***
"Taehyung-ah!" Hearing the voice of an angel, his angel, calling out his name was something that Taehyung had not expected to happen today when he was sent to scout in the forest for some spies lingering around.
He quickly turned his head, and his eyes immediately widened at the sight of the love of his life panting heavily as he tried to stand up properly after leaning on his knees, "Yoongi? What are you doing here? It's dangerous!"
Taehyung was beyond surprised to see Yoongi standing before him in all his glory. The man before him looked like he had just run a marathon as his chest was heaving up and down from being out of breath, hair disheveled, and sweat covering him. Still, Min Yoongi still looked as beautiful as he has always been, and Taehyung is once again starstruck by the man that caught his heart.
But just as he was about to take another step and ask Yoongi again why he ran all the way out here, he was interrupted when Yoongi suddenly raised his voice.
"I love you!" Yoongi confesses in a heartbeat.
It was as if time had stopped, and Taehyung's ears were suddenly sensitive to every sound there was in the forest, even hearing every single heartbeat in his chest and Yoongi's heavy breathing. A heavy silence was born between the two of them as Taehyung stills before Yoongi speaks again.
"You said ⸺ you said you want to spend your future with me, right? After all of this is over, promise me, Kim Taehyung, that you will take my hand and we will run away, far away from here. Can you do that for me?"
Yoongi did not have to ask, he would have commanded Taehyung to take him away, and he would have done so in a heartbeat. Taehyung breathes before speaking, "Anything. Anything for you."
A promise had been made between the two star-crossed lovers as they planned to run away hand in hand away from the problems of the world and build a house together where they could freely love each other under the roof of their own home that was born through their love.
"Remember that promise, Kim Taehyung," Yoongi says threateningly. Still, Taehyung only chuckled in response, finding it endearing for the shorter man to act tough after he just professed his love for the master he was supposed to serve. But here he was, completely fallen in love with the man who was supposed only to be his servant, a man who carved his place in Taehyung's heart in just mere months of living under the same roof.
Yoongi may not know, depending on Taehyung's decision, whether or not he should tell him in the near future. Min Yoongi, a mere commoner, was the person who saved his life by showing him the love that he never thought he would receive from a man so beautiful and kind as Yoongi. The man showed him the love and compassion that he craved but was too afraid to ask from other people because of his gender identity.
It was Yoongi who became the rope which he grabbed onto and helped him from falling in too deep from the dark hole that he was falling because of all the hidden thoughts and feelings that he was too afraid to share and the other side of himself that he was scared of showing other people. It was Yoongi who became the light of his life and the fire that had brought warmth to his heart.
How did I ever find someone so precious like him?
Kim Taehyung was a man born from nobility, and Yoongi already knew that he would never have a chance with him, mainly because he was a man and a commoner in the old era of Korea. It was hard being the person that he is, gay and poor, in a time like this where people like him are forced to live at the bottom of the hierarchy that their society was built on. Not that he would ever need to be close to the master that he was supposed to serve because the same man was also going to be his ex-lover in the future, and Yoongi told himself to never fall for someone again, especially for the same man as the man he once loved.
But fate had other plans, and in the end, his heart was now for Kim Taehyung, the man he loves and holds dearly in his heart.
Minutes passed as the silence erupted, and they continued to stare into each other's eyes with such love and emotion that a whole forest could be born before they could even turn away and turn back to the reality they live in. At the thought of the real world, Yoongi immediately snapped out of his thoughts and the staring contest that he had unconsciously played with Taehyung when he remembered why he ran all the way out here in the middle of the forest in the first place.
"I almost forgot," He says, breaking the silence, and the dreadful feeling that he had before has come back and replaced the warmth in his heart. The screams of agony and fear back in the city echoed in his mind again. "The other reason why I came here was that I needed to tell you that Japanese soldiers are attacking the city! They are trying to take over!"
At the sound of this horrible news, Taehyung's face turned sour, and his brows raised, "What are you talking about? Why would the city be under attack when we got word that the Japanese soldiers are headed east and pass by our base camp?"
Yoongi shakes his head in response, "That was just a distraction to call back our city's defenses. Your father said that a Japanese soldier must have been spying around the city and saw it crawling with Korean soldiers, so they needed to drive you out so they could take over."
Taehyung's face falls at the thought of being caught in the trap that the enemy had made for them. The country's first line of defense was fooled by a mere distraction of misunderstanding, "What about my mother and father? Are they alright? What happened to them?"
"Your mother and father are safe," Yoongi tells him with a nod. "They told me they plan to flee the city and immediately packed their things to escape to the other side of the mountain where they would hide from the enemy before the attackers could reach them; they have already left and run for safety."
Hearing his parents leaving the city safely had forced Taehyung to release a sigh of relief and a breathe that he did not know he was holding. Yoongi smiled at the sight of Taehyung's face turning from sour to relief at the thought of his parents fleeing to safety.
"I was sent here by your father to tell you to bring the soldiers back to the city and fight," Yoongi speaks again with determination through his shaky voice.
Taehyung nods and walks closer to Yoongi to place a hand on his shoulder. With a comforting smile on his face, Taehyung speaks with confidence, "There is no need to worry, Yoongi, we must hurry back to the base to tell the others, and we will take back the city and save everyone in no time."
He should be happy, Yoongi should be glad to hear those words of comfort from Taehyung, but he knew that there was no guarantee that they would win the fight over the leadership over one of the largest cities in the land of Korea. But Yoongi knew, based on everything that was written in his history books, that none of this should be happening in the first place because Taehyung and the other soldiers should be risking their lives and fighting against the Japanese army in the middle of an abandoned crop field somewhere around the forest and not in the city itself.
Because of Yoongi, there was damage that would make a mark on history itself.
"We must go," Taehyung tells Yoongi as his hand grabs Yoongi's, and just as they were about to turn to the path that should lead them to the base camp, a group of people emerged from behind the trees and under the bushes with weapons in their hands and malice can be seen from their eyes.
"Koreans," says one of the men who wore a different military uniform than Taehyung, gritting his teeth out of anger at the sight of the two men.
Taehyung hides Yoonngi behind him for safety as his other hand slowly finds its way to his only means of communication for backup to his other fellow soldiers in the base camp that should only be a couple of minutes away. He knew he would be risking his and Yoongi's lives, but this was his only way of making sure that Yoongi could run away and escape while he caused a distraction.
As quick as lightning, Taehyung brought out a gun and brought it up in the air, pulling the trigger, and a loud back echoed, the bullet exploding in the sky, a sign that would call for help from the others back at base.
A fight erupted at the loud echo and explosion from the gun, and Taehyung could only hope that his friends could arrive in time while he tried his best to protect Yoongi from danger and face the massive number of enemies by himself. In just a few minutes, a familiar voice of Kim Namjoon with fellow soldiers of the same squadron arrived behind him.
"The Bangtan squadron is here."