Chapter Text
chapitre 6:
“Yeah, or that…” Taehyung was slightly annoyed by how easily Jeongguk assumed that the witch Yoongi wouldn’t lie to him.
“Maybe he-”
Whatever Jeongguk was about to say got interrupted by yet another person barging in through the door. This time, fully screaming in rage.
“WHY THE FUCK DID YOU LEAVE THE TOWER, JEON.”
Yoongi, the evil witch.
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In that moment, the three people in the room had completely different reactions.
Yoongi, the one that entered the scene screaming, was still holding the door and breathing heavily.
Jeongguk, on the other side, appeared to be very calm. In fact, he could feel oddly relieved by finally getting the chance to talk to his boss/hyung. Also, he was expecting Yoongi, that was usually just this level of stormy, to yell as soon as he saw him.
Taehyung was also breathing heavily, and his face was getting redder and redder by the seconds.
He was the first to explode.
“You… You Evil Witch…” Taehyung could barely contain his anger in his own voice “Whatever his debt with you is, forcing him into doing horrible things for you is DISGUSTING!!! JEONGGUK DESERVES SO MUCH MORE THAN A LIFE BEING CONTROLLED BY SOMEONE SO EVIL AS YOU!! SET HIM FREE, RIGHT NOW!!!” Yoongi was startled, looking at the prince yell at him, perplexed. “You can keep me if it means you will leave him alone! I can pay for his freedom, and i will!!!”
At this point, Taehyung was fully standing in front of the dragon hybrid in a protective way, trying to shield him from Yoongi, and the witch was still frozen, by the door, trying to process what was going on.
Jeongguk, however, was much faster in understanding what was going in the prince’s mind.
"No! What are you saying, Taehyung, you've got it all wrong!!" Jeongguk exclaims all of a sudden "He is not controlling to me, he's my hyung! He found me when I was 9 years old, almost dying in the middle of the forest, he never hurt me, he SAVED me!"
Taehyung, that had turned to look at Jeongguk, saw his honest expression, and didn’t know what to feel. For him, it was clear as day that the witch was bad, and was simply using him in a really f*cked up abusive relationship, but… Jeongguk didn’t see it that way. By the seconds he stared into the other’s red eyes, the more he doubted himself. Was the witch really that evil to Jeongguk?
Taehyung didn’t get a chance to speak, as Yoongi, that had been in silence that whole time, looking at them as if trying to solve a mathematical problem, said, his voice unsure:
“...How did you wake up?” suddenly, he had the full attention of the two younger boys.
And oh, did that question bring memories to the duo.
Neither Taehyung nor Jeongguk knew what to tell the witch, because they didn’t know why did Taehyung woke up from the sleeping curse, but also because they felt embarrassed enough by thinking about the kiss .
Deep down, the boys knew that kiss had something to do with Taehyung’s awakening, but they didn’t want to think about that in that moment. It felt awkward, so they just stared back at the witch, embarrassed, half expecting the witch to figure it out.
But Yoongi could never figure it out, when he was too busy with jumping to conclusions like a madman. Because a soulmate’s kiss was so simple to break a curse, yet so rare, that Yoongi managed to miss the point by a hundred kilometers. Because, if the prince was awake from that sleeping curse, that could only mean… that another witch came and broke it up? But how, if none of them survived? - Yoongi thought, his gaze lingering on Taehyung.
Maybe they were child survivors, like Jeongguk? Yoongi was frowning deeply, trying to solve that complex situation.
“Yoongi hyung?” Jeongguk called hesitantly, he knew the witch was too smart, and was afraid that somehow Yoongi was about to find out about everything he did to wake the other boy up. But Yoongi didn’t even listen.
Who is out there, besides Jeongguk and me?... There used to be Lady Huang, but she’s gone, I’m sure… That could only mean… Oh.
Suddenly, Yoongi had everything figured out .
“Damn you, Yixing… I knew it!” he spoke to himself, and more than ever sounding crazy.
“Uh? What about Yixing- Wait, hyung!” Jeongguk started to speak, but Yoongi was already out of the door, closing it behind him. Jeongguk ran to open it to look for the witch, but he was already nowhere to be seen. He was gone again, probably going after one of the baker’s sons, Yixing (why, he had no idea).
Jeongguk turned back to look at Taehyung. Yoongi hadn’t even told him what to do with the prince…
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Immediately, Yoongi appears at the back of a small wooden house, similar to Jeongguk’s, but not at all as isolated as his. It had a back porch, but no fence surrounding the house. The only thing around it was plants.
