Superheroes - 슈퍼 히어로 | BTS Fanfiction | Yoonmin

| Chapter 36 | 'I'm not a goddamn Ming vase!'

When the weekend ended, Jimin went back to school. There were so many things on his mind. Supers had always been a part of life, even before he was born. They had been around since the 1950s, according to the history lessons in primary school.

Jimin was normal, though. He was never meant to come into contact with them. Despite the news reports and the attention garnered by the supers, very few people actually met supers in person. Even fewer became friends with them or got targeted by a supervillain because of it.

Another thing that worried him was the increasing frequency of supervillains. While researching Zangling properly the day after Yoongi's visit, he had found a timeline of supervillains. He didn't know if anyone else had seen it - they probably had - but that didn't really matter. What did matter was that there had been no supervillain activity in the early fifties. Now, though, it was the 2020s, and there were supervillains all over the world.

They ran drug cartels, casinos, gangs; they ruled the criminal underworld with an iron fist and supers were hard-pressed to fight them through legal means. They had the clearance to attack them, as they were a sort of law-enforcement and the only way to fight against supers effectively, but they had limitations that the supervillains did not.

Jimin tilted his head in thought. Why were there more supervillains, but still the same amount of superheroes? Why weren't there more? Were they being killed? Converted? Imprisoned? Or was it just a genetic thing?

No, he thought. It probably wasn't any of that. Many people were selfish and horrible. Perhaps there were more villains because having powers gave them the means to justify to themselves what they were doing and to escape the consequences they wouldn't have been able to avoid otherwise.

That brought him to another thought. On Sunday, the news channels blew up with activity and speculation after Zangling and another super worked together to fight against a fire super and his gang, who had taken someone hostage. None of the news channels knew what the supervillain had been demanding, but there were lots of rumours. Jimin, on the other hand, was worried for Zangling, who he still had seen neither hide nor hair of.

And thus, the day went by in the way that a parent limps along while their two five-year-old children cling to their legs like clams until Jimin was finally in the club room. Yoongi had taken to keeping an eye on him from a distance and disappearing whenever Jimin tried to approach. It was extremely frustrating, but not entirely unexpected.

Sadly, Jimin was coming to anticipate the avoidance that Yoongi and Zangling were both making a habit of, in spite of how kind Yoongi had been the other night. That night seemed to have made him even more overcautious about talking to Jimin.

When he entered the club room, his eyes came to rest of the other members of BTS, who were assembled and surrounding Hoseok - except for a disinterested-looking Yoongi - while the older uni student was talking to all of them, his eyes dulled with uncharacteristic seriousness and gravity.

"Hoseok-hyung?" Jimin murmured, studying the hooded look in the older's eyes and the way that Taehyung huddled close to him, a blank look on his face and his hand tightly clenching Hoseok's shirt sleeve with fear and worry.

Hoseok and the rest of BTS shared dark looks and became silent. No one answered. Jimin glared at them. "What happened? I'm not a goddamn Ming vase!" Jimin almost recoiled at his own comment. How much time had he been spending with Yoongi-hyung before this week? Evidently too much.

Yoongi snorted amusedly. "No, you aren't," he agreed, tossing a sarcastic look over his shoulders at the other members. "They're just concerned because of... recent events."

The real meaning of the phrase echoed between them. The members were concerned because of the way he and Yoongi had been acting towards each other and thought that he was too delicate right now. Somehow, the floor became a much nicer view than any of the members' faces. A flash of anger ran through him. His hands clenched into fists at his sides.

"I can understand that you are all... concerned. But trying to protect me won't help," he muttered, his posture rigid and his eyes rising to meet Yoongi's courageously, daring him to say something about it. The two of them stared for a few moments. Yoongi's eyes shifted away and landed on Hoseok and a shaken Taehyung, who still looked as pale as a ghost.

Jimin blinked. What was that? What was that? What was that!? Min Yoongi doesn't just lay down and submit when someone challenges him! Min Yoongi fights back with sarcasm and grumpiness!

Hoseok sighed. "Yoongi's right. Out of all of us, Jimin has gone through the most. He is strong and I doubt this is worse than anything he has..." The older sighed and trailed off. Jimin scowled at him, at everyone in the room. They were still too afraid to say anything out loud about Jimin's experiences.

Except Yoongi, who evidently didn't know. He was studying the other members as though they were puzzles and then turned to Jimin like he was the biggest puzzle of them all. Jimin resolutely refused to look at him.

"Jimin," Hoseok said, his voice pitched lower than usual. The younger nodded; this was serious. "Did you hear about the supervillain yesterday?"

"Yes...?" he murmured, wondering why it was being brought up. "He took someone hostage but no one knows why- wait! Do you know?"

Hoseok nodded. "I was the hostage."

"What."

Jimin's eyes met Yoongi's for a few moments before they widened with realisation. There was no coincidence that Hoseok was targeted, and judging from the look in Yoongi's eyes, he already knew that. The reason that Hoseok was threatened...

'This is my fault.'

That was the only thing thought he registered before the floor rushed up at him and everything went black.