¢нαρтєя 18
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minseok walked into yoongi's office breathing heavily.

"minseok?" yoongi ran up to the younger to check if he was alright.
he didn't answer.
yoongi sat him onto the couch and brought a glass of water. minseok emptied the glass in two gulps and placed the cup on the table.

"goodness minseok... have you... did you forget to take your pills today?" he questioned.

"i-i lost them... two weeks ago..." minseok mumbled.

"what?! two weeks???!!?" yoongi raised his voice. "did you call the clinic? why haven't you gotten a re-fill yet??"

"yoongi..." minseok turned to the elder with tears in his eyes. "I haven't contacted them in a couple of months... they want to send me to the mental asylum..."

"why? has your condition gotten worse?" yoongi asked.

"they say so, but it's not true! yoongi, I swear I'm alright... it's just... M has been triggered and..."

"you're telling me M was triggered out...? how many times?"

"only twice... a couple of days after I lost the medicine and... a-and today." minseok muttered. "I'm scared, yoongi, what do I do?"

"who triggered M?" he asked.

"it was taehyung... but it's not like he was doing it on purpose." minseok explained. "you remember how M appeared and harmed you the first time... you didn't mean to trigger him."

"is there really no way to get the drugs?"

"its medicine, not drugs, yoon and they're prescribed, you can't go to the clinic and get it for me. and they're after me, so I'm not planning on showing up there either."

yoongi went over to his desk to pour some more water. his eyes caught the peace contract given by the malgeun pi gang that was lying on the table.
yoongi stopped for a moment.
he knew malgeun pi was greatly known for creating all kinds of drugs... and they would definitely make some for minseok, but only if yoongi signed the contract.

'no.'
yoongi shook his head. there must be other ways to get the medicine... he could ask somebody to just steal them anyway.

as yoongi passed minseok the glass with water a certain flashback ran through his head...

yoongi opened the door of his house. today was a cold autumn evening of 2010.
the first thing yoongi saw after opening the door was minseok, who was breathing heavily, tears running down his face and blood staining his hands and clothing.

"y-yoon... I killed her."

yoongi's mouth flew open in shock. he grabbed minseok and dragged him inside his room.

"please calm down first."
yoongi provided minseok with spare clothes and made the younger take a shower to wash off the blood.

after that, he brought minseok some tea and sat him down on the bed.
"okay, now tell me everything."

"she abused me again..." a lone tear fell onto the bedsheets. "it was the same old story. she talked about how useless and stubborn I am... that I won't achieve anything in life and blah blah blah. but then she started fucking... beating me up-"

"what...?"

"yes... she got so angry... she said she was so tired of me and wished I was never born..." minseok said. "and... I was lying on the kitchen floor, trying to get back up, but couldn't, I was in pain."

"where was your dad?" he asked.

"he was running errands... aka cheating on mom." minseok exhaled. "I think she found out and lashed out on me instead... I felt this weird feeling, I don't know how to explain it, yoon, but I felt so tired of it all and I was so mad at my mom, but I was scared, so scared."

"and...?"

"and suddenly I felt different... the thing is... it wasn't even me." minseok explained. "it felt as if I turned into a completely different person and... he stood up for me... I mean I stood up for myself- I don't know. when mom called me by my name I said- he said to not call him that, to call him M instead."

"M?"

"yeah." minseok wiped a tear. "he... he killed mom... i-i don't even know how... he had all this courage and he just... it felt as if he wasn't me... but a stronger side of me? a side I never had."

"so M stood up for you... and killed your mom?" yoongi questioned.

minseok nodded and sipped on the tea.
yoongi gulped, understanding what was going on. it seemed like minseok was so tired of being constantly abused by his mom that his mind created a stronger side of him, a different personality to defend the real minseok, and called it M.

"what's going on, yoon? what is this?" minseok cried.

"I... I don't know." yoongi lied. he thought it was too much for minseok in a day. "stay with me tonight."

yoongi hugged the younger closer and let him cry into his shoulder as he gently stroked minseok's back in a calming manner.

❦

taehyung woke up in his own house. his vision was blurry the first couple of seconds. as soon as he tried to move, he instantly felt pain strike different parts of his body.
taehyung hissed in pain remembering how minseok beat him up once again, but this time much worse.

"what on earth did you do to anger that son of a bitch?"
taehyung turned his head to the familiar voice and felt his eyes get teary. right... jungkook saved him.

