YOONGI'S POV
I'm here again.
The same house. The same living room.

The same couch where I had once sat as nothing more than a guest, carefully watching my every move because I didn't want to make a bad impression.
Back then I never imagined that one day I would return knowing this house legally belonged to me, yet somehow it never felt like mine. Funny how destiny kept bringing me back to the very place I had spent years trying to erase from my memories.
Seven years.
Such a small number when spoken out loud, yet long enough for people to become strangers. Even the furniture changed and people talk human can't change.
For seven years I forced myself to become someone my nineteen-year-old self would never have recognized. I buried every weakness, every tear, every expectation because I had convinced myself that the only way to survive was to become stronger than the pain that had once destroyed me. Every lecture I attended, every sleepless night, every achievement, every success... somewhere deep inside they all carried the same purpose.
To prove him wrong.
To stand in front of him one day as someone he could never look down on again.
Yet no matter how much I trained my mind to hate him, my heart remained painfully stubborn. It refused to cooperate. There wasn't a single day when it truly forgot him. Even when I hated remembering his name, my heart somehow remembered the warmth of his smile instead.
Sometimes I wondered if hearts were born without pride, because mine kept choosing it's heartbeat who had broken it beyond repair.
I still remember that day as clearly as if it had happened yesterday.
I was only nineteen.
A nineteen-year-old boy sitting inside a taxi with swollen eyes, clutching a single ticket to Singapore, a scholarship that was supposed to change my future, property papers I didn't even know what to do with, and a heart that no longer knew how to beat without hurting.
Part of me wanted the taxi to drive faster so I could leave everything behind.
Another part wanted the driver to turn around so I could run back and ask him one question.
Why? Why did you do that? Why did you make me believe everything was real if none of it was?
I never got that answer.
Instead...
His words became the fuel that pushed me forward. They followed me everywhere, turning every failure into determination and every moment of exhaustion into another reason not to stop. Whenever I felt like giving up, I remembered the way he had looked at me that day, and somehow I found the strength to continue.
The taxi slowly stopped outside the airport.
I paid the driver before pulling my suitcase out.
I was shaking, my eye's were blurred.
"Sir..." The driver hesitated before speaking again. "Are you alright?"
I quickly wiped my face with the sleeve of my hoodie and forced a small smile that even I didn't believe.
"Yeah...It'll be okay."
He looked at me for another second, as if he knew I was lying, but simply nodded before driving away.
I stood there alone, staring at the airport entrance.

Everything beyond those glass doors was unfamiliar. I didn't know what to do where to go even after going singapore.
A new country and new life. A future I had never planned.
Just as I tightened my grip around the suitcase handle, I noticed three familiar figures waving from a distance.
Aura. Kevin. And beside them... Uncle David and Auntie.
Before I could react, Aura ran toward me and wrapped both arms around me. Kevin followed right behind her.
Neither of them said anything at first.
They simply hugged me. As if they already knew words weren't enough today.
When we finally pulled away, Kevin sighed dramatically.
"You actually came. I was starting to think you'd disappear somewhere before boarding."
"I'm here," I admitted with a faint smile.
But i was confused what they were doing here? Came to see me?
He looked at me for a moment before lightly punching my shoulder.
"Good thing."
I looked between the two of them in confusion. "What are you both doing here?"
Kevin exchanged a glance with Aura before grinning.
"What do you think? We're coming with you."
I frowned. "...What?"
"We're moving to Singapore too," Aura explained. "Dad already works there, my older brother seokjin is there, and Mom finally decided it's time for all of us to stay together. Since you received the scholarship at the same medical college where Dad works, we'll all end up studying there together."
I showed smile but there was no trance of happiness.
Uncle David stepped forward with his usual warm smile. "Come on. Let's go home."
I blinked. "Home?"
He nodded. "You and Kevin will stay with us."
I immediately shook my head. "No, Uncle."
Everyone looked at me.
"I'm old enough to take care of myself. I don't want to become a burden to your family."
