Chapter Twenty Three

                                    

                                          
You knew you should not be walking alone at night. You weren't comprehending anything at the moment. You had tears running down your cheeks as you walked. You grew tired of running about 10 minutes ago. It was a long walk back to your apartment. You weren't thinking straight. You thought maybe a walk would actually make you feel better, but it hasn't. You were freezing, the cold night air enveloping you. You had wrapped your hands around your arms, hoping to provide some warmth but it didn't help.
                          
You were getting tired of the lies. Maybe Taehyung was right. Why would he lie about those things he said? I barely know him so why would he have it out for me? Nothing made sense. When you had questioned Jungkook directly about it, he still wouldn't tell you. "I can't tell you," what the fuck kind of answer is that? You were so furious and so upset at the same time. Your phone had been vibrating in your bag but you ignored it. You knew it was probably Jungkook and you didn't have the patience to talk to him right now. 
                          
You can hear footsteps behind you but you're not really registering it. So entangled in your thoughts that you are barely paying attention to anything around you. You hear the footsteps get closer and you start to realise they are walking faster, approaching you. You pick up your walking pace. You start to panic a little bit. "Hey!" a man calls out from behind you. You fully panic and start sprinting.
                          
Your legs are sore from all the running you did earlier but now your fight or flight response has kicked in and you are running for your life. You try to dig your phone out of your bag while running, of course you drop the damn thing and it goes flying to the ground. It hits the ground at high speed. You make the stupid decision to try and quickly scoop the phone up. You stop for a second and pick up your phone. This gives the man chasing you enough time to catch up to you.
                          
Your arms are grabbed from behind and you are pulled back harshly, causing you to drop your phone. Your back collides with their front and you are almost winded. Immediately you pick up your foot and bring it down with every bit of force you have in you and stomp on his foot. The man yells out and stumbles back, giving you a window of opportunity to keep running. You elbow him in the stomach before taking off.
                          
You run like you never have before. You are literally in a life or death situation right now. You are sprinting down the dimly lit street and can hear him running not too far behind you. Your lungs are burning, you can barely breathe and your legs are on fire. You don't know how much longer you can keep running. 
                          
Your legs start to fail you and you end up tripping over nothing and go flying. You are thrown to the ground, you knees and your wrist scraping against the cement. You scramble to stand up but the man reaches you before you can stand. He grabs you by the wrists, standing you up. You scream like hell, but your voice is totally wrecked, your lungs burning in your chest and you can barely make a sound. The man swiftly lets go of your wrists and instead grabs around your neck. He is trying to choke you out. 
                          
You could barely breathe as it was, now he has his hands tightly wrapped around your airway. "Not so tough now are you?" he sneers. You get a good look at the guy. He is much taller and more muscular than you are by a mile. His hair is short, jet black. He looks to be in maybe his 30s. His eyes are brown. You start clawing like hell at his hands, doing anything you can to get him off you.
                          
Your eyes start welling with tears, a mixture of pure terror and your airway being blocked. Your face goes red, your eyes start to roll back. You knew you were going to pass out any second. You were becoming weaker and weaker, your vision starting to blacken.
                          
"Hey!" You hear someone yell from somewhere behind you. The man turns his head and lets go of you. You fall to the ground, collapsing. Your vision is failing but you think you can see Jungkook running over to you. He grabs the man before he can run off and starts beating the absolute shit out of him. "It's gunna be ok," someone picks you up off the ground and starts carrying you. "Don't make this shit personal, Mike" is the last thing you hear before your vision goes black and you pass out.
                          
***
                          
Your open your eyes a little, waking up in a bed. Your head is pounding, but not taking away from the pain coming from your neck, knees and wrists. It takes you a moment to realise you are not in your own bed, and have no idea where you are. You sit up hastily, wincing as you look around the room. The walls are a grey colour, it has no decoration whatsoever and is very simple. Beside you on the nightstand is a glass of water and two tablets. You manage to piece together that you're in someone's bedroom (well done). You instinctively look down and see that you're wearing a black t shirt and black sweat pants. Where the fuck am I?
                          
You look down and see your wrists are bandaged up and decide to roll up your sweatpants to see the state of your knees. They both have huge bandaids covering them. You furrow your eyebrows in total confusion. As if someone could read your mind, the door opens slowly and Jungkook peers his head around the door. "Hey, you're awake," he says quietly. He looks exhausted, his eyes adorned with bags indicating he probably hasn't slept. His hair is unruly, little bits sticking up at the top and sides. 
                          
"What happened? Where am I?" You say in a panic, your voice croaky and dry. Jungkook walks over to you, kneeling beside you on the ground so that he is almost at eye-level with you. You wrap your arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. You needed him, you needed his touch. "Hey, it's ok. You're in my apartment, you were attacked last night." Jungkook gently explains, stroking your back lovingly. "What?" you think back to last night. You start to remember having an argument with Jungkook and storming off. You remember being chased, being choked. It all starts coming back to you. "Oh my god... it was so scary," you whisper. "You're safe now," Jungkook tells you. You reluctantly release your hold on Jungkook, sitting back up. Your head is throbbing and you wince, holding it with your hand. 
                          
"Are you ok? Does your head hurt?" Jungkook says, his face full of worry. You nod slightly. "Here, have some paracetamol," Jungkook hands you the glass of water and two tablets sitting on the nightstand. You take the tablets, trusting that they are truly just paracetamol as Jungkook claims. "This is all so stupid, I'm really sorry Jungkook, I know I shouldn't have run off like that, especially at night and by myself-" You start feeling extremely guilty. None of this would have happened if you hadn't stormed off like you had. "No. You have nothing to be sorry for, I'm the one that should be apologising. I can't believe I let you get hurt like this," Jungkook closes his eyes, looking down in his lap.
                          
You reach down and caress his cheek. You couldn't be mad at him. Even if you did fight last night, all he ever did was protect you. Jungkook looks up at you, clearly exhausted and drained. "How did you even know where I was?" 
                          
"Me and the guys were looking everywhere for you. I didn't realise you had ran out in the street, I thought you were hiding in the house somewhere. We looked everywhere before realising you might have gone into the street. I tried calling you but you didn't answer. We then started driving around the streets and then I saw you. I saw you and that motherfucker with his hands around your neck-" Jungkook starts getting furious just talking about what he saw.
                          
You suddenly remembered what you were sure you heard. "Don't make this shit personal, Mike"
                          
You furrow your eyebrows, "Jungkook, who is Mike?"
                          
Jungkook freezes, his eyes widening, clearly caught off-guard. "Uhh, he was the guy that attacked you."
                          
"You know him?"
                          
"Uh, yeah, he used to work with us a while ago."
                          
"Well why was he after me?"
                          
Jungkook pauses. "It was just a coincidence that it was him. It was a random attack."
                          
Jungkook was acting weird, not evening looking you in the eye as he spoke. You had a feeling there was more to this than he was letting on. You didn't want to push it, not now anyway. You were exhausted and hurt, and you could tell Jungkook was feeling the same way.
                          
"You should try and get some rest," Jungkook stands up. He leans down and kisses your forehead. "You too," you say. Jungkook looks back at you one more time before leaving the room.
                          
You sigh and lay back down on the bed. You were tired of not knowing what was going on. You were going to get to the bottom of it one way or another.