THE WORLD IS blurry.
Seokjin has to blink a few times before he can see clearly again.
He's still in his hut. The bird cages that fell are back in their original place.
Seokjin's bones feel heavy. He can tell that Namjoon healed him.
He stands. He doesn't wobble. He doesn't hesitate in heading out the door.
But as soon as he's about to head away to look for someone, maybe Jimin or Namjoon, someone stops him.
"Jin," breathes Jimin, "what are you doing up? What—"
Then another voice is calling, "Jimin! Seokjin!" and Namjoon is jogging up to them.
He wastes no time in getting straight to the point. "What happened between you and Hoseok?"
And Seokjin lies. It's what he's best at, and he simply can't tell them the truth of his time travel. Of him creating this alternate timeline.
"I can't say," says Seokjin. Jimin immediately makes a sound of protest, but Seokjin puts his hand up, stopping him. "It's between him and I. You don't need to worry."
"Don't need to worry?" Jimin says incredulously. "He almost beat you to death!"
"I let him."
"Bullshit," begins Namjoon. But the sound of people running stops him from going any further.
One of their people runs up to them and says, "Yoongi is back! And he's injured!"
;;
IT TOOK THREE hours for Yoongi to regain consciousness after Namjoon had healed him.
Yoongi almost died from blood loss from a wound in his arm. He brought kids that he'd saved with him; 28 of them, to be exact.
Hoseok had returned from wherever he'd went. He and Seokjin came to some sort of silent agreement, in which Namjoon saw Hoseok's eyes cast towards the ground, a little guiltily. Jimin stood protectively by Seokjin's side.
Namjoon has remained next to Yoongi's bedside the entire time.
Yoongi groans, opening his eyes and looking up tiredly at Namjoon.
"Hey, Joon. Fancy seeing you here," he rasps, voice weak.
"You almost died!"
Namjoon doesn't bother to keep his voice down.
"Thanks," says Yoongi, only wincing slightly at Namjoon's reprimand. "I didn't notice."
"Why?"
"Why what?"
Namjoon's glare hardens and he clenches his fists at his sides. "You had that special cure-all I gave you. The one we stole from The Other Side. One sip and your wound would've healed completely! So why didn't you use it?"
"Would you believe me if I said I lost the damn thing?"
"It was in your pocket when you arrived. I removed it just now."
Yoongi closed his eyes, exhaling tiredly. "Namjoon. . . "
"You should've used it."
"I'm tired."
And Yoongi says it in such a way that Namjoon suddenly understands.
". . . You didn't want to use it," Namjoon breathes. "You. . . "
"I wouldn't have minded," says Yoongi. He opens his eyes again and looks at the ceiling, eyes watery. "I wouldn't have minded dying out there."
". . . Why?"
To Namjoon, the question he asks seems so insensitive, so rude, but he can't help but ask it.
"I've killed so many people, Joon," Yoongi says. He blinks and a tear rolls down the side of his face. "I can't. . . can't do it anymore."
Yoongi had always seemed so brave to Namjoon, almost indestructible. Namjoon envied his courage all this time.
It's now that Namjoon realizes Yoongi wants to run away from the war, too.
It's now that Namjoon realizes that this war took too much from the seven of them, broke them all into pieces.
And it's now that Namjoon realizes there is no way of putting the pieces back together again.
