"Good job today, boys," Namjoon murmured as we reentered the dorms, all pausing in a huddle in front of the door to take off our shoes. We'd just come back from a photoshoot for our new concept, since we were freshly off of the hiatus, though it had only been a few weeks since the funeral. BigHit wanted to get us back into the public eye before the attention died down so that we could build off of the publicity we had gotten from Jimin's suicide. It was sick, but yet disgustingly smart as a business move. We were all appalled and slightly scared about how business-savvy our company was.

"I'm going to take a shower," mumbled Taehyung, trudging to the bathroom after acquiring clothes from the closet in the bedroom. No one said a word, and we all silently continued on.

We were still quietly mourning Jimin, and none of us had really recovered emotionally, so we were still quieter than usual. In retrospect, that should've allowed us to sleep more, since we weren't busy being hooligans, but it was a restless, painful silence. At night, I could usually hear everyone's steady, sleeping breathing, but I hadn't heard it since. Instead, I heard quiet, contemplating breathing, occasionally shaking with tears. I could feel everyone staring at the ceiling, or the bottom of the top bunk, and drown in their sorrows. We were all kept up by our pain, and that took away most of our sleep.

Tonight, though, I heard everyone around me fall asleep, besides Yoongi and Jungkook, who were either eating or showering. We had come back from an intensive choreography practice, and I think that everyone was too tired to be sad. I hoped that their dreams didn't haunt them.

I, on the other hand, laid awake in my bunk. I often stayed up longer than the others. It was like I was the mother; always worrying for everyone. Tonight, I was up because I was worried for the others. Jimin's death was devastating, but what would happen to the remaining members? I hoped that we wouldn't break up; I didn't think that I could survive without Bangtan. But could we continue without Jimin? Things would never be the same.

The door to the bedroom opened. I turned my head slightly to see Yoongi standing in the doorway, the light from the living room illuminating his wet hair.

"Seokjin, are you up?" he whispered, sneaking to my bunk.

"Yeah, what's up?" I sat up.

"I don't want to wake up the others because I don't know if this an actual emergency..." He inhaled. "But I can't find Jungkook anywhere."

"What do you mean, you can't find Jungkook anywhere?" My voice went up a notch, and Namjoon turned in his bed with a soft groan. Yoongi motioned for me to be quiet, and he went out to the living room. I slipped out of my bunk and followed, shutting the door quietly behind me.

"You can't find him?" I stared at Yoongi incredulously. He shook his head.

"He was eating some leftover pizza and playing a game on his phone, but when I got out of the shower, he wasn't there anymore," he explained. "I'm getting really worried."

"Getting fresh air?" I suggested, trying to not to panic.

"At... two in the morning? Aish, even he's not that stupid." In a hushed tone, he added, "Have you noticed how his walks have been getting longer and longer?"

I cursed under my breath. "You think he's been planning to run away?" I demanded. Yoongi shrugged.

"Honestly, Seokjin, have you noticed Jungkook? I know that he's a teenager, but he's not supposed to be this angry because of hormones. I know something's wrong with him, and I'm scared that he's going to do something stupid."

"Okay, let's go find him."

In less than two minutes, we were changed into jeans and jackets, and our boots were laced up. The cool evening air bit at my nose, and I sniffed as we stepped outside. The street, despite being in the middle of the night, was still considerably busy. Not many people were walking, but the street still had cars, their headlights shining through the darkness.

"Which way?" I eyed the directions we could go. Left, right, and forward. Yoongi jerked his thumb to the right.

"This is why he usually goes for walks," he replied. I nodded, and we set off.

As we started to pass some warehouses, a loud shout echoed through the streets. My heart immediately pulled. It sounded an awful lot like Jungkook's voice. I whipped my head towards the direction of the cry, and without a word, Yoongi and I started sprinting towards the source of the sound. As we ran, I tried to block out my thoughts.

No, I told myself. Don't think about what could be happening.

We veered left into an alley, warehouse garage doors surrounding us. There, in the middle, was a teenage boy. He was sitting, one leg pulled to his chest, leaning against a garage door. His hood was up, and his face was bruised and bloody, but I still recognized him. I could recognize him anywhere.

"Jungkook!" I yelled, charging towards his broken form, Yoongi at my heels.

Jungkook raised his head and looked at us through half-closed eyes as we crouched next to him. He had a black eye, and he had scrapes all over. Blood was running out of the corner of his mouth, and he clutched his stomach. My eyesight started blurring with tears at the sight of my injured friend.

"What happened?" Yoongi demanded, his hands traveling all over Jungkook, checking for serious injuries. "Who did this?"

Jungkook laughed weakly. "I bumped into some gangsters," he chuckled, his voice full of pain. "Apparently, they don't like it when idol boys walk straight into them."

I clucked my tongue. "Were you asking for this? Why would you even go out at this hour?"

"I... I wanted to leave." All of a sudden, Jungkook got really quiet and somber. "I hate that company. I hate being an idol. It's so pathetic."

"Jungkook, you can't just leave without saying anything," I chided. "Do you want BigHit to sue you?"

"Well, I know what I don't want," he retorted. "I don't want to be their little moneymaker. It's all they ever want me to be. They want me to be perfect so Bangtan gets more famous, and ever since Jimin-"

His voice cracked with emotion, and he buried his bloody face in his bloody hands, his body shaking slightly with soft sobs. My heart broke a little, watching the maknae cry like that. I reached out to touch him, to comfort him, but I didn't know what to do anymore, so my hand paused midair. Yoongi sat there in silence, contemplating what to say that would help this poor kid.

