4.6 | Dark Ages ✓

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HE FINDS HIMSELF alone again.

Beyond, the evening sun sets between two buildings. Behind, dark clouds loom in the horizon. Below, the water runs swift and rapid. His fingers tighten on the rail as the memory of him drowning surfaces again. He'd been shoved right off this bridge by a masked stranger to jump twelve times through time.

Has it only been a day?

He lets out a slow breath. It takes everything within him to fight the loneliness threatening to crush him. Before, while time-travelling, he'd been caught up with keeping track of his surroundings and figuring out what he had to do.

But where do I go from here?

"I don't know," she'd said, when he asked her about it in his previous jump. "What I know about the future is only as much as you've told me. But I do suppose that if you talked to my future self, she'd be able to tell you," she'd added, sounding amused by the prospect.

"That's the thing—I haven't found you in the future."

"How strange."

"Yes," he'd said, still looking at her. "It is."

He lets out another breath at the memory and looks down at the watch around his wrist. Slowly, he removes it. He holds down the two buttons by the side the way he'd seen Hoseok do before. Three seconds tick by, but the plates no longer light with new numbers.

Of course, he realizes. This mission is now complete.

He wishes that it wasn't—that there is one more jump he's yet to do. He's left the saving of the world in the hands of his other capable self, but now he's returned to the one that's always boggled him from the very beginning.

Find her.

"Where are you?" he whispers. "Why can't I ever find you?"

He closes his eyes and leans against the railing. Just then, a sudden patter of footsteps closes in. His eyes snap open. But before he can turn, a hand latches onto the back of his jacket. With a sharp tug, he's yanked away from the edge and spun around to face a furious man.

"What the fuck are you doing, Taehyung?"

"What're you—"

"I know things are bad right now, but do you think killing yourself makes it all go away?" the man hisses, sounding on the verge of hysteria. "I've already lost Mom and Dad, are you really going to make me lose you too?"

He stills. As he stares at the angry man in front of him, a memory of a conversation he'd had with Seokjin surfaces. Our brother, Seokjin had said. You didn't think there was only one of you I had to worry about, did you?

He swallows. "Namjoon?"

"Of course it's me, you idiot, who the hell else would I be?" Namjoon rakes a hand through his hair in annoyance. "But, obviously, not that it ever crossed your mind when you were about to jump off this damn bridge—"

"I wasn't."

"You—" Namjoon stops mid-rant. "—what?"

"I wasn't jumping off this bridge."

"Oh." His brother blinks, then takes a step back. "You weren't?"

Not voluntarily, he thinks wryly, remembering the time when the masked stranger had pushed him in. He shakes his head. "No."

Namjoon's eyes widen at his mistake. "Right, sorry," he says, with a sheepish smile. "It's just—you looked like you were. I panicked when I saw you. And it would've been the most tragic thing if you'd died without finding out the good news."

"What good news?"

Namjoon's smile widens until his eyes crinkle at the corners. And when he speaks, his voice is filled with the kind of warmth that sets Taehyung's fears at ease.

"You did it, Taehyung," he says. "The Dark Ages are over."