“Why are you here?”

Hoseok gasped, he stared disbelievingly towards the smaller person in front of him. He just arrived in this small town; he didn’t expect to meet someone he knew at this place. Besides, he was really sent here based his own accord; he chose the place himself. He had read the children’s list thoroughly before he decided the fixed place, and there were no explanation about this Keeper being on the same place as him. Oh this would be so on fire.

Yoongi, on the other side, was also surprised as hell. He didn’t read the children’s list book like Hoseok did, but he thought this town was the farthest place from the centre of the earth? This place supposed to be the most abandoned place for the Keeper, which was one thing why Yoongi had chosen this place to run away.

“I was sent here?” Hoseok retorted. “Why are you here?”

I was trying to fix things, Yoongi thought, but Hoseok didn’t have to know that. Yoongi was so mad; he could smash the front door right now.

“I was here first, now leave.” Yoongi tried to interject the subject. The other guy raised his eyebrows but didn’t say anything. “You just arrived, yeah? It is not too late to change your destination—“

“Oh, that won’t happen,” Hoseok cut the sentence cheerily. “I think we can work together just fine.”

“Then what will we do at the end of this child’s timeline?” Yoongi frowned. “You know the rule, only one personality can—“

“—complete the maturing perfectly.” Hoseok nodded, satisfied with himself completing Yoongi’s line. “Yeah, I know. We can decide that later, can’t we?”

Yoongi was not amused by this. He watched the younger male skipping his feet upstairs, to his child’s room, no; the small boy was now theirs. It took three seconds for Hoseok to shout about how cute the child was, and Yoongi was already sighing five times from the time Hoseok stepped into the house. He walked upstairs.

“He is so small!” Hoseok said when he noticed Yoongi on the door. “I hope he grows well, look at those chubby cheeks. The time when he loses his baby fat, I will be crying in front of him without him noticing.”

“Yeah, right.” Yoongi replied shortly. Hoseok flashed a row of clean teeth before he brought back his attention to the child on the bed. The house now seemed too loud and crowded with Hoseok’s arrival. Yoongi walked down downstairs and plopped himself on the sofa.

When Yoongi first found the small boy, he was talking to a swing on the park; his mother was near, talking to the neighbours. The small boy was the only one, who talked to the swing, while the other children were playing some sort of run-and-tag together. Yoongi wondered why he was alone.

“Because I don’t like them!” Yoongi overheard the small boy talked to the swing, a big toothy smile spread across his face. “I told them I saw a unicorn yesterday, and they didn’t believe me! They said I was a liar, but I swear, I saw the unicorn! In the park! If you can talk, I think you also saw it yesterday, weren’t you?”

Yoongi chuckled at the small boy’s glittery eyes.

“There was one kid who believed in me!” the small boy pointed up his finger to make a number one, but he spread his fingers instead and made number five. “But he is sick today, so he didn’t come to school. Mum said I can visit him later!”

When Yoongi passed by the park on the next day, he met the small boy again, and he was in a deep discussion about the cloud’s flavour, with the same swing. That was how Yoongi found himself being an unofficial Keeper for the small boy. He couldn’t help watching him over and over; he felt like –in some way– he saw himself in the boy.

It seemed like Yoongi was spacing out for too long, because Hoseok was beside him when he stirred. Already with a big grin.

“Holy !”

“Ssh, there is a child upstairs.” Hoseok shooed him, but he was grinning. “You done spacing out?”

“What is your problem?” Yoongi yelled and crawled to the very end of the sofa.

“Huh, I was just wondering about the child. Can you give me some background information about him?” Hoseok were flashing his smile again and Yoongi felt so mad, again.

“You were assisted here; you should know his background information, should you not?”

“Well, yeah, but the information update on the base was not too update anymore. The kid’s last information was he was still eight years old. Now he is ten, right?”

Yoongi muttered a low ‘yes’.

