Born Twice , Bitter Once
chapter 1
The heat had a sound all its own:
A low, hungry roar that pushed against the windows and turned the air into a thing you could taste
Flames licked the wallpaper until it buckled away in black ribbons, and the ceiling sagged like an old, exhausted animal
Outside, somewhere through the smoke and the crackle, the world kept going — horns, shouts, distant water — but inside the house the world narrowed to breath and pain.
Taehyung's skin seared where the fire had touched him; his hair smoked in brittle clumps
(author pov : i know pic is not convincing , i just want to show he is lying down )
One arm hung uselessly beneath a slab of broken concrete, the weight of the house pressing him into the floor
He tried to move and felt only heat and the slow, traitorous slither of smoke in his throat
His voice came out as ragged rasping.
The light that caught his eyes made them look too bright, like glass in candlelight.
He was waiting for his death so he can be free from the pain this world has given him
Now he just wanted to die peacefully
that's When the boy with dark hair crawled over shattered furniture, he did not come like a threat; he came like weather.
Jungkook's face was streaked with soot and panic. His hands trembled but moved with stubborn, sharp efficiency:
Fingers scrabbling for purchases of space, for a place to hook under Taehyung's shoulder.
He pulled at the concrete slab with both arms, bit his lip until it bled, found the impossible leverage, and could not lift it.
He cursed once, soft and animal, and his breath was a staccato against the roar.
He said then — not a name spat, but a plea. It hit Taehyung like a physical thing.
Taehyung tried to answer.
Jeon taehyung
[looked at Jungkook]
He saw Jungkook look up, as if searching the ceiling for angels or curses — or for escape
Jeon Jungkook
[screaming and crying his eyes out while looking at the sky]
He was screaming so much like he was complaining to gods for this condition
Jeon taehyung
[tear came to his eyes]
The boy's jaw worked. For a heartbeat, for a single human beat of time, anger rose up like a tide in Taehyung's chest.
The life in him wanted nothing more than to push, to shove Jungkook away and make him live through this alone.
But even hatred is a luxury when the body is failing.
Jeon taehyung
*how dare he say these things after destroying my whole life*
Jungkook shifted, every movement grinding against the house's groan
He slid closer and, impossibly, folded himself over Taehyung's prone form
The motion was clumsy and instinctive, like someone learning how to breathe again.
Jungkook pressed his body against Taehyung's, using his own chest as a shield
Smoke burned their throats; the heat took on a new, sharper edge where skin met skin.
Jeon taehyung
[tried to push away with a little bit of strength he had Left]
Jeon Jungkook
[didn't budge form his place]
Jungkook whispered, or maybe he was just exhaling.
His hand found Taehyung's scorched cheek and cupped it the way you might touch a shard of something precious — gently, as if afraid the touch would shatter the last pieces.
Outside, the plaster hissed and fell
chapter 2
Outside, the plaster hissed and fell
Light bloomed like a wound through the windows, and the air vibrated with the house's death rattle
Jungkook's breath hit Taehyung in hot, hurried blows; his heartbeat drummed against the thin line of chest between them
Jungkook sounded —like a child's
And something in Taehyung unclenched.
Taehyung wanted to say something sharp, something cruel that would set the world back to where it had been
He opened his mouth, and only a soft, unknowing sound escaped.
He looked up, because the habit of him was to look up when danger pressed in, searching for some indifferent sky that had nothing to do with the mess between people.
Smoke blurred the ceiling
The light from the flames carved long, painful shadows across Jungkook's face, and in that wavering gold Taehyung saw the boy he had always hated and the boy who had chosen, impossibly, to stay.
Tears — or maybe sweat — tracked dark lines through the soot on Jungkook's cheek. He closed his eyes then, as if to memorize what he was touching.
Jungkook's body shuddered. He tightened like a belt, anchoring Taehyung, trying to pull taehyung as much as possible so flames won't reach to him
The sound jk made was not a cry; it was a raw exhalation pulled from the back of the throat.
He spoke words, mumbled and broken, the content nearly lost in the smoke.
Jeon Jungkook
Stay with me,
He said once, and then again, though somewhere inside both of them they knew staying was not a choice carved out by fire.
It was a defiance and a surrender wrapped into one.
Taehyung's vision narrowed until Jungkook's face filled the world
He could make out the small, ridiculous things — a fleck of ash on an eyelid, the way Jungkook's lashes clung together with sweat — and for a second the trivial beauty of it all felt obscene
He reached up, and his fingers brushed the side of Jungkook's jaw as if checking whether the boy was made of bone or smoke.
