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REQUEST | nabi and hayun talk about the new situationship

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

WORDCOUNT | 800

NOTE FROM HOLLY | another old request from the 500k celebrations, but now with current time context. hayun really is such an interesting character to me, but i do understand why she's so viscerally hated. eitherway, here's the conversation she and nabi had away from the table at the wedding. 

ko-fi members get to see this early and will be getting one drabble per week for the next month, so don't be surprised if you get more updates to the drabble book soon ^.^

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Hayun's voice is shaky as she exhales a breath. Eyes warm, she could blame it on the alcohol, but it's not the first time she's been like this in recent weeks. Doubts it will be the last.

Thought she had life figured out. Thought she understood who she was - but with each passing day, it feels like her reality is slipping away from her.

"You moved on," Nabi gently reminds her as they sit by the pond adjacent to Yoongi and Seoyeon's wedding venue. "You didn't want him. You don't want him."

And deep down, Hayun knows this. She knows that she could have had Jungkook if she really wanted, back then.

But she was young. Was still in university, still exploring the world and her place in it. Tying herself down to a boy who she knew had his dreams firmly rooted in this city would only stifle her.

She nods. Purses her lips, and brushes away a stray tear on her cheek with the back of her palm. Sniffs back any more tears. Says, "I just... Nabi, I thought things would be different. I thought after uni we'd both explore and work out exactly what we wanted and I just..." She frowns. "I just always figured, in the end, that we'd want each other."

She won't vocalise it, but Hayun had a life plan. Married with a kid by 30. Two, by 35. A comfortable few years, that would become an inevitably unhappy marriage, that would then dissolve in the kids' teen years. The family unit would be happier with separation. And then, when her kids were exploring the world, she'd meet Jungkook again.

He'd be older. Wiser. Financially secure. A kid, or two. Grown. Separated from their mother, 'cause it just never felt right. Never felt like her.

Finally, the time would be right. They wouldn't have to worry about careers or futures. All of their decisions would have already been made, the good and the bad. The only choice left to make, would be one another.

The one thing she hadn't ever countered on was you.

"Yun," Nabi sighs, unsure of how many times they can rehash the same conversation. "You left."

"Was always gonna come back," she says a little helplessly. "I just needed time."

But time ran out. She's realising this the hard way.

"And you know he would have given you it, babe, if you'd have explained it to him like that," Nabi says, trying to help her friend make sense of it all. Knows that Hayun has made some mistakes, but also knows the intent was never to hurt Jungkook. It was a by-product, admittedly, but one that she never quite realised the severity of. "I know you had to leave. I get it. I do. I left, too."

"It's different."

"Is it?" Nabi says kindly. She's not trying to confront Hayun, just trying to frame things a little better. "I still came back completely unaware of where I fit in. Had to learn a new normal. Can't laze around in Taehyung's studio like I used to do, because he's got a girlfriend."

"But that's what I don't get," Hayun protests with a pout. "You did that as friends. Why should what you did as friends change? Are you not friends anymore?"

"We are," Nabi inisists. "But part of the hangouts came from loneliness. When he's lonely, now, he seeks out Danbi. We still laugh, and we still joke, and do all the things that friends do - but there are boundaries that come with a relationship. I see how happy Tae is, so I respect them."

That's the difference, though. Hayun doesn't respect you. Knows that Jungook would have turned tides for her. Thinks that you're just a stepping stone until he finds his way back to her. In her eyes, you're temporary.

"So I just have to accept the fact my best friend treats me completely differently?" Hayun sheepishly smiles, but it doesn't reach her eyes.

"No," Nabi offers. "But these are his boundaries, now. You've gotta respect his, like he respected yours when you needed to leave."

Hayun would argue that Jungkook blowing up her phone every time he got a little drunk and sad, was not respecting her boundaries - but she knows she's behaved poorly in a misguided attempt to claw back what she once had.

"I don't care about the girl," she says of you. "I just want things to be normal with Jungkook."

Nabi knows it's impossible, but so is Hayun - so she just smiles. "Give it some time. Things will work themselves out."