Semi

They were words that followed you in life, as it seemed so did he. At thirteen, you went to the fairground with ten pounds in your pocket and two friends. You felt him before you saw him, the tug in your chest grew when he was near, and you caught a glimpse of him with two friends of his own before you lost sight of him. Instead in your line of sight came the school bully, Yeji, who’s sneer told you exactly who her next victim was. It really shouldn’t have come as a surprise to you when she punched you in the stomach for not giving her your well earned ten pound note, what was definitely a surprise though was the second punch that never came. You had braced yourself for it, but his hands caught the swing before it reached you. You couldn’t see his face, only his soft hair and the wince on Yeji’s face as his hands crushed her fist.

“Leave her alone,” you hadn’t heard his voice in a long time, it was too deep for someone so young. When did he start to sound like that? Yeji fell to her knees with apologies babbling from her mouth, and again you could hear the whispers around you, “that’s Kim Taehyung.”

It was at 16 you found out why everyone knew who he was, it was prom, and Taehyung and his friends decided to gatecrash. If the teachers had any idea these rowdy boys were not from your school, they didn’t show it.

“Trust Kim Taehyung to show up at a school he doesn’t go to and act like a king,” your classmate, Rubin muttered.

“Why is he even here?” His date whispered.

“Must be something his fathers told him to do, a low level drug deal or something.”

“Drugs?” You didn’t mean to pipe in, but you couldn’t stop the outburst. They both looked at you incredulously as if you’d grown a second head.

“Y/n you know who that is right?” Rubin scoffs, “that guy is the heir to the Kim line...”

Your blood runs cold and a sickness settles in your stomach, you turn to look at your supposed soulmate and his eyes are dead set on you, as if waiting for a reaction, like he knew what you just uncovered. You try to swallow the nausea down, you were an idiot to not to put two and two together.

Everyone knows the Kim line, the leaders of a notorious gang that ruled with an invisible fist over your city, a crime syndicate that dealt in more than just drugs and arm deals. The Kim line were the most powerful brothers in the country and it seemed your hands were tied with red string to the heir of the lead brother. Those other two must’ve been his cousins, the next three to run the family business.

Taehyung was the first to break eye contact, turning away from you, and you felt your young heart shatter.

You hadn’t really seen him since then, you felt him near, and you’d be lying if it didn’t comfort you, but the youngest Kim of his generation and the lead heir disappeared from all sight when his father died. You know that meant he must’ve taken over the mantle, and you gazed softly at your hands wondering where the red string was and why it decided to tie you to him. Your mother’s voice could be heard in the back of your mind, but you paid it no attention.

You had never admitted it out loud, but there was such a turmoil inside of you; you wanted your soulmate near but you also wanted him far away. Maybe he knew that, which was why you were in this predicament. Maybe he always knew. You wondered if he also knew you missed his presence, which was ridiculous because you were barely ever in it, you hadn’t said a word to each other and yet you ached for him. You stared at your fingers more intently, maybe if you focused you could see the pesky string and cut it off. Maybe that wouldn’t leave you feeling so hollow and numb.

It was a Thursday night when you felt a different type of presence behind you, why had you decided to walk the twenty minutes to your house from your friends at stupid o’clock instead of taking an Uber like a normal person? Something about saving money, which seemed idiotic considering you were now thinking about saving your life.

You can hear the footsteps behind you pick up their pace as the distance between you and this stranger reduces, so you act on survival - run. In the back of your mind you think if this was innocent and you look like an idiot running away so be it, better safe than sorry. Unfortunately you’re instincts are proven right as the steps behind you turn into a sprint too close behind. You feel your head hit the ground before you realise what’s happened, ears ringing too loudly to hear the gruff voice behind you. You try your best to fight and slip away but a strong hand holds you down.

“Stay still you bitch!”

You scream into the night before he presses his hand to your mouth to muffle you. And in the second you realise this is how you die, the weight above you is gone. You take a second to catch your breath, arms fumbling under you to find the ground and get up and run. It’s the sound of metal pounding against flesh that has you looking back. You don’t see his face, but you know it’s him. The gun should scare you, but it doesn’t, not in his hands, not when it’s beating the man who hurt you. It’s eerie, but you feel safe, even when the trigger goes off, even when you see blood pool down the street.

This is where he normally leaves you, and in your panic you stumble towards him, gravitating to him until your shaky hand meets his sleeve. He lets out a harsh breath of air at the contact and immediately you let go like you’ve wounded him. Your eyes meet the ground, maybe it’s best to resume your normal routine of ephemeral silent knight. You’re surprised as his forefinger and thumb lift your chin to face him, and you’re blessed with the sight of your beautiful soul mate the universe designed for you. Your breath catches in your throat, eyes drinking him in before he leaves you again, but he doesn’t rush away this time.

“Are you okay petal?” It’s deeper than you last heard, a voice made to pick at the strings of your soul and it does, you can feel it reverberate inside of you. You don’t realise your tears have welled at the sound until he’s wiping the first drop away. You nod softly, afraid a pin drop would shatter this dream away.

He frowns, looking like he’s about to speak again before he decides against it and looks away, jaw clenched. This was a complication for him, you could feel it, and it hurt. He lets out a deep sigh before gingerly taking your fingers into his, he feels so warm, and even though his large hands are nothing like yours, his touch feels just right. He leads you with slow steps in the direction of your house. It shouldn’t surprise you he knows where you live, you never really believed he left.

What does surprise you is that he has a key, and you want to voice the questions forming in your throat but you’re terrified once you distrupt the silence youve held with this man since the moment you met, he’d disappear again.

He sits you down on the sofa of the living room, a tsk leaving his lips as he notices the scratches and cuts on your knees from where you fell. He takes an arm into his hands, pulling back the sleeves as you wince, and his suspicions are right, there are cuts there too. He inspects your face next, fingers brushing back your hair as he caresses your head and his eyes penetrate you. You don’t maintain eye contact, finding the speck on the wall ridiculously interesting, as your cheeks burn against the cold in the air. Why does he feel amused and angry at you at the same time?

He leaves you for a moment to grab the first aid kit in the kitchen, how the hell did he know it was in there?

“What idiot goes out by herself at this time of night?” He grumbles harshly as he takes out the ointment and bandages. Really he’s been wanting to scold you since he put a bullet in that bastard but his anger died when he saw your innocent little eyes look up at him. He’s really messed things up, no you messed things up by being stupid with your safety. The angry flame decides to burn again, as he takes your hands a little less than softly and presses the ointment onto your cut. It’s your wince that has him reeling back.

Is this really the first conversation your soulmate decides to have with you?

You were staring at his face until then, eyes instinctively shutting against the pain, you miss the way his face softens, placing plasters on your skin gently when he’s done. He’s more careful with your knee, watching for your reaction as he dabs the ointment there, blowing lightly to ease the sting.

Your eyes flutter open at the new sensation, a chill running up your body as your fingers go to grip at the ends of your skirt at the sight in front of you, but you can’t look away. You’ve been denied this face for too long, your soul was trying to beat out of your heart to get closer to him.

Instead of answering his question, you ask your own.

“Why have you stayed away from me for so long?” Your voice is quiet but it cuts through him, a new pain in his chest from how small you sound. His soulmate speaks to him for the first time and she sounds hurt because of him. He looks away then with a sense of shame. What was he supposed to say? He’s been destined to take over a crime syndicate that’s been passed through generations and doesn’t want his soulmate involved? That it was easier to keep you safe if no one knew who you were to him, and it killed him to stay away this long. That in his soul he knew you were pure and gentle, and the universe was playing some cruel trick in making you for him when he also knew you wouldn’t stomach the life he could give you.

He remembered your face too well, that prom night when he saw you find out about who he really was. He always feared you finding out, he knew it would happen eventually but it did nothing to soften the blow, the look you had etched in his mind forever. He would see it when he closed his eyes every night, alone, ruling his empire.

