reef knot

final

10 years later, April 3, 2028, 6 p.m.

Jiyoung leaves one final kiss on Sooyeon's forehead, before gently shutting the door to the passenger's side of the family van.

"Have fun at Uncle Yoongi's!" she says to her daughter with a wide beam through the rolled-down window.

"No kiss for me?" Taehyung pouts as he watches his wife walk past the van and onto the pavement in front of their lawn.

Jiyoung rolls her eyes, but still leaves a peck on her husband's lips anyways. "Drive safely," she says, before kissing him for the last time.

"Oh my God," Sooyeon makes a look of disgust at her parents' sudden displays of affection towards each other, "no PDA in front of me, please."

The couple laugh, before deciding to pull away from each other, for their kid's sake.

With that, Taehyung starts up the 11-year-old van. The van makes nothing more than a soft purr before zooming off towards Yoongi's place.

This has been a regular routine the Kim and Min families would make sure to carry out at least once every month. Taehyung would drive Sooyeon over for a weekend of video games and tag with Yoongi and his son, Mingyu, while Sejeong and Jiyoung would either stay at home watching chick flicks, or head over to the spa for a weekend of relaxation from their busy family lives.

The Mins' house isn't far from the Kims', and thus it doesn't take more than ten minutes before Taehyung stops in front of his old friend's mini villa. Yoongi and his son are already waiting in front of the gates when they reach.

"Good morning, Uncle Yoongi!" Sooyeon greets the dark-haired man the moment she climbs down her father's van.

"Morning, kid," Yoongi grins his usual gummy smile while endearingly ruffling the seven year-old girl's hair. He's always wanted a daughter, so he treats Sooyeon like his own.

"Yeon-ah, let's go play!" Mingyu exclaims excitedly the moment Sooyeon's safely on the cement pavement in front of the house.

"Don't be too rough!" Yoongi yells at his nine-year-old son as he watches the boy take the girl by the hand and pull her towards the backyard of the terrace house.

"What are we gonna play?" Sooyeon asks with wide eyes while allowing Mingyu to pull her towards the yard behind his house.

"Hmm," Mingyu ponders once they're both safely in the backyard, where they believe they will be away from their parents' supervision. "Let's play hide-and-seek!"

"But you suck at hiding," Sooyeon giggles teasingly.

Mingyu jabs her tummy in response. "Not like you could do better any better!" he challenges.

"Oh yes, I can!" Sooyeon sticks her tongue out at him, taking up the dare.

"You hide, I seek," Mingyu decides with a sly smile, and Sooyeon approves.

With that, the boy turns to face away from the girl, covering his eyes as he counts to twenty. Having been here lots of times before, Sooyeon is already pretty familiar with the Min villa, hence she runs towards the only place where she knows it's safe - the garage.

She sneaks into the place through the open garage door, squeezing through the tight space to crouch behind the Mins' family convertible. Mingyu certainly wouldn't find her here.

She's giggling at the image of Mingyu running around the house like an idiot, when a creak suddenly sounds from the garage doorway. Sooyeon turns to watch as the garage door swings down and forward from the garage ceiling, leaving the room in complete darkness.

Uncle Yoongi must have closed the garage door thinking that no one's here.

Sooyeon starts to panic. She gets up from her hiding place and runs towards the device on the wall beside the door, where she knows the keypad is stationed to unlock the door. However, her fingers run over nothing but cement as she tries to feel for the piece of metal in the dark.

Helpless, the girl starts to cry. Is this how I'm going to die?

Just as she's picturing herself rotting to death in Yoongi's garage, a ray of light suddenly shines on her, and she turns to see Mingyu opening the door that connects the living room to the garage.

"Found you!" he exclaims in delight, releasing the doorknob as he runs to where Sooyeon is squatting on the garage floor, face streaked with tears and fearful sobs falling from her lips. The boy freezes when he registers that his best friend is crying. "A-are you crying because I won?" he looks at her worriedly. "It's okay, don't cry. You win, okay?" he says, getting to his knees and firmly placing her head onto his small chest.

"I thought I was going to die of starvation here!" Sooyeon sobs, hands wrapping around Mingyu's waist tightly. "Has it been a day?" she asks.

"No, it's been two minutes."

"Well, it felt like ten years!" she cries, and Mingyu pats her head.

Just as he's about to give her further consolation, the door to the living room slides to a close, leaving the garage in darkness once again.

"Oh shoot," Mingyu almost curses.

"What's wrong?" Sooyeon asks, eyes wide in worry.

"The door is auto-locked, and can only be unlocked from the outside."

"Oh my God, you toidi!" Sooyeon exclaims in frustration.

"What's a toidi?" Mingyu asks blankly.

"It's backwards for 'idiot'," Sooyeon boasts, proud of the new word she created.

Mingyu rolls his eyes, though secretly bashing himself for not thinking of that.

"How are we gonna get out?" Sooyeon brings him back to the main worry.

However, Mingyu shrugs. "Guess we'll have to wait till Dad and Uncle Taehyung notice we're gone."

Sooyeon starts to cry again. "But I thought you said your garage is haunted! We're gonna get eaten alive by ghosts!"

"It's okay, I'll protect you!" he says, pulling her into his arms once again.

"No, you'll run away like a wussy before the ghost even appears!" Sooyeon sobs, and Mingyu's grip tightens around her.

"Please, I'm a man! Men don't run away from ghosts," he assures her.

Sooyeon sniffs. "Promise?"

Mingyu nods firmly.

"Promise. I'll protect you forever."

+

because if yoongi and jiyoung don't end up together, at least their children will :<

anyway, thanks so much for reading till the end! i really appreciate each and every one of you for giving me countless support even though this story was once going to be deleted heh. nevertheless, i managed to complete this, and i wouldn't have done it without all of you! i love y'all so so much hoho <3 do continue reading my works!

and just saying, this isn't the end HAHA. i'll be updating bonus chapters in the future whenever i wanna promote a new work, so keep this story in your library so you won't miss out heh xo

i know a lot of you are confused about yoongi and sejeong, but trust me when i say that i can explain everything HAHA. explanations will be in future bonus chapters, so stay tuned :") and although jiyoung didn't end up with yoongi in the end, the story is pretty much yoongi-centered, which is why it's counted as a yoongi ff and not a taehyung ff heh :>

i love you guys !!!

signing off,
minghaoburgers

p.s. y'all can just call me 'wen' in the future HAHA 'author-nim' sounds so formal :"3

p.p.s. i'm going for seventeen's concert and now i'm considering whether i should get an official carat bong or just diy one at home?

p.p.p.s. Y'ALL SENSE A MINGYU FANFIC COMING UP DON'T YA ;)