Diamond in the Rough (Seventeen and Bangtan Fanfic)

33: Wild and Free

"Each night I lie down in a graveyard of memories. Moonlight spins a shroud about me. "

― Jerry Spinelli, Love, Stargirl

-One Week Later-

Rika's POV

Jun, Mingyu, Dino, Woozi, Joshua...Seventeen— they all filled the crevices of my heart, ones I thought would soon become distant memories. They didn't. It was like stepping into another world through a magical door, leaving the one behind like a dream. A dream that wasn't fuzzy, but so clear, so beautiful. For a while my heart ached everyday, and as the pain dulled, I was like a hairy caterpillar, reborn as a beautiful, iridescent butterfly.

Each part of my heart left behind with Seventeen was built back by Bangtan. 

They weren't a past. They weren't a memory, no. They were part of my lives still, and they will be forever. 

And because of them, I can sing out aloud with the thunder, and I can be who I want to be. And I'll never have to worry or wonder, because now I can believe that I'm living, wild and free. 

_________________

"Cha Jeon Rika, this is your phone." Jungkook passed me a rose gold smartphone as I was organising my wardrobe in my very own, proper dorm room—not that there was much to organise— one of those phones you could swipe and type on the screen. I've never had my own phone. He was using my new name too, the one I got changed officially just yesterday. I didn't want to hold the Han name any longer. There was no need to. I was free. 

"M-mine? I can't take this..."

"I didn't get it for you, pabo," he laughed, "Its a company phone. Everyone gets one, see? Its the same as mine." 

"Oh, I see," I said, accepting it smiling. BigHit was everything I had imagined. The atmosphere, the people, our president, my room, my friends. I'm being treated like a person. I'm Rika. Not the shadow, not the chameleon. I'm Rika. 

"You're smiling so much it's scaring me" Jungkook teased, and I gave him my angriest glare on purpose. 

"Why, can't I? Would you rather I be smacking you on the head?"

"Nuh-uh," he wagged a finger at me, "That's not the way to talk to a sunbaenim. Worse yet, that's not the way to talk to an oppa." Right, now he was my sunbae. I was...I was a trainee. Officially. I was going to sing, dance, do everything I had longed to since forever. 

"Oppa my butt," I grinned, "Jungkook sunbaenim." I added afterwards and bowed, just to annoy him. 

"By the way," he said, leaning on the side of my wardrobe door lazily and watching me unpack my guitar from the side, "Although those are company phones, don't worry; they don't get monitored or anything." 

"So?" I looked up at him from my bags.

"So," he smirked, leaning his arm over my shoulders, "You don't have to worry that anyone will see if you feel the need to text me that I'm sexy." 

"Y-yah! Jeon Jungkook!" I yelled, standing up and grabbing my guitar as he sprinted out the door (guess who learnt from Woozi). I breathed a sigh and chuckled to myself as he disappeared. I still couldn't believe this sudden turn in my life. Every morning I still woke up thinking of chores ahead of me, and yet...There was none waiting for me. It was laughter, sweating, hardwork, but joy. Pure, unleaden, joy. I still couldn't believe it.