Kevin nodded almost immediately.
"He's right, Uncle. We'll find somewhere nearby."
Uncle David folded his arms before looking at both of us with an amused expression. "You boys really think too much."
Neither of us answered.
He continued, "First of all, you're not burdening anyone. Second, finding a decent apartment or even a dorm this late in the semester isn't easy, especially near the medical college. You'll only waste time and money."
I still wanted to refuse.
He noticed it immediately. "So let's make a deal."
I looked at him.
"You'll stay with us for now."
Before I could interrupt, he raised one hand.
"And don't start arguing. If calling it 'living with family' makes you uncomfortable, then think of yourselves as paying guests. Kevin can contribute whatever rent he wants, and as for you..." he smiled gently, "...I'll simply consider it part of the scholarship support. Once you both settle down and find a place you genuinely like, you can move out without anyone stopping you."
I looked at Kevin. He looked back at me. Neither of us had a proper reason to refuse anymore.
"...Alright," I finally said with a small nod.
But deep inside, I quietly made another promise to myself.
This arrangement would only be temporary.
I had already lost too much by depending on people once before.
This time... I would build a life that belonged to me alone.
By the time we reached, I already felt... empty.
I wasn't even sure what I was feeling anymore. It was as if every emotion had been exhausted during the journey, leaving behind nothing except a strange silence inside me.
Aura's father parked the car in front of the house while everyone started carrying their luggage inside. It was a beautiful place, much bigger than I had imagined.
Kevin and I were given the rooms on the upper floor, right beside each other, while Aura, Uncle David, Aunty and her older brother Seokjin, who was studying law, stayed downstairs.
Normally I would've looked around the house with curiosity.
Today I didn't care where I was.
The room could've been a palace or an empty building... it wouldn't have made any difference.
I quietly dragged my suitcase inside, closed the door behind me and simply stood there for a moment.
The room was unfamiliar..
Without even bothering to unpack, I picked up a towel and walked straight into the bathroom.
The warm water kept falling over my body for a long time, but it failed to wash away the heaviness clinging to my chest. No matter how long I stood there, the memories refused to leave me.
His smile, His voice, His eyes.
The word "Yoon" and "Nerdy boy"
Everything followed me.
After changing, I wrapped the towel loosely around my waist and walked toward the mirror, stopping right in front of it.
For a long moment... I simply stared at my own reflection.

It felt strange. As if I was looking at someone I no longer recognized.
My eyes slowly dropped toward my chest. Almost unconsciously, my fingers moved over the tattoo.
They traced every line carefully, as though they were trying to memorize it all over again.
A bitter smile appeared on my lips.
"You are still here..." I whispered to myself.
Then my hand slowly travelled upward. My fingers slipped through my long hair.
The same hair...The one I had grown because one day, under a sky full of stars, he had casually smiled and said that men looked good with long hair.
He had probably forgotten saying it. I never did. Every inch of this hair carried that one memory.
The tears blurred my vision before I even realized they had escaped.
One drop, then another fell.
I closed my eyes tightly and wiped them away with the back of my hand, almost angrily.
"No..." I whispered, shaking my head. "No more."
Another tear rolled down anyway.
I laughed softly at myself.
"How pathetic..." I looked back at my reflection.
The person standing in front of me looked nothing like the Min Yoongi whose only dream was to become a doctor after his parents'death, then how did I get distracted in the middle?
"You cried enough." I spoke slowly, forcing myself to keep looking into my own eyes.
"You begged enough. You loved enough. And now..."
I took a deep breath.
"...now you stand up."
My fingers slowly tightened against the edge of the sink.
"I won't cry anymore, Park Jimin."
The words hurt more than I expected.
"You wanted me to become stronger, didn't you?"
A faint smile appeared despite the ache in my chest.
"Then watch me. The next time I stand in front of you... ...I won't be the boy who kept chasing after your shadow. I'll become the storm you once told me to become."
