Chapter Text
After regaining consciousness, Jungeun hears a muffled voice and the subtle rustling of fabric. Her fight or flight instincts kicked in, but her body seemed to restrain her.
Am I… dead?
It took nearly all she had to pry her eyes open, only to be greeted by bright white lights. Jungeun assumed she’s been out for a long time since she shut her eyes back, unfamiliar with how it felt to have beams pass through her lenses.
“You’re finally awake,” The voice said, surprised. “I didn’t think you’d get up this soon, though.”
Jungeun attempted to turn her head to see where the voice was coming from but a sharp pain struck through her skull and made her flinch the moment she moved a muscle. Jesus, how hard was she hit?
“You might not want to make sudden movements. Your head was seriously injured. Do you even remember anything?”
Does she remember anything?
Jungeun remembers planning a heist, executing said heist, heist succeeded and the stone was—
“Fuck!” Forgetting what the woman had said about her head, Jungeun sits up just as fast as she fell back down to bed in agony.
“I just told you,” Jungeun hears a click and the sound of scratching against a rough surface, the woman must be writing something down. “If you’re looking for your things, don’t worry. I didn’t touch anything and it’s safe inside a compartment under the bed.”
Slowly letting her sight adjust to the strange setting she was in, Jungeun took a breath.
It was a white room furnished with white ceramic tiles and powder blue painted walls. The smell of ethyl alcohol that she was so accustomed to prominent in the air she breathed.
Once her vision was slightly clearer, she looked around for the woman who apparently nursed her back to health. Actually— nursing .
Her eyes moved to the left and saw nothing but plastic white boxes labeled with words she couldn’t really see. To her right was a tall figure wearing a white lab coat, blonde hair up in a bun; she must be the woman from earlier unless there was someone else in the room, which Jungeun thinks is unlikely.
The blonde had her back towards Jungeun as she leaned on the deep blue, granite counter. Probably doing some weird medical stuff Jungeun wouldn’t understand.
“Where am I?” She managed to croak. “Who are you?”
“In my clinic,” The blonde said in a matter-of-factly tone. “I’m Jung Jinsol, the only doctor you’ll see within a fifty mile radius. We’re technically in the middle of nowhere.”
“Great,” Jungeun groaned, sarcasm evident in her tone.
“You’re welcome. Taking care of you for a week and a half was no big deal at all. Not like I wanted gratitude. Nope. Never asked for it!”
A week and a half?
She was out for a week and a half?
Jungeun didn’t think her injuries were that bad but apparently they were. The last time she got so beaten up, it only took her three days to recover.
“I was out that long?”
“Yeah,” Jinsol said without looking at Jungeun, rummaging through each and every canister on the counter. “You snore a lot, too. I could hear it all the way upstairs.”
“Sure I do.”
Something about this stranger didn’t pose a threat to Jungeun, and that confused her. Literally, she could be those crazy doctors who kidnap people to harvest their organs and sell them to the black market.
But she didn’t seem like it and Jungeun wasn’t complaining (things would have been more complicated if that were the case). At least for now, she could rest easy.
“I don’t usually have the kind of supplies needed for your condition so... I have to go to the drugstore but I don’t think I can leave you alone just yet.”
Jinsol checked the wall-mounted cabinets above the counter. She reached for a clear bottle with green liquid and inspected the label.
“This isn’t expiring any time soon, we can use it,” Jinsol set the bottle down on the counter.
The evidently tired doctor turned around to Jungeun’s direction and met her eyes.
“Your leg was horribly twisted when I found you so it’s a miracle I didn’t need to amputate it. It’s gonna take more than a few months to get it to heal properly, though.”
“A few months?” Jungeun dipped her brows. “I need to leave now . I don’t have a few months.”
Jinsol scoffed. “Go ahead. See if your fractured shin and infected wounds will let you.”
A loud crash from the next room stopped Jungeun from arguing any further. Judging from the metal-like racket, the noise must have come from the kitchen.
“Oh no,” Jinsol ran-hopped to the door and pointed a finger at Jungeun, as if it were enough to intimidate the bed-ridden criminal. “Don’t do anything funny.”
