THE DAWN - VMIN ONE SHOTS

I LET THE WORLD BURN FOR YOU

PAST

The first time Jimin died, it rained.

The forest had been restless that night, wind howling through the trees as if it already knew something was about to be lost. Rain soaked the ground, turning dirt to mud, the scent of wet earth thick in the air.

And beneath it was something sweeter and unmistakable. Vanilla.

Taehyung had followed it for hours. Days, if he was being honest.

It had clung to him, haunted him, sinking itself into his senses until it became impossible to ignore. Even when he tried, especially when he tried.

He shouldn't have gone after it. He knew that. But when someone mentioned Jimin hadn't returned, something in him snapped.

...

By the time he found him, the storm had worsened.

The abandoned house stood crooked and half-rotten in the middle of the forest, its broken windows rattling with every gust of wind. The door hung loosely from its hinges.

And inside was Jimin, curled in on himself, shaking and breathing like every inhale hurt.

"Don't come closer," Jimin had said, his voice barely holding together.

Taehyung had stopped for a moment, until Jimin's scent-God, his scent-the scent of Jimin in heat, reached him. It wrapped around his throat, dragged at something deep inside him, something feral and starving.

"You shouldn't be here," Taehyung said instead, his voice rougher than he intended. "Do you have any idea what could happen to you out there?"

Jimin laughed out loud at that, broken and sad.

"You don't get to care now."

That-That should've stopped him. It didn't.

What followed wasn't gentle. It wasn't soft, or romantic, or anything worth remembering kindly. It was desperation, instinct, and anger mixed together.

Jimin pushed him away. Taehyung pulled him back because Jimin's scent had triggered his rut, and Taehyung knew-he knew-there was no going back for either of them at this point.

Words turned into shoves, shoves into something messier, something neither of them could control once it started. Somewhere between resistance and surrender, they crossed a line neither of them could return from.

...

After that fateful incident, they stopped speaking. Or rather, Jimin did. Taehyung watched, as he always did, had been doing for years, from a distance.

When Jimin walked alone, Taehyung was somewhere nearby. When Jimin faltered, Taehyung noticed before anyone else did.

He just never stepped forward, never said the words that sat heavy in his chest.

Even when he knew Jimin was carrying his child.

...

The attack came without warning.

Fire tore through their village like it had been waiting for the right moment. Wolves from the neighboring pack descended without mercy, their snarls drowning out the screams of the helpless.