A lot of plants, vases with cactus and suculentas and various tones of rose flowers. And medical herbs planted directly on the ground. Just… a lot of species of herbs. Like a proper witch house.
“Yixing, I know you’re in there!” Yoongi yelled from his spot, he was several meters away from the house, not really touching the ground where the herbs were planted in lines. This wasn’t a house he could just barge in.
Yoongi waited for some seconds, and when he was about to yell for him again, because he was not exactly feeling very patient that day, he saw the back door opening and someone stepping into the porch. But of course, instead of the witch’s descendant Yixing, he faced Joonmyeon.
“I want to talk to your boyfriend, not you.” Yoongi said plainly, and Joonmeyon just stared at him like was an annoying problem. The baker’s adopted son looked like he was having none of the witch’s shit.
“He’s not my boyfriend.” Joonmeyon answered seriously as always, with a tone that screamed i’m not afraid of you in the slightest.
But funny, Yoongi thought, that Joonmyeon looked damn ready to go back inside the house at any moment, the door half opened right behind him. Yoongi smirked.
“Like I care!” Yoongi finally started walking towards Joonmyeon, aiming to look as dangerous as possible. He found pleasure in intimidating humans, lately.
When he was as the bottom of the two steps to the porch, he demanded.
“Where is the witch.”
“I’m looking at him.” Yoongi heard Yixing’s voice, and suddenly, the other man was getting out of the house and descending the stairs of the porch into the ground to stand right in front of Yoongi.
And Yoongi knew where Yixing was coming from in saying that. For some reason, Yixing, out of all the sons of lady Huang, decided he wanted to convince everyone around that he was a full human. And like, Yoongi got it, Yixing and his other three brothers were the result of a marriage between a witch and a human, and for what it looked like, his brothers were pretty much human.
But Yixing was different. He was kind of a “village’s healer”, and a lot of people believed that he was human, and simply very good with herbs and medicine. But in Yoongi’s point of view, Yixing was almost a full witch , and was completely aware of it, but wanted to hide it.
What Yoongi didn’t know, was that, in Yixing’s point of view, he himself was a human. No trace of his mom’s magical powers had been passed to him, and he was fine with that. Just learning about plants and methods of cure, to help as many people as possible.
And currently, Joonmeyon was living with Yixing. They were step brothers, as in, when Joonmyeon’s dad decided to marry Yixing’s father, the old baker, he already had four kids from his previous partner, Joonmeyon’s mom. But they were all kids when that happened, so they were raised together as brothers, and Yixing cared a lot about Joonmyeon’s wellbeing.
And that was why, after Yifan’s departure to god knows where, Yixing brought a broken hearted and confused Joonmyeon into his house. They had been living together for months, now.
Yoongi didn’t know about any of those reasons behind Joonmeyon’s presence in Yixing’s house, but he was so caught up in his own dramas that he didn’t really care.
“Cut the crap, Lay, I know what you did, back in the tower.” Yoongi says impatiently, and Yixing just stares, expressionless.
After some moments of Yixing looking like he was carefully choosing his words, he said:
“You know what I did?” to be true, Yixing had no clue of what the witch was talking about, but he knew someone was likely in danger, and he wanted to get as much information as possible, without letting Yoongi realize he was telling him his wicked plans. He exchanges a look with Joonmyeon for about a millisecond, and knows that the younger is thinking the same thing. He must take some information from Yoongi, even if it means letting the witch believe he, Yixing, is a witch like him, at least in some level.
“Yes, I know. But I’m not going to expose you. At least not right now.” Yoongi answered, his eyes narrowed in a smug expression, and Yixing could only nod blankly in response.
“Actually, I just came to warn you.” Yoongi continues, “First of all: you touch even a strand of Jeongguk’s hair and i will destroy you .” he looked very murderous and Yixing tried not to take the threat so seriously, to not feel so scared, while the shorter witch looked at him as if he could start growling at any second. As for Joonmyeon, the young man was literally scared by the darkness and danger emanating from Yoongi’s form, and totally surprised by the witch’s… priorities.
“Don’t doubt me, you don’t know what I’m capable of when it comes to family.” Well that seemed to be a surprise for Joonmyeon - he had no idea the Evil Witch could consider anyone as his family.
But Yixing wasn’t surprised in the least. He knew a lot about Yoongi and Jeongguk’s story, and definitely way more that the young dragon remembered. But he decided it would be best for him to play dumb, for now.
“Jeongguk is that red dragon boy?” Yixing asked in a curious tone, but got ignored, as for Yoongi, that point was already made, and brought the next topic.
“Also: you shouldn’t make deals with the crown, they are rotten.” Yoongi said those words as if just talking about the crown disgusted him enough. “The king has the blood of a thousand lives in his hands, including your mom’s.”
