Chapter Text
The thing about having a naturalistic mind-set in the 21st century is that most people won’t take you seriously anymore. Nature has lost its mystic temptation. Nowadays there is a logical explanation for almost everything, the evolutional secrets have been solved already. The phenomenon that is the earth in its wild and raw beauty is not a phenomenon anymore. People just don’t have the interest to deal with it any longer.
Jimin thinks that’s such a shame, really.
In his opinion, Nature is more than just a pretty landscape or some birdies hurdling together on a branch and chirping a melody. Nature is… Nature is just so much more! It’s life itself. Constantly moving. Always changing. Never the same. Telling an endless story. People nowadays just never listen or look closely enough to catch on.
Jimin likes to think that he is different. He listens. He looks. He gets surprised again and again. People like to think that they have uncovered all of Nature’s secrets already, but really, that’s not true. There is still so much to discover, still so much to explore. How flora and fauna evolved over the years, how Nature adapted again and again, to keep the world moving, to keep it alive. How it’s bound to grow over the following years, taking all kinds of scenarios into consideration, including even the most horrific ones in which mankind succeeded in destroying it all.
Because people nowadays just never listen or look closely enough to catch on.
Now Jimin would’ve been content enough with just watching Nature doing its work around him, taking notes and exploring the myths that are still left - including the big question about existence itself, for example - but sadly enough, that’s not really acknowledged by today’s society. Somehow Jimin needs to get money too, right? Somehow he has to live. He still managed to make his passion his profession though. Jimin is a “21st naturalist”, as his few friends like to call him, and since having the mind-set alone is not enough, he transferred it to literature and art. Just like the big philosophes and artists of the late 19th century, he puts his close observations to paper in form of honest words and genuine brushstrokes. Jimin has to be as realistic as possible with his work to show the things as they are, including their blemishes as well. It’s a challenge every time to be this brutally honest, but Jimin wouldn’t have it any other way.
People’s interest is moderate, to say the least. Most of them just won’t get it. And slowly but surely, Jimin starts to be fed up with others’ ignorance and crudity. The modern world is polluted, there’s so much faceless technology, boasting colours, static noise that mutes Nature’s filigree voice and Jimin is getting sick of it. He needs an escape. If he can’t take a break from other people anytime soon, if he can’t find a safe haven for him to flee to, to reorganize his thoughts and give free rein to his muse, he’s going to go insane. As it is at the moment, he’s not content at all with his work. People only hinder him and tarnish his sharp gaze.
Which is why he seeks loneliness, isolation and wilderness. As a naturalist, Nature is what he’s yearning for. He needs the time and peace to work on new books and new art, and he needs a place, expressive and deserted, where nobody is going to disturb him in his creativity.
He wanted to move from the city to the countryside for a while now anyway, so when he stumbles across a pretty nice proposition on the internet, he hesitates only for a little bit before accepting it. The mansion advertised on the net is described as old, a little decrepit, but immediately habitable and definitely not as modern as other houses of the same category. Just everything seems to be out of date, starting from the electricity system, over the water pipes and heating system, ending with the insulation, doors and windows and furniture. It’s… not really something people would choose as their home naturally, not when there are alternatives, not when the thorough distance to any bigger cities and bigger roads is added into the mix.
For Jimin, it’s perfect. It’s an old mansion from Victorian ages, surely renovated multiple times after that, but with the same old layout, directly habitable but with its rough curves and edges engraved by Nature’s influence. He’ll find what he’s lacking there. He’ll find quietness and solitude and hopefully peace. He should be able to hear Nature’s quite thin, delicate voice once again, calling out to only those who have an open enough mind to listen. He should be able to work on his new book, paint a new portrait.
For most people it’s just some old house being on sale, but for Jimin it’s a last resort.
Inspiration. That’s what he’s looking for. Inspiration, his muse, the fire that keeps his flaming passion burning. He just needs time to himself, to wind down and stop to think way too complicated and too much. He has somehow unlearnt how to feel. It’s time he starts to remember how that worked once again.
Just as he expected though, he’s pretty much the only one who sees the old mansion in that way - it’s just an old house being on sale for most people after all - but for once, being different from others comes in handy. He’s the only one who shows interest in it, which results in him winning the online-‘auction’ – which wasn’t an auction really, if nobody besides him was bidding – easily. He doesn’t even have to inspect the house beforehand.
Okay, maybe it’s a little stupid to trust some statements on the internet and not visit his future-to-be home before actually buying it, but honestly, Jimin doesn’t have the time – or the money – to look for something else. It looks to be in good enough shape – for his standards, at least – it fulfils all of his criteria that might be disadvantages for somebody else, such as being pretty far from the next bigger town, and it’s considerably cheap for its size. On top of that Jimin doesn’t have the time for a detailed search because he’s running out of money. As an artist and writer he isn’t blessed with the privilege of a regular income, he has to rely solely on the interest his works get. No inspiration means no new works, means losing people’s curiosity, means losing money.
So when he stumbles over the first subject having everything he’s looking for, he takes it without hesitation. It’s risky, he knows but to him, it’s worth it.
That’s how Jimin ends up standing at the beginning of an old, partly damaged gravel-path two weeks later, looking over to the decayed but still impressive mansion standing on a small hill between numerous giant trees, the car he just got out of filled to the brim with suitcases and boxes, most of them containing clothes, books and his art utensils. He left most of his old furniture in his former flat as he was told that the mansion was fully equipped.
Gazing up at his new home now, Jimin can’t help but be in awe by the raw beauty surrounding him. The mansion doesn’t contrast much against the landscape, doesn’t appear like a foreign body destroying its surroundings’ naturally given aesthetics. Instead it’s rather complimenting them, falling into place with the gentle lines of the forest behind it, colours rich and dark and adapting to Nature’s fresh, natural palette. There’s lots of wood and stone used to build the fundament, the roof consisting of neatly placed shingles made of slates. The only materials that can’t be found in the open countryside are glass for the windows and brass for doorknobs and the entrance gate. The sunlight – slightly filtered through leaves and quickly approaching dawn (it’s late in the afternoon) – casts a warm, almost dreamy glow over everything, the shadows long and nestling up to the objects like dark, protecting coats. The scenery is not tawdry though, far from picture-perfect, with the sunlight growing too weak to illuminate everything properly and Nature being wild and untamed, destroying the satisfaction of order, and marring wood and stone.
Jimin is a little in love with it already. He withstands the urge to sit down right then and there, on the dirty ground, to catch this peaceful moment in a quick drawing, but he does spend some extra minutes to just stare at his future home and take everything in.
He takes a deep breath, the musky scent of earth and wood prickling on his tongue and he jumps to action, reaching into the left pocket of his out-washed denim jeans to retrieve the house-keys. Deciding on leaving his luggage in his car for now, he makes his way up the short gravel-path to his new home, taking the two front-steps quickly before stopping once again at the massive, wooden frontdoor.
Jimin has to admit, there’s a little bit of nervousness starting to mix with his excitement. The mansion looks good enough from the outside, but what if he has been lied to after all? What if he finds a gigantic pile of chaos and problems – very expensive problems – on the other side of this door? He really hopes that’s not the case. Well. It’s certainly not very helpful to just dwell over it, he should keep going.
Closing his eyes for a quick moment to prepare himself mentally, Jimin puts the key in its hole and turns it a few times, until there’s a satisfying clicking sound and the door swings slowly inwards.
There’s a long, broad and wide hallway with a few open doors and a wooden stairway leading upwards, beautifully stone-made walls consisting of numerous tiny, colourful rocks, lots of darkness and lots of dust, but no obvious damages. Jimin sighs in relief, his shoulders dropping slightly as some of his tension is leaving him. It’s a good start. The rest of the house is hopefully in a similar condition.
