Curiosity killed the cat they said.

But he was a cat with nine lives.

Observance was a quality he picked up with long years of experience, listening carefully without casting judgments has become with time another alter ego to him, a new personality similar, yet different from his own self.

Analyzing small details was his strength, he was beyond meticulous, he had grown to learn that every single word could hold a key to a closed door ever since he wore that white gown, just an additional talent to the pile he owned already.

He made out of himself a blank page where unpolished drafts could be written, where writers with no pen could scribble down their personal scenarios, and just at the right timing, he turned into the library they much needed for their work, a home that can tolerate a dark genre without being impacted. A library of secrecy where the only reader allowed was him, and no one besides him could go as far as searching through the shelves.

Just the way he did with you.

Taehyung gave you a place of comfort, an ear ready to engulf in your dark tales, an ear ready to hear your voice for hours without interruptions, he became the graveyard for your past.

He listened to your usually absent arguments and collected details that were the key to your closed rooms, he opened those doors you shut that night, he went through those rooms, and before even searching through, he has been welcomed by fears, astonishment, eeriness, anything that could belong to any positive feeling was missing and the search was still ongoing although hope was almost lost in the process.

Taehyung decided to satisfy his curiosity by his own means when you decided to enclose yourself again, the information he collected was enough for him to investigate the rest on his own, pushing you to an edge would do him no good.

Such a good job you did there. Really!

His aim wasn't to peek into your life stealing pieces of information that maybe were meant to stay hidden until they cross to the other side with you, but it was a bonus dish served with the main course and he couldn't refuse it.

Visiting his late brother's house awakened different emotions in his broken heart, just like rubbing salt in the wound, everything from the items of furniture down to the lingering smell was deepening his wounds until they started oozing with blood.

He never felt the importance of his own advice whenever he told his patients that they needed to exteriorize their feelings to find the lost peace, it was when he was standing in front of Seokjin's desk that he realized that he never mourned the way he was supposed to, he, in fact, realized that he never shed a tear, he kept bottling everything up until water started pouring out from the bucket.

Traces from droplets that trailed the desk were the only witnesses of his breakout, he gave freedom to his imprisoned tears, the picture he kept holding was welcoming more of those warm salty tears to pool on his cheeks. The frame held a memory he cherished, a beautiful moment he had passed with his brother, Seokjin had his arm around his little brother's shoulders, while Taehyung was holding a beautiful bouquet of lily of the valley, they were his favorite flowers, the perfect present for the most important moment of his life. His graduation day.

He rinsed up the salty flavor left behind his tears with a shot of bourbon that he found in the collection Seokjin had kept, he downed the liquid in one shot flashing down with it the stubborn emotions that refused to disappear.

Bite the bullet and move on.

He did.

The sound resonated from the glass he aggressively tossed almost throwing it over the desk, it was weird it didn't break to shatters drawing a caricature of his heart. He went through a pile of documents and files, half of them he couldn't decipher, and the other half were numbers -numbers weren't his area of expertise so, at this point, it's safe to say that he couldn't understand any of them.

Frustration grew as the clock was thickening, a sigh escaped with his exhale as his hand went to push his hair back, it was his habit to do so whenever he was feeling uneasy, it just relaxed him somehow, so the habit grew on him with time.

He couldn't believe the odds, it was that useless habit of his that made his eyes fall on the safe, the man just needed to straighten his posture and look right in front to remember that the safe was behind the huge painting that Seokjin adored, it was a landscape from an unknown place, but as per Seokjin's little moment of truth, the painting soothed his senses. It was his solace.

The code combination was no dilemma, he knew it from Seokjin himself back at the time when he just bought the safe, the late brother wanted the younger to have free access in case needed, in the end, they were the only ones for each other, they were the only family left behind for each other.

The USB flash was the first thing that grabbed his attention, he left the safe open and reached for the laptop to check the little drive.

That was it.

That was exactly the moment when he completed his investigation, he had resolved half of the riddle and knew for sure that the other half will follow in one way or another.

Seokjin was never an abuser, maybe, he was much of a possessive man, it was a fact he knew about his brother, nothing shock-worthy, nevertheless, he was sure that a triggering element should be present to turn the man into something far away from human.

The hold he had on the steering wheel turned his knuckles white, his muscles stiffened while his posture was poorly described if tense is the only adjective attached to it, the foot that was pressing on the accelerator never allowed the engine to take a breath, he kept speeding up in the unusually empty roads of the capital, while his brain was busy completing the parts of the puzzle that were still hard to find.

You were bad news to Seokjin. You were bad news to him as well. Whatever reason you had, you ended up being an uncalled-for doom.

Sometimes it's better to stay in the dark, truth has always been unkind, truth has always been harsh.

Truth did no one no good when the real story behind Santa was exposed, it had only shattered the imagination of many kids, it had put an end to their beautiful expectations and anticipations about Christmas, a time of the year that was supposed to be the most exciting for the little ones, lost the emotional meaning behind it replacing it with a rather material one, yet, albeit the trauma, those children have only grown up to become adults who kept seeking for untold truths.

