KIM TAEHYUNG

"Sian—"

When I look back, there's no traces of her except for an irregularly shaped hole in the ice.

My heart suddenly beats so fast it hurts to breathe as I drop to my knees, blood draining from my pale face. My mind is a mess as I plunge my arm through the icy water, cringing at the temperature.

I don't feel her.

I don't feel her.

Drawing my hand back, I gaze at the black water for a breath before reaching in deeper. I'm about to just dive in when my fingers close around a heavy material.

Relief blocks my throat as I pull, my other hand plunging into the water and wrapping around what I can feel as her shoulder.

She doesn't even feel heavy as I release a shaky breath, get her soaked figure onto the ice. My hands shake when I frantically clutch her body to mine, desperate for help as I look around.

There's no one.

Then I see a dim light underneath her jacket's layers, and search to find a blinking phone. It's dry— just a bit soaked around the edges. The screen shows two buttons, green and red.

I press green, and the phone buzzes to life.

"Sian? Did you find him yet? What's taking so long?"

"Jungkook."

"Hyung! You're there!" His voice suddenly erupts from the other side, and the phone nearly slips out from my frozen fingers as I hug her to my chest. "I'm so—"

"Help me. I don't know if she's alive."

"What?!"

"I-I don't know. We're at a lake—"

Then the phone suddenly releases a long beep, making me flinch in surprise as the screen grows completely dark.

Had it been more wet than I thought?

My chest begins to hurt viciously as I lie her down on the ice, fatigue dragging down my movements. A chill claws at my heart.

And for a second, I think I'm going to start bleeding.

But I don't, and I push back her drenched strands of hair from her forehead. I can't lose her like this— not when everything was going so well.

This is all my fault.

Tilting her head backward, I press my lips to hers and breathe even though the pain starts to spread from my chest to my arms, my legs.

Only when I can't take it anymore, I break away and gasp for the cold air. My head spins with dizziness and I can't really see, I manage to find her lips again.

Why did I do that?

The tears from my eyes mix with the water wetting her cheeks as I breathe into her, my hands against ice that might be her skin.

She feels like someone who is dead, and that scares me more than having to die, having to leave Earth.

"I'm sorry."

Then my eyes widen as a sudden seizure rolls through my body, my fingers finding hers desperately. I think of all the times she wanted me to go to the hospital, and all the times I refused, denied that there was anything wrong with me.

There was something wrong with me from the start.

Another series of coughs claw from my throat, and I struggle to breathe as my fingers dig into the ice. Her face still feels cold and dead when I clasp my hands around her, and fire burns through me as I trace her lips.

Will you forgive me?

My last breath I give to her, and I feel frozen with death as I weakly shift from her limp body, crumpling onto the ice next to her.

And even though my face is pale with the cold and I can't move a single fingertip, I feel more warmth than before as I stare up emptily into Earth skies.

__________________________

KANG SIAN

I wake up gasping, haunted by a dream where I could only see Taehyung's back no matter what I'd done. Coldness tingles at my fingertips as I look up into unfamiliar ceiling.

It smells like medicine and antibiotics.

"You're awake!" When I look dazedly to my right, I see a nurse with a soft smile as she holds a clipboard. "How are you feeling, Miss?"

Is this....

A hospital?!

"Have you seen—" I start rapidly, scrambling to get to my feet when the woman clicks her tongue and shakes her head.

"You need to stay in bed, miss— you've been through a lot. If you're worrying about the other patient who came in with you, he's fine. Don't worry."

I almost fall for it.

"Don't lie to me." I growl, my mind on edge when I see her eyes tremble in being caught. "I know that you're obliged to lie to calm me down of whatever— don't do that. Where is he?"

We have a staring contest for a long second before she finally sighs and blinks.

"Kim Taehyung has an enlarged heart. It's something I've never seen before— and I've been a nurse all my life. He has a limited time to live— a week at most."

"Two days, at least."

My body grows still with shock, and the nurse sighs heavily as she unclips the tubes pinned to my skin.

"That.....can't be right."

"Has he been showing signs lately?" She asks me, and flashes of his fainting and bleeding run through my mind. "Anything related to unconsciousness, or nose bleeding?"

I swallow, and she sees it as confirmation.

"Don't put it upon yourself." She says warmly, straightening out the rumpled bedsheets. "There's nothing here that we could've done for him, even if you'd brought him earlier."

One week at the most, two days at the least.

That can't be right at all.

"Where is he now?"

__________________________

KANG SIAN

He's already awake when I rush through the doorway, his eyes fixed blankly on the needle pinned to his forearm before giving me a surprised look.

"You're leaving."

"W-What?" He stutters, before hurriedly sliding off his bed. "What are you talking about? What do you mean I'm leaving? I—"

"You're leaving me." I say, tears stinging in the corners of my eyes as I cry into his shoulder. "You're the one who's leaving me, you idiot."

"What?"

Then a sudden crash echoes above me, and I look up in surprise to see the IV stand lying on the floor. I realize when I notice the needle in his arm— he'd pulled the tube too far.

"Get back to bed." I say quickly, trying to upright the stand when he ignores me, gripping my shoulders.

"What are you talking about."

"Get back to bed, Tae!" I yelp when the cold bar nearly slips out of my clammy hands. "I—"

He tugs the needle from his forearm, an urgent look on his face as he pulls the stand from my hand and pushes it behind him.

Blood wells from the scar on his skin, slowly dripping rivulets of red on the cold floor.

"Tae—"

"Tell me what's going on." He says, turning my face back to his when he catches me looking desperately at the fallen stand. "Look at me."

"Where am I going?"

My fingertips tremble, and I squeeze the palm of my hand as my mind races. Was it really right to tell him this? That he only had a week to live— that he only had a week left in the world he seemed to love so much?

It would kill him even before death.

"Nothing." I say, smiling with tears stinging my eyes as I look into steady brown eyes. "I'm just joking, you idiot."