Wonder || JiKook

9

There's still a little red x next to Jimin's name.

"It... it seems that he didn't make it onto the ship. And the final headcount did come up to one person short."

"What do you mean he didn't make it onto the ship?"

Jungkook's fingers curl into fists, his voice low and shaky as his mind buzzes and blanks out to a field of white, noise and heat colliding and melting till he can't think for the rush of blood behind his ears.

"He... he's not on the ship. I'm sorry."

"Sorry? Why are you sorry?"

Jungkook blinks and forces himself to breathe again, his mind untangling bits of logic, stringing it around his throat, pulling tight, "We just have to turn the ship around and go get him."

"I'm... I'm very sorry, but we can't do that."

"Why not?" His teeth are gritted so tight the words barely make it out coherent.

"We can't just turn back around and land the ship again--"

"Why the fuck not?" Jungkook takes a step forward and immediately, another man appears by his side, tall and broad-shouldered, placing a firm hand on Jungkook's arm.

"Please, sir, it would be wise for you to calm down."

"You left my friend behind! My friend is back there! On Earth, the last person on Earth and you left him there!"

Jungkook's throat aches with the words he's shouting but he almost doesn't hear them over the sound of his fear, his agitation, disbelief, every single emotion he'd never thought he'd be able to feel surging up through his arteries and bones, sizzling up and down his spine, curling around his ribcage, constricting his lungs, his throat, his heart, his heart, his heart.

There are tears running down his face. He doesn't realize till he tastes them on his lips.

"We have to go back! My friend--my best friend is back there! We have to go back!"
He's trying to claw his way to the pilot's seat, as if he could somehow turn the ship around himself, but the second man has him in a vice-grip, holding him with an arm around his waist.

"We can't," the first man says, voice wavering but final in its tone, "because it will take another six months for the launch pad to power up again, and... and--"
His voice falters as he swallows.

Jungkook lets out a ragged, broken sob.

"..and we powered down the atmospheric lattice generators when we left. We assumed... we assumed that it would no longer be necessary, given the... circumstances. So the oxygen supply will the depleted by morning."

"Y-you... you turned off the..." Jungkook's cry gets cut off in his throat.

"I'm very sorry... there's nothing we can do."

"Fuck that--fuck that--we're going back! I don't care if it takes another six months--we can all stay in this damn ship if we have to--"
He's shaking his head as if it could rid him of the truths spilling over his cheeks onto the ground, shaking his head as if it would help him clear away the myriad of memories of Jimin.

Jimin and his laugh like that space between closing your eyes and falling asleep. Jimin with his hands that are so small but strong enough to knock the air out of Jungkook's chest that one time they tried to teach each other boxing from a book. Jimin with his smile like sunrise and eyes like stars. Like diamonds in the sky.