Serendipity {Vmin}

12. Afternoon

Recommended song: Smyang Piano - The Truth Untold (BTS)

“Chimmy?”
Jimin sat up in his bed. When exactly did he fall asleep? He didn’t even notice, and half the afternoon went by, at least if Namjoon was home too.
“Yes?” he said out in a hoarse voice.
The purple”haired doctor peeked in with a smile.
“Were you sleeping?”
“Yeah, it just happened somehow” the boy scratched the top of his head in embarrassment.
“No problem. Do you have some time? “
The teen nodded confusedly. It wasn’t the time for their usual lessons yet.
Namjoon walked in and sat down next to the blonde”haired boy.
“Tae told me what happened earlier.”
“Oh” understood suddenly Jimin. “I just overreacted, I don’t want to cause trouble.”
“Hey, calm down, it’s not about that” laughed the man. “I just wanted to talk about it with you. We thought the situation trough with the others, and I think it’s time to tell you a few things that we couldn’t earlier.”
“What… Things?”
Namjoon crossed his legs, and smiled at the other kindly, while the dimples appeared on his cheeks that so many nurses were all over about at the hospital.
“I bet that you have a few questions about our family.”
Jimin stared at the end of his socks.
“I can’t say I don’t… “
“And that’s okay. I swear that I’ll answer all of them. But first… Let me tell the things that I can think of by myself.”
Jimin nodded confusedly yet again, while his stomach began to cramp. Maybe from excitement that he will finally be able to solve the Kims, maybe from the fear from what exactly he’ll get to know, he didn’t really know either.

Namjoon got up from the bed and glanced around the room. When his eyes caught the wardrobe he quickly walked over, to get a blue jacket out then get back to the other.
Jimin watched all this with furrowed eyebrows, not understanding what was happening.
“I’ll tell you everything, but put this on first. It’s cold down there” smiled the doctor at him, and threw the jacket into the boy’s lap, then left the room.
Jimin jumped up, and while he rushed after the older, he quickly pulled the light blue jacket on.

The two boys walked downstairs after each other, it seemed like they were heading outside. Jimin glanced up for a moment as he went by Yoongi’s closed door. As usual, the boy gave no sign that he was in the room. This time the quiet piano playing didn’t filter out from behind the walls either, that did from time to time.

Namjoon led him until the hall, however, instead of the garden they turned right on the corridor.
As Jimin knew, only the small-room was here, where they kept rarely used shoes and coats, and the stairway, which they would only use in the event of a fire.
The doctor headed for the latter and opening the door he let Jimin in before himself to the stairs.
The boy stepped out to the cool, dark place with no decorations.
Namjoon shut the door behind them, and as he took a step, the lights turned on. The whole place got covered in yellowish glow. Jimin looked curiously down the white, bare flight of stairs, not understanding for first why they had to come out here, since they had been upstairs until now too… Then the boy stared down at the stairs going down…

“After you” smiled Namjoon, as he pointed down, earning a doubtful look from Jimin. “Okay, follow me then.”
The doctor got going with confident steps, while the younger tried to estimate how deep they are going to go. Eventually, the steps ended, and they found themselves in front of another white door. Namjoon unbuttoned the cuff of his black shirt, then stepped to a waist-high column next to the door, with a tablet-like device on top. The doctor placed his palm on this surface, and after a few moments of waiting, the door opened with a click.
“What is this?” asked the younger with widened eyes.
“This is a part of the security system. It scans the full palm print and remembers the features even if the person’s hand grows, or a part of it gets damaged. I’ve used it since I was little, it really works.”
“But why does this place need security locks?” wondered the boy.
“Questions at the end of the tour” the other flashed his teeth and spread the door open.
Behind the door was a long corridor, which he could not even see the end of doe to the slight turn which eventually shielded the further parts of the road.
“This is not one of the stories where the boy wasn’t seen ever again, right…?” Jimin asked, smiling faintly, earning a laugh from Namjoon.
“And we would have kept you for months? Why?”
“For my organs to be healthy, for example.”
“My brother makes you watch too many horror movies” shook his head the doctor, then got going. The smaller tried to keep up with his long-legged companion, but he almost had to jog next to the other to not fall behind.
“Then, I think we can get started with the story” sighed the older. “This will take a few minutes.”



