Chapter Text
a candle being blown.
hooded eyes with dark brown irises.
a blurry face.
jet black hair.
cold weather but warm bodies.
tan skin and plump pink lips.
everything seems to go in slow motion around yoongi as the boy strays his eyes away from yoongi as they pass each other in the rain. yoongi pauses in his steps to look at the retreating figure of the boy, who has pulled the hoodie of his jacket over his head.
someone’s heartbeat thumping in same rhythm as his own.
yoongi wonders who the boy is.
❄
in his almost a thousand years of miserable existence, he has never seen someone almost as engrossed as the boy dancing onstage right now.
yoongi isn’t really supposed to be inside the school’s auditorium, considering that it’s off limits whenever rehearsals are going on for a show that’s going to be within two weeks. but since he’s someone dearly important to the school — more like someone who founded it —, he’s got free reign to check around the campus whenever he wants.
he’s rooted at his spot near the entrance, watching the familiar boy do a beautiful spin.
hooded eyes with dark brown irises. jet black hair. tan skin and plump pink lips.
at the corner of the stage, the choreographer claps his hands approvingly. yoongi’s attention is slightly distracted by the sound, but not enough to tear his eyes from the appearance of the boy’s smile — one that makes his cheeks more prominent and his eyes squint into moon crescents.
“excellent, jimin! now, if you could just make your —”
yoongi zones out the other words of the choreographer as he slowly makes his way out of the auditorium, engraving the boy’s smile into memory.
❄
“i wish someone would take me somewhere new. somewhere far away.”
yoongi perks up from picking mini carnations and feels his body respond to the voice in the wind. the next thing he knows, he’s standing at the end of a baywalk back in busan. the waves are harsh and spraying him slightly with sea salt, the wind disheveling his air. what he notices most, though, is a black-haired boy sitting with his legs folded, his back hunched slightly — almost as if he wants to make himself small on purpose when he’s already so small.
“hey, kid,” yoongi says loudly over the waves. “are you the one who called me?”
the boy turns around in surprise, jumping from his seat and a hand on his chest. there’s a thick, wooly red scarf around his neck but his nose and cheeks are still red (and if yoongi looked close enough, his eyes too). the scarf makes him look even smaller.
yoongi recognizes the familiar face but doesn’t mention it out loud as he watches the boy — what was his name? jimin? — place a one-tier birthday cake with multicolored candles on the space beside him. jimin stands up, patting the back of his school uniform’s slacks clean.
“i didn’t call you, ahjussi,” jimin said politely albeit confused.
“well, there’s no one else around here,” yoongi said sharply. “i'm pretty sure you’re the one who called me just now.”
“no, i didn’t,” jimin said, shaking his head (yoongi would be lying if he said it wasn’t adorable — but he wouldn’t be saying that out loud. nope). “i think you just got the wrong person, ahjussi.”
yoongi wrinkled his nose. “stop calling me ‘ahjussi’, kid. i’m pretty sure i’m only a few years older than you.”
even if that isn’t really the case, his subconscious snickered. you’re at least nine hundred years older than the kid. you deserve the title.
shut up, he reprimanded himself. you’re forever going to be stuck as a 24-year-old loser. might as well make it count.
jimin’s forehead creased in a frown and yoongi fought back the urge to raise a hand and physically erase them with his thumb. he thought of carefree jimin dancing onstage a few days back.
“why are you here?” yoongi asked him instead.
“oh. um. it’s my birthday,” jimin replied, almost sounding a bit timid.
yoongi blinked his eyes in surprise. “why are you spending it alone?”
jimin presses his lips in a thin line. “it’s not like i chose to be alone, really. it’s just how it normally goes.” he gives yoongi a wide smile, though, which makes yoongi feel a bit confused and something fluttering inside his stomach. “but don’t worry, ahjussi. i’m used to it.”
you never get used to the loneliness, though, yoongi thinks but doesn’t say out loud. he feels slightly flustered from the boy’s smile that’s directed towards him, a first time. he remembers the bouquet of flowers in his hand and hands it out to jimin whose face turns blank.
