Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Yoongi

Abilities:

→ Teleportation
→ Superhuman agility, coordination, reflexes, and balance
→ Has enhanced eyes that can see in the night
→ His dark Aura helps him camouflage in shadows

Affiliations:

→ A nomad, previously with Jin, Namjoon, Taehyung, and Jungkook

Characteristics:

→ Prefers to be alone, deceitful, blatant, bold, calm, stark, mysterious aura

Notable facts:

→ Pale skin, eyes resemble a cat's. When he teleports, he leaves behind black smoke.

Jimin

Abilities:

→ Supersonic speed; able to defy gravity (walk on ceilings & water)
→ Accelerated healing
→ Enhanced memory (absorbs information @ the speed of light)
→ Superior agility & reflexes

Affiliations:

→ A nomad

Characteristics:

→ Abrasive, impatient, a rebel, playful, happy-go-lucky, observant, sensitive when it comes to things/people he cares for

Notable facts:

→ Has a cheeky smile, ever-changing hair colour. Hops from one country to another all the time

Hoseok

Abilities:

→ Shapeshifting to make himself look like others (can only be done if he’s seen the person)
→ Enhanced agility, strength & reflexes
→ Sweet talker with a manipulative way of thinking

Affiliations:

→ A nomad

Characteristics:

→ Cunning strategist, adept in martial arts, boisterous, animated, energetic

Notable facts:

→ Whenever he morphs into a different form, from far, it looks like a water ripple effect on his skin. He says that being a con man is his life.

Namjoon

Abilities:

→ Genius-level intellect
Telepathic abilities:
→ mind reading
→ mind control
→ memory manipulation

Affiliations:

→ Jin, Jungkook and Taehyung

Characteristics:

→ despises violence, composed, level-headed, wise, non-confrontational, calculative

Notable facts:

→ Teaching Taehyung & Jungkook to control his powers

Jin

Abilities:

→ Time manipulation; stop time, slow time, speed up time, and even being able to create a 2nd fabric of dimension (where time doesn’t exist) within the normal realm
→ Able to see the future as well as travel back in time through his mind

Affiliation:

→ Namjoon, Jungkook and Taehyung

Characteristics:

→ Ambitious, confident, witty sense of humor, kind, loving, loyal

Notable facts:

→ There will be a shift in the atmospheric balance when he travels through time or manipulates the fractions of time (Namjoon and Taehyung are the only ones who can feel it)

Jungkook

Abilities:

→ Intangibility (change his atomic state)
→ Able to phase through solid/liquid matters
→ Ability to absorb the psyche, abilities, memories, personality & knowledge of a human being through skin contact; often this process drains energy from the person. Hence, it can be lethal.

Affiliation:

→ Namjoon, Jin and Taehyung

Characteristics:

→ Impulsive, hot-headed, adrenaline junkie, daredevil, skilled negotiator

Notable facts:

→ He has one brown eye and one grey eye, a result of absorbing the features of someone with grey eyes

Taehyung

Abilities:

→ Telepathy (a higher level than Namjoon’s); able to take away or control a person's senses as well as manipulate the mind
→ Telekinesis; able to levitate, lift objects and manipulate elements (water, fire, earth & air)
→ Rearrange or disintegrate matter at a subatomic level

Affiliation:

→ Namjoon, Jin and Jungkook

Characteristics:

→ Caring, a nurturing figure, rational, in control of his powers despite it being untamable

Notable facts:

→ Has a streak of silver hair, as a result of constraining the built up power in him; is deemed to be one of the strongest metahumans by Namjoon

Chapter Text

It was 3 in the morning as Yoongi took a stroll on the roofs of the houses. The silver light of the moon fell in fractions around him, following every move he made. A puff of white steam curls away from him as he sighed into the icy night.

Out of nowhere, he felt a burning sensation on the underside of his wrist. He froze, slowly turning his hand to reveal his wrist. As expected, the trident mark on his skin illuminated like the moonlight. He stood rooted to the ground, unsure of what to do. It's been decades since that mark last illuminated and he had done everything he could to prevent it from ever happening again.

"You bastard!" a shout rang out into the empty waste.

Yoongi's hand curls into a fist, his eyes never leaving the mark. He could hear the chaos ringing along the alleyway, not too far from where he was from.

"Fuck," he growled under his breath with his teeth gritted.

Before he could convince himself to turn the other way, Yoongi swiftly teleports himself to the roof two blocks away, leaving thin black smoke swirling around where he used to be. He crouches down near to the shadows, his entire body becoming one with the dark. The ruckus came from a group of men cornering a younger lad. They were yelling and cursing at him.

"Give back the $5000 you took from us and we won't beat you to death," one of the men hissed. He had a baseball in his hand, ready to swing.

The young lad only laughed it off with a smirk on his face, seemingly unaware that his life was on the line. From the top of the roof, Yoongi's eyes scoured every inch of skin that was visible until he saw what he was looking for. When the young lad pushed back his sleeves, the mark on his wrist glinted in the dark. He was a metahuman, just like Yoongi.

"How about we make a bet," the young lad raised his hands. "If I can take that baseball bat of yours, you spare my life and let me walk away with your money. If I can't, then I'll willingly give you back the money and even let you beat me up in this stinking alley."

The group of men exchanged looks of disbelief. In their minds, there was no way in hell that young lad could go through the six of them to get the baseball bat. "Deal. Don't get too attached to that pretty face of yours," the man scoffed.

As soon as the man agreed, the young lad put up a mischievous smile. Before anyone realised, he was leaning against the wall with the baseball bat slung over his shoulder. He had a smug look after seeing the six men stutter at the inconceivable.

"Super speed," Yoongi sighed as he shook his head. "What an idiot, showing off his abilities." He knew the young lad could've used his speed to get out of this mess but right now, he was fooling around.

"What the fuck was that!" the men yelled with rage.

"You made a deal! " the man said, wielding the bat around. "I got the bat, so now, you let me walk away."

In a flash, Yoongi transported himself down to the alleyway, grabbed a hold of the young man. A second later, they appeared out of thin air in the middle of the empty street.

"Woah, woah, woah what the fuck!" the young man cursed as he stumbled on his feet. He hurled himself down on all fours, feeling his dinner rise up his throat. "Oh man, what the fuck just happened?"

Yoongi stepped around and waited for the man. Out of the dark, he saw that the man had bright bubblegum pink hair. Who would do such a thing? Yoongi frowned, revolting this man's life choices.

"Who the fuck are you?" the man panted, feeling his energy drain.

Yoongi kept silent for a minute. He grabs the man's wrist and lifted his own sleeves to reveal the similar gleaming symbol. "I'm Yoongi. You and I, we're the same. Sort of," he said. "It'll take a while to recover from the shift in your atoms."

"Holy shit," the man gasped. "I've never seen anyone with the same mark...I thought I was the only one." His big eyes traveled up, looking into Yoongi's.

Somehow, despite the wild exterior this man had, he looked so innocent. "You can call me Jimin."

Yoongi gave a slight nod and offered his hand, pulling his newfound acquaintance off the ground. His bubblegum pink hair was such a contrast to Yoongi's midnight black. Come to think of it, everything about this man was a stark contrast to Yoongi. They were literal polar opposites.

Jimin had bright hair, colourful clothes, multiple studs and rings adorning his ears, a bubbly personality and a fearlessness of using his abilities around humans. Yoongi, however, had pale skin, was dress in black from head to toe, blending in perfectly with the night sky and was more conservative when it came to showing off his abilities.

"You're an idiot for showing them your abilities. You know that?" he chastised Jimin.

Jimin cocked his eyebrows and pursed his lips, "Well in case you haven't noticed, you did too Mr.Grim Reaper." He snickered at the black ensemble. Though he had to admit, it looked good on the petite figure.

"I did that to get you out," Yoongi said as he started walking away. "You're welcome by the way."

Jimin couldn't believe this guy. He scoffs, rolling his eyes at the retreating figure. Who does this guy think he is? Strangely, he had this aura that leered Jimin to run after him. Within a second, he was by Yoongi's side, chatting like they were old friends. "I could've saved myself, thank you very much. I was just having fun fooling around with the humans."

Yoongi kept silent, ignoring the new baggage by his side. Hopefully, if he doesn't reciprocate the conversation, the pink boy would leave him alone and he could go back to his nightly routine.

"I do that all the time though. It's really funny to watch them get so mind-blown. Like where the fuck did he go!" Jimin chortled at his story. He babbled on about the little tricks he played over the years, unphased by his silent partner.

"You don't talk a lot do you?" Jimin said, slinging an arm over Yoongi's shoulder.

He halts to a stop and grabs the arm off his shoulder. "I just don't relate to people using their abilities for fun." Yoongi drops the arm, satisfied at seeing the defeated expression on the other man's face. Finally, the night was peaceful, he thought as he continued on down to the road.

Yoongi picks up a cigarette stick from the box and lights it up, grateful for the warm smoke to accompany the cold night. He feels a swish of breeze before colliding with a body. A strangled, annoyed groan escapes his lips as he looks up to see Jimin.

"How did you know I was... not human?" he asks. This time, Yoongi couldn't see the bubbly, chatty boy. In Jimin's eyes, he saw innocence and sincerity. Almost like he was lost.

He decided to entertain the lost sheep. "Metahuman, you mean?"

"Um, I guess?" Jimin said, scratching the back of his head. "I don't really know anything about it. Up till you showed up, I've always thought it was only me. I didn't even know the symbol lights up! It's safe to say that...I've pretty much been by myself for about...10 decades."

Yoongi sighs, admitting that he felt pity for the boy. It can be hard to grow up with something you have absolutely no idea about and no one to guide you. Unlike Jimin, he had help. But that was decades ago. He offered a stick before diving into the presentation. The two walked down the quiet path with a trail of smoke behind them.

"I used to be attached to a group of metahumans but I left around the year 1941," Yoongi sighs. A lump was building in his throat.

"Ooh, I love the 40s. I loved collecting fedoras," Jimin chuckled.

"Yeah well, kid, the 40s was a mess for me," Yoongi sighed as he reminisced about the past.

Namjoon quietly enters the room with the tray of tea as he watches Jin's nightly meditation. The second-hand ticks its final lap, reaching 9 pm in Budapest. He could feel Jin's presence drifting through the fabric of time, focused on reaching his destiny. And so Namjoon sits with him, closes his eyes and explored Jin's mind.

A burst of color explodes in his eyes as he travels with Jin. It slows down and wavers into a scene that was tinged with familiarity. He knows exactly where he was but instead sees it through Jin's eyes. The raw emotion of comfort and anguish sets in, heavy on Namjoon's shoulders. Almost too much for him to take.

He escapes the past and falls back to reality, shuddering from the immense amount of energy drained. Exploring Jin's mind and memories were hard enough, let alone traveling with him to a place that he holds so dearly to him. Jin was an emotional person that held everything in his heart which proved to be more demanding for Namjoon to probe.

15 minutes pass and finally, he feels the shift in energy as Jin's absorbed back into the present.

"You went back to the 30s," Namjoon whispered once Jin fluttered his eyes open.

"I always do," he replies as walks over to the tray of tea. He pours himself a cup and takes in the aroma. "And you know that."

"You've been at it for years now. I can still feel your pain," Namjoon said as he stayed seated. "If you would only let me heal you-"

"You mean block my memory?" Jin retorted accusingly. He bit back an apology albeit the harshness of his words. When it came to the family he once had, it was hard to forgive Namjoon for what he did.

Jin hears him sigh defeatedly. "I watch out for him every day," he pointed out as if offering it as compensation for what he had done.

Jin stays silent, sipping the hot tea to calm his nerves. It was always so jittery when he comes back from traveling in time. But he had to admit, Namjoon's words peaked his interest, so gave a slight nod, silently asking for more.

"He's in Tokyo now. Been there for a while," Namjoon started. He paused before spilling his next line. "He found another one."

This time around, Jin turns to face his friend, immediately understanding the subtle prompt he gave. "What is he?"

The corner of Namjoon's lips perked up as he hears the voice of a bubbly person in his head. "He's a runner. A very fast one."

Their room was silent as each boy sat facing each other. Taehyung had his eyes closed with a frown, trying to listen to every word that was said in the other room. He could see a faded scene with Jin and Namjoon talking.

"What are they talking about?" Jungkook asked in a small voice.

Without lifting his eyes open, Taehyung unfurls his palm, gesturing for Jungkook to place his hand there. "Yoongi," he replies curtly, trying his best to keep his concentration in line.

Jungkook cautiously weighs his open hand on Taehyung's, trusting the older one to block out his fatal touch. Instantly, he was pulled into Jin's room with Taehyung beside him. They were watching and listening to the pair while being hidden in Taehyung's bubble.

"Well, shouldn't we reach out to him?" Jin suggested. He was eager to see his old friend again. "Now that we've got six, it's only a matter of time till the 7th come running to us."

Namjoon reaches out, holding Jin by the shoulders. "Every time I listen to his thoughts, I always feel the barrier. He's still trying to block us out."

Jin pursed his lips and shook off Namjoon's hands. "No, he's only blocking you out."

With a heavy heart, Jin leaves the room, desperate to get out. It was difficult to face Namjoon whenever the sensitive issue was brought up. Right now, all he misses is Yoongi's gummy smile.

Chapter Text

"There were five of us at one point and we were like a traveling circus, with an array of abilities," Yoongi reminisced. The bittersweet taste of memories flooding back.

Jimin follows in step with the slow pace and listens intently, absorbing everything.

"There was Jin, a time manipulator. He can see the future, travel back to the past, stop time and create a whole other timeless dimension. Then Namjoon, a legitimate genius. He has telepathic abilities and will not hesitate to fuck around with your brain."

Jimin chuckled at the aggression, "You don't seem too fond of him."

"Nope, not at all," Yoongi said, shaking his head before continuing with his story. "There was Jungkook, a hot-headed schmuck that loves to test my patience. He can change his atomic state and basically walk through walls. Also, don't touch his bare skin because he absorbs energy and it can be fatal. Lastly, there was Taehyung," Yoongi sighs.

This time, Jimin noticed that the tone of his voice softened. Almost as if it hurts, even more, to think about this Taehyung.

"He's mental," Yoongi chuckled. "He's telepathic like Namjoon but on a whole other scale. Not to mention the telekinesis he has, levitating himself and manipulating elements. But sometimes these things overpower him and can be very dangerous if he can't control it. Namjoon says he's the strongest out of all us."

"Mmm, in the matter of speed, I doubt he'd be able to beat me," Jimin retorted jokingly.

Yoongi scoffs silently at the naive boy. If only he knew that Taehyung would be able to disintegrate him before he could even make a run for it. Up to this day, Yoongi still spared time to think about that boy. During his days with the group, he was close to Taehyung. It was admiration that lingered in Yoongi whenever he thought about him.

"So how'd you guys meet?" Jimin asked, his eyes full of curiosity.

Yoongi thought about it for a while but can't seem to remember. He'd done his best to bury whatever memories he had of them that all of it seems to have dissipated. He shrugs, "It's been too long to remember."

Jimin hummed in response as his eyes drifted down to his shoes. Yoongi glances over to the boy and sees that he was in deep concentration. He shakes his head absentmindedly and questioned himself, why was he suddenly open to receive a companion when he'd been fine being alone for decades? Then the sound of Namjoon's voice drifted in.

-We all have a connection, thanks to the symbol imprinted on our wrists. It's like a magnet, pulling us all together and it can't be helped. We're bound to come together at some point in time. Just wait and see.-

Yoongi swatted away his droning voice and turned his attention back to Jimin, who was babbling away.

"Do you know why we're like this?" he asked, his face etched with uncertainty as if it's been on his mind forever. "Why are we so special that we're granted this luck to be immortal?"

In fact, he does know the reason why. Only, he chose not to believe in it anymore.

"Well," Yoongi starts off with a heavy sigh. "Years back, when the five of us were still new, Jin had a vision. He saw seven men with Godly features, ruling over the world; they were feared, loved, worshipped and respected by the mortal humans. We didn't know what to make of it until Namjoon picked in Jin's brain and saw the vision for himself. It sparked a thought in him and soon he was off researching about mythical gods.

Then one day, it clicked, He told us that it had to do with the imprints on our wrists. It was a symbol used to represent the planet Neptune and the planet itself had its own history. The legend of Neptune narrates that when the universe was created, the planet gave birth to a King and his six disciples, knighting them as Gods of the universe. They were placed with the duty to nurture the world.

Until one day, the seven of them did a sinful act. They were so arrogant with their powers that they created a planet along with mortals to bow down to them. The universe was angered as they have abused their powers to manipulate the lesser beings. And so the seven gods were banished down to the planet they created. Their souls are trapped in the mortal form with only a smidge of their former abilities.

It was a punishment that can only be mended when the seven of them come together as a whole. And that will only happen when each of them has learnt to value the lives of the mortals. Once reunited, the seven Gods will once again rule the universe."

Yoongi ended the story with a deflated ta-da gesture. Now that he told the story out loud, it sounded even more ridiculous to him. A bunch of nonsensical bullshit.

A big gasp echoes in the night. "You mean to say, that I'm a fucking God?" Jimin exclaimed with his jaws wide open. "That in the future, I'm going to rule the entire world?! Holy shit!"

"Only if you believe in it kid," Yoongi pointed out

The streets of Tokyo was still vibrant down to the last second of the night. It was never dark in that city; a cycle where the sun drowns in a sea of bright neon signs and emerges back during the day. Tokyo's nightlife was both Yoongi's and Jimin's favorite time of day, but for two very different reasons.

Jimin loved the lively atmosphere, the fast-paced chatters of the vendors and customers and the buzz of the colorful dazzling streets. Yoongi, on the other hand, loved the hidden culture heightened during the night, especially from the food vendors.

"Noodles, noodles, noodles," Jimin chanted while grabbing Yoongi's arm along with his rhythmic arm flailing.

The two were winding their way through the crowd, not really heading anywhere when the sound of Jimin's stomach grumbling startled them.

"Look, kid, I'm tired out so I'm heading back to my apartment. It's time for us to go our separate ways yeah?" Yoongi nods his head as he twists his arms out of Jimin's grips.

He was desperate to get the pink-haired kid out of his sight, eager to resume his usual banal routine. It may not feature the exciting life of a legendary god but it gets him through life and that's all that Yoongi wants. Comfort and familiarity.

"What?!" Jimin spits out, shoving Yoongi's arm away like it was poisoned.

The older boy was taken aback by how offended Jimin looked. He held his hands up, willing the boy to take his voice down a notch. If it was anything Yoongi hates, it was unnecessary attention.

"How can you have the audacity to spur me on with legendary tales and then just wipe me away from all this? You think I'm gonna let this go without haunting you with more questions? I am on a high right now with your story and I want to be part of this. Well, I am a part of this! So you can't just say we have to split ways!"

Before he could ramble on any longer, Yoongi clamped his hand down on his pouty lips. He groans internally, kicking himself for spilling the juice that they were supposedly gods. If it was scientifically possible, Yoongi's ears would be bleeding from all this high-pitched chaos that is Park Jimin. He wonders if it was the fresh connection they had made through the symbol that heightened the intimacy between them for Yoongi to share so much. Or perhaps because he felt that the lost boy at least needed an explanation for his existence.

Yoongi drags a sigh from his lips and soon found himself crammed into a small noodle vendor, constantly elbowed in the back by the waiters passing by. He scoots his plastic chair closer towards the small table and finds himself face to face with a bright-eyed puppy. Only this puppy had a big mouth that loves to pry into his personal life stories.

"Okay so, you've never been with anyone? Like intimately? In bed?" Jimin gasps and goes back to slurping his noodles, waiting for an answer from the blushing man.

Yoongi's brain faltered for a moment at the blatant questions thrown at his face. He tries to gather his words but nothing prepared him for it. It's been years that he hadn't stuck around with someone long enough to share these...stories.

"Uhm well, I just...haven't got attracted to anyone. The girls that I've encountered hasn't exactly...aroused me enough to get me interested," Yoongi coughed out the heavy words.

As if he wasn't prepared for that question, he was slapped with a brick for the next.

"Maybe you're gay," Jimin shrugs. "Haven't you thought about it?"

The pink shades on Yoongi's cheeks darken to a deep red as he avoids making eye contact with the boy. It wasn't the fact that the idea of him being gay was offensive. It was more of the fact that Jimin's got in on the bullseye. But just because he's accepted his condition, doesn't mean he was brave enough to outrightly say it. One guy has tried it with him and that relationship didn't end well.

"Maybe you're being a prick and poking into people's business," Yoongi sneered to cover his sheepish blushing. "Have you thought about that?"

Obviously, his mocking remarks went over Jimin's head because the kid shrugs it off with a nod. Though thankfully, he moves his attention from Yoongi and decided to pick his own brain.

"I've always wondered what's it like to kiss a guy," Jimin hums to himself.

Yoongi spoons down the broth from his bowl as his mind wanders to the past. The lips of the man he used to love ghosts on his own. They were playful, energetic and teasing. He was shorter than his lover and always craved to be pulled into his hugs with his arms wrapped around him. But back then, being gay wasn't something to be celebrated about. There were no rainbow flags and marches and supportive communities. There were only asylums and needles and disgusted expressions.

"I've kissed a thousand girls over my lifetime but never got the chance to do it with a guy. Never thought about it actually. But now that it's all the rage to be gay, I kinda want to try it."

Yoongi's past contorts to make way for the present; the buzzing of a thousand conversations chugging back in his ears. He rolls his eyes at Jimin's commentary. It was amusing how different the situation it was now compared to the past.

"So you want to be gay just for the sake of being in trend?" Yoongi asked with a scoff

"I didn't say I was going to do a 180 and turn gay in a night," he says, wagging his wet chopsticks around. "Possibly bisexual. But first, I need to know if I like kissing guys."

Just as he was about to lower his head for another serving, he feels a subtle pull to his chin followed by a warm sensation on his lips. It was quick, barely a second. Weirdly enough, the sudden feeling had him touching his lips, almost craving a kiss. He looks up to see Jimin slurping his noodles but with his eyes trained on him.

"Did you...did you kiss me?" Yoongi whispered in a hushed tone as he leaned over his bowl, frowning. This kid really just stole a kiss from him.

Jimin chews his food, propping his elbows on the table and resting his chin there. He gives Yoongi a cheeky smirk, "I didn't know you'd catch on so fast. Usually, people don't seem to know." He reaches out to pat Yoongi's clenched fist. "That was a great kiss by the way."

Jin sat by the small garden he had in the balcony; the small fountain he built in the corner brought tranquillity to his mind. He focuses on his breathing, taking in the crisp morning air.

"Oh please! You know I can do it better! Stop cheating with your telekinesis!"

Jungkook's piercing screaming lifts a smirk on the corner of Jin's lips. He peeks through the glass doors to see the youngest boy with Taehyung, fooling around with the breakfast table. God knows what they're up to, Jin chuckled to himself. To see his boys genuinely happy brings a smile to his lips. It reminded him of the olden days when they were a big happy family.

After taking a glance back at the two boys, he closes his eyes and brings himself back to the past. He feels the shift in energy, pulling at every atom in his body. It felt like his entire body was being stretched out like taffy; fading into the universe. Jin prepares himself as the air in his lungs dissipates, leaving him breathless for a moment.

"Jin!"

He gasps as soon as the air rushes to fill him. The calling of his name tears his eyes open. There he was, seeing Yoongi in front of him. His features were slim and feminine but fierce at the same time. Jin reaches out to touch him but only felt air running through his fingers.

"Jinnie Jin!" Yoongi chuckles, his gummy smile on full display.

A wave of sorrow washes over him. He feels the streak of tears streaming down his face. If Jin could tell him right there and then, he'd say that he misses Yoongi to the point where it hurts him to think about it.

Yoongi had been his closest friend for the longest time, long before either of them met Namjoon or Jungkook or Taehyung. The two had been street rats back then, finding their way around life when they crossed paths. They had each other's back and stayed strong together till they were able to leave the crummy town. It had been the perfect dynamic and was made a thousand times better when they found more of their kind.

"C'mon, link your pinky finger to mine...Do it! I'm not doing this again. This is your one chance...Swear to me Jin, we'll stick together no matter what....I'm only clingy when it comes to you."

Jin feels a warm embrace engulfing his body. He relishes in Yoongi's hug, knowing that this man almost never offers skin-to-skin contact. But for some reason, that night under the pitch black sky with only a broken umbrella covering them from the rain, Yoongi felt the need to secure the bond they had. And Jin would never forget that day.

"Ah, don't go sharing with the street r-"

Suddenly, Jin's vision goes blurry. The image of Yoongi contorts and fizzes out as his mind was pulled into a different timeline. Without realizing it, his breaths become shaky and his hands trembled to grasp reality. Jin was forced into a new vision; this time the image he had was clean and crisp and sterile instead of the homely comforting feeling he had with his past memories. This was new. It was the future.

Jin vaguely feels a weight on his shoulders just as the image comes to life. He sees a stranger's face masked with distraught and panic. Hands clamber to restrain the stranger, pulling him underground into the soil. With a screech, the image switches to the same stranger struggling against the bed he was tied down. A gloved hand reaches out for his wrist, slamming it down to reveal the three-pronged trident marked on the underside. It wasn't glowing but it was obvious enough to know that the stranger was just like them. The last thing he sees is the stranger's eyes dulling before he was pulled out of the vision.

"Jin, babe. Are you okay?"

He takes a moment to come back to reality. The burden of having traveled to two different timelines in one seating laid heavy on his shoulders. He could physically feel his energy seeping out of him like he was bleeding from an open wound.

"Tae, get the tea."

Jin feels an arm snaking around his waist, tugging him closer to the solid body beside him. To relieve the pounding in his head, he rests on the shoulder as he struggles to calm his racing heart.

"Did you see?" he whispers to the familiar presence hugging him.

He was handed his faded porcelain teacup, hands shivering as it lifts to his lips. Honey lavender, his favorite.

"I did baby, I did."

"We have to find him," Jin croaks out.

Chapter Text

“I’m telling you! We should go to Rio!”

Yoongi kept his head down, slowly distancing himself from the young boy jumping around. They were in the middle of the street filled with a million people in broad daylight and Jimin was catching as much attention as possible, earning glares and stares. He was already standing out like a sore thumb with his fluffy pink bubblegum pink hair and flashy clothes.

“Tokyo’s fine for me. If you want to leave, be my guest. I don’t need a pink haired troll trailing after me,” Yoongi grumbled as he tucked his cap further down. If only he could teleport himself out of here, he’d do it in a heartbeat.

He continued to walk, hoping he’d get lost in the crowd and by the miracle of Gods, Jimin would disappear. The crowd of people got thicker and thicker as Yoongi tried to worm his way around; bony elbows and hard shoulders kept getting into his way. He finally looked up in frustration and realized that the people weren’t moving. They were frozen like statues, face motionless and arms hung in the air. Cars on the streets stood still while birds in the air solidify midway of their flight.

“Yoongi! What’s happening? Why are they not moving?” Jimin yelled.

Fuck, Yoongi thought. A bundle of curses bubbled out of his lips as he made his way to the hysterical boy. He had only seen this happen once and Yoongi knew what would come after. Or more specifically who.

He grabs onto Jimin’s wrists and started pulling him out of the streets. “We need to get out of here.” Yoongi’s heart started racing at the thought of seeing the ghosts of his old friends.

“What’s going on Yoongi?” Jimin asks as his eyes dart around, still shocked by the frozen people. He feels a burning sensation on his wrist and he immediately yanks his sleeve up to find that the symbol was lighting up, more than usual.

“Yoongi.”

His name sounded foreign in his own ears.

“Yoongi, please,” the voiced begged. It sounded soft and longing, with a hint of something broken.

Jimin turns around and gasps as he tugs on Yoongi’s shirt. “Yoongi, there are people walking towards us.”

With his jaws locked, he turns around like a creaking wheel. It was slow, painful and heavy. The air was knocked out of his lungs as his eyes fall on an older man with broad shoulders. His homely face took Yoongi back into the past where he used to be a street rat. He was about to call out Jin’s name when he noticed the second figure behind him. That man was taller by an inch, skin the color of caramel and that obnoxious black-framed glasses.

“What is he doing here?” Yoongi spat as he pointed a finger at Namjoon. He gritted his teeth with his eyes blazing red. No amount of decades can make Yoongi apologize to that prick.

Namjoon flinched at the spiteful words. If it wasn’t obvious enough, the two had friction and neither of them would back down. It was a complete mess of misunderstandings that blew out of proportions within seconds. Jin approached the pair with surrendering hands.

“Just listen, please. We wouldn’t be here if we absolutely didn’t need your help,” Jin pleaded. He paused, letting Yoongi get comfortable with their sudden appearance. A glimpse of hesitation flickered on his face before he continued.

“We found the seventh.” It was barely a whisper but Yoongi heard it loud and clear. He knew what those words meant. He knew why they were here. And Yoongi wanted no part in it.

He shook his head with a chuckled. “No way in hell.” Yoongi grabs onto a lost Jimin and teleports them out of the streets. Only this time, they didn’t arrive at a new location. There was no puff of black smoke or the usual dizziness in the head. Yoongi opened his eyes only to find that they were stuck on the same damn street.

“Yoongi,” Jimin whimpers. “I can’t move my legs. I can’t move.” The worrisome look in his eyes brought light to his innocence.

“Taehyung!” Yoongi hissed as his eyes searched for the lanky boy. Fuck him and his telekinesis.

From the shadows out came two boys, clinging to each other. They had similar builds but it was evident that the brown haired boy was more muscular.

“I’m not letting you go this time,” Taehyung said firmly as he shakes his head. “This is important, trust me.”

“My mind hasn’t changed Taehyungie. I don’t care about the fucking legend or out stupid destiny. I just want to live!”

Taehyung bristled when Yoongi used his pet name. It was so personal to him that to hear it after so long got him trembling. His heart had soared when he saw a glance of Yoongi on the streets, clad in all black. But when he saw that his friend was with another guy, bubbly and pink, jealousy strung on his chords.

“And so does the other guy Yoongi!” he yells. “I’m pretty sure he wants to live too. Free of restraints and free from being a fucking lab rat!”

Taken back by Taehyung’s outburst, he asks, “What are you talking about?”

Jin finally steps closer, his voice still as soft and silky like Yoongi remembered. “That’s why we came. The 7th, he’s captured by some facility we don’t know about. It’s here, in Tokyo.”

Yoongi feels himself getting pulled something he wants no part of. It was no lie that he was a stubborn fucker who stood for his strong opinions. There was a reason why he didn’t want them to come together. The questions have been nagging at the back of his head.

What if the whole legend was a lie? What if they came together and nothing happens? What if their existence held no significance and they were merely a figment of life’s mutation?

Yoongi feels Jimin’s grip on his arm tightens. “I want to help.” His voice was tainted with purity as he urges Yoongi with a nod.

Chapter Text

Yoongi’s small apartment in the deep crevices of Tokyo felt more like a mouse hole now that there was six fully grown man stuffed inside. He had transported the entire group out of the streets to his apartment, which has him melted into his couch from exhaustion. It’s been awhile since he has managed to transport people other than himself, and his body was not taking it too well. The tight tension in the room wasn’t helping either. Yoongi feels a swish of air caressing his cheeks and was faced with Jimin’s puppy eyes.

“Here,” Jimin smiled as he handed him a glass of water. “It’s unnerving to see your face going paler than your snow white skin. Oh, and sorry that I raided your kitchen by the way. It literally took me a second to find it because boy, your kitchen is as empty as an abandoned desert.”

Jimin’s babbling earned a burst of laughter from the other guests. His sassy remarks managed to cut the tension away, and they were more than grateful for it. They stood around the tiny living room, trying hard not to look out of place. It wasn’t easy to face someone from your past, especially after not having seen them for more than six decades.

