' •  𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐄𝐓𝐔𝐒 • ´

-THE CHAPTER-

20 years later.

"I know, I know, Woo Zen, but it doesn't lessen the pain one bit" Kim Surina sighed at the same time as her sister, trying to balance the phone between her shoulder and ear and stir the food that was sizzling in the pot in front of her.

"Can I help?" Surina gasped in shock, dropping the phone as her son Jin walked into the kitchen.

"For God's sake, Seokjin, are you trying to kill your old mother?" Surina snapped, not very kindly, and Jin mumbled an apology, bowing his head.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to." He mumbled, heading to the fridge to grab a bottle of water.

And Surina bent down to pick up the phone but unintentionally elbowed the spoon which splashed into the boiling pot and some of the hot liquid splattered, dripping down her arm.

"Damn it!" Surina picked up the phone and Jin looked at her worriedly.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, Jin startled me a little." Jin frowned worriedly and walked past his mother to grab the first aid kit from under the sink, hearing his aunt's voice on the phone.

"Don't forget why we're doing this Surina, I'll call you again, Namjoon is home."

Woo Zen hung up and Surina put the phone aside, sighing thoughtfully. "Shall I put some paste on the burn, mom?" Jin placed the first aid kit on the kitchen island and turned to his mother after taking out the burn paste, but she shook her head.

"I'm fine Jin, remember you must stay home today." Jin stared at his mother's distant expression for a moment.

At this time of year, she always looked like this, sad, distant, living in the past.

He didn't need to answer her, she wouldn't hear him anyway.

He put the pasta back in the box and kit back in its place, took his water from the counter and returned to the living room, sitting thoughtfully on the living room sofa and turned on the TV.

The anniversary of his father's death was difficult for Kim Surina, Jin couldn't remember much of the time the three of them were a family, but it hurt him to see his mother like this.

He wished there was something he could do, something that would make his mother smile, forget the pain and sorrow for at least a few minutes.

His eyes unconsciously moved to an old photograph on the library shelf. On it, two little girls were standing in the middle of a forest meadow, face to face, clutching together a small purple flower with white spots.

Jin had heard many stories, his mother and aunt had discovered the flower while playing in the forest of their hometown. "That's it, that's what will make her happy!" He thought naively and jumped to his feet.

Jin wasn't the type of son to disobey his mother's order, especially if she had repeated it to him countless times.

His mother was very keen on him staying home this day, but today can be exception.

He took his car keys and got out, stopping for a moment on their small porch to make sure his mother hadn't heard him go out and wasn't going to follow him. Then he got in his car, entered the location of his mother's hometown on the GPS and drove his car back up their driveway, smiling.

The flower would make his mother happy, and this year was one of the rare ones in which it should have bloomed.

He was sure she would forgive him for his little disobedience when he appeared tonight with the flower in his hands.

Around the same time, in another house, another son had the same problem with his own mother. Woo Zen sat with her son, Kim Namjoon's arm around her shoulders, sobbing into her tissue.

Namjoon hated seeing his mother like this. She was always smiling, so cheerful, he knew that was actually how she hid her pain from him and he wished he could do something for her.

Half an hour later, he had made up his mind and his mother was a little calmer, so he got up and excused himself for having some work, kissed his mother on the forehead and left the house.

He hated looking at his mother like that, his heart ached when she shrunk before his eyes under the pressure of grief.

Talking to his aunt Surina didn't help at all on a day like this, but Namjoon knew his mother, he knew what would make her heart flutter and turn sad tears into happy ones. That's why he didn't hesitate when he drove his car in the direction of his mother's birthplace.

After a four-hour drive, he crouched down and dusted off the double tombstone.

"Kim Ken Xai-Kim Xai Vu."

Namjoon sighed as he read the names.

"Beloved fathers and husbands." His eyes ran over the letters, but the hazy memories wouldn't allow his heart to do what they were doing to his mother and he stood up, looking around.

The forest that his mother often spoke of with a mixture of happiness and sadness was a few minutes away from his father's grave.

"Xai Vu loved to climb the highest peak of the mountain, to explore the caves. Your father was an adventurer, Joonie." His mother always spoke of him with such love.

Namjoon decided to leave his car at the cemetery anyway, walking would be faster, going straight through the meadows and woods, and he needed his sense of smell.

Few things had been left to him as an inheritance from his father, but for this he was most grateful.