He doesn’t answer you as he moves to the cut on your forehead, but you push him away, looking into his eyes as if he’d written the answers there.

“I really missed you,” you confess breathlessly, it had taken a lot of strength to say it. “Do you have any idea how crazy that sounds?”

You can’t stop the tears welling up now but you don’t break eye contact, not when you needed to get this turmoil out of your chest.

“We’ve never spoken until tonight but I missed you, I looked for you every day but pretended I didn’t, I looked for you everywhere hoping to catch at least a glimpse, just something that didn’t make me feel like you weren’t real or something to tell me you were safe!”

You were weeping, and he wanted to wipe it all away, but he didn’t feel like he had the right to. Your words crushed him and he knew he deserved this feeling of anguish after making you feel it for so long.

He remembers the day he met you, how elated he felt in such a tiny body with such a big grin. He was so shy then, completely innocent to the world his father laid out for him, he couldn’t say a word to you. You looked at him with big eyes and an open mouth, not understanding the pull you were feeling, it was too soon, you both were so young. You were so pretty to him, like all the flowers that surrounded you both, he had to leave before he could hear your name but in his heart he called you petal. Even much later when he did find out everything about who you were, in his heart you were still petal, fragile in his world, he wouldn’t let you enter it.

He wanted to tell you how hard it was to stay away, how his body rejected the idea of being apart from you. He knew the pain it caused you both, but in his mind it would be worth it. You would live a safer life without him, and while it might not feel complete it was better than exposing you to the danger he could not leave. He hoped in his abstinence he would crave you less as time went on, but it never lessened, so he watched you from afar, making sure you were always safe.

“Petal,” he lets out a deep sigh, and your heart flutters at the sound, hoping you aren’t imagining the affection in his voice.

He doesn’t know what to say to comfort you, he never has before. In all the moments he’s interfered with your life to keep you from harm, he always walked away before he could give into the temptation of talking to you, how his tongue burned to ask you if you were okay each time and how he bit it to stop himself.

“You know who I am, and I am so sorry the universe picked the likes of me for someone as beautiful as you,” he holds your gaze with sincerity, you didn’t think that look could break your soul, but it does. You miss your boxy smiled boy, you both should’ve lived in that moment so long ago forever. In this world, soulmates were an ugly thing.

“I never wanted you to stay away Taehyung,” why did you have to say his name for the first time with such sadness? He smiles humourlessly to himself, if he thought the pain of staying away was unbearable, he didn’t know how to describe this new torture.

“Petal, I’m a monster,” he says disgusted with himself. He hated that this was what he was in front of you, the day he met you he wanted to become your prince and instead he became king of hell on Earth, a depth he would never let you reach.

“Did you ask me if I cared? Did you say a word to me before tonight Taehyung!”

“You didn’t need to tell me, I could see it on your face,” he scoffed. You didn’t expect the hurt to crack through his mask, but for a second you could see how deep it ran. A fear of rejection like your own, and you realised maybe you both hurt each other.

“I was sixteen Taehyung,” you say softly, not wanting to break the mask as much as wanting to take it off. “I was shocked, but then it passed and I put my faith in the universe because it wouldn’t have picked you if you weren’t made for me.”

It’s getting harder for him to keep his mask from slipping off, if only he were the type of man to deserve you, maybe then this wouldn’t be so hard.

“I was just waiting for you to come around,” you whisper. “I didn’t want to push you, so I waited because in my heart I knew one day it would be okay.”

“I don’t think that days today Y/n,” he says bringing it all to an end and shattering any hope you had left. He watches you begin to cry painfully, your soul anxious at being hollow once again. It becomes too much and you curl into yourself, digging your nails into your skin, not letting yourself watch him as he gets up and leaves you alone once again.

in a universe where for Taehyung and his family soulmates are a source of weakness, coming to realize that his soulmate is so close but so unattainable is despondent. for both the OC and Taehyung the feel and pull of the red string of fate that draws then in; that must of been hard to resist.

You had never admitted it out loud, but there was such a turmoil inside of you; you wanted your soulmate near but you also wanted him far away

If anyone asked the CEOs which one of them worked the hardest, their immediate answer would be Namjoon, without a single doubt in their minds. He was the one that built the foundations of the company, balanced all of it on his shoulders despite how heavy the burden had become. But for Namjoon none of it was worth doing without the other CEOs, it kept them together, if it weren’t for all of them he would never have been able to prove the world wrong when they laughed at his beginnings. If it weren’t for the company, he would never have been able to meet you.

You balanced his stress, every time he felt as if he would implode you were somehow there to calm the storm, and he was grateful for it because sometimes it was all too much. But it was only a matter of time before the clock on the bomb counted down to zero.

The first thing that set him off today was the maknaes sloppy penmanship on todays contracts, they had hastily finished to be able to escape the office and find you. Namjoon didn’t have that luxury.

The second instance was when he found Yoongi asleep in his office after missing the meeting Namjoon entrusted him with. Everything from then on put him on edge and you were no where to be seen to cool him down.

He must’ve had a glare on his face, his stride was met with no barriers, his employees parted like the red sea with one glance at his expression, bowing extra low today as he passed with his jaw clenched, fists hidden in his pockets. A mountain of paper work was sitting on his desk and every time he looked at it he wanted to throw it off his desk.

“Kim Depyunim!” A voice called for him in a rush, he turned to see Jackson running along the corridor to find him.

“Jackson?” He frowned at the look of fear on his secretary’s face, unsure of what was happening.

“We lost the deal with Hybe,” he panted, catching his breath as he wearily watched his boss expression change to one of rage.

“What!” He almost snarled. “How?”

“The team handling it didn’t complete the files on time.”

“Get them in meeting room 2, now!” He ordered before walking away, lava ready to erupt out of his head onto the company, and then he remembered… you were on that team.

——————————————————————————

6 people stood in front of the lead CEO with their faces down, hands trembling under his stare. Even you looked worried, anxiety starting to rise through your chest at his silence. You wanted to say something, but what could you?

“Who wants to explain to me why and how we lost this merger?” His tone is calm, and you know then you’re all fucked royally.

There’s hesitation amongst the group, your nerves skyrocket when you realise he hasn’t even looked at you. He’s focused all his attention on your colleagues as if you weren’t even there, and you hated it. You hated being in trouble more, but this punishment of not acknowledging you was more than you could handle.

“Depyunim,” you breathe meekly before clearing your throat, it’s so silent after his question you could hear a pin drop so everyone heard you clearly, even the man who refused to glance your way, but he raises a brow to your voice. “The files were completed, we honestly don’t know what happened, I thought we handed them in.”

Your eyes can’t help but gravitate towards Charlie, who looked guilty as hell, you all trusted him to submit all your hard work. If Namjoon looked your way he would’ve noticed.

“I’m really disappointed in you Miss L/n,” he admits harshly and though his tone is despondent it cuts you deeper than if he had swore or yelled at you. He called you by your last name and you felt your heart break. “I really expected more from you all.”

He leans down on the desk in front of him, piercing a hole in the wood with his glare.

“Kim Depyunim I don’t understand why we’re all being berated like this, we did the work, obviously one of us is at fault here not us all,” Suran blatantly side glances at your incompetent colleague and this time Namjoon doesn’t miss it.

There’s a pause in the air that thickens, each of you gulp nervously as the bull in front of you exhales steam from his flared nostrils.

“Because you’re a team,” he says seething. “I expected you to work like a team, and hand the paperwork in!”

Everyone flinches as his fist slams against the wood, you wince at the sound, worried about if it hurt him.

“You cost this company a hundred billion won deal!” His voice rises in volume, each of you felling smaller and smaller at the receiving end. “Mr Puth!”

All eyes turn to the culprit of you current situation.

