The sun was up and the birds were singing. It was a beautiful quiet day. Seokjin ignored the news about the increase of corona cases after having a short call with his mom on the phone. He doesn't want to worry himself about them after his parents just assured him they were doing fine all cooped up in their third mansion. They knew how his anxiety crept up on him, specially at night. He locked his phone as he finished donating $500,000 to a charity towards a COVID19 Response Fund.
He breathes fresh air in and out comfortably listening to the soft rustling of leaves from trees around his property.
He contemplates if it was such a bad idea how he declined joining his family as they all went to Norway for a vacation before the pandemic started.
Now, he was left in their 9 bedroom, 15 baths, approximately 22,000 sq ft mansion high up in the mountains alone for weeks with his family stuck in another country not sure when they were coming back.
He was his father's successor of their multi billion dollar tech company and had been running things all by himself at a young age. Hes spent countless nights losing sleep over work, eager to make his father proud and accomplished that. Now that he attained his goals, various stressors popped up in Seokjin's life that he has tried so hard to appease. Having so many people look up to you, depend on you and watch your every move does exacerbate someone's anxiety not to mention his past trauma.
Days spent soaking in the spa and getting massages did help but Seokjin's main problem was his sleep. His pattern was completely off. Most of the time going on fully awake for 72 hours straight and not even noticing it. His physician told him to stop consuming so much sweets because it may have adverse effects beside making him hyper later in his life. And Seokjin didn't want to drink alcohol every night just to fall asleep.
He has tried everything and nothing worked, until he learned about ASMR.
It was one of his best inventor friends from his company, Min Yoongi, that introduced him to the sensory response. After handing his newly invented hyper sensitive binaural wireless bluetooth earbuds to Seokjin, he told him to search up ASMR videos on the internet and Seokjin was hooked ever since then.
It was the answer to all his sleepless nights. From that moment on, Seokjin obtains a full 8-hour sleep cycle, sometimes more, if he wills himself early enough to lay in his bed. He has experienced the bestest snooze in his life after hitting the treasure trove with that one certain youtuber whose video could drain his anxieties away and lull him peacefully to sleep, even drooling at times.
In all honestly though, Seokjin just wanted some time alone as his younger brother and parents all went to travel.
Due to the pandemic, he agreed to have everyone at his company to work from home. He loved it. There was nothing better than having more time to play and even test out their company's inventions, although he did miss their headquarters and his friends.
As time went by, Seokjin started to feel lonely in such a huge house with no one to interact with. Sure, there was internet but spending time with someone physically was still different. He did often speak with either one of his two guards he had situated at a guard house far beyond his mansion whenever they bring up his online orders to the front door of his home.
After taking a dip in the 250 ft. zero edge infinity pool, Seokjin has laid himself out on one of the sunbathing lounges as he relaxed. He swam to let out his frustration from cleaning up early that morning after getting off the phone with his parents and reading tons of emails.
He thought twice and concludes that it wasn't such a bad idea how he let all of their servants and almost all of his security guards be on paid leaves as he was confident that nothing wrong could possibly happen. Yet he does regret not leaving at least two servants behind so he could have someone to talk to.
He felt that everything was going well, he could order groceries online since his parents didn't want him to go out plus he was scared to contract the virus anyway, he could cook and have take out delivered. He even learned to do his own laundry and some chores. Ever since the pandemic started, he locked the mansion up to assure his safety and he was doing fine ever since.
Not until he noticed small problems happening in his home, specifically in his kitchen.
Day after day, Seokjin discovers opened bags of chips in the pantry, missing food and drinks and empty food containers. He even noticed food wrappers in the trash bin that he doesn't remember eating.
He figured he had a rat problem. Rats that somehow knew how to throw away wrappers in the trash bin. Some rodents must have multiplied and mutated from the loss of servants maintaining the mansion and were infiltrating his pantry somehow. He tried calling the exterminators but they were closed down at the moment because of the pandemic.
Seokjin stretched and figured he would have lunch. He had some meat marinated and was planning to roast it. After eating and getting bored from playing video games, he got up craving for his favorite jellies.
His trusted supplier stilled production because of corona so he painfully had to eat one jelly at a time.
He purposefully left some to consume little by little thinning it out until next week because hopefully, they would have new stock by then. He made his way to his pantry but paused by the kitchen isle.
There were more bones on his plate from lunch than what he recalled eating, he sighs in annoyance.
He threw out the bones and placed the plate in the sink, turned the tap and closed it and made his way to the pantry to nibble his jelly for the day.
20 minutes passed and he still could not for the love of god find his favorite jellies. He was about to throw a fit when he heard water running.
He peeked his head out the door of his pantry and checked the sink thinking he must have left the water running.