Jinsol disappeared into the hallway, leaving Jungeun in the empty room with nothing but a throbbing in her head and a gripping pain on her side.
The brunette sighed.
Her situation was a complete mess. The only good thing about it was that Sooyoung didn’t tag along with her to execute the mission and end up dead like the others.
God, what if Sooyoung thinks she’s dead?
She’s always been the only person Jungeun’s really trusted in her life. Sooyoung was like an older sister to her of some sort; she’s always had Jungeun’s back since the day they became literal partners in crime.
And Jungeun was sure if she told Sooyoung what really happened she would believe her; but even if Jungeun had someone to back her up, one person wasn’t enough to convince everyone else.
She knew she’d be done for. Even if she tried to explain herself, they would never listen.
The mission was a failure and she was the only survivor. Not to mention she ran off with the stone in her possession.
It looked too much like betrayal.
The Black Butterfly is a gang of blood-thirsty bounty hunters who know no mercy. If they found Jungeun right now, her life wouldn’t be the only one in danger.
Now, she doesn’t normally care about anyone except herself, but she felt indebted to Jinsol for not leaving her to die.
Sure, Jungeun was a criminal. But at least she was a criminal with the slightest bit of conscience.
“Sorry about that. I was—what are you doing?”
Jungeun had carefully sat up from the bed and began pulling off the wires that were connected to her body, fighting the pain coursing through her. She should’ve felt alarmed that Jinsol was already about to restrain her, but Jungeun continued.
“You don’t understand. You shouldn’t be helping me.”
“I’m a doctor, that’s what I do.”
Jinsol grabbed Jungeun’s wrists and held them in a lock. She was surprised to find herself struggling against Jungeun’s strength, given she was in a frail state.
“You’re making a mistake, doctor . You can’t involve yourself with me.”
“That’s my decision to make and I say I’m going to help you,” Jinsol stared into Jungeun’s eyes with fiery determination. “You think I studied nearly ten years for nothing? Jesus, they stationed me where civilization doesn’t even exist. Who am I supposed to give medications to? The plants? I’m a surgeon, not a botanist!”
Jungeun stared back at the blonde and she shouldn’t be thinking about how rich Jinsol’s brown eyes were while blabbering about photosynthesis and sciencey stuff, but she was.
“I can handle myself,” Jungeun tried to break free from Jinsol’s grip.
“People like you are just—“ Jinsol muttered, releasing Jungeun’s wrists from her hold. “You need help but you don’t want help.”
“I don’t need help,” Jungeun scoffed and continued to unhinge herself from the apparatuses that stuck to her.
Jinsol stepped back from the hospital bed and crossed her arms. “Fine.”
After taking the last piece of equipment off of her, Jungeun smirked at Jinsol, claiming victory (it was more of a ‘thank you’ but Jungeun wasn’t very good at expressing herself). She propped herself up with her arms and moved her legs to the side of the bed, prepared to step on the tiled floor of the room.
“Look, you really—“
“I’m fine, ” Jungeun retorted.
The moment Jungeun’s feet hit the surface of the floor, she lifted herself off the bed, not noticing the cast wrapped around her foot, and slipped. She yelped in pain as her body slammed against the cold ceramic.
“Oh god,” Jinsol hurriedly crouched down to tend to Jungeun, whose vision started to spin like crazy. “If you’d just listened!”
Jungeun’s eyes burned. She felt something sticky ooze out of her side, turning her hospital gown from light blue to a bright red.
With cautious motions, Jinsol slid her right arm around Jungeun’s waist and the other her legs, practically bridal-styling Jungeun back to the thin mattress.
Still gritting her teeth in pain, Jungeun breathes fast and heavy as beads of sweat trickled down from her forehead to her jaw. Her body felt like it was on fire and everything was spinning all over the place she swore the horizon had already disappeared.
“Calm down! Hey! Breathe slowly!” Jinsol yelled through the high-pitched sound Jungeun was hearing. “I’m giving you a shot of anesthesia, just calm down!”