“Anything you want to add or confess to?” Namjoon snarls.

Your colleague shakes his head in denial and fear, eyes unable to meet his employer’s, unable to admit he lost the files.

“N-no sir,” he answers.

“Really?” He says mockingly. “You throw your colleagues hard work in their faces and you have nothing to say? You destroy a deal I spent 7 years trying to get, and you have nothing to say!”

“Sir I-”

“If you had owned up to your mistake I might’ve forgiven you,” Namjoon growls, stalking up to the man on shaking legs, eyes intent on murder. “You’re fired. Effective immediately.”

Jaws drop, a new side to the the level headed CEO unleashed. They had seen Kim Namjoon pissed before, but it was usually his calm demeanour that made them scared, they respected him enough that when he was disappointed in them it did cause turmoil in themselves. But this was new, this was their company head pushed too far, and the sight terrified them all.

He stands toe to toe with his employee before the final blow.

“Get your incompetency far away from my fucking company.”

No one says a word as Charlie walks out with his head hung low, sniffles coming from the man with each step he took. There’s no remorse on the CEOs face, only contempt.

“Miss L/n stay behind, the rest of you are dismissed,” he commands. “Now get the hell out of my sight.”

The bodies file out close behind your disgraced colleague, eyes glancing at you in worry, one thought running through their heads, Y/n is screwed.

The door shuts and you finally find the gall to speak.

“Are you going to shout at me too?” You say in a small voice, approaching him with an arm across your body, hand holding onto your elbow as if it would protect you, looking up at him with big doe eyes.

He sighs, regretting his earlier comment made your way in anger. To your complete shock he grabs your arm, pulling you suddenly into his embrace. Immediately he could feel the effect of your presence calm him down, adrenaline finding a way out of his body, eyes closing in relief as he felt you against him. He could feel the others call out his hypocrisy, using his own words about maintaining a distance from you against him.

“None of that was aimed at you baby girl,” he confesses, it was why he didn’t look at you, he didn’t want to direct his anger your way.

“Could’ve fooled me,” you mutter under your breath, still hurt by his comment.

He exhaled deeply, nodding as he accepted his mistake.

“Im sorry Y/n,” he says. “I know how hard you work baby girl, that wasn’t fair.”

He smiles softly at you, it turns into a playful grin when you try smiling back, scoffing lightly at his words as you shake your head and look away. He doesn’t miss the heat running to the surface of your cheeks, its the only inviting warmth out here in the cold, but he pretends not to notice, for his sake more than yours.

“You’re a strong human Y/n,” he says sincerely. “Whatever they throw at you, whatever they put you through, you can deal with it, it’s not forever.”

Yoongi hated humans, despised everyone, you heard his rants a thousand times. But you’d never once heard him speak like this, he was sarcastic most of the time, the difference makes you gaze back at him. He made you want to cry again.

“You’ve got to endure it Y/n,” he encouraged. “Just a little bit longer, and you’re out…

And no matter what, I’m here.”

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You don’t know what made you dream of a memory you had tried to push to the back of your mind for the past decade. No good came from remembering, he had told you that once, but you couldn’t let him go, you couldn’t let any of them go. Your crusted eyes tried to open in the light but they were so heavy you couldn’t manage it. You were still tied to the chair, your bones aching, your body burning under every bruise and cut you had.

Maybe you deserved this, maybe this was your punishment in failing to save the hybrids that haunted you. You’d take it, whether it atoned for your sins or not, you’d take every ounce of pain they sent you, anything to keep Jimin safe.

You hear the door to the interrogation room you’re in open a crack, light pouring through it as it hid the person behind it. You wince as you try to raise your head proudly to meet them, the venom already shooting out of your eyes. You wondered how many countless people were tortured here, how many slipped their tongue failing to protect the hybrids they harboured or hid. You wouldn’t be one of them, no matter what they planned for you, they could cut off your limbs before you ever gave Jimin up.

Whoever lingers by the door flicks the light switch on, the room flooding with artificial light, blinding you momentarily. You groan at the sensation, your head spinning as the figure walks towards you. As much as it hurt, you raise your head to meet them, jaw clenched as you take her in. The last person you expected to greet you was your old best friend, you can see your hard expression falter into surprise in her eyes.

“Just tell them where he is Y/n,” Jessica says softly, as if she were being kind in her advice. “Then all of this can stop.”

You don’t say a word, an unfathomable rage burning through your body at her words, did she seriously think this was all okay? This to their own daughter for their greater fucking good.

“Fuck you,” you spit. They would have to kill you.

She sighs, in her mind you were so naive and so foolish, over hybrids? You were inflicting this morose pain on yourself over a hybrid?

“If you don’t want to tell them where the tabby is, tell them about the others,” she insists. “About whatever criminal undercover organisation youve joined.”

“Why are you here?” It hurts to frown but you do, your brain slowly waking in realising they must’ve sent her, another tactic to get you to spill. You bite your tongue, you’ve already spoken more words to her than you had the interrigator, or your parents, if they were watching they’d think this was the right way to get you to talk, and in all honesty, you’d rather take the torture than talk to your so called best friend.

You keep your silence, even as she begins to talk louder and louder, screaming at you. You keep your mouth shut, they weren’t taking your hybrid.

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“Jimin, if you walk out of this door everything is over,” Jongin tries to placate the cat hybrid, his palms raised as his back is to the front door.

The feline growls, teeth bared to the human. There’s banging coming from the bedroom the human locked his own hybrid in, knowing two aggressive hybrids were not a good combination, even if all Sehun wanted to do was protect his own human. But Jongin doesn’t believe the tabby will hurt him, not with the way you had described him, not with that fondness in your eyes.

“Get out of my way,” he snarls, eyes unblinking in their stare.

“Listen to me, if you leave it won’t save her,” he desperately tries to explain. “Think Jimin! Hybrid Patrol are everywhere, if they find you, and they will very quickly, everything she’s sacrificed for you goes to waste.”

“I can save her,” despite his conviction, the human thinks the hybrid must know his words are not true.

“You can’t,” he shakes his head sadly. “They’re not just after you Jimin, they’re after all of us, that’s why they have her. She knew it was inevitable they would find you both, so she made the only sacrifice that would save you.”

The hybrid breathes slow deep breaths, the tears he’s trying so hard to battle away threatening to become uncovered now the hopeless feeling was settling in once again.

“I can’t leave her,” Jimin confesses, an uncontrolled yowl spilling from his throat. “She’s my human, she’s my Y/n. She's my mate.”

The human’s eyes widen as he takes in his words, a realisation that should’ve come sooner if he had let himself think about it.

“She's my mate!” he cries openly, a shattering feeling still resonating through his chest. It didn’t matter how many times he broke inside, the feeling came again and again and again.

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They sit in the room with you in silence, watching you. You don’t know how much time had passed until they broke it.

“Who would have thought my daughter would’ve turned into a hybrid whore,” she says solemnly. “Did we really teach you nothing?”

Her tone almost sounds sad, disappointed, as if you had received a bad grade in school. You hear her sigh, refusing to look at them while they pondered over their own failure.

“This is because you didn’t let her join the hunt,” she snaps at him. “You were too soft on her.”

“She was a child,” he sighed. “This is because you let her play in the park alone, that’s where she met them, that’s where she befriended them.”

Their argument turns into an annoying buzz in your ears, your mind elsewhere to distract you from the pain in your body as well as the presence in the room. You picture Jimin, his happy face beaming at you, or you try to at least, that smile he wears turns into a look of hate, a fire in his eyes that screamed at your betrayal. You missed him so much but you couldn’t handle the glare on his face.

I did it for you Jiminie, you think to the conjured image presented in your mind. Anything to keep you safe.

