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Most days are lonely.
Taehyung lives in a huge mansion on a huge estate. He has fountains and huge mazes that surround his house. He has everything he could ever want. There are video games. There’s an Olympic sized pool. The kitchen is always stocked and it’s filled with all kinds of junk food that Taehyung enjoys. There’s even a six foot tall chocolate fountain in his entryway. If he wants something, he gets it. Money wasn’t a problem. Taehyung keeps himself occupied to some degree by adding new additions to the house and upgrading whatever he already has. Every game was a virtual reality game, each TV was the size of a movie theater screen. He even has a bowling alley and a garage full of convertible cars.
His house provides him with everything he needs but the one thing it can’t provide is a remedy for the loneliness he feels. No matter how full the house was with things that only people can dream of, he still feels empty. Taehyung’s never had a family and he doesn’t have many friends. He was here all alone, all by himself.
He could play all the games he wanted and watch all the dramas that interested him but something was definitely missing. He needed a purpose for living. He wanted a reason for living.
Taehyung’s life begins every Wednesday in the form of Park Jimin.
Wednesdays are their day.
Every Tuesday night Taehyung goes to sleep alone but always wakes up the next morning to Jimin’s sleeping face. Most of the time, Jimin’s hair sticks up at odd angles and drool pools on his pillow but even the sight of Jimin’s open mouth will bring a wide smile to Taehyung’s face.
Taehyung inhales Jimin’s scent before pressing himself completely against him and wrapping his arms tightly around the other. And then Jimin opens his eyes and Taehyung’s world stops because Jimin’s bright eye smile is aimed at him. Taehyung goes through all the symptoms of love. There are butterflies in his stomach, which is simultaneously doing somersaults. His heart is pattering 1000 miles a second and there’s this large lump in his throat. His tongue sticks to the roof of his mouth. Everything else doesn’t matter except the boy in front of him.
He doesn’t know how long it’s been since he first met Jimin all those years ago. They’ve spent so many Wednesdays together. Taehyung can remember clearly what Jimin used to look like as a 12 year old and now they’ve both grown up and matured. Jimin is attending college and Taehyung…well he just stays here.
Time doesn’t really matter to Taehyung but it does to Jimin. Jimin keeps a calendar of important dates on his phone so when Jimin announces that it’s their anniversary, Taehyung stares back with wide eyes. Taehyung doesn’t really care about anniversaries or how long he’s known Jimin. He knows that he and Jimin will be together forever so tracking how long they’ve known each other isn’t even slightly interesting to him. What’s important to him are Wednesdays and trying to make Jimin stay. Taehyung is selfish and he wants more than just Wednesdays with Jimin. He wants Jimin to stay longer if only for a minute or even an hour. He wants Jimin to stay until Thursday.
“Stop sulking on our anniversary,” Jimin comes from the bathroom door and pounces on top of Taehyung’s body which was wrapped underneath their blankets.
“What anniversary is this now?” Taehyung grumbles. He flips around face down onto the pillows and inhales Jimin’s pillow.
Jimin lightly smacks his back before tracing the faint 95 tattooed on Taehyung’s right shoulder, “Hmm it’s the 8th anniversary of our first kiss,” Jimin flips him around and presses his body against him, “That means we have to kiss all day.”
And Taehyung obliges Jimin because he can never resist the other even if he tried. Later that night they both fall asleep in the middle of kissing each other with their lips pressed together. Taehyung doesn’t recall ever falling asleep so peacefully. He can still feel the faint press of lips against his own when he wakes up alone the next morning. It’s even enough to keep him going through the whole day with a positive mood. But then Thursday night comes along and he’s forced to return to an empty bed and wait until next Wednesday for Jimin to return to him.
Taehyung would probably be happier if he hadn’t met Jimin. Life liked throwing curve balls his way because even though Jimin is the happiest and the single greatest thing in his life, Jimin is the one who makes him sad each time he leaves. Taehyung can’t feel physical pain but each time Thursdays roll around, he wishes he could feel physical pain instead of the emotional pain he has to go through each week. He has the greatest thing in his life taken away from him every Thursday and even though he expects it, it doesn’t soften the blow that his heart has to deal with.
Taehyung’s tried to make Jimin stay longer more times than he can count. He’s asked Jimin; he’s asked God. He just wants more than one day of the week with Jimin. A part of him worries if Jimin doesn’t even care as much as Taehyung does. Jimin was the one spot of sun in his lonely life.
But no matter what Taehyung does and no matter how much he tries to make Jimin stay, Jimin always disappears as soon as the clock strikes 12.
