Perilous

Chapter 33 - Legends Never Die

To find courage, thats all he needed to do. The solution was right in front of him but felt so far away. If Taehyung believed in destiny as much as he said so, then he would know everything is on the right track.

All he did was sit up in his hospital bed, wires still attached to machines all around him. Everything stung, both inside and outside still.

He never felt more tired, lonely...and cold.

It was still early November, but it felt as though winter had come already. It was snowing again outside—but not enough to cause a blizzard, but enough to cause exhaustion.

The sound of a knock was enough to make him turn over, noticing someone was opening the door.

"Jennie...?" he whispered, watching as the aforementioned stepped inside after shutting the door behind her.

There was a smile on her face, despite there being a large bruise circling around her left eye, and a cut along her right cheek.

"Are you—are you okay? Is this from the other day?" Taehyung asked worriedly, sitting up higher.

"The games, yeah. All I needed as a day's worth of rest," Jennie told, brushing it off.

"I'm sorry you didn't make it," Taehyung frowned and he watched as she sat on the edge of the bed with her hands cupped together.

"Don't be," she asked with a small sigh. "It is what it is. I should be asking if you're alright."

Taehyung at first couldn't find the right words. As much as he wanted to make up a lie, everything else showed the truth.

"Not really," he winced in a whisper.

"What happened?" Jennie asked. "Minji told me you were affected by the attack—"

"Minji..?" Taehyung asked. "The two of you talked?"

Jennie looked down.

"Jennie..." Minji glanced all over her face.

"Minji, I'm fine. Really," Jennie scoffed. "Don't worry about me. You beat me fair and square."

"That's not why I came here," Minji gulped. "You need to know something about the last challenge."

"What about it?" Jennie asked.

"When the house started to collapse, I forgot about the challenge. I lost you in the smoke, so I tried to grab you and bring you out," Minji explained, licking her dry lips. "But I picked up Seokjin instead. I couldn't tell because of how dark it was—I'm...I'm so sorry."

Jennie furrowed her eyebrows slightly in shock, "are you serious? For real? Why would you try to save me instead of trying to win?"

"Because the house was about to collapse on top of us," Minji continued. "Had I gotten you out, you wouldn't have been hurt."

"But why? Why would you want to do that instead of finding Seokjin and beating me?"

"Because that's not what heroes do," Minji told, shutting Jennie up completely, especially when she bent into a bow. "Saving my own skin would have made me a coward, but I tried to save you. But I make a mistake, and that's why I'm sorry."

Jennie tried to speak, but nothing she attempted to say ever came out—as she tried to piece an appropriate response in her head.

Minji stood there, waiting for her to say something.

"I guess you're right...you did what a hero would do—and the attempt itself caused you to win," Jennie frowned. "You deserved to win. You're everything an A-Rank student should be. Maybe that's why I never win....maybe I'll never be good enough."