I blink, and find myself in a rowboat, paddling rhythmically towards the ominous opening of the sea cave. The ocean mist splashes on my face with each movement, and the moonlight is bright and disorienting; but I keep rowing, pushing hard against the resistance of the water.

I don't remember how I got here, or exactly why, but a restlessness gnaws at me from the inside; all around me, emptiness, saved for the crashing waves slapping against the boat.

The cave comes to me, one motion at a time. The entrance is low, with jagged rock slabs hanging above. As if I had done this many times before, I paddle hard then lean back, waiting until the boat slides through the opening and the low hanging rocks are replaced by the higher ceiling of the cave again.

Darkness envelops me from above, and the sploshing of the waves echoes within the cave like a dissonant symphony. I'm not afraid, for there is an illumination deep from the water below, mesmerizingly blue, as if lit by a million fireflies. Grotta Azzurra is what the Capri locals call this place, the light coming from the moon or sun shining through from under the cave walls; but legend has it that there's magic in the otherworldly blue, a curse of the nymphs that Emperor Tiberius worshiped here. And it calls to me now, this manic energy of enchanting hues, piercing into my mind relentlessly, louder and louder until I surrender to the thought I've been too afraid to face.

Where's Taehyung?

The space next to me on the rowboat is painfully empty. The light from the water beckons, and I take another longing look, and with a long stuttered inhale, I jump in.

The chilliness of the water tenses up my muscles and cuts through all my muddled thoughts like a blade. My eyes sting from the salty ocean water, but my mind doesn't care, drags me down instead, towards the crystalline blue light that flickers and glimmers all around me - on my thoughts, in my pores, taking over my breaths as I drift deeper and deeper into the enchanting light.

I wonder if I'd hear the melody of the nymphs that Emperor Tiberius heard thousands of years ago, as my limbs become heavy and my thoughts dim...

Cold, heavy, and dark...

I choke on my breath and gasp out loud, snapping my eyes open to an entirely new space.

The light is gone. Through hazy darkness, I can make out sterile walls in front of me, and a concrete ceiling; the air is dry and stale. My vision is blurred, eyelids so heavy that it takes all the strength in my body to keep them open.

Where am I? Wasn't I- wasn't I just in the water?

I try to move my arms and legs, but they feel leaded, immobile. I try to at least turn my head, to survey my surroundings more, but it's hard, each millimeter of movement taking all my effort. There's a beeping sound, and eventually I see the jumbled wires coming off my head and connecting to blinking equipment at the edge of my peripheral.

My breaths turn ragged as fear paralyzes me, mind descending into chaos: where am I? What is happening? I need to go back to the other world, I don't belong here, don't want to be here.

I need to find Taehyung.

That's when I spot it, beyond the equipment and web of wires, the beeping and sterile air, there's another silhouette lying in another bed next to me, facing upwards, enveloped by the darkness.

I want to yell, want to see and figure out who it is, want to get up and rip the wires out; my wayward heartbeats thrum in my ears urgently, and I gasp on my labored breaths, desperately wishing to escape this nightmare. But my vision turns to mottled spots, and the last shred of strength is exhausted, as my head slacks into the pillow, eyes droop shut.

My thoughts drift into the abyss, untethered, sinking into limbo and loneliness. The world is no more, dissipated like pixels that blend into a homogeneous black. No more splashing of the canal water, the boozy punch of the April Spritz. Venus' serene gaze fades, and the wind swept roses sink into the waves. All that's left is nothingness, and my thoughts slow and turn into silence...

Come back.

A voice whispers feebly in the dark.

Come back, Jungkook.

I frown, and dwell in the abyss.

Please, come back to me.

The voice is insistent, caressing my thoughts, lingering and tracing, lifting me up, reminding me that away from the void, there's a world out there, with light and sounds and impossibly beautiful landscapes, and someone waiting for me.

Please, Jungkook, I need you with me.

Yes, I remember. Way above there, if I try to move up, if I keep going, there's a comforting azure light, crystalline and serene.

I follow the voice, and my body drifts up, away from the abyss, up and up towards the brightness... Up and up, the water splashes all around me, the blue light returns, and a set of hands grabs ahold of me and pulls.

I cough out the splattered water, and the world is vivid again, filled with the crisp night air that grazes by my wet skin, the precarious rocking of the rowboat, and finally, the face I've yearned to see, concerned and strained, as he drags me out of the water and onto the boat.

I collapse onto the wooden surface and finally let out a relieved exhale. The cave with shifting reflections of the waves, water damp on my skin, and Taehyung next to me, staring with that unabashed gaze I've come to adore. Whatever this is, is infinitely better than the sterile and grim nightmare from before.

"Thank god I didn't have to dive in to find you this time. I'm such a shitty swimmer, probably even in this form..."he mumbles and shakes his head.

"In what form? What do you mean again?" I sit up, and finally voice all the questions I've been trying to avoid.

Taehyung makes a face at me, and sweeps my messy wet bangs away from my eyes, carefully, delicately, as if he's done it countless times before, "Don't ask me, . Ask yourself, it's about time you remember."

"Remember what?" My voice comes out a little shaky, surprising myself.

"Why you always come back to these places? Florence, Venice, Capri, Sicily, Pompeii... they are beautiful, sure, but it's getting a little predictable, my love. A change of scenery would be nice once in a while, you know?" The blue light shifts on his face, and he looks ethereal, a nymph with my heart in his hands.

"We always come here? You and me?"

