Jimin let his hazy eyes wander Aera's motionless face. Three whole days had passed and she still wouldn't wake up. From the gaunt complexion of her face to the greying skin of her hands, the transformation couldn't have been more cruel. Ashen faced, she lay under the blanket, her thin frame resembling more a skeleton than a living, breathing person.

Waves of heat coursed through his body as he surveyed the way her chest would occasionally lift with her irregular shallow breathing that looked nothing like the breathing of a healthy person. From time to time as her body went completely still, he would wonder if she was even alive, but then the subtle sound of her lungs drawing in a little bit of air would fill him with relief.

She's just in deep slumber. But why does it resemble death so much?

Perhaps because of the dull grief that engulfed Jimin's conscience for some inexplicable reason. No matter how much he tried to convince himself that she was still in there somewhere, that she would be okay in the end, part of him was painfully aware that even if she were to come back, the chances that she'd be the same were slim. All the pain she'd been through, the disappointment, the terror, they'd definitely leave their mark on her.

Every memory of her played like a song in his head. All those years she'd lived, devoid of the love she truly deserved, of the parental guidance she'd always needed, harassed and terrorized by her own flesh and blood that was her evil brother. She had kept it together for far too long. Losing so many loved ones and discovering she'd been left with a responsibility far bigger and greater than anything she had ever imagined she'd have to deal with. Keeper of the Powers.

The other day, Aera had been shown the affection she'd craved for so long, finally meeting with her beloved grandmother only for her time with her to be cut short. Only to come back home to find out her ex-boyfriend, her first love, had deliberately tried to take her life for his own hidden gains.

There was no wonder why she had lost conscience. Her own mind refused to take in any more of the pain and instead, it had short-circuited.

Jimin wanted to scream, to cry a million tears but he had never been a crier. Everything boiled down to one thing – she should be here. He should be able to look into her eyes and tell her everything was going to be okay.

But she wasn't.

His heart was missing an integral piece, a part that kept it from working correctly. He reached out to discard a couple of hair strands from her forehead, his fingertips caressing the cold skin.

Cold. She was as still and cold as a dead person.

"Aera," Jimin's voice was barely above a croaky whisper. "Won't you come back to me already? I-" he choked up. "I can't function without you."

As expected, no response could be drawn out of her. A stray tear found its way down his cheek and his lower lip buckled upwards, his hand darting to his face instinctively.

"I- I can't, Aera," he sniffed, facial muscles tensing up against the tears. "I can't imagine my existence without you. There isn't a life for me without you in it." Desperately, he clung onto her tiny limp hand, bringing it to his lips. "You're everything I have left. Don't leave me, please. Don't... don't you leave me, too."

Ashamed from the tears, he wiped them away dejectedly. Men don't cry. The sadness drained through him mercilessly, leaving him to feel broken and lonely. Seeing her like this, it was like every small ounce of happiness he had in his life had vanished.

And it was all his fault. He should have never let her go in that room with Yoongi alone.

Ultimately, something in their conversation had been the final trigger for Aera's brittle defenses to come crashing down. Jimin should have been there. He should have prevented it. He should have stood in the way of Yoongi's cold emotional daggers piercing through Aera's fragile heart.

He should have.

The guilt was suffocating him, unforgiving and without escape. Until his last day, he'd blame himself for everything.

Taking a deep breath in, Jimin sat upright in the chair next to Aera's bed. His gaze shifted to Taehyung who was sitting across the room, slumped against one of the walls, elbows rested against his knees and head held between his long legs.

Currently, the jet black-haired boy resembled a shell of an actual person. Fatigue was engraved on his worn out face, dominated by profound sadness. He had refused to leave Aera's room no matter how much Jimin had begged him to go and rest. It was as if every other emotion had been pushed from his being. Where there used to be arrogance and cockiness, now there was aching hollowness. It was almost unnatural to see him like this.

And another thing Jimin found odd about him was the fact that he kept clutching on a soft grey blanket, not letting it go even for a second.

Lamely, Jimin shuffled to stand in front of Taehyung, bloodshot eyes staring down at the drooping boy.

"There," Jimin mumbled, rummaging through his pockets and taking out a key. "You can go to my room and take a shower. There are clean clothes in one of the drawers. Use whatever you want."

Taehyung winced, not picking up his gaze from the floor. "No, thank you."

"Taehyung," Jimin realized this had been the first time he was talking so calmly to him. "I don't think she'll wake up any time soon, and you'd be gone only for a while. It's okay." It almost sounded like he was trying to comfort him. Truth be told, at that time he probably was. Both of them needed some kind of reassurance that thing will be alright, that she would be alright.

Eventually, Taehyung's gaze drifted up to meet Jimin's eyes. His orbs were red from the lack of sleep, lips pale and cracked.

