K.N.I.G.H.T.S headquarters~

"HOW COULD THIS EVEN HAPPEN IN THE FIRST PLACE?"

Seokjin's voice roared through the room, bouncing off the chaos that surrounded him. Broken furniture, crumpled papers, and shards of distorted glass littered the floor. His pacing was frantic, his fingers tugging at his soft locks as though trying to root out the frustration pulsing through him.

"HOW CAN SHE..." He trailed off, his words choked by a deep, angry huff. His steps grew heavier, each one a resounding echo of his rage. The veins on his forearms and neck bulged as his fury bubbled closer to the surface.

"SHE WAS RIGHT HERE! HERE IN MY GRASP!" He screamed, his voice cracking as the memories fueled his anger. "I HAD HER BY THE NECK—SO CLOSE—SO NEAR TO ENDING THAT PATHETIC DEMON! HOW COULD THIS ALL HAPPEN?!" His yell rose into a guttural cry, his emotions spilling over the edge. "ARGH~ I'M LOSING MY MIND!"

With a furious swipe of his arm, Seokjin sent everything on the table flying. Papers fluttered like broken wings as wine glasses shattered against the wooden floor, staining the scattered documents in deep red blotches.

"I'M SUCH A FOOL, SO HOPELESS, GOOD FOR NOTHING—I FAILED AGAIN!" His voice shattered through the room, while his hands clawed at his hair in desperation. Those present stood frozen, watching as the lion of their pride roared in anger, his rage and despair was ready to burn everything to ashes. How could he not go hysteric? After all, he had poured everything into this. Nights of sleepless planning, sacrifices of time, appetite, and sanity—all for this one task. And they had failed.

It wasn't just a failure; it was a humiliation. A slap in the face. The image of the hazel eyed demon slipping right through his fingers at the last moment burned into his mind. Their failure had left them groveling in the dirt, and the sting of it gnawed at his ego, his pride, and his very core. The lone feeling that he failed to serve the sole purpose of his existence left his crushing under the weight of his father's words.

"I KEEP FUCKING FAILING—AGAIN AND AGAIN!" His voice cracked under the strain, his breaths coming out ragged and uneven. "HOW THE FUCK DO I FIX THIS NOW? I... I—" He let out a guttural cry, his head tilting back as his frustration boiled over. "IT'S DRIVING ME INSANE!"

"Seokjin, calm down, we tried—"

"FUCKING SHUT UP, LUCAS!" His snap was sharp and cutting, leaving Lucas frozen mid-step. The younger man's outstretched hand retracted immediately. No matter how many times they got together, but they were just friends with benefits at the end of the day, and Seokjin never let that cross a line between his work.

"I CAN'T JUST CALM DOWN, CAN'T YOU SEE?" Seokjin's voice broke, raw with desperation. "THIS IS THE END. EVERYTHING WE PUT AT STAKE— GONE. FATHER WILL NEVER FORGIVE THIS—NEVER!"

His sentence broke off as he stumbled backward onto the couch, collapsing into it with his head buried in his hands. His entire frame trembled with a mixture of rage and despair.

Lucas was clearly disturbed by what had happened and with Seokjin's outburst, the gravity of the situation had pulled them both to depths of insanity. But what could he do now? Nothing much! Without a word, he glanced at the others, silently signaling them to leave the room. Once they were gone, he moved closer to the handsome man, sitting down beside him.

Raising a hand hesitantly, the latter placed a soft palm on Seokjin's back, rubbing slow, soothing circles. He didn't say anything—sometimes words weren't enough. All he could offer was the quiet assurance of his presence, hoping it would anchor the broken man beside him.

"He will... never forgive me. He will never see me like Taehyung—" Seokjin's voice cracked, his words pressing heavily on his chest.

A sigh escaped the former's mouth. He hated hearing this self-loathing from Seokjin, knowing how deeply it stemmed from the scars he hid so well. The man who commanded rooms with his presence, wearing confidence like armor, always pulling his enemies down to his feet was now untying, his pain spilling through the cracks.

He had seen this before—those dark moments when Seokjin's sorrow consumed him, pulling him under until only bitterness and regret remained. It was a sight Lucas could never get used to. But again he was just another guy in his surroundings with the little leverage of some benefits, that always remained in the ink of the night.

Lucas remained still, his jaw clenched, his mind racing—he knew the truth.

They were running out of time.

