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Jungkook was in shambled.
"My body... is in agony."
"Lol."
"Did you just say 'lol' out loud?"
"And? Fight me."
"Jimin, refrain from the unnecessary aggression," Namjoon said, and then looked at Jungkook, who was lying on the medical clinic bed. "You alright, Kook? Sorry, Jin had to inject you... you didn't look too well."
Jungkook looked at Namjoon, and humphed, looking away. "Why do you care... Mr. Meanie pants... just go... be rude to me without acknowledging my feelings."
Namjoon sighed, and Jimin looked at Jungkook in an upset manner. "We're sorry, Kookie. We shouldn't have done that. Because you're always so lively we didn't think it was affecting you so much. Our bad." Namjoon said, and Jungkook looked up at the ceiling.
Jungkook hummed, and Namjoon and Jimin waited for a second, but then realized Jungkook wouldn't respond. "You feeling better?"
"Yes. I'm fine." Jungkook said, and Jimin and Namjoon nodded. "We'll leave you alone," Jimin said softly, and he and Namjoon walked out, closing the door behind them.
The moment they left, Jungkook cramped up, lifting his hands to look at them. His delicate fingers were turning silver from the tips. He didn't know what that meant, but he had a bad feeling. Also, they hurt like shit.
Jungkook didn't know what to do. A part of him wanted to leave, somehow. Never see any of their faces again. Never see Taehyung's stupid grey hair and grey eyes again. Never had to witness that ever again. A part of him wanted to never see the faces of the six boys ever fucking ag-
"Jungkook!" A voice came, and the medical room door burst open. "Banjo!" Jimin yelled, and then left.
Okay, what the fuck. Jungkook got up from the medical bed and rushed outside the spaceship to see a banjo in the arms of Jin, who was playing it.
"Country roads~" Jin sang, playing the banjo. "Take me home~"
"What the fuck is going on?" Jungkook asked in a small voice and saw Jin, Jimin, Yoongi, Hoseok, and Namjoon all standing around while Jin was playing a fucking banjo. Yoongi had a flute.
"We found instruments," Yoongi explained.
"From where?? This is an empty desert planet and you found instruments??" Jungkook asked, and then saw Hoseok with a drumstick in his hand and thought better not to question it.
"Where's Taehyung?" Jimin asked Namjoon.
"He's playing loud screamo music in his room. Go call him." Namjoon said, and Jungkook rolled his eyes.
"Let him suffer."
"No."
Jungkook groaned, and Jimin pursed his lips and then rushed to Taehyung's room. He heard loud emo screaming and a booming bass coming from Taehyung's room, and hesitated before opening the door.
When he did, he saw Taehyung on his bed face first, crying loudly. Full on sobbing. "Hey, man, you good?"
Taehyung's hand reached out and pressed something on the wall which stopped the music in an instant. Taehyung turned his head. "I'm great." He said, pretending to be fine.
"You were crying."
"No, I wasn't."
"You have tear stains on your cheeks."
"I blinked too much," Taehyung said quickly.
"No, Tae. You blank too many times." Jimin said, and Taehyung rubbed his face with his hands.
"Jimin, the past tense of blink is not blank."
"Blanked."
"No."
"Anyways come out, everyone's hanging out outside singing and stuff. It's really nice. We've got marshmallows and stuff... some hot chocolate, some rum. It's just a nice little time." Jimin said softly, and Taehyung stood up.
"That does sound nice," Taehyung mumbled, and then wiped his cheek and followed Jimin out of his room.
"There's a nice buzz in the air. The atmosphere is nice. Jungkook's better. Everyone is happy." Jimin said, and Taehyung followed him to the exit of the ship. "We love each other and live in peace and harmony and-" Jimin looked outside and screamed.
Everything was on fire. Jin was screaming, hitting a fire that shot out from the ground with his ablaze banjo. Yoongi jumped around because his feet burn, and Hoseok was pouring water onto a burning flame. Jungkook kicked Namjoon, whose leg was on fire.
"Oh my fucking god." Jimin let out, and Taehyung's eyes widened.
✭
Everyone was fine.
They were all sitting in the control room, Yoongi with bandages on the sole of his feet, Hoseok with a glass of water in his hand, Jin with the end piece of a banjo in his hand (the other one exploded), Jungkook with his hands covering his face, Taehyung looking into space, Jimin sitting there silent, and Namjoon with an ice pack on his leg.
"Hey so-" Jimin started, and everyone looked up dully. "What- um- what happened?"
"We died."
"Almost."
"We might as well have," Namjoon mumbled, and then looked outside the spaceship. "This planet is going to explode sooner than I thought. The core of the eart is overheated. Flames started to erupt. Jin's banjo caught on fire-"
"Let's just get out of here," Hoseok said. "We have fuel, right?"
"It's not enough, Hobi," Jimin said.
"We need more. We need to use Jungkook's idea but in a better way. We need to figure out a way to get all that fuel." Namjoon said.
