.

♥ mute creature ♥

♥ YOU MUST WAKE UP ♥

♥ You will lose the level... ♥

♥ LIFE ♥

♥ If you don't wake up, ♥

♥ MELONAJU ♥

.

What is that...? Melonaju? Where am I? 

Jimin stands in the center of a gothic cathedral, the sun filtering ethereally through the high stained glass windows. The floors glow a creamy blur of pale whites, welcoming him with tendrils of delicate fog swirls. He turns his head, gaping at the location he resides in. 

No longer do graphics surround him, but gigantic pillars, solid stone columns, and architectural splendor. The towering walls are clearer than day, their etched surfaces radiating off elegant prowess. Immediately, his confused hands fly to his face, to feel for the familiar smoothness of the VR headset. The pads of his fingers meet with skin--two squinting eyes and a definitive nose. His mouth curves into displeasure, an odd feeling worming into his guts. What...the...

Nothing is on his face. 

"...filed the lawsuit......policemen.......finally....."

Jinyoung's voice somehow waves into the cathedral like a wet string of grass dragged along Jimin's brain. It echoes along the tall towers of the cathedral, crashing into him like a warm breeze on a summer day. He reflexively sniffs, darting his gaze around to search for the speaker. 

"Jinyoung? Jinyoung, where are you? Why am I in here?"

Jimin nervously strides further into the cathedral, his footsteps tapping loudly into the empty building. The previous level doors that he and Pluto97 have beaten stand out like proud paintings against the hallway wall. 

The doors are colored light gray in termination, their inner challenges fully exhausted after completion. Jimin stares as the level numbers on the doors ascend, mouth open in bewilderment. His fingers anxiously pinch at the purple crop top that he has on...that Melonaju wears in Perilation. 

How am I...in the game?

.

♥ Park Jimin ♥

♥ You must choose: ♥

♥ WAKE UP ♥

♥ or lose the game. ♥

♥ FOREVER. ♥

.

".......can't believe.....finally over.....fucking hate.....lost my job!.....good....thing...." 

Jimin blanches as the scratchy voice tarries in the throes of the cathedral he's stuck in. Even in limbo, he recognizes the voice.

"Yeonjun?" Jimin wanders around desperately as his old coworker's voice seems to surround him. "Where are you? How do I get out of here? How do I wake up?"

No answer. Nothing but a gust of mystery and a realization that he isn't just in his imagination. He's in limbo.

In all of his life, never has Jimin felt so ephemeral. With the grainy winds of beige sparkles that dance and pulse in this dreamlike world, he feels as if he might get wiped away...or become trapped in here forever. He doesn't know why this feeling sinks into him, but he can tell by the way the level doors are all gray that he isn't supposed to be here. Even the game is urging him to wake up wake up wake up but he doesn't know how.

"Up here."

An explosion of joy floods into Jimin at the familiar voice of Pluto ringing out in the air. Like a chime of bells, the voice is so sweet a noise that Jimin nearly starts crying. He misses Jungkook so badly because he's so scared. He doesn't know where he is or why he can't wake up.

"Pluto?" 

Jimin naturally leans his head back, searching for a box of yellow. Searching for his buddy, his friend...his lover. Before his eyes, the sponge figure of Pluto97 descends from its spot on the ceiling. The sponge floats down next to him, yellow head speckled with blood. Pluto's dark black eyes stare at him, tormented with pain. Jimin reaches out a hand of connection, hoping that Pluto will do the same, that Jungkook is really here with him inside this labyrinth of the unawaken. "Pluto! Jungk-"

"Your voice sounds funny."

The sponge tilts its head at him, regarding him with a hint of cold stupefaction...as if they haven't met before. With a pang of shock, Jimin realizes that this version of Pluto hasn't met him yet. This parallel Pluto who has just fallen from the ceiling mirrors the exact same actions and speech of their first meeting in Perilation.

This Pluto doesn't know any personal part of him except for Melonaju's purple hair and high-pitched voice. This version of Pluto97 doesn't even know his real name besides the username, and he definitely doesn't know that Jimin will eventually fall for him.

