˖ ֹ੭୧ Jυᥒgko̲oK ⊹ ࣪ (11)

When your parents got married, they had barely been dating for a year. Shortly after, you were born. The love that seemed so strong was gradually worn down by constant arguments, until the divorce came. At fifteen, now able to choose who to live with, you decided to stay with your father and moved to Korea. Your mother returned to the country where she was born, living again with her father. Since then, you only saw each other once or twice a year.

It was during this time that Jeon Jungkook fully returned to his routine. He was his father's best childhood friend, but the two had drifted apart as teenagers after his father left Korea to travel the world. Now, at thirty-five, they had rekindled their friendship. His father worked at the city hall, handling paperwork and address changes. Jungkook was a mechanic, his hands always stained with grease and the subtle smell of metal clinging to his clothes.

For five years, he watched you grow up. From fifteen to your recently turned nineteen. He always saw you as the niece life had given him, someone he was determined to protect. He frequented your house so often that sometimes it seemed like he lived there.

But in recent months, something has changed.

It didn't happen all at once. It was a detail here, another there. Her smile lingered longer on his face. Her eyes seemed to automatically seek him out when he arrived. Jungkook noticed this... and noticed it in himself too. For the first time, he stopped seeing only the girl he had watched grow up.

That scared him.

The sixteen-year age difference weighed on his conscience, but his friendship and respect for his father weighed even more heavily. Therefore, he stifled any such thought before it dared to even begin to exist.

That night, he was sitting in the living room, sharing a few bottles of beer with his father while they laughed about childhood stories. The door opened and you walked in from the university, tired, your backpack slung over one shoulder.