Waking up the next morning felt like Aera’s soul had ascended, had a taste of heaven and now someone had put her soul back into her body.

Everything was so much clearer now. As if up until now, she had been seeing in black and white, and for the first time in her life, she could see the world around her in its true colors.

Still in the clutches of her sleepiness, she rolled over to her side and let her gaze cast over Jimin lying on the bed next to her. His features were a lot softer in slumber now that the tension creasing his forehead was temporarily gone. His breathing slow and shallow, he resembled more a boy rather than a man now.

The sight made Aera’s heart flutter in her chest.

She let her fingertips glide over the warm and smooth skin of his shoulder down to his upper-arm. His eyelids slightly fluttered and he let out the most adorable sleepy sigh.

Aera inched closer, weaving her fingers into his hair and a surprised squeal bubbled through her when his arm suddenly shot forward, wrapping around her waist and pulling her towards his bare chest. He hummed, eyes still closed shut, and she chuckled softly.

The serenity that took over her was short-lived though, when an intrusive, alarming thought started flickering in the back of her head. Immediately it managed to overshadow her morning peace, preventing her from relishing in Jimin’s touch.

Because she remembered.

It all came back to her now.

Slipping from Jimin’s embrace, she sprung up from the bed with haste, heart beating erratically in her chest. Her breathing quickened so much she feared she would start to hyperventilate.

She remembered. All of it. The night Yoongi had come to her penthouse.

“I had no idea his mother was coming,” Yoongi’s hand traveled to Aera’s jaw, cradling her face. “Had I known, I would have stopped him from doing this. I’m so sorry you had to see her and go through it all over again. I can’t begin to imagine how you must have felt.”

“No,” Aera breathed out, digging her nails into her palms and starting to quiver in panic.

“You look at me like we’re so distant when we use know each other in such an intimate way. We used to fall asleep and wake up next to each other, Aera, you could be a little bit warmer towards me,” he dug his teeth into his lower lip as his gaze dropped to her neck, lingering there for a while before trailing back up to her eyes.

“No. No, no, no,” she rasped, shaking her head violently, her palms gripping on the blanket. This must be some kind of a dream. A nightmare. This never happened.

“Tell me something, Yoongi. Why did you come to me the other night, after my uncle’s funeral?”

“You know why.”

“Was it only for sex?”

“You certainly thought it was, so why are you asking this now?”

“It doesn’t matter what I thought. I want to hear it from you.”

“No. Aera… It wasn’t just the sex.”

“No!” Aera’s voice got stuck in her throat as if invisible hands were clasping at her vocal cords. It hurt, it hurt her to remember this and her heart felt as if it was being pierced with a thousand sharp darts dipped in poison.

Yoongi’s face resurfaced in the back of her mind and no matter how much she struggled to repress the memory, it simply wouldn’t go away. It was haunting her, crawling at her brain and overwhelming her. Darkness seeping through every pore of his face, midnight black orbs boring holes in her painfully, his mouth moving with no sound coming out of it, the usual deadpan way in which he carried himself caused her blood to stop in her veins.

“I don’t want to, please,” a strained yelp erupted through her chest as she buried her face into her sweaty palms, hand shaking as the memories hit her with full force, ruthlessly without escape.

It wasn’t a kiss, at least not exactly. His lips just slightly grazed hers. “I’m sorry for what I’m about to do. But it’s for the better this way,” he whispered, a tinge of sadness in his voice.

The flashbacks wouldn’t leave her alone, taking over her and swirling together in a dark ominous vortex. It was almost painful, remembering caused her pain and she hissed as the voice in the back of her head boomed louder and louder.

“There was no one in the penthouse when you got here,” Yoongi mumbled almost inaudibly. “You got ready for bed and quickly fell asleep, without taking any sleeping pills. You had a nice sleep for the first time in years. I was never here,” his voice was a hoarse whisper as he slowly let go of her, silently walking to the door and stepping out.

And then, it stopped.

Exhaling heavily, Aera released the breath she hadn’t even realized she had been holding in. The buzzing in her brain was gone, increasing to a single high-pitched shriek and feeling as if she was being torn apart from inside, before diminishing and completely subsiding after that.

Like nothing ever happened.

Aera whipped around frantically, scanning the room. Her restless eyes were met with Jimin’s soundly sleeping face, not even twitching.

It felt like those two short minutes of madness had exhausted her completely, but her tortured mind still managed to connect the dots.

Yoongi was the same as them.

First Taehyung, now him. Who knows how many more people would turn out to have those strange supernatural abilities that seemingly had appeared out of nowhere?

