No Going Back

37

For it is precisely when a force has fallen into harm's way that is capable of striking a blow for victory.
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The Art of War
Sun Tzu

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What are you afraid of most?

That one question had an infinite number of answers, an endless amount of possibilities. All over the world, people harbored deep, dark - and sometimes silly - fears that trailed them like shadows. It was impossible to run or hide from those constricting feelings; one either learned to live with their fears or worked to banish them once and for all.

Many chose to tolerate the things that scared them shitless. Why? Because most fears were simply a product of one's imagination, an apprehension towards something that did not exist now and might never exist in the future. People understood that their fears were unlikely to ever come to fruition, that they probably wouldn't find themselves on a crashing plane or in a coffin filled with snakes. They realized that many of their fears were baseless and posed no active threat to their daily lives.

But the mind was powerful.

The mind was a superhuman machine designed to protect a person at all costs. It would do anything to eliminate even the slightest chances of danger, using a person's uneasiness against them. It would combine surges of dread and trepidation until a small worry - a fleeting concern or a brief flash of foreboding - morphed into a wild, untamable fear.

So people learned to be afraid . . . Not always because of past experiences, but because of the vulnerability created by their own minds.

But the funny thing was that people weren't really frightened by their fears on the surface level. No . . . They were terrified by something much more primal and instinctual:

People weren't scared of commitment or aging; they were scared of losing their autonomy.

People didn't dread the loss of friendship or the death of a loved one; they dreaded rejection, separation, and abandonment.

People weren't petrified of failure or public speaking; they were petrified of humiliation, shame, and worthlessness.

People weren't afraid of sharks, injections, or germs; they were afraid of physical harm and pain.

And people didn't fear the dark, heights, death, or disease; they feared ceasing to exist altogether.

So yeah, everyone had something - most likely multiple things - that they were apprehensive of. But when it came down to it, those fears weren't all that unique or individualistic. They were simple and mundane.

At the end of the day, every single person on the planet had the same exact fears.

To Jungkook, that was comforting in a way. He was just like everyone else out there. But if he really gave it thought, he realized a key distinction. Sure, he was scared of anything that would threaten his basic needs. However, there was an aspect he feared even more.

Jungkook was afraid of what came after.

He was afraid of what life would look like after he encountered his fears.

Would he be hurt? Alone? Would he lose the people he cared about most? And if those things were to happen, would he survive the aftermath? Would his soul remain intact, would his heart still beat as it had before?

Would he be okay?

No one could confidently anticipate the answers to those questions. It was impossible.