The Siren's Song

Chapter 71- learning to breathe once more

HOBI POV:

Three days pass in horrific devastated silence, a chill, a hush that seems to have descended onto our house and to each and every one of us. Where the crew had been the ones to turn the boat around after calling in to the rescue services, after hours of searching the waters had brought nothing, no sight of her.

As if (Y/N) had fallen into the waters and vanished, tugged into its deep depths and pulled away from us. I couldn't get out the sound of Yoongi hyung's guilty devastated sobs, can't forget how hard it had been to get him to stand up from the deck, where he'd continued to kneel her shoe clutched tightly in his hand, face blotchy and streaked with tears and grief in his eyes.

Couldn't forget the feeling of my heart stopping as I'd heard the splash, had rushed to the edge to feel a brush against my side as Jungkook had dived after her, almost immediately, and yet when he'd surfaced it had been with wide panicked eyes and a chest heaving for breath and arms painstakingly, glaringly empty.

It was if the splash was the sound of the fabric of time tearing. Time stilling and each second passing by like sludge, thick tar that clung onto us, kept us in that moment- reliving that moment of her body hitting the water, of that look of almost relief that had been on (Y/N)'s face.

I couldn't get her pleas out off my ears, whenever the room trailed off into silence, or when I lay in bed, or had any moment of being lost to my thoughts- they'd return to plague me with her voice begging, crying and screaming for it to stop, for everything to stop and then how her voice had lost all strength, all the fight petering off into whispered cries.

We had all dreamt of what moment would come when spoke, I'd envisioned the most bright sweetest smile on her face, eyes bright and sparkling and those rosy lips parting not in silent expression but to speak.

Every one of us had grown to crave the idea, had begun to fantasise and wonder just what it would be that would draw her out of her selective muteness, what situation it would be, jealously contemplating who would be the lucky one she spoke to.

And yet we had heard her voice. In a way no-one imagined or could wish for. It plagued me.

The way her voice was strung and tight and hoarse. The way her voice was full of agony, high and pained and tormented- the pain of trauma consuming her eyes.

And never did I think in my most horrific of nightmares that everything could turn into something like this.

We had messed up so, so bad.

We'd gotten so caught up in the idea of surprising her, of making her first date one she'd enjoy- that we didn't even consider she could have a fear of open water.

That when we'd intended for our first date to be memorable and one she'd never forget that it would take on such horrific implications.

And yet I'd held myself together, held the maknaes together as they stared unseeingly towards the water, voices breaking into cries as they called out for her and how Tae had slumped against the deck- drenched and defeated; clearly having dived to look for her too.

But when we'd gotten home, when we'd let ourselves into our house and moved to the living room- one phone had pinged. Just one.

And Namjoon had taken one look at his screen, eyes dull and lifeless before they'd flared with urgency, with disbelief.

That somehow (Y/N) had made it home. That she was safe.

And my knees had buckled then. Legs giving out as I sunk to the floor, sobbing with relief and sheer overwhelming gratitude that (Y/N) was safe. She was alive.