“You’re thinking again. I don’t like it when you think too hard,” Jimin side eyes Taehyung from the passenger seat. Taehyung rolls his eyes because Jimin immediately brings his attention back to his cell phone where he’s in the middle of playing a phone game. They only have Wednesdays but here Jimin is playing a game he probably plays every day.
Jimin locks his phone and turns his body towards Taehyung, “What’s wrong?”
“Do you ever miss me?” Taehyung asks as he looks into Jimin’s eyes, “Do you remember me when…”
Jimin takes another breath and quickly reassures him by placing a hand on Taehyung’s thigh, “Why are we going through this again? Of course I miss you Tae. I miss you every day. Wednesdays are my favorite day.”
“But I live only for Wednesdays,” Taehyung mutters, “I live only because of you.”
“Don’t say that,” Jimin looks serious, “You don’t live just for me.”
“It’s true though,” Taehyung’s voice is soft, “I’m so lonely without you. I just want you to stay.” Taehyung’s voice breaks somewhere in the middle of his sentence and he looks away embarrassed.
Jimin looks at their intertwined hands, “But you know I can’t.”
Taehyung knows Jimin has no control of when he can come and when he can leave. It just happens. Jimin appears as soon as Wednesday begins and disappears as soon as Wednesday ends. A part of Taehyung always nags at Jimin because maybe if Jimin tried hard enough, he could stay. All Taehyung does is try and he’s not sure if Jimin is on the same page as him.
Jimin has a life outside these four walls, outside this small piece of land, outside of this universe but Taehyung doesn’t. Everything that Taehyung is, is because of Jimin.
The thing is, Taehyung can see Jimin’s frustration sometimes whenever Taehyung becomes a little clingier than usual or a little more insecure of Jimin’s feelings. Each time Taehyung asks Jimin to stay longer or whenever he asks Jimin to tell him he loves him, he sees Jimin’s hesitation get stronger each time.
Taehyung wants to stop feeling so dependent but at the same time he feels Jimin slipping away so he tries to hold on tighter because Taehyung loves Jimin. He loves Jimin with his everything. He shows it to him every Wednesday with simple kisses and back hugs. He’s always smiling around the older.
“Can’t you please stay with me?” Taehyung asks as he hugs Jimin closer to him.
“Tae,” Jimin’s voice is tired. He can see Jimin’s mouth form into a tight frown.
“Don’t you love me? Can’t you stay a little bit longer?” Taehyung expects Jimin to push him away with another, ‘You know I can’t’ but this time Jimin’s hands are exceptionally gentle as they slowly push Taehyung away from him.
Taehyung is met with warm brown eyes, “I want to Tae.”
And then Jimin is kissing him and Taehyung is kissing back too and before he knows it they’re making love on their bed and Taehyung feels so happy and full of every single cheesy emotion he can think of. He feels like he’s flying and even makes himself believe that Jimin will be beside him when he wakes up in the morning.
“I love you Tae,” Jimin murmurs in his ears. Taehyung snuggles closer until every body part is wrapped securely around Jimin, keeping him in place. He doesn’t want Jimin to leave him. He doesn’t think it’s possible with how tight he’s wrapped around the other.
Jimin laughs and pushes Taehyung’s bangs away from his face and Taehyung opens up an eye to see Jimin’s eyes twinkling back at him.
“Stay the night?” Taehyung leans over Jimin to place a kiss on Jimin’s lips, “Stay forever?”
Jimin looks over at the bedside clock. It reads 11:45.
“I will,” Jimin smiles back and Taehyung lowers his head back to the pillow with a smile on his face.
When he wakes up the next morning, the bed is cold.
“Jimin?!” Taehyung gets up out of bed in a panic and screams the name as he runs throughout the house. He checks every bathroom and every closet. He checks the kitchen and the attic. He checks the dance room but he doesn’t see Jimin anywhere.
He knows Jimin is gone and Taehyung flings himself back into bed and wraps the blankets around his naked body and cries. The house is so cold. And he feels so lonely.
It takes two days for Taehyung to get himself together and get out of bed. Jimin didn’t stay so he forces himself to think of the upcoming Wednesday.
When Taehyung wakes up Wednesday morning, Jimin isn’t there beside him. The bed is still cold and Taehyung bundles himself into a blanket burrito because this was the first time Jimin wasn’t beside him on a Wednesday. Now he doesn’t even have Wednesdays to look forward to. Jimin wasn’t going to come back.
Taehyung knew it was too good to be true for Jimin to continue showing up every Wednesday without fail. Becoming best friends and then falling in love with said best friend only happened in fiction. It was bound to end right? Jimin was bound to leave this place. The place was Taehyung’s only reality while at the same time being Jimin’s made up world. He should’ve prepared himself for this but he hadn’t and now his life was slowly crashing into pieces. He was hopeless to do anything about it.
