The Tree of Heaven-Vmin ✔

Until the End

One day--

Jimin's parents have passed. They were quite elderly, though the passing is no less somber. First his mother, then his father shortly after from the heartbreak of losing her.

Over the years, Taehyung would visit the Parks once every so often, though it was much too hard to sit in front of them and watch the pain behind their eyes. Their missing son was Taehyung's favorite person—best friend and soulmate. A hard thing to explain when said person went missing long before Taehyung was born.

He couldn't even say. Couldn't even give the Parks proper closure before their deaths.

Taehyung was 43 now.

He decides not to tell Jimin at first. Until he's reminded of all the times Jimin had left him in the dark of things.

"No more secrets." His own words.

"Hi, Taehyungie."

"Hey, Jimin..."

"What is it?"

Taehyung wrings his hands. He was long a grown man, yet it was always still so hard to tell Jimin these things. "Your parents, Jimin... They've passed. I'm so sorry."

The tree was silent for a few moments, before there was a shaky sigh.

"I've let them go a long time ago, played their deaths in my mind since I couldn't see them again anyway." Jimin tsked, as if it was a shame, someone else's parents that he was talking about instead. "It was better than picturing them in pain, desperately trying to find me, never knowing the answer all these years..."

Taehyung nodded in understanding. His mom still lived, though she was already gone in his eyes after her deterioration over the years from his father. He both pitied her, truly, and resented her.

"And someday it will be you," Jimin adds in a small voice. "I'll picture you in death when I don't see you again."

Taehyung does not answer now each time Jimin brings this up, for he knows that he is right. Any futile argument is merely a denial of reality. He wishes Jimin would just not acknowledge it, bring up their future heartache.

Jimin inhales sharply. "Taehyung, I want you to promise me something."

Taehyung nods. "Anything, my love."

"I want you to promise me that when you turn 75, you will dig me up. Unless—I dare not say it, but I must—unless there are...complications prior and you need to dig me up sooner, but not after you turn 75. I don't want to stay here after you are gone."

"Jimin..."

"I don't want it. I couldn't bear it. To be stuck in this hell each day alone and without you. You wouldn't do that to me, would you? Do this for me. Promise."

Taehyung shakes his head, feeling sick. "No, no. I-I promise."

"Good. Now lay back and rest. I want to see you here, now."

And Taehyung smiles at how the tides have turned, many years of push and pull now only pull. He closes his eyes and soon opens them again in the golden meadow. It never gets old. The haze is like home. It's often these days that he pictures an afterlife, hopes and pleads there is a God or another life waiting for them to join eternally. Perhaps it's white. They're both young and their sorrows no longer matter. Maybe it looks a lot like the meadow they walk hand and hand here now. Taehyung smiles, thinking he'd like that very much. 

And he does not go home until the morning.

One day--