Minho got to know Jonghyun more and more as weeks went by. He learned how Jonghyun thought clothes were a nuisance, vegetables tasted like paper, and how Taerants were the most unpopular among creatures—because of the whole werewolf theory. Jonghyun by looks was only four years older than Minho, but age-wise . . . there was a huge gap.

Jonghyun was also forced into captivity a long time ago. All he wanted to do was die, but the humans wouldn’t let him go.

  “I’ll be five-hundred-and-eleven in a few weeks,” Jonghyun mused as they were sitting in a waiting room for examinations (Minho had no idea what it was), “I’ve been in here for two-hundred years by then, too. God, I’m glad my face still has strong elasticity. I wouldn’t be able to bear wrinkles!”

Minho chuckled, honestly amused as Jonghyun’s humor cut through the tense atmosphere, “Five-hundred, yeah? God, you should have a lot of history on your hands.”

  “Paws,” Jonghyun corrected, bringing his hands up and curling his fingers, “But yeah, I do. But not all of it’s pretty, though.”

Minho raised his brows, interested in the new information, “Not pretty?”

  “I was young, and you can’t blame me being born with the natural instincts to . . . take advantage of the weak,” he sighed, putting his hands back down and shaking his head, “Not—not in a ual aspect, but as in, taking advantage that they can’t outrun my . . . mouth. With my young behavior, I have blood on my hands—at least a hundred years worth of life, too. I was a crazy monster with the drive to kill.”

Minho wanted to console him (even though he must’ve been wise enough to know better by now that everything was okay despite their situation), but Jonghyun’s title (“J006”) was called out the metal door, ordering him to stand and get in there.

Jonghyun sighed, starting to lift the hem of his shirt, “Two-hundred years of this crap. A waste of unfortunate events. See you later, bud.”

Minho nodded, confused with “a waste of unfortunate events”, but he’d be sure to ask Jonghyun later. Now he felt completely bored as he was left there to wait for his call.

As Minho sat there, he thought about the weeks that passed with Jonghyun, causing Minho to worry. He hadn’t seen Onew and neither did he come to Minho’s room. The only thing on his mind was that Onew was in trouble if someone already found out his planned to help a prisoner (or whoever else he was helping). Or perhaps it could’ve dealt with Taemin. Maybe he had duties that included bringing him to the prison. To look over him. Protect him.

Minho still felt uneasy. But all he could do was wait.

Because Jonghyun was a long-time prisoner, he had a few privileges for being an obedient rat. One day, neither of them had to work really, so he requested Minho to accompany him in his room. It wasn’t an easy task—considering Minho’s documented temper. But he was gained approval to be let into Jonghyun’s room.

  “Visitor,” the guard shoved Minho through the door, locking it behind him.

Minho looked to see Jonghyun lounging on a mattress by his window, looking outside it with lidded eyes.

  “Jonghyun?” Minho called, cautious of his state. He had no idea what was off, but he totally felt it. Jonghyun hadn’t moved an inch and it alarmed Minho, “Ahjussi?”

  “Today’s April twenty-fourth,” Jonghyun spoke through tight lips, his voice covered in a sigh, “Another year without . . .” he sighed again.

Minho’s brows furrowed, walking a little closer as Jonghyun sat up on his knees, hands clutching the window bars, looking up and almost chanting, “Almost two-hundred years without . . .”

Minho felt the unexpected tension rise.

  “It’s not my . . . I shouldn’t . . . Damn,” he swore, hands shaking the bars, “God-ing-dammit!”

Minho was becoming uneasy as Jonghyun’s emotions were unexpectedly flaring.

Growls started ripping through Jonghyun’s throat, becoming more ravenous than human, animalistic snarls between his teeth.

Minho watched as long hairs were growing from his body. His entire human figure was changing to the point there wasn’t a trace of humanity left as heat radiated from his pores, the temperature increasing in the room as he started fidgeting violently.

  “Jonghyun!” Minho almost shouted, warning him to calm down, “Jonghyun, stop!”

The elder wasn’t paying mind to him. His clothes were expanding as Jonghyun’s body grew larger, ripping from the seams until they completely shed, Jonghyun barking madly at the window and violently trying to bite the bars off.

