THE SEVEN BOYS stood in front of the open walls, the rest of the Resistance behind them. Families, lone wolves, people who'd all lost something, waiting for their next directions.
"Do we just. . . go ahead?" asks Jimin. "This new land is ours for the taking?"
Seokjin nods. "It's ours. But, first. . ." He bends down and grabs the bird cage. He tosses the door of the cage open, and the now completely healed dove flies out towards the new land.
"Who wants to lead the way?" asks Yoongi.
Taehyung is distracted, his hands still feeling the black veins on his neck. Jeongguk shakes his head no, and Hoseok takes a step backwards, reluctant.
Namjoon clears his throat, stepping forward. "I will."
He turns back to face everyone, addressing the entire Resistance. "This is a journey that will take us to new lands. New beginnings, new lives. I know you've all wanted that for a long time. This is no time for cowardice, this is no time to run away. Here is where we begin to create the New World."
There are cheers at the end of his speech. Namjoon turns around to face the new land. He thrusts a fist into the air, and yells, "To the New World!"
The people chorus it back, and the boys all charge forwards.
Namjoon leads them, running ahead in front of everyone.
Yoongi grabs Taehyung's hand, grinning at him as they run. Taehyung grins back.
Jimin cheers and looks back at Hoseok as he runs. "Hoseok, hurry up or you'll fall behind!"
Seokjin has an arm around Jeongguk's shoulder, smiling at the younger boy. He smiles back, his tattooed arm glistening in the sunlight.
"By the way," Seokjin murmurs, "I knew what the tattoos on your arm meant all along."
Jeongguk stumbles, but Seokjin pulls him back up and keeps him running.
"We'll talk about it later," Seokjin promises.
Behind them, the Resistance runs forwards as well, their feet thumping against the ground, sounding like thunder, ready to take the New World by storm.
;;
"WHY WOULD YOU let me be one of you if you knew who I was?"
Seokjin and Jeongguk had gone out for wood, as the others built houses and shelters and scouted for food.
Seokjin glances back at Jeongguk, who looks positively shocked.
"You were just a kid." The answer is short and vague and Seokjin knows it isn't enough.
"A kid who was sent in to gather intel on you so I could bring you back to The Other Side as experiments!" Jeongguk's voice breaks.
Seokjin pauses. He drops the axe he had been carrying and turns towards Jeongguk. "Five summers ago. That night, where we were all sleeping in the barn, and you were going to kill us all? I was awake that night. I heard you, getting ready to do it."
Jeongguk looks like he's going to throw up. His face is pale and his eyes are watery.
"But you didn't," continues Seokjin. "You started crying quietly. You said, 'I can't do it, I can't kill them' and then you dropped your knife. And the next morning, you smiled at us all, asking if we'd had a good sleep."
Jeongguk buries his head in his hands, his shoulders shaking. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it, I didn't want to-"
"The Other Side brainwashed people, Jeongguk," says Seokjin softly. "It isn't your fault. You were just trying to carry out orders. But I'm happy you didn't. I'm happy you chose your family instead."
Jeongguk looks up. There are tear tracks on his cheeks. "F-Family?" he repeats.
"Isn't that what we are?"
Jeongguk throws himself forward and wraps his arms around Seokjin's torso. He's almost as tall as Seokjin, not nearly as short and small as he was all those years ago, but Seokjin still holds him the same.
Wrapping his arms around the younger boy, Seokjin says, "I know you didn't have a family back then, Jeongguk. But you do now. Don't ever forget that."
The sun sinks lower in the sky, leaving the world in an orange hue. And as it does, Seokjin knows that they can finally begin to heal.
END.
.
.
.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
started this on march 8th and now, on june 6th, i can finally declare it finished!
this book was originally supposed to end with jeongguk killing seokjin and the others as their backs are turned but i thought NAHHHHH murderer jeongguk has too much potential for just a short fic
this fic was kinda confusing considering how many POVs we got (all 7 of the boys' perspectives, a feat i've tried before but have not succeeded at, so i hope i succeeded this time)
so if you have any questions, please drop them
here !!
and i'll answer 🤙🏼🤙🏼
but also let me quickly address that hoseok seeing a timeline where jimin is trapped in a cage? that's my Spring Day fic
which means it wasn't all a dream
so throw that theory ^ out the window
jimin is actually the only one in that fic that we know to be alive and like,,,, not a hallucination or anything,,, but that doesn't mean we trust him :)
(lmao if u haven't read Spring Day im speaking gibberish rn aren't i)
anyways this was just a short side project but if u read it i hope u enjoyed !!
