tw: violence,,, please skip forward if you need!

For some reason, Jiah was regretting it. Looking into his eyes earlier, seeing the worry and dismay on show through those clear, crystal eyes, she regretted it in an instant.

Jiah didn't regret things.

That wasn't who she is.

What was happening?

Thinking about the pieces of paper sitting on the table at their headquarters, the paper she had photocopied from the documents Taehyung had asked her to file.

And then being here and lying straight to his face?

She never felt bad, but here she was.

"If you're done with all that," his low voice started from behind the large doors and he emerged, walking in with his hands in his pockets, "You can go home for the day."

Jiah stood up, trying to be on the same level as him, "I can?"

He looked around the hallway as if there was someone else to ask for permission, "Yes, you can."

She bit her lip, taking the opportunity to study his eyes. The first couple days, she'd labelled them 'grey', if she was feeling particularly poetic, 'silver'. Neither word did them justice, however. They were so solid, so bright, the exact lustrous colour of a polished shard of metal. If you looked closer, like she was just now, you'd see the swirls of glittering onyx black and tinges of blue at the edges. They weren't monochrome or boring. That had simply been her terrible judgement. They were beautiful.

When she became aware of the crazy thoughts running through her mind, she shook herself internally. What was it about those damn eyes.

"Actually," he started saying once he started to walk back into his office, sticking his head back around the door, his shoulders poking out as well, man were they broad. "Can you please also reserve a table at the restaurant down the road for me? The five star one, uh, I think it's called Valerie?"

"Sure," she sat back down behind her desk, "What time?"

He brought out his watch, "At seven o'clock," looking up at her again, "yeah, seven."

"Alright, and for how many?"

"Just two," and then he turned into his office, "Would you like anything else?"

"No, that's it, after I'm done with this, I'll finish up the last edits for the Microsoft proposal and be on my way."

He nodded and walked in.

And for the next two hours, Jiah regretted getting her hopes up. She realised why Taehyung had told her to go home after it because it was taking the longest time. She thought it was just one last file, but didn't know the one file was fifty pages long.

Soon enough, it was nearing six-thirty and she was just finishing on the last page, when someone knocked quietly at her table.

Looking up abruptly, she stared confused at the woman who was looking down at her.

"Hello?" she asked, "may I help you?"

"Oh, I'm just waiting for Taehyung, we're going out for dinner."

Jiah scrunched her eyebrows, looking the woman up and down. This whole time she thought the reservation was for Jimin.

"I can just sit in his office and wait for him to finish his work, I-" the woman was saying as she walked over to the doors, grabbing the handle and pulling on it, but Jiah stopped her, getting out of her seat before she could open the door fully, and holding onto it.

"That's fine," she said, "you can wait on the couch over there."

She blinked back at her, surprised.

"I uh," she smiled at Jiah, taking a step closer to her. Jiah could then smell the intense perfume she had on, giving her a headache. Also with her swaying the way it was, she saw the giant gold hoops hanging from her ears, just dropping to her shoulder which was studded with a thick gold necklace. Her hair, orange brown, bounced off her collarbones every time she moved. "Think you must be new," pursing her lips together, she tilted her head at Jiah, "I'm not just any guest, I'm-"

She was cut off when the door opened and Taehyung stepped out.

"Oh? You're already here?"

"Hey," now it was Jiah's turn to blink at her surprised, the way her demeanor changed in that instant, "I've been waiting so long."

Oh God, her pout, it was making Jiah want to punch a hole in the wall.

Taehyung wrapped an arm around her waist and turned to Jiah, "I'll see you tomorrow then."

She nodded, bowing as he left.

And as soon as he was gone, she turned her phone on and called the first person she thought of.

"Shadow," he answered.

"Hey, what are you doing right now? Let's go to Angels and Devils tonight."

"Huh? Really?" she heard his cheeky grin through the line and this made her smirk too.

"Yeah, I've missed that place."

"I'm on my way right now!"

--

"And our long-reigning champion of the men's under 25!" the host roared, Jiah turned to Jungkook, patting his back.

"Crush them, Jungkook," she said before he nodded, swinging himself up onto the ring.

Angels and Devils was a fight club that Jiah and Jungkook used to train themselves at, before they became more involved in the Kkangpae.

Jiah watched in admiration as her best friend was able to wrap his arms around the opponents' neck in a matter of seconds, pinning him down to the ground and rendering him motionless. Jungkook had such a tight hold of him that blood was rushing to his head, and he ended up tapping furiously at Jungkook's thigh, giving up and giving Jungkook the victory.

His grin was bigger than Jiah had ever remembered and he winked at her when they made eye contact.

As he walked down the steps, he pulled the tank he was wearing over his head and sat down next to Jiah, grabbing the towel next to her and wiping his chest.

"It's your turn, Shadow," he beamed, nudging her, "You gotta get up there too, celebrate our return."

She dipped her head to the side, smiling at the ring, "They won't be able to find a match for me."

"Oh, c'mon, you've got to-"

"But that won't stop me," she grinned, turning to him. Jungkook didn't remember the last time she had smiled that wide either.

"We really should have come back here sooner, Shadow."

"Okay, there's no use in being all sad about that now," she got up and took her leather jacket off, placing it on the bench, "Let's do this."