It wasn't coming from there but the running water did echo from the drain crawling within the walls of the complete blaring block of silence that was the mansion.
This peaked Seokjin's curiosity as he stepped out of his kitchen. He listened carefully with lightweight feathery footsteps following the sound, pressing his ear on wood and concrete finding where the running water was coming from.
After walking for a few minutes, he reached a side of their mansion he doesn't usually venture to. They had 9 bedrooms and only three of them were actually occupied by him, his brother and their parents. Their parents weren't even there half the time because they had another mansion they choose to live in. Beside the 9 bedrooms that all had their own bathroom, they also had an indoor and an outdoor theatre, five bars, a game room, a gym, pools, and a spa, all topped by a roof deck that had an outdoor kitchen where one of the bars were located, all accessible by an elevator.
He led himself down a flight of stairs to a floor below and walked until he reached the edge of the mansion and paused in front of one of the guest bedrooms where the sound was the strongest. The door creaked as he slowly opened it and wearily walked into the room.
His heart was beating so fast in his chest in fear and anger as he took in the entire state of the room. It was obvious that there's an intruder in his home and Seokjin wanted to run up and call for security.
How unlucky was it that toady was a day for both of his only security guards he'd left were on their day off?
While there was water running in the shower, there were clothes on the unmade bed, some on the floor and a few pieces hanging in the closet, most of it he recognized as his own clothes that he hasn't seen for quite some time. Besides clothes, there were stacks of some empty food containers here and there. A banana peel was on the bed and random objects, which he noticed were some of what he thought were things he's misplaced, were placed here and there. There was even a huge elephant ear leaf still attached to it's branch leaning on the nightstand. He knew that plant in his living room looked a little wonky.
He glanced over at the desk by the window and noticed some sort of set up with two microphones, a 3dio, a small portable ring light and a laptop.
Everything was appalling. Seokjin has never felt so vulnerable, fearful, angry and panicky at the same time.
Though nothing compared to the rage he felt, breath hitching after seeing something by the end of the hard wood desk's trash bin that was filled to the brim.
The sad and battered packet of his favorite jellies,
EMPTY.
His blood boiled under his skin as he bent over and picked it up, crumpling it in his hand shaking in fury ready to make this savage stalker hoodlum pay.
He felt downright disappointed not feeling his phone in his pocket to call police when something pink caught his attention. He glanced over at the chair in front of the desk and there resting on the backrest was his pink furry jacket.
His mouth fell open as he reached and picked it up.
The washroom's door suddenly opened and out sang a deep voice humming to a song making Seokjin's soul leave his body.
There was a pandemic happening in the world and here he was about to get murdered by some psycho stalker inside his own mansion.
The humming came to a halt and Seokjin knew he was done for. Well, he could probably protect himself, but to what extent? Who was he kidding? What if there were more than one murderer? Letting their employees go on paid leave, specially his guards was such a stupid idea. And what are the odds of finding his stalker exactly on the first day-offs of his only active security?
He slowly turned around still holding onto his pink furry jacket and empty packet of jellies and was surprisingly equally greeted with the same terrified expression Seokjin had on his face.
Seokjin gulped.
The man was shirtless and still kind of wet and dewy from the shower as steam slowly crept out from the door behind him. A towel was wrapped around his waist and another lazily twirled atop his dripping wet curly hair on his head.
Seokjin stared at that familiar scared face and felt his guts twist in his stomach.
After a moment of silence the man took a step back possibly in attempt to run away.
"I'm sorry!"
Seokjin shrieked feeling guilty as he ran out of the room and slammed it behind him panting as he rest his back on the door.
A few seconds past when Seokjin came to the realization of what he had just done.
He just apologized to a stranger possible psycho stalker murderer trespassing and stealing from his home just because he saw him with only a towel on.
He threw the jacket and the empty packet on the floor filled with intense indignation and twisted the door knob trying to open it when the stranger locked the door.
"HEY! I'M I'M CALLING THE POLICE!" He yells at the door and he just hates his dumb ass for leaving his phone on another floor of his huge mansion.
"PLEASE! DON'T! I -I WON'T HURT YOU! I'LL GET OUT OF HERE! PLEASE!" the horrified voice from the other side of the door cried.
Seokjin was not convinced. But since he kind of knew who the person was, he wasn't all that terrified.
"His voice sure sounds different from his ASMR videos when he speaks normally tho. And .. and.. he looks better in person.." Seokjin thought.
He was just a little ol cutie youtuber, he couldn't hurt him, right?
NO.
It was great effort for Seokjin to clear his head and stop himself from fanboying. He can't believe he was really fanboying over his own stalker.
