[A/N: HIIIII sorry this took so long to write I had lots of exams so I stopped writing for a bit and then I kinda got lazy oops but I've been writing this chapter over the past few days and I really hope you enjoy it! It's an alternative ending but continues from the last chapter to make it more realistic, so you can either keep that ending (which tbh I wouldnt bc theyRE DEAD) or continue with this chapter where theyre magically alive again! Pls enjoy it I'm really hungry, No trigger warnings this time except a mention of Jin's death and hints towards the ual abuse he went through but I don't know if that would be triggering or not... Stay safe friends~]

Kim Namjoon opened his eyes to see a blank white ceiling. He felt aches and felt stabbing pains all over his body.
He tried to get up from the hospital bed, failing miserably.
He reached for the bedside table besides him for support and ended up knocking a cup of water over.
Seconds later, a worried looking nurse rushed into the room to check up on Namjoon.
“You’re finally awake!” she said as she hurried to pick up the cup.
She noticed what Namjoon was trying to do and helped him sit up. 
“Where’s Taehyung?” he asked her, determined to get an answer.
“You’ve been asleep for about 3 days now” she replied, more concerned with his health.
Namjoon sighed.
“That’s not what I asked” he said, his annoyance gradually building up.
The nurse simply stared at him, debating with herself on whether to give an answer or not.
“You need to rest” she answered coolly. 
“I will, as soon as I’ve met Taehyung” he retorted.

“The boy that you came here with?” she asked, finally giving in to his will.  
“You promise that you’ll rest once I’ve told you?” she confirmed with him once more and he nodded his head eagerly. 
“He’s in the waiting room, he’s been staying here with his girlfriend ever since your accident” she answered.
Namjoon smiled, knowing that Taehyung was safe and kept his promise to the nurse. He took her help and lay back down onto the hospital bed, letting sleep take over him, exhausted from what had happened a few nights before.
The next time he woke up, Taehyung was by his side, dozing off in the chair besides him. He let him sleep, knowing how tired he must be from waiting so long.
He didn’t need to wait long for Taehyung to wake up, as he got up only twenty minutes later with a smile on his face on seeing Namjoon awake.

“How are you feeling?” he asked, his voice still groggy from having just woken up.
Truthfully Namjoon was still sore, but his burns were not too bad and were likely to heal quickly over the course of the next few months.
“Never been better” he answered, happy that Taehyung was safe and knowing that he wasn’t a complete failure.
He urged Taehyung to explain to him what happened at the gas station, not really being able to remember fully what happened. Taehyung explained everything right from the beginning, about his suspicions and his anger. How it eventually led him to killing a man, sobbing because he didn’t mean to kill him, he just wanted to save her. He explained how they got together and planned on running away. Namjoon wondered how any of this was relevant to what he asked until Taehyung reached the part where he persuaded his girlfriend into shoplifting. 
He told Namjoon about how they got stuck in the gas station and thought they were going to die when they saw him. He was like a shining ray of hope to them, running to save them from the fire. He reminded Namjoon of the various efforts he made to get them out. How they thought Namjoon had left them and managed to smash their way out anyway. Taehyung told him that he saw Namjoon collapsed against a wall and tried to get him to a hospital as quickly as he possibly could.

Namjoon couldn’t possibly express his thanks towards Taehyung, he was both happy that he managed to escape and glad that he had saved him too.
“Taehyung!” he exclaimed “You were the one who saved me?” he asked, grateful for Taehyung and happy that he stayed by his side.
Taehyung nodded his head slightly, it was nothing really, honestly, it was just sheer luck.
Namjoon suddenly felt wrong, he didn’t deserve to live especially since he failed to keep his family alive.
“You should’ve just left me there” he said with a small voice.
“I would never do that!” Taehyung cried out, shocked that Namjoon would even say anything like that.
“They’re all dead Taehyung” Namjoon started to sob, Taehyung got up and held onto Namjoon, unsure about what he was saying. They stayed like that for a few minutes, Namjoon crying in Taehyungs embrace. 
“Who are all dead?” Taehyung asked, wondering if anyone else had been trapped in the fire that night.
“All our friends, they killed themselves” he whispered. “and I couldn’t save them”.
Taehyung took a moment to come to terms with what he had heard, he was devastated of course, but at that moment Namjoon’s health came first.
Taehyung rubbed Namjoon’s back in effort to comfort him, the shock evident on his face.
“It’s not your fault Namjoon I swear, you might feel like it but I promise you it isn’t! Don’t you dare blame yourself again, we’ll find a way to overcome this” Taehyung was trying his best to comfort him,. He had never been in this position before, usually it was Namjoon the one who comforted everyone. Everyone would come to Namjoon whenever they felt down or needed advise, so it was rather unusual for Taehyung to be in this situation. Even if Taehyung’s words were not exactly comforting, Namjoon sought comfort in his feeble attempts.