“That is why I need your help to back up the information a little!” Hoseok grinned, again, and he shifted his position so he was facing Yoongi entirely now. “Please, work with me?”

It was not like he had another choice, Yoongi thought while sighing internally. He could leave now, though, because of Hoseok. But something about the boy kept him there.

“Okay, then.”

Hoseok cheered, he took Yoongi’s hand and shook it up and down in excitement. Yoongi, was too annoyed to care, silently cursing to himself.

= = =

The small boy’s name was Jimin. Yoongi took Hoseok to the park on the next day, the park where Jimin conversed with a swing. His elementary school was nearby, so his mum often dropped him at the park and accompanying him playing all alone while she was reading a book. Hoseok observed with a great fascination towards the boy’s daily activity.

They talked all night about Jimin’s personality. About his likes and dislikes, his parents, about why he didn’t have any siblings (he had one, but the girl passed away before Jimin even born), about Jimin’s allergies, and his favourite t-shirt, and so on, and so on. The Keeper didn’t sleep; they couldn’t, so Hoseok made Yoongi climb up the roof and talked about Jimin there. The rooftop view was beautiful. Jimin’s house got a large grass field behind it and there were no trees there. From the roof Yoongi could see the neighbourhood across the field; the church, another rooftops, someone’s bright yellow-coloured roof. It was beautiful; Yoongi would never find out if Hoseok didn’t force him to climb up.

Jimin preferred to play in the park, though, instead of the field behind his house, because it got swing and slides, and other things to play with. Right now he was talking at the swing again, but now he actually sat on the swing and giggling with his friend, Taehyung. This one friend was the friend who believed in his unicorn thing.

“What did you usually do at time like these?” Hoseok asked curiously while Jimin giggled at his mum. They were about to gone home, because Jimin’s playing session was over.

“Huh, what do you mean?”

“We supposed to guide the child, Hyung, not just watch him over.” Hoseok said patiently. “Have you ‘whisper’ him some or two ideas? Advices?”

“Uh,” Yoongi groaned. “Maybe once?”

This was Hoseok’s turn to giggle. “Tell me what it was.”

Jimin was on his class, solving a math quiz by himself, when he saw one of his classmates was cheating. Yoongi’s advice was to ignore it—

“And hit the friend?” Hoseok offered.

“No! I told him to do the test quickly and leave the class immediately!” Yoongi groaned. “Why would I tell him that?”

“I don’t know, it just sounds like you,”

“For god’s sake, Hoseok,”

“Well, whatever. You did a great job, Hyung,” Hoseok patted him on the back. He beamed and he ran after Jimin and his mum, leaving Yoongi behind with annoyed mind.

He stood for a while in the park. He watched Taehyung walked away with his mum, slowly getting further until they disappeared behind an intersection. Something on the back of his mind told Yoongi the actual reason why he kept staying here. He could easily abandon the child, now that Jimin had a proper keeper and not mentioning this new keeper was much more reliable than himself.

Yoongi crouched down and felt the wet grass under his fingers. It rained this morning. The water made the field greener; the grasses glimmered under the evening sun. They were like whispering to Yoongi, asking questions about himself, singing something about Yoongi. It was often happened to him; imagining like the nature had a message for him, guiding him for something. But Yoongi learnt to took no notice of it; he layered his thought with a thick wall, something that a mere whisper from the birds couldn’t get through.

The said man ignored the call and he walked after Hoseok.

= = =

Everything was different with Hoseok’s arrival. The man kept whispering useful advices to Jimin’s ear, told him to become a good-mannered child and such. The Keeper’s actual job was acting like they were the child’s unconscious. It was to shape the child before their coming of age year came around. It was up to the Keeper entirely whether they wanted to made the child into a good person or not. There were no consequences for them.

“You are annoying,” Yoongi said at one morning, when they watched Jimin’s father walked his son to the school gate. Hoseok was staring at them with soft expression.

