Bangtan Universe • BTS oneshots

2. Elysium • vmin

Summary: Aside from being an assassin well versed in explosives, Taehyung lives an unassuming life. Until he meets Jimin, the shy new neighbour.

Warning: blood, needles, major character death

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Being an assassin is really quite tedious.

His body is constantly in pain, from all the bruises and wounds that never have time to heal. His apartment, unassuming and tucked away in an old rickety building, is a perpetual disaster - equipment covering every surface, guns stashed under the bed haphazardly in a box, and dirty laundry that smells of explosives and ferrous blood.

Well, truth be told, Taehyung is ok with the last bit about the smell of the explosives. It is his forte after all, what he's known in the industry - Orpheus, the newcomer who always ends a job with a bang. Sometimes, it happens to be entire city blocks.

What Taehyung can't get used to, is the loneliness.

He craves the human interaction sometimes, yearns for it. Even the silly small talks would do, when he's tired to the bone, and trying to cover up all the wounds from the prying eyes of the world. Just to be held in the warm gaze of another, a small moment in time where he feels heard, remembered.

And that's how he ended up chatting with the shy neighbor that moved into his building.

Full lips, bright eyes that crinkle into pretty crescents when he smiles. And Jimin smiles a lot. Sometimes his dainty hand would reach up to cover his curled up lips, and Taehyung would feel a little dazzled and catch himself staring.

They talk from time to time, standing in the dark hallway, Taehyung leaning next to the always out-of-service elevator, listening to Jimin go about little details of his day - his calico cat Danae, the new succulent plant by his window sill, sappy Christmas movies instead of a night out.

Sometimes, when he's waiting for hours for the target to arrive on location, and bored out of his mind, Taehyung toys with the idea of maybe asking Jimin out one of these days.

Until one day, he gets a text from Namjoon, his best source of work intel:
-this Jimin dude in your building, how much do u know about him?

Taehyung frowns and texts back:
-the shy one w the cat?

Namjoon's response makes him do a double take:
-yeah. Don't get complacent, u know better.

Taehyung bites his lips, hands pausing on the wires and control board he's working on, before reading Namjoon's next text:
-I think he's Icarus

Next time Taehyung sees Jimin, he asks him to go for coffee. Jimin averts his gaze, and just when Taehyung thinks he's being rejected, he hears his voice, quiet but tinged with innocent sweetness, "not a fan of bitter drinks, but maybe - if you don't mind, there's a bubble tea place close by?"

Two hours later, as Taehyung watches Jimin giggling over his childhood memories in Daegu, he's certain the infallible Namjoon has finally made a mistake. This pretty and sweet thing? With the soft ruffled hair and the cutest little giggle that sounds like a chiming golden bell? Icarus?

Taehyung has heard of Icarus. Everyone has, in the industry, although nobody has ever lived to tell what he might even look like. This is an entirely different type of assassin, someone people whisper about, the stuff of myths and lores in their line of work. The only thing known, is his penchant for poison. Needles, syringes, pills, open cuts seeped in chemicals - the autopsy reports of his targets always read like some biochemical textbook, mind boggling in the skills, but always with the signature style of creative elegance.