SUMMURY: Pain is pain, it always hits hard. But we are each others hopes for the future. We are each others Azaleas.
Or
At the Azalea Hybrid Rescue Center, Y/n is more than just a volunteer—she's a lifeline for those who've been forgotten. When seven very different hybrids enter her life, each carrying their own scars, mistrust, and stories of mistreatment, a quiet bond begins to form. Through broken trust, difficult healing, and the slow bloom of something deeper, these eight souls must learn to rely on one another. But love is never easy—and their path to a happy ending is anything but simple. Will they find peace, together?
TRIGGER WARNINGS: Emotional, verbal, and implied physical abuse; Neglect and trauma recovery; power imbalance; Emotional manipulation; mentions of captivity and confinement; anxiety and trust issues; graphic violence and threats; slow-burn; emotional healing; polyrelationships; Hybrid/human relationship; smut; minor character deaths; reverse harem
BTS x Reader, Reader is Jungkook’s girlfriend, polyamory, group sex
Jungkook getting soft when he sees you so comfortable and relaxed around the rest of his family. It’s around this time though, that he realizes the looks and jealousy from the others, their shy tenderness, and gestures.
He realizes his group members behavior doesn’t have anything to do with just plain wanting a relationship- but has a lot to do with wanting you.
Back to You
@hollyhomburg
BTS x Reader, Reader is Yoongi’s girlfriend, bdsm themes, polyamory
“don’t be rude Hyung, there are so many people watching and you know how much we hate when people see what’s ours,” and they’re right- there are alot of people watching the two of you curled to the side, both of you wrecked in the booth.
Taehyung closes the curtains to the booth and slowly guides you to give Yoongi a blowjob, Taehyung guiding your head up and down his length with a hand in your hair. his other hand around your throat feeling how you clench and swallow around Yoongi “that’s a good girl, take baby boy’s cock all the way, like i know you can that’s a good babygirl ”
You had decided to make a change, not realizing your men would notice. The consequences bring to light your own insecurities, with which the boys decide it’s time you realize how precious you are to them.
Ethereal
@purpleyoonn
BTS x Reader, mafia au, dragon BTS, human Reader, polyamory
After leaving your home in need of a fresh start, you open a bookstore with the hopes that the words you read could bring you solace. You never realized that the books you loved would bring you home instead.
A Bond Made of Love
@purpleyoonn
BTS x Reader, idol au, hybrid Reader, polyamory
Your last owner had almost beaten you to death, leaving you at the very shelter he had adopted you from. This time, two tall men walk in, immediately drawn to you as you rested in your small cage. You couldn’t help but become attached, just hoping you wouldn’t be abandoned once again by the idols you grow to love.
Boyfriend for Hire
@remedyx
BTS x Reader, contract dating to real dating, father issues
Unsatisfied with your life was an understatement. Being under the thumb of your father can have that effect. He wanted someone capable of running the company, but you wanted to pursue your passion. Countless unwanted blind dates and the threat of losing your freedom drives you to seek help from a group of individuals you'd least expected.
It wasn't supposed to happen this way. A quick in and out. Infiltrate and bring down a hybrid trafficking ring. Saving lives while we're at it. But things hardly ever go to plan. And being locked in with seven hybrids that meant more to me than victims forced into a life they didn't deserve was definitely not according to the plan.
Lessons
@trivia-yandere
Jungkook x Reader x Namjoon, Reader is Namjoon’s girlfriend, sensory deprivation
when jungkook asks namjoon for advice on oral sex, he wasn't expecting his hyung to physically show him - you being on the receiving end of it.
⋆˚࿔ summary: in a kingdom where starborns are feared for simply being who they are, you find yourself drawn into the hidden world of your seven celestial lovers and the remnants of a forgotten community. but the more you learn about their history, the harder it becomes to understand why love, belonging, and existence itself were ever treated as something shameful.
alternatively, perhaps the greatest tragedy wasn't that they were different, but that they were punished for it.
⋆˚࿔ genre: medieval-inspired au · mythic fantasy · hurt/comfort · mild angst · established/implied poly relationship · lyrical prose
⋆˚࿔ warnings: moderate violence · blood and injury · near-drowning · discussions of prejudice and discrimination · heated kissing/make-out
⋆˚࿔ word count: 19.6k
a/n: again, this entire fic is completely based off a dream i had a few days ago. the emotions lingered long after i woke up. and naturally, the story gradually became one about belonging, identity, acceptance, and community.
it's not particularly plot-heavy despite its length; it's more of an emotional, character-driven piece. and posting this during pride month felt especially fitting.
main masterlist | ot7/multi masterlist
if you wish to be part of the tag list, complete the form.
⋆˚࿔ playlist: chemtrail over the country club - lana del rey · everything is romantic - alina kay (reimagined)
The mountain path unwound beneath your feet like a ribbon of silver-gold earth, pale and luminous under the fractured light of a thousand distant stars, and you were running harder than you had ever run in your entire life.
To your left, Yoongi matched your pace with an ease that bordered on insulting, his feet finding purchase on stones that would have sent any ordinary human tumbling down the steep incline, and yet he made no move to speed ahead, choosing instead to remain locked in rhythm with your labored breathing and pounding heart.
Ahead of you, Jungkook had already crested the ridge and was now bounding back down toward you with the inexhaustible energy of a creature who had never known what it meant to tire, his laughter ringing out across the valley like bells forged from moonlight and mischief.
You're slowing down," he called, and though the words were teasing, his eyes held nothing but warmth as he reached out to brush his fingers against your elbow, a gesture so quick and so gentle that you might have imagined it if not for the lingering heat he left behind.
"You run like the wind itself has taken human form and decided to mock me," you gasped between breaths, and Seokjin appeared at your other side, materializing from the shadows of an ancient pine with the silent grace that still managed to startle you even after all these years of knowing him.
He did not speak, but his hand found the small of your back, steadying you as you stumbled over a root that had wormed its way across the path like a sleeping serpent, and the pressure of his palm told you everything his silence left unsaid.
I am here. I will catch you. I will always catch you.
Behind you, you could hear Jimin's soft footsteps and Hoseok's occasional humming, a wordless melody that seemed to weave itself into the fabric of the night itself, and somewhere further back, Namjoon's steady presence, the quiet anchor around which all of them orbited like planets around a sun that did not know its own gravity.
The mountains here were ancient, older than the kingdoms that had risen and fallen in the valleys below, older than the stories that mothers told their children about the dangers that lurked beyond the safety of village walls, and they held themselves with a kind of quiet dignity that demanded reverence from all who walked upon their slopes.
Silver grass rippled in waves across the meadows that dotted the mountainside, catching the starlight and throwing it back in fragments that made the whole world seem to shimmer like the surface of a moonlit lake.
The pines stood tall and patient, their branches heavy with needles that whispered secrets to one another when the wind passed through them, and the earth beneath your feet smelled of decay and renewal, of things that had died and things that were waiting to be born.
This was not a place that belonged to humans, and you felt that truth in your bones with every step you took, a constant reminder that you were a visitor here, a guest in a world that had never been meant for someone like you.
But they had made it yours.
They had opened their world to you, had shown you paths that no map would ever record, had taught you the names of stars that no human tongue had spoken in centuries, and they had done all of this knowing that discovery would mean death for all of you. The thought settled in your chest like a stone sinking through dark water, heavy and cold and impossible to ignore, and you felt your pace falter for just a moment before a hand caught yours and squeezed, pulling you back to the present.
Taehyung had fallen into step beside you without you noticing, his fingers intertwining with yours as naturally as ivy winding around an ancient wall, and when you looked at him, he was already watching you with those eyes that seemed to hold entire galaxies within their depths.
"You're thinking too much," he said, and his voice was low and rough like the bark of the pines that surrounded you, but there was a softness beneath it, a tenderness that he reserved only for moments like this when the rest of the world had fallen away and left just the two of you suspended in the space between heartbeats.
"I'm always thinking too much," you replied, and the smile that touched your lips was tired but genuine, the kind of smile that only ever emerged when you were surrounded by people who knew every shadowed corner of your soul and loved you anyway. "It's one of my many talents, or so I've been told on more than one occasion."
"It is one of the things I love most about you," Taehyung said, and the words were simple, almost casual, but they landed in your chest with the weight of a vow spoken beneath a blood-red moon. "But I also love watching you let go, watching you forget about everything except the feeling of the wind and the stars and the sound of your own laughter. Do you know how beautiful you are when you forget to be afraid?"
You did not know how to answer that question, so you said nothing, but you tightened your grip on his hand and let him pull you forward, let him guide you around the jagged rocks and through the narrow gaps between boulders that would have seemed impassable if you had been alone. He knew this mountain the way most people knew the faces of their loved ones, knew every curve and crevice and hidden hollow, and he moved through it with a confidence that bordered on arrogance if arrogance could ever be so gentle.
The others had spread out around you, forming a loose circle that kept you at its center, and you could feel their awareness pressing against you from all sides like a physical presence, a constant vigilance that never truly faded even in moments of joy.
Namjoon had explained it to you once, early in your relationship, when the fear of discovery had threatened to swallow you whole and you had asked him why they kept taking such risks, why they kept meeting you night after night when every encounter could be their last.
He had looked at you with those eyes that saw too much and understood too deeply, and he had said, "Because we would rather have one night with you than a thousand years of safety without you."
"Because you are worth every danger, every risk, every moment of fear. Because loving you is the only thing that has ever made sense in a world that has never wanted us to exist."
You had cried then, cried until your chest ached and your throat burned, and he had held you through all of it without saying another word.
That had been three years ago.
Three years of stolen nights and hidden kisses, of learning to read the subtle shifts in their moods and movements, of discovering the unique language of touch that existed between all eight of you, a language that had no words but spoke volumes in the press of a palm against a cheek, the brush of fingers through hair, the weight of a body leaning into another in silent trust.
You knew them now in ways that went beyond simple familiarity, knew the particular pitch of Jimin's laugh when he was truly happy versus when he was masking pain, knew the way Hoseok's shoulders tensed when he sensed danger before his mind had even registered the threat, knew the exact shade of violet that crept into Jungkook's eyes when he was about to do something reckless.
They had let you into the deepest chambers of their hearts, and you had let them into yours, and the resulting mosaic was something so fragile and so precious that you carried it with you always, a talisman against the darkness that lurked at the edges of your world.
"You're doing it again," Taehyung said, and his thumb traced a slow circle against the back of your hand, grounding you in the present moment with the effortless grace of someone who had long since learned how to read the weather patterns of your soul.
"Doing what?" you asked, though you knew exactly what he meant.
"Thinking about the end before the beginning has even had a chance to unfold," he said, and there was no judgment in his voice, only a gentle sadness that made your heart clench in your chest. "You are always waiting for the moment when this will be taken from you, always bracing yourself for the fall before you have even allowed yourself to fly."
"Because the fall is inevitable," you said, and the words came out harsher than you had intended, sharp and bitter like the taste of winter berries that promised sweetness but delivered only astringent pain.
Your eyes drift and watched Jungkook leap effortlessly across a rocky gap several yards wide. The movement looked almost impossible beneath ordinary circumstances. He landed smoothly without breaking stride.
Nobody commented.
Nobody needed to.
The seven men you loved were Starborn.
They moved differently, healed differently, endured differently.
Every aspect of their existence carried traces of something extraordinary.
Long ago, legends claimed fragments of fallen stars had become living beings. Stories changed with every generation, but one detail always remained consistent.
Starborns were different.
That difference had become a reason for hatred.
Humans claimed Starborns manipulated minds.
Humans claimed Starborns lacked genuine emotions.
Humans claimed Starborns posed dangers to children and families.
Humans claimed countless things.
Most accusations contradicted one another completely. Truth rarely mattered when fear became tradition.
Your chest tightened slightly, you hated remembering it.
You hated remembering the careful way Taehyung concealed certain abilities around strangers. You hated remembering Namjoon lowering his gaze whenever merchants questioned his unusual memory. You hated remembering Jungkook pretending exhaustion after physical labor because displaying his actual endurance attracted unwanted attention.
Years passed, and still nothing changed.
People still expected Starborns to shrink themselves.
People still expected them to apologize for existing.
If anyone discovered where you spent these nights, consequences would arrive swiftly. Not rumors. Not disapproval.
Consequences—real ones.
The kingdom's laws remained painfully clear. Humans aiding and sheltering a Starborn faced severe punishment.
And a human and Starborn loving each other faced worse.
Examples existed.
Public examples.
Designed to inspire fear.
Designed to enforce obedience.
From somewhere behind you, Jimin's voice cut through the tension like a blade through silk, light and teasing and deliberately carefree. "If you two are done being devastatingly romantic, there is a ridge about half a mile ahead that offers the most incredible view of the valley, and I would like to reach it before the stars decide to stop shining just to spite me."
The laughter that followed shattered the heaviness like glass against stone, and you felt the tension in your shoulders ease as Taehyung's hand found yours once more, pulling you forward into the night. The others fell back into their loose formation around you, and you let yourself be carried along by the current of their presence, let yourself forget, for just a little while longer, the danger that lurked at the edges of your happiness.
The run continued for what felt like hours and no time at all, the mountain unfolding around you in a series of breathtaking vistas and hidden corners that felt like they belonged to another world entirely.
You passed through a grove of trees whose bark glowed faintly in the darkness, their branches hung with lichen that shimmered like spun silver, and Hoseok showed you how to press your palm against their trunks to feel the slow pulse of magic that beat beneath the surface like a second heartbeat.
You crossed a stream whose waters ran cold and clear and tasted of mint and moonlight, and Jungkook splashed you so thoroughly that your clothes were soaked through by the time you reached the other side, his laughter echoing across the valley as you chased him with promises of revenge that only made him laugh harder.
You climbed a slope so steep that your legs burned and your lungs screamed for mercy, and Yoongi stayed by your side through every painful step, his hand steady on your back, his presence a quiet reassurance that you were not alone.
And all the while, the stars watched from above, silent and distant and impossibly beautiful, and you wondered if they remembered a time when the seven people beside you had walked among them, had called them brothers and sisters and kin.
The ancient myths said that Starborns had once been celestial beings, that they had descended from the heavens to walk among mortals for reasons that had long since been forgotten, but you had never asked them about it, had never wanted to push them into memories that might bring them pain. Some doors, you had learned, were better left unopened.
The Northern Lights appeared without warning, as they so often did in these mountains, where the veil between worlds was thin and the sky seemed closer to the earth than it had any right to be. One moment the heavens were dark and still, studded with the cold fire of distant suns, and the next they were alive with color, ribbons of green and purple and blue dancing across the firmament like the brushstrokes of a divine painter who had grown tired of mundane beauty and decided to create something impossible.
The light washed over the mountain in waves, painting the silver grass in shades of emerald and amethyst, casting long shadows that seemed to move with a life of their own, and you felt your breath catch in your throat as you stopped in your tracks, your hand flying up to point at the spectacle above.
"Tae, look," you said, and your voice was hushed, reverent, the voice of someone who had witnessed something sacred and was not certain they deserved to see it. "Look at the lights."
But when you turned to him, he was not looking at the sky.
He was looking at you.
His eyes were fixed on your face with an intensity that made your heart stutter in your chest, and there was something in his expression that you could not quite name, something that hovered at the edges of recognition like a word trapped on the tip of your tongue, familiar and elusive all at once.
The aurora painted his features in shifting colors, turning his skin to marble and his eyes to pools of liquid starlight, and he was so beautiful in that moment that it hurt to look at him, a sharp and aching pain that settled somewhere behind your ribs and refused to leave.
Nearby, Namjoon studied the shifting lights thoughtfully. "My grandmother believed auroras carried messages."
"What sort of messages?" Hoseok asked.
"She changed the answer constantly."
Hoseok had let out a snort. "That sounds suspicious."
"She enjoyed confusing children."
Jimin laughed. "A respectable hobby."
"She once convinced me mountains migrated during winter," Namjoon mirthfully shook his head.
Jungkook shot him a teasing smile. "Did you believe her?"
"For several years."
The group erupted immediately. Namjoon accepted their amusement with dignity.
Mostly.
"Children believe many strange things," he attempted to defend himself.
Yoongi sent him a dry look with underlying banter glint in his eyes. "Children generally stop believing mountains wander eventually."
"They remain difficult creatures. Perhaps they simply move carefully."
"You continue defending this absurdity remarkably well."
The night deepened gradually around all of you. At some point Seokjin produced pastries acquired from a traveling baker.
Nobody knew where he had hidden them.
Nobody questioned the miracle.
You shared pieces while sitting together beneath celestial lights.
Simple moments.
Ordinary moments.
The sort easily overlooked by outsiders.
Yet those moments mattered profoundly.
Because they existed despite everything.
Despite laws.
Despite threats.
Despite a world that would punish every person present for loving incorrectly.
Jungkook leaned against your shoulder and quietly pointed toward constellations overhead. "That one resembles Seokjin when somebody insults his cooking."
The younger simply shrugs. "We appreciate accuracy."
"You appreciate causing problems."
"Also true," Jungkook's grin widens.
The aurora continued dancing overhead. Hours seemed to slip away unnoticed and eventually the wind cooled further. The season's first hints of approaching autumn lingered within every breeze.
Suddenly, without meaning to, you turn your head and see Taehyung smiling, but there was a sadness beneath it, a wistfulness that spoke of things he had seen and could not unsee, of knowledge he carried that he could not share, and you felt a chill run down your spine that had nothing to do with the cold mountain air.
"There's something I want to show you," he said, and his voice was soft, softer than you had ever heard it, and there was a weight to his words that made you feel as though the ground beneath your feet had shifted, as though you were standing on the edge of something vast and unknowable.
Before you could ask what he meant, before you could form the questions that were already gathering on your tongue, he moved. His hands found your waist, and he lifted you onto his back with a fluid grace that spoke of countless repetitions, and you let out a startled yelp that dissolved into laughter as he began to run.
"Taehyung, what are you doing?" you demanded, your arms wrapping around his neck as he bounded down the slope with the effortless speed of a creature who had never known the limitations of human flesh. "You cannot just pick me up and run off into the night without at least some explanation!"
"I can," he said, and his voice was bright with laughter, lighter than you had heard it in weeks, and the sound of it made your heart soar despite the confusion and the fear and the thousand questions that still clamored for answers. "And I am. Hold on tight."
Behind you, you could hear the others reacting. "There he goes," Yoongi called.
"Do not kill her," Jin shouted. "I am serious."
"I would never," Taehyung teases.
"You literally just carried her away."
"That is different."
Jungkook laughed so hard he nearly doubled over.
Hoseok cupped his hands around his mouth. "Bring her back eventually!"
Taehyung casted a coquettish smile. "No promises."
"Kim Taehyung!" Jimin's indignant yell, carried across the hillside.
Namjoon's chuckle followed them all. "Do not get lost."
"We won't."
And soon their voices grew fainter as Taehyung put distance between you and them, his feet finding paths that you could not see, his body weaving through the trees with a grace that bordered on supernatural.
The wind roared in your ears, and your hair streamed behind you like a banner, and you pressed your face against his shoulder and laughed, laughed until your stomach ached and your eyes watered, laughed because you were alive and free and loved and because the stars above were dancing just for you.
At some point the trail narrowed suddenly and then widened. It occasionally curved sharply around enormous boulders weathered by centuries of storms.
After a short while, you've pretty much lost all sense of direction.
He ran for what felt like forever, down into the heart of the mountain where the air grew heavy with mist and the sound of water began to fill the silence, a low rumble that grew louder with every step until it became a roar that shook the very ground beneath you.
You lifted your head and saw it, a waterfall so vast that it seemed to stretch from the heavens themselves, its waters plunging into a pool so deep that you could not see the bottom, the mist rising in clouds that caught the starlight and turned it into rainbows that shimmered and faded and shimmered again. It was beautiful, impossibly beautiful, and it was also absolutely terrifying.
He plops you down on your feet, allowing you to bask in awe. The waterfall seemed impossibly old—sacred somehow—as though forgotten gods once gathered here.
Your eyes widened. “Taehyung.”
His grin looked almost boyish. “Beautiful, right?”
“How did you find this place?”
“That is a secret.”
“Taehyung.”
“A very important secret," he wiggles his eyebrows.
You folded your arms, while the man before you remained entirely unapologetic. The roar of falling water filled every available space. Mist settled across your skin. The air felt colder here, carrying traces of hidden depths and ancient stone.
He stopped at the edge of the cliff, his feet planted firmly on the slick rock, and he turned his head just enough to look at you over his shoulder. His eyes were bright, wild, filled with a joy that seemed to border on madness, and he smiled at you with all the warmth of a thousand suns. "Trust me," he said.
Those two words accomplished absolutely nothing helpful.
You narrow your eyes at him. "That statement usually arrives before terrible decisions occur."
"Trust me anyway," he adjusted his grip slightly.
Your stomach dropped, understanding arrived all at once. "Oh no."
His laugh rang across the gorge. "Oh yes."
"Taehyung."
"Trust me."
"Taehyung."
"We are already committed now."
You stare at him an incredulously. "We absolutely are not committed."
"We definitely are."
You opened your mouth, prepared several extremely reasonable arguments. But you never managed to voice any of them. Because Taehyung jumped.
A scream tore from your throat instantly, and as you both descended off the cliff, you heard Taehyung laughing.
Actually laughing.
Completely delighted.
The realization was absurd enough that your panic briefly collided with disbelief.
The fall was a lifetime and an instant, a plunge into darkness that stole your breath and your vision and your sense of self, the water rushing up to meet you with a force that felt like the hand of God reaching down to claim you.
The impact was brutal, cold and violent, the shock of it driving every molecule of air from your lungs as you were swallowed by the depths, the world dissolving into a chaos of bubbles and darkness and the terrible, crushing pressure of water pressing against you from all sides.
You did not know which way was up, did not know where the surface was, did not know if you would ever find it again, and panic clawed at your throat as your limbs began to thrash, your heavy dress dragging you down like chains wrapped around your ankles.
You were drowning.
Above, Taehyung broke through first, water streamed from dark hair as he inhaled sharply. Relief appeared immediately, then disappeared.
The quick realization that you were not beside him caused his smile vanished. “Y/N?”
The river answered with rushing water.
Taehyung turned quickly, searching. Expecting you to emerge, but you did not. And almost immediately, fear slammed into him.
“Y/N!” The second shout sounded different.
Sharper.
Desperate.
Still nothing.
Without hesitation, he dove again, dark water closed overhead. His enhanced vision cut through murky depths far better than any human's could. Still, terror clawed relentlessly through his chest.
His eyes scanned every direction simultaneously. Then he saw you. Your dress floated around you like heavy shadows. Your movements appeared slower now—weaker.
Taehyung surged forward, without hesitation.
A hand closed around your wrist. You felt the movement dimly, barely registering the contact before he propelled both of you upward.
Soon, you felt the pressure in your chest begin to ease as the darkness above you began to lighten, and then you broke through the surface with a gasp that was half cough, half sob, the cold air rushing into your lungs like a blessing.
The riverbank appeared moments later, Taehyung practically carried you from the water. Knees struck damp earth, as the cold air hit soaked clothing.
Your breathing remained uneven.
Everything hurt.
Everything spun.
But you were safe.
Taehyung's face was the first thing you saw. He was terrified.
His eyes were wide, his breath coming in ragged gasps, his hands cupping your face with a desperation that spoke of a fear so deep and so primal that it had stripped away all pretense, all composure, all the careful masks that he wore to hide the softness of his heart. It stopped every complaint in your head before it formed.
"Are you alright?" he demanded, and his voice cracked on the words, splintering like glass. "Can you breathe? Can you hear me? Please, please, say something, please—"
You opened your mouth with a small smile stretched on your lips. "I think my pride suffered permanent injuries."
The joke fell completely flat, not because it lacked quality. But because he looked genuinely shaken.
"I'm fine," you managed, and the words came out as a croak, but they were enough to make his shoulders sag with relief, enough to make him press his forehead against yours and close his eyes and breathe. "I'm fine, Tae. I'm okay."
"I am so sorry," he said, and his voice was barely a whisper, raw and broken and full of a guilt that cut deeper than any wound. "I should have warned you. I should have prepared you. I should never have—I saw the lights, and I wanted to show you, and I did not think, I did not consider, I am so sorry, I am so sorry—"
"Stop," you said, and you reached up to touch his face, your fingers tracing the lines of his jaw, the curve of his lips, the damp skin of his cheek. "Stop apologizing. I trusted you, and I still trust you, and I am fine. I am right here. I am not going anywhere."
He pulled you closer, his arms wrapping around you so tightly that you could barely breathe, but you did not mind, did not mind the cold or the fear or the lingering echoes of your panic, because he was holding you, and he was warm, and he was here.
He then withdrew back just enough to look at you, his eyes tracing your face as though he were memorizing every detail. Then, very slowly, with a tenderness that made your heart ache, he leaned forward and pressed his lips to your forehead.
Soft, lingering. Not passionate, not playful.
Relief—pure relief.
A grateful kiss.
A thankful kiss.
When he finally pulled back, his smile was the most beautiful thing you had ever seen. His forehead rested gently against yours, and both of your breathing gradually slowed.
"We're here," he said softly, and he tilted his head toward the waterfall, toward the curtain of water that plunged from the cliff above into the pool where you floated. "Behind the falls. There is a passage. A hidden place that no one knows about except for us."