“here,” yoongi offers. “these are for you. and call me...’hyung.’ ahjussi makes me sound so old.”
you are.
shut up.
jimin blinks, hesitantly taking the pink mini carnations. “um. thank you.” he looks back at yoongi with a smile again. “this is the first gift i’ve received in my entire life. thank you.”
first? yoongi bites his tongue to prevent himself from asking the boy anything.
“what do these flowers mean?” jimin asked, his eyes trained on the flowers as he brushes the petals with his fingers.
“i’ll never forget you.”
jimin pauses and looks up back at yoongi again, a slight frown on his face.
“have you come here to grant my wishes?” jimin abruptly asked.
“happy birthday,” yoongi merely says before letting himself disappear in a wisp.
october 13. hooded eyes and dark brown irises. jet black hair. tan skin and plump lips. crescent eyes and bright smiles. bright, red scarf.
❄
yoongi is not prepared when he feels like he’s being summoned for the second time.
he’s in one of his sleepless nights where he turns to making music whenever reading doesn’t do the trick in shutting his brain for 8 hours, when he feels himself getting whisked away and appearing in a park.
the cold weather immediately crawls up on him, considering he’s only in wooly sweater and sweatpants with headphones around his neck. just because he’s a goblin doesn’t really mean he could control the weather. he could only make it rain.
a familiar boy however is standing in front of a trash bin, holding a bottle of water and wrapped up in multiple jackets. he looks a lot warmer than yoongi does and it irritates him slightly.
“hey,” yoongi said loudly, making the boy jump and turn around too swiftly that he looked as though he might get whiplash. “did you call me?”
it was jimin again. his face is poorly lit on from the street light above and he looks a bit scared. “me?”
“yea, you. why did you call me again?”
“i didn’t.”
“yes, you did. or else i wouldn’t be here.”
jimin — obviously — pulls on a brave face on top of his confused one. “you should just move on and be at peace. stop bothering me and stop lying. i can’t do anything to help you.”
yoongi frowned at the sudden absurdity the boy is saying. “what?”
“you’re a ghost, aren’t you?” jimin said. “you should move along. stop bothering —”
“i’m not a ghost.”
“that’s what they all say.”
yoongi didn’t know whether he should face palm or be angry.
“i can see ghosts so don’t try to fool me,” jimin said.
yoongi snorted and left again in a wisp.
❄
the third time yoongi’s being summoned, he ends up being in a library when he’s supposed to be in the park.
“oh! you’re here!” a way too enthusiastic voice says behind him, and it makes yoongi spin. “now i know how to summon you!”
hooded eyes and dark brown irises. jet black hair. tan skin and plump lips. crescent eye smiles and sweaterpaws. a bright red scarf.
“what the fuck, kid?” yoongi hisses, starting to feel irritated.
“will you grant my wishes now?”
“the fuck? do i look like a genie to you?”
“will you, hyung?” jimin persists, ignoring yoongi’s earlier words. “you could give me 5,000 won and then walk away after, you know, and i wouldn’t bother you again.”
“how about ‘no’?”
jimin pouts and it takes much of yoongi’s strength not to do something impulsive upon seeing it.
“but, hyung —”
“i’m not a donation center.”
“but aren’t you the goblin?” jimin pouts even more. “aren’t you supposed to help out someone in need? specifically your bride?”
yoongi froze in his spot, his eyes going wide. “where’d you get that information?”
jimin shrugs, and yoongi gets the motion that the boy is less shy than he was in comparison to their first few meetings. “it’s what the ghosts call you,” he explained and then pulls his scarf to the side to expose the pulse of his neck where there seems to be a weird looking birthmark. “ and see that? it’s supposed to be the mark of the goblin’s bride.”
yoongi could feel the sword in his chest approve. shut up.
jimin fixes his scarf. “and i think you’re the goblin since a ghost doesn’t disappear or reappear the way you do, and you act too living to be one of the dead.”
yoongi rolls his eyes. “i’m not the goblin you’re looking for, kid,” he said, not sure himself if he was lying or not. “why do you even need that kind of amount of money, anyway?”
