Boy By The Sea • taekook

Epilogue

He looks for him.

The world is engulfed in darkness outside, but soft ambient lights illuminate the Sackler Egyptian wing of the Metropolitan Museum. The floating candles in the central reflective pool flicker and drift, like lotus flowers swirling in the Nile thousands of years ago. Fragrant orchid arrangements and rows of champagne glasses decorate the tables scattered amongst the well dressed attendees.

Jeongguk walks through the crowd, polished black shoes clicking on the marble floor, scanning and search.

He smiles diplomatically at several familiar faces, but doesn't linger. Deeper he walks, around the dark reflective pool, as the crowd thins and the clamor lulls into a distant buzz, searching.

He climbs up the set of steps near the back, and pauses as he reaches the expansive platform on top. There, appearing in front of him like some fabled mirage, is an imposing Egyptian temple, each piece of ancient sandstone carefully cut and transported from its original location by the Nile. The lights are dimmed in this area, saved for the potlights illuminating from the ground up, casting the reliefs on the sandstone walls in striking shadows. Slowly, Jeongguk strolls through the splendidly decorated gate, eyes glancing up towards the vivid images on the walls, of fearsome gods and forgotten pharaohs.

As he turns to face the inner temple, between tall columns filled with eternally blooming lotus buds and swaying papyrus leaves, he finally finds him, the lone figure gazing contemplatively at the set of large reliefs sprawling out on the wall.

A soft grin spreads by the corner of his lips, loosening his shoulders, as time seems to slow down just for the two of them. As Jeongguk walks closer, Taehyung turns with face half hidden in the dark, eyes twinkling as a smile blooms.

"The might Caesar, bowing down in front of the gods of life and death." Taehyung's glance moves back to the relief, outlines sharp against the columns of floor lights.

"Amazing." Jeongguk nods and stops beside him.

"Yeah. Incredible how after thousands of years, we all still share the same fears - dying, and becoming nothing." Taehyung's arm loops around Jeongguk's, voice pensive.

"Well, death is...never an easy concept." Jeongguk responds. Fragments of memory flash across his mind, but he blinks and lets them go. "When I was a kid, I use to fear death, just that feeling of ceasing to be. All my memories, everything I've learned and cared for, all gone."

A sideway glance, "man, you were a morbid kid. Do you still feel that way now?"

Jeongguk shakes his head, "not really. As I get older and watch people move on, I'm learning to accept it. It's the last step of the whole experience, and gives life such an urgency. I hope I don't squander all the time away."

"True." Taehyung concurs as they sink into a comfortable silence, eventually he adds, "I use to never think about death, easier to ignore it, to pretend I was invincible. Until I got you, then the kids. Now I get a heart attack everytime Lia lets go of my hand on the street."

He scrunched up his face, and Jeongguk can't help but chuckle. "She's pretty hyper though, you gotta watch out for her."

"Yeah, my little pains in the butt, ours. I miss them." Taehyung pouts wistfully.

"We've only been away for two days." Jeongguk gives his arm a gentle squeeze.

"I know, I know. And I asked you to come to this thing in New York. It always seems like a good idea at the time, you know? To get away for a bit. Everything just feels so overwhelming sometimes. But the second I leave, I start to miss them." An eye roll. "I miss her bouncing on me in the morning in her squishy diaper, miss Max asking for his favorite banana pancakes, miss Chims by the window. It's stupid, I know." He's leaning into Jeongguk now, burrowing his face into him, looking like a sulky kid and not caring.