You followed his gaze, and for the first time, you noticed the darkness behind the rushing water, the shadow that did not quite match the shadows of the rocks, the subtle shift in the air that spoke of a space where space should not exist. Your heart began to beat faster, not with fear this time, but with something that felt like anticipation, like hope, like the first stirrings of a story that had not yet been written.
"What is it?" you asked, and your voice was barely audible above the roar of the water.
Taehyung smiled, and there was a secret in that smile, a mystery that glimmered in his eyes like the first star of evening. "Come find out," he said, and he took your hand, and together, you began to walk towards the waterfall, toward the darkness, toward whatever lay waiting on the other side.
Taehyung's grip remained steady and sure despite the trembling that you could feel running through his fingers, and he pulled you forward into the darkness behind the falls with a determination that spoke of a destination he had visited a thousand times before, a path his feet knew better than the beating of his own heart.
The stone beneath your feet was slick with moss and moisture, worn smooth by centuries of water and wind and the passage of countless travelers whose names had long since been forgotten, and you stumbled once, twice, before Taehyung's arm wrapped around your waist and steadied you against his side, his breath warm against your ear as he whispered words of encouragement that you could barely hear over the roar of the water.
The tunnel stretched before you like the throat of some great beast, narrow and dark and filled with the sound of dripping water that echoed off the walls in patterns that seemed almost musical, almost deliberate, as though the cave itself was singing a song that had been written in the language of stone and time.
You could see nothing, your eyes straining against a darkness so complete that it felt like a physical weight pressing against your eyelids, but Taehyung moved with the confidence of a man who had no need of sight, his footsteps sure and steady against the uneven ground, his hand never once releasing its hold on yours.
The air grew warmer as you walked, the chill of the waterfall receding into something that felt almost like summer, and with the warmth came a smell, rich and earthy and sweet, the smell of flowers and grass and something that reminded you of bread baking in an oven, a memory so vivid and so unexpected that you felt your heart skip a beat in your chest.
"You can feel it, can you not?" Taehyung asked, and his voice was soft, almost reverent, as though he were speaking in the presence of something sacred. "The town. It has its own weather, its own seasons, its own heartbeat. The mountain protects it, keeps it warm even in the deepest winter, and the waterfall masks the sound and the light so that no one can find it from the outside. It has been hidden for as long as anyone can remember, and it will remain hidden for as long as there are Starborns left to guard its secrets."
"How long has it been here?" you asked, and your voice came out as a whisper, but Taehyung heard you anyway, his head turning slightly in the darkness so that you could just make out the silhouette of his profile against the faint, impossible glow that was beginning to appear ahead.
"Longer than the kingdoms that have risen and fallen in the valleys below," he said, and there was a weight to his words that made you feel as though you were standing on the edge of something vast and ancient, something that had existed long before you were born and would continue to exist long after you were gone.
"Longer than the stories that people tell about us, longer than the hatred that has driven us into hiding, longer than the memory of any living human. My great-grandmother was born here, and her great-grandmother before her, and her great-grandmother before her, stretching back to a time when the stars were closer to the earth and the veil between worlds was thin enough to walk through. This town is older than anything you have ever known, and it will outlast everything you have ever loved."
The words settled in your chest like stones dropped into still water, sending ripples of emotion through your body that you could not quite name. The walls of the tunnel fell away, and suddenly you were standing at the entrance to a valley that seemed to exist outside of time itself, a hidden pocket of the world that had been preserved in amber while the rest of humanity had marched forward into progress and destruction and forgetting.
The town spread out before you like a painting that had been left unfinished, its streets winding through clusters of stone buildings whose roofs were covered in moss and wildflowers, their windows dark and empty but somehow still warm, still welcoming, still holding the memory of the light that had once shone through them.
Cobblestones lined the main road, worn smooth by generations of footsteps, and between them, grass and weeds had pushed their way through the cracks, reclaiming the spaces that humans had carved out of the earth with a patience that only nature could possess.
Climbing ivy covered the walls of the buildings, their leaves shifting in a breeze that you could not feel, and wildflowers bloomed in riotous colors from every planter and windowsill, their petals swaying gently as though they were dancing to music that only they could hear.
Lantern hooks hung from the eaves of the roofs, rusted and empty, and from some of them, old wind chimes still dangled, their metal pipes clinking together in soft, melodic patterns that seemed to follow you as you walked, as though the town itself was welcoming you home.
You stepped forward, your feet carrying you onto the cobblestones without conscious thought, and Taehyung released your hand only to place his palm against the small of your back, guiding you gently forward as you took in the sight before you.
The buildings were beautiful in their decay, their stone walls weathered by centuries of wind and rain, their wooden doors warped and faded, their windows covered in a layer of dust that caught the golden light and turned it into something almost magical.
You passed a bakery, its sign still hanging above the door, the painted letters faded but still legible, and you could almost smell the bread that had once been baked inside, could almost hear the laughter of the customers who had gathered there each morning to share stories and gossip and the simple joy of breaking bread together.
Then, you passed a gathering hall, its doors thrown open to reveal a cavernous space filled with overturned tables and chairs, and you could imagine the celebrations that had once taken place there, the music and the dancing and the warmth of a community that had known nothing but each other.
"It was called Hwajeong," Taehyung said, and his voice was quiet, almost distant, as though he were speaking from a place far removed from the present moment.
"It means 'flower garden' in the old tongue, and it was named for the fields of wildflowers that bloomed in the valley every spring, fields that stretched from the edge of the town all the way to the base of the mountains in every direction. My grandmother used to tell me that the flowers were a gift from the stars, that they bloomed here because the soil was blessed, because the people who lived here were blessed, because this was a place where magic still remembered how to breathe."
"It is beautiful," you said, and the words felt inadequate, too small to contain the enormity of what you were feeling, but they were the only words you had, and you offered them to him like a gift, hoping that he would understand the depth of meaning that lay beneath them. "It is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, Taehyung. It is like stepping into a dream that I did not know I had been dreaming."
He smiled, but there was a sadness in his eyes that made your heart ache, a melancholy that seemed to have settled into his bones like a sickness that could never be cured.
"It was not always like this," he said, and he gestured toward one of the buildings, a small house with a blue door that had faded to a pale grey, its windows dark and empty.
"That was where Jungkook lived when he was a child, before his parents moved to the eastern edge of the town to be closer to the school. He used to climb onto the roof every evening to watch the stars, and his mother would scold him for it, would tell him that he would fall and break his neck, but he never did. He never fell. He was always too graceful for that, even when he was young."
As he spoke, you could see it, could see a young Jungkook with wild hair and scraped knees, his eyes bright with the impossible wonder of childhood, his small hands gripping the edge of the roof as he pulled himself up to watch the stars wheel overhead.
You could hear his laughter, high and clear and full of joy, and you could feel the love that had once filled this town, the warmth of a community that had understood each other in ways that humans could never understand, a family that had been bound together by blood and history and the shared weight of a world that had rejected them.
You walked further into the town, your footsteps echoing off the stone walls, and Taehyung pointed out each building with a tenderness that made your chest ache, sharing fragments of memories that had clearly been preserved with the care of someone who knew that they could never be replaced.
"That was the school," he said, gesturing toward a large building with a bell tower that still stood tall despite the ivy that had claimed its walls.
"I learned to read there, learned to write, learned to count the stars and name the constellations and understand the language of the winds. The teacher was an old woman named Hana, and she was the strictest person I have ever known, but she also had the kindest heart, and she would stay after class to help anyone who was struggling, would bring food to families who could not afford it, would sit with the sick and comfort the dying. She was the heart of this town, and when she passed, we buried her on the hill overlooking the valley, and we planted a tree at her grave so that she would always have shade."
You stopped in front of the school, your hand reaching out to touch the stone wall, the surface rough and cold beneath your fingers, and you closed your eyes, trying to feel the echoes of the children who had once filled these halls.
You could almost hear them, the sound of their laughter and their arguments and their songs, the shuffle of their feet against the wooden floors, the murmur of their voices as they recited lessons that had been passed down through generations.
This had been a place of learning, a place of growth, a place where young Starborns had been shaped into the people they would become, and now it was empty, silent, waiting for a future that might never come.
"That was the market square," Taehyung continued, leading you toward a wide open space surrounded by stalls that had once been filled with fruits and vegetables and fabrics and tools, their wooden frames now weathered and cracked, their canvas awnings torn and faded.
"Every morning, the vendors would set up their wares, and the town would come alive with the sound of haggling and laughter and the smell of fresh bread and roasted meat and spiced wine. Hoseok used to help his father at the vegetable stall, and he would always save the best apples for me, would slip them into my hands when no one was looking and pretend that he had not done anything."
"Yoongi's mother sold herbs and remedies, and she would give us pennyroyal tea when we were sick, would make us drink it even though it tasted like dirt and regret. Namjoon's father was the blacksmith, and he would let us watch him work, would show us how to shape metal with fire and hammer, would tell us stories about the weapons he had forged for warriors who had long since turned to dust," he explained, while his gaze was fixed ahead.
You could see them, all of them, the seven boys who had grown up in this town, the seven boys who had become the center of your world, and you could see the lives they had lived before the world had turned against them, before the hunters had come, before the fires had burned, before the town had been forced into hiding.
They had been children here, had run through these streets with scraped knees and wild laughter, had fallen in love for the first time in this square, had dreamed of futures that had been stolen from them by a world that had never wanted them to exist.
"That was the festival square," Taehyung said, leading you to a smaller square at the center of the town, where a fountain still stood, its water long since dried, its basin filled with fallen leaves and faded petals. "Every year, on the night of the winter solstice, we would gather here to celebrate the turning of the seasons, to light lanterns and release them into the sky, to dance and sing and feast until the sun rose over the mountains. It was the most beautiful night of the year, the night when the stars seemed closest to the earth, the night when even the oldest and grumpiest of us would smile and remember what it meant to be alive."
"Jungkook once climbed the fountain to try to catch a falling star," he added, the words came out before he could stop them, a fragment of a story that one of them had told you on a night much like this one.
You turned to look at him with an expression of surprise that was met with his smile, warm and bright and full of love. "He was convinced that if he caught one, it would grant him a wish, and he stood on the edge of the fountain with his arms outstretched for hours until his mother came to drag him home for dinner."
"That was a good night," Taehyung exhaled, his voice wistful. "Jimin cried because he thought the moon had disappeared, and Jin had to explain to him that it was only a crescent, that the moon was still there, that it was just hiding its face for a little while. He did not believe him, not until we took him to the top of the watchtower and showed him the sliver of silver hanging in the sky, and even then, he made us promise that the moon would come back, that it would never leave us forever."
You giggled at the memory as you both walked through the town for what felt like hours. Taehyung pointed out the house where Namjoon had grown up, a two-story building with a red door and a chimney that still stood tall, and he told you about the time that Namjoon had accidentally set the kitchen on fire while trying to cook dinner for his family, about the laughter that had followed, about the way that the town had come together to rebuild, about the warmth that had filled the streets that night.
He showed you the bridge where he and Yoongi had spent long afternoons skipping stones and sharing secrets, the watchtower where Hoseok had stood guard during the long nights of his youth, the small garden where Jin had grown vegetables that he had shared with the entire town, the hill where he and Jungkook had raced each other to the top every morning before school.
Each memory was a thread in a tapestry that was vast and beautiful and heartbreaking, a portrait of a community that had been built on love and trust and the shared understanding of what it meant to be different in a world that demanded conformity.
You could feel the weight of it pressing against your chest, could feel the grief that had settled into the stones of this town like water seeping through cracks, and you understood, finally, what Taehyung had been trying to show you.
This was not simply a hidden town, a refuge, a place of safety and concealment. This was home. This was where he had been shaped into the person that he was, where he had learned to love and to laugh and to dream, where he had built the foundations of a life that had been shattered by the cruelty of a world that had never understood him.
You stopped in front of a small house at the end of a winding street, its walls covered in climbing roses that had long since gone wild, their thorns thick and sharp, their petals scattered across the worn stone steps like offerings left for a forgotten god. The door was painted a deep blue, the same shade as the sky just before the stars begin to appear, and above it, a small wind chime hung from a rusted hook, its pipes still and silent in the stagnant air.
Taehyung did not speak, did not move, did not do anything except stand and stare at the house with an expression that you could not quite read, his eyes distant and his jaw tight, his hands clenched at his sides.
"This was where I grew up," he said finally, and his voice was barely a whisper, rough and raw and full of a pain that cut deeper than any wound you had ever seen. "This was where my mother and father lived, where my grandmother lived before them, where my great-grandmother lived before her. This was where I learned to walk, where I learned to speak, where I learned to dream. This was where I was loved, truly loved, in ways that I have never been able to describe, in ways that I have never been able to find again."
You stepped closer to him, your hand reaching out to touch his arm, and he flinched slightly before turning to look at you, his eyes shimmering with tears that he was fighting to hold back.
"Taehyung," you said, and your voice was soft, gentle, the kind of voice you used when you were trying to hold something precious and fragile. "What happened? What happened to this place?"
He opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it again, his gaze dropping to the ground, his shoulders sagging under the weight of a memory that he had been carrying for longer than you could imagine.
"Come with me," he said, and his voice was rough, raw, the voice of someone who had been holding back tears for far too long and was finally beginning to lose the battle.
He led you through the winding streets of Hwajeong, past the abandoned market stalls and the overgrown gardens and the silent fountains that had once been the heart of a thriving community, and you followed him without question, your feet finding their way across the cobblestones as though they had walked this path a thousand times before.
You climbed a narrow staircase that wound around the side of the crumbling watchtower, your hands gripping the cold stone railings as you ascended into the golden light that seemed to emanate from nowhere and everywhere at once, and when you reached the top, you understood why Taehyung had brought you here.
The view was breathtaking, a sprawling panorama of the hidden valley that stretched out beneath you like a tapestry woven from moonlight and memory, the rooftops of Hwajeong clustered together like children huddling for warmth.
The waterfall that concealed the entrance to the valley glittered on the far side of the town, its waters catching the light of the aurora and scattering it into a thousand shimmering fragments, and beyond it, the mountains rose like sentinels against the sky, their peaks crowned with snow that glowed with an ethereal blue light. It was beautiful, achingly beautiful, the kind of beauty that made you want to cry because it felt too precious to exist in a world that had proven itself so cruel.
Taehyung sat down on the edge of the tower, his legs dangling over the side, and he patted the space beside him, his eyes never leaving the horizon. You settled next to him, close enough that your shoulders touched, close enough that you could feel the warmth of his body seeping through the damp fabric of your clothes, and you waited, your heart beating a steady rhythm against your ribs, your breath slow and even, your presence a quiet offering of support that required no words to be understood.
"The reason this town exists," he began, and his voice was soft, almost inaudible, as though he were speaking more to himself than to you, "is because nowhere else would have us. Not as we were. Not as we are. The humans who lived in the kingdoms below, they built their walls and their laws and their gods around the idea that people like us should not exist, that we were mistakes, aberrations, corruptions of a natural order that had never accounted for our kind."
He paused, and you watched his hands as they gripped the edge of the stone, his knuckles white with tension, his fingers digging into the cracks as though he were trying to anchor himself to something solid. "We looked like them, you know. We still do. That was always the thing that frightened them the most, the fact that we could walk among them without being noticed, that we could live beside them and love beside them and build families beside them, and they would never know the difference unless we chose to show them."
He paused, as if trying to gather himself, then continued. "And when we did show them, when we trusted them enough to reveal who we truly were, they would turn on us. They would call us monsters. They would claim that we had deceived them, that we had tricked them into loving something that was not worthy of love, that we had corrupted their children and their traditions and their sacred way of life."
"They were wrong," you said, and the words came out with a force that surprised even you, sharp and clear and absolute, cutting through the golden air like a blade. "They were wrong about everything, Taehyung. Every single thing they believed about you, about your people, about the danger you supposedly represented, it was all built on fear and ignorance and a refusal to understand anything that did not fit into their narrow vision of the world."
He turned to look at you then, his eyes meeting yours for the first time since you had sat down, and there was something in his gaze that made your heart clench, a mixture of gratitude and sorrow and a hope so fragile that it seemed on the verge of shattering.
"I know that," he said, and his voice cracked slightly on the words. "I have always known that, in the deepest part of myself, the part that remembers what it felt like to be loved without condition, to be held without fear, to exist without having to apologize for the simple fact of my existence. But knowing something and feeling something are very different things, and there are days when the weight of what they have done to us presses down on my chest so heavily that I cannot breathe, cannot move, cannot remember what it felt like to be free."
You reached out and took his hand, your fingers intertwining with his, and you felt the tension in his body begin to ease, just slightly, just enough to let him continue. "Tell me," you said softly. "Tell me everything."
And so he did.
He told you about the persecution that had driven his ancestors into these mountains, about the burnings and the hangings and the drownings that had marked the history of his people like scars on a body that had never been allowed to heal.
He told you about the families that had been torn apart, the children who had been taken from their parents and raised in human households where they were forced to hide their true nature, the lovers who had been executed for the crime of loving someone who shared their blood and their starlight.
He told you about the laws that had been written specifically to punish Starborns for existing, about the taxes and the restrictions and the constant surveillance that had made life in the human kingdoms unbearable, about the way that even the kindest humans would eventually turn away, would cross the street to avoid them, would whisper behind their hands and pray for their souls as though they were already dead.
"There was a boy," he said, and his voice dropped to a whisper, barely audible above the distant sound of the waterfall. "His name was Minho, and he was my first friend, my first real friend, the first person who made me feel like I was not alone in the world. We grew up together, played together, dreamed together, and when we were old enough to understand what we were feeling, we fell in love. It was soft and sweet and innocent, the kind of love that only exists when you are young enough to believe that the world will make space for your happiness."
He stopped, and you could see the grief written across his face, could see the memory of that loss still fresh in his eyes even after all these years. "His family was discovered by the hunters when we were seventeen years old. They had been living in a small village on the edge of the kingdom, hiding in plain sight, pretending to be human, and someone had recognized them, had seen the way their eyes glowed on a night when the stars were particularly bright, had reported them to the authorities."
His lips began to tremble slightly. "They were taken in the middle of the night, his mother and father, his younger sister, his grandmother, all of them, dragged from their beds and thrown into a cart that would carry them to the capital for trial. Minho managed to escape, managed to run, managed to find his way back to Hwajeong, but he was never the same after that. The light in his eyes had been extinguished, and no matter how hard we tried, we could not bring it back."
"Where is he now?" you asked, though you were not certain you wanted to know the answer.
"He left," Taehyung answered, and his voice was heavy with a resignation that made your heart ache. "He could not bear to stay in a place that reminded him of everything he had lost, so he went north, beyond the mountains, to a land where the stars shine differently and the humans have never heard of the Starborn. I have not heard from him in over a decade, and I do not know if he is alive or dead, happy or broken, surrounded by love or drowning in solitude. I only know that he was the first person I ever loved, and that I lost him to a world that was never willing to let us exist in peace."
He fell silent, and you did not push him to continue, did not fill the space between you with empty words or platitudes that would mean nothing in the face of such profound loss. Instead, you shifted closer to him, your body pressing against his side, your head coming to rest on his shoulder, and you let the silence speak for you, let your presence say everything that words could not adequately express.
The aurora continued its slow dance above you, painting the sky in shades of green and purple and blue, and the town below you slept its eternal sleep, its streets empty, its windows dark, its stories waiting for someone to remember them.
"There is something I have never told you," Taehyung said after a long moment, and his voice was so quiet that you almost missed it, almost let it slip away into the golden air like a secret that was never meant to be spoken. "Something I have been carrying with me since the night we first met, something that has weighed on my heart every single day that I have known you."
You lifted your head to look at him, your eyes searching his face for clues, for hints of what he was about to say, but his expression was unreadable, his gaze fixed on some distant point beyond the mountains, beyond the valley, beyond the world itself.
"What is it?" you asked, and your voice was barely a whisper, as though speaking too loudly might shatter the fragile moment that had settled around you like a blanket of starlight.
"I never wanted you to see this place," he said, and the words came out in a rush, as though he had been holding them back for so long that they had finally broken through the dam of his restraint.
"I was afraid, so afraid, that bringing you here would change the way you looked at me, would make you see me as something broken, something damaged, something that needed to be fixed or pitied or saved. I was afraid that you would walk through these streets and see only the tragedy, only the loss, only the emptiness, and that you would forget that there was joy here too, that there was love and laughter and life, that this was not just a graveyard of forgotten dreams but a home, a real home, a place where I was happy once."
His voice cracked, and you could see the tears gathering in his eyes, could see the way his jaw clenched as he fought to keep them from falling, the way his hands trembled as he gripped the edge of the stone tower. "I was afraid that you would look at me and see all the ways that the world had hurt me, and that you would decide that I was too much, too heavy, too complicated, too broken to love. I was afraid that you would leave."
The words hit you like a physical blow, sharp and unexpected, and you felt your own eyes sting with tears as you reached up to cup his face in your hands, turning his head so that he was forced to meet your gaze.
"Taehyung," you said, and your voice was fierce, fierce and tender and full of a love that burned so brightly that it seemed to light up the darkness around you.
"I am not going anywhere. I have never been going anywhere. I chose you, and I chose all of you, and I made that choice knowing exactly what it meant, knowing the risks and the dangers and the very real possibility that loving you could cost me everything I have ever known. And I made that choice because you are worth it. All seven of you are worth it. Every single moment of fear, every sleepless night, every stolen second of happiness, it has all been worth it because I love you, and I will keep loving you for as long as this world continues to turn."
He stared at you, his eyes wide and shimmering, and you could see the walls that he had built around his heart beginning to crumble, could see the vulnerability that he had kept hidden for so long rising to the surface like water breaking through a dam.
"You do not understand," he whispered, and his voice was raw, broken, desperate. "If anyone finds out about us, if anyone discovers that a human woman is meeting with seven Starborn in the mountains, they will kill you. They will hang you in the village square, or they will burn you at the stake, or they will simply make you disappear, and no one will ever speak your name again. And it will be my fault. It will be our fault. We will have destroyed you simply by loving you."
"Then let them try," you said, and the words came out with a calm certainty that surprised even you, a steel that you had not known you possessed. "Let them come for me with their ropes and their flames and their righteous fury, and I will stand before them and tell them that I loved you, that I love you still, that I will love you until the very last breath leaves my body and beyond. They can take my life, but they will never take my love, because my love belongs to you, and you belong to me, and nothing that they do will ever change that."
He broke then, the tears that he had been holding back finally spilling over and tracing silver paths down his cheeks, and he pulled you into his arms with a desperation that spoke of a loneliness so deep and so vast that it had become a part of his very soul.
You held him as he cried, your hands running through his hair, your voice murmuring soft reassurances against his ear, and you felt the weight of his grief and his fear and his love pressing against you, heavy and warm and real, and you held it all, held it without flinching, held it because that was what love meant, holding the things that were too heavy for one person to carry alone.
When his tears finally began to subside, he pulled back just enough to look at you, his eyes red and swollen, his cheeks still damp, and he let out a shaky breath that seemed to carry away some of the pain that had been festering inside him for so long.
"I love you," he said, and the words were simple, but they carried the weight of everything he had just shared, everything he had trusted you with, everything he had given you by allowing you to see him at his most vulnerable. "I love you more than I have ever loved anyone, more than I thought it was possible to love another person, and I am so grateful that you exist, that you chose us, that you stayed."
"Of course I stayed," you said, and you smiled at him, a soft, tremulous smile that held all the tenderness and devotion that you felt in your heart. "I could never leave you. You are my home, Taehyung. All of you are my home. And I will never stop choosing you, not for as long as I draw breath."
He then leaned forward and kissed you. The initial contact is soft and gentle, a mere ghost of a touch that tastes of hesitation and a profound, aching affection. Taehyung’s breath catches quietly against your lips, and for a few timeless moments, he kisses you back with a careful tenderness that treats you like something precious and fragile.
However, the sweetness of the moment quickly begins to shift, the air between you thickening with a sudden, electric charge that neither of you can ignore. The gentle presses of your lips evolve into something deeper, more urgent, as the kiss transforms from a quiet promise into a desperate demand.
You find yourself tilting your head, seeking more of him, your fingers curling into the heavy fabric of his tunic to pull him closer. Taehyung lets out a low, guttural groan deep in his chest, a sound of pure surrender that vibrates through your own body and sends a shiver of heat down your spine.
He begins to move, his weight shifting as he slowly presses you back further away from the edge and against the stone below, his body hovering over yours with a heavy, commanding presence. As he settles between your legs, the friction of his thighs against yours sparks a fire that makes you gasp into his mouth, your breath mingling with his in a frantic rhythm.
He isn't rushing, but there is a new, predatory hunger in the way he claims your lips, his tongue sweeping against yours in a slow, rhythmic dance that leaves you lightheaded.
“You’re testing every ounce of my control, my love,” he murmurs against your skin, his voice a rough, velvet rasp that makes your toes curl. You let out a soft, needy moan, arching your back to bring your chest closer to his, feeling the frantic thrum of his heart echoing your own.
His hands, previously so hesitant, begin to wander with a bold curiosity, tracing the curves of your waist and the swell of your hips. He navigates the complex layers of your gown, his palms sliding over the heavy linen and silk that separate your skin from the cool night air.