"There's no way that can be possible without one of us going out there. And look, the planet is in flames. Like, literally. Everything is on fire." Jin said.
"We'll figure something out, Jin. We'll figure something out." Namjoon said softly, and everyone nodded, determination bubbling in the pits of their stomach.
✭
They figured nothing out.
It was bad. Namjoon was really going through it. It had been an hour of brainstorming, yet, nothing.
"We can send someone down there, Joon. We can find ways of doing it quickly and easily," Jin said.
"I don't want to risk it-"
"Well you'll have to. Because the engine room is burning up, and the last thing we need is for that to catch on fire. Someone pull the ship out of the planet, but laying close to it." Hoseok snapped.
"On it," Jimin said quickly, rushing to the control pad and pulled the lever.
"Look, Namjoon. With one of Hoseok's devices and with a lot of communication in between me or Jimin and the person, we can very easily get down there, get enough fuel up to the ship, and then get out of here." Yoongi said, and Namjoon sighed.
"Taehyung can do it." Jin pointed out, and everyone looked at Taehyung, who was sitting on the floor, in the corner of the room.
"What?" Taehyung said groggily, looked dull, eyebags underneath his eyes and hair falling on his face.
"We said you can execute this mission for us, and you look like a pile of shit. Jesus. You alright?" Jin asked, and Taehyung was about to speak, but got cut off.
"Why does Taehyung have to do it?" Jungkook snapped, and everyone turned their heads to face him. Jungkook was standing by the entrance, eyebrows furrowed.
"Because he's been trained to do these kinds of risk-bearing missions-" Namjoon started, and Jungkook huffed.
"So what? You think Taehyung knows everything because of some stupid classes he attended? You think Albert Einstein did what he did because he was smart??" Jungkook snapped, tough.
"Yeah man... that's like his whole thing... he's a genius..." Jimin said, now having successfully put the ship outside the planet.
"Shut it, shortcake. Don't try to fuck with me. Albert Einstein dropped out of school and created Apple."
"That's Steve Jobs- y'know what, I don't have time for this. Jimin, what's the fuel count?" Namjoon asked.
"Practically empty. We used up all of it just getting out of the planet, Joon. We need to do this mission." Jimin said, and everyone else nodded.
"Okay, fine. Jungkook, this isn't anything against you, but I just feel like Taehyung's more fit for-"
"You're wearing my t-shirt." Taehyung let out softly, looking at Jungkook with big eyes. Everyone got quiet.
Jungkook looked down at his shirt which said 'THE FUTURE IS FEMALE' on it, y'know, from that planet. Jungkook looked at Taehyung wearily.
"I-I didn't know it was yours." Jungkook mumbled, and Taehyung looked up at him with gleaming eyes, still sitting on the floor.
"Hey, Tae? Wanna have a quick chat?" Yoongi asked, and Taehyung continued looking at Jungkook with wide eyes. So Yoongi walked up to Taehyung and pulled him off the floor, grabbing him and dragging him out of the control room.
Yoongi pushed Taehyung into his room and then walked in himself, closing the door behind him. "Okay, what's going on? You look like you haven't slept a wink all night."
"I haven't..." Taehyung said faintly, and Yoongi sighed and grabbed a mug from his desk and gave it to Taehyung. "Have my coffee."
Taehyung looked at his mug. "J-Jungkook used to have coffee..." Taehyung let out, and then Yoongi saw tears in his eyes.
"Jesus, Tae, what's gotten into you?" Yoongi asked, and Taehyung sniffled.
"I don't know! Stop being mean to me!" Taehyung let out and then covered his face with his hand, crying into it.
"It's fine. Look, you're big, so it's awkward for me to hug you-"
"J-Jungkook used to call me b-big," Taehyung let out through his tears, and Yoongi groaned.
"Stay here. I'll be back in a sec." Yoongi said, patting his head. He walked out of his room, closing the door behind him.
Yoongi rushed to the control room, where he saw Namjoon stress talking with Jin and Hoseok, while Jimin talked to Jungkook. "Dude, Martin Freeman is the guy who played the hobbit from The Hobbit. He's not the guy who invented the light bulb." Jimin explained while Jungkook looked more confused.
"Jungkook. Here. Now." Yoongi snapped, and Jungkook looked at him in confusion and walked over to him. "And Jimin you too," Yoongi said, and Jimin followed. Both walked up to Yoongi.
"Jungkook, go into my room. Talk to Taehyung and figure out which one of you is going down there for the mission. Jimin, can you massage my feet?"
"Um. Okay. But I don't wanna see his face." Jungkook said, and then walked to Yoongi's room, while Jimin groaned.
"Seriously? Fine, but only because you burned them." Jimin mumbled.
Jungkook walked into Yoongi's room and heard loud My Chemical Romance playing while Taehyung cried.
"Why do you keep playing loud screamo music, we all know you're crying," Jungkook said, and the music stopped, and Taehyung cleared his through.
"I'm not crying."
