Chapter 21 - Fading Light

Jimin rushed into the clinic not as a patient, but as someone who couldn't find peace. He didn't have an appointment. He just... had to see him.

Jungkook looked up from his documents, surprised but not shocked.

“Something happened?”

“I don't know,” Jimin replied. ”You know when you have a day where everything is too loud, too bright, too... empty?

Jungkook put down his pen.

“Come on.”

He took him to the roof of the building where no one could hear them. The city pulsed with lights below them, but up here, it was quiet.

“No one calms me down like you do,” Jimin said, not looking him in the eyes.

“Because you don't have to put on a front with me. You can be weak.”

“And you?”

“I... don't have that luxury.”

Jimin looked at him differently then. As if he saw something more than just a calm doctor. As if he was beginning to understand that Jungkook wasn't just a wall - but also someone who had learned to stand still so that everything else wouldn't collapse.

---

Chapter 22 - Questions Without Answers

That evening, they went out for ramen together. There was no dinner—there was a need. A desire to be close for a little while longer.

“What are you most afraid of?” Jimin asked suddenly, with a spoon halfway to his mouth.

Jungkook hesitated. “Loss.”

“Someone specific?”

“Yes.”

“Who?”

Jungkook looked him in the eyes, then... looked away. ”I can't tell you yet.”

That one sentence hurt Jimin more than it should have. But he nodded.

“Will you tell me someday?”

“When I'm ready.”

And then they were silent again. But it wasn't an uncomfortable silence. It was a silence filled with unspoken words.

---

Chapter 23 - One Step Away from the Truth

Jimin returned to his apartment and couldn't sleep. His thoughts circled around Jungkook like satellites - safe, but constantly in motion.

What was he hiding? Who was he really? Why were his glances sometimes so heavy, as if they were carrying the whole world?

And then, by accident, he went to the clinic's profile and saw a photo. A photo of Jungkook holding a child - a girl with big eyes and brown hair.

The description was simple:

“Dr. Jeon with his daughter - Children's Day at the clinic.”

Jimin froze.

Daughter?

He felt something tighten inside him. Not jealousy. Not fear. Something that didn't have a name yet. But it was strong.

---

Chapter 24 - The Daughter of Silence

He didn't say anything. He didn't text Jungkook. He didn't speak for three days. He needed time to understand what he was feeling.

Jungkook noticed the silence. And he felt it painfully.

Finally, he wrote:

“What's wrong?”

Jimin replied after two hours:

“Why didn't you tell me you had a daughter?”

The answer came after a few minutes.

“Because she's my world. And I didn't want to drag you into something you might not want.”

Jimin read that sentence ten times.

“I want to know your world, Jungkook.”

---

Chapter 25 - Encounter with Silence

It was a sunny, peaceful day. Jungkook opened the door to his apartment and asked Jimin to take off his shoes.

“She's distrustful. She doesn't talk. She might not even come over.”

Jimin nodded. “You don't have to explain anything to me. Just let me be.”

Yuna was sitting in the corner of the living room, playing with blocks. She looked at Jimin—briefly, searchingly—and went back to playing.

She didn't say anything.

Jimin didn't try to get her attention. He sat down on the carpet a few feet away and... started arranging his blocks.

He didn't look at her, he didn't smile intrusively. He just... was there.

After half an hour, Yuna stood up. She picked up a block and... handed it to him.

Jungkook watched them from the kitchen. And for the first time in a long time, he felt something resembling relief.

Not everyone was leaving.

Chapter 26 - Trust Built with Blocks

Yuna didn't say a word during the entire meeting. But her gestures said it all. After she handed Jimin a block, she sat closer. Then even closer. And before anyone realized it, they were building a castle together.

Jimin didn't try to touch her once. But when he picked up a block and asked quietly,

“Does this fit?”

Yuna nodded.

Jungkook sat to the side, a cup of tea in his hand, watching. His daughter, his world, was opening up to him. And Jimin—surprisingly gentle and attentive—didn't try to enter with his shoes on. He just waited.

An hour later, Yuna approached him. She handed him a drawing. Two figures. A little girl holding hands with a boy with light hair.

Jimin took it with a trembling heart.

“Is that me?” he asked quietly.

Yuna nodded.

She didn't speak. But she said everything she could.

---

Chapter 27 - Fear That Won't Go Away

After that day, Jimin was no longer just “someone from outside.” Jungkook invited him again, and then again. Always calmly, without expectations. But inside, he was getting more and more afraid.

“If she gets used to you...” he said one evening, sitting with Jimin on the couch. “And you'll leave...”

“I won't leave.”

“Everyone leaves eventually.”

“But not everyone is the same, Jungkook.”

“I've been through this before. Yuna too.”

Jimin placed his hand on Jungkook's. “I know you're scared. But I won't disappear. Even if I don't always know what to do... I'll stay.”

Jungkook looked at him for a long time. So long that Jimin felt him tense up inside. But he didn't look away.

And then Jungkook leaned in. Slowly, carefully, as if giving him time to escape.

But Jimin didn't run away.

Their first kiss was like closing a circle. Like the answer to a question they were afraid to ask.

---

Chapter 28 - Moments that taste ordinary

The next day, everything was... strangely ordinary.

Jimin helped Jungkook prepare breakfast. Yuna sat at the table drawing.

“You know I'm not good at cooking,“ Jimin said, flipping the omelet.

“But you're good at being here,” Jungkook replied, handing him a plate.

Yuna looked at them, then silently handed them her drawings. There were three of them: dad, a girl... and someone with blonde hair wearing an apron.

“Have I just been introduced to your universe?” Jimin joked.

Yuna didn't smile. But she looked at him for a long time. And that was enough.

Ordinary moments tasted like a holiday. Because for them, ‘ordinary’ was the rarest thing of all.

---

Chapter 29 - Shadow of the Past

In the evening, Jungkook received a call from his mother-in-law.

“I hear there's someone new in Yuna's life,” she said without greeting him. ‘Should you expose her to another loss?”

Jungkook felt a cold lump in his throat. ’He's not temporary.”

“You don't know that.”

“I know he wouldn't hurt her more than loneliness.”

“Haneul wouldn't want that.”

“Maybe she would? For her daughter to be loved again?”

The words struggled to pass his throat. But when he hung up the phone, he felt like he had taken another step forward. Toward courage.

---

Chapter 30 - The Voice That Trembles

Yuna sat by the window for a long time that evening.

Jimin knelt down beside her and asked quietly,

“What are you thinking about?”

The girl was silent. As usual.

But then... she turned around.

“He... is he staying?”

Jimin froze. It was a voice. A real voice. Quiet, trembling, but audible.

He looked at Jungkook, who stood frozen.

“If you let me... yes, Yuna. I'll stay.”

And at that moment, Jimin understood that a heart could be regained—even after it had been broken.