“Park Jimin!” Namjoon almost shouted, an idea popping into his head. Taehyung looked up at him, surprised at his sudden outburst.
“Hyung, are you okay?” he asked, wondering if the Namjoon was in any way affected mentally by the accident.
Namjoon nodded his head and smiled weakly at the boy, a ray of hope glimmering in his eyes as he came up with an idea.
He adjusted his position so that his body ached less, he had pretty much no external wounds save for a few minor burns on his hand, bruises and scratches. Most of the damage that was done to him was from exhaustion and inhaling too much smoke, but he’d be fine soon.

Two weeks later and Namjoon was almost completely healed. Now all that was left to do was get rid of the heaviness on his heart. He longed to see his friends together again and kept Taehyung close by his side, so as to not lose him.
He sat behind the wheel of his car, with Taehyung by his side. Taehyung’s girlfriend in the back, trying to sort out a bag full of clothes, folding and refolding them over again.
“What if we get caught?” she asked, clearly worried about the situation. Namjoon shook his head and assured her.
“Don’t worry about it, from what I know these people won’t even realise anything’s happened”  
Namjoon got out of the car and Taehyung followed suit. He knocked on the front door of the late Park Jimin’s house and went over the plan once more with Taehyung.
“I’ll talk to them and keep them distracted and then you excuse yourself to the bathroom, you find his sister and somehow smuggle her out and pass her to your girlfriend and then come back like nothing’s happened, got it?”
Taehyung was a little anxious regarding the vagueness of the plan but figured it would pass, he nodded in response and took a deep breath before knocking on the door again, wondering why it was taking so long.

They stood there in silence for a moment until the peace was disrupted by the door opening just a crack. Namjoon could make out a small figure behind the door, and smiled when he saw that it was Jimin’s sister.
 “You’re Jimin’s little sister right?” Namjoon asked. “Yuri! Do you remember me? I’m Jimin’s old friend”
He tried to get her to recognise him and it seemed to have worked as she slightly nodded her head and opened the door fully.
“Are your parent’s home? I want to talk to them” 
Yuri shook her head, “I’m not supposed to open the door for anyone” she whispered.
“Can we come in?” Namjoon kept his voice soft and steady, trying not to show any pain in his voice as he took a proper look at Yuri and noticed all the bruises on her soft skin.

Yuri let the two boys in. Namjoon tried to control his rage at Jimin’s parents. He saw the state the house was in and was disgusted. 
How could anyone leave a child home alone? And in this dump?
It was obvious that Jimin used to be in charge of the cleaning in the household.
“Can you take me to Jimin’s room?” he asked her, curious about how the boy lived.
She grabbed onto Namjoon’s hand and led him up the stairs to where Jimin’s room was.
Namjoon honestly didn’t know what to expect from Jimin’s room, it was so much cleaner than the rest of the house.
There was a bed and a desk and a few posters of Jimin’s favourite bands on the wall. A glint of silver caught his eye from the desk, it was a lighter sitting right in front of a framed picture.
He traced his finger across the lighter and went to pick the picture up.

It was a picture Namjoon remembered well, from the first time all seven brothers had all come together.
Everything was so much different now, but he silently swore to Jimin that he would make everything right again.
Taehyung stood beside him, looking at the picture in silence and trying not to cry at the loss of his friends. Namjoon handed him the picture, pocketed the lighter. He turned and kneeled to face Yuri who was sitting on Jimin’s bed.
“I miss him so much” she whispered to him.
“Yeah” Namjoon sighed “I miss him too” he replied.
“He used to tell me stories at night time and stop all the shouting” she continued “now they’re always shouting and fighting and Jimin’s not here” she started to sob and Namjoon felt for the poor girl.
“I have a way to make it all stop” Namjoon prompted.
That night, Yuri slept safe and sound far away from that wretched house, happy and content after having read a story with Namjoon about a princess escaping from an evil witch and then living happily ever after.

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Namjoon was back at the building where Kim Seokjin used to live.
He simply didn’t understand why Seokjin would do this to himself, so he decided to rent out the apartment for himself to try and look for something, anything that would help him to understand.
He had spoken to the landlord earlier, who seemed a little too pleased that someone had actually expressed interest in taking the room, handing him the keys with an eager smile.

Namjoon saw what a difficult task lay ahead of him as soon as he opened the door, since there was practically nothing in the room, as if Seokjin had never even lived there.
He looked around and found only a few bare essentials in the kitchen, a bed in the main room and a small bathroom with a shower cubicle.
He seemed to find nothing, until a he spotted a curious part of the floor sticking out in a little hidden spot in the corner of the room. He prised it open to find a silver metal lighter with lilies engraved onto it. He also found a few old pictures, a locket and a few other trinkets that probably held some meaning to Seokjin.
He placed the lighter into his back pocket and Seokjin’s other belongings into his bag that he had brought with him.

Namjoon stayed in that apartment for the next few days, saddened that he couldn’t do more for his friend.
He stumbled out of bed and tripped over, banging his head on the floor and knocking himself unconscious.