The only thing that rubs Jimin the wrong way is the lack of furniture. Destroyed one, at that.
He might be naïve for buying a house without visiting it beforehand, but he did look up some stuff about the auctioneer and the former owners. With a little help of his computer-affine friend and partner-in-crime, a psychology student with the name of Kim Taehyung who is one of the few people on this planet that shares Jimin’s mind-set and beliefs (his saviour, really, the one person that is always there for him, encouraging him when he’s about to give up), it’s quite easy to find out that the mansion got sold by the government as it was vacant for many years now and – as Jimin suspects – they didn’t know what else to do with it. It’s one of the reasons why Jimin decided to trust the information on the internet, the possibilities of government itself lying about stuff like that were not that high.
Jimin got curious to learn something about the former owners then, as the house stood abandoned for so many years. It wasn’t hard to find information about them either, since the family seemed to be quite... well, popular back in the days. The Min family had been a very powerful, influential family back in the 1880s. They had never been royal, but they came very close to, as they worked as intimate consultants for several lords and bishops. They built this mansion as a wedding gift for one of their sons at around 1890 and his side of the family continued to live there, bequeathing it again and again, always to the oldest child.
It seems like the Min family’s wealth and influence perished naturally, as time moved on and time always brings change. What was once important suddenly wasn’t that important anymore, royals lost importance and bourgeoisie gained some, and there was simply no need for the Min family anymore. Notes end around 1920 with the last two heirs being two young brothers, the older, Min Byung-chul shot to death during one of the common student uprisings. The younger, Min Yoongi, apparently gave in to his grief and holed himself up in his mansion. Both never married or got any children. The documents don’t tell what happened to Yoongi exactly, but there are mentions of doctors visiting the house regularly, so Jimin assumes he died of some illness.
The mansion stood vacant ever since, with some anonymous benefactor taking care of it over the years until it got abandoned completely a few years ago. It seems like the state sold it due to lack of purpose. They simply didn’t know what to do with the old mansion, so they decided to try and make it into money instead of – most likely – demolishing it.
It would have been a shame, to destroy such raw beauty just for the heck of it.
But that’s what irks Jimin. The house stood abandoned for so many years now, with nobody caring enough for it to invest money and keep it in shape. So where’s the damage? Where are the cracks in the walls and the dirt and dust proliferating in the corners, where is the destroyed furniture? Jimin is pretty sure that no human soul has stepped into this building for several years, so who sneaked in and took the broken things out, since the general lack of furniture leads to the assumption that some things are missing, chairs and tables and lamps and decorative objects like paintings or vases?
Everything is just way too clean.
Others might have not even noticed such a small detail, but Jimin is used to watching out for exactly those details. He’s not one of the many that don’t bother to look closely enough.
There is the possibility that the state sent somebody to take care of it to make the mansion more appealing to possible buyers, but then again, wouldn’t they have advertised that in their online-announcement? Still, it’s the only explanation that would make sense for now, so Jimin settles for that as he closes the front door behind himself and moves further down the corridor, throwing curious glances in every room since all doors stand wide open.
He is pleasantly surprised to find all rooms in similar shape as the entrance corridor, seeing no damage at all. As far as he can tell, there is a giant living room that has two doors to it and takes up most of the left side of the house, equipped with a domestic fireplace, a big, burgundy couch, an ancient looking phonograph standing on a pile of dusty books instead of an actual table and even an old, wooden piano standing on one far wall opposite of the fireplace and in between two big windows. Jimin has the sudden urge to move closer to the instrument and try out if it’s still working, but he is curious to explore the upper floor as well, so he wants to get a quick look at the other rooms in the main floor before moving on.
All the walls are blank here as well, there are no paintings or mirrors hanging anywhere. Jimin is looking forward to install some of his own paintings, to give this beautiful but cold mansion a little more warmth and life.
The second door on the left side and the one on the right lead to a kitchen and a bathroom, both tiled – warm, earthy colours used for the kitchen, white and pale blue for the bathroom – and equally moderately equipped. The bathroom has a sink and a bathtub but that’s about it and the kitchen has some counters and an oven with some anciet hot plates installed. There is even a little fridge as well, and once again Jimin wonders where that's even coming from. Both rooms look a little more abandoned than what Jimin has seen up until now of the house and he makes a mental list of the things he needs to do:
- More furniture!!! (adaptation to rest of the house, lots of stone, lots of wood)
- cleaning
- Modernisation, e.g. renewing the hot plates, shower for the bathroom
- test electricity, get more lamps
- more cleaning
- test the piano
- choose a room to become the atelier
- decorating the rooms, e.g. hanging up some paintings
Jimin bets the list will get even longer once he has seen the upper rooms (he’s waiting for the sleeping chamber, for example) but still, he’s quite hopeful. It seems like making the mansion habitable isn’t going to be as expensive and time-consuming as he first thought.
He will know more once he examined everything though, so he better keeps going. He’s excited to see what else there is to discover. Without further ado Jimin leaves the main floor and its rooms behind, content with exploring those further later on, and quickly climbs the stairs at the end of the corridor that lead to the upper floor.
The staircase – big and fancy, dark wood of the railing decorated with flower-ornaments and bits of gold and silver – is actually a 180-degrees-staircase: right at their middle, the stairs get interrupted by a small platform as there is a sharp left-hand bend and the staircase shifts in a U-turn.
On the narrow, free area on the wall at the outer corner of this turn hangs a painting, immediately catching Jimin’s attention since it’s the first one he sees and probably the only one in the whole mansion. Well, it’s actually hard to miss. First of all, it’s quite huge just like the rest of the house, even taller than Jimin himself and winning over him by a scarce head. Second of all, it’s beautifully done. Jimin can’t help himself, he has to stop and stare for a while. Being an artist himself he experiences art far more intensely, with much more interest and care than most other people would want or could. Most people would just over-look the big picture and lose interest quickly as they think they’ve seen everything there is to see. Jimin is different. For Jimin, every shade of colour, every delicate stroke of the brush tells him a story, has its meaning and rightful place, makes the artwork to what it is in the end. Even the slightest difference would be able to change the outcome dearly. That’s what fascinates Jimin the most. The amount of detail and care you have to put into your work, the passion you need to create something that has people stop and stare. A good artwork doesn’t just look good. It manages to catch people’s interest, makes them stop and linger, forces them to feel something and Jimin sees that, he sees and understands and is left being in awe at such fragile beauty someone created with their own two hands.
This painting in particular has something that manages to draw him in and keep him rooted to the spot. It’s a portrait to be more precise, drawn in the – for that time common – style of Naturalism that Jimin finds so fascinating, colours rich and deep and mixing together harmonically. The piece of art shows a young man around his twenties, cut off directly over his hip, left side of his body on full display and gentle hands folded loosely over his stomach. He wears ancient, expensive clothing of the royals, a blinding white shirt with frilly collar and a gold-embroidered burgundy jacket, the fabric drawn so realistically Jimin starts to believe he just has to stretch out his hand to feel its roughness beneath his fingertips. The background of the painting however fades to a simple black as to not distract from the man and to illuminate his proud figure even further.
What really catches Jimin’s attention though is the face of the young man. It’s turned to the left a little, drawn in three-quarter profile, and the man’s raw, rare beauty has Jimin’s heart throb in his chest. Chiselled jawline and sharp cheekbones define that elegant, proud face that’s framed by wild jet-black locks, elegantly curved nose and slightly pursed lips drawing the illusion of indifference. Eyes, black and shimmering like glooming coals, seem to stare right at Jimin, seem to pierce directly through his very soul, gaze deep and challenging and like that of a king’s.
