Last Girl Alive | Bangtan

5: Afterlife

One of the craziest thing you realize about these seven new men, is that they eat like there is no tomorrow. As you enter the kitchen for dinner, the blast of spices and wafting dishes hits you like a snowstorm. Laid on the long table are plates after plates after cups and bowls and platters of food that could serve you for three days.

These guys are consuming the large excess of resources on this planet meal by meal. You approach the cook in awe as he's still mixing up the finishing touches to his feast. You lean against the counter and watch him for a while as he's immersed in his own world, a world where there is only the kitchen and him. He looks completely at home in this kitchen, chopping up the vegetables neatly, opening drawers and fridge and oven doors as easily as one can recite the alphabet.

Kim Seokjin almost drops the pan onto the floor when he catches sight of you, letting out a surprised yell that has Jimin on the floor laughing.

"I apologize for Yoongi," Jin says kind of sheepishly, once you apologize. You pass him the ladle and stirs the stew calmly, wiping his other hand on his apron. First impressions matter, so you want to come off well. "He has a way of running his mouth."

You accept his apology with a warm smile, leaning against the counter watching him in admiration. "Jin," you begin kind of shyly. " Were you a cook or something before...That Day, because you seem pretty good at this."

Jin flushes pink with the compliment, eyes shining and face glowing. He gives you a warm smile, wrinkles forming at the edge of his eyes like a pair of wings. "Kind of," he says, turning the ladle round and round rhythmically. "I used to cook a lot for my children. I remember that gesture because I did it often."

Hold up.

"You...you're a father?" You stand up, looking at Jin in a new light suddenly. In your opinion he had seemed to young, too joyful and outgoing to be a dad. Weren't fathers more serious and tired and smart? Well, at least your father had been like that. He hadn't really been around much, too busy for work to cook or do any small activities with you. Jin doesn't reply, as he reaches for some spices across the shelf and you feel guilty for what you said.

He was. He was a father, Y/N.

"I'm sorry," you say quietly. You recall how Jin had told Taehyung not to talk about That Day because "it makes everything more depressing." Well, there goes your hopeful first impression. You turn away from him, watching the others as they devour the food before "it gets cold."

"Must have been hard," Jin begins, lifting his last pot off the stove and joining the rest. "Out there by yourself all this time." The way he says it suggests that's probably the first thing he thought of what he saw you.

"Yeah," you say. You sit down also and start eating, savoring the home-cooked food. You'd been surviving on stealing (though could it be considered stealing when no one owned them?) packets of this and that from grocery store and supermarkets because you couldn't cook anything apart from perhaps an omelette. "It was. I mean, there are endless resources sure but-"

"'-Human beings need other human beings," Namjoon says suddenly, understandingly. You smile softly, seeing his leader figure shine. Jin pushes the meat towards Jungkook. "Eat up Kook, you're still growing."

Jungkook, delighted with the opportunity, grabs two chicken wings and stuffs them into his mouth with a muffled "thanks, hyung!"

You feel part of a large family, as you eat and talk carelessly about things. The maknae line are eager to learn things about you and share their memories, "suddenly so talkative," as Jin grumbles but with a smile. Yoongi downs two glasses of red wine like water and nibbles on his food like a tiger, all the while watching you curiously, taking a good chance to look at you and make his assumptions. No one talked about themselves, about That Day, about who they were before and what they did. It wasn't just that they didn't want to talk about it but that couldn't if they wanted to either because they didn't remember it.

"Hoseok hyung did you fix the heater?" Taehyung asks, mouth full of food. He points to the contraption sitting outside the door with his chopsticks. "It's like cold winters of hell at night and no one lets me cuddle."

"Yeah, Namjoon's brains did the job," Hoseok nods immediately, clapping Namjoon on the back. "He also found fuel for the car and brought in some extra blankets from that home shop down the street."

"Is that where you went today?" Jungkook asked curiously. "I thought you went to look for tools. Take me next time, alright? It's boring just sitting around here all day."

"Take the car, go for a drive," Namjoon replies, ignoring Jungkook's request. "Or read a book and learn something."

Jungkook looks at him offended, looking at Jimin for backup but Jimin is lost in his own conversation with Jin. "You know how many times I've done that? The farthest I've gone is all the way to coast and back with that Ford and anyways there's nothing to see. Just plain polluted ocean and waves and sand."

"That's why I said," Yoongi murmurs. "We should move and reunite with others instead of just sticking here in this shitty house."

"How are we going to do that?" Taehyung challenges him.

"Build a ship," Yoongi shrugs looking at Jungkook. "Or even easier, just steal the ones that are already around. Instead of gathering all this info and Namjoon wasting his time trying to reinvent super astrology or whatever, we should take action."

"Like pirates!" Taehyung's eyes widen and Jin chucks a potato chip in the younger one's way. "And you have to stop watching so much TV, Tae."

Taehyung rolls his eyes, with half a mind to chuck an oilier chip back at the older man. "You always tell me to stop. Stop what? I just breathed."

Jin laughs, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down as he leans forward in laughter. "Improve Yoongi hyung's mood," Jin says with a smile glancing at Yoongi. "He's always sulking and lying about uselessly. He could use some fresh air. "

"Hyung when is the last time you saw the sky?" Jungkook jokes, nudging Yoongi. Yoongi glares at him turning back to his food. "There's nothing to look at anyways, what's the point of going out?"

You feel a small hand nudge yours and you look up to see Park Jimin trying to get your attention. "Y/N, Y/N..."

Absent-mindedly you turn to him, too engrossed in this new perspective of situation.

It was like living in the afterlife. A new life, with almost no recollection of the old one.

But maybe this life wasn't so bad after all.