The sip of water did little to energize him but at least it had helped to dull away the aching in his temples. “Shall I introduce everyone?” Yoongi asks. “Or I bet everyone here already knows Jimin, isn’t that right Kim?”

His tight smile accompanied the strain in his voice after having to cough out Namjoon’s name. The name ‘Kim Namjoon’ felt like a serpentine wrapped around his tongue, leaving an acrid taste in his mouth. Hence, opting for a simple ‘Kim’ to ease his queasy stomach.

“Yoongi-”

“No, let him be Jin. He knows that I’ve been...spying on him so why hide it right?” Namjoon spoke up. “And it can’t be helped if Taehyung reads my visions because obviously, he was just as concerned.”

“Just as?” Yoongi scoffed at his words. It angered him that Namjoon was playing it off as if he had an ounce of care for him. If it came from Jin, it would’ve been more believable.

“Listen here punk!” Namjoon stood up, now seething with anger. “I’m sorry that your dull brain can’t input in the fact that I do care for you. Or maybe it’s that thick ego clouding your eyes.”

This was something Yoongi couldn’t lose to. After almost 70 years, it was finally time to let it out. He stands up and faces up to Namjoon’s taller build. “You care for me?!” Yoongi retorted and gave a mocking chuckle. “That must be the biggest joke in the entire world because fuck, I’m laughing.”

“This is what you do! You haven’t changed a single bit you fucker,” Namjoon grits his teeth. “Instead of trying to understand and accept it, you mock my words, laugh it off and claim that no one has tried to explain it to you.”

The fury locked in him finally explodes, reaching it’s boiling limit. His fist swings for Namjoon’s jaws, only reaching an inch before the taller man grabs the thin wrist, pushing Yoongi back.

“That’s enough, both of you!” Jin barked out with a frown. He understood that the two men needed to sort out their differences but getting physical were taking things too far. There were more important things that needed tending to before he would allow them to battle it out.

Yoongi falls back against the couch with his fists clenched. “You’re such a coward, Kim,” he muttered with a smirk. “Reading my mind to block my punches. If you’ve been reading my mind, then you would know exactly what that punch was for and admit that you deserve it.”

“Bastard!” the taller man seethed as he launched himself on Yoongi. The latter was not about to back off either as he meets Namjoon halfway.

One second, their bodies were entangled in a blur of fists. And the next, they were wailing in pain as they dropped to the floor. It felt like their entire body was burning and electrified at the same time as Jungkook holds onto their wrists, their life slowly pulled out of them. The veins in their necks were popping out in shades of blue while feeling like their heart was being squeezed. Jungkook releases them before it gets too critical, letting their limp arm lay still by their shaking body.

As the two men gasps for air on the cracked wooden floor, Taehyung steps in. Yoongi realized that the young boy had been awfully quiet since they arrived at his apartment. “Please,” he pleads with a soft voice. His eyes make contact with both Namjoon and Yoongi; it was glazed with desolated sorrow. “None of us want to see you fight anymore. This feud you guys have, it’s been going on for too long. Either choose to move on or talk it out.”

Coming from someone who was younger than both Namjoon and Yoongi, it brought a wave of shame over them. They’ve both been childish in their own ways. For the past decades, Namjoon has been in denial of his mistakes and Yoongi has been trying to avoid it. It wasn’t healthy for both of them.

Taehyung continued, “Meanwhile, we’ve got the 7th one restrained somewhere in a facility, treated like a lab rat. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m planning on saving him. And we can’t do that without either of you.”

Namjoon sighs as Jin help him up. He’s been trying to reconcile their issue but after reading Yoongi’s mind a couple of times, he felt the younger boy’s resistance. So he didn’t push for it, claiming that he was only trying to respect Yoongi’s wishes. Perhaps he should’ve pushed for it, be a man and face the music. Then maybe, things wouldn’t have spiraled out of control.

The guilt gnawed at him, gulping as he held out a hand towards Yoongi. “I...I know you can’t forgive me for what I did but...for the sake of the 7th, let’s put it behind us.”

Yoongi stares at the outstretched hand waiting for him. It used to be the hand that would pull him out of the gutter, patting him on the back and encouraging him to believe in himself. It was painful to see that the hand was now tainted with hate. But for the sake of the 7th and Taehyung, he held out his own hand, agreeing to move on. The handshake was flitting, lasting only a second before the two men retracted.

“Well, what the fuck happened to the 7th?” Yoongi asked exasperatedly. He hadn’t bothered to get back on the couch, eyeing the couple that was inhabiting it. His oldest friend and his now friendly foe, hand in hand. “And does he have a name? Or are we going to keep calling him that?”

“About that…” Jin started with a concerned look. The air hung heavy as Yoongi’s four guests look at each other. There was definitely something they knew amongst themselves. “His name...it’s Jung Hoseok.”

Jung Hoseok.

Jung fucking Hoseok.

That name slapped Yoongi in the face as he feels the color draining out of him. The universe must be sadists, taking in pleasure from seeing him suffer. How cruel they were, presenting him with all his pain from the past. This was exactly why Yoongi ran as far away as he could from the rest of them. They come into his life carrying a ticking time bomb and now he can’t escape it.

“That’s...that’s impossible,” Yoongi wheezed out, his voice cracking. He shakes his head and tries to deny the truth. “I would’ve noticed the symbol on his wrist. And mine has never lit up whenever I was around him.”

“You see, Hoseok’s a morphling,” Namjoon said.

“A what?” Jimin piped up. Yoongi didn’t notice that the pink boy had been by his side until he hears his sweet voice.

“A morphling! He uh he’s able to change his physical form to literally anything he wants. That’s why I wasn’t able to track him down all this time. He’s been donning different skins so his symbol has never come up on my visions,” Namjoon explains his discovery with genuine interest.

But all those words were silent blubbers to him as he sits, frozen and numb. All Yoongi sees is him. All Yoongi feels is his arms wrapped around his waist. All Yoongi hears is the whisper of his name, said so tenderly, full of love. The cracks in his heart started to break away, never fully healed in the first place.

“Hey baby,” he chuckles as he hugs Yoongi from the back. He leaves a trail of kisses down Yoongi’s pale neck, leaving him flustered.

“Not now! What if people see us?”

He growls and bites on Yoongi’s neck, making the latter whimper from both pain and pleasure. No matter how tough he looks, Yoongi always seems to melt under his touch. “Then shouldn’t we get back to my apartment? We’ll get some privacy to kiss all we want.”

It was a toxic relationship, he knew that. Men weren't supposed to be with men. What they had between them and what they did behind closed doors, it could send them to the asylum. But why did it feel so good to have his long fingers unbuttoning his collar while he nibbled on his ears? Was he deranged just like the advertisements said? And did he want it to stop?

Yoongi lets out a strangled groan as he feels him tugging his belt. “Fine,” he muttered. “But you’re buying me lunch before work.”

He decided that he loved him.

“Hey, are you okay? You blanked out there.”

Jimin nudged his friend, trying to pull him out of his trance. Yoongi had been acting weird ever since the ominous name entered the room. And from the looks of it, he’s had some past with this Jung Hoseok. But the way he reacted, it was different from how he was when he shared with Jimin about Jin and the rest of the group. This time around, Yoongi looked like he had seen a ghost. A ghost from his past that perhaps, might’ve meant something more than just a friend to him. It was a wild guess but the face of a hopeless lover was painted over him. And it left Jimin feeling less than happy.

“Yeah,” Yoongi murmured, clearing his throat and sitting upright. He leaves his memories and tunes back to Namjoon.

“He’s a big-time con artist and has been under the watch of several agencies all over the world. Unfortunately for him, he was caught morphing and ever since, he’s had a different type of agency trailing after him. They tracked him down to Seoul and captured him, making him their prison in an underground facility on the island of Aogashima in Japanese territory. I’ve seen what they’ve been doing to him...it’s inhumane, that’s for sure.”

Hearing that Hoseok was kept in a facility, going through torture, infuriated him. Morally, Yoongi knew it was cruel to treat a human like a lab rat but he wouldn’t admit that his never-ending love for him fuelled more anger than needed.

“Hear us out Yoongi, we know that you’re not a big fan of fulfilling the legend but we really need your he-”

“I’ll do it. I’ll help you,” he says, surprising Jin mid-way.

He was coming for Jung Hoseok.

Chapter Text

Nights in Tokyo has always been so lively, keeping you awake at every tick of the clock. From the never-ending traffic to the blaring lights of a million neon signs, it can rival New York’s Time Square easily. Yoongi’s apartment was seedy, tiny and nothing to be bragged about. But beyond the four moldy walls, the vibrant nightlife of Tokyo was evident - the crammed noodle shop he frequented, the colored lanterns strung uncoordinatedly and the crowd of bodies pushing through the narrow alleyways. It easily overcame his shitty situation.

Yoongi leans over the rusty railing, its peeling blue paint catching onto the sleeves of his hoodie. It had been raining the entire day, keeping the group of six holed up in his apartment. He always found Tokyo the prettiest after a downpour. There was something about the slick pavements and the neon lights shining through drops of water that gets Yoongi in a good mood.

He hears the sliding door open with a creak, followed by hesitant footsteps hovering behind him. “Isn’t it bewitching?” he asks, urging for his unknown guest to join him at appreciating Tokyo’s beauty.

“Have you seen Singapore? We had dinner once at a restaurant overlooking the Singapore river. Amazing.”

Taehyung comes up to his right, leaning his chin on his folded arms. He looks at Yoongi with big brown puppy eyes, the same ones that Yoongi missed so much. Till this day, it hasn’t lost the spark of innocence.

“No, I’d have to say Chicago.”

Yoongi finds Jin appearing to his left with his sweet smile. His own lips crack a smile, though barely. It tugs back into a grim line from the conscious guilt he felt. They had made a pact, him and Jin, to never part ways no matter what happens. Yet decades later, he shatters their promise, leaving Jin to fend the world by himself. Yoongi still had the memory of Jin broken and hurt, kneeling and begging for him to come back. It was ingrained in him forever.

“You only like Chicago because of the Bean,” Taehyung teases him.

Yoongi chuckles softly and shakes his head. “None of those cities are comparable contenders. They don’t have that essence of magic like Tokyo.”

His two new companions kept quiet, having no need to challenge Yoongi’s words. They knew, if there was something he admired to a deep extent, it was probably for a good reason. And so the three of them stood by the railing, the cold seeping into their bones as they enjoy the rainy night.

Out of nowhere, Taehyung wraps his arms around Yoongi and buries his face in his neck. “I miss you. So much.” His voice was soft, almost non-existent.

Yoongi could practically hear the pout in his words. And it hurt him, striking him deep into his heart. He hadn’t realized his departure would leave Taehyung grieving too. Why had he been so rash?

“We all did,” Jin said. He held onto Yoongi’s hand like it was a precious gem.

“I doubt Na-”

“Even, Namjoon,” he interrupted Yoongi’s protest. “The idea of him missing you isn’t that atrocious. He has voiced out many times about wanting to make peace.”

Yoongi sighs, exasperated from having to deal with the internal struggle in him - caused by Kim Namjoon. They agreed to move on sure, but that didn’t keep him from still biting the bitterness in the crack of their relationship. In the situation they’re in now, are they really at peace or is it just a facade put up by both of them? Fuck, how do they even try to iron out the crinkles - dual it out?

“Or just talk it out,” Taehyung muttered.

Yoongi shoves the timid boy away, holding him at arm’s length. “You were reading my thoughts?!” He frowns and gave Taehyung a look. There were many things that flipped him off and having his mind read, his private thoughts exposed, was one of them.

“I’m sorry! I can’t help it, you know that! You were so close, your thoughts practically seeped out of your brain and into my ears and I mean maybe it was a great thing that I heard because you need help figuring out your shit.”

Taehyung’s rambling turned into a rant and as soon as the last word slipped out of his mouth, he gasps and clamps his hand over it. “Sorry,” he whispers with a shrug.

His frown softens and turns into a playful smile. “Rascal,” Yoongi chuckles as he ruffles Taehyung’s brown hair.

“Tsk, I forgot how bad of an influence you are on him. The second you appear he’s all brazen and cheeky,” Jin snorted.

“Hey!” Yoongi gasps before laughing. He loved that they fell back to their usual banter. It brought him back to the old days.

Jimin creaks the door open, cringing when the hinges whined loudly. He had been designated to sleep in Yoongi’s room by Yoongi himself. His offer had surprised everyone, not only Jimin. And if anyone had seen his reddening cheeks, they didn’t point it out. It had been an hour now since he’d been waiting up for Yoongi - he was eager to get his questions answered.

On the sofa, laid Namjoon, his long legs dangling off the armrest. His snores rumbled in the air, startling Jimin. It caught him off guard that he stumbled backward, his heels almost sinking into Jungkook’s thighs. In a flash, he runs to the other side of the room, sticking himself to the walls. Being slow has never been strength - it made him clumsy. Jimin dashes again to the sliding doors, hiding behind the grey curtains.

He peeks out to see Yoongi with Jin and Taehyung laughing over a joke one of them had cracked. His heart jumps to see Yoongi’s gummy smile and scrunched up nose. It was pure adorableness that makes the butterflies in his tummy flutter. Jimin bites his lip, trying to decide if he should join them. He didn’t want Yoongi to think he was being clingy. The guy had only met him for god’s sake.

“What’s wrong?” Jin asks after seeing Taehyung’s attention divert back to the sliding door a couple of times now.

Taehyung had been feeling the presence of an extra soul lingering around them. He walks over to the sliding doors and throws the curtains open, finding a frozen pink haired boy with his mouth wide open.

“I was...just...uh walking around,” Jimin stuttered, giving his most persuading grin.

“Right,” Taehyung chuckles. He gestures Jimin to join them with a wave of a hand.

He had been interested in getting to know their new companion. It’s been awhile since they’ve had someone interesting that Taehyung didn’t already know everything about. Having telepathy isn’t quite a blessing as people might put it out to be. In fact, it’s a curse all on its own - the number of times Taehyung has to hear Jin and Namjoon’s dirty thoughts about each other makes him want to saw off his ears.

Unlike Namjoon, he couldn’t control the thoughts that seeped in. His older friend chooses the minds he wants to read. But Taehyung hears every thoughts and whisper of the people around him without a second to spare, like water rushing down a narrow stream. Namjoon has been teaching him to block the unwanted voices but sometimes it gets a little too much.

Jimin settles himself beside Taehyung, trying to keep a distance between him and Yoongi. For some reason, being around him while there were others made it harder to keep his blushing cheeks a secret.

Taehyung slings an arm around his shoulders, tugging him closer. “So, tell me, where have you been and why is that Namjoon wasn’t able to track you down?”

“I’ve been everywhere and anywhere,” Jimin chuckles. “Regarding the tracking, I don’t know either. Maybe he wasn’t looking hard enough.”

With his ability, he’s managed to visit every country in the world in his lifespan. He practically lived as a tourist the whole of his life, exploring every corner of the world and getting to know the different cultures that exist. But unlike the average tourists, he hasn’t exactly used the legal ways of transporting to get to his destinations. Jimin wasn’t proud of it but he has used his abilities to steal and cross borders without a passport. It wasn’t as if anyone has caught him before.

“No, I think our Namjoon has gotten old in the brains and couldn’t keep up with you,” Yoongi said.

The smirk he gave Jimin was burnt in his memories forever. It was the definition of sexy and cheeky and Jimin almost fell on his butt right there and then. The raven-haired boy was so intoxicating to Jimin. He was pining for him with all his desire.

“Uh Jin,” Taehyung coughed as he stifles a laugh. It wasn’t his fault that Jimin’s lust filled thoughts suddenly occupied his head. “You and I, need to leave these two alone.”

“What? Why?” Jin whines and pouts. He still had so much he wanted to talk to Yoongi about. It’s been ages since he last saw his friend.

Taehyung grabbed him by his wrists and dragged him in, not spilling a word. They’ve only met the pink haired boy and he wasn’t about to embarrass him in front of his crush. He was definitely keeping an eye out for them in the future. Yoongi has been so grumpy since his time in San Francisco circa 1940 and maybe Jimin was just what he needed.

“There’s a possibility that he read your thoughts,” Yoongi said as a matter-of-fact. It wasn’t his intention to frighten the kid.

“What?!” Jimin exclaimed with wide eyes. His cheeks were undoubtedly red as he stumbled over his words. “Are you sure? Or are you just playing with me? Did he really read my mind? How do you know?”

Seeing the kid fumble around with a mortified expression amused Yoongi. From the short time he’d known Jimin, he’s always seen him as assertive and unbashful. This side of him was new to Yoongi.

“Were you thinking about fucking me or something? Is that why you’re so concerned if Taehyung had read your mind?” Yoongi teased.

Fucking him? Jimin’s lips spoke silent words like a gulping goldfish. The thought of Yoongi knowing his true desire made him look like a deer caught in headlights - frozen with a fused brain. No, was all he could manage. And even then, the word came out barely audible. Jimin clears his throat and tears his eyes away from Yoongi, suddenly finding the broken bicycle lying helplessly on the sidewalk interesting. Then again, he couldn’t stare at it the entire time they there - he’d dissected every part of the bike, down to the missing chain. So Jimin steers the conversation far, far away from anything sexual; starting with the question that had been nagging at him.

“Yoongi,” he said with caution. “What...happened between you and Namjoon?”

Yoongi looks over to the kid and there it was again, the pure innocence sparkling in his eyes. It wasn’t a surprise to him that the questioned was asked; he’d expected it. He mulled over the words that pooled around his tongue - how was he going to put it into perspective? The entire incident was a bag of chaos and misunderstandings, ending with pain and loss for everyone. Yoongi has been keeping a tight lock on his past and opening up about it felt like unscrewing Pandora’s box.

He gulps. He sighs. He said, “It was a painful thing that happened.”

“It was roughly in the year of 1938, just a few months lack of 1940. Back then, being in love with a guy guaranteed punishment - a place specially dedicated to you in the asylum. And it’s not like you sit in a cell and rot your brains out. No, it was worse than that. You’d be going through treatments - or at least that’s what they called it. These so-called treatments had electric chair written all over it. But despite all the warnings and threats, I still fell in love...with a guy. His name was Jung Hoseok and we connected so well, stepping into a forbidden relationship with blind eyes.”

Jimin bites his lips. Jung Hoseok, the man they were about to rescue the next morning used to be Yoongi’s lover. Jealousy gnawed at him.

“For almost two years, we managed to sneak around, meeting up at his apartment to spend some time alone. It was one of the happiest years of my life because I was in love with him and he was in love with me. Like the two of us against the whole world. Then, Namjoon got suspicious. I guess after being able to get away with it for so long now, I got sloppy. He’d catch me coming home late and sneaking off at irregular hours with no probable reasons. I wasn’t about to tell him about our relationship - afraid he’d see us as shrewd and disgusting.

So when he saw that he was getting nowhere near a truthful answer from me, he decided to spy on me. And no, not how normal people do it. Whenever I left the house, he would unlock my brain, planting himself in it. So wherever I go, he could trail my thoughts in his vision to find out where I’ve been sneaking off to. Namjoon finds out about Hoseok and his link to me but he didn’t stop there.”

Yoongi scoffs with his fist tightened.

“Up to this day, he claims that everything he did stemmed from his undying love and concern for me. I called out on his bullshit even then. Namjoon had latched himself of Hoseok, following him around now and soon found that he was a con artist. The man lived off by selling rich people with forged historical paintings. And because of the reputation he holds, Namjoon thought that the relationship we had was solely based on Hoseok wanting to con me. For how smart he proclaims himself to be, he really was an idiot. Thinking that he was trying to protect me, he...he had used his telepathy to control Hoseok mind. Namjoon made him tell me the truth and to...break it off with me.”

Yoongi’s knuckles were white from his tight clutch on the rusty railing. His teeth were gritting from the pain rattling in his bones. It felt stale and weathered out - but that didn’t mean it hurts less.

“I didn’t know it back then that it was Namjoon talking, so to hear those words from Hoseok’s lips....fuck it felt like a stab in my heart,” he choked out. “I never even got the chance to say something before he packed up and left, vanishing into thin air. I tried to look for him, spent hours on end asking each person in town about him but it’s like he never existed. No one knew who he was, saying they’ve never heard the name before.

After searching for weeks I...got crazy, overwhelmed with love. I started to think that if he was willing to drop his entire identity to get away from me then, the love we had was never true. The depression got to me, piled onto the guilt of being gay. I hated myself, for being weak, for being naive and for being the guy that fucked another man. I was so close to throwing myself into an asylum.

The rest of them noticed that my behaviors got erratic and I supposed Namjoon felt responsible for driving down to the gutter. He ended up confessing everything to me.”

His head was hung low, shaking it as he sobs. The tears that spilled from his eyes dampened his cheeks. To relieve his past again felt like his heart was wrenched out and thrown into a pit of fire. Fuck, did it hurt so bad.

“Hearing it all from a person I considered my friend, god, it made me livid. He had begged on his knees, crying to me that he did it all in good conscience,” Yoongi scoffed. “Those excuses meant nothing to me after having lost the one person I loved. Namjoon invaded my privacy and ruined my relationship with Hoseok. If that isn’t called betrayal that I don’t know what is. A fucker like him should never be forgiven.”

Yoongi was seething with rage and sorrow as he broke down. If he closed his eyes, it felt like he was back in the house with Namjoon. Both of them were in a mess of tears, screaming down each other’s throat. Each one was trying to voice out their emotions - of anger, of remorse and of bitterness. It was all too much for him that he left, never looking back.

After keeping it in for so long, Yoongi found it in his heart to let it all out. The tears never stopped, not even when he was in Jimin’s embrace, not when he was pulled into bed and not when Jimin hugged him to sleep.

There he was, Min Yoongi, being comforted by Park Jimin for the pain he held on after losing Jung Hoseok - the man they were rescuing the next morning.

Chapter Text

Everything was hazy to Yoongi as he feels the warm sun rays touching his cheeks, pulling him out from his sleep. The night before had blown pass with only pieces of it lingering in his eyes like confetti. He remembers the rain, it was dripping with uncoordinated rhythm, splashing on the cold rusty railing. He remembers smiling and laughing with the two friends he hasn’t seen in a long time. He remembers his tears spilling down his cheeks as he unburdened his shoulders for the first time.

Now, he found himself waking up in his bed with a weight on his chest, offering more warmth than he would’ve liked. Yoongi’s eyes fluttered open to find a mop of pink mess tickling his nose. He tries to move his hand but realizes that it was tucked underneath the same weight that was on his chest. It took him a while to comprehend the situation he was in. Jimin was curled up like a Koala, clinging on to him with all his might, legs and hands wrapped around his body. Yoongi hears him sigh as he buries face deeper into his chest, rubbing his cheeks on his shirt like a cat.

His heart starts hammering away in his chest and his body goes frigid at the sight of Jimin, pink hair and puffy face, snuggling up to him. Frankly, it frightened him to have the kid so close, invading his bubble of privacy as if Yoongi granted him a special pass to do so. But then the unusual tenderness eased him, prompting him to savor it just a little longer. So Yoongi, with pre-cautioned gentleness and a big gulp, tightens his arm around Jimin’s waist. He pulls him closer, letting the younger boy sprawl above him. His erratic heartbeat calms to a sedated rhythm as he leans into Jimin’s embrace.

Just for this moment, Yoongi felt serene as he closes his eyes and drifts back to sleep.

“You got us breakfast,” Yoongi said, almost like a question as he walks out to find his wooden coffee table filled with food.

It was a rare sight for him to be lavished with a spread at the start of his day. A cold salmon onigiri from the convenience was his usual morning menu. And if Yoongi was feeling like generously spending an extra few yen, he’d get himself a can of coffee.

“It was Jimin’s idea,” Jin pointed out with a nod to the pink kid, who was busy chatting animatedly with Jungkook and Taehyung. It was nice to see Jimin having others he can relate to.

Yoongi blushes at the mention of Jimin, thinking back to the intimate time they shared in his room. Though it may be more one-sided that he thought since Jimin was soundly asleep. When he woke for the second time that day, it had already been past afternoon and his arm was sweeping an empty bed. Silently, Yoongi conceded that preferred the first time he woke.

“Alright, eat up. We have to figure out how to get Jung Hoseok out of that torture chamber,” announced Namjoon.

They gathered around the table and laid out their general plan while stuffing themselves with bowls of rice, salmon and miso soup. With the help of Namjoon’s extensive research and Taehyung’s profound telepathy, they found that the secret facility was based in the island of Aogashima, about 230 miles south of central Tokyo. It was the perfect place to conceal a non-existent facility with the island being the furthest out into the Philippine Sea and an estimated population of only 168.

“There’s a crater in the middle of an island from an erupted volcano,” Namjoon said as he pointed at his laptop screen. “And I noticed that they built a helipad right in there.”

“What’s the significance? Having a helipad shouldn’t be abnormal in that island. It’s the easiest mode of transport to get there,” rebutted Jimin as he leans forward to take a better look at the aerial view of Aogashima

“It’s not convenient,” Yoongi piped up, understanding where Namjoon was headed to. “Why would they need to erect a helipad inside a crater of an erupted volcano? Unless it’s to create easy access.”

It surprised Yoongi how fast their minds synced as if the decades of troubled past was completely erased, igniting their familiar dynamic. The two used to work so well together. Like two peas in a pod, Jin had said.

Namjoon perked up with a smile. “Yeah, exactly. My guess is, the facility is underneath the crater.”

“So how do we get there? And how do we get inside?” asked Jungkook.

“Well...can you teleport all of us to Aogashima?”

Everyone looks over to Yoongi with curious eyes. They’ve seen the aftermath of him having to teleport all six of them from a different street and he already looked like he was seconds to passing out. But to teleport them to and fro an island that was more than 230 miles away, was an idea that came off as absurd.

Yoongi took a while mulling their plan in his head. The travel back and forth with additional bodies was definitely going to put a strain on him. But he’s gotten stronger and more in control of his abilities so he nods a yes.

“Great. Then I’ll only need Taehyung and Jungkook to enter th-”

“Wait, wait,” Jimin interrupted with his hands up. His head was crooked to the side and his brows were bunched together. “Why can’t Yoongi just...teleport himself inside the facility, get that Hoseok guy out and teleport them back here? Wouldn’t that make things easier?”

Jimin hoped he didn’t come off in the wrong way like he wasn’t up to participate in the rescuing of Yoongi’s past lover - his feelings on Jung Hoseok is kept deep within private thoughts. But outside of that, he really was genuinely curious.

“I can’t teleport myself somewhere that I’m not familiar with or have no graphic image of,” Yoongi revealed. “It’s like trying to navigate yourself through an endless maze. And it’s risky for me to teleport blindfolded because there’s a chance I’ll end up inside a concrete wall.”

“Ah…” Jimin gasps in understanding. For some reason, he always thought that abilities had no restrictions. In regards to his own ability, it was only a matter of building his strength and stamina to cross the limits.

The group chuckles at him with adoration. “Like I was saying,” Namjoon continued with a smile. “My plan was to have Jungkook and Taehyung enter the facility while I listen in to any distress signal or alarms they might trigger. The two of you get him out and Yoongi can teleport the five of us back to the apartment.”

“Five?” Jimin questioned with his hand raised halfway. The piece of salmon he had in his chopsticks dangles in the air. “Jin and I are not in the plan? But I wanted to help.”

“Don’t be offended, kid,” Namjoon said apologetically. “We don’t need too many people getting on that island. It’s too risky. Plus, it’ll help lighten the strain on Yoongi.”

Jimin nods silently then offers a smile. A smile that kept his true disappointment hidden. All night and morning he had been excited to be part of the plan to rescue a fellow metahuman. For all his life, he’s never felt connected to a group of people as much as he was now. But now that he has a chance to be part of something, he’s being turned down.

“You shouldn’t take it personally,” Jin reassured the younger boy with a nudge on the shoulder. “We’ll stay behind and be their backup. Yeah?”

He absentmindedly gave another nod and focuses on stuffing himself with the meal. Jimin started thinking if his ability was useless. All he could do was run at lightning speed with vast agility. As compared to Taehyung’s telepathy and telekinesis, Jungkook’s intangibility and absorbing ability, Namjoon’s high IQ and telepathy, Yoongi’s teleportation and camouflaging and Jin’s time manipulation, his ability seems so weak. Could it be that he was the most useless one out of all of them, he thought to himself.

“Alright, let’s get ready,” Namjoon announces.

The four men stand in a circle in the middle of Yoongi’s apartment. They link their hands with their heads lowered while Jimin and Jin watch them from afar.

“Ready?” Yoongi whispered, earning nods from his friends.

He takes a deep breath and concentrates on the image of Aogashima Island. Taehyung had tapped into the mind of a local to see the island in his eyes. He then planted the image he obtained into Yoongi’s mind to give Yoongi a clearer projection of the island. Now with the grainy film of the mountainous green terrain in his head, he closes his eyes and lets nature takes its course. The three of them feel a tremble in their bodies, rattling their bones as Yoongi teleports them to the island.

A loud ‘bang’ echoes in the room as the air around the boys distorts, wisps of black smoke replacing the void from the vanished bodies.

Jin sighs, “I hope everything goes well.”

Even though his face looks serene, Jimin could see his pupils shaking with worry. He’d lie if he said Jin was the only one that felt anxious.

Jungkook opens his eyes to see that they were standing in a field of tall grasses at the edge of the huge crater. His mouth hands wide as he takes in the view. They were so high up that he couldn’t see where the horizon of the ocean ended and the layer of cloud started. The group breaks away to get their bearings.

“Breathtaking,” Namjoon breathes as he shakes his head.

They took a second to appreciate the view while the cooling wind caresses their faces. Ever since Jungkook stuck with Namjoon and the rest of them, he’s traveled to so many places - reason being, since they don’t age, they can’t risk staying in the same place for too long. But of all the places he’s visited, the island of Aogashima captures his heart. This was the kind of place he wanted to be, peaceful and solitary. One day, he thought, he was going to travel alone to places like these.

“I can feel him,” Taehyung whispers with closed eyes. His head cocks in different angles, trying to pinpoint the exact location.

The three boys stand back and watch him work his magic. Over the years, Taehyung has been able to manipulate his basic telepathy and telekinesis, merging the two together - thanks to Namjoon’s guidance. With the two combined, he can feel the layouts of places, even to the extent of a whole island. In his head, he sees tangents of active electrons mapping every nook and cranny of the place.

“There’s a tunnel. Right below us,” he informs the group. “It leads to the entrance.”

“Great, then let’s get into action.”

With a nod from Namjoon, Jungkook holds onto Taehyung. Their view of the two older boys slowly disappears as they sink into the ground. The daylight was quickly replaced by artificial fluorescent lights hanging from the ceiling of the cemented tunnel. It was silent, save for the subtle humming of the light.

“This way,” Taehyung said, pointing into the depth of darkness.

He could feel the energy of the new metahuman pulling him. Even though it was pulsing weakly, Taehyung could sense a spark of life, like he was hanging on with all his strength instead of slipping away into oblivion.

Everyone in the group exudes a unique energy. Hoseok’s energy is painted a bright yellow like flashes of the sun, lighting a path in the dark tunnel. Namjoon’s energy is deep blue, like the depth of the ocean, moving in calm waves. Jin’s energy has the feel of pure white fluffy snowflakes drifting in the wind. Jungkook’s energy was always tight and fiery like flames, daring and impulsive. Yoongi’s energy gives Taehyung a silky vibe, midnight black and soft, almost like a blanket of a starry night. Jimin’s energy is by far his favorite. He found it to be the most beautiful one - it was a mixture of pink and silver, striking fast like lightning.

