Last Girl Alive | Bangtan

137: Forgotten

"It's pointless," Jin concludes, as all of you gather outside on the streets. You plop down on the pavement, tired of standing and Hoseok leans tiredly on your shoulder, hardly keeping up with the conversation. With the setting sun, the night was coming soon and you still had nowhere to go. In the excitement of returning you'd forgotten about your physical conditions but now that things seemed bleak the starvation, thirst and exhaustion was piling up. It only made you more desperate.

"He's right. Seven years is a long time. A lot could have happened and changed since then."

"No one is going to remember us, it's been way too long."

"I refuse to believe that. I mean like what if...w-what if we were on the news?" Jimin suggests, pouting. "People should be able to recognize our faces if there were missing posters or some-"

"Seven years, Jimin," Jin reminds him, firmly, repeating the number over and over again, as if trying to convince himself that it was real. It haunted you that number. It reminded you of how long ago you'd told Taehyung your favorite number was seven. You hated it now. It was no longer just a number but a time gap itself that could potentially ruin your lives. "Even if people did all that, news is only temporary. In a few weeks, it would have died down. People go missing everyday." 

"Wow," Hoseok huffs a breath of air, in incredulity. "I don't know what I expected when we came back but I thought all those complications were over. Yet, there's still so much we don't know."

A peaceful yet restless quiet dissolves within the eight of you. You lean back against Hoseok, feeling his frailness against you as you look up at the fading sky. It was closely early evening, one that would soon transcend into the dark night. However, this night would be different, there would be a million lights across the planet. There was electricity, movement, traffic, life after dark that extended into early morning. You could see that as the last few police officers shuffled past the little group on the steps towards their automobiles that responded with a single click of a button on a key. And then they sped off home...home that did not exist for you.

"So what are we gonna do now?" you ask, slowly. What could you do? Travel this entire world in hope for a familiar face? This planet wasn't so small, and it was brimming with people. You needed money for everything: it wasn't like you could steal anything anymore. Nothing was yours, everything belonged to somebody, something.

"I don't want to do anything," Jungkook says softly. Everyone looks at him. His head was hanging low, and he was huddled by himself on the end of the line, looking down at the dust in front of him. From where you sitting three persons away, you turn to look at him, sympathetic.

You okay?

"I honestly don't care," Jungkook says, bitterly. "Like hyung said, I don't know what we expected. Warm hugs? Rewards? Appreciation? Look at us. Nothing's changed, we're just the same people on a different planet."

"You're wrong," Yoongi contradicts him at once. "We have changed. We were here before and now we've returned, the thing is : we're not the same. And that's why we can't just go back easily. If we knew our pasts, if we didn't have these powers, if we weren't messed up by living in that place none of this would be a problem."

"No one knows us... except ourselves," Namjoon perks up suddenly, sitting up straight. "Wait! That means once again, we're looking for answers. Identities. We're looking for who were...w-we...we're looking-"

Everyone turns to him curiously. What was he thinking this time? Could Namjoon's philosopical intelligence save you all once again? You really don't know what you'd have done without him, you think, impressed as you watch Namjoon's brows furrow in thought. He could solve literally anything. 

The reason I'm still here is because of him. 

"We have to hunt ourselves down before we can do anything here," Namjoon says finally, turning to the group for confirmation. "Those people who we were. We're looking for them, because they know how to live here. So this time we're not just making a map of the world...we're making a map of the soul."

"Huh?" Taehyung scrunches his face, not understanding. Yoongi raises his eyebrows and beside him Jin wrinkles his nose in confusion.

"Our memories," Namjoon explains, more confidently, sitting up. "That's the only thing we have left, right? We've got to use those to trace back to ourselves."

"What memories?" Jimin asks, causing Namjoon to turn his attention onto him. It gives him an idea.

"The things the most precious to us," Namjoon says. "The ones that form our innermost persona. Those memories probably don't matter to police officers or securities but they can help us, ourselves, go back. Go back to the way things were before."

"We hardly remember anything, though," you say. "Our names, what we were doing before, the and for a few of us the people that mattered...that's about it?"

"No," Namjoon eyes widening with realisation. "That was all given to us on top of it. That is why we had that info...the files we found in the archive, remember? Mine and Jimin's were the ones we found. Maybe there were other archives. Either way, they were for this purpose, right here..." he pauses as it unwinds within him. Taking a deep breath he pauses like he always does before he has something insane to say.

"The next step after finding home...was finding ourselves."

Damn he's smart.

"How?" Jimin responds at once, not convinced by that "How are we supposed to do that?"

"Dance," Namjoon begins listing. "You were a national level artist Jimin. The internet can help find you. Jin hyung also must definitely be out there somewhere. Yoongi worked for the military, no doubt his name is scribbled in the records somewhere. If we dig a bit further we could possibly find out something. And Hoseok...your music. Don't you think you'd recognise it, if you heard it again? At least your voice will be the same."

"I'd recognize it, sure," Hoseok guesses, wildly. "But I doubt they play it anymore. It's been seven years, Namjoon and they were hardly hits. I was too busy working on..." he sighs, in regret. If only he'd released that long overdue mixtape, tracing back would have been much better. Instead he'd spent too long worrying and sulking over it, he'd almost got fired. 

"How do we know that solves anything, though," Yoongi wants to know, playing everyone's counterpart for the day. "Even if we did all that and managed to find ourselves, it would hardly make a difference. What about the public, the others? We come back here saying...look its us? We're nobodys now. Who would care?"

"Our families," Taehyung says suddenly, speaking after a long time.

Yoongi presses his lips together determinedly, shaking his head slightly. "The people who know us could be miles away, we'd never find them. Earth isn't that small. We need help from someone who can reach us to the entire world."

It was easier said than done, you thought. Seven years into the future, how were you going to make any significant response? None of you had made some fantastic discovery or claim to science or history in order to be wildly remembered by people. Even celebrities were temporary and faded with time. The only way you would be remembered, was

by face.

And what were the odds in that? Nothing about any of you was globally known or cherished. No face was that memorable, none of yours at least.  You sigh, looking down at your shoes. And just when you all decided that it was a hopeless aspiration, a female squeal breaks into the air.

"Omg...i-is, is that Worldwide Handsome?!"