“I know, I know,” Hoseok said without averting his gaze. “But I am here to help, am I not? So, please, be used to me.”

Yoongi snorted. This was Hoseok’s idea to accompany Jimin every time. Usually Yoongi just visiting him occasionally during school time and then walked back to the house and lazing around until it was the time to pick Jimin up afterschool.

“I can recognise the Keepers around here,” Hoseok continued. “Damn, we are really different with real human, innit?”

“What do you expect?”

“Nothing, really,” Hoseok beamed to the elder, his nose scrunching. “Let’s go. Jimin is walking in.”

Yoongi grumbled, but he walked with Hoseok to Jimin’s class. Taehyung greeted him right after he entered the class. They quickly engaged into a passionate chat about their last night’s dream. Yoongi watched Jimin’s animated hand gesture, and he wished, he wished so bad, that he could actually interact with people like that. Yoongi never actually had a friend back then when he was in school; they were mere classmates, nothing deep and personal –nothing like Jimin and Taehyung.

 “Yoongi? Earth to Yoongi?” Hoseok waved his hand. “Are you okay?”

“Of course I am okay, it is not like we can catch human illness anymore, can’t we?” Yoongi bit. “What, is Jimin sick or something? Anything I miss?”

“No, it just funny seeing us not walked through by these children, like, you know, a ghost?” Hoseok laughed. “I always thought that I will be a ghost in the afterlife, but our body is pretty solid.”

Yoongi grunted, but nothing harmful. “We are passed by them like we are some invisible block. So you think we should look transparent or something?”

“Yep, like that.”

“Predictable from you,” Yoongi nodded. “Very dumb.”

Hoseok brushed the fact that he was just called dumb by his colleague. He was distracted by the teacher who now coming in with a bundle of paper on her arm. “Look the class is about to start!”

Yoongi walked to the very back of the class. He could see himself sitting in the very front seat, sitting nicely, but not hearing the teacher right. He believed that the child sat on the front row was assumed as the smart and obedient children, and the teacher tended to look at the children at the back row, the naughty row. It worked every time, Yoongi thought in amusement.

Hoseok suddenly appeared beside him, nudging his arm.

“Do you want to take a stroll?” Hoseok asked with a cheerful smile. His expression was strangely different from this morning.

“What about Jimin? Don’t we have to look over him 24/7?”

“He will be fine,” the younger male took Yoongi’s hand and pulled him towards the door. He let himself being pulled. Few Keepers present on the class were watching them with a great curiosity. Yoongi resisted the urge to kick one of them in the arse.

It was a good school; large windows, bright coloured walls, children running on their gym outfit on the field. They walked in a large hallway, looking at the student board and a lot of painting made by the students there. Some of them had a ribbon on it, some of it had not. Hoseok looked at each carefully.

“I was always envying this kind of showing,” Hoseok suddenly said, still looking at one painting about houses. “I mean, I can’t draw but I want to give something to my school, something that make my name remembered by the school. It will be like ‘oh, this one is made by Jung Hoseok!’ and such.”

“Then draw,” Yoongi said. He sat on a long bench idly.

“Well, I can’t draw,” Hoseok stood upright and turned to see Yoongi. “And it is not like my dancing can be shown on a wall like this.”

Yoongi raised his eyebrows. “So you danced?”

“I still dance,”

Yoongi brushed the fact. “There is such thing called camera, though.”

Hoseok laughed bitterly. “It will not showing me dancing beautifully, won’t it? It’s just a photo, not a video.”

“Well, I guess.” Yoongi shrugged.

Hoseok chuckled. He pulled Yoongi’s hand again. “Come on, let’s go somewhere else.”

= = =

Bickering. It was one thing that filled Yoongi’s day right after Hoseok’s appearance. They would argue about anything; their role as Jimin’s Keeper, who was going to look after Jimin while he was in school, about the bad weather, about Hoseok’s bad taste in music.