He looks powerful, unbothered, superior. Imperial. But still… there is this slight wisp of vulnerability lying hidden beneath the paint, showing in a tiny glint of insecurity in those strong eyes, how carefully and gently the man holds his hands. This unexpected softness and humanity in this otherwise so strict and powerful image is what catches Jimin’s interest and he can’t help but wonder what a genius its creator must have been to be able to erupt such conflicting feelings inside of ist viewers.
The man really is handsome, almost shockingly so. Jimin moves a little closer, to study the brushwork more intently, when he takes note of a small gold plate attached to the lower part of the dark wooden frame. He squints his eyes a little and manages to read:
“March 1918, Min Yoongi”
Oh! Jimin’s eyes widen in surprise and he stumbles back a few steps to look at the painting as a whole again. That’s Min Yoongi? The last heir of the Min family and the last one to live in this mansion up to his death?
Well… The painting is really beautiful. Jimin might leave that one hanging actually. After all it’s not damaged in any way and he wants to keep looking at it. Yeah. Yoongi is – was – quite attractive.
Finally forcing himself to snap out of the little trance the painting has put him in, Jimin shakes his head a little to clear it and sighs deeply to calm himself. He still has the entire first floor to explore and he’s really looking forward to the bedroom. From what he saw of the rest of the house he hopes for a nice, wonderfully made bed, maybe king-sized, with canopy and satin sheets.
The top floor looks very much like the entrance hall – the whole house is quite simply organized despite its bigness, just two long corridors, one on the top and one on the bottom, with doors leading to all the rooms that are sometimes connected with each other through doors or cut-outs, like the kitchen and living area for example. Jimin just has to move down the corridor again and peak into all rooms, this time with some of the doors closed.
He finds a toilet, another bathroom, bigger than the one downstairs but similarly equipped with just a sink and a big, porcelain tub, a music room of some sorts with another piano and a big desk littered with sheets of music and other loose papers, a harp standing in one corner of the room.
For real.
An actual, giant, fancy, functioning harp. It looks so fragile and beautiful, Jimin almost cries in joy. Instead, he adds something to the mental list in his head.
- Learn to play the harp!!!
He leaves the music room only hesitatingly, gaze lingering longingly on the new-found treasure and fingertips itching to pull on strings and test the new plaything out, but there are only two rooms left – both with closed doors – and Jimin wants to finish his scouting expedition before looking at the things in detail, getting his few belongings from his car and starting to make himself comfortable before going to sleep in his new home for the first time.
The first room is actually empty. It’s average in size, with big windows that allow lots of light to flood the room, giving it a friendly, open vibe and making it seem optically bigger. Jimin lets his gaze wander. That room would make a good atelier, the lighting and atmosphere are actually perfect. A happy smile grows on his face. Seems like he can cross at least one thing from his to-do-list. He just found his new working room.
Quite pleased with that rather unexpected discovery, Jimin moves on to finally examine the last room at the fair end of the corridor, opposite of the soon-to-be atelier.
It has to be the bedroom, there’s no other possibility left.
With flaring excitement and growing curiosity, Jimin reaches his hand out to press the doorknob, giving the door a gentle shove and watching as it slowly swings inwards. The room on the other side of the door is surprisingly dark, curtains closed and therefore banning any daylight from shining through the blinds. The light from the now open door is still strong enough to illuminate the whole room barely though and with passing time, Jimin is able to make out more and more of the décor.
It really seems to be the sleeping chamber. Little by little, Jimin’s eyes get used to the dark and soon enough, the shadows turn to silhouettes and then plastic objects. There’s the frame of a big bed right in the middle of the wall opposite of the door, satin, transparent canopy floating above it, glistening slightly in the poor light. There seems to be a big closet as well and a lengthy mirror reflecting some of the light and it catches Jimin’s attention at first.
That’s why… it takes him a moment to notice… the dark figure, standing beside the mirror in the far corner of the room. At first, he thinks it’s just another painting, because the figure stays perfectly still and it’s almost scary, because a human being shouldn’t be able to keep so still like that, without flexing a muscle, without their chest rising and falling to draw breaths. It’s way too plastic to be a flat painting though, way too detailed and realistic to be a mere statue, way too alive.
Jimin keeps on studying that strange figure, shock and disbelief freezing him to his place, sick interest and morbid curiosity making him stay and stare into the darkness until the figure becomes more and more visible, giving way to the image of a young man standing in the room with his head turned in the direction of the open door. He seems equally as caught off guard as Jimin feels and he keeps on standing there without moving, jaw set and shoulders drawn up slightly, as if he’s not very pleased about the unexpected intruder.
He looks… familiar to Jimin. The black-haired boy needs a moment to scour his shaken mind for the information he needs. Then… he realizes. And it all falls into place. The painting in the staircase. The young man, Min Yoongi, owner of this mansion hundreds of years ago. The stranger standing in the middle of Jimin’s bedroom… He looks just like him. The only difference is he has silver hair instead of black, single strands reflecting the light and making him glow softly like the moon, and his skin is even paler than on the painting, an unhealthy, white hue giving him the appearance as if all the blood has left his body.
He’s still so goddamn beautiful, Jimin doesn’t know what to do with himself. Even the clothes are the same, expensive burgundy jacket hugging his fit body like a second layer of skin, white, frilly shirt flashing underneath.
The whole situation is just so surreal! Thousand things and none at all are shooting through Jimin’s mind at the same time, leaving him at a loss of what to do. Occupied with his inner turmoil, his outer lack of reaction keeps dragging out. He is still absentmindedly studying the strange man across the room, eyes raking over his body and his face, which becomes more and more recognizable the more Jimin’s sight gets accustomed to the dark. It’s definitely the same guy from the painting. Min Yoongi. Same sharp, well-defined features. Same flawless beauty. And yet… his eyes…
They lack all emotion. There are no traces of insecurity or carefully hidden vulnerability left in them. There is not even the so proudly displayed arrogance or disdain. Yoongi’s expression is uncomfortably unreadable as he meets Jimin’s gaze, eyes two black pools that draw him in and threaten to swallow him whole, capturing him in an almost trance-like state. There is something thrillingly inhuman lying in them, something raw and animalistic that sends cool chills down Jimin’s spine and has his heart skip a fearful beat, the little organ pounding almost painfully against his ribcage.
The stranger’s – Yoongi’s – eyes shoot down to his chest for the split of a second as if he can hear Jimin’s racing pulse, before locking gazes once again, so quick in fact, Jimin is not sure if he hasn’t just imagined it. Those black eyes sparkle with a completely new kind of interest now, something a little less emotionless and dead but something alarmingly awake and on alert, something akin to hunger. Jimin can’t help but to shudder bodily as he watches Yoongi move all of a sudden, his tongue darting out to drag slowly over his lower lip, dark eyes practically eating Jimin up alive. The silver haired man cocks his head to the side in what seems to be curiosity, movements quick and jerky like those of a bird and Jimin can’t get rid of the sudden feeling that this man, this… this thing is not human at all but of supernatural origin, that it’s something dark and powerful and ethereal. Something that stands superior to humans in every way. Something that could kill him in an instant, without batting an eyelash, without feeling remorse.
This is ridiculous.
Jimin is not a mouse and this guy is not the cat. It’s- it’s simply not possible that Min Yoongi, who has died years ago, is now standing in the middle of Jimin’s sleeping chambers, staring him down and being very much alive.
Nu huh, nope, Jimin is not buying it!