Having blessed with the ability to see and feel his friends’ energy was something he loved the most. It makes him feel like he knew each of them on a personal level. But throughout the years, he’s always wondered what his energy looked like.

A bright flash of light pulls Taehyung out of his thoughts. He quickly held onto Jungkook, making sure he created a film of barrier to deflect the younger boy’s deathly touch. They had reached the end of the tunnel and was faced with a heavy metal door that could only be accessed with a 6-digit code, a face recognition, and a fingerprint. Lucky them, they had Jungkook, who can easily get him and Taehyung through the doors.

They stood still as a small group of people exit the door, passing by them like they were invisible. In fact, they were - to the eyes of the individuals. Without them realizing one bit, Taehyung had distorted their vision, giving the two boys an advantage of not being seen. And so they strolled by without raising any suspicion and went through the heavy metal doors with ease.

“Further in that way,” Taehyung murmured and pointed. “We can cut across the walls and soon reach the room they’re holding him in.”

He guides Jungkook through the thick walls of the white facility. Every time Taehyung passes through, his bodies felt like it had been taken apart particle by particle, having been not used to it. It made his stomach queasy. After every wall, the rooms of the facility stayed the same. White, clinical and pristine. There was not a hint of foul smell nor the subtle aroma of perfume. It irked their noses not being able to source out a smell. People in plastic goggles and white lab coats carrying clipboards milled around like bees, trying to get to their destination with a pertinent purpose.

Then they came across the man they were searching for. Hoseok was strapped onto a hospital bed alone in an isolated room. It was sat right in the middle with a sterile metal table off to the side. The table was laden with tools and instruments they didn’t recognize. On the bed, Hoseok was connected to a ton of machines, wires serpentined around him, taking in every bit of information about him - his blood, his heart rate, his oxygen intake. All that, and he was watched like an act in a circus. On the wall adjacent to the bed, was a viewing room with a giant window. Every now and then, people would stick their faces to the clear glass, peering at him and scribbling bits onto their papers.

They stepped closer with caution like a wary prey checking on its sleeping predator. Hoseok was knocked out from all the drugs they fed him. His lolled to the side with his eyes closed, his breathing, erratic, like he was internally trying to claw himself out of the haziness. To see him like that made the two boys sick with disgust.

“Namjoon, he’s unconscious and hooked on to a thousand machines. And there’s a spectator of people watching him. If Taehyung distorts their vision, there’s going to be a swarm of security coming in,” Jungkook reported in his head while being watchful of the row of guards lined up right outside. “You reckon we would have enough time?”

“Taehyung, can you come up with a distraction?” It was Namjoon. His voice floated in their ears, distant but crisp. “I’ll hack into their system and then send Yoongi in to flash you guys out.”

Taehyung looked around, licking his lips as he tries to come up with the most convenient solution to their problem. Everything he thought of led to a minuscule reaction, nothing big enough to get everyone scattered with different priorities at hand. What would get everyone scared shitless and running for their own lives, he thought to himself.

“Fuck it,” he whispers to himself as he gets on the ground with his palms open and flat on the cold tile.

“Tae, what are you doing?” Jungkook’s voice held an edge to it. An edge of uncertainty.

With a deep breath, he closes his eyes and exerted all his energy into summoning the tremble in the island’s core. It was the biggest thing he’s done with his abilities so it took him a lot of straining to focus on the task at hand. Soon, they found the facility shaking, the windows visibly vibrating and the tools on the table dropping unceremoniously. The room was now glowing red with the blaring sounds of an alarm. Everywhere, people scurried with shock-stricken faces. They were a mess of yelling and flying papers - a sign they hadn’t prepared a protocol for a damn earthquake.

“Namjoon locked them out,” Jungkook said as he peered out the small window of the door.

The guards were desperately trying to get inside, smashing the codes mercilessly on the buttons. Jungkook’s update was faint in Taehyung’s ears as his fingers dug into the tiles. He was giving the best artificial earthquake he could fabricate.

“Is there a problem?” Yoongi asked with furrowed brows.

“They’ve got too much attention on them. I’m going to have to cut into their system and send you in so you can flash them out.”

“What? No, I can’t. I told you, I can’t teleport into a room I’m not familiar with.”

Namjoon’s physical body was there, right beside Yoongi but his mind was elsewhere. His eyes moved at high speed with a tight-lipped mouth as his mind traveled into another’s. All he saw now was a thousand screens on the wall and a million buttons on the keyboard to go along with it. On a particularly enlarged screen, he saw a body lying helplessly on a bed. It must be Hoseok, he thought. Namjoon tapped into a specific region of the brain of his host - it was a man with a lanky figure, greasy hair, and droopy nose. Quick as lightning, a stream of information regarding the security system floods in. Having all the tools he needs, Namjoon moves the fingers of his host to override the system. He locks Hoseok’s room and gave the door a new code for safety measures.

“It’s done.”

Yoongi looks over at Namjoon, who was now moving unlike his motionless body just a minute ago.

“If you will, I’m going to need to tap into your brain,” Namjoon said hesitantly.

Yoongi immediately held out his hand, flustered by his friend’s request. “What?!”

It hadn’t been long since he’d just recovered from his traumatized incident involving Namjoon’s brain manipulation. And frankly, he was still against it.

“It’s the only way you can access the facility. I need to plant Jungkook’s memory into your head so you can teleport inside.”

“I can’t-”

They felt a tremor from beneath their feet. It was subtle at first but soon built into a loud trembling that shook the trunks and leaves of the trees. From their position at the top, it looked like the entire island was quivering.

“Taehyung,” Namjoon muttered and then looked at Yoongi with urgency. “I’m sorry this has to be the way but they need your help. You’re the only one that can get them out of there.”’

Namjoon’s understated way of making him feel like the hero of the day didn’t slip by him. Yoongi sighs with skepticism but gives a small nod, allowing him to dive into his brain. He feels a dull pounding in his head and then shot of pain runs up his temples like his brain had been frozen. Yoongi choked back a strangled shriek and keels over as an unfamiliar memory floated in him. It felt strange and foreign like trying to remember a dream he had.

Without a second of hesitation, Yoongi used the fraction of memory he gained to teleport himself inside the facility. He opens his eyes to find himself kneeling beside a bed.

“Yoongi!”

He looks up to see Jungkook. The younger boy was hastily detaching a bunch of wires from the body on the bed. Inside, it was pure chaos. Apart from the intense earthquake happening, yells and shouts echoed like wailing banshees. There was a repetitive banging on the door - he could see a slight dent in it, assuming that the guards outside were trying to ram their way in.

Yoongi stands up and helps out with the remaining wires. His breath was shaky and his hands were sweating as he avoids gazing at the face of the person lying down. He didn’t know how he’d react if he were to suddenly see the face of his past lover after all these years. Finally freeing Hoseok from the machines, Yoongi calls for Taehyung.

“C’mon Tae, that’s enough. We’re getting out of here.”

At the same time, they hear the rattling of a rain of bullets hitting the metal doors. It pierces through the glass window, sending the shattered glass and bullets flying into the room. The sound of the alarm got louder, shrilling in their ears. They ducked instinctively as Jungkook tugs on Taehyung’s sleeve, dragging him closer.

“Hold on to the bed!” Yoongi yelled over the cacophony of bullets, yelling and blaring alarm.

The three boys clamber for the bed, holding onto as many parts as they could in order not to get left out in the teleportation process.

“Go, go, go!” Jungkook shouted with closed eyes.

Yoongi takes a deep breath and uses all his energy to flash them out of the room. Their breath was sucked out of their lungs as they traveled to the open space, fresh air hitting their faces. They had ended up on the edge of the cliff, the of the bed inches away from falling over. The bed rattles under the tremor of the island, threatening to fall over as they grabbed onto it with all their might. Namjoon scrambled over and worked his way around the restraints that were holding Hoseok to the bed.

“You just had to shake the whole island did you?” he shouted over to Taehyung.

His nimble fingers unclipped the last of the restraints and he grabbed Hoseok’s arm, pulling him down to the ground. The boys let go of the bed and watched it crash down onto the rocky terrain. Taehyung’s artificial earthquake was still going on, showing no signs of stopping.

“Everyone, hold on-”

“Are you sure you still have ener-”

“Just do it for fuck’s sake!” Yoongi screamed as they others linked hands. He wanted to get out of the chaotic island as fast as possible and his energy was draining. With a growl, he uses up the remnants of it and teleports them back to his apartment.

Their bodies thudded onto the wooden floor and everyone groans in pain. Yoongi’s head was swimming from dizziness as he struggles to sit up. He hears the worried chatters of Jin and Jimin buzzing around him. The smell of dirt and grass still lingered on them.

“Yoongi?” a raspy groan said.

His body freezes over as he robotically turns his head. Yoongi’s eyes fall onto unfamiliar brown ones. The man’s voice brought him back to San Francisco in 1938 but his face...it was different. It wasn’t the Jung Hoseok he knew.

Chapter Text

“Yoongi.”

The man’s voice echoes in Yoongi’s ears as he stands in his small kitchen, warily watching the scene that played out in his living room. Just hearing him call out his name brought back memories that threatened to peel away at his past.

“Yoongi.”

Hoseok was laid on his couch with his eyes closed. Yoongi hadn’t dared to step foot any closer - for many reasons. The most prominent one being: having to face the truth that the man is and isn’t the Hoseok he knew.

“Yoongi.”

Namjoon adjusts Hoseok’s head and places his open palms on his temples, using his abilities to clear Hoseok’s mind from the anesthetic they pumped in him.

“Yoongi.”

He turns away from his view of the living room and stares at his empty glass with hunched shoulders. There were so many emotions brewing in him that it overwhelmed him; bitterness, ambivalence, sorrow.

“Yoongi,” a soft voice lures him out of his trance. This time, it was Jimin calling out his name. He feels an arm linger around his figure, deciding for a second if it was intruding before it wraps around his shoulders. “You don’t look so well. Maybe you should rest in your room.”

Ever since the intimate night they spent together on the balcony, and later on, in his room, Yoongi seems to find himself gravitating towards Jimin and heeding every soothing word that comes out from his lips as if he was under a spell. And it wasn’t just his voice; it was those wide moon-shaped eyes that pierced with innocence and curiosity, sucking Yoongi in. They were irresistible. To him, Park Jimin was the embodiment of comfort, security and unrequited love.

He had to forcibly turn his head away in order to tear his eyes from Jimin’s. The boy had an effect on him unlike no other. “Yeah..” Yoongi sighs. “I need to lie down.”

All at once, fatigue washes over him, crashing on his aching muscles. He groans in discomfort as he straightens his back. The numerous times Yoongi had to teleport in the short period of time had put a strain on his energy level. And not to mention, his head was still pounding from the shot of memory Namjoon had given him. But he had been overly anxious with Hoseok’s presence that it didn’t dawn on him earlier.

Yoongi sticks close to the wall as he passes by the couch, still intimidated by the person lying on it. Subconsciously, his movements hesitate at the foot of his room door. He feels an obscure energy he was unfamiliar with, tug at him, pointing towards Jimin, who was stood by the kitchen counter.

Without realizing, he calls out to him. “Jimin,” his lips said, catching the younger boy’s attention. “Can you...stay by my side for now?”

The light in Jimin’s eyes brightens visibly as he eagerly nods, and within a fraction of a second, he was physically by Yoongi’s side. Strangely, having Jimin near him, instantaneously filled up a void in him. Yoongi subtly shakes his head, wondering why he had such a deep connection with the boy.

The insides of Jimin’s tummy churned and flipped and fluttered as he tucked himself under the covers. His senses were on high when he feels the dip of the mattress, soon followed by Yoongi’s smoky scent lingering in his nose. The night that he had slept with Yoongi on this very same bed, was pure bliss. To be wrapped in his embrace, to feel his body heat warming him, to hear his steady heartbeat, it melted Jimin to the core. It wasn’t a lie that on that night, Jimin had the best sleep in all his decades.

If genies in magical lamps existed, he would waste all three wishes on having Yoongi be his. But that kind of magic doesn’t exist. And Jimin had to face the fact that perhaps, this feeling was one-sided. After all, his past lover was back and from the looks of how flustered Yoongi was, there still may be unresolved feelings between the two.

Jimin turns to his side to face Yoongi, only to realize that the latter was staring at him. He blushes, almost too easily, from Yoongi’s eyes watching him. The stare held inquisitive questions like he was trying to solve a riddle involving Jimin.

“Wh-why are you staring at me?” Jimin whispers. He was surprised by Yoongi’s boldness. His gaze didn’t falter even after his question. In fact, it only encouraged him to be bolder as Yoongi inches closer, his fingers lightly pinching Jimin’s chin.

“There’s something about you, kid,” Yoongi purses his lips in deep thought. “I don’t know what it is yet, but there’s this energy that pulls me to you.”

Jimin’s heart thumped against his ribcage as he tries to steady his breathing. The sight of Yoongi’s hooded eyes and pouting lips got him to gulp. He changed his mind right there and then; he’d use one of his wishes to relive this moment again and again, on a never-ending loop.

“Park Jimin,” Yoongi said, pronouncing each syllable painfully slow.

His voice was deeper than normal, sounding like gritty. It sent electrifying shivers down Jimin’s spine, making him giddy and jittery at the same time. The tension between them was so tight that Jimin couldn’t handle it anymore. His conscience was thrown out the window, the pedals’ down and his eyes were closed - this was it.

His heart stops as he captures Yoongi’s lips in his. They were cold and soft and wet all at the same time and all Jimin can do is sigh in satisfaction. He gently grasps Yoongi’s neck, rubbing it with the base of his thumb. Their lips move against each other at a rhythmic pace, savoring each other’s taste. A nostalgic feeling courses through their veins. It felt strange, but in a good way - like it wasn’t their first kiss. Jimin was on a high now and he wanted more. He shifts his weight, leg snaking around Yoongi’s waist as he straddles him.

“Ji-Jimin,” Yoongi whispers into the heated kisses while his hands entangle into Jimin’s fluffy pink hair. It was soft and silky, like how he had imagined it would be.

“Yoongi I - ah!”

A sudden shot of pain explodes in his chest as Jimin chokes back a cry. For a second, he thought he was electrocuted right in the heart. The sting seared like his chest was melted by lava as Jimin falls on his back, groaning in pain.

“Ah, fuck, what was that?!” Yoongi gasps.

Their heads sharply turned to face each other, realizing that they had both felt the pain at the same time. It was odd. Before they could internalize what had happened, they hear their names yelled out from the living room. It was followed by a thunder of knocks on their door.

“He’s awake! Hoseok’s awake.”

Jimin’s heart plummets down to his stomach as he sees Yoongi bolt out of the bed, leaving him to deal with the aching chest in the empty room. Seeing Yoongi run out after Hoseok made him feel like everything that happened between them just a minute ago never even existed. Jimin was sure the hurt and disappointment he felt were painted across his face. Now, he really wished that genies and magical lamps existed.

“Joon-ah, are you thirsty?” Jin asked. He kneeled beside the taller man with a hand on his shoulder. Namjoon had been stuck in the same position for almost an hour now as he works on healing Hoseok. “I can make you some tea.”

Namjoon’s eyes were closed and his eyebrows were stitched together with concentration. He simply shook his head and offered a small smile to Jin, grateful his partner cared for him.

Their relationship had been strained right before they came to Tokyo when the sensitive topic of Min Yoongi came up. Namjoon knew that what he did can never be forgiven by Jin. Yoongi had been Jin’s oldest friend - they were practically brothers. And as his significant other, all Namjoon ever did was to drive his friend away. The guilt still gnawed at him. Without losing focus, he telepathically sends a message to Jin, hoping that his partner would know how grateful Namjoon was to be loved by him.

As Jin stands up, he hears Namjoon’s voice, “Jin, baby, thank you for everything you have done. Please know that I always love you. I can’t imagine you not by my side.”

A smile dances on his lips as he once again looks over to his lover. Namjoon always knew how to warm his heart. Jin was about to bend over to plant a kiss on Namjoon’s forehead when a vision blinds him. He could feel his body being pulled into the tangents of time, limbs pulled in every direction when finally, he’s thrust into a world he was not familiar with. But the two faces he sees were Yoongi and Jimin.

The pair were donning robes that were the purest white Jin had ever seen. On their heads were crowns made of green vines and leaves and gold flowers entwined together. They were kneeling and facing each other on a big flat stone that floated in the middle of a pond. The water was crystal blue, so clear that Jin could see the school of fishes that swam by. Their linked hands were held together by a silk white ribbon tied around.

“On the coldest night, I’ll look for your glow among the burning embers of your fiery soul,” Jimin said with a smile. His eyes were watery, threatening to spill tears.

Then Yoongi replies, “And I’ll sift through the ashes in search of the spark that you ignited in my heart.”

Jin clutches his chest as he watches the two, still unsure what kind of vision it was. The passionate feeling of love was conspicuous as both Yoongi and Jimin recite, “O’ father of Neptune, bless your sons with an eternal love that will bind them forever.”

A cry of cheers roars from behind Jin as silver specks of dust fall over the pair. He wants to turn and see who those people were but he was glued to his position. At times, during his visions, he was only allowed to see a certain scene. And for this vision, he was meant to focus on Jimin and Yoongi. With their hands still tied by the ribbon, they lean forward, planting a soft kiss on the other’s lips. At that moment, Jimin’s robe curves forward, revealing his skin. Jin takes a closer look and sees a string of characters imprinted on the left side of Jimin’s chest, right above his heart.

“Those charact-”

Jin gasps in shock just as he was pulled out of the vision. The solemn scene of Jimin and Yoongi flies far away from him, dissolving back to the sight of Namjoon kneeling over Hoseok.

“Namjoon! I-”

Another gasp echoes in his ears, this time it wasn’t him. This time, it came from the man lying on the couch. Hoseok’s eyes flew open as he stumbles onto the floor. “Where am I?! Who the fuck are you people?”

Chapter Text

“Who the fuck are you people?” Hoseok hissed as his figure retreats back, away from Namjoon and Jin. He only stops when he feels the wall blocking him.

Namjoon slowly comes up to the shaking man with his palms wide open, gesturing that he wasn’t trying to harm him. “Calm down Hoseok, we’re friends of yours-”

Just when Namjoon had almost succeeded in calming Hoseok down, the front door bursts open and in came Jungkook and Taehyung. “I felt Hoseok-”

“Stay away!” he yells again, his focus now on the two boys. Hoseok’s eyes were wild, glancing at everyone in the room, worried that they one of them was going to capture him.

The two boys stumble backward, startled by his apprehensive words. They back away from Hoseok and stands behind Namjoon, afraid to unnecessarily frighten him. Both Taehyung and Namjoon had wanted to use their abilities to calm Hoseok down, but given his history with mind-control, they thought better of it. They didn’t need him to go into shock a second time around.

“Get Yoongi,” Namjoon urgently instructed Taehyung in a hushed voice. Then he looks at Jungkook. “If he tries anything dangerous,” Namjoon pauses, “Do it.”

Understanding his words, Jungkook nods warily. He didn’t like to use his fatal touch on another being, but when if it came down to it, Jungkook won’t hesitate. Fortunately, Yoongi came running out of the room before Hoseok was able to explode.

Sensing another presence in the room, Hoseok whips his head around to find his past lover calling out to him. It was a sudden appearance like he had traveled back in time. But being surrounded by unfamiliar faces, he’d rather stick to him. “Yoongi!” Hoseok choked out as he ran to him. “Why am I here? What ha-happened? Th-the last thing I remembered was...was...I was walking down the street when I felt something sharp on my neck...and I fell asleep and….I-”

For a moment, Yoongi stood frozen. The man before him wasn’t Jung Hoseok, he was different. His jaws were more prominent, his nose was longer and his eyes were crescent-shaped instead of almond. To see the stark contrast of the man rambling to him threw him off.

But seeing Hoseok frazzled out of his mind, red eyes and shivering, was like a stab to Yoongi’s heart. He pushes aside the initial shock and gently grabs Hoseok’s head, placing both palms around his jaws to stop him from moving. “I need you to calm down okay? Just breathe,” he whispers as he looks him deep in the eyes. “In and out, take a deep breath.”

“Good,” Yoongi praises Hoseok once he followed his directions. “We’re going to explain to you what happened. But first, you need to tell me if you’re feeling okay.”

The five other boys stood around the room, witnessing the moment between Yoongi and Hoseok. They watch how the boys flowed so easily around each other, how Yoongi knew what to do and say and how Hoseok instantly clung to every one of Yoongi’s words like he was under a spell. Hoseok nods slowly, keeping his eyes trained on Yoongi’s.

As the older boy brought Hoseok to sit on the couch, Taehyung started feeling a prickly sensation at the back of his head - like needles poking all his nerves. It was gone just as fast as it came but soon replaced by a wave of melancholy. He could feel his heartstrings being sliced up painfully slow. Taehyung looked around the room to discover that the source of these emotions came from the pink-haired boy standing in the back corner. Jimin stood quietly with his lips pursed, arms tucked in, eyes hastily gazing over to Yoongi and Hoseok on the couch. Then it struck him.

Taehyung sighs and shakes his head as he casts a glance over at Yoongi. As much as he respected his friend, Yoongi can be an idiot sometimes. He could feel the tug-of-war his feelings are playing in Yoongi’s heart. Jimin versus Hoseok, a raging war of confusion in his heart and mind. After all these years, Yoongi was afraid to admit it that deep down, he still held lingering feelings for Hoseok. Yet, an irresistible love was blooming for Jimin.

Hoseok groans as he slouches on the couch, his hands buried in his hair as he struggles to regain his memory. “Mmm...the last thing I remember, I was walking down the streets of Gangnam District in Seoul when I felt a pinch on my neck. After that, I blacked out. Next thing I know, I woke up and...here I am.”

“You were drugged-”

“You were in Seoul?” Yoongi spoke up, interrupting Namjoon’s words. He had his eyes locked on Hoseok, a hand unconsciously tangled in Hoseok’s.

“Yeah I uh, recently moved. Like a month ago,” Hoseok chuckled nervously as he wrings his hands together. “Business was running low in Denmark and Seoul was an upcoming city so I - you know what let’s just skip that part.”

Hoseok was a con man, and he was a good one. Way back in the 20’s he joined a group of men that specialized in pick-pocketing. It may sound like a trivial thing to do but you needed to learn the tricks and skills when it came to pick-pocketing in order not to get caught. The group would usually target large crowds like parades, festivals or carnivals - easier to knick small items. By the end of the night, each member would showcase their loot of the day and then sell it at a high price to gullible customers in a different town.

The business revolutionaries over the years, becoming something bigger than just pick-pocketing. He was gunning for the big boys now - rural artifacts, paintings lost during wars, rare diamonds. As illegal as it was, Hoseok still stuck to it, making progress in expanding his business to international waters. With his ability to morph, it was a breeze. He could walk into a museum, steal an artifact and walk out unnoticed - a legend amongst the sea of con men.

His business gifted him with fortunes and he was proud of his “career” but that doesn’t mean that he would outrightly speak about it in front of Yoongi. Last he remembered, his con man status was what drove a wedge between their relationship. He noticed Yoongi’s shift in expression and quickly changed the topic.

“Well, where am I right now? Still in Seoul?” he asked while looking around the room, surveying if he was in a threatening situation. Yoongi may be here but he could never be too sure. He took in every unfamiliar character in the room - 5 in total.

“We’re in my apartment in Roppongi, Tokyo,” Yoongi enlightened him.

Hoseok distractedly nodded as he assessed the other 5 in the room. Being observant and analytical was something that came in naturally as a con man. His eyes fall on the tall and tan man that sat on the coffee table facing him. He had his arms propped up on his thighs and his hands tucked under his chin, looking concerned. Harmless, Hoseok decided.

Sat adjacent to him was a broad-shouldered guy with soft brown hair falling over his eyes. The man was busy biting the nail on his thumb and had a crease on his forehead like he was trying to figure something out. His eyes flicker over to Hoseok for a brief second and immediately gave a small polite smile before going back to the puzzle in his head. Whatever he was fretting about, it had nothing to do with him so Hoseok moved on.

He looks over at the strange boy who had one brown eye and the other, an icy grey. He was a lean and brawny boy and was munching on an apple. He had his arms crossed and was standing, slightly covering a smaller figure behind him. His jaws were locked and he was staring straight at Hoseok. Hostile, he could sense it, but not personal. The boy carried that aura with him everywhere, including the protective vibe. Protective over who?

Hoseok’s eyes trail over to the boy that was hidden behind him. His stature was the opposite - arms hugging his own body, chewing on his lips, eyes fleeting around the room. But in an instant, he makes eye contact with Hoseok like he knew what he was doing. Somehow the boy’s gaze was chilling, piercing straight through Hoseok. Shivering, he tears his eyes away and finally looks over to the last face.

This one intrigued him. The boy had bright pink hair slicked to the side, loud clothes and a million piercings on his ears - the confidence in him was overflowing. But at the same time, Hoseok could see the vulnerability in him as he hides away in the corner, far away from everyone. The boy’s eyes would play ping pong between Yoongi and Hoseok before looking back down to his shoes. A faint blush was visible on his cheeks but he had a pout on his plump lips. Hoseok cocks his head as he tries to hide the smirk when he connected the dots. It didn’t surprise him that Yoongi has been stealing hearts since the 40s. He guesses that the two had something going on - which disappointed him more than he liked.

Before anyone notices his silence, he focuses back on the conversation at hand. “And...do you know what happened to me after I blacked out…? I thought it had to do with my business but then...why would you guys be here?”

“Right, about that,” Namjoon huffs as he starts sharing their side of the story. He dives straight into the important details, trying to cut away any unnecessary disputes the group had - mainly the fight he had with Yoongi. If he pulled on that loose end of the thread, it would unravel things that dated way back to when Hoseok was still with Yoongi.

“Fuck,” Hoseok breathed out with a hint of disbelief. “That’s a lot to take in and I need some time to uh...get used this whole god legend crap.” There was so much going on to the point where it was overwhelming for him.

“It’s not crap,” Jimin suddenly said sharply without looking at Hoseok. Namjoon, Yoongi, Taehyung, and Jungkook didn’t go through all that trouble to bring back someone who would diss on the legend like that.

“I’m sorry,” Hoseok spoke back with sarcasm, raising his voice just a little. He could see that it got everyone tense. “You have to excuse me if I can’t wrap my head around some legend that supposedly explains why we’re the only ones with powers. I’m not gullible enough to trust the words of strangers. Especially when it comes to bullshit like this.”

“You’re not gullible, so you prey on the people who are and con them out of their money. Yeah, I call that bullshit,” Jimin spit out with a frown. He had stepped out from the corner and was staring down at Hoseok.

The older boy quickly stands up to retort back when Yoongi pulls him back. “Okay, stop. This is ridiculous. We’re fighting over things that don’t matter now.” He said the last sentence while staring at Jimin.

They held gazes for a while, sharing a stream of disappointment, hurt and distrust. Jimin’s fists were balled up and strained beside him as he grits his teeth. He couldn’t believe that in a matter of minutes, Yoongi could change as if he didn’t just invite Jimin to his bed and made out with him furiously. Now that his past lover was on his couch, he has completely thrown Jimin aside.

“Come on,” Yoongi said to Hoseok as he tugged at his arm. “We’ll go outside and sort some shit out.” The pair brushes past Jimin and headed out of the apartment.

Jimin’s fist was buzzing, his shoulders were tensing and his eyes were watering. His bold and impulsive personality not only shined when he was happy, it also inflamed when he was furious. He dashes for the door, ready to pounce on Hoseok but was frozen just as his fingertips touch the doorknob.

“Jimin, don’t do it,” a voice said in his ears. The person runs his hand from his shoulders, along his arm and down to the tips of his finger. Every inch of skin the person touched instantly soothed like a rush of cold water dosing off the fire in his body. It was Taehyung, Jimin realized as the boy looks him in the eyes.

“It’s not worth it, trust me.” The way Taehyung had said it sounded like he knew Jimin’s reasons. Realising that he probably did, Jimin averts his eyes away, embarrassed that he was exposed. Desperate to get out of the uncomfortable situation, he gave a small nod and was released from the frozen state.

“I had a vision.”

The 4 of them left in the room turn their heads to see Jin still in his seat, this time not looking lost in his thoughts.

“The vision might not be in favor of the recent circumstances,” he warned. That got everyone interested. Each of them huddled around the man, eager to know what the mysterious vision was about.

Namjoon slides across the coffee table to face his partner. “How so?” he asks cautiously with furrowed brows.

Jin looks over at the pink-haired boy, soon followed by the others. “It was a vision of Jimin and Yoongi...and it was a pretty intimate one,” he confessed.

The second they step foot out of the apartment, Hoseok and Yoongi teleported down to the rooftop of a cafe. As soon as the felt solid ground beneath them, they gravitated away from each other.

“Nice, rooftop huh?” Hoseok chuckled. “So that I can’t run away like last time?” It was meant to relieve the tension but in a way, it brought back a snippet of the past that they both weren’t ready to face.

Yoongi bitterly laughed it off but kept his head down. He didn’t know where to start. Never in a million years did he think he’d be stuck on a rooftop with his past lover; especially not when they had a ton of history and complications stuck between them. It did help a little that Hoseok didn’t look like Hoseok.

“Is that how you normally look?” Yoongi asked. “I mean like...without the morphing and shit.”

The question had caught Hoseok off guard. He had completely forgotten about his natural face and how Yoongi was used to the 1940’s Hoseok. “Is it that much of a disappointment?” he joked.

“I can get used to it.”

Hoseok walks to the edge of the roof and stands on the sill, looking down at the cars that drove past and the people strutting down the street. So many lives intertwining with each other without them knowing.

He spotted an elderly woman, greying and shaking, crossing the road. A young couple jogs up to her, offering to carry the bags of groceries in her hands. She hesitantly agrees and they stroll down the road. As they reach the curb, the boy had caught his foot in a pothole, tripping over as two oranges to fall out of the bag. They roll a few steps and stops at the feet of a beggar. The shirtless man had a little girl sitting on his lap with a cup in her hand. The beggar picked up the oranges, ready to hand it over. But the old lady refused, saying that it was God's blessing to them. Touched, the beggar got on his knees and bowed, thanking her for her generosity. They left as he started to peel the orange, feeding it to the little girl first. The oranges must have tasted so sweet because she started jumping up and down with pure bliss.

Now, the one thing that all these people shared was selflessness - something he lacked off. In his business, the culture was to be selfish and greedy, as much as possible in order to gain the most profit. So much so that he got accustomed to it. A part of him was ashamed, thinking when did he change.

“I was being stupid, I’m sorry,” he apologized. He felt Yoongi coming up beside him and takes a peek at the older boy. Still as perfect as ever.

“You kind of were.”

“That pink haired boy did jump on me out of the blue,” he said briskly, a little miffed that Yoongi hadn’t sided with him.

“He was being stupid too.”

Hoseok rolls his eyes at the short replies. From having known Yoongi for a few years, this was his way of saying “I have something on my mind, but at the same time I don’t”. Up to the day he left, he still hadn’t had the chance to figure that complex part of Yoongi.

“He was being stupid because he likes you,” Hoseok put it out, expecting some sort of reaction from Yoongi.

Calmly, the other boy replies, “How about you? Were you being stupid because you like me too?”

The brazen question got Hoseok holding his breath. Were they really about to rekindle their past? Truthfully, he wasn’t sure of how he felt, deciding to coin it as feeling ambivalent. On one hand, the brief years they spent together were special to him because Yoongi was his first love. They always say that first loves never fade away. But on the other hand, it’s been decades since they’ve seen each other, making them feel like estranged strangers.

“I don’t know,” he sighs, stuffing his hands in the pocket of his pants. “In case you haven’t noticed, it’s been a complicated day. I haven’t had much time to sit down with a cup of coffee and mull over our relationship.”

