Chapter Text
Lingering raindrops from the morning’s shower dripped off of the freshly budding flowers and leaves of the trees in the parking lot of the Folk Art museum. Jungkook tried to avoid splashing his feet in any puddles. He was glad he had decided to cover the sculpture with a blanket after all, hoping to prevent any water from damaging the carefully carved wood.
It was hard to believe that the winter full of snowy mountains and cozy nights was finally melting away, and spring was blossoming in its place. The return of summer would mean that he had been living in the mountains for a whole year. That he’ll have been with Namjoon a whole year. His whole life changed that one summer evening, and Jungkook could hardly believe where the time had gone, in bliss and comfort and love.
His mind wandered as he carried the wooden sculpture up to the back entrance of the museum. He must have been noticed, a familiar staff member opening the door to greet him.
“Right on time,” Hoseok said with a friendly smile, propping the door open. “Need help?”
“Nah,” Jungkook said, carrying it through the door into the storage room. “Where do you want it?”
“There’s fine,” Hoseok said, gesturing to a corner. “We’re so excited Namjoon agreed to loan us another piece.”
“Of course,” Jungkook said once he’d set it down, grinning. “With me around to help him out, he has more time for personal projects like this. I’m just so happy he has somewhere to display them where they’ll be appreciated as they should be.”
Hoseok nodded. “I know, my supervisor had been wanting to display his work for years with no luck until you showed up. I think she’s half-tempted to write you a thank you card,” he added with a chuckle.
Jungkook smiled shyly, shrugging. “Well, speaking of Jenny, I believe Namjoon went ahead and emailed her the information for this new piece.”
“Yep, we got it. It’ll get installed tonight, in place of The Wolf and the Rabbit, which you can then come pick up at your convenience. Unless we can convince you to let us keep it for another few months?” Hoseok said. “It’s such a popular piece.”
“And it’s coming home,” Jungkook said with a small smile. Both Hoseok and his supervisor had been trying to convince them to renew the loan for the last few weeks as the installment’s deadline was coming up again. They had already let the museum keep it an extra few months after its initial installment. Namjoon was fine either way, but now that over half a year had gone by, Jungkook was insistent. The piece meant the world to him, and he was tired of having to go to the museum to see it. It was personal, and it belonged in their cabin.
Hoseok gave an understanding nod. “Well, it will be missed. But I’m sure this new piece will be another hit. Thanks again for dropping it off.”
“Yeah, no problem,” Jungkook huffed as he set the sculpture down, taking off the blanket.
This one was more abstract than the Wolf and the Rabbit, but still beautiful in the detail and craftsmanship of the shapes carved into the wood, curling around the edges, swirling upwards until it reached the mostly smooth top, only a plain circle carved into it.
“I thought you only made furniture,” Jungkook had teased Joon when he first revealed the finished product to him.
Namjoon had shrugged. “It could be an end table. You could put a coaster and drink on it.”
Jungkook giggled. “What’s this one about?”
Namjoon drew in a slow breath, staring at the sculpture, and exhaled a huff. “It’s about the anger and acceptance of the moon cycle. Always permanent, yet always changing.”
“Ahh,” Jungkook hummed. He stood next to Namjoon, tilting his head, studying the details of the circular shapes flowing into one another, some harsh and sudden, others smoothed and calm. “I think I get it.”
Namjoon chuckled, wrapping his arm around Kook’s waist to pull him in close and press a kiss to his temple.
Jungkook folded the blanket, wondering what he had sent Jenny to describe the sculpture. Namjoon had a way with words, so Kook was sure he was still able to spin some poetics about the temporal yet permanent feelings of life, but he would probably omit that his anger was directly tied to the moon cycle, or at least imply that it was a metaphor instead of literal. That part of the experience was perhaps only applicable to him.
Jungkook said goodbye to Hoseok with the promise to return later in the week to pick up the chair, and rather than returning to his car in the parking lot, he crossed the quiet main road of the small downtown and walked a few blocks to where he knew his boyfriend was. Jungkook had agreed to do some deliveries around town while Namjoon had come along to tackle the few errands that would bring him into town every month or so: he started at the library, checking out a handful of books and paying the late fees he was almost always charged, he picked up some necessities at the general store, and Jungkook had agreed to meet him at his last appointment: a much due haircut.
The hair salon had large cursive letters painted on the glass front, “Serendipity Salon,” with a little sign hanging in the door that indicated the shop was open. Jungkook stepped inside, and it was a small little salon, Namjoon sitting at a chair near the window as a man with clippers buzzing around his ears was chatting away.