With a low growl of longing, he slips his hands beneath the voluminous folds of your skirts, his fingers brushing against the sensitive skin of your thighs. He doesn't push further, instead choosing to caress the soft flesh of your inner thighs with a slow, agonizing pressure that makes you whimper.
Taehyung is trembling now, his muscles taut and strained as he fights the instinct to lose himself entirely in the heat of the moment. He shifts his hips, grinding slowly and deliberately against you, letting you feel the hard, insistent length of his cock pressing through the fabric of his trousers. The sensation is overwhelming, a delicious torture that has both of you breathing in ragged, uneven gasps.
"I want you so badly it hurts, but I want to savor every single second of this," he groans, his voice thick with a desperate, aching need. He continues to grind against you in small, circular motions, a silent testament to the desire he is struggling to hold back for the sake of the tenderness between you.
You wrap your legs around his waist, pulling him tighter against you, your moans becoming more frequent as the tension reaches a breaking point. The kiss becomes a battle of wills, a heated exchange of tongues and teeth that speaks of a love that is as violent as it is soft.
Suddenly, he then pulls back, his breath coming in ragged gasps, his eyes dark with desire and something softer, something that looked almost like wonder.
"But I also want to hold you," he said, and his voice softened, the urgency fading into a tenderness that made your heart swell. "I want to lie here with you in my arms and watch the stars and feel your heartbeat against mine and know that you are real, that this is real, that we have this moment and no one can take it away from us."
You nodded, not trusting your voice, and he shifted his weight, lying down beside you and pulling you against his chest, his arm wrapping around your waist, his chin resting on top of your head.
You lay together on the roof of the watchtower, the stones warm beneath you, letting yourself sink into the safety of his embrace, let yourself believe, just for a moment, that nothing could ever hurt you as long as you were here, as long as you were held, as long as you were loved.
His hand found yours, his fingers intertwining with yours, and he pressed a kiss to the top of your head, soft and tender and full of a gratitude that words could never adequately express.
"Thank you," he whispered against your hair, and his voice was quiet, peaceful, the voice of someone who had finally found a place where they could rest. "Thank you for loving me—us. Thank you for seeing me. Thank you for staying."
You smiled against his chest, your eyes closing, your body relaxing into the warmth of his embrace, and you let the sound of his heartbeat lull you into a state of peaceful contentment that you had not felt in what seemed like an eternity.
"Always," you whispered back, and the word was a promise, a vow, a declaration of devotion that you would spend the rest of your life proving. "Always, Taehyung. Always."
The aurora continued its slow dance above you, the town slept its eternal sleep below you, and for one brief, fragile, beautiful moment, you allowed yourself to believe that everything would be alright, that the world would let you have this, that the happiness you had found in the arms of seven people who loved you more than you had ever thought possible would be allowed to last.
You both laid there limbs tangled together for a while. The night was yours, the stars were yours, and the love that burned between you was a flame that no amount of hatred or fear or cruelty could ever extinguish.
But then, suddenly, the voices broke the quiet night.
They were distant at first, so faint that you might have mistaken them for the echo of your own heartbeat or the whisper of the wind through the empty streets, but Taehyung's body went rigid beneath you, his arms tightening around your waist with a sudden, instinctive tension that made your eyes snap open and your breath catch in your throat.
He was listening, his head tilted slightly, his eyes fixed on some unseen point in the darkness beyond the edge of the watchtower, and you could feel the change in him, the way his muscles had coiled like springs, the way his breathing had become shallow and controlled, the way his entire being had shifted from a state of restful contentment to one of sharp, focused alertness.
The voices grew louder, carrying on the night air with a clarity that made your stomach drop, and you could hear laughter now, rough and raucous and utterly foreign, the laughter of men who had no business being in a place that was never meant to be found.
"What is it?" you whispered, but even as the words left your lips, you knew the answer, knew it with a certainty that settled into your bones like ice water seeping through cracks in a dam.
The voices were human, unmistakably human, and they were coming from somewhere below, somewhere within the boundaries of the hidden town, somewhere that should have been impossible for any outsider to reach without knowing the exact path through the waterfall and the tunnel and the winding passages that had been designed to keep this place secret for centuries.
Taehyung did not answer you immediately; instead, he shifted his body, moving with a silent, fluid grace that reminded you of a predator preparing to strike, and he peered over the edge of the watchtower, his eyes scanning the streets below with a focus so intense that it seemed to burn through the darkness itself.
"There are five of them," he said finally, and his voice was low, barely more than a breath, but it carried a weight of dread that made your heart clench in your chest. "They are carrying torches and tools, iron bars and hammers and spikes, and they are walking through the main square as though they own this place, as though they have every right to be here."
"Who are they?" you asked, and you hated the way your voice trembled, hated the way your hands had begun to shake, hated the way that fear had crept into the spaces where peace had lived only moments before. "How did they find this place? How did they know it existed?"
Taehyung's jaw tightened, and you could see the muscles in his neck straining as he fought to control the emotions that were clearly surging through him, a storm of fear and fury and a protectiveness so fierce that it seemed to radiate from his skin like heat from a forge.
"I do not know how they found it," he said, and his voice was rough, strained, the voice of a man who was holding himself back from doing something that he would not be able to undo. "Only Starborn know about Hwajeong, only those who were born here or who were brought here by someone they trusted with their lives. This place has been hidden for centuries, protected by the mountain and the waterfall and the silence of those who understood what would happen if it was discovered. But someone must have spoken. Someone must have betrayed us."
The men continued wandering. They looked less like visitors and more like scavengers surveying a battlefield.
One struck a stone wall with his hammer experimentally, the impact echoed through the square. "You think the captain will pay extra if we bring proof?"
"He said anything connected to Starborn filth earns compensation."
"Good."
Another man grinned broadly. "The fewer of them left breathing, the safer honest people become."
The word hung in the air between you like a blade suspended by a single thread, heavy with implications that neither of you wanted to examine too closely, and you felt the weight of it pressing down on your chest as Taehyung began to move, his body shifting into a crouch, his eyes fixed on the distant glow of the torches that were now moving through the streets below.
"I have to stop them," he said, and his voice was flat, final, the voice of someone who had already made a decision that no argument could change. "I have to drive them out of here before they can do any damage, before they can find anything that would confirm their suspicions, before they can report back to whoever sent them."
He began to stand, his muscles coiling with the intention of movement, but your hand shot out and grabbed his arm before he could rise, your fingers digging into his skin with a desperation that surprised even you.
"Wait," you said, and the word came out sharp, urgent, cutting through the air like a command that demanded to be heard. "Wait, Taehyung, you cannot just go down there and confront them, you cannot just reveal yourself to five armed men who clearly came here with the intention of causing harm, you cannot—"
"I can," he said, and he turned to look at you, his eyes blazing with a fire that seemed to consume the darkness around them. "I can, and I will. This is my home, my history, my people's legacy, and I will not stand by while these humans defile it with their torches and their hatred and their ignorance. If they want to destroy Hwajeong, they will have to go through me first."
"Which is exactly what they want!" you said, and your voice cracked with the force of your fear, your hands reaching up to cup his face, forcing him to meet your gaze, forcing him to see the terror that was written across your features.
"Taehyung, listen to me. They came here looking for Starborn. They came here with weapons and torches and the clear intention of causing destruction. If you go down there and reveal yourself, they will attack you, and even if you manage to defeat them, even if you manage to survive, they will go back to their villages and their towns and their kingdoms, and they will tell everyone that they found a Starborn in the hidden town. They will return with more men, more weapons, more hatred, and they will burn this place to the ground with you inside it."
"Then what would you have me do?" he demanded, and his voice was raw, agonized, the voice of a man who was being torn apart by the impossible choice between protecting his heritage and protecting himself. "Stand here and watch them destroy everything that my ancestors built? Watch them tear down the homes where my friends grew up, where my family lived, where I learned what it meant to be loved? I cannot do that. I cannot."
"No," you said, and you felt your own tears beginning to gather, felt the burn of them behind your eyes. "No, you cannot stand here and watch them destroy everything. But you also cannot go down there and get yourself killed. Let me go."
The words hung in the air between you, fragile and terrifying and utterly impossible, and Taehyung's reaction was immediate and visceral, his eyes widening with a horror that seemed to drain all the color from his face.
"Absolutely not," he said, and his voice was sharp, final, brooking no argument. "There is no world in which I allow you to walk into a group of armed, hostile humans who have come here specifically to find and harm people like me. There is no world in which I let you risk your life for this."
"If they see me, they will see a girl," you said, and you kept your voice steady, kept your gaze locked with his, as your heart raced with a fear that threatened to consume you whole. "Just a girl, a human girl, someone who wandered into this valley by accident, someone who got lost in the mountains and found shelter behind the waterfall. They will not suspect anything. They might even listen to me, might believe me when I tell them that this place is empty, that there is nothing here worth destroying, that they should turn around and leave before they waste any more of their time."
"And if they do not listen?" Taehyung asked, and his voice cracked on the words, splintering like glass under pressure. "If they decide that a young woman wandering alone in an abandoned Starborn town is suspicious, if they decide to question you further, if they decide to hurt you, if they decide to—"
He stopped, unable to finish the sentence, as he stepped closer, forehead nearly touching yours. "Please."
The word nearly shattered your resolve.
"Please do not do this, darling," his voice sounded fragile, terrified. "We will find another way."
You wished there was another way. You truly did. But the town mattered. The memories mattered.
And if there was even the smallest chance of avoiding violence—you had to try. You touched his cheek gently, the familiar gesture steadied neither of you. "I am choosing this."
"I do not want you choosing this."
A weak smile touched your lips. "I noticed."
"This is not funny."
"I know."
Silence stretched, heavy and painful.
You looked toward the valley, then back toward Taehyung. "This place deserves someone trying." The words emerged softly, his eyes closed briefly, like the statement physically hurt.
You brushed your thumb across his cheek, smiling wistfully. "Worst case, they refuse listening."
"Worst case is not remotely that simple."
"You know what I mean."
"I do."
"Then trust me."
"I do trust you," he said, and his voice was thick with emotion, his hands clutching at your back as though he were afraid that you would slip through his fingers like water. "I trust you with my life, with my heart, with everything that I am and everything that I have ever been. But I also know what humans are capable of, I know the cruelty that lives in their hearts, I know the things they have done to my people simply for existing, and the thought of them turning that cruelty on you, of them hurting you because of their hatred for me, is a thought that I cannot bear to hold in my mind for even a single moment."
"Then let me give you something else to hold," you said, and you took his face in your hands, forcing him to meet your eyes, forcing him to see the certainty that burned within you, the absolute, unwavering conviction that this was the right choice, the only choice, the choice that would keep all of you alive. "Let me go down there and talk to them, let me buy us time, let me try to reason with them before we resort to violence. Please, please let me try this first."
He stared at you for a long moment, his eyes searching yours with an intensity that seemed to pierce through every layer of pretense and doubt, and you could see the war that was raging within him, the battle between his fear and his trust, his protectiveness and his love.
Finally, his shoulders sagged, and he let out a breath that seemed to carry the weight of the world with it, and he pressed his forehead against yours and closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, the expression crossing his face looked painful. Like surrender. Like compromise forced unwillingly. "If anything goes wrong, I intervene immediately."
You nodded.
"If anyone threatens you, I intervene immediately."
You nodded again.
"If anyone touches you, I intervene immediately."
"Tae—"
"No." His voice sharpened, unexpectedly fierce. "No negotiation regarding that condition."
You studied him quietly, the terror beneath his determination remained obvious. He hated this plan. Every part of it.
Yet he understood your reasoning.
Eventually you nodded. "Fine."
He kissed you then, a kiss that was desperate and tender and full of promise, the kiss of someone who was memorizing the feel of your lips against his in case it turned out to be the last time.
"Be careful," he said, and the words were simple, but they carried the weight of a thousand prayers, a thousand wishes, a thousand hopes that you would return to him unharmed.
"I will," you said, and you pressed one last kiss to his lips before you stood, your legs shaky but your resolve firm, and you made your way down the winding staircase of the watchtower, your heart pounding so loudly that you were certain the men below would hear it before they ever saw you.
The golden light of the hidden valley seemed to dim as you descended, the warmth of the air giving way to a chill that settled into your bones, and you stepped out onto the cobblestone streets of Hwajeong with a courage that you did not quite feel, a bravery that was borrowed from the love that burned within you, a determination that came from knowing that you were protecting something precious, something sacred, something worth fighting for.
The men saw you the moment you rounded the corner of the old bakery, their torches flaring in the darkness as they turned to face you, their expressions shifting from surprise to suspicion to something that looked almost like amusement.
There were five of them, as Taehyung had said, and they were exactly the kind of men that you would have expected to find in a place like this, rough and weathered, their clothes stained with dirt and sweat, their hands calloused from labor and violence, their eyes bright with the cruel gleam of those who had come here expecting to find something to hate.
The leader of the group, a tall man with a scar running down the side of his face and a beard that was streaked with grey, stepped forward, his torch held high, his gaze sweeping over you with a scrutiny that made your skin crawl.
"Well, well, well," he said, and his voice was rough, rasping, the voice of a man who had spent too many years shouting over the noise of crowded taverns and crowded battlefields. "What do we have here? A little bird, lost in the dark, all alone in a place that no good Christian soul has any business being."
"I could ask you the same question," you said, and you were proud of how steady your voice sounded, how calm, how entirely in control. "This valley is not marked on any map, and the path here is hidden behind a waterfall that no one would ever think to cross unless they knew exactly what they were looking for. So I have to wonder, gentlemen, what brings five armed men to a place that was clearly never meant to be found?"
The man with the scar laughed, a low, ugly sound that echoed off the stone walls of the surrounding buildings, and he exchanged a glance with one of his companions, a younger man with a thin face and eyes that were too close together. "What brings us here is the knowledge that this place was once a nest of starborn filth, a den of those sky-touched abominations that should have been wiped from the face of the earth centuries ago."
He continued. "We heard rumors, whispers, stories about a hidden town where the star-biters used to gather, where they used to practice their unnatural ways and spread their corruption like a disease. We came to see if the rumors were true, and if they were, we came to make sure that nothing remains of this place but ashes and memory."
Your blood ran cold at his words, at the casual cruelty with which he spoke of an entire people, at the hatred that dripped from every syllable like poison from a fang, but you kept your face neutral, kept your voice calm, kept your hands steady at your sides even as your heart raced with a fury that threatened to consume you.
"I do not know what you are talking about," you said, and you injected a note of confusion into your voice, the bewilderment of someone who had stumbled into a situation that they did not understand. "I found this place by accident, while I was gathering herbs in the mountains. I have not seen any sign of anyone living here, not for a very long time. The buildings are empty, the streets are overgrown, and the only creatures I have encountered are the birds and the deer and the wildflowers that have reclaimed the gardens. There is nothing here worth destroying."
"Nothing worth destroying?" the thin-faced man repeated, and his voice was high and mocking, dripping with derision. "You stand in the heart of a starborn sanctuary, a place where those void-spawned monsters gathered to plot and scheme and spread their perversion, and you have the audacity to tell us that there is nothing worth destroying?"
"Every stone in this town is a monument to their defiance, every wall a testament to their refusal to accept their rightful place in the natural order. They thought they could hide from us, thought they could build a little paradise where they could live in peace, away from the judgment of decent, god-fearing people. But we found them then, and we will find them again, and we will burn every last one of them until the stars themselves weep blood," he spits blatantly.
Your hands clenched into fists at your sides, and you felt a rage building within you, a white-hot fury that threatened to spill over into words that you would not be able to take back, but you forced yourself to breathe, forced yourself to remember why you were here, forced yourself to focus on the goal of getting these men to leave without violence.
"I do not know anything about Starborn," you said, and you kept your voice level, kept your gaze steady, kept every muscle in your body perfectly still. "I am just a girl who got lost in the mountains and found shelter in an abandoned town. If you are looking for something to destroy, you should look somewhere else, because there is nothing here except empty buildings and old memories."
"You are either very brave or very foolish," the scarred man said, and he took a step closer to you, his torch casting flickering shadows across his face that made him look like something out of a nightmare. "Or perhaps you are lying. Perhaps you know exactly what this place is, and perhaps you are trying to protect the starborn scum who used to live here. Perhaps you are one of those sympathizers, those corrupted souls who have been seduced by their unnatural ways, who have chosen to stand with the monsters instead of with your own kind."
"I am not a sympathizer," you said, and the words tasted like ash in your mouth, a lie that burned on your tongue even as you spoke it. "I am just a girl who wants to go home. And I think that you and your men should do the same, before you waste any more of your time searching for something that does not exist."
The thin-faced man laughed again, and his voice was cruel, sharp, cutting through the night air like a blade. "You think we are fools, girl? You think we do not know what we are looking for? We have been tracking these sky-whore settlements for years, following the trails that they leave behind, the scraps of their existence that they think they have hidden so well."
The smile that stretched on his lips made you feel sick. "We know this place was a breeding ground for their corruption, a nursery where they raised their young to hate us, to fear us, to believe that they were superior to us simply because they were born with starlight in their blood. And we know that there are still Starborn out there, hiding in the shadows, waiting for the moment when they think it is safe to emerge and continue their campaign of corruption."
Your heart was pounding so hard that you could feel it in your throat, could feel the pulse of it throbbing behind your eyes as you stood before these men, listening to them spew hatred that was older than any of them, hatred that had been passed down through generations like a sacred heirloom, hatred that would never be reasoned with, never be persuaded, never be turned aside by the words of a single girl who had stumbled into a place that she was never meant to find.
You thought of Taehyung, hidden in the shadows of the watchtower, his body coiled and ready, his eyes burning with a fury that matched your own, and you felt a surge of love so powerful that it nearly brought you to your knees.
"You know what I think?" you said, and your voice was quiet, but it carried a weight that made the men fall silent, made them turn to look at you with a new kind of attention, a new kind of wariness. "I think you are cowards. I think you travel in groups and carry torches and weapons because you are too afraid to face the world alone, too afraid to confront the possibility that the people you have been taught to hate are no different from you, too afraid to admit that the only thing that separates you from them is the accident of your birth."
"You call them monsters, but you are the ones who came here with hammers and spikes, ready to tear down buildings that never did you any harm, ready to destroy the memory of a people who only wanted to live in peace."
The scarred man's face darkened, his eyes narrowing into slits as he took another step toward you, his grip tightening on the torch in his hand. "You have a sharp tongue for someone who is standing alone in a town full of enemies," he said, and his voice was low, dangerous, the voice of a man who was used to being feared and did not appreciate being challenged. "I would advise you to choose your next words very carefully."
But you were done choosing your words carefully, done playing the role of the lost and helpless girl, done pretending that you did not know the truth of what these men were and what they intended to do. You had tried reason, had tried persuasion, had tried every approach that you could think of, and they had refused every single one because they had never come here to listen, had never come here to be convinced, had never come here for anything other than destruction.
"No," you said, and your voice was clear and steady and filled with a contempt that you no longer had any reason to hide. "I think I have said exactly what I wanted to say. I think you are a group of small-minded, hateful men who have nothing better to do with your lives than terrorize the memory of a people who have already suffered more than you could ever imagine."
You scoffed, shooting them a mocking smirk. "I think you are pathetic, and I think that if you had ever actually encountered a Starborn, you would have run away with your tails between your legs, because despite all your talk of purity and order and the natural way of things, you are nothing but bullies who prey on the weak and the defenseless."
The thin-faced man's face twisted with rage, and he took a step forward, his hand reaching for the hammer that was tucked into his belt, but the scarred man held up a hand, stopping him with a gesture that was almost casual. "You are either the bravest woman I have ever met or the most foolish," he said, and there was something in his voice that made your blood run cold, a quiet, calculating malice that was far more dangerous than the open anger of his companion. "But either way, you have made a very serious mistake. You have chosen to stand with the monsters, and that makes you a monster too."
He took another step toward you, and you saw his hand move to the hilt of the knife at his belt, saw the gleam of metal in the torchlight, saw the smile that curled across his lips like a scar spreading across flesh. And in that moment, you knew that there was nothing more you could say, nothing more you could do, nothing that would stop these men from doing exactly what they had come here to do.
Behind you, hidden in the shadows of the watchtower, you heard a sound that was barely audible, the creak of stone shifting under the weight of a body that was preparing to move, and you knew that Taehyung had seen everything, had heard everything, had reached the limit of his restraint. The scarred man's hand closed around the handle of his knife, and he began to draw it from its sheath, his eyes never leaving your face, his smile growing wider with every inch of exposed steel.
And then everything happened at once.
The impact of your body against the stone wall sent a shockwave of pain through your entire skeletal structure, a violent explosion of agony that radiated from your shoulder blades to the tips of your fingers and the base of your skull, and you felt the air leave your lungs in a rush that left you gasping, choking, struggling to draw breath into a chest that had been emptied by the force of the collision.
The world spun around you in a blur of torchlight and shadow, the cobblestones rising up to meet your palms as you caught yourself before you could collapse completely, and you tasted blood in your mouth, copper and salt and the sharp, metallic tang of fear that coated your tongue like a poison.
The scarred man stood over you, his knife drawn, his eyes gleaming with a cruelty that seemed to have no bottom, no limit, no end, and he was laughing, a low, rumbling sound that echoed off the stone walls of the abandoned buildings that surrounded you.
"You should have kept your mouth shut, girl," he said, and his voice was oily, satisfied, the voice of someone who enjoyed the suffering of others in ways that spoke of a deep and fundamental brokenness within his soul. "You should have remembered your place. But do not worry; we will make sure that you learn it, one way or another."
He reached down to grab you again, his fingers closing around the collar of your dress, and you braced yourself for another impact, another explosion of pain, another moment of helplessness in the face of his casual brutality.
But before he could lift you, before he could throw you again, a sound cut through the night like a blade through silk, a sound that was low and dangerous and filled with a fury so immense that it seemed to shake the very foundations of the hidden town.
"Get your hands off her."
The voice was Taehyung's, but it was not the Taehyung you knew, not the soft, tender man who had held you on the watchtower and whispered promises against your hair, not the playful, laughing spirit who had carried you through the mountains and jumped with you into the unknown depths of the waterfall.
This was a voice that had been forged in the fires of a thousand sorrows, a voice that carried the weight of centuries of persecution and pain and the desperate, unyielding determination to protect the people he loved, no matter the cost.
The scarred man froze, his head snapping up, his eyes widening as he took in the figure that had emerged from the shadows of the watchtower, a figure that seemed to be made of darkness and starlight and barely contained violence.
Taehyung stepped into the circle of torchlight, his hands clenched into fists at his sides, his jaw tight, his eyes blazing with a fire that seemed to burn through the very air around him. He was not running, not charging, not attacking; he was walking, each step deliberate and measured and filled with a menace that made the men instinctively take a step back, their hands moving to their weapons, their faces shifting from amusement to something that looked very much like fear.
"Well, well, well," the scarred man said, and there was a tremor in his voice that he was clearly trying to hide, a quaver that betrayed the unease that had settled into his bones. "It seems that the rumors were true after all. There is still Starborn filth hiding in these mountains, still star-biters crawling out of the shadows to protect their little nest of corruption."
Taehyung did not respond to the taunt, did not acknowledge the slur that had been thrown at him like a stone aimed at a wound that had never fully healed. His eyes were fixed on you, on the blood that was trickling from a cut on your lip, on the way you were holding your arm against your chest as though it had been injured in the fall, on the fear that you were trying so desperately to hide behind a mask of calm determination.
He took a step toward you, his hand reaching out, his mouth opening to speak, but the scarred man stepped between you, blocking his path, and the thin-faced man moved to flank him, their torches held high, their weapons drawn.
"Where do you think you are going, star-spawn?" the thin-faced man said, and his voice was high and mocking, filled with a contempt that seemed to have no source other than the simple, unshakeable belief that he was better than the man standing before him.
"You do not get to walk up to her, do not get to touch her, do not get to pretend that you have any right to be near a decent human woman. She is coming with us, and you are going to watch, and then you are going to die."
Taehyung's gaze finally shifted from you to the men who stood between you, and something in his expression changed, a coldness settling over his features like a mask carved from ice, his eyes becoming flat and distant and utterly, terrifyingly empty.
He did not speak, did not warn, did not offer them any chance to reconsider; he simply moved, and the world seemed to blur around him as he closed the distance between himself and the thin-faced man faster than any human should have been able to move, his fist connecting with the man's jaw with a sound like a hammer striking stone, the force of the impact lifting the man off his feet and sending him crashing into the wall of the old bakery with a sickening crunch of bone against stone.
The other men reacted instantly, their training or their instinct or their cowardice driving them to action, and they surged forward as one, their clubs and hammers swinging, their torches cutting arcs of fire through the darkness. But Taehyung was already moving, his body flowing through their attacks like water through the cracks in a dam, his movements too fast to follow, too precise to anticipate, too powerful to withstand.
He caught the arm of a man who had been about to bring a hammer down on his skull, twisted it with a force that made the bones audibly snap, and drove his elbow into the man's throat with a precision that spoke of years of practice and a level of skill that no human could hope to match.
The man collapsed, gagging, clutching at his neck, and Taehyung turned to face the next attacker without pausing, without hesitating, without showing any sign that he had even registered the man's existence beyond the necessity of neutralizing the threat he represented.
You pushed yourself to your feet, your body screaming in protest, your arm throbbing with a pain that made you want to curl into a ball and weep, but you forced yourself to move, forced yourself to think, forced yourself to find some way to help.
