The Afterlife

31) It is me who is older;

(a/n: uhm, so, this chapter contains a heavy, HEAVY scene of fire and yeah,,, burning, so, if you feel like you can't tolerate such thing or if it will disturb you, please skip to the end notes before it begins... i assure you, you will know before it begins.)

"They were all lost, like that, the people I grew with," it seemed to plague him like it happened only a day prior, and he looked at both of his hands in his lap whike his fingers fiddled with what seemed like utter guilt, one that had no good reason but all the choices he left untouched, "Hwan- Jeon Younghwan hurt his son," as he spoke, Jungkook shrunk in his seat, too fresh of a wound was the one he was bearing, "Sungki was the only one to have truly loved his son," Sihyeon's father turned with the best smile he could offer to Jimin before his eyes slowly and hesitantly met Naeun's, "but there was no where to go when Miran kept pushing him."

From where she had been standing, leaning on a wall, Naeun wished for the stones behind her to open up and swallow her whole, leaving no trace of her existence to the world. She could not help but wonder how it was her mother who swore death upon her, and how it was her mother to bring doom to Jimin's father. Her heart raced with the thought of how her mother was first, and she, herself, was second to mar Jimin's life and break it into futile pieces.

Jimin saw it, and his hand immediately reached for his wife. For all the pain she had caused them, he let her tremors become one with his. She had told them when they reunited of what her father told her, of the true reason why she had left them, but never had he imagined the lengths those people were willing to take to avenge for something they came up with just to free themselves of the guilt, the leeching feeling that they were ones to tear Choi Soojin's life apart.

Coming to know, too, that Jaewook was never Naeun's life's making made it all the more devastating for him. After all, it was his own folly that made Jaewook come for them; it was his own mistake that made the world put all the more weight on his wife's shoulder, taking away the child he had long thought he lost to Naeun's recklessness.

"A part of Sungki's reasoning was that he had lost his lover amidst the chaos as well," Kim Minho sighed, looking between Jimin and Jungkook like their fathers stood clear in both their eyes; when both of them turned where the other sat, it brought a weight that was hard to define, a strange feeling of familiarity that beamed in both their eyes.

They had barely talked, but they felt close all the same.

"Kim Namjoon did not intend on killing me," Sihyeon's father said at last, and he looked up at Taehyung with the sorrow returning tenfold; from his side, his wife held his back to keep it straight, and she cried silently as she heard what she had surely known far too well, "he wanted me to grow old and lose my mind, just like his father," he said, "he wanted me to watch my child dig her own grave and die so I can find no salvation but in death as well."

Truly enough, Kim Namjoon dared not murder Sihyeon herself.

His task seemed far too outrageous than death itself, and it was obvious when Sihyeon found herself thrown like a crumbled piece of paper hours on end, unable to lift a finger or voice a complaint.

She did not even know if they were days or hours - the time she spent lying where Namjoon left her, feeling like her soul refused to leave her in any manner that was peaceful and kept her alive through the pain that was to never cease.

"Hey," Mia's voice was never too gentle or too cautious, but right there and then, she spoke like even her mere voice would hurt her younger sister had it been too loud, "hey, young one, can you speak to me."

It was like a gurgle of a sound, an attempt at a hum that coaxed blood from her throat as she coughed again, wheezing when the pain returned harder than before.