— let us be
normal.

OCTOBER 21:
MIN YOONGI

==

"oh my god. oh my god, no, no, no..."

yoongi doesn't know how long he and jeongguk have waited outside in the cold, fingers numb from the evening fog or dulling wounds and exertion (he vaguely hopes it's the former). he doesn't remember what he told jae on the phone, what his mumbled words and her frantic responses were. hell, he can barely recall what's just happened. it takes him one, two, three glances back to wonchol's house to realize his circumstances. and yet, he still can't fully grasp it.

jae's words are a blur as she takes taehyung from jeongguk's shoulders, limp as a sheet of paper. from the way her eyes are sparkling, she's trying her best to keep her rationality. when yoongi turns left, he notices mrs. kim wasn't so successful; thick streams of tears run down her cheeks and a gloved hand covers her face, red and contorted in emotion. it would break yoongi if he was completely in reality right now. he isn't, though. not yet.

yoongi looks to his hands, blotchy and purple and ravaged.

not yet.

"—breathing? he's breathing, right? yes?" jae has a hold of jeongguk's shoulders, bombarding him with a series of questions that the younger looks much too exhausted to completely understand. "oh, god. your temple, you're hurt, so badly, i can't—i can't believe i let this happen, i should have been more careful, i should have come with you—"

yoongi turns to face jeongguk, his face illuminated by the mellow warm light of the nearby lamppost. and from all that caked blood, that bruising on his previously untouched skin, that numb, wrecked expression that feels like a mirror to yoongi's—he sees. he sees that nineteen-year-old college student who took the subway one day and watched his world fall apart, piece by piece, drifting with his sanity. he sees that miserable boy who sat wide-awake in his apartment, alone, wishing for the solace of sleep that the video wouldn't allow him. he sees that lone man in the group, excluded by those he thought he could relate to after days of being lost in confusion because of his misunderstanding of something no one could try and explain.

he sees jeongguk; the one who carried taehyung on his back in the miserable cold despite his aching wounds. the one with a breaking voice and crystal tears. the one who turned back one last time to wonchol, jaw quivering, and mouthed four words:

it was never him.

"oh, yoongi," mrs. kim whispers. "oh, my child. you're so hurt, you're..." she chokes on her tears, gently taking his wounded hands in her fingers. "why couldn't i protect you?"

yoongi blinks.

his vision grows clear when his cheeks grow wet again.

"come," jae says, her voice finally firm again. "the taxi will take us to the hospital. the police are waiting for us."

==

minutes turn to hours as they enter the hospital, taller and more brooding than yoongi remembers it as. almost immediately, jae is ushering every available nurse in close radius, yelling at the top of her lungs—"treat this like a coma, we don't know when he's going to wake up" to which mrs. kim hunches a little further. by the time taehyung is admitted into an emergency room and the nurses succeed in calming his mother down in the waiting area (which is a huge feat, considering the hysteria she's in), it's nearly eleven at night. yoongi doesn't realize just how little of time he had been in wonchol's house or knocked out: four hours at the most, maybe. it feels like a lifetime.

unlike taehyung, yoongi and jeongguk aren't granted the same medical hospitality. for the moment, all a nurse does is wrap his arms in manila-colored gauze and apply some sort of lubricated bandage to his wrists. as for jeongguk, a meager ice pack to be placed against his forehead is all he receives. emergency room waiting, he thinks, humored in a bitter sense. i've heard all the horror stories.