"Look, you never failed, if anything you tried your best, and how could you assume to trap her in one go, we aimed for the apple on the top of the tree, we gotta work our way for it slowly"

"You don't understand, father will-"

"You didn't fail, Seokjin." His voice carried a quiet intensity, each syllable deliberate. "Failure would've been walking away without trying. But you—" he let out a breath, his hand tightening into a fist at his side, "you fought. You stood your ground. And even if we couldn't take her down tonight, we learned something. We know her movements now. Her weaknesses. Next time, we won't just strike—we'll take her down for good. I swear it."

The room swallowed his words, a silence stretching between them like the weight of unsaid truths. The walls stood witness, looming, expectant. The former exhaled sharply, his mind a battlefield of doubt and conviction.

"You believe that?" His voice was quieter now, hesitant, almost fragile. "What if she already suspects me, Lucas? What if she's known all along? Jungkook never stops watching me—his eyes are on me every second. He keeps pressing, keeps hinting that he doesn't trust me. He says I hesitate. That I falter. And what if he's right? What if—" His voice caught, his shoulders tense as the weight of it all threatened to crush him. "What if I'm the reason this whole thing collapses?"

Lucas stepped closer, his presence grounding. "Seokjin, listen to me." His voice dropped lower, almost a whisper, but there was steel beneath it. "She trusts you. If she didn't, she wouldn't let you this close. She wouldn't let you in on these missions, these raids. She wouldn't share her plans with you. Do you understand what that means?" His fingers dug slightly into the former's shoulder, firm, reassuring. "It means you're inside her circle. And that is exactly where you need to be."

His gaze flickered with uncertainty, his throat working as he tried to swallow down the fear clawing at his chest. "And what if that changes? What if I slip up? One wrong move, one wrong word—she won't hesitate, Lucas. She'll end me before I even have a chance to explain myself."

The latter's grip on his shoulder tightened. "Then don't slip up." His tone was softer this time, but the message was clear. "You are stronger than your fear. You've come too far to let doubt control you now."

Seokjin let out a shaky breath, nodding slightly. "I need to go back." He straightened, running a hand through his hair as if it would smooth out the chaos in his mind. "If I stay away too long, she'll start to question it."

"But before that... I need a favor."

"Sure. Ask away."

Without another word, he reached behind his back, fingers brushing against the cold metal before pulling out a sleek black revolver from the grip of his waist belt. He held it out toward Lucas, his expression unreadable.

The latter frowned, his gaze flicking from the weapon to the former's face. "For?"

Seokjin exhaled sharply, tilting his chin up as he answered. "Shoot me."

The two words hit like a gunshot before the trigger was even pulled. The warmth that had softened the latter's features evaporated in an instant, replaced by sheer disbelief. His brows furrowed, lips parting, but no words came out at first.

"Huh?" His voice barely rose above a whisper.

"Do it, Lucas."

His breath hitched as he hesitantly took the gun from Seokjin's grip, his fingers trembling slightly as they wrapped around the handle. His heart pounded against his ribs.

"But you don't have to—"

"I do," The former cut him off, his tone eerily calm. "It's necessary."

"She trusts you," He argued, his grip tightening around the gun. "You don't need to do this to prove anything. You don't need—"

"Lucas." His voice was sharp and his eyes dark. The single utterance of his name was enough to silence any further protest.

A long, tense pause followed. Then, Seokjin stepped closer, chest rising and falling steadily as he whispered "Shoot me."

Lucas's fingers twitched on the trigger, his mind screaming at him to stop, to refuse, to throw the gun away.

The former took another step forward, his voice low but demanding. "Now."

______________________________________________

Venom had lived her life behind a thousand names, a thousand masks, each one carved to perfection—unbreakable, untouchable. Yet here she stood now, exposed before the one person she never wanted to lie to, and she had never felt more bare, more fragile, she realized she had built a trap she could no longer escape from.

The truth was a loaded gun in her hands. And there was no way to fire it without wounding them all.

The room was quiet.

As quiet as a cemetery at night, where even the wind dared not whisper. The silence was a heavy, suffocating thing, thick with a storm waiting to be unleashed.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

The clock on the wall kept its cruel rhythm, hammering against their strained nerves, each second a knife twisting deeper into the pit of their stomachs.

She sat in the middle of the bed, the soft covers barely offering any comfort. A pillow was trapped in her embrace, her grip on it tense, almost desperate, as if it were the only thing keeping her tethered to this moment. She was careful not to strain the stitches at her back, yet her hands—her restless, trembling hands—told another story.