As he woke, his head was pounding but he found himself back in bed again, wondering how he reached there until he heard the landlord’s voice.
“You clearly can’t take care of yourself, don’t worry, I’ll help you”
The landlord got up from the end of the bed and came closer to Namjoon, helping him to sit up.
“I’ll take very good care of you” the larger man grumbled.
Namjoon took notice of the landlord’s hand on his chest and could feel him advancing onto him when it finally clicked.
Namjoon slapped away the landlord’s hand.
“You ing monster!” he shouted.
The landlord’s eyebrows were furrowed in confusion and anger at Namjoon’s unexpected rebellion.
“It was you! It was your fault Seokjin killed himself” his eyes wide in disbelief, angered at how his friend had been wronged.
The landlord snorted.
Namjoon couldn’t stand seeing the landlord’s ugly face and gripped onto his collars, he stood up with a firm grip and threw him onto the floor with all the strength he could muster up.
As soon as the landlord tried to get back up again he threw the biggest punch he possibly could, fuelled by his rage and satisfied when he heard the crack of the landlord’s nose breaking.
He was pathetic and on the floor, blood all over his face as he sneered and smiled at Namjoon.
“Your friend didn’t kill himself” he laughed, seeming to get a high from Namjoon’s anger. “I killed him” he admitted.
“Your friend was tragic and pitiful but so handsome, I couldn’t help but take him for my own”.
Namjoon couldn’t stand hearing about his friend in such a way. He grabbed him by the collars again and threw punch after punch, since the bast*rd deserved it.
He wanted to carry on and personally see to it that he was dead, but he knew better than that.
He left him in a bloody heap on the floor and ran far away from that place, knowing now what happened to Seokjin, but not knowing what to do.
Namjoon felt better knowing that Seokjin had tried to escape but the feeling of his injustice gnawed away at his heart.
He decided it would be a good idea to just leave it be, and try to spread the idea that Seokjin didn’t kill himself.

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Namjoon and Taehyung were surrounded by the rubble and ashes left behind from Min Yoongi’s ‘incident’. They had been searching for a few hours now, looking for one thing in particular.
Taehyung wiped his forehead with his sleeve, desperate to give up but he knew how much this meant and continued to work hard alongside Namjoon.
They were looking for the lighter that had caused the fire in the first place, since Min Yoongi’s usage of a lighter was inevitable.
They had almost gotten kicked out of the place, since they were ‘nuisance kids just looking for trouble’, but Namjoon assured the official that they were simply looking for something and would be gone as soon as possible. The official rolled his eyes and gave them until 7pm to find whatever it was they were so frantically searching for before he kicked them out, leaving as he grumbled under his breath about ‘kids these days’ and how they were ‘a waste of time’ using such colourful language which Namjoon decided to ignore.
It was a hopeless case, chances were that the lighter got destroyed in the fire but the two boys didn’t give up.
It started to get dark at around 5pm and so Namjoon and Taehyung were close to giving up, they only had two hours left and the sun was not on their side.
They decided to switch on their flashlights on their phones and surely enough, five minutes later a glint of red was seen and Taehyung had found the lighter.
It was made of an opaque red glass and was heavier than Taehyung expected. He wiped away the dirt on it before handing it over to a relieved Namjoon (who admittedly was initially a little jealous that he didn’t find it first).
Namjoon flung his arm around Taehyung’s shoulders as they walked off together with lighter in hand.

That very night, Namjoon made a trip to the police station and asked if he could take a look at some of the evidence regarding the case of Jung Hoseok’s death. The officer pitied Namjoon for having lost his friend and complied, giving him access to everything that Hoseok had on him when he died. An empty bottle, a watch, a cracked iphone and lastly a dark blue lighter with the letters ‘JH’ engraved at the bottom. The colour reminded Namjoon of the night sky and he noticed how it sparkled a little in the light like little stars trapped in the glass. He begged the officer to let him take the lighter, how it wouldn’t be too much use to him anyway and that it held a lot of sentimental value.
The officer allowed him to take it and Namjoon was surprised, he hadn’t expected it to be that easy.

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Park Yuri grew up with a curious little box on a shelf in her house, she had always asked to see its content and every single time Namjoon, Taehyung and his girlfriend refused.
When she was old enough, Namjoon told her the story of his brothers no matter how painful it was for him to relive the memories.
He told her how he and Taehyung kept their lighters in there too, since it simply felt wrong not too.
Namjoon looked down at the box and smiled with a small tear escaping the corner of his eye, knowing that he had done his best for his friends and that they loved him and were proud of him in every single way. 

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OKAY THATS THE OFFICIAL END IM A LIL EMOTIONAL WOW

if you ever want me to write something i'm open to suggestions, except tbh i dont think i'm comfortable writing that!

I love you guys so much you don't even understand like HOLY PEOPLE ACTUALLY READ WHAT I WRITE THANK YOU <3333

I REALLY JUST WANT TO PUT U IN MY POCKET AND FEED U NICE FOODS AND ASSURE U HAPPINESS OMG

okay bye i'm really reluctant to finish it lol

im stalling now

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okay bye for real now i love you <3