MIRROR MIRROR || ksj || BTS

XIV

Standing amidst the hallways filled with lingering photo frames and carpets with faint reminisces of stains was no less than taking a walk through memory lane. Jin observed every curve and crevice of the walls, some places he or Pulean had rammed into due to the giddiness of their childhood.

Hazy pieces of those moments soaked into his weary frame. Moments that now looking back, seemed almost too good to be true.

Sighing to himself a finger grazed a splotched edge of the wall. It was so faded that you would have to know the story to see it.

Jin had been stumbling beside little Pulean, who had decided to not so tightly grasp the bottle of baby food between her baby fingers. How she had gotten the container to come to her hands was still a wonder to that day.

I tightness fell upon the strings of his heart as he remembered his feeble attempts to convince the little girl who barely even knew how to utter two syllables in a word about his conflicting abilities.

His mother had walked in on the boy vigorously shaking the little girl, and in the commotion it took for the mother to pull daughter away from the torments that occupied the little boy’s fate, the bottle of baby food clattered against the wall.

Jin remembered the fear in the woman’s eyes as she held onto Pulean for her own sanity, which Jin might’ve snatched away without even knowing it.

“Jenna”, His father had called out to the tired lady. The delicacy of her face which resembled Jin’s own had been drained of color.

No matter what the man said to bring his wife back in, there was no turning back for her.

Jin could still see the freshly severed ends of the decaying red thread trailing off her suitcase as the front door slammed with a thud.

He flinched out of his thoughts just as he noticed a silhouette lurking away amongst the shadows cast by the soft light.

Jin just had to crane his neck a bit to look past the small hallway of the house to see Jungkook’s lean figure quietly slip his coat off the coat rack so that Seraphina and Hoseok, who lay asleep on the couch and armchair respectively, weren’t stirred out of their long-awaited sleep.

The boy had taken their surprise visit good-naturedly, even if it was unexpected and most likely out of the blue in his perspective.

Jin had felt his guilt stack itself in thin layers inside of him as he had seen a warm smile done the boy’s tired expression as he made his best efforts to situate the other two Angels.

Jungkook had even offered his own bedroom out of the two that occupied the small house, but Jin had declined, managing to convince the boy that they were all fine as they were.

Either way, Jin wouldn’t be able to sleep. Not when every corner his eyes turned to, a little bit of his past would soak back in.

Just as Jungkook’s soft hands went to grab the doorknob, Jin quietly called out to him.

His doe-like eyes flickered to older, face flushing with relief as Jin approached him.

“Hyung, are you alright?”, Jungkook asked out of habit. “Why aren’t you asleep?”

Jin eyed him skeptically, brotherly affection flowing through his fingertips as he placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “I should be asking the same to you”.

Jungkook’s long-lashed flitted downward sheepishly. “I usually leave early so I can reach the hospital before daybreak”.

Jin furrowed his eyebrows, “Hospital? Jungkook are you ok?”