Idiosyncrasy 특질

Chapter Nine

"Nothing's the same for anyone. That's why life's this Hell, if you do a thing you're damned, and if you don't you're damned . . . "
- E.M. Foster, Maurice

Once Jungkook and Taehyung had disappeared, the rest of the triumvirate and their associates had returned to their rooms respectively. Yoongi had smirked when he had shortly checked on Taehyung's room via the cameras and had seen the two of them on the bed. Perhaps Jungkook could have his normal life, for once. They just had all to make sure that Jeon Kwan disappeared. For good.

After he had switched off his tablet, Yoongi got ready for bed. Jimin left the bathroom, his bare feet barely making a sound.

"Is everything alright?" he inquired and Yoongi turned towards his lover and nodded.

"I think they are on a good way," he said, slipping between the sheets and burrowed into the pillows right beside Jimin. Both men hugged as they got into their comfortable sleeping positions.

"I hope so, too." Jimin said, his voice already drowsy from sleep. "Kook was really happy the last half year or so ..."

Yoongi nodded and caressed the bare shoulder of his lover. He listened as Jimin's breath evened out and felt the sleep heavy body resting against him. He loved those moments where Jimin trusted him so much, he fell asleep before him. There had been a time where Jimin had not trusted anyone, even though he had pretty much fallen in love with 18 year old Yoongi from the moment he had turned up as a 14 year old teen who had been abused by his uncle.

Closing his eyes, Yoongi remembered the day when Jimin had turned up at one of the brothels of the Raven Sun. His uncle smirking and telling the brothel father that Jimin would be an asset. Yoongi and Jin had happened to be visiting and seeing that half feral child he doubted that he was an asset at all. When Jimin's relative then told them that he had started to train him for the brothel, Yoongi had felt bile rising in his throat. They had always made sure that no minors were working in their establishments and he told him that they would not start now. The guy had left, dragging Jimin with him when he had grabbed Yoongi's lapel of his suit, begging him. He could still see that look Jimin had given him, a look that had told him to stop his misery.

Only later he had noticed that by grabbing Yoongi's suit, Jimin had removed the hidden stiletto from its sheath inside his jacket. The very stiletto with which he then had proceeded to cut his relative into strips later that night.

He still had the knife, Jimin had handed it over to him the next day meticulously clean while the young boy was bloodied, scared and drunk. Young Jimin had been his shadow ever since. Yoongi found it inconvenient and bothersome to say the least, but over the years a friendship had been established, a friendship that had turned into a love so steady and strong, Yoongi was still in the habit of pinching himself to see if this was real. Whatever life had in store for him, right now, in this very moment with Jimin sleeping like a koala half on and half beside him, he was happy and that was what counted. He loved and was loved.

This sense of belonging was something he also wanted for Jungkook and if he could help him achieve it the sooner the better.

~-*-~

Jungkook woke up with a start. The last dregs of a nightmare blurring his mind. Inhaling carefully, he rubbed the palms of his hands over his face. Slowly, his eyes grew accustomed to the dim light in the room and for a moment he was disorientated. The light coming from the window was wrong but when his mind cleared enough, he remembered. He was in Tae's room.

He turned his head and for a moment he just stared at Taehyung. The man lay curled on his side, his arms and knees protectively in front of his body. Little puffs of breath softly left his full lips. The predawn light of the city outside the window splashed across his face, highlighting his cheekbones and plunging the hollow of his cheeks into darkness. Taehyung looked peaceful, pure and untainted. He looked like everything that was not Jungkook and his life.