A torch had fallen from one of the men's hands and had rolled against the wooden frame of an old market stall, the dry, weathered timber beginning to catch, a thin curl of smoke rising into the golden air of the hidden valley.
You ran toward it, stamping on the flames with your boots, beating at them with your hands, ignoring the pain as the heat seared your palms, and you managed to extinguish the fire before it could spread, before it could claim another piece of the town that Taehyung had entrusted to you to protect.
Behind you, the sounds of the fight continued, grunts and cries and the wet, terrible thuds of fists meeting flesh, and you turned to see Taehyung facing the last two men, the scarred leader and another man who had been hanging back, watching, waiting for an opportunity to strike.
The scarred man was bleeding from a cut above his eye, his lip split, his movements becoming slower, more desperate, as he realized that he was outmatched, that the creature he had come here to hunt was far more dangerous than he had ever anticipated. He lunged forward, his knife slashing wildly, but Taehyung caught his wrist, twisted it, and the knife clattered to the cobblestones as the man cried out in pain.
"You should have stayed away," Taehyung said, and his voice was flat, emotionless, the voice of someone who had disconnected himself from the violence he was committing in order to survive. "You should have left this place alone. But you did not, and now you will suffer the consequences of your choice."
He raised his fist to deliver the final blow, his muscles coiling with the force of his intent, but before he could strike, the other man, the one who had been hanging back, moved with a sudden, desperate speed that caught Taehyung off guard.
He grabbed you from behind, his arm wrapping around your throat, his other hand pressing a dagger against the vulnerable skin of your neck, and you felt the cold bite of the blade, felt the way it dimpled your flesh with every ragged breath you took.
"Stop!" the man shouted, and his voice was high and panicked, the voice of someone who had realized that he was about to die and had grasped at the only leverage he could find. "Stop, or I swear by all the gods that I will open her throat from ear to ear!"
Taehyung froze.
The fight drained out of him like water from a broken vessel, his body going still, his hands falling to his sides, his eyes locking onto the blade that was pressed against your throat with a terror that transformed him in an instant from a warrior into a man who was about to lose everything he had ever loved.
"Let her go," he said, and his voice cracked, splintered, the flatness giving way to a desperation that was raw and naked and utterly human. "Please. Let her go. You can do whatever you want to me, you can kill me, you can burn this entire town to the ground, just please, please do not hurt her."
"Shut up!" the man shouted, and he pressed the dagger harder against your throat, making you gasp, making you feel the sharp sting of the blade breaking through the first layer of your skin. "Shut your mouth, star-spawn, or I will silence you both permanently! You do not get to give orders here! You do not get to make demands! You are nothing, do you understand me? Nothing but a disease that should have been eradicated centuries ago!"
"I understand," Taehyung said, and his voice was shaking, his hands trembling, his entire body vibrating with the effort of holding himself back, of not charging forward, of not doing something that would get you killed. "I understand. I will do whatever you want. Just tell me what you want me to do, and I will do it. I will kneel, I will beg, I will crawl, I will do anything, just please, please take that blade away from her neck."
The scarred man, who had been rubbing his wrist where Taehyung had twisted it, laughed, a low, ugly sound that was filled with the cruel triumph of someone who had been defeated and had suddenly been handed victory. "What do you want us to do, star-scum? I want you to kneel. I want you to put your hands on your head and kneel in the dirt like the animal that you are. And then I want you to watch while we teach this little traitor what happens to humans who choose to spread their legs for monsters."
Taehyung's face contorted with a rage so pure and so powerful that it seemed to warp the air around him, but he did not argue, did not resist, did not do anything except slowly, painfully, lower himself to his knees on the cobblestones, his hands coming up to rest on the back of his head, his eyes never leaving yours.
You could see the tears glazing in his eyes, could see the way his lips were moving, forming words that you could not hear, prayers or apologies or promises that he was making to himself and to you and to whatever gods might be listening.
"Please do not do this," he said, and his voice was barely a whisper, broken and desperate and filled with a love so vast that it seemed to encompass the entire world. "Please. She has done nothing to you. She is innocent. She is good. She is the most beautiful and kind and precious person I have ever known, and she does not deserve to suffer because of me. If you need to punish someone, punish me. I will take anything you give me. I will endure any pain, any humiliation, any death, just please, let her go."
"Ignore him," the scarred man said, and he walked over to where Taehyung was kneeling, his hand reaching down to grab a fistful of his hair, yanking his head back so that he was forced to look up at him. "You do not have the authority to bargain, star-spawn. You have the authority to watch, and to suffer, and to remember that no matter how fast you are, no matter how strong you are, no matter how many of us you manage to hurt, there will always be more of us, and we will always find the people you love, and we will always make them pay for the crime of loving you."
He released Taehyung's hair and turned to the man who was holding you, a cruel smile spreading across his face. "Bring her here. Let him watch. Let him see exactly what happens to traitors who choose to defile themselves with filth like him."
The man holding you began to drag you forward, his arm still wrapped around your throat, the dagger still pressed against your skin, and you struggled, fought, tried to pull away, but he was stronger than you, and every movement only made the blade bite deeper into your flesh. You could feel the blood beginning to trickle down your neck, warm and wet and terrifying, and you could hear your own heartbeat thundering in your ears, could feel the panic rising in your chest like a tide that threatened to drown you.
"Taehyung," you said, and your voice was ragged, desperate, barely more than a whisper, but you knew he could hear you, knew that he was listening to every word with the kind of focused attention that only someone who loved you could give. "Taehyung, do not stop fighting. Do not let them do this. Protect your home. Protect Hwajeong. Protect the memories of your people. Do not let them take this from you."
"I cannot," he said, and his voice was broken, shattered, the voice of a man who had been forced to watch the thing he loved most in the world being destroyed and could do nothing to stop it. "I cannot lose you. I cannot. If they take you from me, there is nothing left. There is no home, no memory, no legacy that is worth more than your life. You are the most important thing in the world to me, and I will not sacrifice you for anything."
"I am not asking you to sacrifice me," you said, and you could feel the tears streaming down your face, could feel the blood soaking into the collar of your dress, could feel the cold metal of the dagger pressing against the delicate skin of your throat. "I am asking you to live. I am asking you to remember that I love you, that I chose you, that I would choose you again and again and again, no matter how many times the world tried to tear us apart. I am asking you to be brave, even if it means letting me go."
"Enough," the scarred man said, and he stepped forward, his hand closing around your chin, forcing your head back, exposing your throat to the night air. "Enough talking. It is time for you to learn your lesson, little traitor. It is time for you to understand what happens to those who align themselves with monsters."
He nodded to the man holding you, and the man's grip tightened, and you felt the dagger begin to move, felt the slow, agonizing drag of the blade across your skin, felt the pain explode through your body like a fire that had been waiting for years to be ignited. You screamed, a sound that was raw and primal and filled with a terror that you had never known existed.
"Stop!" Taehyung shouted, his voice cracking, breaking, dissolving into sobs as he struggled against the men who were holding him down, his body heaving with the force of his desperation. "Please, stop! I will do anything! I will give you anything! Just stop hurting her! Please!"
But the man did not stop. The dagger continued its slow, deliberate path across your throat, drawing a line of fire and blood that seemed to stretch on forever, and you could feel your strength draining away, could feel the world beginning to blur at the edges, could feel the darkness creeping in from the corners of your vision.
You heard Taehyung's voice growing fainter, more desperate, more broken, and you tried to call out to him, tried to tell him that you loved him, tried to tell him that everything was going to be alright, but the words would not come, would not form, would not escape the prison of your failing body.
And then, just as the darkness was about to claim you completely, just as you were about to surrender to the weight of the pain and the loss and the fear, a new sound cut through the night, a sound that was sharp and clear and filled with a fury that made the ground itself seem to tremble.
"Get away from her."
The voice was Jimin's.
The man holding you was ripped away with a force that seemed impossible, his dagger clattering to the cobblestones as his body was thrown across the square like a rag doll, and you felt yourself falling, your legs giving way beneath you, your body collapsing toward the ground that had already hurt you so much.
But before you could hit the stones, a pair of arms caught you, strong and warm and familiar, and you looked up through a haze of pain and blood and tears to see Yoongi's face hovering above you, his eyes wide with a terror that mirrored Taehyung's, his hands gentle as he lowered you carefully to the ground.
"Stay with me," he said, and his voice was urgent, desperate, the voice of someone who was fighting to hold back a panic that threatened to consume him. "Do not close your eyes, please—" But you could not focus on his words, could not focus on anything except the sound of Taehyung's voice, which had changed from screams of anguish to something else, something that sounded like relief, like hope, like the first breath of air after nearly drowning.
The other members had arrived, had thrown themselves into the fight with a fury that was terrifying to behold, and you watched through half-closed eyes as Jungkook drove his fist into the face of the man who had been holding you, as Namjoon grabbed the scarred leader by the collar and slammed him against the wall of the old bakery, as Hoseok and Jin and Jimin cornered the remaining men, their movements precise and efficient and utterly devoid of mercy.
In moments, it was over.
The men who were still conscious fled, scrambling through the streets of Hwajeong, their torches abandoned, their weapons forgotten, their hatred no match for the combined fury of seven people who had been pushed past the limits of their endurance.
"Run." Jungkook's voice sounded frighteningly calm, as he took a warning step to the leader. "Run before I reconsider that generosity."
The scarred man was the last to leave, dragging himself to his feet and limping after his companions, his eyes filled with a hatred that had only been deepened by his defeat, but he did not look back, did not speak, did not do anything except disappear into the darkness of the tunnel that led back to the waterfall.
And then there was silence.
And then there was Taehyung.
He was at your side in an instant, his hands reaching for you, his eyes sweeping over your body with a frantic, desperate attention, he let out a sound that was half sob, half prayer, as he struggled to breathe, struggled to think, struggled to accept that you were still alive, still here, still with him. "Sweetheart."
You caught his hands gently, the movement finally stopped him.
For half a second, then he resumed.
Checking your arms, checking bruises and every visible injury—as though looking away might somehow make you disappear. Around both of you, the others gathered quickly. And the moment they saw your neck, their expressions changed.
Jimin looked devastated, while Hoseok immediately crouched beside you and Seokjin's face lost all color.
Nearby, Namjoon looked furious as Yoongi looked even worse.
Jungkook stared openly. "No," the word escaped him quietly.
The cut was not severe, however, that fact failed to comfort anyone. Especially not Taehyung.
"You are bleeding." Taehyung sounded horrified.
"A little."
"A little is still bleeding."
Hoseok carefully brushed hair away from your face, his hands shook too.
Everyone looked shaken.
Everyone looked scared.
The realization warmed and hurt simultaneously.
You loved them, every single one. And they loved you just as fiercely.
Taehyung still had not calmed down, not remotely. His gaze kept returning to your neck.
Then your wrists.
Then your bruises.
Then back again.
As though searching for injuries he missed, as though preparing for another disaster.
"You scared me." The confession emerged quietly.
His eyes filled immediately. "You scared me so much."
Your own eyes burned. "I am here."
"You almost were not." The answer arrived instantly—raw, honest. Terrified.
Silence settled afterward.
Not uncomfortable silence.
Protective silence.
The kind created when people gather around somebody precious.
He leaned forward, pressed his forehead gently against your shoulder, closing his eyes, inhaling your scent, as if trying to memorize you all over again. As though losing contact even briefly might break something inside him.
You soon felt the other members gathering around you closer, their hands finding yours, their bodies pressing in, forming a circle of warmth and love and protection that no amount of hatred or fear or cruelty could ever break. Jimin's hand was on your ankle, Jungkook's fingers intertwined with yours, Namjoon's palm resting gently on your shoulder, Hoseok's arm wrapped around Taehyung's back, Jin's voice murmuring soft reassurances, Yoongi's breath warm against your forehead as he pressed a kiss to your hair.
You were surrounded by love.
Surrounded by seven frightened, relieved, fiercely loving men, you sat together beneath the ancient stars while the aftermath settled heavily around all of you.
warnings: past depressed reader, bad memories, bad family, insecurities, anxious reader,
word count: 1.9k
masterlist
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You remember feeling so lonely, watching all of the couples in your family get together, dancing under the moonlight as another love song comes on through the speakers. Every wedding you could remember, after you were old enough, you always wondered if you would every find your soulmate, the person you were destined to be with.
Your soulmark showed up when you were twelve; you even remember the exact moment. You were in your advanced world history course, learning about the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the specific impact it had on North Africa when you felt the immense burning on your left forearm, directly under your palm over your main artery.
You remember crying out in pain, a sob breaking past your lips as you fall back into your chair, toppling back and hitting your head on the ground. You remember your classmates trying to help you, but your teacher’s words held everyone back.
“It’s the soul burn initiating.” You remember freezing, despite the burning pain, and moving your hand away from your forearm, only for a line of foreign letters to stare back at you, blacker than the night sky without stars shining down.
The intensity with which you stared at your soulmark was nothing compared to the loneliness you began to feel as more than one line of letters began to appear, the burning intensifying until you promptly fainted from the pain.
Then you woke up in the hospital, hooked up to fluids and receiving a visit from a Soul Specialist who specialized in multiple soul bonds. She was there to comfort you, to give you pamphlets and tell you how they identified your soulmarks to be Korean, that you were likely the youngest, given the intensity of the soul burn you felt when your marks came in.
You were a rarity, having multiple bonds. Three bonds were an uncommon occurrence, but having seven was a one-in-a-million statistic. Your mom was handed a card with her number on it, in case you felt anymore burning in your marks, or if one of them disappeared, which you wouldn’t know the significance of until you were nearly 16.
You remember the looks of disbelief changing to looks of disgust as you grew older. The way some family members would tell you that you didn’t deserve that many people to love you. That you weren’t important enough for it. And you remember the way your mother would defend you despite everything.
And you remember how she was the one to push you to find your soulbonds when you turned eighteen, fresh out of high school from your small little mountain town. It would take you another almost six years before you were able to meet them, the burning in your arm leading you to them; the black, slowly turning, silver soulmarks the closer you were to them in proximity.
You remember your first glance at two of them, in a shopping mall of all places. You didn’t get a glance at their faces, only at the way they also clutched their forearms, panic and alarm shown through their eyes as they looked down at you clutching your own in pain.
It would take another day for you to meet the rest of your soulmates and activate your bond. You couldn’t believe your eyes when you stared up at the faces of BTS, your soulmates, in the middle of their living room after you were taken home from the hospital after fainting at the touch of your first soulmate.
That was over two years ago and nothing could have made you happier than the way they looked at you; so much love and adoration in their eyes. You never would have thought you would meet them, but now you wish you looked for them sooner.
-*-*-
You couldn’t help but to stare down at the invitation again, lost in your memories of the last family wedding you went to with your mother before she passed away. You sat towards the corner of the room, against the wall as you watched the DJ play another love song and asked for all the “lovely soulbonds” in the room to get up and dance.
You were in the middle of the deepest depression you had ever experienced and couldn’t fight the amount of loneliness and despair you felt after coming back from yet another discussion of why your soulmates wouldn’t want you by one of your random great aunts. Your grandma had come and sat with you, held your hands and made you cry all in one sentence.
“Your soul was split into eight because the fates new how much love you had to give.”
That was the first time your view on your soulmates had changed, that you felt worthy of the names imprinted on your skin.
“What are you thinking about, baby?” Jimin’s asked as you felt his arms wrap around your middle, leaning his chin on your shoulder after giving a soft kiss to your neck.
“Just thinking about the last time I went to a wedding.” You whispered, still caught in your memories. Your soulmates new all about your history of depression and didn’t treat you any differently because of it.
In the words of Taehyung, “That just means we are meant to be there for you and give you all the love you deserve.”
And they did, every second of every day.
“Well, this time, you need to make time for seven soul dances, don’t you?” You could practically feel the grin on his lips as he kisses your naked shoulder, his hand messing with the top of your towel.
“Jimin, we don’t have time to mess around right now. Our lovely little soulmate needs to finish getting ready, as do the rest of us. We only have about an hour before we need to leave.” Namjoon makes his way in from the bathroom, catching you and Jimin by the dresser.
“Yes, Sir.” You and Jimin’s voices mesh together, mischievous looks aimed at your older soulmate knowing what the title does to him. The look in his eyes only lets you know just what punishment you were going to receive when you got back to the hotel later.
Once everyone was ready, you made your way downstairs to the reception hall, decorated in light blue and white almost resembling what Cinderella’s wedding would resemble. You held Jin’s hand as you walked up to the small table by the entryway, folded pieces of paper organized on the table with names and table numbers.
Your table was just you and your boys, the eight of you found yourself in the almost front and center, feet away from the long table where the bride, your cousin, and her soulmate would be sitting with their wedding parties.
You knew why. Despite your family’s belief before you found your soulmates, once they found out you were bonded to seven extremely famous and rich men, their views changed. Now you were the favorite cousin, favorite niece. The one they always called when something went wrong and they needed money.
“We could always just kidnap your grandma and go have dinner somewhere nice.” Jungkook leaned over and whispered in your ear, holding your hand so that you didn’t continue to pick at your nail beds. You didn’t even realize they were bleeding until he held them, using one of the napkins from the table to gently wipe the blood away.
The boys, despite only meeting your grandma a couple of times, fell in love with her the moment they met. She had slapped Jimin with her purse when he didn’t pull your chair out for you. Apparently, all the boys needed was to see Jimin get hit before they loved someone.
“Yeah, baby. Just say the words. Or even hit Jimin with your purse.” That earned Yoongi his own slap from the offended man.
As nice as that sounded, dinner with the loves of your life and your beloved grandma, you knew you needed to be here. Even if you may not have wanted to come in the first place. You needed at least one good memory from a wedding that wasn’t your own. You needed to fight your own anxiety and bad memories.
You needed to create new ones.
Jungkook and Hobi both held your hand as the ceremony proceeded, squeezing every so often when your own grip tightened with anxiety. Weddings were a source of anxiety for you as it was the one place where all your depressive thoughts stemmed from. Just having them here, holding your hands and whispering sweet things into your ear was already a huge help to you.
The real anxiety inducing moment was when the ceremony ended and the reception started, giving your family the perfect moment to rain down comment upon comment about your soulbonds.
“You know, we used to think her marks were drawn on.”
“I told her before that she would never meet her soulmates and now look at her!”
“We always used to joke that her soulbond was a prank by the fates. I mean, seven soulmates. That never happens.”
“It’s a good thing her marks were real, or she’d be alone after her mom died.”
That last comment was the last straw for you and your soulmates. Your older cousin, even if only by a couple of months, was always the one who started the jokes about your soulmarks. Even once dousing your arm in alcohol to “reveal the skin underneath”.
You could vaguely hear the DJ announcing a soul dance and then the soft beat of another love song when Yoongi’s cold voice broke through his scarily calm demeanor.
“Don’t ever speak about her mother again. Our soulmate has been through enough without you bringing in her mom as an offhanded comment.” Despite English being his second language, he was surprisingly good at coming up with amazing comebacks and defensive statements.
“Now, if you don’t mind, we’re going to go and dance with our lovely soulmate and shower her with the love and affection her family should have shown her.” Jungkook finished Yoongi’s words, his piercings and tattoo’s coming off incredibly intimidating to your religious cousin.
Taehyung led you onto the dancefloor first, right on the edge where your soulmates could stand next to you both. He cupped your cheeks, holding you close as he wiped away your slow-falling tears.
“None of that. I want your next memory of a wedding to be a beautiful one, filled with the love of your soulmates. I want you to remember our touch, how we held you close and sang into your ear.” Taehyung was passionate in his beliefs, and it was hard to shake his mind when he believed in something, no matter how powerful that belief was. It was one of the reasons you loved him.
You spent the rest of the reception being held and twirled on the edge of the dancefloor, experiencing the love you always dreamed of and wished for in the past. The touch of your soulmates keeping you grounded and reminding you what love was supposed to feel like.
The temperatures after dark dipped even lower. Beyond the thick canopy of trees, I could see lightning lighting the sky’s dark clouds followed by thunder a few heartbeats later. The wind whipped the dying leaves off the trees, leaving them to swirl around my feet as I descended the steps of Yoongi’s trailer. I tugged my jacket tighter around me, debating on going back inside for a thicker coat, but deciding against it. Somehow, I’d managed to sneak out without alerting Yoongi, going back in would probably ruin my efforts. For as impulsive as I was earlier deciding to demand answers to all my questions, I liked to believe some part of me realized tonight would be a good choice since there were no scheduled shows or practices. It was late, I was sure part of the reason it was so easy to sneak past Yoongi was because he’d holed himself up in his room thinking I was already in bed asleep.
Let’s keep it that way.
I ran from the trailer on the balls of my feet, attempting to minimize the crunch of the leaves under me. Not that it made much of a difference. I was grateful the incoming storm and rolling thunder masked most of the noise I was making. I could feel the charge in the air, the scent of rain was thick mixed with moist earth, I felt like I could almost taste it. Coming up on the first trailer, I ducked as I passed the window, just in case. I didn’t necessarily expect any of them to be camped out in front of their windows, plus most of the curtains were drawn anyway, but I figured it would be better safe than sorry. I didn’t want to have to explain to anyone why I was out sneaking around even though I technically wasn’t up to anything suspicious.
A part of me knew that if I did happen upon anyone, they’d try to persuade me to leave it alone much like Jimin had. And my problem was that I couldn’t just leave it alone. I deserved to know why these men felt so familiar to me. Why I kept dreaming about them. And why I kept reliving what I was convinced were memories at this point. A lot of them were too vivid to be anything else. I could be imaginative, but the degree of detail was more than even I would be capable of conjuring in my unconscious state. The flashes of light over me illuminated enough of the trailer park for me to avoid tree roots and holes.
Silently I cursed the fact that Jin’s trailer was practically at the other end of the cluster of homes from where I was staying. The longer it took me to cross the distance, the more my heart pounded with the fear of being discovered. The night hid me well, but that didn’t mean my lungs didn’t seize every time the lightning lit my silhouette. I paused on the other side of Hoseok’s trailer, catching my breath while I surveyed Jin’s darkened trailer. All the lights were off, though I suppose that wasn’t alarming given it was closer to morning than it was evening at this hour. I flinched as a fat raindrop smacked above my eyebrow and dripped down onto my eyelashes. Blinking the water away, I kept my feet moving, not wanting to show up on his doorstep looking half drowned.
I skipped over the steps of his porch, taking shelter under the short awning as I shook off the bit of rain that dampened the top of my head and shoulders. Another quick look around let me know I hadn’t alerted anyone by skulking around just as a loud crack of thunder sounded above me. I flinched with the noise, pressing myself closer to Jin’s front door as I laid two hesitant knocks against the wood. I waited, wondering if I’d been loud enough for him to hear when a lamp clicked on in the window to my right.
“Jin.” I called to him, making sure he knew it was me.
Not even three seconds later, I heard the deadbolt slide back and the door swung open to reveal him. He was dressed as though he’d just rolled out of bed, though apart from his hair being slightly tousled, he didn’t appear that way. Somehow, he was just as handsome as he was any other time I saw him. He wore a comfortable set of sweats and cotton t-shirt, my eyes drifting down to the fluffy gray slippers on his feet. If he was surprised to see me, he didn’t let on. He glanced at the darkness behind me for a brief second before stepping aside to let me in.
“Looks like you barely beat the weather.” He mused, as the landscape outside lit with another flash of lightning.
He closed the door at the same moment the following thunder crashed overhead. His place looked different compared to that night we’d joined him for dinner. Books littered the once bare end tables in the living space. Old books with yellowing pages and fraying covers. I took a closer look as I shrugged my jacket off my shoulders. It only took me a few sentences to realize it was a romance novel written in Old English. I glanced at another stack beside the open book, also in Old English if the titles were anything to go by. The softest change in the air around me signaled Jin’s presence as he reached around me, his breath ghosting across the back of my neck as he closed the book laying in front of me. Taking the hint, I averted my gaze.
“I didn’t peg you as a romance fan.”
“I’m not… usually.”
His eyes turned distant with his answer, gazing blankly down at the book. The ensuing silence was hard to swallow. Part of me wanted to ease the sudden awkwardness between us, but I didn’t know how. Remembering the reason I had snuck here; I moved a couple steps away from him. The movement had him slowly drag his attention back to me, taking in my resolve and meeting it with the politeness I was used to seeing from him.
“You don’t seem surprised to find me at your door at this hour.”
Half a smile lifted one corner of his lips. “I’d be lying if I told you I wasn’t expecting you eventually.”
“Then you know why I’m here.”
“I can make an educated guess. Though I don’t know specifically.”
I thought back to the number of people’s lips his name has been whispered between in the short time I’d known the seven of them. He’s the centerpiece to this web of mystery I found myself in when it comes to them. If I was going to get answers, I’d have to get them from him. My eyes followed him as he took a seat across from me. His dark eyes flicked to mine, the look in them softening as he took me in before tilting his head towards the couch.
“Make yourself comfortable. I promise to be as straightforward as I can with any questions you have.”
I stared at him. Part of me wasn’t sure whether he’d be as honest as he claims. None of them had exactly been very forthcoming thus far, but, then again, I hadn’t sought answers directly from Jin. Everyone else seemed to defer to him. Maybe I could take his word for it. I took his offer, taking a seat on the sofa and angling my body towards him as I contemplated how I wanted to start this conversation.
