"Hey baby." It had been so long since he had bothered to actually visit this place. To sit among the stones and pretend like there was ever going to response to his words. "I'm sorry I haven't been to visit you in a while. I don't even have an excuse." Sure, he definitely had one, but it was fabricated and a lie and he couldn't bring himself to say it. "I guess I just wanted to pretend like this wasn't real. Like you weren't actually gone."
Sinking down onto the balls of his feet, he struggled to try and breathe, each in take shallow and shaky.
"I just miss you so much." And he shouldn't. Shouldn't miss the source of all of his pain, the deep, embedded anguish that settled over his very soul. "It's so hard here without you. I know that... I know you didn't want to be my mate anymore. But I still needed your light."
Breaking a mating bond was meant to be impossible. Such a painful prospect that many simply refused. Stayed in loveless unions because they could endure and withstand the agony of having their mark's scrubbed. Couldn't die a thousand deaths and still come out on the other side with their lives intact.
That he should have survived the ordeal while Jimin hadn't seemed like some cruel trick of fate. Life's unfairest consequences handed down far too harshly. Part of him had died along with his mate, and he felt the weight of those missing pieces each and every single day. Ran his fingers along the invisible scars where he had once bore the love of his mate, the mark of their bond.
"I met someone. He reminds me a lot of you, actually." It was wholly unfair to compare the two, to say that one reminded him of the other. It set a precedence that Seokjin would never be able to live up to, an unfair and unrealistic expectation. The truth was Jimin hadn't been perfect, and it wasn't right to hold Seokjin to some ideal just because his view was tainted by his own pain and fondness. "But he's so young, Jiminie. And I know. I know if you were here you'd laugh and tell me that we were too. But I don't want this for him. I don't want him to change his mind and lose him like I lost you.
I can't stop thinking about him though. You always used to call me a love sick bunny and I am. He doesn't deserve to be someone's second mate though. He deserves to be someone's first love. Their last love.
He deserves what you and I had."
Letting Seokjin go had been the right choice.
But even he was starting to have a difficult time believing that.
"I wish you'd give me a sign, baby. I wish you could tell me what I'm supposed to do. You always knew exactly what to say. Being here without you is so hard. I still love you so much. I'll never stop."
Jimin was the cause and the effect of everything. The beginning, middle and end of his life. The architect of both his happiness and his misery. Despite being the sole reason all of this had come to pass in the first place, none of it had ever been strong enough to kill the love he felt for the tiny little omega who had always owned his entire being.
And maybe he was just supposed to be satisfied with that. With only a portion of his life being filled with light. Hold on to the memories and somehow make it enough to last for the rest of his days.
Then, as if the world was truly laughing at him, the sky began to open and cold drops of rain began to fall, slowly soaking through his uniform and chilling him down to the bone.
Something landed on his bare arm, sending a jolt of surprise through his system, and he glanced down with wide eyes to take in the sight of a single red rose petal resting upon his skin and the scent of it floating along the breeze.
...
"I went and saw Jimin." It was a quiet admittance, spoken as he brought a towel up to rub across his wet hair.
"Well would you look at that, it appears pigs actually can fly."
"Will you please be serious?"
"Oh I am. They're also wearing tutu's."
"Taehyung."
"Right, sorry, I'm ruining your big moment. Please proceed."
"No wonder you're single."
"So are you buddy."
"Anyway -" Sometimes he honestly wondered why he was still friend's with Taehyung. And then he remembered all of his unfortunate positive qualities. "- something happened."
"Please tell me you don't need my help stalking another omega."
"Why the fuck am I still friend's with you?"
"Uh, because I help you stalk people, hello? Where else are you gonna find a bitch this down?"
"Okay, that is shockingly true and I'm kind of questioning my life choices at the moment."
"As you should."
"But that's not the point. I think Jimin gave me a sign."
"Listen, Kook, I know you miss him and everything, but you know that ghost aren't real, right?"
"Fucking Christ Taehyung."
"Just making sure."
"It started raining." Sighing, he let his head fall back between his shoulders, seriously wondering what he had done to deserve this. "And I felt something land on my arm, right? So I look down, and there's a rose petal."
"Okay so that's... pretty weird. But we leave roses for Chim all the time."
"There weren't any there, Tae. And there's no rose brushes near by either. It literally came out of no where."
"Okay. So, Chim sent you rain and a rose petal. Wanna translate that into Mochi for me?"
"Jimin always said the rain was cleansing. That it made everything fresh and new. So, I think the rain was meant to wash away my pain. Make me feel like I could start again. And the rose petal meant that it was okay for me to fall in love again. That it's alright for me to be with Seokjin."
"I really, really hate that I'm about to say this but... that sounds like Jimin."
"It sounds just like my baby."
"Okay, but, counter, how are you supposed to be with Seokjin when you won't even talk to him?"
"I see your concerns and raise you that he's still incredibly young and I really do think I need to wait. Just for a while."
"And if he finds some other alpha who isn't a complete dumb ass?"
"He won't."
"How the fuck can you know that?"
"Because... it feels like my soul knows his. Like we're connected."
"Damn. That's deep. It's gonna suck when he finds someone with an actual brain."
"Boy get the fuck out of my house."
"Would love to, but unfortunately we live together."
"Shit."
....
How long was a while? It was a question his heart keep asking incessantly. Each evening when he woke to an empty bed and each morning when he returned to a quiet house. How long was he meant to wait? How long could he stand not having his omega at his side?
Every fiber of his being wanted to be with Seokjin. And he was silently counting down each and every single day until the moment his mind finally caught up and decided it had been long enough.
