House of Cards - BTS x sugamins AU (COMPLETED)

Chapter 23: Sleeping Dogs Bite

Jimin had felt fear before. He had felt it in many ways and it was a sensation that he knew intimately. Much too intimately. Having spent most of his childhood working under Haedogje Pa he had seen horrors that had left him numb to many things, things that would strike horror in the hearts of most people. If it wasn’t the occasional memory stirring up like a pit of vipers to strike at him then it was the nightmares, always lying in wait in the darkness to get him. The drugs had helped numb that, as had Jungkook’s warm body against his, but still the fear that the nightmares contained was well-known to him.

Yet this was a different kind of fear, one so strong that it would be more apt to label it terror instead. This wasn’t flashbacks of seeing other children being hurt by the brothel head bitches, of seeing murder and rape and mutilation. This wasn’t corpses with concave heads grabbing at him and screaming his name over and over until he woke up in tears, screaming himself hoarse to keep the ghosts away. This was terror because he was in danger rather than somebody else. What was happening right now wasn’t something that would become a suppressed memory or a nightmare, but something much more worst.

When he felt that hard press of polymer digging into his brow, the unmistakable press of a gun muzzle, Jimin felt his body reacting instantly. His heart didn’t jump into a quick and hard beat but rather skipped a few first, seemed to almost stop in his chest for a few seconds before clapping back to life at a much too fast speed. The very blood in his veins turned to ice and he lost the ability to feel his fingers, which were numb and dead at his sides. He couldn’t even twitch them, never mind feel them. There was a disgusting crawling in the pit of his stomach and he wasn’t at all surprised to find that his testicles had tightened up hard enough to hurt. That was a sign of true terror and one that he hadn’t felt in forever. Christ, they had practically pulled right up inside him and his bladder felt much too loose.

This would not be the first time that he had pissed himself in front of another man but it could very well be the last.

“Shut the fuck up, bitch.”

Hearing those words coming out of Taehyung’s mouth was the final thing that added to his sheer terror. Jimin had never heard such words escaping his mouth like that before, especially not aimed in his direction. He knew that he had probably said that and more to other men but there was one startling difference between his situation and theirs. The men on the receiving end of his aggression and threats always ended up dead; tortured and maimed, or with a bullet straight through the head.

Hearing threats coming out of Taehyung’s sweet lips, Jimin found that he wasn’t at all certain that he wouldn’t end up with a bullet through his head.

Jimin managed to drag his gaze down from the barrel of the gun to look at Taehyung. The other man was staring right back at him, unblinkingly. His expression looked somewhat like a mask, emotionless and cold. Despite his words there was no anger present on his face. There was no fear either, or even a hint of empathy. Taehyung was devoid of all emotions and he felt a little moan escaping his slack lips as he stared at him. Jimin didn’t want to move, didn’t even want to blink or breathe in case Taehyung’s fingers moved off the trigger guard and instead slipped up against that curved piece of plastic hard. He had no clue if the safety was on or off because he couldn’t see from his current angle. All that he could see was the underside of the gun, his fingers wrapped around the well and the trigger guard.

The silence in the changing room was so thick that it was almost suffocating and Jimin could hear his shallow breathing. He was almost wheezing and his heartbeat was so hard that he wouldn’t at all be surprised if Taehyung could hear it too. It was so strong in his throat and temples that he felt lightheaded. For almost a minute he waited to see what the other man would do and yet Taehyung didn’t do anything. He didn’t speak or move, rather just blinked and breathed in an eerily slow and steady way.