There is nothing money can't buy. Money would wipe traces of his lingering scent off every street corner, and they could finally be happy. But Jungkook is only a mouse with a stretched wallet, and Taehyung is a deer trapped inside a wolf's den.

" Just wait, Tae. I'm only a mouse now, but I'll become a lion and devour those wolves - just wait," Jungkook swears, it's a promise that weighs heavily on his tongue. Yet, he says it, looking firmly into Taehyung's suppressed eyes.

For all it's worth, Taehyung looks bemused from his place on the living room floor. " But you're my mouse; I caught you in my mousetrap," Taehyung says with a chuckle, and thumbs at the blue handcuffs climbing up his inner thighs.

" You're my mouse, and I'll never let you go," He mumbles before peering down at his legs. " These don't even hurt, so stop worrying – fed me, I'm hungry." Taehyung smiles- smiles like everything is okay like there aren't patches of bruises on his body and blood on his teeth.

From where Jungkook is standing, he sees the way Taehyung's fingers twitch around the blue handprint that's partially hidden underneath his black boxers. It's a lie - Taehyung's words, but Jungkook knows better than to keep pressing.

As he's leaving, Jungkook glances around they living room. There's nothing much but a table, a green sitting mat, and a box tv. Suddenly, the lies that hang in the air between them become much more suffocating. He shuffles from the living room to the tiny hallway that leads to the front door and slips on his black ankle boots. The corridor of their apartment complex smells rancorously of piss and desperation.  Desperation that sinks into the fabric of Jungkook's clothes and burns the hairs in his nostrils.

There's a familiar thud of anxiety rumbling from his heart that penetrates through his bones. And Jungkook wonders - ponders if a kid like him could become a man. If a mouse like him could transform into a lion for his Bambi.