TANGLED IN THORNS
intro
🌹 Main Characters
Kim Taehyung (Tae)
Age: 19
Gender: Intersex (secret)
Background: Middle-class family, second child, overshadowed by his sister.
Major: Fine Arts (painting).
Personality: Sweet, quiet, introspective, emotionally intelligent but fragile.
Jeon Jungkook (JK)
Age: 21
Gender: Male
Background: Son of the Jeon Bratva Head , heir to a violent empire.
Major: Business Administration.
Personality: Cold, intelligent, possessive, emotionally restrained, brutal when provoked.
Supporting Characters
Park Jimin
Age: 19
Major: Performing Arts (Dance)
Personality: Cheerful, sarcastic, protective; the "sunlight" in Taehyung's dark life.
Role: Taehyung's best friend and emotional anchor.
Relationship with Taehyung:
Knows about his intersex condition.
Treats Taehyung like a younger brother.
Always tries to make him laugh, teases him but defends him fiercely.
Relationship with Jungkook:
Uneasy truce; doesn't trust Jungkook fully but sees how much he loves Taehyung.
Kim Seokjin (Jin)
Age: 23
Major: Architecture (Graduate Level)
Personality: Witty, flamboyant, teasing but mature.
Role: Jungkook's senior and part of his friend group.
Relationship:
Dating Namjoon.
Acts as an older-brother figure to Jungkook, occasionally giving him blunt advice.
Kim Namjoon (RM)
Age: 23
Major: Psychology
Personality: Calm, intellectual, mediator of the group.
Role: Offers moral and emotional insight when Jungkook's choices spiral.
Relationship:
In a long-term relationship with Jin.
Tries to guide Jungkook toward emotional balance.
Jung Hoseok (Hobi / J-Hope)
Age: 22
Major: Sports Management
Personality: Energetic, funny, brutally honest.
Role: Football teammate, brings humor into Jungkook's otherwise cold world.
Relationship:
Sees Taehyung as fragile but admirable.
Loyal to Jungkook, even when he doesn't understand his obsession.
Min Yoongi (Suga)
Age: 22
Major: Music Production
Personality: Quiet, observant, loyal.
Role: Emotional compass , notices everything but rarely speaks.
Relationship:
Knows Jungkook's temper and warns him before he loses control.
Offers protection to Taehyung indirectly when Jungkook's anger turns dangerous.
Jeon Hyun-Soo (Jungkook's Father)
Age: 52
Occupation: Head of the Jeon Bratva (Mafia boss)
Personality: Cunning, ruthless, emotionally abusive.
Role: Main antagonist.
Relationship with Jungkook:
Treats him as a pawn, not a son.
Mrs. Jeon (Jungkook's Mother)
Age: 48
Personality: Gentle but broken, submissive to her husband's cruelty.
Role: Represents quiet suffering and helpless love.
Relationship:
Loves Jungkook but powerless to protect him.
Kim Ha-Eun (Taehyung's Sister)
Age: 21
Personality: Beautiful, manipulative, jealous, the family's pride.
Role: Secondary antagonist — emotionally abusive toward Taehyung.
Relationship:
Jealous of Taehyung's connection to Jungkook.
Spreads lies to their parents, causes him to be punished.
Sees Taehyung as competition for affection and attention.
Mr. & Mrs. Kim (Taehyung's Parents)
Ages: Late 40s
Occupation: Middle-class professionals.
Personality: Traditional, image-conscious, emotionally neglectful.
Role: Represent societal pressure and family disappointment.
Relationship:
Favor Ha-Eun (their daughter).
Now Jungkook is twenty-one, cold, untouchable, admired, and feared. The college's golden captain. The top of every class. A perfect son sculpted by violence. And Taehyung, nineteen, quiet, sweet, still orbiting him like a moth around a flame that can only burn him.
When Jungkook realizes the love he feels is not the kind boys are allowed to feel, he chooses to destroy it. To push Taehyung away. To turn sharp where he was once soft. To pretend the boy who once held his hand means nothing.
But Taehyung has loved him for years, and love like his does not fade. It waits. It hurts. It hopes.
This is not a story of gentle love.
This is a story of forbidden longing, quiet obsession, and two souls chained to each other in a world where their love is a crime.
And some loves were never meant to be saved.
Some loves are meant to ruin.
Warnings ⚠️ :
* Homophobic
* Physical Abuse
*Detailed smut
*Heavy Angst
*Dark themes
* Self harm themes
*Dark romance
*Mafia/bratva
*Manipulation
*Possessive behaviour
*Trauma
*Emotional abuse
*Slow burn
Top - jeon jungguk
Bottom - kim taehyung
English isn't my first language.
chapter 1
There was a large willow tree near the wall that separated the park from the Jeon family mansion. Its branches hung low, brushing the grass like fingers smoothing someone's hair. Children from the neighborhood played nearby sometimes, but they never looked too long in the direction of the mansion. Everyone knew who lived there.
Little taehyung didn't know those rules yet.
He had just moved into the neighborhood, his small hand clutching the strap of his backpack as he wandered away from the house his parents were still unpacking boxes in. The air smelled like cut grass and warm sun. He followed the sound of leaves rustling lazily, drawn toward the big willow.
