ʀᴇᴠᴇɴɢᴇ ɪɪ || ᴋᴛʜ & ᴊᴋ

Chapter 10 || Temple

"A hearty welcome to our savior!"

"May he or she be blessed with the Kim power!"

"May he or she break the curse and shower us with God's blessings!"

Amid the loud cheers, Jungkook felt a chill pass through his body.

He blinked. And then, he blinked again. But it didn't work. The gruesome images kept flashing in his mind along with the smell of burning flesh.

Reaching towards his neck, he opened a couple of top buttons on his shirt, but that didn't help either.

He still felt suffocated. He tried to move again, but he couldn't force his body to cooperate.

Cheers continued, and people shouted in joy as they welcomed the news of the Kang-Kim heir.

The images and the smells of half-burned bodies now dominated all of Jungkook's senses.

"Jungkook?" a deep voice called out to him from his side. "Jungkook?" a woman's softer voice called out as well.

Jungkook felt the world spin and the temple walls closing in around him.

"Jungkook? Are you all alright?" Y/n asked as she stepped towards him.

Tae-hyung was watching him in concern as well.

Jungkook couldn't answer. He had to get out. He needed to get out of the place that brought the memories. He began to walk away towards the temple gates.

"Jungkook!" he heard Tae-hyung calling him. But Jungkook continued walking away towards the car, ignoring everything and everyone.

As soon as he got into his vehicle, he started the engine and drove away in a hurry, the sound of squealing tires attracting attention from everyone.

He knew Tae-hyung and Y/n could easily get home using any of the other cars that had arrived at the temple, celebrating their return and the news of the pregnancy.

A shudder passed through Jungkook's body as he saw the image of the Kim Temple in the rearview mirror.

He hadn't visited the Kim Temple or any other temple since he had been a seven-year-old. He just couldn't.

But since Y/n and Tae-hyung had wanted to pay a visit to the Kim Temple before going to the mansion, he joined them.

Big mistake.

After meeting them at the airport, he should have dropped them at the temple gates and driven away.

His heart was still pounding inside his chest with helpless panic.

Except for his late grandmother, nobody knew the real reason why he didn't visit temples. They thought he didn't believe in God or he was one of those arrogant people who simply liked shunning cultures and traditions.

They were wrong.

He not only believed in God, he also had a healthy respect for traditions and culture. He just could not visit a temple.

Because temples reminded him of the massacre that had happened twenty years ago.

The aftermath of which he had not only witnessed in person but also recalled quite well.

"... and then, I won my father's jewelled knife as a prize."

Seven-year-old Jungkook's eyes were widened as he listened to his grandmother's childhood adventures. Whenever he and his family visited Kim Mansion during the holidays, his favorite time was when he spent time with his grandmother. She not only told him about all the exciting adventures, but she had also taken him and his brothers to the Lee lands where she grew up.