Jamais Vu

Freedom

It's a couple days later when Jimin finally wakes up. Whatever they injected in him really made him feel like crap because the first thing he notices is the massive headache.

He looks down and is rather surprised to see him in his fox form. It had been so long since he was in animal form that it feels almost foreign to him now.

He jumps down off the bed to look around the room. He realizes he is nowhere he recognizes.

This doesn't look like the lab.. he thinks to himself before he hears whimpering under the bed he jumped down from.

He bends down to look under the bed and sees the fox from his room.

Maybe we are in the lab after all. He sighs and crawls low to the ground until he's near the fox. She's fast asleep but whimpering in her sleep.

Jimin does the only thing he knows how. He wraps his fluffy white tail around her body and she calms down immediately, snuggling into the warm fur as if on instinct.

Jimin's a little caught off guard but if it helps her, then he will gladly lay here as long as she needs.

What happened to you, little fox? Why do you look so broken? Jimin wonders to himself while he watches her twitching whiskers.

Jimin hears the front door open and close again and then a brown haired man sticks his head under the bed.

"You're awake! We thought we lost you too there fox" the man grins and Jimin feels strangely at ease seeing his heart shaped smile.

Jimin moves his tail to show the other fox in case he was unsure she was there and the man gasps.

"Ara.. i'm glad you made a new friend" he whispers softly so he don't wake her. "I'm Hoseok but you can call me Hobi..i'm a friend of Ara's here" 

Ara? So that's the foxes name.. Jimin thinks to himself.

"Can you change? I have clothes for you, plus i come bearing food from Jin hyung and i'd like to know your name so i'm not calling you fox"

Jimin slowly crawls from under the bed. He's unsure why but he trusts the man. There's a genuine care in his eyes that Jimin has never seen before.

Jimin focuses on changing, since it's been awhile he almost forgot.

"Awe! Look gow cute you are, you are tiny" Hobi gushes, handing over some fresh clothes before getting up and setting out the food on the table.

"I hope you like kimchi and jjajangmyeon, it's kind if a favorite in our house"

Jimin's ears perk up in the cutest way at the mention of Kimchi. He hasn't had any before but he heard the guard all the time talking about it.

"I-i'm Jimin.. Park Jimin" Jimin says quietly, his throat a bit sore.

"Jung Hoseok, but as i said, call me Hobi" the man smiles again and Jimin feels.. calmer.

"Where are we?" Jimin sits at the table slowly, looking around the room.

"At our pack mate, Taehyungie's college dorm. He took you and Ara in so we can find a bigger place for everyone to stay"

"Pack?" Jimin's ears twitch as he tilts his head. "What is pack?"

The question throws Hobi off.

"You.. you don't know what pack is? Just how long were you in that place?" Hobi frowns, his ears flattening in his sadness.

"As long as i can remember.." Jimin whispers softly before taking a small bite of the Kimchi. "Oh!" His eyes get bigger as he eats another piece. "This is amazing!"

"Eat up a much as you want, as long as you do me a favor and try to get Ara to eat?  I don't know when she ate last.."

Jimin looks behind him at the bed and frowns.

"What happened to her?"

Something in Hobi's eyes grow sadder at the question.

"Her platonic soulmate.. Beyongkwan.. was my cousin.."

Jimin turns to the man and looks at him again.

"Was? Did he.. was he a victim there too?"  Hobi nods and Jimin's ears fall in his sadness. "That's happened alot there.. too many people don't make it out.."

"Why were you there?"

Jimin sighs, putting his chopsticks down before looking at Hobi.

"They were trying to see if combining two hybrids would be.. possible. To create their own species, their own soldiers. Mine wasn't working, in fact they got rid of my fox for so long.. today was my first time actually seeing my fox in so long.."

Jimin gets a bit choked up so Hobi doesn't push him, instead he offers a comforting hand over the boys smaller hand. Jimin wipes at the tears forming in his eyes.

"They were trying to see if they could mix me with a dog breed.. a Samoyed.. since we would be similar in fur color nobody would know what they had done until they perfected it.."

"And did it work? Have you tried?"

Jimin shakes his head and looks as if deep in thought.

"I wouldn't even know how"

Hobi nods and stands up, pulling the boy into a hug. He can't help it, he's just glad the younger boy is okay.

"Can i ask you something?" Jimin asks when he pulls away. The contact with another person feels.. so new but he loved that hug.

"Anything, Jiminie" Jimin smiles hearing his name like that.

"What are platonic soulmates?"

The question is so honest and innocent, Hobi laughs a little, sitting back down.

"Well..." he begins from what he remembers and what his other pack mates have been teaching him over the last few days, telling Jimin everything he knows about both soulmates and platonic ones.

"Do you think i have one?" Jimin asks when Hobi is finished with his story.

"I do, everyone has one. You may have even already met him"  he smirks, remembering the frantic look in the lions eyes when he told them he feels drawn to the small boy.

"Make sure she eats okay? I have to get going. I have work" Hobi smiles and hugs Jimin once more.

"Where do you work?" Jimin asks curiously.

"A nightclub called Persona. I love it there. Maybe one day i'll bring you along, show you how the real world works" Hobi waves and closes the door behind him.

Jimin looks back over to the bed, wondering if he's capable of making someone eat who doesn't want to live anymore.

Is this what freedom is like? Having a choice?