It tested Yoongi’s patience at first, but slowly he realised that he didn’t dislike it. He was living alone for too long, and having someone to look after but not really talked back to him didn’t help a bit. He thought he’d lost the ability to speak for some time. He didn’t, apparently, and he thought he couldn’t lose anything again since he’d lost his life four years ago.

To be honest Yoongi was enjoying the bickers. Not that Yoongi would admit that to the world. Hoseok’s words were never really sting; he was just wanted to prove some point, not to start a real fight between them. Besides, his loud laugh now was less annoying than before.

It was nice to have someone to talk to. It was nice to have a friend.

And before he realised it, Yoongi was falling.

= = =

Twelve years old was still a young age to Yoongi’s liking for Jimin to go on a trip by himself. He pursed his lips all the time; his frown was more intriguing than ever; his eyebrows creating an unamused line.

“It is not like he is all by himself,” Hoseok said comfortingly. They were on Jimin’s room at the moment, watching him excitedly choosing his clothes and put it in a small travel bag with his mum’s help. “It’s a school trip, okay? The whole school are in it together. Besides, he has us.”

“Right.” Yoongi replied shortly but still not convinced.

“The only question, though, how are we going to fit into that small bus with all those children? Where are we going to sit down?”

He had meant to distract Yoongi, and Hoseok succeeded. Yoongi’s frown was deeper, though, but it was directed more to Hoseok’s silly comment about the seating plan.

“We are not living anymore, Hoseok! We won’t feel anything humanly! We won’t feel nauseate!”

“Yeah, right,” Hoseok smiled. He walked over to whisper to Jimin about bringing thick clothes and slipping the raincoat in the bag. Yoongi sighed. He had to admit that Hoseok was doing a better job being a Keeper than him. He knew advices that sounded silly but it worked in reality. He was far more experienced with human interaction than Yoongi.

The elder exited the room and greeted the fresh air on the rooftop. Now it was his favourite place whenever he was bored or had nothing else to do. Sometimes Hoseok accompanied him; he would talk about anything –his past, his experiences on the dance club— but Yoongi couldn’t care less. Besides, he already used to Hoseok’s loud talking. He could even sleep through it now, —if he could sleep again.

It was one trait that Yoongi missed the most. Sleeping. Now that he was a Keeper, he had lost all his human traits; everything that made him human. He couldn’t sleep, he couldn’t feel tired, and he couldn’t taste the food.

Yoongi remembered that sleeping was peaceful. He entered a world which was not his, an entirely new nature, where the river sang a song of hope and dream. He could be anything he wanted. Yoongi recalled the sound of his clock ticking beside the table, bringing him drowsiness, and slowly his eyes would flutter close. He remembered the feeling of warm bedding and the scent of safety on his pillow. Now it was all cold and tough.

“Hey,” Hoseok greeted. Yoongi closed his eyes, but he answered a muttered ‘hello’ anyway. “Want me to join you?”

“Do whatever you please,” Yoongi murmured.

Yoongi felt Hoseok cautiously adjusting himself beside the elder, careful to not touch and invading any personal space. He heard a long breath and Yoongi could even see Hoseok smiling to nobody in particular.

“Jimin is now sleeping,” Hoseok informed. “His bag is well prepared and he is ready to go tomorrow.”

“Good.”

“He will be okay,” Hoseok said softly. His voice nearly drowned by the sound of night-time breeze. “We make him a good child, he will be okay.”

“You make him,” Yoongi interrupted.

“No, it’s us, remember?” Hoseok sat up. If Yoongi saw him now, he was radiant with enthusiasm. “It is you who taught him basketball, isn’t it?”

“That was one thing. Compared to you—“

“I can list the entire thing that you’ve taught to Jimin,” Hoseok interjected. “You taught him this basic—“

“Okay, stop.” Yoongi closed Hoseok’s mouth with his palm. He could feel the other’s body heat. “Fine, I help too.”

