Take Me Home.

5

“The story of life is quicker than the wink of an eye, the story of love is hello and goodbye...until we meet again”

Early in the morning, Seokjin heard trucks. The news came from the front last night. Making Seokjin and all of them at the villa feel sour and heavy. The troops were to be sent away, the war was going feral again. It was starting all over again. War, fights, blood, death and agony…  the fear of not coming back, the fear of death was shadowing the villa since last night.
Seokjin hadn't expected the trucks so early and he cursed at himself for staying too long at the villa.

“Go now,” Said Hoseok. He was dressed quickly. Seokjin was already dressed. “If you
go quickly, I will say that you slipped away early for a coffee. Go now before the trucks begin to leave.”

Seokjin then ran out of the villa. Rushing towards the place Taehyung stayed at like a madman. He was a water deprived fish as he passed the markets and cafes. The light was now breaching the top of Vesuvius and glowed a deep orange. It shined in his eyes as he passed through the town and came to the house and up the stairs where Flora was on the porch sweeping debris from the nightly rain.

She stopped him. “He isn't here.”

“What?”

“He left for errands.”

“This early?” Seokjin felt the rising panic. “Where did he go?”

“The market.”Seokjin told her thank you and went back down the road to the market where he could not find Taehyung. It was getting late. He felt the tugging of his heart and the deep pools of anxiety growing deeper inside him. He was out of time.
He went back to the house where Flora smoked a cigar on the porch with the morning light. “Will you tell him I was called back suddenly?” Her expression changed from one of disinterest to deep sympathy. “You tell him, please? Tell him I will write to him once I can.”

“Sure senior, I will tell him.”

“Grazie, grazie.” He kissed her hand. “Farewell, then.”

He came down the stairs with his heart in his throat and all the world dimming around him. He looked over his shoulder as he walked, begging what force of the universe for Taehyung to come, but he did not show.

“The world burns from the inside out. You don’t see it until it’s too late.”

Seokjin went up the road and to the trucks where Hoseok waited for him. Together they climbed into the back of one truck.

“You will be alright.”

“I couldn't find him.”

“Where is he?”

“I don't know.”

“You'll see him again.” Hoseok touched Seokjin’s arm. “Don't think of anything but what we're to do now.”

It was when the engine turned over and clouds of smoke came from the exhaust into the cool morning air that Seokjin looked out toward the town and saw, very far away, Taehyung coming down the road.

He rode a bicycle and rode it quickly until he came up to the trucks. Then he jumped from the cycle which came down with a crash on the side of the road and took Seokjin’s hand that reached for him over the side of the truck.

“Flora told me—” He was breathless and sweating and full of relief.
Seokjin was grateful to see that he was not crying. He couldn't do anything but smack his lips against Taehyung’s soft and tender and lovely like their first kiss, still fresh out of heaven. A chaste kiss that didn't last maybe even a second but it made Seokjin’s heart settle and calm down. He took it as an omen he would be coming back. He would be coming back to Taehyung, to Napoli. He would make a home with Taehyung somewhere that they will feel like love and home.

“Why so suddenly?” Taehyung asked when they parted. “There was no warning.”

“There was never going to be one.”

The truck began to pull down the road and Taehyung was forced to let go. “I'll be seeing you, then.”

“Yes,” Seokjin said with a smile. “Not goodbye, all right?”

“All right.”

“I'll see you.”

Seokjin watched Taehyung as the truck pulled farther down the road alongside all the other trucks. He did not feel the weight of war as he had felt so often before. He only felt the sinking of his heart into the pit of his belly.

He kissed his hand and held it up. It made him feel very empty when Taehyung waved to him.

“That farewell kiss which resembles greeting, that last glance of love which becomes the sharpest pang of sorrow.”

They drove through the night in a cadence that mimicked a death march. It was very dark and all one could see was the light of the moon and the stars and the glare of the lights from the truck ahead of them. The rain returned in the night, so that each man was forced to sit close to one another with cloaks pulled up around their heads. Seokjin looked into the dark and watched the moon that brightened behind a thin cloud. He watched it disappear behind a much larger cloud so that there was no light at all. He was reluctant to think, but so aware of his own being, to think was all he had. He felt very alone in the cold, filled with a sense of pride and regret. He was tired. He was nervous. He had no idea what would happen. He had no idea if his given promises would turn into reality or not. He didn't know if he would stay alive long enough. He didn't know what war would do to him. He didn't know if war would ever finish. It went on that way until they reached Gorizia.

“We are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial—I believe we are lost.”