"I'm good."

"You're not."

"None of us are."

Unexpectedly, Jimin's heart ached at how hard Taehyung was trying to cover up his sorrow, hands clutching tightly onto the soft fabric of the blanket. He dropped to his knees so that they were at the same eye level, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"I know I'm not your favorite person," Jimin murmured. "But I also know how hard it is to watch someone you care about suffer. It makes you feel like you're in hell." Somehow, he wanted to offer some comfort with his words not only to Taehyung, but to himself too.

Teary-eyed and jaw clenched, the tattooed man was a picture of raw devastation. The same dull feeling of grief managed to creep its way into Jimin's heart. Why did this feel like mourning more than anything?

"I just want to see her smile again." Taehyung's words had the impact of shattering glass. Seeing him throw away his smug demeanor, stripped from every unbreakable concrete wall he had built around himself, it was just mind-spinning.

"You will. We all will," just moving his lips and stretching them in a weak smile was a slow, painful effort for Jimin. The haunting, ominous feeling slowly and stealthily reasserted possession of his spirit.

What if she never wakes up?

Soundlessly, the door eased open and a familiar mint green head peeked inside.

"It's us," Meisa talked softly in a hushed voice, as if there was a baby sleeping somewhere in the room. She stepped inside quietly, followed by a tall slender silhouette that moved so powerlessly he might as well have been a phantom.

"Any news?" Jin asked cautiously, sad eyes pinned at Jimin and Taehyung. It was visible he was fighting the urge to look at Aera's bed, as if he was afraid he'd witness something gruesome, when in reality it was just her soundly sleeping form, nothing hideous or ghastly.

Yet, the impact was the same. It was still spine-chilling.

The urge to cry came back again and Jimin swallowed it back. Wordlessly, he shook his head in silent negation.

Tip-toeing carefully, Meisa shuffled to Aera's bed, plopping herself onto the soft mattress next to her.

"Hey, babe," she cooed softly, placing her palm over the brunette's hands. "I think you're taking your role as a sleeping beauty too seriously." She smiled, but it didn't reach her sad emerald green eyes.

"Why isn't your healing ability affecting her?" Taehyung suddenly rasped, drawing everyone's attention to himself. His merciless gaze was fixated on Jin, eyes quivering with silent accusation.

Jin sighed dejectedly, his shoulders slumping.

"I tried, I really did," his voice was shaking. "Whatever this is, it's not just an ordinary illness, and I'm afraid my abilities cover only matters dealing with the physical body. I think the issue is with her mind, not with her body. I'm sorry." His face creased and he buried it in his hands. He looked devastated. "I really wanted to help..."

"It's okay," Meisa soothed, gliding towards him and rubbing the side of his strong arm. "No one blames you for anything. You're not almighty, none of us are."

Jimin would describe the feeling of witnessing Jin so sad and shaken as mind-altering. The tall man was so kind and warm-hearted towards everyone. Being an empath, other people's pain affected him more than he cared to let on.

"By the way," Meisa said suddenly, igniting a spark of gratitude in Jimin's heart for steering the conversation away. "Hyukjae's gone totally MIA. No one's seen him in days, his car is gone and his phone is out of reach."

"What about the GPS tracker?" Jimin questioned. Both Aera's and Hyukjae's cars had GPS attached to them for security reasons.

"No signal," Meisa replied. "He's definitely removed it. I admit, I never thought he'd be that smart."

"Any luck with finding the clock with the skull?"

"No," the mint haired girl shook her head, seeming defeated. "Jungkook and Namjoon have been searching for it for days, no sign of it anywhere."

"The bastard must have taken it with him," Jimin gritted. "What about Yoongi?"

"Still won't talk," Meisa answered. "Jungkook's been watching him 24/7, he barely moves. When they asked him about the crystal skull, he didn't even make a sound."

"Jimin," Jin suddenly spoke up, raising his gaze to look at the blond bodyguard. "Can we have a word?"

Perplexed, Jimin gave a nod and signaled him to follow him to a more secluded part of the penthouse, leaving Meisa and Taehyung to look after Aera.

"What's the matter?" he asked, closing the door after himself and whirling around to face Jin.

"There are some things I've been meaning to discuss with you," Jin seemed hesitant, searching for the right words as he fidgeted with the hem of his shirt. "In private."

"Go ahead."

"I have some really bad news," Jin's handsome face turned somber, a deep frown occupied his forehead. "My friend who got you in that mental facility, Dr. Choi, he contacted me. Turns out the mental condition of Aera's grandmother deteriorated significantly and now they're keeping her isolated in a separate room on lockdown."

"What? Why, what happened?" Jimin was rattled, uneasiness slowly setting in on him.

