Jungkook frowned. He shook the open bottle again. Nothing. He had run out of black acrylic colour. Why was it that nowadays black was always empty, no matter how often he bought new one?

"Aish!"

He went up to Jimin´s room and opened the door without bothering to knock. "Hyung, I´m out of black. Buy me new paint", the artist demanded. Jimin looked up from some texts spread across his bed. He often had a load of texts and pictures with him since their quarrel. They had made up - somehow, more or less. But there was still a slight tension lingering sometimes and Jimin outright refused to show him what he was working on with all those files. And now again he quickly gathered his stuff and pushed it under the blanket. To say that Jungkook was nosey what the hell was going on would´ve been an understatement. But he understood that he needed to give his friend his privacy if he wanted their relationship to be as good as it once had been. So he kept his mouth shut and refrained from sniffing around. Like he had done it at Taehyung´s. He felt a little sting as he thought at him. Of course that was not jealousy or his 'bleeding heart' as Jimin called it or love sickness or anything like that. It was just... a jammed nerve or something similar. It was nothing else than a coincidence he was in pain feeling a sting in his chest since Taehyung had left him. A mere coincidence. Yes. Nothing else. Jimin could say otherwise, he did no longer listen to it. And so Jungkook just let it pass by as his friend commented with sad expression:

"That´s because you are recently painting dark pictures nonstop. You are drowning your pain and loneliness in black paint. That´s not a solution, Kookie."

As he got no reaction at all, Jimin went on: "That´s why you can go and buy your melodramatical black on your own. I have important business to do."

"What business?"

Jimin side-eyed him varily. "You, I won´t tell."

Oh. It was those files again. Jungkook retreated, closing the door behind him. He would stay out of that matter. He had to.

--------------------------------------

Argh, I can´t take it anymore! Jungkook paced around at high speed, tugging at his hair and throwing the hands in the air. Goddammit, he was no saint! His patience was not endless. In fact, he had run out of patience right now. Jimin had been getting more and more secretive with his 'work' stuff and it freaked him out like hell. What was it Jimin was doing all the time? He would find out today. As his friend had left the house in a hurry and Jungkook was pretty sure he had forgotten at least one or two sheets in is room. Automatically tiptoeing although he was curretnly alone, the artist entered the other´s room.

You should know better than hide something from me, hyung.You know very well that honesty is important for me...

Luckily, he didn´t have to search long. There were five handwritten pages left in the bedside drawer. He recognized Jimin´s handwriting. Jungkook skimmed the texts - and was left shocked.

He didn´t know what he had expected but defenitely not this! The texts were mainly about four different topics: informations about the underground organization Black fox in general, suspected members, results of the surveillance of one specific man and... Taehyung´s whereabouts. Jimin´s notes were narrowing in the possible area of Taehyung´s location, there were some drawings and a map with circles getting smaller and smaller. But the reason Junkook was frozen in shock was one small side note written in alarming red bold letters:

'How long till Tae´s rescue? Don´t be dead, don´t be dead, don´t be dead please!!!'

It took him minutes to let the informations sink in. Jungkook just sat there and stared so long at the words that his vision got blurry. He snapped out of his trance. Before he knew, his body was already acting, dialing his friend´s number.

"H-hello?", Jimin answered his call with trembling voice.

"Hyung, where are you right now?", Jungkook asked full of impatience and sorrow. Which did not go unnoticed by the other.

"Why do you want to know?" he asked back, voice now vary.

"Gosh, Jimin, just tell me, please! Have you found Tae?!"

There was a long pause a the other end of the line. Then:

"Yes. He is in the hospital now. It is not certain he will make it."

Jungkook was already running down the streets. The last part made him stumble and he almost fell in a bush.

"What... do... you... mean... ?", he heavily panted nevertheless kept his speed steady.

"They poisoned him. You will see."

Indeed he would. The hospital was nearly in sight. Junkook put all his strength in sprinting through the city. His perception was limited to his lungs pumping air, his feet hammering on the asphalt and the single sentence 'Stay alive!' repeating itself over and over.

He made it in ten minutes. Infront of the building were police cars parking. He stormed past them an headed to the reception.

"Where-" In this moment he spotted Jimin. Without ending his sentence, he hurried to his friend who was giving him a piercing cold look.

"He is over the hill. But certainly not thanks to you."