Jiah was loving the whole ten minutes she was up there. With her swift defence, making the opponent completely useless at trying to beat her, and then to top it off, Jiah's powerful punches, one after the other. With her opponent on the floor in no time, finally bringing her hands up to cover her face.

"We still rule that place," Jungkook was saying as they both walked back to his motorcycle, "Not rusty, one bit."

"Hey!" he jumped at the voice, Jiah simply turned around, her eyebrows furrowed. They saw the guy who had fought Jungkook earlier and the girl who had fought Jiah both walking towards them.

"Hey, guys!" Jungkook said, "Good fight back th-" before he could finish, the man pulled his fist up and threw it at him.

Jiah's eyes grew wide as she slid in front of him and stared at the man, "What are you doing?"

"You can't just come into our crib and think you can just take over."

Jiah scoffed, crossing her arm over the other, laughing, "We're gone for two years, and these little fucks think they own the place now."

"We do," the girl insisted, narrowing her eyes at Jiah, "So never come back."

"I think you need to be careful with how you speak to me, little one," she leaned forward, "that tone really pisses me off, you see."

"Don't tell me what to do," she took a step closer to Jiah, "Just tell me you'll never be back."

"Okay, that's it," Jiah took her jacket off once again and threw it at Jungkook, rolling up her sleeves, "You just-" she cut herself off when she brought her fist up and lunged it at the girl's face.

"Jiah!"

She didn't hear a word.

The girl stumbled back and before Jiah could throw another punch, the guy stepped in front of her, and Jiah directed it at him instead.

"Jiah, stop!"

But it was all background noise.

Background noise to the next ten minutes she spent taking care of the situation, as well as pushing Jungkook out as he tried with all his might to stop her.

She was becoming awfully good at playing the judge, jury and executioner.

--

"You're never going back there," Jungkook shook his head at Jiah as she walked out of her bedroom the next morning.

"Shut up, they deserved it, you know that."

"They're going to be hospitalised for months now, Shadow, get your fucking head on right!"

"Why are you yelling at me! All I did was put them in their place, they needed to know they couldn't boss us around like that."

"You've got to learn to control yourself, Jiah, this is not healthy."

She laughed, "What are you even talking about Jungkook? Nothing we do is healthy. Since when did you care about being healthy?"

"Shadow..."

"Okay that's it, I'm leaving. I've got to go buy some groceries to take to work because our fridge is missing some food. Bye."

Jungkook bit his lip from yelling at her one last time, "Try cover your face as much as you can," he settled for saying and she left.

Luckily the receptionist had allowed her to use the company car to do the errands so that she wouldn't have to carry all the groceries by hand.

Bringing out the list she had written the previous day, she walked in through the entrance to the supermarket.

First were fruits. She filled the trolley with pears, bananas, oranges, and was walking over to the apples. In the process of choosing the apples, she felt something overcome her hand and she looked down to see another hand on top of hers.

Pulling her hand back straight away, she turned to see a complete stranger staring at her.

"I'm sorry, I didn't see your hand on it, I-"

"It's okay," she nodded, "You can have it."

She grabbed another instead and left the fruits section.

For some reason, that man gave her the shivers, and she had never felt that way before.

Next on the list was milk and she had been warned about the vast preferences in the office, so she had to get two cartons of every kind of milk there. On her third type, almond skim milk, through the corner of her eye she saw someone looking in her direction. Lifting her head up, she recognised the man from before.

Was he following her?

No way.

She was finally at the checkout, shaking her head internally at all the items in her trolley. If this was what she had to do every week, she wanted to quit.

Paying for the items with the company card, she pushed the trolley out to the carpark, loading the items into the car.

When she was done, she stood up and pulled the car boot to a close, however, was faced with her rearview mirror. And that's when she saw the small figure approaching behind her.

It was him again?

Balling her hand into a fist, she waited for him to get close enough for her to turn around and aim it at his face.

When he finally was, she spun with her arm raised, but she was faced with someone else.

"Hi honey, sorry I took so long," she stared blankly at him.

"Huh?"

He turned around and saw the other man standing there, "Hi, sorry, can I help you?"

The man shook his head, shuffling backwards, looking from me to him again.

"Did you want to ask my girlfriend something?"

Jiah turned sharply again to him, why was he saying that? What was he doing here?

He shook his head again and turned immediately, running away.

"Man, he was cree-" he was spinning to face her, "-py."

"W-What are you-"

What on earth was Taehyung doing here?

His eyes widened when he looked down at her, and she thought it was due to their close proximity. At this distance, his face took up her whole field of vision, and nothing else.

His eyes really were grey, not a dull, unremarkable grey like that of concrete or stone. They were the grey of the last ashes on fire, tossed up on the breeze; the grey of a pigeon's wing, soft as down; the grey of the ocean an instant before dawn's first rays strike the water. Those eyes glanced her way once and ensnared her from that moment in a net of intrigue.

Taehyung, however, furrowed his eyebrows, feeling his own hands stiffen at the sight of her face.

The purple splotch on the side of her face, no matter how she had styled her hair to fall over it, he definitely saw it.

And then just to compliment that was the dark red lining running from her jawline up to the side of her cheek.

Taehyung appreciated a woman's beauty. He admired it more than almost anything in this world.

Which was what made him lift his stiff, shaking hand to the cut on the side of her face, using his thumb to trace it down from the front of her ear to her jaw.

"What happened to you?"