this storyline deserves so much more recognition 💔

***

The following days were a rush. Taehyung and Jungkook were dragged from room to room, expected to an almost 48 hours pull-through. First they put them into the war room, a simulation that showed how the fight between earth and space was bound to happen in a few years; once the academy was ready and had fully educated their warriors.
Jungkook and Taehyung had no trouble winning that one, Jungkook's superpowers and Taehyung's natural instinct made it easy to last 24 hours in this room. Of course they never saw the war ending, but they did a pretty good impression by killing a few aliens there and succeeded in building a small tent in which they could rest overnight.
But as soon as they were out of that, they ranked second on the ranking, most pairs hadn't ever lasted for all three rooms. No one except Hoseok and Yoongi, they still topped the list and were busy working on the panic room.
They went in there every single day but it had the same ending no matter what, Hoseok ending up losing all sense of control over his system while Yoongi was frightened to death.

67 times they had tried.
And now that Jungkook and Taehyung were only one room behind, the pressure started growing. People on the ship realized that these two were actually a good team, that even though Taehyung needed 666 tries to get it right, he had done a nice job with creating Jungkook.

Soon there were bets made on who would get through all five rooms first, a lot of younger students were hyped for Jungkook and Taehyung, believing in them ranking first in a couple of days. Others, the older and more educated students, they were still sure that it was Yoongi and Hoseok who would be first graduating this school. They knew that Jungkook and Taehyung were young and stupid, way too overexcited to take the whole thing serious.

It got worse once Jungkook and Taehyung rushed the fourth room at first try. To be fair it was a pretty easy simulation in comparison to the war room or the tempation room. It showed life in space a hundred years from now if they wouldn't win the war or the experiments wouldn't succeed. Starvation and a lack of all kinds of things was the main aspect here, the simulation was checking on how moody they could get after starving for days and how they would think in the situation. Taehyung and Jungkook were sneaky, they both got themselves into a manager team and brought in some ideas how to improve the spaceship and how to share the last pieces of food, they consulted over who would get executed first if the air would run out and held talks all day with the Future Namjoon who called them a great help.

How they were doing it so smoothly, that was the main question that came up after they were done with all four rooms except for the panic room. Everyone had this picture in mind that the two of them would just mess everything up and wouldn't even get through the temptation room which should be the easiest.
Little did they know that these two kids were impressively good at faking it. With only one weak spot ; each other.

"I'd love to know what you did to get on top of the ranking", Jimin grumbled one day at dinner. The group of friends was sitting there and ate their meal for the evening. "You could see it on screen, Jimin. It's visible for everyone to see how we got where we are", Taehyung explained calmly, smirking because he knew that his relaxed tone would freak the older out.
"Yeah but how. How much did you pay Namjoon to tell you the tricks?", he lifted his brows, "There's now way you two idiots made it work all by yourselves."

"True", Jungkook chuckled, "We bribed them. You got us, well done Jimin. Here's your medal", he grinned and threw a spaghetti at the boy.
Jimin squeaked out and threw one back but both boys got stopped by their partners. Gigi was taking Jimin's plate away while Taehyung was smacking Jungkook's head to make him stop.

"I wonder why you two haven't got through the war room yet", Taehyung said, looking at Jimin. "What is it by now? The 34th day of trying?"

Jimin rolled his eyes.
"Just because my superhuman is an older version. I didn't have 666 tries to make it perfect unlike you and your dumbass Jungkook."

"Can I remind you that Jungkook is a major failure", Yoongi hummed from the corner, "He doesn't have any emotions in his system, he gets distracted by Taehyung all the time and he is far from being smart. Not even 666 tries got that thing right."

"Well", Jungkook said, "At least it doesn't take us 666 tries to get through the rooms."
Taehyung grinned and rubbed Jungkook's thigh underneath the table. He loved that. It made him feel superior to joke around like this, knowing he had someone on his side. Before he brought Jungkook to life he had always been alone at meal times. While the others were laughing and telling stories, Taehyung sat there and was thankful if there went by one dinner without them mocking him for basically anything, including breathing.
One day Jimin got mad because Taehyung would breathe too loudly while sitting down. That was the day when Taehyung mentally noted that in no fucking way he would ever be friendly to Jimin again.

Now that he had Jungkook it was all a lot more fun. The mocking suddenly became jokes because he had someone to have his back. And Jungkook always had his back, not one day passed by when Jungkook would not talk back to the others when they dared to bring Taehyung down, the little boy was always ready to throw hands when someone did Taehyung wrong.
Taehyung knew it back then already; he was in love with his own experiment and nothing could ever change that.

If only he would have known where this kind of love would get him someday.

"Welcome to the panic room", Seokjin smirked evilish once Taehyung and Jungkook entered the room this evening.
"Where's Namjoon?", Taehyung asked quietly but the professor was only broadening his smirk, "It's the panic room my dear, there's no comfort waiting for you."

"As if that old sucker would be any sort of comfort", Jungkook rolled his eyes.
Seokjin chuckled, "Ah of course you would feel this way, Jeon Jeongguk. You're of my kind, you're different."

Taehyung greeted his teeth, "Don't compare him to you. You're useless and just here to annoy students and suck Namjoon's dick."
"So where's the difference to Jungkook?", Seokjin asked plainly, tilting his head.

"Well-", Taehyung inhaled, ready to list a dozen things that Jungkook was good for but he got stopped by the door of the panic room banging from the inside.
"Oh look, it's waiting for you", Seokjin said softly, looking at the panic room in a kind of loving way. It was weird, something about this room and the whole atmosphere just felt like it was made out of the same kind of energy that Seokjin and Jungkook were made of.
Taehyung inhaled deeply and grabbed Jungkook's hand, ready to start.

