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2seok | 1.7k words | mystery, futuristic, dreams

“Seokjin-hyung—”

Seokjin cuts the other off as he shuts the vehicle door and reaches up to pull the belt across his chest. Only after he’s settled does he look up at Taehyung, who is doing a terrible job of keeping his expression neutral.

Seokjin exhales and turns away from his sad eyes and downturned lips to face the window. “Let’s go, Taehyung-ah.”

Taehyung doesn’t move for a moment, likely giving him one more chance to change his mind. Finally, Taehyung sighs, then clicks a few buttons before the vehicle rumbles to a start.

“Yoongi-hyung will meet us there,” Taehyung whispers as they pull out of their garage, and into the tunnels that will lead them out.

Seokjin hums, keeping his gaze fixed on the rocks that blur past just outside the window. Soon, the rocks give way to a familiar sky midnight sky, the four seafoam green moons illuminating the world below. Midnight purple rocks are scattered across the black sand between the various mountains where the people reside.

In the distance lies the shadow of something forgotten to everyone but Seokjin.

It’s been two hundred years since the precious water era — an era that lasted seventeen years, starting with the discovery of the powder blue water where it twinkled in the black sand, and ending with the closer of the six mines dedicated to harvesting the water.

The powder blue water was coveted for the various properties it held, some of which are yet to be discovered and never will since obtaining the water is now illegal.

Sometimes, Seokjin wishes he could go back in time and do everything possible to prevent the precious water’s discovery. Then, maybe he wouldn’t have lost his only reason for living. Maybe he, Taehyung, and Yoongi wouldn’t have lost their closest friends. Their only comfort is that Namjoon, Jimin and Jeongguk were together when the mines flooded — they were otherwise inseparable.

Seokjin scrunches his face as memories of the seven of them together float through his mind. They’re blurred, smudged by the passage of time but that doesn’t keep Seokjin from clinging to them.

Taehyung and Yoongi have told him to let go, but Seokjin refuses, especially after the dreams started four and a half months ago.

For the past two hundred years, Seokjin’s struggled to sleep, plagued by the memories of alarms and powder blue water rushing over him, suffocating him. He’s tried every remedy possible, except drinking the precious water, much to Taehyung and Yoongi’s disappointment and exhaustion.

But one random night, he managed to fall into a deep sleep. He dreamed of precious water, glistening in the sand, and he dreams of a larger body of water surrounded by reflective rocks. He dreamed of an oasis, of a low soft voice whispering his name. It’s the same dream every time, but sometimes he’s given glimpses of something more.

It took two months for Seokjin to tell Taehyung and Yoongi about his dreams. He’d sat with them in the common area for the first time in two hundred years, something they’d avoided doing because it was too much. Whenever they wanted to get together, Seokin would either go to their side of the dwelling or they would come to his side.

Pulling them into the common area had been the first shock. Telling them about the dreams had been the second. Taehyung had been indifferent while Yoongi was resistant.