His face blurs as you begin to lose consciousness again, it kept coming and going in waves, the wounds on your skin too much for your brain to fathom. You think it's a safety mechanism of some sort, that or you were so weak and tired that you couldn’t hold anything together. When your eyes flutter closed and a light sleep takes you again, you see yourself walk towards the figure, hand stretched out to touch him. The face becomes clearer once more, but it isn’t Jimin. It’s the other feline you failed to save, you can feel your heart in your throat, the heavy guilt weighing on your bones as you touch his face.

“Yoongi,” you whisper to the ghost haunting your dream, feeling your heart split in two the way it had since Jimin came into your life.

He stares at you stoic, but you can read his thoughts, and you cry for his forgiveness.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jongin knew the hybrids they saved imprinted on their humans, they all knew it, it was a natural thing to happen, a reflex of their synapses. The first human to show them real warmth, it was almost a parental bond. This was what he assumed Jimin had done to you, imprinted… he didn’t realise Jimin had chosen you as his mate. It wasn’t unheard of, a human mate for a hybrid, but it was a problem. In this situation at least.

The phone pressed to his ear rings and rings, the male human begging internally for their leader to pick up. It goes to voicemail once again and Jongin is left helpless.

A hybrid without its mate… This dilemma was becoming more complicated by the second.

“Come on hyung,” he grumbles stressfully as he dials again. Third time lucky right?

“Kai we call for emergencies,” Jun-myeon sighs through the phone, he already had Baekhyun stealing and using Kyungsoo’s phone throughout the day, he was already on his last straw.

“Hyung, Y/n is his mate,” he utters quickly through the receiver, forgoing your codename in the statement by accident.

There's a palpable silence that follows, almost making Jongin think the line was cut, but the big breath out that comes through the line tells him it was not.

“Is he showing any symptoms?” His voice is stern, almost business like if it werent for the urgent tone.

“I-I…” he hesitates as he thinks through the answer before sighing. “He’s grieving, I can’t tell.”

“Shit…” Jun-myeon groans. “Let me call D.O, we were working on a plan to get Echo out… looks like we need to do this sooner rather than later.”

“What do I do with Jimin?”

“Get Sehun to keep an eye on him, as soon as he senses a change in his scent or any symptoms, call me.”

“Okay,” Jongin nods as he thinks the instructions through.

“Kai…” their leader hesitates. “If it’s hybrid flu you can handle it, if its… fuck- if Sehun smells any bitterness... You lock that hybrid up.”

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He finds them in the library, releasing a breath of relief, hands on his sides for support before his thoughts ran away from him. If he were human his heart would be pounding. They’re all sitting like stone, downcast and silent in thought, not even rising to greet their brother.

“Why are you all here?” He dares to ask.

For a second there's a contemplative silence, lasting too long for the prince’s panicking impatience.

“She threatened to kill herself if we tried to make her immortal,” Hoseok bluntly informs him, all of them still reeling from the scene in your room.

Namjoon sucks in a breath, jaws clenched as he struggles to keep his bond closed. He can’t help the fury and despair sink into his chest, he knew you were stubborn but this was too much. He finally takes in Taehyung’s form, the look of despair on his face somehow much worse than the others. Of course… he was the only one that didn’t know about your reluctance for immortality. He walks over to the vampire, hand on his shoulder in comfort.

“Did you find anything?”

“Are we really going to do this?” Jungkook buries his face in his hands, aggravated and on edge now there was so much on the line with your ultimatum. “If she finds out…”

“She won’t,” Jin replies dismissively. “We don’t ever let her find out.”

“Only what you already know,” Taehyung answers the earlier question without emotion. “The cosmic beings mentioned a name, but said little else.”

“What did the witches say?” Hoseok intervenes, needing to know what Namjoon had found, if anything.

“They’re now on our side,” Namjoon says, almost slyly grinning at his own genius.

“To betray us later on?” Jimin isn’t buying it, not for a second.

“I compelled them to kill each other in the most heinous hideous ways if Y/n ever dies,” Namjoon informs them with a devious look in his eyes. “It’s now in their best interest.”

“Did they have any more information?”

“More than we did, but I didn’t stick around long enough to find out,” he confesses. “I just wanted to see if she was alright first, I’ll pay them another visit soon… What name did the cosmic beings give you, Taehyung?”

“Chaos, have you ever heard of them?” The vampire looks up at his older brother, holding down his emotions.

“I have,” Yoongi answers instead. “When I left, before we were called back by the bond, I went to visit an old foe.”

“Who?” Hoseok asks, he didn’t know about this.

“Hades, the underworld, that’s why it took me so long to come back,” the older vampire sighs. “I think I know why she’s reluctant to turn.”

“Reluctant isn’t the world for it hyung,” Jungkook relents. “She threatened to-”

He can’t even finish his sentence, hand in his hair, pushing it back before he chews on his bottom lip, trying to calm down.

“Yoongi why?” Jin asks desperately, the image of you on that bed with that defiant promise in your eyes haunted all of them, they needed to understand it.

“It's a failsafe,” he informs them. “Once Hades realised he couldn’t burn me to the ground he was actually forthcoming. Chaos created the failsafe in her, for some reason she or he doesn’t want Y/n to become immortal, so if anyone should try for greed or whatever, she shuts herself down.”

“I think I read something…” Namjoon’s voice trails off as he speeds into the maze of bookshelves, returning with a gold edged thick book in his hands. “Before Atlas was punished with holding the heavens, the titan wrote this; map of the cosmos.”

He opens the book in front of them on the table, pages flickering until he finds the part he was looking for.

“The cosmos is bleeding?” Hoseok’s eyebrow goes up at the title of the chapter as Namjoon’s finger skims through the page, eyes darting across the words until he finds the passage.

“Cosmic beings and entities are messy, the history is all over the place and they lie through their teeth to feed their egos,” Namjoon informs them as his eyes flicker on the words he’s reading. “They claimed to be gods to the humans three thousand years ago, and they had the power to enforce that belief, but-”

He turns the book to his brothers, finger jabbing the passage he’s finally located as the others lean in to read it.

“Atlas himself wrote this, before the olympian empire, before he was sentenced to hold the celestial sphere-”

“The what?” Jin interrupts.

“The universe, our universe! Hyung you were there when Dionysus explained-”

“I was very drunk,” Jin defends himself. “We really should have saved some of that wine, not every liquor in the world can inebriate a vampire.”

“Hyung, did you steal this book from an olympian?” Jungkook winces. “They hold grudges for millennia, even I know that.”

“I didn’t steal it, I won it in a wager that we could out drink him,” Namjoon informs the youngest with narrowed eyes. “This was before you and Taehyung were even born.”

“I can’t believe he thought I was a lightweight,” Jimin reminisces smugly.

“Read the passage,” Namjoon forced the conversation back to the matter at hand.

Celestial creatures fought for the unattainable title of ruler of the cosmos since the pillars of creation, out of them all, Nyx was the closest to the power of her parent, born before the fabric of reality itself. Blinded by greed and desire for temporal infinity, every soul born under the realm of Chronus would be tempted by the apeiron abilities of the predecessor of the cosmos. But eternal and everlasting, Chaos hid its essence inside of the weakest vessel, so that it would burn to stop the bleeding of the universe, allowing them only a taste of her light. For Chaos knew the beings that inhabited the celestial sphere were slaves to their own id, even if it should destory them.

“That adds up with what Hades said,” Yoongi breathes out, taking in the page with a solemn nod. “Had to kill him, he was too interested in her whereabouts. Apparently for them a human is too small and insignificant to easily find, needle in a haystack, even if it is the blood fruit.”

“Can someone explain for those of us that haven’t been alive as long,” Jungkook frowns as he rereads the paragraph for the tenth time. “Who the fuck are these people?”

“Chronus is the ruler of time, Nyx owns in the night, Chaos is supposedly the entity that birthed the first beings of this universe, if you trust everything you read to be true.”

