When Yoongi finally gets back to Taehyung's apartment, it's three in the morning. He's exhausted from traveling, his neck hurts from the uncomfortable airplane seat and his lip is swollen and busted from Jeongguk. Every time he thinks of his first altercation with Jeongguk in a year, he shudders. How did he take such a turn for the worse? Yoongi wasn't present when Jeongguk surprised everyone with leaving Haneul at the airport, and he doesn't know what he's been through since, but nothing should have yielded such a hostile reaction from his friend. If he could even consider Jeongguk a friend anymore.

Yoongi opens the door, and his friends, who are asleep on the various surfaces of Taehyung's apartment, stir. Ever since his disappearance, they have all been camping out, in the event that he might come back and they would be there to greet him. But it had been three weeks, and there had been no changes—their hope that he might return to his apartment with some crazy explanation was diminishing quickly. The first to awaken enough to acknowledge Yoongi is Wooseok, who gently shakes Haneul and Hoseok, sleeping next to him on the couch, awake. They look at Yoongi briefly, before training on the doorway behind him, clearly waiting for someone to follow him inside. Jeongguk. When no one does, they return their gazes to Yoongi.

"Yoongi, where's...where is he?" Seokjin asks from
his place next to Namjoon. Yoongi sighs, debating how to tell his friends the harsh truth—that the Jeongguk they knew isn't the Jeongguk he saw. He flips on the lights, and they illuminate his scuffed face and swollen lip. This wakes everyone up properly, and Haneul is rushing towards him to examine his minor wounds.

"Who did this to you?" She murmurs worriedly. Yoongi sighs heavily once more, closing his eyes for a moment.

"Jeongguk." He finally breathes out.

"What about him?" Namjoon asks, and the others look equally confused.

"Jeongguk did this to me." He explains, and it feels like all the oxygen has been suctioned out of the room. "He's not coming back." Haneul drops her hands from Yoongi's face then, and he can see the tears in her eyes. She turns her face into Hoseok's chest and he holds her, with his own tears accumulating, too. Seokjin and Namjoon look at each other solemnly, disappointment evident. None of them had a problem with Jeongguk leaving. They missed him to death, but they knew he needed a fresh start. But this—blatant refusal to come home, to act like their friend, to help them find Taehyung—this was something they never could have expected. It felt like a slap in the face. Wooseok's crestfallen face says it all: their last resort to help them find his soulmate disappeared with some harsh words and the slam of a door.

"He...he did?" Hoseok asks, struggling to picture his best friend violent.

"You told him Tae's gone?" Namjoon asks, trying to stay logical. Yoongi laughs humorlessly at this.

"Yeah. And then he asked me if that was all I had to say. And then he kicked me out." He recounts.

"What?" Hoseok exclaims in disbelief. "That doesn't sound like him at all."

"I know, but—something's not right with him. He's not our Jeongguk anymore." He says, and for the first time since the whole ordeal, he feels himself beginning to break down. "He doesn't want anything to do with us. He made that painfully clear." He sighs, gesturing to his messed up face.

"Oh, Jeongguk." Haneul murmurs, shakily sighing into Hoseok's chest as he rubs her back comfortingly.

The first six months without Jeongguk were hard for all of them. He talked to at least one of them daily for about a week, then sporadically for two, but a month into his absence, he stopped communicating with them all entirely. It was like he dropped off the surface of the earth—no texts, no FaceTimes, no phone calls. Every time they tried to call, it would go straight to voicemail. The months that followed were miserable.

Namjoon and Yoongi lost a friend. They weren't as close to Jeongguk as Hoseok or Taehyung, but they still felt the gap he left in his wake. Namjoon still had the hundreds of books stacked from floor to ceiling in Jeongguk's old apartment in his basement, but he couldn't bring himself to read any of them. It wasn't the same as it used to be—the way he and Jeongguk would trade every few days and talk about the stories and characters. Yoongi put all of his emotions into his music—writing songs about how angry he was at the world for doing this to someone like Jeongguk, reminding himself too much of an angsty teenager but too comforted by his coping method to care.

Seokjin was constantly beating himself up for everything he did. Despite gaining Jeongguk's forgiveness before he left, he couldn't shake the crippling guilt. He couldn't help but wonder if what he did had even a small part to do with Jeongguk leaving, and the idea of hurting him plagued Seokjin all the time.

