“I need to let you out!! There… There has got to be another way out!” Taehyung pleaded in panic, slamming his body weight against the metal door of your ship cabin. The cold water was rising to his knees drenching his black slacks, as he continued to tirelessly slam himself against the cold metal door.

“Please, it’s okay, I’ll be okay. Please, just go.” You spoke trying to reassure him through the tiny window door, despite of your diminishing hope of a promising mutual survival. Water was rushing into you cramped ship cabin, but you tried your best in vain to remain calm.

Taehyung was drenched from head to toe. His hair was messily tossed in different directions, and his skin was glistening from both water and sweat.

“I CAN’T LOSE YOU.” He yelled over the deafening sound of water rushing in through huge various openings of the walls and ceilings.

I can’t lose you. Not again. There has got to be a way.

The cruise ship had become the target of mother nature’s unexpected thunderstorm and had been struck by lightning. Hopelessly unable to run its system to bring people to safety, the cruise ship had met its end and had started to progressively sink into the rough waters: the harsh cold ocean waves claimed the ship as its own. People were scrambling through the narrow cabin hallways, taking everything they can carry to save themselves. It was a time of chaos, and God had made his decision.

“It’s getting cold… And the water is up to my waist, you need to leave. Taehyung please… You need to leave.” Your throat was going dry and your heart was beating against its own will. Each heart beat threatening to pry you open.  

Disregarding your requests, Taehyung was under the trance of a fool’s wisdom. He recklessly beat down the door with his aching body, refusing to leave. “There is always a way!” he yelled through choked sobs, stubborn and persistent.

Hopeless, you closed your eyes, and you tried to believe him. Even if it meant believing there was a way out even in places where hope was hard to find. Rattling the cabin’s door knob,  it refused to budge. Your throat was running dry as you tried your best to hold in your sobs. You were beyond drenched, and the water was nearly up to your chest; your body was aching from the stinging chills the water had been sending up and down your spine.

“There is no way…” Before you knew it, you broke into cries. All the unshed tears had finally broke out through the fissures of your facade.

Your body was numb and your blood continued to run cold. Your body shook as you broke out into a sob. “THERE IS NO WAY. YOU NEED TO LEAVE OR WE WILL BOTH DIE.”

“I love you, and I can’t leave. I just can’t.” Taehyung’s body ached from exhaustion. He wiped his tears away with the back of his hand. “I can’t.” The thought of losing you pierced through him in a million different ways the chills of the rising water couldn’t.

I can’t keep losing you.

Peeking through your cabin window, you let out her hand through the small broken glass opening. “Please, you have to go.” You pleaded.

Taking his hand in yours, you intertwined your fingers with his. Closing your eyes, the times of a long promising forever remained plastered in the back of your memory. “I love you so very much. But if you love me just as much, you need to leave.”

Watching him through weary eyes, you wanted to take him into your arms and whisper sweet nothings into his ear. Sweet nothings that spoke of a happy ending. But this was the ending to your chapter, and a new beginning to his.  

Through gritted teeth and with eyes tightly shut, Taehyung tightened his grip around your cold soaked hands. Refusing to let you slip away from his grip, he refused to let go of a part of him that you had held on to through years on end.

I let you down.

I had always let you down.

“I love you Taehyung. “ your voice trembled; the water was progressively rising and was now up to your shoulders. The cold waters temperature had become unbearable.

“Y-you will always b-be more than what I could ever wish for.”

Opening his eyes, he leaned in through the window far enough to meld his lips together with yours. His kiss spoke of an undying love while yours spoke of an undying promise of unspoken forevers, a forever that death cannot part. And it hurt, the bitter irony behind the definition of forever was meeting its end.  

“Now go!”

Without looking back Taehyung struggled to trudge through the rising cold waters that had collected in the narrow cabin hallways of the ship. The water was chilling to the bone but his body refused to register any of the pain he was meant to feel. Unable to look back, he tried his best to stop himself from playing with fate, and he had to learn once again the hard way that maybe you were meant to leave in this particular life.

And maybe she just wasn’t destined to be mine in this life. But perhaps she will be in the next.  

Before the ocean floors had kissed the bottom of the ship and had claimed it to be its own, he had found his way to safety.

Clutching his chest with his trembling hands, Taehyung’s body was overworked with fatigue. Reaching the shore, he collapsed and before he knew it, he had fallen into a trance- numbing his grip on reality and on time. Just like the sand in an hourglass, time had easily slipped through his fingertips, and he had travelled deep into an abyss of oblivion. An oblivion almost at the same time too familiar to miss, it was once again his time to travel into a new dimension of a new life. Before his body could register what was occurring, he was into a time warp.

Suddenly gasping for air, you sat upright clutching your chest in a cold sweat after waking up from a dream. Looking around, you were relieved to find yourself in your modernized themed condo bedroom. And beside you, Taehyung was comfortably wrapped under the covers of the bed sound asleep. You let out a sigh of relief and smiled, contented to learn that everything that had occurred was but a surreal dream. Running your fingers through his soft hair, you appreciated his soft features.  

Stirring in his sleep he turned to face you and had slowly opened his eyes only to find a pair of doe eyes looking back.

“Is everything okay?” Taehyung yawned sheepishly.

“I had a dream.”

Half asleep Taehyung opened his eyes, and sat up in bed with his attention plastered on to you. “Tell me about it.”

“It felt so real, as if I was living in that particular time being. There was… a sinking cruise ship and there was this- this man… Who had tried to save me, a significant other.”

He held your hand in his. “Tell me, what happened? Do you remember who he was?”

A glint of hope surged through his fingertips, hoping that this time you would remember. That maybe this time the fallen minutes of the ticking clock was working under Taehyung’s favour, and that everything will fall into place the way it should have in the past.

Looking into his eyes, you furrowed your brows “I wish I knew… But I can’t seem to remember.”

Letting out a sigh, he smiled and took your hand in his, locking his fingers with yours. “We’re here now… And that’s all that matters…”

And maybe in this life I can save you. And maybe this time you will remember. And perhaps maybe in this life, you were meant to stay.