Lunacy and Other Fairytales ; tk | ym

4.

The needle of the velocity indicator crawled closer to 100 kilometers per hour. Yoongi's eyes kept darting to it, then back to the road in front of them.
"Seokjin," he said again, "Slow down! You're going way too fucking fast, you can't—"
"Shut up!" Seokjin yelled. His voice sounded weird, so off, so different from usual. "Just shut up, I know what I'm doing!"
"You literally don't, slow the fuck down!"
Yoongi felt his heart beat up to his throat. His hand gripped the edge of his seat as if that would keep him safe in any way and he stared ahead with wide eyes. The forest around them flew by; somewhere ahead he could see the road making a turn.
"Seokjin," he said for the nth time now, "Seokjin, please, fucking please slow down, I'm begging you!"
Nothing. His friend clenched his jaw, his hands gripping the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles stood out wide.
Yoongi stared at him in horror. "Why are you doing this?" he all but cried, "Slow down! You're going to get us killed!"
"Calm down and shut up," Seokjin muttered angrily. Yoongi's eyes widened in shock.
There was a shadow somewhere in front of the car. Yoongi heard himself scream, "Careful!", but it was way too late. Seokjin yanked the steering wheel around to avoid whatever it was that crossed the street in front of them, but instead the car slithered sideways, then, everything was shaking and twisting and twirling. Yoongi's head hit the door. He didn't feel anything. He didn't hear anything. Maybe he screamed. The world was upside down.
They could have been hurled around for hours, Yoongi wouldn't have known. All he knew was that eventually, it stopped, and everything was quiet, almost peaceful. He forced himself to open his eyes.
He didn't feel the pain or the nausea. He only felt his rapid heartbeat and the tightness around his leg where is was stuck in between the dashboard and his seat, bent unnaturally. He groaned at the sight.
"Seokjin," he managed to say, his own voice sounding bizarre to him. He barely even heard it over the tinnitus in his ears. "Seokjin," he said again, "Are you alright? Can you hear me?"
He managed to turn his head to look over at his friend who had his eyes closed, his mouth opened. There was blood covering his temple, blood and something else sliding down the side of his face. His entire head was weirdly deformed. Everything was red. Everything was red. Everything was red, so red, covered in red, broken, smashed, destroyed, red, red, red —
Yoongi was screaming Seokjin's name, could have done so for hours, he didn't know. Seokjin's eyes remained closed. He didn't hear Yoongi. Yoongi continued to scream. Then, his voice was too hoarse. Or, maybe he wasn't screaming. Maybe he had lost his consciousness a long time ago. Maybe this was all just a dream.








"I'm glad you could make time for me again," Taehyung says as he sits down in front of Yoongi. A few days have passed since they last met; now, they are in the café again, sitting at the same table as last time.

Yoongi gives a curt nod as an answer. His fingers play with the corner of a paper napkin.

"I'm sorry about the abrupt ending last time," Yoongi says, "I kind of forgot the time."

"It's fine," Taehyung brushes it off, "Jimin seems nice." He genuinely thinks so. Perhaps there will be a chance to talk to him again soon, for several reasons.

"He is," Yoongi agrees, a soft smile curling up the corners of his lips. It's gone again way too soon. Maybe it might be good to dive right back into the topic and not lose themselves in too much smalltalk.

"I started writing already," Taehyung tells him, "About the accident. So, I thought maybe you'd want to tell me more about that? About what happened after?"

Yoongi nods. He takes a few moments to think and Taehyung lets him have the time. They are in no rush, anyway.

"Well, there is not much to add. Eventually, a car passed by and found us. At least that's what must have happened. The driver called an ambulance. I think we can consider ourselves lucky that the car didn't explode because of the heavy damage to the engine. Or, at least I can." Yoongi rests his head on his hand. "Seokjin was pronounced dead at the scene. I was unconscious when they freed me and rushed me to the hospital. Had to undergo surgery for several hours. I don't know anything that happened, even a few hours after I had woken up again. Everything was just a blur."
It makes sense. Taehyung can imagine that they had to put Yoongi on a lot of medication against the pain.