A heartbeat passes by with silence before Yoongi revealed, “Well, I have.”

Hoseok turns to face the shorter boy and nudges for him to do the same. They see eye to eye, and with the heart-wrenching truth so clear in Yoongi’s eyes, his heart couldn’t help but plummet down to his stomach. He has lost Yoongi.

“There’s a strong connection between me and Jimin, like an energy pulling us together” Yoongi confessed with a stoic expression. “I don’t know what it is but I’ve never felt it with...anyone before.”

Hoseok nods, slowly understanding that by “anyone” Yoongi meant him. He backs away from the edge, jumping down from the sill. Ambivalence did him no good because it only left him even more bitter hearing that he was one up by the pink haired boy.

“I just wanted to get that out of the way, I hope you don’t mind,” Yoongi said.

The older boy had always been serene when it came to handling problems. He’d get frazzled on the inside but was always good at putting up a poker face. That way, nobody knew how he truly felt. He had once told Yoongi that it was unhealthy to keep it all in and that it would lead to misunderstandings. All he got was a shrug and a pat on the back before the topic was completely dismissed.

“I completely understand,” Hoseok lied, putting up a smile, not wanting to complicate things with his uncertain feelings. He can be an ass sometimes but he wasn’t about to interfere with someone else’s love life. “So…” he trailed on, not sure how to start this conversation. “We’re gods huh?’

He sighs in relief when he finally sees the gummy smile. “I know, it sounds absurd. I was the same at first.”

“Realists, am I right?” Hoseok chuckles. It was the one thing that had bonded them when they first met.

“But I’ve known Namjoon for a long time and I trust his word. And Jin, he saw the vision of the seven gods. So it can’t be merely coincidental that his vision and Namjoon’s research sort of lineup,” Yoongi explains.

To hear that he was somehow part of this Neptune’s legend and that he was a god was kind of a stretch to him. None of it made complete sense and logic. But then again, why was it that they were the only seven people to have abilities? Hoseok pulled up his sleeve to reveal the trident mark on his inner wrist. He never knew where it came from and what meaning it had. It was the first time in years that he had seen in light up. The blue sheen the symbol did look...magical.

“I guess, I’ll trust your word then,” Hoseok finally conceded. “At the end of the day, the only way to convince a realist is to prove them wrong.”

“So you’ll willingly participate with this whole shenanigan?” Yoongi asked, looking hopeful that he was on board.

“Oh, so you can call it shenanigan and I can’t call it crap?” he mused, teasing the other boy.

He was sure that Yoongi would have a witty reply - back on the 40’s he was always looking forward to those remarks because it cracked him up. And he wasn’t disappointed to hear it.

“Hey, just because I go along with it, doesn’t mean I’m 100% sold on the idea,” Yoongi verified his stand. “And unlike you, I’m smart enough to say it when they’re out of earshot.”

The ice was finally broken between them as they swing back to their normal banter. It warmed Hoseok’s heart to have Yoongi back in his life again. The past decades had been quite lonely; none of his casual hookups had been satisfying enough.

“So does this mean I have to apologize to Pink Piercings?”

“Pink...Piercings?” Yoongi queried with intrigue as he lifts his brow. It was the first time he’s heard that nickname.

“Ah...your new baby boy,” Hoseok chuckled with a smirk. “Pink hair, a million piercings. He’s head over heels for you.” He had to admit, the nickname only came from the pinch of jealousy he felt.

“His name is Jimin, first of all,” the older boy corrected him as he rolls his eyes. “Second, please don’t call him baby boy. And third, yes, please do apologize to him. Come on, I’ll teleport us back.”

Yoongi holds on to Hoseok, teleporting them off the roof and to the front door of his tiny apartment. They were ready to join the group when they realized that something was off. Yoongi’s front door was swung wide open, with bullet holes decorating it.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Yoongi stammered as he pushes through the door, only to find a pile of bodies strewn across his apartment.

With shaky feet, he checks every inch of space in the apartment, calling out all the names he remembers. None of them responded, meeting his yells with silence. The worst possible outcomes ran through his head as he starts to frantically pull the bodies, trying to see if any of them were familiar. After going moving the 10th face, he was relieved to find that none of them belonged to his friends.

“What the fuck happened?” Hoseok choked out as he stumbles on an arm of a person.

The two boys stood clueless, shocked in the middle of the apartment, surrounded by dead bodies. Yoongi bends down and rolls a body over, examining the logo printed on the person’s chest. It said “Aogashima Research Lab”.

“Aogashima,” Yoongi repeated in alarm when it clicked to him. “It’s the same fucking people who took you.”

Chapter Text

Yoongi’s entire apartment looked like it came out of a gory horror movie - blood splatters decorated every inch of the walls, bullet holes littered the furniture, bodies of men laid heavy on the floor. But the bodies of the men, they were mangled and burnt, something Yoongi found to be very disturbing. It almost didn’t look humane and he could guess they weren't killed by mere bullet wounds. This was the work of something paranormal. Which means that his friends - if he could call them that - managed to put up a fight and possibly escaped.

“Aogashima Research Lab,” Hoseok read out loud from the logo of a dead agent. The words research and lab put together made his stomach queasy. “These people… they took me because they were going to… experiment on me?”

Yoongi kicks aside a gun as he walks back to Hoseok, sending it sliding into a pool of blood. “That’s what we are to assume,” he says. “I don’t know how they found about you being a metahuman though. Did you ever use your abilities in the open?”

“Fuck,” Hoseok sighs as he runs a hand over his face. He stands up and lets out a groan into his hands. “All the time,” he regretfully admits.

His morphing abilities were what got him coined as a legend in the first place. It was so useful that it became a habit of his to morph out in the open, though he does it as discreetly as possible. Usually, it was behind alleyways or when he had his face covered with a cap. It never occurred to him that a whole organization would have eyes on him, tracking wherever he went and then end up capturing him for experimental purposes.

“You idiot,” Yoongi huffed, shaking his head in disappointment. “They probably tracked you down here. And there’s high chance that these people know about the rest.”

Hoseok has never been the type to sit down and think about the consequences of his actions. In his world, there was no such thing as getting caught because he’s escaped far too often to ever believe he was vulnerable to defeat.

“I’m sorry, okay?” Hoseok apologizes with a gulp. “I got too caught up in the highs of criminal life that I completely paid no attention to this kind of shit.”

It was true, he assimilated so well into the criminal world where conning people came in naturally that getting into a situation like this never transpired whenever he thought of the ways he was going to die. The list usually involved getting kidnapped by one of the mobs and having his head chopped off.

Suddenly, they hear sirens wailing, getting louder as they neared the building. Yoongi flashes to the window and gingerly lifts away the thin curtain. He could see about 5 police cars screeching to a halt right outside of his apartment. One of his neighbors must’ve called the police when they heard the gunshots.

“We should get out of this place,” Yoongi murmurs. He flashes back to Hoseok and holds out his hand for the younger man to take. The second their skin came to contact, Yoongi transports them out of the bloody murder scene and into the streets of Tokyo.

He figured that blending in with the busy crowd was the safest decision at the moment. The two made their way around the crowd, walking at a fast pace while keeping their heads ducked. Hoseok walks up to a street vendor with a big smile on his face. He greets the old lady and chatted her up in fluent Japanese while his hands sneakily grabbed two caps off the rack. Their short conversation ended and he spins around, hiding the two caps in front of him.

Handing one to Yoongi, he asks, “Where are we headed to now?”

Yoongi tries his best to bite his tongue back about the stolen good and tucks his hair under the cap instead. Right now, the only thing he has in mind was how to get back in touch with the rest of the group. They could be anywhere in Tokyo and he needed to make sure Jimin was safe.

“We have to find the rest. Namjoon needs to take a look at you, see if there’s a tracker hidden. Neither one of us is safe if you have it in you.” Yoongi remarked, keeping his main intentions hidden.

“Well, how the fuck do we find them?”

“I had a vision of Jimin and Yoongi… and it was a pretty intimate one,” Jin confesses. He bites his bottom lip and takes a cautious peek of Jimin and soon, everybody else followed. By then, the pink haired boy had a faint blush on his cheeks.

“Intimate how?” Jimin asks, feeling a little embarrassed. He may be thick-skinned with a lot of things, but knowing that someone whom he barely knows more than a week saw an “intimate” vision of him and Yoongi was unsettling. “It uh… wasn’t anything recent was it?”

“No, no! God, don’t worry,” Jin quickly declined, catching on to the younger boy’s uncomfortable demeanor. Whatever recent thing happened between him and Yoongi must’ve been very private.

Relief washed over Jimin’s body as he settles on the couch. He was praying hard that the vision Jin meant wasn’t of him and Yoongi furiously making out in his room. He would be thoroughly mortified if Jin had to share that image with the rest of the group.

“Well, what is it then?” Jungkook asked as he leans on the arm of the couch.

Licking his lips, Jin tried his best to explain the vision as he saw it. He knew that Namjoon and Taehyung could easily access his head to see it with their own eyes, so his story was mostly directed to Jungkook and Jimin.

“I’m not exactly sure when it happens, if it’s in the near future or if it’s in 10 years time but it has a strange feeling to it. I can’t exactly put my finger on it. It’s like I’m watching it for the first time but at the same time I’m not?”

“Like an old memory resurfaced, you mean?” Jungkook asked, his brows were knitted together as he tries to grasp the feeling.

Used to being the only one that couldn’t see Jin’s visions as he saw it, Jungkook had years of practice to create an alternate vision of his own. While Namjoon and Taehyung sit quietly watching Jin’s vision unravel, he has to clamber onto every word to be able to fabricate a copy of it.

“Yes, exactly,” Jin agrees as he continues. “Which I find it to be odd because as far as I know, Yoongi and Jimin haven’t met before this, have you?”

Jimin shakes his head, saying that it was only last week when he first saw Yoongi. He shared a brief story of the fiasco that brought them together. But like Jin said, they’ve never met before that so the way Jin felt while watching the vision was puzzling to them. Even Namjoon and Taehyung nodded, agreeing that they felt the same thing when they watched Jin’s vision.

“This vision, it wanted me to focus on both you and Yoongi,” Jin explained to Jimin. “So I couldn’t really see anyone else in the scene even when I felt that there were. It was like a wedding ceremony if you will. You and Yoongi were saying an oath, almost like a wedding vow.”

Jin closes his eyes and takes a deep breath as he tries to recall the feeling he felt when he saw the two together. “I felt yearning, devotion, love, and joy all swelling together. It was a celebration focused on the two of you, that I’m sure. And then when you guys leaned in to kiss, I noticed a mark on your chest just above your heart. The characters imprinted on your skin was familiar to me, but before I could take a closer look, I was pulled back out. And the vision just ended there.”

His eyes fluttered open and were he faced with four pairs of eyes staring back at him with intensity. Namjoon’s hand immediately flies to the left side of his chest as he throws a questioning gaze at Jin.

“It’s the same characters, like the ones we have,” Namjoon revealed, acknowledging the mark he saw on Jimin’s chest through Jin’s vision. He unbuttons his shirt and slides it off to show the rest.

The three younger boys leaned in close to take a look for themselves. Namjoon’s black characters were tattooed across the left side of his chest, melting into his tan skin. There were about eight characters, each looking completely different from the other. Each character was made of slashes and dots of varying designs, creating a language that was unbeknown to any of them.

“Jin has it too but it’s completely different from mine,” Namjoon pointed out and the older man nodded. “We got it when we first kissed. It felt like I got burnt by-”

“A branding iron,” Jimin suddenly piped up, finishing his sentence. All eyes were on him again. The realization hit him when he recalled the searing pain he felt after kissing Yoongi. Quickly taking off the sweater he had on, he peers down to his chest to find a tattooed mark on his pale skin.

“That’s exactly what I saw in the vision!” Jin exclaimed with wide eyes.

Jimin had shivers running down his back. Ever since he met with Yoongi, there were so many strange things happening to him. First, there was that energy that he felt whenever he was around the older boy - like subtle jolts of electricity. Then the burning in his chest, which turned out to be a branding of a mark that Jin saw in his vision. A vision that got Jimin’s mouth hung wide open. Him and Yoongi in a wedding ceremony, uttering vows? It was almost too surreal to believe.

“I-I kissed Yoongi just before Hoseok woke up and that was when we both felt the pain in our chests. Taehyung banged on the door before we could make sense of what happened,” Jimin informed them, his fingers gently grazing his marked skin.

“Do you know what it means?” Taehyung asked. His eyes shifted from Jimin’s chest to Namjoon as the pink-haired boy shrugged on his sweater.

“No idea,” Namjoon confesses. For decades, the imprinted tattoos on both his and Jin’s chest was a puzzle that left him baffled. The second he got the mark, he sourced out every book on languages, trying to find what the characters meant. But his research was to no avail, failing to figure out what language it was. He had compared it to everything known to man, from Sanskrit to the ancient Mayan language. None of them fit the tattooed mark.

“But your visions usually come with a reason,” Jungkook observed. “So what’s the one behind this?”

That was exactly the question that nagged at him since he had the vision. He had been mulling over why it came when it did while everyone was busy fussing over Hoseok. The way Jin’s visions work is that it comes whenever something needed to be known, be it a warning or an explanation. So when he saw Jimin and Yoongi, it left him rather confounded.

Was there anything that needed to be told? Why had he been shown the mark on Jimin’s chest exactly when both he and Yoongi got it? And why did the vision’s scene included the ceremony?

“I was hoping you could figure this one out,” Jin told his partner with a shrug.

Namjoon hums as he gnaws on his lips. He had a habit of tracing his jaw with the tips of his nails while he was in deep thought. Jin could see his pupils fleeting in random directions - a sign that showed the cranks in his brain were moving.

He finally sighs, cocking his head as he gave a shot in the dark. “It’s possible that the vision was a manifestation of the tension between Yoongi and Jimin. It probably didn’t help that Yoongi’s past lover was here too. Think of it as your hormones going crazy. Probably conjured the vision to possibly make it clear that…the two belong together?”

“Your wild guesses makes too much sense to sometimes be a wild guess,” Jungkook snorted, teasing him because as always, Namjoon seemed to be banking the right answers.

Namjoon shrugs, “It’s just a guess. We still don’t know what the characters mean. For all we know, if Jungkook and Taehyung kissed each other, you guys might get it too.”

Jungkook chuckles and shakes his head. “Nah, he’s like a brother to me.” He looks over to the older boy, who was curled up in the far corner of the couch. Taehyung had been quiet the entire time save for that one question. Jungkook calls him out, feeling a little concerned about the boy’s behavior when he kept staring out into space.

But Taehyung couldn’t hear him. His basic senses were cut off when he felt a shift in energy. Prickly sensations crawled up his arms as his heartbeat started to waver in anticipation. There was something wrong, he could feel the uneasiness and the disturbance in the air.

From the far corner, he could hear the drumming of footsteps running up the steps of the apartment building. They were heavy and hasty and sounding too coordinated like the marching of a battalion. Taehyung’s heart dropped to the pit of his stomach when he realizes that they were pounding towards them.

Taehyung jumps out of his trance and yelled for them to back away from the door, just as a rain of bullets fell on them. Splinters of wood flew into the room as the door got demolished by the metal bullets. The noise of the repetitive gunshots split their ears, disorientating their senses as they scrambled to huddle on the floor with their hands covering their head.

From his position on the floor, Taehyung had a perfect view of the broken door. It flies open and he could see about two dozen pairs of feet clustered right outside. Then a cylindrical grenade was thrown, it falls with a thud and rolls to the edge of the small sofa where Jin was.

“Smoke bomb!” he shrieks as he extends his arm, palms wide open. He uses his telekinesis to push the grenade away. Jin swiftly crawls over to Namjoon just as the smoke bomb goes off by the entrance, emitting thick white smoke all over the apartment.

The explosion was deafening, making their ears ring painfully. As they tried to get their bearings, the two dozen agents stomped in, yelling at them to stay on the floor. Their guns were raised and pointed, threatening to put a bullet in their head if they moved.

While the agents were surrounding them, Jimin’s eyes fleeted around, trying to gauge how many people he could take out. It wasn’t his first time getting into a physical fight with someone. And with his abilities, he always won because he had the upper hand. But this time, he had to be careful. After planning out his moves, his eyes fall on Namjoon, who had been watching him with a frown. The older boy shakes his head, having read Jimin’s mind.

But it was no use. Jimin was already on his feet, bolting from agent to agent. The speed he was in, left the people around him moving so slow that it looked like they were still statues. He went around the room, disarming each of the agents and throwing the guns out of the window. The guns hanged in the air, crashing through the glass pane in slow motion.

Finished with the agents in the room in a second, he dashes out of the apartment and notices another group of them coming up the stairs. He was about to approach them when out of the blue, he feels a bite on his neck. It digs into his skin like a burning fork, sending electric shocks through his entire body. Jimin chokes out a strangled cry as he was brought to his knees, his entire body spazzing from the scorching electricity.

“Get him to the van. The rest of you, inside! The lab needs them breathing so don’t fucking kill them.”

The shots of electric stops, rendering him to stay still on the floor. His heart and lungs felt like they were compressed when he tried to breathe. He felt strong hands wrapping themselves around his ankles, dragging him away.

The second Jungkook realizes that Jimin had disarmed the agents, he stands up and immediately gets to work. Able to use his bare hands freely, he doesn’t hesitate to touch any skin that was left open. He skillfully blocks the punches of an agent and grabs onto his arm. Jungkook twists it around his back and chokes the agent, squeezing it harder as he feels the life getting sucked out of him.

“Fuck! They got Jimin,” Namjoon muttered to Jin. He was had half his body above Jin, covering him from any stray bullets. Deciding to take matters into his own hands, Namjoon uses his telepathy to hijack one of the agents. Once he easily accessed the man’s mind, he controlled his movements.

Possessed by Namjoon’s demands, the agent blindly raises his gun and shoots down his team by the stairwell. The man who got ahold of Jimin falls back against the wall by the heavy pressure of bullets raining down on him. Namjoon controlled for the agent to run into the apartment, creating a barrier for him and Jin to run out.

They fall on their knees when they got to Jimin. The pink haired boy out cold and was covered in splatters of blood. Namjoon quickly brought his fingers to the boy’s temples, willing for Jimin’s conscience to come back. A stream of electricity runs through his veins, prickling his nerves as he heals Jimin.

The younger boy wakes up with a gasp, his eyes opening wide. Jimin shoots up from the floor and noticed that his fingers were spastic, still jittery from the electrocution.

“Jimin! Jimin, are you listening?” Namjoon asked as he grabs hold of the boy’s face.

Jimin had to shake his head to get his hearing right, blinking the hazy spots away. He nods as soon as his vision clears and the echo goes away.

“I need you to get Jin out of here, do you understand? As far as possible. Then come back to get the rest of us,” Namjoon instructed him as he thrusts Jin’s hand into Jimin’s. “There’s going to be more. Now, go!”

Jimin scrambles to his feet and places a hand on Jin’s neck to keep in place when he runs. He uses his free hand to hold onto Jin’s arm and then in a split second, they vanish from Namjoon’s sight. He sighs in relief, knowing that his partner was going to be safe. But makes the mistake of standing up because as soon as he does, he feels a sharp pain tearing through his shoulder.

He falls forward, catching himself on the pile of dead agents lying on the floor. His left shoulder felt heavy to move, and whenever he did his muscles felt like they burning. He was sure he was shot as soon as he a cries in pain when his finger touched the wound.

“Ah, fuck,” he mumbles to himself as he shifts his body, grunting when his back hits the wall. He could feel the blood draining out of him, running down his back, wet and hot.

Back in the apartment, Taehyung and Jungkook had been fending off the leftover agents. While Jungkook had to put in physical effort into fighting off the agents, Taehyung stood in the corner, hands moving in an orchestrated manner like a conductor. With a wave of a hand, he has an agent flying across the room and crashing against the kitchen cupboards.

His defenses were less violent than Jungkook, only because he knew if he got carried away, everyone in the entire building would be in danger. So he lets the head snapping and the bones cracking to Jungkook. Taehyung works his way to the middle of the room, finishing off the agent by flinging him up onto the wall and letting his limp body drop on the floor.

Then he hears a gunshot, clear as day ringing in the air. His eyes immediately land on the agent standing by the entrance of the door. He had his shotgun out, aimed at Namjoon. Taehyung could see the bullet wound on Namjoon’s shoulder as the older boy fell forward. That was when he snapped, letting the rage in him take over.

Fire coursed through his veins as he lifted up the agent. He yells out in horror when he realizes he was hanging in the air. The gun in his hand drops and clatters on the floor. Fury bubbled behind Taehyung’s eyes as he crushes the agent with all his force. He chucks the mangled body away just as he sees Jimin appearing from thin air. The pink haired boy kneeled over Namjoon’s bleeding body.

“Get him out quick!” Taehyung yelled out.

Just as quick as he arrived, Jimin disappeared again, this time along with Namjoon. That was when another wave of agents came storming up the stairs, bulldozing into the apartment. Taehyung immediately steps back and feels Jungkook’s body behind him. They were surrounded by at least 30 guns pointing at them.

Now that the agents had guns, Jungkook was more hesitant to move. Their only savior right now was Taehyung. The room falls silent with the agents’ eyes trained on the duo. With their backs against each other, they could the other’s breathing, heavy and panting.

“Kookie, I’m going to let it out,” Taehyung murmurs, hinting that he was about to use the maximum of his abilities. But if he was going to do it, he needed Jungkook out of his range. The force was going to be strong and deadly and he wasn’t about to get his best friend caught in it.

A movement from outside the apartment catches his eyes. He glances to the right, making sure to keep his movement subtle, and sees Jimin slowly creeping up behind the door.

“You two!” one of the agents barked as he took a step closer. “Put your hands up and get down on your knees! Right now!”

Following the order, they slowly raised their hands up. “Kookie,” Taehyung whispers, keeping his eyes on the man who was carefully approaching them. “In the count of three, I’m going to throw you out of the apartment.”

“What?!” Jungkook croaked out in a hushed voice as they sink down to the floor, their knees hitting the bloody wooden door.

“Jimin’s waiting for you over there and he’s going to take you to Jin and Namjoon,” Taehyung said, disclosing his plan. “I’ll take care of the rest of them.”

“No! I am not leaving you here!” Jungkook insisted. He was immediately whacked across the temple as an agent yelled him to shut up. Jungkook groans in pain as his hand clutches the wound on his head.

Hearing the distinct cracking of bones when Jungkook was hit, Taehyung’s whole body goes rigid. He greeted his teeth as his fists close into a tight clench. Violence has never been his favorite, but when he sees two of his friends getting hurt for no reason, rage consumed him.

“You’re going, so brace yourself,” Taehyung seethed in an icy tone. His face was stoic as he counted down.

“3,

2,

1.”

Taehyung spins around, using one hand to fling the agents away, clearing a path for him to throw Jungkook. In the same motion, he uses his other hand to carry Jungkook up in the air and catapult the younger boy out of the room. He made sure to aim for the dead bodies by the stairwell so Jungkook had a cushion to land on.

He quickly stands up and forces the door to slam shut. Then, he opens Pandora's box, his eyes turning pitch black as he releases the fire in him. This has only happened to him once before, decades ago when he was first learning how to control his powers. The thing about his abilities is that it’s like sparks of fireworks, bursting out of his physical state.

So when he first tried to compress everything in without training, it had ended up with bolts of fire shooting out of his form while he subconsciously ripped out the gravitational force of the earth around him. The warehouse around him collapsed and burnt to the ground with him standing in the middle of it all.

The only thing he remembered from that was seeing red and then blacking out. It felt like his entire body was possessed by his own abilities. Next thing he knew, he woke up in a stranger’s house, sweating with aching bones. That was when he met Jin and Namjoon, who had seen a vision of him exploding into flames.

For the first time in decades, Taehyung lets the turmoil brewing in him rip out of his throat. He sees red as he rams through the bodies of the agents, repeatedly hitting them against the wall until he sees blood. Every time an agent comes close, Taehyung sends them flying across the room.

The agents shriek out to shoot him down so he raises his hand, stopping all the bullets midair. They stopped shooting when they see that all their ammo were frozen. A devilish smile creeps on Taehyung’s lips as he turns his open palms, controlling the little bullets to change their direction. They were now facing the agents, ready to be fired back.

The agents scrambled to find a hiding spot when Taehyung pushes out his hands, releasing the bullets. He was satisfied when he sees it piercing through the bodies. The surviving agents crawled around, trying to get out of the horror house. One by one, Taehyung picks them up with a wave of his hand. He lifts them into the air and watches them disintegrate into ashes.

Reaching the last survivor, he grabs him by the neck and holds him in the air. The agent spewed out pleas for mercy as he tried to struggle out of his grasp.

“How did you find us? And why are you trying to capture us?” Taehyung asks through his clenched jaws. He swings around and shoves the agent against the wall. “Tell me!”

“I don’t know!” the agent choked out, his voice cracking. “I swear, I-I don’t know!”

Taehyung tightens his grip on the neck, forcing the agent to confess. “F-fuck! Our leader! He was given the coordinates of this apartment and wa-was told to take everybody in. Alive! Or we won’t get paid.”

“Who hired you?”

“A-Aogashima Research Lab!” the agent yelped. The veins in his temples and neck were blue and popping out.

Pleased with the information he acquired, Taehyung brings the man down. He turns the agent around and snaps his head, the crack of the bones echoing in the silent apartment. The lifeless body falls to the ground, blending in with the others.

Taehyung’s head whips to his left when he hears a creak on the floor. Instead of an agent, he sees Jimin looking pale and terrified as his eyes wandered around the battlefield. Confident that they weren’t in danger anymore, Taehyung closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. The fire that was scorched on his skin resides and crawls back into him.

When he opens his eyes again, he was back to normal. He stumbles a little when he takes a step forward, spent out from the energy he used up. Right then, he feels Jimin by his side, and arm hooked around his waist.

“I’m going to get you to everyone,” Jimin mutters as he gently places his hand on the back of Taehyung’s neck. “You should close your eyes.”

Jimin zooms out of the apartment, leaving the bloody mess behind. He bolts through the busy street faces passing by like a mess of colors. Reaching the end of the street, he turns the corner and made his way through the maze of winding back alleys. When he first got Jin out of the building, he made sure to take a complicated route around the houses as to not leave a trail to be tracked.

He had found an abandoned construction site further out of the city and left Jin to stake out a safe place to hide. They reached the area within seconds, stopping by a house built halfway. Jin’s glimmering shield fades away, revealing him and Jungkook kneeling over Namjoon.

The shield was a time bubble that Jin created around them - basically constructing a dimension within the time fraction. When they’re under the bubble, they would be at the same spot, only in a different time zone.

As soon as they arrived, Taehyung was immediately embraced by Jungkook. Jimin steps back, letting the two have their moment as goes over to check on Namjoon.

“Are you okay? You didn’t get hurt right?” Jungkook rambled on as looks over Taehyung’s body.

“I’m fine!” Taehyung chuckles as he leans his weight on Jungkook. “Are you doubting my ability to protect myself?”

The younger boy slowly lowers him to the ground, a grunt of relief escapes Taehyung’s lips as he finally sits down. He glances over to Namjoon, who was lying down on his belly, head propped on folded arms and eyes closed. His shirt had been removed, leaving his bare skin exposed. Taehyung could see the bullet wound, red and wet with blood under a folded napkin.

“Is he okay?” he asks.

“He should be. He’s healing himself,” Jin answered with an amused smile. The older boy was stuck to Namjoon’s side, running a hand through his hair every once in awhile.

He had been frantic at first when Jimin brought his partner back, bleeding from a bullet wound. But Namjoon had calmly told him that it was only a flesh wound and that it could be easily healed. So he helped with the shirt and watched the younger boy work on himself.

“We should call Yoongi and Hoseok, tell them what happened and where we’re at,” Jimin piped up. Then he adds, “Wait, fuck I don’t have Yoongi’s phone number.”

“Neither do we,” Jungkook snorted at the amusing situation. “But we do have Taehyung and Namjoon.”

“That’s right. I’m as good as a phone,” Taehyung grinned as he lies down. Closing his eyes, he tries to find Yoongi and Hoseok in the day crowd of Tokyo to send them their location.

Chapter Text

“God, it’s so hard to send them a message,” Taehyung grumbled in frustration. He was sitting cross-legged, leaning his back on the dusty walls with his eyes screwed shut and brows knitted together.

“Why? What’s wrong? Are they in trouble?” Jimin hurriedly asked as he leans closer to Taehyung’s still figure, his face masked with concern.

At the mention of trouble, Jungkook looks over his shoulder. He had been standing guard by the bare cement walls, looking out in the open. The youngest had been on high alert since they took refuge in the abandoned construction site, wary of any unwanted visitors.

Taehyung shakes his head ever so slightly, afraid to lose concentration. “I don’t think so, I’m not getting any negative energy from them. The problem is, they’re teleporting around like crazy and they’re not staying long enough for me to send them a message. On top of that, the jumps are random and last minute so I really can’t predict their movements.”

They had been trying to track down the two stray boys so they could send out a message to meet them at the construction site. But because Yoongi and Hoseok were busy teleporting themselves all over Tokyo, Taehyung couldn’t pin them down.

“Try focusing your radar around the streets of Asagaya in the Suginami ward,” Jimin suddenly piped. “It’s where Yoongi and I first met, and since he can only teleport to places he’s been, there’s high chance he’ll appear there.”

Taehyung gives him an appreciative nod and follows his advice. Behind closed eyes, he can see the entire scope of Tokyo like a digital map with little pieces moving around. He sifts through the gray figurines sculpted like humans, zooming into Asagaya street. Following Jimin’s advice, he stays there, ready to pulse his message through when he spots his targets. It took a while, his eyes moving behind his closed lids before the two shimmering blue figures appear out of thin air. Without losing a second, he shoots his message through, praying that it got to Yoongi and Hoseok before they disappear out of his map again.

Taehyung’s eyes peel open and his shoulders slack away from the tension he didn’t realize had been building. “They should have received my message,” he tells Jimin. “You should meet them there.”

The pink haired boy flashes him a smile before he dashes off to the streets, leaving a puff dust floating in the air behind him. He winds through the narrow alleyways as Tokyo’s life flashes by him. Men in suits cramped around the counter of a small noodle shop, delivery boys carrying containers filled with vegetables, elderly women bustling down the street, eager to get to the markets.

He stops running behind an herbal store just a few shops down from the meeting point, his feet skidding on the wet cobblestone ground. A mix of the bitter stench of the herbs and damp newspapers engulfs him. His head peeks out from the corner, a reflex he acquired decades ago, before striding out to the street. As he makes his way to the corner shop, his eyes strained against the milling crowd in search of the two boys.

Yoongi flashes him and Hoseok to the roof of a high rise building, overlooking the Shibuya crossing. From where they stood, they could see the deep colors of the setting sun falling beneath the shimmering skyline of Tokyo. Down below, the huge billboards and neon signs slowly start to come to life, illuminating the streets.

“How long are we going to do this?” Hoseok croaked out as he massages his shoulder with one hand.

They had been teleporting from one point to another without any solid plan on how to find the others. Their only problem right now was staying in a spot for too long, afraid that the Aogashima Lab agents were going to track them down. Paranoia was what drove Yoongi to start teleporting the two of them randomly around Tokyo. He could have sworn he saw a white can trailing them from on the streets.

“I don’t know,” Yoongi confesses, running a hand through his hair, frustrated that he couldn’t think of a single thing to do to find Jimin and the rest. It didn’t help that somewhere in the back of his mind, he was nagging at himself that if Namjoon was here, the younger boy would know what to do.

