《stray together》

Because Of Love

⚠️Mentions: of R/SA, gore, mutilation.⚠️

It was already decided. No intentions of going back, except for a final message. Jeongin thought about what he had left in his life, and none of it mattered to him. University, there was no way he'd be able to focus on his classes after losing his brother and friend, and knowing the killer was amongst the people in the halls.
His belongings, mere materials that held no value in comparison to the irreplaceable souls lost.
His parents, who he listened to spew hatred towards Joon more and more each day just for being gay. Along with the vile way they spoke of Byunghyuk.

He walked into his home, feeling like a stranger in the house he had grown up in. He walked through the halls with muscle memory, and stood straight in the doorframe, bloody and disheveled. Both of his parents looked at him in shock. He threw his knife down, the sound of metal meeting tile echoing off the walls in the silence.

"Yang Jeong In– what is this?" His father glanced between the bloody knife and his bloody son. "What did you do?"

Blankly, "Got revenge on the bastard who killed hyung and Byunghyuk-hyung." Jeongin reached into his back pocket and threw a USB drive on the floor as well. "Since I'm the only one who loves him."

"What do you mean? We loved him!" Jeongin's mother cut in, tears stinging her eyes. She was realizing she lost both of her sons.

"No, you loved your idea of who he was." Jeongin's keys were the next thing to be pulled from his pockets and dropped, "The moment you found out who he really was, you wanted to wash your hands of him."

The knife still held his father's attention. "Whatever you did, people are going to think it was you now! That you were jealous of your brother's..." he cringed in place of the word he refused to say.

"Boyfriend? Byunghyuk-hyung was his boyfriend. You can say it! It's not going to damn you to hell. And if that's what they think, so be it. Everything they need to figure out the truth is on that." Jeongin pointed to the USB drive, "Texts, motive, witnesses, whole nine yards. If you want the guy caught, you can give that to the idiot police." He then tossed his own phone on the ground, having already factory reset it. His credit cards and identification cards also got discarded.

"What are you doing, Jeongin-ah?" His mother asked, watching the collection of items accumulate on the floor. Her voice was wobbly, feeling like life was sand slipping through her fingers.

Tugging off his hoodie, Jeongin didn't hold back the bite in his words, "Leaving. There's nothing here for me anymore. And it'd be pretty fucking stupid to stick around town after committing a massacre."  He spoke of it so casually, emotionless, as if it was robbing a store, or punching another patron at a bar. There was no extra weight, no gravity of the severity of his action.

A mix of a gasp and shriek escaped his mother, "Jeongin!"

"What?! I wasn't just going to let him get away with arranging and participating in a fucking gangbang rape on Byunghyuk, threatening and harassing him for months, and then kill him and Joon! You didn't see it that night. You weren't there. I was." Jeongin pointed to his own chest, "I couldn't save him, mom. He went in there to check on Byunghyuk, found him getting assaulted, tried to protect him, and got beaten to death for it." He spoke quickly before sucking in a hiss, remembering the night vividly, "Byunghyuk was cornered, trapped, and assaulted, then had to WATCH the love of his life die trying to protect him, and was left behind like a fucking wad of toilet paper. I watched him die, mom. I saw the disgusting way he was treated. I saw the pain and fear in his eyes. I saw my two favorite people happy one minute, and then saw them disappear the next. I fucking hate the color purple. I hate tequila. I hate club music. That night will never be erased from my memory. That pain will follow me for the rest of my life. And now, it will follow him too."  He was finally done ridding himself of belongings, ready to officially leave.