—West Valley Apartment, year 2026—

I was falling.

Everything was dark and I could feel myself falling from heights. I saw a light from the corner of my eyes and I tried to reach out for it with my hands. But I just kept on falling and drifting away from it. I called out for the face that appeared from the center of the light; he who only stared at me in silence as I fell. But nothing came out from my lips. I could feel myself falling further away into the darkness which felt like an eternity. A fall that would never stop.

It's over.

I woke up with a loud gasp, desperately inhaling air to relieve my tight chest. It took me a while before I was finally able to gain control over my body, until I could finally feel the warm breeze of the morning, and the warm sheets beneath me. But it was only when I blinked away the sleep in my eyes and breathed in the mixture of musky scent of cologne and cigarettes that I was finally reminded of where I was.

But my mind kept trailing back into the dream I had just woken up from.

Why do I keep having the same dream?

I adjusted my eyes against the light—which was not hard to do when the curtains were only half opened. I felt the foreign bed beneath me slightly dipping as I stretched out my hands, and my droopy eyes glanced towards the unfamiliar window across the room, gazing out absentmindedly before I realized I was not sleeping in my room. The memories from the previous night flashed through my mind as I sat there in silence, taking my time before I then stepped out of the bed and walked out past the bedroom door.

It took me a while to adjust myself to the sight I saw as I left the bedroom, to recognise my surroundings for it was only the second time I had ever set foot in this place. I looked around, still breathing the air that was filled with the scent of musky cologne and hints of cigarettes, before I finally saw him standing in the kitchen with his back facing me. I walked towards the man that was still unaware of my presence, too busy making food while humming random notes with his raspy voice.

"I didn't know that you can cook," I mused from behind him, and I watched as his shoulder subtly flinched, a sign that I had caught his attention when I accidentally startled him. He turned around to look at my face and gave me a shy grin, before going back to continue what he had been doing since before I came.

"Well, I do cook, although I usually don't make breakfasts. And I usually don't have guests sleeping on my bed either, so this morning will be the first of everything," he said while chuckling, expertly stirring and flipping the food he had burning on the pan.

I stood by the kitchen counter as I watched him work, laughing fondly at his confession. "Why do I have a feeling like there are some parts in that sentence that are consisted of lies?"

He only laughed at me, looking over his shoulder to flash another grin. "Well, too bad I can't tell you which one is which. But I do make a sick ass ramen."

"Hmm—Right," I taunted. I watched him as he finished cooking our morning meal and plated the food for both of us. I sat with him not long after at the kitchen counter, eating our breakfast lethargically—it was still really early in the morning, after all—with hot coffee on the side. He was silent at first, letting me eat in peace while completely lost in my own thoughts, until he suddenly lifted his face to look at me and cleared his throat to catch my attention.

"How was your sleep last night?" He asked.

I looked up to him, pursing my lips as my eyes were met with his concerned stare. "It was—okay. Thank you for letting me use the bed. You could've let me use the couch instead."

"Nah—I couldn't," he said, shaking his head and giving me another deep chuckle. "After what happened, and from the way you looked last night when you stood right in front of that door, you totally deserved to get the bed. Besides, this way, I got to know that it's probably about time for me to change that couch to a new one." He huffed, stretching his back while scrunching his nose as if he was in pain, before smirking and laughing with me.

"Well, you can have your bed back by tonight. I should probably find somewhere else to stay in for tonight."

"No," he quickly responded, making me look up to meet his gaze. I already knew that it would be hard to argue with him once he made a decision to let me stay. "Where would you go? It's much safer for you to just stay here."

"Yoongi," I sighed, trying to find the right words to reason with him. "I can go anywhere, and it would have been better if I find some other place to stay in. What if I stay longer and Jungkook finds me here? Don't you think that could only make things worse? I'm already giving you enough trouble by coming here and staying the night, I don't want to drag you any deeper into my problems."

"Let him come," he scoffed, before reaching for his coffee to hide his clenched jaw. "I don't fucking care, and I'm not afraid of him. Let him come here and the moment he shows his face on that door, I promise you I will knock some sense out of him before telling him to fuck off."

