On-Way Passage || ᴠᴍɪɴ

Chapter 8

After those words left Jimin’s mouth, he stared at Taehyung under the dim lights and waited for his response.

And yet Taehyung merely said, “I see.”

After Jimin left the hospital, his mind was solely occupied with the thought of going home, and that home was still a place where someone was always waiting for his return. It was only then did he realise that his house key wasn’t in his possession.

He didn’t even know where it was kept.

Taehyung stared at him in silence, then asked, “Now what?”

In the past, the university was his go-to destination whenever he couldn’t go back home, but that was completely out of the question now, wasn’t it? Out of ideas, Jimin looked towards Taehyung mutely.

Taehyung suddenly turned and headed downstairs.

Jimin subconsciously took half a step towards him before coming to a halt, watching Taehyung go down the stairs step by step until his back disappeared round the corner. In the empty corridor, he could hear the footsteps Taehyung’s unstopping descent; he eventually couldn’t resist the urge to lean forward and shout between the gaps of the banister, “Are you leaving?”

He never thought that Taehyung would just leave like this. There were still so many murky things they hadn’t resolved, but there was no way of resolving them all right this second, and he could only yell out, “Is there any way we could get divorced? Would we need to divide up our assets?”

Taehyung’s footsteps seemed to have frozen for two seconds before they resumed their descent.

Jimin leaned against the railings. After two or three minutes of dazed stillness, he heard footsteps going up the stairs.

It was the tread of leather shoes. Even though Jimin could in no way consider himself familiar with the man, he could clearly tell that those were the sound of his footsteps.

Sure enough, Taehyung appeared round the stairwell a moment later, slowly approaching Jimin.

Taehyung didn’t speak a word as he arrived at the apartment door and used the key in his palm to unlock it.

“Where’d you get the key?” Jimin asked.

“You left it with the guard at the entrance,” replied Taehyung as he reached out to turn on the lights in the living room.

As the lights flickered on, Jimin’s attention was no longer on Taehyung. He walked through the door and was stuck in place for a long time.

The apartment was still the same; upon entry, they were greeted by a rectangular living room that directly faced old-fashioned wooden window frames. The window was shut tight, and the air was rife with the smell that was typical of sealed, antiquated spaces.

The leftover furniture in the room was sparse; a sofa and coffee table that was equally worn, and an old TV cabinet. They were all covered with a gray cloth however, and for some reason the room that was originally cramped seemed even smaller.

Jimin slowly ventured inside.

To the right of the living room was a kitchen and a small balcony, while two bedroom doors were to its left, with a bathroom between them.

One of those bedrooms belonged to his grandpa, while the other was Jimin’s. The doors were closed but not locked. Jimin opened the door of his grandpa’s room first. It contained the same old-smelling odor, but it was as if Jimin could faintly smell his grandpa’s scent too—his grandpa’s pheromones. His grandpa was an Omega, and though the grandpa in his memories was no longer young, he was as delicate and pretty as most Omegas. His pheromones were sweet, like lemon-flavoured candy.