-inception-

It has been quite a while, long enough to make me believe that I've forgotten.

Since Jimin came to stay with his aunt, dates start to make little significance to him. It was a boring little town hidden on the mountains, in the suburbs of a little town called Nanning, tucked somewhere in Southern China.

Every day was relatively eventless. He has no friends here, none of his cousins are here yet, and half of his phone is basically paralyzed because he's stranded without wifi, and even when his aunt takes him to somewhere with wifi, China's firewall is preventing him to go on Twitter and Instagram and pretty much every single social media he's installed.

Well, wechat does work here very well, but Jimin's literally only been using that app to talk with Kyungsoo and well, they're in no position to do the same again.

When Jimin caught himself re-reading their chat history (a lengthy, never ending conversation, Jimin has never been able to reach the first message even if he scrolls up for hours - that's how much they've texted) for the fifth time this week, he screws his eyes shut, and deletes the entire chat, for fear that he couldn't handle the loneliness and text Kyungsoo again, ruining everything for both of them.

It wasn't an easy decision, especially not for someone who doesn't ever delete chats and conversations. But Jimin knows that he must do it, for the better of himself, and for Kyungsoo too. Because he's hurt his friend enough, he can't do it anymore.

So with that lengthy chat history gone, Jimin has even less forms of entertainment stranded in cold winter with minimal options. He finished watching the (54 episode long) drama he'd downloaded back in Singapore within the first three days, reached the highest possible level of Candy Crush, danced to his favourite album (HYYH Pt2) and practically memorised the order of the tracks inside. He even read finish the entire Hunger Game series one afternoon.

God, Jimin is so bored.

Write a story, a small voice chants inside his mind. Jimin ignores the voice, reluctant to do something as draining as that. But the voice is persistent, and eventually Jimin is a little convinced, because hey, doing something is better than nothing, right?

He decides to write something loosely based off his own experience, but with a more mainstream touch to the plot. It'll be fun, he convinces himself as he types down an outline. It's about time you write something, your last work was like years ago.

xxx

Today is one of the rare days Jimin is blessed with wifi, at the place of his aunt's friend. The moment Jimin sees his Whatsapp notifications coming in, Jimin nearly teared up because wow, civilisation-

After a quick look through all the texts, Jimin realises that it was actually prom night.

Since Bambam happened to be online at the moment, they ended up video chatting for a while as Jimin gave advice on Bambam's hair and fashion. He was disappointed when they had to leave, but said bye regardless.

It wasn't until the next morning when Jimin was brushing his teeth when he realised that yesterday was prom night.

December 7.

Jungkook's birthday.

Jungkook's birthday was on the same day as prom night, Jimin knew that since months ago.

When the student council first revealed the details of prom night, Jimin's first, immediate thought was that it was also Jungkook's birthday.

Bambam had looked him weirdly when he caught Jimin muttering the date lowly. "Don't mind me, I just found the date very familiar," Jimin had explained, feigning confusion. "I think someone in dance had that as birthday, but I'm not too sure who it was."

He almost hoped that Bambam would probe further, but Bambam only rolled his eyes and changed the topic. "So… you going? For prom, I mean."

"Hmm, I don't think so, I'll probably be in China by then already," Jimin mused, trying to recall the date of his flight.

"You'll be flying off that fast?"

"Yeah, I think so, my mom booked really early tickets," Jimin explained distractedly, playing with his bag strap.

"To get away from someone, I assume?" Bambam asked, wriggling his eyebrows in Kyungsoo's general direction.

"Well, I can't deny it is part of the decision, but not fully," Jimin muttered, admitting. "My mom wants me to spend more time with the family, says I won't have such a long break every again."

"May be good for you," Bambam says easily. "You never know."

Jimin had actually forgotten about Jungkook's birthday.

Something that he's never imagined that he'd be able to do.

And he actually had wifi for two hours yesterday.

But he had forgotten about it completely.

"It was just a little cool how I really did forget your birthday. I never thought I could do that. I always pretend, you know, that I don't know about your birthday and all. I never thought it would really happen."

