And just like that, she walked away.

With Jimin calling her name, and Yoongi screaming profanities at Youngkyun, she walked away. Her heart was breaking more and more with each step she took closer to those doors and further from the family she had come to love, further from the man she had fallen in love with.

Their voices faded away and the familiar waves of numbness crashed over her. It was all she could feel now: numb. A static buzz filled her head and drowned out the slow, incessant clicking of her scuffed heels on the immaculate marble floors.

For once it seemed that the hotel lobby was empty of any people. Only the manager stood motionless at his desk, following Izzy's trail to the elevators with his eyes. Even he looked at her with pity.

The elevator doors slid apart and Izzy placed one numb foot in front of the other. Each painful second in that elevator felt like a lifetime. Time dragged on at snail speed, and Izzy was frozen in it, not moving forward or back.

Time was still but Izzy's mind was racing with memories of her new family.

Watching the boys play soccer down at the docks.

Making coffee with Jungkook at an ungodly hour of the morning.

Taehyung braiding and re-braiding her hair as they sat together on the couch.

Helping Jin make breakfast in the mornings.

Hoseok claiming her as his little sister; something she had never been before.

Namjoon's uncanny ability to forget his house keys.

Staying up late with Yoongi and talking about all the things that weighed on her shoulders.

They were her friends, her family. Her heart warmed with thoughts of them.

And then there was Jimin.

The turquoise leather jacket he'd given her before they even met properly. The feeling of his arms pulling her closer when they hugged. The smile he wore whenever their eyes met for even a second. The way he always sat just a bit too close to her on the couch. The tears in his eyes when they'd discovered her addiction. The warmth of his embrace when he'd finally broken his silence towards her.

These were the things she loved about him.

This was the man she loved.

This was the man she had so carelessly left behind.

Why did she make that bet? Why did have to be so stupid as to take up any deal Youngkyun proposed? She should have known better. She should have walked away.

Her heart shattered as the elevator doors slid open.

The heels she wore were killing her feet but that pain was nothing compared to how she felt in that moment. Her clammy fingers turned the key card over and over in her hand until her body came to a halt in front of room 538.

She slid the card into its electronic lock and the light on the handle flashed green. The door swung open and Izzy stepped inside. It felt like stepping through the gates of hell.

The slam of the door behind her made Izzy jump. But it was nothing compared to the fear that came next.

"Hello Izzy."

The sudden voice made Izzy's heart slam against her ribs. Her eyes flashed up to the rather small figure that sat on the bed, disguised by the darkness of the room. The mysterious figure reached one arm off to the side and the room was suddenly engulfed by the dim light of the bedside lamp.

"Mrs. Lee?" Izzy's heart stopped altogether. "Wh-what are you doing here?" Her mind was spinning from all the turns the evening had taken.

"I'm sorry I frightened you, I didn't mean to," the older woman stood from the bed and walked forward, taking one Izzy's hands in both of her own.

"You have to go, sweetie. You don't belong here," the sharp look on the woman's face frightened Izzy a bit. "And you certainly should know better than to make any sort of deal with Youngkyun! Honestly, I cannot imagine what was going through that crazy young head of yours—"

"Mrs. Lee, what's going on?" Izzy interrupted the ramblings of her former boss.

"What's going on is that I'm getting you out of whatever deal you made with my son tonight. You're a nice girl, Izzy, you shouldn't be stuck with him anymore."

The majority of the explanation went over Izzy's head as she got stuck on that one word: son.

"Your son?" She managed to choke out the words even in her paralyzing state of shock.

Mrs. Lee sighed. "Yes, my son," she didn't seem too pleased to be confirming that fact.

Izzy's mind reeled, "I don't understand," her eyes darted nervously around the room as her wobbly legs folded uncomfortably and she slid to the floor.

The older woman sighed again and squatted down by Izzy's immobile form, her old joints popped strangely in the process.

