“So, can you do it?” asked Jung Kook to the last person in the world he expected to ask for help. “Can you make me look…older?”  

Jung Kook and V were standing in front of each other in the bathroom. V had his thumb and index finger holding his chin in a gesture that was designed to show that he was thinking. He scanned Jung Kook from head to toe and he then began to slowly walk around the golden maknae studying him, occasionally saying, “Hmmmm,” until he paused in front of him.  

“It’s going to take a lot of work, but I can do it.”

The night before, Jung Kook had come to the conclusion that he was going to have to confess. If he didn’t, then Jin was going to continue to see Ara, until eventually she either discovered the truth or until she really fell in love with Jin, and those were both possibilities that he didn’t want to happen.  

It was painful seeing her with Jin and he had stayed up the entire night realizing that the only thing he could possibly do to make anything right was to tell her the truth. If she loved him enough, then she might stick around and that was what he was hopping for. 

Jin had left earlier to meet her somewhere, and some quick snooping allowed him to figure out when and where. He didn’t want to ruin their date, but that was the best time for him to tell them the truth, when they were together because in truth he had lied to them both.  

Before heading there, he wanted to try one last attempt to see him as an adult, so he found the only member available in the dorm and asked for his help.  

“Let’s get started!” cheered V, who removed his hands from behind his back revealing a pair of scissors in one hand and a bottle of hair dye in the other.  He eagerly began to make rapidly cutting motions with the scissors as if he intended to do a lot of t with them.

“Are you crazy? You can’t cut or dye my hair.”

“Whose the barber, you or me?”  

“I want a stylist, not a barber!”

“Ah…even if I did your hair…you would still look young.” said V as he placed the scissors and the bottle of dye in the sink. “You have a chunky face.” he said while stretching Jung Kook’s face. “That makes you look cute. You’d have to work out your face, drop the extra skin, and it might work.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.” he said pushing his hands away. “Can you help me or not?”

“I can!” he said quickly grabbing the scissors and dye.

“Can you do it without dying my hair?”

“…Oh…”

“Oh?”

“Red hair really makes people look older.”

“Just forget it.” said Jung Kook preparing to move pass V towards the door.  

“No, no, no, wait, wait, wait.” said V. “It will be hard…but I can do it without using any dye.”

“Fine.”  

Using the toilet seat as a stool, Jung Kook sat perfectly still allowing V to hover over his head, applying soap, hair chemicals, and allowing him to trim small portions of his hair and to comb it in all directions. V hummed quietly as he worked and every now and then Jung Kook would ask how much longer it would be until he was done to which V would reply, “In a minute”, but somehow a minute managed to stretch into fifteen minutes.  

“Alright.” announced V and then he handed Jung Kook a small, portable mirror. “You’re done.”  

Jung Kook studied his reflection, focusing mainly on his hair. V had combed his hair upwards and behind his hand, exposing his entire forehead. With hair gel and cream, his hair was pulled back in a neat style that resembled the trademark style of Elvis Presley. 

He  wasn’t sure how to feel, but suddenly he missed his bangs and the hair style he naturally wore. Jung Kook couldn’t deny that he looked older, but what was the point of looking older if he didn’t feel like himself?

“Thanks.” said Jung Kook. He rose to his feet and gently began to pat the top of his hair as though he were fearful any sudden movement would cause it to fall apart. “I owe you one.”

“You can repay me,” said V. “By allowing me to dye your hair red when you get back.”

“Uh…anything but that.” he glanced at a clock hanging on the wall. “I have to go.” 

________________  

After making a quick stop at the local flower shop, Jung Kook headed toward the city’s local park where Jin and Ara had agreed to meet.  The sun was setting and nightfall was destined to take place within the hour. He had intentionally intended to give Jin a thirty minute head start because he wanted to find them both at the right moment.  

In all, the trip from the dorm to the park had taken twenty minutes, the real trouble came when he set out to search for them around the park. The park they had visited was one of the largest one’s in the area consisting various trails, park benches for visitors to have a picnic, a local fishing pond, and countless other places to explore.  

It was going to take longer than he had expected to find them.

____________

A short distance away, Jin and Ara stood at the top of a look out that had been specially designed for tourists to view the city. They had climbed up a large flight of chalky white stairs that led to a large opening, with a balcony bordering the exterior of the ledge. The balcony overlooked the entire, tiny city, with nightfall approaching making it appear like thousands of tiny lights in the distance. There was a telescope enacted in the ground providing visitors with a better view.  