“Okay and what the fuck is an ap-ap-eiron?”

“It means unlimited,” Namjoon sighs, side-eyeing Jin who could read the look easily, returning it with a cheeky but guilty grin. All those times Namjoon tried to educate the maknae, Jin always managed to get him out of it.

“I met Nyx, she was one of the cosmic beings that accepted my offering,” Taehyung breathes in disbelief, the answer was so close and he let it slip away, if Nyx was the daughter of Chaos, she would definitely have known how to make you immortal.

“So now she knows we have the blood fruit,” Yoongi groans. “We won a war on this planet, I don’t think we can take every alien out there.”

“Though that would be an accurate description, they’re as alien as we are,” Namjoon corrects him. “There are so many different types of cosmic beings within this sector of lore, this is just scratching the surface. In different dimensions there are vast species of celestial entities, worlds we can’t even fathom, we just get inklings of information when they decide to pass by, the Egyptians, the Romans, it's all connected.”

“And they all want Y/n,” Hobi breathes.

“No Nyx and her family wanted nothing to do with this whole mess,” Taehyung sounds exasperated. “They know more than we do.”

“That doesn’t mean the others won’t, you read what we just did,” Hoseok reasons before turning to their leader with an epiphany. “Do you think that's why they visit every millennia or so?”

“That would make sense,” Namjoon nods in thought. “‘Every soul born under the realm of Chronus would be tempted’, technically Nyx was born at the same time as, well, time itself, that would put her outside of this cohort or curse.”

“I don’t understand,” Jimin shakes his head. “Why didn’t Chaos just destroy the essence or power or whatever it is, why did they put it in a defenceless human?”

“Scales of energy,” Yoongi mumbles, gandering a guess. “I assume even they aren’t outside of the laws of the universe.”

“Everything is balanced,” Namjoon nods. “That much power needs to be siphoned away or wasted, it can’t just be destroyed.”

“That’s why it's killing her,” Taehyung breathes into his interlocked hands as he fidgets, his legs restless as he realises how much bigger this was than the tales told to them about a fruit. “It’s too much for her body to contain.”

“That’s why a human was picked,” Namjoon says. “Whatever is in her blood is eternal, but it's tied to her life, once she dies so does it, it's genius really… objectively speaking.”

“They said something else,” Taehyung says quietly as he remembers. “They called her the blood star, they wanted her to die before she became a black hole, but the nymphs… the nymphs said that was the only way to make her immortal.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Jimin could feel a headache forming from all the metaphors and mythology as he tried to grasp what it actually meant for them.

“That much power in a vessel that can’t hold it…” Namjoon thinks out loud, nodding again to his own thoughts as they start to decipher the younger vampire’s words. “In terms of stars only two things can happen, they burn bright and fast and die, or they collapse in on themselves, a concentration of enormous mass in a single point, forming a dark star.”

He glances down at the book in front of them, flipping the page before his eyes fall onto the words he suddenly recalled.

The wrath of Chaos is balanced with its sympathy for life, it is for the dwellers of the cold cosmos these rules are enforced, should the blood star not be bled dry, should the planets caught in its orbit not let it die, the scales of the cosmos will tip over to one side. Gravity will take them in its final form, the dark star will consume every aspect of life, not even darkness nor light will escape the tear in the fabric of space and time. No one can wield this power and survive.

“What do we do now?” Hoseok asks, oblivious to the way Namjoon’s mind was occupied elsewhere. “We still haven’t found the Phoenix.”

“That’s what you were looking for?” Jungkook asks the two vampires.

“Namjoon had a theory,” Jin waves off the younger’s comment. “Do we still search for it?”

Their eyes turn to the silent prince when he doesn’t reply.

“Namjoon?” Hoseok breaks him out of his thoughts, his stare breaking from the empty space in front of him.

“Where are your thoughts hyung?” Jimin asks with his brows furrowed.

The taller vampire breathes in deeply before sighing, facing his brothers with hesitation to voice where his mind was taking him.

“Have any of you ever had these urges since you drank her blood?”

“What do you mean?” Yoongi asks, mirroring Jimin’s frown.

“Only our abilities,” Jin answers after a moment.

“I understand the passage, the warnings, I…” he tries to confess.

“Spit it out Namjoon.”

“I have these intrusive visions sometimes, when she’s near,” he can’t face them when he speaks, eyes drawn to the floor to avoid their reaction. “Her and I on these dark thrones as rulers of the realm, something tells me I can have that, if I want it.”

The silence that follows is palpable though temporary.

“Do you want it?” Jimin asks with unease.

“Only when her safety is compromised, only when that is out of my control.”

“Okay so we tread cautiously,” Yoongi takes in what the highest prince said. “But Y/n is a real person, her own person, none of these cruel fucking rules takes that into account, so we don’t give up.”

They nod in agreement.

“So where do we go from here?”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Their faces haunt your dreams that night, you had never wanted them to look at you like that, with so much sorrow and despair especially when your words were the cause of it. Even when you wake in the morning those faces still stare at you in your mind. You pull the covers over your head as if that would protect you or cocoon you from the outside, despondently staring at nothing. Their sides of the bond were closed, all of them, they all shut you out. You could understand why, of course you could, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt.

It was never going to go back to the way things were with you all, you needed time, and you didn’t have it. You couldn’t even ask for it, that siren in your body rang red each time you even dared to think such thoughts, putting it to an end with a foreboding feeling running down your spine.

There was one face you didn’t get to see last night, one face that hadn’t come to visit you yet since… since you almost died. If Namjoon were back the others would have told him about your ultimatum, you know him, he would’ve come in guns blazing, eyes set in that awful disappointed look, but he was nowhere to be seen. Surely he must’ve felt you wake up.

The scene is almost giving you de ja vu, a memory from years previous when they weren’t as unhappy as you’ve made them now. Maybe he closed both sides of the bond, so he couldn’t feel you either even if you knocked. Maybe they all did that.

Or… another sinister voice warns you, whispering into your ears like demons do, he’s out there searching for immortality like Taehyung did, maybe he didn’t come home, maybe he doesn’t know of your threat.

The covers are thrown off your head as your feet find the floor, marching with hurry to the Vampire prince’s suite before knocking harshly on the door. You don’t wait for a reply, the panic in your blood was making your heart burst out of your ears.

Namjoon frowns when he sees the cloud of anxiety shower over you as you stand at his doorway, the book he was holding placed down onto his desk when you start striding towards him before throwing yourself into his chest, arms wrapping around his waist.

“Y/n?”

He can hear you breathing heavily against him, face buried into him as you try to calm down, but he can smell the petrichor before a tear even drops from your eye.

“I thought you were gone,” you whisper against him, trying to regain control over yourself. You thought he had left you like Taheyung did.

His arms come to cover your back like a shield to your vulnerability, holding you against him tighter as he pressed a kiss to your temple, fingers stroking the bare skin of your arm.

“I’m right here love,” he says as he rests his chin on your head.

“Joon I know you’re angry with me,” you whimper against him but he hushes you softly. “But-”

“I’m not angry with you Y/n,” he reassures you softly, feeling you frown against him. Of course he was angry with you, he must’ve been, you knew him, was he lying to you? He can feel the question through the bond, or the feelings that came with it at least, but you were all together for so long now he knew what your emotions meant.

“Light of my life,” he sighs before pulling away slightly to hold your face into his palms, making you look up at him. “I promise you I’m not angry with you, I just wanted you to rest.”

He wipes away the little damp spots on your cheeks, another kiss to your forehead, but when he moves away you pull him down to meet your lips.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

“She’ll notice if we’re absent,” Yoongi says as he feels your emotions calm.

“Not to mention we need to make her happy again, unless we want another event like last night,” Hoseok sighs.

“We do what Joon said, if she asks we’re taking care of politics, we always make it back as quickly as possible.”

