Jungkook stood far, giving the time and space for Chaeyoung to be with Taehyung for a while. He watched as Chaeyoung pulled Taehyung into a tight hug, which caused the male to break down. Jungkook looked away then, not because of jealousy or any raging feeling that he'd feel whenever he saw the two. But he, too, a total stranger to Taehyung and his family, felt the sadness and sorrow.

He knew that feeling very well. He knew what it felt to lose a precious family member to death. As he looked around, all the people he could see were drowned in an extreme feeling of sorrow. But this person who had just left the world must be a very great and warm person, because the weather on that funeral day wasn't hot and humid nor was it gloomy and dull. There wasn't any rain, yet it wasn't hot at all.

He glanced around and saw Jennie. She wasn't crying anymore, but she sure cried a hell lot, her eyes showed it all. Namjoon was holding her protectively, and he too looked like he was in deep sorrow. From what he observed, Taehyung's mother must have treated them really well like they were her own children as well and if only Jungkook was one of them, he knew he'd be as sad as them, if not more.

As time passed, people were leaving and both Namjoon and Jennie approached Taehyung and Chaeyoung who were now sitting on the ground. Jennie said something to the both of them before Jungkook noticed Chaeyoung turning to look at his direction. Taehyung and her nodded at what Namjoon said next before Taehyung pulled her into his embrace, and they hugged tightly for a few moments.

Jungkook straightened up as Chaeyoung made her way towards him and as soon as she reached him, his words disappeared before he could ask if she was ready to go home when he saw how swollen her face looked after those times she had cried.

"Let's go," she said weakly, her voice breaking.

He didn't say a word as he helped her to open the door for her and as soon as she got inside, he noticed that she just leaned her head to the headrest, not bothering to buckle her seatbelt. Jungkook settled himself in the driver's seat, and leaned towards her to help her fasten it. Before he started to drive, he gave her a long stare and hoped that the color that had gone from her face would resurface and although it would be truly impossible to lead life exactly like before now that someone precious to her had left, she needed to keep on living.

*

Chaeyoung leaned her head against the wall inside the elevator, her hand held the railing just in case she'd get sucked down by gravity when she felt her knees went weak. It still felt unreal that earlier on that day, she along with her friends went to send off Taehyung's mother for her new journey. It was unbelievable how this could happen.

Life has always been paired with death, that fact is known to everyone including her. But it didn't feel real at all when death did come to replace life. She felt like it was too soon. She was angered that miracle did not happen upon the precious lady.

The elevator stopped and it was time for Jungkook to exit it. But he took the time to stare at her, and as much as she wanted to look back at him, she didn't have the strength to even do that.

"Are you going to be okay?" Jungkook asked her, pressing the button to keep the door opened.

Her lips separated to let out a simple 'Yeah' but it didn't come out. Instead, she nodded once softly with her eyes boring holes into the floor as she kept her head low.

"If you need anything, please tell me," he said, stroking her head softly and when his hand was absent from her head, she began to long for it.

But even when she needed him so much, her words were trapped within her that the only thing she could let out was the sound of her sniffles.

*

His eyes were glued to the text message Chaeyoung had sent to him as a reply.

- I am fine.

Trusting her would be the last thing he needed to do after what had happened. From his instincts alone he could feel that she was lying to him when she told him she was fine. He knew he shouldn't doubt her, but he couldn't help it. There was a voice within him that was telling him that Chaeyoung didn't have a single bite of the food he had delivered to her hours ago.

He counted, it was the fifth time his thumb pressed on the doorbell that the door finally swung open only wide enough for her frame. Jungkook frowned heavily upon seeing her. There were dark circles around her eyes, her nose was red, and her cheeks were plastered with drying tears.

"Is this what you meant by 'fine'?" he asked, disappointed albeit knowing what to expect.

She met his eyes with her own frown, furrowing her brows deeply at him and sighed sharply before replying, "I am fine. Don't worry about me. Go back." She looked down then, and Jungkook noticed the door was moving to close on him but it was really slow. He placed a palm against the door, stopping it from moving and Chaeyoung didn't push further, but her hand never left the door handle until Jungkook gently pushed the door wider while at the same time, stepping his foot inside.

