11.

| 𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬. |

Yuri P.O.V

"Or maybe they had spies at the mall."

I couldn't believe what Taehyung was hinting at.

A spy living around us?!

I continued making excuses about the other ways they could've known we were here.

"May-maybe they were just passing by the mall?"

"Why would they have guns and rifles with them?"

"The same reason you carry that damned gun of yours?"

That gun had been with Taehyung since forever; he never leaves the house without it. He clearly had an obsessive attachment with that deadly weapon.

"I'm a Mafia leader, so it's different. I carry a small, handy one solely for protection."

I had to admit, he had a point.

"What if the men were hovering around our house, waiting for someone to go out? Maybe they followed us here, because it's only you, against them," I said, just blabbering whatever came to my mind, but it did make sense.

"If they were, they would've followed Mina, wouldn't they? She left earlier. Besides, I made sure that no one was following us on our way here."

Taehyung suddenly took a sharp turn.

"Or, or, maybe they were—"

I continued rambling on, but it felt unconvincing, even to me.

Because even I had a growing doubt about this.

"Yuri, stop. Even you know that this wasn't the first time they magically appeared to ambush us out of nowhere."

And I had to agree, because, indeed, something like this had happened before. Various times.

It was usually when we were all sleeping, or just generally in helpless situations, where we were all painfully unprepared for it.

And it was so random, that everything pointed to only one conclusion; a disturbing and horrific conclusion.

A spy.

Looking back at it, the previous ambushes took place when all three men were gathered in one place, not separated like now.

And that was really suspicious.

Mina will be the suspect, because Tae won't doubt his hyungs.

And I was right.

"We'll have to be carefully about what we reveal during our mealtimes," Taehyung said, pointedly.

"But we don't have any proof that it's Mina. . ." I trailed, defending someone I considered as a friend.

Even though she was mad at me right now.

The only reason I had pestered her so much this morning was because I care. I truly care.

Living in the house, where the men were out most of the time, us ladies kept each other company and shared many heartfelt stories to each other.

Mina was here because of a reason that was very similar to mine; a shootout broke out near our medical schools, and the Mafia leaders took us hostage, basically forcing us to take care of them medically.

At first, I was really scared, because the underworld of the Mafia isn't a joke; it's anything but that.

People won't hesitate two seconds before killing someone, just because they were caught doing something as simple as sneaking a midnight snack, or, if you end up with a psychopath, talking back rudely.

Taehyung, Hoseok and Yoongi were intimidating, but compared to everyone else, they were at least human; they had a human side to them, which was empathetic towards us.

Other Mafias would just treat us like shit, and threaten us for no reason, as if we weren't human ourselves.

In fact, Taehyung had been so caring, that I ended up literally having a crush on him.

I rolled my eyes.

But he won't do anything about it.

"I'll do something about it."

I whipped my head to turn towards Taehyung, eyes widening.

"W-what?"

'Did I accidentally speak all my thoughts out loud?'

"Proof. That it's Mina. I'll do something about it," he said, glancing at me.

'Oh. Right.'

I stared at him, right arm casually placed on the gear lever, left hand on the steering wheel.

"Um, Taehyung?"

"Hm?"

"Isn't the right side of your body paining? Like, the injury you got yesterday. . ?"

Taehyung looked at his injury, moving it a bit.

"Well, now it is. Thanks for reminding me." He winced a bit.

I stared at him with incredulity. "So it's hurting now because of me? It wasn't hurting before that?"

"No."

"What even—"

"I mean that I didn't pay attention to it before you mentioned it. So it wasn't hurting. It's all just in my head, I guess. If I don't think about it, it won't hurt, but the moment I do, it starts hurting like crazy."

Taehyung took another sharp left turn, before turning right again.

"I had heard other people saying something like this, but I never believed them, because it just didn't make sense, at least not according to me," I said.

"It's like our brain is playing tricks on us. Wait, let me think of a real life situation to relate this t—"

"No! You don't have to Taehyung, just focus on driving, please," I said urgently.

Taehyung did this all the time; whenever I didn't understand something, or if I couldn't relate to something, he would come up with common situations as references to make it make sense to me.

Usually, this explanation takes at least half an hour; thirty minutes of me getting lectured about something which I wouldn't even think about ever again.

After the first four times, I learnt a way to avoid it; each time Taehyung would possess a particular look in his eyes, which signalled that he was gonna spout stuff which will go over my head, and my understanding.

