★━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━★

*Note- I would advice you to play 'Still With You' by JK for better experience before starting this chapter <3

"Woah I didn't even realise that we've been chatting for 2 hours straight! Time really flies." Taehyung's sleepy voice boomed in the hollow room and I glanced up at the clock, showing 11:15.

Really.... I lost track of time!

It doesn't even feel like I spent 2 hours with them...it feels like a couple of minutes...

Is this how friendships work? It's so strange to know that we just met together for the first time and I don't wanna leave... I want to spend more time with them.

"For the first time hyung, your jokes didn't bore me." Jungkook teased Taehyung, making me unknowingly smile at the smug look on his face.

"Do you mean my jokes make you bored?" Taehyung shot him a deadly glare.

"Not always. But today, everything seems to be pretty interesting to me."

His words sent a wave of electricity down my spine, making my belly tickle with an uncertain feeling.

"I see, but sorry to ruin your interesting day bro. I need to go home." Taehyung said, scrambling for his phone and getting up from the soft carpet where all of us were resting.

That's right, I need to go back too...

"I think I need to go back as well." I sighed, pulling my hair together to tie them, only to notice the band that I secured on my wrist was not there anymore.

Where do all these bands disappear to!?

I looked here and there, searching for something to tie my hair with but there wasn't a single rubber band in my vision. I rolled my eyes in irritation, blowing away the thin tickly strands of hair falling into my face.

"Do not tie them, you look more beautiful this way."

I peeked through the forest of my hair falling into my face, the blur sight of Jungkook looking at me with such fondness made me curl my toes.

"But... I like my hair tied. I lost my rubber band." I said, feeling the warm fuzzy feeling creeping up my cheeks as I sweeped my hair away with both my hands.

"Maybe that's a signal you should leave them open." he said, smiling a little that the small dimples at the corner of his lips popped up again.

"Uh... okay." Feeling defeated, I parted my hair from the middle, the length obviously being short only reached a little below my shoulders. My hair were not that strong and shiny, they were dull and that was the reason I always tied them, and covered my head with hoodies in winters.

"I think I should leave now, Jungkook...are you feeling good?" I asked him.

"Y-You are leaving too?" His smile suddenly disappeared and I felt a little sad, "Taehyung is leaving as well... can't you stay for a little more? I don't want to feel alone all of a sudden."

His puppy eyes gleamed in the darkness, the only thing that I could hear was the beats of my heart hammering loudly in my ears, telling me to stay. But on the other hand, my brain was flooding with negative thoughts, telling me to go back home as soon as possible.

"Please...stay. For half an hour? Fifteen minutes? Not for long."

I couldn't muster enough courage to decline his plea. I could somehow understand what he was feeling. I knew Jungkook was not the type of person to do anything wrong. Heck, he couldn't hurt a fly.

"Hana, do you want me to drop you home?" Taehyung came back to the room once again after wearing his slippers, ready to go. I flicked my gaze from Jungkook to him, battling over what to do.

"I guess I'll stay here for a little more. I'll go back on my own, so you can leave." I said, politely declining his offer. He raised a brow at me and I turned to Jungkook, who bursted into the biggest grin possible. It was the first time I saw him smiling like that.

"Alright then. Have fun, you two! Jungkookie, rest well. I will come back tomorrow." He waved his arm at us, smiling. I waved my hands at him, muttering a goodbye.

"Okay hyung, take care!" Jungkook shouted, stretching his arms. Taehyung quickly slipped out of the door, clicking it shut.

"When Taehyung leaves, do you always feel this lonely?" I asked him once the sound of Taehyung's footsteps faded. Rubbing my hands together, I wondered how the rest of the conversation was going to be.

I just hope I don't embarrass myself again... I have already did it a million times before...

"Not always. I just wanted to uh...talk a little more with you. We didn't get to complete our conversation before hyung interfered."

Oh......

OH.

"C-Conversations? You mean you weren't feeling lonely?" I whispered, a little shocked.

"No, I was lonely. But after spending so much time together and then both the people suddenly leaving gave me a bad feeling. Also, I wanted to talk and show you something."

Talk and show... what?

"...Like?"

"Uh, would you mind seeing my room? I-It's in there." Jungkook pointed to his room. I nodded, gulping down the awkwardness in the form of saliva.

We both got up from the carpet and I straightened my posture, my legs feeling numb after sitting down for too long. Jungkook walked upto his room with me following behind. He twisted the knob and entered first.

I hesitated for a moment as I stood at the door, feeling too shy to enter. My heart was pounding which restricted me for a moment, and I gawked at the white door of the room.

"It's safe, you can come in." Jungkook's voice wavered from the inside, making me flinch. I tugged the hem of my hoodie in my palms, slightly nodding and stepping inside the room.

And I was met with the boy sitting on the mattress with a guitar secured between his hands, smiling at me. I stared at him and then at the black guitar which was shining like a diamond in the dimly lit room.

"Th-That's yours? You play guitar?" I whispered, feeling stuck to the floor. I couldn't get enough of the sight of Jungkook gripping the instrument like his life depended on it. One of his hand resting on the thin wired strings and another one holding the fingerboard with such delicacy.

"Sit here, I'll sing for you."

And at this moment, one thing I was sure about; Jungkook made me feel these strange butterflies in my belly that I had never experienced before.

His honey-filled voice, his magical stare which sent me ten feet deeper while I was still on the surface of the ground. His smile which could send the other person to seventh heaven. Every single thing about him was perfect.