There has to be a logical explanation for this. He’s not having it. Jimin simply refuses to acknowledge it. Coming to that conclusion, he is able to compose himself enough to finally jump into action.
Without taking his eyes off of this… illusion, this- this figment, Jimin backs off slowly and moves to close the door again with a mumbled “Nah” and a simple shake of his head.
He stands there for a long moment, just blankly staring at the dark wood of the once again closed door. “What the fuck. What the actual fuck,” Jimin finally mutters, still not quite believing it. He still feels pretty much out of it and the shock makes him shake all over, hands trembling slightly as he lifts them to drag them through his hair and over his face, at a loss of what to do next. He is… torn.
A part of him - the rationalistic, methodical, analytical part – tells him that he can’t deny what he just saw. There is an actual person standing in his room, he is way too vivid, way too real to be a mere illusion, way too physical to be a simple refraction of light or something of that sorts. There is a man standing in his room and he looks exactly like Min Yoongi, heir of the Min family, who is supposed to be dead for hundreds of years now. That’s a fact. He just… can’t wrap his head around it yet.
Which is why another part of him just wants to laugh really hard, because this is ridiculous and impossible but it’s happening and it’s true and he just- he wants to double over with laughter, or sit down on the ground right where he stands and cry his eyes out, or scream until his lungs burn and yeah, he’s probably just going crazy.
He feels definitely a little insane right now, the beginnings of an actual hysteric cackle tickling the back of his throat. Jimin fights it back, because he is pretty sure once he starts to laugh he won’t be able to stop until he’s crying actual tears and then the whole atmosphere might shift and he will continue to sob instead… So yeah.
As crazy as this whole situation is and as over-whelmed and lost as he feels, his top priority is to stay calm, at least on the outside. That way he should be able to keep it together inwardly as well, at least for now.
That still doesn’t answer the question of what he should do now. Well… He could check the painting. Look, if Min Yoongi is still on his canvas and hasn’t escaped into the real world. Or he could just compare images. Maybe the stranger in his bedroom does look different after all, and his mind is playing him tricks.
Yeah, that has to be it! It doesn’t solve the problem of someone being in his fucking house, but it would at least make the stranger human, it would take the creepy, surreal and most scary aspects away. It would at least make things comprehendible.
Feeling a lot more calmer and saner already, Jimin takes a deep breath, new-found determination filling him. He’s going to check the painting!
“Not today, Satan. Not today!,” he growls under his breath, turning around and practically running down the hallway, skittering to a halt right at the top of the stairs and almost toppling over and falling down in his rush.
Then he stands there, breathing heavily, staring down at the giant painting hanging on the wall at the little platform below him. He studies the painting intently, silently and he feels all colour leaving his face. The panic is coming back full force, hands trembling as he curls them to tight fists at his sides, the walls seeming to close in on him as his vision blurs all of a sudden, his own blood rushing way too loudly in his ears. He feels nauseous, sick to the stomach, there are black dots dancing before his eyes. Cold sweat is collecting on his forehead, dripping down his temples and nape. This has to be a nightmare.
Min Yoongi can’t possibly be in his bedroom right now. What the hell is going on!
Only from far away, through a haze of white noise does Jimin register the sounds of a door opening and closing, footsteps coming down the hallway towards him. The hair at the back of his neck stands on end, a fearful shudder shooting down his spine. His heart is beating so fast, Jimin actually thinks it might explode at any moment. Still, he is pretty much frozen to the spot, gnawing on his bottom lip and eyes trained on the painting without really seeing it as he waits for the footsteps to get closer, finally stopping right beside him.
Jimin slowly turns his head, finding himself studying Min Yoongi’s profile as the other gives the painting of himself a quick once-over before whipping his head around, meeting Jimin’s gaze. His lips twitch up to a polite smile and Jimin feels like laughing again. He really seems to be losing his mind.
“What- what are you?,” he finds himself whisper finally, voice unsteady and wavering and breaking at the end. Instead of an answer, the silver-haired male stretches his lips wider to an actual grin where his teeth are showing and Jimin feels like the last bit of his sanity is leaving him right there.
Fangs. Two pointy, long canines are greeting him, pressing down against Yoongi’s bottom lip and this is so ridiculous and cliché, Jimin can’t contain a nervous giggle.
“Oh, of course a vampire! Isn’t it obvious! Jesus Christ, you have to be kidding me,” Jimin comments, looking down at the painting and back at Yoongi again, whose smile is slowly fading, fangs disappearing from sight once again.
“We need to talk. I have a few questions of my own,” the guy says and Jimin feels goosebumps rising on his skin at the rich, smooth quality of his voice. Jimin finds himself nodding in agreement.
~~~
They end up having quite a long talk with a rather unexpected outcome.
At first, everything seems to be turning out better than expected. They move downstairs where they sit down opposite of each other at the giant dining table, having a talk about the most urgent concerns – mainly who Jimin is and what he’s doing here on Yoongi’s- and the whole vampire-thing on Jimin’s part.
Jimin is actually taking it surprisingly well. He just… accepts the obvious to be honest. He doesn’t doubt, not even for one second, that Yoongi is telling the truth, because it’s actually the only explanation that makes sense. Yoongi is the one portrayed in the painting in the staircase, and that painting is hundreds of years old. Yoongi is hundreds of years old. Him being a vampire is as good of an explanation as everything else.
Jimin always had been more open-minded than most People anyways. After all he had that naturalistic mind-set and he was of the opinion that Mother Nature hasn’t shown mankind all of her secrets yet. The fact that vampires actually existed… Well, it is just another mystery that got uncovered only to Jimin’s eyes, and he feels actually quite honoured by that. After having recovered from his previous shock – which was mostly caused by the fact that he didn’t know what the fuck was going on – he is way calmer now, facing Yoongi with curiosity and open excitement.
The vampire in return is seemingly startled by that rather unusual behaviour of the human. He is used to screaming and crying, used to people attacking him or cowering before him in fear, used to accusations and pleas and denial of the truth. In all the decades he has wandered this realms now, it’s the first time someone is confronting him with so much acceptance and fearlessness, almost… delight upon meeting him.
Or… not quite the first time… Maybe the second, but Yoongi doesn’t want to think about it, doesn’t want to think about brown eyes filled with nothing but warmth and understanding, about that dimpled smile that gave him so much strength and hope, about those steady hands that touched him so gently and lovingly when he himself just hated what he had become, when he thought of himself as a monster.
He would lie if he said it didn’t spark his own curiosity, something that is pretty hard to do with how long he has been alive already and with how much he has seen.
Jimin knows he should probably be shitting his pants right now in fear since vampires are mostly described as greedy monsters that hunt humans down to get to their sweet, sweet blood, but then again, if Yoongi really wanted to harm him in any way, Jimin would have been dead the moment he stepped out of his car an hour ago when he arrived. He doesn’t doubt that for one second.
So yeah, they are doing quite good at first, explaining to each other how they got here, that Yoongi never actually left this mansion, only sometimes at night to get something to eat – mostly animals or blood-bags from near-by hospitals – how Jimin rightfully bought the house since Yoongi missed to take care of the paperwork and humans simply forgot about him, and they come to the conclusion that they actually might have to live together in this mansion from now on. It’s quite a lot to take in, for both parties. Neither of them had expected to get company, both of them would need some time to come to terms with it. At first though, they are quite hopeful to make it work somehow.
The turning point however is when they go a little into detail about their actual lives.
Yoongi asks Jimin if he has any passions, and the human starts to talk with sparkling eyes, about writing and about art.