  “Jonghyun!” Minho shouted, slowly pacing himself to get over to the elder while he was occupied raging on the bars. Minho had no idea what was wrong or what he should do, but he had to do something.

  “I . . . I . . .” the most inhuman English tried escaping from his mouth, his body now banging against the walls, “I need to go!”

By then, the human side was all gone, replaced by wolverine snarls and howls as he threw himself all over his room, biting everything in sight.

Minho had to keep still, watching as the animal pounced on his bed again, bashing his head against the wall, but seemingly not doing any damage to his skull. He couldn’t tell whether he was just hitting the wall or trying to cause himself brain damage.

But it looked painful.

  “Jonghyun!” Minho shouted firmly.

The Taerant’s fur stood up, growling as he slowly turned around to face Minho, his eyes glowing white, his teeth snapping at Minho.

  “Jonghyun,” Minho calmly said, holding his hands out, “Whatever it is, you can just say it. You don’t have to knock down the whole building to get across what you want—even though it’s very tempting to let it happen,” Minho took a step forward, “Ahjussi, we can talk about what’s wrong. I can help—”

 The Taerant’s eyes flashed and Minho was most certainly unprepared.

The animal threw himself at Minho, knocking him to the floor as he stood on top of him, stepping on his stomach and forcing the air out of him. Minho quickly held on to his face, trying to push him back as his jaws snapped in front of his face. He grabbed his fur, forcing him back, but the monster was persistent, and wouldn’t let up on harming Minho.

Whatever was on Jonghyun’s mind—for the two-hundredth year—was causing him to snap. He didn’t know whether it was anger or depression, it could’ve even been both, but it was something that caused him to break out every year.

  “I don’t want to hurt you, Ahjussi,” Minho struggled to let himself speak, preventing the animal from swallowing him whole, “But if I have to, I will.”

The Taerant didn’t let up on him, but all the more tried biting his head off, white eyes piercing into Minho’s—Minho could slightly feel faint, but he didn’t know from what. All he knew was the Taerant wasn’t giving up without a fight, so Minho was going to have to provide that.

Minho could feel himself tense up as the fire sparked inside his blood, feeling little snaps all over him and burns slashing all over his body. He could feel the marks crawling all over his skin and the wings peek from their scar marks. His vision shook until everything stripped of color, everything now blacks and whites.

Minho snarled and pushed the Taerant back as lightly as he could—or he would’ve broken the wall—and the monster hit the wall, landing back on the bed, but immediately jumping at him again. Minho grabbed him by the back of his neck as if he were holding a baby kitten, spinning around in circles until the creature snapped at his hand. Minho let him go, the creature hitting the wall, snarling furiously as he came to attack the Daegrent again.

The Daegrent felt waves pulse off of him until he set his mind on setting something on fire. His hands had a heavier pulse, immense heat on his fingertips as white covered them, beckoning the Taerant to try again.

He hit the Taerant in the side of the face with the white fire and Minho was doing the best to not let the Daegrent side get too violent or Jonghyun would end up like Joon—the white fire would stick to him with no way out. The creature howled out as the fire hit its skin and left sparks all over its body, spazzing out from the shocks, but he came at the Daegrent again. The Daegrent grabbed him head on, pulling him over his head and throwing him back, but letting his wings fly out and catch him before he’d break the door down.

By then, the minor shocks were slowly paralyzing the animal’s ability and the Daegrent put him down, trying to calm himself down before he let himself actually hurt Jonghyun.

The Taerent laid there panting as the Daegrent fell to his knees and pressed a palm to the creature’s forehead, trying so hard to burn the creature away from Jonghyun’s human personality.

The dog growled and groaned continuously, trying to fight off the discomfort, but the Daegrent held him down, forcing the heat through his body; trying to separate the creature from the human.

Minho was glad when the fur started retracting, mewls of a dog turning to slight whimpers of a man, completely tired out and clearly depressed.

When Minho realized Jonghyun was coming back to human reality, he forced himself to snap out of his monstrous form, waiting for his black and white vision to return to color, now having a light hold on Jonghyun’s hair as the fire from his hands died down to nothing but body temperature.

Jonghyun was wearing nothing due to him shredding his clothes so suddenly. Minho left him for a moment, crawling to mattress, ping it to find blankets, but instead found multiple pairs of uniforms; he must’ve broken out often.

