Lifetime

Outset

I had so long with Taehyung and Jungkook, so long that you don't see the end coming. Though I tried not to think of the next and final soulmate date, sometimes I imagined that Jungkook would do just as he intended, keeping me locked away in our apartment with Taehyung guarding the door for any person who dared approach on the day. Sometimes I wondered if we'd have enough of each other or if one of our arguments would go too far and ruin the relationship, ending us without expectation before the date even approached.

None of that compared to what actually happened.

Things did grow more tense in that last year. While we tried to stay hopeful that avoiding meeting my next soulmate would somehow result in the end of the prophecy, we stayed on edge. Jungkook was testy, leading us to so much bickering that I accused him of trying to sabatoge the relationship until Taehyung intervened, urging us to take a few hours away from each other. I couldn't, following him up to his studio within five minutes only to find him in tears and terrified that he'd lose me.

Taehyung was the opposite, almost too happy. So much so that I knew that he pretended to be even when things weren't great. In moments when I expected us to have a disagreement, he'd kiss me until I forgot why we were getting upset. I realized he didn't care if we were having the best or worst time, hanging on to everything while he could.

There's a part of me that felt selfish when the life we built came crashing down because I didn't want to let it go no matter the circumstances. I was at a point in life where I never felt more secure or confident in myself, my career, and our relationship even with its natural ups and downs.

Our apartment became more crowded over the years, Taehyung picking up and mastering multiple instruments so that there were pieces crammed into nearly every free area in the living space. When Jungkook tripped over the cello case that made a home between the kitchen and hallway for the third time he became irate, insisting that we start looking for a house.

He was already in the midst of closing on a building that he planned to use as an art gallery. He wanted to showcase his work and that of other artists he connected with. I'd never been more attracted to him than the first time he took me to the empty building that would become the gallery or seeing him scroll through small properties that could become our home.

"I have a vision. Just wait, it'll be perfect." The galaxy inside me whirred every time he spoke the words, blank walls and renovations holding no chance against whatever plans existed in his mind.

He leaned over the kitchen island, half-rimmed glasses on the tip of his nose as he looked over the sheets of paper spread over the marble countertop, covered in his scribbled ideas and loosely sketched plans. We hadn't stepped foot in an actual house yet but he was already planning on designing the perfect kitchen and decided that putting a mattress in the living room would be the most brilliant idea he ever had.

Taehyung pulled me away from where I stood against the counter next to Jungkook, spinning me until we were in the living room. He'd put on a tape to play, Ray LaMontagne's soulfully folksy voice playing over Jungkook's constant stream of thoughts that he spoke aloud. He leaned into my ear as the song played, humming along to the words and holding me so that we moved in tandem.

When the song changed from one filled with emotion, a slow sadness to the tune into a more lively, bouncy melody, he flitted us all around the apartment. He danced us through every open space until I was breathless and giggly, cheeks flush with pure joy.

"Someone keeps calling your phone Sel." Jungkook kept his eyes on sketching, waving my phone in the air with one hand as Taehyung and I pranced back up the hallway. We slowed by the kitchen so that I could grab the phone, a number I didn't recognize disappearing from the screen. There was a display of two missed calls and a voice message from the number before it started to ring again.