Chapter Text
It's cold. It's cold and dark and Jungkook is freezing, wet, and he can't breathe. Why can't he breathe? Oh right he's underwater, now he remembers. He jumped in after HE fell into the water. Jungkook tries to look for him, but can't seem to see where Tae is, it's too dark.
Just when he starts to panic, a hand grabs him by the ankle and pulls, making Jungkook scream underwater and impulsively inhale a large mouthful of salty ocean water. He starts gagging and choking while looking around to see who pulled on him, its Tae, and he is pulling him deeper and deeper into the ocean, away from the surface and away from the light.
No. No this can't be happening. It didn't happen like this.
Jungkook tries to struggle free from Tae's death grip on his ankle but only succeeds in pushing them deeper. Tae smiles up at Jungkook, usually when Tae smiles he gets butterflies in his stomach and his heart melts at the site, but now this smile is sinister and menacing. Jungkook doesn't like the way this smile makes him feel. He can feel the dread creeping into his heart and he just knows that this is it.
"Kook! Wake up!"
Jungkook frowns, Yoongi? He looks around but doesn't see his brother anywhere. Why would his brother be here? HOW could his brother be here? It didn't make sense.
"Kooooo come on get up! It's just a dream! You are dreaming!"
Again, Jungkook is perplexed, it's not a dream. This really happened. Tae fell into the ocean and Jungkook jumped in after him to try and save him. Did he save him? He can't seem to remember, his brain is a little fuzzy right now and the world is getting darker and darker as he slowly feels himself losing consciousness. The last thing he sees is Tae's smile widening and his other hand reaching up to touch Jungkook's cheek.
"JUNGKOOKKKKK!"
Jk gasps and shoots upright in bed, panting and coughing. He looks to his right and sees Yoongi sitting on his bed with one hand on his shoulder trying to calm him down.
"Jesus kookie, you scared the crap outta me. Another nightmare? I thought you were passed all of this, you haven't had a nightmare in almost a year. Why now? are you ok?" Yoongi is looking at his younger brother with concern etched on his face.
This isn't like Jungkook, Yoongi thinks to himself, something must really be bothering him if he's having nightmares again.
"Koo I can't lose you too, you gotta try to take better care of yourself. You hear me?"
Jungkook nods his head slowly, not looking up at Yoongi's face. He hates to scare his brother and make him worry after everything they have been through that's the last thing Jungkook wants to do.
With that, Yoongi sighs and gets up from the bed. "Alright, now get ready you don't want to be late for your orientation. It's an important day ya know."
"Yeah. Yeah, I know it is." Jungkook rubs his face with his hands, trying to shake the dream away and rubbing his cheek where Yoongi had slapped him to wake him up. His mom would be upset with him if he missed his first day of college, and he doesn't want to disappoint his mom. She had always been looking forward to the day that Jungkook would go to college but now she's not around to see it.
"Oh, and your friend is here. I told him to wait downstairs but apparently he helped himself to some breakfast without asking first." Yoongi looks a little ticked off, but Kook knows he's not really that mad. That is until he can smell something burning coming from the kitchen, now he can understand the look his brother is shooting at him from the door.
"Alright I'm getting up, I'll be down in 5 minutes. Just don't kill him before I get there, K?"
"Hey! Kookie! You awake yet?? How do I turn off the toaster again? It seems to be smoking... Oh.. Nevermind. Now I see flames.." Wide-eyed, Yoongi runs out of the room to go save the kitchen before it burns down.
..........
Not even 5 minutes later, Jungkook is walking into the kitchen to the site of his best friend and brother in a tug of war match over what looked to be the last cinnamon roll.
"Oh come on Hyung, you already had one! I want the last one!"
"You annoying little shit! You already had 3!! Who said you get the last one after eating the rest of them?!" Yoongi is pulling on the plate with all his strength, trying to hold on like his life depended on it.
"God damn it! Why don't you just..." They both stop when they notice Jungkook walks over to them and grabs it off the plate, plopping it into his mouth. "Gibe et oo ee enned." (Give it to me instead)
"Kookieeee how could you?" His friend looks like he's about to cry, while his brother just rolls his eyes and moves on to finish washing the dishes that were leftover in the sink from last night. Finishing chewing, he sits down across from his friend to dig into the cereal that's waiting in front of him.
"I love you too Hobi, thank you for not burning down my house this morning that would have sucked." Jungkook glances over at him under his lashes, raising an eyebrow as if to say, 'You wanna fight me on this?' Hobi sighs in defeat and stretches out in his chair. Giving Jungkook a smile that is only reserved for his best friend.
"Alright you got me, I was trying to save the last one for you anyway so don't give me that look. I was just trying to get it away from your grub of a brother." He points over his shoulder with his thumb at Yoongi, who without looking back, flips him off and continues to wash the dishes.
Jungkook humphs, "sure you were Hyung, I'm sure you were." Hobi sticks out his tongue at him and the boys continue to finish their breakfast in silence.
"Hey did I hear you screaming just before? What happened? You sounded like you were dying.." Hobi looks over at his best friend, trying to read his reaction as he waits for an answer.
"Yeah, it was nothing, just a bad dream. Hyung woke me up before it went too far though so I'm fine. Don't worry about me it was probably just because of what today is, that's all." Jungkook tries his best to remain expressionless and hopes that Hobi takes the hint to let the subject drop. Luckily for him, he did. But not without giving Jungkook a long concerned look first. In truth, Jungkook was almost dying. Not in the dream, but in the real-life event the dream was depicting. He had almost died that night, and he doesn't want to think about it anymore because it was 2 years ago and there was no point in dwelling on the past. He wants to just move on, start his college life and forget all about the biggest regret of his life.
"Let's go or we will be late." Jungkook stands up, grabs his keys and his bag and heads for the door.
"Wait Kook, you won't be late! We still have 3 hours before your orientation starts!" Hobi scurries after him haphazardly, with a piece of toast sticking out of his mouth. Slamming the door behind him and running to jump into the truck before Jungkook can put it in reverse.
Hobi doesn't have any classes till next week, but he wanted to go with Jungkook on his first day as moral support since he doesn't have anyone else his age that he's friends with. Hobi and he have been best friends since they were little, but Hobi is 3 years older than Kook. Despite the age gap, they were basically inseparable since Jungkook lost his mom at the age of 11. Yoongi and Jungkook didn't have a dad, but since their families were always close, it didn't seem to bother them. But once their mother passed, they had a hard time adjusting to the reality of their situation. Yoongi was 15 at the time and still too young to legally be allowed to look after Jungkook on his own, so Hobi and his family took them in for a few years until Yoongi was old enough. Yoongi grew up being bitter, grumpy and standoff-ish to anyone that he didn't know because he had to be strong for his younger brother but he still grew up alright. He still had such a big heart, a soft spot for his baby brother, and respect and love for Hobi and his family for what they have done for them. Jungkook had always been shy and quiet, but after his mother died he closed himself off completely from everyone, including Hobi and his older brother. No matter what they tried they couldn't get him to open up, smile, laugh or show any interest in anything anymore. It's like he wasn't there like his body was just an empty shell on autopilot. It wasn't until Taehyung barreled into his life that Jungkook finally started to wake up again.