Yixing’s shoulders stiffened. He didn’t want Yoongi talking about his mom. So he decided to just keep fooling the Evil Witch and changed the topic.
“But if you punish this boy for his father’s mistakes, you’ll be just like him.”
The thing with that choice of words, was: they were ambiguous. While for Yixing and Joonmyeon, “this boy” referred to the kidnapped prince Taehyung, for Yoongi… it meant another boy entirely.
Yixing has no idea, but that only fuels Yoongi more into thinking that Yixing knows way more than what he actually knows.
“You know, I wasn’t punishing anyone but the king. His pain was the price for such a strong magical exchange. And I’ll make him pay, but innocents won’t feel it. I want justice , I want everyone to know what he did.” Yoongi said more calmly, the memories of a sweet and honest red haired teenage boy making his anger go away.
“Do as you please, Dark One, but remember that no amount of your justice will bring back the dead.” Yixing snapped, looking and sounding like he lost his patience with Yoongi’s shenanigans. But Yoongi immediately noticed, with a sinking heart, the pain and grieve behind his words. Lady Huang had been killed by one of the King’s soldiers, cowardly. Her four children didn’t even get to say goodbye.
Suddenly, Yoongi just wasn’t in the mood anymore. He was called the Evil Witch, but he, too, had lost his family in the war. He knew very well Yixing’s pain and anger.
“Just stay out of my business, Huang.” he shot back, no venom in his voice anymore, and quickly disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.
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meanwhile, in the castle:
It was like apocalipse was going on at the castle, and literally everyone that lived in it was affected: from the king and the queen, to the princes, to the entire court members, even the kitchen staff, the maids and the knights. They were all desperately worried about the prince.
When the news that the youngest prince Taehyung had been kidnapped by the evil witch came out, it was like the worst thing that could have happened. The oldest cooks and kitchen chefs shed tears when they heard it, and the butler openly sobbed, because they had been the ones to basically raise the young prince since he was just a little kid, running around the hallways of the castle and making his way through the hearts of everyone that had to see him on a daily basis. The boy was like a ray of sunshine, a complete social butterfly.
The knights and guards were the ones that felt worse, because, besides having taken a protectiveness towards the young prince through the years, they were the ones that actually got paid to prevent things like these from happening.
One of the most desperate people in that room was clearly young knight Jung Hoseok.
"We need to do something!! Let's summon the damn witch!" Hoseok was nearly shouting in the room, pacing around in front of a table with a map of the forest printed in it.
"Even if we do summon him, it's unlikely he'll answer." One of the old war counselors said from his spot in the table. They were all gathered as if plotting a war move.
And they kind of were. Kidnapping a prince, a teenage one for that matter, was just about a serious war move.
"Isn't it obvious, then?! We go to his castle!! Even if he is not there, we can just destroy everything, I don't know!!" Hoseok was looking wild, but not even angry - just plain desperate. Of all the people in the castle, the witch had to take Taehyung , the one that wouldn’t hurt a fly. The knight felt like screaming in rage and crying pathetically at the same time.
"Hoseok hyung please calm down..." Jimin, that was by far the most at peace in the room, tried to intervene.
"Why are you so calm, Jimin, don't you care about your brother?!!!" Jimin words only served to make Hoseok shout more, but it didn’t caught anyone’s attention, since everyone in the room was hurriedly speaking in between themselves.
"Of course i do." Jimin said in an even voice, standing up to reach for Hoseok. "It's just that i know he won't do Taetae's any harm. He won't be hurt at all, i know it."
Hoseok just stared, dumbfounded, at Jimin's reassuring smile.
But the king's face darkened at hearing Jimin say that.
"Jimin" his father's voice was stone cold "Don't talk about that monster as if you know him. You don't know what he's capable of." the room fell silent after the king's harsh words and grave voice.
Jimin wordlessly went away from Hoseok and sat back in his chair. He knew he needed to shut up, as he had secrets his father could never find out.
His father could never find out that Jimin did know the witch, better than anyone. They were friends, in Jimin's mind, best friends, even.
That was why Jimin knew his brother was safe.
Hoseok, though, didn't know that.
And it was driving Hoseok mad, that whole situation. He was supposed to look after Taehyung, to protect him from all harm, and when the boy most needed his protection - he wasn't even there.
Hoseok then fell on his knees, shoulders slumped. Namjoon, on the other side of the room, eyed him sympathetically. He too was feeling bad, but he knew that, given the relationship the two had… it was a whole new level of worry.
