misfits. bts ot7

ten; epilogue

they went back to seoul the following morning.

silence swallowed the entire ride back, seokjin in the front seat with namjoon beside him. they turned the radio on and listened to music while jimin chewed on his fingernails, hoseok slept, yoongi pinched at the scars on his arms, and jungkook cried. his tears were silent though, trickling down his cheeks as he violently wiped at his nose.

they all went back to their homes as soon as seokjin pulled into the parking lot of his apartment complex.

yoongi left to go to an empty apartment down the street, where he smoked another cigarette and burned it out on his arm.

jimin went back home reluctantly, only to face his angry father and yelling and crying before he slammed his door shut and locked himself in his room for the next three days.

hoseok went back home and took some pills and slept for twenty nine hours straight. he had a drug overdose not long after, and was hospitalized to get treatment.

namjoon went to his apartment and took a nap. he turned on the tv, watched it, turned it off, made some tea and slept some more. he felt like he wouldn't be able to go to work.

seokjin had to go back to university. it wasn't any better. in fact, it was much worse because he had just lost taehyung and how the hell could he ever forget that?

and jungkook went back home and his parents were crying the second he stepped inside the house.

we were so worried about you!

mom, i'm okay. it's okay.

no, kook, you haven't been eating and that's not okay.

mom, dad-

look at how skinny you've gotten; i can't believe we never noticed,

jungkook, we are so sorry.

and jungkook was hospitalized too, to be treated for his eating habits.

none of the boys were sure things would ever be the same.

and perhaps they wouldn't.

but it was still okay, because taehyung had gotten his wish to never grow up again, and he had also gotten his wish to be up in the stars, where his childlike heart belonged.

epilogue

"ow, jungkook, fuck off!"

yoongi swatted jungkook's hand away from his chips, shooting a glare at the younger boy.

"please, yoongi?" jungkook begged. "i'll buy you a coffee later."

"no, get your own food."

and as yoongi said that, he handed jungkook a handful from the bag.

"i love you, you're the best."

"you only say that so you can bribe me more."

seokjin and namjoon sat in the front, as always, drinking a milkshake from the same cup with two straws.

"which one's mine?" seokjin asked.

"blue one."

and a minute later, namjoon grinned. "i was kidding. yours was the red one."

"indirect kissing!" hoseok screamed.

"ew, chill the fuck out dad!" jimin covered his eyes and curled into hoseok's arms. "they're like an old grandma and grandpa."

"shut up kid, we're here," seokjin said, pulling into the grass.

"it'd better be legal to park here, grandma," jungkook teased.

seokjin back handed him in the back of the head as he dragged out a blanket from the trunk.

"let's sit right by the coastline."

they spread out the blanket across the sand and sat on it, all seven of them together, as well as they could fit.

the sun had just set in the horizon, and hues of blue, purple and orange had been covering the sky, bleeding into each other like watercolor paints.

now, the sky was dark. blue and purple and black. stars sprinkled the canvas, just the way they had once covered the eyes of one, special boy.

"it's been a really long time since we came here, huh?" namjoon said, breaking the silence.

"yeah," hoseok's voice was low, almost sad. "it's kind of hard, being back here. makes me think of taehyung."

jungkook's eyes filled with tears at that.

"look at all of those stars," he said.

yoongi nodded. "they look beautiful."

"they look like tae's eyes did. and like his arms did," jimin was quiet, but they all listened. "like his eyes when he was happy or excited, and the bruises all over him."

seokjin smiled, images of the boy flashing through his mind like a flip book. his eyes and his smile and his bruises, or as jungkook would call them, his galaxies and andromedas.

"do you think taehyung's up there?" jungkook asked. "in the stars? like he wanted?"

yoongi was the one to answer him, lower lip trembling just the tiniest bit as he fought back tears and the urge to break down crying.

"yeah, kook," he said.

"he's up there. in the stars. and he's probably one of the brightest stars up there."

"remember when we were little and you had bruises all over your arm?

"and i said they looked like galaxies?

"like a bunch of milky ways and andromeda things painted on your skin?"

"yes, i remember

"made me feel a little less insecure and a whole lot stronger,

"knowing i had galaxies on my skin."

"what if we went up there?"

"went up where?"

"the stars."

"just you and me and the stars, wouldn't that be nice?"

-end-