“How do you all know me?”
He took in a deep breath, brows lifting as he crossed one leg over the other.
“That’s a loaded question.”
“I don’t mean through the circus. It’s… more than that. Sometimes you all say and do things that make me think we’ve known each other much longer.”
“For some of us, we have known you for much longer.”
“What does that mean?”
Jin’s expression pinched together, going quiet while he tried to think about how to explain. Or maybe how much he should actually tell me.
“Can’t I just know the truth?”
My whispered question fizzled into thick silence. Jin’s jaw clenching as he met my gaze.
“There’s pain and only more questions with the truth.”
I pressed my lips together. Even if whatever they hid would potentially break me, I still wanted to know. Being kept in the dark like this was frustrating. I hated how they looked at me like I held the key to all their secrets but am unable to unlock them.
“I need to know.”
He averted his gaze, but not before the sadness in them went unnoticed. He swallowed hard, seeming to debate just how much he should tell me. I pushed off my seat, settling on my knees beside his feet.
“Please.”
He stared at me, a sort of familiarity flicking through his eyes. He reached for me, fingertips dragging along the line of my jaw before reaching the hair at my nape. Without a word, he buried his hand there, feeling the strands through his fingers as he released a defeated sigh.
“I can only give you my truth.”
“Bu-“
He hushed me, leaning forward to press the thumb of his opposite hand over my lips.
“And only what I can part with for now.”
I tugged his hand down, my brows furrowing in confusion.
“What does that mean?”
“It means, I’ll show you what we used to mean to one another.”
“But not what happened between us?”
He shook his head. “Not yet.”
Though my frustration was crawling up my throat, begging to be unleashed, I tamped it down. He was willing to give me some. That’s better than nothing. I wouldn’t push it just because it’s not everything. Sighing resignedly, I nodded.
“Okay. I can live with that.”
“Come here.”
He untangled his legs, spreading them enough for me to fit in between. I moved in front of him, feeling anticipation coil through me as he leaned forward. His features were drawn together, almost like whatever he was about to divulge would be painful.
“Trust me when I tell you that I don’t mean to keep secrets to hurt you, Y/N. Our history is… complicated and keeping it from you was the only way we thought we could protect you.” He trailed off with the admission, eyes closing as he shook his head. “But it didn’t work and you’re right, it’s not fair to you.”
“Then, you’ll tell me everything?” I asked quietly.
“Not tonight.”
I frowned. He was giving me crumbs, and I didn’t know if it was to toy with me or if he wanted me to use them as puzzle pieces. I went for the latter, scooting closer to him in my resolve.
“Okay. Show me.”
Any prior hesitance on his part shattered, my mind hardly registering the speed with which his hand cupped my chin. The pressure of his fingers biting into my cheeks before he was pulling me in. His lips crashed onto mine. The kiss was desperate, feverish. My fingers curled in his shirt as his hands cupped my face, tilting my head back to ravage me deeper. Behind my closed eyes, flickers of him and I manifested before going dark again. In the brief glimpse, he held me just like he did now, lips coaxing mine apart under his. I parted for him as his hands slid down, gripping the fabric at my waist before his large hands gripped my hips and lifted me. Another flash of memory coincided with the action. Instead of the coffee table in his trailer, in my memory, he’d set me on some sort of vanity.
As soon as it appeared, it was gone. My confusion and frustration culminated within me, only held back by the thread of desire I felt under Jin. His body slid from his perch on the furniture, his knees hitting the floor as he kneeled before me. He separated our mouths, allowing me to suck in air I hadn’t even realized I was missing.
“I shouldn’t be doing this.” He whispered almost like he was trying to convince me more than himself. “You don’t know how long it’s been.”
“How long?”
His eyes met mine in the short distance between us, the color in his irises darker than usual. Another memory darted in and out. Jin, only it… wasn’t. At least not the one I knew. His hair was longer, nearly brushing the tops of his shoulders and his skin was darker than it was now. Tanned to such golden perfection, cheeks flushed with desire and his eyes were a soft, honey brown. Light movement jerked me out of the vision. Jin shifted forward, slotting further between my legs as he traced the side of my face before brushing an errant strand of my hair back.
“Hundreds of years.”
“Was what I saw a memory?”
He nodded. I lifted my hand, tracing the familiar, yet foreign shape of him.
“You look different compared to back then.”
The smallest of smiles lifted his lips. “How so?”
I scan every part of him, thinking of the Jin from distant memories. Short glimpses they were, it was enough for me to know it was him. Jin from a lifetime I can’t remember.
“Your hair was longer.” I murmured, slowly trailing my eyes down to his. “And your eyes were a different color.”
“Me from simpler times then.” He sighed, giving me space.
His retreat brought a sense of clarity with it. Another lifetime. The Jin in front of me is not the same man from my memories. In my visions he was warm, eyes alight with love and passion. Now… I took in his form as he eased back into his seat from earlier. Now, he’s a shell of the person I envisioned. Something within him lacking, though I couldn’t exactly pinpoint it.
Hundreds of years…
And he looked as if he lived every single one of them.
“You’re not human… are you…”
The question came out as more of a statement. Though I was still trying to process the conclusion I came to, I was surer of that fact than I’d been of anything since being thrown into the Dark Circus. I think I knew from the moment I witnessed Yoongi murder those men who had been after me all those nights ago. None of them were normal. But it didn’t bother me. If anything, I found excitement in the unknown. Jin’s sharp eyes landed on me, waiting for me to… I wasn’t sure. Freak out? Take my statement back?
I didn’t do either. Time slowed between us before he gave me my answer.
“Not anymore.”
I swallowed hard, maintaining a piece of the composure I was worried would slip from me.
“How long?”
“The memory you saw was our last time together before I changed.”
I clutched at the table under me, grounding me as it felt like I was being thrown off kilter.
“What happened between us?”
Jin pinned me under his stare. The only outward tell of his discomfort being the tightening of his jaw. He crossed his legs again, forcing himself to look away.
A/n: This took me forever to edit I hope y'all like it!
For the next four days Y/n had a very clingy wolf hybrid for a shadow. Namjoon refused to leave her side after that night, nudging her hips with his when they would pass each other in the house. It made Y/n smile knowing Namjoon was feeling a lot better, hell, he practically glowed at this point.
The wolf hybrid walks up behind her pressing his chest against her back while she stood in the kitchen chopping some onions to put in the crockpot for dinner later tonight. "Y/n?" Namjoon nudges her shoulder with his chin while Seokjin did his best to move around the wolf trying to get lunch prepared.
Y/n hummed in response to him saying her name. "What is it Joon?" She asks absently scraping the onion into a nearby bowl. Namjoon's chest rumbles against her as he thinks about how to phrase his question for her. "Nothing, actually- nevermind forget I said anything." The wolf hybrid releases her when he sees Seokjin glaring at him from the corner of his eye.
Seokjin hasn't been the only one a little jealous of the way the wolf clung to Y/n like a baby koala to it's mother. Hoseok and Jimin were a little irritated with how much time they were spending together, after all they knew exactly what was wrong with him from the start.
Meanwhile Taehyung and Yoongi were practically avoiding them all together like the plague. Barely ever coming down for breakfast or dinner the last few days, only coming out of their rooms if they needed something on their own terms.
Jungkook could care less that all of this was happening as he spent most of his time outside of the house that smelled heavily of the displeasing scents of envy and jealousy between the six of them that hovered around the house.
The next day went smoothly, Y/n was at the stables with Jimin and Jungkook trying to convince Dove to come out of her stall. "Come on Dovey, Jimin's here, you love Jimin!" Y/n attempts to convince the mare to come out by cooing at her and gently pulling on her harness. Jimin even tried scratching under her chin the way she liked so much but she just huffed at the trio in annoyance. "I guess we'll just have to try another time then."
Later in the day Y/n walked through the kitchen and to the back porch to find Taehyung sitting in the hammock taking pictures of the evening sky with the old camera he had found. She didn't want to disturb him so she quietly walked down the stairs to the small flower beds around the porch Hoseok and Yoongi helped her put in earlier in the week.
Taehyung notices her take the final step off the porch and smiles to himself. After he had experienced her, for lack of a better word wild side a few days back he began to develop feelings for Y/n, he knew he probably shouldn't let himself get caught up in something as silly as hybrid and human relationships not to mention the promise he made to the others to share her. Taehyung shakes his head then takes a deep breath and sighs before quietly, his little white ears flicking around nervously, making his way down the porch steps to Y/n who was tending to the blooming flower bushes just in front of the house.
Taehyung musters up all the courage he had before he finally opened up his mouth to speak. "H-Hey Y/n I have a question for you. Uh, well a few actually." He stammers mentally cursing himself for the nerves but as Y/n looked up at him with her gorgeous eyes that shine brightly in the sun he couldn't help but smile down at her. His cheeks turn a light pink as she looks up at him with her adorable smile.
"Sure Tae what's up?" She says with a smile, Taehyung wrings his hands together before speaking again. "Listen about the other night--" Y/n coughs clearing her throat, effectively making the white tiger hybrid shut his mouth a little startled by her. "Oh, that uhm-- blame it on the alcohol. I shouldn't have done that to you in the first place and I'm really sorry for making you uncomfortable..." Y/n cheeks are red as crimson by this point and she can't look up at her hybrid again without getting embarrassed by her own drunken actions.
Taehyung pauses with his mouth open as he was getting ready to ask her his questions but instead he whips his head around and sniffs the air for a moment, his eyes turning a pale shade of blue almost silver when he does. "Tae? Earth to Taehyung?" Y/n waves her hand in front of his face only for Taehyung to instinctively nip at her hand then he blinks and comes back the moment he nips at her. "S-Sorry about that, I just-- there's a new scent and I don't like it." Taehyung states plainly like it was the most normal thing in the world. Y/n only now noticed the little hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end and a low chuff in warning slipping from his lips as if he was threatened.
The sound of gravel crunching under heavy boots from the driveway was enough to catch Y/n's attention, especially when there was a knock on the wooden gate leading to the backyard. Y/n stands to her feet and brushes her hands off on her jeans before opening the gate to a very tall, well built man with long salt and pepper hair, adorning leather clothing and jacket. He was obviously older than her and most likely the rest of them as well but man if he was old there was no indication of him looking or acting his age that's for sure.
"Michael Maibery, what on earth are you doing back in town?" She yells with a smile giving the large man a big hug with a smile on her face, wrapping her arms around his neck happily. "I was just passing through and thought I'd stop by to see my favorite girl while I was here." He chuckles hugging her back just as tightly before letting go. "Look at how much you've grown! Last time I saw you I believe you were barely starting high school."
The pair laugh with each other and catch up for a few more minutes before a deep growl can be heard from behind her. Y/n quickly turns around to see both her tiger and panther hybrid on the back porch with their arms crossed staring at the pair of them. "Uh before we continue to catch up, I would like to introduce you to my boys."
Taehyung's heart skips a beat when she refers to them as her boys not the guys like she used to when they first started living at the farm with her. The strange man walked alongside her and onto the porch. His large stature a cause for intimidation but he's offered a seat and sits down. "Your boys huh?" Michael says shortly with a chuckle making Y/n blush only now realizing the words that had come out of her mouth.
"Y-Yeah my boys. They came in with the storm a few months or so ago and I just couldn't let them go back to being strays. My worst fear for any stray hybrid is Hybrid Control. They're anything but pleasant especially with exotic hybrids." Y/n says sheepishly as Taehyung and Yoongi eye the stranger dangerously.
"Taehyung- Yoongi this is Michael Maibery, he was an old friend of my mothers growing up and he was there for me a lot when I moved in with my grandparents." Y/n spoke factly to the pair, she had hoped one of them would be civil enough to at least take the hand Michael had outstretched for one of them to take.
"I see these two aren't ones for a handshake. Noted." Michael chuckles before dropping his hand to his lap. "I see you've got the farm almost completely redone." He says awkwardly trying to shake off the odd feeling of being watched from behind before the sliding glass door is pulled open and Jimin comes rushing out and starts sniffing the new man with his tail wagging behind him.
"Who is this? He smells good, not to mention how handsome he is. Is that your bike out front? Y/n how come you never told us about-" The golden retriever speaks ninety to nothing with a bright smile on his face. "Okay Jimin, hold up a second- this is Michael he was an old friend of my mothers."
Y/n struggles with prying the hyper dog hybrid off of Michael and calming him down beside her, holding tightly onto his waist. Michael sits smiling and laughing at the pair of them when Y/n speaks into Jimin's ear causing the poor guy's cheeks to go red for what reason he had no idea.
"I'm sorry for coming on so strong. I smelled you when you pulled up and I guess I got excited to meet someone who had a familiar scent to Y/n's." Jimin mumbled, Michael and Y/n exchange confused glances towards each other before returning to their previous conversation.
"Oh to answer you, uh, yeah the boys really have helped me put things back together out here and the sunflowers are doing amazing as always. Yoongi and Hoseok, he's the red fox hybrid of mine... they helped me set up the flowerbeds by the porch a few weeks ago. The seven of them are handy in their own little ways, I guess."
Michael took a deep breath in through his nose, his wide baby blue eyes staring at her and the three hybrids currently outside. Jimin's tail had stopped thumping on the porch bench and he looked rather nervous, Taehyung's ear twitched as he looked anywhere but at the man and Yoongi just scowled at him his tail swishing around pointedly and one ear twitching like mad.
"Seven? Are they all feline inclined? Well, except Jimin obviously." Michael smiled at him, giving him a scratch behind his ears. Jimin couldn't help but preen under his gaze as his tail resumed it's thumping against the outdoor couch.
Y/n was silent for a few seconds trying to figure out a way to explain to him that only one of her hybrids was domesticated, one was a prey hybrid and the rest were apex predators. Although Jungkook didn't put himself off as prey given his strong stature and the aura of fuck around and find out surrounding him on the daily.
"Uhm, well, n-no." Y/n voice comes out hesitantly and high pitched as she looks at Michael with a please don't judge me or them facial expression. "I have one domesticated, which would be Jimin here and six- uhm exotic hybrids. Five of which are predators and one that's p-prey. Although you wouldn't guess he was a prey hybrid if it wasn't for the antlers on his head."
Y/n chuckles and releases her grasp on Jimin's waist and he jumps over to the other seat beside Michael without hesitation. He crosses his legs over the other as a bead of sweat trickles down his forehead and disappears under his shirt. "You have a deer hybrid? Aren't they extremely skittish and tend to run off a lot?"
Before Y/n could even open her mouth to correct him the doors to the back porch slide open for a final time as the last four of her hybrids tumble out of the house, Jungkook leading them outside and lighting a cigarette. "Alaskan Yukon Moose actually, I wouldn't survive as a deer if I'm being honest. Domestic or wild doesn't matter. What I want to know is why you smell so damn familiar." Jungkook grunts taking a long drag off his cigarette.
Michael shifts in his seat awkwardly glancing between Jungkook and Y/n practically begging her to save him. "Jungkook why do you have to be so blunt when you speak? It's like nails on a chalk board every time you open your fucking mouth." Yoongi growls his eyes flitted yellow towards the hybrid across the patio which only made Jungkook's small grin grow by the second.
"Awe did I get under the kitties skin? It's an honest question and I'm sure everyone here wants to know why he smells just like Y/n 'cause I know I do- not my fault no one else is willing to fucking ask." Jungkook points between Y/n and Michael before he grunts again this time low and menacing as Yoongi hisses back at him. "Oh I'll get under your skin here in a fucking minute you over grown piece of meat."
"Hey now if you two want to fight you can take it to the stables! I will not have you two beaten and bloody on my porch! Do you understand me?" Y/n stands and barks at the hybrids causing everybody even Namjoon to flinch a little bit when she yelled over the pair of them arguing.
Jungkooks scoffs and rolls his eyes as Yoongi shuffles back inside pissed and ready to boil over in anger- slamming the glass door in the process making it shake with force. Y/n sits back down, pinching the bridge of her nose in annoyance. "I'm sorry I don't know what's gotten into them all of the sudden."
Jungkook rubs the back of his neck glancing at Namjoon for a second before apologizing with his round eyes. Y/n pats him on the shoulder, telling him it was alright and to not think about it too much.
"I see you've got your hands full. Nothing you can't handle though, right? You've always been the tough girl growing up." Michael chuckles and stands from the bench taking a few steps off the patio. "Where are you going?" Y/n stands quickly making the six hybrids shuffle a few paces after her. Michael turns back to the seven of them when he notices the panther staring from the kitchen window. "I know you're going to be well taken care of with these guys so, ain't really a reason for me to stay much longer."
Y/n is taken aback by his words, she hasn't seen him in years since her grandpa died and now he's just going to up and leave? "Will you stay for dinner? At least, please? I haven't seen you in forever and I would like to do introductions properly if I can?"
As the day went on both Taehyung and Yoongi stayed close to her side as much as they could. Seokjin helped her with dinner as per usual as if nothing was different between the two of them. Namjoon and Jungkook mainly stayed in the living room watching whatever was on the television. Hoseok and Jimin stayed outside to play catch to get rid of some of their energy before dinner.
Dinner went smoothly as it could only a few arguments here and there. Yoongi ate his dinner in his room, Y/n had to leave his plate next to the door because he refused to answer, only giving her a grunt to acknowledge she was there.
Yoongi's reaction earlier made Y/n a little upset, she didn't mean to snap at him like that, she was just caught up in the moment and didn't want a fight on her hands. Not like she could have done much to pry the two of them apart if they did get into a fight. It made her feel angry but also hurt at the same time.
Any of her hybrids hurting anyone or each other made her heart sink to the bottom of her stomach. She had grown attached to each of them and would hate to lose them just because of an argument or fight that could've been handled differently.
The boys occupy themselves downstairs watching a movie meanwhile I sit in my room upstairs on my bed reading a book, or at least trying to. Having Michael over and the constant questions and lingering stares especially from Namjoon and Jungkook was enough to bristle the little hairs on the back of my neck the entire time he was here. They obviously suspected something that I didn't, never really thought of it if I'm being honest. Not to mention Yoongi holing himself up in his room since his little tiff with the moose hybrid.
Yoongi has been on edge for a while which doesn't do anything for my nerves about his well being. Hybrid or not Yoongi and the other six are under my care for as long as they want it and the fact that scenting is a thing for them, makes me wonder if Yoongi needs the same thing right now. Well maybe not right now, I figure whenever one of them needs something like that, something that seems so intimate to me but maybe something so natural to them I'll leave it to them because the last thing I want to see is one of them looking as sickly as Namjoon did a few days ago.
A few moments drag by as I attempt to resume my reading when a soft knock comes from my bedroom door. It slowly creaks open and I remind myself to fix the hinges at some point. Then within a second a pair of white striped ears poke around the door before a pair of dark orbs land on my figure curled in bed with an interesting choice of book.
Taehyung looks around the room seemingly waiting to be invited in but before I can give him the okay the flash of a golden tail tackles me onto my back. "Y/n you missed it! We were watching the Notebook and Yoongi hyung actually came down-" Jimin cuts himself off, his tail going ramrod stiff and looks over at Taehyung who chuffs loudly, hanging out by the door with his arms crossed looking between the pair of us. "We just wanted to come by and say goodnight before we head off to bed. Also Yoongi is looking for you, he's sitting in the living room."
Taehyung looks at Jimin with a passing glance before looking back to me, his gaze lingering and his mind wandering back to the night of the bonfire. She was so close yet so far from him, it ignited a fire within him he didn't know was there and when Michael decided to show up, it took everything he had not to thoroughly scent her and stick to Y/n like he owned her even though he knew it was the other way around.
"Oh okay well, I'll be down there in a minute. Jiminie, I need you off of me babes." I look at the golden retriever hybrid with a shy smile before he kisses my forehead absently with a wag of his beautiful tail, he hops off of me and curling into Taehyung's side and he closes the door behind them.
I take a moment to collect myself, just what have I gotten myself into with these seven hybrids? These seven men? My mother would have gone a long with my decisions and been supportive with whatever I decided to do yet my father however always thought hybrids were nothing more than their animals.
I hated that about him, I remember one time when I was barely thirteen my father took me to the store for some beer and crappy snacks for his friends coming over later that day. I usually always kept my head down to keep my father from lashing out at me. I kept my arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times as they say.
But then after a while of walking down the bread and snack aisle I heard laughing and little snickers from a family next to us. I looked up while my father wasn't paying attention to see a little boy playing with a bunny hybrid, they looked about the same age at the time but she was taller than him. They were play fighting while the mother looked through the different snacks, a tiny bunny hybrid in the cart chewing on a half eaten celery stick while the bunny hybrid mother talked with the mother of the little boy.
They seemed like a really happy little family, all smiles and bursting with laughter. That was something I wanted but felt I didn't deserve at least that would be what my father would tell me once we were out of the store. He told me God punishes those who deserve to be punished, he said that I was always a bad girl since I turned ten and I deserved nothing less.
That night I spent only my second night locked in the basement without food or water for almost a week.
"Y/n?" Yoongi's voice drifted through the small crack between my double doors causing me to jump a little. "Yoongi, I was just about to head downstairs, are you alright?" I ask him softly closing my book and resting it on my nightstand almost knocking over my bottle of water. "M'fine, I just wanted to apologize for earlier. I know it was uncalled for it's just- Jungkook has always gotten on my nerves I just- never cared to respond to his bullshit before."
I notice the slight sheen on his forehead as he stands idle in the doorway but chose not to address it. Instead I study him for a moment while he spoke, his ears were pressed to his skull like he was afraid I was going to lash out at him like I had just hours prior. His stance stood tall and firm though, that was the one thing I noticed about Yoongi.
No matter how hard he tried to hide much of his emotions besides indifference of course, his ears would give him away every single time. The way they twitched when something bothered him, the way one of them would always droop when he was getting tired but wouldn't admit it. I found it adorable but also endearing all at the same time.
I take a deep breath and with a small smile Yoongi's ears begin to perk up a little bit. "It's okay Yoons, I'm sorry for snapping at you the way I did. I didn't mean to I just- didn't want anything to happen to either of you. You guys mean a lot to me, like a big family. Something I never really had, I promise I'll do better to control my anger."
Yoongi's tail taps the door seemingly happy he was forgiven about his behavior. Yoongi noticed the distant shine in Y/n's eyes from the bedside lamp, he takes a step forward but thinks better of it, trying to fight his instincts to hold her to him and scent her until they both fell asleep.
Yoongi clears his throat and nods at Y/n before giving her a tight lipped smile and slipping out of the door and speeding off to his room rushing past Seokjin making his way to his own bed after taking a shower the latter shaking off his weird behavior after he smells Y/n's scent lingering past his nose.
Today was filled with the necessary things that needed to be done. Y/n had talked to John and his grandfather for a good portion of the early morning. The mustang they had brought in was finally broken in and ready for resell or anything they wanted it for really. Jimin was a little reluctant to let him go and Dove seemed a little irked about it was well but Y/n pulled him into the horse trailer by the rope around his neck nonetheless.
"Thanks again Y/n, I knew we could count on you." John's grandfather beamed up at her, Y/n returning a smile of her own. "Of course pops, anything to help you guys out. You should really teach John how to properly ride a horse, though I thought he would have learned by now." Y/n quips looking over at him with a chuckle as John turned around looking a little hurt by her words with a hand over his chest. "Why ride a horse when you have a perfectly good ATV to drive?" He laughs after locking the trailer door, leaving with a side hug from Y/n and a small wave to the two hybrids perched on the front porch as they drove pass.
Once they drive away Y/n walks back inside when her phone rings a few times before she pulls it out of her pocket and answers it without looking at the caller ID. "Hello? I'm sorry who is this?" She asks as a low voice begins to speak through the receiver.
"Hello Miss Fontana this is Anthony Biltuck with Biltuck and Houston law firm how are you doing today?" She furrowed her brows then looks at her phone screen and sure enough it was the exact law firm mentioned. Why would a law firm be contacting her at such an early hour of the day? She was sure there was no law firm in the area that was even remotely opened this early or on a weekend.
"I'm fine all things considered. Why are you calling me?" She asks a tone of apprehension laced in her voice as Seokjin and Jungkook come to the landing of the staircase and Yoongi and Namjoon listen in from the living room, turning the television down to listen in on her phone call.
"Lovely, listen I was calling you about your Uncle James that has recently passed away.-" Uncle? Last Y/n knew she only had her grandparents, she knew nothing of this self proclaimed Uncle James. She began to pace the floor with her free arm across her middle.
"Wait, I don't know a James much less an Uncle James. Are you sure you don't have the wrong number?" She asks hesitantly as all of the hybrids have gathered around her. Jimin comes to her side and nudges her arm, then holding her hand and lacing his fingers with hers, rubbing his thumb against her wrist. Y/n glances at him with a small smile calming her nerves enough to keep her voice from breaking from anxiety.
"I understand the confusion but you are Y/n M/n Fontana? Born to Jonathan and Larissa Fontana? James was Jonathan's older brother, I would also like to send my condolences to you and family for the loss of your father-"
Y/n's whole body freezes at the mere mention of her father, the man who beat her every chance he got. She hadn't heard his name nor had she heard him labeled as her father for years. It made her scent go sour, making a few of the hybrids to cover their nose or like Jungkook completely leave the area in favor for outside. Y/n squeezes Jimin's hand absently and if he didn't know any better he'd say that her parents were a sore spot for her, especially her father.