“I just- I enjoy exploring new things. I like to study nature in its many, countless forms. Sometimes I question if it was the right decision… To make my passion my profession. You know, it’s pretty hard to obtain a naturalistic mind-set in our century, most people are just so ignorant and blind towards world’s silent secrets,” Jimin explains. And Yoongi feels an unexpected wave of searing hot anger washing over him, Jimin’s words blurring together until only one phrase rings in his ears, repeating again and again. “Naturalistic mind-set.” “Made my passion my profession.” “Made Naturalism my profession.”
“Naturalism teaches one of the most important things in this world. There is only this life, so live wonderfully and meaningfully.*”
A soft voice reaches his ear, deep and rich like cinnamon and velvet, and it comes from far away, from a time long since forgotten, long since suppressed, because as beautiful as those moments were back then, as painful the memories are now and Yoongi tries to fight it, Yoongi tries to forget again, but he can’t and the scene starts to play in front of his inner eye, fresh and clear... like it had only been yesterday…
“Naturalism teaches one of the most important things in this world. There is only this life, so live wonderfully and meaningfully.*”
“Are you reading some books about Naturalism again instead of studying for your literature class?” Yoongi is seemingly not impressed by his friend’s philosophic outburst, looking up from his school book to give his study-companion a disapproving glance. The tall, lanky boy sitting opposite of him just grins sheepishly, his endearing dimples making Yoongi’s heart skip a beat. Kim Namjoon is the only heir to the famous Kim household, a family of aristocrats that travel through the land and accompany royal families on their numerous quests. Normally, Namjoon would be with them and get taught by a private teacher, but Namjoon had always been an independent kid and his family had quite modern ways of thinking. When Namjoon wanted to stay back in his hometown alone, to attend the town’s renowned university, his parents agreed with the only request of him taking some extra lessons together with Yoongi and his private teacher.
Which is why they are currently sitting in the living room of the mansion that Yoongi’s bigger brother got as a present for his engagement, busy with studying for an upcoming test.
“I don't bill myself as an atheist but as a naturalist. Naturalism is a belief system. A lot of scientists bristle at that. We all have to believe we can find the truth. Evidence is my guide. I rely on observation, experimentation and verification,*” Namjoon answers cryptically, smile only growing, dimples deepening, and Yoongi can’t suppress and amused laugh.
“Stop it, you will get yourself into trouble! You know opinions like that are not appreciated in our society. Remember what they did with poor Darwin. People will think you are a part of one of those shameful, revolutionary student uprisings that go on a rampage on the streets, just by letting the word ‘Naturalism’ tumble off of your lips.”
He is actually joking, but Namjoon’s smile dies down immediately, making room for a way too serious frown, and Yoongi stops to laugh too, sudden fear washing over him like somebody dropped a bucket of icy water over his head.
“They might not be wrong,” Namjoon admits, brows furrowing. Yoongi can just look at him in total shock.
“Look… Having a naturalistic mind-set… It’s not as easy as reading some books and watching flowers grow, it’s not just some hobby to kill time. It’s so much more than that. It’s like an approach to life, you have to be really convinced of your opinion and beliefs. You have to conciously decide for it and stand by your opinion. I chose to think like this. I chose to live like this. It’s only natural if I also choose to defend this, my way of thinking, my way of seeing the world. Nature has so much more to give than what people are willing to see. I think that’s such a waste. I’m willing to actually do something about that, I’m willing to fight the old, stiff authorities, to make them at least accept my point of view. This land is in desperate need of change and I am willing to go out there and shout it from the rooftops.”
During the entirety of Namjoon’s little speech, Yoongi had stayed deathly quiet and even now, he seems unable to mutter a word. ‘But I am scared for you,’ he wants to say. ‘I don’t want to lose you. You mean too much to me.’
He can’t really tell his friend that however, so he sticks to what he normally does: He changes the subject.
“You have been talking to my brother, admit it! He told you to join their little uproars, he is the one who corrupted you. Both of you are going to get yourselves killed if you don’t watch out!”
Namjoon, who seemed to have waited for any kind of reaction from his friend, sighs in defeat.
“Look, Yoongi, I am asking you to at least try and understand me. You don’t have to agree with me, you don’t have to support my decisions. But I want you to at least try. I don’t know what your opinion is of me, but I certainly didn’t ask for this. I didn’t just choose one day to become a naturalist because I thought it would be fun or because I just saw the benefits. It’s so much more than that. Naturalism… It’s me. It’s how I see the world. Is it so wrong that I feel offended when the public rejects and ridicules me? Is it so wrong that I want to change that? Please, Yoongi, just try to respect my feelings too.”
He stands up then, placing a heavy hand on his friend’s shoulder. Yoongi hates how much that simple touch affects him, hates how his whole body tingles pleasantly and how fast his heart beats all of a sudden.
He bites his own tongue and keeps silent.
“I will give you some time to think about it. Let’s talk again, another time,” Namjoon suggests, giving Yoongi’s shoulder a light squeeze. Yoongi feels light-headed all of a sudden.
Then, just like that, Namjoon’s hand is gone and the older man has left the room, without even giving Yoongi a chance to explain himself.
Yoongi is alone.
Jimin’s voice brings him back to reality, the black-haired boy having not noticed how Yoongi drifted away, and just continued talking.
“-my friend Taehyung. He’s the only one who gets me… kind of. Maybe you could meet him some time! We need to think of an explanation though… We can’t just tell him the truth now, can we?” Jimin says with a giggle, totally oblivious to the rising tension in the room and Yoongi’s sudden hostility.
“I have heard enough!” Yoongi interrupts the human just like that and Jimin stutters to a halt, the confusion clear on his face at the other’s suddenly so aggressive tone.
“I can’t stand your ignorance and arrogance. Using Naturalism as your profession… Mistreating it just to get some money out of it… Do you even understand what you are doing? Do you even get what Naturalism is? It’s not just a mere tool, it’s nothing you can treat with so much disrespect!”
Yoongi is openly snarling now, a cold fire burning in his dark eyes, lips curled back to reveal his pointy fangs. He’s getting his emotions mixed into this, he is losing his composure. That’s never good. Jimin is actually so caught off guard by the sudden outburst, he keeps quiet, watching Yoongi with big eyes.
“You don’t even have a clue what you are talking about when you use the term ‘Naturalism’ so easily like that. And how could you! You are way past the time of when Naturalism had its peak. You were not there when it started, you didn’t watch it grow and perish again. But I! I was there! I saw it all! I saw how much it meant to the people, I saw how strongly they believed in it, how much hope they set into it. It was their strength and their religion, the fuel that kept them going! It helped them to understand the world. And now you sit here… Talking about how you struggle to turn your naturalistic work into money… It enrages me! You bring shame to something that once manged to move thousands. People died for their naturalistic beliefs and you sell it- you sell them off, just like that. It disgusts me!”
Yoongi doesn’t even notice, but sometime during his little speech he must have stood up, because Jimin is now doing the same, confusion long since switched to an expression of shock and offence.
“Look, Y-Yoongi I had no idea you felt so strongly about this-” he starts, but Yoongi doesn’t want to hear any of it. No matter what Jimin is going to say, no matter which lame excuses he’ll try to find, Yoongi has made up his mind already. Jimin is a horrible person, spitting on everything his Namjoon had once loved and protected, and he just wants him gone.
“Safe your breath. I certainly have heard enough. You are no longer a welcomed guest in my house, so I request of you to leave,” he interrupts the human coldly, already turning towards the door to leave the room.
“Yoongi, wait! Are you serious? Look, I’m sorry, but I think you’ve misunderstood-”
“Oh believe me, I understood you just right!”
“No but-”
“Enough!”
