"Yoon, seriously, give it back."
Yoongi looked at him for a second, clearly amused by how nervous Jimin had suddenly become, but instead of listening, he turned the camera slightly towards himself as if he had every intention of finding out what exactly Jimin was trying so desperately to hide.
Jimin could only stare at him, his mind already imagining every possible picture Yoongi might come across if he scrolled even a little further.
No way... you can't see all the pictures.
Before Yoongi could press anything, Jungkook's voice came from a little distance away.
"Guys, should we go there?"
Both of them turned towards him and realised that everyone else had already started walking towards the strange structure Jungkook had discovered. Jimin immediately saw his chance, reached forward and snatched the camera from Yoongi's hand before he could even react.
"I need to click pictures," he said quickly, holding the camera against his chest as though that explanation was enough.
Yoongi narrowed his eyes at him but didn't argue. He wasn't stupid enough to believe that Jimin suddenly needed the camera at that exact moment. There was definitely something inside it that Jimin didn't want him to see, and the way he had grabbed it back only made Yoongi more curious.
Still, he followed him towards the others.
As they got closer, all of their eyes slowly lifted towards the same thing, and for a moment nobody said anything because the fort standing behind the trees was far larger than any of them had expected. The old stone walls were partly covered with vines and moss, while the entrance rose between two huge rocky sides that made the entire place look as though it had been hidden there for years, waiting for someone to find it.
"I'm excited. Let's go," Jungkook said immediately, looking like he had just discovered the greatest adventure of his life.
Kevin gave him a sideways look. "Bro, stop acting like that dumb character from horror movies. You know the one who sees an abandoned fort in the middle of nowhere and says, 'Let's go inside,' and then gets murdered five minutes later?"
Jungkook turned towards him with a challenging smile. "Scared?"
"I'm not scared."
"Then let's go."
Kevin stared at him for a second before muttering, "Why do I feel like I'm going to regret saying that?"
Namjoon stood there with his arms crossed, looking at the group as though he was seriously questioning every decision that had led him to bring these people here.
"What do you guys say?" he finally asked, knowing very well that stopping them would probably be harder than just going along with them.
"If we came this far, we might as well see what's inside," Taehyung said.
"I'm in," Jin agreed, already looking towards the entrance.
"Whatever you guys decide," Jimin said, although his eyes were still carefully scanning the area around the fort.
Yoongi simply raised his thumb, agreeing without saying anything.
They continued walking until the narrow path finally opened up and the massive rocky entrance came completely into view. Up close, it looked even older, with uneven stones forming the outer walls and thick plants growing through the cracks as if nature had slowly started claiming the place for itself.
"It's so big," Aura murmured, looking up at the entrance.
"It must be a really old fort that was forgotten over time," Namjoon said, glancing down at his map again and then back at the structure. "I seriously don't understand how this isn't mentioned anywhere here."
They were just about to move closer when Jimin suddenly stopped.
"Guys, wait."
The change in his voice made everyone turn towards him.
Jimin pointed towards the left side of the entrance, and when everyone followed his gaze, their expressions changed almost immediately.
Several guns were lying on the ground near the wall, along with a few knives arranged together as though someone had recently placed them there. They weren't covered in years of dust like everything else around the fort; they looked recently used, cleaned and deliberately kept in that particular spot.
For a few seconds, nobody joked.
Even Jungkook stopped smiling.
"There must be some illegal work going on here," Namjoon said quietly, his eyes moving around the area as he tried to figure out whether anyone was nearby.
Jin's expression became serious. "Guys, I think it's better if we leave. We don't know whose place this is or what kind of people might be using it."
"What guys? It should be fun," Jungkook complained, clearly disappointed that their adventure was suddenly being cancelled.
Everyone turned to look at him.
Jimin stared at him for a moment before saying, "Sure. Then I'll leave you here."
Jungkook's face immediately fell.
He didn't argue after that. Instead, he walked straight towards Yoongi, wrapped one arm around his arm and started walking beside him like a child who had just been scolded.