- Park Jimin, 2016

xxx

Jimin didn't stay with his aunt for long. Three weeks later, he's flying to Xinjiang, the Northern part of China, to live with his grandparents. There, he'll spend 2 months, mostly without a similar-age friend to play with. His cousins won't be arriving until Chinese New Year draws closer, but that would be February.

Xinjiang was a lot colder than Nanning, but the houses a lot better heated too. It's also somewhere a lot more familiar to Jimin, seeing that he's spent many school holidays here. Life was less eventless than it was at Nanning, but still relatively boring.

Days passed like that, until the first snow came.

It snowed for hours, and the entire world turned white. When Jimin walked home that night, he stopped below the block to watch it snow for a while. A snowflake fell on his nose, and he shuddered when it melted.

That night was Korea's first snow too, he suddenly remembers.

4 years ago, when the dance team landed in Incheon.

That night, when Jimin goes to bed, he falls into a lengthy dream.

The entire dream was so bizarre, a jumble of scenes in chronological order as Jimin takes on the POV of Suzy, observing himself starting from 4 years ago.

It started out in the 3B classroom*. Suzy was sitting at the corner, watching Jimin and Jungkook bicker over something pretty ridiculous. (A/N: Jungkook, Taehyung, Suzy and Wendy were from class 3B, and Jimin hangs out there often after school.)

"Come onnnn, let me piak* on you," Jimin was whining, trying to get close to Jungkook so that he can lean on Jungkook's arm. (A/N: piak is just a term between us for an act of leaning on the shoulder/arm, Jimin and Taehyung started it because Jungkook had the largest figure out of them so it was very comfortable to 'piak' on him; just think of 'piak' as the sound you make when you forcefully tuck your head onto your friend's shoulder/arm.)

"Uh-uh," Jungkook says, shoving Jimin's head away firmly. "Don't be annoying!"

"Excuse you, if I'm not wrong you still owe me 3 hours of piaking time from that time you fcking piaked on me the entire flight back to Singapore," Jimin announces confidently. "So keep your word, cushion~"

"You say 3 hours every fcking time when it's probably barely 20 minutes and how many times must I repeat this but Don’t. Call. Me. Cushion," Jungkook seethed, hand raising to smack Jimin's thigh.

"OWWWW!" Jimin groaned, making a huge deal about it as he continued to nag at Jungkook for piaks.

-- Exclusive. They're so exclusive.

-- Can't even join in the conversation at all.

-- No one seems to be able to come between them.

The setting changed after that. Suzy was sitting in the backseat of her parents' car, with her dad driving and her mom in the passenger seat. It's about 8pm. They pulled up at the MacDonald drive-through, and her mom rolls down the window to place an order. By chance, Suzy looks out to see Jimin and Jungkook sitting at the window seats, two trays of eaten food laid on the table before them.

Jimin's head was tucked comfortably at the crook of Jungkook's neck, and Jungkook's head was gently leaning against Jimin's, both oblivious of how close they appeared.

Suzy couldn't hear what their conversation was through the glass window, but it certainly wasn't a light conversation. They were very different from when she saw them in class, always fighting each other and bordering on violent. Instead, they were quiet, solemn, and almost domestic.

Suzy hears her parents converse lightly, but she feels incredibly lonely just by looking at the pair across the glass window. When the employee passed over their order and the car is about to drive away, Suzy looks at Jimin and Jungkook for the last time, and see Jungkook staring into the distant, mouthing something.

She doesn't know why, but she's certain they're making some important promise to each other.

-- Zero personal space.

-- 'piaks' are allowed when in private

-- Very different from how they act around other friends

The scene jumps to the dance studio. Suzy was the last to leave after choir practice. She was about to leave the music atrium when she noticed that there was still light streaming out from the dance studio. Curious, she stops at the door and peaks through the little window to see Jimin and Jungkook dancing together, closely monitoring their reflections for every step. When the heavy bass faded, both collapsed to the ground, panting heavily.

"Do you think we covered enough to teach the juniors tomorrow?" Jimin asked tiredly, eyes hooded as he leans against the mirror.