“I think you noticed that Min Yoongi doesn’t really look like me or my brothers. To be honest, we’re not cousins. Don’t be angry at Taehyung because he lied to you, please. I’m sure he wanted to tell the truth, but then it would drag questions, like why Yoongi is living with us, so to keep it simple, we just tell everyone that he’s our cousin.”
“I see” nodded Jimin. This wasn’t really hard to digest, somehow, he had always doubted the previous fact. But then, who was Yoongi?
“My parents and Yoongi’s went to the country’s best university that’s where they met. At first only Yoongi’s parents and my mother were friends, then later my father joined the group, who was an engineer student. They were inseparable friends; they spent a lot of time together. They started to research together, during their university years. I once read an article about them in their school’s newspaper, where they were listed as the most promising students. All four of them were… Really smart and talented.”
Namjoon’s lips curved into a sad smile, as he stopped the monologue for a moment.
“After four years, they left their hospital jobs, and started to work as scientists, as they always planned to. During that time, the group’s engineer got into a medical manufacturing team, who started to modernize the old, outworn devices. After a while, the two couples got married, and they wanted to start something big, they had the mind to do so too. They collected all their saved money, took out a loan and opened their own company to manufacture these new kinds of machines. Some friends of his came over from the old team to help dad, who was practically in charge of the place, the others just got in with the money. Later they got subsidy too when they won competitions with their inventions. You can’t know these devices since you’re not a medical worker, but I wouldn’t even dare to estimate how many peoples lives they made easier… Or simply saved.”

Jimin blinked up at the man amazedly.

“During that time, the doctors took place in contests which mainly focused on research against diseases of civilization. Soon they got the authority and support to it. It took nearly three years for this research to reach the point where it could only proceed in the greatest secrecy, because the parents were indeed making progress with it. However, by then they were so immersed in the researches, that no one except only a few insiders really knew what they were working on. Not only because the result of these researches, but because of its devices too. “

“What do you mean by that?” asked the boy confusedly. “They experimented on people, or…?”

“No, of course not laughed the other.” But at the same time, mankind has managed to get rid of many pathogen-caused diseases of civilization almost completely over time. However, samples of these are locked up at a place by the government so that they may be help for finding the cure for other diseases later on. These are only available to a few people because it’s a double-edged sword to be in possession of a deadly but retrained disease. Had they fallen in the wrong hands they could’ve been used as biological weapons. To blackmail the government and things like that. In the worst case, these diseases could have reappeared, and the lives of millions could have been risked.”

The two boys reached a white door.
“My parents worked here most of the time” Namjoon opened the door and went in. Jimin couldn’t see anything for first because the other’s wide shoulders, but when he stood aside, the sight of a whole lab unfolded in front of the boy’s eyes.
In the nearly oval room stood tables on both sides with microscopes, medical tools, test tubes, flasks and pipettes. In the center of the wide place was a smaller, transparent, glass-covered section, with a stand in the center full of various materials and compounds.
“This place has been vacant for the past thirteen years” Namjoon’s voice dragged Jimin out of his amazement. The purple-haired doctor stepped to one of the tables and stroked the surface with his fingers to show Jimin: no grains of dust struck to his skin.
“There is a unique cleaning system, practically nothing can come in here that’s not supposed to. This area was built by the project’s leader. When the idea was born, our parents bought a large property, where they quickly built our house and Yoongi’s, that you didn’t get to see yet because of the trees in the garden. And at the bottom, between the two houses and connecting them this basement takes place.”
“And what is behind this?” pointed Jimin at the smaller room in the area.
“The most dangerous stuff. The glass around it is bulletproof, it is practically impossible to get inside, if you’re not authorized.”
“How is it still possible to get in?” the younger’s eyes glittered with interest.
Namjoon hesitated for a moment, then slightly turning his head, he cracked a smile.
“There was officially four people in total who could step in. My parents, and Yoongi’s parents. However, they „ for security reasons, if something would’ve happened to them, for years’ work not to go in waste – gave five more access, that no one else know about. For Seokjin, me, Taehyung, Yoongi, and Yoongi’s brother.”
Jimin nodded understandingly for a few times, then looked at the other with wide eyes.
“Yoongi has a brother?!”
Namjoon nodded hesitantly.
“He… Where is he now?” he asked sensing that something was off.
The doctor didn’t answer right away, instead sat down to one of the chairs next to the tables.
“My parents knew they were playing a dangerous game, but it was their passion, they never loved anything else more in their lives. Sometimes I feel the experiments were even more important to them than their children. We were left to nannies a lot or left alone after just a few minutes of being together. They liked to be with us, and I have no doubt that they loved us dearly, but the work always called our parents by our side. I don’t blame them because they didn’t stop it when they’ve got kids.”

