ICARUS • MAFIA • JJK

Safe

Waiting until she was certain Saffy had left, Hana clambered out from Jungkook's wardrobe. 

Not her finest moment, she'd admit, but it was better than facing Saffy. The wardrobe was nearly empty now that he had moved out but it still housed a few old jackets and shirts, which she had desperately cowered behind hoping she would go unnoticed.

She had thrown her shirt over her body in a state of panic, kicking her tights and underwear underneath his bed. There was no way out from Jungkook's room, just a vertical drop down 3 floors, so she had to find somewhere to hide in his room unless she wanted to become the next victim of a Hae Pa meeting gone wrong.

Quickly sending Jimin a text to let him know he was on Hae Pa's agenda, she tossed her phone on Jungkook's bed and peeped out from his door.

His jaw seemed stronger than it had before. It was sharp and angular. Hana could tell that behind his pouty lips, his teeth were gritted. He changed position slightly, eyes focusing on her, as he pushed his arm outwards - an indication for her to come closer to him. She didn't need telling twice.

Nuzzling his lips into her hair, he squeezed her shoulder as she wrapped her arms around his torso. "How much did you hear?"

"Enough."

Jungkook sighed solemnly. He had only just got Hana back. He didn't want to have to say goodbye again.

"Make sure my organs go to a hospital and not on the black market," she muffled into his solid chest, trying to make a joke of Saffy's instructions. She could hear the familiar sound of air in his nose, telling her that he was at least smiling.

"Cremation or burial?" He joked back, making her smile morbidly.

"Light me up," she slipped away from him and jumped back onto the countertop. He found his home in between her legs as she wrapped them around him, ankles tucked inside his thighs, her arms draped over his neck. "I reckon I'd make great barbecue kindling."

"You are the weirdest person I've ever met," he simpered, pressing a soft kiss into her lips. It was so easy to forget the outside world while he was with Hana. "What are you doing for the rest of the evening?"

It was already drawing close to midnight, but he wanted to savour every moment he had with her. 

"Got a date," she shrugged, indifferently. 

Jungkook raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Yeah," she spoke calmly, pulling him back closer to her noticing that her statement had caused him to retract from her. "He's tall, dark, incredibly handsome."

He cocked his head, not entirely sure where was going this, but curious nonetheless.

"Bit of an asshole to be honest, but a very good kisser," she pressed a soft kiss on his lips, letting Jungkook know she was just fucking with him. "I think he might kill me, which kinda sucks... but it's a little bit hot too."

"A little bit hot?" He teased her like the idiot she was.

"Only a little bit," her smile was radiant. 

"God I've missed you so much," his voice was barely a hum against her lips. The vibrations of his deep tones tickled ever so slightly, but the butterflies in Hana's stomach would have been present regardless of his delicate touches.

"Missed you more," she whispered back, punctuating her words with soft pressure, encasing his lips in her own.

Jungkook was so irrevocably consumed by Hana. He was well and truly smitten. 

Hana was in everything he did; She was in the way that after all this time he still slid his duvet off him gently in the mornings, preserving 'her' side. She was in the way he dried his hair after a shower the way he knew she liked it. She was in the smile that he gave to the rough sleeper at the end of his road and she was in the analytical way he looked at his targets.  He was a better man, a better worker, because of her.

But he was still a crook and a criminal and he knew that he shouldn't have been counting his blessings. He was a sinner. Those blessings could only be curses in disguise. 

"I wish you never left," he admitted when they finally let go of each other. There was a sadness in his eyes that tore Hana's heart apart.

"Baby you'd started killing Dal Pa for sport," she reasoned softly. There had been many factors that lead to their departure and that was definitely one of them. "What would have happened back then in the first few months if I had been next on the list? If Saffy had told you to kill me back then?"

Hell-bent on revenge in the early days, anything to ease his pain, Jungkook had done whatever Saffy told him. He believed her when she told him that his next victim was Dal Pa. He never questioned it.

"I...I don't know."

"If you didn't do it, someone else would have done."

It was a harsh reality that they both knew to be true. She had left and it had nearly killed him, but if she hadn't then he would have killed her.

"Would you have come?" Hana threw the possibility into the void. They hadn't been talking at the time and she hadn't dared raise the suggestion with Jimin, but she had thought about it the entire drive down to the port. She had agonised over it for days, weeks, months following her departure. "If I had asked, would you have come?"

It was something Jungkook hadn't considered. Sure, he'd dreamt of them running away together, but back then, in those cold, crippling months after the loss of the only father figure he'd ever had, leaving would have felt wrong. It would have felt like he was abandoning him.

Sensing his hesitation, Hana continued her train of thought, letting him stew. "We both needed time to heal. Wounds like ours, they don't ever heal, not really, but over time they get numb."

He nodded as he played comfortably with her hair. They couldn't change the past.

"Talk to me," he spoke effortlessly as he scooped his forearm underneath her body and began to carry her back into his room. She didn't question it. His arms were safe. "Why are you back in town?"

He knew the answer, but he wanted to hear it directly from her. Nestled in his sheets, they spoke endlessly, sharing tall tales and small snippets from the past year of their lives. They had so much to catch up on, so much to re-learn about each other.

It took hours, but she told him everything; why she left, where she had been, who she had become. Realistically, she knew that she shouldn't have told him all these things. He was still Hae Pa - but she had left Pa life behind... almost. 

"For the record, I never used my room," he yawned, wanting to correct the lie he had told her earlier about his less than savoury encounters over the last year. He had only said it to piss her off, but he didn't want to do that now. "I used Hoseok's old room."

"I didn't need to know that," Hana laughed, pushing him away from her slightly. He pulled her back in towards him attentively and she felt shielded from the city that was slowly waking up outside his window.

Dawn was pouring in through the glass panes, but time didn't mean anything to them at that moment. It was just a construct of the outside world.

Jungkook didn't care much for the outside world anymore; he had his whole entire universe snuggled warmly in his arms.

For the first time in 365 nights, Hana fell asleep with ease. There was no panic, no nightmares, nothing; just the blissful soundtrack of her lover's heart beating calmly in his chest as he held her.