"Yes..." he drags the word out quietly, and leans into me, his torso warm and comforting, lending me strength, "Sometimes you remember, and sometimes you don't. But I always come when you call for me... I'm sorry that I was a little slow today... They say my body is more and more drowsy, with my mind getting too attached to this world, as they predicted."

I reach into him and snap my eyes shut, "What am I supposed to remember, Taehyung? Remind me please..."

"That we're in your head, love. This world, me and you, we're all in your thoughts." He whispers into my skin, drawing out a shiver.

The waves echo in the cave, and his body feels so very real in my embrace, yet somehow, his words make sense to me, gives me the strength to acknowledge something hidden in the recess of my heart. Taehyung's hand rubs on my back in comforting small circles, and he adds in a murmur, "NeuraLink, you volunteered before the accident, remember?"

The word strikes a chord with me, I blink my eyes, trying hard to search through my thoughts. NeuraLink...

The hospital-like room with the jumbled pile of wires. I see hazy images, of more rooms like that, with impersonal staff, flickering monitors. And a sense of excitement within me, tinged with fear.

"You always loved the idea, being an engineering major. Of a computer that can amplify the power of our thoughts. You used to always talk about how it could probably do much more than what we could comprehend." Taehyung continues, "and you were right. No other volunteer survived the trial, but the program loved your brain, thrived in your logical yet creative thoughts. After only two trials, you did something nobody even thought was a possibility: traveling to different places."

Ah. More fleeting memories flash across my mind, of worlds that were more dull, more blurry. And discomfort and limitations of what I could do. I whisper back, half caught in reverie, half asking myself, "Are they real? These worlds? Are we really here..."

Taehyung looks at me, hands still lingering on  my arms, "Nobody knows. The details change, and things shift and morph to your wills. But sometimes you bring objects back to the lab, a rock, a flower, a piece of faded star... Are these cities in parallel world, or your mind is capable of materializing things out of intense desire, nobody can fully explain it..."

I hold onto him, letting our touches cushion me for the unfathomable truth that I'm beginning to remember. My head hurts, cracked open with memories gushing out like liquid seeping out of a raw egg, "but you're here, in these places with me, and you remember?"

Taehyung's ember eyes dim and there's a tinge of somberness in them, "Do you remember the night we argued? Try, love, think of the snow..."

Snow...

I search through my mind. Yes, something is in there. Of damp and cold night snow, and solemn darkness. When I look back up, all around me, the air is turning hazy, and slowly, the snowflakes descend, first small and sparse, but as Taehyung and I look onto them, give them our attention, they grow into bigger flakes, soft and light, absorbing the sounds around us.

It was snowing just like this, the night we fought.

The memories rush to me, stinging. Taehyung's teary eyes, sucking all the life out of me, and I spoke with a hoarse voice, spoke until I was just an empty shell, walking aimlessly away, knowing fully well that I regretted every word I uttered. We had so many harsh words for each other, so many hurtful reasons to break up at that moment; yet now, in this dark cave with drifting snow kissing my skin, when our world is strung together with nothing but thoughts, the argument suddenly seems so... inconsequential, silly almost.

None of it matters any more. All parts of life are noise, just mirages of the mind, fading in and out as my thoughts meander. The only thing I want now, the only thing that I cannot live without, is him. In spirit, in love joined, however we're able to be together.

Taehyung leans back, and continues, feeding me words I already seem to know, as if I'm watching a familiar video being played one more time, "after that argument, on your walk home alone, was when you were hit by the speeding vehicle at the intersection. By the time your body was rushed to the hospital, you were already unconscious. The doctors spent weeks trying to help you gain consciousness, but there was no hope. Until they remembered how your brain responded so well to NeuraLink." His eyes brighten at the word, "you have no idea how happy I was, when they told us your brain was functioning again once connected to the software. I was so relieved to have you back. But there was no way for us to communicate with you, no way to see what you were experiencing..."

I think of the lonely figure in the bed next to me in the hospital room, "so you told them to connect you too... Tae, no, it could've backfired, could've damaged your brain permanently."

He tsks and gives me a glare, "you have to lecture me about this every single time! And I'll tell you this a million times again, it didn't! I'm here, we can exist in your worlds together! I mean, there are issues, our mind and body connections are both untethering, but one day at a time, ok? I don't care what'll happen in the future, I don't care if you keep bringing us back to Italy because it's where we first met and travelled together. Every new moment we gain is a miracle, even if you don't remember me half of the time."

The snowflakes are blurring my vision, and all around us, the caves and water swirl and melt away, until everything slowly turns into infinite blue, as if we're drifting in an endless cloud that shines from within. Carefully, gently, I lean in to embrace Taehyung, kissing the crown of his head. The memories come back like waves that receding back onto shore, memories that overwhelm yet are too precious to lose. I hold onto him, not caring if this is all ephemeral, iridescent soap bubbles that will float away and burst, "you're an idiot, such an idiot. Why would you risk your life like this? And for what? To be stuck in a hospital, stuck in a dream while life passes you by..."

He punches me in the chest, "what does it matter, life out there without you is not real anyways, not to me. I'd rather be in your head, on your thoughts, anchoring you down so you remember everything, not  just drifting between universes all by yourself..." he's murmuring again, half to himself, the words gnawing at my heart, making me feel terribly weak.

I gaze into the infinite beyond, and when I look down, the view of nothingness beneath us is dizzying. I squeeze Taehyung just a little tighter, and utter the words from my heart, as the world disappears, and only we remain, together, "promise me that we'll find each other, no matter what." Even if I have to move universes, reverse time, conspire for our fates to connect again and again...

Taehyung leans in until we are cheek to cheek, "no matter what, my love."