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"Hyung, do you know that it's been more than 3 years since we've went on an assignment together?" The young Grim Reaper asked his elder who was on his bicycle cycling in front of him. His black coat flowing elegantly behind him by the force of the wind. Upon hearing the voice of his partner for the night, Namjoon slowed down his cycling and waited for the younger one to catch up with him.
He glanced at his right to look at the dark lit city and faintly smiled. As he heard the sound a bicycle coming to stop beside his, he turned his head to see Jimin looking up at him. A faint smile was present on his features also.
"It has been. And I'm glad that you are the who is accompanying me on tonight's journey as well. It reminds me of the old days." Namjoon said, as a wave of nostalgia passed over him. His thoughts had drifted over to the days when the two of them frequently went out at midnight to cycle around around the sleeping city.
Jimin nodded his head halfheartedly and moved his legs to push the bicycle forward. He tired his best to hide the sadness and guilt that was slowly starting to creep up on him, hoping that his friend wouldn't notice but Namjoon being the observing one, did seem to notice. Silence made its way through the both of them as their thoughts drifted into different directions. The young grim reaper silently blaming himself for what he did and the elder one silently hoping that Jimin wasn't holding himself accountable for what had happened.
"Jiminie, you know it wasn't your fault, right? We are born with this awful fate after all." Namjoon spoke up.
Silence again stretched through the two of them until Jimin spoke up as a sigh left his lips. "I killed her, Hyung. I killed her because I was selfish. I killed the only person I ever loved in this entire world." Jimin said, his voice numb.
"Her treatment wasn't going well and she was in pain. Sooner or later she was bound to die and you know that."
"She had a chance of survival! All she needed was a good heart donor and then she would've survived that fucking disease! She would still be with us." Jimin spoke while jerking the handle his bicycle which caused the cycle to make a screeching noise.
"Jimin-" Namjoon said as he sighed, "stop lying to yourself. You of all people knew that her chance of survival was very low. She was in immense pain and after all, what you did was something she asked for." Tears made its way through Jimin's eyes as he choked on a sob. Namjoon's gaze drifted towards the said reapers tear etched face.
Jimin slowed down his cycling as it was hard for him to see through his tear filled eyes and his brain all hazy with his thoughts. Namjoon placed a hand on his shoulder, in hopes of comforting him. The younger let out a broken cry as a stream of tears poured down his face. "I loved her, Hyung. I loved her so much."
"I know you did." Namjoon said, his hand rubbing up and down his back in soothing motions. "I-I wish I never fell in love with her. I wish she never loved me. This all would've been so easy if we hated each other!" Jimin spoke as he ran a hand through his hair. Not bothering to wipe the wet tear stains on his cheek.
"You don't get to choose who you fall in love with."
Tears kept on streaming down his face as he thought about Lilly in her last days with him. The way she smiled whenever Jimin came to visit her. Her large and focused eyes as she and Namjoon conversed on the most absurd of topics everyday. The way she always excitedly ate the homemade food her mum used to bring for her. Her competitiveness while playing board games with him. Her beautiful laughter that used to fill the room whenever Jimin used to mention his friend Seokjin's, infamous jokes but then the painful cries and screams she let out everyday as different needles and serums were injected in her body. The near-death seizures she had to go through. The nights she had to endure away from the comfort of her home and had to sleep in a unwelcoming hospital bed.
The day Lilly made Jimin promise her that she wouldn't let her cancer take her life, but if things never got better - he would be the one who will end her life. When she overheard the doctors talking to her parents that her chane of survival had slimed down a lot as the tumor had spread a lot . Even with a healthy heart transplant, the rate of survival of low. Upon hearing that, Lilly begged Jimin to just kiss her and to end her pain, just like he had promised her after all.
Jimin cried and cried until he had no tears left inside of him and Namjoon made no attempt in making the younger one stop crying. He knew that he needed to let his pain and anger out, as Jimin had been blaming himself for the past 3 years that he was the cause of Lilly's death when they both know that it was the total opposite. A moment passed and Namjoon's rubbing and seized but hand was still resting on his shoulder.
"Hyung, the thing that hurts the most is that I'll never see her again. I'll never hear her voice. I'll never get to hold her again. I'll never look in her beautiful eyes again. I'll never hear her beautiful laughter again." The tears on his cheeks had long dried by now as he numbly stared at the starry sky above.
"It'll always hurt. The pain will never go away Jimin-ah. But you should be at peace knowing that she isn't in pain anymore. She is no more hurting. You didn't kill her, you saved her." Jimin looked down from the dark yet bright sky above him and smiled at his friend. "Thank you." He meant it. Thanks to Namjoon he left his apartment and decided to go for a ride with him just like the old days. Namjoon smiled and gave his back a last pat before he looked at his watch that was strapped on his right arm.
2:34 AM
"We gotta get moving." Namjoon said as Jimin was suddenly reminded why they both were out so late at night.
Namjoon had a soul to take.
Jimin quickly wiped his cheeks to get rid of the tear stains and started to move his bicycle forward with a push. He felt bad in making his friend already late and burdening him with his thoughts so he hurriedly trailed behind him, not wanting the other to be more late than he already was. Namjoon though didn't mind, he was glad that Jimin let out the guilt and pain that was clawing up on him for years.
Namjoon stopped his bicycle in front of a pretty well off house. He got of his bicycle and saw Jimin on his left doing the same. He opened the cross-body bag he was carrying with him and took out an envelope that was sealed with today's date and the address of the house he was standing in front off, stamped on it. Namjoon tore open the envelope and read through it.
