DOUX DANGER ✓

prologue

PROLOGUE // THE PAST
"it all started with a dead friend."

Serenity sits outside of the hospital building, the silence surrounding the colossal garden meant for patients is overwhelming. It holds her firmly, suffocating her with shrewd torment. The silence is too much.

She folds her leg over the other as she stays seated on the bench. The wooden bench has space for several people and Serenity feels the loneliness that creeps inside of her as she shivers outside. The nature of the hospital garden is dismal under the night sky, shadows reflected due to a deaden ashen lamp and her focus remains on the rope tied to a branch of a tree. The winter night is one that will pain her like no other, not letting her sleep or speak.

The sounds of people's heartbreaking discussions- counsel and criticism and unspoken goodbyes but greetings to new life, spoken thoughts, patient conversations, footsteps from the cleaned hospital floors are loud in Serenity's ears. The smell of coffee and cleanliness fills her nose, it makes her feel sick. Her mighty senses surround her all at once, too abruptly and she can hear the rustling of leaves, the tapping of shoes, the smell of a choking cigarette, a patients shouts for assistance to use the toilet, a nurse collapsing, a hospital bed on its slack wheels moving from one place to another and...

it all stops when Jimin sits on the other side of the bench, far away as possible.

His presence catches her by surprise and she glances at him, now knowing where the cigarette smell was coming from. Serenity takes in his hazel locks, dark under the moonlight as the lamp reflects his facial features. downbeat eyes- having not slept in weeks, plump lips with wanted attention, impeccable brows and a low groan leaves the back of his throat. He had just walked in from inside of the placid hospital, waiting in the corridor for Namjoon's news. It was past midnight and the hoodie he was wearing didn't help the chilly shivers to stop as his teeth chattered.

His slick, charming voice makes Serenity feel better as she closes her eyes. "Do you want one?" He lifts up his box of cigarettes and she says nothing.

She hardly knows Jimin, knowing of him but he's a stranger to her. Yet here they are, both about to grieve a loss of someone they had the honour of loving.

Jimin leans back, breathing out a whisk of smoke from his lips. A strand of his locks falls in his face which he makes no action to move away. He stares at a spot on the ground- trying not to think, trying not to show emotions. "He's dead." He states bleakly- his bluntness makes the silence more haunting.

Serenity stilled in her position- the same one that she was in for minutes, legs apart, hands tightly grasped as she stared at a patch of grass. She felt a whirlwind of emotions stir inside of her- in her stomach, her throat, her head and she wanted to run upstairs, back to Namjoon and yell at him to keep fighting!

But she remained still.

So did the unreal world as another humans death added to the statistics- no cure of cancer found.

Jimin's words were starting to dissolve in the air and he knew it. "The doctor confirmed it-" He threw his cigarette to the floor and stomped on it.

Serenity doesn't know why she was expecting a stranger with princely looks but darkened lungs to throw a fit at the news of his now dead best friend. She expected Jimin to grab the doctors collar, tears streaming down his woeful face as he screamed- why didn't you let us say goodbye to him? Why couldn't you save him? But the young man stays seated at the end of the bench, hands free from a cigarette as the cold air leaves his lips- a whirlwind of emotions also reflecting back in his copper, sleep deprived eyes.

The night of Namjoon's death never ended for Jimin and Serenity as they sat in silence, staring at a starless sky.

//

The strangers brought together by death.

How ironic is that.

The state of the two didn't change and the funeral was worse.

Serenity stood the entire time, not being able to handle the moments of the funeral that were passing her. Namjoon's picture in a frame, his parents bawling, groups of people leaving flowers, Jimin carrying the coffin with other people, the faint gossip behind her...

She wanted to cry but couldn't and it made her want to rip her hair out.

The only time she made a move to talk to someone was when she noticed Jimin leaving in his ironed suit, his bow still neatly placed as he took long smooth strides away from the people.

She stops in front of him, the two of them ignoring how much they needed to be held and consoled. "Why are you leaving?" She asks carefully.

Jimin's answer is simple. He doesn't meet Serenity's eyes. "I hate funerals. This is the worst experience of my life." He looks around- scoffing at the climate. the flowers that will eventually wilt, the tears that will eventually dry, the memories that will eventually fade...

"That's understandable."

Jimin nods and for the first time she sees a feeble smile on his lips. One that disappears quickly as he looks at her with significance- Serenity wonders what's going through his mysterious mind. "I'll see you later Seren" He touches the bottom of her chin and walks away silently.

They never met again until fate tugged them closer on a lonely night at a gay bar- both still feeling the same way as they locked eyes immediately.

//

look out for updates on wednesdays :)