A/N: By the way, I changed the last sentence in Pt. II from ‘In case I almost forget about you, because starting from tomorrow I’ll never see you again’ to ‘In case I really do forget this, because starting from tomorrow I’ll never get the chance to be with you again’. Just to prevent confusion XD

Finale

            I didn’t get the chance to visit my hometown until I fainted.

            Because of my school’s fame and some other strange reason, I was constantly called to the office for a job offer as a backup dancer for a promoting K-Pop artist. The teachers there also gave me a ton of work, so on weekends and holidays I would be holed up in my dorm working on the countless assignments that I hadn’t had time during the week to do because of my gigs. I started eating less and less out of lack of time until being able to cram in one at-the-table meal was considered a good day, and my digestive system was more familiar with coffee than with pure water. Summers were homework-free but filled with jobs and gigs and favors, so I wasn’t able to catch a break. I carried this lifestyle until the middle of the first term of my sophomore year, where I collapsed in the middle of a presentation and had to go to the hospital. After I was discharged, I (thankfully) got laid off on the gigs until I resumed a healthy way of life. I found my current situation a perfect time to revisit my family and friends, whom I’d rarely kept in touch with for the year and a half that I’d been away from them.

            So, on the first day of Christmas break, I found myself at the local airport, a suitcase in one hand and my phone in the other, earbuds blasting a familiar ballad into my tortured ears.

            Love is not over...

            I still thought of Jungkook sometimes, although the lack of abnormally strong emotion that accompanied the memories I had of him had grown larger and larger until I saw him as just a failed first date, a confession postponed for too long.

            Had I loved him, once upon a time? Maybe. But not anymore.

~

            One short plane ride, silent awkward taxi ride and long wait for my father’s car to pull up to the designated meeting place (because traffic is a jerk) later, I was gazing out the window, marveling at the fact that, despite being bordered by bustling city, my neighborhood really hadn’t changed in the time that I’d been gone. There was still the welcoming suburban image, the brick buildings and lawns and giant trees that cast their shadows on the road they were bordering.

            My father himself looked just a tad bit older, with a few more gray streaks in his hair and a few more smile lines around his eyes. When he’d pulled up at our meeting place, he’d attempted to leap out of the car, turn off the ignition and unbuckle his seatbelt all at the same time, which both terrified me and amused me to no end. After a long, rib-crushing hug, he helped me load my stuff into the back of his car and started talking immediately once we were both seated safely inside. He told me about the emptiness in the house, the dates he and Umma went on every Saturday, the things my friends were up to (because my dad was a stalker like that). When there were no more interesting stories to tell, he proceeded to yell at me for not keeping in touch with anyone I’d ‘cruelly left behind’.

            When we pulled up to my house, everything appeared so timeless and unchanged that a flood of memories overwhelmed me and I had to swallow back tears. If Dad noticed, he didn’t say anything about it and instead offered to grab my stuff so I could go ahead and ‘reunite’ without having to tow a suitcase behind me.

I thanked him, and with a hammering heart went up the front steps and opened the door.

“PARK JIMIN!!!!!” about twenty different voices yelled at the same time. Members of my family and friends popped out from their hiding places and all leapt onto me, a mess of wild hair and flailing limbs. I stumbled back from the sudden force, laughing from surprise and enjoyment. In the mess of people, I could only make out a brightly grinning Hoseok, my tearful mother and my favorite teacher of all time, Mr. Song. For lack of anything better to do, I just stood there and smiled with all my heart, letting the commotion push me around.

Somehow, in the midst of the chaos, I heard a barely audible, hesitant voice in the background.

“Park Jimin?”

My head snapped up.

Despite the way we’d left each other a year and a half ago, I hadn’t been expecting to see him again, here and now. Overwhelmed by a sudden, inexplicable urge to see him, I started looking around.

Jungkook. Jeon Jungkook.

Alarmed by my sudden change in demeanor, everyone backed off, some wiping away tears. They slowly drew away to form a cliché movie hallway of silent people, giving me a full view of the boy standing at the end of the hallway.

And my heart stopped.

His hair wasn’t combed upwards anymore – it fell across his forehead perfectly, and in the crappy hallway light I could barely make out strands of gold woven in the black. He was only wearing a simple red hoodie, dark jeans and basketball shoes, but he still outshone everyone else in the hall. His big, dark eyes, pink lips, fair skin and smooth jaw line were all familiar, but strangely nostalgic.

I didn’t notice I was crying tears of shame and self-loathing until his image blurred.

            How could I have been so stupid?

            How could I possibly have fooled myself into thinking that I ever stopped loving him?

            “Park Jimin,” he said, his voice barely a whisper. God, even his voice was like heaven.