As they moved away from the fort, Jungkook leaned closer to Yoongi and whispered, "Your husband is so boring."
Yoongi couldn't stop the small smile that appeared on his face, while Jimin, who was walking just ahead of them, somehow heard it anyway.
He turned his head slightly.
"I heard that."
Jungkook immediately looked away as if he had suddenly become very interested in the trees.
They had barely started walking back when the weather suddenly changed, the clouds becoming darker within minutes before rain began falling heavily over them. At first everyone simply laughed and kept walking, thinking it would stop soon, but the rain only became stronger until there was no point in trying to avoid it anymore, and within a few minutes every single one of them was completely soaked.
"What a fun!" Minsu said, spreading his arms and laughing as the rain fell over his face.
"Fun for you, maybe," Kevin complained while trying to wipe water from his eyes. "I swear my shoes are going to become a swimming pool."
Nobody was listening to him because everyone was too busy trying to reach the house before getting even wetter, but Jimin suddenly slowed down when his eyes fell on Yoongi walking a few steps ahead of him.
Yoongi's white shirt had become completely soaked from the rain, clinging to him enough for Jimin to notice the shape of his body underneath it, and for a moment he completely forgot that everyone else was around.
His eyes stayed there a little longer than they should have.
Why does he have to look so handsome and hot?
Jimin quickly tried to look somewhere else, pretending to be interested in the path ahead, but when he glanced back again, Yoongi was already looking directly at him.
Their eyes met.
Yoongi's lips slowly curved into an amused smile because he had clearly caught him staring.
Jimin immediately looked away, pretending nothing had happened, but Yoongi didn't let him escape that easily.
"What?" Yoongi asked, as they were walking side by side.
"Nothing."
Jimin rolled his eyes and walked faster, refusing to give him another chance to tease ask something.
By the time they finally reached the house, it was already afternoon, and the excitement from the morning had completely disappeared under the exhaustion of walking for hours. Nobody even had the energy to complain about being hungry because the moment they entered, they hurriedly changed clothes, everyone simply scattered around the living room and collapsed wherever they could find space, still complaining about the rain while laughing at how ridiculous everyone looked completely soaked.
Everyone was sleeping in the afternoon, completely exhausted from the morning, but Yoongi had no intention of joining them. He had never been someone who could sleep during the day, and even when he tried, his mind simply refused to cooperate. If he somehow managed to fall asleep for a few hours, he already knew he would spend half the night staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep again, so he had learned to avoid afternoon naps altogether.
After walking around the house for a while with nothing to do, boredom finally started getting to him, and that was when his eyes fell on Jimin's camera lying near his things.
Yoongi looked towards the bags while making sure nobody was awake before slowly picking it up and carrying it outside. He sat down on the stairs where the afternoon air was cooler and switched the camera on, initially only wanting to look at the pictures they had taken earlier.
The first few pictures were harmless.
There were group pictures from the viewpoint, pictures of everyone making ridiculous poses, and then the pictures Namjoon had taken of him and Jimin standing together. Yoongi smiled faintly when he saw them, especially because he remembered how Jimin had held his hand and practically forced him to stand beside him.
He continued scrolling. Then he noticed something.
There were pictures of him while they were climbing up.
Yoongi frowned and looked at the screen more carefully.
"Where did he even take this?"
He remembered walking ahead, and Jimin had been somewhere behind them with the camera, but he had never noticed him taking pictures.
He scrolled again. Another picture. Then another.
There were pictures of him standing near the bridge, looking around while everyone else was busy doing their own thing. Some were taken from far away, some from the side, and in almost every picture Yoongi wasn't even looking at the camera.
He slowly started smiling.
"So you were secretly taking pictures of me..."
There was something strangely loving about knowing that Jimin had been doing it without letting him notice. Yoongi kept scrolling, expecting to find more pictures from today's trip, but instead the next picture made his smile disappear.
His fingertip stopped against the screen.
He stared at it for several seconds.
"How?"
The picture showed Yoongi standing on a stage on his graduation day, dressed properly, holding his certificate while looking towards the audience.
