𝘀𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 ↬ 𝗷𝗶𝗸𝗼𝗼𝗸

year 10 | bonus chapter

it's been ten years since the previous chapter.

nothing much has happened, but i'm sorry so much time has passed without you.

now, if you will allow, to let me bring you over to present day in the lovers' world. maybe you'll discover that love may feel like forever unending, but it's also forever lasting.

just like mine for all of you. ♡

—

spring of '99, midway through march, somewhere in busan.

here is a resident named park jimin whom occupies a house on the top of a hill. he is by himself most of the time. whenever he's in public, his mystical and mysterious aura overpowers the chilling air and the people stare, questioning the blank stare he carries. nobody knows his story; why he's alone all the time, why he looks unphased by -5° weather with 30 mph winds, or why he looks charmingly miserable.

today, someone would find out the answer. someone unexpected, someone you'd never guess, someone you haven't met until now, someone who wasn't even an existing character until the author randomly decided to input one.

and their name shall be simple and random, for giving an entire chatacter a personality, look, and style who will only last one chapter seems preposterous (to the author, who is quite lazy).

so we shall refer to them as yen, occupation unknown, gender non-binary, they/them pronouns.

on this winter day, yen was having warm tea at  their modern kitchen table, and sitting across was park jimin himself. he looked fair, blonde, and sleek as usual. as for yen, they looked masculine and femine, undefinable by first glance.

they sat in silence, comfortable silence, for a long time. it was something they've become accustomed to after some time. park jimin wasn't one to talk, so yen always talked first.

"so, how've you been jimin?" they had set their cup down and rested their eyes on him, in an easy, unphased way, with a faint smile painted across their lips.

jimin stayed quiet, his eyes facing down, staring at his reflection in the dark brown liquid. then he breathed in deeply, eyes closing, and breathed out heavily, eyes remaining closed.

"i don't know what you expect me to say at this point," he said, sounding monotone; eyes open, watching yen's features rather than looking into their irises. "it's the same thing every year. i just feel miserable."

there was a moment of comfortable silence again.

"y'know, it's okay to feel like this."

"it doesn't feel like it." jimin's rebuke was rather fast, it seemed to surprise him, that he got urked by yen's statement. he breathed in deeply once more, eyes closed, breathing out of his mouth, eyes open. "it never does."

"are you okay with that?" yen asks calmly, like how a therapist asks questions in order to get to the root of your pain. it was an easy question, but it caused jimin's stomach to churn, his mouth to become dry, his eyebrows to crease.

after a few fluttery blinks, he replied with no, then quickly added yes as if he was in between both words.

"it's okay to feel both, jimin," yen said casually. "your feelings are valid here."

"i know that."

"do you?" he flinched, as if he was scared of that phrase, that question. "are you alright?"

jimin starting to faze out, staring into the cup of hot liquid once more. he remembered why he was scared of the phrase, why it makes him want to crawl into a ball and hide in the darkness.