[BTS] First Deaths
Title: First Deaths
Characters: Yoongi, ft Jimin, Nam Joon, Sojin, Taehyung
Words: 2.4k
Summary: Yoongi asks other agents of death about their first assignments, and meets someone new
On his way home from school, Jimin found a dog who had been hit by a car. The dog’s body was twisted in an impossible angle, he bled from his stomach, and he cried in pain. There was nothing Jimin could do to help him. So he sat down next to the dog, used his backpack as a pillow, and waited.
Yoongi showed up moments later. The buckles of his jacket hitting each other in the wind, his black wings extended behind him. He sighed. “Jimin what are you doing here?”
Jimin smiled, “I’m keeping you company.” He patted the ground next to him. Yoongi rolled his eyes and sat down with him. There had been a sarcastic thanks, but Jimin chose to ignore it. It’s been weeks since he last saw the angel. And there was a thousand things Jimin wanted to tell him. His grades, his basketball team, the time he crashed his parents car. But he forgot all of those once he saw the angel.
Yoongi. Yoongi with his large gorgeous black wings. Jimin wanted to touch them, but Yoongi might go away. Jimin didn’t want that.
“If I was your first death, why do you take care of animals?” Jimin asked.
The dog died. His spirit barked at Jimin. Jimin couldn’t hear him.
“My assignment changed after you,” Yoongi said. The dog moved on to Yoongi, he seemed relieved when Yoongi pet him, and crawled into his lap.
“Does everyone change? Do you go through like a death trial period to see what suits you best?” Jimin asked.
“I don’t know Jiminnie,” Yoongi said. He started the dog’s belly.
“Do you ever get curious?” Jimin asked.
No, Yoongi doesn’t get curious.
But now that Jimin planted the thought….
~~
Yoongi found Nam Joon in the clock room. He paced slowly, looked over each clock, and wrote down information on a clipboard. Yoongi didn’t know they had clipboards. Yoongi didn’t know a lot of things.
Yoongi stepped away from the grandfather clock with a crack up its side. He spoke, “Nam Joon?”
“Yes,” Nam Joon answered, his attention fully on the watch in front of him.
“Do you remember your first reaping?” Yoongi asked.
“Reaping?” Nam Joon paused, “Ah you mean the first time I took someone’s soul?”
“Yeah that.”
“Yeah I remember,” Nam Joon started writing, “It was a long time ago, she was a painter.”
Nam Joon stopped, “No, he was a painter.”
His wings brushed the ground, “Maybe he was a child and the child was painting the walls?”
“It was bright so was it day? But the light could have been from a candle. Or maybe it was a gas lamp?”
Nam Joon scratched his white hair, “No that can’t be right. I collected souls before gas lamps were invented.”
Nam Joon chewed on his pen, “There was paint involved, the person died of poisoning from using mercury based paint. But he… she… was alone. It was easy, they took my hand and we walked away. Does that make sense?” He shuddered under Yoongi’s gaze.
Yoongi crossed his arms. He glared at Nam Joon.
Nam Joon fidgeted. He asked, “Did that help?”
No.
Yoongi stomped out of the room and went to find someone who actually had a brain.
~~
When Yoongi later recounted the story to Sojin, she laughed.
“Nam Joon is older than dirt, he’s practically useless,” Sojin giggled around her drink.
They were in an empty bar in the basement of a Hongdae building. It was an hour before opening so there was no risk of touching a human. Sojin probably sat there when it was crowded at night. She was that kind of Agent. Old enough to be a master of the human world.
The bartender was training a new kid to mix drinks. He finished a glowing blue concoction. Sojin’s eyes turned red. The bartender brought the drink over to Sojin then walked back to the new kid, surprised when his demonstration drink went missing.
“Listen kid, Nam Joon has been in this business too long to remember trivial things like that. The only things he cares about are doing his job, finding Jin, and making sure you transition into agent life. Sorry kid, but you’re taking too long to adjust,” Sojin explained.
Yoongi frowned, “I’m doing my best.”
Sojin smiled sympathetically, “You poor pathetic baby.” She brushed his hair. He leaned out of her reach and mumbled “I’m not a kid.”
Sojin laughed, “I think my protégé will adjust before you.”
Yoongi perked up. This was the first time he heard of an agent younger than him, “When did you get a protégé?”