"I... I know that he affected us all," Jungkook whispered, leaning his head back so that it hit the metal door with a hushed clang and looking up at the sky, "but I can't stay anymore. If you guys can, then great, but I can't. I'm not making money for those monsters."

"Jungkook, we can talk it out with them-" I tried, but only to be cut off.

"No!" Jungkook shot to his feet, wincing when he did. "You don't understand! I can't go back! They killed my friend!"

"Jungkook, please-" Yoongi couldn't do it either.

"You can't make me go back! I won't!" Jungkook turned and ran out of the alley. For someone who had just gotten beaten by gangsters, he could still run pretty damn fast.

The shock gave him a head start. Yoongi and I gaped after him before standing up and chasing after him.

"This kid!" Yoongi grunted, sprinting ahead. We turned out of the alley and skidded to a halt. After looking up and down the street, Jungkook was nowhere to be found. Yoongi cursed under his breath and kicked the curb.

"Do you think he's serious?" I asked as we started to wander the streets aimlessly, desperately looking for the runaway idol. Yoongi scoffed.

"Of course he's serious," he snapped. "Do you know how determined that kid can be?"

"I do, but I don't want to," I murmured. "Where could he be?"

"...No way." Yoongi stopped short and stared at something in front of us. I halted and raised my head to look what he was stopping for. Straight ahead, further up the sidewalk, was Jungkook walking. He stared into the stream of cars as he walked, the headlights illuminating his bloody face. His hood was up, but I saw the red and immediately knew.

"Jungkook!" My heart lurched as he looked back and met our gazes with empty eyes. He wore a blank stare that drove an ice pick into my soul. I'd never seen that lack of expression on him. Where was the Jungkook I knew?

The Jungkook I knew was long gone. I could tell from his eyes. He might've been alive, but he was dead on the inside. The only emotion he'd felt for a long time was anger, and that fire had died, leaving him with cold, black ash. Jungkook had burned out.

He pivoted to the left. My heart leapt into my throat, a gasp escaping my lips. Dread settled in the pit of my stomach like a deadweight.

"Jeon Jungkook, you idiot!" Yoongi screamed, dashing up ahead. The realization hit me like an avalanche. God, no. All the feeling drained from me, and I watched with wide eyes as Jungkook took a step off the curb. My horror carried me forward, making me stumble towards the oncoming tragedy, and Yoongi was shouting at the top of his lungs and barreling towards Jungkook as fast as he could, but it was too late.

Jungkook paused in the middle of the road and turned his face, meeting my eyes for a split second before redirecting his attention and staring down the driver of the car that would soon collide with him. His gaze was hard and defiant as he stared through the windshield, and I opened my mouth to scream.

I couldn't tell if I screamed or not. I was so focused on the horror unraveling before me, and the squealing brakes and inevitable crashing drowned any sound I could've made.

I fell to my knees in shock, my jaw dropping, but quickly regained my senses and scrambled up and towards the accident. The driver had gotten out of the car and started panicking while calling an ambulance, tears of horror in his eyes, and people had come out to look, but I couldn't take my eyes off of what had happened.

Yoongi was cradling a limp Jungkook in his lap, sobbing over his dead body as Jungkook's blood stained him red. Jungkook's broken form was laid out on the street in crooked, limp angles, as Yoongi couldn't hold his entire body, and I held my breath as I approached. Every step I took pricked another hole in my heart.

"...I could've stopped you, Jungkookie," Yoongi was weeping, staring into Jungkook's closed eyes. "I'm sorry that I didn't. I tried, Jungkook, I did."

"Jungkook?" As I neared them, I remained standing, as I was not sure how I would react to seeing Jungkook up close.

"I did all that I could!" Yoongi cried, teardrops slipping off his face and onto Jungkook's. "But I didn't stop him in time..."

"Yoongi, I know." My lower lip trembled, and tears were spilling onto my cheeks. "You tried."

"But it wasn't enough to save him." Yoongi's body racked as he cupped Jungkook's pale face in his hands. "Jungkook, please wake up. We need you."

I covered my mouth with my hands, my vision clouding with tears. I couldn't see Jungkook anymore, and I only saw my own tears in my eyes. I wished that it was the only thing that existed. When my vision cleared, I didn't want to see Jungkook on the ground or Yoongi crying over his dead body.

But I knew that it was what I'd see.

I wiped my eyes, only to see the scene that I didn't want to see. Jungkook's face, once handsome, was bloodied and ruined. His perfect lips were pursed together in a slight frown, and his eyelashes rested on the very top of his cheeks, but a gash resided on his cheekbone, blood stained his lips, and his eyelids were bruised a dark purple. His skin was deathly pale, and I wished that we were filming a music video, and that Jungkook was just really into the acting.

"You can't leave us, you can't leave Bangtan," Yoongi pleaded, his voice cracking over and over again with tears. "Come back, please."

I felt simultaneous pain in both my heart and my knees. I dropped to the ground, bursting into tears, and my knees slammed into the cement with heavy impact. But despite that, nothing could compare to the devastation I felt emotionally. I cried and cried and cried, but it felt like no amount of crying could express how much sorrow I felt. My heart felt like it was torn open and could never heal. I looked into the future, but I couldn't find when I would ever get past this pain. I couldn't handle losing someone else.

Soon enough, the cement in front of me was stained with both the blood from my knees and my tears. Yoongi was hugging Jungkook's limp body in his arms, burying his face into his neck as he cried. The wail of ambulances sounded, and I watched the paramedics take my maknae away.

I had watched Jungkook grow up, and I had seen him die as well.