“Yoongi, come on!”
“Stop already!”
Yoongi definitely hadn’t wanted to raise his voice like that, but Jimin just wouldn’t give up and he has had enough! Can’t the human just leave!
“So you really won’t let me explain?” Jimin asks after a short silence and Yoongi doesn’t even bother to answer him this time. The vampire just gives him a pointed look that seems to say it all, because Jimin’s shoulders actually deflate a little in disappointment before he squares them once again, jaw set and expression one of determination as he lifts his head up high and looks Yoongi straight in the eye.
“You won’t even let me explain myself. Fine with me. But I am not going to leave! I have legally bought this mansion as my own and even if you are allowed to stay here as the respectable heir, I am just as entitled to stay here as you are. So I hope you’ll get that goddamn stick out of your ass and stop being such a douchebag, because you’ll have to deal with me from now on and I don’t plan on leaving soon!” he tells Yoongi right to his face, feeling some kind of sick satisfaction at seeing the vampire’s expression turn from shock to actual outrage, lips moving in obvious search of a witty response.
He seems to find none, because after a while he just shoots a murderous glance in Jimin’s direction, handsome pale face back to its pristine, emotionless state, before he turns around briskly and leaves the room with a clearly audible huff, banging the door in the process.
Jimin stays in his standing position a few seconds longer, tension and adrenaline pumping though his veins, before he is sure that Yoongi definitely won’t come back and only then allowing himself to relax again.
He sinks back into his chair, feeling weak all of a sudden, his legs almost giving out. Well, that definitely didn't go like expected. Yoongi totally got holf of the wrong end of the stick. But he won’t even allow Jimin to explain himself…
Jimin now definitely has an opinion about Yoongi too. He seems to be arrogant and unfriendly, and just a pain in the ass in general. Instead of asking Jimin for clarification, he jumped to his own conclusions right away, not even giving Jimin the chance to defend himself. Yoongi might hate him now, but Jimin is actually okay with that. The feeling is mutual.
The thing is… Even if he wanted to follow Yoongi’s request and just leave again, he wouldn’t be able to do it. He spent almost all his money to buy this mansion and he already sold his old flat. Jimin has nowhere else to go.
So yeah, for the moment Yoongi is actually stuck with him, as much as the vampire – and he himself – despise that idea. It can’t be helped. Jimin is not the type to cry over spilled milk. Pushing all his raging emotions of anger, infuriation and hurt pride – also slight disappointment and hurt, to his own wonder – to the back of his mind, he stands up to leave the room too.
He still needs to get his stuff from his car and he plans to do that before the sun has fully set behind the horizon. He doesn’t see Yoongi again for the rest of the night.
~~~
The thing is, as much as they claim to hate each other, as much as they sneer in each other’s faces that they just want to get rid of each other, they don’t want to actually get rid of each other. Not really.
Sure, they thoroughly dislike each other. Yoongi thinks that Jimin is disturbing his peace and unrightfully claimed something that wasn’t his since this is righteously Yoongi’s mansion after all, and Jimin can’t stand how snobbish and self-centred and down-right arrogant the vampire seems to be, belittling him for his interests and beliefs just like everybody else, and yet here they are at 7am in the morning, sitting opposite of each other at the giant dining-table, staring each other down wordlessly.
For Yoongi, Jimin is company. Even if it’s unwanted one. But… he has been alone for so long now… And Jimin knows, he doesn’t even have to hide his true self from him. The human seems to be still fascinated by vampires although his dislike for Yoongi in particular is quite obvious. Still… Yoongi wants to be a little selfish. He feels obliged to resent Jimin for his indirect belittling of Namjoon – a big chapter in Yoongi’s life he didn’t manage to overcome, not to this day, not even after such a long time. Yet, despite Yoongi’s great repulsion, he can’t help but to use Jimin to his advantage – although he wouldn’t admit that even to himself. He wants to hate Jimin with every fibre of his heart, wants to use him as the epitome of all of Namjoon’s great obstacles, wants to make him responsible for why he lost him in the end. Of course deep down, Yoongi knows that it’s not really Jimin’s fault and it’s actually pretty shitty and stupid of him to unleash all his built-up emotions and frustrations on that innocent, good-hearted human, but all of this has been eating away at him for way too long now and Jimin is involved, Jimin is there, and that’s actually enough to use him as a target for all his pent-up wrath. Sometimes… Jimin even reminds him of Namjoon, when he brings all his art stuff upstairs for example, saying he is going to make an atelier out of that empty room opposite of his sleeping chambers, so much fire and passion burning in his dark-brown eyes – and it’s not even the art-thing, because Namjoon hadn’t been able to draw for shit, but he could play the harp like no second – it’s more this unconditional, deep-rooted love for what they do – did, in Namjoon’s case – and Yoongi wonders how that cold, dead heart is still able to hurt and throb inside his chest. A part of him wants to get rid of Jimin because of that too, because he reminds him of Namjoon, and it hurts, it hurts so badly he wants to die, but yet again… it’s the exact same reason why he wants to keep Jimin close. He reminds him of Namjoon. He is company, even if it’s unwanted one. He really doesn’t want to be concerned with his raging emotions like that. He’s not ready to confront his inner demons yet. He probably never will be. So he just tells himself that he dislikes Jimin, because that’s much easier. The little part of him that clings to Jimin like he is his lifebelt gets ignored. That had always been his way of dealing with things.
For Jimin, it’s not something as deep-running or conflicting. Yoongi is just a stranger to him after all. He doesn’t remind him of anyone, he doesn’t trigger memories of better days. No, for Jimin, Yoongi is actually reassurance. The mere thought itself is ridiculous, given the fact how lowly Yoongi spoke of Jimin’s work, but that’s kind of the point. It’s the opposite of what he normally has to deal with, usually people admit that he’s good in what he does, but they ridicule his motivation behind it, they laugh about his passion and they attack him for his naturalistic mind-set. Yoongi had been entirely different. He solely criticized Jimin’s attitude, questioned his motivation behind his work for entire different reasons, and he didn’t lose one single bad word about Naturalism itself and that’s such a refreshing twist to Jimin, he could almost forget how disrespectful and downright mean Yoongi had been towards him. Almost. Jimin is still pretty much pissed about the outcome of that argument, because he didn’t get the chance to explain himself. Judging by Yoongi’s attitude that won’t happen in the near future either.
It’s… actually the reason why he has such a strong reaction to Yoongi. The more the vampire is going to resent him without reason, the more he’s going to try and drag him down, the more Jimin is going to dislike him too, because he sure as hell has enough of people coming after him without reason and he is way too stubborn for his own good. The more Yoongi wants him to leave, the more Jimin wants to stay. The more Yoongi wants to guilt-trip him, the more annoyed he gets. Still… There is something about Yoongi that catches his interest. The most fascinating thing is, of course, that he is an actual vampire. A few days ago he hadn’t even known that vampires existed, had thought they were nothing but a mere fairy tale. Now that he knows the truth… He wants to know everything. He is so curious! About the centuries Yoongi has witnessed, all the things he has seen. How his body works, how he feeds. It’s the naturalist in him. He wants to analyse it all, is eager to learn. He is used to being open for new things, close-mindedness and prejudices don’t get people anywhere, in his opinion.
So yeah, both of them have their reasons to actually appreciate each other’s company after the first heat of that argument wore off.
Both of them can’t and don’t want to admit that of course. It’s much more easier to pretend, even in front of themselves, to thoroughly dislike each other. So instead of just pulling through with it and choosing the most effective, most radical way that would guarantee immediate success and would result in one of them leaving right away depending on which one jumps to action first, they both silently agree on a far more tricky, not as promising and definitely way more long-winged solution in the end, disguising it as their only option.