There was someone already there.
A boy sat with his back against the trunk, knees drawn up, holding a book. His dark hair fell over his eyes, and his clothes looked too clean, too neat, His posture was calm in a way that didn't belong to children.
Taehyung hesitated, chewing his lip.
The older boy lifted his head first, as if he had sensed him.
jeon jungguk
"Who are you? New kid?," the boy said. His voice wasn't unfriendly just... quiet. Controlled.
kim taehyung
Taehyung nodded. "We moved today... I live over there." He pointed clumsily toward the row of smaller houses across the road.
jeon jungguk
The boy followed the direction with his gaze, then nodded once. "I'm Jungkook."
kim taehyung
Taehyung swallowed. The name sounded familiar. His mother had whispered it earlier while unpacking.
That's the Jeon family's neighborhood. Keep your head down. They're powerful.
But Taehyung didn't know what powerful really meant.
kim taehyung
"Taehyung, you can call me tae tae hyung " he introduced, with a eye smile, voice soft.
jeon jungguk
Jungkook stared at that smile like he's hypnotize as he closed his book, sliding it aside on the grass. "Why are you here?"
kim taehyung
Taehyung blinked "I... like trees."
That earned the smallest almost invisible , lift at the corner of Jungkook's mouth.
jeon jungguk
"This one's mine," Jungkook said simply.
kim taehyung
"Oh..." Taehyung's shoulders drooped pouting "Should I go?"
jeon jungguk
"No." Jungkook shook his head. "You can sit. If you want."
kim taehyung
Taehyung nodded quickly, almost relieved. He sat down next to him, legs wide like star fish. For a while, they didn't speak. Only the breeze moved, shifting the hanging branches like a curtain around them.
kim taehyung
Taehyung's fingers dug lightly into the grass.
"Do you come here a lot hyung?" he whispered.
jeon jungguk
Jungkook's gaze fixed on the ground. He seemed to think longer than most children would before answering.
"It's quiet here."
kim taehyung
"Oh..." Taehyung looked up at the branches. "I like quiet too."
jeon jungguk
Jungkook tilted his head slightly toward him. "Most kids don't."
kim taehyung
Taehyung shrugged. "I think I'm different , That's why most kids don't like me."
There was no sadness in his tone. Just simple truth.
jeon jungguk
Jungkook blinked once. "Why?"
kim taehyung
Taehyung thought about it.
"I don't know. Maybe I'm boring."
jeon jungguk
"You don't seem boring."
kim taehyung
Taehyung looked at him, surprised. Jungkook didn't look away.
A small breeze brushed their hair. A moment passed. Two.
jeon jungguk
"How old are you?" Jungkook asked.
kim taehyung
Taehyung smiled a little. "That's older."
jeon jungguk
"Not by much."
kim taehyung
"But enough," Taehyung said with quiet certainty, as if that meant something profound.
Jungkook studied him, as though deciding something without words.
chapter 2
jeon jungguk
"Do you want to see something?"
Jungkook stood and parted the willow branches like curtains before stepping through. Taehyung followed, and inside, where the leaves draped thickest, was a small hidden clearing. Grass flattened like someone sat or laid here often. The sunlight filtered in soft, broken patterns.
kim taehyung
"It's like a house," Taehyung whispered.
jeon jungguk
Jungkook nodded. "My house."
kim taehyung
"It's nicer than mine, hyung" little Taehyung said without thinking with sparkle eyes. Then, remembering manners, he hurriedly added, "I mean my house is fine, I just this is... better."
jeon jungguk
Jungkook didn't laugh, but his voice softened.
"You can share it."
kim taehyung
Taehyung's eyes lit up. "Really?"
jeon jungguk
"Yes. But don't tell anyone." Jungkook's tone shifted , lower, firmer, like a warning thicker than his age.
kim taehyung
Taehyung pressed a hand to his own chest. "I won't. I promise."
jeon jungguk
"Good," Jungkook said. And something eased in his shoulders,
The first silence had been awkward.
This one was comfortable.
Taehyung returned every day.
Sometimes Jungkook was already there. Sometimes he arrived after. They didn't need plans. They just... found each other.
Taehyung told him about his sister, how she was perfect and talented and loved. How his parents always smiled at her in a way they never did at him.
Jungkook didn't say anything at first.
kim taehyung
Then one day, quietly, he said, "My parents don't smile at me either."
Taehyung looked at him. Really looked.
Jungkook's uniform shirt collar had once been buttoned wrong, too high, like hiding something. Taehyung didn't ask. He didn't know how to ask.
One afternoon, as they sat beneath the willow,
kim taehyung
Taehyung said softly, "We can smile for each other, then."
jeon jungguk
Jungkook didn't smile.
But something in his expression changed. Warmed. Deepened. "Yes we can"
He didn't need to say thank you.
Taehyung understood anyway.
Children can't name attachment.
They don't know the words for You are my safe place.
They just keep returning.
One evening, Taehyung was late. He ran to the willow, breath heavy, hair messy.
Jungkook was there already, but not sitting. He stood stiffly, jaw clenched, eyes darker than usual.
kim taehyung
Taehyung slowed.
"Kookie...?"
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