"There's a guy called Jung Hoseok at my school. And he has orange hair too."

Taehyung's jaw dropped. He could simply not believe his ears.

"What?! How is this possible?! You must be mistaken, this simply cannot be true!," he exclaimed in terror, hoping this was the brunette's attempt of a horrible joke. But there was not a single sign of laughter on Jungkook's face.

"Trust me, I know who I'm talking about. Hoseok is pretty popular at our school, he's the type of guy that's just friends with everyone and stuff. There's no way this guy randomly escaped from a hidden kingdom, he's just your typical social, bubbly guy." Both of them needed some time to process this piece of information.

"Has he ever talked about his parents? Or his childhood?" Jungkook shrugged.
"I talked to him like, twice in my life. I just see him walking around a lot, it's not like we're close or anything. But then again, I think he said his childhood was boring once. And no one at our school ever saw his parents, as far as I know."

Taehyung huffed. "Of course. How could they, when his parents are actually the Duke and Duchess of Elysium?"
"Are you sure this is the same Jung Hoseok we're talking about? What if they were twins seperated at birth or something?"

"Very unlikely. The Duke and Duchess never had any twins. This-- This baffles me, I have to say." Jungkook nodded. "Yeah, this is crazy... Wait! I actually took a selfie with Hoseok once, he insisted on making new acquaintances and in our common world, that means selfies, selfies and more selfies. Where's my phone?"

While Jungkook was rummaging around for his phone, Taehyung was trying to recall what the Duke's son's face looked like. He remembered seeing a painting in the halls, a head with bright, orange hair and a young boy's painfully bored expression giving the whole portrait quite a dull vibe. Not an art piece that he had particularly appreciated, really. He also wondered what in the world a 'selfie' was, but received an answer to that question within less than a minute.

"Here. Can't believe I still have this, I normally delete stuff like this straight after taking it," Jungkook pulled him out of his thoughts, holding his phone inside his hand with a slightly blurry picture displayed on it. It had clearly been taken by a shaky hand, two boys' heads on it. A brown and an orange one. They were also smiling, one of them brightly (as bright as the literal sun, really) and the other one quite awkwardly. The crown prince gasped heavily.

"Goodness gracious, it really is him!," he exclaimed, now sitting so close to Jungkook he might've as well sat on his lap and examining the display with squinted eyes. "H-How..." He leaned back a bit, the back of his head almost touching the brunette's chest. "The angle looks quite strange to me, you could never draw a good portrait out of this!," he mumbled.

Jungkook laughed. "We don't take selfies to make portraits out of them, we take them to relive our memories in the future and post them on Social Media." The prince tilted his head in confusion.
"I'm afraid I do not understand. Do you mind telling me what exactly a 'selfie' is supposed to be? And please, what is a 'Social Media'?"

This particular situation reminded Jungkook of his grandparents being introduced into the modern world of technology but while fifteen-year old Jungkook had been utterly frustrated with his grandparents and their lack of understanding, this Jungkook surprisingly didn't feel annoyed at Taehyung in the slightest. Moreover, he found the prince's confusion about his world amusing. And just a tiny bit adorable.

And as he attempted to explain the purpose of Social Media aswell as selfies to Taehyung, the blue-haired prince furrowed his eyebrows and looked as if someone had just tried to convince him that pigs could fly. "Why would you wish to expose your face to the whole wide world? I'm already tired of servants recognizing me and treating me like some sort of rare treasure!," he exclaimed.

"It's different for you, people put you under pressure all the time. Others don't get enough attention and want more. And others, like me, are just in the middle. Wouldn't have it any other way, really," Jungkook attempted to explain.
"Why would you take pictures of yourself, anyway? The angle looks horrible."

"Memories." The younger smiled. "Someday you'll look back and reminisce over the past, feeling all emotional. Which reminds me... Say cheese." All of a sudden, he grabbed the prince by his shoulder, pulled him closer and took a picture without even waiting for an answer.

"Why am I supposed to say-- Oh my!" Slightly flinching at the sound of the camera shutter, Taehyung widened his eyes and stared at the phone as if were a three-headed monster.

Jungkook laughed at how surprised the crown prince was at something as simple as a selfie camera, his hand still on his shoulder and his head not far away from Taehyung's. Turning his head to face the latter, he suddenly smiled sweetly.

"You look so scared, like a little deer caught in headlights. It's kinda cute. You better get used to this, I'm far from done with you." The prince pouted subconsciously and looked at the picture they had taken in awe, astonished at how fast it was taken. He remembered all the hours he had to sit still and smile until his jaws ached for countless family portraits of the royal family to be drawn.

The portraits ended up looking either great or horrible and inaccurate but this so-called selfie he had just taken was just different from any painting he had ever seen or received. He found it incredible.