That's when my eyes landed on something resting beside the mirror.
A pair of scissors. I stared at it for a few seconds.
Then quietly picked it up.
My hand reached for the front strands of my hair.
The bangs that had almost reached my lips.
I held them between my fingers.
A memory flashed before my eyes.
Your hair looks so pretty... don't ever cut it.
My grip trembled.
For a moment... I almost put the scissors back.
Then i finally closed the blades.
The first strands of hair fell onto the floor.
I looked at them for a few seconds before picking up another section.
This time my hands didn't tremble anymore.
One by one... The long strands disappeared.
With every cut, it felt as though I was forcing myself to let go of another memory I had desperately held onto.
When I finally looked into the mirror again, the person staring back at me looked different.
Just... Different.
I placed the scissors back on the table and quietly swept my fingers through the shorter hair before letting out a slow breath.
"This is enough. No more looking back."
From that day onward...
I never contacted anyone again.
Jimin, Jungkook nor uncle gowin.
I buried every memory inside my heart... And walked toward the future alone.
"Fuck..."
The word escaped under my breath as I dragged my palm over my face before letting myself fall back against the couch. I closed my eyes, hoping the silence around me would finally quiet my mind, but it only did the opposite.
The moment I stopped distracting myself, every memory I had spent years trying to bury found its way back as if they had only been waiting for this moment.
I wanted to hug Jungkook today.
God... I wanted to.
The excitement on his face when he saw me wasn't fake. His eyes had lit up exactly the same way they used to years ago, and for one stupid moment I almost forgot everything.
But... What if tomorrow he looked at me with the same disappointment again?
What if one day he decided everything between us had been fake too?
What if he also tells same thing like his brother.. that it was nothing but act..
I didn't think I could survive hearing something like that twice.
So I stayed where I was.
Watching him...Keeping my hands to myself.
Maybe that was better. Maybe distance hurt less than hope.
I slowly leaned my head back and stared blankly at the ceiling.
Funny...
People thought that when you stopped talking to someone, you stopped caring about them too.
If only it were that simple.
Even after all those years without a single conversation, I still knew what was happening in Jungkook's life.
He was handling all business now. I think uncle gowin retired. It's been seven years last time I saw him.
About Jungkook, whenever his name appeared somewhere, whenever an interview or an article showed up online, I always ended up reading it. Last year, when he received the Business Excellence Award, I watched the entire ceremony alone. I replayed the video more times than I wanted to admit, quietly listening to his acceptance speech while sitting in an empty apartment with nobody around to see me smiling like an idiot.
'I'm proud of him'
Proud enough that, for a few minutes, I forgot I wasn't supposed to be a part of his life anymore.
Time had changed him.
The reckless teenager who never wore anything except oversized hoodies, jackets and loose T-shirts had disappeared somewhere along the way. Now he stood confidently in tailored suits, spoke in front of hundreds of people without hesitation and carried an entire company on his shoulders as if he had been born to do it.
He had grown up. ...Just like I had.
A bitter laugh escaped me.
Growing older really was strange.
As teenager, we believed time healed everything. Nobody warned us that sometimes it only taught us how to carry the pain without showing it.
When I arrived in Korea and stepped into the hospital, my eyes immediately fell on Jimin.
His blonde hair.
Why would he dye his hair blonde... the color I told him I liked seven years ago?
He looked so different... Yet somehow, exactly the same.
Don't think like this...
I silently told myself.
I rubbed my forehead, exhaustion settling into my bones. I had imagined this meeting so many times over the years. I had rehearsed every word, every accusation, every question that had kept me awake at night.
I had convinced myself that the moment I stood in front of Jimin, I would return every wound he had left inside me. I wanted him to know how it felt. I wanted him to hear words harsher than the ones he had once thrown at me.
That had been the plan.
Until I actually saw him. The moment our eyes met...
Every carefully prepared sentence disappeared.
I didn't forgive him. The pain was still there But the memories reached me before the anger could.