Every time I saw that look, I would pretend to understand what he meant, even if I had no clue about it.

The last time this had happened was about three months ago, and I had forgotten about this behaviour of his.

Until now, that is.

"Okay, I wasn't getting a better example than this. Now, imagine you have something. Or, wait, let's say someone. They help you a lot, and, unintentionally, you help them too. But the thing is, neither you, nor they realise how much you helped each other, and took everything for granted. You don't understand their value,"

Taehyung spoke, eyes still on the road, but his free hand was gesturing randomly, how he always does when he's 'explaining' something to me.

"One day, you're both separated from each other, but neither of you mind. That is, until, you start realising the lack of the things they used to do for you, and vice versa. You both begin missing each other, but can't meet again. This is when you realise how much they meant to you, and how much they were helping you, and how the lack of their presence has affected you. Get it?"

I stared at him with my mouth hung open.

'What was that?'

"Uh, I don't know if I'm right, or if I'm just dumb to not understand, but everything you said had no relation to your injury choosing to be selectively painful," I said.

"It didn't make sense?" Taehyung asked sadly.

"No, it did make sense!" I hurriedly spoke, noticing his upset tone. "Just. . . not in this context."

"Oh. Okay." Taehyung didn't seem as sad as he was before.

"Did you randomly come up with this, just to make it make sense with the situation at hand?"

". . .yes," Taehyung grinned sheepishly. "Actually, no. I had thought about this long ago."

"But were desperately waiting for an opportunity to rant about this?"

"Yes."

I hummed, looking out of the window, shaking my head at his bluntness.

An uncomfortable silence surrounded us, but was broken when Taehyung spoke again.

"Well, Sooji was such an āss."

I snorted a little. "His name's Soojin."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Taehyung said, waving his hand, not-so subtly glancing at me.

Somehow, I had a feeling that he had purposely mispronounced the name to make me laugh.

I would appreciate this effort, but, I knew that it didn't really mean anything.

"He was being such a desperate creep. Couldn't he see that I was literally right there with you?"

Taehyung shook his head. I raised an eyebrow at his words.

"Why would you being there with me stop him?" I asked slowly.

Taehyung frowned at me. "Are you trying defend his actions, even after everything he did?"

I probably was.

Why? Because I wanted to prove something to him; something, which I needed to hear from his own mouth.

"That doesn't answer my question," I said, staring at my hands intently.

"Me being there with you matters, because I could've been your boyfriend, and he would've still shamelessly hit on you like that."

Bingo.

I needed him to bring up the topic of him being my boyfriend, which he has.

"But, you aren't my boyfriend," I spoke carefully, not wanting to make him suspicious.

"How would that āss know?"

"Um, because you don't behave like a boyfriend with me?" I said, but it sounded more like a question that a statement.

"What do you mean?" Taehyung looked confused now.

"Taehyung, you behave more like my bodyguard, than an actual significant other. Standing three feet behind me with the most expressionless face ever, not saying a word and just staring at me creepily," I said, listing out my true feelings about his behaviour.

"Tell me, what sort of boyfriend does that?"

Taehyung stayed quiet, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Wait, here's an even better question. Why does it matter to you, if you behave like a boyfriend to me, or not? I mean, it's not like you wanna be in a relationship with me,"

I stared at him, trying to analyse his reaction.

His face shifted when I had mentioned a relationship, but other than that, he was stoic as ever, as if he least interested in this.

"Right?"

I urged him, waiting for an answer, but it never came.

Instead, all I got in response, was a heavy silence. And there I had gotten my answer.

Because the silence spoke louder than words.

x x x

A / N

Here's a longer chapter, dedicated just for TaeRi :)

I had contemplated dividing this into two parts again, since this is so long, but then decided against it. I shld be responsible, and put out long chapters too, once in a while, right?

This was basically Yuri being a good friend, Taehyung being an intellectual, and loads of tension after
Hope y'all liked it lmfao

Being honest, typing this chapter took a lot of extra effort than usual, because I wasn't getting ideas about how to go forward, (+ writer's block haha) and I'm sure the same thing's gonna happen for the next one too, so I'm sorry if they seem half-assed :")

(The chapters are prewritten.) (this was published specifically for TaeTae's birthday uwu, happy tete day <3)

Vote and spam me with love, because I'm working hard to make this story a nice one </3

Ciao~

-xo-
:]