Work Text:
Seokjin comes back home drenched in rain.
He had failed.
Again.
He was alone.
Again.
There was a time Seokjin wasn't alone though.
There was a time when six other boys used to stand by his side— share his smiles, his laughter, his sorrows. Seokjin misses them. All he’s trying to do is get them back.
It was with that wish— or had he called upon himself a curse— a bargain with God that until he could finally have them all again, safe and together, he would keep going back.
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He’s come close before.
Sometimes he gets all five of them and he’s so close to their happily ever after but an accident will happen, something will go wrong and he’ll be drenched in that frigid rain again and brought back to the house to repeat time.
This time he hadn't even managed to get one.
He had approached Namjoon and Namjoon had stared at him coldly.
Through infinite trials and errors, he had figured out a pattern he had to follow. If he diverted from the pattern they would all die.
It took fifteen or so tries to figure out Namjoon was the one he had to talk to first. Every time, time was reset Seokjin had to find him. It wasn't too hard he was usually in three places, at the gas station, idling in the railroad tracks, or walking the streets.
There have been a couple of times Seokjin has failed though, where he couldn't find Namjoon no matter how much he tried.
He’s not sure but he thinks those are the times he’s with Taehyung. He doesn't know where, but that is his guess.
However, more often than not he does find Namjoon and talking to him again and rekindling whatever there was isn’t hard.
After Namjoon is Yoongi. Yoongi is harder, he’s angry and gruff and sometimes he has already passed and sometimes he’s done something irreversible so it’s hard but Seokjin has learned to get him too.
Hoseok and Jimin come after him. They have always been a bit of a package deal, but, there are times where he has to go looking separately for them as well.
Usually, Hoseok’s the tricky one. There are a lot of times he has already overdosed by the time Seokjin can get to him.
But Jimin, Jimin is always the last to go in all the timelines.
It’s like he stands silently by Seokjin’s side and waits for all their friends to die one more time before he finally takes his own life.
He always takes his own life and Seokjin is so broken by then he doesn’t bother to stop it.
He can't stop it...
Jungkook comes after, their loose cannon.
There were only two instances where Seokjin was able to save him from that car crash that night.
He thinks he’s learning that Yoongi is the key to that.
And lastly its Taehyung.
Tae.
The one crying out for the most help and Seokjin hurts because he doesn’t know how to save him.
Taehyung kills his father in every single timeline he has gone back to, in one way or another.
Sometimes Seokjin wonders how deep his hatred for the man actually was.
The few times he had managed to make it far enough to try and save Taehyung, Seokjin had tried removing his sister from the situation and getting her to a safe place before she was hurt, but even without her Taehyung still carried out what he saw as rightful justice. And if it wasn’t that he was locked up for something else; graffiti, vandalism, underage drinking. The police keep an eye out for him and he’s picked up often.
Seokjin once considered only taking some of the boys and leaving the time loop but he knows it wouldn't work, none of them could do it. The first time things had fallen apart because of Taehyung and they would never get better until they had Taehyung.
So he jumps and jumps and fights and calls and loves and he’s in a loop where he managed to get to Jungkook but a car hits him.
Seokjin doesn’t even hurt anymore, doesn’t even get sick, he sits numbly at the funeral as the boys cry but Jimin stands by his side.
“Hyung. If what you say is true and if you have tried to save us so many times and it still isn’t working… maybe it’s time to stop.”
“I wouldn’t be able to go on either though,” he says and Jimin looks sad.
It's at that moment Seokjin has an epiphany.
Maybe god is playing games with him.
He thinks for chasing something irreversible as death he is being forced to relive the deaths of those he loves for eternity with no reprieve.
However, he also knows, that if there is even the slimmest possibility of Seokjin finding them, of having them again.
He will try.