Did he hear that right?

He swore he saw Jeongguk's lips moving.

Is he sure he isn't dead?

If he's dead, then this must be heaven.

He's been dying to hear those words.

He smiled a smile that showed his pearly whites, trying to sit back up.

He hid his head in the crook of Jeongguk's neck, leaving a peck while he was at it. The skin of his lips felt rough against Jeongguk's skin, worsening his worries as he, for a second, got pulled back into reality.

"Gosh, I must be having another hallucination." He uttered, pulling away. Jeongguk turned his head a little, looking like a curious lost puppy.

"You aren't ... disgusted? Confused?"

Taehyung let out a hoarse -what was supposed to be- laugh, shaking his head.

"I never told you, but I've liked you as more than a friend since forever. I was so afraid I'd ruin the friendship that I value so much, I kept it to myself. You have no idea how shocked but ecstatic I was when you kissed me that night at the motel. Thought I lost you when you ran to the bathroom.." He wandered off, biting his tongue.

"The reason I did that, was because I didn't want to ruin what we had, either. I knew I felt something more towards you, put I always pushed those feelings aside trying to forget about them by partying and such. It never really worked. That night, my thoughts, my curiosity and feelings got the best of me. I was shocked after, since I realised what I had done and that it was all I ever truly desired. Hence why I ran off.."

"Jeongguk?"

"Hmh?"

"I really, really don't want to ruin this precious moment, trust me. But we're still stuck six hundred metres in the sky, and as handsome as you are, you don't look that great right now.."

Oh, right.

"Wait." He dived into his backpack, grabbing a pen and what seemed to be like the back of an old receipt. Writing the most important stuff down, he simply let go of the piece of paper, trying to direction it towards the motel.

He shrugged, "It's something. You never know."

Nodding, Taehyung looked down at his leg. He didn't feel the pain anymore, which was good, but a very bad sign at the same time. At least he hoped that he wouldn't hallucinate again. That was absolutely terrible.

That's when he felt a wet drop landing on the top of his head.

Followed by another,
and another,
and another.

Soon enough it was pouring down, soaking their clothes, moistening their skin.

Jeongguk grabbed the empty water bottle, opening it up and putting it down to capture the water. It was something.

Taehyung untied the piece of fabric around his leg, so the water could wash it a bit cleaner. It probably wasn't the best idea as the rainwater wasn't purified, but considering he already had hallucinations and his skin looked like it was trying to replicate that of the sun, it couldn't be that bad. Hopefully it'd do more good than harm, instead of the other way around.

"Jeongguk..?"

The ravenette looked up at him.

He knew what Taehyung wanted to ask, he wanted the answer, too.

But there wasn't one.

All they could do, is sit there, and wait for a miracle to happen.

Suddenly a loud thunder erupted through the sky, making them both flinch. The flash of lightning sourced past them, causing their mouths to open wide.

Shit.

Metal and thunder aren't the best combination, especially not so high up.

Jeongguk peeked over the edge of the platform, groaning out in frustration and hitting the surface with his fist.

He wanted to get them out of there so badly. That feeling of wanting nothing more than to save Taehyung, the feeling of knowing you had to get into action right now or it'd be too late, took over his entire being.

But he was helpless. He couldn't do anything, there was no solution.
And that feeling made him want to scream until he broke his vocal cords, until he had no more voice left.

He stood up, cupping his mouth with his hands and he did whatever felt right. Nothing was right about this entire situation, they couldn't do anything, but the feeling of needing to let it all out consumed him until he acted on it.

The sound of roaring thunder and Jeongguk's hoarse, weak voice hollowing out 'HELP' in pure desperation, made Taehyung's skin crawl.

It was rather odd, really. He was aware from the moment he started climbing, the what he already called the tower 'of doom' in advance -it seemingly really living up to its name- things were most likely to go wrong. He was aware from the first day they ended up stuck on the platform together, the situation was bad.

Really, really bad.

He knew that, from the moment the ladder bent in half, which caused him to dangle in the air purely on the rope that was attached to his best friend, his strength back then the only reason he hadn't plummeted down to his end just yet.

He sure as hell knew that, on the second day, when he jolted up in realisation, that his leg got sliced open by the rusty, sharp metal of the ladder. Especially once he found himself dull away, starting to hallucinate and nearly too weak to utter a word.

He knew it, from their plummeting personal appearance, the sight of the latter that would normally fill his tummy with butterflies, now replaced with stinging wasps instead.

But for some reason, as he sat there, after what felt like almost welding together as one with the metal pole he was placed against, the sound of thunder roaring through the sky and dying Jeongguk's voice out; lightning litting it up for small periods of time and as if the gates of heaven opened up causing rain to gush down, it was as if reality truely dawned upon him.

As if now, even after all the other days, he actually came to the horrific conclusion that they got stuck with no hope left. There wasn't a way out of this.
What first seemed to be only a thought in the back of his mind, as if hope managed to push away actuality, gradually creeping up inside of him until they got to this point.

It was when Jeongguk's voice broke, thunder overruling every other sound, and the sight of him slowly turning around to look Taehyung in his face,
that he knew.

He knew.

But he wasn't ready to accept it yet,
for that now being the main issue.