“And you know they’ve expanded that aquarium in the next town over?”
“They finally finished that, huh?” Namjoon asked.
“Yeah, Mrs. Lee was in here the other day getting her highlights touched up, and she was telling me how it’s gonna ruin business here now because all of the tourists will go there instead. Isn’t that hilarious? I told her, ‘Mrs. Lee, these little mountain towns are small enough that for the tourists to have enough to do, they’ll come to both. Your coffee shop is the hottest spot in town, you’re gonna be fine.’ But I’m not convinced she was listening to me—”
“She’s a natural worrier, every year she has a new theory about what will make her close the shop,” Namjoon said with a chuckle.
“Maybe we should get coffees after you’re done here,” Jungkook chimed in, smirking, “You know, to support her business. Give her peace of mind.”
“She’s so busy on the weekends, I’m not sure you could really call it peace,” Jimin chuckled, glancing over and smiling at Jungkook.
Namjoon looked over to Jungkook too, as best he could, not wanting to move and disrupt Jimin’s work. “You really want to, baby?”
Jungkook shrugged, sitting down on the couch intended for waiting customers. “We could.”
“Well, I’m pretty much done here,” Jimin said, shutting off the clippers, setting them down and grabbing a soft brush to sweep the little hairs off of Namjoon’s neck before taking off the cape. “What do you think? Good?”
“Of course. You always do a great job,” Namjoon said, still twisting and turning his head, bringing his hand up to the freshly shaved sides. He caught Jungkook’s gaze in the mirror, smirking. “What do you think, Kook-ah?”
Jungkook stood up, nodding. “Very handsome.”
Namjoon smiled, blushing.
“So, when am I gonna convince you to let me cut your hair, Jungkookie?” Jimin said.
“I like my long hair,” Jungkook protested, tucking a piece behind his ear. Ever since living in the mountains, he hadn’t gotten it cut, and it was finally getting close to shoulder-length.
“I’m not saying we cut it all off! I could just clean it up a bit, style it. Maybe even a color if you’d be interested,” Jimin chuckled. “Don’t you think he’d be cute with purple hair, Joon?”
“I think he looks cute all the time,” Namjoon said, handing Jimin some cash to pay for the haircut. “Until next time, yeah?”
“Yep—oh actually, I’m going to be up your way this weekend,” Jimin said.
“Oh?” Namjoon said, furrowing his brow, glancing between him and Kook.
“Yeah, well, kind of. You know Meilin? She’s like the next property over from you. She invited me up for a viewing party of the blood moon that’s happening in a few days.”
“Oh, I see. Is Hoseok going too?” Namjoon asked.
“Hoseok?” Jungkook asked, looking between the two, confused at the random mention.
“We started dating,” Jimin filled him, a shy smile itching at his lips.
Jungkook grinned. “Ah, no way!”
“Yeah, it’s been almost a month now. Which really goes to show that we need to hang out more often; I only just told Namjoon, too,” Jimin teasingly scolded, then immediately brightened, “Oh my gosh! We could go on a double date sometime!”
Jungkook smiled too. “That could be fun. Don’t you think, hyung?”
The older gave him a knowing look.
Namjoon had been seeing Jimin for his haircuts for years—in a way, Jimin was probably the person who next best knew Namjoon outside of Kook. They had a good rapport, and sometimes Jungkook thought it was a shame that Namjoon was too cautious about his secret to allow himself to accept Jimin as a friend outside of his hair appointments, and not for lack of trying on Jimin’s end.
Jungkook thought another friend would be good for Namjoon—for himself, too—but the idea made Namjoon very anxious. Ever since his transformation, he had promised himself to never grow close to anyone in fear of scaring or hurting them, should his secret ever be revealed. Jungkook had broken through, and he thought others could too, but Namjoon saw him as an exception rather than a reason to try opening up more. It would sometimes lead to heated discussions, but ultimately, Jungkook always relented. He knew he had to respect Joon’s boundaries, and all he could do was hope that in time he might be willing to let down his walls, at least a bit.
Jungkook shrugged. “Maybe coffee some morning?”
“Maybe,” Namjoon said.
“Yeah, that’d be awesome. But back to your question, Joon, it’s just me going to Meilin’s,” Jimin said, adding, “Hoseok already had plans with another friend. But hey, if you guys want to join, I could ask her. I bet she’d be happy to have you.”
“Ah, I think we have plans that evening too, don’t we?” Namjoon said, playing it off casually, looking to Jungkook.
