The Faulty Ones

Chapter 10| Deliberation

Jungkook and Jimin left Taehyung in his temporary room along with the bag of sugary treats, Jimin hoping they would somehow calm him down some, if that was even possible for the situation he was in.

The two men found their feet pattering against the hardwood floors through the dark empty hallway, their footsteps echoing and bouncing into their eardrums until they were in Jin’s office once again. Jin too, was becoming tired of his own office and talking to the two almost every day now, but he had things to get done.

Jin waited for them to take a seat in front of him, but realizing they weren’t making any movements to the chairs and standing firm in their spots with a wide gap between them, Jin went on talking.

“Since yesterday we had-” Jin paused as he thought how to word his sentence. “-some complications, we’re back here to finalize our plans about what we’re going to do with Taehyung.”

“Well, I thought we were just going to kill him. I mean, it would be the easiest solution,” Jungkook said, causing Jimin to narrow his eyes as he tried to figure out Jungkook’s thinking process which was far different from his.

“Your first solution to any problem is to just kill someone off?” Jimin asked. 

Jungkook stared at him blankly. “Yeah.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Jin was the first to suggest it anyway, not me. I’m just agreeing with it.”

“Yes, I did.” Jin looked over at Jimin. “But you had something else in mind, Jimin?”

“I was thinking that maybe we don’t have to kill him,” Jimin said quietly as he fiddled with his fingers. “Maybe he can be useful to us.”

“How?” Jungkook asked with his arms crossed.

“We’re down one member. We need someone to fill his position, so why not let him join the gang?”

“We can’t just recruit someone that we got off the street,” Jin said.

“But that’s how you found Baekhyun,” Jimin shot back.

Jin eyed Jimin for a second, baffled. “Ok, let me rephrase that. We can’t just recruit someone that we kidnapped.”

“Jin, it just doesn’t feel right. To just kill him. He didn’t do anything wrong. It was our fault, not his. If Jungkook had his mask on we wouldn’t even be here discussing this.”

Jin frowned. “Jimin, I can’t do that. You know I can’t. What if-”

“He tried to kill himself,” Jimin said abruptly. “We can help him.”

Jungkook squinted his eyes at Jimin. “How do you know that?”

Jimin hesitated before replying. “I noticed that his neck was red and that there were two lines around the area. It looked like something was wrapped around it, and he happened to have a belt lying right next to that matched the markings on his neck. He was having trouble talking smoothly and his breathing was shallow. So from that, I got the conclusion that he tried . . . to kill himself by cutting off his oxygen.” 

“He probably did that because we kidnapped him,” Jin said.

“Jin, he should be dead. But something stopped him for going through with it. I can just look at him and tell that there’s something deeper, evil, and uglier. And it’s not just because of the situation he’s in right now. He’s like us. Most people would try to get out of a situation like this alive. He found his only way out was death. His thinking is tainted. He has issues that go further than just being here. I can tell.”

“One of the reasons why you made this gang was for people like us to get away,” Jimin continued. “To get away from our problems and fears. To leave the past behind. To be understood and protected. To have a feeling of control. To have a family that cared about you. At least it was when I was recruited.”