" Any news? Improvements?"

"Nothing much doctor, she keeps staring at the window all the time, she does comply with whatever I ask from her which is unusual, it's rather alerting I'd say"

" Keep a vigilant eye on her miss Baek, keep me posted every two hours"

Taehyung wasn't really happy with the sudden turnover, his curiosity became a hunger he wasn't able to satiate, an appetite that was ready to devour the dead past that you have entrusted in his graveyard and the one you still held dearly on. He wanted to make you undergo more sessions, he fought hard the urge to force you, if not for his professional conscience he would have done so without thinking twice, but he knew better than that, patience was all he needed to see the masked tales.

" Ah I almost forgot doctor, I'm really sorry I don't even know how it slipped out of my mind, but actually, there is a person that keeps paying her visits every now and then"

"Who's that?"

"I'm not sure, a friend maybe or a relative, he just stays for counted minutes each visit, he keeps talking in a monologue, then he leaves"

" Where can I find personal information about her visitors?"

" I will check and let you know doctor"

Taehyung never experienced a shock from his patients' confessions, he heard more tales than he could remember and each was worst than the other, yet, he never once lost his composure while in the middle of hypnosis with a patient, it was a method he mastered with years of experience under his sleeves, but all that became of no use while listening to your story.

He couldn't understand why something felt fishy from the mention of your first love in the first session, it was just weird that you kept him in your sub-conscience all those years, and even weirder that you have recollected him as if he was the main lead in that movie of yours, courtesy of the long years spent in the field, he managed to resume the session without putting you in danger.

Getting to understand that you had served his brother to the enemy in a golden dish wasn't really helpful in maintaining the professional distance and comportment at his side, that detailed confession in which you described the way you have stolen sensitive information about Seokjin's company and handed them down to Jungkook, clarified and borderline beautified deeds that Seokjin may have done to you.

He knew he was biased the moment he got a hold of his own thoughts, nonetheless, he was a human too before being a doctor, your deeds were shameful to say the less, you waged the war and cried over lost lands.

The hard drive exposed more of your deeds, the file you embezzled was of extreme importance, a ledger that held every weak point against Seokjin, and detailed every shady business he did, handing that file to the police could have ended his career and sent him to the prison you got a taste of had he been still in life.

He thought that you were an angel but you turned out to be the devil himself. The pictures he kept scrolling through added one adjective to the pile you already owned in his head, cheater.

You have been captured by the cameras of Seokjin's man on different occasions, like at the moment of the exchange of the said deal while you were comfortably seated in Jungkook's room in that hotel in Gagnam, or when he was dropping you off in front of the main door of the house you shared with your husband, pictures were many and they only kept confusing him, there was nothing to be held against you in those pictures, nothing intimate, yet, they kept seeming ever so wrong.

" What's up doc?"

" We need to talk Jimin"

" Same place we hit usually, I'll be there in twenty"

Taehyung kept trying to brush off a feeling that was burdening him yet he failed in recognizing, saying that he was angry would be an understatement, the man was fuming, he felt betrayed, it was like the life of his brother went away unfairly due to some conflicts that perhaps, could have been avoided altogether had you stayed out of the entire matter.

At a certain point, Taehyung wasn't sure anymore either one is the strongest, his love for you that had lingered around for years and never had the chance to bloom, or the abhor that was partially recent, yet much stronger and justified.

" What's wrong man? You look horrible"

The music that kept vibrating through the walls of the place seemed more a source of annoyance than that of amusement, it brought him different feelings, surely joy wasn't one of them, the understanding about the crucial need for a calm space had reached him a bit later than he would have wished for it to be.

" Nothing much, I just figured out that I'm treating the enemy, that's all"

"What's new about that?"

The glass between his hold must have felt dizzy from all the twirling he was obliging it to undergo, his head was lost almost clouded from the dark thoughts that kept invading his brain, physically he was with Jimin, but mentally he was all over the places, but surely, not in that club.

" She wasn't a victim, she confessed"

"Which confession?"

" I don't know Jimin, all I know for now is that she was partially responsible if not entirely, anything he may have done to her was a consequence of her acts"

Jimin carefully listened, however, the worried gaze that could also be described as fearful one, couldn't really go unnoticed by Taehyung.

" Stop looking at me like that Jimin, she killed my brother for some goddamn reasons that honestly speaking at this point, I'm not even interested in knowing"

" But you love her, you couldn't and you never stopped loving her "

" It's time to shove that love of mine up my ass I guess"

Although the decisive tone he used, he wasn't being convincing to himself even, hence, to Jimin, every word that left from the enraged man's mouth sounded just like some empty bluffs to his ears, nothing to take seriously.

God only knows how much wrong he was. Taehyung wasn't a bluffer, his anger wasn't one that could be subdued with a few shots of whiskey chilled, his heart wasn't one that could feel lighter after some talks and whimpers, his scars weren't one to be soothed with an ointment applied with loving touches, even if those were ever to be yours.

His brakes were cut off, you were the one who did that.

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]