Charade

Destiny

"Someone knows..." Taehyung whispers. "What do we do?"

"I-" Jungkook clenches his eyes at the words scrawled on the back of the photo of Taehyung and Seokjin. Taehyung stares out the window. V's not awake yet. Jungkook and Namjoon don't have this pinned fully on Jimin yet.

He can just walk away from this. All of this. Can walk away from the person trying to kill V, the business, from Jin. Taehyung doesn't want to do that though. How can he leave when things aren't resolved yet? Even with his life on the line, he doesn't want to leave yet.

Jungkook came to see him at V's house. Namjoon's busy with something so Jungkook came alone. Taehyung's still in V's black pajamas, sitting on the bed. Thankfully, Seokjin left for work.

Jungkook's nibbling on his bottom lip, clearly in deep thoughts. "You don't have to continue this anymore. Namjoon and I-"

"I want to do this," Taehyung says loudly. He turns to Jungkook. "I want to help you and Namjoon catch whoever's doing this. Even if I'll get hurt," Seokjin's face flashes in his mind. "I'm not leaving. Not until this is over." He isn't going to run just because someone found out.

"Tae..." Jungkook looks down. "I don't want to keep getting you in danger. Especially, now that they know you're not V. They'll do anything to find him..." Taehyung felt himself frowning. Seeing Jungkook care about him this much makes him, even more, determined to find out who's doing this.

He goes over to Jungkook, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I won't get hurt. I promise." Jungkook lifts his head to look at him. Thinking about it, he's been pretty lucky to not get any serious injuries. Hopefully, that lucks stay with him. "We'll catch this guy together and I'll be without a scratch."

~~~~

"It's not your fault."

Taehyung lifts his head, smiling a little. "I know. That's what Namjoon and Jungkook keep saying" Still, he can't help but feel like it is his fault that someone knows he's not V.

"And what they're saying is true," V's mom says. She smiles and pats the seat next to him. Taehyung gets up from his seat that's adjacent to her, sitting next to her as she asked.

She looks at him warmheartedly and strokes the back of his head. It feels odd but comforting. It's been a while since he felt his mom's affections as she's in another country. "I never told you how I found you, did I?" She asks Taehyung.

Taehyung shakes his head. He almost forgot that V's mom's the one who recommended him to be in place of V. She looks at his face as if remembering the first time she saw it.

****

"Mommy," V says.

"Yeah, baby," I squeeze his cheek.

"Can I get ice cream?" He smiles sheepishly. I laugh at his adorableness.

"Of course you can. Let me guess, mint chocolate chip?" He nods eagerly. I get up, holding his hand so we can walk side by side. However, he lets go.

"I'm so tired. Can I just wait here?" V asks me with puppy eyes. Before I could object he says, "I know to stay away from bad people. If they try to take me away, I will scream really really loud. Okay, Mommy?"

"You're so smart," I lean down and kiss his head. "Don't go anywhere. I'll just be right there," I point towards the ice cream place which is only a couple feet away. He nods, leaning into the bench.

As I walk away, I keep turning to check on him. "Mommy, I'm fine!" He yells after my tenth time turning to look at him. I giggle at his reassurance and focus on getting his ice cream.