“We don’t all go out together, we make our absence as subtle as possible.”

“That’s going to slow us down considerably,” Hoseok groans.

“We keep her distracted Hoseok,” Jin restates. “She can never find out.”

“So who goes first?” Jungkook interrupts the conversation between the three. “We have to decide this carefully.”

“Joon said he’ll visit the witches at night when she’s asleep, Taehyung will stay here,” Yoongi thinks out loud. “He's been away from precious for too long, it’s had an impact on them both.”

“Agreed,” Hoseok nods. “The phoenix is the most important thing to find first.”

“I’ll go,” Yoongi volunteers, already missing you even though he hadn’t left, but he knew logically with his powers, he’d be the least vulnerable to their enemies. It just made sense.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sometimes the bond felt like 7 pieces of string, pulling taunt, tying you to them. Everytime the string moved, you could read its vibrations, you could answer it back. One string in particular grew slack, like it was dropping out of reach, and as much as you wanted to ignore it, you couldn’t.

He hasn’t fed in a while, you think to yourself, telling yourself he would’ve wasted so much energy and power in the time he has been away. You don’t realise your feet are walking on their own accord until you’ve reached his room. The door is open unlike his bond, he’s staring out of his window past the rain, his head leaning on the glass as he watches the droplets fall.

“You need to drink, you've left for a while,” you grumble with your arms crossed, leaning at the door frame, refusing to enter just yet.

“I’m fine,” he doesn’t even glance at you

“You haven’t had any blood doing whatever the hell you’ve been doing, just take a drop, stop being such an idiot,” you mutter almost through gritted teeth, fists clenching.

He stalks up to you, a mixture of pain, anger and sorrow on his face that you recognise. He walks right past you and away, making you sigh, you couldn’t blame him, damn your empathetic nature you understood what he was feeling all too well. Lack of control, the most unattainable fear that the love of his life was going to be ripped away from him. You understood his emotions towards you too, you were both simultaneously the light of his life, and the very thing that threatened to throw him to the darkness.

“Tae,” you sigh, chasing after him, thankful his steps weren’t too fast for you. You don’t stop until you collide with his back, arms wrapping around his middle to keep him still, a wordless apology from your form to him despite the anger you still held against him. You bury your face into his back as he tenses, you had been fighting the urge to close the distance between you both stubbornly, but your bond had been left untamed and desperate.

You remember Namjoon lecturing all of you once, the importance of touch and time when it came to maintaining a bond, the soul shattering consequences if you let one break. You were terrified that was what was happening between the two of you now, it was so selfish but you couldn’t let that happen, it would destroy you.

“Do you want me to let you go?” you ask him, almost whispering, a loaded question though he would not know it. If he did, you’d do it, you’d end this limbo you were both caught in. You’d do it if it made him happy.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

“That’s enough,” Jin is the first one to speak, although unmoving, only Jimin looks away from your body to break the two apart. Jungkook can’t control the rage in his body as he stares his older brother down like a bull in a room of red, they hear you wince feebly, almost inaudible if not for their heightened senses, the concoction of emotions between the two flooding your system.

“Close your bonds,” Hoseok orders as he watches a crease form between your brows, your breathing becoming agitated. “She can’t deal with your shit right now, stop acting like newborns and control your emotions.”

“Was it worth it?” Jungkook asks, his anger still seething as he tries to reign the bond shut between you and him. “If we listened to her, if we just respected her wishes-”

“She’s mortal Jungkook,” Taehyung’s voice is small but it cuts through the youngest. “Death is always looming around her.”

“She had ten years,” the fire in his doe eyes finally died down only to give way to the sadness he was holding back. “Now she doesn’t even have ten days.”

“Why? What happened?” He looks around the room at his brothers for an answer, when he left you were alive, you didn’t look like this, he could barely look at you now in this almost corpse like state.

“Namjoon spoke to the witches, her emotions have an effect on her lifespan,” Yoongi informs him, void of emotion. It takes a second, but it feels like Taehyung was caught in his own time trap, the tick of a clock took a century to pass as the information weighed on him, the consequences of his actions fitting together like puzzle pieces until the picture cleared. This was his fault.

“Where’s hyung now?”

“Sorting out your mess,” Jungkook snaps.

“Did you find anything?” Jin tries to keep the hope out of his voice, but a sliver of it can be heard in the question.

Taehyung swallows down his own tears, walking up to your body hesitantly, everything he did was to prevent this. This whole scene was an echo from the past, he remembers the last time you were on the bed in this state, and they all were terrified of whether you would make it or not, everything he did he did so he wouldn’t have to take these same exact steps again. The universe was cruel in its irony.

He wants to touch you, he wants to hold you, bawl his eyes out while begging for forgiveness.

“Theories,” Taehyung whispers in answer, almost as if he were afraid to wake you. “Sacrifices for an extension on her life, the cosmic beings seemed to know more than they would let on.”

“You spoke to the cosmic beings?” Yoongi knows more about their wrath than the others, a story the older vampires were familiar with from his past. “And you’re still alive?”

He doesn’t know whether he’s impressed or angry at such a reckless move, he bites back the remark of what they would do if you had felt Taehyung dying, how you would have recovered from that, first they needed to make sure you were going to be okay.

“The witches also mentioned a sacrifice,” Hoseok nods, slightly relieved, if Taehyung also had the same information from elsewhere, this might actually work. “Namjoon’s with them now sorting it.”

“Why are you all sitting here, why aren’t we helping him?” Taehyung’s voice breaks as he turns to his brothers with the panic fighting his system, the truth of the matter settling in his bones now the shock was passing. You were dying, right in front of them, and they were all watching.

“In case,” Jimin speaks for the first time since he saw you in this state, but he says no more, he doesn’t need to. In case you died.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The witches screech as they throw their own sistren into the fire, the vampire prince compelled them to call another sisterhood to burn to the flames, the tears in their eyes does nothing to his stoic complexion as he watches. This is bad magic, he can sense it in the air, but he would pay the cost if it brought you back from the brink of death.

“Stop this!” Jennie screams as the flames grow too large, almost burning her in the process of another limb thrown.

“You know what happens if she dies witch,” Namjoon looks like stone when he looks at the weeping women, the burst of orange light from the fire lighting him like a dangerous god seconds away from ordering their downfall.

“You don’t understand what you’re making us do,” Rose is covered in dirt, stumbling as her body conforms to his orders despite the way it makes her lurch. “They’re our sisters, tell us to stop!”

“We can sacrifice the wolves, the fairies,” Lisa wails.

“This is your punishment,” the prince dictates. “You watch your sisters burn, you throw them to the fire, this is the price you pay for trying to destroy us.”

“We need to hurry,” Jisoo is the only one who isn’t mourning like the others, there are tears in her eyes but she retains her sense. “We don’t have enough time.”

They didn’t, the last remaining sands were slipping through, the witches had to turn the hourglass before time ran out. Jisoo wasn’t heartless in her instructions, she was trying to save the other three and herself, because as the vampire prince stated, if you died he had no use for the four anymore, so he compelled them to die as well.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Your bones ached, your whole body, you could feel each pump of blood through your arteries, the way it lingered in your veins reluctant to return to your heart. You whimper as you wake, you feel so drained, so weak although slowly you could feel some strength return. The room spins even though you're lying down, your mind trying to catch up, Jungkook compelled you and you couldn’t stay awake any longer. But why did he compel you? It took everything out of you.

Your vision clears the way clouds do on a sunny day after rain and you notice the figures surrounding you, an overwhelming sense of relief flooding through you from a few different bonds. What happened?

“Tae…” your fingers grab his hand out of instinct, terrified he would fade like he did in your dreams, but he becomes more solid the more you wake. Your heart is pumping again, you can feel it beat harder. You look up at him with big open eyes, vulnerable to him the way he knew you hated being, before they started to water.

