Chapter 51 - The Court That Knows No Love

The court in Seoul was cold. Just like always. Gray marble, sterile corridors, fluorescent lights reflecting off the white walls. Jimin sat on the bench, dressed formally, but his fingers were trembling. Not from the cold. From fear. This day would decide everything.

Jungkook was silent. The entire journey to the court was spent in silence. Yuna stayed with a neighbor's friend—he didn't want her to see her father in court. He didn't want her to see the world that was trying to take him away from her.

The courtroom was smaller than they had expected. There was only the judge, the probation officer, the lawyers. And... Eunsook, sitting on the other side. Impeccably dressed, with a handbag worth more than their monthly bills. Her gaze was indifferent. As if it were all just a formality.

“Witness, please,” said the judge.

Then the door opened.

A woman in her fifties entered the room, wearing a long, dark coat and glasses. Jimin didn't know her. Jungkook didn't seem to be expecting her either. For a moment, it wasn't clear who she was. Until she spoke.

“My name is Mrs. Baek. I work at Yuna Jeon's kindergarten.”

Eunsook raised her eyebrows.

“I'm here because I've witnessed something that cannot be ignored. Yuna was closed off, withdrawn, almost emotionally numb for the first two years. But since Jimin came into her life... she started painting. Smiling. And finally, talking.”

“Are you suggesting that the relationship between Jungkook Jeon and Jimin Park had a positive influence on the child?“ the judge asked coldly.

“I'm not suggesting anything. I saw it,” she replied. “And a child doesn't pretend to feel safe.”

Silence.

Then Jungkook spoke up.

“I'm not perfect. I make mistakes. But Yuna is my life. And Jimin... is the man who made us start living again. If you want to judge me for loving, go ahead. But I beg you, don't punish her for wanting to be loved.”

The judge didn't say a word. He just nodded. And ended the hearing.

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Chapter 52 - Who are you, Park Jimin

It wasn't until they got home and the tension subsided that Jimin sat down on the living room floor and said,

“I have to show you something.”

Jungkook looked surprised.

“What?”

Jimin took out his laptop. He turned on the recording. There he was on the screen - in the spotlight, with a microphone in his hand. He was dancing. He was singing. The stage, the fans, the lights. Everything that no one would have thought of seeing him in the kitchen with pancakes.

“I was an idol. At a different agency. I didn't officially debut, but I was a trainee for four years. Then I started performing solo in clubs, recording under a pseudonym, making money on music projects. That's why... I have money. That's why I didn't tell you.”

“Why?”

“Because I didn't want you to think I was with you because I had the luxury of time and choice.”

Jungkook looked at him for a long time.

“But you are with us. No matter what you do.”

“Yes. Because this is where I belong. With you and Yuna.”

Then he moved closer and rested his head on his shoulder.

“But you know that means Yuna will want your autograph someday?”

Jungkook laughed softly. For the first time in many days.

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Chapter 53 - The Fall

Wednesday. An ordinary day. Jungkook got up early, went to get bread, and dropped Yuna off at preschool. He returned to the clinic. Everything was as usual. Until then.

One of the devices—a new autoclave—began to overheat. The alarm filled the back room. He ran to disconnect it. And then...

He slipped. The tiles were wet from cleaning. His hands shot forward to protect his face. There was a dull thud as his body hit the floor.

The pain was immediate. Sharp. It took his breath away.

When he tried to get up, he felt that he couldn't move either of his arms.

The ambulance arrived after ten minutes.

A broken wrist on the left. A displaced fracture on the right. A cast. Immobilization. No independence for at least six weeks.

When Jimin entered the hospital room, he saw him lying there helplessly. His face contorted in pain. And in his eyes, there was something else—fear.

“Who's going to take care of you now?“ Jungkook asked with a bitter smile.

“Me,” Jimin replied, sitting down by the bed. “And Yuna. We'll be your hands now.”

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Chapter 54 - A Time of Uncertainty

In the days that followed, everything changed. Jimin prepared meals, dressed Jungkook, washed his hair. Yuna fed him milk with a spoon, made sandwiches, even tried to button his sweatshirt. Clumsily, but with determination.

“Dad doesn't have hands now,“ she said quietly one day.

“But he has us,” Jimin replied. “And that's enough.”

The clinic was temporarily closed. The staff transferred the patients to a sister facility. And Jimin... gave up performing. He devoted all his time to them. They were a family. And now he had to be their anchor.