Jungkook lost a deep breath and stepped around Jimin and into the room where Taehyung was laying. Countless tubes and wires were connected to his limp and pale body. Different fluids were running through them, inserting in Taehyung. He was very thin, bones visible under his greyish skin with a hint of sickening green. His eyes were sunken in, dark circles surrounding them. The former fluffy beautiful soft hair had lost its splendor. Jungkook could not make out any bruises but that mustn´t mean anything as most of Taehyung´s body was covered with blankets and the usual hospital attire. Making it even more difficult to notice the faint heaving of his chest.

The pain in Jungkook´s own chest was back with a pang. Pain exploded inside of him, getting worse with every second he looked at his beloved Taehyung. And he stopped lying to himself. Jimin had been right. All the time, his friend had been right and he had been wrong, so terribly wrong.

"The Black fox got back on him", Jimin whispered behind him. "They wanted to take revenge for their comrades which were killed during Tae´s rescue. It was only some weeks ago they learned his whereabouts. One of them, who had infiltrated the police department, found it out as you was doing your 'research'. It was the very same man who gave you the stick and later told you Tae was betraying you. Apparently, he had lied to you. And it was very obvious, but you had gone blind on reality." The older accusingly pointed at him. "The mess inside of his flat was evidence of his fight against the kidnappers, not whatever you assumed it would be. They kidnapped him, tortured and poisoned him while they fed you a big lie. Which you willingly bought. It is the exact same thing those bastards have done to his friends and family. Feeding lies, spreading rumors so that nobody would bother looking after him or miss him. The both of you were so much in love, even a blind man could´ve seen how much you treasured each other. But one call and their plan worked perfectly on you."

So basically, it was all his fault. Taehyung had nearly died because of him. Because he hadn´t had enough faith and trust in him. Because he hadn´t accepted Taehyung´s silence about his person. Because he hadn´t been able to believe the feelings the older held for him were true and lasting. He had almost murdered the person he loved with every fiber of his body. Jungkook felt like vomiting.

He slumped down next to Taehyung´s bed and sobbing grabbed one of his hands. "I´m sorry", Jungkook whined. "I´m so, so, so sorry. With my selfishness I almost k-k-killed you. Because of me, you had to endure hell a second time. But I hereby promise you to never ever hurt you again. I will keep my distance and watch over and not come close to you so you can´t get hurt..."

"What the hell are you telling him, you idiot", Jimin furiously interrupted his vow. "If you want to never hurt him again then why do you say that you will leave him, huh?! You are such an unbelieveably stupid brat! Stay with him. Stay with him as the person he loves the most and give him the love, attention and peace he deserves."

Jungkook stared at his hyung, dumbfounded. And then, the sobbing got only worse. He indeed was a big idiot.

-------------------------------------

Two days had passed and Taehyung would still not wake up. That gave Jungkook much time to think. And he wondered...

"Jimin, how did they find and rescue him and how did you even get involved?"

"Ah, I see it´s time for more explanations." His friend exhaled and closed his book. "Remember I told you I would spy on my ex in revenge for breaking up with me and in order to find something hideous about him?"

Jungkook nodded, there had been something like that.

"Well, my statement had been only half true. I indeed wanted to spy on him, but for different reasons. Because as you told me about your police officer friend whatever guy, it sounded very much like my ex. With that tiny scar, you know? I had a bad feeling about it. And baaam! My assumptions were right. Your stick guy and my ex were one person. Surprise, surprise. But there was something weird about him. So I continued following and spying on him. Seems I made my job not very good", he laughed sheepishly. "In fact, I was so indecent that the real police officers caught me on sneaking around. I told them my bad feeling and they confirmed my suspicions, saying they assumed him being a member of the Black fox for quite a while. And they had taken preparations, had bugged him and tailed him. It still was difficult enough to find Tae. Then I offered my help and they accepted. The day I suddenly went off I got the call they´d found Tae. Stick man had finally went straight to their hideout and the police followed him. I don´t know what exactly happened there. But they freed Tae, so it should be fine."

"Yeah, it should be fine now", Jungkook echoed. After giving it some thought, he added "the world is too small to keep big secrets..."

"Wow, that was unexpectedly deep... didn´t know you had it in you, Kookie", Jimin teased.

"Yah, you destroyed my moment of once-in-a-lifetime wisdom!"