"Fifteen hundred people went into the sea when Titanic sank from under us. There were twenty seven boats floating nearby and only one came back. One. Six were saved from the water, myself included. Six out of fifteen hundred."
Jimin stares at the faces watching him. Tonghyun, Lewis, Heechul, the others... the reality of what happened here eighty four years before has hit them like never before. With his story, Jimin has put them on Titanic in its final hours, and for the first time, they do feel like grave-robbers.
Kyong Tonghyun, for the first time, has even forgotten to ask about the diamond.
Jimin continues. "Afterward, the seven hundred people in the boats had nothing to do but wait... wait to die, wait to live, wait for an absolution which would never come."
゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。
Jimin's memory dissolves into one another: A ship's hull looming, with the letters Carpathia visible on the bow - Jimin watching, rocked by the sea, his face blank - Seamen helping survivors up the rope ladder to the Carpathia's gangway doors - Two women crying and hugging each other inside the ship.
Jimin is outside of time, outside of himself, coming into Carpathia, barely able to stand. He's being draped with warm blankets and given hot tea. Somun Yongjoon climbs aboard. He has the face and eyes of a damned soul.
As Somun walks along the hall, guided by a crewman toward the doctor's cabin, he passes rows of seated and standing widows. He must run the gauntlet of their accusing gazes.
It is the afternoon of the fifteenth. Pilwoo is searching the faces lining the deck, looking for Jimin. The deck of Carpathia is crammed with huddled people, and even the recovered lifeboats of Titanic. On a hatch cover sits an enormous pile of lifebelts.
He keeps walking toward the stern. Seeing Pilwoo's tuxedo, a steward approaches him. "You won't find any of your people back here, sir. It's all steerage."
Pilwoo ignores him and goes amongst this wrecked group, looking under shawls and blankets at one bleak face after another.
Jimin is sipping hot tea. His eyes focus on his father as he approaches him. Pilwoo barely recognizes Jimin. His son looks like a refugee, his matted hair hanging in his eyes.
"Yes, I lived. How awkward for you." Jimin snaps.
"Jimin... your mother and I have been looking for you-"
Jimin holds up his hand, stopping him. "Please don't. Don't talk. Just listen. We will make a deal, since that is something you understand. From this moment you do not exist for me, nor I for you. You shall not see me again. And you will not attempt to find me. In return I will keep my silence. Your actions last night need never come to light, and you will get to keep the honor you have carefully purchased." Jimin fixes him with a glare as cold and hard as the ice which changed their lives. "Is this in any way unclear?"
After a long pause, Pilwoo finally speaks. "What do I tell your mother?"
"Tell her that his son died with the Titanic." Jimin stands, turning to the rail. Dismissing him.
Pilwoo is stricken with emotion. "You're precious to me, Jimin."
"Jewels are precious. Goodbye, Father."
Written on Pilwoo's face, you can see that in his way, the only way he knows, he does truly love Jimin. But after watching his son go, he turns and walks away.
゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。
"That was the last time I ever saw him. He left my mother but go remarried, of course, and inherited his millions. The crash of twenty eight hit his interests hard, and he put a pistol in his mouth that year. His step children fought over the scraps of his estate like hyenas, or so I read."
゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。
Jimin stood at the rail of the Carpathia, at nine pm on April eighteenth. He gazes up at the Statue of Liberty, looking just as it does today, welcoming him home with her glowing torch. It is just as Hoseok saw it, so clearly, in his mind.
Later Carpathia disgorges the survivors at the Cunard pier. Over thirty thousand people line the dock and fill the surrounding streets. The magnesium flashes of the photographers go off like small bombs, lighting an amazing tableau.
Several hundred police keep the mob back. The dock is packed with friends and relatives, officials, ambulances, and the press-
Reporters and photographers swarm everywhere, deep at the foot of the gangways, lining the tops of cars and trucks. It is the ninteen-twelve equivalent of a media circus. They jostle to get close to the survivors, tugging on them as they pass and shouting over each other to ask them questions.
Jimin is covered with a woolen shawl and walking with a group of steerage passengers. Immigration officers are asking them questions as they come off the gangway.
"Name?"
"Min. Min Jimin."
The officer steers him toward a holding area for processing. Jimin walks forward with the dazed immigrants. The boom of photographer's magnesium flashes cause them to flinch, and the glare is blinding. There is a sudden disturbance near him as two men burst through the cordon, running to embrace an older woman along the survivors, who cries out with joy. The reporters converge on this emotional scene, and flashes explode.
Jimin uses this moment to slip away into the crowd. He pushes through the jostling people, moving with purpose, and none challenges him in the confusion.
゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。
"Can you exchange one life for another? A caterpillar turns into a butterfly. If a mindless insect can do it, why couldn't I? Was it any more unimaginable than the sinking of the Titanic?"
゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。
Jimin walks away, further and further until the flashes and the roar are far behind him, and he is still walking, determined.
゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。
Jimin sits with the group in the Imaging Shack, lit by the blue glow of the screens. He holds the hair-comb with the jade butterfly on the handle in his gnarled hands.
"We never found anything on Yoongi. There's no record of him at all." Lewis says.
