BOSS | NCT

o36

*

Do you ever wonder what Death sounds like?

Like, what sound do you hear at the moment of your death?

I had a death experience before.

Correction. I almost died every other time before. Mama treated me like a thing, injecting fluids to my body. She often made me inhale foreign liquids through my nose.

Sometimes, I wonder if I can even breathe.

Sometimes, I wonder if my pulse is still beating.

When that happens I record things, feelings, emotions, and sound.

And I thought, "Aaah. This is it. The sound of Death."

Blackness.

Death is the most incredible silence. It is the feeling of utter peace where you drifted off to your own soundless dimension. It's like I'm inside a movie theater with terrifyingly no light, nor a sound at all.

But that was only for a brief seconds. The sound changes completely.

The screen inside the theater starts playing something.

And I can hear people talking.

But they weren't clear, they were muffled voices. It was quiet, but it's still a sound I wonder if it's my own voice that's talking, or if it's someone's voice. Is it my Mom? My Dad? My friends?

And I thought, "but who are my friends?"

I tried to remember them. Tried to rip off the covers that isolate my inner mind from them. But I see nothing but fire. I see nothing but blazing and glowing red before my eyes. I feel nothing but the heat of it; the pain of it; the memory of my parents burning, and then suddenly, oh.

I see a hand.

I see it reach out for me.

And I see what must be the color green.

And I thought of a forest that's set in fire. I've thought of green trees, of emerald pearls.

Then I let the forest envelop me. To let it carry me. To let it take me away.

For a sudden, the leaping flames disappear. The forest lets go of me. I looked at it; at the green orbs that I now found out are actually someone's eyes. And now, it vanished.

Then I'm back in the blacked out, noiseless theater again

*

Sixty-four hours.

I wonder if Jaemin also counts his remaining hours like I do. I wonder if he's afraid of it; if he's running away from time as well.

My cheeks are dry with tears from crying earlier. Beside me was Donghyuck, who has his arms nestled around me. Men who were dialed by Lucas entered the room where Jaemin is, probably making arrangements. They are probably wrapping his body now. And I don't even want to think about it.

Donghyuck kept patting my back. But he too seemed so broken as I am.

"D-Did you knew . . .?" I sobbed.

He waved his head. "No," his brown eyes flickered. "He told no one about it. Jeno said he just found out right before he's dying."