Eternal Soul | BTS Supernatural AU Book 2

Chapter 22

Shin eventually returned and took Kwangsun from the room. Everyone in the manor followed behind, and each vampire stood around the burial site.

When the fires burned, there was a release of peace and tranquillity. Shin had been right. Kwangsun would be at complete peace. His return to the earth was short, and when it was finally done, that grief and guilt left.

But Hoseok still felt empty and tired. It should have been him, and that was something he'd hold in the back of his mind for the rest of his eternity assuming he would survive the war.

"Is it the fire that's bothering you?" Jina whispered to him.

He hadn't realized he was staring at the pillars, but he idly shook his head. For once it wasn't the fire that was bothering him.

"Hobi, do not blame yourself for Kwangsun's choices." As always, Jina knew what his issues were. He had never told her about his qualms with fire, and she had easily guessed that was a choice in his state of shock and exhaustion. She easily deduced it was the guilt that he had been feeling such a short while ago. "You are alive. Stay alive for me."

"Jina, would you be offended if I told you I needed to talk to Areum right now?" His voice was hoarse, and a different type of guilt overcame him. Jina and Sam had just been suffering more, and yet he was acting so broken.

Jina just gave him a smile. "Not at all. You haven't seen each other in so long, and I know you have missed her. Go on." She gently pushed him in Areum's direction.

Areum was walking beside Seokjin back to the manor when she spun around to grab Hoseok. No words passed between them. There didn't need to be any words. Areum was his closest friend, and she could read him even better than Park Jina.

Hoseok didn't need soft words. He just needed a simple conversation. So Areum hooked her arm into his and dragged him through the trees like they hadn't just witnessed a return to earth.

"Tell me all the drama I missed, old friend," she said.

"Nari, Namjoon's twin sister, was a human named Song Jihae. She stood up to Jungkook the first time she met all of us, and she's been griping at us ever since." It wasn't the best story he had to offer, but it was a fond memory to look back on. "She wasn't even scared of Jungkook. It was hilarious."

Areum laughed. "I'm sure she's one of the few who can tell him off and get away with it. She's feisty."

"She reminded me of you," Hoseok told her.

"Me?" She asked as they stopped walking for a moment. The trees were rustling, and it felt wrong.

"Yeah. She's like a strange mix between you and Eunjin. She was someone I wanted on my side from the beginning. She fell into being a vampire so naturally, too. Some of her abilities took some time though. She got lost in the void and found her way back, and-"

"She got lost in the void?" Areum looked back in the direction of the manor, but Kim Nari was no longer outside.

Hoseok nodded. "And when she woke up, we got into a battle with Daliania, the grand circle, and a few wraiths." They began walking again as Hoseok told her of how amazed he was by Nari.

And then he told her of Jina and how she became his balance. She listened intently to this, and she had felt relief that out of everyone in their world, Park Jina was his destined one. She couldn't have asked for anyone better.

"So what about you and Seokjin?" He finally asked her.

She began shuffling her feet along and mumbled, "It's nothing. He never noticed me when we were young, and he certainly hasn't noticed me much now."