Detecting Falsehood

14

"'Ey, Tae," 21 says out of nowhere. She then chuckles a little. "Rhymes. 'S funny. An'way, ya voice sounds weird. 'Ya 'kay in there? Gotta cold?"
"Something like that," I say quietly, sighing slightly.
"Gotta go pee, so Imma go. Don' hurt ya voice more, 'kay?"

"I'll try not to," I say reluctantly, listening as the only friend I have in this whole prison shuffles off, cursing to herself every so often as she walks into the walls. Then my longing to avoid being alone takes over, and my eyes fly open in worry.

"Wait! Shit! 21! Don't-"

There's a small crash, and my heart stops for a moment, then a faint shout. "'M 'kay! Don' worry 'bout me! Imma find a nurse, see ya later dude!"

My heart skips a beat as I realise how alone and helpless I am. Slowly losing blood from various wounds, unable to breathe properly due to the fact that my ribs are pretty badly damaged. I'm stuck, locked in a room with no first aid supplies and no real ventilation, trapped without anyone who'd be willing to try and help me.

This is worse than the lab I was born in. By a long shot.

My breathing gets uneven, almost violent in nature, and my body begins to shake, as the reality of my situation sets in. There's nothing I can do to avoid the inevitable. Nothing at all. I'm going to die here, on my own and forgotten by everyone that cares about me. They would never know where to look. Fuck, I have no idea where I am anyway.

There's literally no point even trying to escape.

A set of footsteps rush through the corridor, gradually becoming louder as they approach the door of my little cell, and my heartbeat speeds up, skips, dances around like a deer caught in the middle of a circle of wolves.

I let out a half scream, the vocalisation completely pointless and involuntary, as my  hands reach automatically for my knees, dragging them toward me so that I'm curled up into a more defensive position. If anyone is here to hurt me, they'll have to break the iron grip my hands have on my knees first.

The door unlocks, flies open, slams shut, and a figure cloaked in black dashes in between the two violent movements, blurred and impossible to identify.

A hand is placed on my shoulder, the grip gentle and strangely soothing. "Taehyung, I want you to listen to me. Do you think you can do that?" a voice asks, carefully. It's familiar, somehow, but my mind is too busy spiralling out of control to put a name to whoever it is.

"I-I"
"Don't try to speak, Tae, you don't need to, you just need to listen for a few minutes. If you're willing to do that, try and nod for me." I follow the instruction shakily, my whole body trembling for whatever reason. "Thank you for letting me help you."

The stranger takes a deep, calming breath, and I find myself trying to copy him, feeling the movement of inhale-exhale through my contact with his hand. "That's good, very good. If you can, keep following my breath until it's natural."

We sit there, in silence, the only sound my ragged breaths and quiet sobs, as the stranger slowly helps me to calm down a little, to the extent that I'm able to listen to him properly and understand his words completely. It's oddly comforting, knowing that there's someone out there who has clearly dropped everything to come and bring me back to myself.

I thought everyone here hated me, for whatever reason. But this particular person is proving me wrong, at the most useful time possible. At this point, I don't care who it is. I feel sort of grateful, in that sense, that he's anonymous. I have no extra guards to throw up.

My grip on my knees gradually relaxes, until I'm able to let them go, and stretch my body out a little, relieving a lot of the tension within it and easing the tightness in my chest. I'm still shaking, but I'm relatively okay now. I can't quite talk yet, I know that much, but I'm able to think for myself again.

"Taehyung, I hacked into the systems. They don't know I'm here. They can't hear anything you say. I'm the only one who can hear you. You can say whatever you want, and nobody will hurt you. I certainly won't, since it's already my fault you're here in the first place. Sort of."

"W-Where's 21?" I manage to choke out.
"I called my own family nurse, told him to tend to her. She's safe, don't worry. I know how much she means to you."
"Y-You-"
"Used her pronouns? I'm a big believer that a person knows themselves better than anyone else, so if she is a different gender, she will know and be right."

There's a moment of silence, then he takes a deep breath, gently turning me around so that I can see his face. He's wearing a mask, but the eyes are a painfully familiar shade of brown. My eyes widen as I finally understand who he is.

"I know you hate me, and I know you don't trust me, but I couldn't leave you to suffer. Even if you get mad at me now, at least you're not having a full blown panic attack with nobody helping you. And now nobody can even judge you for it either, as they don't even know it's happening."

"I-I"
"And I'm sorry for invading on your privacy like this. I wanted to watch over you after I heard word that you were to be beaten. I would have stopped him, but if I did, I think I would be dead. Even if he believes that I'm his favourite son. I can't help you if I'm dead."

I hold up a hand, stopping his flow of speech, and he falls silent, watching me with careful, cautious eyes. "I-It's okay. T-Thank you," I say, with effort, and his whole body freezes out of shock. "F-For helping me."

"You're more than welcome," he says, eyes lifting slightly as he smiles.
"M-Mask." He raises an eyebrow, but pulls it off carefully, exposing his face and identity. Proving that he is indeed the person I thought he was.

Jeon Jungkook.