He takes the hand you’re holding and caresses your cheek, the warmth in them returning with colour, he doesn’t trust himself to speak. You don’t let go of his hand.

“Sweetheart, how do you feel?” Hobi asks tentatively, a hand to your forehead as if you had a fever. You didn’t feel cold anymore.

You unconsciously take a deep breath, your body triggering the action to fill your lungs, before you release it with a shaky sigh.

“What happened?” you say as you try sitting up, Hobi’s hands already steadying you as he settles close to keep you upright. Your back is against his chest, and you’re glad he’s there, you felt so frail. Even holding your head up was making your neck ache already. Your eyes search their faces for an answer before you settle on the youngest. “Why did you compel me?”

You don’t sound angry, just sad.

“You were dying,” he states as matter of fact, trying to contain the emotions breaking under his skin at the way you were looking at him, arms crossed as he kept his distance with Jimin when the others were as close as possible. “Your body can’t handle or hold your powers without it causing you harm, they’re tied to your emotions.”

Another fact you had to swallow like a pill. When would it end?

“Where’s Joonie?” you ask instead of acknowledging his words, you take your hand away from Taehyung’s now you were thinking clearer, avoiding his gaze despite the way you wanted to take him in. They can feel your heart hollowing out again, Hoseok’s arms come around you to hold you against him, his lips pressing the top of your head as if it would soothe you. The panic that ignites like sparks in their limbs is instinctual, they knew what your sadness would lead to, any signs of it now would cause their souls to run cold with fear.

“He’s with the witches,” Yoongi is the one to tell you, eyes on you in anticipation as if you would fade from view. You nod, unsure of what to say or how to break the tension in the room, you felt too weak to walk out but the atmosphere under their stares was stifling.

“Angel.”

Your heart catches against your ribs for a moment, before you learn to calm your nerves at his voice, he’s right beside you on the bed, kneeling on one knee as he leans on his arms, but you don’t look at him, you look to the side.

“Y/n,” Taehyung’s begging you with the call of your name, he watches you close your eyes at the sound of his voice. “I’m so sorry.”

You scoff, it's soft but he hears it, they all do.

“Are you sorry for leaving me when I begged you not to, or the consequences of your decisions?” you refuse to meet his gaze, you refuse to give him that. “If Jungkook didn’t compel me you’d still be…”

You sigh as you search for the right words for his endeavor, face scrunching in simmering anger as you recall the moment he left.

“Not here.”

Your eyes may not be able to meet him, but you’re all he can look at now, even if you hated him or wanted him away, he doesn’t think he can do it anymore, be away from you. It was going to tear out his soul when he had to leave again, but first he needed to make you understand why he was torturing you both with his distance.

“I can’t lose you Y/n,” how many times has he said it, how did you still not see it? “Angel, I'm so close to finding what we need, please…”

You finally look at him then, glare and nostrils flaring. He sounded like he was asking for permission to leave, if that were the case why did he even bother coming back? You clench your fists, nails digging into your skin to fight the onslaught of water filling your vision. The hell was he going to see you cry today.

“I don’t want immortality,” you say to him and it wipes every expression from his face.

The others look away, already aware of your wishes, it was Taehuyng’s turn to hear it now.

His heart sinks before his jaw sets.

“I don’t care.”

Their heads snap back to you both at that, all of you looking at the vampire with shock. You shake your head in disbelief at the tone he just used. How far had he fallen into his quest, even here with you he was still so far away.

“It’s my choice,” you don’t say it angrily like they thought you would, your voice sounds like it’s heavy holding tears.

“No,” he shakes his head back, an ugly feeling settling onto his bones into his eyes, before he punctuates each word. “I am not losing you.”

He breathes in shakily, his whole body starting to vibrate with anger. He knew you were reluctant, he knew you wanted to stay human, but he thought if he found the cure you’d change your mind. He stupidly thought the only reason you didn’t want immortality was because you thought it was unattainable.

“It’s not up to you,” you fight back feebly, your physical strength returning more now but his words and the look on his face cut through you. That determination was dark, he couldn’t see past his own fears and desires.

“It’s out of your hands Y/n,” he pushes back stronger than you. “You’ve accepted all these things out of your control already, what more will this be? Whether you want it or not, I’m not letting you die.”

“Taehyung,” Yoongi’s voice interrupts in warning, noticing the way you looked at the vampire with sorrow.

"You didn't give me a choice either, Angel,” he ignores his brother’s voice. “I was ready to accept death before you forced your blood down my throat."

If his words cut you before, they drained the life and blood out of you now. Vampires, they only knew how to make you bleed. The stupor on your face lasts for seconds, taking in the harsh look on his face.

“That was different,” you can feel your bottom lip tremble, and they can see it. The glistening of your eyes as the first drops finally fell. “You’re already immortal Taehyung, you were on a suicide mission.”

“And you’re not?” he’s sick of the hypocrisy, he remembers that moment so well. “You understand this feeling Angel, you said it yourself, ‘I can’t lose you’, ‘I can’t live without you’, I said no, and you did it anyway. How is it different?”

“You were already immortal Taehyung!” you repeat yourself. “I wasn’t defying the laws of the universe to save you, it's completely different.”

“I think that’s enough,” Jin says, but you both weren’t done.

“I can’t become immortal, I don’t want to be immortal,” despite the tears on your face your anger returns at his stubborn attitude.

“Why!” he yells. “Why are you so hell bent on causing me pain? If it were the other way round you wouldn’t stop until we were saved.”

“Nothing lasts forever Tae, all of this is temporary!” You shout back. “Life, love, time, all of it. Why are we breaking the law of the universe because you can’t accept that? We knew from the start this was never going to last, I’m human, I am going to die one day.”

“No.”

“It's the truth Tae,” you don’t stop, even when there are tears in his own eyes. “You knew that before we started this relationship, why didn’t you walk away if you couldn’t accept it?”

He glares at you despite his gaze watering like your own. How could he walk away? How could you ask him that?

“I am not becoming immortal,” you say it firmly, there was no way you’d sway on this.

“I told you you don’t have a choice,” he bites back.

“Taehyung, you even try again, any of you try again on this and I promise you I will end my life before you can even-”

“Y/n!”

You couldn’t even finish your warning before they jumped in, even Jungkook and Jimin moved from their positions of distance as if you were a flight risk.

“Don’t,” Jungkook breathes heavily, finger pointing at you in accusation and terror before he feels his heart crumble. “Beautiful dont ever say something like that.”

“Why would you even-” Yoongi shakes his head in disbelief, pacing around the room with his hands in his hair. “That’s not something to joke about Precious.”

“I wasn’t joking.”

There’s silence, and no one wants to break it. Every time immortality was mentioned, your body panicked, the instinct to fight or flight kicked in the way it never had before. You couldn’t explain it, but you knew, you couldn’t.

“Why?” Jimin crawls onto the bed, breaking the silence after what felt like an eternity. He takes your hand in his own, before he bows his head down, physically begging you as his tears fall. “Why butterfly?”

His voice breaks your heart, you noticed the distance he was keeping from you, it hurt but you understood it. It was what you had done when they came back from the war. It was to protect himself.

“Sweetheart I don’t understand,” Hoseok buries his head in your neck, trying to calm his own emotions at your words.

“Why don’t you want to be with us forever?” Jin asks. “Why do you want to leave us?”

“I can’t, I can’t be immortal, I just can’t.”

Every fibre in your body said no, every cell every atom, a big red warning light was felt deep within you, almost saying yes there was a way for this to happen, but under no circumstances were you to ever let it. There was a smaller voice inside of you too that tried to contend with this loud booming warning, one that whispered as it begged to let you live, not because you wanted immortality in any way, but because the part of you that loved them knew what would happen to them when you passed. But the tongue of that voice was cut off, nothing could be heard over the fundamental admonition that drowned out any other thought you might have. How do you explain to them that something terrible would befall you all if they found the answers they seeked without sounding insane?

