Kill Our Way to Heaven (Jikook) ✔

Chapter 20

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 20
"ᴘʟᴇᴀꜱᴇ ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ʙɪᴛᴇ"

With the frozen air around them biting at their skin, Jungkook clung to Taehyung's warm fingers for warmth. Their intertwined hands were swinging between them with every step they took, hiding between their coats every time someone else would glance at them a second time. They just kept walking in a comfortable silence. Normally staying quiet would make Jungkook nervous, it would make him feel as if he should say something and that he was making things awkward. With Taehyung, he felt quite the opposite. He knew that he didn't need to worry and that the elder was talkative enough for them both of them, if he wanted to talk, then he would. Jungkook didn't need to spend his thoughts and worries on something unnecessary. All he had to focus on was how they stuck together, playing with each other's fingers without exchanging any sounds.

Jungkook loved holding Taehyung's hands. The warmth radiating off them, contrasting with his own cold skin and the much colder air around him, and the way he'd slightly twiddle with his fingertips, they gave him a sense of comfort. Jungkook always loved holding hands, even if it was just platonically. Still, their relationship seemed to have gone far from platonically.

Jungkook wouldn't hide how he seemed to blush every time the elder complimented him, or how he could feel his skin tingle whenever Taehyung touched him. It was something he hadn't felt before. Yes, he had had crushes before, even though he hardly ever spoke up to them, but this was different. He felt like he needed Taehyung, as if he would be miserable and lost without him. Taehyung gave him something to hold on to as well as something to look forward to.

He had hardly left the house since the date he had with Taehyung, outside of classes anyway. He knew demons were waiting around every corner, and with Jimin up in Heaven he didn't have anyone to protect him. Especially with the mark not working that could become very dangerous very quickly. Going out with Taehyung gave him an exception, something he deemed worthy to risk his safety for. In those moments the elder still made him feel as if he was safe even though he was most definitely not.

After days of searching for something, they still hadn't found out why the mark wasn't working. In the end, they just accepted it, figured that it was because Jungkook was different from most humans. He was still a human, they could all agree on that since he didn't feel like an angel nor like a demon, but Jungkook couldn't help but wonder what he was even more now that he found more differences between him and the humans around him. There were more ways in which he varied from the others than just the way he saw the world. Something in him was fundamentally divergent and he didn't know what to do with it.

He never spoke about it with Jimin. After all, even the angels didn't know how he could see them and feel them, no other human had ever been able to do that. Jungkook couldn't remember a time where he didn't have his abilities, so he didn't know their origin. Anything his mother knew was a secret she swore to take to the grave, promptly shutting him up any time he asked about angels or demons. In the end, nobody knew what or who he was, so neither he nor Jimin knew what would work and what would not.

The only thing they figured would help was strengthening the mark. Jungkook could hardly move his arm for days. Every time his shirt would brush against the burn marks he would whimper. He couldn't walk around with bare shoulders anymore, or else Namjoon would notice the scars. He just had to put on a strong personality and pretend he wasn't hurting. Jimin would just stare at him from the corner with guilt-ridden eyes. He had tried so hard to find another way but there were none. Jungkook had assured him that it was alright and that this was the only option, but Jimin didn't want to hurt him even in the slightest. Marking him the first time was already bad enough, but marking him the second time hurt ten times as much, like cutting open an old wound. Jungkook was convinced Jimin had more trouble accepting that than he had.