on opposite ends | vsoo

THE BURDEN OF CHOICES

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

He had three seconds. Jisoo counted them in her head and it was enough time for him to finish her off. He could have cursed her, hexed her, did anything to her with his wand while she was sitting there on the street, defenseless and looking at him like some wounded animal with nowhere else to go.

She was staring at him, waiting for him to do something.

He had three seconds. But he stood there, pointing his wand at her and not moving his lips the way she wished he would because that would have been better than the slow, agonizing seconds passing. It was the longest three seconds of Jisoo's life. It was also the emptiest. Jisoo looked straight at him, at his eyes, and the hatred that had been burning behind them were gone. The static energy that had pulsed and vibrated between them just a few minutes ago disappeared.

He stood still in front of her. This was his chance to end it all. Kill her, kill him, kill everything. Jisoo had already accepted her fate, that she would perish in his hands one way or another. But Taehyung looked liked he didn't want to do that. His heart, if he still even had one, was not into it. And his eyes, those mirrors to his black soul, did not seem empty anymore. He felt something and whatever it may be, it was enough to hold him back.

He had three seconds before the Aurors showed up and blasted his wand from his grip.

Two Aurors swiftly tackled Taehyung from behind, grabbing his arms and pinning them to his back to cuff his wrists together. They laid him down right there on the street. Taehyung made a noise of defiance but it was too late. He had been caught. In the next second, he had been surrounded by at least half a dozen Aurors as they began to lead him away just as quickly as they had apparated into existence.

Jisoo collapsed onto the ground in relief. She turned and saw Johnny's chest heaving up and down. He was unconscious, cold and pale but he was still breathing and she was still alive. They both were.

"Jisoo!" Jinyoung called her name as he ran to her. The Head of the Aurors kneeled down beside Jisoo to help her up, his warm hands gripping onto her shoulder and elbow to support her. Jisoo saw the way Jinyoung's eyes skimmed over Johnny's body as he was being loaded unto a gurney by paramedics. It was clear that he had questions he wanted to ask her about Johnny's identity and role in the capture of Taehyung, but he swallowed them down for now. "Are you okay? Did you hurt yourself?"

"Jinyoung, I'm fine." She's almost surprised to hear that her own words ring with a strong sense of truth. A knot unravels in her stomach and her chest feels lighter somehow, a burden lifted, a mission successfully accomplished. She looks up at Jinyoung and she can even feel a genuine smile creeping up her face. "We caught him."

Jinyoung returns a small smile back at her in courtesy and Jisoo ignores the way it had so many hidden meanings behind it. For now, she just wanted to eat up the fact that they had finally caught Kim Taehyung.

•─────⋅☾ ☽⋅─────•

Jisoo's relief didn't last for very long as the magnitude of the situation rattled her: if catching the most violent and murderous Death Eater in history was a challenge, she thought that keeping him locked up would be twice as hard.

But of course, the Office of the Aurors and the Ministry had been prepared for this. They didn't send him to Azkaban, as that place had long lost its title as a top prison due to the three massive breakouts in the last twenty years, but instead they kept him in the Ministry dungeons. It resembled the prison cells in Azkaban, only smaller and more compact. The area was heavily guarded and heavily enchanted. It could have been a mini fortress, right under the marbled floors of the Ministry.