No matter how much I wanted to hate him, there was one truth I had never been able to erase.
He had given me a home.
House or four walls are not home but the person who became.
For the first time in my life, I had known what it felt like to return to someone instead of simply returning somewhere.
Maybe he believed all of it had been fake. Maybe, for him, it had only been a chapter he had already closed.
But for me... None of it had been pretend.
Every moment I had lived beside him had been real enough to become a part of me.
I couldn't erase those years simply because they ended badly.
I slowly opened my eyes and let out a long breath.
"No..." I murmured to myself, my voice barely audible inside the silent room. "That person doesn't exist anymore."
The boy who used to agree with everything Jimin said...
The boy who never questioned him, never argued with him, never doubted him...
The boy who would have believed the impossible simply because the words had come from Jimin... Even if he would say the moon is made by cotton.
He had disappeared a long time ago.
Life had taken that version of me apart piece by piece and rebuilt someone else in his place.
This time... If we stood on opposite sides again... wouldn't lower my head. I wouldn't silently accept every word.
The boy he had once known might have loved him enough to lose himself.
But the man standing here now... Would never make that mistake again.
I was sitting alone, absentmindedly staring at the glass table in front of me.
My mind had been somewhere else ever since I came back to Korea. That's why when I suddenly felt the cushion beside me sink under someone's weight, I instinctively turned my head.
"Jungkook..."
His name escaped my lips before I even realised I had spoken.
He looked different.
Seven years had changed him in ways I hadn't expected. He was wearing a simple black T-shirt with a pair of glasses resting comfortably on his face, making him look much more mature than the last time I had seen him. As he placed a file on the glass table between us, my eyes unconsciously drifted toward his arm.
It wasn't just one or two tattoos anymore. Almost his entire arm was covered with them, each design blending into the next. The playful teenager I once knew had quietly grown into someone I almost failed to recognise.


"How are you?" he asked, turning completely toward me.
His voice... It was deeper than before.
"Fine... I guess," I replied after a brief pause.
He studied my face for a moment before smiling faintly. "How's life treating you?"
"It's... going well." I shrugged lightly before asking the same question back. "What about yours?"
He leaned back against the chair, letting out a quiet breath. "Mine is also good... I guess."
For some reason, both of us laughed softly at our identical answers.
Neither of us sounded convincing.
After a few seconds, he spoke again. "Any plans now that you're back?"
"I think I'll continue my studies. I want to do my residency."
He nodded without looking surprised.
"I knew you'd say that." A small smile appeared on his face.
Suddenly..
"I missed you."
The words reached my ears so gently that they hurt more than if he had shouted them.
I lowered my gaze to my hands resting on my lap.
"Same here..."
It took me a few seconds to answer, and even then I couldn't bring myself to look at him.
"It's been seven years since we last met," he said after a while. "Does it feel awkward to you?"
"A little."
That was the truth. Seven years wasn't a small amount of time.
People changed. Lives changed.
Sometimes even relationships changed so much that you didn't know how to return to them..
Before I realised it, Jungkook quietly moved closer until our shoulders almost touched. Then, just like he used to do years ago without asking for permission, he wrapped both arms around mine and rested his head against my shoulder.
The gesture was so familiar that my heart ached.
"I had no fault..." he whispered, his voice becoming unsteady. "Then why did you stop talking to me?"
I closed my eyes. Every word carried seven years of unanswered questions.

Seven years of waiting. Seven years of pretending not to care.
It broke something inside me.
"I..." I couldn't even find an excuse. "I should go. I'm feeling sleepy."
I tried to pull my arm away. He didn't let me. Instead, he tightened his hold just a little.
"He isn't here," he murmured quietly. "You don't have to pretend in front of me."
I slowly looked at him.
"You can hug me."
That one sentence destroyed whatever strength I had been holding onto.
I gently placed my hand on his shoulder and turned him toward me. The moment our eyes met, I saw the tears he had been trying so hard to hide. His lips were pressed together, his eyes slightly red, yet he was still forcing himself to smile as if nothing was wrong.