“to sustain myself, of course,” jimin supplied. “when you’re a struggling dance student with barely anything to pay the rent because your relatives cut you off, you’ve got to take desperate measures. and it just so happens that you’re here, mr. goblin.”
“i told you i’m not the goblin.” yoongi grunted. “i’m leaving —”
just as yoongi’s about to turn around, he is stopped by someone’s hands grabbing onto his elbow. he pauses to turn once more, feeling slightly irritated. jimin is holding on to him, looking unaffected by the sudden wisp of smoke issuing from where he’s touching yoongi’s arm.
“if you can’t give me cash, just give me a job.”
“i’m not a recruitment agency employee.”
but the determined look is enough for yoongi to give in. perhaps the kid would leave him alone if he gave him what he wanted.
yoongi pushed jimin’s hands off his arm gently. “are you going to leave me alone if i do?”
“yes.”
yoongi paused and then let out a huge sigh. “look for a chicken shop.”
“wha —”
yoongi turned to wisp again.
❄
the fourth time yoongi is summoned once again is when he’s in fucking kent, settling once more his house. of course, his body immediately turns to where its being called, and now he’s back in the same library in front of the same boy who’s holding his phone near his mouth.
“hyung!” jimin greets, eyes immediately turning into crescents. “hi!”
“i thought we already settled this, brat?” yoongi huffed, disgruntled.
jimin pouts. “i just wanted to thank you, hyung! i finally found a job all thanks to you!” he said excitedly. “though i had to scavange almost half of downtown — but i have a job!”
“that’s great, i have to go now,” yoongi said, turning to the door near the end of the aisle and passing through there.
“hyung—!”
yoongi is in the bustling street of london once again. he fixes his scarf and is about to walk when he feels someone grab his arm once again. he almost jumps in surprise and shock at the sudden contact. he quickly turns to look at his back and is greeted by jimin.
“hyung, are we in europe?” he asked, his eyes wide as he looks around him.
“how did you do that?” yoongi asked back, his stare harsh but jimin doesn’t seem to notice.
“i just followed you,” jimin replied, pointing at the door they apparently both just came out of. “through there. hyung,” he pauses from looking around and looks at yoongi, “are we in europe?”
“what are you?” yoongi frowns, still confused and ignoring the rest of jimin’s words.
“i told you — i’m the goblin’s bride,” jimin said, beaming like a fucking sunshine. “which is obviously you. and as your bride, i am someone who takes care of you as you do for me and love me as i love you.”
yoongi blinked. “what?”
jimin finally lets go of his arm and then raises his hands, his fingers forming actual fucking finger hearts. “i love you, hyung.”
yoongi doesn’t know how to respond to that, and he doesn’t know how to explain the sudden fast beating in his heart. instead, the only thing he could say was stutter, “h-hey! don’t say something you don’t mean, brat!”
jimin brings down his hands and pouts. “you’re being mean,” he said and then smiles again like the fucking sunshine he is. “you have to guide me around here now. i trust you with my life, hyung. i am a tourist in your city.”
i trust you with my life, hyung. yoongi tried not to react so much at those words. he couldn’t get attracted with words especially from a person who’ll likely end his life. “i’m not a tourist guide, kid,” he said in an indifferent tone, thanking his many years of experience of being stoic and cold.
jimin gives yoongi his best puppy face. yoongi rolled his eyes and started walking.
(he ended up being the tourist guide.)
