—First life. St. Vincent's Hospital, year 2026—

The desire to find out more about Jimin's story had led me to invite him back into my room that night, worried that tomorrow would come far too long. We sat side by side, sharing my bed with him lying sideways next to me. Empty plates from our dinner were placed aside as he started to tell his story.

We have never spent time together aside from our meetings at the ward, and that night marked the first time I would be spending my time alone with him. Which was probably the best decision, since we could finally talk more privately without curious stares and people openly eavesdropping our conversations. We had managed to convince some nurses to let him visit me in my room, carrying his dinner with him. I hated hospital food, and I couldn't eat anything during this period of my treatment. So it became the perfect excuse for him to leave his room, since everyone figured that I might be able to finish my meal if I had him to distract me.

"I've told you about how I was back then. About what kind of life I lived in after I started dancing and left school for it," he started, right after we finished our meal. We were both lying sideways by now, facing each other as we talked. I had only realised then how much closer we were than we have ever been before. But it was surprisingly comfortable and safe.

"Oh, I don't think I can forget about it so easily," I laughed, referring to the stories which he had shared before about his adventurous sex life.

He only chuckled, and I could not help but smile the moment I saw his eyes glowing mischievously. "I never would've thought I'd leave such an impression on you, really," he said as he took a deep breath while keeping his eyes on me. I returned his gaze and his sad smile with my own, silently encouraging him to continue.

"Remember when I told you about how much fame we gained from winning dance competitions?" he asked me, which I nodded to answer. I remembered when he told me about the events and competitions his dance crew had joined at the time, and kept winning, and all the parties that came along with it.

"We were invited to join a street dance battle that was held in a university across the city. Everyone we knew was there and we had a lot of fun that we got carried away in the middle of it. But we still won," he laughed. His eyes were glowing with reminiscence. "Everything went so well that we felt the night deserved some proper celebration, so we went to have drinks right after. At that same night, my cousin had invited me and my friends to join her and her boyfriend to camp out at their new lodge. It was located right at the foot of the hills, not too far from the university where she was studying at, and we were only a few miles away. For anyone who was able to think more rationally, driving there after drinking alcohol might not seem like the brightest idea. But we were so hyped and excited that we just ignored all rational thoughts."

"I bet you couldn't resist when you were offered a chance to have a free party—"

"—and free booze," he finished my sentence while laughing. "I honestly don't remember much of that night. Everything went well at first, I remember that much. We managed to drive there safely against all odds and had fun. My cousin and her friends made a bonfire, so we had a barbecue and more drinking. We pretty much partied really hard that night, I think. And what was planned as a camp night with innocent barbecue feast turned into a bonfire drinking party thanks to us joining in."

I laughed with him. "It must have been wild."

"Oh, you have no idea." He shook his head while he wondered about that night. And then suddenly, the glow in his eyes turned to grim.

"What happened?" I asked him when he stopped talking. "Something happened that night, didn't it?"

He sighed while leaning back and rubbing his face with his thin and rough hands. "The only thing I remember was someone complaining about not having enough stock of alcohol and snacks since we downed everything so fast. Everyone was so hyped with the party, and my cousin disappeared somewhere with her boyfriend. So when my friend from the crew volunteered to take the car and drive out to find the closest store that would still be opened at midnight, I volunteered to go along with him and take the wheel. I think the fact that we managed—well, I was able to drive us out there in the beginning while drunk made me cocky. So I took the car, with one of my friends and the girls that had been clinging around us since we left the event." He stopped talking again, taking a moment to inhale a deep breath while keeping his eyes closed. "Everything that happened after was a blur, including the drive."

"You were the one driving?" I asked him which he answered with a nod and a sullen face. "All night? While you were—"

"—Intoxicated. On a massive level. I could no longer differentiate between right or wrong. And obviously, I made a totally unwise choice that night. I don't even know whether it was the alcohol or the girl who was sitting beside me which caused me to lose control of the wheel and the car. The next thing I knew, everything around me was shattered in pieces. I was being thrown upside down, again and again, before I was crushed between metal and broken glasses. I couldn't even process the pain before I passed out."

He stopped, visibly gritting his teeth. I could see him getting lost in his own thoughts as he dug into his painful memory, and my hand automatically reached out to him and gripped onto his hand that was subtly shaking. He slowly relaxed as he gripped my hand. And after a few seconds and a few deep breaths, he smiled at me with gratitude as if he was telling me that he was alright.

"I, uh—" he licked his lips, his eyes staring down at my hand that he was holding, "I can't remember anything that happened after that. By the time I woke up, I was on a bed with tubes and cables all over my body. I was both numb and in pain, but mostly disoriented."

"Did your family come for you?"

He pursed his lips. "Yeah, they did. And only after I regained complete consciousness when I found out that I had to go through a massive surgery, nearly losing my life, and I was out for more than 24 hours in an induced coma before I came back."

I gave him a moment to steady his emotions before I asked him, "How long did it take you to recover?"

He shrugged. "I could no longer count the days. I can't even remember the pain."

