Taekook Oneshots

Birds

Seasons, they will change
Life will make you grow
Dreams will make you cry, cry, cry
Everything is temporary
Everything will slide
Love will never die, die, die

It's funny, how things end up. 

There are people who believe that tears can't mend a broken heart, and they'd be right. No amount of water can build a bridge when the structure has collapsed, no matter how hard the river tries. The sun can't fix a burn on someone's skin. Nobody can go against their own nature, regardless of the effort put in.

And yet here we are, seeming to prove that very theory wrong. 

Before I explain this, you have to understand what the world was like for us, throughout all of this. Our actions would never make sense, would never be acceptable today. But in the universe we grew up in, we didn't have any other choice. Maybe that makes us wrong anyway, I don't know. I cannot testify for myself in this court when I know that it would make no sense to do so. But we were the only witnesses to our odd lives, and we are the only people who can tell our tale. If that leads to the end, so be it. We have made peace with whatever tomorrow will bring. 

Decades before we were born, it started. Someone disappeared, a child who hadn't even reached double digits. It didn't even reach the local news in the area, but their parents were distraught. The official search lasted only a week, but they continued looking long after the authorities claimed the child was likely to be dead. 

More children began to disappear. It was like they blinked out of existence, leaving no trace of their presence in the lives of the people who loved them. Infants, toddlers, preteens, they all vanished without a trace. Eventually, the people came together and demanded answers, demanded to know where their beloved children were going.

It began with only one or two children every few months, but over the years, it became much worse. Mothers would turn their backs for a moment, and see that all of their children were gone. They bought cameras, but the footage only showed a blur, and then the child wasn't there anymore. It didn't fix the problem. 

Anyone who managed to grow past the age of twenty was lucky to have made it that far. Adults gave up on having more children, young people were encouraged not to bother, because the problem was so rife. 

And then there were the few young people who wanted their kind to continue. They had children in secret. Some, of course, vanished like the others. Some were lucky, and grew to have children of their own. No matter where someone lived, they were at risk. You couldn't sleep without making sure that someone was there to watch your child: if at any point they weren't visible, they could be lost forever. 

A child became more precious than gold. 

My parents were youngsters themselves. I was born to a teenager who didn't know she was pregnant, but she was kind enough to try and raise me despite the evident difficulty of such a task. It has always been hard for a younger parent, but in the world we lived in, this kind of dedication was almost impossible. She took up jobs to ensure that she could pay for me, and made sure that I was aware of how much she cared for me. 

I learnt of the disappearances at a young age, when I asked my grandmother why I had no playmates. Why I was the only child in our little village. She simply took me to one side, and explained the story as vaguely as she could. I may not be the smartest of all people, but I was not a stupid child, and I could see how serious this was. 

And I resolved that I would never do that to my mother. She tried so hard to provide for me, for her parents, even though she didn't know what could happen. I didn't want to let her down. I couldn't let her down.