"I have no idea," Jin admitted. "And neither has Dr. Choi. They won't let him see her, but he's heard the nurses discuss how Lee Adara's on her death bed and it will be days until she passes away. They say she's currently unconscious, slipped into a coma."

"Fuck," Jimin couldn't stifle the audible gasp that escaped him. "Do you think... do you think that it's really true?"

"Dr. Choi is doubtful that the reason behind her health worsening is natural. He thinks they're inflicting a comatose state on her on purpose and I'm inclined to believe that."

"Oh my god," Jimin felt helpless, fingers weaving into his hair with frustration. If Adara passes away... if Aera loses another member of her family, one she has just reunited with...

He didn't want to even think about it.

"Another thing," Jin went on. "I've been thinking a lot about what you guys have told me. Hyukjae is supposed to have magical abilities just like us, right? I think I might have an idea of what they are."

"What?" Jimin held his breath involuntarily.

"I'm fairly certain that he can inflict pain on others."

"How come?" Jimin was confused. After the bizarre episode where they had bumped into Jin at Aera's family home when he ended up not being Jin at all, they were more than one hundred percent sure that Hyukjae's power was shapeshifting.

"Just think about it," Jin whispered. "Aera said she was experiencing a terrible headache that morning of the fire when her brother came by to threaten her. She thought it might be the hangover, but what if it wasn't?

"And there's more. You told me how the pain in your knee grew stronger. Have you noticed that it only does that when you're around Hyukjae? And about the numb ache in the back of your skull that day when he proposed to Meisa. Aera was complaining about the same sensation, too. Even I remember feeling a slight discomfort that day."

"Okay but if-"

"Just listen," Jin cut him off, wanting to continue his heated speech. "That time the other day when the girls got into a fight with Hyuk. You told me that he got away. But how did he manage to do that?"

"There was a loud high-pitched noise that laced the air," Jimin breathed out in bewilderment.

"A noise so loud that it results in tinnitus, causing you to feel pain in your ears so intense that you had to stop everything you were doing and drop down to the ground. And the only one who seemingly wasn't affected by it was..."

"Hyukjae," Jimin aspirated, blinking multiple times as the realization struck him harder than a lightning. At the time, he hadn't paid attention to that small detail, too caught up in his exasperation over Hyukjae's escape. Somewhere in the process of making sure the girls were okay, everyone had brushed it off.

"Exactly," Jin clicked his tongue. "The guy has been a pain in everyone's asses his whole life, and now he's causing literal pain to everybody."

"And when they kidnapped me," Jimin gasped. "I felt it then, too. It was a sharp, piercing pain that I thought was due to the trauma to my skull from taking the hit. But I didn't feel anything until Hyukjae stepped right in front of me."

Jimin thought about all those times he had felt discomfort in Hyukjae's presence. He had chalked it up as something normal, given the guy was so creepy and awful that he just gave off that vibe. But what if it wasn't just a vibe?

"I know," Jin nodded with subtle enthusiasm.

"Okay, but if Hyukjae can cause pain to others, then that means that your doppelganger that we saw on the field that day wasn't him but someone else," Jimin groaned softly, chewing on his lower lip thoughtfully. "Unless he has two powers."

"I find it hard to believe that he could be that powerful," Jin was doubtful. "My gut feeling tells me that it wasn't him. Moreover, I think I spotted him in the lobby that day, even though I can't be sure."

"This changes everything. We have to tell the others," Jimin marched towards the door, but Jin lightly tugged at his sleeve.

"Sadly, this isn't all," all of a sudden the tall man became even darker, if it was even possible. What more could there be? "Something rather shocking happened to me this morning."

"What is it?" Jimin asked, feeling dizzy from all those new revelations.

"I received a strange call," a visible shudder ran through Jin's body as all the color drained from his face as if he had seen a literal ghost.

"What call?"

"It was a woman. She sounded rather frantic, going on about her daughter and how much she loves her and misses her. She told me that I had to stand by her little girl's side and that mother and daughter shall be reunited sooner than ever. She said she couldn't wait until she can have her baby in her arms and would make up for all those years they've been apart." Jin paused, his face hardened.

"Well?" once again Jimin was confused, searching his friend's face for any kind of answer as to why he was telling him this. "It was obviously a mistake, probably she dialed the wrong number. What does this have to with anything we just talked about?"

Ashen faced, Jin gave a tight gulp.

"Jimin... that woman said she was Aera's mother."

author's note:

Aaand the plot thickens! *cue the ominous music*

any thoughts on the new chapters? Do you guys think that it was really Aera's mother who called Jin? As usual, I'm all ears for you theories!!

also, if any of you want, you're more than welcome to check out my new Taehyung ff "Hearteater" ^^ you can find it on my profile 💜 (had to channel all that Tae love somewhere lol)

as always, thank you for reading and supporting this book! 💜