“I have been thinking,” Jimin starts, voice snippy and clipped, Yoongi not even looking directly at him to acknowledge that he heard him.
“I want you gone from my house, and you pretty much want the same. Well, I’m definitely not going to leave, and as much as I hate to admit it, I do get that you won’t leave by choice either,” the younger continues, dark-brown eyes lingering on the vampire’s stiff figure and narrowing slightly when he still doesn’t get a reaction. Goddamn, that stubborn bastard!
“Why don’t we turn it into a little bet?” he still continues, voice rising an octave as he declares his, as he thinks, brilliant plan. A look of surprise actually ghosts over Yoongi’s face before he can contain himself and Jimin can’t help but smirk rather smugly. Got you, arrogant brick!
“I… am interested. Explain further,” the vampire admits, eyes finally moving to look Jimin directly in the eyes.
“Well, it’s not really a bet, as per say. It’s more like… trying to chase each other out of the house. Playing pranks on each other until one of us gives up and leaves,” Jimin explains and Yoongi allows himself to scoff disparagingly.
“You do realize that I am a vampire who has lived for hundreds of years already, right? My patience should be greater than yours, by far,” he mocks, sneering right into Jimin’s face and the black-haired male feels his temper rising at that.
Jumping up so fast his chair almost falls backwards, slamming both his hands on the table, he leans forward to get into Yoongi’s personal space, eyes dark and determined as they meet Yoongi’s.
“Well, then bring it on!” he challenges, baring his teeth to a grim smile of his own and Yoongi stands up as well, managing to keep his cool.
“Oh, it’s going to be my pleasure,” he answers coldly, accepting Jimin’s challenge without hesitation. He leaves the room after that and Jimin slumps back down into his chair, pinching the bridge of his nose with an irritated sigh. Yoongi manages to drive him up the walls every single time, it’s actually getting ridiculous. He thinks he can celebrate his triumph already?
Well then. He should better buckle up then. Jimin is actually in this to win this. Let the games begin!
~~~
They hit it off harmlessly enough. Both of them are reluctant to be the one who strikes first, so they wait a few more days in which Jimin brings the last of his stuff inside the house and finishes to decorate his atelier, all the while searching the ‘vampire’-tag on Google to find out all of Yoongi’s weaknesses, while the vampire watches him suspiciously, expecting a surprise-attack at any second.
Jimin turns out to be really the one to make the first move, but he does it so subtly and it’s something so ridiculous, Yoongi almost misses it at first.
The signs are small, but they start to pile up, and that’s what makes Yoongi suspicious in the end. Firstly, he notices this weird, sharp smell hanging in the air nowadays every time he enters the mansion, and he curses his improved olfaction more than once because that smell is burning in his nostrils and lungs, making him feel like he is breathing liquid fire. Now Yoongi, being a vampire and all, doesn’t really have to breathe air to stay alive, but holding his breath is downright annoying, because he has to always remind himself of it.
It doesn’t take long for him to associate that smell to Jimin.
That boy had been way too happy these past few days, spending more time in the kitchen than everywhere, seeming to be always cooking, 24 hours a day, non-stop. It’s only a week later though, when he realizes everything. Things are getting downright ridiculous. It’s actually 3am in the morning when Yoongi comes home from a hunt and the last thing he expects to see is motherfucking Park Jimin in a baby-blue apron standing at the stove, turning his head in the direction of the vampire when he notices him standing in the doorway dumb-foldedly and he gives Yoongi such a sweet smile it is almost creepy. The human lifts his hand then, to demonstratively throw a whole bulb of garlic into the soup he is brewing. A whole bulb! Not just a clove, like normal people would do, no! A fucking bunch of cloves – a goddamn bulb - at once, all the time staring Yoongi down challengingly, smile bordering on being almost demonic now, and it’s then that the scales fall from his eyes.
Jimin’s sudden cooking obsession. That horrible, murderous smell hanging over the mansion and torturing Yoongi for almost a week now. The ridiculous high amount of times Jimin had made something to eat, and just – when he had made it! He may be a vampire for almost a decade now and he therefore might have forgotten how it was to have regular eating times, but now actually thinking about it, he is pretty sure 3am in the fucking morning or trice in a period of two hours is not a usual cooking schedule at all. Furthermore… giving it some extra thought… had he actually seen Jimin eat all of what he cooked throughout the day? More often than not he had fled the kitchen – the hatchery of the bad smell – before Jimin had finished creating his garlic-poisoned meals.
Following a sudden urge, Yoongi rushes over the fridge besides the stove, Jimin watching him with a smug expression, still calmly mixing the garlic into his stew and not even trying to stop him. When Yoongi opens the door, he has to physically recoil. The whiff that greets him is so toxic, he swears it almost snatches him bald. Yoongi's first reaction is to stumble several steps back, curling his upper lip over his fangs and hissing at the fridge and its outrageous ingredients. The whole thing is filled to the brim with finished dishes, all of them neatly wrapped up to safe them for later and all, without doubt, having so much garlic in it, it could kill a man – or, more precisely, a vampire.
His second reaction is to turn towards Jimin, his anger flaring even more at the mockingly innocent smile he receives and he rushes forward to grab Jimin by the hem of his shirt. The human tries to protest, but Yoongi is having none of it as he drags Jimin with him, out of the contaminated kitchen to the near-by living room where the smell is not so strong anymore. Yoongi also opens all the windows immediately, just for good measure.
“What in the world are you trying to do?” he finally asks, more like snarls into Jimin’s face, dark eyes burning with cold fire, fangs snapping mere centimetres in front of the human's nose, but Jimin doesn’t even flinch, instead sticking his tongue out at the vampire in a childlike manner to tease him even further.
“I just suddenly found out about my love for garlic, I can’t help it. It’s not my fault that vampires can’t stand this formidable vegetable,” he explains.
“You can always leave the house if you feel disturbed in any way by my presence,” he adds, tone dropping to something expectant, sly and Yoongi swears to god, he wants to punch that cocky smirk right off of Jimin’s face.
“No… thank you. I won’t leave, don’t worry. You won’t have it this easy,” he manages to say between grit teeth, balling his hands to tight fists in an attempt to calm himself.
“Okay, whatever you say, Yoongi. It’s your decision after all,” Jimin says with a giggle, before turning around and leaving the room, a happy skip to his steps. He no doubt returns back to his witches' kitchen, finishing that horrible broth.
Damn, Jimin definitely did his research, catching Yoongi off-guard like that. The vampire moves to one of the open windows swiftly, taking a big gulp of the chilly night air. So… Jimin officially started their little game of trying to chase each other out of the house then. Well, it’s Yoongi’s time now to strike back. And he has a few ideas already.
A small smile steals itself on his handsome, pale face as he allows his thoughts to wander, thinking of all the possibilities he had to get back on Jimin.
~~~
Yoongi is a strategic type of person. He likes to plan things out and consider every single problem that might occur, likes to think of different scenarios and compare outcomes to each other, always deciding for the more profitable in the end. He likes to have everything under control. It gives him a feeling of security. It numbs the fear of the unknown.
So after his dispute with Namjoon, Yoongi thinks he knows how things will develop from there. He has his future painted out for himself already, he knows his destined path. Or so he thinks.
His perfectly elaborated plan doesn’t foresee him banging frantically on Namjoon’s door in the middle of the night a few days later, barely able to hold himself upright with the harsh sobs shaking his thin frame, formerly white blouse torn and dirtied with his blood, the pain wracking through his body only surpassed by the over-whelming panic searing through his veins.