But at night, when Jungkook slept with his face pressed into his pillow, Jimin sat on the floor and was afraid. He was afraid that the accident was just the beginning. Because luck didn't like to stay in one place for too long.

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Chapter 55 - The Decision

On Friday, the court's decision arrived. In a plain envelope, without fanfare, without ceremony. Jungkook couldn't open it—he asked Jimin to do it.

His hands were shaking as he cut the paper.

“In light of the evidence presented and based on the opinion of the probation officer, the court finds that Mr. Jeon Jungkook provides adequate care. There are no grounds for restricting parental rights.”

Silence. Then Jungkook closed his eyes.

“They won't take her away,” he whispered.

“No. Because you already have her.”

And then Yuna rushed into the room, holding three crayons.

“I made a new drawing.”

They were on the piece of paper. Jungkook with a cast, Jimin with an apron, Yuna with her hair tousled.

And above them was written:

“Even when it hurts, we are here.”

Chapter 56 - Balance

In the morning, the apartment was quiet, but it was no longer the oppressive silence Jungkook had known in the days after Haneul's death. This time it was a peaceful, homely silence, with the sound of the kettle in the background, the shuffling of little feet on the floor, and the rustling of pages as Yuna turned them at the table, reading her favorite book about a fox who wanted to be a singer.

Jimin sat next to him in a stretched sweater, sipping coffee from a large mug with the words “Did you do something good today?” written on it. Glancing at Yuna from time to time, he allowed himself a moment of concentration on his notebook, where he was writing down ideas for a new music project. It was the first morning in weeks where no one wanted anything from anyone.

“Have you been thinking about what's next?” Jungkook asked suddenly, sitting on the couch with his arms immobilized.

“Next?”

“When they take my cast off. When the clinic reopens. When... everything starts up again.”

Jimin closed his notebook. ”That's why I don't want to go back on stage.”

“I thought you loved it.”

“I do,” he admitted. ”But I've also come to love this. You guys. And I don't want to choose between the stage and home anymore.”

Jungkook looked at him for a long time, with the kind of look that didn't need words. He knew what was behind those words: the fear that returning to the old world might mean losing what had been so difficult to build.

That evening, when Yuna fell asleep to a story read by Jimin, Jungkook asked him to stay a little longer.

“I can't imagine life without you,“ he said quietly. ‘Even if we're not ’officially' anything.”

“Officialdom doesn't make a family,” Jimin replied. “Loyalty, presence, everyday life. That's our marriage certificate.”

Jungkook smiled faintly. “Do you think Yuna feels it too?”

“She feels more than both of us put together. And she knows we're together. Look how she looks at you. How she reacts when you're around. You're her whole world. I'm just helping her understand that world.”

They lay together on the couch for a long time after that. They didn't talk anymore that evening. They were silent. But it was a good silence. The silence of people who know they don't have to say anything to understand each other.

It was raining outside. The world slowed down. And in the middle of it all were three people who found each other in the most unlikely way.

Chapter 57 - Returns

Another two weeks passed. Jungkook still had his cast on, but he was slowly regaining his strength. His physical helplessness didn't hurt as much as it did at first, mainly because Yuna and Jimin had learned to be his hands. Every day became easier, not because it hurt less, but because they stopped fighting the inevitable. They began to accept it. That was the hardest part—accepting weakness.

Jimin, although he wasn't performing, received an offer—a big production project, a collaboration with one of the popular rappers. When he told Jungkook about it, he just raised his eyebrows.

“And what will you say?”

“That I need time. And space, so I don't lose myself.”

In the evenings, Jimin recorded in his bedroom—quieter, more delicately. Yuna fell asleep to his voice, and Jungkook listened intently. When they fell asleep together, Jimin often rested his head on his shoulder. The cast was cold, but Jungkook's heart was warm. It was enough.

Finally, the day came when their probation officer visited them. This time without warning. Jungkook opened the door, a little surprised, with a wool blanket thrown over his shoulders.

“I just wanted to see what your everyday life looks like,” said the probation officer politely.

He found Jimin with a book and Yuna sitting next to him with a cup of cocoa. Jungkook was lying on the couch, laughing as Yuna told him a fairy tale backwards. Puss in Boots had slippers, and the wolf from Little Red Riding Hood was drinking a soy latte. This was their everyday life—soft, absurd, tender.

