[COMPLETED | MAIN STORY] Zero O'clock Warfare (TaeKook)

Chapter 1: House of Cards

A devil who enjoys devouring one's dread and despair.

Fortunately, there's one thing to do to tame him, and that's him giving favors and taking a price in return. Favors for Jungkook are like a promise, a dog bone that can tame the beast for a moment.

Slightly amused, Jungkook swiftly took his military survival knife (displayed in the table like a trophy) and slowly drags the blades on the wooden table making an ear-splitting scraping sound. "Again? I didn't quite hear you." He smirked maniacally at the doctor once again, the doctor cowering in fear for his life. "You ask for me, right?"

No words came from the doctor's mouth, just a whimper and a quick resigned nod. The hilarity of the situation and his desperation made him tear up.

He regretted coming to Jeon Jungkook, but everyone will say otherwise.

***

There's only one thing in Taehyung's mind as he stares outside for hours in his steel barred fancy large wooden windows.

Boredom.

It defines his whole being, he thought. He is dull and has no life. His eyes, though draped with long thick lashes and is always twinkling, still looks lifeless and unseeing. It was like he can see through other people, but it really can't.

It must be pleasant outside, he thought.

He really wants to touch the grass with his bare feet, wondering what it feels like. The afternoon air smells nice, birds are chirping and the sunflowers facing the bright sun, ironically away from his like it was disgusted by the mere sight of him.

"Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick... tock." He mimics his bedside clock, the only sound reverberating in his huge bedroom. Bored, he picks up his bedside telephone that only connects to his butler, whom he can only hear but not see. Because he is not allowed to meet people. 'It is dangerous.' the voice of his dad echoes in his mind and Taehyung always believed him. The only person he knows is his dad, he thinks. He doesn't remember much though, especially his childhood, leaving an enormous blank slate in his mind.

He can't go outside at all, per his dad's orders. Dr. Kim Jongsu, always, always says 'The world is a hideous place, son. It is full of ugly disgusting people. You are safe here; I will protect you. You don't need to go outside, everything you need is in here. With me.' whenever he tries to ask if he can step outside, even just in the porch or the huge mansion's garden. And Taehyung always listens, always the obedient son, always filial. He loves his dad, or so he thought. Little did he know that his dad is only obsessed with him, after his mom died, his dad's soulmate. This is because he looks exactly like his mom, gorgeous and ethereal.

His dad can't give him everything as he always promised to though. He can't give the warm feeling of the sun in Taehyung's face, or even the feeling of raindrops in his palm.

"Yes, master?" A deep voice startled him from his thoughts, bringing him back to his telephone in his left hand.

"Uhm, where's dad? He said he'll come this morning." Racking his brain for some reason why he called, not that he wants to see his beloved dad. His dad only visits him if it is time to swallow those god-awful huge pills (that Taehyung doesn't know what for) every other night and if he wants to "beautify" him and make him even more perfect, prettier just like his mom. Those torturous days every quarter of the year, where his plastic surgeon dad, fixes him (his dad words) making his skin glow more, his face ethereal, flawless even.

Imagine him as a living porcelain doll. Perfect, flawless, pure as the driven snow, name it.

Taehyung knows that this is twisted, and it felt wrong to be modified like that, but he doesn't know any better. He was raised like that, it's the only thing he knows aside from the books he had read and the occasional transfer of medical knowledge from his dad. Every time he looks at himself in the gigantic mirror, he can't help but hate himself. He is too perfect that it became terrifying. He only knows his mom in the pictures, and he looks exactly like his mom - beautiful like a goddess; he mourns for someone he didn't even know his whole life, or isn't it because he doesn't truly remember? Because of that, he grew hating that perfect doll face staring back at him in the mirror, he grew despising everything about himself.