It was odd to dress an older man (older by five hundred years), but Jonghyun was too busy with his eyes closed, whimpering and rocking back and forth as if a puppy were trapped in a nightmare. When he dressed him, he found a marking on his back right shoulder blade—not just any tattoo or burn mark, but the actual mark of his beast.

It was hard to describe. It was like a face, the bottom outline similar to a fox as if it were looking down, in the space of where a face would be was an ‘X’ with circles on each end, and at the top looked like long triangular ears, in between it could definitely be hair sticking up. It was an obvious mark as to what Jonghyun transformed into.

He manipulated his Daegrent strength and picked Jonghyun up once he was decently clothed, putting him back on the bed and sitting on the floor by the mattress. Minho looked at Jonghyun forlornly, seeing upset features on his face rather than angry, watching his fingers curl as if he were trying to pull someone close.

Minho looked down. He knew what that was like; he knew what was wrong.

Jonghyun was missing someone. Bad.

And the only thing Jonghyun could do was break out in a fit and cry about it right after.

  “I’ve only known you for a few weeks, Ahjussi,” Minho whispered, stretching his hand out, placing it in front of Jonghyun’s hand, watching as the elder slowly grabbed it and pulled him closer, “But, I’m here for you, Ahjussi. I know it hurts, but you have to hang on, okay? I know you miss someone, but soon, I promise. Once I bust us out of here, you can go see whoever it is and be happy again.”

Jonghyun’s limp fingers squeezed Minho’s hand, his eyes ever so slightly opening, but enough for Minho to see. He wasn’t full awake, but neither fully asleep.

  “Minho,” Jonghyun whispered, feeling his hand, “Stop calling me Ahjussi. My ego’s . . . hurting because of that.”

Minho chuckled, lightly patting on top of Jonghyun’s hands and nodding, “Alright. Alright, Jonghyun.”

Jonghyun made no effort to smile, but lightly shook his head, “I didn’t know you were coming today . . . I thought it was tomorrow. I’m sorry you had to deal with that. I’m not like that, I swear.”

  “Don’t apologize,” Minho smiled, “When you miss someone, you don’t know what to do with yourself.”

  “You speak as if you’ve been missing someone since forever. We both know that’s not true,” Jonghyun’s eyebrow lazily raised, “You don’t know forever yet, Minho.”

Minho knew he didn’t—compared to Jonghyun and two-hundred years, he didn’t even come close. He felt bad for Jonghyun, in all honesty, but he wasn’t willing to try that out himself. He was going to make sure he did something. Even though he didn’t know if Jonghyun did anything, it hadn’t succeeded in the end. Maybe Minho could solve it somehow; to make his new friend happy again.

  “Yeah, I don’t. And I don’t plan on it,” he answered back lightly, “You’ll see whoever it is soon, though. I promise . . . Who is it?”

Jonghyun nuzzled his head in the mattress, shaking his head, “Not the time to tell you. Not yet.”

Minho hummed in acknowledgement, letting Jonghyun rest up.

  “What did you do to me? I’m never tired—I feel like you drugged me,” Jonghyun slightly whined.

  “I dunno,” Minho shrugged, actually not sure, “I’ve never done it before. Just . . .  wanted to calm you down.”

Jonghyun squeezed his hand again, a very tiny smile on his lips.

  “Well, you overdid it.”

----Note~-----

Oh um..... /hides in a corner desperately

Hi.

So... I didn't know I wasn't going to be updating in so long. But yeah, I have things going on, so that's why this is takes a lot of times.

So anyway, Jonghyun's past seems to be in the dark, or you can figure it out, but when I get the BTS up, I'll be sure to include it inside.

I'm sorry, I'm trying to make a really good note right now, but this freaking song is distracting the hell out of me as it's playing(be careful for ears. I laughed my off, but it's not kid friendly xD). I think I fell in love with Jay Park finally. Gosh darn it.

So, yeah, mind that /weeks/ have passed. So... yeah, the timing is really crappy.

See what I did in the title? TaeRANT's Rant? Gosh I'M SO HILARIOUS TO MYSELF.

So thank you to any views, comments, and subs. <3

~FlaMinhoe