Bulletproof Heroes Prologue - BTS Superhero/Mutant AU -

Epiphany

If Seokjin had to chose between staying in the suffocating place that had been his family or meeting his six friends, brothers, even, by finding out about his mutant ability, causing him pain and suffering, he'd have to chose the second option.

Why, you may ask? Simply because he wanted to take care of them, and if he didn't have any powers, how was he supposed to do that?

Of course, these thoughts belong to the Kim Seokjin of 2015 and beyond. The Seokjin of before would much prefer go back to his house, back to his parents, without any stupid mutations or trauma sticking with him.

That's the guy we'll be with for a while, the Seokjin that wanted to stay low, safe, and quiet when it came to whatever thing he thought was wrong with him.

The first time it happened was when he was twelve, with baby fat still in his cheeks and rectangular glasses that didn't quite fit his face.

The first time his powers manifested was while he was helping with Park Minseo's garden, an elderly lady who lived not to far from his house. Seokjin liked visiting her on the weekends and enjoyed learning how to re pot plants, what some could do, were they came from, what sort of ancient legends followed them. It was a simple, peaceful thing to do, and calmed him whenever the house became too much.

Minseo-yang had asked him to work on one of the flowers, a beautiful but dying pink orchid that Seokjin had started to prefer over the others while she went back to get some more water and equipment. Seokjin had protested, politely declaring that he could do it for her, but she told him that she noticed how much he liked that flower and that maybe he'd like to spend some time with it. She had jokingly winked as she said this, and Seokjin's ears burned red in pure, barely concealed indignation and embarrassement

But he did as she said and took care of the orchid. He put what remained of the water onto it's soil, readjusted its browning petals, added some nutriments into the dirt.

"You know," he said to the flower, "it's kind of sad how a flower like you can just start to die. You've been taken good care of by Minseo-yang." He adjusted the leaves again, but simply ended up making one of its pretty petals fall. He led out a startled yelp before glaring at it and poking one of its leaves gently.

"Why are you like this?" he stupidly asked the flower. 

The last thing he would've expected was for the flower to answer back.

He jumped away, startled by the weird hum that had came from it and through his hand, up his brain, making him feel more than hear the answer it gave back.

I am cold.

Seokjin blinked at it.

"Well," he said, not knowing why he had replied to a flower because no why this was a flower, "it might be because it's getting closer and closer to fall?"

Dying. Heal me.

"You're a plant," Seokjin stated, as if that answered everything, as if talking to a plant was perfectly normal and no, he wasn't insane, not at all.

HEAL ME.

Seokjin instantly slapped his hands over his ears, his head pounding and ears whistling. The plant wasn't  supposed to shout. It didn't have mouth. 

HEAL ME!

But it felt as if its scream was taking over his head and thoughts, ordering him to heal it, to make it better, but it was a plant. A stupidly pink orchid with browning petals and no conscience!

HEAL ME!

"Alright, fine!" he said loudly, almost shouting. It stopped. "Fine," he said again, a bit more calmly. "Just... wait a second, please."

He sat there, staring at the old glass ceiling of the small homemade terrarium (they lived in a rich and spacious neighbourhood, so Minseo-yang's late husband had enough space to build one), until he was ready to get up and walking to a plant and try to heal it, in whatever way he could. There was no way that flower was screaming at him again.

He hesitantly extended his hands towards it, waiting for the flower to make his head hurt again. Nothing happened.

Not really knowing what he was doing, he nervously made a sort of dome with his hands around the flower's base, on top of its hidden roots.

"Uh... Heal?" he said quietly, hoping it worked.

Nothing happened. Seokjin felt like the most insane awkward guy to ever walk the planet.

But right before he took his hands away, frustrated and confused, something finally happened. His hands, arms, every singly bone in his body sparked with pain. He closed his eyes tightly, but not before he noticed how the veins in his hands had started to glow a greenish hue. His eyes felt as if they were being pushed out of his skull.

The pain was gone as soon as it started, thankfully. When he opened his eyes and looked at the flower, it was fine, even more beautiful then when it had been fully formed a few months ago.

A feeling of appreciation shot through his head, definitely not hurting this time and definitely not his. Despite the nice, almost warm emotion, Seokjin stumbled back and stared at his pale hands. They looked normal again, no glowing lines or anything else that was completely abnormal, unnatural, everything his parents had warned him about.

"What did I just-" He couldn't finish the question, interrupted by the sound of a few cars rolling down the road and parking themselves in front of Minseo-yang's house. He hurried to the exit of the terrarium and opened the wood and glass door. He walked out, barely noticed Minseo-yang as she stepped next to him with a bucket filled with tools and a watering can.

Instead, he noticed the words on the side of the three large black SUVs, the International Mutant Capturing Association logo plastered next to it.

"What are they doing here?" Minseo-yang wondered, dropping what she was holding gently onto the ground.

"I-I don't-"

The elderly lady interrupted him by placing a hand on his shoulder.

"I think you do." She patted his cheek, and told him that he should go back home.

"I don't want them to hurt you because of something you can't help, do I, Seokjin-ah?" she said to him.

Seokjin barely had a chance to say anything before the old lady gently but firmly pushed him into the small terrarium.

"Hide. They won't know you exist, alright?"

And she left. Seokjin did as she said, hiding behind a bunch of old pots and empty plastic bags.

Hide him. Hide our Prince.

Seokjin jumped at the messages passing through the plants around him. He saw the vines start to creep up on the ground and wrap itself around the pots and his limbs. The leaves, as they touched his skin, grew a bit more.

Seokjin didn't resist, knowing that these supposed-to-be-inanimate-plants were helping him, because, as they put it, he was their 'Prince'.

Flipping heck this was weird. 

"Hello," he heard Minseo-yang say. "How can I help you young men?"

"Is there anyone else around here?" a man asked.

"No. Just me."

Seokjin heard heavy footsteps and the clicks of something made of metal.

"Sorry, but you're coming with us," the man from before ordered, not sounding sorry at all. The shuffling of feet, the opening and closing of a car door, the roar of an engine. In a few minutes, all the vehicles had driven away.

Seokjin wrestled with the plants surrounding him. It didn't take much effort getting them off. they slid away on their own accord, going back to their original places.

The boy ran out of the terrarium and stared at the tire tracks on the dirt.

"Shit," was the only thing he managed to say before running back home.

It was only when he arrived at the door, panting, did he realise something. Had an epiphany, you might say.

"I'm a mutant."

And then, he passed out.