Chapter Twenty Eight ~

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"You're pretty young," I murmured to Jungkook as I led him through the halls to the armory. "How old were you when Bangtan became your home?"

I heard him take a deep breath behind me. Silence followed afterward before I heard a quiet "fourteen."

"So, four years ago?" I noted. "Why? Why didn't you stay home?"

"I couldn't," I heard him mutter. "My home was gone."

Gone? Was he in the same boat as Jimin? Surely not. "Where did it go?"

"My mom had died from an accident when I was ten, my dad died from an infection from a wound that spread. I just turned fourteen," Jungkook answered. "Why?"

"Where did you go? Did you wander, like Jimin?" I kept on.

I heard a sniffle. "No. There was nowhere to go."

"How did you find Bangtan?"

I heard his footsteps stop. "They found me."

I stopped as well and turned to where I could see the brown-haired boy blink to keep his salty tears at bay. "How so?"

"I was running from the older boys of the town. They were mean and abusive to boys my age who weren't that strong. I was cornered by one in an alleyway between a pub and an abandoned building. His friends came and started picking fun at me and I got scared, so I grabbed the knife I always kept with me just in case. I stabbed one them when they tried to grab me – right in the gut. His friends got scared and ran off and I just watched the boy die. I heard the others screaming for help, but I just stood there, knowing I was going to get sentenced to death for my crime. But then Namjoon-hyung, showed up and told me to follow Yoongi-hyung for safety. I didn't budge, so Yoongi-hyung had to take me from my spot and lead me away from the scene in the shadows. They gave me a home where I wasn't picked on for being weak. They made me stronger, so I could fight and hurt the ones that hurt me."

I let his testimony soak in and I imagined him a lot younger, standing there with a bloody knife, confused and scared. I couldn't relate to his situation, but I had sympathy for him. "You'll find a home here, too, Jungkook, where you don't have to worry about being picked on."

"What was that spell?" he asked, crystal-clear tears suspended in the corners of his eyes. "What did that do to me?"

I smiled. "You no longer have to worry about your demons coming back to get revenge on you. They don't remember you. You are now invincible and cannot be touched with the hands of death."

He brought his hands to his face and sobbed, before he dropped to his knees in front of me. "But I don't deserve such forgiveness."

"You will receive it, anyways. Get up, and show you are no longer haunted by your past actions."

***

"You're playing God," Namjoon stated, looking at me incredulously. "You can't just make anyone immortal."

"You're not immortal. If I take off this ring, or if I die myself, you are no longer protected," I told him, a frown stitched onto my face. "I have a few questions to ask you."

"No, I'm not going to be nicer," he spat, rolling his eyes.

"What made you want to start this gang?"

My question caught him off guard, seeming to stun him. His eyes flicked around the room before he looked at his hands as they sat in his lap. "I hated the world."

"How so?" I asked him.

"It took away my happiness. My parents were abusive, and they didn't take care of me. I despised them. I wanted revenge. So, I got it," he answered. "Happy?"

"You murdered your parents?" I questioned.

He didn't answer, and his lips formed a thin line. I took his silence as the more jarring answer. "How do you live with that?"

"What do you mean?" he snipped. "How would you deal with it?"

I shrugged. "Did that make you join Bangtan?"

He scoffed. "I didn't join Bangtan. I created it."

I nodded. "Yes, I knew that. Why? What made you start up the most ruthless and shameless gang out there? No one just wakes up and says, 'I'm going to be the leader of the worst criminals there ever lived.'"

"I knew what it was like to hate everything this world had," he began, leaning back in his seat. He looked at me, half amused and half tired. "I knew what it was like to want to play the role of a powerful being and get revenge on everyone that had done me wrong. So, when I found those kids, misfits, outcasts, and cold-hearted criminals, and took them under my wing and granted them the chance to get back at everyone that made their blood boil."

"You were trying to play God, too," I murmured.

"We all want to once in a while," he stated. "My test-run ran out before I wanted it to and I thought it was over when we landed behind those cold bars that seemed to mock me." Namjoon leaned forward towards me. "I was two days away from my death date. Two days away from being done for. But a skinny boy walked up to those bars and told us that we were free – by orders of a Queen. You don't realize how much I hate royals. They take everything away from the people below them who just want someone to rule over them in a just way. I want to ruin every king, queen, princess, prince – whatever."

I stayed emotionless as I saw the male's face soften. "But you gave it back. You gave me a chance to start over."

I stood. "Don't waste it." I then walked off, leaving him alone.

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