[2] Code: RIOT || KTH

Ch15: Fuel To The Fire

The march is useless, is what Seokjin has told Taehyung earlier before they started walking down the streets accompanied by at least a hundred hybrids. But Taehyung doesn't think it's useless. After murdering hundreds, including the staff in the shelter, the doctors in the lab, and the police officers and inmates in the prison, the public definitely sees the hybrids as nothing but monsters.

Of course, a peaceful march won't change the public or the government's mind, but it is all the hybrids could do at the moment to show they're still human.

Seokjin insisted to have the hybrid children, the ones they saved from the experimental laboratory, walk with them. He said it would lessen the chances of the police shooting them down. The march is supposed to be as peaceful as possible, with no guns or violence or blood.

The march is useless, the words play in Taehyung's head like a broken record as he walks side by side with Seokjin. Did Seokjin even want equality? Or was shedding blood the only thing he truly desired? Is this asking for rights, or is this just vengeance?

Taehyung hears nothing but the incessant sound of slow steps of the hybrids, along with the occasional whisper of the few human bystanders. As he turns his head around, Taehyung watches an old lady with thinning gray hair and trembling hands on the sidewalk, tripping over her feet.

Taehyung hesitates, but he can't shrug off her resemblance to a grandmother who was once his everything, so he gives in and rushes to her, stretching out a hand to help her up.

The woman shudders in fear upon the sight of him, and her hands continue to shiver as she raises them to shield herself from him.

Before Taehyung can utter a word, one of the bystanders walks to the old woman and helps her up, and she willingly walks away with him, and Taehyung stays still on the sidewalk, taking in the fact that the old woman took the other man's hand and not his only because Taehyung is a hybrid and the other man isn't.

Has the old woman always feared the hybrids? Or was it their actions that made her fear them? What were they doing other than adding fuel to the fire?

And with these questions still in mind, Taehyung turns around and joins the march again.

Peacefully.

---

Yoongi sits on the hospital bed, reaching down to tie his shoelaces. He winces when his chest presses against the wound on his thigh and leans back, staring silently at his untied shoelace. The doctor said Yoongi was allowed to go home, although the latter was given a big list of do's and don't's regarding his injuries.

The curtain around the bed is slowly pulled open, and Yoongi looks up, his eyes landing on Taehyung, head covered by a hoodie. Yoongi assumes it's to hide his ears, and his tail is probably tucked in his shirt as Yoongi can't see it. Afterall, hybrids aren't really welcome to most places with everything going on.

"I thought you'd let me die," Yoongi says.

Taehyung doesn't reply.

"Did Seokjin send you here?" Yoongi adds.

"No," Taehyung replies, "He doesn't know I'm here."

"Then why are you here?"

"Checking if you're dead yet."

"Yet?"

"We all die."

Yoongi raises an eyebrow. "Alright. Since you're here to do nothing, help me with my shoes."

Taehyung takes a glance at Yoongi's untied laces, then looks back at Yoongi with a blank face.

"Your ego can't be that huge. I took two bullets for you and your friends."

"You took them for your family, not for us."

"I didn't have a choice, did I?"

Taehyung stays quiet, and Yoongi lets out a sigh.

"How's Seol?" Yoongi asks.

Taehyung furrows his eyebrows. "I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?" Yoongi asks, "Aren't you with Jin in this shit?"

When Taehyung doesn't say anything for a few seconds, Yoongi speaks up.

"You really don't know where she is?"

Taehyung shakes his head.

"I do," Yoongi says, and Taehyung's eyes light up the slightest, "But how can I be sure you won't hurt her any more than Seokjin probably does?"

"She shouldn't have been involved," Taehyung says, "Jin is holding her hostage because he knows how much she means to me."

"I shouldn't be saying but," He adds, "I don't want to do this anymore. It's not right."

Yoongi scoffs. "Oh yeah? How sad."

"I mean it," Taehyung retorts, "I'm only telling you because I know you'll help me get this over with. So tell me where Seol is so we can get her and end all of this for good."

Yoongi stares itno Taehyung's eyes, trying to find any traces of genuineness or honesty. He knows Taehyung isn't as blood-thirsty as Seokjin, he's witnessed it first-hand, but he's not completely sure if he can trust him; he's still a hybrid who has killed many, and he's still Seokjin's accomplice.

"You can trust me," Taehyung says as if he read Yoongi's mind, "I saved your life."

Yoongi hesitates, and eventually speaks up.

"The prison."

"The prison?"

"I don't know if she's still there, but a few weeks ago I watched Seokjin drag her in there. I don't know which cell either, you'll have to search the whole thing."

Taehyung turns around to leave, then he stops in his tracks and looks over his shoulder.

"Thank you," He murmurs.

"I'm doing this for my family, I don't give a shit about you and your friends."

Taehyung smiles, "I know."

Yoongi notices it's the first time he's seen the man actually smile, and it gives him a small sense of relief. Maybe he can trust him afterall.

He stares down at his feet. "That shit didn't even tie my shoelaces."

---

A/N: hey

...how yall doing

I have absolutely no excuse for not updating for months

Will I do it again? Probably

Enjoy the chapter babes