killed on the spot but something about Jackson holding the sword, Namjoon watching from a distance, the entire party knowing how stupid and foolish he'd been-
