It Has Always Been You!

S I X T E E N

The four of them came in front of Rosé's room. They knocked the door but she didn't asnwer. They knocked again but still got no answer. Jennie decided to enter the room first. She opened the door and peaked in. The room was still dark for the curtains were still drawn.

The other three were waiting near the door looking over Jennie's shoulder. Jennie turned on the light and saw that Rosé was still in the bed.

"Guys come in she's still sleeping." Jennie said entering the room.

"Rosé! Wake up! We're gonna go take a walk in the woods. Come on, come on wake up." Jennie said.

Rosé didn't move.

"Rosé?" Jennie went near her bed and put her hand on Rosé's shoulder. She immediately withdrew her hand as if she got electrified.

"She- she is cold..." Jennie said, her voice trembling.

"Rosé! ROSÉ!!" She started shaking her again.

"Jen her- her lips... why are they blue?" Taehyung said coming closer.

Jennie didn't notice first, but now they all could see that Rosé was looking pale and her lips were blue.

"She's not breathing. SHE'S NOT BREATHING!!" Jennie screamed grabbing and shaking Rosé's cold lifeless body.

Jungkook, coming forward, placed two of his fingers under Rosé's ear, checking her pulse. Jungkook flopped on the bed, eyes wide. He looked at the others and shook his head from side to side, tears forming in his eyes.

Jisoo clasped her hand over her mouth. They all went silent, yet again. It seemed that silence was becoming their shadow and death was becoming their life.

Then suddenly Jisoo's attention went towards Rosé's side table. There was Rosé's phone, a medicine bottle and a folded paper. Immediately taking the bottle in hand, she saw that it was a sleeping pills bottle and it was -

"Empty! Th- the bottle is empty." Jisoo said showing the bottle to the others.

Gathering some courage she picked up the folded paper and opened it. She was unable to read what was their on the paper as her hands were trembling and her eyes were filling with tears, making her vision blurry. Taehyung took the paper from Jisoo's hand. He took a deep breath in and started reading the letter aloud.

"Dear friends,

It was getting unbearable for me. I couldn't take it anymore. I am sorry. I just wanted to escape all the pain, once and for all. And this is the only way I can free myself. Please don't be angry with me, I know it will be hard for you all to lose another friend. But can you all please take a little bit more pain for me? Please? And thanks to all of you for loving me so much and taking care of me. I love you all. Just this time, let my mistake pass. And please don't blame yourselves for my action. None of you are responsible. You did whatever you could, now it was my decision. Take care.

Goodbye. Love you all.
Rosé"

As Taehyung's voice died down, the moment was again followed by silence. All of them looking at Rosé's lifeless body, not uttering a word. What could they say, Rosé had literally given answers to all their questions they would probably ask themselves about Rosé. It was like Rosé knew what their reactions would be, so she told them not to do any of those.

Taehyung kept the handwritten letter back on the table, as Jennie fixed Rosé's hair. She tugged her properly under the blanket and kissed her forhead.

"Sleep well okay?" Jennie said and got up as a drop of tear left her eye.

They all looked at Rosé one more time before going out of the room to call their teacher. They just convinced themselves that Rosé was sleeping and she wished to continue to sleep without being disturbed. A very weird thought, but still they wanted to believe that. They comforted themselves thinking that at least one of their friends died through their own will. Maybe it was a selfish thing to think, but right now they would grab onto anything that could give them an inch of comfort.

A day starting with finding a friend cold on bed. A note and an empty medicine bottle. And all they could do was stand and watch. Watch their group of nine friends coming down to four people.

Again due to the snow blocked roads, no police could reach the hotel and the teachers were again asked to freeze Rosé's room. The friends had thought about keeping Hoseok and Rosé together, but they knew they couldn't mess with the orders of the police.

The teacher called the four of them to his room. He thought that again one of them might try and kill themselves. So he asked Jennie and Jisoo to stay in a single room, and Taehyung and Jungkook to stay in another room. He knew this was all he could do to protect the last four of the group.

Jennie, Jisoo, Taehyung and Jungkook stayed together for the rest of the day and then paired up to go to their rooms to sleep. Though they all knew none of them would be able to sleep.

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Word Count : 870