.

♥ WELCOME PLUTO97 ♥

♥ WELCOME MELONAJU ♥

♥ To Perilation: THE GAME ♥

.

Pluto dabs annoyingly, his spongey arm grazing past his face over and over. Jimin wants nothing more than to reach out for that player, stop his arm from moving and yank him into a hug. A nice, warm, loving hug. The sponge halts its movements, clearing its throat. Jimin hangs onto every one of Jungkook's vowels as he speaks.

"So, what does Meelunajo mean?"

Like a recording, Pluto97 pronounces his username in the same abominable way he had the first time they met. A sad smile falls against Jimin's lips as he takes in this verison of Pluto in front of him. If only he knew what was to come for him...just by playing this game. How I would bring his demons back and put his family in danger again.

Jimin opens his mouth to answer, ignoring the blurriness under his eyelids and the sore twinge in his throat. "It's Meh-lone-uh-joo, Jungkook."

"Oh. Cool."

If Pluto registers his real name being spoken aloud, he doesn't show it. Instead, the sponge nods casually, turning away from him. As he does so, a few of the blood speckles rain down onto the ground at Jimin's feet. Each drop of liquid hisses against the marble floors of the cathedral, burning up the ground underneath in wide hungry holes. Jimin gapes at the pure whiteness underneath the cathedral, at the freedom lurking just underneath the surface. Pluto's blood melts holes in this place?

As Jimin realizes what this means for his route of escape, Pluto starts speaking up again, his voice carrying through the vast cathedral. Jimin follows a little behind him, blinking back tears.

"My game controls are a bit...different from yours, I suppose." Pluto pauses for a few seconds. "And I tried to make SpongeBob, but kinda failed. This game has limits to how creepy you can make your player. Hah..."

.

♥ you know ♥

♥ what you need ♥

♥ to do ♥

♥ to beat your worst fear ♥

♥ of losing Pluto97 FOREVER. ♥

♥ To WAKE UP, Park Jimin ♥

♥ YOU MUST KILL ♥

♥ PLUTO97. ♥

.

Stiffening in place, Jimin groans against his palm. In this ethereal world that definitely isn't Perilation, he knows that his actions matter on a much grander scale. What he does now might affect him forever--destroy him for good. As if to capitalize on this point, the tendrils of smoke creeping along the floor of the cathedral thicken. The angelic light pooling in through rose glass windows dims to a dreary gray, and the sponge turns towards him in suspicion.

"......HAS.....to be okay.......my Jiminie....ugh.....Thea?"

"HOSEOK!" Jimin runs down the hallway, searching for his friend, who he knows isn't here. No, wherever Jimin is right now, in this limbo between being awake and falling into forever darkness, Hoseok is no where to be found. No sign of his street clothes, sunshine smile, or outrageous cheer-up dances. Only a mystery of detailed walls and a sponge that stares at him. "HOBI!! CAN YOU HEAR ME! HELP ME GET OUT OF HERE!"

 Hoseok's voice resumes solemnly, raining down upon his ears as if blaring from a loud speaker. "Can you........yes......now he is comfortable.......with crop.......I know he would........appreciate......"

.

♥ You have ♥

♥ five minutes. ♥

♥ until heart failure. ♥

♥ Fight him or perish. ♥

.

Unmasked terror seeps into Jimin's bones as he realizes the gravity of that statement. Now no longer in Perilation, it's not like he can just remove his headset and everything will be okay. No, he knows wherever this place is, it will determine whether he lives or dies, whether he can open his eyes to a hospital room full of familiar caring faces or to the walls of a coffin. This mental exercise will tell if his heart will stop abruptly on this marble cathedral floor or if he'll be blissfully spared.

This is it. If I lose this level, I die for good. I won't get to see Jungkook again, won't get to undo all the horrible trouble I caused his family. Won't get to see the law suit against the Yoon Family until the end. I'll be a memory and nothing more. Another victim on Gyuri's long board. Thank GOD that bitch can't ever hurt people again. I have to fight knowing I'm free...she can't get me anymore.

