Midas Touch ➸ Taekook

- Thirty-fourth -

The bass sounded like a heartbeat, dull and relentless, vibrating the walls of the bar. A cloud of smoke hung in the thick air, illuminated by blood-red neon lights that flickered intermittently, as if fighting not to die. The place was packed. Hoarse voices rose above the music, mingled with raucous laughter and the metallic clink of clinking glasses. The floor was sticking to the soles, the result of years of accidental spills and carelessness, but nobody here seemed to mind.

It was a veritable crossroads for all the city's rejects: discreet regulars with shifty eyes, gamblers looking for a lucky break in the back rooms, passing mercenaries eager for a strong drink before their next mission. Behind the bar, a barman with a weathered face was absent-mindedly wiping glasses with a dodgy cloth, while listening with one ear to the snatches of conversation that were being exchanged. Here, people didn't ask questions; they came to forget, to play, or to pick up the rumours that circulated, as elusive as spectres in the half-light.

At the back of this dingy-looking bar was a room where everything was played out. Isolated from the rest of the establishment, it was the only place for those with a big stake to play, and it had nothing to do with money. Here, people didn't play for mere dollars.

And Jungkook was still wondering how he'd ended up here in such a short space of time. Only yesterday he was laying flowers on a grave he would have liked to forget, and today he found himself in a bar he hadn't set foot in for years, all to gather information he didn't even want to know.

As he settled into one of the chairs surrounding the vast round table at which the game was about to begin, he felt two presences position themselves behind him, weighing down his shoulders. He didn't want to be there. But his guilt would always catch up with him.

~

"Bella...?"

The young woman smiled faintly in his direction and approached slowly, while Jungkook couldn't contain his surprise and horror. As she took a step towards him, he instinctively stepped back, and they continued until something blocked the young man's path. A grave. Her grave. She must lie under there. And yet there she was, right in front of him.

"How... You... Why..." he struggled to articulate. "Y-You should be dead... No, I saw you die with my own eyes, I felt your heart stop... Bella!"

The young woman stopped, her face suddenly darkening. She didn't answer, and that only increased the Cajun's sense of panic. He began to shake his head frantically, tears forming in the corners of his eyes.

"I-it's impossible... This is a nightmare! It's a nightmare! I've fallen asleep and I'm dreaming! It'll all go away when I wake up!"

"Jungkook, calm down!"

The young man turned his head sharply, and his surprise only increased when he saw a certain man approaching from the back of a mausoleum.

"Jean-Luc?" he wondered. "What are you doing here? What the hell?!"

Jean-Luc sighed, clearly saddened by his son's state of panic.

"I'm having trouble understanding it too," admitted the old man, "but when I arrived this morning to lay flowers, she was there... Alive. But..."

"This condition is only temporary."

For the first time, the young woman had spoken, whispering the words in a soft, feminine voice, almost bewitching. Jungkook frowned.

"What?"

"I..." she began again. "I don't know exactly how I ended up here, or how I know what I'm going to say, but I know that without help, it won't last. My condition isn't stable. Without your help, I risk..."

" To die again?"

She nodded, looking into the Cajun's eyes, with her emerald green ones.

"If... if you still have an ounce of love for me, Jungkook, please help me. I don't want to... I don't want to disappear again."

Jungkook bit his cheek. He didn't have any love for her, but guilt, on the other hand...

~

The young man sighed. Bella didn't know how or who had done this to her, and he didn't have a clue either. But this bar, the Night Hawk, was the best place in New Orleans to gather information. He didn't know how far it would take them, but it was a start. And here, to get information, you had to play.

Other players soon took their places at the table, some of whom he knew, others not. Only one seat remained empty for a while, opposite him. Many minutes passed, and just when he thought they would start the game without filling the gap, someone finally took the seat. Jungkook looked up at the newcomer, but all he could see was a large hood, completely hiding the stranger's face.

Yet there was something about them that intrigued him deeply.

The croupier began to deal the cards, and the room fell into an icy silence. For a moment, Jungkook turned his attention from the stranger to his new cards. He felt a hand rest on his shoulder, and as he looked up, he met Bella's gaze, who gave him a charming smile.

This hand made him feel uncomfortable. And this unease only increased when he felt a heavy gaze on him. He turned away, and saw that the hooded man was facing him. He couldn't see their eyes, but he could feel an insistent gaze on him.

Even though the game had started, Jungkook wasn't concentrating at all. Between Bella's increasingly wandering hands, which returned as soon as he'd pushed them away, and this stranger who hadn't once lowered his eyes to his cards, he couldn't get interested in the game. Nor even to the reason he had come here in the first place.

Jungkook frowned when he saw a young man leaning over the stranger's shoulder, whispering a few words in his ear. The Cajun stared at him, trying to remember him, searching a clue somewhere that would reveal the identity of the hooded man, but even his yellow raincoat and pink sunglasses didn't tell him anything. If he'd come across this kind of person, he would have remembered.

"Jungkook, concentrate, you're losing!" Bella whispered in his ear, almost startling him. "That's not like you, you've never lost a card game!"

She was right, but he just couldn't manage it. As the game drew to a close, he dropped his cards on the table, revealing a hand that might have been in his favour had he paid even a little attention to the game.

The stranger also casually threw down his cards and stood up, surprising everyone. They were going to play all night, so why was he leaving after just one game?

However, as he stood up, his hood flickered, and Jungkook could see a white lock of hair dancing in the air, accompanied by a few brown.

The Cajun froze in place, his eyes widening and his body suddenly shaking violently. He knew of only one person with such an unusual hair colour. The stranger didn't give him time to think, leaving the bar through the back door, closely followed by the mysterious boy in the yellow coat.

But Jungkook couldn't let him go. Not when his instincts were screaming at him to catch up, to make sure he was right. So he stood up violently, knocking over his chair in the process, and startling his father and Bella, who looked at him with wide eyes.

He paid no attention. He just ran, heading as fast as he could for the back door, through which a certain someone had just disappeared.

~🌻~

Oh? Who can that be...?🤔🤭💕