Each second that passed felt like a century. All of a sudden Aera felt extremely uncomfortable, sitting in the bed where she and Jimin had made love just some hours ago, and thinking of her ex, even though it wasn’t in any inappropriate way. For some reason, the thought made her feel sick. Why was it that the memory of Yoongi compelling her to forget came up just now?

Was this the thing he could do? Compulsion?

A bitter taste filled her mouth as she contemplated the idea. How fitting for him. He had always been the most versatile manipulator she had ever known, deceit was in his nature.

Of course he had been lying last night when he had told her they could still be together. That he never stopped caring about her.

Lies. All he does is lie. A lie for every sweet nothing he had ever said to me. A lie for each of his betrayals that drove into my heart mercilessly. He never had enough of hurting me. Never.

Of course this had been all part of some bigger, elaborate plan he had. She felt angry at herself for letting his stupid words of affection get to her. When was she going to learn?

Yoongi could never be trusted.

She glanced down at Jimin who was still in deep slumber. Her previous exasperation quickly dissipated and her heart filled with pure adoration for him. Last night, it felt like their souls had been finally united in oneness, something they had never realized they had been longing for. For each other.

“Jimin,” Aera whispered, shaking him softly trying to wake him up. “Jimin, wake up.”

His lids bounced up at the sound of her saying his name and he pushed himself up on the bed. Aera gulped when the blanked slid over his chest, offering her a view of his abdomen and the area just above his hip bones. Control yourself.

“I need to tell you something,” she croaked, not even taking in consideration the possibility that just last night the urge to kill her had suddenly come over him and perhaps he needed some time to recover.

“Huh?” he squinted, rubbing his eyes and slowly coming back to his senses.

“It’s about Yoongi,” Aera declared timidly.

This seemingly managed to get Jimin’s undivided attention as his eyes snapped wide open. Aera instantly regretted the last words, realizing that most probably her ex-boyfriend’s name wasn’t the most appropriate thing to mention after she and Jimin had their first night together, but she felt that discussing the issue shouldn’t be delayed.

“Actually I need to tell you something about Yoongi too,” Jimin admitted, taking her aback.

“Really? What?”

“I’m fairly certain that whatever paranormal shit is going on around us, he’s affected by it as well,” he stated, a slight wince passing through his face.

“I think so too,” Aera gave a curt nod. “As a matter of fact, I know so.”

Jimin’s eyes slightly narrowed. “You go first.”

“I believe Yoongi possesses the ability to influence other people’s minds. I’m not exactly sure how it works, but from what I gather he can implant thoughts in your head without you realizing it.”

Jimin’s face darkened. “I was about to tell you the same thing,” he mumbled.

“How do you know?” Aera’s eyebrows shot skyward as she scooted over closer.

“Last night, it was him who compelled me to kill you.”

His words managed to make Aera’s heart to stop beating. It felt like she was being ripped apart. Yoongi wanted to kill her?

But why? What have I ever done to him? Does he hate me so much that he wants me dead?

“He… he told you to kill me?” she rasped, still not wanting to believe it. The tears were threatening to burst through her like water from a broken dam. Why?

“I was standing by the venue, scanning the perimeter while you danced with him,” Jimin’s jaw tightened. “I saw it when he walked away from you and got back to his friends before briefly disappearing. I realized Hyukjae was gone, too, taking note that this was strange and deciding I had to go and inform Namjoon. All I remember was hearing footsteps behind me and before I could turn around, someone hit me from behind and I passed out.”

Aera listened wordlessly, not moving a muscle.

“When I woke up, they had me immobilized on a chair and gagged,” Jimin continued. “Your brother and Yoongi were both there. Apparently Yoongi inviting you to dance with him was a stalling tactic so that they could get me alone.”

Suddenly feeling light-headed, Aera’s gut tied in an anxious knot. She had thought she would be able to distract Yoongi by dancing with him but in the end, it turned out it had been him who had been distracting her. And he got what he wanted, as usual. How could she think she could ever outsmart him?

“Yoongi stared into my eyes and commanded that I kill you. At first I couldn’t remember it, couldn’t control it. It felt like my mind operated out of my control. But now I do. Now I see everything clearly,” Jimin grumbled. “And it seems like we have a lot more to deal with than we initially thought.”

Immersed in his words, Aera had to remind herself to breathe when he placed his palm over hers.

“I am terribly sorry,” he apologized, his eyebrows slightly dipping as a remorseful expression painted over his face. “Please tell me I didn’t hurt you in any way. I would never be able to forgive myself.”

“You didn’t hurt me,” Aera shook her head and a relieved sigh escaped him. “You fought it back for me. You resisted it, I don’t know how, but you did it, and for that I am so thankful.”

