"Welcome back Kookie!"

The other band members unanimously shouted when Jungkook opened the door to their shared dorm. He'd been visiting his parents in Busan for the weekend, since Bangtang was practicing for an upcoming comeback in their studio in Seoul and Busan was right outside the city. Normally, Jimin would go with him, but that week he ran a fever and Jin-being the mother that he is-decided to hover frantically around him until he'd shown no signs of sickness for at least 3 days:

"But I wanna go~!"

"Hell no, Jimin. You're staying in your bed until you're better. Unless you're saying that you're arguing with me?"

"...No, hyung."

And thus, Jungkook had gone alone to his hometown and spend a few days back at his childhood home.

To say that it was strange would be an understatement. For one, Jungkook realized just how much he grew in the few years that he was gone. The kitchen sink no longer towered above him as it did when he was young, but rather, now it only reached his waist. His old bed seemed too small in comparison to the one he had in Seoul. The dinning room chairs felt just a tad bit short when's he sat down. The worst realization came to him as soon as he got home. When his mother opened the door and looked shocked at her son's sudden visit, Jungkook was shocked to see how much more tired, wispy, and-dare he say it-old she looked. The faint foretelling of wrinkles along her forehead had become prominent over the years, and the tight, flawless skin was now looser and a bit more speckled with sun spots. She was still regal, though. No amount of age could take that away: the way she carried herself into a room. It was most likely where Jungkook learned his confidence from. 

Jungkook didn't wait for a moment. He surged foreword, dropping his overnight bag to the floor, and wrapping his arms around his mother with longing.

"Umma." He said. "I'm home."

That night was filled with chatter. His father had come home latter on during the day to find Jungkook "helping" his mother cook, which meant that he was aimlessly hovering around his mother while she was did the actual cooking. Dinner was enjoyable. He mother had made him his favorite foods and gave him generous helpings of each, harshly muttering that he never ate enough these days. Jungkook went on to assure his mother that he still had regular checkups with doctors to keep a healthy weight. 

Jungkook slept in his old bed that night. Nothing had been changed other than the distinctly messy bed that he left as he rushed to catch the 9 o'clock train to Seoul nearly 5 years ago. He recalled his first night in his trainee bed. It was hard, uncomfortable, and foreign. He'd never done well in sleeping in beds other than his own. It had taken him nearly 6 months to be used to the bed that he now resided in when he was first place in his dorm. Long fitful nights were spent tossing and turning around. But now, the very bed that he'd been yearning for all those years ago, felt hard, uncomfortable, and foreign. But the years of traveling had made Jungkook less picky on his sleeping accommodations, and he soon fell asleep under the glow-in-the-dark stars and dinosaur stickers that he'd pasted on the ceiling all this years ago.

Hello! I'm back! No plot for the first short chapter, I'm sorry. Updates will be few and far between now with school starting up again. Please note that there will be timing inconsistencies, but that's just how this story goes. Please comment what you thought! I always love reaching them.