Taehyung finally found his soulmate, Wooseok. He was happy, just like Jeongguk promised he would be when he found the one, but it didn't stop the boy from missing his friend. Though he did have romantic feelings for Jeongguk before, he also just enjoyed his companionship, his advice on life from one Wanderer to another. There was also the cold, hard fact that he shot someone to deal with. He was haunted by the echoing sound of the gunshot in his ears, and still flinched every time there was a loud noise.

Hoseok struggled to function. Jeongguk was his best friend, his right hand. He couldn't do anything without being reminded of Jeongguk, without wanting to talk to Jeongguk, without missing Jeongguk. He hardly knew what to do with himself in his free time anymore, because the person he always spent it with was just gone. And then, he started to think about what might be happening to Jeongguk—did he go back to how his life used to be? A life of loneliness and solitude, of boring routine and nightmares? A day job he hated and nothing and no one to come home to? Is he not talking to them because he can't afford his phone bill, or because he accidentally dropped it in the Venice canals? Or is he ignoring them because he just doesn't want to talk to them anymore? Hoseok didn't know which he'd rather have.

But Haneul, as could be expected, took it the hardest. Even when he would call, she refused to talk to him, refused to be around when others would. She was staying with Hoseok, since Jeongguk's apartment and her grandmother's condo were no longer options, but she was never home anyways. She threw herself into her work, working shift after shift until she could hardly think straight. This was good, in her mind, though—the leas she could coherently think, the less she could be sad about Jeongguk. She slept in on-call rooms more often than not, but on the few nights she would come home, she would cry into Hoseok's shoulder until her eyes ran out of tears, one of Jeongguk's old dress shirts clenched in her fists.

Jeongguk had told her that he left her because she deserved better, but deep down, it just felt like he didn't want her anymore, and that hurt like a bitch.

But, eventually, things were better. They weren't great, but they were better. Namjoon slowly began to read through Jeongguk's books, and Yoongi's music gradually lost its angst again. Seokjin discontinued his self loathing in favor of doing what Jeongguk requested—keeping his eye on Haneul. Taehyung began to focus less on Jeongguk's absence, and more on his soulmate, like Wooseok deserved. Hoseok learned to live without Jeongguk again, and, eventually, Haneul became the person Jeongguk used to be for him. She found solace and happiness in being around Hoseok's sunshine-y personality, and the fact that he and Jeongguk shared a lot of the same mannerisms from spending so much time together. Ten months into their lives post-Jeongguk, Haneul and Hoseok did everything together, and though their lives weren't devoid of missing him, they found comfort in each other.

Everything was different without Jeongguk, but, with time, it wasn't so bad anymore.

Until Taehyung disappeared.

The last time any of them saw him was after he left the Golden Closet Brewery around 2 AM. They were celebrating Namjoon's birthday, and they were all sufficiently wasted, save for Taehyung, who didn't like alcohol. He had work the next morning, so he left before the rest of them. Nothing raised any red flags until 10 PM that day when Wooseok showed up at Namjoon and Seokjin's wondering if they knew why Taehyung didn't show up for their date. Needless to say, they didn't, and neither did anyone else. Another day went by, and none of them had seen or communicated with Taehyung, so a worried Wooseok went to Taehyung's office and asked if his coworkers had seen him, but his boss said he hadn't shown up for the past two days.

This was when they finally looked in his apartment. Furniture was broken and turned upside down, papers and fragments of glass were everywhere. Taehyung's closet and bedroom looked untouched, and his wallet was sitting on his nightstand—he hadn't been planning to leave. The most concerning thing, though, was the trail of blood. Drops on the kitchen floor continued onto the carpet all the way to the front door, where there were bloody fingerprints on the doorframe, as if someone had desperately held onto it to avoid being dragged out. Panic ensued within them all, Wooseok the worst of them all.

They were torn. The police might be able to find him, but on the off chance they found out he is a Wanderer, they'd be screwed. They didn't know if it was a random abduction or premeditated, and if it was premeditated, they couldn't think of anyone who would want to harm someone as kind and gentle as Taehyung—until Haneul remembered: Taehyung shot the bouncer, allowing them to escape her grandmother. It pained her to think it, but it was the only logical explanation, and it was the only thing keeping them all from thinking the worst—that Taehyung might be dead.