With this new resolve, Jimin straightens in the cathedral, ignoring the ticking clock in the corner of his vision. He faces Pluto97, faces his worst fear of losing Jungkook...head on. In the vague, off-kilter beating of his heart, he can tell that something is physically awry with him. His chest doesn't feel right--feels strange--and he knows the heart font wasn't lying when it said his heart would fail. He really will die in five minutes if he doesn't act.

"PLUTO97!" 

Jimin runs towards the sponge, ignoring the signals in his head telling him not to kill his boyfriend's game pawn. What would killing him do, other than hurt Jimin?

The blood. Jimin remembers, staring at the place where the sponge's blood touched the ground. If I can get enough of his blood onto the floor, I can jump out of this cathedral and into that white. I can wake up, see my friends again...see the real Jungkook again...if he's still...alive...is he? I feel like he is, some tug in my head tells me he is...so he has to be.

Jimin's feet pound against the floor, the sponge standing still and watching him curiously. Eventually he becomes aware of another sound permeating the cathedral, and it's the thick, ravenous echoes of slurping.

Slurrrrrrppp. Slurrrrrrppp.

"Soup. Really." Jimin rolls his eyes at the heartwarming intrusion of soup consumption. If he ends up surviving, Jeon Jungkook is going to hear an earful about this fever dream. This determiner of reality.

"I have great hand-eye coordination." The SpongeBob character wiggles his hands around his face as if to capitalize on that point. "Done it plenty times before. The soup thing. We're good."

"You're killing me, Jungkook. Literally." 

Jimin stops in front of the sponge, readying himself for a smackdown. If it means survival, then he'll have no problem attacking this figment of his imagination, no matter how much it hurts. No matter how much it makes him want to curl into a ball. No matter how many cute remarks Jungkook's real voice can make, and how it makes Jimin's heart burn with a reminiscent sadness, back to when things were okay. 

"Okay, I'm sorry I gotta kill you." Jimin doesn't hestitate to swing an arm, his fist colliding harshly with the side of the sponge's head. Pluto flies through the air, tumbling against a support pillar and groaning. Jimin curses the realistic whines of pain that so closely mimic his boyfriend. He winces as the sponge struggles to stand up, brushing off its stomach. "Nope. No mercy. Nope. Gotta do this."

.  

♥ FOUR MINUTES REMAIN ♥

.

Picking up his pace, Jimin kicks his Converse into Pluto's stomach, launching him again into a solid beam. Shockingly, the sponge doesn't fight back. Physically, at least.

"Now Melonaju, would you give me a prompt second level high five before we go in and absofuckinglutely demolish this level? For good luck?"

Jimin's heart clenches. Pluto speaks like a broken record, random phrases from their gameplay falling out as Jimin hits the sponge over and over against his will, just trying to save his own skin from eternal darkness. From heart failure.

"Favorite color is black." Jungkook's voice is squeaky, shy in the dimly lit cathedral. Jimin winces as the sponge starts to fall apart into mush underneath him, blood leaking out of several abrasions. "Well, actually...I like most dark colors. Dark blues, dark grays...you know."

"I like y-yellow and purple." Jimin bites down on his lips to keep himself from crying. This just feels so wrong, so unnecessarily wrong that his conscience would make him murder in order to survive. "Ever since I met you, my love for yellow has grown exponentially."

.

♥ THREE MINUTES REMAIN ♥

.

Enough of the sponge's blood has leaked out onto the floor to starts a small sizzling puddle of freedom. It's wide enough so that Jimin can fit one of his legs through, but it'll definitely need to be bigger in order to...suffice. 

His fist is numb from colliding with Pluto's face, but he doesn't know if it's because his heart is failing him in real life on a hospital bed or if it's because he's killing one of his favorite players.

Pluto97 speaks up again, his black eyes open and lifeless as Jimin continues beating him up. "We aren't losers. We're winners--Busan warriors."

Tears come naturally. He doesn't even try to stop them now. He's desperate--desperate to survive. He punches harder, trying to ignore the way this mental version of Perilation is teasing him, making him kill an innocent person who continues to remind Jimin of all the reasons he loves Pluto97.

