AFFINITY.

thirty-five

Yoongi sat in the dark feeling completely emotionless. His office was eerily quiet, the music he was always playing was absent. All he could see was the vague blur of the light from the garden, but he wasn't really focusing on anything. His mind was too far away. He should have been angry, he should have been disappointed, but all he felt was numb. He didn't care that his dress uniform was oddly tight or that the collar of the jacket was itching.

Even the pile of letters from his relatives laid forgotten on a pile on his desk. He hadn't even given them a look after he had entered his office earlier in the evening. A glass of deep amber liquid was standing on the table next to him, but he couldn't even muster up the energy to drink it. Even the oblivion of drunkenness wouldn't soothe the pain he knew would hit later.

A knock on the door made him blink and return to reality.

"Come in," he called, his voice feeling foreign in the dark office.

"Yoongi?" Seokjin asked as he stepped in, the light from the open door lighting up the window and whipping away Yoongi's view of the garden. "Why are you sitting in the dark?" He asked confused, taking a step into the dark office. Yoongi's eyes focused on the reflection of his friend.

Seokjin looked worried. He wasn't wearing a flower crown and his beautiful eyes were clouded, brows furrowed.

"I just am," Yoongi said, voice emotionless. In his hand the ball of ice sifted into water, then to steam, then to water and back into ice in a never-ending loop. "What did you want?" Yoongi asked, though he already knew what Seokjin wanted to say. It was written all over the dryad's face.

"Tonight when I was tending to the trees...some of them talked," Seokjin said, voice shaking a little as he stepped further into the office. "I wouldn't believe it to begin with, but then I checked on a few things and...Well, I asked her. The tree in the middle. And she confirmed it. The one stealing is-"

"Choyeon," Yoongi interrupted Seokjin. "I know," he said as the room grew colder and the little ball in his hands turned into solid ice. "I saw her today when I got home. Sneaking plants out of the back door," Yoongi said, eyes unseeingly staring out the window.

"I checked up on the schedule. Things don't go missing on her days off," Yoongi said, feeling dead on the inside. He could see her smile, hear her laugh, feel her arms around his neck. You're my friend, Yoongi, her voice echoed inside his head. "She's been lying to us the whole time," he said looking at the dark garden on the other side of the glass.

"I've been tricked," he said, the little lump of ice in his hand falling to the floor.

***

"Let me go," Choyeon screamed as she twisted and kicked to get free. "Let go of me, you fucking freak. Get your fucking magic off me," She screamed at Yoongi who stood frozen, his hands shaking as he held the Midnat Sutsko as close to his chest as he dared. There were few broken leaves, a single stem that had been bend and most of the roots had been ruined.

He couldn't believe Choyeon had tried to take the midnats sutsko from him.

"The police will be here in a few minutes," Namjoon said, voice tense as he glared at Choyeon. "Then they'll take this piece of trash with them," he muttered walking over to hold onto Seokjin who looked shocked. Namjoon held his boyfriend close, kissing his temple.

It was him who had discovered her stealing. And he paid the price. Over his eye was a small cut, a small trickle of blood still visible.

"Who cares? What I did wasn't a crime! It's my right." Choyeon sneered, pulling her hands, trying to get free of the shackles of water that was holding her. "It's selfish, Yoongi. You don't deserve to own this. Your grandparents were daft for allowing you to inherit the garden. I was doing it for the better of all of us, you don't deserve it!" She screamed, spitting at Jimin who was standing close, observing her with dark eyes.