Chapter 1: Ashes & Echoes
Silence was the first thing he remembered.
Not the crash.
Not the screams.
Not even the searing pain that tore through his spine like a thousand needles.
Just… silence.
Like the world had paused.
Like someone had pressed mute on the universe.
Jungkook blinked slowly against the sterile white of the hospital ceiling. His body didn’t move. It couldn’t. There was a dull, drugged fog settling over his limbs like dead weight. He tried to speak, but only a rasp escaped. He felt a hand—warm, trembling—grasp his.
His mother whispered, voice tight with emotion.
Where was…
His wife?
His Jiwoo?
His mother nodded, tears flooding his eyes.
Kim Seokjin
She’s okay. She’s with us. She’s safe.
But he didn’t say the name he needed to hear most.
He turned his head, slowly, and saw the truth in his silence.
The funeral was a blur. He didn’t attend.
Jungkook had sat in his wheelchair, staring out the rain-slicked windows of the hospital, while people lowered her body into the earth.
They called it an accident.
But it felt like punishment.
They said it was the truck driver’s fault.
But all he could think about was the argument they’d had in the car, seconds before the crash.
All he could think about was her reaching for his hand right before everything went black.
He'd woken up broken.
She hadn’t woken up at all.
Kim Seokjin
Please, Jungkook. Eat something.
Seokjin pleaded, placing a bowl of porridge in front of him weeks later.
Jeon Jungkook
I’m not hungry.
Kim Seokjin
Jiwoo needs you.
Jiwoo.
His one year old daughter.
Giggles like her mother. Eyes like his.
He saw her from a distance now—heard her soft sounds in the next room. But he hadn’t held her since that night. He was afraid. Afraid she’d look at him and see what he’d lost.
He was less than a man.
Less than a father.
Barely a human being.
A month passed. Then two.
Namjoon took over the company, quietly slipping into Jungkook’s place. Yoongi came by every few days, dropping off music and pretending not to be worried.
Jungkook ignored them all.
He lived in his chair, in the silence, in the memories that clawed at him like ghosts.
Until one day, he overheard them talking in the hallway.
Kim Seokjin
We need someone to help with Jiwoo
Seokjin said, voice strained.
Kim Seokjin
She’s starting to notice he’s not there.
Kim Namjoon
We can hire a live-in. A student, maybe. Someone young.
Kim Namjoon
He’ll have to deal with it.
Jungkook sat in the dark that night, eyes hollow, breath shallow.
Let them bring someone.
Let them hire help.
He didn’t care anymore.
As long as they didn’t expect him to feel again.
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