Feel the Fire (Yoonseok) ✔

Chapter 9

"Hey hyung?" Hoseok asked. Yoongi looked up from his books he had been concentrated on for a few hours now.

"Do you know how I can contact my family?" Hoseok asked. Yoongi thought for a second. His face showed a weird emotion, almost like sadness.

"Uhm, there's a short wave radio in the Eastern tower but I don't think that reaches far enough to your village." He explained. "you should ask Jimin, he must know with his family."

"Oh yeah of course, because you live nearby you can just visit your family." Hoseok said the sudden memory popping up again.

"Yeah, I just haven't seen mine in a while." Yoongi mumbled looking back at his books.

"What?" Hoseok asked not having heard it properly the first time.

"Nothing. Go ask Jimin." Yoongi said clearer this time.

"Alright." Hoseok said. He was pretty sure Yoongi was keeping something from him, he just didn't want to ask him and intrude in case it was something personal.

He doubted for a second whether to ask him about it or not. He decided not to.

"Thanks for the help anyways." Hoseok said before walking out of the room.

He walked to Jimin's usual spot in the library. Yoongi's muffled words were on his mind. He was pretty sure he heard it right. Something was going on with his family.

After some time he saw Jimin in the distance, his head was delved in the old Korean literature.

"Jimin, could you help me with contacting my family?" Hoseok asked walking up to the silver-haired boy.

"I'd love to hyung, but I'm really busy. Maybe... Jungkook!" Jimin yelled. His voice could be heard throughout the entire library which made it followed by a lot of shushes.

The boy tried to hide his face behind his books. His actions had a wished effect as well. A boy at the end of the library turned his head.

He started walking towards them. He was wearing an uniform that suited his dark brown hair. According to his face and posture he wasn't much younger than them. Hoseok recognised the boy from some of his classes. He wasn't very talkative. He was always sitting in the corner of the classroom taking notes.

"Yeah?" The boy asked with a slightly annoyed look on his face.

"Show Hoseok the owl tower, will you? He's new." Jimin asked.

Hoseok was slightly taken aback by the informal speech between them. They clearly knew each other well.

"Sure, follow me." He said with a nod.

Hoseok quickly thanked him and followed him out of the parchment smelling room. They walked through the halls side by side.

"Where does your family live?" The boy asked not sure how to start the conversation.

"Jilyeog, it's a small town close to the border." Hoseok answered following the guy up the never ending stairs.

"Sounds nice. I'm Jungkook by the way, I'm Jimin's brother." He explained suddenly aware of the confusion written on the older boy's face.

"I didn't know Jimin had a brother." Hoseok said. The boys did not look alike much. They did have the same accent however.

"Well he has. I'm a year younger but I take some classes with the second years because I could skip a lot." Jungkook explained.

"Oh, that explains why I didn't see you at the introduction." Hoseok said his doubts now clarified.

They finally reached the top of the stairs. Before them was a big room filled with birds. Most of them were in cages but some flew free. All birds were different. Some were grey doves with a small beak and some were ravens with feathers as black as a night's sky. Brown with white owls were half asleep while the small colourful birds flew around their cages with an amazing speed. Some of the birds had wings bigger than Hoseok's arms and others were hardly bigger than his head. All of them were different individuals, much like all the sorcerers at the school.

"You can use any bird you want as long as it doesn't look exhausted. We use a simple following spell to send them in the right direction. Do you know how to do that?" Jungkook asked opening one of the cages. He took out a raven. The bird excitedly jumped on the younger boy's arm.

"I don't know anything." Hoseok said truthfully.

"You'll learn it soon enough. If you want I can do the spell for you this time." Jungkook offered.

"That'd be great." Hoseok said with a smile.

Jungkook pointed at a desk in the corner. There was a stack of parchment and bottles of ink all lined up. "Just write the letter."

Hoseok thanked him quickly and went to work. He let the pen in his hands dance over the parchment and let his thoughts flow onto the paper. He told them all he could fit on the paper. He knew that if he was to tell them everything the bird would never be able to carry it. He just told about how he was safe and about how life was over here. The riches, the people, the education, everything.

Jungkook sat all this time by the window. His gaze was fixed on the sun that was slowly coming down, the moon in the sky becoming more evident at the same time. He stroked the bird which leaned into his touch. Jungkook loved to spent time in the owl tower, the view and sounds of the birds calmed him.

"Here you go." Hoseok said folding the piece of parchment. Jungkook took it and tied it to the raven's leg. The bird did not struggle whatsoever, which was something that surprised Hoseok.

Jungkook laid his hand carefully on the bird's head. Purple smoke started to form around his fingers tracing the bird's scalp. Its eyes turned a bright colour just before he took off.

"He'll arrive in Jilyeog tomorrow." Jungkook told him as he looked at the single black dot slowly disappearing into the evening sky. Hoseok just observed the magic used in awe.

"I think it's good you're keeping in touch with your family. It's weird living so far away from them, but like this they're still with you in a way." Jungkook said with a smile. It decorated his face well.

"I promised them I'd tell them everything, so I will." Hoseok said.

Jungkook kept looking until the bird was completely out of view. The silence between them was comfortable, much like him and Jimin.

"Do you ever miss your parents?" Hoseok asked breaking the silence.

Jungkook nodded. "Of course, unless you have a good reason not to everyone does." He explained. Hoseok nodded in agreement.

It had only been a few days yet he already missed his family to death. He missed his overprotective father and the smile on his sister's face as they'd spar and run through the forest. He missed his home and everything he left there.

It'd be years before he would see them again. His father's hairs would have turned grey and his sister would be taller than him. They'd grow older and he would too, just not together. It scared him more than he'd admit, he knew however than everyone was feeling like this. Everyone except one.

"Then why is Yoongi not missing his? He said he hadn't seem them in years." Hoseok asked carefully. He didn't like gossiping but his curiosity was getting the better of him and he didn't want to push Yoongi too far. Jungkook would know the answer.

"Because he doesn't have a family. When Yoongi was born his parents gave him away, they were scared of his magic and they didn't know what to do. He lived in the orphanage for fourteen, fifteen, years until Mr. Min from the coalmine adopted him. He claimed it was because he wanted a son but everyone knew he just wanted to use Yoongi's magic to get more coal out of the mines. Yoongi knew as well but he went with him anyway, anything better than the orphanage, I guess." Jungkook explained looking away from the sky.

Hoseok shook his head and sighed. He always felt different because he had magic in that little village of theirs, still his family made him feel loved. He couldn't imagine what it was like for Yoongi to go without that. To be casted away because you had a talent, it didn't make any sense.

"That's rough." Hoseok said.

"He's not used to anything else. At least he had a chance to go to the Academy. The headmaster gave him a scholarship." Jungkook told.

That was indeed something, but it did not erase all the years of abandonment. Nothing would. No matter how much love Yoongi would get he would never forget all the lonely days in his room looking out of his window to the kids on the streets, laughing, playing, all without him. He didn't expect anything else.