He was too perfect to be real.

"Sing...for me?" I mumbled, the LED blue lights in the room turned the whole atmosphere into something soft, something delicate, something dreamy.

The musky scent of lavender and somewhat woody invaded my senses. I took a step forward, with each step, my heartbeat seemed to escalate, flying over all it's limits.

"Still With You?" He whispered once I sat down on the comfortable fluffy mattress beside him, unable to say or do anything.

"...Still With You?"

"Still With You." He mumbled, his fingers already playing their magic on the strings as he closed his eyes, inhaling a sharp breathe.

I stared at him from the side, his head tilted to the side which offered me to gaze at his sharp jawline. The time seemed to slow down, the silence in the air allowing me to just listen to the low hums escaping his throat which sounded like lullaby to my ears.

I didn't blink for a single time. Until his voice started to flow in the thin blue air, I held my breath, not wanting to miss even a milli second of it. It was not real to me at this point, because it felt like a dream. A sweet melodious dream owned by Jeon Jungkook. I was merely experiencing it like any other dream of mine.

And then came his voice. The same voice which made me fall in love with itself disregarding the person who owned it. The lyrics seemed to be coming to life, each and every word of it. With the low sound reverberating through the strings of the guitar laced with Jungkook's voice, the smoothness of the song was ten times superior.

And once again, the aura of his voice tickled my heart, bursting it with flames of elegance. Fluttering my eyes shut, I just savoured the moment. The moment I never knew I would get to experience.

For these five minutes, I wasn't alive. I wasn't breathing. I was threaded with curiousity as how on earth did he sing so perfectly. How could he turn these simple lyrics into something so meaningful that I got goosebumps every time I listened to it?

How?

Repeating every single word in my mind in sync with him, I stared at his closed eyes, his thick lashes which seemed to be... soaking?

Was Jungkook crying?

A low gasp escaped my mouth when I noticed a single tear escaping his left eye, rolling down his round cheek and staining it like a tinge of black ink staining a milk-white piece of paper.

I didn't stop him, however. Until he reached the last chorus, his voice didn't seem to change even a bit. It was the same, just the heaviness of pain seemed to be filling it to the seam.

"Though our footsteps may be out of step,
I want to walk this path with you.
Still with you."

His fingers started shaking as he finally removed them from the strings, the guitar sitting in his lap seemed to be cheering for him. I felt my own eyes beginning to blur with the tears filling them. It was beautiful.

But why was he crying?

Jungkook kept the instrument aside, his head lowered in a way that I could no more look at his eyes. I was captured in a daze filled with awe and confusion.

"J-Jungkook..."

"Don't say anything."

I pursed my lips, the heavy silence turbulently filling the gap between us. Jungkook seemed lifeless for a second as he sniffled, wiping his cheek with the back of his hand.

Then he turned to me, his face void of any response. I wanted to appreciate his singing, his voice as I always did. But something was stopping me. His hooded gaze seemed to burn holes in my soul.

"Jung-"

His head dropped in my lap. My heart jumped for the second time as he retracted his feet from the ground, bundling them together as his head rested on my lap. It was completely out of the ordinary as I felt my legs jiggling with panic.

"...Are you okay?" I asked, very lightly stroking the follicles falling in his face.

He shook his head violently, pushing his body back on the bed. I slid back on the tousled sheets while sitting, Jungkook's head still secured in my lap.

"Don't ask me anything. I don't want to talk..." His face which was lightly touching my stomach seemed to send vibrations through my form.

"I won't ask you anything." I said, giving in. My mind was out of my own reach as all I felt was sympathy towards him. I gently stroked his brown hair with my fingers as I felt both of his arms wrapping themselves around my waist.

It was something purely mystical. The heat that I could feel on my stomach through Jungkook's muffled breathes were sending me into an anomalous world.

"I want to cry." He uttered, grasping the light material of my sweatshirt into tight fists.

"Then cry."

I took a deep breath, smiling down at him, "cry as much as you want. No one is here to judge you for now."

And so he did as I heard a grunt escaping his lips. I couldn't feel the wetness of his tears staining my shirt because the material was thick, but I could emotionally feel everything.

He bawled his eyes out for the next ten minutes. I was bewildered to notice that how he was holding it in for so long. The muffles of his cries echoed in the room as if someone was crying on a funeral.

It made me emotional. Seeing someone– especially a man crying in front of you with such painful sobs was something horrible. I could sense his level of pain but I knew I would never be able to tolerate it as much as he used to do.

My vision blurred with the growing thickness in my throat and I blinked, the tears escaping my eyes and flowing down my cheeks. Lightly sniffling, I felt my own worries, the regret of my favourite people leaving me today dawned upon me.

I didn't know the reasons as why Jungkook was sobbing so hard, but all I knew was that he needed to let it out. And if he chose to do so in my presence, then I couldn't feel any more blessed.

I kept on patting Jungkook's head like a child, my other arm lightly caressing his back. The moment made me feel special, bringing me back to the time we first met in the wedding and how Jungkook broke down in front of me the same way.

I sighed with desperation, feeling my folded legs turning numb by the passing time. But my attention was not there, it was wholly on Jungkook. How his voice seemed to turn lower and lower as his sobs vanished, now his whole body seemed to be relaxed as he still cradled in my embrace.

Don't worry Jungkook, I was by your side back then...

And I'm still with you.

A/N

Nope, I totally did not become sentimental while writing this chapter :)

I know I took so long to publish but I'll be punctual from now. Please support me😔💓