"this is bullshit," mrs. kim spits as she comes to sit next to the two of them. she isn't considered a relative to taehyung by the hospital, mainly because she told the clerks herself she was simply a distant family friend (her idea, actually; it's much easier to give taehyung the medical attention he needs when there isn't the confusion of two mothers, custody issues, double insurance covers, the etcetera). it's a surprisingly intelligent plan, but the sacrifice's toll is evident in her features. "you two are beaten halfway to hell. can they seriously not give you more than—than this? even i could do better!"

yoongi shrugs weakly. he doesn't even have the energy to try and agree.

mrs. kim seems to notice and she softens, leaning back against the plush cushion of her seat. opposite of them, jeongguk is hunched over in thought, elbows digging into his legs and arms cupping the nape of his neck; he only looks up when mrs. kim begins to speak again. "lord, i can't even imagine what you two have been through. did...did wonchol beat you? is that how you got these wounds? did he drug you, or—"

she cuts herself off after watching yoongi wince from the memory. "i'm sorry. you don't need to tell yet. it's been a long night for all of us."

"he hurt taehyung." it's jeongguk this time, his voice quiet. it echoes through the room, empty save for the three of them.

"what?"

"told him that everything—his girlfriend's death, abraxas's destroying, everything—was his fault. kept asking questions. kept making taehyung feel worse than he already had been." jeongguk inhales deeply. "he beat him up too, just a little to make sure we were knocked out. guess chloroform wasn't enough for wonchol."

mrs. kim thickly swallows. "he...he told taehyung that? all of that?"

instead of answering, jeongguk runs a hand over his face. he's horribly exhausted; the fatigue is evident in his every feature.

trembling, mrs. kim gently covers her mouth again, eyes wide and glassy. "he never gets a break, does he?"

yoongi stares at his shaking hands.

"taehyungie never gets a break, does he? being chased by a demon and humans alike, throwing up blood that isn't even his natural own, tormented for twenty entire years? will my taehyung ever get a break?"

when she speaks again, it isn't to anyone in the room. it's the world. to whoever can fix this. yoongi knows because he thinks the same words.

"will he?"

seconds after her words cut through the air, jae steps into the waiting room. there's a bittersweet smile on her face, one that looks so forced and so emotional at the same time. "hey, love," she murmurs to mrs. kim. "you can go see him now. i've cleared for non-relative folks to visit from my authority. you're extremely strong for sacrificing your title, you know that eunji, right?"

mrs. kim nods and smiles, rubbing her hands up and down the sides of her arms. "you coming, boys?" she asks yoongi and jeongguk, but both shake their heads in unison.

"you deserve some time alone with him. we'll visit him later, don't worry."

mrs. kim bites her lip. "dammit," she whispers. "i'm so happy taehyung has you two in his life—all of you in his life. you don't know how grateful i am. for everything. everything that you've done, not just including tonight. just...thank you, really."

yoongi smiles, exchanging a warm glance with jeongguk. "we aren't at an obligation, mrs. kim. we want to help him. it's what he deserves."

"and that's why i'm so grateful, yoongi. because you're doing this even—even while putting your own lives at risk, battling monsters, doing all of the things i'd never even have the courage to do..." mrs. kim shakily pauses, inhales, exhales. "one day, when this is all over, i'll treat you to a proper coffee. how does that sound?"

jeongguk laughs. it's a strange sight, watching his battered up, bruised, bloody face erupt into a brilliant smile. but it's a sight that makes yoongi grin, too. "it sounds nice, mrs. kim," says jeongguk. "it sounds really nice."

several minutes pass after mrs. kim leaves before jae speaks to the both of them. her back is against the wall, covered in sleek black paint, and the bags under her eyes are big enough to compete with yoongi's own.

"do you ever feel like you could have done so much...better?"

jeongguk takes a moment. "of course," he chuckles. "of course, we've all felt that. what do you mean?"