Blood moon meant full moon, and full moon meant Silky, no exceptions. Jungkook nodded. “Yeah, sorry, Jimin. I hope you have a good time, though.”
“A coffee date in the morning wouldn’t reveal your secret, you know,” Jungkook said quietly once they were out of the salon, walking down the street. “It might be fun. We could have friends that we only see during the day.”
Namjoon hummed, his hand brushing against Jungkook’s, until his fingers softly enclosed his hand in his. “I’ll think about it, okay?”
Jungkook looked down at their entwined hands, then looked up to meet Namjoon’s eyes, such a softness to them. He squeezed Joon’s hand. Him even considering it was progress. “Okay, hyung.”
~
“You’re not worried about Meilin having a viewing party, are you?” Jungkook asked during dinner on the night of the blood moon.
Namjoon shook his head. “We have plenty of acres between us. I doubt anyone would wander into the woods, and even if they did, I’m pretty good at concealing myself.”
Jungkook teasingly scrunched his nose and tilted his head. “You’re okay at it.”
“Shut up,” Namjoon laughed, lightly chucking a napkin in his direction. “Not everyone is on the lookout for cryptids like you were.”
“Fair enough,” Jungkook relented.
Namjoon sounded confident, and he would know. Perhaps it wasn’t surprising that often people were so caught up in their own lives that they wouldn’t even notice what was right in front of them.
After eating, waiting for the sun to set, Jungkook got his camera ready. Since giving up cryptid zoology, he had instead made a name for himself in nature photography. His specialty was birds—he found they weren’t so different from cryptids, the challenge of finding them and getting a clean shot of a moving target was similarly satisfying, with the added bonus of actually being able to identify what it was. But he also did landscape photography, especially of sunsets or the night sky, and so the chance to shoot the blood moon was too good to pass up. They planned for Namjoon to take him up to the highest spot on the mountain that had the best view of the sky. To get there, they would briefly have to start in the direction of Meilin’s property, but Namjoon was insistent that it would be fine.
Jungkook waited in the living room while Namjoon ducked into their bedroom to transform, and after a few minutes, he stepped into the back, smirking as he eyed the tall, sleek creature in front of him.
“Hi, gorgeous,” Jungkook said.
The Silky huffed, stepping closer and leaning down, touching their foreheads together and kissing him fervently yet all too briefly.
“Hmm, should we just stay in tonight after all?” Jungkook said with a smirk.
Namjoon shook his head, a claw pointing upwards. “Blood moon. Photos.”
“Yeah, alright, fine,” Jungkook sighed. “I guess we shouldn’t pass it up. Let’s go.”
Once they were outside, Jungkook climbed onto the Silky’s back, and they were on their way. It was easy to zone out during this part, the breeze of the fresh spring air cool on Jungkook’s skin, the world passing by as he held onto the Silky rushing through the forest.
Because of that, it was all the more startling when out of nowhere, Namjoon slowed down.
“Huh?” Jungkook blinked, almost dizzy from the sudden change in pace. He looked around—they were still in the lower part of the woods. “Hyung, why’d you—”
He didn’t even get his question out before Namjoon stood up straighter, no longer hunched down for his forelimbs to touch down as he ran. He did so slowly, so Jungkook was able to carefully slide off his back, more confused than ever.
“Hyung?”
He walked around to face the Silky—the blood moon shone less bright than a normal full moon, and so he pulled out his flashlight, aiming it up at the creature.
Joon’s eyes were closed, and his head was tilted upward, his pointed, deer-like ears tucked back. He was rapidly smelling the air, the way a dog would, and when he opened his eyes, he dropped back down, hunching on all fours.
“What is—hyung!”
Namjoon suddenly darted off, into the brush ahead of them. Jungkook tried to follow after him, but the Silky was much too fast, and it was much too dark to see where he had gone.
Jungkook did his best to follow in the direction he thought Namjoon had wandered off in. He wasn’t fearful of getting lost—he trusted that Namjoon would be able to find him again—but the Silky’s behavior was unlike anything Jungkook had ever witnessed him act like. It was unsettling, and his mind was reeling with what possibilities could lead to Namjoon running off without him like that, after clearly sensing something that Jungkook couldn’t. He felt on edge, trying to listen for the rustling of the Silky returning, but even his own steps on the leaf litter or breaking a stick would startle him, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up.
“Namjoon,” Jungkook called out, barely above a whisper. “Hyung?”
