Begin (JJK) BTS 2026 series Book 3 (COMPLETED)

A Ray Of Hope

Jungkook stands in the hallway outside the dorm set watching over the shoulder of the person hired to do the digital back ups. He thinks about how many people have to be hired to replace Binna on this shoot, most of the staff doing props and set decorating reported directly to her as their head of department, she hired all of the crew, set the schedule, and did the downloading of the footage herself. Now there are more people around to do this work, but none of them he trusts as much as he trusted her. He is sure something else is going on. Namjoon raised his already heightened suspicion when he started piecing together what happened when.  There is no possible way she could have tried to get herself fired off of the shoot after such a successful first day. It didn't matter what happened between them, the day was perfect, and she had worked hard to ensure it was. She went with him to meet Bang PD and tell him about the shoot, and she was just as excited about the day as he was. If she was really upset about what happened between them, she wouldn't have kept the footage to look at later, she wouldn't have gone in to erase the footage to protect them, she wouldn't have shown up at his house, to confess to him the mistake she had made, and she certainly wouldn't have let it happen again. Now he's sure of that.

He looks down at his phone as it alerts him to a text.

Hobihyung: JK JK! Where am I?! Am I at the old dorm?

He texts back quickly as he moves toward the dorm front door.

Jungkook: Hyung, you are! Come right up, I'll meet you in the hallway outside the door

He leans inside the dorm and calls to the producer,

"J-Hope is coming up now, can you be ready? I'm going to greet him out here and then I will come in first." Sangwoo steps up near the camera, checking to see if everyone is prepared, and he nods to him.

"We are all set." Jungkook closes the door, stepping closer to the elevator at the other end of the hallway from the downloading station. He watches the slowest elevator in the world as it slowly creeps past each floor rising up a little higher in an agonizingly slow ascent. When they lived here before, they rarely took the elevator, they were always told to take the elevator down, and the stairs up, it was better exercise. He asked why they didn't take the stairs down too but someone at the company mentioned something about trip hazard and broken legs and they were forbidden. He chuckles to himself as he thinks about how much of his young life was controlled by the company. Before they became essentially business partners, and shareholders, they were just employees, doing what they were told. That fit his personality fine at age 15, but for the last several years, he had been in charge of himself. No one told him what to do, or what not to do, unless they were on tour. On tour, they had a huge list of things they were prevented from doing, but he understood that was to protect the shows, and all of the money and time and effort that went in to moving them around the globe. But now, he does what he wants, when he wants, with who he wants. He frowns as he thinks about the reality that he somehow isn't in control at this exact moment; that what he wants, is being kept from him, and he feels frustrated at his inability to get his way.

The elevator dings as it finally reaches their floor and he looks up just as the doors open and Hoseok stands gawping at him, wide eyed. He's alone in the elevator and he steps out, smiling at Jungkook as he looks around.

"What have you planned?!" he asks excited. "Are we going to see what the old dorm looks like now?" Jungkook turns to lead him toward the door.

"Something like that," he indicates he should stop in front of the door. Hoseok gasps.

"JK, the door, it looks just the same. It looks like we still live here." He thinks he's teasing, but he has no idea what he will really see when the door is opened. Jungkook fights a smile, trying not to give anything away.