Fingers twisted, bent, folded into themselves in a painful rhythm, mirroring the chaos in her mind. A thousand thoughts, a thousand regrets, colliding, unraveling, suffocating her.

Jimin sat with Taehyung across her, confusion etched on his face his gaze heavy with something she couldn't quite name. And Taehyung—her Taehyung—watched her with an expression she had never seen before.

Hesitation. Dread. Something close to fear.

Neither of them spoke. Neither of them dared to be the first to shatter the fragile stillness.

And then—

She lifted her head. Slowly. Purposefully. Until her gaze locked onto the one man who should never have mattered to her.

"Not Ji Ahn" she whispered, her voice barely above the breath of a ghost. "My name is—" She hesitated.

His brows furrowed, his fingers tightening around the armrests of the chair. He saw it then—the shift in her gaze. The woman before him was a stranger.

Her hazel orbs burned with an energy so piercing, so foreign, yet terrifyingly familiar. Cold, and powerful. He tried to keep his gaze steady, but the weight of hers unsettled him in a way he couldn't explain.

And then—

"Venom." The name rolled off her tongue like a prophecy, sinking into the room like lead.

Her voice, once soft and warm, was now something else entirely. Laced with steel. Dark. Icy. A tone so commanding, so absolute, that the very temperature in the room seemed to plummet.

Taehyung inhaled sharply. Jimin went rigid.

Venom?

That name—that name—was unmistakable. It was not one to be confused, not one to be spoken lightly. It carried weight, fear, and a legacy soaked in blood and power.

The entire nation knew of them. The unseen ruler of the underworld. The phantom that walked among the living and the damned alike, bending both to their will. It was the whispered name in the corridors of power, the unchallenged force behind the shadows. A name that sent even the most ruthless men recoiling in terror.

It must be a joke! It has to be! Her and Venom? A young woman?

It was unthinkable. The name Venom was synonymous with death, with control, with an empire of shadows so vast that even governments turned a blind eye rather than face its wrath. Venom wasn't supposed to be flesh and blood, wasn't supposed to sit before them with wounded eyes and trembling fingers—

And yet, here she was.

The weight of her confession hung in the air, suffocating, pressing down on Taehyung like an iron fist around his throat. His ears rang, his pulse pounded like war drums against his ribs, and his mind—his mind refused to make sense of what it had just heard.

Ji Ahn—his Ji Ahn—wasn't Ji Ahn at all. His breath stilled in his lungs, chest tight, suffocating, as if something unseen was pulling the very air from his body.

She watched him carefully, her gaze unreadable. "I know what you're thinking," she murmured, her voice neither apologetic nor defensive. "That it doesn't make sense. That I don't look the part. That I couldn't be... her."

A bitter chuckle escaped her lips. "But tell me... do you think monsters are born with fangs and claws? That they wear their cruelty like a badge upon their skin?" She leaned forward slightly, her stare never wavering, never faltering.

"No." Her voice was soft, but it carried the weight of a storm. "Monsters are made. Forged in fire and blood. Molded into something unbreakable." She exhaled sharply. "And I? I was born into that fire. I clawed my way through the ashes. And when the world tried to snuff me out, I didn't just survive—I conquered." She tilted her head slightly, watching the silent, horrified realization dawn in their eyes.

"I run an empire of the forsaken" she continued, her voice a slow, dangerous melody. "The weapons trade, the mercenary networks, the smuggling routes that even your government pretends don't exist. If a man vanishes without a trace, it is because I willed it. If a war is funded in the darkest corners of the world, it is because I allowed it. Power bends at my feet, and even the most feared criminals know better than to challenge me."

The words hit like blows, each syllable shattering something unspoken between them.

"I am Venom." She breathed out. "The underworld lord Venom. Ruler of a syndicate stretching across continents. The mastermind behind operations your world only dares to whisper about. You've heard the stories. You just never knew it was me."

The weight of her confession settled between them like a corpse, and in that moment, the silence wasn't just silence anymore.

It was a grave.

"Venom?" His voice echoed, the name unfamiliar on his tongue, yet he knew it—he knew it. His mind rebelled against it. Against her.

"You're joking" he breathed, but there was no humor in his voice.