"I hope so, it's a pretty intense section of the choreo so they'll have to run through it many times," Jungkook mumbles in between gulps of water. Jimin nods, stretching a hand out weakly. Jungkook shoves him the water bottle carelessly as he sprawls out on the floor. "I hate the stress, I can't believe Haechan had to be such a about this," he complains hoarsely as Jimin chugs down the remaining water. "Like come on, we don't even have a fcking instructor so we need to figure out this new choreo ourselves, can't the seniors cut us some slack?"

"I know right," Jimin agrees wearily. "The teachers too. It's like they expect us to be superhuman."

"The kids don't listen well either," Jungkook grumbles, shutting his eyes as he shuffles closer to Jimin's side, eventually settling his head on Jimin's thighs. "They're just months younger than us, but so much more rebellious? I think they're giving me grey hairs."

"Oh shut up, you're just aging," Jimin mutters. "But yeah they really don't listen. I'm pretty they have some anti-zhidaos* chat where they about us every practice." (*A/N: zhidao is chinese for 'student instructor')

"Yeah, they probably do," Jungkook says flatly. "And I'm not curious to find out either. Like honestly we wouldn't shout at them half as much if they'd just cooperated-"

"I know, I know…" Jimin murmurs, running a hand through Jungkook's hair gently. "Stop yelling, you'll need your voice tomorrow and it's giving me a headache."

"Not my fault it echoes a little here," Jungkook argues nonchalantly, but tones down anyway. "When do you want to lock up? It's almost 7 already."

"10 more minutes, I don't think I can move a muscle now," Jimin suggests tiredly, leaning his head against the mirror.

"Okay, 10 more minutes. The keys with you?"

"Yeah it's probably somewhere, now shush," Jimin mumbles quietly, and the studio is quiet save from the evening pants.

Suzy pulls away from the door, and walks off alone.

-- Moving in perfect harmony.

-- Facing and tackling every challenge together.

-- Complaining to each other about anything without filter.

More scenes flashed past, Jimin and Jungkook basically being joined at the hip, in and outside of school. It's too fast for Jimin to fully observe, but he certainly felt Suzy's envy.

But slowly envy became glee. Scenes of Jimin sitting with Jungkook's clique, earpiece plugging in but clearly not doing much with his pen and paper. Scenes of Jungkook walking to flag raising with his clique while Jimin lags behind, packing. As Suzy watched Jimin slowly fall out with Jungkook, and getting left behind, she was consumed by exhilaration.

-- Ha, watch! There is no perfection after all.

-- Oh, how pathetic, look at little Jimin trying to not care.

-- See that? See that? I was right, no one can stay that fcking close okay.

Then glee became something almost like pity. Scenes of the canteen table with Jungkook's clique, but without Jimin. Scenes of Jimin sitting at the same table, alone, waiting. The lone figure of Jimin stalking out of the school every Wednesday, 1:45pm sharp. There's also Jackson, who's saying "can you believe Jungkook made Jimin wait while he played bridge in the homeroom".

-- I don't understand why he's doing this.

-- How is this acceptable behaviour, this doesn't feel right.

-- This is a ridiculously huge change from what they used to be, but I'm not as happy about it.

The pity was fast consumed as a new kind of rage sweeps over her as Jimin and Kyungsoo starts to interact more and more frequently. The anger was so strong, the vision Jimin's getting is almost as if looking through a red filter.

-- Traitor.

-- You said you love me.

-- Why do you always have everything so easily.

The rest of Senior High zips past at high speed, almost like the old-fashion tape, and finally stops on a particular frame.

The last scene was the day of graduation. Suzy watched in disbelief as Jungkook walked towards Jimin, embracing him in a hug, and just hanging out together for half an hour without doing much.

-- Casual, at ease.

-- It was almost peaceful to watch.

-- How is that even possible, I don't understand.

Jimin woke up.

The dream felt too real.

And it's crazy, because it's hard to even put it into words. The way she looked at them with so much hatred, yet equally weighed with envy, underlined by thoughts of "if only I had someone like that too".

It walked Jimin back in time, revived memories of what they once were, all the details that he's forgotten.

The late nights at Macs.

The piaks that are grudgingly approved.

Just how loud and obnoxious they can get at times.

