Taehyung's shoulders were shaking uncontrollably by the time he was done with the story. Jimin patted his back to try to calm him down. It was strange seeing Taehyung sob... a devil crying was an unusual occurrence. Shouldn't the devil be making others suffer, not himself?

Without even realizing it, a tear fell out my eye too. I began crying alongside Taehyung and Jimin. A human, a devil from hell, and an angel from heaven were crying together, relishing in the pain of a heartbreaking story. The effects of love could be so longlasting yet powerful.

I wiped my eyes, and asked the question that was lingering my mind.

"B-but how are you both in the same room? How are you both coexisting next to each other, without Jimin's energy being drained? Shouldn't Jimin have fainted being so close to you?" I wondered.

Jimin's grabs my hands excitedly. "That's where you come into the story!"

"Huh?" I raise my eyebrow, confused what I had to do with this already.

"You see, it took a long time for me to wake up. About three years to be exact- I finally arose from my coma two months ago. After I recovered fully, I was allowed to return to my duties as an angel."

I nodded my head.

Jimin continued. "There was a job position to protect you and no angels wanted to take it. They knew that Satan was involved and every angel was afraid. But I was curious. So through a crystal ball in heaven, I saw that you were interacting with Taehyung on Earth!"

"Uh-huh," I nodded again, to affirm I was listening.

"I needed to see the love of my life again so I thoroughly requested to take the job position. At first, my angel superiors were adamant for me to not take it-they didn't think I was qualified enough. But no other angel would do the job and time was running out so they agreed!" Jimin exclaimed.

I cross my arms. "But that doesn't explain how you're able to be near Taehyung without fainting."

"I was getting to that..." Jimin giggles. "My bosses knew that Satanic energy sucks the life out of Angels. They suggested I go to an exclusive magical shop on Earth that had rare protection trinkets. These weren't available to most angels, but they had to make an exception for my job." Jimin points to his neck.

"This special necklace allows me to be around creatures from hell without losing my energy," Jimin explains. He points to my finger. "And I also got that ring to protect you from the demons that were following you. You're welcome." He winks at me.

I rub my head. My brain was processing so much information but I needed to know more.

"But Taehyung, how did you find out Jungkook was your half brother? In the story you just told me, you recognized Jungkook but you didn't know his connection with you."

I looked away after a few seconds of eye contact. Taehyung looked like he was on the edge of bursting into tears and I didn't want to see the devil cry again.

Taehyung wipes his eyes with his sleeve. "I didn't want it to come to this, but you have to see something." He gestures to Jimin and he takes a crystal ball out from his bag.

"Is that the crystal ball Jimin used in Heaven to see us on Earth?" I wondered.

Jimin nods. "Precisely. This crystal ball can showcase certain memories of the past."

Taehyung holds the crystal ball before me. "You're going to be seeing my memory with Jungkook. I was hesitant to show you before, but I think you deserve to know."

I nod, confidently. "I'm ready."

Taehyung places the crystal ball on the table and I lean towards it and see scenes from the past, from the perspective of Taehyung.

Three years ago- Busan, Korea

After Jimin left Earth, Taehyung was completely devastated. He searched far and wide for a way to contact Jimin, but was forced to give up. He knew his energy sucked the life force of Jimin, and it was best to stay away. It would be best for Taehyung to never see Jimin again, for his safety.

Taehyung was tired of being on Earth, but Satan insisted he stayed. It was Taehyung's duty to collect souls from around Korea and Satan promised he would give Taehyung greater powers if he continued his job. Taehyung wanted to refuse but he didn't want to be confined in the fiery pits of hell either. So he complied and continued collecting dark souls from freshly dead bodies.

But ever since Taehyung remained on Earth, he received flashbacks of memories from his childhood. He remembered bedtime stories of Satan telling him his dead mother was named Soo-Ah Jeon. Although Taehyung knew her soul left Earth years ago, he wanted to pay his respects.

He went searching through every graveyard in the Korea to find her body. He visited hundreds of locations, but the tombstone of Soo-Ah Jeon with the correct resting years was nowhere to be found.

Taehyung was close to giving up but he knew he had to keep searching. He barely knew his mother, but he deserved to see her resting place.

      Taehyung entered a small graveyard in Busan. He heard from a local old man that the Jeon family gravestones was near a cherry blossom tree.

      He finally able to locate the tree, and was about to inspect all the gravestones but saw someone sitting there. It was Jungkook.

     Taehyung found it odd that Jungkook was present but decided to watch until he left. He thought it would be rude to disturb him, anyways.

      "Mom..." Jungkook whispers.

     Mom? Jungkook also has a mother named Jeon Soo-ah? The grave Jungkook was at couldn't possibly belong to Taehyung's mother, right?

       "I know I say this everyday, but I hate you... I hate you so much..." Jungkook sighs.

      Jungkook receives a notification from his phone. "But I have to go to work right now, so I'll talk to you tomorrow." He gets up and wipes his knees. He walks away on a trail to exit the graveyard.

     Taehyung inches closer to to the gravestone and inspects it. The years engraved say 1972-2008. 1972 was the year that his mother was born and 2008 was the year she died. This was indeed his dead mother's gravestone.

Taehyung knew he should be overjoyed to finally find his mother's grave, but why was Jungkook here also? And what right did Jungkook have to call Taehyung's mother "mom"?

Unless...

Satan gave very few details of his past, but in one his few strange bedtime stories, he told Taehyung that his mother had cheated on him. There was even rumored to be a child she gave birth to, but Taheyung refused to believe it. He thought Satan was lying like he usually did.

But perhaps, Taehyung's father was telling the truth. And Jungkook was his mother's second child that she had with a different man other than his father.