"What do you remember, then?"

He hummed softly as he tried to recall his past. "I had therapies, both for my mental and physical recovery. I had to practice how to walk again for a long period of time, since my legs were crushed between the metals."

I could feel myself tearing up when his voice started to crack. "The counselling you went through—was it for the trauma?"

"Yes, it was." He licked his lips and sighed. "That, and to help me face the fact that I was unable to go back to dancing again."

"Oh, no—Jimin."

"That was when I felt my life was over. The end. The moment they told me that I could never dance again due to the injuries I had, thanks to the severe fractures that I had gotten on my bones and my injured nerves. I was lucky I could still walk on my own two feet again months after, but—" his tears started to form at the corner of his eyes. "—dancing was my life. I gave up everything so I could dance freely that when I had to give it up, when I had to lose it, I had nothing."

I sat up to hold him on his side, doing my best to be there and support him as he cried. It was as if there was a dam inside him that had been hiding his pain, and it was broken when he let go. He patted on my arm once he stopped, yet he still let me hold him close as we lied down on the bed together.

"But, yeah—the therapy helped. I think that in the end, my mind just decided to block all the pain and the bad memories of my struggles, and replaced them with good ones. You know, all the fun stuff I had during my recovery." He smiled, which only helped me feel relieved. "It was as if the old Jimin died that night in the accident, along with his dreams, since it was that dream that had moulded the past Jimin. It took me six months of long therapies before I was finally able to accept the fact. And the moment I was able to face the new life ahead of me and let go, a new Jimin was born."

"You're so strong," I mused. My body just reacted to his calm voice and I instinctively rested my head on his shoulder without me realising. "I wish I was as strong as you."

He scoffed, and suddenly started to stroke my hair. "But you are strong. You're here now with me, still fighting and striving."

If only you knew, Jimin.

"You know what I used to do back then, whenever I felt like giving up?" He looked down at my face when he asked, so I had to pull away to return his gaze. "There was a long period of time when I was fighting against myself. But as I was on my journey to move past that, I had another period of time when I made the hospital as my home, a shelter, if you will. I used to ask whoever staying to accompany me—be it a family member or a nurse—to take me out of my room, to let me see the world outside of the barrier that was my bedroom."

I smiled when I see the glow in his eyes returning as he recalled this part of his past. It was somehow soothing to see him finding solace despite all the hardship he had to endure.

"If there was one thing I remember most about the hospital where I was being treated in, it was the huge and spacious garden they had behind the main building where all patients and families can relax between treatments. The place was peaceful, and the view was beautiful. A large spread of fresh green grass, some bushes of flowers, and paved pathways along the side of its pond. But what I loved most was this giant old oak tree at the side of the pond. I used to go there and sit on—"

"—a small white wooden bench with iron-made armrests."

Jimin quickly turned to look into my eyes when I absentmindedly finished the sentence. I could not help myself. Not when I could picture the whole scenery vividly in my mind.

Because I was once there as well.

"Yes, you're right. How do you—"

I returned his gaze as he kept staring at me with awe, which probably mirrored by my own. "The view and everything that you just described—" I started. I was hesitant, and there was a hint of insecurity inside my chest that had me wondering. "The hospital where I was being treated in after my accident had them too. I used to sit on the white bench with my best friend between my therapy sessions. We would watch the ducks playing on the pond while we chatted with other patients who were there to enjoy the rose bushes while they were practising their walk."

He gasped. His lips twitched into a smile when he finally realised— "What? But that's—Did we—?"

I nodded. "I think we were at the same place."

And probably at the same time as well.

I had no idea why, but there was a part of me that made me feel that way.

"We could've met back then," he mused. The look in his eyes softened as the thought came to us both, and we stayed there embracing each other as we let everything slowly sink in.

The thought itself made me feel crumbled on the inside the more it started to make sense, the more I wondered about the possibility of us missing each other in the past. We could have passed each other by on that paved pathway, or when we walked around the pond. We could have smiled at each other as we took turns in resting on that white bench as we practiced our walk.

"We could have found each other much sooner."

The thought about how we had missed our chances of meeting each other in the past not just once, but twice, lingered in our minds.

I could not stop thinking about it even after he left my room, and still kept thinking about it as I made my way to the ward the next day. I was feeling hazy after enduring some treatments when I met him, and Jimin's face that was filled with a warm smile and attentive gaze seemed to glow inside the spacious room even more.

Perhaps it had helped him relieve himself from the painful memories when he shared them to me. Because that was what I had felt when I had told him mine. And after the eventful night of our sharing, I could feel the bond between us growing somewhat stronger. I felt closer to him as I sat next to him, realising then that there was nowhere else I wanted to be other than by his side.

We spent the next few hours that day—right before I passed out into a deep sleep—to continue our talk and started trailing back on our paths in the past. There was something that had urges us to want to figure out if there were any other occasions where we slipped out of each other's reach without even realising it. So we reminisce a lot of memories as, sharing them to one another, doing our best to remember our whereabouts at the time even though our memory could not actually help provide the much-needed information.