"My son used to be a good man," she began her story, "He really was. But then he got into the wrong things. He liked to gamble, you see, it's always been a game to him, and he's very good at bending the rules to his advantage. He sets his mind on something he wants and once that happens nothing can stop him from getting it," the older woman sighed again, tears were welling up in her eyes.
"I've tried for so long to get him to turn his life around. But he never does. I've tried to ignore him and I thought that would make him realize that drinking and gambling and taking advantage of people was not something I would tolerate in my family," she wiped a stray tear from her wrinkled cheek.
"But he's my son, I love him. And no matter how many times he did wrong I couldn't help but forgive him. It's wrong of me, I know, but he's my son."

Izzy watched the older woman with teary eyes of her own. The real, tangible pain in Mrs. Lee's face was not something that could be easily overlooked. This woman, who was a five-foot stick of dynamite powered by caffeine had broken from the pain and damage that Youngkyun had caused. Mrs. Lee was in as much pain as Izzy right now. Izzy did the only thing she could think of and squeezed the woman's hand in a lame attempt to comfort her. Mrs. Lee took a deep breath and squeezed Izzy's hand back.

"The battle I've been fighting with my son has been the longest of my life," she continued her story, tears still dripping from her eyes.
"When I saw you two at the cafe that day and it looked like you too knew what it was like to be hurt by him, I knew that I couldn't let Youngkyun win this battle again. He's my son and I love him, but he can't get away with these things anymore, eventually the battle has to end."

The woman drew her story to an end but Izzy still felt a mile behind. She didnt understand what the woman was trying to tell her.

Mrs. Lee saw Izzy's furrowed brows and responded to the silent question, "You were the battle, Izzy. He was fighting for you, but he did it for all the wrong reasons. And that's why I'm getting you out of here, because he doesn't deserve to win anymore, he never really did," the woman concluded.

She stood from her crouched position, her knees popped again, and extended her hands to Izzy, pulling the girl up from the hotel room floor.

"Come on now, you need to go." Mrs. Lee yanked open the hotel room door and pushed Izzy into the hallway, following after her.

"Go on," the older woman gave Izzy a light shove on the back, motioning her towards the elevators.

"But, Mrs. Lee—" Izzy spun back around to face the woman. "What will you do when Youngkyun shows up?"

"Don't worry about that, just go."

"No! Mrs. Lee, he'll be furious at you. I can't let you do this—"

"Izzy!" The woman cut her off. "He may be angry with me but he's still my son. I raised him. I know how to handle him. Don't worry about him anymore, alright? But he will be here soon so you need to go. Now!" Izzy received another slight nudge forward.

"But—"

"Everything will be alright. Now go. Go home, Izzy." Mrs. Lee nodded in reassurance. The woman was small, but the resolve in her eyes was not something Izzy wanted to test.

So she ran.

Izzy yanked the heels from her feet and sprinted down the carpeted hotel hallway. She slammed past the emergency stairway door and took the steps two at a time. And she didn't stop there. Izzy flashed through the hotel lobby and ran out into the city, not daring to stop for even a moment.

A pair of scuffed black high heels swung from her hand as her bare feet slapped the freezing pavement. Izzy didn't care that her feet would get dirty. She didn't care that it was winter and flakes of snow were spiraling down to land in her hair. She didn't care that her lungs burned like hellfire. All she cared about was getting home.

Home.

Izzy had never before known any house that didn't feel like a prison. But now she had a home.

It was a run down apartment on the West Side. It was seven boys who made her smile and saved her from a hell of her own making. It was Jimin's smile. His laugh. It was him.

He was her home.

Izzy ran like she never had before. She had to get home.

Finally the metal staircase leading up to their door came into view. Never did she think those rusty steps would bring such warmth to her heart. Her bare feet slapped over the freezing metal steps, she didn't stop to breathe until she faced their familiar apartment door.

Izzy hastily reached beneath the doormat and pulled out the key that lay there. She'd been the one to leave it there, and was glad she did so, considering she hadn't brought her own keys with her tonight; she thought she would be coming home with the boys. The spare key was meant to be for Namjoon really, he always forgot his own, so Izzy left a spare under the doormat so he wouldn't get locked out if the boys weren't with him. She smiled at the thought of seeing the boys. Izzy turned the key in its lock and quickly threw it back underneath the mat.

She didn't bother to turn the lights on, the moon shining through the window was enough for her to see. Izzy tossed aside the useless heels in her hand and sank down on the familiar old couch in relief, waiting for her family to come home.