ᴡᴀʀᴍᴛʜ

00

prologue ;
animal

"...and that's when you killed him?"

jimin snaps out of his trance, focusing his eyes again after what felt like hours of staring off into space. he blinks heavily a couple of times, before running his hand through his hair and quickly glancing to his side.
he was clearly uncomfortable, and for a good reason.
his eyes met with a very pissed off looking woman, who's lips were pressed so tightly together in a weird pout that it looked like she was making a continuous duck face.

he shudders, and quickly moves his gaze back to the front, locking eyes with a man whose evident eye bags and pale face made him look like he had woken up in a graveyard instead of a bed this morning.
could this dude look any more like he didn't want to be here? jimin almost laughs, but masks it as a cough just in time. seokjin would fucking kill him if he did something so inappropriate in this situation.

"objection, asked and answered," speaking of seokjin, the cool and collected young man raises his voice from his seat a couple feet in front him. his tone was calm and assertive, mirroring his personality perfectly. jimin glanced at him shortly, and suppressed a smirk.

he looked liked he owned the fucking place without being offensive.

that's the only way he could describe the aura coming off of him. seokjin leaned back onto the wooden chair he was seated at, legs crossed and eyes shining under the longish bangs nearly covering them. he was leaning onto his left hand almost lazily, yet the rapidly moving pen swinging in the air in his right hand gave off what he really was; alert.

kim seokjin, his lawyer, and also possibly the most cunning guy he had ever met in his life.

"overruled, offended answer the question," the unnecessary loud voice of the judge echoed in the courtroom. it annoyed the hell out of jimin. how he talked like he was a goddamn king, above all of this shit. how he addressed him like he was just a nameless peasant.

we get it, you have authority, now shut the fuck up.

jimin clenched his fists, and kept his eyes at the front. he was slightly surprised by his own aggressiveness. maybe he was getting a little agitated. he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, not wanting to do anything unneeded. he met eyes with eye bags again, an irritatingly unimpressed expression on the man's face staring back at him.

he thought the question over in his head. he had indeed answered that very question many, many times already, so many that the answer he had to give every single time was dry and weary on his tongue. he had gone over that countless times with seokjin, what he was supposed to say and when, how he was supposed to look like and why.

honestly, it tired him.

he wonders what it would do if he just did the complete opposite of those advises. to just not give a fuck anymore. he had been fighting this battle for over a month now with no results, no movement towards the end. they were stuck in an endless cycle of new evidence being found or made, and seokjin's connections and smooth words invalidating them. he needed to get the ball moving. he needed to change his approach

and that's exactly what he was going to do right now.

he felt a sudden rush in the bottom of his stomach. it stayed there for a second, circling around, spreading a warm feeling in him. then it bloomed and spread to his cheast, filling him with a familiar feeling. he knew what was about to happen. he knew it would mess everything up. and he knew that it would ruin more lifes than one, yet he still didn't stop himself.

jimin clears his throat, and leans closer to the mic. he could feel all of the eyes turn to look at him in anticipation. they too had probably felt the air change around him. all of them were awake now, as a small spark of progress lit up in the atmosphere.

the courtroom fell silent as the people stared at him like a wild animal in a zoo. which, truthfully, amused him a little. they all probably felt like they were superior to him, that the filthy thing in front of them was definitely not the same species as them. they felt good about themselves, looking down on someone who was actually atoning for the mistakes they had made while they chug over five pills each night just to fall asleep.

he felt sorry for each, and every one of them.

he shifted to lock eyes with seokjin one last time, and watched the man raise an eyebrow at him. jimin gave him a small smile, which made the other man's expression immediately change from slightly confused to alarmed. his smile saddened a little at this, and his face turned apologetic, which made the other panic even more. after all, he was going to throw away all the work seokjin had done, turning all nighters and hours of practising speeches pointless.

but he was truly grateful to him, and within that smile he hid a promise, a promise that he would make it all up for him once they meet again someday. before seokjin could try to do anything to change his mind, jimin turned to look at the offender again.

the corners of his mouth spread into an almost playful smirk as a spark lit up and danced in his eyes. he licked his lips and leaned closer to the microphone, lifting his hand to take a gentle hold of it. letting the tension build up for just a second more he let his gaze wander around the room before finally, with an unexpectedly low voice stated:

"yes."