Yoongi could feel Hoseok’s mouth forming a lopsided half-moon.

= = =

“I am tired.” Yoongi said to no one in particular. He let his hair messed up by the wind stream. It was hard to keep your hair straight when the seaside wind was hitting you over and over.

“Then take a rest,” Hoseok said without a chuckle. “It’s that simple.”

“It is not.”

Hoseok didn’t answer. He was really good at reading people, plus he’d lived with Yoongi for enough time to know Yoongi better now. It was wise to kept silent instead of snapping back at him.

It was the rare occasion of Jimin’s class crowded together on the beach. Everyone was holding their hats tight. They wore the same mask on their face: sadness. Jimin was one of the crowd; standing far behind, distancing himself from the sea line.

One of their classmates was killed on the beach.

Jimin didn’t know him that well, but the boy had been in a work group together with Jimin, sharing few sandwiches during lunch, and Jimin was proud enough to say that he knew the boy who were murdered. He was his classmates after all.

Hoseok was mad earlier. He thought why bringing the kids to the beach? But they were there just to give Jungkook some memorial –a shrine, right under the wooden board that said the beach’s name, now filled with candles and flowers, short letters and everything Jungkook liked. Jimin brought a small toy figurine, the one that Jungkook gave him long time ago. Taehyung was beside him; they were holding hand so tight, Yoongi swore it could sticked together forever.

During the teacher’s speech about reminiscing Jungkook, Jimin’s two Keepers were walking further to the sea, a little bit away from the beach line. Their shoes and jeans were wet with sea water, but none of them could care less.

“Sometimes I regretted this work as a Keeper for children.” Yoongi stated. He could feel himself straining his own will to talk. He blocked the sickening sensation on his stomach.

“Why?” Hoseok replied softly.

“Because,” Yoongi took a deep breath. “Because sometimes I think this thing is pointless.”

As if it was on cue, a big wave formed and it pushed a lot of water to their feet. They stumbled upon their own feet, unable to defend their base to the sand. Now their jeans were wetter than before. Hoseok made a gently gesture to ask Yoongi to walked back to the beach. Unconsciously, Yoongi let himself tugged back.

The kids now were putting their offering to the small shrine for Jungkook one by one. Yoongi watched them from afar, not slightly aware that he was still linked with Hoseok, arm in arm.

“Even after death, we are still able to do great things, like helping people.” Hoseok answered back. “Helping someone growing up is not pointless, Hyung. It is a good thing.”

“It’s useless, Hoseok, we don’t even exist anymore, do we?” Yoongi interjected, his tone was harsh unintentionally, but he didn’t care any longer. He brushed off Hoseok’s arm, walking away from him.

“I know, but, still,” Hoseok glanced to the sea that was drawn-out under their feet. “Don’t you think we have a good work? A good, nobly job to guide a child?”

“You know what,” Yoongi said bitterly. “I never think of this work as a job. I think this is our punishment for what we have done in the past life; this is our payback.”

“No—“

“And why do I think like that? Because this child is everything I wanted to be,” Yoongi stared to Hoseok’s eyes. His brown eyes gleamed; there were crinkles around his eyes and signs of exhaustion. “Jimin is the dream me, Hoseok, Jimin is the perfect Yoongi that my mother wanted. Why do you think I was drawn to this place? My mother would love a children like Jimin.”

That was the song about –the songs that everyone had been singing to Yoongi’s ear every night, every time after Yoongi’s acceptance into this Keeper thing. He wondered why he accepted the Keeper job at the first place. Even the sea now laughing on Yoongi’s confession; the sound of water touching the silky sand was not soothing for Yoongi in any form.

“I am not a good son, she abandoned me. She sent me away.”

And Hoseok –he just standing there, few feet farther from Yoongi, and his lips shut tight.