“We can’t keep running away like this,” the morphling remarked, telling Yoongi something he didn’t already know. Then he goes on to complain, “And my body’s starting to ache.”

Bristled, Yoongi scowls, “I know that! And I’m sorry that you’re hurting okay? But maybe you can help me out with a plan instead of whining like a kid?”

Hoseok throws his hand up in the air, mimicking surrender as Yoongi walks up to him with an outstretched hand. He grabs onto to the long bony fingers and soon finds himself in a different spot - this time somewhere hidden in the hills of a village. An old man clad in a loose white shirt looks them over in curiosity as he bikes down the pathway. They were probably sticking out like a sore thumb in the village with their flashy clothes.

It was their 18th location by now and Hoseok thinks he practically went on a city-wide tour of Tokyo. His whole body was aching now as he physically feels the energy draining out of him. Who knew teleporting was basically a workout?

Hoseok suddenly gasped when his nose picks up on a scent. “Do you smell that?” The aroma floating in the hills was heavenly and he soon hears his stomach growling like a bear.

When Yoongi holds out his hand, the younger boy could only pout in despair knowing that it was a gesture for them to go. Sometimes Yoongi can be a heartless prick, not considering that Hoseok still needed to eat unless he wants him dying of hunger. He tries with all his might to plead his case of hunger, saying that they could afford to spend an extra 15 minutes just so he can get a fix of whatever the hell smelled so good in the mountains.

Without taking a second of consideration, Yoongi stoically grabs his shoulder and flashes them onto a roof in the Suginami ward. It was the same roof he had been hiding on when he first spotted Jimin, who, at the time, Yoongi saw as a reckless pink haired boy trying to make a fool out of those burly men.

The second they appeared on the concrete roof, they both hear a voice on loop, repeating a message. It echoed in their heads like a megaphone. Yoongi knew that the voice belonged to Taehyung, deep and smooth. “Meet Jimin at Kabaya bakery, 2 streets from your apartment.”

“You hear that that? Tell me I’m not the only one hearing it,” Hoseok pleaded with wide eyes, afraid he’s gone mad. He wasn’t used to having a stranger randomly talking to him in his head.

“It’s them, they’re safe somewhere near my apartment,” Yoongi informs his friend as he self-replenishes his energy to prepare for another teleportation. He hears Hoseok mumbling a blessing that he wasn’t going mental.

The hint of relief was evident Yoongi’s voice, not only because the rest are out of harm's way, but also because the two of them finally had a solid plan. Even if it’s just to meet Jimin at a bakery. He didn’t know how long more he could go around Japan without draining his energy. If by nightfall they hadn’t received any message from the rest, he was ready to flash himself to Aogashima Island and storm the research lab.

“We should go,” Yoongi said. “I’ll take us to the back room of an herbal shop I used to work at. The streets are busy at this time, don’t want to raise any suspicion if we suddenly appear in the middle of a crowd.”

“You worked?” Hoseok quipped in disbelief with a little chuckle.

He shrugged and explained, “The old man at the herbal shop needed someone to organize the place and I needed money. Plus he’s blind, so it doesn’t matter if we appear in his shop.”

As they flash to the meeting point, Yoongi doesn’t miss Hoseok sigh a mutter, “This is going to be awkward.” It was going to be the second they met, Jimin and Hoseok, and he wondered it was going to go. The last time they were in a room together, they were practically ready to tear each other’s heads off.

They tumble into a narrow storage, their knees almost buckling from the seeping energy. By then, the sun had receded off the horizon and the neon lights were starting to blink to life outside. The two boys were surrounded by rows and rows of huge brown bags, opened to reveal all kinds of herbs brimming to the edge. Its bitter smell was almost overwhelming.

They hurry out of the storage into the store itself, passing by the old man propped on a chair. The only hair he had was the straggly thin white beard framing his jaw, leaving none at the top of his head. “Yoongi-san, it’s been a while,” he greeted without turning his head.

It used to freak Yoongi out at how the bearded man always seemed to sense his presence. For a while, he thought that the blindness was just a cover. But after conducting a few tests - which involved a lot of hand-waving and silent jump scares - Yoongi relented to the fact that the old man was indeed legally blind.

“Not staying for long Takashi-san!” Yoongi called out as he and Hoseok dashes out of the herbal store.

“Dude, how the fuck did he know you were there?” Hoseok wanted to know when they emerged from the dim lit shop and into the bustling streets. His face showed uneasiness, a little creeped out by the old man. “You said he’s blind, right?”

The two boys merged naturally with the crowd, winding around bodies of people as Yoongi talked. “No idea,” he admitted with a shrug. In the meantime, his eyes were peeled out, looking for the familiar mop of pink hair. “He was born blind, so maybe he’s got a heightened sense of hearing.”

Hoseok gasps dramatically as he grabs onto Yoongi’s arm, mocking realization. “Do you think he’s one of us?”

His wide eyes and big gaping mouth looked comical and all Yoongi could do was burst out into laughter. Joking with Hoseok always comes naturally to him. It could be about the banalest thing and the taller boy could always make him laugh. For a second there, it didn’t feel like they were on the run from an evil corporation. Instead, it felt like they were transported back to the good old days - when hot dogs cost twenty cents and Namjoon’s telepathy didn’t break them apart. He truly missed those years, he realized.

Yoongi didn’t realize he had been staring at Hoseok until he shook him out of his dazed gaze. He snaps back to reality and follows his friend’s pointed finger to see the back of Jimin’s head, bobbing along the crowd. His boisterous pink hair was hard to miss even though it wasn’t fluffed and styled like usual.

“Jimin!”

Jimin whips around and immediately, his face lights up. He dashes through the lump of crowd between them and quickly embraced Yoongi in a hug. The older boy almost fell back from the impact and the fact that just a second ago Jimin was all the way over there. He recovers fast though, and returned the hug, wrapping his arms around Jimin.

“Thank god, you’re okay,” Jimin breathes into his ear as he buries his face in Yoongi’s neck. Not wanting to let go, he tightens the hug a little, sinking his hand into Yoongi’s hair. It was pure bliss to his ears when he hears Yoongi chuckling and murmuring, “I’m glad you’re okay too. I was scared something happened.”

Their hug could’ve lasted longer if it wasn’t for the bogus coughing interrupting them. Jimin flashed an annoyed look at Hoseok when they pulled apart. It wasn’t a face he was glad to set his eyes on, let alone see near Yoongi. You can call it jealousy, a fiery disgruntled flurry in the pit of his stomach that seemed to bubble every time Hoseok was around.

“I don’t mean to cut the lovey-dovey reunion but we’re kind of on a time crunch right now,” Hoseok reminded Yoongi with pursed lips before giving Jimin an apologetic smile.

“He’s right,” Yoongi grunted a sigh. “The reason why we’ve been jumping all over Tokyo is that I think that Hoseok has a tracker in him. We couldn’t risk staying in one spot for too long.”

“How do you know if he has one?” Jimin queried with furrowed brows.

“I don’t, I was only assuming. That’s why we need either Taehyung’s or Namjoon’s help,” said Yoongi. “And we need to hurry.”

“Well, you’re lucky they sent me.”

They scampered off to a secluded area and let Jimin lead them to the rest of the group. The pink haired boy clutches onto the base of their necks after telling them to wrap their arm around his waist. Before he goes off, he made sure to tighten his grip on Hoseok’s neck, just for the sake of payback. It was petty, he knew that.

“A tracking device you say?” Namjoon asked like he heard Yoongi’s statement wrong.

The first thing Yoongi said when Jimin dropped them off at the construction site was, “I need Tae or Namjoon to check Hoseok for a tracking device.” He had forgone the formalities of sighing in relief that everyone was well and save the second he saw that all of them was present with limbs attached. Like Hoseok had said, they were on a time crunch. If what he assumes is right, then they’re in danger of getting caught again.

“Yes, a bloody tracking device,” Yoongi sighs exasperatedly. Why wasn’t anyone picking up on the fact that their safety was in jeopardy if someone doesn’t do a full-body check on Hoseok? “How do you think they found us at my apartment? They probably turned on the GPS the second he left the lab.”

“He has something in his neck,” Taehyung piped up out of the blue, confirming Yoongi’s suspicion. “While you were guys busy chatting, I did a full scan.”

“Thank you!” Yoongi exhaled, thankful that Taehyung had his back. At least he wasn’t such a know-it-all snob like Namjoon. He gently nudges Hoseok towards Taehyung, letting the younger boy examine him further.

Taehyung stands up to face Hoseok, looming just a centimeter taller. He gives him a reassuring smile before tenderly running his finger on the left side of Hoseok’s neck, prodding it to feel for the device. With his abilities, he could sense a foreign object looming in Hoseok’s body - like seeing a blinking red light floating in a sea of blue. Just from the surface, his finger couldn’t detect a bump.

“It’s in pretty deep,” he murmurs as he extends his senses beyond the thick muscles. It jolts Hoseok slightly as he feels a pinch similar to an electric shock. After moving his finger to the muscle beneath Hoseok’s ear, Taehyung finally feels the little tracking device.

“Yup, I feel it,” he says, removing his finger from Hoseok’s neck. “I can try to extract it but Namjoon needs to put him to sleep. It can be a little painful.”

“Wh-what do you mean you can extract it?” Hoseok stuttered as his hands fly up to cover his neck. His eyes were blown wide open with panic. “But you’re not a doctor! And you don’t even have medical tools here! It’s a fucking construction site!”

It was all going too fast for him. One second Yoongi’s assuming that he has a tracking device and the next, they were proposing to cut him open. And to hear that he had to be put to sleep triggered his memories of getting caught by the research lab. The last time he blacked out, nothing good came out of it.

“Calm down, Hobs,” Yoongi tried persuading him as he held onto his elbows.

“I don’t need tools,” Taehyung explained. “But you can trust me - it’s not going to hurt. Namjoon will heal you and by the time you wake up all you’re going to have is a faint scar, that’s it.”

Taehyung thought that his clarification would get Hoseok to calm down, but it only made it worse. The older boy went a little crazed as he stumbles away from Taehyung’s begging hands. By now, everyone was on high alert, ready to pounce if he went too far.

“You’re not using tools?!” Hoseok exclaimed. “Then what the fuck are you going to do? Cut me open with your nails?!”

Technically...yes. He wasn’t about to admit it, lest getting Hoseok even more frightened than he already was. Unfortunately, the expression on Taehyung’s face betrayed his intentions, because when Hoseok noticed Taehyung pursing his lips, he went erratic. He was about to make a run for it but Yoongi held him in his place.

“Yoongi no, please,” he begged, desperation dripping in his voice. “You know how I am with pain!”

To coax him, Yoongi grabbed his face, turning it so they were seeing eye to eye. “Hobs, you need to calm down,” he whispers. “You know I will never make you do something unless it’s necessary. If you don’t do this, everyone is going to get captured and imprisoned by the research lab. Namjoon’s going to make sure you won’t feel any pain and I’ll be right by your side until you wake up.”

Hoseok’s breathing calmed a little as his chest heaves up and down. “I’m scared,” he gulps as he holds onto Yoongi’s wrists.

“I know, I know ba-” Yoongi stops himself, biting his lip. Holding Hoseok so close and whispering to him like this gave him a comfortable feeling of nostalgia. So much so that the word baby almost slipped out of his mouth naturally. He swallows the lump in his throat and tries again. “I know you’re scared, but you need to trust me.”

“Promise you’ll stay by my side?” Hoseok pleaded.

At the end of the day, these people around him were unfamiliar faces, making him feel uncomfortable to think he’d be in the care of their hands. He had to know that Yoongi was going to be there.

“Promise.”

They settle Hoseok on the floor by Namjoon’s crouched figure. He was still recovering from the bullet wound, so his movements were a little strained. Grunting as he shifts, Namjoon slowly lowers his open palm on either side of Hoseok’s head. His fingers were gently placed in strategic points - the temples, right below his ears and the top of his skull.

“Hoseok, you need to relax,” Namjoon advised him.

The boy laying on the floor bites his lips as his eyes fluttered shut. He was still jittery - evident on his fumbling fingers. But feeling Yoongi taking his hand and soothing him, calmed his racing heart. He takes a deep breath and tried his best to blank his thoughts from any worry. With Yoongi’s tranquil presence occupying his mind, he gradually slips into a black void, lulling into a deep sleep.

As Namjoon puts Hoseok into a slumber of complete sensory deprivation, all he felt was an artificial fondness for Yoongi. It embraced him with a warm hand running up and down his back, and an indulgent prospect for Yoongi’s affection. He squirmed, feeling slightly strange towards it. Once he hears Hoseok’s heartbeat beating methodically, he plucks his fingers away.

In an instant, the facade emotion of long-lost love sheds off his skin, sending shivers down his whole body. He takes a subtle glance at Yoongi to determine if it was in fact, Hoseok’s emotion that he felt. This time, all he saw in Yoongi was a tinge of leftover guilt, indignation, and ambivalence, concreting that the warm feeling came from Hoseok.

Which brings him to a state of perplexity, regarding about the love triangle that existed within Yoongi, Hoseok, and Jimin. They were all running in circles, chasing after a complicated desire. But he knew about Jin’s vision, and he knew that Yoongi belonged to Jimin. So where does that leave Hoseok and his unrequited love? It didn’t help that Namjoon could still see the lingering fondness in Yoongi’s eyes for Hoseok.

Set off in the corner, he sighs in frustration. No, he wasn’t about to meddle in their lives. Not again after the 1940s incident. He was going to leave it up to them to sort that shit out.

“What’s wrong baby?” Jin’s voice was gentle, with concern written all over his face.

Looking into his lover’s genuine, pure eyes, he was tempted to share his discovery about Hoseok’s feelings. But Jin was more sensitive than he was. The older boy worked with emotion, and Namjoon knew that he would immediately indulge with Yoongi about it. Which would create a whole other mess. So he keeps mum, deciding to shoulder the burden alone. “No, I’m just… worried about Hoseok, that’s all,” he lied.

“Well, don’t be. He’s in good hands,” Jin assured him, squeezing his hand.

Taehyung shuffles forward, taking Namjoon place by Hoseok’s head. The morphling laid in front of him, disabled on the floor with his limbs slack. He carefully lifts Hoseok’s head and turns it to the side to expose the side with the tracking device.

“Be careful, Tae,” Yoongi implored in a soft voice, eyes not once leaving Hoseok.

“Doing my best here,” he comforted Yoongi with a knowing smile.

Taehyung proceeded to run his finger against Hoseok’s skin again. Once he pinpointed the location of the device, he takes a deep breath before he starts. Using his telekinesis, he cuts open a small slit just by tracing his nails on the sparse skin. The cut opens like a zipper, slicing through the skin, tissue, and muscle. And at the same time, he keeps the blood at bay, preventing it from bubbling out of the wound. He didn’t need a whole surgical mess of pooling blood.

Using two fingers from one hand to slightly open the wound, Taehyung utilizes his other hand to telekinetically grasp the little grain of device seeded deep in the neck. It was stuck, sitting cozily between the muscle and an artery. One wrong move and he could accidentally severe the blood vessel. He bites his lips as he pours every ounce of concentration into the tips of his fingers. Like pulling the strings of a puppet, his fingers danced in the air, edging the device out of the muscle. Bit by bit, it slides out of Hoseok, slipping past his open wound.

“Got it,” Taehyung breathes in triumph as he pinches the device between his fingers. Everyone gravitated forward, eager to see the thing. It was bullet shaped and tiny like a grain of rice. A small light blinks on its surface - probably sending signals to the research lab.

“Jimin should get that away from us,” Jungkook immediately spoke up from his spot, turning to face Jimin. “As far from us as you can.”

“Agreed,” Namjoon nods.

Collecting the tracking device from Taehyung, Jimin speeds off without question. If anyone noticed how eager he was to get out of there, no one brought it up. And even though everyone kept silent about the matter, it still remained in the back of their minds. It was obvious enough that his quick departure had to do with Yoongi clutching onto Hoseok for dear life.

During the whole procedure, Jimin had stayed back, away from the Yoongi and Hoseok. His face was stoic - too stoic to forge indifference. They all knew it hurt him to see his soulmate attend to Hoseok like he was the most precious thing. The only one that seemed oblivious to it was Yoongi himself.

While watching Namjoon heal Hoseok’s wound, Yoongi’s eyes traced over the sleeping boy’s facial features. His head was shifted to the side so Yoongi faintly cranes his neck to get a better look. A raw emotion of mystification stirred in his heart. It felt weird to see Hoseok’s new face - or his natural face. Everything about his personality and the way he talked reminded Yoongi of his ex-lover back then. And it sparked an old flame in his heart for he never truly got over Hoseok. But then to face the real Hoseok and to look into unfamiliar eyes was like conversing with a whole new person.

Yoongi knew it was trouble - to fall back into the old circle of his past emotions. As comforting as it was to be with Hoseok again, he had to see that the only thing they had between them was history. And to rekindle that kind of fire, it would only risk burning themselves. There was no way he could do that again, especially not when the entire group needed them.

Gently, he removes his hand from Hoseok’s limp grip and places it on his torso. It was safer this way, he decided. “Are you waking him up yet?” Yoongi asks Namjoon.

Namjoon shakes his head. “I’m giving him a couple of minutes for the deeper wound to heal.” Noticing Yoongi’s hesitation, he says with a soft smile, “I’ll call you when I wake him up.”

“Thank you, Joon,” he mumbled, using the pet name he had for Namjoon back when they lived together. He chose to ignore the hopeful look on the taller boy’s eyes. The name calling was a small step to his forgiveness, but they still had a long way to go.

Giving one last affectionate pat on Hoseok’s hand, Yoongi stands up and walks away. He waits outside of the broken cemented structure, wishing he had a cigarette right now. It’s been too long since he’s gone without it. He craved for something to be between his lips, gnawing it with his teeth. Without warning, he sees a rush of pink hair zipping through the construction field outside. The flash of color halts right in front of him, causing to stumble back, tripping on the back of his shoe.

Just as quick, Jimin catches him by the waist, steadily pulling him up. “Sorry,” he shrugs sheepishly, biting his lips apologetically.

Seeing Jimin so close to him lit a whole other kind of fire in him. This one was freshly sparked, like fireworks bursting through his heart. And that tangible energy between them, present once again, pulling his soul towards Jimin. Whenever he was around the kid, all he could think of was his pink hair, all he could see was his pouty smile and all he could hear was his giggly laugh. This unspoken dynamic between them was hard to resist.

“Shouldn’t you be in there with Hoseok?” Jimin pointed out, a little pout on his lips as he looks down. “He looked really frightened.”

Unable to hold back the tingling yearning on his lips, Yoongi brings Jimin’s face closer and kisses him. The younger boy’s breath hitches from the unexpected gesture. As soon as their lips connected, the energy between them merged and exuded like a forcefield around them. Once he started, he couldn’t stop. Jimin’s lips were pure ecstasy - irresistible in its own way.

Yoongi pulls Jimin closer, desperate to feel the heat of his body against his own. Every inch of skin that touched sent sparks of electricity through their veins. What was it about them that every time they kissed, it was hard to pull away, always wanting more. The hunger in him drove his blood to boil with lust. Yoongi turns around, flipping them over so he could push Jimin against the wall. A breathy moan escapes Jimin’s lips when he feels Yoongi’s hand running up his thigh and under his sweater. It rests hot and heavy on his hips as his thumb caressed his skin.

“W-wait, wait,” Jimin grunted as he pulls away. “We have to stop.”

“What? Why?” Yoongi whined as he decides to attack Jimin’s neck, leaving wet open kisses on the smooth skin.

Jimin sighs into Yoongi’s touch, always feeling compliant with him. The kisses tickled him in a way that sent a tingling sensation down south. But before he could get lost under Yoongi’s lips, he shakes his head, trying to regain his thoughts.

“Because, if you continue, I can’t stop,” he rambled his confession in a strangled voice. He was trying hard to contain himself. “Which means I’d let you fuck me against this wall right now. And frankly, I don’t want our first time to be remembered for its broken walls and dusty ground.”

“You feel it too? That intense palpable sensation between us?” Yoongi asked between breaths.

“Yeah, I do,” Jimin said softly as he nods. Crimson blotches started blooming on his cheeks when Yoongi gazed into his eyes. “And I think I know why.”

Yoongi was genuinely surprised by Jimin’s confidence in knowing the reason behind their connection. Here he was trying to figure it out when the kid had the answer all along. “You do?”

“It’s a- uh… long story,” Jimin chuckled as he winds his arm around Yoongi’s neck, giving a small peck on his lips. “Jin had a vision and he shared it with us when you left with Hoseok. It was of you and me.”

Swaying in Yoongi’s embrace, Jimin recounted Jin’s vision to Yoongi, telling everything without leaving out a detail. It was amusing to see the older boy’s concentrates face as he tried to digest every second of it.

“So remember that searing pain we felt after we kissed for the first time?” Jimin whispers. His fingers trail down to Yoongi’s shirt, unbuttoning them slowly.

Yoongi sucks in his breath when he Jimin touches him, cool fingers against his pale chest. He watches silently as Jimin’s finger flips his shirt open, revealing a row of black characters tattooed across the skin just above his heart. The revelation left him astonished. Where the fuck did that come from?

Jimin started explaining as he brushes his finger against the characters, “I have it too, on the same spot. They’re exactly the same ones that Jin saw in his vision. And it’s pretty similar to the ones tattooed on Namjoon’s and Jin’s chest. Namjoon had theorized that it appears when we kiss our soulmates and that Jin’s vision was probably a manifestation of the tension between us.”

“Namjoon and his theories,” Yoongi muttered with an eye roll. He did it teasingly this time because for once, Namjoon’s reason sounded plausible.

A giggle bubbles from Jimin’s lips. “Why? You don’t believe we’re soulmates?”

Yoongi mulls it over, absorbing everything he hears from Jimin’s tale. “I trust Jin and his visions. And as unorthodox for me to say this, I do have an ounce of trust when it comes to Namjoon’s theories.”

“So?”

“So, I’m yours, and you’re mine,” Yoongi declared endearingly in a soft voice. “Park Jimin.”

Chapter Text

Where they were holed up in the abandoned construction site, the atmosphere was serene. The night’s lulling sky washes over them like a wave, the billions of stars that spotted the bruising dark empyrean twinkled like a sea of diamonds, and the breeze that swept at their hair, cooling. Deciding to give Hoseok time to recover from his incision, they all took to the dusty ground of the broken building to rest before traveling again.

Namjoon stays sidled up next to Jin, keeping the older one close to him while admiring the gorgeous sky hanging overhead. His eyes were peeled out for constellations, silently praying to the Gods to bless him with one. He’s always loved watching them - the clusters of stars, the jewels of the world. It somehow brought forth an indefinite reassurance that he had a purpose, that his “mutation” had a meaning.

“Silently, one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven, blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels,” Namjoon recited, murmuring soft enough for only Jin to hear him.

Hearing the whispered words, Jin sits up, a knowing smile already on his lips. “You still remember that poem?”

“Of course, I’ve read it a billion times,” he chuckles as he reminisces about the past. “Especially because you were the one that gifted the book to me.”

At the little teasing nudge Namjoon gave Jin, the older man blushes and bites his lips, recounting the past. It was a serendipitous occurrence to have met back in the mid-1800s. War after war pursued on amongst countries, yet they managed to find each other, finding something that went beyond mortal love.

The poem he had recited was an excerpt from a book titled Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie, written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow back in 1847. Jin had given it to him as a shy offering when he first found out that the younger one was fond of poems.

It had been in 1854 if Namjoon remembered clearly. When women wore heavy silken dresses and bonnets and men wore top hats with tailored coats. They had only met for the third time, still walking on eggshells around each other, unused to knowing they were similarly an outcast from the norm. But that day, in Norwich’s dewy weather, they sat by the patch of grass under the willow tree, overlooking the still canal when Jin slid the book over.

Namjoon’s mouth had hung open when he laid eyes on it. Just from reading the title, he knew what it was - he’s been wanting to get his hands on it for so long but never got the chance. A recent printing of the American poet, barely a decade ago when it was published and it was still a commodity highly sought after in England. He’d refused it as first, claiming that it was too precious of a gem to take it from Jin. But of course, the older one insisted on him having it. And how could he have refused those clear brown pleading eyes?

That sole book has been significant in their relationship for it had cemented the bond between them. When Jin had offered it and when Namjoon had accepted it, they knew their lives were muddled together from here on out. He still holds it dearly in his heart, and if he closed his eyes, he could feel the book in his hands - with its weathering pages, that musty smell that seemed to linger and the brown spots that littered the inked words.

Back in the day, he had flipped through that book like a maniac, rereading every poem until the spine wrinkled. He was obsessed with the literary flow and the detailed black and white illustrations that accompanied them - that much was obvious. But now, regarding it as a rare artifact, he has kept it in an airtight glass case, proudly sitting atop the mantle back in their apartment in Budapest. It was the few things he could hold onto during his constant travels to remind him of the olden times, something he didn’t want to forget.

“Look, Aquarius,” Jin whispers, his soothing voice pulling Namjoon back to reality. He follows the older man’s pointed finger as it traces the sky, connecting the dots of 15 stars.

And there it was, the radiant glow of stars collecting to create the delicate image of Aquarius - the cupbearer of the Greek gods. It was large in size and from where they sat, it looked like the stars took up the whole of the indigo canvas. They were lucky to have spotted it. As much as it was a common constellation within the field of stars, it was an easy miss when you’re in a city. So Namjoon counted it as a benediction bestowed for them by the Gods.

“You know,” he starts as lowers his gaze to set his eyes on Jin instead. His partner didn’t seem to notice, too busy watching the stars. “They say, where there is Aquarius, there’s bound to be Neptune.”

Innocently, Jin frowns as his eyes squint to pick out where the planet was amongst the constellation. “I don’t see it.”

A giggle bubbles from the corner of Namjoon’s lips as his eyes flit back to the sky. His fingers had crawled its way up, threading through Jin’s hair. “You can’t see it because of the moonlight glare. But it’s there, hovering behind the moon, hidden away from reckless eyes.”

“Neptune,” Jin says as if trying to taste how the word felt in his mouth, feeling how it rolled off his tongue. He takes a deep breath and mulls before looking down at his tattooed wrist. Its blue incandescent glow seemed feeble as compared to the stars. “Can’t believe we’re supposed to be some sort of...sons to this planet.”

“Sons?” Namjoon amusedly blurts out as he laughed at the term. “I don’t think the giant gaseous planet gave birth to us baby.”

“I was being figurative, idiot,” Jin snaps, sitting up so he could punch Namjoon. “Obviously I know that the planet doesn’t have a vagina, God, Joon.”

The younger one purses his lips to tease Jin, snaking his arm around his waist to bring him closer. Seeing him flustered and annoyed was adorable and it’s been a long time since they’ve been able to enjoy a moment like this together. So Namjoon would like to savor it, let it linger in his memory for as long as possible.

He brings his other hand up to cup Jin’s jaws, letting his thumb caress his cheek. It was soft, so pure and so flawless - a perfect reflection of who he was. Everything about him made Namjoon’s heartache because it always prompted the thought: was he good enough for Jin? Why have the heavens partnered a man so faultless, with him, a person who has done so many dirty deeds? What had he done that was so righteous, worth of being Jin’s soulmate?

“I’m sorry,” he whispers, biting his lips. Eyes fluttering shut as he rests his forehead on Jin’s. The sudden overwhelming emotions bubble up his throat, getting stuck there and pulling out tears in the corners of his eyes.

“Why are you apologizing baby?”

“Because I fucked up. And I’m sorry for...for everything,” Namjoon’s voice cracks, his lips quiver with every word. “For being the guy that broke your relationship with Yoongi. It was the start of all this shit. I sh-shouldn’t have meddled. I shouldn’t hav-”

Namjoon’s words were muffled when Jin gently clamps his palm over his lips. Tears trickled down the younger man’s face and over his hand. Chewing over his words, he sighs, “Joon… that was the past. Yes, it hurt then, but it happened and I believe that whatever occurs in life, there’s a reason for it. You can’t alter what you did, so instead, look at what you’ve managed to do. You got us reconnected, you were the one that planned Hoseok’s escape, you got us out of the apar-”

“I didn’t do all that Jin,” Namjoon sobbed out, choking on his tears. “I didn’t do any of that. It was always Yoongi or Taehyung or Jimin that’s actually doing something to save us from the mess that I started.”

“But could they have done that without you?” Jin bites with a frown, looking at Namjoon somberly. He shakes his head and continues, “They would have nowhere to go if it wasn’t for you Joon, remember that. You’re our brain, our leader, so don’t you dare bail out on me like this.”

His heart soars then. It soars out of his soul. It soars till it reached the heavens. It soars till all he could do was burst into a silent bawl.

His whole body shakes, rattling every inch of fiber that connected his being. It was the first time in decades that he was able to completely let go of the reigns and drop all of his guards. And sitting there, ready to catch him was Jin. The older man holds him tight, like there was no tomorrow, making him feel like he’s home.

Feeling a rush of woeful burden crash over him, Jungkook immediately snatches his hand away from Taehyung’s. As soon as their skin to skin contact was broken, the sorrow washes away, cleansing his soul of the dampening feeling.

“Why do you like to eavesdrop on their conversations?” he grunts in disgust with a scowl, watching the older boy’s brows twitching in concentration. “It’s always too sappy, or too mournful - no in between.”

The pair had decided to climb the tall lone crane left standing in the construction site, deeming the little place where everyone else congregated at a tad bit too stuffy. Trust the two to engage in extreme measures to get out of something. Sitting inside the prism-shaped jib, all the way at the end, they let their legs dangle in the air, enjoying the feeling of freedom up there.

With eyes still closed, Taehyung hums as he intently listened to the seeping conversation. But there reaches a point where he pulls back, reckoning it was too private for him. “Because as much as I love them, they have an irritating tendency to keep secrets from us,” he sighs, cracking his eyes open and stretching out his body. His fingers grace the cold metal, grasping it to pull his body up.

“Not this time though,” Jungkook pursed. He was little miffed because all he got from snooping around Namjoon’s and Jin’s conversation was an unnecessary pit of feeling - that was something he didn’t need.

He proceeded to gaze at the dark sky, admiration flooding him. From where he sat, he had a breathtaking view of the city below him. Artificial neon lights contrasting with the glimmering stars, man-made versus nature, the land confronting the sky - a grapple of beauteous ornaments to please humans.

“An emporium of ethereal entities,” Taehyung mused with a giggle as he gestured to the open sky. “6 points for using 3 vocabularies that start with the same vowel.” He lies himself down with a proud smirk, enjoying this little game he’s been playing by himself.

Jungkook chuckles, entertaining the boy. “Yeah, I’ll give you that.”

Without Taehyung noticing, he observes his friend of more than a century, studying his boyish features. Jungkook lingers over the boy’s uneven sloped eyes, slim nose, curved lips and the dotted moles on his face. Innocence and purity, hiding a ravening darkness that seemed to be at bay, waiting for destruction to take place. He shakes his head slightly, a playful smirk dancing on his lips. Who knew someone like Taehyung could hold so much power within him?

His raven black hair falls in wisps, tickling the tip of his lashes. God, how much Jungkook’s been wanting to snip off an inch - frustrating him that Taehyung would let his shaggy hair disturb his vision. The tuft of silver hair, albeit striking as strange to him at first, was one of his favorites features.

Why? Because it complemented his one grey eye perfectly, mirroring a parallel between them. He liked to think it connected them - as brothers and as best friends, linked by soul and spirit. A life without Taehyung was simply unfathomable.

“Hey, Tae,” Jungkook starts, but a whisper almost inaudible. If he had said it louder, he feared his voice might’ve sounded shaky.