He stopped walking, trying to listen without his own footsteps misleading him. He took a deep breath. The last thing the Silky would ever do if he thought Jungkook was in danger would be to leave him. He was fiercely protective of Jungkook, and so the boy could reason that he must have been safe. So what had caught Namjoon’s attention?
The Silky was so fast that Jungkook barely heard any rustling before the nearly glowing bronze eyes were staring back at him, his sleek body emerging from the shadows. “Jungkook.”
Jungkook gasped, his hand going to his chest. “What the hell is going on, hyung? You’re scaring me—”
The Silky reached out, gently grabbing his hand to urge him forward. “Follow. Hurry.”
The second word didn’t ease any of Jungkook’s worries, but it was said with such an urgency that he couldn’t dwell on it or bother wasting time asking questions. He wished the Silky would explain more, but he merely turned, deliberately holding himself back in order to walk at a pace that Jungkook could keep up with as he led him through the dark woods.
Namjoon stopped once they reached a clearing under a large, old hardwood tree. He looked to Jungkook, muttering a single word, and then turning to the clearing, pointing a claw, “Hurt.”
Jungkook’s heart was racing, and his hand was shaky as he raised his flashlight to see what Namjoon was referring to. He nearly felt ill when he saw a person laying under the tree. The person groaned, shifting slightly.
“Fuck.”
He broke into a run to close the gap between them, falling to his knees, and when he shined the light on the person to better see how they were hurt, his heart dropped to his stomach. “Hyung—hyung, it’s Jimin.”
The boy wasn’t conscious, giving small groans and shifting in his unsettled, sleep-like state. He was curled in on himself, and one of his hands was resting awkwardly against his shoulder. Jungkook carefully pushed him to lie on his back, gently moving back the hand—blood.
Jungkook inhaled sharply. “Shit.”
He set the flashlight down so he could pull the thin jacket he’d been wearing off, covering the gash that was bleeding from the crux of Jimin’s neck and shoulder. “Hyung, we got to take him back to our place, he needs medical attention.”
Jungkook glanced back, and he had to do a double take as he realized that Namjoon was hiding. Staying just out of the clearing, still in the brush, the Silky was watching attentively, but very intentionally staying out of sight.
Jungkook could only just spot his bronze eyes in the brush. “Hyung.”
The Silky didn’t budge.
“Okay,” Jungkook muttered to himself, looking between Jimin and Namjoon, assessing what to do next.
Jimin let out another groan, his hand going to the jacket Jungkook had placed on his wound, and it looked like his eyes squinted open for a brief second, but he didn’t seem to have the strength to keep them open. He wouldn’t be going anywhere in the few moments it would take Jungkook to talk to Namjoon.
He stood up, walking over to the brush, right in front of the Silky. He met Namjoon’s eyes intently, speaking clearly and with purpose, “You need to carry him back to the cabin.”
The Silky shook his head. “Will scare him.”
“He’s barely conscious, hyung,” Jungkook pleaded. “I know you’re scared to reveal yourself, but if there was ever time, it’s now.”
Namjoon’s eyes darted between Jungkook and Jimin lying under the tree.
“It’s Jimin, and he’s hurt. We have to help him, hyung. It would take me too long to carry him back home—I don’t even know the way anymore. I—we need you, hyung. Please.”
Namjoon’s chest was rising and falling rapidly, his breathing nervous, panicked even. He stared at where Jimin was lying. Finally, he took a step forward, into the clearing, immediately hesitating.
“Good, hyung. You can do this, I know you can,” Jungkook encouraged. “I’ll get him, okay?”
Namjoon nodded.
Jungkook hurried back to Jimin, falling onto his knees again. “Jimin? Jimin, can you hear me?”
Jimin groaned, his head turning, and he squinted at Jungkook.
“It’s Jungkook. We’re going to help you, okay?”
He winced, closing his eyes again.
“Ah—” Jungkook glanced over his shoulder, the Silky waiting patiently, if not also nervously, tail between his legs, ears low. He needed to hurry up. “I dunno if you can hear me, but Namjoon’s here too. He’s here, but he’s, ah—a bit different than usual. Don’t get scared, okay? We’re helping you, I promise.”
Jimin made little response beside another faint groan, and Jungkook decided that was response enough.
He tried to be careful as he scooped up the injured boy, doing his best to protect the hurt shoulder. He carried him over to Namjoon, who, to Jungkook’s relief, quickly offered his arms out to take Jimin from him. His Silky form was strong, and he took hold of the boy as if he weighed little more than a pillow.