He tapped on the display of Jungkook's phone for a few times, his eyes wide in wonder and curiosity as he accidentally zoomed in and out a few times and the brunette who still observed him had to repress his urge to pinch the prince's cheek as he found this highly adorable.

After a few more taps, Taehyung started swiping his finger on the display and after a few tries, he accidentally swiped to the next picture in Jungkook's gallery. Jungkook, a middle-aged man and a middle-aged woman. All three of them smiling happily below a big willow tree. Slightly biting his lip and not knowing what to say, he looked over to the owner of the phone.

"Oh, yeah. Those are my parents and me. We went on a picnic on Saturday for old time's sake before I... you know." Jungkook grimaced, also not knowing what to say or how to react.

He pointed to the man in the picture. "That's my dad, he's super chill. He taught me how to ride my first bike. And without him, I wouldn't have been able to ride motorcycles." He smiled a little, now pointing towards the woman.

"And that's my mom, not as chill as my dad. She always tries to get me more engaged into school work. To be honest, sometimes I kind of need that push, or I would just completely forget about school. I used to get annoyed with her as a kid, but now I appreciate her concern. I wish you could meet them, I bet they'd love you." Jungkook turned off his phone and tossed it away.

Taehyung nodded slowly, inching a little closer to him. "Tell me more?"
"Gladly."

°○●○●○°

A man and a woman barged into the dimly lit room furiously, panting heavily.

"What happened to my son?!," the woman exclaimed in desperation, catching her breath and holding on to the wall for support.
"Jungkook?!," her husband shouted as he stood next to his wife and supported her with an arm around her shoulder.

"Mr. Jeon, Mrs. Jeon?," a small voice asked at the back of the room, the married couple's heads turning to its source immediately.

"Yugyeom!," Mrs. Jeon called. "Sweet boy, what happened to you? You look hurt! Where is Jungkook?" The dirty blonde boy looked apprehensive, holding a steaming cup of tea in his shaky hands and opening his mouth just to close it again.

"W-Well, about that, h-he--"
"Truth is, we've lost him. I'm sorry." Yoongi entered the scene, just having returned from the bathroom and attempting to look fierce but in reality, cowering.

"What do you mean, you've lost him? Yugyeom, you told us he was in trouble with the police!," Mr. Jeon exclaimed, Yugyeom looking even more anxious by the minute and his poor hands appearing to be too shaky to even hold the tea mug.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't have the heart to tell you t-the truth!," he stammered, looking as if he were about to cry any second. Yoongi supported him by putting a hand onto his shoulder and patting it gently.
"We're the ones to blame. We were out riding our bikes in the woods, suddenly there was a large storm and that was the last time we saw him. We should've sticked together with him when he was behind!," Yoongi explained, appearing quite tearful himself.

Mrs. Jeon covered her mouth with her hands in terror. "He's- He's... lost? N-No, that can't be!," she whispered fearfully.
"He must still be somewhere out there, we need to search the woods at dawn!," her husband demanded. But Yugyeom shook his head in defeat.

"A-Actually, we've been roaming around the woods all day. All of us were lost, and w-we tried so hard to find him, b-but--"
"You should have tried harder, then! How could you have let him out of your sight when there was a storm?!," Jungkook's father interrupted, frustration overtaking him.

"Calm down, please, honey. It wasn't their fault, they were struggling to get through the storm, too," his wife tried to soothe him, gently putting her hand on top of his while silent tears streamed down her face. "Are you sure you've searched everywhere you could? Maybe he's still somewhere out there!"

Yoongi shrugged his shoulders. "We don't know, ma'am. We've been searching for the whole day, just like we said. We've tried calling him, just in case he got out before us. But he's not picking up the phone."
"I refuse to believe that my son is-- lost! As soon as a police officer comes in, I'm arranging a search party for him. All hope isn't gone, we can find him!," Mr. Jeon assured, Yoongi looking doubtful but Yugyeom hopeful.

"I-I'll help searching. I'll search every single corner of this earth if it means getting my friend back," the dirty blonde stated weakly.
"Yugyeom, dear, don't be silly. You need rest," Mrs. Jeon dismissed him gently.

"B-But how can I sleep knowing that it's my fault he...," Yugyeom cried, attempting to hide his tears by lowering his head. Yoongi watched him, not finding the strength to speak and tearing up himself.
"Boys, don't blame yourselves. No one knew this was going to happen. We'll search the woods for him and we will find him. Just like you said, hope isn't lost yet." Mrs. Jeon squeezed her husband's hand, him nodding at her words.

"We leave at dawn, then."

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

(A/N: finally i figured out how to end this damn chapter shdjjss i swear i struggled with this for so long but god finallyyy

hello, long time no see but i'm back again :D it's very late and i'm very tired so i'll go to sleep soon, thank you very much for reading and i love you💜💜)