"I'll help Mr. Minghao keep the paintings in his car, sir." Taehyung says to his professor who agrees. Mr. Minghao had told the professor how extremely impressed he is with Taehyung's paintings and he would like to buy them. Being the supportive professor that he is, the oldest of the three is very happy for his student.

Once the two brother's leave the professor's office, they silently walk towards Mingyu's car in the parking lot. When they reach there, Taehyung dumps the paintings in the backseat and gets on the passenger seat. He wants to continue his conversation from earlier with Mingyu. When they were at the terrace, the bell had rung and the both of them had to leave for the professor's office. Now they are finally here and no one can disturb them.

After Mingyu gets on the driving seat, he turns the ignition on. He smiles at his brother when he sees Taehyung looking at him. "So Tae, let's continue what we were talking about. You made up that story to hide the truth?"

"Of course. Why else would I do that?" Taehyung rolls his eyes.

"There could be plenty of excuses though. This one was pretty cruel."

"Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, sir but even though I was raised in the Yakuza, you know I always stayed away from this mafia shit. You guys made sure of that and I'm fucking thankful for that but when I was left on my own, I didn't know how to deal with all this. I said the first thing that came to my mind since saying that my parents were dead sounded way more cruel than that." Taehyung glares at the older who sighs and nods.

Both their parents had a love marriage. Their mother loved their father so much that she even accepted the fact that he was the leader of the Yakuza. If she could live with him, she could deal with this. But when Mingyu was born, she did not want him to be a part of the mafia. She wanted her children to stay away from that lifestyle but her husband argued that they need an heir. They cannot give this empire to someone else. She had no choice but to agree. Mingyu has all that in his blood. The strength, the power, the dominating aura, making him the perfect heir.

When Taehyung was born eight years later, at that time, his mother told that they should not involve Taehyung in the gang at least. At least one of them should be living a normal life to which her husband agreed.

So Taehyung did all the things normal kids did. He did nothing related to the mafia. He wanted to be an artist from the very beginning and everyone supported him. Even though his family, well except his mom, thought that painting is useless, they supported their little baby. But then things went down and they had no choice but to send Taehyung away because they did not want to drag him in this crap.

"Look Tae, I'm sorry. I-" Mingyu starts speaking but he gets interrupted by the younger. "Hyung, stop apologising. I cannot accept your apology that easily because it was really hard for me. And I still don't know the reason why you guys had to suddenly send me away." Taehyung says, desperation is clearly evident in his voice because he has been wanting to know ever since he was made to leave the comforts of his home.

Mingyu sighs. He decides that he should tell Taehyung. That is the only way they can take a step forward towards fixing things. "At that time, many small organised crime groups joined hands because they wanted to take the Yakuza down. We were not prepared. We didn't know and we didn't expect it honestly. I know it was our fault for not keeping a proper eye on them. They had attacked us and we didn't have much time to think that's why we sent you away. We didn't send you away because we wanted to, baby. We did it to keep you safe. You are our weakness and we couldn't let them use it... use you to get to us. Do you understand?" Mingyu tells him, his hand reaching to hold Taehyung's and squeezing it gently.

Taehyung releases a shaky breath. He knows that his family would always keep him safe and his brother would never lie to him. He's just mad that they left him alone because Taehyung loves his family so damn much. His family does too. He is the prince of Yakuza, you could say.

"So what brings you here, hyung?" Taehyung asks curiously. Mingyu smiles, "I'm here to take you back, Tae." Taehyung gasps and his eyes start shining. His brother came back to take him home!

"R-Really?"

"Of course, baby. Finally we were able to put all those assholes in their places. Killed many people who did not agree to our terms. Like how could they even think that they could go against the Yakuza? They must have lost their minds. Anyway, it took a while to find all of them and kill them but we still did it." Mingyu says and Taehyung feels satisfied. He is not the kind to feel happy about the others' pains but he was forced to live away from his family for too long because of them so he does not care. He is rather happy that they're all dead.