The curator watched for a long time. Then he smiled and said,

“It's rare for a child to flourish in such conditions. But Yuna... she's blossoming. I'm impressed.”

After he left, Jungkook was silent for a long time. Then he said only,

“Maybe this house doesn't look like a house. But it's a home.”

Jimin kissed him on the forehead.

“Because we're all here.”

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Chapter 58 - Spaces of Silence

It was a rainy evening. Yuna sat by the window, drawing with her finger on the glass. There was something pensive on her face—something Jimin knew all too well. It was that state of limbo between childlike carefreeness and the first inklings of sadness. Jungkook lay on the couch, dozing. He still had trouble sleeping. At night, he would wake up drenched in sweat, terrified that he hadn't heard Yuna, that something had happened, that he had failed again. Jimin would sit next to him and read him poems. Or he would just hold his hand.

“Appa?” Yuna said.

“Mmm?”

“If someone doesn't like us, does that mean we're bad?”

Jimin froze. Jungkook opened his eyes and slowly sat up. “Why do you ask, sweetheart?”

“Because someone at kindergarten today said that I don't have a mom and that my dad has a boyfriend, and that boys can't love each other.”

There was a deep silence. Jimin felt his heart tighten. Jungkook approached her and knelt down, despite the pain.

“Yuna. Just because someone doesn't understand something doesn't mean they're right. And love... isn't something you can forbid. Love is what you feel here,” he pointed to her heart, ”when we're together. When we laugh. When you sing to me in the morning.

“So it's good?“ she asked.

“It's the best,” Jimin replied. “Because it's real.”

Yuna looked at them both.

“I love you. Very much.”

And then the world became simple again.

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Chapter 59 - The Letter She Didn't Send

That day, Yuna found a tea box. She had hidden the sheets of paper she had used to draw letters in it. She called them “Letters to Mom.” She placed one of them on the kitchen table, as if by accident. But Jungkook knew it wasn't an accident.

The note was written in a child's hand, clumsily:

“Mom. I don't know if you're in heaven or far away. Dad cries sometimes, but then he laughs when Jimin says something to him. I'm not so sad anymore. We have a dog. I mean, a stuffed one. But it's real. And Dad's hands are bandaged, but it's okay because Jimin cooks. I wish you could see us. Just for a moment.”

Jungkook read it silently. Then he lay down on his bed and stared at the ceiling for a very long time. “She remembers her,” he said quietly.

“And she gives her a place. She doesn't deny it, she doesn't forget. She just... adds us to her world,” said Jimin.

Jungkook looked at him with emotion.

“I don't deserve you guys.”

“Maybe we just chose you. And we need you, just as much as you need us.”

Then they were silent for a long time, holding hands. And they knew one thing—that no court, no opinion, no hatred could erase what they had created. Even if it hurt sometimes.

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Chapter 60 - Cracks Under the Skin

The winter in Seoul was mild that year, but Jungkook felt it under his skin more than ever. Maybe it was because his hands were immobilized, maybe it was because of his growing fatigue, or maybe it was because even though the fight for Yuna had been won, nothing was completely peaceful yet. Their home now had new foundations—reinforced, but still fragile.

Jimin was disappearing for long hours more and more often. He explained it away with music projects and production, and although he never avoided conversation, Jungkook saw a shadow in his eyes. A shadow he knew from his own experience—the one that came when you felt like you didn't fit into your own life.

In the evening, when Yuna was already asleep, Jimin came home later than usual. His hair was tousled, his footsteps were quiet, and his eyes were fixed on the floor.

“Is something wrong?“ Jungkook asked, sitting on the bed and trying to straighten his back. The cast still restricted his movements.

“I don't know,” Jimin replied quietly. “I feel like I'm in two worlds again.”

“Do you want to leave?”

The question hung in the air like a knife. Jimin looked at him with a slight shock.

“No. Never. But I'm starting to feel like there's no place for me in this world.”

“No place for you? Jimin, without you, everything is falling apart.”

Jimin sat down next to him, resting his forehead on his shoulder. “Maybe you just think so. Maybe I'm just a moment you'll forget someday.”

“Don't say that,” Jungkook's voice trembled. “You're home. And if you're not sure who you are, I'll tell you: you're the man who saved me and my child.”

They didn't sleep that night. They held hands for a long time, and between them smoldered the question: how not to fall apart when you want so badly to be whole?