It was Wooseok's idea to ask Jeongguk for help. He had wisdom in his years that none of them did, and he had experience negotiating with the bouncer and Haneul's grandmother. So, Yoongi volunteered, and the rest is history.

Now, plopping down onto the couch, Yoongi sighs.

"It was the strangest thing to experience. I've never seen him so...devoid of emotion. He didn't even bat an eye when I told him about Tae." He explains, snd the rest of them shudder. What happened to their friend in Italy?

Little do they know, that this change in Jeongguk happened before he ever landed in Italy. It happened that day in Haneul's grandmother's apartment, staring into her eyes with his gun pressed to his temple. Something clicked within him, the realization that all his 200 years had been worth nothing but the hurt and pain he caused everyone he knew, that all the people he thought valued him didn't or just shouldn't. So, naturally, there was one solution—push everyone away.

But imagining Taehyung hurt, alone, in trouble could even slightly thaw his icy heart.

So that's why he hops on the flight to Seoul with all the money he's got from gondoliering, the same one as Yoongi, unbeknownst to him. All he's got are the clothes on his back, the wire glasses on his face, a sweater or two in a messenger bag, his toothbrush and a box of contacts he can't bring himself to use. And he follows Yoongi back to Taehyung's apartment, using his general irritation to suppress the worry for Taehyung and the anxiety of seeing everyone he used to know that are building deep down. And after collecting himself for a few moments in the hallway, letting Yoongi go inside to greet everyone, he knocks on the door.

Wooseok gasps at the sound, heart swelling in hopes that it might be Taehyung. They all watch as he swings the door open eagerly—and watch as the hopeful smile on his face drops. Jeongguk walks right in, pushing past him into the apartment. He doesn't expect to see all of his old friends, but he hides the shock and burst of nerves he feels with a flex of his jaw and the cross of his arms over his broad chest. They're in shock, awkward silence enveloping them thickly. He scans over them critically, but he freezes when his eyes meet Haneul's tearful ones. It takes him a lot not to turn around and leave, but it takes him even more not to go to her and take her in his arms and never let go. She's better off without you, the voice in his head reprimands him, and he knows it's right, but the thought is still tempting.

And then he sees Hoseok's arm thrown comfortably over her shoulders. Something like anger flares up in the pit of his stomach, but instead, he just rolls his eyes. The less he seems like he cares, the less likely he will. At least, he hopes that's how it works, because right now, the thing he dreaded most is happening: he's caring too much, and every time he cares about something it gets hurt or ruined or destroyed.

"Hate to interrupt your little slumber party." Jeongguk drawls sarcastically. They all continue to stare at him in surprise, and they can all automatically sense his shift in demeanor. "I'm sure Yoongi came crying to you all about how mean I am." He teases ruthlessly, earning a glare from Yoongi himself. "He's just mad I kicked his ass."

Hoseok detangles himself from Haneul and stands up, walking over to Jeongguk cautiously. He opens his arms, tears in his eyes, attempting to embrace his former best friend—but Jeongguk gives him a look that would wither flowers, and he stops dead in his tracks.

"I'll kick yours, too." He warns, and Hoseok drops his hands limply to his sides. "Listen, I'm not here for you. I'm not here for any of you. I'm here to make sure Taehyung didn't get himself killed, and then I'm leaving. I'm not your friend anymore. Are we clear?" He asks, and Hoseok nods weakly, finally letting the brutal reality sink in. The others mumble agreements. All the others but one. Jeongguk lets his gaze shift to Haneul, who still silently glares at him. He hates the way she's looking at him, but he knows he deserves it. Still, he persists. "I said, are we clear?" He directs it at her this time, refusing to break eye contact with her as he paces closer. When she stays quiet, he stoops to her eye level, crouching in front of her. "I'll leave right now. Don't make me ask again; are we clear?" He repeats with finality, the chill in his eyes and his voice seeping into the marrow of her bones.

"As crystal." She whispers, though her glare is as intense as ever.

Smiling humorlessly, Jeongguk stands again.

"Well, now that we're on the same page, get dressed." He orders

"It's four in the morning." Namjoon protests, but Jeongguk scoffs.

"Great observation, but I said to get dressed. I know a good place to start looking for Taehyung."