Knights of the Sky

Chapter 54: Winter Nights

~Time is so cruel~

You know that moment, the blissful second where you fall out of your dreams, fall out of your slumber and the moment before you are slammed back into wakefulness? The moment of peace, a paused moment in time where you don't think, you don't wonder, and you are just there?

Jimin wished he could live in that time.

The time where he can't feel the tears on his cheeks, the way his chest was gasping for air and his lips forming the syllables of a name that he could never say aloud for his mind could never conjure it.

The time where his hand isn't outstretched for someone. Someone his body knows but his mind couldn't even seem to remember.

He hated this moment- waking up from that dream that he couldn't even remember. He hated waking up. He hated sleeping. He hated dreaming. Dreaming a dream that as soon as he opened his eyes, would be gone from his mind.

His hand dropped numbly back to my side, laying on dark purple sheets and quilts. The smell of vanilla tangled in his senses- he loved the smell of vanilla though he was never sure of why- and groaned low in his throat as his eyes flickered around the dorm room.

"Jimin-ah? You were crying again," Taemin commented, a frown pulling at his features as he finished pulling skinny jeans over bulging thighs and his black hair falling over his eyes. Jimin sighed, pushing himself up out of his bed and running a hand through his lemonade blond. He kept his gaze away from his roommate. "You okay?"

"'M fine," he mumbled, slightly slurred as he wiped his cheeks. He felt the warm tears stain his fingertips but ignored it as he squeezed his eyes closed. "What time is it?"

"Just after eight," Taemin replied, pulling a simple tee over his head. Jimin hummed in the back of his throat, keeping his eyes closed and breathing even as he tried, like he did every morning, to recall what he was dreaming about.

And, as always, he came back empty.

Taemin frowned, staring towards his smaller roommate who kept his eyes closed, tiny shoulders hunched over and his messy lemonade dyed hair tousled while his cheeks slightly puffy from his midnight crying.

"Same dream?" Taemin asked quietly, not wanting to break the tranquility around the soft being in front of him. Jimin lifted his head, walnut color eyes gleaming with something unreadable as a bitter smile broke over his lips.

"Same fucking dream. Every single night." He gave a harsh laugh, shaking his head. "I go to bed, dream it, and the next morning I can't even remember what I am dreaming... what made me cry. Why I feel like... there is a gaping hole in my chest and a name that I can't ever seem to recall."

Taemin flinched at the daggered words, the anger that was stark in the smaller ones throat. The Busan dialect was out and stinging, curdling within the others bones but Taemin approached slowly, settling himself on the bed next to him but Jimin barely glanced at him.

"Come on, Min... it's just a dream right? It will pass," he promised, searching the smaller boys figure. Park Jimin had always been on the small side. He reached a unassuming height of 5'8 and didn't grow anymore, with small shoulders, walnut color eyes and puffy chipmunk cheeks. His skin was a healthy honey color, rich from being so close to the ocean and time spent outside.

But despite the small stature, he still had lean muscles, tight stomach muscles from his constant dancing, and muscles thighs. Small and adorable the man was, but there was definitely a masculinity mixed in.

Jimin gave a snorted laughed, shaking his head firmly as his tiny fingers picked at his white tee that he wore to bed with his red pajama bottoms. His dark eyes flickered towards Taemin's face, one of his oldest friends.