I couldn't stop myself anymore. I pulled him into my arms.
"I'm sorry..."
The apology came out almost as a whisper.
It wasn't enough. It would never be enough to make up for seven years.
Jungkook hugged me back so tightly that it almost became difficult to breathe.
"Don't disappear like that again," he said quietly. "If you're angry, tell me. If you're hurt, tell me. If you need time, tell me. But don't make me spend years wondering whether I lost my best friend without even knowing why."
His each word hurt me, piercing my heart.
"I won't," I whispered honestly. "I promise."
It must have been almost ten minutes before he finally leaned back, wiping his eyes with the sleeve of his shirt as though he hadn't just cried.
His gaze immediately landed on my hair.
"You cut it?"
I nodded.
He clicked his tongue dramatically before laughing.
"You know..." he said while looking at me carefully, "you're behaving exactly the same way you did when we first met."
I frowned slightly.
"Talking less."
I stayed quiet.
"Answering everything with one sentence."
I looked away.
"And whenever you don't know what to say..." he pointed at me with a grin, "...you just nod."
Without thinking, I nodded again.
The moment I realised what I had done, he burst into laughter.
"There..." He pointed at me triumphantly. "You did it again."
Despite everything, a small smile escaped my lips.
He looked at that smile for a second before saying softly, "At least... something stayed the same."
I looked back at him.
Somehow those simple words carried more emotion than anything.
Then, as if remembering something, the corners of his lips slowly lifted into a mischievous grin.
"Oh... and one more thing."
I already didn't like that smile.
"You are terrible at stalking people."
I was little confused. "What?"
"You accidentally liked my Instagram posts more times than I can count."
Fuckkkkk!! How can I?
"I..."
"So you were checking my profile."
"I wasn't."
"Liar."
He laughed even harder after seeing my embarrassed face.
"Fine, I'll forget it..." he teased before leaning back comfortably. "On one condition."
I looked at him suspiciously.
"Play basketball with me again."
For a few seconds, I simply stared at him.
Then...
"I will."
He smiled with the same excitement I remembered from years ago.
"Good."
He picked up the file from the table before standing.
"Now go and get some sleep."
He took a few steps before stopping and looking back over his shoulder.
"Your heartbeat must be waiting for you."
He smiled one last time before walking away.
I remained seated, watching his figure disappear little by little.
But the small smile that had found its way onto my face faded almost immediately.
Heartbeat...?
Jimin.
I found my way towards our bedroom.
No... His bedroom.
Why would I choose another room? This is my house. I can choose whichever room I want. If anyone has to walk out of the room... he can.
A small smirk slowly found its way onto my lips.
Without thinking any further, I knocked on the door.

A few seconds later it opened.
The moment Jimin saw me standing there, surprise was written all over his face. It was as if he hadn't expected me to come here at all.

"You?" he asked, still looking at me with slightly widened eyes.
"Move." I answered shortly, not bothering to explain myself.
He frowned. "What?"
"I said move. I need to enter."
He looked at me for a moment before slightly shaking his head.
"No." He didn't even move an inch from where he was standing. "You can't."
The more he tried to stop me... The more curious I became.
Now I'll enter purposely.
I want to see how many things changed.
Without asking for his permission, I simply placed my hand on his shoulder and tried to move him aside.
He immediately caught my wrist.
"Stop, Min Yoongi."
There was irritation in his voice now, but I ignored it completely "Seriously, don't."
"My house, I can go wherever i want."
"No." He said
"Why?"
"Because I said so."
I looked straight into his eyes before a small smile appeared on my lips.
"Do you think I'm the same Yoongi who will listen to you?." A bitter chuckle escaped my lips.
Before he could stop me again, I held his shoulder, pushing him softly, just enough to slip past him.
"Min Yoongi.. "
He called my name in frustration, but it was already too late.
The moment I stepped inside... I saw..
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