"It's better than being paralyzed."

Fuck... Another misplaced quote from the zoo level. At the time, Jimin didn't know that Pluto97 was even injured at all. He had no clue, no inkling that the mystery player he'd been assigned was simply another victim of Yoon Gyuri--another player in her web of deception. He didn't know Jungkook's paralysis would be linked to his worst enemy, to Gyrui's corrupt family. More tears fall down his cheeks as the acidic blood of the sponge melts a growing hole in the cathedral floor.

"I never m-minded that you w-were paralyzed." Jimin's stomps on the sponge's stomach, and an alarming amount of blood spurts from Pluto's mouth. "I like you regardless. I love you for who are, what makes you so unique on the inside. You're not just a crippled body, you're so much more than that. You're so special to me, Jungkook."

.

♥ TWO MINUTES REMAIN ♥

.

The hole expands wide enough for his waist to slither in, if he tries hard enough. He just needs a tiny bit more blood from the sponge, and he'll be set to go. He hopes that whatever lies in the empty whiteness on the other side of this cathedral means freedom. He hopes that Jungkook will be there, that everything will be solved. That he'll be able to open his eyes to a world without Gyuri, and finally breathe again.

"Park Jimin! Oh...my god! OH! PARK JIMIN!" 

Pluto screams in delight, making Jimin flinch back at the familiar audio. Rehearing the adoration in this audio now makes Jimin's teeth chatter with sad, nervous energy. 

How will Jimin be able to keep punching Pluto if all he hears is Jungkook's praise in his ear? 

It's like Jungkook is urging him to stop punching, pushing him to forfeit the level...to just relax...'since your chest is paining you, Melonboy.' To maybe lay down on the marble floor of this beautiful cathedral and stare up at the ceiling with Pluto97 at his hip until his termination time comes. Then they can both hold hands, fingers intertwined, and countdown from three before yelling suffice as they waltz into the door of the afterlife.

"PARK JIMIN, HEAR HIS BEAUTIFUL NAME, FEEL HIS WONDERFUL INTELLIGENT WRATH, TASTE HIS GORGEOUS PURPLE HAIR, FEEL HIS CHARM!"

Jimin winces, the balloon in his chest hurting worse, expanding uncomfortably. My heart must be failing...are the nurses rushing into the room to revive me? Are Jinyoung, Yeonjun, and Hoseok still there? Where is Jungkook?

"Pluto...pl-please stop talking." Jimin punches the sponge weakly, a tiny drizzle hissing as it touches the stone floor. He just needs a little more blood from Pluto97...

.

♥ ONE MINUTE REMAINS ♥

.

Jimin sighs as the message splays over his vision, casting shadows onto the misty floor. Pluto continues to stare at him, bleeding out slowly from the damage that Jimin has done to him.

"YOUR WORTH IS MORE THAN THE ENTIRE GALAXY, MELONDANCER!"

A weak smile touching his lips as Pluto's voice keeps coming in random bursts into the cathedral. The phrases help ease at the pain spiderwebbing through his chest, which makes it hard to move. All around him, the cathedral is losing light. Pillars that used to shine now seem morose and brooding--the high ceilings seem to sag against the heavy stone walls. Even the windows are cracked, grayed to their glassy tips.

"T-thank y-you...Pluto." Jimin hurts all over. The sponge isn't even yellow anymore, but a fading beige. Jimin doesn't know if he can do it...if he can save his own life. Dying next to Pluto97 might be better. It might hurt less to just end the pain coursing within him, to just settle for this cathedral as his eternal resting place. "I l-love you, Pluto."

Pluto97 sits up slowly, watching Jimin wipe at his eyes with his wrists.

"It hurts me to see my lovely Melonboy like this. It's okay, Jimin. I have you. I'm here. Let it out."

Jimin pushes himself down into the tiny, claustrophobic hole with only white on the other side. His entire chest feels as if swords are being stabbed diagonally through his ribcage, making it hard to breath. It could just be because he's smashing his body through this tight crevice in the marble floor, but he doesn't think so. It's more than that.