Nonetheless, Taehyung picked it up from his meek breath drifting through the wind. The older boy sits up with raised brows to face the look of unease. And thrumming through his bones, he feels the aura exuding from Jungkook - dense and brittle at the same time. Sensing the hesitation, Taehyung edged closer, beckoning for the boy to let out whatever was held back behind bitten lips.

Giving it some thought, Jungkook mouth the words, threading it with genuine curiosity and concern. “How do you feel about us coming close to uncovering the prophecy?”

“Thrilled and anxious altogether. Why? What’s wrong?” he asks as he cocks his head to the side. It wasn’t exactly a peculiar question to suddenly bring up, but with his sensitive nerves tingling, the notion of worry starts burying deep.

The words felt heavy on Jungkook’s tongue, laden with guilt that’s been eating away at him. “I’m not looking forward to it,” he croaks out as his face falls to one of ambivalence. “I d-don’t want it to happen.” His head shakes slightly as he swallows the lump building in his throat. “I just want us to go on and live in solitude without things changing”

“Kookie,” Taehyung whispers when the realization hits him, his hand automatically reaching out for the younger one. He had completely forgotten about the boy’s ceaseless battle against his fear of change.

It might not look like it, but Jungkook was as fragile as a glass ornament. Delicate and easily pushed over the edge. On the outside, he puts on a mask of sheer valor with his locked jaws, fierce eyes, clenched fists and harsh words. But behind that mirage - the side only Taehyung was granted to see - it was all clouded with the constant beat of anxiety and dread. Hence preferring to live in solemness, away from danger, away from the unthreaded territory and away from change.

He couldn’t remember how or when this monstrous phobia mutated in him, but he hated every aspect of it. Why had he been chosen to carry this phobia - as Namjoon had called it? There had been multiple occasions where it had hindered his ability to experience life wholeheartedly. Before he met Taehyung, his guardian angel as he had so unabashedly put it, all he could do for years was stick to a routine in the orphanage he lived in. If anything happened out of what he’s used to, God, help all those around him. He’d turn into frenzied shock, a blubbering mess of agitation. And that, in turn, would morph into a hellish temper, cursing whoever had the nerve to change the things around him.

It really didn’t help that he had the touch of death. Sometimes, blinded by rage, he would grab hold of the culprit - it didn’t matter if the person shifted a book or took away his eggs for breakfast. Channeling all his rage into his murderous grip, he’d suck the life out of his victim, deaf to blood-curdling screams. It’s only when someone rips him away from the man that he’s fallen out of his trance. Instant guilt washes over him like crashing bricks the second his eyes set upon the withering body of the victim.

And once his malicious ability is revealed, and all eyes are on him, flashing looks of horror, he could do nothing but run away. To uproot himself from the place he just got comfortable with, forcing him to find another roof to hide under. A vicious cycle it was, to always having to change, to hide, to run when that itself kills him on the inside. For years, it meddled with his sanity, pushing him to hate who he was and what he has.

He’s tried to take away his life before, thinking the world would be better without his demonic power. But he lives, he always lives. As frustrating as it was to miserably fail at killing himself, it left him baffled. Was he cursed or blessed? Cursed with the touch of death, blessed with a never-ending supply of lives to live. Perturbedly ironic, that’s what it was.

Then one day, when he had exhausted all of his housing options, his guardian angel came. He had secretly taken refuge in a barn far away from the city, constantly hiding behind the towering stacks of hay. That night as the rain pelted down mercilessly and the sky thundered, shaking the creaking wooden barn, he was graced with the presence of an angel. As he pushed himself off the makeshift hay bed, he swears he saw Taehyung walking over, a golden halo over his head and white wings sprouting behind him. Perhaps it had been the trick of light when the lightning flashed by, but he still held onto that image for the rest of his life. For Taehyung undoubtedly became his savior.

The first time Jungkook met Taehyung, he was indisputably intimidated and overwhelmed. There was something about the way the older guy held himself as he walked over, a looming shadow that seemed to put him at ease and on edge at the same time. Like God himself had planted his mortal form in the barn on a sole mission to pick Jungkook out of the rut - he couldn’t help but feel entranced.

He shuddered when Taehyung had crouched down right in front of him, his face slightly obscured by the darkness. Only the fractions of warm light from Jungkook’s oil lamp highlighted parts of his face. But even then, he just knew that this stranger, this boy with kind eyes and warm smile, was there to save him.

“Don’t be afraid,” Taehyung had beckoned as he slowly reached out for his hand, his voice a hushed whisper.

Jungkook flinches when the Taehyung takes his gloved hand in his, afraid that his deadly palm was going to kill him - just like it had with the others. Frantically shaking his head, he warned, “Don’t touch me. You’re going to get hurt.”

“Do you trust me?” The older boy’s wide eyes were full of earnest as he gently pries of the glove, finger by finger.

“I don’t know,” he gulped, his heart beating faster with fear. “But I don’t trust myself.”

“Then I’m telling you to trust me.”

And in one quick motion, Taehyung slips off his glove and lays his open palm on Jungkook’s. A spark of energy rushes through his arm, radiating all over his body and raising the hair on the back of his neck. Without realising, he had been holding his breath with a bite of his lips as his entire form freezes over. But nothing happens - there were no screeches of pain and there was no spazzing body.

“W-wait, you’re not in pain? B-but my hands...they-”

“I told you to trust me didn’t I?” Taehyung muses as he grasps Jungkook’s hand tighter, squeezing it as if to emphasise on his statement.

“But how? And why? Why you? Why not everyone else?” Jungkook fumbled, feeling the most confused he has been the whole of his life. There were so many questions flooding his head, and the biggest one was who the hell was this kid?

To answer all those questions, Taehyung simply lifted the sleeve of Jungkook’s tunic to reveal the blue trident symbol, glowing like he has never seen before. Then he flips their hands over to show his own, similarly luminescing, pulsating like a magnet.

At Jungkook’s gaping mouth, Taehyung says, “You and me, we’re the same kind, and there’s plenty more waiting for you outside. You’re family now, Kookie.”

And to this day, Jungkook would never forget that last sentence, spoken with such genuine care. Before Taehyung, he never had a family, never had someone to trust and never had people who wouldn’t look at him like he was a monster. Words were futile when it came to showing his gratitude. A simple ‘thank you’ wasn’t going to be enough and neither was a hug. So that night, under the oath of the stormy rain thundering outside the barn, Jungkook silently vowed to do whatever he could to protect Taehyung - to let the soul that rescued him thrive in life.

A sudden rush of warmth pulls Jungkook back from his stupor, having been engrossed with the recollection of his past. The glaze on his vision slowly fades away, prompting him to see the tufts of black hair tickling his cheek. Following his natural instincts, his arms wrap themselves around Taehyung’s slim figure, wallowing in the familiar embrace.

“I hope you don’t mind, I kind of read your thoughts while you spaced out,” Taehyung confessed sheepishly, his voice muffled from digging his face into Jungkook’s shoulder. His lips lift into a smile when he feels the rumbling chuckle of the younger one, loving it when he hugs him tighter. The feeling of solace soon floods his body, seeping out of Jungkook like a child grasping his favourite blankie. A beat passes before Taehyung cheeks, “I didn’t know you saw me as a saintly deity back then.”

Flushed from his exposed memories, he jokingly shoves Taehyung away and puts on a scowling face. “I was on the brink of losing my sanity then. If a cat had walked in instead of you, I would’ve regarded it as my saviour either way so don’t think too highly of yourself.”

Even though he says that he knows Taehyung can easily see through his act. But the older boy doesn’t tease him further, choosing instead to laugh and shrug it off. He sighs, “Kook, I know you’re scared about what’s going to happen but...you have to trust me that this change is for the best.”

Jungkook squirms in his place, fingers knotting frantically. “How would you know it’s for the best? And do we really have to fulfill the stupid prophecy? I mean, we’ve gone by decades without it so why suddenly be all enthusiastic about it now?”

“Don’t you want to find out what our destiny is? Why we were born this way?” Taehyung asked.

“Not really,” he whispers back, casting his glance away and choosing to watch the plummeting scene below him. “I’m contented with living as we have been.”

The air around them became silent, save for the whistling December winds lilting around their ears. Jungkook’s eyes flicker up to see Taehyung pursing his lips in thought - probably mulling on how he could convince him that this gigantic upcoming change doesn’t sound so bad.

A beat passes before Taehyung finally takes a breath, “You know, as much as you deem yourself to be a person who hates change, you’ve gone through a lot of it without even realising it sometimes.”

“What are you trying to say?” Jungkook regards the statement with wary.

With a little chuckle, the raven-haired boy says, “Sorry to be blunt but… I think that the fear you harboured is long gone - since the day we met at the barn.” Jungkook stays mum, letting his bottom lip slip between the grits of his teeth. “I think you’re only holding on to the idea of it and using it as an excuse.”

Again, he looks away, fingers fiddling with the hem of his jacket. Was Taehyung right? Had he been blindly blaming everything that he’s been feeling on that one fear? Come to think of it, there are so many things he has done over the past decades that involved change. From the tiniest matter to obvious shifts in his routine.

He hadn’t complained when they flew out to Tokyo at the last minute to find Yoongi. He hadn’t objected when they poured over the plan to save Hoseok. And he hadn’t said a word the whole time they’ve been in Japan - far away from the comforts of his room in Budapest. So why the sudden qualmish feeling now?

Reading his thoughts, Taehyung pipes up, “Maybe you’re just now starting to worry because you’ve realised that there’s no definite answer to fulfilling the prophecy. The future’s uncertain and it’s unsettling for you.” He offers the boy an understanding smile as inches closer.

Sighing, Jungkook drawls, “Fuck Tae, why do you always have to make sense. It’s unfair.” He shakes his head and nudges his friend with his shoulders, their bodies swaying in the air.

“If I didn’t, then there’s a problem,” he giggles and nudges back. “Feeling better about the prophecy?”

“A little,” said Jungkook with a shrug. “But I still hate that...that feeling of…”

“Precariousness?” Taehyung provided when the boy was struggling to find the right vocabulary to sound his feelings.

“Yeah, that.”

The older boy nods in understanding. “That’s an inevitable feeling Kook, and I’m pretty sure the rest of them down there are feeling the same way. But when in life, carpe diem quam minimum credula postero,” Taehyung lectured, using his knowledge of Latin that Namjoon taught him.

The phrase he said translates to “seize the day, trusting as little as possible in the future” - something Taehyung loved to live by. He wouldn’t stop jabbering it in his ears, using it as an excuse whenever he wanted to pull off something reckless. Hearing those words, Jungkook could only surrender a smile.

“I suppose you’re right - yet again,” he huffs in amusement, feeling his spirits lifting higher now, thanks to Taehyung. He always had the ability to do that - and Jungkook knew the boy didn’t need to use his manipulative telepathy to do so. It came naturally to him - to be nurturing.

“When will you get used to me being right all the time? It’s been a century, you silly goose,” Taehyung grinned, scrunching his nose and shakes his face teasingly.

The corners of Jungkook’s eyes crinkle up, lips carving into a smile as he pinches Taehyung’s nose. “Honestly? Never...not until I die. You’re too smart and that never fails to surprise me,” he declared without an ounce of mockery.

Every person they meet throughout their travels - from the tropical island of Madagascar to the freezing country of Finland - would always comment on how well versed and intelligent Namjoon is, without realising that amongst them, there was another who trumps Namjoon’s intellectual capacity by triple. But it was easy for such misconception to happen.

On the outside, Namjoon exudes confidence and has the undeniable aura of an alpha male who has the entire world in his head. As for Taehyung, his skinner built, boyish features and meek nature have him easily taken for granted - which are only facades that mask what’s really buried underneath.

“Ah, how many times do I have to say not to put me up on a pedestal?” Taehyung says sheepishly, his cheeks and the tips of his ears burning red.

Jungkook scoffs, “Who said I was putting you on a pedestal, I only said you were smart. You’re putting words in my mouth Tae.”

Taehyung bursts into a cackle, hunching over from the fit of giggles that ensues. He was glad the boy decided to joke about it instead of persisting on praising him. “I’m sorry if I did. Do accept my token of apology,” he urges just as the ambiance around them changes.

With a simple trick of his telekinesis, his mind manipulates the little molecules around them, changing the clear air into the perfect copy of the night’s sky. They find themselves surrounded by a billion stars, animatedly floating and drifting. It warmed his heart to see Jungkook’s face lighting up with elation - bunny teeth smile and eyes glinting.

Reaching out to feel the stars, Jungkook gasps when it twinkles at his touch. Its faded blue hue gleams and dances around his fingers. “Like I said, never fails to surprise me,” he murmurs with a smirk, eyes still watching the little star twirl and crawl up his wrist.

Yoongi’s face was flushed, blotches of pinks and reds spotted his cheeks and neck. His chest rises without a rhythm, his heart and lungs working for air, beating like the wings of a hummingbird. “Fuck, Jimin,” he groans as he falls forward, sweat trickling down his temple.

His muscles were aching, cramping up on him and bringing him to a feeble whimper. “I c-can’t move,” he wheezes with a tremble. How has Jimin been able to go at it for this long? It’s ridiculous!

“C’mon baby,” Jimin whispers into his ears. Yoongi could just hear the smug goading of the boy. “You said you could go fast, didn’t you? One more round, yeah?”

“No! No, no, no, Jimin!” Yoongi sputtered with wide disbelieving eyes, fearing for his life. “Fuck your stamina but I call it quits. I don’t care if you haunt me for the rest of my life about being a grandpa but I am not racing you again.”

“Oh my god, does it feel this good to win Min Yoongi at something?”

Jimin’s thundering claps pounds in his ears, shaking his brain in his skull like a bell. He had to swat away the younger boy’s hands to make the dulling ache stop. Before his legs fail on him, Yoongi drops down on the dusty concrete floor and almost cries in pain. Having exerted all his energy from teleporting and physically running, he wouldn’t be surprised if he goes into hibernation for the next month.

And to think that he had unleashed the maniac in Jimin with innocent pecks of kisses. But perhaps he had brought it upon himself when he outrightly boasted about his stamina during sex in the name of teasing Jimin. Not that he knew the boy was going to flip it around and make it into a challenging game of “who’s the fastest?”.

Before he knew it, he was being coaxed into a short race - from one end of the raised floor to the other. And one race soon became two, five, ten. He had attempted to cheat using his teleportation, which only fuelled Jimin’s curiosity of which of their abilities would be superior when it came to speed. God, did that start another ten rounds of Yoongi huffing and on the brink of death. Meanwhile, Jiming looks happier than ever - glowing even. Twenty rounds of dashing here and there made him look like a sexy celestial being rather than a clammy sweating pig, which was an accurate description of Yoongi.

Jimin flops down beside him, stretching out his body with a satisfied sigh. “Gosh, that was a good workout. It’s been awhile since I’ve run that much.”

“Absolutely ludicrous you are, you know that?” Yoongi grunted cynically. He completely couldn’t wrap his head around Jimin’s infatuation with running. Then again, that boy was born with legs that hurtle faster than the speed of light.

“You gotta accept that about me Yoongi,” Jimin shrugs with a teasing pursed smile. “I am your soulmate, after all, so you can’t run away from it. Literally. Because you’re so slow. Like a grandfather turtle.”

A gleeful shriek echoes in the night as Yoongi lunges for Jimin, fingers weaponized to stab him in the ribs. Ever since it’s been established between the two that they were bound spiritually as the universe’s soulmate, the pink haired boy has been more like himself - more like the bratty Park Jimin he first met at 3 am. The brittle tension, as a result of Hoseok’s presence, long gone. Yoongi preferred it better when he’s able to hear the boy’s bubbly giggles rather than witness him quietly cornered away.

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry!” Jimin cried out with a whining chuckle as his hands combat that of Yoongi’s.

“Learnt your lesson?” he proffers with raised brows.

From beneath him, Jimin lets out a smothered laugh like he was restraining himself from speaking what his mind tells him to. And Yoongi’s pretty sure it’s going to be another taunt. Despite it, he still finds these little details about Jimin - the different sounds of his giggles especially - weirdly endearing. Where was this fondness coming from? He found that expressing his feelings for Jimin has been easier and easier ever since they mutually agreed to accept each other as their soulmates.

Jimin rolls his eyes and hums, “Yes, my dear soulmate. I won’t tease you about it anymore.”

Without thinking, Yoongi’s hand reaches out from underneath him to play with the strands of Jimin’s cotton candy pink hair. He twirls it around his slender finger, liking how it looks against his milky skin. The quiet night pulses between them like a magnet, pulling them close until their noses and foreheads were touching. And Yoongi swears he could hear - not only his heartbeat - but Jimin’s too, syncopating together rhythmically.

“Tu es mon âme, mon cœur, mon ange pour toute la vie,” he whispers with closed eyes, feeling like those words bared his heart.

“You speak French?” Jimin squeaks in surprise.

Yoongi breaths a soft laugh, his shoulders slightly shaking. With eyes fluttering open, he repeats his words in English, “It means you’re my soul, my love, my angel for all eternity.”

A small gasp escapes the younger boy’s lips, his cheeks instantly tinting pink. Under his intense gaze, Jimin gulps and shudders, “For eternity.”

“For eternity,” he repeats with a nod, saying it like it was a sacred oath between them.

Jimin simpers, keening at Yoongi’s overtly tender words. The blush speckled on his cheeks blooms down his neck as he pulls Yoongi closer so he could bury his face in the older boy’s neck.

It was a strange feeling - to all of a sudden feel love for a person without even spending more than a month together. But it rattles deep in his bones and it feels familiar. Like loving Jimin has always been second nature. Like they’ve been connected for centuries. Like they were meant to be.

“Yoongi?” his name bubbles out of Jimin’s puffy lips, sounding more like a hymn than the singular noun. They had their fingers mindlessly entangling together as they lay on their backs, witnessing the starry night.

“Hmm, what is it?”

The boy takes a breath before asking, “What about Hoseok?” His voice was small and unsure but at the same time proprietorial.

“What about him?”

“Don’t play games Yoongi,” Jimin murmurs. “I can see the look between you two. Just because you guys aren’t soulmates, doesn’t mean you guys can’t lapse back to falling for each other.”

Yoongi falls silent, pondering on his words. He must admit, hanging around Hoseok for just a day or two has already evoked the old sparks that threatened to ignite into a burning flame. It was easy to cave into the temptation. But it was all familiarity, nothing else.

“Are you?” Jimin drilled in alarm when Yoongi didn’t follow up on his statement, his body coming up to sit upright.

“No, no, baby definitely not.” He was quick to dismiss the thought as he scrambles to bring the younger boy’s fingers to his lips. “I was just thinking about what you said, and you’re right. I almost did when we first rescued him from the lab. But I can assure you, I feel nothing more than platonic love for him.”

The tension from Jimin’s shoulders slacks away in relief. But he doesn’t lie back down, instead opting to fold his legs and gaze at Yoongi. “I trust you, I really do.”

“But?”

“But do you think Hoseok feels the same way as you? You might realise that what you have between you guys are platonic. But you can’t speak for the both of you.”

Yoongi nods in understanding as he pushes himself up, propping his weight on his elbows. “I’ll talk to him yeah?”

His heart instantly melts when he sees the smile crawling up Jimin’s lips. “Thank you,” the pink haired boy chimed, pulling Yoongi up for a kiss.

It was short lived though - much to Yoongi’s disappointment - when Jimin breaks away to gawp in awe. He was about to retaliate in protest when he realises that Jimin’s attention had been taken away by something behind him. So he turns around. And holy shit was it fucking magical.

From where they were, they had the perfect line of view of the yellow crane that stood tall in the foreground of the dark sky. And at its peak was a ball of...of the fucking space. It stood out like a jewel in the sea - a mass of bright twinkling stars whirling around two silhouettes hanging up there.

“Taehyung,” Yoongi smirked knowingly with a shake of his head. Only he and Jungkook were mental enough to climb that high.

“See, why can’t you do something romantic like that for me?”

“Because I wasn’t blessed with fucking psychokinesis, that’s why,” Yoongi scoffs as he smacks the younger boy on the back of his head. Just because Jimin’s his soulmate now, doesn’t mean he’s not going to treat him like the annoying little shit he can be sometimes. “Plus, I dedicated an entire phrase in French for you. I called you my soul.”

“Wow a phrase in a different language, so charming Min Yoongi,” Jimin mocked with jazzed hands.

Before he could pounce on the boy, he was already a few feet away, cackling away with his face scrunched up.

“Come back here you little shit!”

Chapter Text

The heat was unbearable, crawling up his skin like clawed talons digging and burying.

The kaleidoscope of colours before him was so bright and red and blinding, almost too much for him.

The sound was deafening, a sickening screech filling up his ears and drumming in his head.

Fire

It was scorching, blasting right in his face, surging like Satan himself was trying to grasp him by the throat and pull him to the pits of hell.

“Kookie! Kookie!”

Who was that calling his name?

He tries so desperately to move but to no avail. Feet stuck to the floor beneath him, chained by the gurgling fear that bubbled in him, unrelenting and unyielding.

He clutches his ears with shaky hands, breath coming short as he tries his best to calm the erratic heartbeat ramming against his chest. Open your eyes, he tries telling himself, open and look, see who’s calling out for you. But he couldn’t - not when he’s caged in by the haunting wails taunting him for his cowardliness.

“Kookie!”

He sees a face, familiar and friendly but at the same time distorted and...melting. Melting like wax, skin dripping grotesquely off the bones. Hands reaching out to him, calling for him, begging him to help.

“Kookie!”

Jungkook wakes up with a sharp gasp, body up - rigid and rattling - as he tries to ground himself. His breathing was erratic, buzzing the bloodstreams that flowed from the tips of his fingers to the end of his toes. The gory nightmare lingered in him like shedding skin, clinging to his soul with persistence. He attempts to shake it off, burying his head into his open palms, but it was reluctant in sinking its razor-sharp teeth in his flesh. Beads of sweat trickle down his neck, drenching the shirt he was wearing to sleep.

“Kookie?”

The sudden call of his name - ominously similar to the way it was in his nightmare just seconds ago - startles him, rendering his entire frame to jump back. Was he still dreaming? He looked like a frightened cat, shrill and cautious, backed up in the corner. The silhouette before him moves, clothes rustling as a hand reaches out to him.

“Hey, what’s wrong, Kookie?”

He squints his eyes, vision shrouded as he tries to get used to the darkness. “T-taehyung?”

The older boy must’ve felt the apprehension bleeding out of him, stinking up the air around them. He feels the strong grip on his arms before he sees Taehyung’s face coming out of the dark. It was etched with worry, a slight panic in his furrowed brows.

“What’s wrong, Kookie? Did you see something?”

His lips moved, mouthing silent words as he tries to grasp what he had just seen. He could feel Taehyung’s telepathy prodding his brain, searching and mining for what was causing him distraught. Only this time, there wasn’t the familiar feel of the cooling rush in his skull.

“I-I can’t see Kookie...you’re blocking me. You’re going to have to let me in if you want me to see,” Taehyung whispers, his voice soothing the nerves in his body.

Blocking? No...that couldn’t be. In no way was he trying to...block Taehyung out of his thoughts. He’d never do that.

Jungkook looks up in confusion, head tilting with a shake. “No...I uh, I-” he stammers, words halting when he feels the uneasiness biting at him. There was something about the nightmare that urged him to keep it a secret from his friend. He rarely does so - hates it even - but this time, he lies, “I’m sorry Tae, I can’t let you see it.”

Immediately, his friend sits upright, leaning forward so he could see him better. Almost frantically, Taehyung demanded, “What do you mean you can’t? Let me in, Kook. What are you trying to hide from me?” His pupils were shaking in distress, clearly baffled by Jungkook’s frank words. It was the first time the younger boy had ever blocked him out then proceeded to flat-out refuse him in.

“It’s nothing, Tae, I swear. I-it’s just that it was a-a dirty dream, that’s all,” Jungkook stumbled on his words, hoping to God that it was convincible enough for the older boy. But of course, Taehyung, with his unfair ability of telepathy can always feel his emotions draping his own body like second skin.

So he calls him out on it, “Don’t give me that bullshit, Jungkook. Why are you lying to me?”

The hairs on the back of his neck rise in alarm as he starts to feel the change of weather, the beginnings of a thunderstorm coinciding with Taehyung’s tight grip on his arm. The tenser the older boy was, the worst the condition of the sky got; its serene blanket of blue bruising into a nasty sickening purple, mimicking the bruise that was undoubtedly blooming on his fair skin.

“T-Taehyung,” Jungkook whimpers under the strong hold. He knows there was no way he was going to escape his death grip, no match for Taehyung and his abilities, and no heart to even shove the boy back. “You’re hurting me.”

Relentless, Taehyung presses on, his eyes turning that sickly onyx shade, “Tell me, Jungkook. The truth, I want the truth.”

The knot in the back of his neck ached and throbbed, leaving him to groan in pain as he tried his best to massage it out. He had fallen asleep, body sitting upright against the cooling broken block of cement, moulding his figure into an uncomfortable shape. Upon his attempt to push himself off the dusty ground, he feels a familiar weight on his shoulder; the patch of muscle already cramping. Fondness surged in his heart to see his beloved latching onto him, needing him even in his sleep.

It’s been a while, he thinks.

The greying light of the moon cast shadows on Jin’s face, creating Picasso-like fractions on the smooth surface of the milky slopes, though never ceasing the effect he has on Namjoon. Beauty, defined by an intellectual like himself, is simply said in two words, “Kim Seokjin”. No man or woman, ethereal or mortal, was able to contest the elegance of his lover.

With pride, he moves a finger to trace the shadows of the older man’s jaw, delicately and with intended love. “Baby,” he calls out, voice but an intimate whisper only to be heard by his partner. “Jin,” he tries again, this time with a brush of his knuckles to feel the smooth skin of his cheeks.

The latter stirs, a muffled whine escapes as if to say, “don’t wake me up.” All Namjoon could do was chuckle, leaning forward to plant a sweet kiss on Jin’s forehead. He knew the few hours of sleep that’s been working hard to fuel his beloved’s - less than what was needed to be fully awake, so he leaves him be to lull back to his slumber. Making sure not to jolt the man from his sleep, Namjoon carefully tilts his head to the other side and crawls with away.

Just a little over to his side was Hoseok, laying still and serene on his back. His mind control over the boy was still in effect, keeping him induced like an anaesthetic would. Namjoon could still feel the lump of energy he’s been using on Hoseok pulsing in his brain like second nature - never disrupting, only a constant reminder. Multi-tasking his abilities have been quite the challenge back when he still had no inkling what he was and what sorcery - as he saw it then - he had. Just to read a person’s mind required him to gather all his focus and energy, depriving himself of other senses to the point where he had no sense of time.

Once, to steal thoughts from a grumpy astronomer as practice, he had been so absorbed in creating the tangible connection with the two minds that time flew by quicker than he expected. It resulted in him crouching between the walls of the astronomer’s attic till the dawn of night. After he snapped off the connection, his entire body fell prey to the fatigue and muscle aches, accumulated after sitting for hours on end. He learnt his mistake then - to never choose the narrow hollows of the walls as his hiding spot. Now, even in his sleep, he was able to simultaneously work his telepathic abilities.

With prodding fingers, Namjoon searches for a pulse, finally finding it on the underside of his wrist. Stable, not erratic - which means that while he’s been asleep, Hoseok hasn’t accidentally woken up in his mind, only to be trapped in his paralysed body. That would only conjure a set of complications he wasn’t prepared for. He checks for the wound by the boy’s neck, using the telepathy to his best to feel how far it has healed.

“The healing process is completed buddy,” he murmurs to a non-responsive Hoseok, “Time to wake you up.”

“You might want to bring Yoongi in first before you wake him,” a gravelly voice interrupts him just as he was rearranging himself to kneel behind Hoseok’s head.

With his open palms hanging frozen around Hoseok’s temples, Namjoon looks up in surprise, “Baby? Did I wake you?”

An amused chuckle bubbles out of Jin’s lips as the tips of his fingers rub away at his sleepy eyes, “When do you not Joon?”

For the countless years spent living in the same house, sleeping in the same room, as Namjoon, it’d be a wonder if he couldn’t pick out the noises whenever he moves. By now, he has mastered the art of listening intently for the little sounds and makes it a game for himself to guess what exactly was the boy doing. Tripping over the back of his foot? Knocking his elbow on the edge of the doorknob? Sending his pile of books flying out of his arms? Jin has practically categorised them into the types of sounds made.

“Sorry,” he says, with his signature sheepish grin that dopily slopes around his dimples.

Jin simply waves it off, having used to it. He goes to reiterate his point, now sounding more awake, “As I said before, you should get Yoongi in here in case the lad wakes up with a fuzzy head. He’s going to feel disoriented and it’s best that he sees a familiar face.”

“Right,” Namjoon agreed with an understanding sigh, head bobbing at the little nod.

His eyelids flutter shut as he takes a deep breath, sending a message to both Yoongi and Jimin telepathically. It only takes him but a fraction of a second to be done with it before he resumes his position in anticipation of their arrival.

“Lazy much,” Jin snorts with a playful smirk, teasing for not physically getting up to call Yoongi and Jimin.

Shrugging, he only retorts, “Why waste a gift, right?”

“What ever happened to the poetic words you used whenever you preached about our gifts, huh?”

Jin’s little jab at his tendencies to go on tangents and ramble about philosophical insight on their abilities made him chuckle gleefully. His eyes disappear into little crescents and his cheeks scrunch ‘till his dimples were visible. “Hey now,” as he raises a finger to defend himself, “I grew in the century of Philosophers, okay? That’s how everyone spoke back then.”

Jin could only roll his eyes at the melodramatic young fella by his side. “Oh please, you’re not that old! Lay off with the exaggeration and stop speaking like as if you were Plato’s best friend.”

“I might as well have been!”

“I don’t want to be sleeping with an ancient Greek nerd!”

“Even if I was, you’d have the best fuck ever.”

The little jesting spills from his lips before he could even register it, leaving him to break out into deep shades of red that bloomed on his cheeks. His mouth opened and closed like a gaping goldfish, trying to find words to retract his statement. It’s been too long since they’ve had a bicker that the crass joke now sounded taboo. Peeking a glance at his lover, he too mirrored the blushing mess - red cheeks, red neck, red ears.

Jin clears his throat as he thumbs at his ear, willing it to lose its embarrassing scarlet shade. “I-I wouldn’t disagree,” he mumbles quickly, hoping Namjoon wouldn’t have caught it.

But of course, with his telepathic ability, the little cheater could hear it from miles away. His partner’s decision to not avoid the joke only rendered the blushing to spread further across his body, heat flushing to the tips of his fingers and down to his nether regions.

God, when was the last time they actually had an intimate time in bed?

With streams of dirty thoughts filling up his head, Namjoon’s eyes couldn’t stop straying away from his line of vision to the beauty that sat beside him. Just from the corner of his eyes, he could see the gorgeous plump lips jutting out, striking a fire in his belly. He could taste it, oh could he remember how his beloved’s lips tasted like, and how soft it is, how pliant it could be between his teeth. Subconsciously, his tongue pokes out and swipes across his bottom lip. Lean in, he tells himself, lean in so you can kiss him

“B-baby,” he croaks out, lust already lining his words. It intensifies the second their eyes meet, linking them beyond the physical connection. His fingers inch forward, heat surging as soon as they touch. “Maybe we c-”

Their moment was interrupted when they feel a swoosh in the air the same time a cloud of black smoke appears. Any hint of lust and romance left was diminished by the piercing yellings of the rowdy boys.

“I was faster!”

“As if! I came a second earlier than you!”

“Did not!”

“Did to! I saw your goddamn black smoke before I saw your face.”

“You piece of shit! Shouldn’t we first apologise to the lovebirds over here for disrupting their hanky panky time?”