“Wow…” said Ara as she leaned on the balcony. “This is beautiful.”  

“Yeah, so many lights…it’s beautiful.” 

They quietly studied the view for a moment, allowing themselves a moment to take in the beauty. Ara was naturally drawn to art, since design was her niche, therefore being in an naturally beautiful environment was exposing her love for it. Jin however was much more fascinated by the view, as though this were his first time ever being in such a remarkable place.  

They were silent for a long moment, then Ara chose to break the silence.  

“I’m so glad that we met…” she said slowly. “It was probably the best thing that ever happened to me.”

He glanced over at her trying to understand how she could so openly express herself to him, when he felt like he barely knew her. It didn’t make any sense to him.  

“You seem so certain, but we’ve only just met.”

“But we’ve known each other for five months.” she said without taking her eyes off the view. “Even if we’ve only met in person twice, I think I know you well.”  

If Ara had been looking at Jin, she would have seen a bewildered look flash through his face. Jin doubted he misheard her, but he thought she said they knew each other for over five months, which wasn’t the case because he had only just met her yesterday.  

“What are you talking about? I just met you yesterday.”

It was Ara’s turn to cast him a baffled expression. She had been leaning on the banister, but after hearing him deny knowing her until yesterday, she stood upright straight and raised an eyebrow at him.  

“Is this a joke?” she asked, scanning his face in the dark for some indication that it were a joke, but when she couldn’t find one she said . “We’ve been talking for five months. How can you not remember?”

“Because he’s not the one you met online.”

This remark didn’t come from Jin, which startled them both. They turned toward the source of the voice and spotted Jung Kook standing a few feet away from them. He had randomly approached them while they were speaking, and he couldn’t have chosen a more awkward time to make his presence known. They were just in the midst of uncovering the truth and here he was to explain everything to him.  

“Jung Kook, what are you doing here?” asked Jin baffled.

“The reason he doesn’t know who you are,” said Jung Kook, choosing to ignore Jin’s question. “Is because…it’s not him. It’s me….I’m JK12345678.”

“You?” she blurted in disbelief. “But you’re just a kid. Is this some kind of a joke?” she asked Jin.  

“You said that you wish the world was in black and white,” continued, Jung Kook stopping five feet in front of them. “Because if it were, then people would appreciate the different colors…you don’t like swimming because when you were a kid you almost drowned and you never recovered from that experience…,”

As he went on to reveal other facts that she had revealed to him throughout their daily e-mails, her face shifted from confusion to shock over the realization that the young boy in front of her really was the one she had met online. He knew everything about her…he knew everything she had disclosed to them in their letters because it was him! He was the one she had fallen in love with online, but to her utter shock, he was only a minor.  

Ara stared at Jin now as if he were a stranger that had randomly taken the form of the guy she had thought she was in love with. Jung Kook went on to list several other facts about her, leaving her speechless.  

“I brought this for you.” he said reaching into his jacket revealing a single flower. “You said you like daisies, so I wanted you to have this one.”  

Jung Kook handed the  flower to her and it was taking everything inside of him to keep his hands from trembling. Ara gently slid the daisy from his hand and locked her eyes on him, still unable to speak.  

“Jung Kook.” asked Jin. “What’s going on?”

“I met Ara on an online dating website.” he then averted his attention from Jin to Ara. “Everything I ever wrote to you was true, but I only lied to you about two things. The first thing was my age…” 

As the truth escaped through his lips a hurt look flashed through her eyes making him feel as though someone were slowly ripping his heart in half, in slow motion, causing the pain to linger. It was what he feared, he was afraid that he was going to hurt her, and now that he was, it made him feel a million times worst. The maknae, didn’t hold back and continued, despite it being difficult to reveal the truth to her.  

“I’m not twenty-five years old…I’m really seventeen years old. I didn’t intend to actually meet someone, so at the time I lied about my age…but before I knew it… I had met you and I was so scared of losing you that I didn’t tell you the truth.” he paused for a moment, then continued. “The second thing I lied to you about…was…the photo that I sent you wasn’t myself, but instead my Hyung, Jin. I…I never should have done it, but I knew if you saw the real me, you would know that I had lied about my age and I had already fallen in love with you and I didn’t want you to stop e-mailing me.” he stared at Jin for a moment. “I owe you both an apology. I didn’t think you two would end up meeting. I’m so sorry.”  