"Yoongi—Please, I can take care of things myself. You don't have to—"

"Oh, really? If you can really manage everything, then why are you here? Why did you come running to me last night?" He placed his cup of coffee down on the table with a loud tap before clenching his hands. "Don't you dare think that I don't know what you've been going through. And don't you think that I don't know how you will always forgive him the moment he kneels down in front of you, begging for you to come back to him, because I've seen it happen too many times already. I'm not fucking blind. And you came to me, of all people. That only shows the lack of choices you have in finding shelter."

He was right.

I didn't even try to deny him because every word he said to me was true. And as much as I hated how right he was, I was too tired to argue. I just sat there in silence, avoiding his gaze by staring into my cup of coffee while I let his words sink in.

But the most important thing that he got right was the fact that I didn't have anywhere else to go or anyone else to run to. I gnawed at my lips by the thought it, suddenly feeling so alone and so small. So pathetic.

I released a sigh. "Alright," I whispered to him, and I could see him yielding. "I'll stay, but the minute things get out of control I am walking out through that door only to make sure that he won't hurt you."

"Fair enough," he said while nodding his head. He leaned forward, placing his chin over his intertwined fingers with his elbows resting on the table, keeping his eyes on me when he spoke, "But only if you promise you won't go running back to him the moment he shows his face in front of you."

I only nodded. I had to silently admit that even when I was so sure about how ready I was to leave Jungkook for good when I left the previous night, the minute I was miles away from him my own regrets started to creep into my heart, already begging me to come home to him.

Yoongi kept staring at me, pursing his lips while studying my face with his intimidating gaze. "Why do you keep forgiving him, ______? Why do you keep giving him more chances even after he had screwed you up so many times?"

"I don't know," I answered him, hesitantly. "I honestly don't know, Yoongi."

I could never understand why. It was too painful to love him, but it was too painful to think of myself living without him. And I couldn't figure out what those feelings could mean.

Yoongi let me stay in his apartment while he was away to work.

I tried my best to focus on my own work while I was there, but I was too afraid to stay on my laptop for too long and to give myself a chance to open my emails, afraid that I might find something Jungkook had sent me. It would probably be one of the ways he would do to reach me since I had left my phone behind. I also felt terribly exhausted, too overwhelmed with everything that had happened to continue working. So all I ended up doing all afternoon while he was out was roamed around in his empty apartment. I tried to distract myself by watching movies, went to check out his fridge and tried to make some food for myself, even listened to music. But nothing worked.

It took only moments for all of the activities to help my mind occupied, then I would start picturing the fight inside of my head, before I could feel the pain and anger coming back to haunt me. I finally gave up on finding things to do, and I went ahead into the bedroom to rest.

I couldn't tell how much time had passed when I opened my eyes, awakened by the hushed voice s from outside the room. Once I was completely awakened, I noticed that they were the sound coming from Yoongi who seemed to be conversing in the living room.

I sat on the bed for a few brief moments before leaving the bedroom to find him. He was in the middle of the living room, brushing his hand through his hair a couple of times as he spoke to the phone with a soft tone.

"....I'll keep an eye on her, okay? Can't you just trust me?"

I couldn't really catch on to what he was saying, yet I didn't wait and listen before calling for him. "Yoongi?"

He instantly turned around, looking all flustered as he saw me standing there. "I—I have to go," he said to the phone before turning it off and putting the device away into his pocket. "Hey, did I wake you? I went to check on you but you were sleeping."

"Uhm—No, not really. I don't usually sleep in that long," I said with a sigh. I suddenly felt completely frail that I could feel as if my body was trying its best to drag myself back onto the bed. "Who did you talk to earlier?"

"Oh, uhm—it's just, uh, one of our clients. It was something related to work. Nothing really important, though," he said, clearing his throat after and looked away, as if trying his best to hide the flustered look on his face. Yet I was completely clueless about them since my mind was clouded by the throbbing pain happening in my head and around my back.

"Oh, I see. Have you eaten anything yet? I went out to the market across the street to get some vegetables and stuff earlier. Perhaps I could fix you a little something to eat if you want," I told him, passing him by as I walked towards the kitchen.

"What? No, it's fine. I was actually planning to order something for our—"

"Nah, that's okay. I want to make it up to you." I turned around slightly to flash him a smile and convince him to let me cook for him.

A terrible decision.

My head was already spinning from the headache I was having, and the sudden movement I made only worsened it, making me lose my balance all of a sudden. My breath hitched to the sudden pain stabbing in my head and inside my chest, and everything instantly stopped. I fell over without warning, completely taken over by darkness even before I suffered the pain from my own fall.