“Shortly after you failed your first assignment,” Sojin explained. Sojin drank from her blue drink, made a face, then pushed it to Yoongi. She continued, “We still needed someone to take on child deaths, so I grabbed my next soul and gave her wings.”
“We can do that?” Yoongi asked. He drank, it was too sweet but whatever, it’s been forever since he ate or drank something. Agents don’t need to eat. Sojin did it anyway.
“I can do that,” Sojin clarified, “I’ve done this job for thousands of years, I can do a lot of things and Nam Joon can do even more.”
Makes sense. Yoongi twisted his glass in his hand and thought about Jimin, and how if he was thousands of years older, maybe he could pull Jimin into their world.
Sojin frowned, “You need to stop hanging out with that human child of yours.”
Yoongi looked away, “Don’t butt into my private life.”
“Sweetie, everyone knows,” Sojin leaned on her hand. “Is he the one that’s got you asking about first assignments? You’ve never cared before.”
“Yeah,” Yoongi admitted.
Sojin tsked.
Yoongi spoke in a small voice, “He’s more curious about this world than I am, and I live it.”
“Curiosity is a living condition. We don’t care for it anymore.” Sojin stole a new drink from the bartender, and kept it.
Yoongi turned the glass in his hand. He asked. “What was your first assignment?”
Sojin smiled. She looked at the glasses hanging over the bar counter. “I walked into a room. A wooden house, with sliding door and large vases filled with beautiful flowers, and mahogany tables with calligraphy scrolls. I thought, ‘what a beautiful place to live.’ And then I saw them. Two women holding hands. One with short bobbed hair and a servants robe. The other with her long brown hair cascading across the floor, pale skin, long eyelashes, red cheeks. “
There was an empty bottle on the table. Next to the bottle was a scroll with a message for her father, it stated that said she would rather die than marry someone she didn’t love.”
Yoongi released the breath he had been holding. Sojin smiled wistfully. She threw back her head and finished her drink.
“I have to go check on Minah,” Sojin said.
Yoongi understood. They all had busy lives. They shouldn’t be spent entertaining a failed agent.
“If you’re curious about first deaths, you should ask Taehyung about his,” Sojin said, “He’s the one with the smile and the fawn colored wings. He’ll help you.”
“Thanks,” Yoongi said.
Sojin waved. She walked out of the bar, big cream colored wings behind her. And then she was gone.
Yoongi buried his face in his arms, his wings felt heavy on his back, and wondered why death chose him.
~~
Taehyung was harder to track down than Yoongi expected. Yoongi wove in and out of the white halls of death, he asked other agents, he even asked Nam Joon.
“Why are you looking for him?” Nam Joon asked.
Yoongi shrugged, he looked down at the white ground, “Sojin said I should make friends.”
Nam Joon tensed, “Don’t talk to him.”
It was an order. Yoongi ignored it.
He went back to the room of souls and found the grandfather clock with the crack up its side. He stepped through it and found himself in a hospital room. There was one patient, a middle aged woman with a cast on her leg. Nothing serious. Yoongi sighed in relief. He took off one of his black leather gloves and touched her wrist. He felt her pulse, her warmth, and then her leg healed itself.
He smiled. Maybe he’d stay long enough to see her happy expression in the morning. Or the baffled doctors’ astonishments when they come and check on her tomorrow.
“So the rumors are true.”
Yoongi turned around. There was an agent leaning against the door. He had fawn colored wings with brown spots. His eyes a glowing ice blue. He wore a long sleeve shirt with holes cut in it. He spoke again, “You really can heal anyone.”
“Not anyone,” Yoongi explained, “People at the end of their lives die no matter what I do.”
“Little details,” he walked up to the patient and examined her leg, “This is incredible.” His smile took up half of his face. Yoongi understood what Sojin meant when she said the one with the smile.
“What are you doing here, Taehyung?” Yoongi asked.
Taehyung’s smile grew wider, “So my reputation precedes me. I’m here for an assignment, but that isn’t for another couple of hours.”
Taehyung’s hand skimmed the patient’s hospital gown, “There’s a café downtown called Ambrosia, let’s talk there.”
~~
Ambrosia was a small coffee shop. Six tables in total with a glass case displaying deserts taking up half of the wall. It was night, the café was dark and empty. Taehyung stared at the giant low hanging purple chandelier.