"Y-Yeah th-that's me." She stuttered making Jimin go heavy on his scenting in hopes he could calm her like he had before. Rubbing the top of her head with his cheek and holding her close to him whining quietly as her scent began to dull under his touch. Yoongi had stayed close to her opting to gently hold the hand Jimin had let go of in favor of holding her waist. His tail wrapped tightly around her thigh his ears flat against his skull much like Jimins.
"Great! I'm going to need you to come up to Billings Montana for a few weeks maybe a month or two to go through the will and make a few decisions on his affairs that he's left for you."
"Montana?" She managed to choke out looking between the two hybrids that had stayed to comfort her.
"Yes, I would need to know how many of yours you will be bringing with you before you come this way. Don't worry everything will be paid for since this is a family affair after all." The attorney seems set on her coming all the way up there, not to mention it all being paid for? Under different circumstances Y/n would have jumped on the next available flight and been done with whatever is going on here. But with seven hybrids who don't even have their collars much less the proper adoption papers to board the plane?
Goddamn she had a lot more to do than she previously thought.
"Uhm as of right now- there will be eight of us, I don't want to leave my b-hybrids by themselves." Slowly getting a grip on reality her scent had gone back to pretty normal all things considered. She didn't know where to go for the legal papers, perhaps she could go down to the adoption agency and get things together there. Then she would have to get all of them collars even though she hated the thought of having to put ownership on seven men perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. Then again it is the law and the last thing she wants is for any of them taken away from her.
"I'll have to take care of a few things before I can make it up there I-"
"That is perfectly fine Miss Fontana. The complete will reading isn't for another two weeks you have time to get your affairs in order before leaving. I'll email you the plane tickets once the flight is booked for- eight."
Once he said his goodbyes and hung up the phone Y/n was stuck in her own head for a minute or two when Jungkook and Namjoon came back inside from the back porch with curious looks on their faces.
Y/n was still frozen in her spot- her mind going a million miles an hour while Jimin tugged on her flannel to get her to look at him. "She's frozen, what do we do? She won't move and her eyes are glossed over." Jimin whines his tail thumping against his leg- filled with anxiety as he tried to find her gaze like he had at the grocery store, trying to get her to come back to them. "The best thing to do for her right now is to sit her ass in a chair before her knees buckle out from under her." Yoongi says in a cool tone, pulling on her arm to which Y/n absently follows him to the lazy chair in the living room.
They sit her in the recliner as her mind swirls with questions and even less answers. She had an Uncle and a side of the family she's never even heard of and now she had assets and affairs left to her by some long lost Uncle on her fathers side.
Her father never mentioned he even had a brother, come to think of it he never mentioned his family even when her mother was alive, that she knew of. He kept a tight lid on that can of worms until the day he died by her hands, literally taking that little bit of information with him to the grave.
Jimin tucks himself behind her, wrapping his legs around her along with his arms- he's really worried for her because it's never taken her this long to come out of this trance before. Usually him or one of the others can snap her out of it pretty quickly but this?
This was something else entirely.
Yoongi kneels down to her level taking her hands in his causing her to flick her eyes to his soft caramel orbs. "Hey kitten, I'm going to need you to explain that phone call to us." He says in his calm low tenor tone smoothing his thumb over her tan skin gently, giving her a faint smile to hopefully coax an answer out of her.
Her lips twitch into a small smile of her own, unable to not smile after seeing Yoongi's little cat like grin. "I guess an estranged uncle of mine died and left a few things to me? He was my-" She takes a deep breath and sighs heavily. "-fathers older brother. I've never heard of him until today which is odd in itself but now I have to finish getting things ready for the upcoming winter a little faster than I wanted- not to mention I have to get you guys stupid collars for the flight and figure out adoption papers on top of all of that..."
Y/n leans forward and Jimin releases his hold on her as she slumps over burying her face in her hands letting out a sigh of frustration while bouncing her leg. They came to her as strays she didn't know if any of them had previous owners or if they truly were strays. Come to think of it she's had them here for months and doesn't know a whole lot about the seven of them in the first place. She was just happy to have people around after being alone for so long.
What was a girl like her to do?
The next few days is spent outside getting the ranch winter ready seeing as the weather was cooling down significantly. Y/n was getting out some of Dove's winter coats for when she sits in the stables and her phone rings.
This time it was John and of course Emily was with him this time instead of his grandfather. Y/n had explained everything to them the same day it had happened and needless to say her friends were scared for her because the two of them were the only ones who knew what really happened to her father all those years ago.
"Hey girly pop, how are things going?" Emily asks oddly quiet from the other end when she doesn't answer right away. "Oh uh- everything's fine, yeah. Jimin and Jungkook have been a lot of help in the stables and the others have been working hard making sure the plants won't be too terribly damaged while we're gone." Y/n huffs out raking her hand through her hair before putting her hat back on her head, today was a little hotter than the others so she was sweating just a little after dragging the heavy blankets out of storage.
Emily could tell by the tone of her best friends voice that she was thinking far more about other things than what she was physically doing, keeping her hands busy was a way of distracting herself from reality. "Y/n babes we were just calling you about the adoption papers you needed to fly out there and there's a small snag-" She pauses, waiting for the go ahead from John who's sat next to her in his living room. "Jimin still has an owner, his name is Bill Wittaker. He lives in the trailer park a few miles away from your farm house and-"
"We called him and he seemed pretty pissed that you had him in the first place." John interrupts Emily as she had stuttered just a second beforehand. Y/n's heart stopped at the mention of the man that had all rights to take Jimin away from her, all the color in her cheeks drained making her look lifeless. John and Emily are worried when they don't hear a single word nor a sound from the other end of the phone.
Y/n turned to see Jimin sat atop Dove with his beautiful smile and crescent shaped eyes as he rode the horse around for a bit laughing and having a good time. His yellow blonde hair flowing in the wind, the sun shining over his lightly tanned features, his strong legs draped over either side of the saddle and boots in the stirrups like a professional. He looked every bit like he had jumped out of a romance novel.
Y/n had gotten to know the retriever hybrid the best since they came here, always next to her like a true golden retriever. Always doing what she asked no matter how ridiculous her requests sounded to him, maybe a few side eyed expressions thrown her way every now and then, very sassy, very Jimin.
Everyone had their secrets Y/n knew that much for she had a few of her own she kept tucked away at the furthest corners of her mind. She just wished to know why Jimin would keep this type of information from her if he was to go with her in just a matter of ten days to a whole other state.
"Y/n? Are you there?" John asks through the phone, biting the nubs he called nails as Emily took the phone from his hand. "Listen Y/n I know how you must be feeling right now but you know we could always go down there and talk to him. I would bring Jimin with you just in case worse comes to worse, ya know?" Y/n absently nods her head before whispering a small yes from her tear filled tone. She wasn't ready to let Jimin go, not if her stubborn brain had anything to say about it.
As Y/n pulled her truck into the junk filled driveway of Bill's rather unkept home. Jimin shifts in the seat closer to her his tail wound tightly around her forearm nearly cutting off circulation from the last mile when he attached himself to her. His form seems even smaller as he curls into her side plunging his nose into her neck the best he could, slightly trembling.
"Do we really have to be here? Couldn't you just talk to him over the phone?" Jimin whispers into the crook of her neck as Emily slid out of the passengers side, holding her nose as a few non-hybrid cats loom around her feet their tails chopped off into little stubs at their backsides meowing loudly and rubbing against her pant leg.
Y/n puts her hand on his cheek making Jimin look at her with the most heart broken expression on his beautiful face and her heart aches for him as she coos. "Don't worry Jiminie, we're just going to talk through a few things and get your adoption papers filled out correctly." She kissed his temple softly, a silent promise between the pair of them, letting him hold onto her for as long as he felt the need to- which he didn't seem like he was ever going to let go of her anytime soon.
The three of them barely made it to the door before it swung open and a very unsightly obviously older man stood at the threshold holding a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other. He stood there blinking a few times before he fixed his shirt and cleared his throat.
"I see you brought the damn bastard with you, lets talk inside." The man sneers looking down at Jimin with a fixated snarl on his face making Y/n stand between the two of them protectively. Jimin curls in on himself behind her whimpering like a kicked puppy as they entered the trashed trailer.
You didn't need to be a hybrid to smell the black mold or lime scale littering the trailer. No matter how hard Emily tried to hide her disgust her facial expressions didn't help her in the slightest. She walked around with Y/n and Jimin following the man into the living room which was actually kind of clean to their surprise.
Taking a seat in the living room, Jimin still attached to Y/n and flinching every time the man in front of them moved in the slightest. Y/n felt something was very off about him besides the obvious disarray the man kept his home in. Gauging Jimins reactions there was no doubt some level of abuse going on in this house which made her blood boil and her ears turn red with anger, though she kept her emotions well hidden- better than Emily at least.
"We're here to discuss- well, rather fix Jimin's adoption papers so that I can take him on vacation with me in the next few days." Y/n speaks calmly though she grits her teeth into some form of a smile when she meets Bill's eyes that finally peeled themselves off of the whining hybrid next to her.
His smile is nasty, missing a few teeth the rest of them crooked and miscolored different shades of yellow. He leans forward in the lazy chair causing Jimin and Emily to move back but Y/n stood her ground keeping a hand on Jimins knee to keep his shivering form somewhat calm. "I see, y'know he ran away almost a year ago and his siblins' been missing him terribly-" Bill chuckles darkly turning his burning gaze back to the terrified hybrid shaking in his boots and hiding his face from view behind Y/n's shoulder.
"I have every right to keep 'em here given the 'doption papers say he belongs to me and only me." The man was nasty disgusting even, it took every ounce of restraint Y/n had in her not to slap the shit out of him with the way he kept looking at Jimin like a piece of meat. Scanning his body up and down like he was ready to devour him at a moments notice.
Y/n didn't know Jimin had siblings much less a mother given most hybrids had been made in labs especially the more exotic breeds. Nonetheless she kept firm hold on his knee to help keep him calm and herself from pouncing on Bill like a feral animal. If she was going to convince him to give Jimin up she needed this exchange to go smoothly.
"I understand that sir but I see you have more than your fair share of animals here, hybrid and non-hybrid alike. I would like to talk about uhm, adopting Jimin from you. He's been a very big help at my farm-" Bill raises his hand in front of her face to stop her talking before he looks in her direction his eyes glowing with something akin to mischief but more sinister.
"A farm you say? So you must have a pretty penny to spend, huh?" Bill grins as he waits for Y/n to respond. She shifts in her seat highly uncomfortable with the way he was staring at her with money hungry eyes. Emily looks at her from the side keeping her mouth closed in a tight lipped smile before exchanging a silent agreement between the two of them.
"Name your price and I'll pay it. I just want to take him home, please." Y/n all but begs the man in front of her as Jimin picks his head up out of her neck his eyes pleading with her when he gets her attention. "Please Y/n you don't have to pay for me. I'll just stay here it's fine I promise. He'll bleed you dry if you-"
Bill jumps from his chair and raises his hand to hit Jimin into silence. He flinches so hard he actually climbs halfway over the couch to flee the situation he feels he's caused. Y/n shoots up from her seat and grips Bill's wrist tightly- keeping his hand in place the look of pure hellfire in her eyes evident enough to both Bill and Emily that she wasn't going to let this man lay a single digit on her poor hybrid ever again.
"I'll give you three-hundred if you sign the adoption papers over to me giving me sole custody of him and swear on your life you will not under any circumstances set foot on my property for any reason to claim him back into your- care." Y/n spits her words at Bill her face a full grimace burning holes into his head as he rips his wrist from her solid grip grumbling some curse words and small form of agreement.
A little while later Y/n had just barely dropped Emily back off at Johns house and finally made it back to her own home breathing a heavy sigh of relief. Resting her head heavily on the back of the bench seat in her old beat up truck and closing her eyes she barely registers the heavy head on her right shoulder.
"I'm so sorry I didn't tell you, Y/n. I was scared you'd send me back so I didn't say anything..." Jimins voice was so soft she almost didn't hear him when he muttered his mumbled apology to her. She raises her head and rests her cheek on the crown of his head softly rubbing it against his shaggy blonde hair absently which she seemed to do often- even if she wasn't a hybrid herself.
Jimin didn't seem to mind though. "Ain't nothin' to be sorry for Jiminie." She mutters softly with her sweet accent, gently taking his hand in hers and lacing their fingers together with a small smile on her face. "Besides the bastard is lucky I didn't throat punch him and call the cops on him." She chuckles a little making Jimin do the same.
He snuggles in closer to her nudging his nose into the crook of her neck scenting her in appreciation for what she had done for him. Jimin was beyond grateful and a little surprised at the lengths Y/n was willing to go for him. It was sitting in the truck in that moment that he had realized the feelings he had for her at the start of these crazy months was blooming into something much more, intimate.
"Why don't you say we head inside before the others come looking for us?" She coos softly, faintly kissing his forehead and Jimin leaning into it as his golden tail began to thump on the bench seat for the first time since their journey started.
"Y/n, do you ever feel like- maybe you've found the place you're meant to be? Maybe it's just my instincts or my yearning to have a place to truly call home but," Jimin pauses for a moment before Y/n picks her head up again and Jimin does the same. They look into each others eyes neither one looking away. It's like time had stopped for the pair of them, a silent song playing to fill the silence and suddenly Jimin could see it all.
The eight of them living in this very house together all smiles and laughter swirling about the late evenings. Summer night bonfires with friends and family. Early mornings tending to the farm animals with a to go cup of coffee sitting in the truck as Y/n takes Dove out for a morning ride with Jimin beside her on his own horse laughing and smiling until his cheeks hurt.
Some mornings though, would be spent sleeping in until the late hours of the morning maybe until early afternoon. Laying in bed together, Jimin able to see the beautiful grace of her morning bedhead as she slept peacefully next to him. Her cheek squished against her pillow making her lips form an adorable pout just waiting to be kissed awake.
And maybe one day there would be little pups running around his legs, begging to be picked up and carried around on their daddy's back pretending to be a horse of their own. Or perhaps spending cool evenings around the porch firepit roasting marshmallows over the fire. Jimin most likely burning more than a few of them making the pups laugh. Saying things like 'silly daddy, you're not supposed to burn them' or possibly hear them make grossed out noises when he just pops the burnt marshmallow into his mouth and eat it with a smile.
And by the end of the night after they've gone to bed and said goodnight to their uncles, the eight of them would settle down for a movie before bed. Y/n would be cuddled in close to his side wrapped up in one of the big blankets from the linen closet and when the movie would be over Jimin would have to carry her to bed and tuck her in. Slipping in behind her with a content sigh as his held her close to his chest and slowly letting himself drift off to sleep himself only to do it all over again the next day.
The pair began to close the gap between them. Y/n cheeks burned bright as Jimins nose brushed her own and she sucked in a harsh gasp of air holding it for dear life as their lips connected. The kiss was still for a second before Jimins eyes fluttered closed lost in the taste of her lips against his. Y/n followed suit shortly after his lips began to move against hers. She wasn't expecting it but he was a domesticated hybrid and once again she was reminded to look up more information about the seven of them if she was to survive all of them.
Her mind didn't stop her from enjoying the way Jimins pillow soft lips felt against her own. His lips felt something akin to a fresh dough before being thrown in the oven to bake. The way his lips moved against hers so perfectly, the outside world long forgotten to her and him. Jimin shifted in the seat to face her better, pushing against her and to his surprise she pushed back.
The retriever hybrid pulled on the loop of her jeans on either side of her hips successfully pulling her into his lap. Y/n cradled his face in her hand drifting to the nape of his neck and weaving it into his hair. The other rested on his opposite shoulder as his small yet agile hands kneading into her hip dips just below the belt of her jeans. The windows began to fog up just barely as the sun had set below the horizon and the cool night air began to nip at the back of Y/n's neck since the truck was off.
Jimin was the one to break the kiss, his eyes heavy and blown out keeping a firm grip on her hips refusing to let go of her just yet. He hazily looks into her eyes with a goofy yet droopy, doped up smile on his face making his eyes close into crescents. "Well, that wasn't- I mean it was..." Y/n struggles to find the right words for what just happened between them when Jimin cups her cheeks between his hands with a stupid grin on his face quickly kissing her nose.
"You don't have to say anything right now princess, I honestly forgot my own train of thought. Really you're just so intoxicating by yourself and after what you did for me today- it just put a few things into perspective and I really liked you from the start but now-" Jimin was nearly scared half to death with a knock to the driver's side window and Y/n quickly scrambles out of his lap and unceremoniously manages to not kill herself sliding out of the passengers side door and onto her feet like an agile cat landing on it's paws.
"What're you guys doing in there for so long the windows fogged up?" Jungkook asks with his shit eating grin on his face. Y/n rounds the truck with Jimin behind her holding onto his hand blankly staring at the moose hybrid before her. "Oh shut up, how long were you standing there?" Y/n stabs her finger into his chest. "Fucking Christ woman I just got out here two seconds ago, slow your roll." Jungkook chuckles removing her accusing finger from his chest cavity and rubbing the spot attentively. He notices the clouded look on Jimins face and it suddenly dawns on him what must have happened.
One of them finally made a real move on their person.
TAGLIST: @valpinkk @moonxxlover @meowforluv
A/N: Ah! I've been waiting to post this chapter forever! The next chapter will be the last one for a little while since the next five chapters are when things get serious!
✽Genre(s) - Mafia Au, Angst , Fluff, mentions of smut.
✽Trigger Warnings - Mentions of Death, Mentions of Trauma , minor alcohol consumption, mentions of torture and shootouts and mentions of bloodshed, Mentions of Drugs, Attempted Murder, A little manipulative behavior, A shootout, a lot of cursing, There is a little bit of torture in here so please please avoid this if this triggers you in any way.
✽Summary - You’ve been lurking in the shadows, protecting the seven of Bangtan even if it means you must give your own life. After all, that’s what you do when you are in love with someone irrevocably. That pain seems to be minuscule in light of their safety. But it was never about you, for all you are is a speck of dust in the universe they have created for them and their girlfriend. Your heart’s at war, but it’s fine, you can smile through the pain as long as it means they smile- for her.
✽A/N : Hello Everyone! I apologise I couldn't post the last time due to some circumstances and I literally couldn't find any time to get on Tumblr after the post. The 9th part is here now, And I hope you guys like it, And also my apologies if you find the writing a little over the place, Ive been in a slump with writing since a year and this is my honest attempt to get out of it. I would love it if you let me know what you think about it.
You chuckled at hearing a gasp from the Bratva’s side, Your request was very unusual for him. You knew that. You were sure he wouldn't be able to fathom why exactly you wanted Zakharov to visit you in Korea.
“Bratva, we will speak when you get here. Right now all I am requesting is your presence here. Rest assured, This is going to be one hell of a trip.” Bratva obliged your request right away without questioning further. You looked at the men standing in the room looking at you with an expression that spelled curiosity all over their faces.
“They have agreed to come, Bratva will let me know sometime tomorrow when exactly they can come.”
“You're in for a treat.” Borris looks at Jimin helplessly when he hears Jimin mock him. You shrug your shoulders when Borris looks at you expecting him to help him. He should have thought of that before they plotted against you and the Bangtan men. These were nothing but consequences of their actions.
If they didn't feel bad before using and treating you as a scapegoat, Then why the hell should you?
“What do we do now?” You take a moment to answer Taehyung’s question. How were you supposed to go from here?
“Let's move him to my house, Mikhail will be taken care of by my men.” Nobody speaks up against your decision, Except for Borris. Who of course has a lot of comments to make. You ignore the pleas of the man and ask your men to take him to your house. You needed to keep a strict eye on the man lest there should be any other unexpected events. Should there be one?
It takes a little while after a screaming Borris is escorted out of the room, You take a minute to calm down. The way Borris kept screaming gave you a headache and you really didn't want to hear the voice of that man for some time. You needed some silence.
You sit in the room with the other men who seemed too quiet, Nobody spoke anything. They were all just sitting there. Some look at their hands entwined in their laps, The others look at the furniture in the room as if it were in some museum. These feelings sometimes were so difficult to express, That you had no idea what to do about it. You all had been played, and manipulated by Lily. And right now neither you nor the boys knew where you would go from here.
“It's getting late, We should leave.” Everyone looked at Namjoon with somewhat of an expression of relief, The awkward atmosphere was getting too much to bear.
“I don't want to be anywhere near Lily right now.” Everyone seemed to agree with Yoongi. You looked at the seven men with a puzzled expression. Lily did not know they knew, And you did not have the slightest clue yourself of how the boys were going to face her, Let alone you.
“I think me and Namjoon will go to our house with Lily, The rest of you stay with DJ at her place.” Namjoon gave Jin a questioning look but did not speak. The older male seemed to gesture at something which did not make him question anything anymore.
“Boss, do you want us to come with you?”
“No, I guess let's call it a day. You guys have had enough for today as well.” The two men nodded and left first. You bid farewell to the two men who left for their house. You could feel the tension thick in the air but there was very little that you could do about it. You had no words to express the pain that you yourself felt when you saw the pain on the seven men's faces. They were feeling so many things at the same time, Yet there was barely anything that these men could do about it.
“Namjoon..” You pulled Namjoon into a hug when he looked back the moment you called him. His hands tightened around your waist and you just wished he could feel what you wanted to convey.
“It will be alright.” You feel his head nodding in a yes, You take a deep breath inhaling his scent, Which provides a sense of comfort. You let him go after a second, He gave you a weak smile and proceeded towards his car. You followed the five men to your respective cars to leave for your house.
The house seemed dead silent when both Jin and Namjoon walked in, The men wordlessly walked towards Lily’s room. She was still sleeping peacefully and totally unaware of her surroundings.
Jin took a seat near her and switched on the lights on the light side. The dimly lit room hid their tears very well. The soft light illuminated only the face of the woman they had come to love all these years, They couldn't have thought in their wildest dreams of the dark secret the woman was hiding.
Namjoon stroked Lily’s head softly, His fingers caressing her forehead in a way where a little force could break her. He let out a sigh and looked at Jin who had an equally gloomy expression on his face. The two men spent a good minute just looking at Lily, who looked like she was having the best sleep after a hard working day.
“You remember the first day we met her? She looked like she was seconds away from ripping your hair out?” Namjoon chuckled at that fond memory. For the first time ever in his life, he had someone walk up to him and yell at him. With every word she spoke, Namjoon kept controlling his laughter which ultimately came off the minute she took a pause. She still remembered the bewildered expression that came over Lily’s face when she saw them laughing his head off. The smile that came on her face after snatching his breath instantly threw him out of the laughing fit. The way her eyes crinkled when she laughed too was enough to have him swooning.
“I remember it clearly just like it happened yesterday. That smile was lethal.” Jin let out a small laugh at Namjoon’s mention, His first memory of Lily resembling something of Namjoon. He still remembered the way he had dragged Namjoon to see who she was.
“Who knew she was hiding so many things.”
“Never knew she could do something like this to us.” Namjoon withdraws his hands and stands up making his way to the window, The dark night looks better than the darkness inside him. His brain wanted to kill the woman who had used him and was probably very close to betraying him. But his heart kept refuting everything he had heard. Namjoon let out a frustrated scream and punched his hand on the window hard, shattering the glass into pieces.
“Are you fucking out of your mind? Show me.” Jin looked at the younger’s hand in pure despair, The shards of glass sticking to his knuckles made him bleed profusely.
“I will kill you if you do that shit again, il back in a second.” Jin rushed out of the bedroom to bring the first aid kit while Namjoon dejectedly took a seat on the chair placed right in front of Lily.
Jin froze in his steps and Namjoon suddenly stopped him with his hand. He got up and knelt down in front of Lily who was letting out small groans. She was waking up. Jin pulled Namjoon back and made him sit.
“I don't care if she is waking up, Sit down. Let's have a look at this first.” Jin’s stern expression got Namjoon sitting down like a small kid who was threatened with being grounded. Jin let small curses when Namjoon winced in pain and right at that moment he was thankful that he had the rest of them by his side. At Least they weren't going anywhere. They would always be by his side.
“DJ….” Jin paused his administration on Namjoon’s hand the second he heard your name, Really? She had the audacity to set you up and then utter your name like you were in some kind of distress. Namjoon tried getting up but Jin’s strong grip on his thighs didn't allow him to do so.
“Funny isn't it, How she is the one who was setting up DJ, and hers is the first name she took when she's waking up.” Jin's grip didn't allow Namjoon to budge. The man could be as stubborn as a mule and nobody could do anything about it.
“I wonder what she remembers.” Namjoon quickly shushed him, pointing a finger at the woman. Jin and Namjoon concentrated on the woman's movements which kept getting more restless and your name which kept coming out of her mouth like a mantra. Her movements signaled the men that she would be waking up any minute.
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“Namjoon.--
“Don't wake up, Just lay back down.” Namjoon placed her head back on the pillow, While Jin ran to fetch a glass of water.
“Where is Dj?” Namjoon placed his finger on her lips trying his best to not shake her up and slap her for what she tried to do.
“She's safe. You should get some rest.” He stroked her forehead and the woman fell back asleep. Jin gently held her head and helped her drink some water. Even before she could take two sips Jin popped the question he had been dying to ask her, What did she remember? The water spluttered out of Lily’s mouth and she began coughing violently. Namjoon gave a stern look to Jin while he rubbed her back, Jin just gave a blank expression. Maybe he knew what was about to go down. His mind wanted to see the extent she would lie, but his heart secretly wished that somehow magically she wouldn't have anything to do with all this.