“Morning, gorgeous! I made eggs!” The bright voice brought Taehyung out of his stupor and he lowered his blankets to see Jimin smiling at him while holding a plate of eggs.
The moment their eyes met, Jimin drops the plate and immediately runs over to Taehyung.
“What’s wrong? Why are you crying? Tae, are you hurt?”
“I thought you were gone!” Taehyung sobbed into Jimin’s chest, “I thought you wouldn’t come back.”
“Why are you so worried? It’s Wednesday. I always come back on Wednesdays. Please trust me on that,” Jimin held onto Taehyung’s crying figure and rubbed his back, “I tried to stay longer…I couldn’t. I’m sorry.”
“Why can’t you?” Taehyung sobbed. He grabbed Jimin’s shirt and pulled, “I love you. Isn’t that enough? Just stay with me. Not just Wednesdays, every day.”
“You know I can’t control that.”
Taehyung froze and then looked Jimin in the eye, “Do you have someone else?”
Jimin eyes him warily, “Someone else?”
“Someone else like me: a Friday or a Tuesday. Do you love someone else too?”
Jimin frowns and grabs Taehyung’s cheeks in his hands, “Of course not. I only have you.”
Taehyung looks uncertain but Jimin makes Taehyung stare at him before saying, “I’m serious, Tae. I only have you. I can’t even look elsewhere.”
With a little bit of coaxing, Jimin manages to pull Taehyung out of bed and after a little bit of breakfast Taehyung is back to being his old happy self when he’s around his small sunshine that is Park Jimin.
“Have you ever thought about adding a slide from the second floor to the living room? Or like from your bedroom to the kitchen?” Jimin pulled out some cake from the fridge and quickly started devouring it.
Taehyung laughed. Of course Jimin would ask for that. Jimin was always ravenous after sex whereas Taehyung just wanted to snuggle and maybe trace patterns over the matching tattoo on Jimin’s back.
“I can do that if that’s what you want,” Taehyung pulls the plate of cake towards him so he could eat some too.
“No,” Jimin shakes his head, “What do you want Tae?”
“It sounds cool,” Taehyung shrugs but Jimin pulls the plate of cake back to him, trying to get Taehyung’s full attention.
“What do you want, Tae. Not what I want but you.”
Taehyung frowned and grabbed the plate back, “You know what I want.”
Jimin looks at him with sad eyes and Taehyung has to look away because he doesn’t want to be pitied. He doesn’t want Jimin to feel sorry for him. He only wants Jimin to feel the same way too.
“You need new dreams, Tae,” Jimin turns Taehyung’s face towards his own and Jimin is giving him a faint smile. And even though it’s not as bright and doesn’t reach Jimin’s eyes, he still gets the butterflies. He wishes on everything he has to be real; he wants to wake up beside Jimin every day and just be boyfriends (husbands).
“I want to be real,” Taehyung mutters. He looks down at the ground and pouts.
“You’re real to me,” Jimin smiles and places a light kiss on Taehyung’s lips.
But it doesn’t ease the anxiety Taehyung has and it doesn’t stop Jimin from disappearing as the clock strikes 12.
Taehyung doesn’t know what’s happening the first time he sneezes. He finds it only a tiny bit strange when it first happens. But as the week goes by he not only starts sneezing, but he starts feeling queasy. He’s never felt the necessity to eat but the sight of food makes him nauseous and by Monday he’s holed up in his bedroom holding Jimin’s pillow to his chest while coughing up his lungs without abandon.
Taehyung’s never been sick before. People like him never get sick. And yet here he is in bed, as weak as could be. He wills Jimin to appear by his side.
“Yah why are you burning up? Are you okay?”
Taehyung feels Jimin’s hands on him and immediately feels better. It’s almost as if Jimin is taking away his pain and his sickness.
“I don’t know what’s happening to me,” Taehyung opens his eyes and holds Jimin’s stare as long as he can before closing them silently and opens up his arms, “Cuddle me.”
“You don’t look good. Do you have medicine in this house? Have you ever even been sick before?” Taehyung can tell that Jimin’s worried and borderline frantic but he already feels better than he has all week and he just wants to hold Jimin to him.
After running around the house and settling on making chicken noodle soup, Jimin settles at the foot of Taehyung’s bed. He spoon feeds Taehyung until the bowl is finished. He even makes sure that there’s a wet towel on Taehyung’s forehead to prevent a fever if it does come. Jimin can’t even take care of himself when he’s sick, but for Taehyung he tries.