"I heard you," Jungkook said, and walked up to the bed, where Taehyung was sitting.
"Well get your ears checked, because I'm as dry as sand," Taehyung grumbled.
"Yeah, if sand was thrown into the ocean! Now I didn't want to talk to you, but Yoongi wanted us to discuss-" Jungkook started, but then Taehyung got up and walked closer to Jungkook.
"What?" Jungkook asked, and Taehyung reached for his waist. Jungkook's breath hitched, but just the simple gesture made Jungkook's aching pain in his hands go away.
"You touching me makes my pain go away." Jungkook said softly, and Taehyung looked at him, moving closer until Jungkook's back was against the wall.
"Jungkook," Taehyung let out, and then let his lips trace over Jungkook's cheekbone. "I-I think I love you-"
Jungkook pushed Taehyung away. "No, no you don't."
"Kookie, listen to me, I-"
"If you loved me, you wouldn't keep those things from me. You wouldn't told me. So stop bullshitting. You're just saying this shit because me giving in makes you hurt less. Don't lie to me." Jungkook snapped.
Taehyung stepped back from him. "I'm not lying, I-"
"Oh, so you love me? You really love me?" Jungkook asked, tone dripping with cynicism.
Taehyung hesitated. "Y-yes, I-I think-"
"If you love me so much, then back off and let me take this mission. Let me show all of you that I'm worth something." Jungkook gritted his teeth, and Taehyung took a deep breath.
"Jungkook you can't. I-I'm scared you'll get hurt, I don't want to take the chance."
"It's not your decision," Jungkook said, and then turned around to walk out of the door. Taehyung followed behind him, feeling a surge of anger.
As they walked out, they heard a few words.
"You have long feet."
"Thank you. Please do not lick them."
"Why the fuck would I lick your-"
"You know what, Jungkook? The only reason I'm saying any of this is to protect you! Because I care about you!" Taehyung shouted, and Jimin and Yoongi turned their heads to the side. Jimin was massaging Yoongi's feet.
"I didn't ask for your protection, nor your care. If you really wanted to protect me-"
"I know, I know, god, I fucking get it! I should've told you earlier! I made a mistake, I'm sorry. You've made plenty of mistakes, Jungkook, but you don't see us bringing them up all the goddamn time." Taehyung snapped and saw Hoseok, Jin, and Namjoon walk out the control room to see what the commotion was about.
"My mistakes didn't threaten your life-"
"Oh really? Because I've known since the first fucking day that you -- you were the one who pushed the fucking button and got us stranded in the middle of space! So whose fault is it that we're here, Jeon? Whose fucking fault is it?!" Taehyung shouted loudly, vein popping in his neck, skin red and irritated from the anger building inside of him.
Taehyung took a deep breath, and the boys looked at Jungkook, whose eyes were widened.
"Jungkook, is- is that true?" Namjoon asked, and Jin gulped because he knew.
Jungkook let out an exasperated sigh and saw Jimin stand up, raising his eyebrow. "Why didn't you tell us this from the start? We-"
"Because I didn't want you guys to get mad at me!" Jungkook cried, and then looked at Taehyung, tears in his eyes. "You just love hurting me, don't you??" Jungkook let out weakly, and Taehyung's breath hitched.
"Jungkook-" Taehyung started, and Jungkook sniffed, looking at the boys.
"I messed up. I pushed the button. I let the only form of communication get stolen. I did everything! So- so please, just p-please let me be the one who does this mission. I'll d-do it well." Jungkook said strongly.
"Jungkook that can be dangerous for you.. knowing the circumstances," Jin said softly, and Jungkook looked at him.
"I know. But if I do get hurt, at least it won't be at the hands of him!" Jungkook snapped, pointing at Taehyung, and then turning to the side and storming into his room, slamming the door shut.
The boys looked at Taehyung, who looked down, weakened by words. "I-it's fine," Taehyung mumbled. "I'm not in the right state of mind anyway."
"Well we-we can't let him go ahead with this, can we? Taehyung, you're way better suited. Plus, Jungkook's already weak as is with how sick he's been for the past weeks, we can't weaken him further-" Jimin said, and Yoongi cleared his throat.
"Actually, I think Jungkook should do it. He's got the will to do it properly. Plus, Taehyung truly isn't in the right place right now. Let's not doubt Jungkook." Yoongi said.
"As you say, Yoongi," Namjoon said, sighing to himself. "I just wish there weren't so many problems."
"I know. But I'm sure everything will be fine." Jin said, placing a hand on his shoulder.
Jungkook was in his room, sitting on the floor, the silver from his fingertips now covering his hands and wrists completely. His neck turned silvery and lips too. He looked at himself in the mirror and felt a terrible pain in his heart that just couldn't go away.
Jungkook balled his hands into fists. He couldn't let this affect him. Achingly, he stood up, his breathing quick as he did. He had to do this mission successfully, and he would do whatever it took to get it done.
Whatever it took.
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