Both Jin and Namjoon froze in their spot, back rigid and head snapping up to see Yoongi and Jimin smirking like greasy sleazes. They sputtered, even more, when Jimin tutted and rubbed his two pointer fingers together in a “naughty boys” manner.

“B-but you just got here- We didn’t do anyth-”

“Didn’t need to, kiddo,” Yoongi continued his taunting with a cackle and a slap on Namjoon’s back. “We came in strolling but the two of you were so absorbed in your ditzy boner world that my eyes burned with the image of you fucking.”

“Yoongi!” called out Jin, chiding him for the coarse language. But everyone knows he’s only doing it to hide his mortification.

Snapping his bubblegum - that strangely shared the same colour as his hair to not think it was chosen for the sake of matching - Jimin snickers, “Yeah, we kinda stood there for like a few seconds but we thought that if we didn’t do anything dramatic, you guys would literally start fucking by Hoseok’s body.”

“That’s gross, we would never,” Namjoon gagged and pulled a face of disgust.

He may be a guy with high libido - cleverly concealed by his intellectual front - who’s very, very attracted to his ethereal looking partner, but he would never be that immoral of a person to fuck right by a sleeping patient. That is just downright indecent, he thinks. He’ll leave the exhibitionism kink role to Yoongi and Jimin.

Much to his dismay, he was only met with incredulous looks from the other two, lips pulled back to hide a laugh. “Yeah, think what you want, cowboy,” Yoongi mutters all too loudly to be considered a cover-up.

“Well, what were you guys doing, peeping at us if you knew we were about to fuck, hm?” Jin snaps back with brows raised and fists clenched on his waist. “Talk about invading someone’s privacy.”

“Yeah, you could’ve just said something when you first came in,” Namjoon mumbles in an attempt to back up his lover.

He forgot how brazen Yoongi can get when he sniffs out an ounce of possible teasing material to use against his friends. But now that he’s with Jimin, the cheeky lad only makes the pair ruthless in their firing shots. This diabolical pairing is dangerous.

Jimin answers for them, “At first, we wanted to see how long you’ll go before you notice us. But then when you started reaching out to Jin, we knew the only way to get you out of the bubble was to take you by surprise-”

“You could’ve just said something.”

“- and then we sort of decided to make a bet to see who could break it off first,” Jimin nonchalantly continued with a casual shrug, as if it’s such a normal thing to do. “Obviously, I won.”

“Did not! Better shut your trap, you bubblegum-haired freak.”

Yoongi’s harsh words caught both Namjoon and Jin off-guard, immediately fearing that he was going too far with the insults. There’s only so much Yoongi-ness a person can take. Yet there were no upset sobs or scandalised yellings from Jimin.

He only gasped, the look of pure pleasure on flickering on his face. It was obvious he was enjoying this bantering. “I’ll have you know your grandpa ass can never beat me.”

“What if I pounded you?”

“I would like that very much. From the back, if you will-”

“Okay! Take five, let’s just uh, pause there for a moment,” Namjoon chuckles nervously as he tries his best to divert his eyes away from what he hopes isn’t a tent in Yoongi’s pants. “No need to get all sexed up in front of someone who’s clearly in a comatose state.”

“Says the one who started it first,” Yoongi jibes back with no real malicious intent.

“Yeah, Namjoon. The sexual frustration is practically leaking out of your flesh flute.”

His hands immediately flew to his crotch just as Jin screams out, “Yoongi!”

“What? I didn’t say that!”

Namjoon warms up his palms as he kneels behind Hoseok’s head, eyes focused on him. The act of pulling a person out of deep sleep with telepathic abilities is easy, but nonetheless risky. He could always just pull out the mental block on Hoseok’s conscience and nerves like a plug. Unfortunately, that could result in damaging and crippling his mental state.

Suddenly feeling the pressure burdening his shoulders, he starts to overthink it. What if his fingers moved slightly and it accidentally nudges a nerve out of the way? Then that could create complications and he couldn’t push it back without Taehyung’s help. And he wasn’t about to be caught asking the younger boy for assistance because, at the end of the day, he was the one people depended on. He was their rock. But what if-

“No what if(s), baby,” a soothing voice calms him as he feels an assuring kiss on his cheekbone. “You know what you’re doing.”

He nods, subtle and teetering on the edge of unease. His breathing calms down though when he feels the grip on his thigh. Without looking, he knows it’s Jin. He could feel and hear his presence like a tangible shadow ever-present by his side. Another deep breath is taken and he brings his palms over Hoseok’s temples, fingers placed strategically at points where he knows connects to the brain.

With attentive precision, he projects his telepathy into an intangible net only he can see. It prods into Hoseok’s brain like greedy fingers, connecting themselves to the already-present film of telepathic plug he had put on earlier on. He works his fingers, crooking them like a puppeteer would, pulling on the strings of the plug and slowly lifting it away from Hoseok’s senses and nerves. He could feel the film, airy and blue, wispy and white, seeping out of the scalp and crawling up his knuckles and arm until they dissipate into his skin.

It was quiet for a moment, air stilling and hanging heavy around him. For a second, he thinks his attempt was unsuccessful. The guilt was already piling on him for being the cause of the boy’s death. He chokes out with eyes still closed, “I’m so sorr-” Until finally, beneath his palm, he feels Hoseok stirring.

He tears his eyes open in less than a millisecond and sees the boy below him groggily rub away at his face. “Oh my God,” gasped Namjoon in relief as he feels the weight on his shoulder melt away. He lets Jin pull him in, slumping from the lack of tension that snapped away from his body. “Holy shit you’re alive.”

“I-I’m alive? What do you mean I’m alive? Why’d you say it like I wasn’t going to be alive?” Hoseok stutters out, tongue still heavy from the deep sleep. His limbs, weak from the rest, fumbles to get him sitting up. He almost falls on his elbows before Yoongi reaches out. “Yoongi?”

“Hey, buddy. Let me help you up, okay?” the raven-haired boy offers as he gently tugs on Hoseok’s elbows, pulling him up to sit. His body was shaking and his head hung low, still heavy from the fogginess left behind by Namjoon’s film of a plug.

Despite his state, he manages to chuckle lowly. His laugh turns into a groan when it gives him a headache. “Buddy, huh? Since when have you called me buddy?” he slurs.

Yoongi’s eyes flicker to the quiet boy with soft pink hair kneeling beside him, still and silent like he was in the midst of a prayer - head bowed, hands folded primly on his lap, face solemn. It was a subtle motion not caught by many, but slicingly obvious to the man still in a dazed state.

“Ah,” Hoseok sighs in resignation. “I see.” The grin of earnest comprehension rests on his downturned lips as his shoulders slouched forward, making him look smaller than he was.

As if the Gods were playing theatre, the sky rumbles in agony, synchronising perfectly with Hoseok’s internal struggle. All heads turn by the sudden change in weather, watching as the clear sky darkens, unloading its grief and sorrow in pelting drops of cold rain. It comes down heavy and abrupt like a million bullets shot from the yonder above.

Jin hums in thought with his forehead creasing between twitching brows, “I didn’t remember reading about a downpour today.”

It was then that Namjoon realises the absence of the youngest pair. He looks around, seeking in the vast darkness outside their concrete fort for the familiar shadows of Taehyung and Jungkook. His search came to no avail, hence switching to rely on his telepathic senses. All his mind could see was a pair of dark orbs, glistening in a sickly way, intense and fiery, ready to snap.

Without hesitation, he blurts out, “Taehyung, it’s Taehyung.”

Just the mention of the boy’s name caught the attention of Yoongi and Jin, who’s familiar with the signs of an emotionally distressed Taehyung. The boy’s abilities were so strong and on the verge of extreme that he was able to shift an entire atmosphere to mirror his mood. And by the looks of how blinding the rain was getting, they could guess that he was definitely not in a condition rational enough to control his power.

“I’m going to look for him-”

“No, you need to be with Hoseok now. You’re the only one that he trusts right now,” Namjoon stops Yoongi just as he was about to get up. “I’ll go. It’s easier to find him with my mind anyway.”

There have only been three instances that Namjoon was ever scared for his life, a cowering mess of fear and concern. Just standing a few feet away felt like their faces were melting off their bones, heart and lungs being crushed and pierced. In those moments, the probability of his death weighed out of his favour and there was nothing he or the others could do. Not even Taehyung himself.

There was always fire, something hot, something scorching, something...burning. It was surreal, nightmarish even, to think that that menacing killer spurting in the form of scarlet and amber flares came from within a boy who in reality, wouldn’t dare hurt a fly.

But that’s just it. It wasn’t Taehyung. It wasn’t him. Never has been. It was the demon that lived and bred inside of the boy, dormant until it surfaced one day. And by Gods, it would’ve been truly magnificent if it weren’t for their lives being on the line. And if it weren’t for putting Taehyung in danger.

The most recent accident had occurred about seven years ago in Northern Ireland when they were hidden away in the countryside. Taehyung had been seeing things that week, said there was a silhouette following him, getting him paranoid. The more agitated he got, the more that the shadow showed up to haunt him. It had been clawing at his mind, whispering to him in a language none of the recognised, driving him mad. Until one night, it got too much.

None of them could help, none of them knew how. Without warning, Taehyung had burst out of the little cottage they were living in the middle of the night and ran to the open field. He had been screaming bloody murder at the top of his lungs as he pulled away at his hair.

“It hurts! It hurts! Get it out of me!”

Namjoon still remembered seeing Taehyung fall to his knees, the cold dew seeping into his clothes but did nothing to relieve his burning skin. It felt like fire crackling up his every nerve and tearing open at his skin, his bones splintering into ashes, his demon eating him from the inside.

“Taehyung!”

“Namjoon, do something!”

“I’m trying! I c-can’t get in-” He gritted his teeth as he worked to get into Taehyung’s mind in hopes of controlling him. Already, he could feel the torture the boy was going through crawling up his neck. He howls at the intrusion of pain, grounded himself and kept pushing on. But in doing so, he caught a glimpse of the demon breeding inside of the boy.

On a blanket of pitch black, its eyes flashed red with malice as its wicked grin tore open to reveal razor sharp teeth that were dripping with blood. The demon saw him and looked right at him, a gaze so spine-chilling in rendered him frozen. Then, without warning, the creature launched at him, claws and teeth sinking into him. With a strangled gasp, Namjoon pushes his mind away from Taehyung’s like a rubber band snapping. His physical body falls on its back as it shivers.

“What happened?”

“Namjoon you’re bleeding, what the fuck happened?”

“T-the demon...I can’t control it.” It came out like a sob of despair, a sob of guilt, and a sob of fear. He feels pressure on the wound, not caring where it was as he watches the boy he couldn’t help shriek in pain.

“Namjoon, tell me what to do!” Jungkook weeps, his high-pitched voice pierces into the night. Despite his cheeks wet with the tears, his eyes still held the stubborn determination to save his friend.

“I don’t know...I-I just don’t know what to do-”

“I’m going to him.”

Before the younger boy could sprint away out of foolishness, Jin grabs his arm and seethes, “Then what are you going to do? We both know he’s going to obliterate you the second you get as much as a foot away from him. Don’t be brash because I’m not about to lose another one of my family.”

A screeching could be heard from the open field, so loud and high pitched that it bled through their ears. All three of them groan in pain as they clutched their ears and curl themselves away from the sound. They peel their eyes away, only to see a horrific scene play out before them.

Under God’s darkening heaven lay a boy, a tiny entity in the foreground of the bare hills and million stars. He sat as though possessed by the sky, head tilted back and hands wrapped around his neck. In this twisted night though, the demon was about to rule the skies as it crawls its way out of the boy. Taehyung’s veins darken beneath his skin, a bruising black and blue that creeps out from his open mouth and down to the last inch of his fingertips covering his body in a gruesome pattern. His eyes were an opaque black now with red pupils that seemed to bleed down his cheeks and jaw. The fragile skin around the eyes cracked like dry lava.

“Oh my god, Tae,” Jin whispers, strained from the knot in his throat as he watches the young boy morph into Satan’s own carved figure. None of them knew if they should approach him or run away, for the sight alone was demonic and nothing like they’ve seen before.

There was a second of silence, a prayer of the night before another wave of screeching emits from Taehyung. But this time, it comes from the burst of fire that sprouted out from his back. They had to shield their eyes from the gust of wind that comes throttling towards them. The glowing amber flames took the form of a bird with its humongous wings flapping open. It stood above them with fervour, sending them scrambling back. Its wingspan covered the black sky, its feathers leapt and licked away as if trying to escape the big form. The heat was overwhelming, burning the lush green grass beneath it the ashes.

“The Phoenix,” Namjoon gulps the name, known to them as Taehyung’s demon.

Chapter Text

Recap:

“I’m sorry Tae, I can’t let you see it.”

Immediately, his friend sits upright, leaning forward so he could see him better. Almost frantically, Taehyung demanded, “What do you mean you can’t? Let me in, Kook. What are you trying to hide from me?” His pupils were shaking in distress, clearly baffled by Jungkook’s frank words. It was the first time the younger boy had ever blocked him out then proceeded to flat-out refuse him in.

“It’s nothing, Tae, I swear. I-it’s just that it was a-a dirty dream, that’s all,” Jungkook stumbled on his words, hoping to God that it was convincible enough for the older boy. But of course, Taehyung, with his unfair ability of telepathy can always feel his emotions draping his own body like second skin.

So he calls him out on it, “Don’t give me that bullshit, Jungkook. Why are you lying to me?”

The hairs on the back of his neck rise in alarm as he starts to feel the change of weather, the beginnings of a thunderstorm coinciding with Taehyung’s tight grip on his arm. The tenser the older boy was, the worst the condition of the sky got; its serene blanket of blue bruising into a nasty sickening purple, mimicking the bruise that was undoubtedly blooming on his fair skin.

“T-Taehyung,” Jungkook whimpers under the strong hold. He knows there was no way he was going to escape his death grip, no match for Taehyung and his abilities, and no heart to even shove the boy back. “You’re hurting me.”

Relentless, Taehyung presses on, his eyes turning that sickly onyx shade, “Tell me, Jungkook. The truth, I want the truth.”

As if the Gods were playing theatre, the sky rumbles in agony, synchronising perfectly with Hoseok’s internal struggle. All heads turn by the sudden change in weather, watching as the clear sky darkens, unloading its grief and sorrow in pelting drops of cold rain. It comes down heavy and abrupt like a million bullets shot from the yonder above.

Jin hums in thought with his forehead creasing between twitching brows, “I didn’t remember reading about a downpour today.”

It was then that Namjoon realises the absence of the youngest pair. He looks around, seeking in the vast darkness outside their concrete fort for the familiar shadows of Taehyung and Jungkook. His search came to no avail, hence switching to rely on his telepathic senses. All his mind could see was a pair of dark orbs, glistening in a sickly way, intense and fiery, ready to snap.

Without hesitation, he blurts out, “Taehyung, it’s Taehyung.”

Just the mention of the boy’s name caught the attention of Yoongi and Jin, who’s familiar with the signs of an emotionally distressed Taehyung. The boy’s abilities were so strong and on the verge of extreme that he was able to shift an entire atmosphere to mirror his mood. And by the looks of how blinding the rain was getting, they could guess that he was definitely not in a condition rational enough to control his power.

“I’m going to look for him-”

“No, you need to be with Hoseok now. You’re the only one that he trusts right now,” Namjoon stops Yoongi just as he was about to get up. “I’ll go. It’s easier to find him with my mind anyway.”

Living with an ability that overpowers a person can take a toll on them. Even more so when they’ve had to suppress it within themselves in order to keep up the facade that they’re as normal as every other mortal human being on Earth. The Phoenix within himself was like a ticking time bomb, analogous to that of a sparkler trying to catch on fire so that it could create exploding sparks that would forcefully exude from his physical body. Centuries ago, before he met the rest of them, he had dealt with it alone. A desolated young man with no memories of how and why he woke up in the mountains of Peru, amidst the ruins of an ancient city before it was known to the world as the Incan citadel of Machu Picchu.

That night, he felt as though he was reborn into a world he had no recollection of. Like a newborn baby fresh out of a womb, he knew nothing. How he looked like, who he was, what his name was, whether he had a family out there. The historical context of his previous life was but a faded thing in his clouded mind. Muddled memories and inferior knowledge were all he had. Nevertheless, he felt a pull of energy that convinced him to muster up the determination needed for his survival. It was a few days into his journey down the treacherous and unfamiliar mountains that his powers finally manifested. Along with that, he discovered a three-pointed symbol burnt into the naked flesh of his wrist. These recent findings had equally brought fear and relief into his body. One on hand, with these newfound abilities, he had more chance of surviving the wild and finding civilisation. On the other, he knew it deep down within himself that it was a strange occurrence for him to be able to feel the slightest shift of the earth with every step he takes. Even stranger when he was capable of killing a four-legged animal with just his eyes after being overwhelmed by hunger.

Unexplainable questions flooded his mind. Was this a curse? Or a blessing? And what else was he gifted with? Where there limits to his power? Were there others like him? He dwelled on them with an unsettling uncertainty.

For weeks he slowly made his way down the vegetated mountains and thick forests, all the while trying to comprehend his newfound power. In those days, he learnt that he could levitate elements of nature. At first, it was just a few a few small rocks in his way or swimming fishes in the river. Then as he got bolder, he moved boulders, stopped the running river, and even once uprooted a tree. Every time he did something that surpassed his imagination, he would stare in awe at his trembling palms, wondering what else he could do. The one thing that frightened him though was his ability to disintegrate matter. He had been practising levitating objects with a fish when all of a sudden the sales started peeling off into tiny flakes that dispersed in the wind. It didn’t stop there. Once the scales were off to reveal the slimy skin, more and more layers of the fish sickeningly disintegrated before him at such a quick pace. Pale flesh, bloody guts, ivory bones all evaporating into thin air, leaving nothing in its wake. The gory sight upset his stomach and left a haunting image in his head. Just the thought of such sinister potential lying dormant in his body petrified him. From then on, he made sure to be more cautious with the power he exerts for he knew, whatever powers he has and whatever abilities he’s capable of, he still did not understand how it worked.

After spending months isolated in the mountains, he finally catches sight of civilisation. He had stumbled into a clearing of bare fields. The sudden harsh exposure of direct sunlight had him struggling to keep his eyes open. He had been so used to the filtered dim light that it was blinding to be in the open. A few miles from the edge of the forest there lay a single hut. Its roof was made out of straw, its walls were fashioned out of dried mud, and it was surrounded by piled rocks as high as his person. Despite him learning everything he knew from the depths of the forest, he knew the hut was meant for shelter and that possibly, there were people there able to help him. With a sense of caution, he scrambled across the open field and scaled the wall of jagged rocks.

Since his meals in the forest weren’t exactly abundant with nutrients, his body was all bones and skin so it made it difficult for him to properly coordinate his limbs. He could’ve used his levitation powers to bring himself over the wall, he knew that. However, with the probability of having other humans living in the hut, he wasn’t all too keen on showing them a phenomenon they weren’t familiar with. So, like a flopping fish, he falls to the ground unceremoniously, taking all the air out of his lungs. The fall on his back had rendered him immobile for a moment, leaving him lying there motionlessly as he gasped for air. But in those few seconds, he hears a voice - not of his own - floating in is head. It didn’t sound like the person was there with him. Instead of the voice ringing in his ears, it sounded like an echo in his head, clear but distant. He couldn’t grasp what it was exactly and assumed it was because of the fall.

Before he could get himself up, he feels a shadow descend on him. He opens his eyes to see that his view of the blue sky was replaced by a face of an elderly woman staring back at him with furrowed brows. She spoke but the words that he heard made no sense to him. Although, her voice sounded exactly like the voice that floated in his head just a second ago. It was then that he realises he was experiencing another new ability of his since living in the mountains meant that there were no other humans whom he could read their thoughts.

The elderly woman spoke again in the foreign language and was now tugging and pulling at him. The way her lips moved furiously paired with her creased forehead told him that she wasn’t entirely delighted to see a strange man laying around the perimeters of her home. But he couldn’t understand what she wanted from him so all he could was to frown and shake his head in hopes that he competently communicated his confusion. He assumed it worked because she sighed and started grumbling under her breath. Instead of words, she tried getting her message across by wildly gesturing her hands around. They were fairly simple movements so he understood quickly - get up, walk to the back of the house, sit down, take off your clothes.

He was alarmed when she started removing his articles of clothing, hesitant about her intentions. Is that what...people do? Take off a stranger’s clothes? After all, he only had vague memories of the presence of other beings like him followed by the fact that he’s been alone in the mountains for a month or so. But then she started dragging an empty pail to his feet and filled up with water from a manual water pump drilled into the ground. With no other way to tell him to “shower”, the woman used a small bowl and poured water over his head. Then, using her hand to scrub her own body she pointed to him to do the same. Ah, he thought, she wanted him to clean himself. So he nods and starts peeling off the thin shirt he had on and the dirtied pair of pants that seemed to now hang loosely on his hips. The woman had ambled off into her house to grab him a white bar of soap as well as a stack of fresh clothes and a towel. She plops them atop the stone wall behind him and left him alone to get washing.

By the time he was done, the sun had started drooping low into the sky’s horizon, turning its crisp blue colour into a swirl of pinks and oranges. Unsure of where he should go next, he quietly waits for the elderly woman on the stone wall in the colourful garments she had brought him. The knitted red and blue poncho was comfy and hugged him in a warmth that he’s been missing since living in the forest, so he holds onto it tightly against the blowing breeze. Again, he hears the woman’s voice echoing in his head. They were mutters and mumbles of jumbled words that he wasn’t sure if they came out of her mouth or if they were her thoughts. But it further confirmed that aside from his telekinesis and ability to disintegrate matter at a subatomic level, he too had telepathy. Though it was unfortunate he understood nothing of what the lady was talking about.

“Juk'ucho! (“mouse” in Quechuan, which is the indigenous language spoken in Peru. She calls him this because he reminds him of a mouse - small, hungry & skittish.)” the elderly woman called out from the confines of her small hut with a come-hither of her finger.

Her sudden loud cry startles him and almost pushes him off the wall. It had him clambering down and hurrying over with his knobbly knees. As he got closer and closer, he was finally granted the chance to have a proper look at the woman’s face. At first glance, her harsh features intimidate him. Her tan skin was withered as if she had been worked under the sun the whole day. They creased at every facial feature she makes - the corners of her lips, the flesh between her brows, the bare skin of her forehead. Her eyes were small with pitch black iris and hid behind the high arch of her nose, and her wrinkly lips never budged from their downturned position. Despite her frowns though, there hid a look of concern and care that pulled him towards the house.

For years, he had grown accustomed to the life of a simple farmer living in a tiny hut out in the mountains of Peru. In no time, he learnt the trade of farming and the mastery of trading that aided in his and the woman’s livelihood. It had been tricky at first with the language barrier, but with the intention of paying back his gratitude for taking him in, he tried hard to learn everything through trial and error and soon shouldered the hard labour in place of the woman. Every day he would wake at the early hours of dawn, prepare breakfast for the two, then head out to the fields to either harvest crops or check on the livestock. He seldom used his quirks for fear of getting caught by the woman and puts it on the back burner for a long time. So much so that he had almost forgotten the presence of his quirk. All thoughts of his previous life and the wanting of an explanation for his abilities were long gone.

Until years later, when three men approached him in the midst of herding a flock of cows, digging back up his past.

“Who are you?” he asked warily in the native language he had picked up over the years - his own tongue repressed within the depth of his memory. He kept his distance from the three men standing before him. They were dressed...weirdly. Funny shoes, funny pants, funny coats, funny buttons - too dressy to be a native in the mountains. Two of them were slightly taller than him while the other was smaller in frame and height. That one caught his attention. Everything about the man intrigued Taehyung. His midnight black hair, pale skin, sly eyes that are always alert, and pursed lips all stood out in an eerie way. He didn’t know what it was then, but he felt a mysterious energy coming from the small man.

Upon hearing his Quechuan words though, the tallest spoke in the tongue flawlessly, “Ah sorry, my friends here do not understand the native language well so I will do the translating.” The man busied himself with speaking to the other two in a new language Taehyung has never heard of. “Let me introduce myself. My name is Kim Namjoon, and my friends here are Kim Seokjin and Min Yoongi. We come from Norwich, in England and believe it or not, we actually crossed the entire North Atlantic Ocean for you! We had to pay quite a sum to convince the traveller’s crew to let us tail in their cruise to the southern countries. And let me tell you, the ride was not at all pleasant. I think the sea does not agree with me-”

“Namjoon, darling, I think you can skip the entire log of our travels. You’re confusing the man.”

“Just tell him why we’re here before he unleashes anything on us. I don’t trust him.”

“As always, Yoongi. Why am I not surprised, honestly?”

The quick bickerings in the foreign language boggled Taehyung’s mind. He was quick to interrupt with a frown, “Excuse me, I’d appreciate it if you spoke in my language. I can’t understand you and that unnerves me. Now, I don’t know why you’ve come to my farm, but if you’ve got nothing for me, then I politely ask you to leave. I’m not a man of trouble.” He makes to leave with a whistle to herd the cows back but was stopped by one of them.

“Sorry, we’re sorry,” the man apologises in Quechuan, though not as fluently as the man who introduced himself as Namjoon. Taehyung recalls now that this man’s name is Kim Seokjin. Through struggling words, he manages to insist, “Please, hear us out. We’ve come far to find you because you are, how do you say...one of us.”

One of us. Though it was said in Quechuan, Taehyung had no idea what the stranger meant. What had he that makes him lumped in the same group as them?

The man tries again when he sees uncertainty flashing across Taehyung’s face. He unrolls his sleeves then, to reveal smooth fair skin. But then as he flips his arm around, he reveals a glowing trident seared into his skin. “You see this? It’s uh...it’s a mark that tells us if there are others like us. I have it, the rest have it...and if I’m right, so do you.”

The pulsing and radiating symbol bewitches him as he can’t seem to take his eyes off of them. As Kim Seokjin had stated, the rest of the men unrolled their own sleeves to reveal their own gleaming marks. All of the marks look identical - a trident with three forks - glowing in blue hues. Then like an itchy prick, he feels the underside of his own wrist burning up. He swiftly yanks the sleeve of his left arm up to find that he too had a luminescent blue trident imprinted on his skin.

But why? Why him? What does he have that connects him to these strange men? What-

“The curse,” he chokes out as his heart starts beating like a hummingbird’s wings, beating crazily against his ribcage. Pieces of his memory flashes across his eyes as the rest of his surroundings fades away. “Or was it a blessing? I don’t know.” His voice was straining now. He couldn’t hear the calls of the men because of all the blood rushing to his head and roaring in his ears. He couldn’t feel the ground beneath him as he falls to his knees and hands. He couldn’t contain himself as he starts remembering how he came to be.

The mountains. Isolation. Survival. Hunting. Killing. Powers...he had...powers...or abilities...or whatever it was. He did things unimaginable to the human race with his own bare hands. Stopping the momentum of a flowing river, was that him? Disintegrating a living matter into mere dust particles, did he do that? Secretly hearing the thoughts of the old woman, is that part of his gift?

Yes. The curse, the blessing, the gift, the abilities, the power - they were all a part of him like an extended limb. With the realisation and acceptance, he feels energy surge through every inch of his body like a wave. His entire frame starts shaking with the sparkling energy that now clung to every nerve in his body. He loses his grip on the ground and suddenly feels light on his feet. With a final burst of scorching energy sprouting out his back, he bellows out a howl. And then all at once, the tightness in his body snaps and he falls to the ground. Taehyung collapses to his side, huffing and gasping for air.

“Kim Taehyung?"

He feels his body being shaken, aching his bones more than it should be. The feeling of wanting to find his purpose fills him so suddenly like gushing water as if it was meant to be there. All these years, suppressing back his powers had also capped his desire to discover the meaning of his existence - something that he so vividly yearned when he first woke up in the mountains.

“Are you there? Can you hear me?”

Oh, there was someone talking to him. The roaring in his ears finally calms, allowing him to hear the voices clearly now. So he nods gently, not wanting to make the pounding in his head even more unbearable.

“Can you open your eyes?”

He lifts his arms that now feel like heavy limbs to rub away at his eyes. When he slowly cracks them open, he’s faced with the face of one Kim Namjoon. The sight of the man strangely felt familiar and there was a sense of deep trust that connected the two. And for a second his vision glitches and he sees Namjoon in a different light as if they were in another world. Namjoon had a pristine blue cloak that’s wrapped around his shoulders and falls to the floor behind him. A silver medallion engraved with a crest was pinned to his left chest and it matched the simple band of silver that Namjoon wears around his forehead. He saw books, heavy, leather-bound books in the man’s hand.

“Taehyung? What’s wrong?”

Just as quickly as the glitching vision came, it flashes away to reveal Namjoon as he presently looks right now. With the funny coat, and funny buttons. Confusion tugged at Taehyung as he questions what exactly did he just witnessed.

“N-nothing,” he mumbles as he tries to get his bearings. Looking around, he first sees the concerned face of Seokjin and then the locked jaws of Yoongi. However, as he sets his eyes on the surroundings, his eyes widen in shock. The sparse field was no longer how he last saw it to be. The ground had cracks that ran deep, cutting in at every angle. Trees were uprooted, chunks of soil displaced, crumbled boulders strewn everywhere, and his cows nowhere to be seen. “What happened?” Taehyung gulps.

Namjoon chuckles then and places his hand on Taehyung’s shoulder, “You happened, Kim Taehyung.”

It turns out, while he had been shut off from the rest of the world, he had accidentally unleashed his powers on the fields of Peru. According to Jin, it first started with the earth beneath them rumbling and shaking before the earthquake happened. It felt as though everything around them was going to fall apart and disintegrate. That was when he started floating in the air and with him were trees and boulders, rising at quite a height. They watched as he bellowed out loud and then stumbled back when they were hit with the sweltering heat that came from the flames gushing out of his back. Namjoon had run to catch him when they saw there was nothing keeping him floating in the air anymore.

He did all that? Just the thought of it sent a sickening shiver down his back. “But what about all of you?” Taehyung gasps suddenly. “Were you not affected by what I did?”

Seokjin kneeled down beside Namjoon and comforted the distraught young man. “Don’t worry about us. I saw what was going to happen a few days ago and kept them safe."

“What do you mean saw what was going to happen? No, that’s not possible. You can’t see something from a few days into the future,” Taehyung gripes in disbelief.

Yoongi, who has been quiet for the most part, speaks up almost smugly, “You can if you’re Jin and you possess the ability to manipulate time.” Unfortunately, it was in the foreign tongue again so Namjoon translates.

“Manipulate...time?” he questions dumbly.

Seokjin smiles then. It wasn’t a smug one like Yoongi had on and it wasn’t a fond one like Namjoon had. The smile he had was in a state of peaceful happiness. Taehyung wonders then if that was what it feels like to accept one's abilities and be content with it. “In basic terms, I can do anything with time. Stop it, speed it up, slow it down, but only for a short while. I can see the future and travel back in time - only in my mind of course. And I can create my own fraction of time within this reality. That was how I kept the rest out of danger a while back.”

His Quechan was broken but Taehyung got the gist of it and was still pretty blown away by the extent of this man’s gift. He was in literal awe and could not come up with a reply. What was he supposed to say? Filling in his silence though, Namjoon introduced his own abilities.

“I can read the thoughts of individuals, and with that, I can control them or manipulate their memories. It comes in handy if someone catches me doing something embarrassing,” Namjoon laughs at his cheeky comment.

At the mention of reading thoughts, Taehyung perks up. “I can read thoughts too! Mmm...but it’s not like I want to. It just comes in my head like whispers and I’ve been trying to block them. And I don’t think I can control them or anything,” he sheepishly chuckles. “I once tried to make jatun mama (Quechan for grandmother, & yes, Tae calls the old lady grandmother) give me an extra portion of meat telepathically but it didn’t happen.”