He couldn't take any chances. He's dealt with stalkers before and this man would be no different. This would be the worst case to boot! None of his stalkers ever stepped foot in his mansion before. He only received love letters and packages containing hair and used panties but that was it. This was a whole new different level of crime and he should be scared shitless. What if he was a psychotic ass body chopping blood curdling insane unforgiving stalker murderer pretending to be nice on the internet?
"PUT-PUT YOUR CLOTHES ON!" He yelled. Feeling a bit pissed off knowing the clothes on the bed were his clothes.
A few seconds passed before he heard a response.
"O-okay.." he heard the other say as his voice faded into the room.
Seokjin pressed his ear on the door trying to listen to what he was doing hearing his feet shuffling.
"D-done! P-please don't call the cops. It's just a stupid prank. I don't plan on hurting you. If you let me out of here, I promise you won't see me ever again!" Tae says sounding scared and defeated from the other side of the door but Seokjin didn't want to fall for it so easily.
He took one of his brother's art displays that looked like a club for protection and stood by the door.
"Open the door!" he exclaimed feeling like he was playing a part in a movie.
A moment passed and, click, the door unlocked and Seokjin pushed it open with the club in hand.
A terrified curly haired boy had his hands up stepping back into the room as Seokjin inched forward observing him wearing his oversized white shirt and shorts.
He scanned the floor for anything to tie up the intruder as he planned on calling the cops later on when Tae suddenly moved to make a run for it.
Seokjin tackled him onto the ground and reached for an extension cord to tie the criminal's hands tightly behind his back.
"Please.. I'm so sorry.." Tae started to cry and Seokjin closed the door behind him heading to his room to call for the cops.
~
A few hours later..
"What do you mean you can't come because of the lockdown?" Seokjin screeched in to his phone pacing up and down the hallway nearby where the youtuber turned stalker thief's room was. He has checked all of his valuables earlier but found nothing missing. Despite that, Seokjin still feels like his life was in danger in the presence of the intruder.
He sighs after getting off the phone. The police just told him to keep the man inside the room and they will respond as soon as possible.
Seokjin was fuming, he didn't even know how this man got into his mansion and now his life was in danger and the police didn't seem to care that a billionaire was about to die. Did he sound like he was doing a prank call?
His voice from just a few moments ago screaming "But he stole my jellies!" in anger made him realize that, yes. He did sound like he was doing a prank call.
"I didn't steal anything from you hyung.." he heard Tae's voice murmur from inside the room.
He walked over to the door to look at the criminal in somewhat a half-hearted disgusted expression. How could he look attractive even if he was tied up like that?
Tae sat up straight from his mermaid sitting position by the end of the bed where he was bound to look up at Seokjin with his huge sorrowful glassy eyes.
Seokjin felt bad. More so after observing how he tied the man's hands and feet like that.
"I'm so sorry, Jin-hyungnim.."
Seokjin tightly pressed his lips. All this time, his only desire was for Tae, the Youtuber, to recognize him from his comments. Even a like would have been enough. But now that Tae was actually a disgusting stalker, his very own stalker, hearing his name fall from his lips felt painful.
Beside Seokjin's anxiety about his work, his life was never quiet because of crazed gold diggers, opportunists and stalkers.
Why did he have to be born with such a handsome face, a tall stature, great humor and a brilliant mind? And to top it all, a young single billionaire?
"What do you call this?" Seokjin asks holding out his empty packet of sour jellies.
Tae looked at the empty packet, scared and confused.
"S-sour jellies?"
"It's empty isn't it? You stole these from me!" Seokjin accused with his cheeks puffed and lips pursed, eyebrows downcast.
Tae made a face looking like he was constipated. He tried to stop it but a smile broke his sad demeanor.
"But-but you have a ton of jellies.." he countered.
"Not this one!!" Seokjin bellows but regrets it as the words came out of his mouth. Why was he acting all childish?
"But.. too much of those are bad for you.." Taehyung says softly after he let a small cautious smile paint his face.
Seokjin pouts in shame. Did he just let his favorite youtuber see him get riled up over some jellies?
"If you untie me, I'll find some for you online and have it delivered as soon as possible.." Tae suggests.
Seokjin looked at his hands and feet that were reddening from how tight he had it bound to the bed.
He felt terrible.
He slowly went and knelt in front of Tae as he started to untie his feet.
The boy's eyes widen and Seokjin didn't care if he thought he was untying him just because of food, just because of some stupid jellies?
Tae was a bit shorter than him and besides knowing how his face can be intimidating at times from what Seokjin has seen from his videos, the boy was pretty harmless, he makes out.
He decides to untie him but keep his guard up because he doesn't know if the stalker knew karate or something, he couldn't risk it.
It just felt wrong tying him up like that.