Namjoon dazedly stared at the floor, while he cracked his fingers. Jimin went to a farther chair so none of them would feel uncomfortable from the closeness and he sat down too, turning towards the other. The boy didn’t hurry the other, just looked at the doctor occasionally, who was biting his lip; otherwise he kept his gaze on the slides next to one of the microscopes – even if his thoughts went elsewhere. Yoongi really has a brother? And what kind of people were their parents in reality?

“A corrupt person must have been among the insiders. The case could only be tracked back to this scenario later on. Someone who wanted the samples for himself or an organization and gain some kind of sick power with it. As the organization knew that only the four adults could step in that room, they never tried to hurt us, not even later. However, my parents… They died in this room.”

Jimin looked around with horror in his eyes, while he unintentionally raised his legs up onto the chair. Did Namjoon really bring him to the scene of a murder?
“I know that it’s distressing, but this place was their everything, it never made me feel bad when I entered here. There is so many years of hard work and time here… And one horrible day’s. If my parents are accidentally haunt here somewhere, then they’re not doing it to take revenge, but simply because they loved this place, they lived their life here.”

The younger boy nodded, and slightly relaxed his posture.
“The others don’t come down here?”
Namjoon shook his head.
“Tae was too young to properly remember this place, and the others…” the doctor was stuck with what he wanted to say for a moment. “Yoongi found them. That’s why he had never been down here before.”
“Yoongi hyung was who…?” Jimin’s voice trembled.  “Then he saw…?”
Namjoon nodded.
“He was only ten years old when it happened. Yoongi… He’s been through a lot of things, and I wouldn’t say these things so openly anyways, but… Since you two are friends, I feel that he started to open towards us more too. I see him outside of his room more, he speaks more than before, he eats more. And I couldn’t be more grateful for you because of that.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“You had to, to get Min Yoongi to do anything, honestly” smiled the man faintly behind his purple locks. “The point is, I don’t want you two to give each other the cold shoulder. At least not like that, not because of Yoongi’s bad days. I don’t want you to be afraid of him.”
“He only threw a pillow at me” the boy shrugged embarrassedly, making Namjoon sigh.
“If he throws the piano chair at you one day, I still would like you to understand him.”
Jimin nodded uncertainly, trying not to imagine how much it could hurt to get hit by a piano chair.

“Yoongi… Yoongi got really traumatized by the incident. I can’t even imagine what he might have been through, but I don’t really want to either, and he never talks about it. Jin hyung was in the lobby back then, and all he said about the incident was that Yoongi fainted when they brought him out from here. After that, I didn’t even meet him for a few months.”
“How is that?” Jimin got surprised. “I thought that your granny raised you.”
“Well, yes. Us. Me and my brothers from the beginning. However, all of Yoongi’s adult relative died. His godparents were my parents, so he was completely left alone. He was brought to a hospital, then an orphanage. Our granny is a good person, but she didn’t want to raise four kids at the same time and she hated the fact that she had to come back to the country anyway. We were begging to her not leave Yoongi alone, that he has always been like a brother to us, we practically grew up together. But adoption doesn’t take one moment either.”

Namjoon bent forward to put his elbows on his knees.
“When we got to meet again, Yoongi wasn’t himself anymore. He got skinny and he was completely indifferent towards everything. He didn’t talk. When we arrived and hugged him, he didn’t hug back. He lay in his bed for days, staring into nothing, to wake up from his nightmares shouting at nights. He was ten years old, and he wet the bed at night. He used to love to play the piano, but he didn’t go anywhere near it anymore. And when his indifference broke, he threw anything that was near him at the wall.”

