Oftentimes, Jisoo thinks everything that has happened so far in her life is too good to be true.

When she comes home in the late afternoons after a long of day of work, Taehyung is always there waiting for her at their little cottage. He sits on the couch facing the door, often a book in hand or a newspaper. When the door opens as Jisoo arrives, he's already striding towards her and enveloping her in a big "welcome home" hug, as if she's been gone for a whole month and not just a little over eight hours. 

"I made dinner already." Taehyung presses a soft kiss on the crown of her head which instantly evaporates the worn-out and tired feelings she had accumulated throughout the day. "How does mushroom soap and chicken salad sound?"

Jisoo scrunches her nose and pulls away from his hug to look at him with a small smile. "Sounds delicious to me." 

She doesn't exactly know what he does all day, but she doesn't ask because he's there every time she comes home and that was all that mattered to her. Perhaps he spent his day reading, tending to their garden backyard, or going to the village nearby to stock up on their pantry. He doesn't go out all that much to the city because he confessed that he was scared and worried someone might recognize him and rat him out to his family, then they'll come knocking on their door to take him away. 

"Can't be too careful," Taehyung had once told her, as he tipped his hat lower to the point where it obscured half his face. He was going to the village to fetch some organic fertilizer for their garden. 

Somewhere in the back of Jisoo's rational mind, she knows they can't keep this up forever. No matter how many charms and spells they put up around their cottage to conceal its location from his family, no matter how many disguises Taehyung comes up with to keep a low profile. 

And yet, a part of her, perhaps the irrational part, still hopes that they'll continue to live in their own little bubble for a while longer. She likes it here and she likes just being with him. 

Jisoo herself doesn't have it in her to come clean to her parents. Every time she and Taehyung visit her mother and father, she's itching to tell them that they're actually living together for quite a while now. 

But they adore Taehyung so much and things have been going so great that she can't bring herself to tell them the truth just yet. 

For now, she finds comfort in their sweet and close-to-perfect life. 

"Taehyung, you cannot keep this up. Your parents are worried about you." Taehyung had missed his best friend, but he certainly did not miss his annoying nagging and guilt-tripping. "It's almost starting, he's coming back any day now." 

He wanted to pour the pot of boiling hot water over Jimin's small head. How the gray-haired fellow had managed to pinpoint Taehyung's locations despite the spells he and Jisoo casted, he didn't know. But, he did know that Jimin was hurt and worried. It was obvious from the expression he had five minutes ago when Taehyung opened the back door to find Jimin standing outside in the middle of their small garden. 

Taehyung remains tight-lipped and tries to think of Jimin as an illusion he conjured in his head. But no, the piercing glare he's getting from his best friend coupled with the worried tone of his voice is all too real even for him to fake.

"When he comes back into power, and the deaths are too many for the Ministry to cover up, you have to go back." Jimin tells him. 

Taehyung rolls his eyes and finally breaks his silence. "I don't have to do anything, Jimin. I left and I have nothing and no one to go back to." He shoots him an icy glare, hoping it would be enough to drill into Jimin's mind that there is nothing he can do to make Kim Taehyung budge. 

But Jimin just doesn't get the memo. Instead of backing down and leaving out the back door the way he came in, he throws his hands up in the air and explodes in a flurry of angry words. "Your clan will suffer because of your selfish actions! How can you be so selfish, Taehyung?! Every single one of them will die, even the ones who are yet to have been born and you know that! And once your entire family is annihilated, he will come looking for you next." 

"I don't care. It's not my problem anymore," Taehyung grits his teeth and spins around so he could be face-to-face with Jimin. The two boys glared at each other like they were ready to tear the other's throat out. "Let them die." 

The harsh words does little to faze Jimin, because perhaps somewhere in his head, he knows Taehyung doesn't quite mean what he said. His friend just needed a little push, he can still persuade him and he'll die trying. "Are you seriously content living this pathetic life?" Jimin backs away from him and his eyes scan the kitchen area of the tiny cottage Taehyung had trapped himself in. He almost snorted just thinking about what the next few years of Taehyung's life would be like. "Do you really want to live like this? Stuck in a tiny house waiting all day for Jisoo to come home like some puppy? While your family is at the Lee Manor, begging for their lives?" 

Taehyung makes a fist with his knuckles but makes no move to grab his wand. "It's a better life than the one you chose." 

"I didn't choose this, Taehyung." Jimin's voice goes down two octaves. He looks away from Taehyung's fiery stare. 

Taehyung chuckled without humor. "We both know that's a complete lie. We all have the power to choose our own paths, Jimin. You just happened to have chosen the wrong one, and now you want to drag me along with you so you'd feel less sorry for yourself." He spat. 

Jimin feels the fire of his anger burning low in the pit of his stomach as he gains the courage to look back at Taehyung. "Stop acting like you're better than me, than any of us who were forced to join his army." 

"I'm not acting, isn't it the truth? You're on the Dark side, and that's the wrong side to be in." Taehyung tells him. 

The other wizard grabs him by the front of his shirt, bunching up the fabric as his hands form fists. Jimin pulls Taehyung roughly forward, his eyes wide and maniacal. Taehyung can feel himself visibly tense at the sudden action as he stares back at Jimin's frantic face. "All that you've been doing and what you still continue to do right now is useless. Jisoo doesn't even know, does she?" Taehyung has no intention to answer, but Jimin wasn't waiting for one anyway. "You haven't told her because she will leave you once she knows and she'll know eventually. Once she's gone, who else will you go to? Huh? That's right, us. You will still crawl back to us in the end." 

"Let go of me," he struggles to push away Jimin as the shorter one's grip is much stronger than he had anticipated. He lays his hands flat on Jimin's chest and pushes him back, forcing Jimin to let go of his grip. He's in no mood to fight today.

Jimin smirks at him, but there's a hint of sadness in his eyes. "Why? Isn't it the trut