“You can get us home, right?” Jungkook asked.
Namjoon nodded, and wordlessly, they returned into the woods in the direction they must have come from.
Jungkook drew in a deep breath, exhaling slowly. “I don’t understand how he got out here. Meilin’s isn’t that close, is it?”
The Silky only huffed in response.
Jimin groaned, but he must have in his unconscious state found Namjoon’s form comfortable, nuzzling against the fur that started at his chest.
Jungkook watched as Namjoon looked down at Jimin, nervously studying the wound. “You don’t think…another Silky wouldn’t be around here, right?”
Namjoon just huffed again, picking up his pace. Jungkook had to jog to keep up, but soon the cabin was in sight.
~
“Baby, if you’re going to pace, can you please go do it outside? You’re going to knock over our TV or something,” Jungkook said to the Silky as he focused on tending Jimin’s wound.
Namjoon stopped his pacing, huffing as he leaned down to inspect Jimin resting on their futon, but then quickly turned away again, returning to his steps.
“The one night in the cycle you can’t change back,” Jungkook sighed to himself, taping down the final dressing across Jimin’s shoulder. The wound had still been bleeding when they first got to the cabin, but it didn’t seem to be soaking through the dressing anymore, which Jungkook took to be a good sign.
He sat back, letting out a tired sigh, eyeing over his treatment once more and deciding it was enough. He brought his hand up to Jimin’s forehead—no fever. No other injuries either, not even a small scrape from falling.
“What the hell happened to you,” Jungkook muttered, before taking in a breath and speaking up to talk to Joon, “I think he’s going to be okay, although if we think something like—like you—did this to him, we…we may need to—”
Jungkook stopped talking when Namjoon suddenly darted away, down the hall, and heard the door shut.
He groaned, “What now?”
“J-Jungkook?”
Oh. The Silky must have heard Jimin stirring awake before Jungkook had and chose to hide. He blinked down at the boy, who was squinting his eyes, groggy and confused.
“Where am—” Jimin winced as he tried to sit up, his hand going to the wound, fingertips running over the bandage. “What—what happened?”
“Careful. You can just lie here, it’s okay. You’re in our cabin,” Jungkook said as Jimin relaxed back down, resting his head on a pillow. “We found you out in the woods, hurt like this. Do you—do you remember what happened to you?”
“Ah, I—” he closed his eyes, scrunching his face in pain, his finger still running over the bandage.
“Try not to mess with that,” Jungkook said gently, carefully pulling Jimin’s hand away from the wound. “What happened, Jimin?”
“I—I’m not sure,” he said. “I remember I was on my way to Meilin’s, but—ah, you know these back country roads, I—I got turned around and so I ended up parking on the side of the road. I was gonna call her but I didn’t have much of a signal.”
“So you—went into the woods looking for a signal?”
“Well, no, I…” Jimin’s eyebrows were furrowed, clearly trying hard to remember, to make sense of the series of events that led him to this point. “I think I got startled or something? I dropped my keys, and I was on kind of a hill, so I thought they fell down into the woods…I—” he stopped talking, his hands going to pad at his pockets. The jangle of keys made a muffled noise against the fabric. “I found them. But then I…I heard something? I—I tried to find it. I don’t know why…”
Jungkook listened patiently, his mind wandering over the pieces that Jimin gave, trying to put them together in a way that would make sense. Based on Namjoon’s circumstances, it didn’t sound like a Silky. Namjoon hadn’t been sneakily attacked after being drawn in—he’d been chased. He hadn’t been entranced or forgotten anything. He remembered it all, perhaps too vividly. Could another Silky have different means of attacking, though? Namjoon in his creature form was so different to the one that had initially attacked him, maybe it wasn’t so unlikely.
“Jimin, do you…do you remember what attacked you?”
Jimin’s brows furrowed deeper. “Attacked?”
“Well, yeah, what—what did that to your neck.”
His hand went back to the bandage, but he immediately lowered it this time, his lips pouting as he thought. “N-no. You think something attacked me?”
Jungkook opened his mouth to respond, but his voice cut off. He glanced over his shoulder. He could see a shadow in the hall—Namjoon had come out of the room to listen. He closed his mouth, considering for a moment what to say. “Well, it’s just. Umm. Something like that happened to Namjoon, once.”
Jimin’s eyes wandered over Jungkook’s face. “You mean…that scar on his neck?”
Jungkook nodded. “I wonder…I wonder if it was something similar that hurt you.”