Yoongi's eyebrows slowly pulled together.
"What the hell?"
He swiped to the next picture.
Another old photograph.
Then another.
It was from years ago, when he had participated in a university program and won. The picture looked as though someone had taken it from somewhere in the audience.
Yoongi's breathing slowly became heavier.
No way.. no way..
He kept scrolling.
There was a picture from the day he received another award, followed by one from his first basketball match in Singapore. Then there was a picture from the dance performance he had participated in, and another from an event he barely even remembered anymore.
At least two or three pictures from every year were sitting inside that camera.
Not random pictures.
Pictures of him. His achievements. His competitions. His university days.
Moments he had believed Jimin had never seen.
Yoongi's face slowly lost all colour as the truth began settling in, piece by piece, and suddenly the old pictures didn't feel like simple photographs anymore.
They were proof. Proof that Jimin had been there.
Maybe not beside him, maybe not close enough for Yoongi to notice, but somewhere in that crowd, behind those people, quietly watching him live the moments he had once wished Jimin could have been part of.
"So... all this time, you were there?"
His voice came out quieter than he expected.
He looked at another picture, his thumb moving over the screen without actually swiping.
"Every time I looked around wishing you were there to see me... you already were."
His eyes slowly became wet, but he didn't wipe them.
"When I won something, when I failed, when something happened and you were the first person I wished I could tell... you were somewhere in that crowd, watching me live moments you were supposed to live with me."
He swallowed hard, staring at the picture as if somehow Jimin might answer him through it.
"You saw all the things I thought you had missed. You knew about the moments I thought I'd have to remember alone, and you were there for them without ever letting me know."
His fingers tightened around the camera.
"And you never came to me."
The smile that had appeared earlier was completely gone now.
"You just stayed there quietly, becoming a part of memories you were never supposed to be in."
Yoongi lowered the camera into his lap and stared ahead, trying to understand the person he thought he had already understood.
Why would Jimin do this?
Why would he travel all that way just to watch him from a distance?
Why collect pictures of someone he supposedly wanted to forget?
"Why, Jimin?"
His voice cracked slightly.
"Why did you choose to be a stranger in every moment you secretly witnessed?"
There was no answer.
Yoongi finally placed the camera beside him and brought his palm over his face, pressing it against his eyes as if that could somehow stop everything inside his head from becoming mess.
"What reason could you possibly have for doing all of this, Jimin? If you really want us to find our way back to what we were... then why won't you let me know the truth? How am I supposed to put us back together when you won't even tell me what broke us in the first place?"
It was already twelve by the time everyone finished dinner, until eventually everyone settled down together in a loose circle in the living room.
For the first time since they had arrived, Yoongi didn't feel that same heaviness inside him.
Ever since he had seen those pictures in Jimin's camera, something had changed. The questions were still there, probably more than before, but now there was something else mixed between them, something that made his heart feel strangely lighter.
My heartbeat never betrayed me or never faked the love.
He had spent years believing Jimin had forgotten him, believing that all those memories belonged only to him while Jimin had moved on and built an entirely different life.
But he had been wrong. Jimin had been there.
He had watched him, remembered him and somehow kept pieces of him without ever letting Yoongi know.
There has to be a reason why he did all this. And I'll know why he did it. I will.
With that thought still running through his mind, Yoongi sat down beside Jimin when everyone gathered around. Usually, he would find an excuse to sit somewhere else or quietly move away whenever there was a chance of being too close to him, but tonight he didn't.
Jimin noticed it too.
He didn't say anything, but his eyes briefly moved towards Yoongi before returning to the others.
"Let's play something," Taehyung suggested, looking around at everyone.
"What?" Jimin asked.
Yoongi wasn't really listening anymore because his attention had suddenly fallen on Jimin's clothes, and for a second he completely forgot what everyone was talking about.
Jimin was wearing an old T-shirt. Not just any old T-shirt.
It was the one Yoongi had gifted him on his birthday seven years ago, the one with the words Your heart is full with my kisses printed across it.
Yoongi stared at it for a moment longer than he should have.