❄
somehow, jimin has woven himself in yoongi’s life. (not that their fate is not already intertwined.) yoongi just didn’t expect it to happen this fast.
and yoongi knows he’s alone. and lonely. and that living in a big-ass house isn’t something that’d make it any less obvious. what yoongi didn’t know that he would be yearning for company. for someone who would stay when everyone leaves.
even if that person isn’t likely going to be there forever.
but yoongi was going to take his chances. it’s better to have loved and gotten broken, than not having to doing so and spending his long years thinking the ‘what if’s’.
park jimin was an angel. his sunshine. with hooded eyes and warm brown irises that become crescents when he smiles. with hands small enough for yoongi to engulf it with his own, and run his thumb over when he knows jimin is feeling particularly upset or anxious. and those plump, pink lips he’s been questioning the past few days on how it would taste.
and then there’s the laughter that would ring throughout the empty house he had, one that would trigger his own. when jimin remembers to place food in lunch boxes inside yoongi’s music room when he’s producing something. the smile he’d give yoongi over dinner when he recounts his day from school. when he knows how yoongi likes his coffee (not too sweet, not too bitter) and prepares it during breakfast before he leaves for school. the gentle fingers that would run through his hair when yoongi refuses to sleep to finish a project and jimin ends up coaxing successfully to do the opposite. when jimin agreed to stay in his house after being promptly running away from his.
jimin loves too much and too hard, yoongi notices and knows that it must be a privilege to have someone like that in your life.
he realized it on the first snow of the year.
❄
he doesn’t want to leave park jimin, he realizes.
he doesn’t want to leave the boy who’s given him reason to continue living again. the boy who has taken his world by storm and completely turned it upside down without warning. well, maybe there was a warning — yoongi was just too preoccupied with appreciating the beauty of the mess jimin’s left behind to notice.
“you must let him do what he is meant to do in this life,” the goddess of fate reminds him, her red lips pursed like she herself was not happy with the news she brought with her. “let him take out the sword, goblin, and turn into ashes. the longer you stay in this realm, the higher possibility of his death coming closer.”
yoongi didn’t want to let go.
❄
“jiminie.”
jimin is a bit disoriented from sleep, but turns to face yoongi nevertheless. “yes, hyung?” he asked yoongi in a whisper.
it was 2 am, sometime in january. yoongi run his thumb to the shape of jimin’s eyebrow gently. there was a long pause, as he spent that time only staring at the face of the person he’ll only love in his life. jimin almost fell asleep when he yoongi spoke again.
“i love you.” it was intertwined with his breathing, and was so faint that jimin almost didn’t hear it. he didn’t mention that he woke up from a nightmare of jimin dying.
he snuggled closer to his hyung’s body, pressing his lips at the base of yoongi’s neck. “i love you too.”
❄
park jimin almost died today.
the incoming truck was too fast and the bus he was riding on was an innocent vehicle caught in the wrong place. grim reapers have already prepared themselves at the bus stop for the souls . . . but were greeted with none.
min yoongi happened to be in the right place at the right time. it meant all the good things to him (aka park jimin) but a lot of paperwork for the reapers.
❄
they went to london for yoongi’s birthday. he’s nearing his thousandth. he doesn’t disclose this information on jimin despite his continuous efforts to reveal it from the elder.
there was a music festival going on, and jimin though it would be the perfect time to exploit yoongi’s grandpa-ness. let’s just say that there was a lot of dancing, singing, and things that are rated pg-18.
jimin said it was the best day of his life. yoongi lowkey agreed, though loudly complaining about being in a crowd for so long.
❄
jimin almost fell off a building last night, when he decided being a samaritan was suitable at that time of the day and helped a ghost find peace (by lowkey casting revenge).
luckily, yoongi was there before anything more drastic could happen.
❄
by summer, jimin spent most of his time around yoongi’s home and messing around with some of the instuments inside his music room. not anything with his equipment though. he made that mistake once and he didn’t want to face the wrath of min yoongi once again.
one time, yoongi heard him sing one of his original compositions when jimin thought he wasn’t inside the room. without a word, he began recording the boy’s voice and knew it was what the song needed.
a voice that could be gentle yet powerful, one that would carry the words with delicacy and carefulness. like the words themselves were either the breakable glass or the dangerous knife.
jimin was — is his muse.
❄
how could someone so small hold so much significance and power in his world?
(jimin lived again for another day. yoongi pats himself on the back and kisses jimin.)
(jimin finally knows what would happen if he pulls the sword out of yoongi’s chest.)
