Seven Seconds | jikook

Chapter 1

Seven seconds.

That's all it took. It might seem like an insignificant amount of time, but, to an aerial skier, seven seconds was everything. It was the length of the entire run. The entire competition. The entire year of training and prepping for the biggest event of their lives amounted to just seven little seconds.

For Jimin, those seven seconds were precious. They were seven seconds of total silence, everyone holding their breath as he sped down the hill and flung himself into the air. Seven seconds of muscle memory spinning him around, his vision full of nothing but blurry white, impossible to tell the sky from the ground. Those seven seconds meant everything to him.

One.

Jimin knew this run was different from the moment he took off. It felt wrong. Everything felt wrong.

Two.

The wind was terrible. Slashing against Jimin's face as he tore down the hill in ways he had not been prepared for. It was too late to go back. Too late to stop.

Three.

Jimin was used to silence when he jumped. Like a soundproof bubble encased his head for those precious few moments of concentration. Right now, though, his heartbeat was deafening.

Four.

Jimin knew this jump like the back of his hand. He knew exactly what it took to make it perfect. He knew what it felt like when it wasn't going to be.

He was going too slow. And it was way too late to speed up.

Five.

Jimin used to think skiing felt like flying. This felt more like falling.

Six.

Too late. The wind was smashing into him, his world was tumbling upside down, and it was too late, too late, too late.

Seven.

Fuck.

Seven seconds. That's all it took for Jimin's dream to come crashing to an end.

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Jimin had always loved winter.

It was beautiful. Everything cold and white and frozen. Maybe to some people that would sound lonely or sad, but to Jimin it was gorgeous.

Everything seemed to sparkle during the daytime, and the chilly outdoors only made the comfort of a warm fireplace seem even more special. His favorite thing about winter, however, was how peaceful it was. How quiet. How--

"Lookout BELOWWWW!"

Okay, so scratch that. "Yah! Taehyung-ah!" Jimin shouted angrily at his best friend as he came flying past on his sled, bumping and bouncing over the uneven hill.

Taehyung was laughing, not caring in the slightest that Jimin had to leap back several feet, his frozen fingers nearly slipping where they held onto his precious coffee. Lord help whoever made Jimin drop his morning coffee.

It was currently the ass crack of dawn and Jimin had been dragged out of bed so Taehyung could go sledding before the hill was packed with people. There was only one hill in the resort reserved for sleds only, and the younger boy had been devastated yesterday to find it so overcrowded with children it was barely safe to go down.