"Park Jimin."
"Jeon Jungkook."
"Seriously?"
"Oh I'm sorry, I thought we were just saying each other's names."
"We're going to be late."
"You nagging me isn't going to make me go any faster."
"Well maybe if you didn't start getting ready at the last minute this wouldn't be happening."
"Excuse me? I literally got home five minutes ago, Jungkook. Let me breathe."
"And this is my promotion dinner, Jimin. You've known about it for weeks. You really couldn't have left the school earlier?"
"I already left an hour before I usually do. I really don't know what else you expect."
"Sorry for wanting my mate by my side for this. I've only been working towards this promotion for three years."
"Look, I'm happy for you, and I swear I'm gonna let you gloat as much as you want, but right now? I need to finish getting ready."
"Don't fucking bother."
"What?"
"You heard me."
"Jungkook -"
"I'll see you later, Jimin."
...
Later, looking back at it all, they would both wonder where the end had begun. Both of them would point to that moment and realize that it had truly started right there and then.
...
"This isn't working anymore, is it?" Both of them had been thinking it. Both of them had just been too afraid to speak the words.
"That doesn't mean it has to be over." Could it even ever be over? Mating bonds were meant to be impossible to break, a feat that could only ever be accomplished by death.
Or a soul bond, a connection of true, fated mates that occurred so rarely it had become nothing more than a fairy tale passed down to from parent to child. A myth that most assumed no longer even existed.
"That's exactly what it means." They could try to fool themselves into thinking that there was something left to save. But there wasn't.
"It doesn't. We can try therapy or -"
"Jungkook... there's someone else."
"What?" There was such a level of disbelief currently flooding his every sense that he could barely even begin to understand what he had just heard.
"There's someone else. There has been for a long time."
"How long is 'a long time'?" It felt like his heart was dying within his chest. Shattering into a thousand pieces and he couldn't apply bandages quickly enough to stop the hemorrhaging.
"A year. Probably longer, honestly. But we start acting on it a year ago."
"What the fuck does that mean? Started acting on it."
"It means... it means when we started sleeping together."
"Are you fucking kidding me right now?" Then there was anger, red and wild and he couldn't even begin to control it.
"I'm sorry, Kookie. I should have told you when I first started having feelings for them."
"And when was that?"
"A while."
"You're being real fucking vague here Jimin."
"Years, Jungkook. I've loved them for years now."
"Well, I hope you two will be very happy together."
"Kookie -"
"Don't. Don't you dare call me that after what you just said."
"Alright. That's fair." And it was. All of the anger currently being directed at him was entirely justified. "I want us to break our bond."
"You've lost your fucking mind."
"It isn't fair to either of us, Jungkook. To be stuck like this. I want... I want my alpha. And you should be free. To find a new omega. Someone who can love you the way I couldn't."
"Yeah, I'm sure I'll have a lot of success with that when we're both fucking dead from trying to destroy our marks."
"That won't happen. You're so strong, Jungkook. You're the strongest alpha I've ever known. And I... I want this so badly. I know we can make it through."
"Fine. You want to be rid of me so bad? We'll break our bond. Just make sure you say nice things about me at my funeral."
...
He was going to die.
There was literally no way any human being could endure this and survive. It felt as though he were being burned alive. As though his heart was being cut out of his chest, still beating and bleeding all of the love he still carried for his mate.
Maybe that's what made it so much more difficult. How much his resisted it. How much he begged Jimin to change his mind. To stop this madness and leave them both whole. It wasn't worth all of this. If he wanted to be free he could go be free. Could go be with whoever he wanted.
But Jimin was determined, and so he kept fighting, kept trying. Kept forcing himself through the motions again and again and again. Until the damn broke and the tendrils of their connection finally began to loosen. Until the bond gave way and they were released, free from each other's hold, marks fading and healing until nothing was left. No proof that they had ever existed in each other's universes, that Jimin had been the sun and he had been the earth and his center was gone even remained.
...
It never stopped hurting. A deep ache that settled inside of his heart and into his soul. Until every single breath was painful and it felt like he would die from the agony of it all.
Perhaps it was something inside of his very core that refused to give in. To give up. Jimin hadn't wanted him anymore, and that wasn't his fault. He didn't deserve to suffer like this. To die from something he didn't even want. Maybe it was that stubborn refusal that kept him alive through it all. That saved him in the end.
...
But it wasn't enough to save Jimin.
...
Standing there had been the second hardest thing he'd ever done. Watching as they placed the body of his mate into the ground, lowering him into the never ending darkness that would shroud him forever. Everyone continued to treat him as if he was the mate who was in mourning, ignoring the stranger who stood at the back, overcome with the guilt at the knowledge that they had been the root cause of it all.
...
Even then, the pain didn't fade. No, it just localized. An ache that only appeared where his mark had once been.
And only one thing had ever been strong enough to ease it.