She didn't blink. "I never joke about who I am. You know me as Ji Ahn" she murmured. "But that name was never mine to keep. I have had many names as masks to blend in with the humans but they were never more than slaves I have in my dungeons"

The silence in the room was suffocating. The air felt thick, pressing down on them, choking them with a truth they weren't ready to accept.

Taehyung hadn't moved. Hadn't even blinked. Jimin, for once, had nothing to say. They were frozen—too stunned, too horrified to breathe, let alone speak.

"I was never Ji ahn and... I was never meant to love you."

A sharp, violent silence followed.

Taehyung just... stared. Frozen. Expression unreadable. For the first time since she began speaking, he blinked. His lips parted slightly, as if he wanted to say something, anything, but the words never came.

The clock continued ticking.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

"You live in a world of daylight." Her voice softened, carrying something almost mournful. "But I was born in the dark. Raised by it. Molded into its perfect heir."

Taehyung let out a shallow, uneven breath, his lips parting slightly, but still—no words came. His mind was a hurricane of chaos, a battlefield of disbelief and betrayal. She saw it. The war waged behind his eyes. And so, she offered him no mercy.

"There was never supposed to be a 'you' reaching to me out of the way and meddling with my mission" she whispered. "You were just a means to an end. I was never supposed to... fall in love with you"

A flicker of something—pain, anger, devastation—flashed in his gaze.

"But I did." Her confession landed like a death sentence. "Somewhere along the way, I lost control. Of myself. Of my heart. Of everything I was meant to be."

She exhaled, voice trembling ever so slightly. "And for the first time, I questioned whether I could be more than the darkness that made me."

The clock continued ticking.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

She let the weight of her words settle, waiting for a reaction, for anything— But Taehyung remained silent.

Still.

Unmoving. Like a man who had just been gutted and hadn't yet realized he was bleeding out.

Jimin's gaze was locked onto the floor, his expression unreadable. The silence stretched, suffocating. And then, she rose from the bed, slow and deliberate, ignoring the dull ache in her body.

"Hate me, if you must," she murmured, her voice quieter now, yet still carrying the weight of a storm. "But don't say I never told you the truth. After what we had... I believe you deserve my honesty. You've earned it."

She turned then, her back now to them, as if shielding herself from the very wreckage of her confession. But the truth was, she wasn't shielding herself. She was bracing. Bracing for the silence. Bracing for the inevitable recoil. Bracing for the look in Taehyung's eyes that she wasn't sure she could bear to see.

Her own heart was a wild thing, thrashing in her ribcage, screaming at her to turn back, to take it all back before it was too late. But it was already too late.

It had always been too late.

"Earned... it?"

His voice was hoarse, raw, as if the very act of speaking had cost him something irreparable. It was barely a whisper, but to Venom, it was deafening. He sat motionless, staring at the floor, his hands gripping his knees so tightly his knuckles had gone bone-white. Taehyung felt disoriented, as though the room had tilted on its axis, as though reality itself had fractured into something unrecognizable.

He felt like he didn't know anyone in that room anymore.

Not Jimin, who sat still as death, his breath shallow, his face unreadable.

Not Venom—Ji Ahn—who now stood with her back to him, the same woman who had once looked at him with eyes that held warmth, with hands that had traced his face as if memorizing him in the dark.

And not even himself.

Because if she was Venom—if she was the very nightmare whispered in the underworld, if she was the hand that controlled shadows—

Then who the hell had he fallen in love with?

"I earned this? A betrayal?" His voice was low, almost detached. A bitter laugh scraped its way out of his throat. "Every moment. Every glance. Every touch. It was a lie..."

"I came to you for a reason, Taehyung" she said, her voice steady but not unfeeling. "I had plans to execute, and you were... necessary. Us falling in love wasn't a part of those plans but I-"

Jimin sucked in a sharp breath, his fingers twitching on his lap, but he said nothing. He couldn't.

Taehyung's jaw clenched, his entire body rigid, but he forced himself to ask the question he feared the answer to the most.

"And now?" His voice was quieter now but laced with something far deadlier than rage—betrayal.

She swallowed. "Now?" she repeated, more to herself than him. Exhaling, her shoulders dropped, her own walls cracking ever so slightly. "Now, I wish I had never met you." She wanted to say 'Like this, or in this life maybe in another where I would be worthy of you' But she never said those words.

The words were not meant to wound, but they did. More than any lie ever could. Because she hadn't said she never loved him. She hadn't said it was all a game. She had only said she wished she hadn't met him. Because if she hadn't, she wouldn't be standing here, torn apart between love and the truth.