Chaeyoung stepped back slowly, her hand falling to her side with her head still facing the floor. Jungkook closed the door behind him, and his hand went to under her chin, his fingers holding it. Jungkook lifted her chin but she still had her eyes lowered, avoiding his gaze. "You call this 'fine', Chaeyoung?" he asked not with a tone to chastise but a tone that showed concern. It didn't take long for her to finally lift her eyes and settle on his. And as soon as that happened, her lips began to pout, tremble, and Jungkook's heart clenched upon seeing it.

He removed his hand from her chin then, pulling her arms softly towards him to which she instantly moved forward, her head landed on his shoulder and she breathed out heavily then as Jungkook put his arms around her. Within seconds, Jungkook felt her body shook and his shoulder wet. When he tightened his arms, pressing her closer to him, she wound her arms around his torso and finally the sound of her sobs broke free.

Jungkook rubbed her back gently, trying to offer comfort as much as he could before they both moved to take a seat on the couch, and there, he rocked her a few moments more. He took the time to wait for her to finally calm down and he knew he didn't need to let any words out for her to tell him anything that might have happened. She would tell him.

While at that, Jungkook's eyes caught the untouched food on the table across him. He knew it because of how it was still nicely wrapped in that plastic bag, still looking like how it looked like when he delivered it to her. Jungkook sighed softly, shaking his head at the same time Chaeyoung shifted on the couch, pressing closer to his side and Jungkook let a soft hum out as he turned to look at her, his arm around her shoulder tightened a little.

She was staring back, with those beautiful eyes welling up in tears and she pressed her palms against them, ridding the tears away. Chaeyoung dropped her head again to his shoulder. She slipped her arms to around his waist, hugging him close as she asked, "Has it ever happened to you before? That you had a dream of something but when you wake up, you can't recall anything about it. It's the kind of dream that you really want to recall, that you want to know, that makes you curious, not the kind that you won't care about, but no matter how hard you try to recall it, you just can't. And it stays that way for the whole day of you trying, you keep failing. But then a few days later, when you totally forgot about trying to recall it, all of sudden, out of nowhere, your mind gives you all these images or clips in your head and you think you're just imagining something but then it hits you, you start to remember that it is the dream that you tried to recall before. Has it ever happened to you, Jungkook?"

He breathed in deep, thought about it for a moment and nodded his head. "Yeah, I guess. I think I experienced that before. Why? What was your dream about?"

Her voice was soft when she answered, it was soft that if there were any other sounds at all during that time, he would have to ask her to repeat everything. "I dreamed of Taehyung's mom..." She stopped then, and Jungkook thought she really would just stop at that when she stayed silent. Chaeyoung's sigh after those silent seconds was shaky. And then, she continued, "She was smiling at me, waving her hand and her smile was warm. But at the same time, she had tears in her eyes. It was a brief dream actually. She was gone after that."

"Did she say anything to you?"

"Yeah," she said. "Just a few seconds before she disappeared, she told me to help her watch over Taehyung, to take care of him."

It probably became a habit of him that grew over time, that whenever that name was mentioned especially by Chaeyoung, the rivalry between him and that man would be alive in his head. But Jungkook made sure that it was short-lived this time, kicking those thoughts away in an instant because what Chaeyoung needed at the moment was definitely not to get reminded of their love life.

Jungkook wanted to say at least something, maybe make a comment on that, or perhaps ask her a question, but he just had no idea what to say. So he figured that the only thing he could do was to be silent, because maybe, Chaeyoung didn't need him to say anything at all, maybe the only thing to do was just to be there for her and that was probably enough.

His eyes settled on the food then, thinking of how she had ignored his plea and advice to take good care of her health the other day. Apart from being extremely sad over the loss of a precious someone, skipping her meals would be the reason why she had looked so fragile, vulnerable, weak and lifeless. Jungkook knew that it could have been for the appetite that didn't exist within her for her to not take at least a bite, but that was no reason for her to continuously skip every meal.