"My heart is failing." Jimin says blankly, watching as the once beautiful cathedral turns monochrome, darkening to nothing brighter than a torchlit cave. The clock in the upper corner of his vision hits 30 seconds. "I have to leave, Pluto."

"We don't beat levels by following what the game says, do you forget?"

Pluto speaks underneath the sheen of blood that Jimin has demanded from the sponge with his fists in order to create this gaping hole of escape. The clock reaches 20 seconds, and Jimin's chest feels as if it's being clamped shut. He stares at the sponge teary-eyed, reaching a hand out.

"Pluto, take my hand."

"Okay, Jimin. I'll take your hand." 

Utter surprise at the flexibility of will Pluto's character has knocks Jimin's breath from his lungs. He thought the sponge was just blabbing random recordings from their gameplay this whole time. He could understand me?

"Come with me." Jimin's head swirls along with the same tendrils of gray that eat at the cathedral floor. Pluto latches onto his hand, bloody and staring with his tar-colored saucepan eyes. Pain is the only thing Jimin feels at this point. Pain and confusion...and he just wants it to be over with.

The clock commences its ten second countdown. 

Jimin forces himself downward, into the crevice that's shedding white light, holding hands with a barely alive Pluto97. They careen into the open space, clinging to each other as the countdown ends at a flatline zero. The fluid, single beep of a heart monitor echoes all around them as they fall together into the white.

.

"CLEAR!"

Park Jimin's limp body gets zapped by controlled electricity, jerking his body into the still air of the hospital room. 

On the white hospital bed, Jimin's chest is bare and bandaged. The heart defibrillator brushes together again, crackles, and comes down on his chest in an even line through his failing heart. The emergency medic is straight-faced and demanding, urging his coworkers to grab this and that, to feed more fluids into Jimin's IV, and to alter the levels of electricity for the tool in his hands.

The second time the defibrillator comes down, Jimin's heart still does not start. The nurses are now frantic, murmuring suggestions and twittering around Jimin's unresponsive body like famished birds searching for a solution to their hunger.

"CLEAR!" 

The defibrillator presses violently onto the purple-haired male's chest a third time, sending a jolt of electricity into Jimin's system high enough to raise the dead. It's on this third time that something clicks within Park Jimin's lifeless body. The monotonous blare of the heart monitor suddenly coughs out the evidence of life. 

Of a heart beat.

Jimin gasps, his entire body being tugged upward and slammed down by some incredible force of nature. It feels as if his soul has been wrangled back into him from some far off place that he suddenly cannot remember. He blinks up in shock at the medics gaping above him, their crinkled eyes and pale faces telling him he was the center of their attention for quite some time.

He pants as the painful compression in his chest subsides, staring among their faces. He blinks dumbly up at them, trying to find a familiar face underneath their masks and important blue medical gear.

The lead medic pulls his mask down and stares at him. Jimin's shoulders rise and fall in confusion, his heart rate soaring--a solid thump thump thump in his chest.

The medic smiles at him. 

"Welcome back from the dead."

.

An hour later, when he's entirely stable, Jimin is getting briefed on what happened to him. The medic gives him a lengthy--and rather confusing, since Jimin knows very little about the medical field--explanation about how he has an existing heart condition called arrhythmia which only heightened after being electrocuted several times by the shock collar. With the stressful circumstances of kidnapping and torture, Jimin's adrenaline levels spiked, peaking his heart's ability to regulate itself. On top of his concussion and blood loss, he initially blacked out from shock.

The medic explains how he arrived at the hospital via ambulance, and they stabilized him shortly afterward. Since he was doing so well, they allowed a few visitors into his room. Which would explain the voices I heard of the others inside...oh, where was I? Why can't I remember?

Then, the doctor says, Jimin unexpectedly went into cardiac arrest on the flip of a dime. His heart completely stopped out of nowhere, alerting the entire hospital staff of the code blue emergency. It was so sudden, the medics had to usher his visitors out of the room then and there. 

"You're very lucky to be alive." The doctor points out, nodding at his pale and shaky face. "If that happened anywhere outside of the hospital, your chance of survival would've been low."

