Master's ( Jungkook / BTS )

Episode III: What Are Friends For?

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"Li-ah!" I was welcomed in with an inviting smile and warm embrace. "You finally came, Hyung's going to be so happy when he finds out you're back."
I nervously laughed, it had been a while since I last saw Jimin and the others. He probably thought I came here to rejoin the team, I didn't want to disappoint him.
I politely pulled away from him, "Where's Namjoon?" As soon as I asked someone popped their head out from behind a wall.
"Hmm? Who called my name?"
I laughed and waved at him. His eyes landed on me and went wide with excitement. "Is that little Lina I see?" Namjoon teased.
"Hey, I'm not a kid!"
Both the guys laughed and I couldn't help but join them; felt nice being back with them. I looked around the old lab and re-familiarized myself with everything around me. I slowly made my way back to my old desk and noticed it still had my old lab coat and name tag. Everything else on my desk seemed untouched, I could tell from the amount of dust that had collected up.
"You guys kept all my stuff?" I looked up at them both.
"It was Hyung, he didn't want us touching anything," Jimin explained.
"Plus, we kept it in case you decided to come back," the smile on Namjoon's face was too hopeful and it crushed my soul to think about having to disappoint him and everyone else. "You know how Jin is, he insists that you'll come back one of these days, he even still turns your desk light on at night on nights he works late."
I looked over at the desk next to mine, Jin's desk. I could just imagine him sitting there over night and doing exactly that. When I was on the team he would often have to turn on my light for me because I always forgot to. I think out of everyone, my leaving the team really hurt Jin the most. But I did what I had to do, I wouldn't have been able to support Halmeoni or Namseon if I had stayed.
     "Hyung really misses you, he won't stop talking about you-" Namjoon hit Jimin across his head.
     "Yah! What was that for?" Jimin held onto his head.
     "Spider, sorry."
     "Spider!?" Jimin grabbed Namjoon and hid behind him like a frightened child.
     "Get off me," Namjoon pulled away but Jimin wouldn't budge, causing a louder commotion.
     That's when the door to the back room flew open and a heated looking Jin came storming in.
     "Yah! What's going on in here? I'm over here going over paper work and you two think it's funny to waste time hugging each other?" He easily pulled the two apart. "Seriously, you guys are like children."
     The two guys looked at him then looked at me then looked back at him. Jin caught on and noticed me.
     "Hi, Oppa," I shyly smiled.
     "Li-ah, What are you doing here?" He paused then a smile spread across his face, "No. It can't be, could it?" He covered half his face from being over joyed.
     "Oppa-" I tried to stop him, before he got hurt.
     "Please tell me you're here to tell us you've decided to come back."
     I looked at him and I didn't know how to tell him. He noticed me struggling and looked down.
     "No, I was the stupid one for thinking you would. So, what brings you here, my good friend?" He sat down and motioned me to sit down. They didn't have to, but Jimin and Namjoon sat down with us also.
     "Well, I actually came here to ask for your guys' help."
     "Help, what kind of help, Li-ah?" Jimin asked eagerly.
"I need help breaking a locked door open," I looked around to see how everyone was reacting.
Namjoon laughed out loud then looked at me. I looked at him with a still expression to show him I wasn't joking, "Seriously?" He asked and I nodded, "Why do you need to do something like that?"
"Yeah, Li-ah? If it's a locked door doesn't that mean that there should be a key?" Jimin joined in.
"Look guys, I'd loved to explain but I'm not in the position to right now. Can you help me or not?" I was starting to get desperate. Back at the house people were still searching frantically for the key while our deadline with The Pro-Atlantic Company was nearing close. We needed those vaccine samples. I turned to Jin for some help, out of everyone here he usually understood me best, but his unusual silence made me nervous. Why wasn't he helping me? Jin crossed his arms and looked away.
     "I don't know, Li-ah. You see, Professor's been a little strict lately, says we need to focus more on the work at hand. If he catches us off task again, he'll for sure make us be on toilet duty for at least a month. Sorry," Jimin apologized even though he didn't need to. I could understand their hesitation to help me.
"Even if we agreed to help, I can't think of anything that could help you with your situation. Sorry, Lina." Namjoon patted my head and the two boys got up to leave.
I looked down in defeat. I couldn't expect them to go behind Professor's back and help me, especially not after deliberately avoiding them for a year and showing up finally unannounced, but what else was I supposed to do?
"It's okay you guys, it was nice seeing you both again." I had to make it clear to them that after all this I should be the one apologizing, not them. I was the one that left after all. "I don't want to take away any more of your time so I'm going to head out." I couldn't even look at Jin out of pure shame. No matter what I did or how much I tried I always ended up going back to him for help and I hated that. I hated feeling like such a burden; since we were kids and now as an adult I'm constantly left feeling guilty for needing his help. I guess, like everybody else still sees me, I'm still just a kid. Why can't I just grow up and do things myself? It just goes to show that having brains and smarts doesn't always get you anywhere in life and it definitely doesn't make you an adult.
I gathered my bag and coat and headed towards the lab door. I waved the boys goodbye one last time and made sure to close the door behind me as I left. I walked down the university hall and stopped when I was a good distance away from the lab. I felt like an atomic bomb ready to explode. I never should've came back here, it opened up too many old memories and feelings that I worked really hard to suppress. Even after a year the boys haven't changed at all, they were all still ambitious hard working men and they still had each other, something I didn't have anymore. I could feel the tears start to form and I quickly took my sleeve to hide any evidence of them. It was too late to be feeling this way, leaving them was my decision and now I had to live with it.
"Li-ah!" I turned around and saw Jin running towards me.
"Oppa?" I dried the last of my tears and went over to him.
"I'll help you," he said through heavy breaths.
"What?" I wasn't sure if I heard him right.
"I said, I'll help you." He said, fixing his glasses.

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A/N:
I've decided that for the rest of episode III I'm going to upload each part individually and so I'll have a new chapter done every other day.
This also means that I'm sort of rushing to write these chapters a bit and so there's more room for errors.
If you catch any of them, please let me know so I can fix them, thanks :)
Also, excuse me as my inner fan girl shows... THE COMBACK asdfghjkl, it's so close!!
I loved Jintro/Epiphany 😍😍

Anyways, let's ignore that. I appreciate you all, Ily!
~Lena 💜