𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐥'𝐬 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐰 ↬ ᵗᵃᵉᵏᵒᵒᵏ ˢʰᵒʳᵗ ˢᵗᵒʳʸ

﹝5﹞

The shadow was timorous as he finally stood up from his seat and hesitantly made his way to the Taehyung's bedroom door. 

"Soul" , he called after knocking gently on the wood panel. 

Pause , he stayed still while waiting for a reply. 

"Soul can I please come in ?" , asked the shadow. 

Silence. 

He knocked again and spoke a bit louder , "Taehyung" , "Taehyung open the door please". 

Silence. 

Jungkook's patience running out rapidly, he began trying to force the surface to unlock as he knocked louder and louder between each strike. ( he wasn't using his super strength because he didn't wanna cause permanent damage to Taehyung's loft )

"TAEHYUNG OPEN THIS FUCKING DOOR" , he screamed in despair. 

"I CAN'T" , the soul finally let out. 

"Why not ?!" , questioned the younger. 

Shadow's breathing was uneven following his previous physical effort as well as being quite loud but the frustrated boy quickly quieted his respiration after catching small sobs coming from inside the room. 

"Soul is everything okay ? Why are you crying sweetheart ?" , he called gently. 

"M-my legs....t-they hurt" , stuttered the soul in return. 

"Okay, can you open the door for me please ?" 

"I already saID THAT I FUCKING CAN'T!!" , the soul suddenly yelled. 

"Alright alright. Can I....Can I break your door ?" , Jungkook's odd question surprised the soul however, he could make out how worried and concerned the other invisible was about him and thus agreed shortly. 

Thus, the loft lost a door that day.  

Jungkook was worried even before he got inside the room but nothing could describe the horrific shook he felt as he took a glimpse at Taehyung's bloody body parts consisting of his thighs and hands with which he was holding a small silver object. 

But even thought he was extremely disturbed, he forced himself to behave normally after locking eyes with the sobbing soul. 

Jungkook wasn't an idiot. He understood the situation immediately and thus was determined to handle it in a gentle and relaxed manner while making sure to respect Taehyung's boundaries about the topic. 

He was determined to listen and not let his distress and overflowing worry take over.

The shadow sat down in front of the crying creature and dried his tears between gentle pecks. 

"Could you...could you h-help me clean up the scars ?" , soul whispered after a while. 

The other invisible nodded mutely. 

As the two began disinfecting and wrapping Taehyung's legs, the chamber feel into soundlessness again but either of them needed noise anyway. 

𝖙𝖎𝖒𝖊 𝖘𝖐𝖎𝖕

The invisibles were seated on the floor, Jungkook's back resting against the wall, Taehyung's one leaning back on the bed frame. 

This distance was essential as the two agreed to discuss some personal manners which included a feeling both creatures feared immensely ; vulnerability. 

"Soul ..I promised not to judge so please.. could you open up a little ? I'm here for you, you know ?" 

"Fine fuck it" , Taehyung finally admitted. "I have Borderline Personality Disorder Jungkook. I'm sick in the head, unstable and I hurt myself when I feel literally any fucking emotion cause I can't handle the intensity of any of those bitches" , ranted the soul in frustration. 

Truth is, Taehyung's suffering was much more complex than these few sentences but he wasn't ready to admit all the terrible things he endured because of his mental illness yet. Letting someone in and telling them about this much was already incredibly demanding to the lonely soul. 

"You're not sick in the head Taehyung, you're wonderful. BPD is just your challenge you have in life but we aren't defined by those challenges, we're defined by how we handle them"

"Just like my Anorexia doesn't define who I am" , the shadow expressed smiling. 

"You're a-anorexic ?" , Taehyung questioned and watched as the shadow nodded still showing his small smile. 

"Yes but that's not the entirety of the story so do you want me to elaborate ?"

The older nodded silently. 

"Demons are the ones who died by suicide, ghosts -  who died by accidents, souls - who died naturally. I just happened to be a shadow who are the ones dead because of a crime. The method follows us though. Just like your BPD comes from you're abusive parents when you were still alive, my anorexia comes from the fact that I was-

"-starved to death" , interrupted the soul. 

"Correct buttercup" , Jungkook replied. 

"That's also why I'm different from my kind. Shadows are violent, full of rage. But only when their death was quick and sudden. Shadows who died by being shot or poisoned are the angriest amongst us because they want revenge, they feel rage constantly cause they didn't have time to process and accept their ends" , the younger explained calmly. 

"Unlike you" , spoke the other invisible and Jungkook nodded again as he continued. 

"I suffered for months because in the beginning , after my kidnaping , she still let me eat. It was only a week after that she stopped brining me food and only brought water." 

Taehyung sent him an apologetic and worried glance ,"That..That sound horrible. I'm sorry shadow."

"It's alright, it's all in the past now." , smiled the younger sadly. 

"Just know that everything has a reason in our world" , he added after a while , "us being mentally ill as well." 

"True but what an unfair world it is" , soul shook his head in disgusted disbelief. 

"I disagree" , responded Jungkook.

"Why ?" , a shocked creature questioned.

"Because it is here, in this so-called unfair world, that I met you" 

𝖙𝖔 𝖇𝖊 𝖈𝖔𝖓𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖚𝖊𝖉...