“Okay for now we compromise,” Yoongi says trying to calm the situation, they still had to contend with the link between your emotions and health. “If we find a way to extend your life, just to the normal average expectancy, that’s all we’ll do and focus on.”

“Give us that at least,” Jungkook swallows down his own tears.

The apprehension in your soul doesn’t present itself as you mull the words over, you only nod in agreement and they all release a breath they’re holding, sharing a look between themselves.

Immortality was not off the table, not if what Taehyung was saying was true. If he really was as close as he stated there was no way they couldn’t at least find the answers. They just had to make sure you never found out.

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“How do you know?”

“Soojung, I haven’t got time to waste, I need her address,” he commanded hastily, using her birth name as images of you lying dead on the street turned his gears to madness. “Trust me please.”

Krystal had never heard him sound the way he did, not even when you left him. This was a man on the edge of insanity, back then, he was a man broken.

“Krystal!” He yells, making her jump and swallow as she contemplates the consequences.

“Are you sure?” she whispers, her own terror starting to ignite. She liked you, unfortunately she never had the chance to meet you without a mask, but the way Hobi used to talk about you… Even when you left him, she liked you, they all blamed their boss, even if they understood why he lied the way he did.

“Please,” he’s on the cusp of crying, the control he thought he had over the situation with you combusting as he finally admitted he had none, it was just a mirage, a desperate hope that kept him going. Now he felt his entire being swept into a chaotic whirlwind, at which you were the centre, but he couldn’t tell which way the winds were blowing. They hid you.

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Hoseok felt like he knew you like the back of his hand, better than that even, better than the intricate tunnels of darkness in his syndicate. You were a maze only he could navigate, even when you kept yourself hidden from him.

Early into your relationship he learnt not to ask about your family, anything he had asked immediately made your face fall, and he couldn’t stand to be the one to put such a look on your face. So he never pushed, anniversary after anniversary, year after year, he never pushed for you to reveal yourself to him, because the you that was in his arms now, this present version of you, belonged completely to him.

Just as he was completely yours, even if you knew nothing of the life he kept a secret, he was adamant you knew him better than anyone else. The moments that mattered between you both, were always the little moments. As fleeting and precious as they were, he knew he would want them for the rest of his life.

He hears you hum lightly in your sleep, the sound bringing a smile to his face, patiently waiting for you to wake, but content enough in the moment to let you lie in. Arms that were wrapped around you tightened carefully, legs tangled together like a web.

Although he was worse than the devil in this life, he swore when he felt warmth like this, he must’ve been a saint in his past one to deserve such happiness now. Why else would he be granted to love an angel like yourself?

“Hobi too hot,” you mumble against him as you wake, a small frown on your face he can’t help coo at. You push against him softly, not enough to hurt him but it makes him whine, melting your expression into releasing a chuckle. “Babe you’re a furnace.”

He replies with kisses to every inch of your skin he can reach as he pulls you back in, a peaceful morning before he had to be the kingpin of Seoul once more.

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“Boss… she’s not here,” Zelo informs him of the obvious tentatively, watching Hoseok’s face turn blank like a corpse.

He can see that, he wants to bite back but he can’t muster the strength to in that second. Your apartment was covered in flowers, every inch of the floor, every surface he could see. To the untrained eye it would be a desperate obsessive cry for love and attention, but Hoseok knew this was a calling card.

“Urgh my allergies,” his cousin exclaims as she enters the room, covering her mouth with her hand in vain before she starts sneezing. “Why are there so many flowers?”

‘Thank you for the flowers’, he can still hear your voice through the phone, the last words you said to him, softly and sweetly, the tone would have bought a smile to his face, along with hope for the pair of you, but the dread that cut through him after the confusion of that moment crushed any inkling of joy. Every petal in the room taunted him, every colour, crimson and brash, mocked his failure in protecting you.

“She thought they were from me,” he whispers as he exhales, Zelo and Krystal turning to him with worry written over their faces.

His moment of pity washes away, and life comes back to the corpse of Jung Hoseok in the form of pure unadulterated rage. They can see the fire in his eyes, they can almost swear there was steam from his nose, as he turned to them both.

“How did you and Lee find her?” he almost growls as his eyes narrow.

It takes her a moment to gather her thoughts, fear of the kingpin wiping her mind blank.

“I… I didn’t, he did,” she says. She was only instructed by Hoseok to keep an eye out for you, she had stupidly believed it to be fate that her partner of all people had found you.

“What the hell did he have on her?” Hoseok finally dares to ask, he was never going to, if it were something you didn’t want to share with him he would have respected that for the rest of his life, but now, now your life was out of his hands.

She visibly gulps.

“She’s wanted for murder overseas,” she chooses her words carefully but they only make him frown, jaw set open in shock though he tries to conceal it. “Multiple murders…”

“How has she gotten away for so long?” Zelo breaks the silence that starts to form. “Secret identity, what? If she’s wanted for murder Lee would’ve had to hand her to the authorities.”

Hoseok’s right hand man was the sharpest mind of Seoul, not in the most traditional sense, but in a way that benefited his closest friend greatly.

Krystal sighed, knowing she had to reveal your secrets sooner rather than later, for your sake at least.

“Not by the police,” her voice turns small. “I don’t know the details, Lee didn’t tell me much, all I know is she got in bad with some dangerous people and killing as many of them as she could was how she got out.”

“So she’s been on the run ever since?” Zelo exhales sharply in shock. He knew you were a fighter, he knew his boss picked his partner in life well, but this was unexpected. He turns to Hoseok speechless, watching the Kingpin’s eyes cloud over in thought.

He remembers the first time you entered the bar, unaware of his aura and the powerful men around him, he thought you were audacious, but you must’ve been numb to danger.

He thought about the moment they revealed his secrets to you, he watched the tapes after you left him, much like Lee had, and he agreed, you weren’t fazed by the bodies or the gore, you were distraught because he had lied to you.

All those times he came home a bloody mess, and you didn’t even blink, how had he been so blind.

“But if they knew where she was all this time, why take her now?” Krytal ponders out loud.

“Whatever agreement Lee had with them broke the moment he died,” Hoseok mutters with a pained groan, the moment he killed him… A dark spiral starts to swirl in his chest at the thought, unknowingly in trying to protect you, Hoseok was the one to push you head first into danger.

“What now boss?” Zelo asks. “How do we find her? Where do we start?”

“The flowers have to mean something,” Krystal sniffs, the pollen itching her nose.

Hoseok nods.

“You go back to the precinct and dig through Lee’s stuff, find out who the fuck he was in contact with,” Hoseok commands. “We find out where the flowers were from, there’s cameras on that street outside, if this many flowers came in a big enough van for a body, we’ll find the number plate.”

“Boss…” Zelo hesitates. “What if it’s a trap?”

The thought had crossed Hoseok’s mind too, but he didn’t care.

His silence was answer enough.

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When you wake it feels like your eyes are glued shut, a heavy weight on your temples refusing to let you open them, but you try. Wherever you are is dark, your groggy mind desperately trying to gather your surroundings but whatever that fake delivery driver injected into your veins prohibits you from doing so. It's too dark to find your bearings, it’s too cold for your body to react in any way other than tremble. You can’t hear a thing other than your own breathing as you think about how you ended up here.

They’ve found me, if death could be written in a sentence that would be it. You escaped once, you knew for a fact you could never do it again. Your thoughts drifts to the last person you spoke to outside of wherever you were being kept now, a sliver of hope trying to claw its way out of your heart. Hoseok knows something is wrong, he’ll find me.

But even as the words form from comfort in your mind, a harsh cold reality tells you from experience, you don’t believe he will.

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