Chapter Text
The room was totally dark.
All the curtains were drawn in, and the noise of the night traffic sounded distant. The small place felt like it was far away from the rushing cars and the orange street lights, far away from the city, and completely out of the universe and it’s reality.
But unfortunately it was still there. It didn’t matter how distant the world felt - it was still there, spinning at a steady pace. Cars and buses were passing under his windows, and people were wandering around on the streets, bathing in the orangish-yellow lights. Everything was moving, changing, and happening.
Jungkook was sitting on the floor of his room, ready to make his world stop spinning.
He didn’t fit in this life - he never had - but now he was finally ready to step out of it.
He reached for his phone to make one last call, and in the weak light of its screen, the bottle half full of pills next to him glinted.
Small white pills were circling in his head as the phone rang out.
***
The world - to be more specific Earth - is pretty complicated. There are so many things happening at the same time, everywhere, that it’s nearly impossible to keep up with it, even for a minute. Just in the next sixty seconds, there will be five earthquakes The sun will fling 60 million tons of matter into space. A hummingbird will flap its wings four hundred times.
And one hundred and seven people will die.
Taehyung was laying on his bed in the middle of the night, unable to sleep. It was actually quite rare for him to be unable to sleep, but it still happened sometimes. However he didn’t hate it. He liked to be awake in these hours, when everyone else was sleeping; it felt a bit lonely but also peaceful and calm.
He wondered how many people on Earth were awake right now, just like him.
In that very moment, his phone started to ring loudly, and Taehyung fell off of his bed, almost getting a heart attack from the sudden loud noise. Still rubbing his aching head, he sat up and stared at the screen of his phone. UNKNOWN NUMBER is calling. Decline or Accept?
He frowned as he read “unknown number” but automatically chose “accept.” At least there was someone else awake at the moment.
“Hello, is this…the suicide hotline?” asked a shy voice, and Taehyung’s heart skipped a beat.
In one second, a bullet travels nine hundred meters. Lightning strikes six times. Four thousand new stars are born.
And someone dies.
Taehyung didn’t know what to do or say. That one question was enough to leave him speechless and in shock.
“No, I think you got the wrong number,” he finally answered, in an unsure voice. He thought there would be some awkward silence, but instead, the reply came immediately.
“Oh, you’re right. Sorry for the mistake… I just wanted to…”
“...kill yourself?”guessed Taehyung in a low voice and the other side of the line went quiet. There were a few moments when neither one of them said anything, but the unknown boy - he sounded like someone, around the same age as Taehyung - still didn’t hang up.
“It shouldn’t interest you,” he said, finally breaking the silence.
Taehyung felt his heart ache. He was never really good with people, but he loved them. He loved his neighbours when they greeted him with a smile. He loved the old lady who babysat him when he was little. He loved his old classmates - even the bullies - who still waved at him when they crossed each other. He loved this life, and this world, and everything which was a part of it.
On the Earth, one hundred and seven people die, every minute. And Taehyung decided that this time, it was gonna be one hundred and six.
“You are a human,” he started, his voice no longer shaking “You want to hurt yourself, and you need help”
“I’m no longer a human, you know?” The boy took a little break “Death is the only way out for me”
“But if you called… you must believe that someone can help you.”
“It’s not like that. I just wanted to talk to someone before I’ll die.”
He sounded tired. Numb. Indifferent. Hurt. Beaten down. There was so much more behind his voice, that probably no one heard.
“You’ve already called, so you can talk to me” offered Taehyung.
“Uh… okay but don’t really have any friends… I don’t really know how to talk to others…” faltered the other one.
“Don’t worry. If we are to meet each other, let’s start with the name. I’m Kim Taehyung. And you?”
“Jeon Jungkook”
“And... how do you want to do it?” asked Taehyung, as he couldn’t come up with anything better.
“I… want to drown in water… or take pills” came the answer.
“Do one thing for me” requested Taehyung with all of a sudden.
“What?”
“Don’t drown. Take the pills.”