= = =

Yoongi could hear the murmured thunder inside Jimin’s room. It had been raining lately, the smell of earth scent was everywhere; coating the ground like a second skin. Yoongi loved it, but Jimin didn’t. The said boy was curling inside his blanket, headphones on to block the sound of storms. His comfortable blanket was up until his cheek, half of his face hidden beneath it. Jimin was eventually fall asleep after a full hour session of watching his room’s ceiling with dreading eyes.

It blinded Yoongi how much he related himself to Jimin lately. He related himself to which he was supposed to act like a child back then, and sometimes Yoongi forgot that Jimin and he was two different people. He would reminisce one of his past memory, correcting it; putting Jimin as himself. Yoongi did that too much lately; he needed to be grounded to earth.

But at times like these, Yoongi remembered. He remembered himself as the brave, fearless little Yoongi, who was not afraid of lightning bolt. Twelve years old Yoongi probably would curse at the thunder to disturb his sleep, but nothing dangerous. He wouldn’t hide himself under the sheets; he wouldn’t crawl to his parent’s bed at stormy night. He took a pride in himself for being independent, and there was a phase when he loathed people who didn’t have any self-reliance at themselves.

He was not in that phase anymore; now he was old enough to understand that people were mentally different –but, still. Seeing Jimin with a pair of headphones on, trembling slightly under the blanket –Yoongi didn’t know why he looked up to this child so much.

“Everyone is not perfect,” Hoseok said one night, his cheeky smile never disappeared. “Jimin may or may not be your perfect versions of your childhood, but, Hyung, please remember that you and Jimin are two different people.”

At time like these, Yoongi didn’t have the urge to fight Hoseok back. They were lying down at the living room’s carpeted floor. The fluffiness of it was endearing; it was one trait that he wanted from his broken childhood: a comfortable place to sleep on.

Seeing Yoongi didn’t answer anything, Hoseok continued. “I am here with you, you know. You can talk about anything.”

On some days, Yoongi felt like talking to Hoseok. They had settled their relationship anyway. It was true, when Hoseok said that they could work together on their first encounter, it didn’t take long to Yoongi to accept that Hoseok now was part of his –and Jimin– life. But when Yoongi set his mind to actually talk, he could feel his heart slowly backing up a new wall. A brand new wall with a rose bush in front of it. Part of himself wanted Hoseok to confront him with questions, forced him to open up. But the other part, obviously, was against that decision.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Hoseok asked. They were on the living room again, lying down inside the darkness of night.

“I have no idea what are you talking about.”

“The conversation on the beach,” Hoseok patiently mentioned the event. “I think there is more to let out from your ribcage, Hyung.”

“Can’t you just pretend it never happened?” Yoongi sighed.

“No. Because we are friends, and I care about my friends, and I still think, quoting my own saying, there is more to let out.”

Instead of answering, Yoongi turned his body to face Hoseok. The younger male stared to him, a little surprised to find Yoongi’s unreadable expression. It was grief and wrath from the past mixed together, but there was something Hoseok couldn’t decipher.

“Please, Hoseok,” his voice creaked. “Can we do this next time? Just, not today.”

Hoseok paused. His breath was caught for a moment there. He silently searched for Yoongi’s hand and took it in his own. “Just in case if you forgotten, I will always be here to listen.”

= = =

One important thing for the Keeper was shaping the child, and guiding him until the child’s coming of age. After that point, the Keeper was free to go –continuing as a Keeper for another child, or simply disappear and completing the final cycle of life. Commonly there was one Keeper for one child, because the base usually listed all the pairings, but Yoongi and Hoseok’s case here was a little bit rare. Yoongi didn’t quite know what to do, but he thought that there were two possible chances: one of them left the child willingly, or both of them fight for dominance for the kid’s future personality.

Yoongi had considered the first option for some quite time: when he felt overwhelmed with his decision to be a Keeper; when he felt his past was not good enough for him to guide the child. Moreover, he didn’t really want to fight Hoseok.

