Like Chasing After the Sun • taekook

Four

I blink, and find myself in a rowboat, paddling rhythmically towards the ominous opening of the sea cave. The ocean mist splashes on my face with each movement, and the moonlight is bright and disorienting; but I keep rowing, pushing hard against the resistance of the water.

I don't remember how I got here, or exactly why, but a restlessness gnaws at me from the inside; all around me, emptiness, saved for the crashing waves slapping against the boat.

The cave comes to me, one motion at a time. The entrance is low, with jagged rock slabs hanging above. As if I had done this many times before, I paddle hard then lean back, waiting until the boat slides through the opening and the low hanging rocks are replaced by the higher ceiling of the cave again.

Darkness envelops me from above, and the sploshing of the waves echoes within the cave like a dissonant symphony. I'm not afraid, for there is an illumination deep from the water below, mesmerizingly blue, as if lit by a million fireflies. Grotta Azzurra is what the Capri locals call this place, the light coming from the moon or sun shining through from under the cave walls; but legend has it that there's magic in the otherworldly blue, a curse of the nymphs that Emperor Tiberius worshiped here. And it calls to me now, this manic energy of enchanting hues, piercing into my mind relentlessly, louder and louder until I surrender to the thought I've been too afraid to face.

Where's Taehyung?

The space next to me on the rowboat is painfully empty. The light from the water beckons, and I take another longing look, and with a long stuttered inhale, I jump in.

The chilliness of the water tenses up my muscles and cuts through all my muddled thoughts like a blade. My eyes sting from the salty ocean water, but my mind doesn't care, drags me down instead, towards the crystalline blue light that flickers and glimmers all around me - on my thoughts, in my pores, taking over my breaths as I drift deeper and deeper into the enchanting light.

I wonder if I'd hear the melody of the nymphs that Emperor Tiberius heard thousands of years ago, as my limbs become heavy and my thoughts dim...

Cold, heavy, and dark...

I choke on my breath and gasp out loud, snapping my eyes open to an entirely new space.

The light is gone. Through hazy darkness, I can make out sterile walls in front of me, and a concrete ceiling; the air is dry and stale. My vision is blurred, eyelids so heavy that it takes all the strength in my body to keep them open.

Where am I? Wasn't I- wasn't I just in the water?

I try to move my arms and legs, but they feel leaded, immobile. I try to at least turn my head, to survey my surroundings more, but it's hard, each millimeter of movement taking all my effort. There's a beeping sound, and eventually I see the jumbled wires coming off my head and connecting to blinking equipment at the edge of my peripheral.

My breaths turn ragged as fear paralyzes me, mind descending into chaos: where am I? What is happening? I need to go back to the other world, I don't belong here, don't want to be here.

I need to find Taehyung.

That's when I spot it, beyond the equipment and web of wires, the beeping and sterile air, there's another silhouette lying in another bed next to me, facing upwards, enveloped by the darkness.

I want to yell, want to see and figure out who it is, want to get up and rip the wires out; my wayward heartbeats thrum in my ears urgently, and I gasp on my labored breaths, desperately wishing to escape this nightmare. But my vision turns to mottled spots, and the last shred of strength is exhausted, as my head slacks into the pillow, eyes droop shut.