𝙈𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙖~ 𝘽𝙏𝙎 𝙃𝙤𝙧𝙧𝙤𝙧 𝘼𝙐

XV

The ticking again, did not stop.

It's gotten slower. Less distraught.

It told the others that Jungkook was okay.

Wherever he was.

Jungkook was sure to hear the ticking. He would follow back to it.

If Jin didn't as well.

Until then, Jungkook would remain absent.

And return once it is safe enough for him to.

Taehyung laid on the floor for hours.

He hadn't passed out. Though, the blood hadn't stopped.

The floor was coated in his personal slaughter.

"Taehyung, come on get up." Namjoon stumbled into the crimson pool, kicking at the thickness with his heels.

"You cannot allow yourself to fester. You are no better than the one who cannot remember your full name."

Taehyung wrapped his finger around the bone of his first finger.

He liked himself like this. He was less vulnerable when he was incensed and irrational.

"He knows my name." He mumbled, tearing at the hanging skin.

"Your other name, Taehyung. Come on, up." Namjoon tripped through the building blood, tugging beneath Taehyung's shoulders to lift him up.

"Go mask your physique. I will clean this mess. The blood will draw him. You know better." Namjoon scolded at Taehyung who looked down to his feet.

The blood was Jin's favorite. Taehyung was foolish.

He did know better.

"I cannot help myself. I've been mad all my life. I mean, after... Most of after. And I love it, I truly do!" No, Taehyung did not. But in regard to his lack of consideration for his current hysteria, he would not admit that.

"You are senseless and tipped off of your boundaries. Clean yourself up." Namjoon had already began to take a large towel down onto the floor.

Taehyung treaded away, his hands sagging to drip more blood behind him.

"Cover your hand will you!?" Namjoon was already humbled enough to partake in the cleaning of the mess, he didn't need anymore.

Taehyung nodded unknowingly, dipping his hands beneath his shirt.

Hopefully Jimin remembered something.

Him.

xxx

"What is the bloodlust for? The crave for the stripping of a heart to feed on? Can you explain that to me?" Jimin held his hands together, sat in front of Hoseok.

Hoseok was just as quiet as before. He was almost never around.

Left out.

"You overuse your blessings Jimin. I will not disobey Taehyung's intentions, let alone my own. You need to figure that out-"

"But what if I didn't know in the first place? I remember that entirely. I never knew the answer." Jimin shook his head, his hands sprawled out in front of the newly set up chess board.

"Well you had made things that way, you surely should." Hoseok leaned forward to straighten a knight and the rook beside it.

"But I do not, explain." Jimin was full of himself. He took pride in his recollection.

Which was given, and halfway deserved.

Hoseok set down the knight.

He picked up a white chess piece, the queen, and a black chess piece.

The king.

If Jimin wanted an answer, he would have to be able to fathom the response.

"The white queen was enveloped within serenity and his amiable behaviors. The black king too. But the king got greedy. Resentful. So did the white queen, but she was almost always civil. She did not want to become just as immoral as the enemy who had made her this way. She did not want to be alone like him. And so the black king fell red with wrath, spite, vengeance..." Hoseok fumbled with the two pieces.

His hand covered the black piece, and once he let go,

It was red.

Jimin was stunned, and was rather impressed instead of concerned.

"And the now red king would blame everyone, except for the real person at fault. You are much like the king."

Still, Jimin failed to interpret the meaning of Hoseok's telling.

Jimin had regrettably hindered his ability to understand.

"And who is the real person at fault." So he asked for a better simplification.

Hoseok sat back.

And so he continued.

"When the red king chose to disregard the people, he had begun to lose his own item of contentment. His heart. Not physically though. But he wanted a replacement, that part was physical. He took the heart from a friend. And given, he could not replace his own heart. He needed another way to take it. So he chose to use that resent to torment the original beholder of the heart, and consumed it in front of them. Luckily, the enemy at fault had formulated a new heart for that friend, but not the king. So in a way, the king made no new heart for himself. Simply because one asked, and the other did not. The king was too eager to set out for harm to do so."

"You did not answer my-"

"And once the king began to harm the queen's dearest friend out of impatience and unfairness... The queen became distressed. She had become separated. Anxious. Alone. So the queen became just as resentful for the suspected rival. Him, along with everyone else had. It wasn't the red kings fault. The initial foe had just... Made him that way."

Jimin watched Hoseok take the king piece to use it and knock down the queen.

Jimin just wanted a simple fucking answer for once.

"And still, the king has yet to avenge himself, and his queen."

Hoseok got up, the king and queen clattering to the floor.

Jimin bent down, picking up the two pieces.

They were vintage, overdue.

Past any want.

Again, left out.

"Do you understand now, Jimin?"

Jimin looked up, his comprehension now much more dull than before.

"No, I really do not."

Hoseok smiled.

"And therein lies, the enemy at fault."