The huge black wolf raised its head to the sky and sniffed the air.

The sun was starting to set, he squinted slightly against the last rays of the sun and tilted his head slightly.

His huge paws moved silently, almost leaving no traces on the green grass. His search took longer than he expected, even with the wolf's sense of smell, it took too long to find an ordinary flower.

Not to mention the fact that he was obviously lost. He nervously shook his huge frame, trying to shake off the nervousness, and dug his nose into the ground again as his eyes scanned his path through the forest.

Heading towards the foot of the mountain, Jin mentally cursed himself for his lack of orientation and for never bothering to visit his birthplace.

He growled low and flicked his ears, instinctively scanning the surrounding forest for signs of danger.

Moving gracefully through the trees, as only a truly proud lord could, he emerged from among some bushes, ending up in a vast clearing in the shadow of the highest peak of the mountain, and raised his head.

The moon illuminated the place, making it look like a picture from a children's storybook. The blooming spring flowers filled the air with an indescribable fragrance that pleasantly teased his wolf's sense of smell, but something seemed off.

He stepped forward, his paws landing on the fresh foliage. What was that feeling? His fur stood on end and he carefully looked around the meadow, sniffing the air, his body shuddered slightly and he bent down. Something seemed to creep, creeping into the shadows, stalking him and making him cringe.

His eyes scanned the surrounding meadow, the trees on the other side, even his wolf hearing failed to pick up a sound of movement, as if the meadow was devoid of any living thing that could inhabit it.

Namjoon stepped out into the meadow and his eyes instantly fell on the bell of the small purple flower, illuminated by a moonbeam, right in the middle of the meadow, surrounded, as if protected, by clover leaves and several snow white daisies.

His ears perked up at the sound of muffled footsteps and he stepped back slightly, hiding behind the trunk of a tree surrounded by bushes and crouching low, almost lying on his front paws. His wolf instinct screeched in warning.

His teeth showed menacingly as he watched the other wolf, cowering and looking around nervously, slowly walked towards the middle of the meadow. His black fur stood on end, Namjoon could feel him doing the same, smelling danger.

Jin stopped a few feet from the flower and stood up to his full height, his paws stomped heavily, kicking up clouds of dust, his chest puffing out as he tried to make out the scent he was smelling. The sense of threat made his wolf blood rage and his whole body seemed to shiver in anticipation.

His eyes were fixed on two others, hidden behind some bushes, but the air was not lying. His smell seemed somewhat familiar, but the aggression in his eyes was clear and unprecedented, proving that he had an enemy in front of him.

Jin snarled and ducked a little further, the other clearly realizing he was being noticed slowly appeared from among the bushes, lowering his head, slightly skirting the clearing at the edge of it.

His tongue licked his bared teeth and Jin took an attacking stance, feeling the sharp eyes trying to penetrate his soul.

A strong icy blast hit the two wolves, standing suspiciously opposite each other.

The moonlight slowly melted away as the two stared belligerently at each other, looking between each other and the object of their quest.

Somewhere, deep within both of them, cold fingers gripped their souls and anger overturned and took over the deepest corners of their minds. Fingers crept forward and they both looked up from the flower at the same time, locking each other's eyes.

A lust for blood and death crept into both beasts, destroying their ability to control their desires. A low menacing snarl and heavy running footsteps tore through the shroud of night as, overcome by an unknown desire to kill, the two wolves turned towards each other.

Their heavy bodies collided, their teeth digging into each other's necks, the taste of blood weighing on their tongues, fueling their thirst. Standing on their hind legs, flailing with their front paws, the two monsters relentlessly searched for a weakness in the other's defenses.

Their eyes, darkened by the mindless rage that had taken them over, scanned the body of their opponent, searching for an opportunity to strike a killing blow. Their bodies collided again, a loud growl and howl making the ground shake beneath their paws as the two tumbled across the clearing, enveloped in darkness and the uprooted tufts of grass flying from under their claws, digging into the dry soil.

"No!"

Panting, pressed together, breathing heavily, the two women watched in horror as the two wolves mercilessly inflicted wound after wound.

Their deadly eyes glowed even in the now moonless night. "We were late, we failed!" Surina fell to her knees, hugging Woo Zen's legs as the two women watched the same scene from twenty years ago as if in slow motion.