"No, there wouldn't be, would there? And I've never spoken of him until now, not to anyone." Jimin then turns to his granddaughter, Yongmi. "Not even your grandmother. A man's heart is a deep ocean of secrets. But now you all know there was a man named Min Yoongi, and that he saved me, in every way that a person can be saved." Jimin closes his eyes. "I don't even have a picture of him. He exists now only in my memory."
Outside on the stern deck, Jimin walks through the shadows of the deck machinery. His night clothes blow in the wind. His feet are bare. His hands are clutched at his chest, almost as if he is praying.
Tonghyon and Yongmi are running down the stairs from the top deck.
Jimin reaches the stern rail. His gnarled fingers wrap over the rail. His ancient foot steps up on the gunwale. He pushes himself up, leaning forward. He can see the black water glinting far below.
Tonghyon and Yongmi run up behind him. "Grandpa, wait!! Don't-"
Jimin turns his head, looking at them. He turns further, and they notice Jimin has something clutched tight in his hand, something he was about to drop overboard.
It is the 'Heart of the Ocean'.
Tonghyon sees his holy grail in Jimin's hand and his eyes go wide. Jimin keeps it over the railing where he can drop it anytime. "Don't come any closer."
"You had it this entire time?!"
゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。
Jimin is walking away from the pier. The photographer's flashes go off like a battle behind him. He has his hands in his pockets. He stops, feeling something, and pulls out the necklace. He stares at it in amazement.
゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。
"The hardest part about being so poor, was being so rich. But every time I thought of selling it, I thought of my father. And somehow I always go by without his help."
Jimin holds it out over the water. Lewis and a couple of the other guys come up behind Tonghyon, reacting to what is in Jimin's hand.
"Holy shit." States Lewis.
"Don't drop it, Harabeoji." Tonghyon pleads.
Lewis has no respect at all, whispering fiercely. "Push him."
Tonghyon glares at Lewis. "It's his, you schmuck." Then he turns back to Jimin. "Look, Harabeoji, I... I don't know what to say to a man who tries to jump off the Titanic when it's not sinking, and jumps back onto it when it is... we're not dealing with logic here, I know that... but please... think about this a second."
Jimin holds his head up high. "I have. I came all the way here so this could go back where it belongs."
The massive diamond glitters. Tonghyon edges closer and holds out his hand. "Just let me hold it in my hand, Harabeoji. Please. Just once." He comes closer to him. It is reminiscent of Yoongi slowly moving up to him at the stern of Titanic.
Surprisingly, Jimin calmly places the massive stone in the palm of Tonghyon's hand, while still holding onto the necklace. Tonghyon gazes at the object of his quest. An infinity of cold scalpels glint in its white depths. It is mesmerizing. It fits in his hand just like he imagined.
"My God." His grip tightens on the diamond. He looks up, meeting Jimin's gaze. The old mans eyes are suddenly infinitely wise and deep.
"You look for treasures in the wrong place, Mr. Kyong. Only life is priceless, and making each day count."
Tonghyon's fingers relax. He opens them slowly. Gently Jimin slips the diamond out of the younger mans hand. Tonghyon feels it sliding away.
Then, with an impish little grin, Jimin tosses the necklace over the rail. Tonghyon gives a strangled cry and rushes to the rail in time to see it hit the water and disappear forever.
"Aww! That really sucks, man!" Lewis moans.
Kyong Tonghyon goes through ten changes before he settles on a reaction. He laughs. He laughs until the tears come to his eyes. Then he turns to Yongmi. "Would you like to dance?"
Yongmi grins at him and nods. Jimin smiles and looks up to the stars.
In the black heart of the ocean, the diamond sinks, twinkling end over end, into the infinite depths.
゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。
Jimin's shelf is arranged carefully with pictures: Jimin as a young actor in California, radiant. A theatrically lit studio publicity shot. Jimin and his wife, with their two children. Jimin with his son at his college graduation. Jimin with his children and grandchildren at his seventieth birthday. A collage of images of a life well lived.
The pictures continue, getting older and older: Jimin in ninteen-twenty at Suwon beach, sitting on a horse at the surfline. Gwanggyo Lake Park, with it's bridge behind him - he is grinning, full of life.
Jimin lays in his warm bunk. He is very still. He could be sleeping, or maybe something else.
Authors Note: So there is this idea that I have had in my mind for about five years now and I'm now thinking it is time to finally release it to the world.
As you know I've been recreating a lot of movies into Yoonmin fanfics because I've be so stuck and uncertain on how and if I could ever create a work of my own again. So I can't tell you when and I'm still unsure on how to even bring my story to life but I wanted to know if any of you would be interested and excited to read an original story of mine.
You can find a short description of my idea at the end of Chapter Ten on my newest work 'Love, Jimin' and I would really love it if you went over there to check it out. Please please please comment and give me advice and feedback if you think I should go ahead and try to bring my story to life. It would honestly mean so much to me, and let me know if you think my writing is even good enough to be able to write something of my own as I am so nervous and scared that it won't be as detailed and as well written as I would like.
And if any of you have any writing tips please do let me know as I am constantly looking for ways to improve my writing and if you have any advice on how to make my works better I would really appreciate it. Thank you and I purple you <3