His hysteric knocking must have sounded urgent enough because it doesn’t take long until the door is ripped open suddenly, a sleepy-looking Namjoon freezing at the unexpected, horrible sight of his friend.
“Oh Yoongi… What happened to you?” he asks sympathetically, grabbing Yoongi by the shoulders to pull him further into his hallway and more towards the light of some burning candles standing on a little table besides the door. Yoongi wants to answer, he really does, but he is crying so hard right now and his teeth keep clinking together, and he can only dig his fingers into Namjoon’s nightgown while the older examines the wound on his neck under the gleam of the candles. It’s not as deep and fatal as it had looked like at first with the amount of blood covering Yoongi’s clothes and face and Namjoon heaves a sigh of relief. That is, until he pays more attention to the shape of the wound. It’s slightly oval and partly interrupted and it… does look like the mark of teeth…
Yoongi watches the expression on Namjoon’s face change from alarmed, to slightly reassured, to completely terrified and he feels sick to the stomach all of a sudden. He is hurt and scared and disgusted with himself. If this is some kind of twisted nightmare, he would like to wake up now, please.
“Yoongi, you need to tell me what happened. Did you get attacked?” Namjoon presses further, and his voice is way too stern to be reassuring anymore. Yoongi sniffles and tightens his hold in Namjoon’s clothes.
“I- I don’t know what happened. I was going for a walk earlier, you know how much I like the atmosphere of dusk slowly changing to the night. I chose the route down to the forest, when I suddenly got attacked from behind, a dark figure ringing me to the ground. I- I was so scared, Namjoon, oh god. I thought whoever – or whatever – jumped me wanted to kill me. That figure pinned me to the ground and buried its face into my neck, and there was this terrible, terrible pain suddenly… as if something was piercing my skin and sucking the life right out of me. I lost consciousness. When I came back to my senses, my attacker was gone and I was all alone… I don’t know how long I lay there, but I- I’m feeling so weird, Namjoon! I swear to god, on my way to you I couldn’t see my reflection in the shop windows I came by and my teeth and throat are aching so bad, as if somebody is ramming thousand little knifes into it. And there is even more…”
He breaks off to look up at Namjoon, eyes so big and fearful, black hair almost looking ashen grey under the bad lighting, and underneath all that human emotions of pain and panic actually lies something else, something ancient and yearning, something not really human at all. Namjoon feels a cold shudder of discomfort running down his spine the longer he glances into his friend’s eyes and he tries desperately to hide it.
“There is this hunger in me, Namjoon. I’m craving for… something and I don’t know for what or where I’ll be able to get it, but it’s there and it’s getting stronger. I am so goddamn scared, Namjoon. I- please… I feel like I’m turning into a monster… Please, help me,” Yoongi begs, and the storm raging inside of him is soothed a little by Namjoon’s warm hands settling comfortingly on his shoulders.
“Hey, it’s okay, Yoongi. I think I know exactly what’s happening to you. I read about it in a book not too long ago, but I would’ve never thought it could be real... Come on, follow me. Let’s go look for that book in the library.”
Namjoon takes Yoongi’s hand into his own and drags him with him, Yoongi stumbling blindly after him. He is still so goddamn scared, but Namjoon is here with him and he seems to know what’s happening.
No matter how things will turn out in the end, Namjoon is always going to press forward fearlessly and Yoongi is always going to follow.
~~~
The thing with the garlic had definitely been a good idea. But it kind of lost its attraction as soon as Yoongi found out. Jimin therefore stops his crazy cooking outbursts to focus more on eating the dishes piling up in the fridge. God, he won’t be able to even see garlic for the next few years after finishing all of these… On second thought this might not have been such a great idea after all.
Well still, he managed to get on Yoongi’s nerves and that’s all that he wanted to be honest. Speaking of Yoongi… Jimin hasn’t seen the vampire all afternoon. It’s the middle of the night right now and Jimin just laid down in bed, turning off the lights to sleep. Well, since Yoongi is a vampire and doesn’t need to sleep, it’s not unusual for him to be gone during the night. Therefore Jimin doesn’t suspect anything, settling down into the velvety blankets and drifting off to sleep almost immediately.
It’s later that night and Jimin had been sound asleep when a sudden, horrendous noise has Jimin sitting upright in his bed, disoriented and still half passed-out, but with his heart hammering in his chest, feeling like it's the outbreak of at least the apocalypse. Another harsh sound follows the second one and this time, Jimin thinks it might actually be music, the sound of a piano being played… extremely poorly. To Jimin, it sounds like somebody is just hitting the keys as hard as possible, without even trying to play a real melody.
For the love of god!
At first, he tries to lie back down and roll over, thinking that he might be able to go back to sleep if he presses a pillow over his ears, but the goddamn noises won’t stop and not even the pillow manages to muffle them and his annoyance is turning into actual anger slowly but surely.
After half an hour he is having enough. Whoever thought it would be a good idea to torture that poor piano at 1am in the fucking morning is going to regret it now!
Jumping out of bed and rushing out of the bedroom, it’s quite easy for Jimin to locate the source of the ruckus. It’s coming from the near-by music room, the door halfway open of course. With the determination of growing anger Jimin stomps over to the room and practically kicks the door fully open, ready to yell at whoever dared to disturb his precious sleep like that.
Min motherfucking Yoongi! Why of course, who else could it have been! Well, having met Yoongi in his bedroom where he definitely didn’t expect to stumble over a complete stranger has made him wary. He wouldn’t be surprised if another vampire just suddenly popped up out of nowhere, but then again, Yoongi doesn’t strike him as the social type.
Anyways. It’s in the middle of the goddamn night, Jimin got forced out of his nice slumber and Yoongi, that arrogant bastard, is sitting at the piano, finding the gall to openly laugh at Jimin when he notices him standing in the doorway. He is fucking laughing right into his face! The nerve of some people…
Well… He might look funny, barefoot with his pyjama jacket buttoned so hastily it’s slipping from one shoulder, raven locks sticking up into every direction possible and his face still swollen from sleep, his left cheek wrinkled from the folds of his pillow.
(Cute. If somebody asked Yoongi, he would say Jimin looked really cute right now. Not that he’s going to ever admit that out loud.)
“Can you please tell me for the love of god, what are you doing?” Jimin asks, voice so calm and friendly, it just gives the underlying bubbling anger away and Yoongi just smirks at him, hitting one more wrong key just for good measure.
“Well, since I am a vampire and don’t need sleep, I always like to work on my piano-play in the middle of the night. Somehow, I feel the most inspired when I feel like the whole world is sleeping except for me,” he answers cheekily, lifting his eyebrows in a challenging way and Jimin has to fight the urge to throw the next best thing at this asshole.
“Oh well, maybe you could tone it down a little bit. You know like – play an actual melody instead of just hitting random keys, for example!” Jimin hisses, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
“Well, you like to cook with lots of garlic and I like to get creative when playing my piano. As you put it so nicely just a few days ago: You can always leave the house if you feel disturbed in any way by my presence.”
Oh that’s how it’s going to be, huh? Well, alright! Jimin doesn’t even give Yoongi the satisfaction of an answer. Instead he turns around swiftly, throwing the door shut in the process. He’s practically bristling with anger.
By the time he’s back in his bedroom Yoongi has picked his offending, horrible play back up, the ear-splitting noises still loud even through two closed doors.
Jimin doesn’t even try to go back to sleep this time. No, instead he gets his laptop from the near-by desk, making himself comfortable in his bed and starting another research.
Oh, he will pay Yoongi back for this shit with something big. He just needs to come up with something.