"It's not possible, why? Why our sons too!? Didn't the curse die with their fathers? Why them too, how?" Woo Zen whispered, unable to move, her fingers desperately clutching her sister's shoulders.

"Why? Why?" she repeated, as if in a dream.

The two beasts continued to clash their bodies, blood and foam dripping from their jagged muzzles as their claws dug into the other's body, blind and deaf to what was going on around them.

Their bodies moved by themselves, their blurred minds wanted and sought only one thing, death.

"Namjoon!"

"Seokjin!"

The two mothers desperately tried to reach their sons' sleeping minds. Calling out their names until their lungs were congested, their screams pierced Jin and Namjoon's clouded consciousness.

The two wolves jumped back, crouched, their eyes following the other's movements, foam erupting from under their fangs, and they began to circle, viciously licking their bared teeth.

"Jin!" Surina tried to get her son's attention again, hoping and praying that the curse wasn't stronger than the blood relation between the two.

Namjoon shook his head, trying to shake off the fog in his mind. His opponent slowly backed away, tilting his head and his gaze shifted to the side when the scream of "Namjoon!" sharply penetrated between the two.

The two mothers hopefully saw their sons giving way and with the courage that only a mother desperately wanting to save her child can have, they ran and stood back to back between the two beasts, ready even to die from their teeth, but not to let the two kill each other.

"Namjoon, try, I know you hear me and understand, fight!" Woo Zen raised her open palms and slightly crouched at his eye level.

"You can, Joonie, fight! You are stronger than the curse, stronger than your father, come back to me, my boy." The wolf took a few more steps back at his mother's pleas.

"Jin, you promised me, you told me you'd be home, did you lie to me, son?" On the other side, Surina was trying to reach her own son's mind.

The two pressed into each other, drawing strength from the hope and desire to save their sons.

The two beasts' eyes narrowed, the growl slowly dropping to a low hiss as the two circled the two women who had once given them life and now fought fearlessly to keep it and fight off the curse that threatened to take them away, as it had done to their fathers.

"Mom.." Namjoon stepped back a little more and froze, fighting the icy fingers that gripped his mind.

A loud howl of rage made his ears perk up and he almost sank back into the mist, glaring at his opponent.

"No, no, Namjoon, look!"

Woo Zen stepped back slightly, looking back at the other wolf, her son lowered his head, still fighting the fog, but somehow, managing to follow his mother's gaze.

He narrowed his eyes, watching his black opponent's body shake.

His nails mercilessly dug into the ground left deep marks and his body slowly began to change.

"That's it son, just follow my voice, you promised you'd never leave me, Jin, remember?" Surina quickly looked back at her nephew, making sure her sister was able to reach her son as well, and looked at Seokjin again, who was growling, trying to transform himself.

"You can, Jin, stay with me!" She encouraged him in a tearful voice as Seokjin turned back into a human.

Namjoon's eyes slowly lost their deadly glow as before his eyes, the black wolf slowly transformed into a man a little older than him.

"Seokjin?" his mind worked quickly, fighting against the cursed mist and forcing himself to return to human form.

"Namjoon!"

Woo Zen and Surina both went down to their sons and fell to their knees in their arms. The two men looked tearfully at each other over their mothers' shoulders, holding them tightly to their chests, trying to soothe their cries.

"You did it, God, you did it!" Surina hid her face on her son's bare chest, sniffling and sobbing.

"I'm fine, mom." Jin stood up helping her to her feet and putting his arm around her shoulders he led her to his cousin and aunt.

"Nice to see you bro, sorry about a while ago, I don't know what that was..." Jin apologetically held out his hand and Namjoon took it, shaking it slightly.

"It's my fault, I don't know what got into me." Namjoon grinned, his dimples shining in the full moon that appeared.

"In short, that's the story."

Woo Zen sighed an hour later and wiped away her sister's tears and then her own. The four were sitting in the meadow around the flower that had been crushed after the battle. Woo Zen and Surina had finally found the strength to tell the truth about their husbands' deaths and were now guiltily looking at their sons, who were staring at them with wide-eyed horror.

"Together in life and in death, brother!"

Was all Jin managed to say after hearing that. Namjoon nodded curtly and the two shook hands again, looking straight into each other's eyes and silently swearing to never let anything or anyone tear their family apart again.

-THE END-

´ •  Published on 28 Sep, 2022  • '