Taehyung holds onto Jimin’s hand tightly. He knows Jimin wants to tell him something but there’s a deep hesitation in his eyes so he settles with asking a question.
“Why are you sick Tae?” Taehyung shrugs his shoulders. He doesn’t have an answer. Jimin frowns at him, his eyebrows still furrowed. End of conversation.
Usually it’s Taehyung who smothers Jimin with kisses and hugs and is clingy but this Wednesday is Jimin’s turn. He holds Taehyung’s hands tightly in his. He snuggles against Taehyung. He places butterfly kisses all over Taehyung’s face every 20 seconds without fail throughout the whole night.
“I don’t want to leave tonight,” Jimin frowns at Taehyung.
There is a flush on Taehyung’s cheeks and his color is back. He feels great. He feels loved and happy and warm. And maybe he’s milking as much as he can from his sickness. Maybe it’s somewhat sadistic because Jimin looks worried but Taehyung loves all of the attention he’s getting.
It comes as a complete surprise when Jimin pulls Taehyung up into a sitting position on the bed and then drops to the floor on one knee.
“Kim Taehyung, I know we only have Wednesdays but one day I hope it will be every day. So will you----“
Just like that Jimin disappears right before Taehyung’s eyes. He didn’t have enough time to finish his proposal and Taehyung didn’t even get the chance to answer. Still on his one knee, Jimin disappears right before his eyes like he was never there.
“Jimin?” Taehyung falls down on the ground right where Jimin was a few seconds ago. He’s only met with air.
“Jimin?!” Taehyung yells louder, “Yes!” he screams. He hopes that his answer will bring Jimin back.
“I want to marry you! Yes! I will marry you!” Taehyung falls down onto the ground in despair, “Please bring him back to me. I want to say yes.” Taehyung collapses onto the ground and glances at the clock. 12:05
Wednesday morning comes along and Taehyung wakes up to Jimin curled up right beside him. He moves his head closer to Jimin’s ear and screams “Yes!”
Jimin jumps up from bed and smacks Taehyung across the face on reflex.
“Shit why are you like this so early in the morning?” Jimin frowns as he looks over at Taehyung. He almost immediately goes to caress Taehyung’s face in worry, “Did it hurt? I’m so sorry Tae….I wasn’t thinking I just----“
“Yes,” Taehyung whispers.
Jimin stops mid-sentence with his mouth open before he lights up, “Yes?”
“I’ll marry you,” Taehyung pushes his head forward and smacks his lips against Jimin’s.
“Wait,” Taehyung grabs Jimin’s hand and stops him from getting out of bed, “It’s cold when you leave.”
“We need energy if we want to keep going,” Jimin whines, “I need energy.”
“But at least let me come with you,” Taehyung gets out of bed and wraps his arms around Jimin’s torso and drops his chin on Jimin’s shoulder, “Proceed.”
Jimin laughs as he eyes their matching wedding rings and quickly shuffles out of the room with some difficulty. Taehyung was completely pressed against his back with no space between them.
“Do you think you will stay until Thursday?” Taehyung murmurs.
“I think so,” Jimin grins and turns his head back slightly to see if he can see Taehyung’s reaction. He can’t.
They move around (both still in the nude) as Jimin tries to make something substantial for dinner. The dinner being ramen.
It was nearing midnight and the only thing they did all day was make love. They were both exhausted and even though Taehyung wanted to curl up under Jimin and sleep, he had to stay awake. He wanted to make sure Jimin would stay with him like he promised.
Taehyung slapped Jimin across the face to wake him up.
“Did you just slap me?” Jimin’s eyes snapped open, “I’m claiming domestic abuse.”
“Stay awake.”
Jimin wrapped his arms around Taehyung., “Go to sleep, hubby. I’m tired. You’re tired.”
“You’re going to disappear,” Taehyung tried to get out of Jimin’s hold but the other was stronger despite his shorter height.
“No I promise I won’t,” Jimin combed his hands through Taehyung’s hair.
When Taehyung wakes up the next morning, Jimin’s twinkling eyes are staring back at him. Taehyung’s mouth drops open and he holds out a hand hesitantly to stroke it against Jimin’s face.
“I told you I would stay,” and then Jimin smiles and Taehyung’s world stops.
“Tell me what happened!” Mrs. Park yelled at the doctor. She sobbed and kept on hitting the doctor in the chest, hoping that he would bring her son back, “He was doing so well! You killed him!”
"No, Mrs. Park. He was doing well. He was doing great mentally and physically. We can’t explain why this happened. I’m sorry Mrs. Park. It seems like he just gave up.”
Park Jimin: Time of Death Wednesday, September 7 12:01 AM