A needle pricked Jungeun’s skin, though she barely felt anything since the pain in her leg took too much of her focus. The blood-curling burn she felt a few seconds ago was slowly being drowned by the cold flow of the drug seeping through her.
“You’re the worst doctor ever,” Jungeun whispered through ragged breaths, her body getting number with each gasp.
“I’m not. I actually graduated with honors, y’know? It’s you who’s the worst patient,” Jinsol rolled her eyes and began hooking the monitoring device wires back to Jungeun’s body. “Sadly, I think I’m gonna be stuck with you for another month because you decided to be stupid.”
“Isn’t it illegal to insult your patient?”
“Do you ever shut up?”
“I’m suing you.”
“Good luck with that.”
“How would I know you’re a good doctor? You could be one of those weirdos who sell organs to the black market or kidnap random people to make them test subjects.”
“Please go to sleep. I still have to fix the cut on your hip that you so kindly reopened.”
“I’m not tired,” Jungeun cocked a brow, though she could already tell she was about to slip into deep slumber in a matter of seconds. The anaesthetic was already starting to hit her.
“Hi, Not Tired! I’m Jinsol,” The thirty-four year old doctor teased, untangling the mess Jungeun had done to her thousand dollar paraphernalia. “And I’m most definitely not the evil doctor you see in sci-fi movies.”
“You suck.”
And just like that, Jungeun’s eyes fall heavy and she dozed off.
—
Rubber soles on varnished wood and yelling jolted Jungeun awake. Her head felt better and the cut on her hip was all cleaned up, not to mention she wasn’t in agonizing pain anymore.
She could hear Jinsol’s voice echoing throughout the house (was it a house?), yelling a name she isn’t familiar with. Jungeun stared at the white ceiling, wondering if another person lived here.
Another life at risk.
As much as she loved the thrill of danger, she didn’t like it when innocent lives start to get involved.
Jungeun drowned further in her thoughts, recalling her earliest memories. She didn’t exactly have the perfect childhood—hell, she didn’t even have a childhood.
By the time she learned how to walk and comprehend simple problems, the older members have already begun teaching her how to steal food from the stash. It was as if they raised her by following the Raise An Evil Baby handbook.
It was so natural to her that she didn’t know it was “bad” until she saw herself on national television with a bounty beside her name days after a successful heist.
A sigh escaped her lips.
She’s never complained about her life, but Jungeun still wonders how different things would have been if she had a normal one. She’d probably go to school, get a degree and accomplish her life-long dream of becoming an astronaut; exploring the undiscovered places beyond earth, researching otherworldly species, landing on the moon, so on and so forth.
But sometimes you don’t really get what you want.
Jungeun fell too deep into her memories she almost didn’t realize how dry her throat was.
She tried to look for refreshments in the room, but the only thing she saw was a girl most likely not older than six with striking purple hair. If Jungeun was confused then, she was deadass even more confused now.
“Mama told me not to come in here, but I wanted to make sure you weren’t lonely,” The girl whispered, enthusiasm painted on her face. “Please don’t tell her.”
“What on earth...”
“I’m Yerim! What’s your name?”
“Um… “
“Are you a bad guy? My mom thinks you’re a bad guy.”
Panic took over Jungeun’s body, she froze. Where was Jinsol? Is this kid supposed to serve as a distraction while she called the cops?
No. Jungeun was sure her identity remained in the shadows during their heists. She made certain none of the distinguishable parts of her body would be exposed in case they’d be flashed on the news. There was no way Jinsol could have found out about who she really was.
“How do you—“
“But you wanna know a secret? I don’t think you are. I think Mama just wanted to scare me so I would go to bed,” The little girl put her hands on her mouth and giggled.
The little girl’s naivety annoyed Jungeun. She was never the type to get along with children and she didn’t plan on correcting that either.
“Yerim!” Jinsol storms into the room and scoops the little girl in her arms. “There you are! I thought I told you not to disturb our patient.”
“But Mama she might be lonely,” Yerim pouted, giving Jinsol a dose of her irresistible puppy eyes. “No one else is here to stay with her.”
Jinsol pouted back, but Yerim stayed superior. “She’s not lonely, Yerim. I check on her every once in a while.”
