The Last Of Us | tk ✓

forty-four | one last goodbye

SOMEWHERE FAR OFF
WITHIN SEOUL, S. KOREA
4:05 PM, January 6th

The cold is the least of their worries. As Taehyung supports Jeongguk, almost all the latter’s weight crushing a side of a wincing Taehyung, white as a sheet and quivering like a leaf, the nippy wind bellowed in their uncovered ears, diminishing the growls erupting in their stomach from hunger and head leaden with malnourishment.

Over three days, Taehyung and Jeongguk have been chased by the cannibals, whose barbaric mindset and better-equipped pretensions bode well against the tyrannical weather and lack of sustenance around the rugged, torn landscape of the other side of Seoul they all traipsed through.

The metropolitan was way behind, and Taehyung, panting and pale in his starvation, cheeks sunken already, sought it for the best. Despite the frost that should have dug the green fields and cherry trees, the path they take is snaking with wild vines with thick trunks arching over their head, blocking the direct sunbeam trickling through the gaps overhead in the canopy of leaves, silver of golden illuminating the uneven asphalt concrete pavement barren of snow.

“Up ahead,” Taehyung murmurs silkily near Jeongguk’s ear, pressing his forehead on the older’s temple, clutching Jeongguk’s profile that is shivering horribly. “Tunnel... Get out of this storm.”

Dark, deserted, and a dot of light in the stretching, inky blackness; seeking shelter from the ferocious weather slapping them deeply perturbed, they slip down the tunnel wall some metres inside.

“Do we have…” Jeongguk croaked after a while of staring outside the overgrown nature adorning the ongoing road, “Is there water… left?” Head leaning against the greying wall, Jeongguk surpasses pale, turning a faint blue with, not the cold, but pain. Throbbing, stabbing pain as if knives of steel continually jab him in his abdomen. He does not have the energy to retch, can barely string two words together.

Taehyung hid his shudder at Jeongguk’s state by hastily grabbing hold of the latter’s knapsack, for he has lost his in David’s house. Rummaging, he produces a water canteen, twists the cap open and takes Jeongguk’s side. “Open your mouth,” Taehyung whispers with frailty, “That’s it. C’mon, Gguk.”

However, a few drops are all that Jeongguk could get.

Taehyung minces his teeth, growling in outrage to fling the container across the tunnel space. It hit the opposite wall, fell with a crunch on the gravel ground, cracked open. If it wasn’t for the cannibals… If it wasn’t for far-from-indecent, selfish, monstrous human beings, Taehyung would not be here, watching and dreading Jeongguk’s extinguishing lifeform, last breath any sinister second now. 

Jeongguk winces, lifting his hand to place it upon Taehyung’s thigh. The former’s face is covered in a cold sweat, beaded on his eyebrow, under which his orb reflected what was pure guilt, glossy with unshed tears. “I’m… sorry…” He manages feebly, not breaking eye contact.

Taehyung shakes his head. “Don’t be,” he utters in an undertone, the cogs of his brain painfully slow to process the dire straits of the situation. Or perhaps, it was the plain determination that stomped down the prospect of death by hypothermia, marasmic-kwashiorkor, starvation, etcetera. “My fault,” Taehyung hangs his head, apologetic in his next wheezy vowels, “I left your side for too long.” Rain begins to pour, the splattering of raindrops echoing in the ill-lit underpass, giving Jeongguk the time to ponder hard.

“Don’t leave my…” Jeongguk grimaced, breath laboured to cut his sentence short.

Taehyung muttered for him, “Don’t leave your side?”

Closing his eyes and nodding a bit, Jeongguk affirms him.

A small smile appears on the bronze, sculpture-like face. Taehyung said softly, gently sliding next to Jeongguk, cautious not to nudge the older one as he glances at him, “Never again.” He adds, somewhere within his cerebrum enforcing to dissolve the delicate blanket engulfing the two, “You’re hopeless without me.”

Jeongguk gave a choked chortle.

Taehyung sighed, unable to accept silence, even if defeat had left him to solicit sanctuary beside his safe place: Jeongguk. The downpour grew louder in the cavernous space, masking the boys’ tumbling heartbeat. “You remember,” Taehyung mumbles, staring at the other wall blankly, “the first time we met? I thought you were a good person when you asked me about my parents. But then, you acted like such a dickhead. You never told me why.” He waits.

“Risking… Areum’s life…” Jeongguk breathed out with difficulty. “Burden… Sam… Took Hoseok away… from me…”

“And now?” Taehyung inquires gingerly, trepidation sinking in despite his resolute efforts to stay calm.

“I…” Jeongguk rasped, “Would do… anything for you...”

Taehyung clutches Jeongguk shaking hand. “Don’t die, then. Please, don’t die.” A sob threatened to blubber out of him, out of exhaustion, out of sheer anguish. “We’ll go back to Hoseok — your Hobi hyung —  and Namjoon, Yoongi, Jin (though I don’t think you will be too happy to see him) — don’t… Jeongguk, don’t die.”

“Shh.” Jeongguk susurrates, Taehyung instantly mute. “It’s… okay… One last goodbye… Tae-ahhh.”  Slowly, Jeongguk's body sags.

He is completely still.

Taehyung sniffles, eyes lidded, not letting go of Jeongguk’s limp hand but listening intently to the rain coming down in heavy sheets.

He doesn’t know when sleep overtakes him, head resting against Jeongguk’s shoulder.

He doesn’t fathom the tramp of fifty boots emitting from the other end of the tunnel, dreams clouded with a somewhat distorted image of the sky throwing disemboweled humans that fall with loud thuds on the ground, muffled are the voices of the decapitated heads as they chant Taehyung’s name in accusation…

And Sam, who he considered a good friend, ordered the bloodied heads to take him away… gorge him raw… David’s snarling at him, now… teeth black as ever, hungry eyes… He tries to push it away, but Taehyung’s arm weighs like trucks. The face is contorted in greed and Taehyung has never been so afraid in his life… Or he has… when he didn’t die with his best friend… Lost Jimin and never turned himself...

He tries to gain consciousness, evading David once and for all, becoming furious with himself.

But he fails to wake up. Like the after-effect of an intake of a tranquilising pill, his subconscious agitation soothes, diminishing… He can no longer dream. No longer think of his past, his present, his future... with Jeongguk.

Jeongguk. 

___

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