Wild For You

14. Secrets

Namjoon wasn't dumb by any means. His entire life, he had been told how smart he was and that he ought to put his smarts to good use. Namjoon always thought it was ironic though how everyone thought he was smart enough to change the world, but none of them seemed to think he had the capacity to decide for himself how he wanted to change it. He hadn't had much growing up and because of that, his family seemed to live vicariously through his potential future success.

'He ought to be a doctor!'

'A physicist!'

'No, no. He ought to be a scientist! He could find the cure to anything!'

Namjoon needed an escape from the noise of expectations that surrounded him on a daily basis. He looked for any escape he could get his hands on. He needed a new noise to fill his soul with a burning desire rather than a suffocating depression. That was how he found music. He had been in the library trying to study and live up to his family's expectations when he met someone who was rhythmically tapping his pencil against the side of a nearby table to the disdain of the raisin looking librarian. Namjoon had watched the young man continue undeterred, tapping out a beat that he was obviously vibing to. He had stared at the man for so long that he hadn't realized that the rest of the library around him had emptied out for the day aside from the two of them and the librarian. When Namjoon eventually got up to leave, the other young man did the same. Namjoon took the leap of faith and went over to him to introduce himself and consequently introduced himself into the world of music.

When his family found out that he wanted to pursue a career in music, they were less than pleased.

'Your talents will be wasted there! Music doesn't take brains.'

It was evident to Namjoon that where his passion lied would not be a place his family would support. They all but shunned him after that, forcing Namjoon to practice his music outside in the leaky shed behind his house. As a year eventually passed him by in that state, he felt his passion begin to dry up. It was hard to feel inspired when he constantly got judgmental looks from his family so he decided it was time to leave home.

Not having much money to his name, he left in faith that something would work in his favor. He moved to a slightly more bustling side of town where he took on any jobs he could get his hands on that would allow him a roof over his head and food in his belly. On the side, he kept writing music in his journal; joining a cypher or two that he happened upon in the park so he could hone the skill he was trying to carve out for himself.

All his side jobs eventually led him to meeting Dal. Dal had come into the coffee shop that he had been working at, asking if Namjoon had a drink recommendation. Their conversation surprisingly took off from there, and slowly but surely Dal became a sort of father figure for him. When Dal was made aware of how Namjoon was barely surviving paycheck to paycheck on the quest to accomplish his dreams, Dal offered him a job. Dal had also offered to let Namjoon stay in his small home with him, but Namjoon had declined due to not wanting to intrude.

However, the more time that passed with Namjoon working at Dal's bookshop, the more it seemed as if he had moved in anyway. Namjoon knew that Dal's health was declining even if Dal didn't want to admit it to him. Namjoon had a sense that Dal wanted to make sure that the bookshop and Ember were taken care of.

'Well, really Kim Taehyung,' thought Namjoon as he looked at the currently sleeping tiger beside him.

Namjoon was getting tired, but his mind was too wired to sleep. He dug out his writing journal to begin writing down the lyrics that were floating about like restless dreams in his head. Namjoon was in the process of finishing a sentence when he heard the door open. Lifting his head, he saw Dal enter in a semi-stooped over state. As Dal shut the door, he jumped seeing Namjoon awake. Namjoon stared at Dal for a moment without saying a word, slowly closing his journal as he rose from his seat. Even from where he stood, Namjoon could see the medical papers that Dal clutched in his hands.

Dal seemed to finally realize the papers he was holding in his hand after a brief moment had passed, quickly folding them and shoving them into his pocket.

"You should be asleep," said Dal as Namjoon just nodded.

That was the extent of their conversation as Dal moved towards where his bed was, disguising a cough behind the clearing of his throat as he made his way over.

'It seems like we both are keeping a secret from one another,' thought Namjoon as he turned to look back at the still sleeping Taehyung the tiger behind him.

- - -

Yoongi wanted to focus on his music, but he was unable to. All he could focus on was the two men at the bookshop that Gemini had started working for. Namjoon seemed overly charming at first, but Yoongi was slowly warming up to him due to their mutual love of music. This Tae on the other hand was someone that Yoongi was still extremely wary of. He acted oddly to the point where Yoongi knew something was up with him. If it wasn't wearing accidentally shredded clothing, it was him nervously staring at something that wasn't there. With the looks that Tae possessed, Yoongi was afraid that what Tae was doing was all an act to get Gemini to affectionally dote on him. Gemini still had her moments where she was afraid of life, and therefore Yoongi couldn't help but to feel like she might be slightly gullible because of that.

As the only real male role model left in her life, Yoongi felt like it was his responsibility to get to the bottom of why Tae acted the way he did. If it was an act, Yoongi would make sure to well and truly chase the man off. However, if it turned out Tae wasn't acting, Yoongi needed to know what secret he was hiding.

That was what led Yoongi to staring at the blinking bar on the blank Google search engine instead of working on his music. All he knew about this man was that his name was Tae.

"Tae..Tae...what could that be short for?" mused Yoongi out loud to himself.

Without giving it much thought, he started to type in 'Tae' to see what results the search engine would generate. He - of course - wasn't directed towards any results that would help him at first. It wasn't until he was near the bottom of the second search page that he came across a snippet of an interview from the 80's. He leaned forward to look at the excerpt that had been highlighted by the search engine.

'...Tae was my best friend. He was much too young to die..."

Quirking a brow, Yoongi clicked on the URL that would direct him to the full article. The minute the headline for the article loaded, Yoongi remembered hearing about it. Even though he hadn't been born when it happened, he remembered the adults in his life talk about this while he grew up, using it as springboards to talk about why it was a dumb idea to keep exotic animals as pets. Yoongi read the article on the screen before him about the man named Kim Taehyung who was thought killed and eaten by a tiger that had escaped and eluded capture.

"Kim Taehyung," muttered Yoongi; his eyes scanning past the interview where the quote had come from that led him to clicking the article in the first place.

Yoongi came to a complete stop when he reached the bottom of the page and saw a picture of the supposed deceased. He recognized that face in the picture. That was the same Tae that Gemini was talking to in the bookshop. He looked as if he hadn't aged a day.

"What on Earth is going on?" asked Yoongi out loud to himself. Though he didn't currently have the answer, Yoongi was now more bound and determined than ever to find out the truth.