"New year's eve, 2017. I was in Seoul. I got invited to this frat party with my cousin since she was still single that night. I think that's where we met her boyfriend, actually. Many college kids were there. I can only remember that there were three floors and the frat house looked more like a gigantic mansion which belonged to a billionaire rather than students."

I lightly shook my head. "I don't think I was in the city. I remember celebrating new year's eve with my family around that year or the after." I sighed as a piece of what I could remember popped into my head. "Jungkook was there—"

We stumbled upon a setback as I was drifting off to sleep, so we changed the topic of our chat into more trivial matters.

"Favourite ice cream?"

I giggled. "I love ice cream, give me any kind of ice cream and I'm down."

"Seriously? Anything? Even the mint ones?"

"Hmm—okay, probably not the mint ones. But I don't mind having chocolate mint, since chocolate is my thing. What about you? Do you have any specific flavour to choose from?"

He rubbed his chin as he tried to think. "I like vanilla, mostly. But I also love sweets in general, and I agree with you about mint flavour." He cleared his throat while mumbling something about craving for ice cream thanks to our conversation, before asking again," Coffee or tea?"

I hummed. "I like coffee more than tea. And I must always have my panini or cheesecakes with my coffee. But I guess that habit must change—"

"What? Did they forbid you to have any?" Jimin asked me while pulling on his blanket and changing his position lying down, while I shrugged. "I'm not sure. I just have to reduce my daily dose of caffeine, I guess."

He laughed. "Okay, I will take notes of taking you out for coffee one day," he said. "How about movies?"

I felt my face lit up and started to mention some of my favourite movies, which were mostly his favourite as well. We even reenacted a scene from the one movie we both love the most, Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Minds, and laughed about how we both could still remember every bit of it so well even all these years. In the end, we promised to watch it together when we had any chance to.

"So basically, we have the same taste for most of anything," he said while nodding his head. "Good to know."

"What are you thinking about?"

He only smirked at me. "Just planning a few things that would seem exciting to do with you."

"What exciting things?" I asked him with quirked eyebrows which only made him grin wider. He sat up on his recliner and turned sideways to face me.

"Will you say yes if I ask you out on a date after we get out of here?"

Jimin still had another day of treatment when it was my time to go home. So I took the initiative to visit him in his room for a chance to say goodbye.

We only talked for a few minutes, yet I still have not answered his proposal that he had given me the day before. He only smiled at me patiently as we pulled away from our deep hug and said, "Don't forget to call me anytime you need someone to talk to."

It was Hoseok who came to pick me up. He and Yoongi have been taking turns on making daily visits while I was at the hospital, and they also took turns in driving me to the hospital and back home. It had been only Yoongi who was present for the last few days, so I only met my brother again today as he came by on his own since I was going to stay in his apartment.

I was silent on our way home. I sat next to Hoseok as he drove the car heading to his loft, saying nothing at all as I listened to him talking along the way. My brother had been away for a business trip while I spent the last few days staying at the hospital, making a quick stop at our family home before returning to the city. And he was now sharing me things from that short visit to see our family as he was driving the car.

Hoseok had wanted to take me home with him ever since he had come back into my life. And I was sure that he was telling me these things to make me wonder about going home with him, about reuniting with the rest of our family members. But as much as I had no interest in actually listening to his story, I still was not interested in ever agreeing to any family reunion anytime soon.

Not when I had something peculiar in mind that I needed to do before I moved on to anything else.

"Hoseok," I called him, stopping him as he was in the middle of telling me about the house renovation Yoongi helped plan for our father.

"Yes?" he answered me by briefly glancing towards me. "Is it bothering you if I talk about Dad? I'm sorry. We can talk about something else if you want. What about—"

"I think I'm ready to meet Jungkook," I cut him off immediately, abruptly stopping him again before my mind had any chance to falter. I turned to my side so I could look at my brother, taking in his reaction as I continued, "I want to see him. I think it's time."

Hoseok glanced at me for a moment before turning back to watch the road. He smacked his lips as he processed what I had just told him. "Are you sure?"

I released a deep sigh. "Yeah, I guess. I have to."

He nodded his head with pursed lips. "Alright then, if you really think so. I'll arrange everything tomorrow."

"Thank you," I answered him with a relieved sigh, smiling at him when he glanced at me once more.

We both went quiet for a few seconds, dragging the silence before he asked, "Want to tell me how you made up your mind? Why now?"

I was still contemplating on everything, and I couldn't give him an answer. Until Jimin's voice faintly echoed in my head as I recalled what he told me in our last conversation—

"You can still gain control over your life, and decide on how you want to live your life with all that you have left."

"I will let you know everything I have planned after I finish sorting up all the mess I left behind. After I'm done with Jungkook."

Hoseok only smiled to me when we exchanged glances. I could already tell that he saw my determination as he looked into my eyes. The way his eyes were glowing as he looked away let me know that he was proud of his little sister.

"Of course. I'll be with you all the way, little sister."