Chapter Text
Brightness.
Yoongi does not like brightness. It is annoying and overwhelming. He feels vulnerable in it, weak even. Being weak is as good as being dead in this world. Brightness is his enemy and darkness is his allay. It allows him to sneak around its shadows, intimidate, and destroy. His father made sure long time ago that there was no light left in Yoongi, so he could become one with the darkness if he needed to.
Opening his eyes in the morning irritates him. The light from the open window shines straight at his face. He hates it. Not as much as he hates the feeling of someone’s hand wrapped around his arm. He turns around and looks at Jimin sleeping next to him on the massive bed. He should have sent him away last night after they were done. No need to give the boy any more false hope.
With a groan, he pushes the small hand of him and sits up.
It’s only 8 am.
He doesn’t have anything important to do until the evening, usually on lazy days like this he sleeps until noon. So why is he awake?
There’s a quiet shuffle of material and a peak of a white robe in the glass door that opens up his room to the Greek style patio in the house. So that’s what woke him up. That and the breathy giggle that floats with the light wind.
‘Kookie.’ he sighs.
Another giggle is heard.
Yoongi rolls his eyes and creeps up to the glass door. He waits for the edge of the white robe to peak out again and then jumps onto the hiding figure. A shriek reasons through the house.
‘Hyung! Stop!’ Kookie laughs as his older brother tickles his sides while holding him to the ground.
His doe eyes are shining. This is the only brightness that doesn’t terrify Yoongi. On the contrary, it brings him comfort. The stars in his little brother’s eyes are the only sparks he needs in his life. This is his reason to live, to keep going in this awful world. His little Kookie, who he will protect with his life.
‘What are you up to this early in the morning, bun?’
‘Didn’t you miss me, hyung? I couldn’t see you for four long days when I had my heat.’ The sixteen-year-old boy pouts up at him.
‘Of course, I missed you.’ Yoongi brushes the hair out of the newly presented omega’s face. ‘I’m so proud of you for managing to spend your first heat on your own.’
‘It was really scary, hyung. The cramps were horrible, and I just wanted to hug you.’ whines the younger boy.
Yoongi smiles at his brother’s innocence.
‘Someday you’ll have an alpha to take care of you during your heat.’
‘I don’t think I will.’
‘Why would you say that?
‘Because you told me that any alpha who would want to be with me has to be stronger, smarter and more handsome than you, hyung! And that’s not possible.’
‘Namjoon is smarter than me.’
‘Ewww, are you trying to set me up with Joonie-hyung?’
‘Of course not, bun. I’ll protect you from all of those incompetent alphas. They don’t disserve your beauty.’
Satisfied with his brother’s answer, Kookie rolls them over and lays his head down on Yoongi’s chest.
‘Sometimes I wish that we weren’t who we are. That the Min family wasn’t what it is. That you didn’t have to do all those horrible things dad makes you do.’
‘Me too, Kookie. Me too.’
‘Will it ever stop?’
Yoongi looks at the younger boy and sighs.
‘He’s going to name me as the successor soon, you know that Kook-ah.’
‘But hyung, you hate this life.’
‘I do, but that position brings power. I can’t protect what I love without power.’
‘Do you mean Jiminie-hyung?’
‘Why would you say that?’
‘I’m not stupid, hyung. He stays with you often. You even permanently made him part of the group. You didn’t do that with any of the other omegas you brought from the brothel.’
‘Kookie…’
‘I may be inexperienced, but I know what Jimin-hyung is and what all the others were. Don’t treat me like a child, hyung.’
‘I’m sorry, Kookie. Sometimes I just wish you didn’t have to grow up.’
‘But I want to grow up. I want to be able to protect you, just like you protect me.’
This is all it takes to make one of the most feared gangsters of South Korea melt. Min Yoongi may command one-third of their gang forces, he may be brutal in a fight, he may be merciless to his enemies, but this little omega with bunny teeth and doe eyes has him wrapped around his finger. But that might just be the Kookie effect, Namjoon lets the boy get away with everything, most higher-ups will pause their assignments to get him a new pair of shoes and even Jimin who wears a mask harder then Yoongi himself dotes on Jungkook. He’s Bangtan’s baby, for better or for worse.
***
‘No.’
‘Son, I am not seeking your opinion, let alone permission. I am simply letting you know what I have decided.’
‘No, you can’t go through with it.’
‘The deal is done, Yoongi. Now show me the respect I deserve.’
‘Oh fuck you, father. You just proved you don’t disserve my respect.’
‘I would watch my words if I were you, boy.’
‘Shut up! Just shut up! You can’t do it. You can’t just sell him off for an alliance.’
‘Of course, I can. Since you’re so invested already, why don’t you break the news to our precious Kookie, hmm?’
***
He can’t do it.
But he has no choice. It’s either this or his little brother gets the same training he got when he turned eighteen. He barely survived it, and he was an alpha. He can’t put the newly presented sixteen-year-old omega through the same shit. His Kookie can’t dirty himself with blood, certainly not now and if he can help it not ever.
Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale.
He can’t afford to break down. It wouldn’t help anyone. He can’t let the rage consume him, even though he haven’t felt this close to going insane since his father first pressed a gun into his hand when he was thirteen and told him to shoot a guy. He still remembers the man. His first victim. He was in his forties, a rat, a traitor. A husband, a father. He lost count of all the lives he took since then, but he will never forget the desperate eyes of that first man.
Still, this feeling might be worse, then all of the accumulated guilt, he picked up fulfilling his father’s orders.
Exhale.
He finally knocks.
‘Come in.’
Inhale.
‘Hi, Kookie.’
‘Oh, hyung. You missed me already?’
That gorgeous bunny smile makes an appearance and Yoongi’s gaze turn unfocused.
‘I have to talk to you, Jungkook-ah.’
The bunny smile slips of the younger’s face. His hyung never uses his full name. Last time he called him that their mother died.
‘What is it?’
‘Father found you an alpha. You’re getting married in two days.’
Silence.
Yoongi realizes he stopped breathing a while ago.
Inhale. Exhale.
‘Who?’
Yoongi desperately tries to stop a grimace from scrunching up his features. Not that it matters, Jungkook’s eyes are glazed staring at the washed out yellow wall. He never noticed how ugly the color was until now.
‘The Jeon Alpha.’
Jungkook stares up at him like a deer caught in headlights.
‘But… Isn’t he like forty?’
The elder gives a short nod.
‘Forty-five.’
Exhale. Inhale.
‘Have you met him before?’
‘Not personally, no.’
‘Maybe he's nice.’ whispers the younger and Yoongi tries to hold back tears.
‘Maybe he is.’