Villainous // a league of bangtan story

06 - A Reunion After Death

* cw: murder, death, the occult, demons, mentions of the Devil, mentions of spirits/ghosts, ritual sacrifice, demonic possession, necromancy *

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In high school, Jimin was extremely popular and well-liked. He was admired by all his teachers, his peers, and even his peer's parents. He was class president throughout his entire school career, top of the class, and top in the school. He was so popular, he was even known at other schools around Busan. Because he excelled in his grades, the parents of his peers began to pressure their kids to study harder. 

One mom in particular really wanted her son to be just like Jimin. He wasn’t failing but was always second to Jimin. His mom pressured him all through high school and that boy began to resent Jimin. Nothing he ever did was good enough for his mom. Not even getting into Yonsei University was enough. Seoul was far away from Busan and he never thought he’d ever see or hear of Jimin again until he found out they had a math class together.

And to no surprise to him, Jimin soared to the top of the class and when his mom found out, her pushing and nagging got worse. Eventually, the pressure and expectations weighed so heavily on him, it drove him to madness. He convinced Jimin to study with him one day, and on their way to the latter’s apartment, in a dark back alleyway, he jumped him. With a knife he brought from home, he stabbed Jimin over forty times. With no evidence, no witnesses, and no security cameras to catch the crime, he got away with it. No one knew who killed Jimin and the case grew cold. 

No one knew, but Jimin himself never forgot what happened. Ever since coming back to life, he was obsessive about getting his revenge. Ever since then, he spent many hours scheming and plotting and as the day grew nearer, the more impatient he got to repay what happened to him to his murderer.

While he was in high school in Gwangju, Hoseok had a group of friends that were obsessed with ghosts, demons, and the occult. They would always be dragging him along as they went to abandoned buildings and old cemeteries hunting for ghosts and doing fake ritual summonings. They did this all throughout high school and Hoseok could never get used to them. Every time they do hunts or rituals, Hoseok was the most affected. Seeing things in the mirror, ghostly apparitions appearing in his rooms, nightmares, and sleep paralysis plagued him. 

Then, one day, a month before graduation, because they were all planning on going to different universities, they wanted to go on one last expedition. It was to summon a demon from a book one of them found. Hoseok was reluctant about it, feeling extremely uneasy. His friend randomly found the book that had a bookmark conveniently on the ritual page. The demon’s name was blacked out. The ingredients for the ritual were much too easy to come across as some random stranger was conveniently selling everything they needed at a street market that day. Everything about it was suspicious, but Hoseok’s friends laughed it off saying it wasn’t real. They kept having to reassure Hoseok that nothing was going to happen like all the other times, but unfortunately, it didn’t help calm him down. 

But it was nothing like all the other times.

They were wrong

Hoseok sat back as his friends set up the ritual at the old cemetery. They drew the pentagram from the book on the ground, placed the offerings in the middle, and lit the candles that circled the spot. Hoseok felt his chest tighten as he knelt down with them and they all joined hands. 

As his friends chanted the ritual, Hoseok wanted to run. He could feel something was terribly wrong. He thought he could feel something choking him as they neared the end of the chant. He suddenly felt the need to throw up. His face felt wet and his eyesight began to fade in and out. His hearing went muffled and he felt as if he couldn’t breathe.