Lily’s huge sobs brought Jin out of his thoughts and the little hope that was peeking its head inside his heart went away in an instant.
“He had his gun here, Right on my head.”Lily wept in Namjoon’s arms and the latter just stopped himself from giving her a piece of his mind.
“Sweetie, did you know who they were? Why were they after you?”
“I don't remember anything, They hit me so hard on the head. Maybe they wanted to hurt you guys and meant to use me like a pawn.” Jin clenched his teeth in rage, Really is this how this woman had been lying to their face all these years? What else had she lied about?
“Namjoon, Jin. I am too tired and weak right now. I want to sleep.” The two men placed her head on the pillow back again and pulled the comforter on her.
“Sleep here with me please, I don't want to be alone.” The two men obliged unwillingly, What could they have given to not be there with her right now. For the first time ever, They did not want to be there by her side. They had the urge to run miles away from her, But there was so much to know and so much left to unveil, They had to play along.
Lily relaxed a little after she had the two men sleeping next to her side, She snuggled into Namjoons chest and prayed silently that everything was right at the place that it was supposed to be. For the life of her, she couldn't remember a single thing no matter what. While she decided to rest and hope that everything was fine, the two men stayed awake next to her, hating every second of it. This was going to be one hell of a long night.
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You sat in front of the two men that had been locked in the basement, Your men stood guard outside ready to blow the heads of the two captive men if they tried something. Mikhail kept drifting in and out of consciousness while Borris sat terrified and roped to the chair. His eyes kept moving towards Mikhail and the fear of having the same fate as him and that fear in his eyes gave you a sick level of satisfaction.
“Why can't you just let us go?” You did not dignify Borris’s question with an answer, You were not even sure anymore what were you even supposed to say to him? These guys came into your life from nowhere and turned it worse than up and down, for their own selfish needs. Tried to pawn you off like you belonged to them or some toy that they had bought. Lily should be thankful you still had not laid your hands on her.
“Will you say something?” Borris bought his voice several notches down, Still not sure of what you would do lest he pissed you off. Mikhail was right next to me, probably wishing he was dead.
“If I hear one more word out of your mouth, Those worms from his thigh will be in your eyes.” Borris shrieked loud enough to induce another headache, One movement of your leg was enough to have the man apologizing profusely.
You kept sitting in front of the two men, This time in peace. The entire day kept flashing in front of you like a film, The one you wouldn't even want to have a dream of. You had to plan ahead, Starting from Choi first. The bastard had answers to give.
“You had a long day, You should get some sleep.” You turn around to see Yoongi leaning on the door, His arms crossed and a blank expression on his face.
“So did you.”
“Just get up already, It's getting late.” You do not argue with him and get up and start walking with him. You had no energy whatsoever to have another argument with anyone.
The men had taken their picks from their room as soon as they had walked inside your house, Nobody said anything. You didn't either. Everyone needed some silence to reflect on what they had gone through that day. You had walked straight to the basement to check the captive rats in your house.
You and Yoongi just kept walking up the stairs, An inexpressible silence engulfing both of you. Maybe you just didn't need words, You didn't know for him but somehow deep down inside you were glad that you were not alone. “Mind if I stay here tonight?” Your hands paused for a fraction of a second before you silently nodded and the man followed you inside.
“Make yourself comfortable, I'll just wash up.” You didn't wait for his reply as you went towards your bathroom and the said man made himself comfortable on the right side of the bed.
“Can't sleep?”
“Yoongi?” You touched his shoulder lightly to which he flinched, You stepped back in surprise and placed your hands in the front where he could see them. He had to be too deep in thought for a light touch to be startling him like that.
“I'm sorry, I'm just….”
“No it's okay, I mean are you okay?”
“Yeah, I'm okay—-
“Are you really?”
“No, I'm not. Hell, I'm not remotely okay. What the hell happened today?”
“I know its a lot to take in—-
“We loved her, you know? Like really really loved her. I don't think I've loved any other woman as much as I have loved her.” Your heart broke at the way he was speaking about Lily with so much pain. All of you were in the same boat, to be honest, You loved Bangtan, Bangtan loved Lily, Lily loved Borris and she didn't give two fucks about who she hurt in the process.
You were all part of a terrible terrible mess, And none of you could do anything about it.
“Trust me, I understand how you all must be feeling right now.” Yoongi was visibly at a loss of words, You could see that. You quickly mumbled a quick sorry and switched off the lights to avoid any kind of awkward atmosphere. You had enough of it already.
“DJ…….”
“Hmm?”
“I am sorry.”
“What for?”
“I know we didn't know, And we couldn't help how you felt. But now I truly know how it feels when that person you love is not yours.” A tear rolled down your eyes, Though the scenarios were entirely different, but just him at that moment acknowledging that feeling gave you a different strength. They were not at fault, But just the mere thought of someone deeply understanding how and what you've been through healed something. Maybe you were being selfish, But at that moment you didn't give a damn about anything.
You stayed in the same position facing away from the wall and Yoongi sat up, Leaning on the headboard. None of you said anything anymore. There was a very scarce chance that you would have gotten any sleep considering the way the day had unfolded. You made a feeble attempt to convince yourself that the lack of sleep came from the day you had, And had nothing to do with the man beside you who was already deeply heartbroken.
You turned towards Yoongi, unable to resist the temptation. A part of you just wanted to pull him in a hug and hold him tight enough to make his pain disappear. Your heart broke into a million pieces looking at Yoongi staring at the wall with a blank expression on his face.
A knock on your door brought you out of your thoughts, but Yoongi still remained the same. It looked like he didn't even hear it. You touch his hand lightly but upon receiving no response you let the man be and decide to open the door yourself.
“Can I sleep here?” You make way for Taehyung, who stills for a second when he sees Yoongi on the bed. He quietly sleeps in the middle and places Yoongi’s hand on his chest. Yoongi looks at the younger male in surprise but does not react. You stand still for a minute looking at the scene in front of you. How you wish you had Jeh here. Just his being there made everything so much better.
“Are you going to sleep or what?”
“Yeah I was going to—-
“Then come.”
Taehyung’s hand snaked around your waist and you felt a strange sense of comfort. It was kind of a day where you wouldn't choose to be alone. You closed your eyes waiting for sleep to overcome everything you had been through today. You drifted off to light sleep, You ignored any moment that somehow kept happening beside you, Some sleep was all you wanted.
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You opened your eyes to the biggest surprise you had in some time. You could call it a good surprise but it was still a surprise. You were three people when you had slept but you were now waking up to a total of six of them excluding you in your bed. You did not have even the slightest clue when Jimin, Hobi, Jungkook had joined Yoongi, Taehyung, and you on your bed that was meant for two, a Maximum of three and a half.
You carefully crept out of the bed, making sure not to make any noise because you had no idea when these men had managed to have some sleep. You walked down the steps making up your mind about if you should have woken those guys or if you should just leave them sleeping. You decide the latter and start thinking of the strongest coffee that you would need to make to help with your day better.
You had already made up your mind about half of the things that you had to do today, Choi was on top of it. You could swear you would make him regret coming behind you.
You park your car in the private parking in the public administrator's building that Choi’s office was in. You make your way to the private entrance of the building which was specifically reserved for the VIP’s visiting the officials. The offices were quite exquisite considering they had special arrangements for the VIPs who didn't want to be seen when they visited the premises and every one of them had a special access card that let them access the building when they needed to.
You take the elevator and land on the floor Choi was located on, The waiting area was absolutely empty apart from the reception.
“Hi, Do you have an appointment?”
“No, But Mr.Choi knows me. Can you inform him of my presence?” The receptionist gauges your calm and collected face for a second and picks up the receiver. You were in half mind if the bastard would see you upon unannounced notice but you had other ways as well.
“I'm sorry but he is a little occupied at the moment, I can pencil you down for some time this week?” You laughed at the weak attempt he made to avoid you.
“Is he now? Don't worry, that won't be necessary. He will see me in a minute” You send the picture that you had clicked of Mikhail on your phone and look at the camera with a smirk, You knew he was watching you. Ten seconds later the telephone rings and the puzzled receptionist guides you into his office.
“What the hell do you want, I don't know this man?” You laugh at the way the old man didn't bother giving it a minute, You walk towards the couch he was sitting on with a smile that was calm enough to boil his blood.
“I didn't ask you anything old man, Why don't you give it a minute?”
“DJ, don't think you can fool me with your antics, I'm not bothered.” You let out a laugh listening to his statement, Really? And yet he had let you see him within ten seconds. Ten seconds was all it took you to break that disgusting piece of shit.
“Okay let me take this picture to the circle then, Let them decide.” You get up and walk towards the door sure of the thing that this time was not your exit, The bastard had too much on the line.
“Wait—-
“You remember now?”
“Just come back here.”
“Don't leave out a thing, Or else this man is going to be the reason why you will see your own end.”
“He came here because he wanted revenge because you wiped out his family.”
“And”
“I gave him an idea that he should take down everything you love before you die, And that includes Bangtan.” Now this rang an alarm in your head, Why? Why would he want to go after Bangtan?
“And how did you get in touch with him?”
“You think only you know the people in the Russian mob? I knew it from the day you bought his father here, I tracked him down and led him here indirectly and when he was here I just helped him figure out the details. Since we had the same motives he readily obliged.” You were stunned by the information that the old man had just blurted out, You were still puzzled by how he had planned to use something that didn't involve him in the first place.
“Why Bangtan?”
“I wanted them all gone.”
“Why?”
“Senior Jung was considering Namjoon to be the head of the circle.” Now this was something that you had no information about. The thought of Choi doing something like this only to eliminate the Bangtan because one of them was supposed to be the next head. You swore you would show him the consequences of it.
“You did all this because you wanted that position for—
“My son.” He uttered the words rather feebly, Your expression darkened considerably, How stupid was this man that he had chosen to execute all this, and for what. The circle would anyways not have accepted his son, That brat was hopeless.
You were furious about everything that had been happening in your life, You wanted to bury Lily deep in thorns, This was all because of her, She put you in a mess that was a literal swamp, the more you tried to get out, the deeper you kept going.
You saw an expression of fear and confusion on Choi’s face. He didn't anticipate you reaching the root of his conspiracy, And probably wondered how you even managed to do this?
You kept pacing behind his couch, half in a mind to strangle this bastard and chop his head off. You decided the former is a better option. You quietly picked the tie hanging in his coat stand, while the poor guy kept trying to look back trying to gauge your next move.
“Next time I see you playing such dirty tricks on me or either of the men in Bangtan I will make sure you regret the day you were born.” The old man struggled for a breath as you tightened the tie around his neck. How you wished you could choke the life out of this scum.
“I swear I won't” The old man managed to speak a few words in a matter of few seconds, You threw the tie away in disgust and walked out before you ended up killing him for real.
You walk out of the Choi office in a mixed sea of emotions, Anger, despair, and sadness. Those emotions just kept coming back, They kept getting washed to the shore in intervals leaving you in confusion about the way to deal with them.
You kept driving through the roads aimlessly trying to get a hold of your thoughts, You had invited Bratva and Lily’s ex-husband to Korea, That mere thought of Lily’s face when she would see them gave you another wave of sick satisfaction. Even though you were involved in a business that was not legal, and was deeply rooted in blood and conspiracies you never derived any satisfaction that soothed you to the bones, But ever since you knew about Lily’s intentions and her lies there was an evil satisfaction that coursed through your veins.
The ringing of your phone brought you back to reality from your self-introspection. Seeing Bratva's name on the screen, You hurriedly park your car on the side and with a deep breath click on the answer.
“DJ” Bratva’s heavy voice booms through the speakers sending a little shiver down your spine even though there was no reason to.
“Bratva, How are you?”
“I am good, But something tells me you are not okay, doc.” You almost feel your tears trying to escape through your eyes but you try to keep them in. At that moment you miss Jeh. You had only him in your life who could just by looking at your face, Could tell something was wrong with you.
“Doch—
“Yeah Bratva, I am right here. Tell me”
“You tell me DJ, What has happened? Something doesn't feel right.”
“Before I tell you what has happened, You will be coming to Korea right?”
“Of Course, we are, What makes you think that I won't come if you call me? We will be there in a week, Zakharov is a little occupied right now. But we will be there for sure.” You smile at the remark reminiscing how you and Bratva had met versus the fondness in his voice right now.
“That's not a problem Bratva, I don't want to inconvenience you in any way—
“That's nonsense, Do you want to tell me what happened?”
You narrate the entire event from the time you got back from Russia to Bratva and he listens to you with a stoic expression. The only way you can make the anger emanating from him is the stiffness of his expression and the clenching of his jaw.
“That bitch”
“I swear—
“I swear I will kill her when I lay my hands on her—
“Bratva, There is no joy in killing her, I have better plans for her.”
“You mean?” You chuckle at the way Bratva’s face lights up when you say you have a special plan for her, You always felt that this particular idea of putting someone in deep suffering would be ten times gruesome than killing the person and giving them an easy way out, And it was time that Lily tasted this special expertise of yours.
“Bratva, Let me get back to you for the details but for now know that she is in for a treat.” You hear Bratva’s booming laugh and that breaks a smile on your face.
She was indeed in for a treat.
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You open the door cautiously to your home and are immediately greeted by the loud voices in the living room. You could tell from a distance that all seven of them were present in your home right now. You stop at the door and contemplate for a minute whether you should go inside, But then you drive the idea away, This was your fucking house.
The confusion was about your equation with the men of Bangtan, This was evolving with the speed of light. One day you were mere acquaintances, The next you were supposedly dating, The next you were friends, and now? That was a question you had no answer to.
The room quietens a bit when you enter the room. The sounds that you had been hearing somewhat gave you a hint that they were being joyous about something.
“Did I miss something?”
“DJ you won't believe what has happened.” Taehyung pulls you right into the middle of the room and in extremely close proximity to Namjoon, Who you were sure was the source of the good news because the smile on his face was something different than usual.
You were happy and a little relieved to see the boys joyous, Considering how their hearts had been broken and shattered yesterday.
“What happened?’’
“Well Namjoon is the new head of the circle, And that too starting next week. Can you even believe that?” You were genuinely happy for him, Namjoon truly deserved to be the next head, At Least with him being the decision maker, You could breathe in a sigh of relief some of the old traditions needed to be sent packing. With Namjoon, You were sure he would be doing great.
“Congratulations Namjooon, I am so happy for you.” You see a faint dimple appearing on his cheeks right before you experience another shock, He pulls you right into a hug and mumbles a thank you in your hair, You literally felt every syllable of it.
You lose track of how fast your heart starts beating once the woody scent of his perfume engulfs you in its serenity. You remain in his hold for a second, when you pull yourself out of his hold before you lose yourself.
“It's good to see you guys happy.” The boys visibly tense at your remarks but their expressions remain a little on the softer side.
“It's not like we have an option.”
“Forget that, I think we should go out for dinner or something, I am still sick from yesterday.”
“And—--
“She doesn't need to know, DJ dress up. We leave in fifteen, Max twenty.”
“Wait—--
“Dress up please” Jimin pushes you towards the stairs and you give up on your effort to ask them about Lily. It was definitely strange the way Namjooon said she didn't need to know.
You stand under the shower thinking about everything again and suddenly an idea lights up your face. Namjoon had one week before he had to begin as the head of the circle, And there was also one week before Bratva and Zakharov arrived in Korea. A party would be the perfect opportunity to introduce the two parties to each other, And it would also be a perfect opportunity to stand by and watch the magic unfold.
You hum a happy song walk out of the shower in your towel and stand in front of the mirror before you can spritz some perfume the door to your room bursts open and Jimin and Jungkook come barreling in, You stand shocked to see the two men rooted to their spots with their eyes open.
You clear your throat and gesture towards the door but it looks like it barely registered with them.
“Out, The door is right behind you.” You try to speak a little louder, hopeful of getting through to them, And before you know it the guys scramble out of the room. You would have to double-check if you locked your room the next time.
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“I wanted to speak to you guys about something.” The boys pause their talks and divert their attention to you. You glance around before you begin to make sure you have everybody’s attention.
“I want to throw a party–
“For? The way all of us have gotten fooled, For that?” You throw a stern glance at Yoongi who surprisingly stays quiet and motions you to go ahead.
“I want to throw a party for Namjoon. He's the new head of the circle and it's a perfect occasion to celebrate.”
“DJ, That is not really req—-
“I am going to invite Bratva and Zakharov to that party too.”
“I'll help with the guest list.” You are quite surprised with the fact that Yoongi and Hobi said that at once, You feel relieved to have the confirmation, Now you are free to plan the party and Lily’s downfall at the same time.
“I would like to see her face. That lying— Taehyung stops himself from uttering the next word. You could clearly see the pain on his face, But there was very little that you could do.
The dinner passes by in a jiffy, considering the excitement the guys had earlier had died down considerably after you mentioned the party and the special guests. But what had to be done, Had to be done. There was no choice.
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A loud banging on your door jolts you awake, You rush to the door fearing the worst consequences when The six guys excluding Jin come rushing into your room, You stand at the door with your eyes and mouth wide open wondering about the reason for this rushed visit.
“She's here, She here.” Jimin points at the door, And for you, it takes a second to register who she is.
“But why are you hiding?”
“We don't want to face her, Not right now.” The panic in the guy's faces tells you that this is not the time to reason with them.
“Alright, Let me close the door.” But before you could close the door, Lily comes barging in, and before you could say anything she pulls you in for a hug.
“I have been so worried about you, Where were you, DJ? I was so worried they did something with you.” The grip that she had been tightening on you was suffocating you to no end, Her lies just didn't seem to end.
“She's fine, Don't worry.” Lily looked at Hobi with a shocked expression, It was evident that she didn't expect this reaction out of him. You clear your throat at the intervention and move behind Hobi to keep a safe distance from her. You could totally understand why the boys were running away from her, Only you knew how you were resisting the urge to strangle her right there.
“I am fine Lily, Don't worry. They didn't do anything to me. In fact, I was worried about you.”
You could see an uncomfortable expression surfacing on Lily's face but she hides it like a pro. You look at the guys who keep making weird attempts to avoid her by looking everywhere in the room except Lily herself.
“Where were you all?”
“We, We have been a little busy.”
“Yeah, He's right. We were busy, In fact very busy.” Taehyung tries to make it sound as if what he is saying is super important but his attempts just go in vain. The poor guy couldn't lie to save his life.
“Tae, are you trying to lie to me?”
“Actually they're all really worried about us.” You quickly jump in to save Taehyung and the only way you could do that was by turning the tables.
“Us?”
“We are—?” You throw a stern look at Namjoon, Which ends up working on Yoongi too. You could see he was about to say something.
“Yeah, So what I was saying was, You know how you were kidnapped? I mean both of us were kidnapped? They're wondering who did it, you know? And what could be the intention behind the kidnapping? “ You feel the same satisfaction when you feel Lily tensing after every question, It has definitely worked.
“You don't need to worry you guys, I am fine. Absolutely fine.” Lily tries stepping back to make an exit, But you step right behind her and block her way. You were not done with her yet.
“Do you remember anything from that day Lily?” You feel Lily tensing up even more, The fun is about to begin.
“I—---
“Try to remember Lily, The guys are really worried about you–
“And you.”
“Sorry?”
“We were worried about you both, I meant.”
“So Lily, Babe, do you remember anything at all? Try to remember.” Jungkoook steals Lily from you places a hand on her shoulder and begins walking to the other guys. Turn by turn Lily passed around like a little doll, And you could see the way she was feeling deeply uncomfortable. A few minutes into the sweet interrogation, She would be sure to sweat.
“Namjoon, Baby I am not feeling too well. Can you take me home?”
“Actually baby, Jimin and Taehyung will take you home. I have a meeting.”
“Hyung—
“Take Jungkook with you.”
“Hyung,” It was Jungkook's turn to whine, Lily looked at them with a very confused expression. This probably was the first time when the guys must have been avoiding taking her home. Generally from what you saw, It was actually the opposite.
“Go please.” Namjoons stern voice drives the four of them out of the room in a jiffy, You breathe a sigh of relief. The stress that these few minutes had brought was immense.
“Close the door please.”
“Sure” You close the door with a confused expression, "They were going to be sleeping here too?
“That's my side, Pick somewhere else.” The way Yoongi pushed Hobi, brought a smile on both your and Namjoon's faces.
“I will sleep here, I mean Sit here.” Namjoon points towards the sofa on your right and you nod in a yes. You take your place on the bed and the rest of them settle on the bed.
“Where’s Jin?” You ask, Remembering that you had not seen him after dinner.
“He's gone for a drive, He ran away the minute he saw Lily coming. You laugh the way Hobi scowls, You turn off the lights, and the minute your head hits the pillow you feel sleep taking over you in a minute.
You wake up with some light ruffling on the side, You turn on the lights to see Jin trying to make some space on the bed, The way he was mumbling something clearly indicated that he was drunk. There were multiple bedrooms in the house and all these men could find was your room.
“Jin–
Your eyes widen when Jin stumbles to your side and kisses the top of your head. Good night, It takes him a few stumbles to reach back to the spot he made for himself. He sleeps on his stomach and passes out faster than a second.
You take a look at Namjoon who was fast asleep, But in an awkward position. You quickly bring the spare pillow adjust his head and decide to go back to sleep. It was indeed a long night.
You had enough time for planning a party, You started with the major things by scheduling details for Bratva’s travel. They had agreed to be in Korea the following week. The guys keep staying at your place and absolutely refuse to return to their homes. Lily without a doubt kept herself occupied, Your guess was probably she was trying to figure out the whereabouts of her boyfriend.
The boys kept waiting for the day when Lily and the special guests would arrive. You kept yourself busy with your work, Party arrangements, and some last-minute deliveries.
The guys kept hovering around you for one reason or the other, From receiving zero attention from them to having their attention on yourself was overwhelming, to say the least, And you definitely had a problem with the fact that the attention doubled in front of Lily, It sometimes looked like they were doing it on purpose. But you avoided saying anything to them because given what was going on from the past couple of days, You didn't want to create any more drama.
You tried keeping yourself as away as you could from the cold war that was happening, Lily sometimes tried to stay over and it would end up with everyone in your room.
You decided to ignore everything for the time being, Your sole focus was making the party a huge hit, One for establishing a good image for Namjoon, And mainly was the grand reveal.
The only good thing that kept you sane was your calls with Marco and Jeh. Though Jeh was still unconscious you still made it a point to talk to him at least thrice a day. Marco made sure he let you vent your heart out, You had no idea how you could ever thank god for these two.
While it was long back that Marco and Jeh had been in Malaga, all of that felt like it was yesterday.
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You walked around the hall greeting and speaking to guests with Namjoon, You had felt weird that Namjoon had asked you to be at his side at all times. You didn't say anything considering that it was a big day for him today.
Lily kept greeting the other guests alone, you were sure it might have raised eyebrows but that was not something you were going to bother yourself with. You kept looking at your phone to check if Bratva and Zakharov had landed, You received a text message indicating that they had arrived safely, You felt your nerves starting to explode, The excitement, anxiety, and stress of everything had you gulping down flutes of champagne.
“You okay?” Namjoon asked as you finished your flute, You looked at him once and once at the door. There still wasn't any sign of the arrival of the guests.
“It's just the nerves.”
“Don't worry everything will be fine.” Namjoon holds your hand in a tight grip and that somewhat soothes the anxiety inside you.
You keep greeting the guests as they come, and when the beep sounds on your phone you breathe a sigh of relief, Bratva and Zakharov were here, And so were Mikhail and Borris. You had gotten both of them intentionally there, That was a twist you decided to throw in at the last minute. This was going to be epic.
Mikhail was obviously still in bad shape but you had made sure that he had been accommodated well in a wheelchair, And he was kept conscious deliberately to see how bad he had failed.
You kept doing rounds and once you were sure that all the invited people had arrived, You checked your phone for the latest update, And you saw a message from Jin. He had already taken Bratva and Zakharov with them backstage, Mikhail and Borris would be making a grand appearance with them.
The guys made sure Lily was with them once Bratva arrived, And turn by turn the guys wished you and Namjoon good luck.
You walk with Namjoon on the stage and take the mic to greet everyone, You and Namjoon keep arguing over who would introduce the special guests, But Namjoon ends up winning because apparently his vote came with seven other votes that refused to listen to anything.
You saw the crowd waiting with a smile, It was finally happening. The nerves had calmed down considerably and you were more than okay to witness the spectacle.
“Hello Everyone! Thank You so much for attending today’s party, I am sure each one of you knows how much it means to us. It sure is a big day for Namjoon, Who is about to begin a wonderful tenure as the head of our circle. It is my greatest pleasure to be greeting you all and also host this special occasion. “ you ended the short note with a formal address to the crowd. You handed the mic to Namjoon who thanked everyone who attended the party. He held your hand when he was about to finish his speech, Indicating it was time.
“Now Ladies And Gentlemen, I would like to introduce you to our very special guests who have arrived here from Russia specially on our invitation. Please give it up for our very dear Bratva and Vladimir Zakharov and their friends Mikhail and Borris.”
The color drained from Lily’s face visibly and in a fraction of a second, you saw fear flashing on her face. You and Namjoon walked down from the dice, Yoongi and Hobi made sure that there was no way Lily escaped from their grip, Even though she tried hard to make excuses they didn't budge saying they had to introduce her to the special guests.