Both Seokjin and Namjoon looked at him with pure interest as the latter hurriedly fumbles around for his leather-bound notebook and starts scribbling with a charcoal pencil. They lean in as if wanting to hear more of his own abilities. And so he does,

“Um, so far, apart from the mind reading, I know I can make things float and manipulate things around me. I can...turn things into dust. Once, while I was tryna lift a fish, I had unintentionally disintegrated it into little particles. I didn’t like that very much. And I think I can feel a person’s energy...but that’s new because I only get it from you guys and never from jatun mama.”

All the while that he’s speaking, Namjoon constantly expresses his wonder and reverence with little gasps and hums as his fingers were busy scribbling down little notes on paper. “What do you mean by feeling a person’s energy?” he queries with genuine curiosity as if he was studying Taehyung. His pencil was poised in a way where he was ready to jot down everything that Taehyung says.

Taehyung scratches his head then as he tries to think of a way to convey what he felt into spoken words. Especially since it’s a new thing he’s experiencing, he finds it harder to gather his thoughts. His eyes flicker to the petitely framed man standing off to the side. Min Yoongi - the first person he felt an energy from. The man had hardened eyes that held hostility as they gazed at him. However, Taehyung could feel it coming from his reserved concern for his two friendlier companions.

“Um...I can sort of...see and feel a tangible energy coming from each of you. Like colours and emotion surrounding a person. They’re all very different and I can just know what kind of person you are with the energy. Though it may not exactly be an accurate representation,” Taehyung explains. The more that he tries to describe it, the more he wonders about it. What exactly is he feeling? “The most striking energy I see and feel right now is his.” Both Seokjin and Namjoon follow his finger to see it pointing to Yoongi, who looked very offended with a scowl on his face.

“How so?” Namjoon was quick to question.

Taehyung brings his gaze to Yoongi once again, looking at the man beyond his physical features to focus on the energy he sees around him. He begins to describe it slowly. “Black. Blacker than the midnight sky. Like ink, or onyx. But it isn’t just plain black, there’s depth to it like folds of silk. They look like wisps of black smoke curling like ribbons. I feel like there’s an atmosphere of secrecy around you like a looming shadow you use as a barrier-”

“Okay, what is this? Am I getting my fortune told by a gipsy? Namjoon this is ridiculous and unnecessary-”

“But there’s a hidden storm brewing behind the black clouds,” Taehyung quickly adds, not wanting Yoongi to think this is all a fraud. “And I can feel it within you, Yoongi, that you have an undying loyalty and tenderness for the people you care for. It’s telling me that if those people are ever in danger, you are prepared to risk your life-”

“Alright, enough you little seer. You don’t need to start unravelling my entire life,” the petite man bristles and grits his teeth. While their friend is obviously in pain listening to his true intentions being exposed, Namjoon and Seokjin are trying their best to hide their little cheeky snickers. “Stop looking at me like that,” Yoongi snaps and throws daggers at them with his fierce glare, “I’m off.” With those parting words, the man suddenly disappears into thin air, leaving behind curling black smoke.

The abrupt disappearance left Taehyung stunned, yet again. It really has been a whole day of surprising happenings. One second he’s looking at a palpable, living and breathing man, and then the next he’s staring at black smoke. He has never seen anything like that in his years on Earth - or at least the years he can remember. “Where did he go?"

This time Namjoon perks up to make clear of his friend’s abilities. “Yoongi can teleport from place to place so long as he has a visual representation of the location. If he randomly teleports to a place he’s not familiar with, it can be dangerous because he could end up at the bottom of the sea or in between walls. There’s no limit as to how far he can go but the further it is, the more energy he uses. It also gets more physically demanding for him if he were to transport numerous people in one go.”

“And despite him looking like someone who’s not a fan of physical work, he’s very agile,” Seokjin jumps in with a tease. They both sound very passionate about their quiet little friend. “Like you said, he has this shadow around him yes? Well, the way he describes it is as his dark Aura that helps him camouflage in the shadows. What he likes to do is climb roofs and walk along the rows of houses at night. Oh! And during the night, his eyes changes.” The man wiggles his brows like he was telling a horror story.

Once Namjoon was done translating everything the other man had said, Taehyung asks, “Change? To?”

“Cat eyes,” Namjoon whispers with a knowing look. “It helps him see in the dark.”

Taehyung nods as he takes in all these information. Frankly, he isn’t too surprised to hear all these things about Yoongi. The energy he had seen already helped elude what kind of person the man was. Even though it’s a fairly new ability, he knew he could trust it. He keeps this in mind for one never knows when this might come in handy in the future. However, he realises one thing,

“It’s great that you’re telling me all these personal things about each other. And I feel you doing so is only to make me comfortable with you. Yet...you have not said why you’ve come.”

“Right, of course!” Namjoon exclaims, recalling the reason why they had come to find Taehyung in the first place. “Though...perhaps we should talk somewhere more private. It’s not a matter that any passing mortal people can easily understand, you see.” The man gestures to the mess Taehyung had made of the open field as a hint to the existence of his abilities as well as their own - something not that common.

Those words, “mortal people”, stuck to him like a gnawing feeling in the back of his head.

He quietly invites Namjoon and Jin into the little hut and sits them down at the small table in the corner. “I apologise if it’s a little small,” he says humbly while busying himself with pouring drinks for the two guests. The hut had been initially built for one and when the old lady had brought him in, it had been comfortably cosy. But now that the two of them are inside, they were all crammed in like sardines.

“Oh no, not at all,” Namjoon assures politely, though his actions went against his words. The tall man looked comically cartoonish sitting on a wobbly small chair with his legs bent up to his chest. Meanwhile, Seokjin’s broad shoulders keep nudging against the walls of the house. Maybe it was because of the size of the small house they’re in but the two men from Norwich really does look bigger than any men Taehyung has met in the mountains of Peru.

“Chicha Morada,” Taehyung points out the name of the purple drink as he sets them down to offer to Namjoon and Jin. “Jatun mama made it this morning with the purple corns growing in our farm. She’s trading at the market now so you’re able to speak freely.”

After taking a sip, Jin asks through Namjoon’s translation, “You spoke about your grandmother during our conversation a while ago, is she your biological relative? Because as far as we know, we have no known blood relatives. Or at least...we can’t remember them.”

Leaning against the kitchen sink, Taehyung divulges in his relation to the old woman. “Ah no, even though I call her jatun mama, she’s by no means related to me. It’s just that she’s spent all these years taking care of me like her own, I thought it disrespectful to call her otherwise. She was the lone saviour in my life and I don’t think I can ever leave her here alone, now that she’s not as uh...youthful as she used to be.”

From where he stands, he sees his two guests share a look before looking at him with wary eyes. Silence hangs amongst the three men so ominously that it stirred a bad feeling in his guts. Whispering, he again asks why they were here. If he was honest, he’d admit that he was slightly afraid to hear what they have to say. It takes a while before Namjoon speaks up. Meanwhile, Seokjin stays quiet, choosing to nibble on his bottom lip and fidget with his finger. The look of sympathy marking his face was fairly obvious and Taehyung hated it.

“Like Jin said, we are the same,” Namjoon says as he points to the three of them in the small kitchen. “We have abilities that are unexplainable by the universe’s laws so that makes us very different from ordinary mortal men-”

“Why do you keep referring to the rest of the world as mortals?”

“Because we can’t be killed,” Namjoon answers instantly in a scientific way. “Or at least the two of us can’t; we’ve tried, including Yoongi. I’m not sure if you’ve had a near-death experience before but...whatever you thought prevented you from dying, take it off the equation. Your body just...can’t die. I don’t know what it is yet and I have no way to explain it-

“No, no it’s fine,” Taehyung stops him midway. “I believe you.” And he really did. Spending months alone in the mountains should have guaranteed his death but somehow, he managed to pull through. Even the old lady was a little suspicious of his luck in surviving in the mountains. He nods for Namjoon to continue, still interested to know what the hell they want from him.

Namjoon sighs and scratches his head, “You know what, I’m just going to cut to the chase. If you’ve got any questions, just ask.” He takes a deep breath before continuing. “Ever since the three of us met a few years ago, I feel like it’s destiny for those of us with the trident mark on our wrists to come together. It cannot be mere coincidence that within a few years of Jin meeting Yoongi, he gets a vision of me. And once I’m in the picture, it happens again? You’ve got to admit it looks as though the universe wants us to come together.”

Taehyung chews on his lips as he mulls over Namjoon’s words. “Do you think there’s more of us then just...us?” He hopes the man understands what he means.

This time Seokjin takes over with his limited Quechan. Only then did Taehyung notice the little things about the two men sitting in his kitchen. The fleeting fond glances, the shared smiles, the subtle touches of their fingers or ankles. Why hadn’t he seen it earlier, he chuckles to himself. He keeps this little discovery to himself though, like a self-kept secret.

“We don’t know. But it is possible.”

“Yeah, I mean we’ll have to see if Jin’s going to get another vision, you know?” Namjoon excitedly exclaims with bright eyes. “I’m sure once you’re around us for long enough, there’s a possibility that Jin’s vision will show us the next person - if they exist.”

Ah, he thinks to himself, this is why they’ve come. They need me to see if there are others out there. He’s a puzzle piece needed in order for the next one to fit in and he wonders if that is all he is to them. In his head, Taehyung juggles the two questions with consideration, wanting to know which he should ask first.

“This destiny thing you’re talking about, do you know if there’s a reason why it wants us to come together?” he asks, going with this one for now. He needed to know if there was some kind of supernatural occurrence concocted by God himself that entailed him leaving his little hut and the old lady. And much to his dismay, Namjoon provides him with a very tempting story that tugs at his want in searching for his purpose in this world.

“So I’ve been reading up in the library about ancient mythologies and there was one that mentions the marks on our wrists. Though it didn’t explicitly talk about it being imprinted on our skin, the folklore of the Sons of Neptune uses the trident symbol as their crest…”

A sinister shadow casts over the dark night sky, clouding the blanket of jewelled stars with a dismal aura. The once white clouds are now grey and dreary, hanging in the sky like a noose. So loud were the rumbles of the thunder that it shakes the ground he was on. Namjoon’s feet pound the floor as he seeks out for Taehyung and Jungkook with his mind. With Taehyung’s superior telepathic abilities, it was easier to track the latter so he calls out for the boy.

Jungkook, if you can hear me, tell me where you are.

Thankfully, his voice comes back in an instant. We’re near the construction site where the tall crane is. Namjoon...hurry please.

It sent shivers down his spine when he hears the boy’s cry for help. The last time he heard Jungkook’s voice sounding so vulnerable and childlike was when they first found him trembling alone in the darkness of a barn. Something must’ve happened to trigger Taehyung to the point where Jungkook himself is afraid. Flashes of the times Namjoon has seen Taehyung’s demon materialise clouds his mind and he gulps in fear. He hopes to God the situation isn’t as severe as he’s thinking it to be. Another ear-splitting crackle of a thunder jolts him. He looks up to the sky to see multiple jagged bolts of white painting the graphite sky malevolently.

“Shit,” he curses as he speeds up, full on running now.

He reaches the clearing where the tall yellow crane stands like a beacon amongst the roaring stormy sky. Thick grey clouds stretch out from the sky and whirl around it like a barrier, and in the middle of it all, stood his two friends. Icy cold rain starts pelting down like bullets as he swiftly jumps over piles of rubble and abandoned metal pipes, anxious to get to them. The closer he got to the centre of the storm, the louder he hears both Taehyung’s and Jungkook’s thoughts. But all he could hear are jumbled words, both voices intertwined together in an argument.

As the rain gets heavier, his vision gets hazier. He squints and tries his best to look out for the two silhouettes but to no avail. “Ah fuck this!” he yells out in frustration and switches to his mind reading. He shuts his eyes and concentrates on the voices, following them blindly. His abilities were far more superior than his own senses anyway.

Since he was still unsure about Taehyung’s condition, he’s a little hesitant to follow his voice, for fear of getting caught in the boy’s wrath. If the entire climate changed because of him then his temper must be through the roof. Instead, he lets his feet trail after the crumbles of Jungkook’s thoughts. He trudges on the soaked ground and fights against the strong winds to get to the middle.

Namjoon!

“Namjoon!”

When he hears his name being called out both in his head and out in the open, he opens his eyes. He finds Jungkook only a stone’s throw away and bounds to him as fast as he legs could carry him against the blowing winds.

“What happened?!” he demands apprehensively the second he grabs the boy by the shoulders.

Jungkook was simply put, fear-stricken. His hair, wet from the rain, falls over his eyes, covering how it quivers in terror. He stands there before Namjoon, looking like a little kid. The boy was only able to stammer out a blubber of words before they both hear his name booming in the air. Just by the commanding tone, it got the two of them standing rooted to the ground. Arms are raised to shield their eyes from the gust of wind that almost blows them off their feet. In an instant, the whirling clouds around them whistle to a slow stop to reveal Taehyung. The lone man stands with squared shoulders and ink black eyes, face void of any expression.

“Jungkook, tell me what the hell happened right now,” Namjoon bites out his words through clenched jaws. He needed to know what had led Taehyung to be so emotionally triggered that it caused him to lose control over his abilities.

“Dream- I had a dream; a bad one,” Jungkook stutters out almost painfully. He squeezes his eyes shut and balls his fists. “It was...I can’t...I can’t tell him-”

“Tell me, Jungkook!” Taehyung’s voice blared out, furious that Jungkook was keeping this a secret from him.

“I cant!” the younger boy yells out desperately, tears threatening to spill before he turns to Namjoon. His voice cracks with every word he says. “Namjoon, p-please, you have to read my mind. I can’t tell him, I can’t.”

He was confused. If Taehyung had wanted to know was in Jungkook’s dream then he could have easily read his mind. So what’s stopping him? Why was he begging Jungkook to tell him instead? Is it possible that Jungkook’s successful in blocking...Taehyung? Namjoon frowns and asks, “Why? Just tell him and this will be over, Jungkook.”

Jungkook bites his lips in an attempt to stop them from trembling. “B-because if I say it out loud then it’s going to feel like the dream is real and I don’t want that!” he sobs out as tears streamed down his face. “I don’t want to see him in pain like that.”

He’s always known, from the day Taehyung brought Jungkook in, that the latter had forged some sort of life promise to keep the former safe from any harm - though Taehyung is completely capable of defending himself considering he’s the strongest out of all of them. So it wasn’t a surprise he was trying to yet again protect Taehyung from something. Namjoon admires Jungkook for this but there comes a time when the boy is too stubborn for his own good.

“For fuck’s sake-” He at first thought it wasn’t that big a deal but after delving into Jungkook’s mind and seeing his dream, he halts in his speech. The gore, the painful screeches, the fire. It was more than just a plain dream, it was a horrifying nightmare that gave him chills down to the bone. “Shit…” was all he could say, barely a whisper.

“You let him read your mind but not me?” Taehyung howls into the night, beyond outraged. “How could you!” He growls and bares his teeth, ready to launch at both Namjoon and Jungkook.

Before he could do so, Namjoon shouts out pleadingly, “I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you the dream! Hell just read my mind, Tae. But please, stop this madness. You’ve come so far to learn how to control the Phoenix. Why are you letting him take over you?”

“I am not!” Taehyung seethes.

“Yes, you are, Tae!” Namjoon fights back. “Look at you, brewing a wild storm like this when I know the real you wouldn’t hurt a fly. Your eyes have gone black and your voice is nowhere near as sweet as it’s supposed to be. You even hurt Kook...Tae. Jungkook, the boy you swore you would keep safe. The boy you swore to care for like your own brother!”

He had accidentally seen what Taehyung did right after Jungkook’s dream. And mentioning Jungkook must’ve hit the spot because Taehyung halts in his spot. His tense shoulders now melting into a droop. Eyes that were orbs of pitch black marbles fades away into a gradient of greys and eventually settling to uncover chocolate brown eyes. The red cracks around his eyes close up and heal, leaving no scars. Replacing them, however, were streams of tears that ran like a flowing river. The little rivulets catch on his chin like drops of crystals. Taehyung drops to his knees. The watery sounds of his sobs echo in the quiet night.

“Taehyung,” Jungkook starts but was silenced with a hand.

Taehyung keeps his head down on holds his hand out to stop Jungkook from coming closer. “Don’t, Kook,” he whispers in the midst of his stuttering cries. “I’m so sorry, for everything. I-I should not have forced you to do anything...But for now...I think it’s best that we stay apart.”

Jungkook immediately shakes his head and begs his friend to take those words back. “No, Tae, please-”

“I just- I just need to….” Taehyung trails off, looking up at him helplessly through red-rimmed eyes. Deep within him, he felt lost. He was losing touch of himself, sacrificing it to the demon that bred in him. It was eating away at him from the inside, piece by piece parts of him are devoured.

“He needs time alone, Kook,” Namjoon urges Jungkook to back away, understanding what Taehyung needed. Although seeing the youngest crestfallen pains him, he knew that it’s for the best. “We should head back to Budapest, all of us. Call the others to hurry over, Kook.” The boy takes a last glance at the miserable figure hunched over the ground before he drags his feet reluctantly.

Now that they were alone, Namjoon kneels down and carefully places his hand on Taehyung’s shoulders. It trembles beneath his touch. “Tae-”

“Help me Namjoon, please.”

Chapter Text

Recap:

Namjoon sighs and scratches his head, “You know what, I’m just going to cut to the chase. If you’ve got any questions, just ask.” He takes a deep breath before continuing. “Ever since the three of us met a few years ago, I feel like it’s destiny for those of us with the trident mark on our wrists to come together. It cannot be mere coincidence that within a few years of Jin meeting Yoongi, he gets a vision of me. And once I’m in the picture, it happens again? You’ve got to admit it looks as though the universe wants us to come together.”
Taehyung chews on his lips as he mulls over Namjoon’s words. “Do you think there’s more of us then just...us?” He hopes the man understands what he means.
This time Seokjin takes over with his limited Quechan. Only then did Taehyung notice the little things about the two men sitting in his kitchen. The fleeting fond glances, the shared smiles, the subtle touches of their fingers or ankles. Why hadn’t he seen it earlier, he chuckles to himself. He keeps this little discovery to himself though, like a self-kept secret.
“We don’t know. But it is possible.”
“Yeah, I mean we’ll have to see if Jin’s going to get another vision, you know?” Namjoon excitedly exclaims with bright eyes. “I’m sure once you’re around us for long enough, there’s a possibility that Jin’s vision will show us the next person - if they exist.”
Ah, he thinks to himself, this is why they’ve come. They need me to see if there are others out there. He’s a puzzle piece needed in order for the next one to fit in and he wonders if that is all he is to them. In his head, Taehyung juggles the two questions with consideration, wanting to know which he should ask first.
“This destiny thing you’re talking about, do you know if there’s a reason why it wants us to come together?” he asks, going with this one for now. He needed to know if there was some kind of supernatural occurrence concocted by God himself that entailed him leaving his little hut and the old lady. And much to his dismay, Namjoon provides him with a very tempting story that tugs at his want in searching for his purpose in this world.
“So I’ve been reading up in the library about ancient mythologies and there was one that mentions the marks on our wrists. Though it didn’t explicitly talk about it being imprinted on our skin, the folklore of the Sons of Neptune uses the trident symbol as their crest…”

Taehyung keeps his head down on holds his hand out to stop Jungkook from coming closer. “Don’t, Kook,” he whispers in the midst of his stuttering cries. “I’m so sorry, for everything. I-I should not have forced you to do anything...But for now...I think it’s best that we stay apart.”
Jungkook immediately shakes his head and begs his friend to take those words back. “No, Tae, please-”
“I just- I just need to….” Taehyung trails off, looking up at him helplessly through red-rimmed eyes. Deep within him, he felt lost. He was losing touch of himself, sacrificing it to the demon that bred in him. It was eating away at him from the inside, piece by piece parts of him are devoured.
“He needs time alone, Kook,” Namjoon urges Jungkook to back away, understanding what Taehyung needed. Although seeing the youngest crestfallen pains him, he knew that it’s for the best. “We should head back to Budapest, all of us. Call the others to hurry over, Kook.” The boy takes a last glance at the miserable figure hunched over the ground before he drags his feet reluctantly.
Now that they were alone, Namjoon kneels down and carefully places his hand on Taehyung’s shoulders. It trembles beneath his touch. “Tae-”
“Help me Namjoon, please.”

The atmosphere was suffocating; a little tense, a little anxiety, a little animosity in the air. Perhaps it was his fault it turned out to be like so. He hangs his head in shame as the group gathers under the sheltered area of the abandoned construction site. The storm he had generated from his powers had subsided from its monstrous form. Though the sudden shift in Tokyo’s atmospheric climate meant that the weather is still sombre with the hanging dark clouds.

If only - those words played in his head like a record on loop. If only he hadn’t jumped to conclusions. If only he hadn’t gotten emotional. If only he had listened to Jungkook in the first place. The guilt hangs around him like a noose. What if, lost in his own selfish wrath, he had accidentally killed one of his friends? His face crumples at the thought. If Namjoon said that the demon was taking over him then he really was close to killing someone. Right? That’s how dangerous he is?

“Don’t bear the entire weight of what happened on your own shoulders, Tae,” a soothing voice consoles him along with a comforting, firm hand on his shoulder.

“Yoongi,” his own voice breaking, “I went overboard this time. I could’ve killed someone. Don’t you realise that I’m holding death in my own two palms?”

A deep chuckle erupts from his friend. For a second, it irritated him because why is he taking this so lightly? Did he not hear what he said? “Why do you have to be so melodramatic, Tae?” Yoongi sighs good-naturedly with a little smile on his lips. “You know...since you’re the strongest out of all us then shouldn't you already be the best at controlling your abilities?”

“...N-not necessarily…” he wavers, not exactly sure what Yoongi was trying to do.

His friend shrugs and pats his back. Without looking him in the eye, Yoongi says something that would stick to him in the days to come. “I think you’ve already got it in the bag, Tae. You’re just afraid of becoming one with your abilities. I think you need to accept it fully as something part of you rather than this destructible weapon. Only then can you tame the demon in you. And only then can you stop seeing yourself as some kind of ticking time bomb around us.” No words left to say, Yoongi gives one last encouraging pat and leaves him to understand it by himself.

He simmers in the small advice Yoongi presented him and he doesn’t know if he should cry or laugh right that second. He settles for a hybrid between a chuckle and a sob. For centuries, Yoongi has always been the one to silently urge him forward with his subtle nods and casual words of encouragement. He’s definitely not the person he’d want to cuddle up to during rainy days but that guy is the one he looks to whenever he had trouble coming to terms with his abilities.

At times, it seems like Yoongi has more faith in him than he does in himself. Come to think of it, is quite an amusing thing because the older man once wanted nothing to do with him.

“So? What do you think Taehyung?”

That question itself was harmless in words but he knew the impact it carried with it and what it meant for his future. The desire to fulfil this destiny and to find his purpose in this world bubbled within him. Just the thought of what the future holds excited him. How many others are out there? What other abilities do they have? It almost felt natural to want to know these things as though he was born solely to be with the three strangers he met at the field and to scour the rest of the Earth for the others.

But then...there’s jatun mama whom he would have to leave if he were to pursue this new path. Is she ready for this change? Was he ready? After all that she had done for him, it seemed ungrateful of him to immediately pack his bags and leave as soon as he finds something more interesting than farming and herding cows. Not to mention her ageing body and her depleting energy...although, he would never dare say that out loud in front of her. She’d beat him on the head with a chunk of wood and say she’s been fine living by herself all these years.

He supposes he respects her enough to talk to her about it rather than just up and leave or even to keep this from her. “I’ll sleep on it, Namjoon,” he addresses his new acquaintance.

“Of course. I understand it’s quite a big thing to ask of you so take all the time you need.”

“Uh though we don’t really have all the time in the world ‘cuz our boat back to Norwich leaves in 2 days,” Jin butts in as a second thought. He knows Namjoon all too well and when that man makes promises like these, it can really bite them back in the ass.
He escorts his guests out of the small hut, asking out of concern where they’ll be staying in the meantime. He wants to offer them a place in the hut but it’s already cramped as it is with him there. In the middle of suggesting an abandoned hut just a little way down, he feels a shift in the atmospheric energy around him. It raised the fine hairs on his arms. Just as he was about to question it out loud, Yoongi suddenly appears out of thin air covered in furls of black smoke.

The man casually walks up to his friend and asks, “Are you guys done here? Did he try anything with you?” That was directed towards him, he knew that despite the jarring language barrier.

“Yoongi, stop being dramatic. The man was kind enough to offer us drinks so be kind, okay?” Seokjin chides under his breath as he nudged the man in his ribs.

To that, the shorter man rolls his eyes, his feathers ruffled by the fact that his friend was justifying a stranger all because the person offered them drinks. Have they already forgotten what that person did to the entire field hours ago? And what would happen if that was done to them instead? He would rather leave his sense of judgement of a person’s character on things other than his ability to offer drinks. Yoongi keeps his mouth tight lipped, not wanting to involve himself in this.

The three men leave Taehyung to sleep on his decision considering the weight it carries on the man’s shoulders. Both Jin and Namjoon had assumed that, like the rest of them, Taehyung would have been by himself and not tied to any attachment. Little did they know, he had someone whom he cared for dearly in his heart, creating a bit more of a complication then they had hoped for.

Taehyung ponders back into the hut after seeing the three strange men disappear into thin air. His head is full of perplexing thoughts that convulate into tangled threads in his mind, preventing him from thinking straight. He huffs out of frustration and slams his fists on the table. It rattles the cups, causing one to tip over the edge.

Taehyung watches it fall in slow motion - the edge of the cup plunging towards the hard earth floor, the drink inside ever so slightly sloshing out in drips and droplets. The cup is now completely overturned and the first drop was about to touch the floor when all of a sudden it freezes in motion. This was the first time in years that he had intentionally used his abilities. It didn’t feel foreign to him and it didn’t feel overpowering. Rather, it felt natural like a habit or a reflex. He keeps the cup and drink frozen in time and marvels at what he had created.

There it is again. The mystified feeling of curiosity. The yearning of needing to know where this surreal phenomenon came from and why he had it. Every form of what, why, where, when, and how flooded his mind. He had forgotten the feeling of longing to know the reason of his existence and the need to know where he belongs. Taehyung sighs in resignation and waits for jatun mama’s return.

Taehyung waits by the entrance of the hut, leaning on the rough edges of the brick wall with folded arms. There is a distinct dirt path that starts at the foot of the entrance and winds its way through the fields of grass until it reaches the main road of the valley where most farmers are patrons of. The main road, a bigger dirt path that has been trampled on by animals and humans and wagons, go for miles until it reaches the busy town by the waters. There, the market is an avenue for farmers to trade goods with each other.

He followed jatun mama one early morning down to the market, rumbling through crowds on a wooden wagon pulled by their only horse.. It was lively and packed with both men and women yelling at each other trying to come to a good deal. Ladies would tug at his sleeves to bring his attention to their merchandise and burly men would give him hard stares of a pre warning that says “don’t you dare come on my territory and steal my business”.

Jatun mama had stopped the wagon at the side of the street and told him to unload a parcel. It was loaded with cow meat freshly cut last night, bundles of crops, and two sheets of cow leather. She then pushed him into a shop that sold all types of beans and seeds and grains that were in large open sacks that stood up to his waist. He was told to barter with the shopkeeper for a fair trade of beans and grains to compensate for what they had brought.

Clueless on how to barter, and probably taken advantage of by the chatty lady, he came back out with simply one small sack of beans and a larger sack of rice that would only last them a week. He got a whack on the head for that. Apparently what they had given the shopkeeper was worth three of those large sacks of beans and rice. Jatun mama never called him for a ride to the market again after that. She used the excuse that the cows loved him more and that she would rather he tended to them. Fond memories like that made his heart tender. But he had made his decision and was settled on it so he wills his heart to be strong.

He hears the thundering gallop of the horse and the rumbling wheels of the wagon coming closer. Following the sound, he sees jatun mama’s figure sat on the wagon, inching closer and closer to him. She looked weathered, even more so than when she had left this morning. Guilt tugged at his heart.

“Welcome back jatun mama,” he greets her. He helps her down the front seat of the wagon and follows her to the back to unload whatever goods she had brought back.

Though what greeted him at the back of the wagon were not just the usual market goods. A pair of children, a boy and a girl, peeps out from under the brown cloth that had covered the wagon. Their eyes were cautious but held a fiery, cheeky vibe behind them.

“Uh…” he sounds to jatun mama with a puzzled look, “are they trading kids now at the market?”

“Don’t be silly,” jatun mama clicks her tongue at him. She motioned for the children to get off the wagon and introduces them. “They’re siblings. The boy, Akilpo (aa-kill-po), and the girl, Tuco (two-ko). Old man Kallpa says they are ready to work the fields so I took them.”

Old man Kallpa runs the local orphanage outside of town. Abandoned children and parentless children reside there under his care and a few volunteers. Every child is taught a trade or skill that would help them find jobs in the future and give back to the community that helped them when they were younger. He has never personally visited the orphanage but he hears good things about it from jatun mama. She sends them monthly necessities and food donations and always has a story to bring back.

“You didn’t tell me you wanted to take kids in,” Taehyung follows jatun mama around as she hustles the kids to unload the wagon and directs them to where it should go. “When did you decide on this? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Why are you questioning it so much Juk'ucho? I did this for you,” jatun mama finally answers him after she shoos the children away to take a shower. Taehyung didn’t understand what she meant by that. She faces him and looks him deep into his eyes. “I had a dream three nights ago that three gods were coming to find you to take you away from me. One covered in the shadow, another with a blue cloak, and the other looked like glass. You looked different, Juk'ucho. You looked like them, the gods, but you had a crown of flames on your head.”

Gods? Three of them? A crown of flames? Taehyung’s skin crawls from the descriptions that jatun mama was using for her dream. Did she see those three strangers in her dream before he even saw them this morning?

She wraps her wrinkly hands around his cheeks and said, “I woke up that morning and knew I had to let you go. I don’t know where and when and why, but I knew that the gods in heaven are telling me something. Do you have anything to tell me?”

Taehyung gulps down against his tight throat, not sure of what to say. “T-they came today, in the fields and-”

“And you’re going tomorrow, aren’t you Juk'ucho?” jatun mama smiles knowingly.

“I never wanted to leave you, jatun mama, I never did. After all that you have done for me these past years, I still haven’t paid my debt to you. I owe you my life and the eight other lives I have after,” he confesses in a hurry, his voice choked up by the need to cry in his grandmother’s arms. “I wish I didn’t have to leave you…”

Wordlessly, she embraces her into her arms and held onto the crying boy tightly. She strokes the top of his head to calm him down as she watches the orange sun setting beneath the mountains. “This is not where your life ends, Juk'ucho. I am but a stepping stone in your long life, I understand that. You don’t need to worry about me.”

While she was glad she had followed her what the Gods were telling her, deep in her heart she felt heavy. She had raised this boy for years, it was hard not to feel an attachment to him. He was sweet, always picking wild flowers from his day out in the fields and leaving it in her room so that it smells fragrant when she comes back from the market. He was generous, always giving her the bigger half when they shared a meal. He was polite, always helping her in tasks without a word. And he was hardworking, doing his very best to maintain their crops and cows from dawn to dusk.

She felt as though he himself was leant to her by the Gods to allow her to recover after her own son had passed away weeks before. And now she must return him back to the Gods for he has fulfilled his duty to her. “I love you, Juk'ucho,” she whispers with all her heart. “Keep me in your heart and I will keep you in mine.”