The Boy From The Bridge - Jakehoon

Chapter 126: Prisoner 134340 EPILOGUE 1/1

It was a struggle to keep a diary, Jay had learned this each time he tried to update his. Tried was the operative word he used to describe his relationship with that document. Journal entries were sporadic at best and often lifetimes passed between pages. 

The last entry for example detailed a trip to a concert he had gone to with an older cousin. It had been to see her favourite group. He had bought her the tickets after she had quit her job. Much of their family had admonished her for this but Jay had supported her sticking up for herself.

 Jay had positioned himself on hand to swoop in and seem like the super cool younger cousin who had happened to have the hottest tickets in town.

Secretly though, he had just wanted to go and see the group himself, and the opportunity to go with someone else opened up to him and he took it. 

That had been a great day, a happy day - marvellous even. He had been in awe of the joyous feelings of awe and happiness which had been quite the contrast to Today's entry. Today had been a grave and harrowing day, one that had inflicted on Jay exhaustion and a Rolodex of emotions. 

When he'd woken he had been anxious and eager. The painful feeling that there was so much he had needed to do and had been unable to do. 

He had to rectify is relationship with Sunghoon and he had had to make sure Jungwon took control of his actions and he had had to...

No, that wasn't it. 

He scribbled out the sentence and started again. 

Jay turned to look out at the night sky from his bedroom window. Lights both from buildings and street lights lit the silhouettes of the metropolis he was sat in as far as the eye could see. For weeks now he had stared at the same view. Each night the same view had stared back - but tonight it seemed different.

It took him a few moments to realise what exactly was 'off' about the sight before him. 

"Has the rain stopped" He asked himself, biting on the back of his pencil. 

He recoiled immediately as his teeth had misjudged the material and instead of biting the comforting wooden shaft he had bitten the metal tip that housed the pencil's rubber. 

"Ugh" he exclaimed to no one save himself. 

Staring back at his page he begun to write again. Jay wished to write about his pride in his friends, his pride in himself:

Jungwon had faced down his own demons, conquering them in front of him, although, not before punching him in the face. 'Typical Jungwonie' Jay wrote, before crossing out the affectionate suffix.

His youngest friend had grown and matured before him. Jungwon was ready to temper himself, ready to take responsibility for himself and his actions and to do so selflessly. 'He's outgrown me' Jay wrote. He wasn't sad about that, indeed he was proud but he felt weird. Jungwon had wanted to install in Jay a gumption to galvanise Jay into making him a better person. 

There was certainly room and hope for their friendship to be maintained and strengthen as their lives went on - Jay certainly wanted it to.

Meanwhile Sunghoon had forgiven him and confided in hin. His friend had then assisted in getting Jaeyun - who's real name was in fact Jake, to the airport. His friend's resolve had been tested in a way that was hard for Jay to fathom. He'd spent most of his life sitting alongside Sunghoon and he'd never seemed like the type to conceal so much but how wrong Jay had been. Sunghoon had hid so much about his life or his ability or, indeed - his heart from Jay and perhaps even himself. 

Comprehending the boy... 

Jay put a line through the last word and corrected it with the word 'man.' 

Comprehending the man Sunghoon was made Jay realise who actually was the most useful person to know and who would make the best person for him to be a friend with. That was, provided, Sunghoon got over or worked through his feelings over Jake. Just how those feelings manifested Jay was still to fully know but they had clearly impacted Sunghoon greatly and hiss friend's greatest test would now be moving forward with his neighbour. 

About Jake, Jay wrote that he had come into all of their lives like a wrecking ball and had left the day Jay learned that he had been hiding himself from him. It felt odd that Jay had barely gotten to meet the real Jake. 

Perhaps he had caught a glimpse of him today. If that glimpse was any thing close to accurate than Jake was very different from Jaeyun.

The Jaeyun Jay had known had been fearless at school. Happy to play the role of the new popular kid who intervened at the right moments with teachers and bullies alike. The boy who's accent had all the girls swooning and who's football ability had all the boys envious.

The real Jake was a risk taker true enough but one who was very capable at getting people to help him but Jake was also afraid. He was afraid of himself and the consequences of his actions. He'd clearly learned that people put themselves on the line for him and taking ownership for them had proved and was proving emotionally and literally costly. Jake had grown but the jury was out over whether he would hurt anyone again.  

'Probably' Jay mused. Concluding that Jake was young enough and with a whole life ahead of him that it would probably be impossible to stave off any kind of blissful existence. Despite that, something about Jake convinced Jay to believe that he would at least try to be the best person of himself. 

'I wonder if I'll ever meet him again?' Jay asked his diary  before sucking his pencil once more. 

Both Jake and Jungwon had sacrificed their security and their well being to try and help Jungkook. 

Jay didn't know how he felt about that. On the one hand their actions had been noble, selfless and therefore 'right.' Despite this observation there was something 'off' about their decisions but Jay couldn't quite place it, only a peculiar feeling in his heart telling him so. 

"JAY?" His mother's voice called from outside his room.

"What?" He called back, snapping up from his diary. 

"It's the phone for you?"

"Huh?" He asked back, surprised and immediately readying himself for an awkward surprise conversation with a grandparent in which he would have to gloss over all the interesting parts of his life and instead make it seem like his existence was completely normal and totally dull. 

He wouldn't tell them about how he had gone with his friend to the police station, he wouldn't say that his friends were gay, he wouldn't say that he was going to pursue a life that focused on what he thought was best for himself rather than what others did.

No, Jay would say that school was good and he was excited about univers....

"JAY!" His mother barged into his room, repeating his name and ending his wistful daydreaming. She held out the phone in front of him for him to take. 

Tentatively, he put down his pencil and reached out his hand to take the devise. 

He braced himself for a familial voice to call his name. 

"Jay?" The voice said - it was not familial.

Jay's eyes widened. "Ju... Jungkook?"

"There's something I need you to do"

_________

Jakehoon 22.1

MFW I forgot to post the epilogue.