Briar Rose - Taekook

Chapter 48

I cried...

XLVIII: Jungkook

"NO!" Jimin's agonized scream rings through the air, and it's all I can do to stop him from bolting to the building. "NO! Yoongi!"

He claws at my arms, trying to free himself from my grip. I look up at the sky, to see that the monster is still there, dark balls of energy poised to throw. If we went out into the open now, it would be suicide.

"Let me go!" Tears stream down Jimin's face, as he struggles against my arms. "I need to go to him! He―he can't be dead. Not yet. There's still a chance―"

"Jimin!" I grab onto his shoulders. "It's not safe. The monster can strike at any moment. Yoongi―" I stop, because now I'm in danger of crying. "Yoongi wouldn't have wanted you to risk your life for him. Come on, we need to get somewhere more sheltered." A few meters away, I spot two plates of metal propped into a tent position. It was far from adequate shelter, but it would have to do.

I half drag, half carry a still sobbing Jimin to the small space between the two fallen metal plates forming something like the roof of a house. Once in, Jimin promptly falls to his knees, hands clutching as his heart. A strangled groan leaves his lips as he lists sideways, and I barely manage to catch him in time before he collapses on the ground. Sobs shake his body as he curls up into a ball, and suddenly, he looks so small and broken. Nothing like the confident person who had first shown me around Armad Castle. My own heart aches from the loss of a friend, and I bury my face in my hands as tears threaten to spill over.

"What's going on?" Namjoon's voice sounds right behind me, and I turn around. Everyone from Armad is gathered at the entrance of our makeshift resting place, looking on with concerned expressions on their faces. They have some cuts and bruises on their bodies, but appear relatively unscathed.

"What happened?" Jin asks, his worried eyes darting to Jimin. "Why is Jimin crying?"

"We should get Yoongi," Hoseok says. "He'll know how to calm Jimin down. Has anyone seen him?"

At the mention of his soulmate's name, Jimin seems to wilt even more, bringing his head into his hands. I hug him, letting him cry into my shoulder. Hoseok looks confused and a bit guilty. "Did I say something wrong?"

"Hoseok..." I hesitate, lowering my voice. "Yoongi... he's dead."

Hoseok just stares at me, not understanding. His eyes widen almost comically, and he opens his mouth. But no words come out. Beside him, Lisa covers her mouth with her hand, while Namjoon and Jin seem to still be in the middle of processing the news. Even in the midst of war, silence has never been so deafening.

"How... how did this happen?" Namjoon asks, voice hoarse. Jin leans on his shoulder, a blank look in his eyes.

"We went into an abandoned building because we heard the crying of a child. Yoongi, he―" I swallow, blinking back tears. "H-he didn't make it out. The building collapsed before he could."

The silence in the air is so thick that you could cut it with a sword. Thousands of emotions swirl around, each a mix of pain and loss. Without anyone saying it, Yoongi had become closely tied to each of us. As steady as a rock, he had been the practical one in our group, the one which everyone looked up to and secretly admired. Now with him gone...

"What are we going to do without him?" Jin finally murmurs. "He was... so much more than a friend. And now we've lost him. How are we going to pursue our goal now?"

"We're going to have to continue on even without him," Hoseok says, voice sounding defeated. "Like it or not, this is no time to be mourning a comrade's death. He died so we could have a chance to defeat the monster. We can't let that go to waste. We need to―"