CORRUPTED

𝘦𝘱𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘶𝘦

𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐔𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐃
✩✩✩

three months later

hoseok stared at your sleeping figure on the armchair beside him. the glow of the fire that blazed in the fireplace illuminated your face, casting a golden light on it and highlighting your angelic features. whenever he looked at you, his chest squeezed with love and adoration, just like it had all those years ago.

in all honesty, hoseok didn't know where he was going to go, or what he was going to do that after that night. he looked back with pride in himself and his ambition. the way he was able to round up housing, make up a plausible story, and make the both of you disappear without a trace impressed even himself. smiling to himself, he leaned back into the sofa.

as for you, you woke up a few hours later, confused and unsure of where you were and what was happening. eventually, the memories of what had occurred that night rushed back to you, and you were just as devastated as you were before. of course, you put up a fight, and begged and pleaded to go home, and the whole nine yards.

after a good...talking to...you finally accepted the anomaly that was your life now. you learned sooner or later that it would always work out better in your favor if you just did what you were told and didn't complain. did you like living like this? hell no, but did you really want to suffer the same fate as yoongi?

you tried not to worry so much, since your captor was just hoseok. he wouldn't dare harm you, right?

that's what you wanted to believe. you wanted the luxury of that knowledge so, so bad.

but hoseok was different now.

he wasn't the same positive, carefree guy he used to be.

he changed.

he was...corrupted.

you knew it, and so did he.

hoseok liked the new, sinister confidence he had. it was ironic, he was a missing person, on the run from cops and family, who killed a man and was holding a girl hostage, yet he had never felt so free in his whole life. the feelings of guilt, fear, embarrassment, everything that had once bound him and imprisoned him, were gone. the barrier was lifted.

he chuckled thinking about it, as he picked up the large envelope that sat on the couch beside him. when he had snuck back home, to grab his important belongings, he stumbled across a large envelope, filled with smaller envelopes, and they all contained letters.

he had fond memories of the letters, reading them and writing them. he looked back and remembered how he used to be so dependent on these letters to regulate his emotions, to calm him down, to keep him sane. although he was grateful for them, because they helped him through some very difficult times, they weren't important anymore, they weren't him.

he used to believe they were filled with the right answers, the golden rules, the key to living a harmonious life. but only now did he see the lies inside of them. he used to think that the crowning jewel to living happily was doing the right thing, and staying in your lane, no matter what you felt inside. now he knew the truth, the key to living a happy life was living freely. embracing your emotions, good and bad, and doing what you thought was right, not living by the standards of others. now that he had discovered that, he could live without worrying about his emotions getting the best of him ever again.

he held the envelope in his hand, and stared at the inferno that was before him. with no hesitation, he leaned forward and threw it into the fire. and as the blaze ate away at the paper, and he watched the record of the past years of his life disintegrate into dust, he felt nothing.

which made him wonder,

was this part of himself new, and unexplored,

or was he just burying it this whole time?

✩✩✩
𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐔𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐃