Chapter 11 - Coincidence? I don't think so.

It was Friday evening, and Jimin really wasn't expecting to see anyone he knew in this particular bookstore, in the “music and psychology” section.

But when he looked up from an album on classical harmony, he noticed familiar dark hair, a hood, and... the same shoes he had seen last time.

“Jungkook?”

The dentist turned around, raising his eyebrows in slight surprise.

“Park Jimin. I thought you only read mouthwash descriptions.”

“I have a life outside of mouthwash. How about you?”

Jungkook laughed briefly. “I'm not a robot. At least not completely.”

Jimin looked at the book in his hand.

“The Silence We Need? Philosophy?”

“I like... silence,” Jungkook said quietly, looking him straight in the eyes.

“Me too. Especially when I'm sitting with someone who understands it.”

Their fingers accidentally brushed against the spine of the same book. And then it wasn't an accident anymore.

---

Chapter 12 - Coffee with a double meaning

“You don't have any patients tonight?“ Jimin asked as they sat in the corner of the cafe with cups of steaming coffee.

“I have the whole evening free. And I wasn't planning on spending it with you, but... I don't regret it,” Jungkook said, looking at him intently.

“Aren't you afraid of mixing work with... something more?”

Jungkook leaned on his hand.

“I think you're an exception.”

Jimin felt his heart skip a beat.

“You're very careful, aren't you?” he asked quietly.

“I have to be. Life requires caution.”

“What about me? Should I be careful too?”

Jungkook was silent for a moment. Then he said,

“Maybe this time... no.”

---

Chapter 13 - A short silence, a long look

After coffee, they didn't leave right away. They left together, in silence. The night was cool, and the city lights reflected in the puddles like memories.

“Do you want me to walk you to the subway?“ Jungkook asked.

“Do you want to go?” Jimin replied, looking him straight in the eyes.

Jungkook sighed and shook his head with a slight smile. “You're not afraid of me anymore, are you?”

“I'm afraid it's not just fascination.”

“Jimin...”

“I know, you don't have to say anything,” he interrupted quickly. ”But I... I just feel it.”

Jungkook put his hand on his shoulder. Gently. Almost shyly. But confidently.

“Me too.”

---

Chapter 14 - Tension between the words

The following week, Jimin showed up at the clinic, even though he didn't have an appointment. He brought flowers to the reception desk “from a patient who didn't hate the dentist.”

Jungkook came out of the office at the perfect moment.

“You again?”

“Maybe I missed the sterile smell.”

“Or maybe I missed someone who listens to you when you're silent?”

Their conversation was half-joking, half-true. But their glances were no longer a joke.

“You know I could get in trouble if someone found out I was talking to you after hours,” Jungkook asked as they went down to the café next to the clinic together.

“I know. But you're still here.”

“Because you are too. And I can't stop thinking about you.”

It wasn't a declaration. It was honesty. The kind that stays with you for a long time.

---

Chapter 15 - A Crack in the Peace

In the evening, Jungkook sent the first message. A short one.

“I had a good time with you today. I hope I'm not overreacting.”

Jimin replied after a few minutes.

“If you're overreacting, then we're both in this together.”

Neither of them slept well that night. Jungkook's heart was beating faster than it should have been. Jimin lay with his phone in his hand, a half-smile on his face, feeling that something was changing.

Not just in their conversations. In him.

Chapter 16 - Closeness after hours

Jimin didn't think an evening could mean so much. But this evening was different.

It started out normally - a message from Jungkook:

“I don't feel like cooking. I have too many patients and zero energy. Help.”

Jimin replied without hesitation:

“I'll order ramen. I'll bring it to your door. I'll eat with you if you let me in.”

“You can come in. No need to knock.”

When he stood at Jungkook's door, he felt something strange in his chest. It wasn't fear. It was anticipation. As if he were entering a world he only knew from his dreams.

Jungkook opened the door in a black T-shirt, his hair slightly damp and his eyes tired but calm.

“Ramen in plastic boxes?“ he asked with amusement.

“Someone here said they didn't want to cook.”

“You're worse than my mother,” Jungkook joked, letting him in.

The apartment was minimalist, like Jungkook—clean lines, soft lighting, an order that seemed natural.

They ate together at the table, talking about everything and nothing. Jimin talked about music, Jungkook about funny patients. They laughed. They argued. They were silent. But that silence was... comfortable.

Then they sat down on the couch.

“Are you always so organized?” Jimin asked, glancing at the neatly arranged books.

“Only on the outside,” Jungkook replied calmly. ‘Inside, I'm a mess. And I can't control it. Maybe that's why I like to have order where I can.”

“I'm the opposite,’ Jimin sighed. ”Outside, it's a mess, but inside, everything is in its place. At least for now.”

“And now?”

“Something's moving now,” he said quietly. ”Maybe it's you?”

Their eyes met. Neither of them said anything else. But Jungkook's hand moved slowly, touching Jimin's hand. Their fingers intertwined shyly. There was no rush. There was only warmth.