Namjoon knew that the other knight cared for Taehyung in a way that was beyond friendship.
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Later that day, several hours later, at the castle, the sun was setting. The sky was a beautiful mess of pastel colors, and Jimin walked through the gardens with a heavy heart.
The truth is, he wanted to trust Yoongi. The young man was his best friend, and Jimin didn’t want to doubt his honesty, and their friendship.
But, it was his younger brother, his own blood. One of the best parts of his life. Sure, they weren’t as close as they could be, as brothers, but that didn’t change the fact that Taehyung was his family, and as much as Jimin wished he could let his heart at peace, knowing Yoongi wouldn’t do anything to hurt him… just not knowing where he was or how he was settled him off.
And, how could he forget, the way Yoongi looked, back in that room, when he disappeared with Taehyung in his arms. He looked dangerous, mad, and for just a second, Jimin feared Yoongi, and what he could do with his baby brother.
That’s is why he went to the usual place where he could find the witch, and even if he couldn’t get the man just by whispering his name, we would do a full on summoning ritual for him. Jimin was determined that, today, Yoongi wouldn’t escape him, and he would get answers . He owned him that much, having kidnapped his brother for no reason at all.
But, when he got to the western limit of the garden, he soon recognized the figure clad in black clothes, black boots… even his fedora hat was black. Jimin couldn’t help but smile a little bit at seeing the hat - it wasn’t that Yoongi used it everyday, but when he did, it always addressed that Yoongi meant business that day. It was like he was assuming the “Witch Persona”.
“I’ve been waiting for you.” Yoongi said when Jimin was close enough, not looking at him directly. The witch was sitting on a wooden bench, with his back to the lake, and, in any other day, Jimin would have went to sit by his side immediately, with an easy smile on his face.
That time, though, Jimin couldn’t bring himself to move. His heart was beating fast and he had butterflies in his stomach. He was just so nervous and worked up that he couldn’t even speak, because, he wanted so much to believe the witch. He so didn’t want to recognize that he had been lied to. He saw goodness in Yoongi, he saw a friend, since he was a little kid.
But what if it had been an illusion?
Jimin hadn’t grown up in the castle, at least not in the fancy part of it.
For some reason that his father would never tell him, Jimin was raised in a farm near the castle. The farmers’ families were really kind to him and didn’t treat him differently, or like he was fragile, and for that he was thankful for. But it’s just that there were so many mysteries in his life, and that kind of settled him off.
One of those mysteries was Yoongi’s presence.
Because, you see, the farmers’ family was kind with him, but they were always busy with work, so they would leave him alone to play in the grass when he was basically a toddler. Not that he remembered, but Yoongi told him later. Jimin wasn’t sure why, but Yoongi was always around when he most needed - like a fairy-godmother, Jimin would tease playfully from time to time.
Since Jimin had no one to talk or play, as a kid, Yoongi soon became his best friend, like a really cool hyung that he could look up to. He wasn’t always around, but he came to see him almost weekly, muttering under his breath something among the line “to see if you haven’t accidentally killed yourself, again ”. Jimin would giggle at Yoongi’s grumpiness.
They would talk about everything and nothing, when he was a little kid, around five or six years old, still being raised in the farm and not knowing his biological family. Yoongi would tell him about another kid, one that was still just a baby, that he had to look out for. He remembered Yoongi telling him that other boy had came from inside a dragon’s egg, and Jimin would be blown away with that idea, as a kid.
One day, everything changed. Jimin was twelve, and suddenly he was being brought to a castle, everyone claiming he was a prince, somehow, and that he would never have to be in that farm house again. He had screamed, complained very loudly and sometimes cried quietly, saying that he just wanted to go back, that he didn’t want that life. He soon had a little brother, four years younger than him, Taehyung, and an older brother, Seokjin. He didn’t know anything about them. But he was willing to learn.
The thing he missed the most about his past life was Yoongi’s presence. Once in the castle, he soon learned that Yoongi was considered an evil witch, a heartless monster, and that people feared him. Jimin immediately knew that his friendship would have to remain a secret.
Yoongi kept visiting him at the castle, but something was off. It was like the witch was really depressed but tried to hide it. It didn’t take long for Jimin to find out the reason why: one day, they were sitting in that same spot of the gardens, that same bench, when Jimin asked for the first time in a long time about that little donsaeng of his, the one that had came from inside a dragon’s egg.
And Yoongi simply broke down in front of him as soon as he understood the words. In between sobs of pure despair, Yoongi had cried “i lost him, he’s gone, i lost him! Jeonggukkie i’m so sorry”. Jimin could only hug Yoongi in his arms like a mother would and let him cry in his shoulders, his own heart shattering to a million pieces. So the dragon boy was real all that time, and, apparently, now he was dead.