Jimin looked around, squinting at the light of the living room. “Where is Namjoon?”
“Oh, umm…” Jungkook hesitated, looking back at the hall. “I think he’s…busy, right now.”
“Busy?”
Yeah, that was a shit lie.
Jungkook stammered, “Well, ah, I mean—I think seeing you hurt kinda freaked him out. So I think he’s…calming down.”
It was a better excuse; certainly closer to the truth.
“Oh. Yeah, okay,” Jimin said, blinking, eyelids heavy.
“Why don’t you try to get some rest? We can talk about it more later,” Jungkook said, placing his hand on Jimin’s arm. “Rest would be good for you right now.”
Jimin chewed on his lip, hesitating, but eventually nodding. “I am pretty tired.”
Jungkook tried giving a small smile. “Yeah. I’ll go check on Joon while you rest.”
He got up, glancing back to watch Jimin settle deeper into the pillow on the futon, before he quickly turned down the hallway, almost immediately colliding into the Silky.
“Joon, fuck,” Jungkook said, stumbling, but the Silky held onto his arms to help steady him. He looked up at the creature and whispered, “He doesn’t remember what happened. I don’t think that would be the case if it’d been another Silky, right?”
Joon gave a quiet huff, his eyes darting between Jungkook and the end of the hall.
“I dunno if we should tell him. I mean, what’re the odds that it was just like, I dunno, a fucking raccoon or something? Then he’ll need to get a rabies shot—god, should I just take him to a hospital? But what if he turns? We need to be there for him, god, he’ll be so confused. He really has no idea what happened, hyung,” Jungkook said, all of the thoughts in his head spilling out all at once. “How long did it take before you started turning? A few days, right? So maybe we could—”
With all of his rambling, Jungkook didn’t hear Jimin approaching.
“—have any painkillers? My shoulder hurts too much to—”
Jungkook froze, looking up at Namjoon, who also froze. His gaze was past Jungkook, though, staring in panic at the boy behind him.
Jungkook quickly turned around. “Jimin! Umm—”
Jimin’s eyes were wide, his mouth agape. He took a shaky step back. His voice quavered, “What the fuck is that thing—”
Jungkook heard Namjoon move behind him, and his movement scared Jimin, the boy stepping back and stumbling, falling to the floor, scooting back against a wall. Jungkook glanced over his shoulder to see Namjoon running away down the hall. It was all happening too fast.
“Wait, no! We can explain! It’s—Namjoon, wait!” Jungkook looked between them, a frightened Jimin and a fleeing Namjoon. He lingered on Jimin a second longer, then huffed, turning and hurrying after the Silky.
He rushed through the abandoned open bedroom door, hurrying through the back door and out into the crisp air of the night. “Namjoon!”
The Silky, just at the edge of the woods, halted.
Jungkook, still catching his breath, rushed his words, “Please stay, hyung. We can explain everything; it’ll be okay. He needs to understand now anyway. Please. Please stay.”
The Silky, wide-eyed, studied Jungkook. He paused for what felt like centuries, until finally, his ears lowered in shame. His voice was a quiet, gentle rumble. “Sorry.”
He rushed into the brush and disappeared before Jungkook could get another word in.
Jungkook’s lungs ached as they filled and emptied with air over and over again. He hung his head, tears stinging at his eyes. Somehow it felt like it was his fault. Namjoon never wanted anyone to ever know, and Jungkook insisted they bring Jimin home. He could have taken Jimin into town, to a hospital, but he kept him here, when Namjoon had zero control over his form. Now all of the years Joon had worked to conceal himself in isolation were lost—someone saw him, someone feared him.
He pinched the bridge of his nose. No, now was not the time to become defeatist. It was more complicated than that—Jimin could be facing a similar fate, and he could need help. Jungkook could still fix this.
He returned to the cabin, slowly stepping inside and closing the door, but making sure not to lock it.
Jimin was still sat on the floor in the intersection of the hallway. It looked like he hadn’t moved, perhaps from shock. He did stir as Jungkook returned to the hall, staring at him with wide, panicked eyes as he approached.
“Jungkook, I’m freaking out. What—what the hell was that?” His voice was still shaky, barely stronger than a whisper.
Jungkook still hung his head, staring at the floor. They could have talked about it in the morning. It could have been Namjoon’s choice to let Jimin see his form; Jimin could have been forewarned, instead of frightened. It could have gone so much better than this.
“That,” he said, taking in a heavy breath and exhaling deeply, finally meeting Jimin’s gaze, “was Namjoon.”