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･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.
Fallen Stars on Earth,
Set off on the night-lit way
And find each other
･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.
Midnight canvas. Mother-of-pearl splattered with a toothbrush.
Stars. A boundless orchestra of stars, blinking softly with their quiet little voices.
The tall grass tickles Jimin’s ankles, calves, elbows, nape, and ears.
Slowly, they sit up. A cool breeze shivers with them, plays in their hair, billows their shirt and prickles their skin beneath the thin fabric.
Hair. Skin. Fabric.
Jimin gingerly detaches their hands from the grass and raises them to their eyes. Curls their fingers into their palms experimentally, balls them into fists, spreads them out again, one at a time. Jimin’s eyes widen as they hear the crack of a knuckle.
They have a body. A terrestrial body.
And then it hits them all at once. The colours; dark green, dark blue, dark brown where before there was only black and light. The music; the chirps, the trills, the creaks. The scents that waft into Jimin’s nose but whose origins elude them. The damp cold of the ground, the fragrant warmth of the air, the caress of the wind.
They have a terrestrial body, and they have left home.
Jimin was taught about Star Beings who fall from the heavens and take on corporeal forms. About the trials lovers must undergo to prove the power of their bond and meet again after being separated on Earth.
But Jimin does not remember.
They close their eyes, concentrating, but no memories or impressions of their lover come. Before dread can seep into their new veins, Jimin reopens their eyes and tilts their head toward the sky, where the stars, Jimin’s kin, twinkle. Smiling. Taunting. They will watch Jimin stagger on their quest, holding their breath, betting on Jimin’s success or failure.
“Kinsfolk, come to my aid. What shall I do?”
Travel at night. Avoid cities, which will outshine you. Do not let humans see you.
“But where shall I go?”
In response to the Star Being’s question, a cluster of constellations in the north-west blaze up in the night sky, pointing the way with their brilliance.
Desperation turns to hope in Jimin’s blood. Spurred on by the beating in their chest, guided by the glow of their relatives, Jimin sets off on their journey.
For nights and nights, Jimin roams through sweet-smelling fields spangled with tiny earthly stars. Roams through valleys, along streams as sinuous as the maze of their memories. Roams through dense, rumbling forests. Roams and stumbles on unsteady legs. The mechanics are alien to Jimin, and the scenery even more so.
For nights and nights, they skirt the edges of towns, hit dead ends, turn back. Lose their way. Above, the stars burn and remind Jimin of their warning.
For nights and nights and nights, Jimin puts their trust in the Star Beings who guide them from up there, until doubt starts to creep in.
“Why am I not getting closer? Why do I still not remember?”
You are not trying hard enough. You are not ready.
A human emotion wells up inside Jimin, crawls in between their ribs, and swells in their lungs like an expanding micro-universe. Frustration. Blinded by the intensity of it, they take a false step that sends them tumbling down the sloping bank of a creek. They try to break their fall by digging their palms and heels into the sand, colliding with rocks on the way down, before landing on all fours just short of the water.
Skin chafed red and muscles aching, Jimin learns that bodies hurt. Their body hurts.
But the pain momentarily leaves them, for what they see in the creek is unlike anything they have ever seen in these foreign lands.
A face. Floating in an expanse of black water-sky amid a thousand glittering stars. Silky silver-white hair falling in soft waves. Flecks of stardust under two gentle eyes. Sad eyes. Disoriented eyes.
Without taking their gaze off this image, Jimin lifts a hand. Brushes their cheek. The individual in the creek mirrors their gesture.
This is me.
I am beautiful.
But the sky greens as daybreak draws near, and Jimin has to tear themself away from their reflection.
Today, while sleeping, they dream for the first time since incarnating on Earth.
A calming presence, a soothing pressure. Shifting, complementary shapes, entwined like destiny. Immaterial smiles, just the essence; a warmth, a tingling, a tension that melts, a twist in the gut. If stars had guts. If stars were people.
When Jimin awakens, the dying rays of the sun pierces their eyes, scorching the retinas.
Taehyung. Their lover’s name is Taehyung.
Taehyung is out there somewhere. Looking for Jimin.
This realization triggers a blood-hot, frenzied throbbing in Jimin’s chest—the same one that sometimes matches their pace as they traipse across the land in search of their soulmate. The dregs of slumber drain away. Jimin scrambles upright and leans against the trunk of the tree under which they slept. Through the tree’s drooping branches, a pale moon punches a hole in the pink sky above the setting sun, sinking unhurried behind distant hills.
