solo; starless nights
Ever since Seokjin had come to learn about the reality of the world around him- without the rose colored glasses and ignorant upturn of his nose- he began to notice many more things about many more people than he would have before. That’s not to say naturals were making themselves obvious to him, per se, but the amount of hostility in the air sometimes is almost tangible.
When Jimin had filled him in on everything, Seokjin wasn’t sure he’d believed it at first. He’d been skeptical, if only just a little bit, and frankly pretty scared. Not scared of the people he sees day to day, not scared of the people living honest, hard working lives. Just of his own ignorance, and of having to reevaluate the world as he knows it. (But he always had liked fairytales, so his younger self would have been plenty thrilled to find this out all those years ago.)
It’s late though, after a long day of work and work and work, and the only thing on Seokjin’s mind is getting home and going to bed. Of course, that doesn’t mean that as he’s stepping out of his building, the muffled grunts he hears just fly right past him. There’s some indistinct yelling, and Seokjin’s stomach drops. It’s much too dark and Seokjin is far too tired to be getting involved in breaking up a fight, but he swears he can make out the word merfolk amongst the garble and there’s something in him telling him not to just let it go.
He palms the phone in his pocket, hands shaking as he inches closer to the source of the violence, in an alley of all things (because of course it is). As he moves closer, he can see one figure throwing punches at another, who’s curled in on themself on the ground, arms raised defensively over their face. It makes Seokjin’s blood boil.
Of course, he forgets that if he can see them, hear them, then there’s a high chance they’re much more aware of his approach than he’d like them to be. When he finally approaches the alleyway, the assailant turns and glowers at him.
“Don’t get involved- just keep walking and act like you didn’t see anything,” His voice is hoarse, shaky, and there’s something vulnerable in it that makes Seokjin recoil. “Just, keep going, okay?”
Seokjin looks from the man down to the person on the ground, studies their trembling figure, the hard set of their fists, and then back again.
“I can’t do that,” Seokjin counters, trying his hardest to keep his voice from shaking. “I really can’t let you just keep beating up that innocent person- I’ll have to call the cops if you don’t leave.”
The man looks aggravated, and for a moment- however fleeting- Seokjin half expects him to start swinging at him. He doesn’t though, thankfully, and his anger isn’t enough to attack a stranger who’s done nothing other than get in his way. Seokjin watches him warily as he passes, bumping Seokjin’s shoulder hard as he goes with an aggravated curse word or two spat in his direction.
Really, it could have gone worse.
Seokjin approaches the person on the ground slowly, cautiously. “Hey, I’m gonna call an ambulance, okay? They’ll get you taken care of, right? Is that okay?”
When they shake their head, finally lifting it for the first time and Seokjin catches sight of the panic there, he feels his heart clench. He feels useless, really, and there’s no way he can just leave them there. Seokjin looks away for a moment, pondering and then back to them. He’s about to offer something stupid, like hey, I’ll patch you up then, when the person is already dragging themself to their feet.
“You really shouldn’t have gotten involved, you know...”
Seokjin opens his mouth to comment, and is shushed by a tired, bloodied excuse for a smile.
“But thanks.”