"O-oh..." Jimin's voice is raspy, a hoarse drag against his vocal chords. They still haven't fully healed since the event, leaving him with inflamed throat muscles and the feeling of gravel scratching his tonsils.  "Is...Jung...kook...okay?"

The medic checks his clipboard, scanning over some information. "Jungkook as in...Jeon Jungkook? I can't offer you too much on his condition since hospital policy states strangers cannot-"

"Not a..." Jimin struggles to grit out the last word. "Stranger. Boyfriend." 

He points to his chest adamantly, wincing as a ribbon of pain bursts into his ribs. Fatigue settles in his heart after the pain leaves. All this new information, on top of his stress and episode of cardiac arrest, have left him dangling in consciousness. He wants to just sleep, to rest and dream of happier times, but he has to know about his boyfriend. And his boyfriend's family.

"Oh...alright." The doctor pushes up his glasses, nodding at him seriously. "Jeon Jungkook is currently stable, as is his brother, Jeon Junghyun. Both have mild injuries--Jungkook suffered from a broken nose and bruising on his ribs--Junghyun got slashed a few times on his face and a dislocated finger. They're both stable." OH THANK FUCKING GOD THEY'RE OKAY!

"When...cauhhh..." Jimin gives up speaking because of his sore throat, reverting to tapping on his wrist to mimic a watch. Then, he points towards the door, and cups his hands around his eyes for binoculars. The unspoken question when can I see him? lingers in the air. Jimin crosses his tired, shaky fingers, hoping that it's soon. 

"We have yet to perform a few final tests to ensure that your heart is strong enough to beat on its own. If not, we may have to install a tiny pacemaker for a few months in case you go experience cardiac arrest again. For now, all I can tell you is that you need to rest for a stable 24 hours before you can have visitors other than your close family. Your parents were in here earlier-"

"OH!" Jimin shrieks with an excited rasp, sitting up straighter on the bed. It's been so long since he's seen either of his parents, and he needs to give them a long-deserved explanation of everything that's been going on. They deserve to know about Gyuri's abuse which he always used to brush under the carpet...and they need to know the details of the blackmail...and of Jungkook, his lovely boyfriend who he met on a VR game. "Y-y...es!"

The doctor smiles at his reaction, stately blinking a few times. After a few minutes of medical talk, he exits the room, leaving Jimin wrapped in a bundle of silence. In seconds, Jimin is out like a light, gripping the edges of the bed sheet and pretending he's holding onto Jungkook's black shirt. Until I can see you again, Pluto.

_... . ._ _

_... . ._ _

_... . ._ _

A/N:

Hi everyone! I've kinda been AWOL from these last few author notes if you know what I mean...(nervous laughter)...

And for good reason, because I didn't know if I could speak sensically after writing such HORROR. But now, since the majority of the storm has passed and now we can just start to see the rainbow, I salute you for staying here and not fleeing! The coming rainbow is just as bright and joyous as the rainbows that Jimin painted on canvas at Pluto's house a few chapters back. Colorfully important!

Now I'd like to say a few things about these last chapters...

ONE: Yeji for president.

TWO: Gyuri deserved to be tortured before Yeji stabbed her but since I'm stuck working in an upper office of Sperosity, I wasn't able to travel there fast enough to unleash it on her. (GrrrRRR)

THREE: Morse Code, am I right? ( _.__ . ... )

FOUR: My LOVELY readers, am I right? Tag which character you would want to be if you could be anyone in this story (other than Pluto and Melonboy, cuz those are obvious picks)--I'd pick the mailman that spies on Pluto's house cuz then I'd get to hit on Eunmi and spy on her wonderful son at the same time! Talk about perks. OR! I'd be Yeonjun's cigarette pack. Always get to see his lips...if that even counts as a character, lmao-

FIVE: have a gr8 day because u deserve it u lovely human being borne from this earth. don't get stuck in any mental cathedrals, but if u do get stuck, just phone me and i'll help u break out with my baseball bat. :)

LOVE izzy.