Name: Jeon Jungkook
Age: 6 years old
Cause of Death: Pneumonia
Time of Death: 3:02 AM
Namjoon sucked in a breath. It been decades since he took a soul of a child.
"What happened?" Jimin's worried voice asked as he saw the sudden change in his friends emotions. Namjoon passed the envelope to Jimin as he rubbed his temples to ease off his tension.
"It's a child." Jimin said quietly and Namjoon nodded with his eyes closed, hands still rubbing his temples. Namjoon glanced at his watch.
2:52 AM
After a few deeps breaths, Namjoon asked "Do you want to come with me? I understand if you don't want to as it's been many years." He had to ask his friend because it would be such inconsiderate act of him if he just dragged Jimin inside with him.
"I'll come with you, Hyung." Jimin said with a faint encouraging smile and a nod of his head. Namjoon let out a sigh of relief upon hearing that as he had no idea on how he'd be able to do this if he was on his own. Most of the souls he took were of people in their old age but a child. Taking a child's soul always hard because he knew that he was depriving a young, innocent soul from the beauty that life had yet to offer them.
Namjoon and Jimin looked at each other and as a silent agreement both of the reapers nodded their head and closed their eyes in unison. When they opened their eyes, both of them were standing in the hallway of the house they were just standing outside less than a second ago. It would've been an awful lot of work if the grim reapers weren't able to transport through walls and had to open every lock and door to get to the person they were assigned to take the soul of.
Thank the Lord that he was a bit considerate on this matter with the Reapers.
Faint whimpers could be heard from the room they both were standing outside of. Namjoon quietly turned the knob of the door and entered in the dimly lit room. The faint light of the bedside table that had illuminated the room made it somewhat possible for the Reapers to see the different hand drawn posters that were pasted on the wall of the room. Characters of a video game that Jimin wasn't able to name, were drawn with such excellence that he didn't believe a six year old had drew them until he saw the child's signature in the right bottom corner of the page.
In middle of the room was the bed on which the panting child laid. Namjoon walked over to him, his tall figure casting a large shadow on the wall as he placed a hand over his forehead. The child's temperature was so high that Namjoon immediately retracted his hand from his forehead, not expecting the young boy to be lying in such a high temperature. Jungkook looked like he came back from running in a marathon as he had bathed in sweat, his breathing even and fast.
Jimin made his way over to the boy and pushed away the hair that was sticking to his forehead. As Jimin's cold fingers came in contact with Jungkook's burning body and child stirred from his sleep.
"M-Mama?" Namjoon stiffened upon hearing the younger boy's voice.
"Mama... it hurts a lot." Jungkook still hadn't open his eyes to know that it wasn't his mother who touched his forehead but it was the Reapers who came to put an end to his life in this world. Jimin reached down and grabbed Jungkook,s small and shivering hand between his large cold ones. The young boy upon the contact slowly opened his eyes as the hand engulfing his wasn't a familiar touch.
The first thing that Jungkook saw when he opened his eyes were dimples. He looked in the eyes of the dimpled man and then to the man who had engulfed his small hands in his large ones. Normally, in such a situation Jungkook would've been scared to see two strangers standing in his room in the middle of the night but his body was so tired to do anything regarding the situatiion.
"Who are you both?" Jungkook's raspy voice broke the silence. After a moment of thinking , Namjoon carefully replied, "We are here to take your pain away." That got Jungkook's attention as he looked over to Jimin to confirm what the tall, dimpled man and just told him was true. Jimin answered his questioning eyes with a nod of his head and a forced smile. In a way, they would take away his pain.
"Really? You can do that? Mama said that I need to take a lot of medicines other wise my pain won't go away. I don't like medicines." The child said, his lips pouting. The pain was almost unbearable for the young child and Jungkook would do anything to get rid of it.
"You don't need medicines, just a kiss on the forehead and all of the pain will go away." Jimin spoke up as he waved his hand in the air that wasn't clasped around Jungkook's to add an affect for the child to make him agree.
"Really?! That would be so nice. I have to wake up mama then. She would want to thank you if you make my pain go away." Jungkook was about to get up from his bed when Namjoon immediately stopped him. "You can call your mother after I take the pain away, yeah? You can surprise her, okay strong man?" Namjoon said to Jungkook, hoping the child would agree so he could just get over with this.
"Okay! Thank you so much. Mama is going to so happy!" Jungkook said beaming with happiness whereas Jimin's and Namjoon's heart clenched painfully at the sight.
Namjoon hoped not to get any children for his future assignments anytime soon. Namjoon leaned forward and before he kissed his forehead he patted Jungkook's head and said, "You're such a good and strong boy Jungkookie. Your parents would be so proud of you."
"Thank you, my mama will think that you are an angel because you are going to take my pain away." Jungkook said with a sincere smile. Namjoon forced back a smile and leaned down further until his lips came in contact with the warm forehead of the child.
Jungkook sucked in a breath, shoulders immediately slumped down and hand clasped around Jimin's lost its grip. His eyes rolled back and slowly closed.
"Your pain is gone now, Jungkookie." Namjoon said quietly as a tear from his eye fell on the cheek of lifeless Jungkook lying underneath him.
With heavy hearts both of the reapers moved away and silently exited the room. This was the burden they had to live with. This was the Grim Reapers burden.