Jungkook's hand closed over Taehyung's, fierce and clamping.
The ceiling above them groaned, then cracked, and a rain of dust and hot plaster sifted into the small space between their faces.
Dulled. For Taehyung, the world seemed to slide sideways, as if the house itself had tipped them toward some vast, indifferent sea.
He could hear the blood in his ears, feel the beat of Jungkook's heart like a second metronome. The edges of things smudged; Jungkook's voice thinned.
Taehyung tried to answer and only breathed out a small, useless laugh that tasted of ash.
Jeon taehyung
*fuck ,am i really going to die in this man arms*
Jungkook's arms tightened as if he could hold back the heat with muscle alone
He pressed his face to the side of Taehyung's head, eyes squeezed shut against tears he no longer had the strength to weep
Jeon taehyung
*if I ever get a chance to live again*
Jeon taehyung
*instead of dying in your arms i will watch you dying*
There was a small, terrible sound when the plaster above them finally gave.
Jungkook's grip faltered for a breath, then clamped again
The house took its final swallow.
Outside, the house burned down to its skeleton and then to the skeleton's ash.
Skeleton and then to the skeleton's ash. Inside, the heat finally took them both whole, and the only sound left was the pop and sigh of paper and wood giving up.
chapter 3
Everything is black and there is no pain
it feels so good to be free . Free from any pain . Free from captivity . free from
I had a really good life and I left with only one regret and that is I can't kill the person who killed my beloved's
Jeon taehyung
[Jeon taehyung]
how did the things went so wrong, how a simple walk home with a bag of groceries could end in smoke and sirens.
To understand what happened we have to go back in the past
We used to live in a not big but decent size house that smelled like lemon cleaner and warm bread. The walls were crowded with little things that made a life:
Chipped mug from a market run, a tiny stuffed rabbit someone had pressed into my hand one wasted winter, the crooked photo on the mantle of the two of us laughing at something stupid
My husband—Minho—had this habit of humming while he cooked; it made even burnt toast feel like an offering.
i was eight months pregnant when the world shrank to the size of our little kitchen and the soft pulse of the life growing inside me.
People asked how we handled it; the truth was simple. We handled it by holding hands.
That afternoon started like any other ordinary miracle
We walked out of the grocery shop with a paper bag that had milk and a stubborn loaf and too many snacks for the midnight cravings we'd promised ourselves.
Minho linked his fingers through mine, thumb rubbing slow circles against my knuckles. He kept making faces at my reflection in the shop windows and then pretending to bluster when I laughed.
The street should have been ordinary—cars, a woman walking her dog, a child kicking a ball—but then the air shifted
You know that tiny human alarm that goes off in your chest?
Mine sounded like a bell.
They came out of nowhere:
Jungkook and the others, the kind of people who moved like they owned the empty spaces between buildings.
They didn't shout at first.
They just closed in, a ring tightening around two people with a bag of groceries and no answer for why the world had suddenly turned hostile.
I Felt Minho’s hand squeeze mine and not let go, and that grip was the only thing that kept me from falling down in panic.
One of them said—soft, almost conversational, like they were offering a courtesy
"Nice day for walking around, isn't it?"
Minho smiled because it was the only polite thing to do
Jeon minho
"yeah it's lovely"
Jeon minho
"Now please,Excuse us,"
An important thing about Jungkook:
He has a habit of talking in cold voice so in further story he always be talking in cold voice so I won't write again and again that he is talking in a cold voice . Every single time he will talk in a cold voice
Jeon Jungkook
"why so hurry"
Jeon Jungkook
"don't want to say hello to your brother"
Jeon taehyung
[he never told he has a brother?]
Jeon minho
"please leave my family out of it "
[sounding desparate]
Jeon Jungkook
[chuckle darkly]
Jungkook Chuckle was enough to make tae pee in his pants , or was dark , humourless or dangerous chuckle
Jeon taehyung
[Trembling ]
Jeon minho
"please don't make scene"
Jeon minho
"it's between us"
Jeon minho
"my hubby is getting scared and he is pregnant, let us go"
I could feel the heat of the group like a hand against my back
My knees threatened to give
Jeon taehyung
"We Don't want any trouble,"
My voice sounded foreign to me.
minho started to walk towards Jungkook and they had some talk which didn't reach my ear
Jeon minho
"we can talk later , i am tired "
Jeon minho
"for now We're just going home."
Jeon Jungkook
"You're tired?"
Download NovelToon APP on App Store and Google Play