Which would make Jungkook Taehyung's half brother. Taehyung never had siblings before, so he didn't know how to feel.

Was it normal to have the urge to murder your sibling? Because Taehyung wanted to kill Jungkook. So bad.

       Of course wanting to literally kill your siblings wasn't completely normal, but Taehyung was born in hell. He was taught to convert every negative emotion to a much worse action.

    Taehyung felt awful upon discovering Jungkook was his half-brother. He felt envy because Jungkook once had a close relationship with his mother, meanwhile she left Taehyung when he was a baby.

    Taehyung felt disgusted with Jungkook, because he said he hated their mother. How dare he? Their mother chose to be with Jungkook over Taehyung, yet Jungkook felt he had the right to hate her. Human beings are absolutely entitled and despicable.

     Finally, Taehyung felt angry. He hated that there was another sibling in the picture, another child that his mother had given love and attention to. He hated that this child was the son of a man that seduced his mother away from him. He wanted Jungkook gone.

     So he planned to murder Jeon Jungkook the next time he saw him. The next day, Taehyung awaited by the graveyard, behind the tree. He made sure that he was in a location Jungkook wouldn't notice.

     As expected, Jungkook walked towards the grave of Soo Ah Jeon. He brought some flowers and crouched down but didn't lay them there yet.

     He was going to speak to their mother's grave again.

     "Mom, I'm sorry for saying I always hate you..." Jungkook choked up on his tears.

     Maybe Taehyung wouldn't murder Jungkook yet. At least he'll wait a few minutes.

    "The truth is that I miss you. I miss your presence in my life so much.. and I feel so weak that I need you..." He lowered his head and sobbed more.

    "It's awful to say but I wish you died another way. Like a car crash or something that was out of your control. But this was your decision. You chose to leave me..."

     Was Taehyung hearing that right? Their mother committed suicide?

     "Perhaps I was destined to leave the Earth the same way you did too..." Jungkook whispers.

     He gets up and wipes his eyes. He stares longingly at the tombstone. Taehyung expects Jungkook to  place his flowers at the grave, but he takes them with him. He walks back towards the trail to exit the graveyard.

     Taehyung scratches his head and tries to process what he learnt and just happened. Perhaps, Taehyung wouldn't kill Jungkook yet. Taehyung wanted to hear more of what his half-brother had to say.

       Taehyung awaited for Jungkook the next day behind the cherry tree. He waited for him the day after that too. And the day after that. It was finally a full week and Jungkook hadn't shown up at the graveyard.

    Maybe that's all Taehyung would ever learn. Should he explore Busan City and kill his brother?

    Taehyung was thinking of what to do behind the cherry tree, when he finally saw Jungkook again. He strides towards the grave with a bigger bouquet of flowers than he brought last time.

     Murder postponed, Taehyung thought.

    "Sorry I didn't come for a few days, mom. You know how busy work keeps ya," Jungkook laughs like his mother was really there.

     Jungkook snorts. "Of course you wouldn't. You stopped working the day I was born..."

     He stretches his arms. "I know you said you hated my job, but I gotta keep dad's family business alive."

     He sighs for a few minutes and it's silent. Jungkook seems to be staring into space, until he finally confesses something.

"Mom, you know Y/n? She completely hates me," Jungkook finally says.

Y/n... where has Taehyung heard that name before.. Oh yes that was the vibrant waitress at the coffee shop! The one that lost her job thanks to Jungkook, but Jungkook managed to secretly get her a tutoring job instead.

"Someone hating you should make you feel awful.. but her despising me gives me a sick form of glee," Jungkook giggled.

     Taehyung shuddered. This Jungkook kid was creepy.

    "Mom, I've slipped in and out of depression since you've died. And I want to make my family proud, that's why I try my best in everything I do, despite the sins I continue doing..."

"And I think I'm going to be okay, with the fake facade I put out, tricking most people into thinking I'm a great person. But whenever Y/n looks at me, I feel absolutely miserable. It's like she's the only one who knows the type of person I am."

      "Do you know why I hate her, mom?" He waits like his dead mother would respond but of course she doesn't.

     "It's because you wanted me to be like her. And I tired so hard imitate her during my childhood, but you still left me. You never complimented me like Y/n. What's so great about her, anyways?!" Jungkook yells.

He continues arguing with himself. "I sorta get why you admire her. She keeps trying. She gets picked on, she isn't the richest or the smartest but she keeps going. She doesn't use people for her benefit. She doesn't care who's watching and she keeps helping people out... Gosh, she makes my stomach sick."

     "But I'm way better than Y/n! I have better grades than her, I have way more people who want to be my friend. The teachers love me and I get applauded everywhere I go, yet why does my heart feel so burdened?"

     Jungkook responds to himself. "Oh yes maybe it's what I do outside school. And you hated how I was so desensitized to what I do. You knew I had a dark side, and now it's taken over me, Mom."

Jungkook sighs and rubs his face. "But here's a secret about Y/n. I like her the most but I treat her the worst. I don't know if it's romantic or platonic, I despise yet there's apart of me which still has a soft spot for her."

He covers his eyes with his hands. "But it doesn't matter. If there is a hell that exists, I know there's a special spot reserved for me. My sins could never be forgivable wherever I am. Maybe I'll meet you there soon."

He finally throws the bouquet of flowers upon his mother's grave and walks away.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: sorry it took so long, but school is mentally exhausting and writing takes awhile too, especially flashback chapters😅😅I have half the next chapter written so it should be coming soon, sorry for the wait.

And to be honest this is one of my fave chapters. Definitely intense yet emotional- I hope yall enjoyed💘