Jimin didn’t ask Yoongi about the boy ever again. He decided that if Yoongi wanted to talk about it, he should be the one to choose to start the conversation.
Since that day, they seemed to be much closer, as friends, and as Jimin grew up through the years, he started to understand more things. He would spend hours in the libraries studying about witches and dragons and other magical creatures, because he didn’t feel like asking the witch himself, but desperately wanted to know more about it.
He wanted to study the war that happened when he was unborn, but he couldn’t find any written document about it. It was like it had never existed.
“Jimin?” Yoongi asked, very quietly, as if hesitant to bring Jimin back from his thoughts.
“What.” Jimin wanted to believe Yoongi, he really did. Please, convince me you’re being honest with me. I want to believe you, hyung.
“I suppose you have questions.” Yoongi didn’t move from the bench, and Jimin realised the witch was trying to appear as harmless as possible.
“I’m not afraid of you.” Jimin winced internally at how cold his voice sounded. Yoongi looked down and his shoulders slumped.
“You’ll never need to be afraid of me, Jimin. Never.” Yoongi sai, his voice almost solemn. Jimin crossed his arms around his chest and walked towards Yoongi until he was in front of him, still standing while the older was sitting, still not looking up from his hands on his lap.
“Then tell me.” make me believe you again, hyung.
Yoongi couldn’t say anything, so he just looked up into Jimin’s eyes, as if trying to tell him everything, everything, with just his gaze. Jimin waited, still with crossed arms, waited for the man to say something, anything, but he was met with silence.
It soon dawned upon him.
“You’re not telling me.” he gasped slightly, and his expression was of shock and hurt.
“I… can’t.” Yoongi was choosing his words, carefully, “I don’t want to… lie, to you.” Jimin’s vision blurred, and his heart was pounding so fast in his chest that he could almost hear it now.
“YOU ALREADY HAVE!!” he screamed, knowing that no one was near to hear him “You lied to me!! All of you, my entire life has been a lie!!!” Jimin was seeing red right now, and Yoongi looked all kinds of shocked from Jimin’s outburst.
“I couldn’t-”
“And take off that stupid hat!!” Jimin took the witch’s hat from his head and immediately threw it to the ground. And then started stomping on it angrily. Yoongi just couldn’t believe what was going on anymore. “What the hell did you think you were doing, taking Taehyung like that?!” Jimin was mad, years upon years of bottling up his confusions up finally crashing down upon him.
“You, of all people!! I trusted you.!!!!! ” he practically roared, his tears going down nonstop. “How could you??!! Why didn’t you tell me?!!! And most importantly, where the fuck is Taehyung!!! ” Jimin was screaming at the top of his lungs to a backed-up-to-a-wall Yoongi.
When the witch continued in silence, staring at him, Jimin screamed right on his face.
“Answer the question!” that seemed to snap Yoongi out of it, but he was still hesitant.
“He is safe, I promise.” when Yoongi realized that half assed answer wasn’t going to be enough for him, he continued before Jimin could yell at him again “I can’t tell you where he is, but even I wouldn’t be able to hurt Taehyung, and you know it.”
The thing is, Jimin knew it. But he wasn’t willing to let go with Yoongi yet.
“I know it?! Haha, funny!!! If there’s a thing in all this story, is that i don’t know anything, never! ” Jimin wasn’t convinced by Yoongi. And he was angry, because he wanted to be convinced, to let himself believe the witch, trust him blindly. But now he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Not now that his baby brother, ray of sunshine Taehyung, was basically gone .
“...I’m sorry, Jimin. I promise everything will be sorted out.” Yoongi offered weakly, hesitantly, and that only seemed to anger Jimin even more.
“I don’t want your promises! I want the truth, I want Taehyung back!” Jimin was simply having none of it, and Yoongi was almost afraid of him in that moment.
“You know what! Get out of here!” Jimin screamed one more time, and when Yoongi didn’t move from his shrunken stance in that bench, Jimin bent down to take the hat, that was now beaten up and stomped down to a weird velvety plump, and tossed it angrily at Yoongi’s chest. The man flinched. “Get the hell out of here!! If I see you again I’m calling the guards!!”
With that point made, Jimin started powerwalking back to the castle, not even glancing back at the sight of the frightened man. He hoped that would help him have Taehyung back, somehow.
When Jimin was already out of the gardens, he started overthinking everything he said. He knew he would definitely cry himself to sleep that night. If he managed to fall asleep, at least.
So much for a maiden in distress.