SEOLYN MIN

I open my eyes to a white ceiling.

Someone's holding my hand, and I look over in shock to see Yoongi. My mind feels muddled, like someone had messed with it while I was fainted.

Wait.

Why wasn't I dead?

"Yoongi!" Panic makes my voice on edge, and he stutters awake. I quickly try to get off the bed, but he pushes me back with a worried expression.

"Seolyn, you can't get out of bed! You're still not healed!"

"W-What about Taehyung?" I whisper, my eyes stinging with tears again. "Where's Taehyung? Why isn't he here with me?"

Yoongi looks confused. "Seolyn, what are you saying? You got shot in the shoulder— you have to calm down—"

"The tiger that was with me!" I shriek, my heart beating wildly. My shoulder hurts like hell, but I don't care. "What happened to the white tiger that was with me? Yoongi!"

"T-The tiger?" He stutters, completely taken aback. "I thought h-he was dead. Seolyn, it's okay. You're fine."

Dead.

"Dead?" I repeat, my voice numb. Then I shake my head firmly, feeling like my chest was going to burst. "No, that can't be right. You didn't look closer. He can't be dead."

I need to go to him.

I need to go to the mountain.

"I think you're right, Yoongi." I say, trying to keep my voice calm when everything was but. "Can you please get me some water? I think I need t-to calm down, yeah."

"Yeah, of course."

I feel the slightest bit of guilt when he leaves, counting five seconds and then opening the door myself. I see Yoongi's back disappear down the right of the hall, so decide to go left.

I'd taken Yoongi's dark jacket on the way out, because it was slung on the back of the chair. And I needed something to cover my white scrubs.

"Hello." I ask, tapping a nurse on the shoulder. "Do you know the way out of the hospital? I got lost."

When she gives me directions, I thank her and bite my lip, pressing down on my shoulder with one hand. There was an annoying, dull ache there.

He's not dead, because he can't be.

Yoongi saw wrong.

I quickly exit the hospital, careful not to be noticed in the eyes of other doctors and nurses. As soon as I'm out, I wave a taxi down.

"Can you please take me to the front of Haneyl Mountain?" I ask as I get in, and the driver calls out the cost. Hope flares in my chest when I dig my hands into Yoongi's jacket pocket, and find a couple spare bills and coins.

"Fast, please. If it's possible." I say, and he nods to me from the front. The small taxi speeds up, and I breathe in anticipation.

"Thank you so much."

___________________________

The taxi drives away. My head feels lighter looking at the familiar mountain, but pressing it all down, I start running as fast as I can.

I need to find him.

Tightening Yoongi's jacket around my shoulders, I get to the place where everything had happened. There are bloodstains on the ground, but no tiger.

So I keep going.

I slow to a walk, my heart beating so fast I can hear blood roar in my ear. My lungs are about to explode, and the pain in my shoulder has gotten even worse.

Taking a deep breath, I run the rest of the way to my grandmother's house. The clearing is eerily silent— like there's nothing there.

And like nothing had been there for the past year.

"Taehyung!" I scream, my voice breaking with hope. "I'm here! Come out!"

Maybe he's sleeping in the house, resting. After all, he'd been injured pretty badly.

But when I push the door open widely, there's no one there. I see my art easel against the corner of the living room, and nearly break into fresh tears.

Stop being stupid.

He's gone.

I sink to the floor in the middle of the living room, my body heaving with sobs. My hands fist against my sides, teeth clenched together.

But then something makes me look up.

The tears freeze on my cheeks when my watery eyes meet with a pair of exhausted, brown ones. The familiar almond eyes widen in surprise, and then I'm on my feet.

Him— as him.

I slam into Taehyung, arms wrapping around his shoulders and crashing my lips against his. He falls to the grassy forest ground, and I fall with him, never breaking the kiss.

His hand wraps around the back of my head, and I feel his lips melt into mine.

"Seolyn." He breathes, brown eyes wide in wonder when I finally break away for air. "I thought you were dead. I—"

"You scared me so much." I swallow, my hands pinning him to the ground. I wouldn't let him go anywhere— not even for a single second would I let him out of my sight. "What happened, Taehyung? Everything."

"I don't... know." He touches his lips to mine again, brushing my hair away. "Are you alright?"

Finally remembering how he'd gotten shot so many times, I hurriedly scramble off of him and scan him top to bottom. But he doesn't look hurt at all, just keeps looking up at me like that.

It suddenly makes me feel enormously self-conscious.

"W-What are you looking at?" I say quietly, avoiding his steady gaze. "I'm, uh— fine, by the way. There's nothing wrong with me. Yeah."

He suddenly reaches up, pressing the tip of his finger to my cheek. My mouth instantly closes, not knowing what to say.

"You were the only one I could remember."

"I couldn't forget you too, you know." I huff, crossing my arms. "For three years— I'm so mad at myself for not coming here earlier. I could've saved the both of us so much trouble."

"I—"

I look down again, at him. He blinks those beautiful eyes— those eyes that had changed everything.

"I won't leave you again."

*END*