HIS PRINCESS | K.TH

War in Between

A month later

JUNGKOOK

She's gone.

Over the past month, I'd turned the Underground upside down looking for Miss Aeri. Rin, who knew the place like the back of her hand, had searched with me.

For a while she had almost been obsessive over it— crying nightly, but still waking up at dawn with puffy eyes, saying that she had to go check out the Southside.

But the Underground was massive. It was a place too perfect for someone to disappear.

It had been the only reason why Yoongi hyung had chosen it, after all. To hide from Kim Haein.

After a week of Miss Aeri's disappearance, Jimin hyung had recalled what removed the tracker. He'd made the substance— and I'd gotten it to V hyung as fast as I could.

But it didn't matter. I almost regret it, giving it to him.

Because now all he does, every night that he comes down to the Underground, is fight in that goddamn ring. He fights for hours until I can finally force him away, and then returns to the Skygrounds by sunrise so that his father wouldn't notice his disappearance.

He thinks that fighting could somehow lead Aeri back to him.

But this is too much.

My hands crumple into a fist as I look up at the ring. It's deep into night— 3am, when the skies are dark but the ring is bright, from the cheer of the crowd and the flashing lights.

I see V hyung, an emotionless smile on his face as he wipes the blood away from his face. There's a bruise darkening on his cheek— how was he going to explain that to his father?

My gaze falls as men drag away the unconscious figure of a man who he'd just beaten down to the ground.

The crowd yells for more.

Disgust floods my entire body inside out.

V hyung looks around, as the announcer calls for another challenger. His eyes search hungrily for a person he may never find again.

He sees me, instead.

I hold his eyes, my brows furrowing as I motion for him to stop. That enough is enough. It was already nearing dawn. Was he going to go back to the Skygrounds looking like that?

Anger sparks when his eyes shift. He ignores me completely.

Hyung.

Please.

I raise my hand. And the announcer sees me, calls me up. V hyung's expression deepens with a dark amusement, his gaze fixed on me now as I make my way towards the ring. The lock clicks— and the lights flicker.

He rasps.

"Jungkook, what the fuck are you trying to do?"

My jaw flexes.

"Trying to get you to wake up. Do you really think this is right, hyung? Do you think this is going to bring her back?"

"Because it's not going to."

He breathes, half in laughter and half in disbelief.

"What am I supposed to do, then?"

"It brought her back last time."

He lunges. And I step to the side, avoiding his blow. His fist slams into the wall behind me, made out of chained metal. The crowd roars with bloodlust.