"Life must go on, you know," he stated, staring at the food in front of him. "You are grieving, I understand that. But life must go on. Maybe it's insensitive of me to say this at this time," he said, and even while he was at that, he was a bit unsure if he should tell her but his mouth wasn't as hesitant as he was when he continued, "but don't let yourself go just because someone or something precious to you left. Don't punish yourself like this."

Chaeyoung must have felt confused by what he was saying all of a sudden that she finally lifted her head off of him, leaning backwards and Jungkook didn't need to turn to look at her to know that she was staring intently at him.

He removed his arm from her and slowly, she unwound her own arms around him. Jungkook leaned forward and took off the lid of the lunch box, placed the lid onto the table carefully before he took the spoon and placed it on the food. He turned to her and pushed forward his hand that was holding the lunch box.

When Chaeyoung didn't move, Jungkook sighed heavily again. "I don't mean that you can't mourn over her, but you have to take care of yourself. If you can't do that, tell me. But then you have to let me take care of you."

Her eyes downcast and it didn't take long before she slowly grabbed a hold of the lunch box and started to feed herself. When she looked like she was full and couldn't finish the whole thing, Jungkook placed a palm on her back. "If you can't finish it, then you don't have to. Don't force yourself, you'll throw up."

Jungkook didn't stop her when she went to handle everything else on her own. He had to admit that he was surprised himself that Chaeyoung didn't suggest for him to go home since she was handling it well now that he had sort of reprimanded her. After she was done with everything, even went to brush her teeth and washed her face, she went into the living room again not to tell him that she was fine like how he suspected she'd do. Instead, she cuddled next to him, getting into her previous position when she cried earlier in his embrace and Jungkook gladly accepted her in his arms again.

While at that, she suddenly asked him, "Do you think Taehyung is holding up okay?" And Jungkook honestly had no idea for that question as well, because it wasn't like he'd been getting updates regarding the other male. So he answered with "I don't know" without any intention of it to sound rude or anything.

No one said anything for a long time after that and Jungkook himself didn't realize that she had changed her position on the couch. Chaeyoung was lying on the couch with her head resting on his lap, her hand holding his and she had positioned his hand to the front of her face. Basically, she was using his palm to cover her face and it was when her phone rang on the coffee table that he realized all that. When she didn't make any move at all, he also realized that she had fallen asleep and Jungkook carefully leaned forward, careful not to move her as he reached for her phone.

It was Jennie calling.

"Hello?" Jungkook said with a low voice, his thumb and index gently and softly caressing Chaeyoung's forehead when she slightly stirred.

"Jungkook?" Jennie sound a little bit surprised but not so. "Where is Chaeyoung?"

"She's sleeping."

"Has she eaten?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "She refused to eat, though, at first."

"I thought so," Jennie sighed. "Anyway, I just want to check on her. I'm glad you're there with her. Do me a favor and please take care of her during this time. It's been so hard for her. I called her a lot of times but she didn't answer and I think she has changed the passcode to her house, because I couldn't get in."

Jungkook looked down at Chaeyoung and furrowed his brows. She really was trying to distance herself from people, even her own best friend. Somehow, he was glad she let him in although she had ignored him for his first few attempts. "I know," he said calmly. "Honestly, you don't need to ask me to do it. I will do it even at any other time. Chaeyoung has been worrying over Taehyung a lot, anyway. She asked about him."

"He's just the same like Chaeyoung, I guess. Worst, maybe. Right now, he doesn't want to talk to anyone but Namjoon. Namjoon's doing his best to help Taehyung to go through this. Tell Chaeyoung she doesn't need to worry too much about Taehyung. She needs to worry about herself more than anything."

"I'll make sure she knows about it."

"Thank you. And when she's truly okay, please tell her to call me."

After the call ended, Jungkook decided to move her to her bedroom. Thankfully, she was in a deep sleep, very deep sleep indeed, and that all the movement didn't wake her up. He stroked her hair lovingly once he laid her down carefully on the bed and placed a soft kiss on her forehead. When he was about to slide off the bed to go back to his apartment, he heard Chaeyoung's soft voice mentioning a name, like a desperate call, and Jungkook felt tightness in his chest when she repeated the name in her sleep.

