The Dusk Gallery | Taehyung x BTS

The Dusk Gallery

Taehyung felt like he wanted to sit down. Maybe he would be able to better focus on the words that came out of Daehan's mouth. But the thing is he didn't feel shaky on his legs, or weak. He felt nothing if he really thought about it.

No hunger, no thirst, no pain.

Confusion if anything.

"Between your life and your death there is an art gallery" Daehan began, walking around the room which Taehyung noticed now there was no door to. The exit had disappeared. "And in this art gallery there are millions of paintings. Ones that go on forever" he uses his hand to swipe the air and suddenly the paintings start shaking, vibrating in their spots before they suddenly start swooshing around the walls.

They travel at a high speed, sliding across walls and Taehyung jumps a little at the shock. "Every single painting is what could have been. A different life depending on a choice you could have made in the past. Every painting can make you see how things would have gone. Would you change anything you have done in your past Tae?"

"Are you dead?" Taehyung questions suddenly, which makes Daehan chuckle "Are we both dead and in the same place together? How did you die? Did you get that freaking motorbike? I took an overdose so I don't know if -..."

"Oh my god shut up".

Taehyung shuts his mouth right there and then.

"You're not listening. Between your life and death. Death is out there" he said, motioning somewhere beyond the walls.

"Ah" the brunette says, smacking his hip and trying to go towards to where the door used to be, "In that case that's where I'm heading because that's what I want to be. Dead. I want to die".

But he's stopped by a hand on his shoulder "This isn't how its going to happen unfortunately Tae".

"Ugh, so I can't even die properly?"

"You don't go to death. It's death that has to come to you, you know this".

"I'm pretty sure I chose to give death a free pass when I took those pills".

"Oh my god you are so stubborn" Daehan says in a groan. "If it makes you feel any better Tae, you're really really close to death"

"Oh. Well that's good then".

"Your gallery is a little different. When people visit their own 'in-between', that's what I like to call it, it's usually to see what kind of life they could have had depending on choices they could have made in the past right?".

"Right" Taehyung sighs out.

"But your gallery is slightly different to that"

"How so"

"Well what's the one thing you really wanted. Really craved. Maybe you wouldn't have tried to end your life if you had this?"

Oh he knows the answer. But he feels so embarrassed to admit what it was.

"You might as well say it out loud. I know everything in your head"

"How do you.."

Daehan waves his hand dismissively "Doesn't matter. Say it".

"Love".

The word echoes through the room once its said. Taehyung feels his ears going red but it's true at the end of the day. The one thing he craved in his core life (his real life) was love. To have a boyfriend. A lover. A husband. A soul mate.

He had so much love to give and god dammit he never got to experience love. He didn't care whether he had a successful life financially, if he worked in an area he adored, hell he sometimes didn't even care if his dad had come back.

He cared most about love and being loved.

"Exactly so your gallery is about the possible loves you could have had depending on choices you've made. So whilst other peoples 'in-betweens' show them the careers they could have had, countries they could have lived in, people they could have ended up with, anything to find their happiness. Your gallery is focusing on love".

From the quizzical look on Taehyung's face Daehan knew he had to keep talking.

"So sure. Your life will be different depending on which person you end up with right? Maybe one of your 'loves' is a drug addict and you two end up homeless together. Maybe your 'love' is an animal obsessed scientist, and you live in Africa exploring its depths. Your life, your career can change. But depending on the love you end up with. For some reason you decided that in order to feel happy you need to be with that one person you love and who loves you back

So this gallery will show you your possible loves. Not your careers because even a great career earning millions wouldn't have made you happy if you didn't have your love beside you, right?"

"Right" Taehyung breaths out, it was the complete truth.

"Exactly. So no point in you seeing the life you could have had as a CEO, since you'll be single and unhappy. Every action you did or didn't do had a massive effect on how your life turned out. Every time a decision was made a new life was created. And these paintings are like gateways to those lives. Think of them as little portals.

There are SO many lives you could have lived but they all depend on different choices, those would have lead to different outcomes. All of these lives exist here. In this place. In the Dusk Gallery".

"So are they like parallel universe lives?"

"Hm, yeah sure you can think of them like that. Kind of. Now tell me is there anything you wish you could have done differently?"

"Like everything" Taehyung says breathlessly, thinking back to how pretty much every decision in his life he has grown to regret, or he wished he had done something differently. He could have become an artist, he could have had a family, he could have had a social life. Everything could have been so much different.

"This is your chance then Tae. To see the lives you could have had with which people".

Taehyung does scoff at this, because he knows this isn't real. It must be a dream, just something that happens right before your life switch is turned off.

"It's not a dream" Daehan speaks up, having read his mind. "It's not fake. It's not necessarily real either. I mean this is your reality. No one else's. It's not a dream. It's the in-between. It's nothing and everything. This is your Dusk Gallery".

The rapidly travelling paintings come to a halt suddenly, and Taehyung's eyes scan the walls to see if anything had changed. But no. There were just more paintings of the grey variation littered absolutely everywhere.

Although there was a new painting it seems like. This one was in a black frame and the picture inside was just...well nothing. A matte black canvas.

"What's this" Taehyung questions as he approaches the painting, wondering as to why this one was different.

"This" Daehan begins "Is your Decision Painting. It shows the decisions you could have made or choices you regret that had an effect on how your future turned out"

"But it's blank" as soon as those words left his lips, small silver letters began appearing on the canvas. They formed sentences and he realised soon enough that they were his main regrets in life.

"It shows your regrets or decisions. And the answers will be shown to you. If you focus and think hard enough. You choose one. And it will take you to the life you could have had if you did something differently. So think. Which do you pick first?"