"I'm glad. I wanna go home, hyung. I wanna meet mom and dad." Taehyung says excitedly.

"I'll gladly take you home."

"But don't think I'll forgive you that easily." Taehyung pouts. Mingyu shakes his head and smiles. "I don't expect you to. But just come home and we will work on it together." The older says and the blue haired boy likes the sound of that.

"And Tae, I think you should seriously consider learning some self defense." The older points out as his eyes trail over the younger's bruises. Taehyung sighs and pulls on his sleeves to hide his injuries from his brother. He knows that he is right. Who knows when Taehyung would need it again.

"I will but... don't expect me to take part in the working of the Yakuza. I wanna be an artist and I want to just... live a normal life." Taehyung says. Mingyu sighs and nods, "It's not easy. I won't give you any false hope because since the time you were born, you're into Yakuza forever. But we can try to make things as normal as we can for you." Taehyung nods. He knows this. Even though he has killed someone in the past, that doesn't mean that he would willing do it again. He did it at that time because he was just so angry and infuriated because of the betrayal he felt at that time.

There are a few moments of silence as Mingyu keeps driving the car and Taehyung looks at the Seoul city. He has decided to go home and that means he would be leaving Seoul. He misses Tokyo so much, he wouldn't lie but he would also miss Seoul. He would miss Jungkook and Hoseok. He would miss Jimin too. Maybe he would miss Minhyun as well. He would miss his art professor. His life here wasn't all sunshine and rainbows but there were a few things he enjoyed and a few people he liked spending time with. Is he really ready to let them go?

"Tae, what are you thinking?" Mingyu asks. Taehyung doesn't look at him and just sighs. "I'll miss it here."

"I thought so. By the way..." Mingyu trails off. Taehyung looks at him curiously. "What's your deal with Jungkook?"

Taehyung's mouth hangs open but he knows that Mingyu must already be knowing quite a few things. What happened during the car chase spoke a lot more than mere words can.

"Nothing." Taehyung says, silently praising himself for not stuttering.

"Oh really? Then why did he kill our man for you during the car chase?" Mingyu has an amused expression on his face. Taehyung remembers Jin saying that the Yakuza has good ties with Orion but that does not mean they would accept the fact that the son of the leader of Yakuza is in love with a member of Orion. That's not how things work in their world.

Wait, did he just say love? Is Taehyung in love with Jungkook? Maybe he is.

But he cannot do anything about it because he knows that since Jungkook is a member of a big mafia group, there's never going to be any transparency in their relationship because of who Taehyung is. The younger Kim wonders if Jungkook knows about his true identity because that's really hard to find out. His brother and father made sure of that.

"Tae, I asked you something." Mingyu snaps him out of his thoughts. Taehyung looks at him and shakes his head a little. He honestly needs to stop zoning out so much.

"What?" Taehyung asks, a bit embarrassed.

"I asked if there's anything between you and that Jungkook guy. Why did he kill our man?" Mingyu asks. Taehyung tries to act as normal as he can and shrugs his shoulders. "How would I know, hyung? Maybe he thought those men were after him." Taehyung says and he is right. Jungkook did think that at that time.

"Oh, okay. You better stay away from him."

"Why, hyung?" Taehyung asks innocently.

"Why? You seriously asking me why? Little brother, that boy is danger. Do you even know who he is?" He asks, his voice a little bit louder. Taehyung's throat dries up as he tries to gulp and wet his throat a little. "W-Who is he? Just a member of Orion, right?"

"Oh he is a member of Orion but he is not just a member of Orion." Mingyu tells him. Taehyung's eyebrows furrow in confusion.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that he is the future mafia boss of Orion." Mingyu says, shocking Taehyung to the core. He recently found out that Jungkook works for Orion but he never thought he was the fucking heir. Taehyung feels guilty, so, so guilty for falling for Jungkook. This shouldn't have happened. This is not good. Not at all good.

