Wonder | Jikook

Chapter 3

There are tears running down his face. He doesn't realize till he tastes them on his lips.

"We have to go back! My friend--my best friend is back there! We have to go back!" He's trying to claw his way to the pilot's seat, as if he could somehow turn the ship around himself, but the second man has him in a vice-grip, holding him with an arm around his waist.

"We can't," the first man says, voice wavering but final in its tone, "because it will take another six months for the launch pad to power up again, and... and" his voice falters as he swallows--Jungkook lets out a ragged, broken sob--"and we powered down the atmospheric lattice generators when we left. We assumed... we assumed that it would no longer be necessary, given the... circumstances. So the oxygen supply will the depleted by morning."

"Y-you... you turned off the..." Jungkook's cry gets cut off in his throat.

"I'm very sorry... there's nothing we can do."

"Fuck that--fuck that--we're going back! I don't care if it takes another six months--we can all stay in this damn ship if we have to--" he's shaking his head as if it could rid him of the truths spilling over his cheeks onto the ground, shaking his head as if it would help him clear away the myriad of memories of Jimin. Jimin and his laugh like that space between closing your eyes and falling asleep. Jimin with his hands that are so small but strong enough to knock the air out of Jungkook's chest that one time they tried to teach each other boxing from a book. Jimin with his smile like sunrise and eyes like stars. Like diamonds in the sky.

"He's just one person," the first man says, and he sounds like he's trying to convince himself more than anyone else, "we can't endanger the lives of tens of thousands of people for just one per--"

"But he's my one person--he's my only person..." Jungkook's body goes slack and the arm around his waist loosens. A crowd has gathered around the cockpit, watching the entire scene unfold like some gross spectacle in a circus show.

"He's the only family I have... that I've ever had," he barely hears his own words over the sound of his breathing, can barely taste them over the sadness settling on his tongue, the aftertaste of a bad, bad nightmare that refuses to go away.

"Yer... not talkin' bout a little boy, bout yer age... shorter, with dem cheeks, are ya?" An old man's stepped out of the crowd. People are murmuring and muttering, stepping back to make room.

Jungkook's head snaps up and he almost falls over the edge of the platform. "Yes! That's him! Have you seen him? Is he here? Where is he? Is he--"

"Said he had t'go get summat he fergot at home... sounded real important n' told me t'look after his place in line fer him. Ne'er did see him come back." The old man shifts his hat on his head and heaves a deep sigh.

"And you just let him go?"

Jungkook makes to launch himself forward but the second man's strong arm finds its way around his middle again and it knocks the wind right out of him.

"We can try to make radio contact," the first man's voice says from behind Jungkook. It is soft, imploring, almost desperate. Try as they might, hearts are still made of soft things, tissue and blood and muscle. Things that wound easy. Things that tend to scar instead of heal. "Would that be okay?"

Jungkook is gasping for breath that isn't there but he nods. He nods and nods and nods.

After a flurry of whispers in a language Jungkook swears he doesn't know, and a mess of beeps and click and soft static, the first man speaks into a small microphone on a long cord.

"Hello? Is anyone there? Does anyone hear me?"

And then, like a piercing shard of clarity, painful enough to clear the mind, comes Jimin's voice.