23. The beginning of an end

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"Are they going to exile my brother?"

"We don't know, Yerin." Hoseok sighed. In annoyance or repentance? Only he knew.
"Will you quit pestering me with the same question?"

Three of them Namjoon, Seokjin and the man of the hour- Hoseok, were eating a bland dinner at Yerin's servant quarter (being the only safe place for this rather odd group to assemble at without suspicious glares) for a discussion on the heavy failure of their allegedly unequivocal plan.

"With all due respect sir, what you three did with me was nothing short of a betrayal. If your word was to be taken, I by now should have been with my brother. Settling a new life far away." Yerin tried to keep her poise despite the slight wavering of her voice.

"I'm aware you strived your best to execute the plan you three had, however it is clear as a day to me that you are all only maneuvering my brother as a ladder to help ascend your beloved prince, who I do respect with all my heart. Yet-" she breathed again to gather a collected mien.

"Yet the least you could do in barter of your untruthful promises, is give me answers." her voice dropped from the dissimulation of confidence to a mere mumble.
"He is my only family" gulping, she uttered.

"Tell us what you're hiding. Not only from me but from Sir Seokjin and Namjoon-ssi too. I'm positive you are."

Hoseok dropped his spoon back on the plate shrinking under the now three instead of one scrutinizing gaze.
"I have a hunch." he uttered dubiously.

"A hunch?" Jin chipped in now completely forgetting the bread that never procured an interest in the first place.

"Yes, a premonition. I- I think Sir Yoongi knows."

A shatter echoed the small room as Namjoon's trembling hands fumbled to assemble the hunks of his broken cup.
Any other time, Jin would have presented him with a piece of his mind; however now, ostensibly, Hoseok's sentence broke more things than just a cup.

"K-knows ab-about?" Jin asked again.

"I don't know. But- but just.. You.. hyung, you have been in this palace longer than any of us. Pay heed to this.. When - when has Sir Yoongi ever changed a scheme last minute? And that too in a situation that is so... So.. "

"Afflictive" Namjoon's hushed voice impeded in.

"Afflictive." Hoseok nodded.

"You are right, Sir Yoongi should have been back by now, like all of you are. Yet he is not. Almost like he is obdurated that Taehyung will be found in the north."

"Yes. And I... I think he mayhaps has an acumen about Jungkook too."

"How is that possible?" the virility in Seokjin's voice had raised a few pitches too high, almost on the brim of loosing it.

"Before we left last week, I went to his office for my one last attempt at a mutiny, if you may. I then came to know that he had left earlier than all of us. And- and there was Jungkook's duty almanac on his table, which I can swear was not present there the night before."

Yerin and Namjoon breathed in a sharp inhale while Jin's head indigently fell into his hands.

"Me, Namjoon, Yerin.. even Jungkook. Taehyung was the one who found us, however Jin-ssi and Sir Yoongi have witnessed him augment into the teem of love he is today. He loves that boy to death, even though he is not expressive."

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