“Bratva, this is the other members of Bangtan, This is Yoongi, Taehyung, Hobi, Jimin, Jungkook, Jin and this is the most special member of the group, Lily.” The guys one by one exchanged pleasantries with Bratva and Zakharov, While Lily tried to maintain her composure the sweat on her forehead and the constant effort to free her hand from Yoongi said otherwise. Her expression changed drastically after Zakharov turned to her and took her other hand to place a kiss on the back of her hand.
— 🕸️ a/n: thank you so much to everyone who continues to share their thoughts i love y'all so much!!
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chpt. 6: don't stalk, investigate
october 19, 2004
The trees surrounding the university are starting to brown at the edges. Fall has begun its descent.
The click of the camera shutter has become white noise to you. Through the viewfinder, you follow the motion of the mop of black hair.
You've found that that's how he starts almost all of his mornings: messily, sleepily. More often than not, his hair is just-rolled-out-of-bed fluffy, the lower half of his face covered with a black mask so you can only see his cat-like eyes.
He looks good today, wearing a loose white button-up and silver jewelry. He approaches the university with his messenger bag slung over his shoulder, still clearly half-asleep.
Yoongi is not a morning person, you've learned. You know because you've been watching him.
Listen, you never claimed to be a saint. And yes, maybe half the reason that you're a damn good private investigator is because you're willing (and perfectly capable) of doing the things that others would rather not.
So be it. You've witnessed others commit far worse evils than the one you're currently undertaking.
Long story short, your mental blockade with the case (and whatever the fuck happened at the lake) may or may not have caused you to look into some of the strange characters frequenting Farrow's End. Starting with the shy, antisocial botanist.
The fact that he supposedly lived in the Addams house (according to the commentary from the college students) wasn't the thing that made you suspicious, it was the fact that he lied about living in the Addams house. Pretended to know absolutely nothing about it, to boot.
As a human being, you can respect someone keeping their secrets. As a private investigator, your job is to dig up any secrets that prove relevant to your investigation.
Half of you wants to believe that he's nothing but a good guy. You can admit that you like him, that you relate to his aura as the token "weirdo." But the cynical part of you, it whispers in your ear that he shouldn't be trusted.
No one should. Your job has taught you that much.
Therefore, you have to exhaust each point of view until you find out who's guilty, and who's less guilty. Because pure innocence is impractical.
And after what you saw (or think you saw) at the lake, you're going to have to gear your research towards less "scientific" topics. And try to avoid the woods at all costs. For the time being, at least.
On most days, Yoongi begins his days early, and mostly on-campus. It didn't take long to witness him being transported by the same black Mercedes that you saw outside the cafe, the one supposedly belonging to one of the mysterious Jungs.
Though Yoongi never enters the car in heavily populated areas. He usually walks a short distance to a more private spot, and then the car pulls up like clockwork.
You can never get a good look at the driver, thanks to the tinted windows.
So far, the only suspicious thing about the botanist is the fact that he lied about living in the Addams house. He goes to class, goes to his labs, gets coffee, goes home, with very little in-between.
Well, that plus spending a large amount of his time on campus with one specific chemist. And it doesn't take much longer to realize that he lives at the Addams house too.
Jimin, unlike Yoongi, is often late. He gets dropped off by the same sleek car, a short distance away from his destination, then he power walks to wherever he's going, fluffing and preening himself along the way.
Whether it's a hand brushing through his hair, or a knuckle pushing up the bridge of his glasses (which he never leaves the house without), or him adjusting the collar of his shirt, he's almost always fixing himself.
Sometimes, you get the impression that he isn't comfortable in his own skin.
He has a few other signatures: those heeled boots, pants that are almost always too tight for your liking, glasses (either tinted or completely dark), and always a mask covering his mouth. That, or sometimes an oversized scarf pulled up to just under his nose when it's particularly chilly outside, the wind rustling his hair and it's oddly shifting color.
You've taken to wearing one of your smaller cameras around your neck at all times, just in case you run into anything suspicious and need to snap a picture.
The morning mist has deepened into a constant drizzle most mornings, and that leather jacket you bought at Magic Shop has come in particularly handy. The garment is warm and cozy, and it always gives you a feeling of comfort whenever you wear it.
Fine, so maybe following Yoongi and Jimin didn't yield the results you wanted, though you'll admit it was fun. Still, something is telling you that there's something suspicious about that house and those who reside in it.
So you move on to another lead: Kim Taehyung.
He rarely leaves the house, you've found. So you have to conclude that he lives there as well as works there. When he does leave, it's on official business. Either to go to the police station to pick up documents or out of town to examine a body.
He doesn't ride in the Mercedes, though. Rather, he drives a classic black hearse. Again, peak dedication to the aesthetic, which you can appreciate.
And fine, maybe you snapped a few pictures of him on the rare times you caught him out of the house, but it's all for the sake of the investigation.
At first, you were quite hesitant to get too close to the house on the hill, with its looming trees and black birds hovering all about the roof.
But one day, when you creep up the path, the front gate opens on its own to welcome you. You were planning on scraping along the outside of the gate, peering into the yard through the iron bars. You weren't expecting it to actually open for you.
A gust of wind surges through the air, pulling you towards the house. The rustle of the trees practically whispers come closer.
It takes you a little bit aback, but you don't show it. Just in case someone is watching. In fact, you barely react to it, simply sidestepping the gate entrance and continuing along the path as if you were on a morning walk.
You walk along the entire perimeter of the gated yard, which is much, much larger than you anticipated. There are a number of gardens, a small hedge maze, a swamp even, and at the very edge of the property, a graveyard.
The tombstones are dotted throughout the wooded grove, a thick layer of ivy covering the ground like a burial shroud, and an air of calm hangs about the place.
But it isn't until you circle back to the other side of the house that you see something you truly weren't expecting: Jin, your favorite barista, strolling through the garden with a cup and saucer in his hands.
Wearing a turtleneck under a black coat, his hair blowing picturesquely in the chill wind, he meanders past the crumbling stone statues and trickling fountains.
You quickly duck behind a tree, reaching into your jacket to grab the small binoculars that you typically carry when you're in the..."observation" phase of the investigation. No, this isn’t the first time you’ve done this sort of thing.
Jin leisurely walks over the cobblestone pathway, sipping from his cup with a satisfied expression. He'll run a hand through his hair or lean against one of the stone garden walls, looking over his shoulder every once in a while.
And maybe it's just a hunch, but you get the sense that he knows that he's being watched. The weird thing is that he doesn't seem bothered by the fact at all. In fact, it almost looks like he's...posing.
An itch at the back of your neck. A glance back at Jin tells you that he's not looking at you, nor has he realized that you're there. But still, now you feel eyes on you.
You look around but find nothing but white-barked trees. And maybe if you looked a little closer you would've noticed that the knots in said trees look a little too much like eyes, open and alert.
Even if you had noticed such a thing, your conscience would tell you that obviously that's not the case. Trees can't watch people.
You'd be wrong, of course, but how could you have known that then?
october 23, 2004
He only ever works nights. The graveyard shift, to be specific. His shift always starts after the sun has set, and it ends just before it rises again.
Normally, you'd split your time between the cafe and the bookshop, but recently you've dedicated almost the entirety of your days to watching the barista and learning his habits. And in that time, you've hardly seen him eat.
In all the time you've spent watching him combined, the only things you've seen him eat include: a handful of olives, a few slices of bread and cheese, and the occasional spoonful of honey. Coffee and the offhand glass of red wine (which he pours into a teacup with a charming wink when he catches you watching him) is all you ever see him drink.
The only time he leaves the Addams house, besides to go to work, is on Saturday mornings when the Farmer's Market takes up the town square.
Sporting a checkered coat with the collar turned up to shield the lower half of his face, sunglasses (even though it's utterly cloudy), and an umbrella held over his head (even though it's not even drizzling), Jin scours the aisles, scrutinizing each booth's wares to find only the freshest and best quality produce, meats, and bread. He also procures some fancy cheese and preserves, his tastes expensive and well-refined.
The only other time you see him deviate from his routine is to visit the nearest hospital one afternoon. You're expecting him to enter into the waiting room, but he circles around the back, waiting by a STAFF ONLY door.
That same tickle from somewhere in your brain, the one that makes your eyes a little blurry. You take a moment to refocus them, and then you see the door crack open.
The person behind the door hands Jin an object that he quickly conceals in his coat, and the interaction is too quick for you to see what exactly it is.
But not quick enough for you to miss taking a picture. Because you've learned that it's always best to prioritize the camera before your eyes.
You take it to the dark room that same day. And the film reveals that the object appears to be a plain white box. Your guess is that it's a thermal container, the ones used to transport samples or the like.
It's a bit embarrassing to admit that it takes another day to put two and two together.
You're sitting in the cafe, skimming through the files of the five missing persons, when Jin approaches your booth and silently places a pastry on the table.
It's another one of his habits, you've noticed. Whenever you're in the cafe and have gone a long time without ordering any food, he'll subtly bring you something without a word, and you're usually too focused on your research to notice until some time has passed and it's too late to reject the offer.
You've told him several times that though the gesture is appreciated, he doesn't need to provide you with any freebies just because you're in here all the time. But he just brushes you off and claims that he needs a taste tester for his new recipes.
You let it slide after telling yourself that he probably does the same to a number of other customers given his charming nature (though in all the time you've observed him he's never done it for any other patron, but that you conveniently ignore).
This time it's a little cake, topped with a strawberry and absolutely smothered in fresh cream. When you cut into it, red jam spills from the inside of the cake like blood from a wound.
Then it finally clicks.
...Blood.
Like a slideshow in fast motion, all of the little details spring back into the forefront of your mind. The time when you noticed his shirtsleeve riding up, revealing a faded scar distinctly resembling a bite mark on the inside of his wrist. The time you noticed him drinking from a to-go coffee cup, but with a ring of red surrounding the opening in the lid.
And at the hospital, a thermal container used to transport samples such as blood bags, or even human organs.
Fuck.
You push the dessert away at the realization, scrambling to gather your things and leave the cafe as quickly as possible.
Of course, that means you miss the concerned and slightly disappointed look on Jin's face as he watches you go.
october 24, 2004
You don't know what makes you more of an idiot, the fact that you're actually close to believing that Jin is some sort of blood-sucking creature of the night, or the fact that it took you this long to consider the fact based on all the warning signs.
Unfortunately, nothing is impossible. And though none of your investigations so far have pointed to something so overtly "supernatural," you have to entertain the possibility.
Because it's possible that something about it could trace back to one or more of the victims, since clearly this case has proven to be far from normal.
Though the internet is a great resource, currently all you can find is blog posts, and you'd prefer not to cite those when it comes to professional matters. So you turn to local folklore, urban legends, and the security of the written word.
When you enter the bookshop the next day, you realize just how broad of a topic it is. There are hundreds, even thousands of mythical creatures across different cultures. It's going to take a long time to factor out one with the right features and track it's roots.
Then you remember the man behind the counter. Namjoon is currently staring at the mass of papers on his desk, looking confused and frustrated.
"What's all that?" you ask as you approach the counter.
"My accounts. Balancing my checkbook," he replies without looking up from the mess.
"Ah," you say in understanding, in pity.
A pause.
"Want a distraction?" you finally ask, and his head whips up almost instantly.
"Dear God, yes."
You chuckle, moving to lean against the desk.
"You're a writer, right?"
"Yes," he answers with a nod.
"What kind of things do you write?"
"Mostly research papers, some articles here and there, a few field guides."
Hmm, so he's more of a scholar, then. Interesting.
"In what area of study?"
Namjoon's mouth twitches like he's trying to find the right words.
"Folklore," he finally answers, but obviously there's a little more to it.
Perfect. You bite back the urge to rock on your toes with excitement.
"Can I ask you a few questions?"
He smiles at that, dimples and all, like nothing would delight him more.
"Of course, anything you want," he answers, voice curling around the edges.
And you don't know it, but he means it sincerely. He would tell you anything and everything about him and his little family if you would only ask.
Any of them would, really. Technically, none of them have ever lied to you, they just haven't share all the information.
And if Namjoon is being honest, all of them are quite eager for you to get a little more invasive and figure them out for yourself.
"What do you know about mythological creatures that feed on life energy?"
You didn't mean for it to come out so specific, so incriminating. But you're getting a little tired of questions without a ghost of an answer.
His eyebrows raise a bit.
"To be honest with you, my knowledge is limited mainly to the folklore of this region," he admits, sounding apologetic.
Even more perfect. You try not to give away too much of your excitement, despite the fact that every time you encounter him he only seems to get better and better.
"Pray tell," you urge, leaning forward slightly with open ears.
A little bashful expression crosses his face as he settles deeper in his chair, all thoughts of taxes abruptly thrust aside.
"Well, vampiric creatures are quite common across folklore in many cultures. They're usually associated with outbreaks of disease, and vampire hunts are mostly accompanied with epidemics..."
You let him talk for as long as he wants, listening eagerly and only looking away to scribble a few notes from time to time. It's clear that he's passionate about what he studies, speaking about it like a lover would.
He tells you that even the word "vampire" is shrouded in mystery, as linguists do not know the precise etymological origin. Apparently, the folklore of this region is steeped in Slavic roots, so that's what he focuses on to narrow it down for you.
From the Old East Slavic language, the term "vampire" hails from the word "upir," which is speculated to translate as "someone who bites" or "the thing at the feast/sacrifice," though the word has no definite origin.
Namjoon tells you that scholars agree that the term was used as a stand-in, since they were too afraid to say the creature's true name.
"An upir needs to feed on life essence to survive. In literature, this is usually represented by drinking blood, since it represents life," Namjoon explains.
"Usually?"
He shrugs.
"The "opir" in Ukraine consumes large amounts of fish as their source of sustenance, preferences vary across cultures."
"You speak of it like they're real," you say with a chuckle, watching closely for his reaction.
Another shrug, this one more uncomfortable.
"To the Slavs, they were. The universal belief in supernatural beings was common. Unseen entities were part of the way they understood the world," he says.
"Hmm," you mumble, scanning him up and down. You try not to delight in the way he squirms slightly under your scrutiny.
"Most of the traits attributed to vampires these days are based on myths, or downright misunderstandings," Namjoon blurts out. "Like how the outbreak of rabies in Europe led to the belief that the upir are afraid of light, which is ridiculous. Many of the symptoms of rabies, which is spread through biting, coincide with the supposed traits of vampires, like the fear of light and altered sleep patterns."
He says it all like he's slightly annoyed.
"Or how they assumed that the upir are undead because during decomposition, built up pressure can push the blood into a corpse's mouth," he continues.
"So the upir aren't undead at all?" you probe.
"No, it's just a misconception," Namjoon replies like he's in the throes of a heated debate.
He seems to notice, since the next moment he's clearing his throat awkwardly and slumping in his seat.
There's a moment of silence as you jot down some more notes.
"They're not evil," he blurts out like he can't help it, and the look on his face implores you to believe him.
You look up at him.
"Across the centuries, they've always been used as the scapegoat for things humans can't understand," he adds softly.
Hmm, yes that seems to be a recurrent theme in human history.
You close your notebook and straighten up from leaning on the desk.
"Very interesting. Thank you, Namjoon," you say and mean it.
He smiles and nods as if to say of course, but after your back is turned, his face falls a bit, wondering if he let a little too much slip.
"Too much? In my opinion, you didn't tell her enough," Jimin quips.
Namjoon rolls his eyes, but he's mainly focused on Jin. The older man only smiles at him, pressing a comforting hand to Namjoon's cheek.
"Don't worry, love. I don't mind at all," he says. Because yes, he too is eager for you to realize just what they all are.
"I just don't want her to think we're the ones behind all this," Namjoon admits.
"If she's as smart as she appears, then she'll figure that out for herself soon enough," Hoseok replies, slowly circling the room with his arms crossed.
He approaches the elegant leather couch that Namjoon and Jin are occupying.
"Joonie," he says, running a hand down the younger man's neck.
"I don't think it would hurt to drop her a few more hints, hm?" And everyone notices the smirk on Hoseok's face.
"I'm tired of waitiiiiing," Jimin whines.
"She's still a skeptic, Minie," Yoongi supplies from where he's watering the plants against the window. "She needs to be eased in."
Jimin just rolls his eyes.
"We could just kidnap her," he suggests.
"No." The reply comes instantly from Namjoon, Jungkook, and Yoongi simultaneously.
Jimin laughs high and bright.
"Come now, Jimin," Hoseok says with a sharp smile of his own. "Everyone knows it's more fun when they consent to it first."
october 25, 2004
The next time you enter the bookshop, Namjoon immediately mentions that he put together a little collection of texts for you to look over, saying they might be interesting to you. Maybe even aid in the investigation.
You thank him earnestly. And no, your face doesn't heat up at the fact that someone has gone out of their way to make your life easier.
When you slip into your usual nook, you notice that one of the drawers in the desk is adorned with a little pink ribbon around the handle, almost like it's gift-wrapped. And when you open it, you see several books, articles, and newspaper clippings, all of which seem very promising.
Something stirs in your stomach at the sight, but it's quickly set aside as you lock in and dive headfirst into the new research endeavor.
There's the notice for each of the missing persons, all the mentions of them so far in the newspapers, including one article from a publisher you've never heard of.
With the headline simple reading DISAPPEARED, the short snippet describes each missing person and the details of their last eyewitness account. The strange thing is that the article includes far more details than the big-name publishers, making you wonder why you haven't heard of it before.
The Periscope Press. You don't recall seeing it in any of the corner stores around town, but you do recall some of the people you interviewed mentioning details from "the newspaper" that you hadn't heard previously. Maybe this is the publisher they were referring to.
When you ask Namjoon about it though, he is surprisingly unhelpful. He claims that he can't remember where he came across the article, saying that he often picks up stray newspapers for wrapping and packing purposes for the shop.
Well, you suppose you'll have to save it for later then.
Also among the pile of papers in the drawer, there's a short blurb announcing the opening of the Kim Morgue and Crematorium. Taking a closer look at the date tells you that Taehyung's practice has actually been passed down through nearly three generations.
Technically, Taehyung is actually Taehyung III, taking the same name as his father and grandfather and great-grandfather before him.
But it's the photo you stumble upon that really stalls your breath.
A portrait, faded and yellowing, dated almost seventy-five years ago. The subject is a man dressed in a brown suit and tie, his hair dark and curly, except it looks exactly like him. From the Roman slant of his nose, down to the way he positions his shoulders, it looks almost indistinguishable from the Taehyung of today. The family resemblance is apparently very strong.
And again, it's a little embarrassing how long it takes you to reach the conclusion that to others, especially to the supernaturally-inclined, might seem obvious.
But you've already mentioned that you're a bit of a skeptic.
october 28, 2004
You fear that you may be going a bit crazy.
The dreams are getting worse. They've escalated from simple images and sounds to corporeal sensations. You feel the water so sharply, the cold, the current, even the vibrations. You can see hands reaching towards you, and sometimes you are compelled to reach back. Sometimes you swear you wake up smelling of seawater.
And the itchy feeling of being watched has only gotten stronger. You feel as though you're always looking over your shoulder, always listening for following footsteps.
In the past few days, you've used your research as an effective distraction.
You've found that the Kim family has run the morgue out of the Addams house for almost as long as the Jung family has owned it, Taehyung hailing from a long line of coroners and forensic pathologists rooted in Farrow's End.
With a little digging, you discovered that the Jungs have been business tycoons for decades, buying and selling and trading their vast number of industries to generate a near endless stream of income that they then hand down to their children and children's children.
Unfortunately, most of the knowledge on the Jung family is circulated through the townsfolk, so you have to ask around a bit to get a more solid basis.
The current owner of the Addams house is one Jung Hoseok. Young, beautiful, and filthy rich, according to those you spoke with on the streets. But, apparently he spent most of his youth in a mental hospital. Not only a mental hospital, a high-security facility for the criminally insane.
Now, you're not sure how much of that you believe, but you still have to entertain the possibility.
And one day, you even catch sight of him. A small crowd tends to gather whenever the black Mercedes pulls into town, curious eyes prying into the tinted windows.
You're lingering outside the bookshop one afternoon, making sure you didn't leave anything behind after a four-hour-long research session, when the car rolls through the streets like a slinky black cat.
Whispers immediately fill the air, causing you to look up from your bag, which is bursting at the seams these days from all the papers you have to carry around.
The car stops at the curb in front of the cafe, the driver soon killing the engine. Then, the driver's side door opens, and a black-booted foot steps onto the sidewalk.
The man is handsome, you have to admit, with long black hair that curls at the nape of his neck. His face is sharp and angular, with a softly heart-shaped mouth and surprisingly bright eyes.
He's dressed in pressed pants and jacket, thin and elegant. The man walks into the cafe and picks up a to-go order, gets back into his car, and drives away without so much as a glance at all the people who have stopped to stare at him.
You being one of them, but you're fairly certain that you're the only one who takes a few pictures.
But it wasn't until yesterday that you started to really feel like you were losing your marbles.
As you're asking around town, you breach the subject of the town's forensic pathologist. Everyone you speak to has nothing but good things to say about the young coroner, except for the fact that he isn't as young as you thought he was.
You ask a woman you struck up a conversation with outside the grocery store about the Kim family, and she says that Taehyung did a fantastic job taking care of her nephew for his funeral.
You agree, mentioning your admiration for how educated he is for someone so young.
That's when the woman's face turns puzzled. "Young?" she says, raising an eyebrow. She goes on to say that the most recent Kim Taehyung has been running the morgue for the last twenty years.
"Taehyung III?" you ask. "Thin, dark eyes, looks a bit like a Roman statue?"
"Yes, that's the one. Took over the family business after his father died. But no children, I hear he's training a young apprentice that will likely take over when he retires."
You mention that surely Taehyung has time to have children, but that same confused expression crosses her face.
"Isn't he nearly seventy though?"
A squirmy feeling in the pit of your stomach. You awkwardly brush off the woman, apologizing for the confusion.
You ask almost every other passerby you see on the street that evening about the town coroner, and they all say the same thing. A kind man, very good at his job, and most definitely in his late sixties.
They all insist that there hasn't been a young Kim in the business since Taehyung was a trainee nearly thirty years prior.
So you do a little more digging, and turns out it's true. If you'd have looked a little closer at the dates on all of Taehyung's degrees and certificates, you'd find that he acquired them all between fifteen and twenty-five years ago.
You're tailing him the next morning. You got lucky, today being one of the rare days when he leaves the Addams house to go into town.
He steps out of the hearse in leather shoes and a sweater vest under his trenchcoat. You suppose he dresses like he's older, from the way he tucks in his shirt and cuffs his pants, but he also sports a crossbody bag over his shoulder that others would most likely consider feminine, but he pulls it off effortlessly.
The clouds are letting down a light rain, leaving dewdrops on your jacket and making Taehyung's hair appear just a bit fluffier.
There's that same streak of gray from his hairline. The only indicator that he possibly isn't an attractive man in his late twenties/early thirties.
But that's exactly what you're looking at. Not an older man with aged skin and silver hair, rather more like a bronze god with a mop of black curls. And the only sign of age from knowledge or experience is deep in his eyes.
You begin to follow him down the street, sneaking pictures occasionally, curious what would happen if you were to show said pictures to others. Would they still see an old man? Or would they see the young one you've been seeing from the beginning?
You get the odd sensation that you're being watched, but from a source you can't name, since you're fairly certain Taehyung hasn't noticed you.
It's as you're nearing the end of the sidewalk, slipping in-between a cluster of people, that he suddenly stops dead in his tracks.
You stop too, a cold chill latching onto your spine. He stands there for a moment, perfectly still.
Then, he turns over his shoulder and looks right at you.
There haven't been many times in your career where you're genuinely shocked speechless. And even fewer when your target is not only fully aware of the fact that you're trailing them, but apparently isn't bothered in the slightest by it.
Because then a smirk is creeping onto his face. Those tiger eyes turn a shade darker, and he nods his head slightly as if to greet you.
He knew you were watching him, they all did.
The ice under your skin only intensifies when you hear the click of a camera shutter from behind you.
Whipping around, you see Jung Hoseok standing just a few feet away, a camera held up to his face and the brim of his hat tilted down, but you know it's him.
And the lens is pointed at you.
What's strange is that no one else seems to notice him. Every other time you've seen him in town, everyone stops to stare, but now they slide around him like he isn't even there, their eyes looking right through him.
Something weird is definitely going on.
You dissolve back into the crowd like a ghost.
october 29, 2004
A letter appears on your doorstep. The stationary is soft and expensive-looking, with your name scrawled on the front in curling script. With no return address.
It's enclosed with a red wax seal, stamped with the image of a crow.
You debate on whether or not to open it for approximately three minutes.
Dearest _______,
We cordially invite you to the Addams House for dinner, dancing, and drinks on October 30 at 6:00 p.m. sharp. Please bring your case notes for discussion.
Dress code: semi-formal.
Fondly,
Jung Hoseok
The back of the paper reads:
How do you accept this invitation?
➳ With enthusiasm
➳ With excitement
You think about it for about thirty seconds. Circling "with enthusiasm," you slip the paper back into the envelope and set it back outside where you found it.
It's gone the next morning.
a/n: thanks so much for reading!! i would absolutely love to hear any of your thoughts! 👉👈
