• Children of Winter• || NamMin

10. Nunpyobeom real wishes

"What do you think you're doing!?"

"Something better you, let go of me" Hoseok orders, not allowing Jin to pull him by the arm. He returns his attention to Namjoon. "Would you like to marry Jimin? I will pay for the wedding, whatever you want and need." he announces and Namjoon stammers.

"Why so suddenly...?"

"Get out, now." orders Taehyung and Hoseok makes a clear gesture to him to think about what I'm proposing. Namjoon leaves and Mon looks just as confused. Hoseok faces his two relatives.

Taehyung and Jin remember that there is no worse thing than an angry Hoseok. It is best to keep his good mood. Otherwise, there will most likely be a big fight between the three of them. It would be triggering another conflict and they were supposed to have just finished one.

"You take away Jimin's rank, threaten to lock him up again, marry him off to a real stranger to have children... You two are the worst pest I've ever seen in my life!" accuses Hoseok in acidic, anger-filled hisses.

"He wouldn't have to if he hadn't been found out. It should have been private." claims Jin.

"Private! You sent him there to sleep with a snake!" shrieks Hoseok in upset. "So let me do your job for you, by choosing someone who does take an interest in him."

"Him? Interested?" ironizes Taehyung with sarcastic smile. "That guy is driven by hormones nothing else. He's not interested in Jimin beyond the damn tail How can he be a good candidate!?"

"So Yoongi only wants you for your dick?"

"Yoongi has nothing to do with this discussion."

"Of course he does, he's a beastman too" Hoseok remarks with cruel gesture. "he also has a tail, he has ears, his eyes are cat-like; the fangs, the claws you filed. None of that really matters: he's a beastman exactly the same so does anyone love you? Or do they?"

"Hoseok is enough. You have no right whatsoever to meddle in this matter" Jin scolds impatiently. "Get out of here. I'll deal with the nonsense you just told that animal."

Hoseok moves his jaw, his eyes half-open and filled with obvious rage.

"Maybe you people see as trash and pack animals to beastmen, but they are human. They have a soul and are as capable of love as any of us," Hoseok states quietly. "If you don't want Jimin around, at least let him be free and stop bothering him."

He withdraws with his head held high and with the plan to talk to Namjoon later, insist him to take Jimin with him. He wants him to be happy. At least from now on. In this palace there is nothing for him anymore. Rather, there never was and they were forcing an impossible situation from minute one.

Jin breaks his lower lip from how hard he bites it and Taehyung withdraws to leave him alone.

~ * * * ~

He gets terribly lost. Long minutes walking through the corridors of the huge and endless imperial palace. Nevertheless, Namjoon manages to reach his goal: Jimin's room. It is easily the most hidden place in the palace, the most central and perhaps the most protected because of it.

In the process and by accident he notices that there is an escape hatch just ahead of the door. As complicated as it is to get in and out of that room, it must be an exit route in case of an emergency.

He enters the room and closes the doors behind him. He is nervous and intimidated by how huge it is. There is one of the papers that is a giant painting, snow-capped mountains and curiously, there is a house covered in flowers at one point in those paintings. Huge furniture with clothes on it, large countertops with jewelry and mirrors, some wigs made from the occupant's cut hair and next to the futon, an area full of cushions.