-----------------------

With a sigh, Taehyung dumps most of his stuff in cardboard boxes. He doesn't care much about arranging them. They are just books and clothes. He does take proper care of his dresses though. The dress that Jungkook gifted him a few days ago is the last one in his wardrobe. He carefully takes it out with a sad smile on his face.

He misses Jungkook. He would always miss him and this dress is really close to his heart because the boy he loves gave it to him. He puts it properly in his bag and then goes to arrange his art supplies. He does not want to destroy them.

Once he is done, his eyes fall on the sketch of Jungkook that he had been working on for a few months. Well, he shouldn't have taken much time but he wanted every single detail to be perfect. Besides, he was also busy with the university, his job, spending time with Jungkook and his other art projects.

He stares at the sketch for a while. Taehyung doesn't want to praise himself but Jungkook looks really good in the sketch, just like in real life.

Should I give it to him? He thinks to himself. He would be leaving early in the morning tomorrow with Mingyu in his private jet. Its already 10 PM. He just has a few hours left.

Taehyung knows that if he does not meet Jungkook before leaving, he would regret it for the rest of his life. He does not want to leave Jungkook. He wonders if they would stay together had they been normal people? Maybe.

But Taehyung is not dumb. He knows what he needs to choose right now. He should choose going back and achieving his dreams because they seem way more possible than a future with Jungkook. He was once a part of Mekong but that would not affect him anymore. His brother and father would make sure of that, he knows.

Jungkook has his priorities set too. He wants to prove to Orion that he can be a really good leader to them and he needs to focus on that without any distraction.

So the both of them know that there are more important things they need to focus on than thinking about dating each other.

---------------------

Taehyung shivers and rubs his arms with his hands. It's almost midnight and he is sitting on the bench in the garden behind their dorm building, waiting for Jungkook.

He had called the cherry haired male several times but all his calls went straight to the voicemail. So he called Jimin, who picked his call at the fifth attempt.

When Jimin has asked him what he wanted, he told him that he wanted to talk to Jungkook but cannot get through to him. Jimin said if Jungkook wanted to talk to him, he would answer his phone which hurt Taehyung, he wouldn't lie. But still Taehyung convinced him by telling him that he would be leaving Seoul in a few hours and it is very important for him to meet Jungkook. Thankfully, Jimin agreed and said that he would convey the message to his ex roommate. So a few minutes later, Jungkook texted him to meet him at the garden at the back of their dorm building.

Taehyung sighs and looks at the time on his phone. It's pretty late and he is tired but he is a bit excited too with a hint of sadness in his emotions. He will miss Seoul, majorly because of Jungkook. This might be the last time he would ever see him.

"Taehyung!" Jungkook's voice pulls him out of his thoughts and a smile forms on his face when he sees the other boy walking towards him. He missed him and he will miss him even more in the future. It's going to be really hard saying goodbye to him. How will Taehyung do it?

~•~•~•~•~

Hey lovelies! So Taehyung is going home! Yay or nay? Anyway I'm so happy about your response on the previous chapter. It was phenomenal. Thank you so much.

Edit (11-01-23): So after knowing Taehyung's identity and that he has already killed once, some of you wondered why he 'acted' so scared when he saw Jimin shoot previously on the rainy night. Well, here's an explanation:

As we know, Tae hates violence. But when he got robbed off by his own bodyguards, he was mad and felt betrayed which made him kill them. Now I'll give you an example. Soldiers, they kill the enemies and see a lot of violence which causes most of them to have PTSD. They suffer from panic attacks too. Something similar happened to Tae that night. After seeing Jimin shoot the man, he went in a state of shock which made him behave the way he did. So to clear up your confusion, he wasn't 'acting' that night and everything that happened was real.

^Taehyung posted this on his IG story and I'm blessed😌

^That day when Taehyung wasn't bothered during his subway ride.

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Borahae💜

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