The golden maknae wasn’t sure what to say next, in fact none of them were, this was a lot to take in just a few minutes, especially Ara who had been wrongly mislead for several months. 

Internally, she was overjoyed that she had actually met Jung Kook, the real guy on the other side of the computer screen, however the other half of her was juggling feelings of heart-break and anger over being deceived and tricked.  

“So everything…” she said once she was able to find her voice. “Was a lie?”

“No!” Jung Kook blurted out quickly. “Those were the only two things I wasn’t truthful about. Everything else was real. Everything I told you about myself was true. We really have a lot of common and I really, love you.”  

Ara was on the verge of hyperventilating due to her difficulty of being able to accept the truth. Jung Kook was a minor! Everything that had taken place between them was illegal and she could be arrested and put in jail. 

As strange as it sounded, this wasn’t the main thing that upset. She was more disturbed by the fact that he had mislead her for so long, but she couldn’t doubt that, despite not truthful about his age, he meant everything else that he said to her. His heart was clearly visible through his eyes and she could see that he was visibly in love with her, but to her dismay she couldn’t possibly carry on a relationship on with him.  

Ara had too much rectitude to pursue a relationship with him because deep inside it would never feel right. She couldn’t possibly ask him to wait for her until he became legal because in heart she thought that it was selfish of her to have  him waste two years of naturally dating by remaining single on her behalf  of her and it was something she could never ask anyone to do for her.  

Ara handed Jin the daisy and she approached Jung Kook placing both her hands on his face in a manner similar to the way that an adult holds a small child’s face.

“Listen,” she said slowly, trying hard to find her voice. “What we have…what we had…can’t continue. You’re-”

“Is it because I’m too young? Age really is just a number and-”

“No,” she said quietly. “It’s selfish of me to make you wait and this entire thing between us…never should have happened.”

“But we have so much in common, we like the same things, we were made for each other.” he insisted.  

“But in the end, we aren’t compatible for each other.” she was quiet for a moment before continuing. “You are an amazing, wonderful, brilliant, guy…and one day you’re going to meet a girl whose lucky to have you and she’s going to be a million times better than me.”

They both could sense that it was lie because there was no one in the world that could possibly fill their roles.  

“…this is the last time we can ever meet or talk to each other.” as these words escaped her lips it seemed to hurt her more than it did him when she said them. They were both in pain over this separation, but she was probably handling it worst than Jung Kook was because she was the one who was ending it, when in her heart, she wanted to stay with him forever. “I don’t regret meeting you and I certainly don’t regret anything that we spoke about, but we can never see each other again.”  

Everything that he had ever feared was coming true, but even though he had been aware that this was the most possible outcome of the truth, Jung Kook still found shock in the pain he was feeling.  

Ara moved her hands from his face and leaned forward wrapping him in an tight embrace and unlike the awkward hug that she had shared with Jin yesterday, the one with Jung Kook felt…right. It was as if two half’s of the same whole had been properly reunited at that moment and as if they were destined to be tied together. They held the embrace for over five minutes and probably would have kept it for several hours, if Ara hadn’t forced herself to pull away from him.  

She turned to Jin who handed her the daisy she had him hold for her.  

“Jin, sorry that you got caught up in the middle of this. You’re a really sweet guy too…and promise me you’ll always look after him.”  

Jin nodded and then said. “Of course.”  

With the daisy in her hand, the single memory she had of their relationship and of this night, she turned and Jung Kook and her stared at one another for one last moment, before she said. 

“Goodbye.”

“Goodbye…” he choked with great difficultly as though the words were foreign to him.  

Ara flashed him one last smile and then headed in the opposite direction. Jung Kook and Jin silently watched her as she walked away, slowly becoming a tiny dot in the distance. Ara wanted to look back at him but she forced herself not to do it because looking back meant that intended to return to him the future and that was the least of her intentions.  

Once she disappeared, the true pain began to set in and with time, Jung Kook was convinced that it would only get worst. Jin walked beside him and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.  

“Hey…don’t worry…you’ll meet someone better than her.”  

“Yeah.” he replied, even though he knew that wasn’t true. No one in the world could possibly take her place and they both knew it.