“I just kept thinking of you and how much I care about you,” a light-pink hue tinted Jimin’s cheeks as he lowered his gaze. “Your face was the only thing on my mind that could make the pain go away. I don’t know how, but it seemed to do the trick and help me overcome Yoongi’s compulsion.”

With those words, he moved up hastily and captured her lips with his, the touch igniting a fire in her. The more he kissed her, the more she craved him. Even though they were faced with such a big problem, it was as though everything else was irrelevant now that Jimin was holding her in his arms.

“There’s something else,” Jimin whispered once he broke the kiss, his eyes glazed with desire but still he managed to give a serious look. “There was someone else in that room with Yoongi and Hyukjae.”

“Who was it?” Aera scowled.

“It was Hoseok.”

The gasp that left her was audible and her hand shot up to cover her mouth as she couldn’t contain her shock. “Hobi? Oh my god!” she exclaimed.

“I think he’s working with them,” Jimin confirmed somberly and Aera nodded in agreement. The way Hoseok had bolted the other day had made her suspicious, but she had brushed the thought aside, only for the doubtful feeling to creep up in her chest again.

Jimin ran a hand over his face in frustration. “We have to tell the others.”

***

Huffing, Aera was still hopping on one foot, trying to pull her jeans up her legs while Jimin had already put on all of his clothes. She knew that extra muffin she had for lunch yesterday would come back to haunt her. She shook her head, kind of angry at herself for thinking about food during a moment like this.

“Let’s go,” Jimin ushered, yanking the door open and waiting for her to pull the first t-shirt she set her eyes on over her head.

Breaking into a light sprint, Aera followed him to the hallway and then the elevator, breathing heavily.

She set free a sharp gasp when their fingers brushed against each other. Once again, it was like electricity. She tried to swallow back the emotions starting to pool inside of her. Jimin was making her go crazy and at the most inappropriate time at that.

“I never said how amazing last night was,” he said. “You know, minus the part where I wanted to kill you.” he suddenly became glum.

“It was wonderful for me too,” Aera confessed, hearing him gasp a little as something blazed inside of his eyes.

A low growl came from the back of his throat as he rested his hand on the back of her neck, pulling her in for another deep kiss. Her lips were meshing with his so perfectly, as if this had been the only thing they were made for. She couldn’t help but wonder if she was the only one desperate for this. Was this by any chance as intense for him as it were for her?

“Fuck,” Jimin cussed under his breath when the chime of the elevator announced that they had arrived at the first floor. He pulled away just in time as the doors opened, revealing a bunch of hotel guests waiting to get to their rooms.

“Have a nice stay at ‘Elysium Hotel’!” Aera chimed, still flushed but managing to give an awkward wave. Jimin snorted in the form of a laugh as they started making their way to the back and to the security office.

Once they were outside, Jimin reached out for the handle and the door swung open, revealing Jungkook sitting behind his desk and typing something on his computer, his chiseled face illuminated by the fluorescent light from the screen.

Upon raising his gaze to look at them, he immediately narrowed his eyes for a second before widening them, folding his arms against his chest and sinking back into his leather chair.

He slightly scrunched his nose, sniffing the air, before his lips curled into a sly smirk.

“Someone’s been on a trip to pound town,” he wiggled his eyebrows.

“You little brat,” Jimin hissed, glaring at him. “Mind your own business, and be careful how you talk to your superiors.”

“Well I’m trying to, but you guys reek so much of sex it’s distracting,” Jungkook shrugged, trying to stifle a grin.

“Where’s Namjoon? We need to talk,” Jimin asked, deliberately ignoring the maknae’s teasing.

“Actually, we wanted to tell you guys something too,” Jungkook took off his headphones, his hands darting to massage his neck.

“You go first, because ours is quite big,” Aera said, taking a seat on one of the chairs.

“Well,” Jungkook took a deep breath in. “Namjoon thinks that we have a lead from what your uncle said when he, um, appeared in that mirror. That thing he said, about the place where it all began.”

“What about it?” Jimin furrowed his brows.

“What if he meant Aera’s childhood home? The one that practically burned down,” Jungkook explained, stealing a glance at Aera and scanning her face for something wrong, obviously wondering whether the touchy subject would trigger something inside of her.

“But the place is in ruins now,” Jimin said. “Nothing’s left of it.”

“Yes, but what if there is something left?” Jungkook clapped his hands. “It would be the last place someone would look at, and maybe that’s the catch.”

Jimin and Aera exchanged a brief glance and she shrugged.

“It’s worth the try,” she finally said after considering the idea for a bit.

“Then it’s decided. We’re going,” Jungkook grinned. “I call shotgun.”