When was the last time Jimin communed with their love? What does time mean, when the only thing that ever revolved around Jimin was wrenched from them and launched into a strange, extrastellar world? Before, Jimin knew no revolution. There was neither day nor night; only light, reflecting Taehyung’s.
Legs folded, back straight, eyelids closed, Jimin shuts off all external stimuli and makes a cosmic effort to locate Taehyung’s vital energy. Jimin’s spirit drifts into the void, wandering far and wide, solitary, but with a clear purpose; then, a faint pulse wrinkles the fabric of nothingness. Jimin’s brow furrows in concentration.
“Taehyung, my love, is that you?”
… Jimin…
Taehyung’s energy is remote and weak. A static buzz. It thrums beneath Jimin’s skin. Jimin cannot perceive it as distinctly as the voices of their relatives in the sky.
“Where are you, Taehyung? I have been searching for so long. Help me find you, my love.”
… not despair… my beloved… shall find each other again… follow Deneb…
“Deneb?”
… will show you the way… carry you in my heart until… your arrival…
“Taehyung, my love, please stay with me.”
… follow Deneb…
Taehyung’s energy ebbs away. Jimin opens their eyes. Night has fallen. Shining over the horizon, Deneb winks wryly.
“You could have sent me a signal earlier, cousin.”
What would have been the fun in that?
Jimin swallows their annoyance at being led astray, rises to their feet and heads for Cygnus.
Even with a surer route, the journey is long and arduous. Jimin courses through the wall of time. Their knees grow weary, their skin breaks and hardens, their inner fire wavers. But the combined instructions of Taehyung and the stars do not protect Jimin from the thunderclouds that come rolling in to thwart their pursuit. Several nights are wasted, lacerated open by lighting, and Jimin feels themself and the sky cry in anguish. Deneb is nowhere to be seen.
More than once, Jimin takes a wrong turn.
“I have been here before. I recognize this tree.”
Yes, you have gone in a circle, respond the stars from beyond the veil of clouds.
More than once, Jimin considers giving up.
“My love, what would become of us if we never met again?”
… dare not imagine… must continue… waiting for you, my beloved…
Time elapses. The rain stops and is replaced by drought. Deneb returns.
With each passing night, the landscape becomes more rugged. Sharp. Cliffs split the ground and claw at the open sky. Jimin encounters many frightening horned beasts, but they flee at Jimin’s approach rather than attack. The rock bites Jimin’s hands and feet as they scale up the cliffside, never allowing their cousin Deneb out of sight.
You are almost there, repeats Deneb over and over again, so much so that Jimin only half believes them.
And then, just when Jimin is about to stop believing entirely, an astral vision presents itself to them. Before Jimin looms a towering hill, its summit struck by a beam of light descending from the heavens.
I am up here.
Jimin flies to the hill. As soon as they reach its foot, the light begins to cascade down the walls and envelops Jimin completely. Higher and higher they climb. Their fingers scrape against the stone, but the starlight heals them. Their heart pounds and churns, liquefies, dissolves into ether, loses its humanity. Jimin’s spirit divides from their body.
When they finally haul themself to the top of the hill and gaze up ahead, Jimin is blinded by the light that sears a path to their soul. The light is all-encompassing.
Jimin shields their eyes with their hands, but then the glow fades and, at its very centre, a silhouette emerges. Familiar, though Jimin has never seen it before.
Chimes of laughter ringing out across the summer of the universe. Stellar flares ionizing the space between two beings teetering on the brink of nothing. Jimin and Taehyung in another life. Windswept hair, by the ocean, by an old willow tree, by the ruins of a castle, by a home all their own, wherever the stars shine upon the freckles on their faces, their laced fingers and their eyes locking each other in love.
Jimin; white and small, but radiant. Taehyung; softer, dimmer, with luminous beads hanging from their ears. What are they? Are they really alive, flesh and blood and bones? Were they alive, in space? Jimin remembers it all now, but their memories are worth less than the love that inhabits them.
Taehyung smiles at them. Taehyung’s face is magnificent.
When they kiss, the tear in the universe mends. Old constellations reconnect; new ones are born. Jimin learns what a physical heart can dictate, what bodies are meant to do. Their lips meet like fate, their breath pauses like time, their fingers cling to skin like infinity.
The kiss ends, but Jimin and Taehyung do not let go of each other.
“Let us go home, my love,” says Jimin.
Taehyung breathes their reply into Jimin’s mouth. “Yes, my beloved, but first, let me kiss you again.”
･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.
The end.