He succeeded in telling Hoseok his reason to be in Jimin’s house, finally. That he was drawn to the house because he saw Jimin in himself. That he was drawn to the house because Jimin’s family was anything he couldn’t get. That he was drawn to the house because Yoongi thought it was the least he could do to fix his past. He told all of this in the living room, obscuring them in the softness of the rug, side by side together, listening to the house that fast asleep at night. After dark was the only time they could talk together. With Jimin sleeping most of the time and the inability to sleep, there was nothing interesting could be done, so both of them usually talked.

It was a self-torment, Hoseok said carefully after Yoongi finished. The latter objected, but Hoseok held him close after that, doing nothing but breathing softly to Yoongi’s hair, sending a warm and firm senses down to Yoongi’s chest.

And Yoongi melted, right into Hoseok’s chest. The strong arms around him was a new sensation of grounding; it felt safe and sound, something that past Yoongi never thought he would felt anymore. He felt himself crying, and he was somehow proud of it. He didn’t let his arrogance part of him win this time. He got rid of his past self through the tears. Hopefully, it would go away now.

And there was Hoseok; whispering soothing words repeatedly like a mantra. It would be okay, Hoseok said. All was well. He didn’t need to anguish himself any longer. It would be okay.

And Yoongi believed it.

= = =

“Well, let’s just paper-rock-scissors it? Whoever wins can choose to leave or stay with Jimin.” Yoongi asked. He squeezed Hoseok’s hand. They were warm and sweaty, but Yoongi didn’t care a bit. The younger’s face gloomed. Hoseok knew Yoongi would win; the elder was very skilled in his guessing. Besides, Hoseok knew Yoongi would choose to leave Jimin. It was pointless to do the paper rock scissors it at the first place, actually.

“Are you sure?” Hoseok said, worriedly. “We don’t know the consequences, do we? And you just can’t leave me like that!”

“Listen, Hoseok-ah,” Yoongi looked terrifyingly calm. A calm Yoongi was not rare these days. After their talk on that night, something in Yoongi’s heart was released. It was like he got rid of a heavy stone hovering on his heart. Hoseok, on the other side, looked genuinely concerned of this version of over-calm Yoongi.

“I’ve been listening to you since the first time, Hyung,” Hoseok’s smile, even though it was coloured with gloom this time, was still blinding like usual. Yoongi looked away.

“Okay, listen now,” Yoongi breathed. “I like you, okay? I never said this before but, I do, and please don’t make me repeat this.”

Yoongi’s face was bright red, flushing in a sweet colour. Hoseok resisted the urge to squeeze those cheeks.

“And, yes, we don’t know the consequences, Hoseok,” Yoongi continued. “But I think I am ready to go now than before. And Jimin only needs one Keeper in his life. You are more suitable for him than me. He needs sunshine and happiness, not the moon and its coldness. You are his sunshine, Hoseok, not me.”

“Really?” Hoseok whispered. He linked his hand with Yoongi’s. The latter nodded.

“Really.” Yoongi grinned. His expression said ‘wasn’t that obvious?’ “The first reason why I stayed here was the silly thinking that I can change my past childhood. Now it’s gone, Hoseok. The thought. It was gone because of you. It’s all thanks to you.”

Beside them, Jimin’s voice filled the room. He was saying goodbye to his mum. He and his father were ready to go to school. Yoongi grinned at the sight.

“Go, Hoseok.” Yoongi whispered very, very quietly. “You will have to walk all the way to Jimin’s school if you don’t manage to get in to the car with them.”

“Come with me?” Hoseok pleaded. His eyes were bright like the blue sky outside.

Yoongi just scrunched his nose, smiling, and pushed Hoseok towards the door. He made him climbed in the car before it’s too late. When Hoseok stared out of the window, he saw Yoongi standing side by side with Jimin’s mum, both of them beaming.

“Goodbye!” Both of them said. “See you later!”

When Hoseok came home after school, Yoongi was nowhere to be seen.