"What are you doing?", Seokjin looked at them handholding, "Jungkook's not going in."

"Of course he is, it's the rule", Taehyung blurted out, "We both have to stay in there without giving in to our fears."

Seokjin looked a little worried for a moment, "What do you mean? Fear is nothing to Jungkook. The place in there is hell, personalized for each and everyone of us. What good would it bring us if Jungkook would get to get home?"
Jungkook's eyes went big and his heart ached in pain. "Home?", he asked longingly, "You mean-, behind that door is where home is?"

"Yeah, everything you're longing for", Seokjin sighed. "Sadly it doesn't work for us."

Jungkook looked a little startled, the corners of his lips dropping down. "I miss home."

"Did I miss something? As far as I know he got born from a machine and the only home he has is a bunch of chemicals", Taehyung grumbled but whether Jungkook nor Seokjin were paying attention. They just looked at each other for a while before they turned to Taehyung.
"It's time, you should go in", the man said and Taehyung was pushed to the door.

"Tae!", Jungkook squeaked out right before the older was pushing down the handle of the door. The boy turned and looked at his lover for a couple of seconds. "I love you", the younger let out, heart beating out of his chest. "Whatever is in there, remember that whatever it is, in reality you wouldn't be alone with it. I'd be right by your side."

Seokjin looked at Jungkook dumbfounded.
"What on earth.." he whispered to himself. Words like this were something that should not be coming out of Jungkook's mouth. He wasn't supposed to be empathic and supportive, he was supposed to be evil and harsh.

"I love you too", Taehyung gulped dryly, smiling a little and then walked in, the door slamming shut right behind him.

He stood in a room with broken walls, an old building with nothing but broken pieces within. There was a door at the other end, far away from Taehyung. Nothing else, he was all alone and there was nothing in here that could show him what to do or how to succeed.

"Forever is waiting for you"

There was a voice inside his head, talking softly in a provoking tone. "So be it", Taehyung grumbled back, talking to himself as he started walking towards the door. He had to take a look behind it.
"How does it feel knowing you'll die alone?"
Taehyung gritted his teeth, hurrying faster towards the door, ignoring the voice inside his head that got louder this time.

"There's no one coming to save you. You'll be left on this ship and you know it."
Taehyung started running.
"So tell me, how does it feel, my lovely Taehyung? Being left by your parents, hated by all your friends and one day you will end up being left behind by the rest of humankind?"

The distance seemed to become bigger with each step Taehyung took. Instead of getting closer it felt like he was drifting further away from the door. By now the boy was holding his ears to get rid off the voice, ignoring the words but it wouldn't stop.
"Jungkook's going to be dead by then, darling. The only one who's ever going to love that tragic self of you."
The boy's heart ached but he kept pushing forwards. It was just a simulation, none of this was real. He had to keep telling this to himself. There was no way this freaking voice inside his head knew the future, this wasn't real.

This couldn't be real.

"You know that they won't let a traitor come down to earth with them. You know that, Taehyung."

Well, that made Taehyung stop in his steps, turning around as if there would be someone to face, but he just stared into nothing.
Jungkook on the outside was staring at the screen, letting out a big sigh when Taehyung stopped. In reality the door was right in front of him, his mind was tricking him in showing the distance growing further when in reality it was getting smaller. "Come on, baby", Jungkook bit into his thumbs anxiously, heart beating out of his chest, "Don't let it get to you."

Taehyung however had no clue, he stood there and didn't know where to go. He felt like he lost direction and he could not see the door anymore, it was way too far away.

"What do you mean? I'm not a traitor, why would I be a traitor", he asked anxiously.

"You will be"
That was the only answer the voice gave him, "Explain!"
"Future will show you."

Taehyung balled his fists, trying to catch his breath.
He felt like having a panic attack any minute, as if he was getting short of air even though he got plenty to breath in.

"You know why, darling. You know that this is going to kill him and give eternity to you."
Taehyung yelled out, "What are you talking about! You're inside my head, you fucking bitch! Get out of there!"

Jungkook on the outside felt the insides of his tummy crumbling, "He's losing it", he whispered to himself while Seokjin was looking at the screen in excitement. "What's the key?", he asked slowly, "You must know what could calm him down."

But the boy only sighed, "The only thing that makes him feel safe is when he realizes that he actually wants to be the traitor. But he's not seeing that right now."
Seokjin nodded to himself, "You let him see, right?"
Jungkook looked at him awkwardly, "As if."

"How could he be this confused then?", Seokjin asked, "Humans aren't that smart that they can think so well of the future."

"I let him see two made up versions", Jungkook said, "One closer to reality than the other."

"What are you saying?", Seokjin asked, "What's going to happen?"

"You'd love to know that, wouldn't you?", Jungkook rolled his eyes. "Let's say I showed him not the end, I showed him a part where he doesn't know the ending yet."

Back in the room, Taehyung was shaking, he had tears falling off his cheeks and his hands pressed onto his ears, "Get out of my head!"
"Give in, Taehyung. It's so much easier to let the fear in."

But Taehyung was shaking his head, "I'm not afraid of you."

"There's nothing to be afraid of, darling. You'll see, if you let me in, it'll all change."

Taehyung stopped.
His emotions dropped, "What am I supposed to let in?"

"Me"

Taehyung shut his eyes. "You're a voice in my head, you already are in."
"I'm your fear. Your anxiety. Your pain. I'm everything you don't want to feel, sweetie."
The boy shrugged, suddenly getting calmer than he had ever felt, repeating the words in his thoughts over and over again.
"I'm not afraid of things that are supposed to be scary", he whispered, thinking of Jungkook.

"Let me in"
And the boy smiled.
"I'll let you in"

***