How one look is enough to know exactly what the other is thinking.

That they can actually be peaceful and almost domestic, but only when no one is watching.

"It was overwhelming. I never had a chance to think about the old us for so long, seeing that too many things were happening, but this dream was so detailed, so clear, and I remember all of it now."

-- Park Jimin, 2016

The time was 10:30am. Jimin sat up from bed, grabbed his laptop, and starts to write immediately. The words literally flowed out, completely different from that lousy outline he's spent weeks on developing in Nanning. He can envision all of it as he types - the us that I've forgotten about.

One hour later, he uploads a new work online.

prelude: two years can be a lot of things

Published: 22.01.2016

-TBC-

Naggy author time! And wow, didn't this update come faster than you expected HAHA it's like 4am now please appreciate, I was literally feeling sentimental at 2am and started to write and I couldn’t stop, it'll probably be almost 5 by the time I upload this wow, talk about great sleeping schedules XD 

Anyway YES this chapter was literally supposed to be under the previous chapter, but because I got carried away writing Jimin x Kyungsoo stuff so yay we have an extra chapter from my planning HAHA As promised, this is heavily Jimin x Jungkook okay and wow writing old Jikook makes me lowkey emotional lol like #throwback to the good times man. And yes, its titled Inception because reference to the BTS theories and stuff lol. Oh yeah, if you wanna see my theory on Highlight Reel, here.

The long dream Jimin had and how it eventually lead to him writing and publishing prelude is like 100% real okay like I WAS SO STUNNED WHEN I WOKE UP LIKE IT WAS SO OVERWHELMING? The level of detailed and stuff is ridiculous okay and it actually makes a lot of sense?? Like I think I forgot a lot of the scenes and stuff (except the Macs one, that one I'm like 90% positive it really happened in the dream) plus I needed to alter some stuff in the writing, but the level of detail is honestly the same okay. And the emotions and stuff. It was overwhelming like I can't really put it in words.

Like to be honest I wrote out prelude with the shortest time and it required the least edit - which is a lot, coming from someone half as OCD as I am and always finding new details that I want to add, which is why whenever I beta my previous chapters new readers may literally see a different section as to old readers LOL. It just totally flowed out, like it has already been written in my head and I'm just extracting it out? Till date I'm the most satisfied with that chapter okay like it is the perfect chapter to me.

Finally to end off with a quote that I wrote somewhere in mid-2015: "时光带来的是一种潜移默化的改变，有时连你自己都无法察觉。一些人就这么变得不再重要，一些则悄然成了你不可缺失的一部分。而内心那些时光无法抹去的，也被封印在一个角落，少有问津。" It loosely translates to something like how time brings about changes so silent that sometimes you may completely overlook it; some people becomes less important to you while others have quietly became a significant part of your life; and even for the moments that time cannot erase, those are sealed into a corner and rarely visited.

Just as that quote says, memories with Jungkook was never fully erased by time, just sealed away. Somehow, that dream had unlocked it.

I had wanted to write a fic about my own story since December 2015 (when I was still at Nanning), and the reason was simple: because I was bored. It was going to be something very loosely based off my own story, but pretty different too. I had a lot of headache planning it, because I'm not the creative kind and didn't want my fic to turn out overly cliché either. It was hence left at a corner, until that dream happened somewhere in late January, 2016.

That was when I decided to write my real story. I want it to be as unfiltered as possible. It doesn't even matter if it has readers of not. I'm writing this for my own purpose. To consolidate a milestone for myself.

But as I start writing, I changed a little. I started to include topics that I never quite imagined I would. Bullying, and several scenes that were once so private, I wouldn't even want to keep them in my memory. I wanted this fic to not only be meaningful to myself, but also offer some sort of comfort or knowledge to the readers as well. I don’t know if I'm doing that right though haha, please comment more to tell me okay, I really value comments a lot more than views and upvotes and subscribers and whatever. Like honestly I'm far from a good writer, I can never decide on one tense and my vocab is so limited I often end up googling for synonyms halfway, but I really do want to hear from you guys. So don't be shy!! PM me if you're not comfortable with public comments, I'll read every single one.

That's all, until next time!