My dad was on his feet in an instant, kicking down the footrest that elevated his legs and opening his arms so wide that Julia reproached him.

"Careful with your line." She adjusted the tubing so that it ran down his forearm, moving on to the man who was seated next to him.

It was refreshing that the first thing I heard was his laughter and the first thing I felt was that same strength of his hug as I let myself be wrapped in his arms. We didn't stop hugging until we realized that Julia was waiting to check his vitals. She was handy with a tissue that she offered for the tears that pooled at the corners of my eyes, letting me sink into the recliner next to my dad instead of the barely cushioned seats most guests used on rows that were filled.

She worked at such as quick pace that I hardly caught her leaving until the squeak of the curtain being closed sounded behind my dad's introduction of Seokjin.

We leaned forward to see each other past my dad who seemed oblivious to the fact that we were positioned in a perfect line, having to peer over his beer belly to properly greet one another.

Seokjin picked up on the observation too, a smile that told me he was holding back a laugh spreading across his lips. "It's good to finally meet you. He talks about you all the time." He nudged my dad with his elbow, both of them chuckling like they shared some inside joke about me.

"Well seeing as he seems to be feeling okay, I'm giving myself permission to take a minute to address that I've heard nothing about you or any of this." I turned to my dad, his eyes filled with guilt. "We don't keep secrets from each other." I could have gone on, told him that I was hurt and fighting against the slew of questions I wanted to ask about the months of not knowing.

I watched with my periphreal vision as Seokjin leaned back in his seat, pulling the book of word puzzles that sat on the small table in front of him so that it covered the lower half of his face. My dad looked down for a second before gathering the will to meet my eye again.

"Sellie, I didn't want to burden you with this. You have such a beautiful life in Italy." His tone was soft but my minute wasn't up.

"Had. I had such a beautiful life in Italy." It wasn't fair for me to speak so harshly, but it also wasn't fair that I'd been robbed of time when he needed me, when we would have needed each other. "That's over now and while I'm upset that it is, I'll deal with that because I know I'm where I need to be. Still, you made a big decision about my life without me."

By the time his reply came my time was up. "I'm sorry, I should have told you."

I leaned forward to kiss his cheek, giving his hand a sqeeze before I sat back. "I'm glad that I'm here now. I love you." I lowered my voice, keeping my hand in his to wait out the rest of the appointment.

With the fresh emotion of my arrival, Seokjin and my dad refrained from what I'd discover was their usual banter of jokes and story telling for the day. I was unaware that the dynamic had changed until Julia reappeared, apparently earlier than her routine check-in.

"Are we good back here? You know I start to worry when I don't hear you two for so long." She peered around the curtain after an hour that I'd been pretending to watch the gory apocalypse movie that played.

"I told him over and over again, Seline will be mad when she gets here. Now we're sitting in silence because he got scolded for not telling her." Seokjin tsked.

I released a long breath that I hadn't realized I'd been holding. "I'm not mad anymore." With that statement and breath I let the anger drift from my body, another emotion right behind it that I didn't want to show. I stood quickly, too quickly, rushing to pull my phone from my pocket. "I need to make a phone call." I muttered, Julia barely pulling back the curtain fast enough to give space for me to step through, out of the center and to the corridor of stairs next to the elevator.

There were too many other voices within the stairwell so I made my way down, pittering through the nine flights to the bottom floor and out of the closest exit. I didn't consider that I left my coat draped across the arm of a chair in the treatment center until icy air breezed through the thin long-sleeved shirt I wore. It was frigid but decidedly bearable for the open space I needed, so I took a seat on an iron bench that was just as cold.

One hand rubbed at my thigh, creating friction with the fabric of my jeans while the other held my phone against my ear. Just when I thought the ringing would stop and transition to his voice message, Hobi's voice came through, drenched with a croak of tiredness.

"Sel." He greeted me with my name.

"I didn't think about the time difference." I voiced, dialing before I could calculate that it was the middle of the night in Seoul.

His light, sleepy breathing told me that he was only partially present but something about the moment of quiet that passed alerted him. "What's wrong?" He questioned. There was movement in the background and mumbling from someone else in the room.

"I didn't mean to wake you." I replied, the change in sound telling me that he moved outside. I imagined him on the balcony of the apartment from where he sent pictures of the city view.

"It's okay. Are you okay?" He asked, rewording his previous question.

Even though he couldn't see it, I shook my head, sucking in a breath that was the opposite of the scream I truly wanted to let out. "Dad's sick, like cancer sick." I delivered the news for the third time, letting him react and avoiding answering his question.

"What?" The first inquiry was followed by four more, bubbling up without a second thought. "How long? Where is it? Is it treatable? How is he feeling?" And then the last, the same as before. "Are you okay?"

"No," I started, rambling with half explanations because I didn't have the answers, "I'm not okay. I just got to the treatment center in Minnesota. He started another cycle of chemo last week. I got here and I have a lot of questions but I don't want to overwhelm him immediately so I'm holding on to all of it until after. It seems like he's feeling fine right now but I haven't had a moment alone to really make sure and honestly, at this point I'm not sure if he'd even tell me."

There was another pause, like he was processing or thinking. "You said another cycle. How long has he been sick?" He posed, the initial panic dissipating as we talked more.

"I think it's been around five months. He was keeping it from me." The anger was still gone, replaced by an overwhelming sadness that I attributed to everything.

"He kept it from you? Why would he–" He stopped himself.

I was curious about the cut off. "What?"

"He wanted to protect you." He sounded understanding.

And then it hit me, the memory of prom night, of standing across from him with the sudden realization that he kept the soulmate dates a secret for years. Of course he understood, thinking it would protect me.

I didn't respond, so much time passing that he had to fill the void. "Tell me what you need. I can come there." He offered.

"It's okay, I just wanted to tell you and hear your voice for a minute." I responded.

There was another lull before I got the thing I wasn't aware I needed, that glimmer of hope only he could make feel real. "He'll get better and you'll get through it with him." There wasn't much else to be said and this time, when he asked about my soulmate, it came from a place of care rather than envy.

"I met him but we aren't supposed to talk about him." I reminded him the rule that we'd been keeping since Yoongi. I didn't want to hear the tension in his voice or pointed questions that would follow.

"I know, I just wanted to make sure you have someone in this." He explained.

While his reasoning for asking about the next soulmate was kind, it was another layer of the story that I wasn't ready to say aloud. My words came out in a whimper. "I can't talk about him."

For me, there wasn't any other option than to shove away the feeling kept beneath that whimper, because factoring in Seokjin would turn anger to rage and sadness to devastation.

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Author's Note: Hi everyone, I just wanted to leave a note here to say thank you again for the reads and support this story has been getting recently. It's been really amazing to see the growth and whether you're a reader who lives in my comments, gives a vote, or silently enjoys the story, know that I appreciate every single one of you.