Jung Kook was slightly relieved that he shared a room with Jin. They often joked around, calling Jin their “mom” because he was always cooking and cleaning and taking on the stereotypical roles of a mother. This was beneficial to the maknae because their room was always and clean and because Jin was usually busy with household chores, he often felt like he had his own room since Jin was rarely ever in it.  

Their room was split in half, Jung Kook’s bed was on the left side with his dresser and other belongings positioned on that side, while Jin’s bed and possessions were in placed on the opposite side. Despite sharing a room, they pretty much had their own space and the only thing they really shared was a closet and a desk.  

Jung Kook made sure his bedroom door was locked and then he tossed his book bag onto his bed. He didn’t waste time changing from his school uniform and he simply grabbed Jin’s lap top off his bed and took a seat on the floor with it. There were two lap tops that all the members shared and Jung Kook was fortunate enough to always have access to Jin’s.

After logging on, opening Google chrome, then opening an incognito tab to assure that his history couldn’t be monitored or traced, he logged into his e-mail hoping to find a reply to his previous message. He had spent the entire day, as he had dozens of previous day, thinking about the response.  

There was always a reply, every single day, but his heart was always filled with anxiety over of the possibility that one day that there wouldn’t be a message waiting for him. Jung Kook visibly breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that he had received a message from Ara.  

He didn’t hesitate and rapidly began to click on her e-mail. The golden maknae was surprised to find that her message was longer than usual. Jung Kook slowly read each word, not due to having a slow reading ability which was definitely not the case, but instead so that he could savor each word that she had single-handedly articulated on her own. Every word she wrote had value to him and he wanted to enjoy this moment by reading it slowly. 

A majority of the message consisted of her replying to a topic they had previously discussed, but it wasn’t until he reached the last paragraph that he felt his heart begin to shake. It was the moment he had been dreading for almost five months….the moment he feared that would ruin everything that he loved. It was obvious that the first half of her message had simply been pleasantry that she used to “beat around the bush”, while that last paragraph revealed the true nature of why she had chosen to write to him. 

“So…it’s been five months since we’ve known each other and I still have no idea what you look like. You already know that looks have little importance to me, but when I write to you, I have no idea what to picture. Please send me a picture of you or else I’m going to think that you’re a creepy old man and I won’t reply. LOL!!

Seriously, though. Send a selca. I don’t care if it’s of you brushing your teeth, just send me something. Even though I love you with all my heart, I won’t reply until you do.

Your love,

Ara  <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3”  

Jung Kook spent nearly fifteen minutes re-reading the last paragraph and each time he read it, he felt as though he were being stabbed in his heart with a knife. He ran his hand through his dark, silky hair in a gesture that was designed to show how frustrated he was over her request for him.  

It all started five months ago, shortly after he and the other members had returned from a day of practice. After each practice, they always went out to eat at a local restaurant. It was a routine of theirs, however on this day, while they were sitting at their usual table, they noticed a small group of girls sitting on the opposite side of the restaurant, constantly staring at them.  

“I think they’re interested in us…” whispered, Rap Monster to the other members.  

“No duh.” said Suga while pretending to focus on his food. “Act cool and don’t look back.”

“Too late, I’m already looking back.” said V, who had turned his chair around so that he was directly facing the girl’s direction. He had his arms crossed over his chest and was staring straight at them with a blank expression on his face.

“Ah, let’s go sit somewhere else.” said J-Hope, as he stuffed food into his mouth, then used his eating utensil as a pointer to point at V. “He’s making it too obvious.”

“That’s definitely how you scare them off.” commented Rap Monster.

“The one with the long hair, is pretty.” denoted Jung Kook as he glanced over his shoulder.

“Don’t waste your time Jung Kook.” said Jimin, who playfully smacked him on his back. “They’re noonas. They’re older than Jin. They’ll probably think of you as our kid brother.”

“Hey!” said Jung Kook defensively. “I look mature for my age.”

“Nah, you have a baby face.” said Jimin.

“So do you Jimin.” said Jin, who quickly added. “Although, he’s right Jung Kook. At your age and with your youthful appearance, I think the only date you’ll ever go on is a play date.”

Each of the members, excluding Jung Kook, began to laugh while he frowned at them angrily for making fun of an issue that he didn’t find funny. The topic quickly shifted however while the other members easily moved on, the issue bothered Jung Kook, to where he thought about it for the rest of the day.  

Later that night, Rap Monster and Jung Kook were watching television, however the golden maknae wasn’t paying attention to what they were watching. He was far too invested in his thoughts to focus and anyone who saw him would claim he was watching TV, simply because his eyes were locked on the screen, however in his mind he was elsewhere, replaying their conversation about him being unable to get girlfriend at his age and trying to evaluate if there was any truth to their words.  

He was randomly pulled from his thoughts by a commercial that seemed to have been intentionally directed towards him since it involved his issue. The commercial was advertising a dating website where single men and women could create profiles, talk, and then eventually meet if they found an interesting partner.  

“Online dating…” muttered Rap Monster. “…who does that?”

“Yeah, it’s stupid.” said Jung Kook  quickly. “Well goodnight.”

