Lunacy and Other Fairytales ; tk | ym

16.

there is death in this chapter

~

The building is so awfully quiet, Taehyung doesn't even dare to breathe as he and Yoongi inspect the inside. The hall is empty and so is the office. There is another door they manage to open together that leads into a storage room — empty, too. So, they go upstairs.

Taehyung hardly dares to walk past the rooms, terrified of what he'll see. He only forces himself to follow Yoongi when the elder glares at him.

"Jimin?" Yoongi dares to call, "Jimin, are you — are you there?"

No response. Taehyung hears his heartbeat in his ears. The walls seem too big for his own liking, as if they were trying to swallow them. He hears the water drip from the ceiling downstairs.

Yoongi takes another uneasy step down the hall. "Jimin?"

A pause.

And then, a quiet, timid, "Hyung?" replies.

Taehyung sighs in relief. Both he and Yoongi hurry over to where the voice came from. A room at the end of the hall — it's a small one, empty just like all the others. And in the middle, on the floor sits Jimin, timidly wrapping his arms around his waist.

"Oh, thank God!" Taehyung breathes and drops to his knees next to him, pulling him into a tight hug.
"Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
He looks a little bit disheveled, nothing too bad. Jimin smiles and shakes his head.

"No, I'm... fine, don't worry."

He looks up at Yoongi and his eyes soften.
"Hyung..."

Only now does Taehyung realize that Yoongi is still standing by the door. He stares at Jimin, a little frown on his face.

"That is not Jimin," he says without hesitation. Taehyung feels his stomach drop. What?
He looks back at Jimin whose eyes widen the slightest bit, then fill with hurt. Taehyung's stomach tingles uncomfortably.

"Yoongi," he says, "What are you on about? This... this is Jimin, I don't know what you're saying."

He looks exactly like Jimin. It is him. Taehyung doesn't know what's going on with Yoongi.
Perhaps he is still a bit distraught, he thinks, maybe the stress has taken over and controls his brain now. Maybe he can't think straight anymore. Maybe, maybe now they're all going insane.

"What — why would you say that?" Jimin asks with a trembling voice and gets up. He takes a hesitant step towards Yoongi, as if to test the waters; as if he was afraid of him.

Yoongi shakes his head, distraught, his eyes flickering across Jimin's body.

"No — no. You're not him. Stop playing tricks on me. I know how to tell the difference, I... you're not him."

"Yoongi, it's him, can't you see that?" Taehyung tries one last time, out of desperation perhaps; he doesn't want to know what will happen next. A part of him wishes he could look away as Jimin steps even closer to Yoongi. Time freezes, and so does the blood in Taehyung's veins.

"Hyung," Jimin says, his voice as sweet as honey, strained with the effort it takes him to stay calm, "Of course it's me. Please, you have to believe me. You know me."
Yoongi keeps on shaking his head, almost unnoticeably so, as he stares at Jimin.
"Yoongi, it's me, Jimin," he says again, "I — we met two and a half years ago because of Namjoon hyung. We had our first kiss shortly after at Hoseok's birthday party. You told me you don't date yet you were the one to ask me out." A single tear followed by another one slides down Jimin's pale cheeks. He reaches out to take Yoongi's hand in his and the elder lets him.