"Taehyung..."

*

Chaeyoung jolted awake with sweats all over her body. Her eyes glanced at the digital clock sitting on the bedside table and the time displayed was 2:35AM. Closing her eyes as she tried to breathe calmly, Chaeyoung's mind supplied her with the pieces of her dream which most probably had caused her to wake up during that hour.

Taehyung's mother was there in her dream, smiling with her small hand waving at her before she disappeared into the wind like dusts. The next person who appeared was none other than Taehyung and he was crying while curling in the corner. Chaeyoung instinctively had her feet moving towards him and by the time she reached him, he looked at her with angry eyes and said something that made Chaeyoung's heart clench.

"If only you had agreed..."

She grabbed the pillow next to her and hugged it tightly. "It's only a dream," she whispered into the pillow after burying her face in it.

She spent the next two hours trying to sleep but couldn't. Just like how the past few days had been. No matter how many times she tossed and turned, changing her positions and even went to the living room to sleep, she just couldn't. It took her long to realize that she was able to sleep calmly before the nightmare because of Jungkook's presence.

Chaeyoung wandered and looked around the bedroom, the living room, the guest room, the kitchen and anywhere around her house but Jungkook was nowhere in sight. Most probably he had left soon after she had fallen asleep. She remembered dozing off on his lap while they were in the living room.

Tomorrow morning he'd be off to work while she was lucky enough that her employer gave them one day off for everyone to celebrate her son's birthday. It would be selfish to call him or knock on his door around that hour. He'd wasted more time than he should when he spent it on her alone and Chaeyoung didn't think she wanted to burden him more.

*

"Is everything okay?"

Jungkook stopped walking for a moment just to turn around to see Yugyeom approaching him before he began to step towards his car again. "You know, I think you should switch your job to being a paparazzi or something," Jungkook said, fumbling his keys in his hand. He slowed down on purpose to let Yugyeom catch up to him even though there wasn't even a need to do so since the other male got some long legs.

From the time he sat down in his cubicle, went out to lunch, came back to resume his work up until the end of the office hours, Yugyeom had been bugging him nonstop with the endless stream of questions regarding his life.

"Your life seems to be interesting lately," Yugyeom shrugged with an innocent-like smile that no girl had been able to resist, apparently. "I can't help but ask."

Jungkook scoffed as he unlocked his car and carefully placed the laptop bag inside. "What seems to be so interesting about it?" he asked, pushing the door to a close before he leaned his hip against the car door and pushed both hands into the pocket of his pants.

Yugyeom on the other hand placed his bag on top of his sports car and laughed lightly before he posed similarly and gave Jungkook a reply. "I feel like this year your emotion is sort of jumbled up. One second you look like you won a jackpot, the next, you look like you would murder someone. And then suddenly, your face would tell the world that you're deep in love and the next second, you look like you just got rejected by some queen or something because it made you look like you're about to cry. It reminds me of girls on period."

Yugyeom laughed out loud and if it hadn't been for the exhaustion he was having, Jungkook would have smacked him or elbow his rib.

"Well, you kind of remind me of some girls too. It's like, you've got nothing to do but observe and gossip about others."

Yugyeom's face fell but it was only brief before he smiled again and began a topic about Chaeyoung. "I thought she's supposed to be here today, your Chaeyoung."

"Yeah," Jungkook nodded as his hand cupped the device in his pocket, and without any amount of realization, he took it out and tried to check if he got any message from her but there was none. "But she's not feeling well."

"Oh," Yugyeom said, a smirk building up on his face.

Jungkook knew that Yugyeom had more things to say and based on the expressions playing around his face, Jungkook was aware that Yugyeom was about to throw some teasing at him but he had no time for that, especially when his mind was occupied by Chaeyoung, concerned if she had been acting like yesterday or if she'd gotten better.

"I'm gonna go," Jungkook said immediately when Yugyeom opened his mouth to say something.

"Where to? The pharmacies?"

Jungkook's movement halted and glared at Yugyeom when the latter giggled, totally entertained by his own imagination.