Jimin wanted to swallow, but the lump forming in his throat prevented him to do so. He expected a lot of things about the composer but not such horrors.

“Yoongi should have been threated immediately after he experienced the trauma but no one cared about such things at the orphanage, that was why he got in such bad shape by the time he got back to us. Granny sent him to a psychologist and after a while Yoongi started to eat with us – even if not much. We watched movies together and he sometimes spoke. However, there are things that couldn’t be helped much. Yoongi was afraid of people, and he still is. He doesn’t dare to go outside because he’s afraid of what will happen if he gets caught by those who killed our parents. They were never caught, practically we don’t even know who they were. Yoongi changed his surname to Min and finished his studies as a private student. He was fourteen when he first sat down to the piano again, and he seemed to forgive it.”
“What did he need to forgive?” furrowed his eyebrows the younger but Namjoon only shook his head.
“I don’t really know for sure but we were just at a piano competition when our parents got killed. Yoongi was angry, that’s why he barged into the lab too. He regretted many things later. Our parents spent just a little time with us anyways, then that little lessened even more because the time he spent with his instrument… His parents died while he was angry at them. And now we turn back to Yoongi’s brother.”

Jimin straightened his back. They finally got back to his previous question.
“The little boy was four, the same age as Taehyung when the incident happened. He was sick, so he stayed with the parents, they were supposed to come together to the competition. We could bury our parents in peace, but… His body was never found. We were hopeful at first that he just hid somewhere in the house or the garden, but… They tested the blood that was here later, and his was in it too.”
“So according to this, the ones who killed your parents… Brought the little boy with them? But why?” Jimin didn’t understand the whole situation. 
“As those monsters probably didn’t know that he could open the door too, they didn’t even try. My parents would’ve given their lives for those bottles behind the window at any time, and they did so. I can’t tell you how to open the door but the point is, they wouldn’t get anywhere if they would just cut off one of my parents’ fingers. They had to be alive and healthy to step inside, there was a scanning system. They probably used the child to blackmail them to do what they were asked to do, but… Of course, I couldn’t know what went down here; but I know that none of our lives are worth of millions’. It was hard to understand when I was younger that maybe our parents wouldn’t have given in even when a child’s life was at stake, and yet… Now that I graduated as a doctor, I finally managed to understand them. They couldn’t. And at the same time, I believe that wasn’t the case, and they died while trying to save the little boy.”

Namjoon buried his face in his palms and took a loud breath from between his fingers before he would speak again.
“I’m sorry it’s just… It’s not easy to speak about this” he gulped.
“It’s okay.” Jimin sent a faint, encouraging smile towards the other. “I understand, you don’t have to tell everything. You can have secrets from me.”
“I think this is an everything or nothing situation, Chim” the doctor straightened up on the chair. “Consider it as a ‘welcome to the family’ ceremony.”
In every other situation the purple haired doctor’s last sentence would’ve sound funny, but Jimin didn’t laugh, because Namjoon was serious with what he said.
“Maybe they took him because they hoped that they could blackmail us with him, but we never heard from him ever again. The police couldn’t find him either. Maybe he died of his injuries, that’s why we didn’t get a threat. Anyhow, Yoongi is convinced that his younger brother passed. Because he thinks those people wouldn’t have left anyone alive.”

For a few minutes, none of them spoke. At the end, the younger one broke the silence.
“This situation is so screwed up” Jimin’s head hung low.
“Yeah” agreed the other. “And one of Yoongi’s regrets is that he was avoiding his brother in the last few days, to not get a simple cold from him because his piano competition. They were inseparable any other times, but then they only saw each other for a few minutes, only remotely even then. Maybe that was why Yoongi hated the piano for years. Because it had too much to do with his grievances. Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if he would still hate it. He just couldn’t live without it. Just as our parents couldn’t do without their passion.”
Namjoon stood up from the chair and crackled his back.
“I didn’t mean to tell you to forgive everything to Yoongi, just try to see things from his perspective and understand that a few days are a little cloudier for him that for other people.”
Jimin shook his head. At that moment, he felt Yoongi could even crucify him, he would still tolerate it with a smile for the boy.