Growing Pains

48

Jin swallowed the lump in his throat as he mulled what to say.

This was not going to be easy.

His hands were already cold and clammy.

He took a deep breath as he looked at his dongsaeng.

He prayed Taehyung was right.

That Jungkook will always care for him no matter what happens.

"Kookie, hyung is gay."

Jungkook's eyes widened.

He didn't expect Jin to come right out and say it like that.

He admired him for his courage.

"I like guys, Kookie."

Jungkook's heart skipped a beat.

Is this it?

Is hyung going to confess his feelings for me?

Jungkook could feel something forming in his belly, ready to bloom and burst like fireworks all over his body.

Patience, Jungkook, patience.

"I suspected when I was twelve, but I didn't acknowledge it until I was sixteen."

Sixteen... what happened when hyung was sixteen?

Wait, was it after my eleventh birthday party?

After I got mad at those girls for kissing him?

Oh my god, oh my god, he's liked me since then?

Hyung...

"I fell in love when I was seventeen but got my heart broken at eighteen."

Seventeen... what happened when hyung was seventeen?

Wait, was it that time when he rescued me at the park?

I remember wondering why he was crying so hard when he saw me.

Hyung...

But I broke his heart at eighteen?

How?

Jungkook thought hard, and then he remembered that one devastating month when Jin avoided him.

Jin had seen him kiss that girl at the cinema.

Hyung...

"I put my heart together again by the time I was nineteen. It was cracked and I wasn't whole but I was okay."

Hyung, I'm so sorry.

I didn't know.

"My heart is starting to heal. The cracks are still there and will never go away, but something is holding it, joining the pieces together."

Is it me, hyung?

When we held each other at the station earlier?

Because I felt myself becoming whole again when I saw you, when I held you.

I've been so empty since you left.

"Someone reached out to mend the cracks in my heart. Picked me up to put me back together again."

Jungkook's heart was accelerating now, and pounding hard in his chest.

His hyung was finally going to confess to him.

And he was ready with his own confession, ready to tell his hyung how much he loves him too.

"That someone is..."

I love you, hyung.

I love you too.

I love you so much.

Will you be mine?

"Yoongi."

Wait, what?

"Yoongi is my boyfriend."