❄
on jimin’s birthday, the spent it walking around the park and taking turns in a children’s swing. he bought jimin a cake and promised him that he would have his undivided attention. (not that it was divided over something already.)
jimin could only offer him his love back. yoongi says it’s enough.
“and besides, it’s your birthday,” yoongi adds. “today, it’s all about you.”
“any day spent with you is about you too,” jimin persists with a sweet smile, one that never fails to stutter yoongi’s heart.
god, he loves park jimin.
❄
it’s the first snow of the year again.
and then the inevitable happens.
jimin is nearly killed by a ghost, an appearance that has long haunted min yoongi in his old life as a general of an old army for a king. he knows that the purpose of his sword is to cut down his master’s enemy (though he may have been contaminated with the wrong thoughts and then betrayed yoongi) — and this guy is definitely one.
he pulls the sword out of his chest, trying to ignore the searing pain, with the hands of his lover that’s slipping in and out of his consciousness. when that’s done, he drives the sword through the ghost’s chest which turns him to ashes and into oblivion.
yoongi falls to his knees and uses his sword to keep himself upright. jimin comes running towards him, mouth sputtering out no, no, nononoplease, yoongi, don’t leave.
it was the time of the year when they first met.
yoongi pulls out a single pink carnation and places the flower in between jimin’s temple and ear. he brushes the tears out of jimin’s face with his thumb, hoping that the smile on his face would be enough to cover the physical and emotional pain that’s ripping him right now.
i love you. iloveyou. please, pleasepleasedon’tleave. min yoongi.
he didn’t know the last time he’d be saying those words would be that time he riled jimin for jokes, and had gotten an adorable pout in return which was immediately followed by his peal of laughter.
yoongi could still hear the wonderful sound echoing inside his head, and the pain inside his chest somehow hurts a bit more.
he presses a final kiss against jimin’s lips and returns to dust.
❄
all you’ve met will forget you. that is the reward i give to them. as for yours, you may proceed to the afterlife.
yoongi decides he’d stay in between, awaiting for the day jimin would come and he’d be home again.
❄
he feels himself turning into wisp, his body responding to a summon.
he closes his eyes and when he opens them, he is greeted by someone familiar. the snow falls.
hooded eyes and dark brown irises.
plump pink lips and tan skin.
but a question ruined it all.
“who are you?”
yoongi tries not to take it to heart.
❄
he returns to his old home, which has been left untouched and taken care by his old servants.
❄
when yoongi is summoned again, jimin is in london and holding a single pink carnation and crying to himself.
when jimin sees yoongi, he runs to him.
“i remember,” jimin says shakily, face shining with tears. “i remember now.”
yoongi could only kiss him.
❄
it was simple. bushes of yellow roses and a field of myrtles and yarrows.
simple gold bands in their left hand, the second finger from the tiniest one.
(“my love will be everlasting,” yoongi vows. “it will not merely be represented by this ring. but by the blue skies and starry nights. by the familiar scent of home and the promise of staying.”)
❄
jimin saves a child in exchange for his own breath.
❄
“i will return for you, alright? in my next life, i will stay as long as you want me to and hope that we would meet soon enough and stay in love even longer. you will be the first person on my lips upon my consciousness, and our endings will be graceful and not forced. i will ask the deity to do just that, ok? min yoongi, i will come back. and i will stay.”
❄❄❄
there is a carnation drawn on his usual order of coffee. and if he imagined enough, he could see the pink colors of the petals.
he looked up from his table and looked around the otherwise almost empty café.
his eyes catch someone familiar and his breath hitches. the person takes off his apron, hands it on a hook near the counter and then gets out. he proceeds to walk towards yoongi, then sits on the chair opposite him.
hooded eyes and dark brown irises.
tan skin and plump, pink lips.
bright smile.
sunshine.
and a scent of home.
“hi, hyung,” jimin said softly. “do you remember me?”
(“everyday,” yoongi wished he could’ve said as he lays with a sound asleep park jimin beside him. “in everything.”)