The Bangtan Diaries | 방탄소년단

Prologue

"My dad's dead."

Jihoon kept repeating this phrase numbly, as if it would eradicate the crushing reality that his mentor, his best friend, his icon—he was gone forever. His wife, Dahyun, rubbed soothing circles on his back and sighed into his shoulder while he still had the phone pressed to his ear.

On the line, his sister's sniffles and broken sobs were barely audible over the roar of blood in his ears. "Ji?" she asked to make sure he was there.

Jihoon only blinked and spoke in a monotone voice. "Call you later, Vi. See you at mom's." Before she could respond, he ended the call and set the phone down slowly. Dahyun pressed her lips together, the salty tears still seeping through to her tongue anyway.

"I'm sorry, baby."

He turned around to face her, brows wrinkling as he processed the information. "My dad's dead." She moved into him and hugged him tightly. He wrapped his arms around her in response, burying his face in her shoulder as the sobs finally came, shaking his shoulders violently. "I'm not ready for this," he cried.

His father was always there for him and his sister, Violet. He diffused fights between them like a pro. He taught them to always be fair. He never favored one child over the other, though Jihoon often wondered if he had late-night talks with Violet like he did with Jihoon when he was off in college.

Their father was known as Mr. Park, The Hot Dad. Teachers were always flirting with him at meetings when they were small, Violet's friends all tripped over their words whenever he walked in with prepared snacks for them during sleepovers. It was part of the reason why the two were so popular in school. He would pick them up in a shiny red Porsche that had all the boys and girls drooling over the car and the man inside.

He had aged very well. And despite women constantly flirting with him, he always shut them down. Jihoon knew that he loved their mother very much. He remembered he took her out on dates every weekend for as long as Jihoon could remember. He was always kissing and holding their mother and telling Jihoon, "You treat women the way I treat your mother. Understand? I didn't raise a player" when he found out that his son had been seeing two girls at once.

Jihoon was just curious and feeling rebellious, but he grew out of that and met his wife in college. He was always faithful to her. His sister, Violet, was a bit different. She never really came out of her shell in high school. Maybe it was because Jihoon had inherited his father's muscular structure and kicked the shit out of any boys that came near her.

She was beautiful, to say the least. They both were. Jihoon was the spitting image of his father, while Violet's pretty face and personality came straight from their mother. Their mother's foreign looks were almost completely lost on Jihoon, but Violet got them. Boys were after her to no end until Jihoon put an end to their hormonal chase.

Unlike their mother, however, Violet was very timid. Their mother was a very outspoken woman when pushed to be. She often fought with the school when she felt that her children were being treated unfairly. Jihoon recalled being told a story by his father about when his mother had tried her hand at psychology and worked for Child Protective Services. She was fired for threatening to beat the shit out of parents who harmed their children.

His parents had a close-knit group of friends that still came around for holidays and parties. Some didn't come around as often but still made their presence known. As a result, the children of their friends became Jihoon and Violet's group of friends. Even almost thirty years later, they all still went out for drinks sometimes.

It was more frequent until a few of them started having kids and settling down. Jihoon and Dahyun were about to start a family before the news of his father's passing. After that, he couldn't even think about bringing a child into a world where they wouldn't be able to meet the most important man in Jihoon's life. He was so young, too. Too young to die of a heart attack.

With a heavy heart, Jihoon had to set up preparations for the funeral. Before that, however, he and Violet would visit their mother and make sure she was okay. He had already received a few texts from his friends and his father's friends offering condolences. But none of it could make the pain go away.

His dad was dead.