EDIFICE | tk (✓)

INTERLUDE | jeon jungkook

:: FIVE YEARS LATER

Jeon Jungkook was no longer the immature boy of five years ago, no longer a hostage of the traumatic memories of his childhood nor the poor decisions he had made in an attempt to escape his dreary life. The regret he had harboured on the daily had not diminished though he had developed an outlet in terms of immense charity work and helping those in need.

These past few years have been the hardest he had the pleasure of experiencing — yet, in some ways, the easiest. For one, therapy had been incredibly helpful in sorting through the damaging ordeals of his past. Another, it had inadvertently allowed the development of his character into a personality he was much more proud of, one of greater maturity and a natural respect for all things human.

Granted, therapy hadn't managed to solve all his issues but it forced his hand in taking the first step to a better future. The remaining were of his making, difficulties he had to overcome through sheer will and unadulterated resilience. Of course, help came from the most unexpected of places.

It had happened during his final year of high-school. By then, Jungkook had become much too accustomed, having resigned himself to his fate. As a person, a friend, a son? He had been virtually unrecognisable — all anyone could see was a closed-off, emotionless machine harbouring an appearance identical to the boy they believed they knew.

When the arguments between him and his father grew to become increasingly more physical, he had welcomed it. Anything was better than the hollowness he felt, even pain. Ultimately, it had done little to help but at the same time, it marked the turning-point to his steady decline.

Jungkook's choice triggered the divorce that changed his life for the better. It didn't need to be said that in Kangdae's eyes, the fault rested solely on his son's shoulders. Yet the reality of the situation remained the same — Sori had simply taken the decision she herself knew she should have taken sooner.

The bitter resentment Jungkook had clawing at his heart, towards his mother for allowing him to suffer for this long, didn't last. For the first time since Namsan Tower, the first night they were truly free from the monster of their family, he had allowed himself to cry in her arms, lifted the barricade to his emotions that swallowed him whole. After that, there was no point of return — all that remained was the hope for a fresh start.

Busan offered exactly that. The city, with its sprawling streets milling with strangers, acted a new leaf for him to turn. He'd have been a fool to not take it. The moment exams finished, he was to pack his life away into cardboard boxes and shift his future to his hometown.

His final day in Seoul he spent with Bambam and Yugyeom. Despite having drifted that last year, they had been with him every step of the way. Even though he never paid attention to their concerns, even though he made his own destructive choices against their warnings, they never judged him; not once. Really, what more could he have asked for?