Stand by Me

Chapter 7

Jin led them up the stairs slowly, stepping carefully to avoid tripping over himself or falling in the darkness. Even with his phone's flashlight he struggled to see the full outline of the stairs. As he took each step he could feel Namjoon's strong arm around his waist, effectively putting a seatbelt on him. Jin smiled as he realized Namjoon was keeping him steady and preventing him from face planting into a stair if he tripped. 

When they finally reached the top of the stairs they went left. Jin guided them down to Taehyung's bedroom and opened the door slowly. They brightened their phone's flashlights a little more as they scanned the room, looking around curiously and cautiously. 

"It looks like two people have been living in here," Namjoon commented. He glanced around at the double of everything. There were two sets of headphones, two different styles of clothes scattered around, and both sides of the bed were unmade. 

Jin glanced at Jimin, nodding a little as they shared a knowing look.

"Jungkookie was living with Taehyung. Jungkook's parents are always out of town on business trips or working long hours. They rarely come home and Jungkook is a very social person so he started staying with Taehyung full time a few months ago so he wouldn't be so lonely. They were already dating so it made sense." Jin explained.

Jimin nodded, sighing as he looked at one of the pictures framed on the wall of him, Jin, Jungkook and Taehyung when they first started high school. He smiled sadly as he traced his fingers over the old photo. 

"Taehyung's parents don't mind Jungkook moving in? Not that I'm judging cause I lived with Yoongi for like half of middle school, but that's cause Yoongi ain't got parents." Namjoon shrugged a little as he spoke. 

Jimin shook his head and gave Namjoon a small smile. "They probably didn't even know. They're overseas currently handling a fashion show. They've been gone for almost the entire year although I heard they've returned to Korea to handle the... the funeral..." Jimin's voice grew quiet as he struggled to get the word funeral out. 

Jin sighed and gave Namjoon's arm a gentle squeeze. "Let's drop the subject, okay? We don't know how much time we have to search."

Jimin nodded and wandered into the bathroom attached to Taehyung's bedroom. A frown danced across his face as he picked up several bottles of concealer in both Jungkook and Taehyung's skin tones. He leaned out the bathroom and held them up, shining his phone's flashlight on them. 

"Hey hyung, since when have Tae and Kook been wearing concealer?" Jimin questioned.

Jin lifted his head from where he was checking under their bed. He stood up and walked over to Jimin, grabbing the bottles and peering at them in surprise.

"Never... Taehyung hates the feeling of concealer and Jungkook barely wears anything more than glitter eyeshadow and mascara. They never wear concealer." Jin slid past Jimin into the bathroom. He searched the counter top before finding a tube of green tinted concealer. 

"They must have been hiding some sort of bruises. They have green tinted concealer. That's the main reason people by green tinted concealer. For hickies and bruises." Jin scoffed a little as he set the bottles of concealer back down.

"But hyung they never hid their hickies..." Jimin said quietly. "So why hide it now? I don't remember them concealing any of their recent hickies." 

"Then they were concealing something else. Some kind of repeated bruise." Namjoon chimed in. "Was there any chance either was being abused by someone?"

Jimin frowned immediately and turned to Namjoon, eyes defensive. "What? No way! We would've known if they were being abused! There's no way... they... they wouldn't hide something like that... would they...?"