The evening dragged on in silence. And when Jimin fell asleep leaning against Jungkook's shoulder, he didn't move a muscle.

Not because he was afraid of waking him up. But because it was the most peaceful place he had ever been.

Chapter 17 - Wealth That Means Nothing

Before Jimin showed up at Jungkook's clinic, before he sat down in the dentist's chair with his heart in his throat, he lived in a world no one suspected.

The son of one of Seoul's richest investors. A child of glass, marble, and silence. His house had more rooms than people who moved around in it. It was built on top of a hill, overlooking a city that never slept. But Jimin never felt like he belonged there.

His father was always absent, focused on numbers, plans, and markets.

His mother was beautiful, cold as porcelain, always smiling in front of people, but absent at dinner.

Jimin attended private schools, knew three languages before he was ten, played the piano, and rode horses. And he was... terribly lonely.

He never felt like he belonged in this world. So he began to hide it.

When he moved out of his family mansion, he chose a simple apartment in the city center. He gave up his driver. He got rid of his designer watches. He wanted to see if anyone would love him not for his name or his money, but for who he really was.

That's why, when he first walked into Jeon's clinic, he wasn't wearing anything expensive. Instead, he had fear in his eyes. And a heart that longed for warmth.

He didn't plan on falling in love with a dentist.

But maybe... he was the first person who really saw him.

Chapter 18 - Dr. Jeon

From the outside, he looked like a man built on order and steel self-control. A perfect dentist, elegant, calm, closed off. But the truth about Jungkook was much more complex.

He didn't want to be a dentist. He dreamed of art—he used to draw all day long. Lines, shadows, light. When he was seventeen, his sketchbook was the only place he could breathe.

But life left him no choice.

His father disappeared from their lives, leaving his mother, older brother, and him with debt, fear, and a silence that sounded like a scream. His mother fell ill, and his brother dropped out of school to work in a factory.

Jungkook became the one who was “supposed to make it.” And he did. But not in art.

He gritted his teeth and studied dentistry like a soldier on the front lines. He studied at night and worked on weekends. He wasn't the best because he was talented — he was the best because he had no choice.

When he opened his own clinic, he was already a legend. Precise. Reliable. Cool.

But that cool exterior hid something more. A quiet regret for what he had lost. And fear—that if he opened up even for a moment, everything would fall apart again.

And then Jimin came along. And for the first time in years, Jungkook realized that maybe someone would see him for who he really was. Not a doctor. Not an icon. Just a man who had learned to live... despite everything.

---

Chapter 19 - The House of Silence

He didn't tell anyone about it. Not even Jimin knew.

Jungkook's house, though perfectly decorated, had something that could be felt immediately—a presence. Delicate. Quiet. Present in the little shoes by the door. The stuffed animal on the windowsill. The drawing pinned to the refrigerator.

Yuna. Four years old. His daughter.

She was his world. The only reason he was still breathing when his world collapsed. Four years earlier, his wife, Haneul, had died in a car accident while returning from shopping. Jungkook was at the clinic at the time. He answered the phone that broke his life.

Yuna survived. But since then... she hasn't said a single word.

The diagnosis was trauma. Her nervous system was not damaged, but her psyche had shut down completely. Doctors suggested therapy, special kindergartens, support groups.

Jungkook chose something else: love. Patience. And presence.

Every day, he sat down with her on the carpet and did puzzles. He read her fairy tales, even though he knew she wouldn't respond. He hugged her as if it could heal her silence.

And although the world saw him as a cold doctor, Yuna saw something else—warmth. Arms in which she felt safe.

She didn't speak. But she painted. And in her drawings, the same figure always appeared: her dad with his heart on his sleeve.

---

Chapter 20 - The Shadow of the Mother

It was night. Yuna couldn't sleep. She appeared in Jungkook's bedroom doorway with a stuffed animal in her hands and her eyes full of shadows.

He didn't ask. He knew.

He lifted the covers and invited her in. She lay down quietly next to him, hugging his side, her tiny fingers clenched on his shirt.

“You miss your mom, don't you?” he asked quietly, even though he knew she wouldn't answer.

Yuna snuggled closer.

Jungkook closed his eyes, fighting the wave of emotion that came like a tsunami. The memory of Haneul was still vivid—her laughter, her scent, the warmth of her hand. She was the love of his life. And she was gone before they could argue about what to have for dinner. Before he could tell her that he was afraid for her every time she went out alone.

He was left with emptiness. And with a girl who had stopped talking, as if her mother had taken away her ability to express her emotions.

“You're my world, Yuna,” he whispered. ”And I swear I'll do anything to make you feel safe again. Even if it takes a lifetime.”

The girl moved slightly. Her fingers touched his cheek.

And then something happened that he didn't expect.

A quiet, almost inaudible whisper:

“Appa...”

Jungkook froze. His heart stopped beating for a second. Tears welled up in his eyes before he realized what had happened.

The first word since the accident.

He wasn't sure if it was a dream.

But she looked at him—consciously. And even though she immediately fell silent again, that one word was enough.

Hope returned.