Memento Mori

Chapter 13: Love is not over

Jin woke up first, it was somewhere around 7 in the morning; his head was again hurting, he barely held his balance, but he had to keep up a straight face, he couldn't burden the boy like this, he couldn't make Jimin go through all this, he still had things to sort out, he still had something that needed to be fixed and now the gap to reach that was bigger than before, the path was getting darker and darker, and he saw no light at the end of the tunnel.

He went to the kitchen, dragging himself there, trying to keep a certain silence so he won't wake Jimin up, he needed time to think, he needed time to process, because he now finally had what he always wanted, he now finally had his memories, but he wished he had never wished for that, all this time, all he wanted was those damn memories, only to learn there were two of him, a psycho was living inside, killing everyone under the pretext of keeping him safe, under the pretext that he loved him. Bottom line after all was that he was the real monster; there was no excuse, he was Seokjin, he was the murderer, with his hands he did all those things, it was him, from the start till the very end it was him.

He looked around the fridge, searching for some ingredients; even if it wasn't that time of the day for eating such food he wanted to make it, he wanted to make it for the younger. It was a simple recipe and yet the boy liked it, it was just some stew with kimchi. He took out the ingredients, some kimchi, some pepper paste, meat, some vegetables and other seasonings. He enjoyed this, he liked to cook, to chop things and make new ones, to mix and blend, to create something that is good, that can be eaten and bring a smile on someone's face. It didn't took Jin long to make the food, he chopped the veggies, he boiled the water, he took care of the meat too, he did them all by the book and soon enough the smell of kimchi jjigae was filling the room.

Jimin woke up with the familiar smell of kimchi coming from the other room; he got himself up feeling for the first time since the accident rested, he wasn't sleep deprived now, he didn't feel the need to sleep again, he felt good, like he had a good sleep and it was a good morning. Maybe he was finally getting better, maybe after a week with Jin he was finally going to improve; he had hope that maybe, just maybe, one day he will wake up and realize this was all a dream.

He went into the kitchen, with a ruffled hair, a really all over the place bed hair, with his clothes a bit out of place from how he had slept, but all in all, the way he looked standing in that door, dozing off, and yawning once in a while, made him almost look normal, made everything that happened only just a dream. He moved slowly across the room, reaching the table and leaning on top of a chair he looked at Jin carefully washing the dishes, he didn't even hear the boy because of the running water, until Jimin was hugging him from behind, leaving a soft kiss on his nape and whispering softly in his ear,

"Morning hyung," He said his voice a bit too low for Jin's custom. Jin was a bit shocked; the boy never did this before, but it felt good, something warm began to feel inside, butterflies almost flew again; it was something he wasn't used with, something that nonetheless felt good.

"Morning little one," Jin said as he turned the water off and changed their positions, Jimin was now trapped in his arms, not really having much space to move since Jin's big arms were embracing him. Jin looked at him, drawn by his petite body trapped there in his cage; his head was still hurting like crazy, and he was almost about to lose himself moments ago, Seokjin wanted out again, but he won't allow it, not now, not ever again.

Jimin looked up, trying to analyze the boy' face, because he noticed something was off, but he couldn't pin it down to what; he tried to search the answer in his eyes, there was none, they were empty, no emotion that he could explain, his expression was of no help either, it was as if he didn't want Jimin to know what was going on, what happened, all he could understand in that moment was the smell of his favorite food coming from behind the older and the butterflies that danced in his belly.