He abruptly rose from the couch and raced upstairs, planning to himself that tomorrow after school he would visit that website. The next day when he managed to get the lap top to himself and he created an account on the website only to learn that it was only for men and women over the age of 21.  

At 17 years old, he didn’t seem anywhere near 21 years old, however he wasn’t willing to give up and lied about his age, claiming that he was twenty-five. He spent an hour exploring the site and he was relieved to find that it was a very friendly online community of adults who  were genuinely searching for love. Jung Kook wasn’t even one hundred percent certain of what he intended to do on the site because he had only been drawn to it when mocked by his older members.  

He spent the first few weeks messaging random people and talking to them about random topics. The profile the golden maknae created was pretty accurate regarding his likes and interests, and the only thing on it that was false was his age (he said he was 25) and his name (he didn’t reveal his real name and simply used JK - for Jung Kook - and a bunch of random numbers). Jung Kook didn’t put any personal information that would lead anyone to discovering his identity, therefore he left out that he was a rapper/singer in a group.  

The first few weeks were interesting, but things became increasingly interesting when he came across a woman named of Ara, who shared similar interests with him. She had randomly found his profile and after messaging one another on the site, they exchanged e-mails, and began to write to each other daily, expressing their personal opinions and likes and dislikes on various topics.  

They had so much in common to the point where it was almost like they were twins. Three months after meeting each other, they consensually agreed that they were falling in love with one another. It felt strange experiencing love for someone he had never melt, but they had spoken so openly in their letters to the point where they knew felt like they knew each other just as well as they would have if they had met face to face.  

Jung Kook had been pretty open with Ara in everything about himself, with the exception of his age, his name, and what he looked like. He mentioned that he was in school, but Ara thought he meant that he was a college student and she had no idea that she was interested in a high school student.  

Over the months, she had asked to see what he looked like, since he didn’t have a single photo of himself on his profile page on the dating website, but he continually came up with excuses, the most recent one being that his camera had broke. 

Ara wasn’t camera shy, she had thousands of photos on her profile. She was of average height for a woman and had silky, long dark hair that touched her elbows. At twenty-six years old, she had the natural beauty of a woman and was deemed attractive by anyone who saw her. At times, Jung Kook would find himself scrolling through her profile for hours, admiring her beauty. 

The problem was…she had never seen him…and she never could because one look at him and she would know that he wasn’t anywhere near twenty-five years old. The thought startled him because it meant that he could lose her. He wasn’t sure what he had gotten himself into, but he feared deeply that the second she discovered he was a minor she would cut off all contact with him and he would lose the woman of his dreams.  

It was now five months later, in the present, and she was demanding that he send her a photo of himself. It didn’t seem like she was asking a lot from him, since her pictures were freely available, however Ara had no idea what it meant to Jung Kook.

“What am I going to do?” he thought sadly. “I can’t send a her picture of me.”

Jung Kook sat the lap top on the floor and made his way over to a mirror to study his reflection. His height wasn’t the problem since he was slightly taller than his older hyungs, but his facial structure exposed him. There was still a lot of baby fat in his face, making him appear younger. 

“Ah, what am I going to do?” 

The thought of losing Ara devastated him. She meant a lot to him and he wasn’t ready to take that chance. He would have to tell her the truth eventually, but at the moment, he was willing to drag out this lie for as long as possible.  

The golden maknae turned around and his eyes landed on Jin’s side of the room, but more specifically, on a photo Jin had of himself sitting on their desk. The night before, Jin was going through old photos his mother had sent him the night before and the one picture had remained on the table.  

An idea suddenly began to grow inside of his mind. It was risky…but it was capable of working. The thought was frightening, but…Jin looked much older than he did, in fact, Jin’s appearance was mature for his age when compared to most people his age. 

“Maybe I could send her a photo of Jin.” he thought.  

The fact that he was considering lying to her again left a hole in the bottom of his stomach. It wasn’t like she was ever going to meet Jin, she simply wanted to see a photo. Jung Kook thought that maybe he could send her the photo of Jin and then hopefully, whenever they met in the future, his body would physically mature in a way that  mirrored Jin’s appearance.  

Jung Kook really didn’t have any other ideas and that one seemed to be the most reasonable. Receiving her message each day was the thing he looked forward to the most and he wasn’t ready to give that up.  

Jung Kook grabbed Jin’s photo from his desk, which was a photo of him dressed in summer clothes, standing in front of a tree, and he snapped a picture of it with his cell phone. He sent the image to his e-mail and after writing an appropriate response, he uploaded the photo with the caption. “This is what I look like”.  

His fingers hovered over the send button for a moment because once he knew that once he sent it, there was no way that he could retrieve. Technology had made it impossible to stop an e-mail from reaching it’s target after being sent, therefore there would be no way to take it back once he pressed send. 

He spent several minutes hesitating, until he was reminded of what was at state here, which gave him the courage to hit send.

At that moment, Jung Kook felt a mix of relief and worry. An  uneasy feeling in his stomach seemed to foreshadow that something bad would be the result of him sending Jin’s picture instead of his own.