The Symbol Of Darkness

⑰Can We Be Honest?

 
A scintilla of remorse had gradually settled over Taehyung’s chest as everything he said to a certain someone kept popping up into his mind throughout the next day.

His encounter with that man agitated him, riled him up, and made him touchy, leading him to lash out at Jungkook. 

He knew the reason Jungkook was so apathetic to everything. Although he didn’t know the details, losing his hyung was what made him this cold, and he was sure about that. He could also understand him. Relate to him. His parents were killed right in front of his eyes. 

The events were blurry in his mind because he was only eight years old, but the psychological wound this incident left him was so deep and cruel and agonizing it marked him for life. 

He was like Jungkook in some way. As a kid, he was quiet but snappy and often disrespectful when he was around others. But almost every night he was silently crying himself to sleep. As a teenager, he went against everything his hyung said and didn’t let anyone from the shelter get close to him. 

Little by little, though, as he received so much care and love from the people of the shelter, he started warming up to them. He started lowering his walls and opening his heart. He became so caring of others, so willing to help because of them. It just took time. 

And that was how he knew Jungkook just needed more time as well. 

He informed Jin Mo about yesterday’s events, and he seemed rather pleased since he got rid of both Ki Han and Ung Seo at once. He also gave him a new mission. A new boss moved to Songpa-gu from China and began dealing cocaine at Jin Mo’s spots. His mission, of course, was to gather as much information as possible about him, Ha Soo Gun, and get close to him in case he was preparing something big. 

After he received his mission, he told Jin Mo he would start on it tomorrow since he wasn’t feeling that energetic and he wouldn’t be able to do his absolute best as he always did. Jin Mo let him rest for the day, and he decided to visit his hyung as it had been a while.

Late in the afternoon, he rang the doorbell and waited until Jae Wook buzzed him in. He seized upon the opportunity to use the stairs to go to the second floor as a mini workout, and soon he was standing in front of his hyung’s apartment, knocking on the door. 

“Hey,” Jae Wook greeted and stepped aside to let him enter. 

“Hey, hyung,” he said smilingly and then walked towards the living room with Jae Wook following him. 

“How’s work?” Jae Wook asked as they settled on the big couch. 

“Same. Good, but too much sometimes.”

“You’re not giving all your money to that damn shelter, right?”

Taehyung’s features hardened in disapproval. “We haven’t met in like a month and that’s what you have to say to me?”

“I’m just asking,” Jae Wook sighed, crossing one leg over the other. 

“That damn shelter, as you said, was our home, hyung. After living in the streets for a whole year, they were the only ones who accepted us and let us stay with them.”

“That’s what shelters are for, you know.”

“Oh yeah? Did you forget, hyung? We went to two shelters before that and they didn’t let us stay. They only fed us. But Hwimang shelter accepted us right away. Even if they didn’t have the same big facility as the other ones. They took care of me. They raised me.”

“I raised you.” There was an apparent harsher hue in his voice as he spoke, accompanied by a glare. “I was the one who raised you.”

“No. You were always out of town for business. You always worked. You even disappeared for two years. If you think giving me money means you raised me, you’re wrong.”