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Clarity extended her arm towards Lune Kim's falling body.
The space around her distorted as everything started to flow in slow motion. All she could see was her reaching hand, trailing further at further behind. In that instant, memories that did not belong to her flooded through her mind.
They were memories of the past transmigrators' failures of stopping the ritual.
Some would be on streets, others would occur in mountains. Some in apartments like this one, others in alleyways. However, regardless of the setting and situation, every single one ended the exact way as the current scene that was unfolding before Clarity's eyes.
A outstretched arm, a failed interference.
Gritting her teeth, she reached harder, but Lune Kim's body was already half off the balcony.
"Good bye." Lune closed her eyes, letting gravity push her down.
Lune Kim knew that everything was finally over. She knew that the next time she woke up, everything would be alright. Her mind dispersed as she readied herself for the impact of the ground, of her new life.
However, that moment never arrived.
Instead of falling down, she was halted by a force from behind, restricting her movements instantly.
The forced belonged to none other than Taehyung, who had made his way below the balcony through another window after ensuring that there were no other victims in the apartment. As Lune Kim was about to fall, the black-haired man emerged from the railings, reached out, and pushed her away from the the balcony.
Lune Kim inhaled sharply as her body slid against the cemented ground. Before she could process what was going on, her bloodied arms twisted backwards and an intense pain shot through her mind.
Taehyung shoved her stomach to the floor with one knee while he angled her arms backwards, locking her wrists together with his hands. He knocked the glass shard and crumbled paper away and pressed her entire face to the floor, so that one cheek was stuck to the cold apartment ground. Lune kicked around and flailed her arms in an attempt to escape the restrictions. Although she was only a highschool student, she moved with an inhuman force that even Taehyung was shocked at how strong she was.
Despite Lune Kim's relentless struggling, however, she found herself unable to escape.
Amidst the chaos, her eyes subconsciously locked onto the last page from the notebook that laid soundless on the floor.
Following the direction of her gaze, Clarity immediately noticed the piece of paper, and without hesitation, retrieved it away from Lune's sight. Countless voices echoed in her head as she held the last page in one hand and the notebook in the other. Clarity knew that the cries inundating her mind were from the many who died committing the ritual, and the countless people who failed to stop it from happening.
In that moment, she understood what she had to do.
Subconsciously, she turned towards the black haired man. As if aware of her inner thoughts, Taehyung gave her a faint nod.
Biting the insides of her cheeks, Clarity inhaled sharply as she held both objects up against the moonlight seeping in against the window. Hollering gust rushed in the apartment one wave after another, attempting to halt her from performing the actions in her mind. However, no matter how intensely the wind blew, the notebook pages in her hand didn't sway at all.
"NO!" Lune Kim was screaming at this point as her screech pierced through the air.
Clarity did not react to her pleadings. Eyes glowing under the raging night, she jerked her arms in opposite directions, ripping the notebook pages apart all at once. A burst of energy erupted from her action, sending backwards everything within its vicinity. Stumbling back from the force, Clarity crashed against the edge of the couch.
"Clarity!" Taehyung's pupils shrunk as he jerked his head towards her direction as his grasp on Lune Kim momentarily loosened.
"I'm okay." Clarity breathed heavily, mustering a gesture of reassurance.
Using the moment of freedom, Lune Kim pushed past the black-haired man's restraints and scampered towards the torn notebook and paper. The notebook, scattered into pieces, lay soundlessly. The ominous glow that enveloped the papers dimmed little by little. Eventually, it dispersed completely into thin air, leaving the item as nothing but a normal book.
The ripped last page, having not been fulfilled in her blood, reverted to its original state: a regular blank piece of paper.
The apartment that had been drowned in the gusts and voices was now silent. Outside the balcony, the moon hung brightly in the sky, surrounded by numerous stars. Without warning, the night was back to its original tranquil state, its previous chaos nowhere to be seen.
Drip. Drip.
Amidst tattered apartment, Lune Kim sat silent with the broken vessel. Her body was covered in blood and her arm revealed a fresh wound with blood flowing out continuously, expanding in a web-like pattern. However, the sound of dripping liquid was not from her injuries.
One droplet after another, her tears splattered onto the floor, creating darkened stains on the tiles.
"It's gone. All gone..." Lune Kim hunched over as she pulled the notebook closer to her chest. Her quivering voice soon erupted into a heart wrenching sob, reverberating through silent air.
"Just, just let me die," she cowered, scrunching her body into a small ball, as though the pain had only reached her now. "Please... Just let me die."
There was a sense of despair, an overwhelming devastation in her voice that Clarity felt her heart twinge with pain.
The pain didn't stem from pity or guilt; instead, it came from a faint realization that Clarity had felt when she first saw Lune Kim. The more she involved herself with her, the stronger the realization grew. It was a fearful thought, something she wanted to drag her mind away from. She had avoided digging into the feeling until now, but Clarity knew deep down what it was:
Clarity saw her own reflection in Lune Kim.
In the girl's state of agony, Clarity saw herself.
It was a glimpse of herself before she travelled to the other world, before she met all the members of Bangtan, before she experienced the countless events as a member of Bangtan Co. The existence of Lune Kim in this world was like a shadow, an unspoken consequence. If Clarity didn't meet the people in the other world, could she have also turned out like this? At that moment, an unprecedented coldness surrounded her as she came to an answer.
In the same situation, Clarity wasn't confident that she would persevere against the darkness, that she would end up differently than Lune Kim.
That was what scared her.
"It's all over. There's nothing left. There's no purpose to living..." Lune Kim's sobs waned as she stared blankly at the ground. "...I want to die."
"What nonsense."
Taehyung's cold voice pierced through the silence, causing both Lune and Clarity to lift their heads.
There was an unspoken rage behind his words, so strong it warmed the air like a sea of flames.
"The purpose of life comes from living. You will never be able to understand that if you give it up." He looked at her. "Do not abandon yourself."
A single ray of moonlight shone through the balcony, casting a curtain of silver over the three of them.
"The world is cruel, but you're not the only one suffering. And you never will be." Taehyung's eyes held the entire galaxy as he shifted his gaze from Lune Kim to Clarity.
"We're all trying to survive."
The room was quiet, the only audible sound being Lune muffled cries. The girl clenched her chest as tears drenched the ground below her. Eventually, the sobs—along with the pain, sadness, and fatigue—faded into the air, slipping away with her consciousness as Lune Kim fell silent.
At the girl's fragile state, Clarity swallowed as she turned towards Taehyung uneasily. The latter, noticing her apprehension, pressed two fingers to the side of Lune Kim's neck. After a few seconds, he lifted his head.
"She's still breathing." He told Clarity, and she sighed in relieve.
"Taehyung," she pursed her lips with a hint of hesitation.
After a small pause, Clarity smiled at him through glossy eyes. What she was about to tell him may come as odd, like a wrong message at the wrong time, but Clarity said it anyway:
"I love you."
Light glossed over Taehyung's eyes, and at that moment, concepts like logic and timing no longer mattered as their figures reflected in each other's eyes. The black-haired man smiled back in his signature box smile.
"I love you, too."
The faint sound of police sirens blared in the distance.
"The police should be here in a few minutes," Clarity said, steadying herself back on her feet and dusting her crinkled clothing.
At that, her eyes swept across the apartment, taking in its horrendous state. Below her was a floor glazed in blood, around her was displaced furnitures, left of her laid an unconscious high-school girl, and right of her stood a world-wide superstar.
Clarity fell deep in thought.
How were they going to explain this?
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next chapter: sunday :)
lori ✿