BLACK ON BLACK | TK

Chapter Twenty Five

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"We're going home
If we make it or we don't, we won't be alone
When I see your light shine, I know I'm home."

Jeongguk avoided letting Taehyung near their parlor on the days in which they had those special appointments. He didn't want Taehyung to have contact with those horrible people or, more exactly, with a person he had unfortunately already metbefore.

Jeongguk knew that Taehyung was already aware of who Minsung actually was and what he had done but he still hadn't asked him why the murderer was still walking freely on the streets or why he was still visiting their parlor like nothing ever happened.

Jeongguk was somewhat pleased because he did not know what explanation to offer the other. Jeongguk couldn't just tell him the truth because he was sure that Taehyung would never think of his friends the same way as before since, after all, it was because of them that Minsung was still there. And the truth, the more Jeongguk thought about it, sounded a lot like a fairytale.

"Namjoon is in a gang but Seokjin doesn't know, so me and Yoongi have to keep it a secret. Ah, yes, he's in the gang my sister was in so there's that."

No, Jeongguk was pretty sure he couldn't do that. After all, it sounded extremely wrong and unbelievable. Looking at Jeongguk, no one would ever think that his sister had once been a part of a gang and that her murderer was still walking among them like nothing ever happened.

It was depressing, to say the least, that he had to isolate himself in his own apartment for a few days to avoid a meeting Minsung every time the other decided to visit, but he had no choice.

Namjoon had forbidden him from getting involved with the other because it was dangerous and now the older had reached the point where he was using Taehyung as a blackmailing subject for him.

"You don't want to argue with Minsung, Jeongguk. He already knows Taehyung and you know how cunning he really is. Stay at your place for the time being, avoid him. We're all sorry about what happened to Soyeon but we can't turn back time." Namjoon had told him, his eyes filled with sadness and emotions Jeongguk couldn't fully understand.

Jeongguk knew this but he couldn't ignore the fact that Minsung was still there when Soyeon wasn't.

Sitting on the couch in his apartment, Jeongguk always wondered how they got there, how Minsung, the boy with huge glasses on his face he had met years prior, had come to kill his girlfriend after only a few months. He never got a proper explanation of why the sudden change happened, why Minsung had gone from being the perfect boyfriend to such a monster. The sad truth was that he would never properly get one.

Minsung used to be a nerd. Perfect grades, perfect GPA, perfect everything. He was even enrolled in the Academy as a future police officer but, one day, everything just seemed to go downhill for him.

And then Jeongguk learnt of his sister's death.

That day he was at the parlor to finish some tattoos for a few members of that gang, members who came once every few days to fill their bodies with tattoos. It was almost a tradition for them to come to their parlor, no matter how far they moved. Jeongguk hated that, but he had no choice. It was Namjoon and Yoongi's decision and, although the parlor was mostly his, he didn't have a choice but to accept because they were the only friends he had and he couldn't exactly he rebel against such a dangerous group, one that even the police ignored in fear of being harmed.

So for a few hours he swallowed everything and tattooed brainless teenagers or men who seemed to carry many crimes on their shoulders. If he could, he would arrest them all, but he was a simple tattoo artist who had no such right, so he had no power over them. Minsung, who no matter how much he avoided him, still appeared in front of him with that idiotic smile, with that superior look that made Jeongguk's heart break into pieces every time.