            I swallowed. Seemingly with a mind of their own, my feet pushed me forward about two feet. “Jungkook...”

            “Why didn’t you call?” he started walking slowly towards me, something dark in his eyes. “Why didn’t you text, or email, or even freaking write me, for God’s sake? It’s only an hour’s plane ride away, it’s not like we’re a world apart. We’re in the same freaking timezone.” He was now so close that I could pick out every single emotion in the brewing mass in his eyes, and they weren’t warm ones. “Or did you forget me?”

            I shook my head. “No. I didn’t... I didn’t forget you.”

            “No, you didn’t.” Jungkook’s words were choked with tears, and the sight and sound combined was enough to break my heart into a million tiny screaming pieces. “You just fell out of love with me, is all.”

            I could only stand there shaking my head, watching as his tears dripped down in almost-sync with mine.

            “I don’t blame you,” he continued, his tears sparkling under the hallway light. “I don’t blame you at all. I’m the most boring, dull person in the world, and you’re this beautiful, wonderful guy who deserves everything life has to offer, including a significant other that actually deserves him-”

            That hit me like a slap to the face, and mostly because Jungkook looked like he actually believed what he was saying.

            “No,” I said, somehow finding my voice again. “Shut up. Jeon Jungkook, shut up right now.” I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around his shoulders, pulling him into a tight hug. “You’re beautiful,” I murmured into his shoulder, holding him up when I felt him collapse in my arms, “and wonderful, and perfect, and you could do so much better than me.”

            “I missed you...” he sobbed, clutching at the back of my shirt like it was the only thing keeping him from falling apart. “I was so insecure, wondering if you’d found another person, wondering what you were doing with that person, wondering how many people you’ve dated...”

            “I’m sorry,” I repeated, rubbing circles into his back. “I’m so sorry.”

            I held him like that for several minutes, listening to his sobs quiet until they were merely hiccups and he could fully support himself. The people that had witnessed the entire scene were awkwardly making attempts at conversation, but I could catch more than a few of them cast glances our way once in a while.

            He was quiet for a while, and I contemplated pulling away until I heard him chuckle weakly. “I’m really stupid, aren’t I? Thinking that you would actually wait for me, or something like that. We went on one date. We don’t even love each other-”

            “Who says we don’t?” I said quietly.

            ~

            “Who says we don’t?” he said quietly.

            My head snapped up, something thick and unidentifiable slipping into my chest. “What?”

            He turned red, and tried to focus on his shoes before I tucked my hand under his chin and lifted his head up to look at me. “What?” I said again, heart beating fast.

            “Who-” he cleared his throat, obviously uncomfortable. I felt guilty of pushing him like this, but I had to know. I had to.

            I had to know if he, like me, still retained feelings after so long.

            “Who says we don’t love each other?” he repeated, swallowing hard.

            “I-” I still didn’t know what he was implying. I didn’t even dare to hope... “What do you mean?”

            “I mean, I...” he tried to tear his eyes away from mine, and this time, I let him. “I... I think I might possibly love you.”

            Oh my , he said it.

He said he loves me. He said it he said it he said it he said it he OH MY HE TOLD ME HE LOVES ME OH MY GOD

            “Jungkook?” Jimin’s voice broke through my haze of rushed thoughts, and I snapped back to focus to find his concerned eyes two inches away from mine. “Are you okay?”

            “Yeah, I’m fine,” I forced out, while my mind was screaming OH MY OH MY OH MY . “I, uh...”

            Something sad and disappointed appeared behind his eyes, and when he smiled at me I could tell it was forced. “It’s okay if you don’t feel the same way.”

            “No!” I blurted out. “I do! I really, really, really... I really love you,” I choked out.

            He raised an eyebrow. “Wow, is it that embarrassing for you to admit?”

            “Shut up,” I mumbled. The mood lightened a bit, something I was grateful for.

            He laughed. “You’re so cute.”

            “Shut up,” I repeated, about to throw him a threatening glare before he kissed me.

            He kissed me.

            He kissed me, and I was kissing him and everyone was staring at us but I didn’t care because it almost felt like our first kiss even though it wasn’t, but even though it wasn’t it still felt like it was because everything kind of fell into place and I realized, I realized that I really never did stop loving him from the moment I met him and he felt amazing and his fingers were in my hair and my arms were probably squeezing the life out of his waist but neither of us really cared because in that moment we really were perfect, we were perfect and amazing and I didn’t think I’d ever loved anybody more than I loved Park Jimin in that moment.

            When we pulled away, his hair a mess and his shirt all crinkled and this huge, adorable smile taking up his entire face, I said,

            “I think we should get back together.”

            And he said, “Agreed.”

A/N: Let me know what you thought down in the comments, and I might do something like this again!