A/N: I’ve been so sad these past couple hours and if this chapter ends on a sad note, know that it won’t stay like that.

Senior year. The last year of this god forsaken high school. After he moved, he regretted asking his parents to do so. He hated this special school and everyone in it (well not everyone, mostly just everyone except his lab partner, Kat).

Taehyung was likewise, having graduated top of his class, choosing to route his depression and loneliness into his school to a point where he became the new Jungkook at school. He had the highest grades, he was the one everyone hated but wanted as a lab partner or partner when working on a project. He was the one that everyone wanted to sit by at lunch just to ask about last night’s homework.

And Taehyung finally understood. Jungkook didn’t have friends. He couldn’t have them. No one wanted to talk to the mute boy. How could you, anyway? But Taehyung, the very talkative and hyper Taehyung, made it work. He talked enough for the both of them and his little crush only fueled it.

--

Graduation was a . Jungkook was valedictorian and was asked to make a slideshow (it would’ve been a speech if he had been able to talk, but if he had, they wouldn’t be asking him to write about his muteness, would they?), the school wanting him to write about his story. A mute boy that got through school without talking. A mute boy that grew to be the top of the class and go to college like a normal person. He pulled up the slideshow off the laptop on the podium and listened as Kat read everything that was on the slides. He would've left it silent, but she insisted.

‘Ever since I was young, I was quiet. I never talked and, due to that, I never had any friends. It got so bad, I just stopped talking. I never had to talk to my parents much, them being able to read my body language.

By the time I was in middle school and was forced to work with other kids and speak out in class, I wasn’t able to. My parents took me to multiple doctors and speech therapists, but they all said that I was mute and that there was only a small chance that I could regain my voice.

I was able to whisper a small hi or I love you to my mom and dad. Until I couldn’t. I got busy, having skipped a grade, and having an extra work load. I stopped talking completely, never needing to if I were to just sit in my room and do homework.

When I hit high school, I was paired with a boy. Probably one of the loudest and most talkative people I will ever know. He talked enough for both of us and then some. He became my first friend that hadn’t gotten annoyed of my lack of talking.

Then I got busy. I didn’t talk to my only friend, having gotten used to not having any and not needing to keep up with talking to anyone. After a while he texted me saying that he didn’t want to be friends, and I understood.

After that, I wanted my voice back. I wanted to have the ability to talk and be normal. I wanted to sing like he did when there were songs playing that he knew. I wanted to be loud like he was. I wanted to be a normal teenager. Talking about how SNSD’s comeback was probably the best comeback to ever comeback.

So I came here. My parents were so happy that I finally wanted to try and get my voice back. They were so happy that they didn’t even think waste any time looking for a house before enrolling me here. In the end, I didn’t get my full voice back, but I can whisper hi to my mom when she sees me and say I love you to my dad before I go to bed.

It’s a step. A step closer than I was three years ago.’

The slide show ended and everyone applauded, cheering him on. He smiled wide and felt tears form in his eyes and his fellow mute friends, the one he has speech therapy with, congratulated him with light whispers. They could talk more, but couldn’t talk any louder than a whisper.

--

Taehyung was in college. He moved to Busan, having that small hope of meeting Jungkook again. He never really got over him. Just pushed back the feelings.

A week after the day Jungkook was announced to have changed schools, Taehyung finally, finally, got out of bed to go to school and pick up his life. A piece here, a piece there, and a little smear here and there. He picked them up and wiped them off, continue his trek to a happy life.

He also found a route home that passed by the Jeon Café. And every day Monday and Wednesday, he went inside, sitting at their table drinking that drink do chemistry homework, then math. Those two he did best when he was sitting at the small table, the chair across from his holding his backpack instead of the younger boy he wanted to be sitting there.

College was easier than high school. He picked afternoon classes for Monday and Wednesday and Friday and night classes for Tuesday and Thursday. He signed up for dance class, chorale, chemistry, and advanced math. He didn’t know what he’d do with them, but he’d deal with it when he got there.

--

Jungkook moved to Seoul for college, having a hope of meeting Taehyung again. He worked at his parents’ café every weekend and after school. He chose afternoon classes for Tuesday and Thursday, and night classes for Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. He took dance as his extracurricular and his main subjects being chemistry and physics.

--

They had a hope of seeing each other, so they moved to where the other was from. They never saw each other. They never had their schedule in sync. It took three more years before Jimin’s search finally picked up again.

A/N: It didn’t end sad because halfway through I thought that was too much for this fic so I made it complicated instead. Also you finally know why Jungkook is mute. I didn’t know what to say or really I didn’t know to make it tragic or inconvenient. I chose the latter.