"If you ever need someone to be the godfather, you know where to find me," Yugyeom winked playfully and Jungkook cursed him out loud.

"She is not pregnant, you dumb fuck."

"I didn't say anything about pregnancies," said Yugyeom with a shrug and a teasing smirk that Jungkook shook his head and immediately went into his car, slamming the door close.

When he arrived, the first place he went to was not his own house but Chaeyoung's. Although it was obvious how they were back to how they were before where they could easily slip in and out of each other's house, Jungkook still respected her not to do it without any effort of knocking or pressing the doorbell to inform her that he came.

However, his heart began to worry when there was no response at all either with all the knockings he did against the door or the phone calls he made to her phone. All sorts of thing came to his mind, especially after what happened recently that made her blame herself. With that, he began to press the numbers to unlock her door, but when all attempts failed, the thought to kick the door crossed his mind. Thankfully, a wiser part of his brain reminded him to be calm and avoid making rash decisions.

All combinations of her birthday date, the first password that he knew to her house, and any kind of numbers at all; they just didn't allow him to enter. He always had one combination of numbers in his mind, but often times he doubted that she would change it back to that. She had used it before, but the unfortunate event that happened unto them which caused them to separate must have triggered her to change it to a different one.

Nevertheless, it wouldn't hurt to try. Slowly and nervously, Jungkook pressed 9791. It felt as though all parts of him were rejoicing when it was proven how she had changed back her code to the date of his birth. But then reality pulled him back and reminded him that there was an even more serious situation that he needed to focus on.

"Chaeyoung?" Jungkook called out, walking slowly with his phone in his hand. "Chaeyoung, where are you?"

He took the deepest breath as he tried to convince himself that she was probably fine, went to work and was actually on her way home. He brought the device he was holding upwards and began to slide his thumb across the screen to call her. He didn't even know why his panic did not subside after convincing himself that she was out to work and would be home in any minute.

A ringing sound greeted his ear but there was another weird sound apart from it that was causing him to pull down the phone from his ear. It was the ringtone of her phone. Her phone was somewhere in the house.

Jungkook's eyes widened as he realized the situation he was in. He began to stomp his feet hastily to where the sound came from. Speedily, he turned the doorknob to the master bedroom and his heart fell when he couldn't see her around. Only her phone was ringing on the bed.

"Chaeyoung..." he breathed, eyes wild as they wandered to every part of the room, still hoping for her to appear out of nowhere to prove to him that his mind was making him scared for no reason. "Chaeyoung, where the fuck are you?" he almost yelled, opening the closet roughly, sliding the door to the bathroom with so much strength that he almost broke it. "Shit!" Jungkook punched the wall and dashed out of the room.

He stood in her living room, taking in the fully furnished space that looked empty and lifeless and he felt that it was making his head pound. He pushed his tongue against his cheek, and he felt his heart clenched as he tried to think of any place Chaeyoung would go.

Jennie.

He searched for Jennie's number, thumb clumsily sliding to scroll down the list of contacts he had while at the same time he rushed out of her apartment. Jungkook muttered another series of cuss when Jennie did not answer his call even after he reached his floor and entered his house.

"Goddamn it, answer the fucking call. God."

And when he walked into his bedroom, he almost fell to his knees.

Chaeyoung was there in his room hugging his pillow close to her body as she began to sit on his bed.

His hand that was holding his phone fell to his side, his thumb automatically ended the call he was trying to make to Jennie

When he finally swallowed, it felt like choking.

"Why are you here?" Jungkook asked, and he was sure that the anger in his voice was evident and obvious enough that no sane people would miss it.

Chaeyoung who clearly looked like she had just woken up when he barged into the room slightly flinched when she was questioned with that tone, and after gazing up at him with a hint of pain in her eyes, she lowered her head and took a deep breath. "I'm... I'm sorry," she said very softly, but was not unheard to Jungkook. Her hands that were holding the pillow tightly against her body began to loosen before she placed it on the bed neatly.

"Sorry?"

