Blue and Grey || Taejin

Chapter 27

"Good evening, Seokjin. Yoongi is in his room," Mrs. Min greeted Seokjin at the door and then proceeded to guide him inside.

Seokjin had not been at Yoongi's apartment for months. Nothing seemed to change much except his friend's beloved piano in the living room was covered with an old curtain and a few furniture seemed to be new as if Mrs. Min decided to renovate the place little by little without her son noticing.

"How is he doing?" Seokjin asked. Mrs. Min had requested him not to visit Yoongi for the few days he stayed at the hospital, so that he could absorb the situation without being overwhelmed by faces he could not recollect.

"Recovering. He remembered Holly yesterday. Today, he asked if he was a university student. Physically, he's doing better than what the doctor had expected, so I suppose it's safe to say that he's getting better," Mrs. Min sighed at the end as if the wait was murdering her. Of course, what could be worse to a mother than her own child forgetting about her?

Seokjin nodded wordlessly. He wanted to know if Yoongi had mentioned him at all but he decided not to crush his mood even before he met his friend.

Mrs. Min knocked on the door and after a muffled Yes, she entered first, staying there for a while before permitting Seokjin to enter.

Yoongi was lounging on his bed cross-legged with a photo album spread in front of him. He was going through the pages with his eyebrows knitted and his mouth set in a pout.

"Is this you?" Yoongi asked all of a sudden, causing Seokjin to flinch, without even looking up.

Seokjin walked over to the bed and observed the pictures. Yoongi had always loved getting hardcopy of photos and preserving the memories in albums. That particular page was dedicated to their college group pictures on graduation day. Yoongi was pointing at a picture where it was only the two of them with their graduation hats thrown in the air. Seokjin forgot who took their picture but he remembered being happier to take photos with just Yoongi.

"Yes..." Seokjin carefully sat on the bed and leaned over to observe the pictures more clearly.

"How long have we been friends?" Yoongi now raised his head to peer at Seokjin curiously.

Seokjin did a brief calculation in his head.

"It's been eight years now," Seokjin murmured, smiling softly because he just knew their friendship was not just a sand castle.

Yoongi nodded as if the information pleased him.

"Seokjin, right?"

"You used to call me 'hyung'" Seokjin reminded him.

"But aren't you just three months older than me?"

Seokjin stopped in his tracks in surprise.

"You remember my birthday?" Seokjin asked in astonishment.

"It just popped in my head," Yoongi said nonchalantly before adding, "Hyung."

A hopeful warmth threaded through Seokjin's chest and tugged at the corners of his lips, causing him to smile. The silence now felt almost comfortable because Seokjin was starting to believe that Yoongi really was recovering.

"Do you know Jung Hoseok?" Yoongi said the name carefully as if it were glass.

"Yes. We go to the same uni," Seokjin replied a little absentmindedly as he browsed through the old memories.

"Is he my boyfriend?" The question came as blunt as ever.

Seokjin's brain did a double take.

"Boyfriend?!" Seokjin guffawed. "No he isn't..."

Then his gears whirred for a moment.

"Well, not that I know of," he finally answered to a not very convinced Yoongi.

"What does that mean?" Yoongi looked skeptical. He turned the page, then another, and another, as if trying to look for Hoseok.

"Why isn't he in here?" Yoongi asked, eyebrows deeply furrowed and mouth set tight is distaste.

Seokjin's heart plummeted into oblivion.

Was Yoongi disappointed that Seokjin was in almost every picture but there was not a single photo of Hoseok?

And... it was difficult for Seokjin to stomach the fact that Yoongi was feeling so strongly drawn to Hoseok but couldn't even remember much about Seokjin except his birthday.

"You probably had pictures in your phone," Seokjin muttered, tracing patterns on the bedsheet.

"My phone is in its grave," Yoongi stated dryly.

"Right."

"Eomma said he used to visit me almost everyday, used to bring fresh flowers every once in a while," Yoongi muttered as he rested his chin on his palm, the ghost of a smile adorning his lips.

"Are you sure we're not dating?"

"Why, you like him?" Seokjin asked, feeling an unexpected smile tug at his lips.

"Obviously."

Seokjin raised his eyebrows, a little surprised at the blatant confession because the Yoongi he knew was more discreet about his feelings. Unless he changed...

No, it was a good change. Seokjin reprimanded himself before his thoughts could take the wrong path.

"I don't know, I don't- I don't really remember him much. It's just a feeling," Yoongi explained with hand gestures, eyebrows furrowed.

"What sort of feeling?"

"I-want-to-hold-his-hands sort of feeling."

"We used to hold hands."

"I want to kiss him too."

"Nevermind what I said," Seokjin took his word back with an exaggerated sour face.

"So we're... best friends?" Yoongi asked, a little cautiously.

"Do you get a feeling about it?"

"Yeah."

That's all Seokjin needed to hear.

"And what's that feeling?"

Yoongi pondered for a while before replying, "It's like, I have a good idea what's in your mind and it's most likely right."

"And that is?"

"You like someone."