"i mean i just feel like..." jae purses her lips, looking at her feet. "i feel like i could have helped taehyung more. this situation more. i know if i told taehyung the truth earlier, i would have jeopardized his life and his chance at living normally, but...but what if i had started working earlier with the—the society or something? and instead of lying to him those weeks ago about some bad excuse of an evaluation, i could have taken him to sunab with me instead of leaving him alone when all of this happened. take him to the society, when we had decided to meet there. right? i thought it would be safer to leave him, but..."

she's trembling. "and my quote in my hospital page, i could have made it bigger, more known, i could have attracted more witnesses just like i'd attracted you...and maybe we could have...figured out what's going on, i don't know, maybe we could have—"

it dawns on him. she blames herself. but not just for tonight: for everything happening now.

quickly, yoongi rises to his feet, jeongguk doing the same. "hey, hey," he whispers. "auntie, listen to me. you know who was at fault for tonight? wonchol. and you know who was at fault for this destruction? abraxas. you didn't do any of this. none of this was your fault."

"he's unconscious, for christ's sake," jae cries, rubbing her temple in distress. "we don't know when he's going to wake up. how can i just blame this all on someone else? i could have done something to help him, something to p-prevent this—"

"then what could you have done?"

jae looks to jeongguk with wide eyes.

"what could you have done?" he repeats. "you aren't abraxas. you aren't supernatural. we don't know how to fix this, jae. that isn't on you. okay? that's on the lack of knowledge that every one of us has. you restrained information to protect taehyung, and now he's finally met up with his mother and best friend, finally gained the upperhand on abraxas, because you made a sacrifice that required so much courage to make. what you've done is saved taehyung's life, auntie."

jae closes her eyes. takes a deep breath. opens them.

"it's jae, remember?"

"what?"

"no auntie." jae smiles. "no formalities around here."

and they all laugh. maybe it's just for the act of laughing, savoring that one moment of happiness that they can all share, even if just for the slightest moment. "but goodness," jae continues. "you and the others—jimin, seokjin, hoseok, namjoon, every one of you—you're the most admirable group of people i've ever met. do you understand? it takes so much...balls," jeongguk cracks a grin at this, "to do what you've done. i mean, come on: i'm an old wise lady but look at me, whining like a brat. you two have been through absolute hell tonight. how can i just complain like this in front of you heroes?"

yoongi snorts. "listen, i don't know about jeongguk, but i really don't deserve that title. trust me. i haven't exactly been a good guy in the past."

"but you are now. and that's what matters." jae slowly says her next words.

"jeon jeongguk and min yoongi, you are heroes."

heroes.

yoongi parts his lips and remembers what he said just a few days before.

i've never done anything monumentally good in this world; i've just been existing, i guess.

"heroes," jeongguk echoes. "i like the ring of that. don't you, yoongi?"

yoongi blinks.

then, he smiles.

"yeah. yeah, i d—"

"jeon jeongguk and min yoongi?"

a bulky man stands in the door, holding his police badge lazily for them to see. there are a group of officers behind him, some including what seems to look like investigators and agents; and from the numerous clipboards stacked in one assistant's arms, yoongi already knows what they're here for.

"we'd like to ask you two some questions about tonight's events. is that alright?"

and when yoongi is escorted to an interrogation room at the police station, sitting across a serious-faced agent with a thin line for a mouth, he's calm. even as his head throbs and his arms burn, he's calm. jae's hushed words to him and jeongguk across the blaring radio (passenger's request) in the taxi didn't need to tell him how to act. he knows exactly what to do, exactly what to say.

exactly how to continue on.

when the agent finally asks the question, "do you have any idea as to why wonchol targeted you three, specifically, other than from his girlfriend's death and his ties with jeongguk?"

abraxas's destroying. taehyung's intertwining. the society. the media's unrelenting burial of taehyung and other witnesses' stories. the other world. frustration at everything the world has done wrong.

yoongi takes a breath and lies.

"i don't know."

==

ok first of all

holy SHIT guys im about to implode this is insane?? 52k n 6k votes wowow i love u all so much a bicht is CRYIN
i really hope you're enjoying the story so far & THANK U SO MUHC💜💙💚💗💛💛❤️❣️💕💙💞💓💘💚💗❤️❣️💞💖💕💛💞💝💓💘💚💗💗❣️💖💕💙💙💚💛💝❤️💕