MINE [ᴋᴛʜ]

OUR

Key of my enigmatic heart

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Dead leaves falling on the ground, new leaves growing. Both sight so different yet so beautiful in its own way.

With a stare so still, Noeul keeps looking at the tree out of her window. She thinks herself same as a dead leaf. Lifeless, stilled and fallen. She has been seeing this sight for repeated two years.

Two years and still counting. Two years and still no trace of him.

Hope was slipping away and she was becoming lifeless.

"This isn't fair," Noeul complains but to no one.

A soft knock on her door startles her. The door opens and a figure enters inside the room.

"Papa," Noeul looks with her tired eyes. The moment felt nostalgic to her. Faint lights of the sunset casting over the face of Jeon Jungkook, her dearest father and her only best friend.

Jungkook strides towards his daughter. Each stride made her face clearer to him, each stride made him know the lifelessness of hers.

With a caress and a soft peck on the head, Jungkook finally looks at her, eye to eye.

"Can we sit over there? Papa has a lot to share with his baby," Jungkook asks in a careful whisper.

To him, his daughter looked very fragile at that moment and he was making sure to not break his only precious possession.

Noeul nods while lowering her head and heads over to sit on her bed. She tries her best to hide her face from his eyes. If this was a year earlier, she would have faked her smile and enthusiasm. But now everything hurts. Even faking a smile.

Jungkook sits beside her. Calmly breathing in, he starts.

"I've news about him."

Something breaks and then sparks with all might within Noeul. Tired eyes that were thirsty for hope, quenches the thirst after a very long time.

Seeing her such reaction for the first time in a while, Jungkook smiles ever so fondly.

"Papa, h-how did you find out－he left no trace－"

"You see, Noeul, I'm a father and you're my band aid. I had to find your band aid before you slipped away from me, like Taetae did."

Noeul thought she couldn't cry anymore as she wasted them all. But she proves herself wrong.

Tears that mean no sadness, starts to cascade down, soaking her colorless cheeks. Jungkook wipes them while swallowing his own tears.

"Whenever I see you, I try to find remnants of my sister. I even named you after her. But you look nothing like her. You know what's more fascinating? Your every habit, your personality resembles my Taetae. Noeul," Jungkook clasps her both hands, "I will let you know everything but you need to promise me something first."

Nostalgic hour, it was for Noeul. She has brisk fragments of memories of the moment when her father asked her to promise something years ago.

Same faces, same place, same sunset yet different moment, different heart.

"Heck, papa, ask for my life, will you? Of course, I promise. You know it all."

Jungkook stares. His little girl who had no sense of love, now all grown up with a heart full of love. In that moment Jungkook clearly saw his Taetae in her.

They are not related but they think, they love alike. Have you born with his heart, Noeul?

Jungkook thinks but sighs with no word spoken.

"Papa wants to know everything like everything you think, you hide in your diary. I need to have the key of your enigmatic heart."

Because I couldn't have the key of their hearts and try to save them.

Noeul gasps. Jungkook stays calm. A battle of conflicted eyes and determined eyes goes on. Conflicted ones bow down first.

"Okay papa," Noeul sighs.

"I'll give you the key and you give me mine in return."

Jungkook smiles. With a loving peck on her forehead, he gets up and goes for the door.

Noeul doesn't bring up her head. Keeping it low, she hears the soft footsteps of her papa, the creaking sound of the door opening. The footsteps halt, Noeul wonders why.

"And Noeul. I can never ask for your life."

With slightly widened eyes, she slowly looks up.

"Because mine relies on yours. Without Noeul, there will be no Jeon Jungkook."

And Noeul realizes, in want of a love that has been far away from her, she has neglected her loved ones who were hurting from seeing her in invisible pain.

"See you later, baby. Papa loves you a lot."

And the door closes with a soft thud, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

"I love you too, Papa. I love you a lot," Noeul whispers, eyes blurry, faint smile seen on her lips.

Note:

Yes, a full chapter for the first time and in third person's perspective. Arrival of Jungkook obviously indicates that the epilogue is on the way :3