Deadline

3. The Effects of Death

When Jungkook finally opened his eyes, he was assuming that he would be met by the stale color of the hospital walls. Maybe a nurse who was checking on his vitals to see if he was stable, or maybe even his manager seated in one of those uncomfortable looking chairs under the television. He did not expect to wake up in a coffin in a funeral home with at least twenty to thirty strangers staring his way wide-eyed.

Jungkook attempted to bring his hands up to his eyes, thinking that he must be dreaming for a moment. All his limbs felt tingly; as if they had been asleep for an extended period of time. When he eventually got his hands to move, he froze upon noticing the glossy lavender purple polish on his nails.

'Why are my nails painted?' thought Jungkook. 'Is this some sort of joke?'

Before Jungkook could think about the well-manicured and painted nails for long, a tearful gasp caused him to look over at the sea of strangers again. There was a woman dressed in black in the front row. She was even wearing a black sunhat with a black veil of sorts that shaded her face. A trembling and slightly gnarled hand was brought to her lips with a balled-up tissue being suffocated in it. Sitting beside her was a grave faced man who only showed emotions in his eyes where the tears were glistening but had yet to fall. He had one arm about the woman's shoulders, letting it drop away as she rose to her feet. She walked towards where Jungkook was, soon trapping him in a crushing hug when she reached him, sobbing profusely.

"My beautiful daughter is alive!" she sobbed. "It's a miracle!"

'Daughter?!'

Jungkook was trying to process everything going on, thinking for sure that he was dreaming as the woman kept hugging him tightly. Too much in shock to break the weeping woman's ironclad grip, he looked at the room of shocked faces around him again. He was hoping that - since this was beginning to feel less and less like a dream - that he would at least spot one familiar face in the crowd. Unfortunately, no such luck. His eyes soon landed on the priest they had hired to lead the service. Jungkook thought he looked the most shocked of all.

"Irene, you have to let her breathe or you're going to kill her again," said the man who had been seated beside the weeping woman; attempting to make a joke as he got up and walked over to her.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry..." She said, sniffling as she pulled back from Jungkook to cup his face in her hands; padding her thumbs over his cheeks. "I'm just so overjoyed my baby girl is alive!"

The woman soon dropped her hands away from Jungkook completely as the man - who Jungkook was assuming was her husband - came to stand beside her, putting an arm about her shoulders.

Now that he was free of the woman's embrace, Jungkook turned his head to look down at himself; eyes widening when he saw he was in a white lacey dress with skin-colored tights. He moved to run his hands down over his chest, shocked at the presence of a bosom. He screwed his eyes shut as he put his hands over his eyes.

'You're dreaming. You're just dreaming,' he internally told himself.

"Honey, are you alright?" came the woman's concerned voice.

The short answer to that was no. No, he wasn't. Bringing his hands away from his eyes again, Jungkook decided to try and move to get out of the coffin. He hated being stared at when he didn't know what was going on. He watched as the woman and man backed up when he swung one leg out of the coffin followed soon after by the other. His legs buckled under him almost immediately as he tried to balance in the white heels that were on his feet. He threw an arm behind him to grip the coffin to keep himself from making complete contact with the maroon carpet of the funeral home.

'Who buries someone in heels?!' screamed Jungkook internally.

Still gripping the coffin with one hand, Jungkook peeled the heels off and left them askew on the floor. Without looking at all the staring faces, he moved to walk out of the room. He had to find a bathroom. Maybe that would shatter this weird reality he found himself in. As he entered the hallway, he walked past two funeral home attendants that just stared after him with their jaws dropped.

As Jungkook rounded the corner, he was thankful to see a bathroom. He pushed himself inside the men's room, moving to stand in front of the mirror to look at himself. At the sight of the very unfamiliar feminine face, Jungkook felt like he was going to become sick. He observed the angelic angular face he was sporting with the blush-tinted cheeks and pale pink lips. Two deep brown eyes stared back at him; his raven black hair swirled up into a bun on top of his head and accented with a daisy or two.

"No. No. No!" he said, panicking even more when a woman's voice was produced when he spoke instead of his own.

As Jungkook panicked in front of the mirror, he didn't realize that someone else had entered the bathroom until they cleared their throat by the door. Turning to look towards the sound of the cleared throat, he noticed a man dressed in black. The man's hair was the same color as his hair now; the jet-black tips of it curling about the tops of his ears. He looked towards Jungkook a bit uneasily.

"Marise...are you alright?"

"Alright?! Do I look alright?!" Jungkook stated, turning from the sink to gesture at his body.

He noticed a blush tint the man's face almost immediately as he stayed frozen by the door for a moment more before coming over to him.

"I know it's overwhelming right now. It has to be. You probably have no clue what is going on."

"Duh!" Jungkook stated as he let out an exasperated sigh. "I'm just...I'm not myself."

"It'll just take some time to readjust, Marise. Don't say that."

"Look, I get you're trying to comfort me, but you can't possibly understand what I'm going through right now."

Jungkook noticed a frown immediately pull at the man's lips before he shook his head.

"I know I don't understand. You went through something traumatic. I wish it had been me that took the bullet instead of you, but you're alive again. It's really a miracle. We need to focus on that."

"Bullet?! What are you talking about?" asked Jungkook.

"Marise, do you not remember anything?" asked the man, arching a brow.

Jungkook didn't know how to respond to this man anymore. All this confusion was just causing his head to ache as he looked back at his foreign reflection in the mirror. The man let out a sigh as he put a comforting hand on his back.

"Confusion must just be one of the effects of death," said the man slowly, beginning to rub small circles on his back, "But you aren't alone. Whatever you don't remember, I'll help you with. I wouldn't be a good twin brother if I didn't."

Jungkook looked at the man's reflection beside his in the mirror, noticing for the first time how similar their facial features were.

"Come on, Marise," continued the man. "Let's get you out of the men's room before anyone else spots you here. Then we'll go back into the room where our family is waiting. I'll try to fend off as many questions as I can."

The man shifted to grip Jungkook's hand and began to move with him back towards the bathroom door. Even though Jungkook had no clue what was going on, he supposed he was appreciative of this man's help.

"Thanks, um..." started Jungkook, trailing off as he waited for the man to supply his name.

The man stopped short of the door, turning to look at Jungkook with a soft, boxy grin.

"Taehyung," he replied. "My name is Taehyung."