In the Dead of Winter || •PJM• ✔️

His Name Was Park Jihyun

Day 831

A chill washes over his veins until his vision blurs the lines between reality and fiction. The eyes of his little brother are staring back at him, only those eyes aren't his anymore. They're hardened by a battle Jimin wasn't there to see, and scars are littering the cheeks that used to be so full of life. They used to look like Jimin's cheeks. Now they're foreign.

"Jimin?" Jihyun asks, his voice the same with added depth. Not much, but enough that it's noticeable. He still has the same speech style and mannerisms, the same little cracks in his tone that Jimin has. He thought Jihyun was dead. Jihyun left without explanation, and back then, Jimin assumed he couldn't handle the emotional stress of the apocalypse. Honestly, Jimin thought his brother killed himself. He's not sure what he would have preferred. A dead brother, or one on the opposite side of the battlefield.

"I thought you were dead. You left without telling me. Why the hell would you do that?"

"Back then, I wasn't like you," Jihyun says, a hitch in his words. "I didn't have the strength to do what needed to be done. To put aside personal attachment and worry about surviving first and mourning later. I was feeble. Weak. Not worthy of being a survivor. So, I left. I left to find out who I was. And I knew if I told you, you'd stop me and give me some speech about how I needed to use the power of friendship or some bullshit. Jimin, not everything can be solved with a pep talk. For what it's worth, I'm sorry I didn't tell you, and I'm sorry it hurt you. But I'm here now. Alive."

"How selfish do you have to be? You left me there. This isn't just about you, Jihyun. You were my little brother." Jimin steps forward. Despite the years of experience he has, despite all the people he's lost and had to hide his tears because of it, he still finds himself coming undone in front of the boy he grew up with. The one who was next to him through it all. When Jimin pushed him on the swings when they were younger, or when they went to the beach with their parents and pretended they were pirates using sticks as swords. They were innocent once. Where did the time go?

"And I am sorry, but I can't take back that mistake. I didn't realize you were the leader of this establishment now. I was told about the Jeon boy, but not about you."

"I wasn't really important," Jimin says, Taehyung and Yoongi glancing up at him as if waiting for a signal. Jimin's amazed Yoongi is so ready to fight, but he doesn't let that show. He's too focused on his tears right now. "Namjoon elected me as leader because of my skills. This isn't how I imagined our reunion."

"Did you?"

"What?"

"Imagine our reunion?" Jihyun asks, and there's a memory dancing in the question. A memory only Jihyun has, and one Jimin wishes he can obtain. It's like Jihyun is in a dream right now, and Jimin's the main character. Only Jimin doesn't know his story yet, and he's waiting for the page to turn to find out.

"Every night," Jimin whispers, and it's true. Ever since Jihyun disappeared, there hasn't been a day that went by that Jimin didn't see him in his mind's eye. And despite the thousands of times Jimin imagined his brother by his side, there was always a common occurrence: they hugged. Jimin would do anything to make that fantasy a reality. But there's a reason why those images happened in his mind and not in reality. It's fiction. That's all it ever was, and that's likely all it'll ever be.

"For whatever it's worth, I imagined the same." Jihyun pauses, glancing at the woman by Jimin's shoulder. He instinctively shifts his weight to his side, standing a bit taller than before. Also in front of her. "Girlfriend?"

"She's my partner, yes. But this isn't about her. Or my campus. This is between us no matter what bullshit leader positions we have. It's all fake, you and I both know that. The Ranglers being the government of our area? Bullshit. Me in charge of a group of kids pretending to be adults? Bullshit. But we have something real, Jihyun."