ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴏʏ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴘᴜʀᴘʟᴇ ʙʟᴏᴏᴅ || ᴋ.ᴛʜ + ᴊ.ᴊᴋ ✔️

thirty-six: forever

It wasn't a time of rejoicing or celebration.

It wasn't "three cheers for Seokjin, he's not the villain after all."

It was just...a lot. For everyone to take in, to process. What with the police sirens and their flashing lights seeming to have come from nowhere, and the guns no longer with any of the boys as their target.

There had been some hesitation at first from the men working for Yojun. However, despite their reluctance in turning themselves in to the authorities, they weren't stupid enough to think they could make an escape at this point, so eventually they listened to both Seokjin and the police's orders for them to exit the building peacefully.

Not long after this, Seokjin gave the officers the 'OK' to enter the building and not a second later several of them did just that.

And everything became a blur to Taehyung. Yojun was wheeled away on a stretcher, Jimin, who had apparently begun to struggle with his breathing again, was escorted out by Yoongi and a paramedic, and Taehyung and Jungkook were released from the ropes that bound their limbs and were also escorted out of the building. Separately, and by different people.

Taehyung was in no state of mind to argue with the authorities. Not physically, either, for that matter. His ankles and wrists felt sore and threadbare, on the verge of breaking apart from his body after the rope had been removed. Having struggled against it certainly hadn't helped. The officer who had freed him had to assist Taehyung in walking out of the building, the boy quickly learning he had acquired a limp. To what degree any of the pain he was experiencing was in his head, he didn't know at the time.

Taehyung merely allowed the officer to guide him outside, out into the biting cold of the night illuminated solely by the bright lights of the police cars and ambulances. The sirens had turned off at last. There was little noise. And thank goodness for that, Taehyung had enough noise going in his head.

It took some time to get him settled. Soon after the officer had taken Taehyung outside and brought him to someone to check for injuries, the boy received several questions from other people concerning whether he needed medication, or perhaps even a therapist of some kind to help cope with his shock, but Taehyung just shook his head. He didn't want any of that. Didn't care if he needed it - rather, didn't care if anyone thought he needed it.

It was just as Yoongi always told him.

He just needed to breathe.

And so at some point into the night, after the officers and paramedics saw it safe to leave him alone, Taehyung found himself sitting on the ground, a blanket draped over his shoulders courtesy of the policeman who had untied him. From where he sat Taehyung could see Jimin, sitting in the back of an ambulance, with his legs draped over the side, a paramedic sitting beside him while speaking to him. Yoongi stood not far off, speaking with another officer who had questions for him. And then finally there was Jungkook, in the process of having his wrists carefully treated as a result of the rope having torn through his skin.

But he was okay. He was alive and okay.

Taehyung wanted to see him - and Yoongi and Jimin, too, but he understood they all needed attention from people who knew what they were doing, whereas Taehyung didn't even know what to do with himself right now.

He just sat alone, there on the ground, loosely holding his shock blanket around his body.

Awareness of his surroundings had been dulled to a minimum.

At some time during his vague connection to reality, Taehyung felt a second blanket draped over his shoulders. And someone sat down on the ground beside him.