convict. || j.jk + k.th

IV

"Chapter 4"

_________________________

Countdown: 33 days until sentence.

It had been a week since my last encounter with Jungkook and beside a few inappropriate comments, he'd been good. He had carried on his request for me to be nearby when he went to sleep but last night he said I no longer needed to stay. I still wondered why he had been going to sleep obviously distressed and had brought it to Hoseok's attention. Hoseok was the institutions psychiatrist and everyone knew he was dating the head of operations, Min Yoongi. Just SICHO gossip.

I waited after Jungkook's 1 to 1 with Hoseok to talk with Hoseok as well as Jungkook. After a 30 minute session and about 10 minutes of waiting, the door finally buzzed before opening.

"Thanks Mr. Jung." Jungkook said as he walked out, Hoseok followed. "Oh Taehyung? What are you doing here?"

"Can you go wait in your cell, I need to talk to you." I asked, trying to seem strong. Yet his intimidating look made me turn my head down. I felt a hand under my chin and a warm, minty breath on my face. The familiar smell of soap lingered and without even looking, I could identify who it was. Anyway, only one person would have the audacity to touch me.

"Sure thing babe." Jungkook smirked as he began to walk down the hall, turning the corner at the end. I turned to face Hoseok, who was smirking a knowing smirk.

"No, no and no to what you're thinking." I sighed as I walked in to Hoseok's office, taking a seat in the worn leather sofa across from him.

"For you to know what I'm thinking, you have to be thinking it too." Hoseok leaned back in his arm chair, rolling his shoulder blades and stretching his arms. Sometimes I hate the fact that he got a degree in psychology.

"So, how is he?" I attempted to change the subject.

"Actually, he's great. I've been working with him the past 12 sessions and if I can be completely honest, he doesn't seem like a psychopath. He has functioning emotions, he doesn't have a bloodlust and doesn't seem to be exhibiting any withdrawal symptoms. If I could be completely honest, he seems like a normal person."

I frowned, unable to comprehend what he was saying. Instead I noted it down for later examination. "What about the sleeping issue. Is it to do with what we thought, about the whole idea that he will die."

"Ah, well I was looking in to that. In fact, he shows no signs of fear towards the concept of death. But I think I know what it is."

"What?"

"You mentioned that the first night he was mumbling some incoherent details, am I correct?"

"Yes."

"Those nightmares and the sweating and the fear, it wasn't withdrawal, in fact he seems to be clear of drugs and alcohol in his system. Neither was it fear. But it was actually more shocking." Hoseok paused, the tension becoming unbearable.

"He's grieving, grieving the loss of his family."

-

I returned to Jungkook's cell after the meeting with Hoseok. I was still shocked. A man who brutally murdered his family is in fact, grieving them? It made no sense.

I found him lounged back on his bed, back leaned against the creme-painted steel bars of the bed, cracking creme paint up the wall behind him. He looked up from his drawing pad, smiled, and set down his pencil and pad to sit up, gesturing to the metal chair across from him.