If the youtuber was going to murder him and document it and post it on youtube, then so be it, he'll do his best to defend himself. He was confident with his jiu-jitsu skills after all.
He was untying Tae's hands not realizing how close they were until he felt Tae's breathe on his neck.
He moved back immediately glancing at Tae who was now rubbing his wrists.
They were deep red.
"T-thank you.." Tae muttered and slowly stood up.
"I'm s-sorry.." Seokjin stammers conflicted with why he was so remorseful.
Seokjin stood up quickly as well and positioned his arms in front of him in defense.
Tae chortled as he observed Seokjin, "It's okay. Look what I've done to you.. You're.. s-scared of me."
Seokjin just stared at him trying not to be enchanted by the man's incredible visuals, unsure what was going to happen next.
"M-my name's Taehyung." he held out his hand warily for a shake.
Seokjin looked at his hand and back up at Tae's face.
Right, he didn't know he knew him already. Though all along he thought the youtuber only went by "Tae".
"Seokjin" he introduced himself even though he didn't need to as he quickly slapped Taehyung's hand with his and placed it back to his defensive stance.
Taehyung raised his brows at him and Seokjin felt like he's the weirdo. He felt offended as if he was the one acting all strange between the both of them when Taehyung was a creep who lived in his house without him knowing, eating his food and wearing his clothes.
"I know, hyungnim.." Tae subtly smiles calmly and made to walk to his laptop and sat down on the chair, glanced back at Seokjin and hesitantly opened it up, Seokjin closely observed his every move not letting his guard down.
"There." Taehyung assures as he clicked on his mouse after checking his cart out after Seokjin's approval.
Seokjin looked back at him after checking around the room again because, what if the intruder wasn't alone?
"A-are there more of you?" Seokjin asks, fear creeping back up his spine with the thought of Taehyung somehow alerting his minion villainous wretched friends through the internet. What if they were a group of hackers plotting to torture and compel him to give them his pass codes to drain his bank accounts and Taehyung was the mastermind's pet who was able to infiltrate his mighty security system?
"It's just me." Taehyung shrugs innocently facing him.
Seokjin sighs from the lack of action as he deflated.
Taehyung glanced at the door behind him.
"Don't even think about it." Seokjin warns glaring at Taehyung.
"If you let me go, I promise you this will all be over with. I won't spread any kind of information about your home or how I even got in.. It was just a stupid prank and I never should have done it. I'm so sorry.." Taehyung pleads.
"How did you even get in??" Seokjin asks perplexed as his forehead creased.
"You left your car elevator open that one time. I got in one of your cars and the thing descended to your basement, which was so cool by the way, this was when you were choosing which car to use and it was before the pandemic started. And your servants.. or guards I guess were busy with the gate and carrying luggages and stuff.." Taehyung reveals as his eyes dropped to the ground.
Seokjin was just quiet listening to his confession remembering how Tae told that story in his Day 1 ASMR vlog in the mansion. How could he not have noticed it was his own car and his own car elevator? He just assumed that every billionaire has one anyway because who wouldn't want a car elevator when you had 14 cars? And come to think of it, he never distinguished the room Tae was staying in because he never even sees all the rooms in his house every single day. He just thought it was familiar.
Taehyung clears his throat as a result of Seokjin's unresponsiveness and decided to continue his confession to convince Seokjin that he was not in fact a creepy stalker homeless murderer of some sort.
"The dare was for me to stay here w-without you finding out about it for three days.. I succeeded, obviously, but then when I tried to get out, e-everything was locked in and I.. I was scared but I couldn't just show up in front of you and ask you to let me out like.. what the fuck would that be, r-right? So.. so I s-stayed here and just wished for the quarantine to be over so I c-could es-escape.. " Taehyung's voice recoiled as he shrinks in fear of what Seokjin would do.
The young billionaire just stared at him and slowly walked back away from him to the door fumbling to get hold of the doorknob behind him, eyes not leaving Taehyung's hopeful wide ones staring back at him.
Taehyung sat up gazing at the door after Seokjin closed it and stood up when he heard a click. He ran to it and found himself not just locked in a mansion where he could freely roam about but now was locked inside this room in the young bachelor's mansion.
"Please, let me out." Taehyung wept behind the door.
"I-I'll think about it." Seokjin uttered apprehensively holding the door knob.
He heard a dragged sigh then shuffling inside the room and Seokjin walked away needing to compose himself about this. He can't just let this youtuber's handsome self sway him to believe that his life was not in danger and easily hand him everything he wants. He was still not convinced that this was all just a prank and that he wasn't actually a crazy stalker like how he was appearing to be.
He figured calling the cops again tomorrow and see if Taehyung did actually just order jellies and not initiate something evil.
..
hehehhehhe :D