Melodies || TK ✓

38.

▶ Chasing Cars ~ Snow Patrol

"Don't make promises you are not sure you can keep, Taehyung."

"But I mean it. I'll always come back to you."

Jungkook sighed, kissing his forehead. They sat like that for a while.

It was way past midnight but neither of them were sleepy, having got plenty of shuteye. Taehyung's vanilla fragrance was soothing Jungkook. He played with the charm bracelet on his delicate wrist.

"So Jimin knows about us?" Tae asked.

"Him and Kiara, yes. They both kept me sane whenever I missed you too much."

Tae smiled. He met his gaze.

"You should have met my mum. She would have loved you."

"She would have?" Jungkook smiled, a tiny bit proud to hear that.

"Yeah. She was a kind person, you know? She loved animals and plants. She liked to read and could imitate twelve type of bird noises. She wasn't very good with babies though. That's why she only had me. I think Dad wanted another but she never gave in."

"You'd have liked a sibling?" Kook asked softly.

"Yeah. Siblings are your first friends. I'd have loved a little brother. But then I think about the time when my dad lost his shit and I am glad nobody else had to experience that."

Jungkook's fingers were playing with his long slender ones.

"During my birthday, you were in Daegu right? So, um why did you say you didn't see her before... she...?"

Taehyung sighed.

"I was. Mum was hospitalized for the first time then. But I didn't speak to her. I stared at her hooked up to the tubes and everything. They said she had a blocked artery. She needed a bypass but she was high risk because of her diabetes."

The fire in front of them burned brighter as the night got darker.

"I watched her then. Asleep, fragile. But I didn't stay when she woke. I didn't know what to say to her."

He wiped his eyes, sniffling.

"What do you say to someone who is dying?"

Jungkook shook his head. He didn't know either. It was one of those questions who nobody in this world had an answer to.

"I should have told her then. But I didn't think she would leave like this - so sudden. I thought she had more time."

Jungkook's heart sank at that.

Time. It's a crucial variable in life and death moments. The golden hour, he studied in his class, wherein a patient's condition would be salvaged if given appropriate medical treatment. Time was a bitch too. It never stopped, never slowed. It just mocked you as it passed, sneering at you, taunting your fleeting existence. It was eternal, infinite and you were a tiny fleck in that infinity.

He knew just how much, that infinitesimal interval mattered.

"Jungkook?"