Taehyung pressed his lips together, nodding as if trying to make sense of a language he didn't understand. He let out a sharp exhale, running a hand through his hair, his movements frantic, his mind racing with thoughts he couldn't catch.

"You should have never told me" he finally said, his voice trembling, his fingers curling into fists at his sides. "You should have just... hid it from me, used me to your will, and disappeared one day. Even all that together wouldn't hurt this much"

Her lips parted, something breaking behind her eyes, something unspoken clawing its way up her throat—

But before she could respond, Taehyung stood up so suddenly that the chair beneath him scraped against the floor with a piercing screech. He let out another laugh—this one dry, humorless, laced with something dangerously close to rage.

"So what, this entire time you've been lying? Who even are you?"

"I did what I had to do" she admitted. "I needed access. I needed information. You were never supposed to be anything more than a stepping stone to something bigger." She saw the moment the light in his eyes shattered.

"So I was just a fucking pawn?" he hissed.

"In the beginning" she whispered, "yes." The air in the room turned suffocating.

Jimin looked away, his jaw clenched so tightly it could snap.

But Taehyung— He was burning.

"But, then you-"

"You should have never made me love you," he cut her off, and the raw devastation in his voice was enough to rip her apart.

Her breath caught. "Taehyung-"

"But you did." His fists clenched. "You made me love you while you sat on a throne of lies."

She closed her eyes. She had expected anger. Had braced for hatred. But nothing could have prepared her for the way his voice broke.

"You made me think you were mine."

Venom opened her mouth, but no words came.

Because what could she say? That she had never meant to fall? That she had tried to keep her heart untouched, but he had pried it open, made her feel things she had never allowed herself to feel?

That he had ruined her in ways she would never recover from? And that she wants this story of 'us' to be continued? That's laughable!

Taehyung let out a shaky breath, taking a step back, as if even being near her was unbearable now.

"Get out."

The words cut deeper than any knife.

"Taehyung—"

"I said get out! I will just consider you disappeared!" His roar shattered the last of her defenses. She stepped forth only to be stopped by Jimin whose always warm radiate eyes were cold now.

He stood, his face blank. "Leave, Venom." The way he said it—Venom, not Jiahn—made something inside her collapse.

Venom stared at them for a moment longer, memorizing the way Taehyung's hands shook, the way his gaze no longer held warmth, only devastation.

Oh, poor you! Who were you even fooling, huh?

Did you really believe you could outrun fate? That love could rewrite the script carved into your bones? Tch. You should have known better. You did know better.

Because demons don't grow flowers. And they sure as hell don't have hearts that beat.

Her gaze fixated on her hands—pale, fragile-looking now, as if the very life had been drained from them along with the blood she had lost. She flexed her fingers, studying the skin stretched thin over her existence, as if searching for the answer to a question that had haunted her for far too long.

You knew this day would come, didn't you?

Once he learned the truth... no more Kim Taehyung pouring love over you like an open sky weeping in the rain.

And why would he?

Why would he ever choose you—a pathetic wretch molded from the filth of the underworld—when he could have a life drenched in light?

She let out a dry, humorless laugh, the sound barely masking the tremble in her breath. Her fingers curled against her palms, nails pressing into her skin as she fought to steady herself.

But even as the tears came, even as she wiped them away with trembling hands, a small, broken smile stretched across her lips.

Because no matter what... No matter how cruel the truth was... There was something undeniable.

He loved me. Even if not now. Even if not anymore.

He did once. He loved me with his all.

The memories of the past poured in soft touches, lingering glances, and whispered promises spoken in the dead of night. Ghosts of a love that had once been hers.

A love that she had never been meant to keep.

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ℑ𝔶𝔞𝔫𝔨𝔶𝔬𝔲 𝔣𝔬𝔯 𝔯𝔢𝔞𝔡𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔳𝔬𝔱𝔢 𝔠𝔬𝔪𝔪𝔢𝔫𝔱 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔞𝔡𝔡 𝔱𝔬 𝔶𝔬𝔲𝔯 𝔯𝔢𝔞𝔡𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔩𝔦𝔰𝔱𝔰.
𝔜𝔬𝔲𝔯 𝔟𝔢𝔩𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔡 𝔞𝔲𝔱𝔥𝔬𝔯
𝕍𝕍

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