“Hello? What’s going on?” Jungeun butts into the conversation, but was ignored as white noise.
“Don’t leave her alone, okay?” Small hands cup Jinsol’s face.
The blonde hesitates.
“I won’t,” Jinsol sets Yerim down and gives her a quick pat on the head before telling her to go on ahead to the living room.
The sight baffled Jungeun. She’s never seen anything so awfully domestic in her whole life.
In fact, she’s never experienced anything domestic at all. Everyone in her life never expressed the typical kind of affection normal people displayed. The closest she got was when she was starved for five days instead of being killed for making a minor mistake.
Fun, right?
Everything had to be done so ruthlessly and emotionlessly to help keep them from getting distracted or attached. It wasn’t hard for Jungeun, since she was trained during her developing years but she’s seen other members nearly go mad at how horrible this ‘training’ was.
“So, you’re married?” She breaks the silence to catch Jinsol’s attention.
An awkward laugh was the blonde’s response. “No, I’m not. I took Yerim in when she was a baby.”
“How noble. I can never stand kids.”
“It’s not like I had much of a choice. Poor thing.”
“Why?”
“Not a story I like telling when I’m about to give my patients their much needed medications,” Jinsol walks to the counter and pulls a drawer open, taking out a pair of tong-looking tool Jungeun doesn’t recognize.
Silence.
Jungeun didn’t probe any further. Whatever happened, it was most likely something too personal for Jinsol to share to a complete stranger like her. And she respected that.
“What did she mean about ‘my mom thinks you’re a bad guy’?”
Jinsol bit back a laugh. “Oh, nothing. It’s just... it’s hard to get her to fall asleep at night so I told her you were a bad guy who scares kids who don’t sleep early with your loud ass snoring.”
“Oh,” Jungeun felt relieved.
“You ready?” With the metallic instrument in her hand, Jinsol walks towards the mattress and beside Jungeun’s legs.
“Zimzalabim?”
“No, I’m about to take the staples off your shin,” And at that moment, Jinsol looked like an evil doctor from a psycho-horror film to Jungeun.
A cute one, perhaps.
God, how much she hated herself for thinking of the last one.
“You’re not giving me anesthesia?”
“It won’t hurt.”
“That’s what they all say!”
“You’re overreacting,” The doctor inches closer. “It’s just gonna feel like ant bites.”
“Jinsol!”
The blonde stopped in her tracks and looked at Jungeun, puzzled.
Jokes on her, Jungeun was just as surprised. It was the first time she’s ever mentioned Jinsol’s name (a thought at the back of her mind hopes it wouldn’t be the last).
“I find it unfair that you know my name and I don’t know yours.”
“You don’t need to,” Jungeun stuttered (she hoped Jinsol didn’t catch that).
“Well, I have to call you something,” Says Jinsol. “What do you think about ‘pussy’?”
“Oh, I like that,” Jungeun smirks.
“ NO! I meant what do you think of me calling you ‘pussy’!” The older girl blushed furiously, stumbling on her words. “Since you’re so scared of this piece of metal!”
Jungeun raised a brow.
“You know what? Nevermind,” Jinsol sighs and holds Jungeun’s leg down.
“Hey, hey, hey! What about an—“
Before Jungeun could finish her sentence, Jinsol had already taken out a staple. And much to Jungeun’s surprise, it didn’t hurt as much as she thought it would.
Sure, there was a little sting but it wasn’t something Jungeun couldn’t tolerate.
“See? Just like ant bites.”
“To be fair, you could die from ant bites.”
“Do your friends ever tell you how annoying you are?”
“This might sound sad but I don’t really have friends.”
“I can see why.”
“Okay, that one hurt more than an ant bite.”
Jinsol laughed and shook her head. It was the first real laugh Jungeun’s ever heard in her life and she caught herself smiling like an idiot.
This may actually be the first normal, human interaction she’s ever had.
“It’s Jungeun.”
“Hm?”
“My name. It’s Jungeun.”
Jinsol mouthed an ‘oh’ and nodded slowly. “At least I don’t have to call you pussy anymore.”