He couldn't believe Jimin still had it.
After seven years.
He had expected the camera to surprise him, but somehow seeing that old T-shirt on Jimin felt even more personal because this wasn't something hidden inside a camera. Jimin had actually chosen to wear it.
"How about hide and seek?" Taehyung suddenly suggested, and the entire mood changed immediately as everyone's faces lit up.
"It will be fun," Yoongi said, joining the conversation for the first time with genuine excitement.
Everyone looked at him.
Aura's eyebrows rose dramatically. "Guys, Yoongi finally spoke with excitement. I think we should document this historical moment."
Yoongi rolled his eyes while everyone laughed.
"It actually sounds fun," Jungkook agreed.
Namjoon looked around the house before slowly nodding, although his expression suggested he had already realised something the others hadn't.
"It will be fun, but..."
"But what, Hyung?" Minsu asked.
Namjoon pointed around the house. "I just pray for the person who has to find everyone because you guys can hide anywhere, and the poor person who is searching is going to be walking around this huge house alone. Imagine finding absolutely nobody and slowly convincing yourself that everyone has disappeared."
Everyone went quiet for a second.
Jin immediately shook his head. "I'm not finding anyone."
"Let's do rock-paper-scissors," Kevin suggested, already holding his hand out.
They gathered together and started playing, and after several rounds of arguing, cheating accusations and people demanding another chance, Jin somehow ended up being the one who had to find everyone.
"No way!" Jin protested immediately. "Why is it always me?"
Aura laughed. "It's not cheating just because you lost, oppa. You have to find everyone."
"It's fine," Namjoon said, already feeling sorry for him. "I'll find them instead."
Jin looked at him with genuine relief while everyone else agreed, and finally Namjoon stood up.
"Okay, I'll stay outside for thirty seconds. Hide properly before I come back."
He walked outside and closed the door behind him while everyone immediately scattered in different directions.
"Jimin Hyung, come with me. I know a good place," Minsu said, grabbing Jimin's hand before dragging him towards the stairs.
Jimin followed him but looked back once.
His eyes met Yoongi's.
Yoongi was standing there watching him, and for some reason that tiny glance stayed in his mind even after Jimin disappeared upstairs.
Yoongi looked around at everyone running away and then quietly muttered to himself, "Fine... I'll hide by myself. You go with your favourite Minsu.."
He walked upstairs, knowing there were far more rooms than he could possibly count, and finally entered one of them after hearing Namjoon's voice from outside warning everyone that he was about to come back.
"THREE, TWO, ONE, I'M COMING"
Yoongi looked around quickly and noticed an empty space behind an almirah, barely large enough for one person.
"Perfect."
He slipped inside and tried to make himself as quiet as possible, but his mind wasn't cooperating.
Instead of thinking about Namjoon finding him, he was thinking about Jimin again.
He wondered where Jimin had hidden with Minsu and whether they had found some better hiding place than his own.
Why i care.. go with him.
He was still thinking about it when he suddenly felt someone squeeze into the tiny space beside him.
Yoongi turned his head.
Jimin.
He stared at him in disbelief.
"You?"
Jimin didn't answer, only looked around to make sure there was enough space for both of them.
Yoongi frowned. "You came here?"
Jimin nodded slightly.
"Fine, I'll go somewhere else then."
Yoongi was about to step out, but before he could move, Jimin suddenly caught the front of his collar and pulled him back inside.
Yoongi stumbled closer, and because the space was already small, there was barely any distance left between them.
Jimin's hand remained curled around his collar for another second before he slowly loosened it, but neither of them moved away.
They were standing so close that Yoongi could feel Jimin's breath against his face..
They simply looked at each other, both suddenly aware that hiding together had created a much bigger problem than being found.
Then they heard footsteps approaching from the hallway.
Jimin's eyes widened slightly.
He immediately placed his hand from coller to behind Yoongi's head pulling his head closer and other finger on Yoongi's lips.
"Shh..."
Yoongi stopped breathing for a moment, because of this closeness.
The footsteps came closer.
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