On the popular app FaceUpp, a photo is worth more than words-- it's worth power. Users are gifted with superpowers they can use both in the real world and in 'the arena'. At the top of the heap sit the 10-Ks, those who consistently reach 10,000 star...
Taehyung went back to class, but he avoided his friends and Yoongi for the rest of the day and locked himself in his bedroom for the first time in years when he got home.
There, sitting against the door, he considered his options.
He needed a new hack. That much was clear. He couldn't walk around looking like V. Hacks were easy enough to design and order, but he couldn't avoid the disappointment. He liked the false tattoos and swirling black lines. He liked the changing eye colors. He had chosen all those features for a reason. Now... He would have to save the hack. As a reminder of what he would have to do if Yoongi won their bet.
Yoongi.
He couldn't let Yoongi do it. Taehyung wondered if Yoongi was the universe's way of reminding him he couldn't escape himself. He was a fighter, an arena fighter, and he couldn't avoid the consequences of that reality. He heard his phone vibrate and checked it against his better judgement.
***-***-****: Why wont you fight me
Taehyung groaned, throwing the phone across the room. It was too tough for a fall to break it, but he couldn't help hoping the case would shatter for once. Then he would have a good excuse. Anything to keep them from learning the truth. If Yoongi dug too deep, if Yoongi saw any more of those videos...
No. he couldn't think about it. He couldn't let it come back to him.
He had to make sure Yoongi never met V. If Yoongi met V, that would signal the end of everything. Yoongi would never look at him the same way. Taehyung remembered again the way he had avoided touching him, as if subconsciously aware of his desire for some kind of barrier between himself and the world. Yoongi had had the audacity to call him an angel.
He would take that back if he knew what V had done. What Taehyung had done.
Taehyung groaned, rubbing his face with both hands. This was insane. He had to keep Yoongi from meeting V, but that meant stepping back into the arena, stepping back into V's skin. It meant becoming V again.
Why had he made that stupid promise? He should have watched his words.
Instead, he crawled to the bookshelf, opened the old phone, and logged into FaceUpp. Navigating from his home page to his feed and from there to his account, he scrolled down, sighing as he opened the 'change hack' feature.
A small avatar appeared, floating in space. Taehyung laughed. They had added underwear. He dragged a finger to rotate the figure, humming to himself, and scrolled through the menu on the side, clicking on the 'customize' feature. As he selected features, he felt himself relax a little. Yes. This was different from the V everyone knew. He would just need to remember to set his hack to private so no one could see it and recognize him on the street.
He took a deep breath, drawing careful lines of white light along the figure. The program made them cleaner, gentler, as if recognizing his desires. Maybe it did. He didn't know. He turned the figure around and laid a careful pattern of feathers across the skin of its back. They were only drawn in, but he felt himself smile.
It had been so long since anyone called him an angel, even as a joke.
He added the feathers to his arms but kept his chest bare, except for a small gold dot in the hollow at the base of his neck, in the space where his collarbones met. He zoomed in on the face, taking a deep breath, and added three gold dots to the outer ends of his lower lids, then drew a few swirls curling down from over his ears, where the mask and hoodie would probably conceal them. He couldn't completely let go of who he'd been.
No. This hack would not just be his ideal. This hack would be a reminder.
Taehyung took a deep breath and went back to the original menu. Thankfully, or perhaps morbidly, he wasn't the only one aiming to look as if he had come fresh out of a fight. He layered small cuts and bruises under the feather graphics, then added more on his legs. He expanded a gash to extend up the side of his leg and felt his breath catch in his throat.
Yes. That was it.
He added a gash just like it to his chest.
He changed his eye color but left his hair color black-- another reminder of his past. Then he took another deep breath, sticking his feet out, and turned the hack on, smiling to himself as he took a picture of his eye.
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V : Boo
Yoongi: Nice Hck
Taehyung caught himself smiling and shook his head, running a hand through his hair. The new hack tickled. It was equal parts punishment and reward for coming back to the arena. His heart began to beat faster as he thought of entering in the tournaments. Yes. Yes. he would enter the tournaments. He would make it back to the top. Yoongi would never be able to touch him.