"you saved me... from bleeding to death in the alley..." taehyung said in a raspy voice. "thank you, but why? I thought you wanted me to die."

jungkook stayed silent for a while.
"I said I wanted to kill you with my own hands. what's the fun of seeing you die after getting beaten up by somebody else?"

"r-right..."

jungkook brought over a cup of tea along with a couple of sandwiches for taehyung and placed them on the little table next to the couch. taehyung looked around his living room with a bit of amusement – it seemed like jungkook opened up all the curtains taehyung kept closed for months.

"in any case, thank you, jungkook." taehyung whispered.

"you've gotten weaker..." jungkook pointed out. "so emotional and vulnerable."

"what else could've happened to me?" he asked. "I thought I killed you. and in case you forgot, I loved you... and still do."

"cut the bullshit. if you loved me in the first place, you wouldn't have done it." jungkook exhaled and sat down on the couch beside tae, leaning over him to let his head get prepped up by the soft couch.

taehyung thought it was meaningless to try and prove something to jungkook now. but he didn't know how to prove him this was the truth in any way. make someone else admit it? probably. maybe jungkook was waiting for taehyung to tell him something... but what?

"while you were healing and getting stronger, I was weakening and... I don't know, if you hadn't shown up, I don't know if I would've survived." taehyung sat up and grabbed the cup of tea.
"thoughts about suicide crossed my mind multiple times... and it got worse when everyone in my gang turned their backs on me."

"even your boss?"

"yoongi apparently had something going on with minseok... minseok came in and set everyone against me. well, he didn't even try, but somehow it turned out that I was the bad guy." taehyung explained. "has jimin told you anything about him? him and I suspected something..."

"suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. it's dumb to do it." jungkook turned his eyes and looked at taehyung whose head and other body parts were carefully bandaged over, bruises covering his face and chest.
"but no, jimin told me nothing..."

taehyung nodded.

"he has a crescent moon tattoo on his nape... and it would've been all fine if I hadn't noticed the same exact tattoo on this girl's chest." taehyung didn't know why he was telling this all to jungkook, maybe he somehow wanted to being the trust back... maybe he wanted to at least pretend like everything was back to normal between them.
"I saw her near the strip club once and at this guy's house the second time... she killed that guy... mercilessly."

"you're telling me minseok is a part of some gang other than the geomeun gang?" jungkook questioned.

"you know it's forbidden to have tattoos of two different gangs on your body unless these gangs unite. the only gang we ever reached out to was your gang... and minseok has a bunch of others tattoos, but not one is our signature tattoo." taehyung said. "this must mean he and that creepy girl are both a part of some gang... and there's more of them."

"then they must be planning something behind our backs." jungkook responded.

"the weird thing is... that nobody knows a thing about the gang, no one was able to find anything on the crescent moon, but they know everything about everyone." tae spoke quietly. "minseok knew you were alive before I found out."

"what?!" jungkook raised his voice. "how?? that's literally impossible."

"exactly."

jungkook knew he had to tell this all to hoseok... maybe they'll think of something or dig up information on this weird gang.

taehyung finished his food and jungkook brought the cups into the sink. he placed painkillers on the kitchen counter and refilled the jug with water.
"if the pain gets intolerable, drink these."

taehyung quietly and slowly came up to jungkook and stood right next to him. he noticed how jungkook seemed to have gotten taller and now taehyung seemed to be a little shorter.
he looked so breathtaking with his new hair, tattoos and piercings. the lip piercing caught taehyung's attention the most.

"um... t-thanks again..." taehyung said. "really."

"mhm."
jungkook was about to walk past taehyung but the elder stopped him. he pulled jungkook closer by his elbow, leaving centimeters between them.

"jungkook..." taehyung whispered looking into jubgkook's cold, emotionless eyes.
he wanted to kiss him so bad, but it seemed like jungkook showed to interest.

jungkook wriggled out of taehyung grasp and moved towards the exit.

"take away your fish." taehyung mumbled.

"what?" jungkook turned around and saw taehyung pointing at a fish tank near the kitchen stove.
"rebecca!!!!"

jungkook ran up to the fishtank and hugged it, looking at the startled fish inside.

"rebecca...? I thought it was a he." taehyung said.

"he? it's clearly a she." jungkook replied. "I missed you..."

"you missed your fish more than me."

"well, rebecca didn't stab me with a knife." jungkook grabbed the heavy fish tank, taehyung had troubles moving, with ease and carried it towards the exit, leaving taehyung all alone in his house once again.
but this time, taehyung didn't feel as lonely as he did before.

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