She nodded lightly, still not meeting his gaze. She stood and stayed rooted in that position, hands fidgeted in front of her. "I'm sorry I entered your house. I –"

"You scared the fuck out of me, Chaeyoung!" When he saw how she flinched at the raise of his voice that he didn't intend to do, he immediately regretted it and approached her in long steps, pulling her into his embrace. Jungkook's arm around her body tightened with time, while the other hand was used to press her head into his neck, caressing and stroking her head in the gentlest way possible.

When he felt her hands slowly came up to his waist, holding onto his shirt, Jungkook pushed his face into her shoulder, inhaling her scent and murmured against the fabric of her shirt. "You scared me."

"I'm sorry," she responded.

"Don't do it again."

"I promise it will be the last," she said, and it didn't go unnoticed by him how there was a slight hint of disappointment in her soft reply. "I won't enter your house without your permission anymore."

Jungkook furrowed his brows and pulled back quickly, but his hands stayed holding her. "What are you talking about?"

She let go of his waist, her hands then lifted to push her hair that was falling like a curtain away from her face although she still looked down. "I know I'm not supposed to come in... especially without your permission," she said, and it was obvious how she was drowned in deep sadness as she was saying all these. And Jungkook knew exactly why she was apologizing for it.

Because he remembered that on the day of their official breakup, he told her in her face that he didn't want to see her stepping into his house anymore. God, how stupid and cruel a person could be at times when anger takes place.

She tried to step back from him but Jungkook's arms wouldn't let her go farther than their mere inches apart.

She wetted her lips briefly, she continued where she left off with a sudden sniffle sound starting the sentence she was about to say. "But I couldn't sleep, at all. I tried to. I've lost count the amount of times I tried to get a decent sleep but failed every time. I even tried sleeping with Jennie, but it was just the same. I couldn't really sleep. And I... I realized that the last time I slept so well was when you were around. But it would be selfish of me to ask you to be there for me all the time when you have other important things to do. While I know that you're willing to help me when I ask, I can't do that. So I thought I should try... sleeping on your bed where your scent is permanent and maybe get out before you came back but I failed to wake up earlier. I just... it's wrong to do this, I'm really sorry, Jungkook. It's like breaking in. It is breaking in. This is just so –I don't know. I'm really sorry," she explained and started to shake her head as she repeated her apology again and again.

Jungkook's eyes softened and he quickly cupped her cheeks, lifting her head slightly so she would face him. "Hey, hey, sshhh," Jungkook hushed her softly. "Hey, look at me," he told her with his thumb stroking her cheek. "You are more than allowed to be here, you understand that? I didn't mean to say what I told you before. Because to have you around is more than enough to make me happy. So don't apologize to me for getting inside here without my permission. I just..." he began to lead her backwards so that she sat on his bed and he kneeled in front of her, her hands in his.

Jungkook rubbed his thumbs in circle on the skin of her hands before he squeezed her hands. "I was just scared, really scared when I couldn't find you anywhere. At the time being, I need you to... inform me your whereabouts," he said hesitantly and instantly added to prevent her from thinking the opposite of his intentions. "I'm not trying to control your life. I'm just... after what happened recently, I don't want you to do anything harmful to yourself. I won't ask to know where you are once I am sure that you are okay, alright?" he asked, lifting his brow at her.

The look on her face was soft as she gazed at him. Jungkook lifted his own hand to gently wipe her eye when he noticed the single tear that suddenly trickled down her face. "Why are you so..." she swallowed, looked away and released a soft sigh.

"What is it?" he asked tenderly, trying to search her eyes. When she didn't respond, he hummed to urge her to continue.

"You're being so kind to me, Jungkook... Why?" she asked, and her voice came out more like a whisper at the last word.

Jungkook said nothing, letting the question float in the air unanswered. When she turned to lock her eyes with his again, the gaze of his was holding more than one meaning and Jungkook knew that she somehow knew at least one of it but was too afraid of accepting it.

When he did give a respond, the corners of his lips slightly pulled to reveal a smile before he leaned down and placed a kiss on the back of her hand, a very light one that he hoped would tell her something that she should have known without trying to come up with any kind of question at all.