HIS PRINCESS | K.TH

Who He Lives For

AERI

"Stop!"

I lunge for Jin, wrapping both my hands around his arm and pulling away so that the gun isn't directly pointing at Jungkook's head.

"...you know him?" Jin murmurs.

But I can't even answer.

Jungkook's staring at me like I'm someone worse than a stranger. His eyes take in everything— from Jin standing in front of me to the smell of warm broth in the air. His gaze runs straight through me.

"Miss Aeri."

"You have ten seconds to explain yourself."

For a moment, I see a shadow pass across his eyes. He laughs, cut short with his hand dragging down his face.

"And I advise that you really, really be careful. Because if this is exactly what I think it is, I—"

I see a glint of murder between his fingers.

"I might just kill a man tonight."

And at first I'm speechless. I don't even know where to start from, and I struggle for the first five seconds before deciding to tell him everything from the start.

From the moment Kim Haein had told me about the completed bomb. How I'd run for hours that night, into areas of the Underground I'd never even been to before.

All that had been on my mind was the disgust of the tracker pulsing in my blood and the thought that I had to get as far away as possible.

Jungkook's expression slowly morphs into pain.

By the time I finish talking, it feels like my throat has completely dried. I can't even say a word when Jungkook slowly nears me. His eyes are red.

I'm shocked when I realize it's tears he's holding back.

"I'm sorry for not finding you earlier."

My brows furrow. Why does he— why does he look so guilty? What could he have done?

"Even if you did, the tracker..."

Jungkook groans. Then he reaches between the folds of his jacket. When he opens his palm, there's a small vial full of pale liquid.

"There was a cure for the tracker. Jimin hyung recalled it, months ago."

"I kept it with me just in case I ever found you."

...what?

No.

There can't be a cure.

"I don't think you understand." I whisper. "It's in me, Jungkook. It's in my blood. I'd have to die first before I could ever get rid of it."

I hadn't just...

I couldn't have turned V into an empty shell of himself that he was now when there was a cure in the first place.

I hadn't just wasted seven months for nothing.

Jungkook presses the vial into my palm.