“Taehyung?” Yoongi asked.
“It’s so pretty,” Taehyung said. His wings fluttered on his back.
“Why are we here?” Yoongi asked.
“I bet tall people hit their heads all the time,” Taehyung reached for it, “Nam Joon probably couldn’t walk in here.”
Yoongi slammed his hands on a table, “Quit playing games Taehyung!”
Taehyung smirked. He slowly made his way to Yoongi’s table, “I can see why death chose you. You look the part. Black wings, pale skin, red eyes peeking through dark bangs. You’re every nightmare come to life.”
Yoongi glared. He leaned off the table and sat down.
Taehyung continued, “I can also see why you were terrible for children. You’re too harsh around the edges.”
“Get to the point,” Yoongi said in a terse tone.
Taehyung smiled, “You were looking for me?
“Yes I was,” Yoongi said, he immediately regretted his search. “Sojin suggested I ask you about your first mission.”
“Really, Sojin did? My job is too brutal for even her, and she handles suicides. You know how brutal those can be,” Taehyung said.
Yoongi hated Sojin’s stories. “Get on with it.”
Taehyung smirked, his eyes glowed. “My first assignment was nothing like yours. She was beautiful. So young, so precious. Pale skin hair floating everywhere, she was drowning. I can still remember her desperately trying to swim her way to the surface. I remember her arms outstretched and reaching for the moonlight. And then she stopped.”
Yoongi’s chest constricted. Taehyung closed his eyes. “She was relieved when she saw me. I took her hand, but she wanted to see her murderer one last time. So we flew to the dock, and saw her father with his eyes fixed on her drowned body,” Taehyung finished. He looked at Yoongi.
Yoongi scooted away from Taehyung, “That’s awful.”
Taehyung shrugged. “It’s my punishment. Since I killed people on earth, I have to take care of them in the afterlife.”
Yoongi flew to the roof, the force of his wings knocked over the table behind him. He stared at Taehyung with wide eyes. Taehyung looked up, his expression blank.
“You have your memories!” Yoongi shouted.
“I died with them. I get to remember every face of every life I took,” Taehyung said. He closed in on himself, “I’m atoning for my sins.”
Yoongi stepped back down. His wings stopped. The café was a mess, chairs were turned over, tables were on their side, the chandelier swung widely. Taehyung didn’t look at him. Yoongi ran a hand through his bangs.
“That’s rough,” he said.
“Yeah it is,” Taehyung agreed.
A pause.
Taehyung stood up, “My client is ready now, I was waiting for him to bleed out from a bullet to the head.” His tone was straightforward, he’s seen too many things, too many broken bodies and desperate faces.
“Do you want to go with me?” Taehyung asked.
Yeah, Yoongi did.
He followed Taehyung to the hospital. They watched as a heart monitor went flat and doctors and nurses scrambled to jumpstart the patient’s heart. It was too late. Taehyung took the spirit’s hand, and they crossed over to the land of the dead.
~~
Yoongi and Jimin ay on their backs and looked up at a grey sky. The clouds were the same color as Nam Joon’s wings. Yoongi chuckled.
“What’s funny?” Jimin asked.
“Nothing,” Yoongi answered.
They were in a hunting range. Yoongi was waiting for three pigeons and a fox. Jimin was ditching his tutoring session. He turned to face Yoongi, “So, what did you learn about first deaths?”
A lot. Nothing that he would share with Jimin. Yoongi shrugged, “I learned that I’m special.”
Jimin pouted, “I could have told you that.”
Yoongi laughed. Jimin laughed with him. His bangs were too long, he needed a haircut. Yoongi wondered if his own hair would grow if he cut it. Probably not. Time is endless.
Time…
“I also learned that my mentor is useless,” Yoongi added. Sojin’s words rung in the back of his head, about Nam Joon only caring about three things.
“I should talk to him more often,” Yoongi mused out loud
Jimin dropped his backpack on Yoongi. Yoongi looked up in surprise. Jimin whined, “Talk to me now!”
Jimin pouted. His school uniform was too big for him, his sleeves covered his hands. His tie hung loose around his neck. He looked impossibly young.
Yoongi laughed. Jimin beat Yoongi’s jacket with tiny fists and Yoongi laughed.