The sky was exactly like it had been twelve years ago, gloomy and rainy; got Jimin wondering if winter ever came to an end; summer have always been a light guest, paid only short visits to relieve the sky's depression, and the moment it took its leave, the sky relapsed, shedding tears daily, yearning for its lover to come back again and kiss it better.

Jimin watched this phenomenon attentively, and although he was in company, he couldn't take his eyes off the window; he pitied the sky, felt its sorrow, its agony, wished there was something he could do to help it, figured that his best was to uncover what he had kept hidden for almost fifteen years.

"The doctor is examining him now; you'll have to wait until he's finished."

"We'll wait, thank you," Jimin offered.

"How do you think he'll react?" Asked Tan.

Jimin turned to the lad next to him, squeezed his hands affectionately, and grinned, "Don't be sad if there's no reaction, son; he's a little sick, you understand that, right?"

"I do," Tan whispered, his head bowed and his gaze unfocused.

The sky was the same, but so was the pattern of cursed fate. Even when twelve long years had passed, changing Jimin's and others of his age, bleaching their heads, and altering their bodies, Fate still played the role of antagonist in a novella that refused to meet a happy ending.

You weren't the only one who had a hard time; Taehyung and Jimin shared the pain with you; in fact, they had the biggest piece of the pie.

Jimin found himself alone raising a child that the world thought was dead. He fed it and took care of it as a father would, and although he was a single father, he did a good job.

It's not that he wasn't used to it. He has taken care of your child since you gave birth to it, but he had hope that one day you'd take it over and raise it in the warmth of family.

But you didn't, and he often caught himself thinking about whether or not he had forgiven you.

He kept brooding until one day the doubts disappeared, and that was when the child called him father for the first time; at that moment, he figured the child was his, biologically or not, it doesn't matter, for he raised it, acquired the right to be called father, gave it the warmth of family it needed.

He was his father. No one would dare to say otherwise.

Fifteen years ago, when you found out you were pregnant, you wanted to have an abortion, and frankly, given the fact that you were in prison, that was the only logical solution. However, when you underwent an ultrasound scan and heard your child's heartbeat and the eagerness with which it beat for life, you changed your mind, and when no one was by your side, Jimin was there to support your decision until you made it to delivery.

Jimin was already your attending physician; forging documents about your health was no big deal compared to the bump on your bell. So after announcing that your situation had deteriorated and become risky, he put you in isolation until the day of your delivery, in which his ex-girlfriend Victoria, the obstetrician who had performed your ultrasound at the beginning of your pregnancy, assisted.

The child was taken care of by Victoria, and when the initial care was completed, Jimin took him to his parents in Busan; he intended to tell Taehyung everything that night but decided against it when he saw Taehyung's reaction, considered that you'd tell him everything after the misunderstanding was cleared up; didn't want to deprive you of the right to announce such big news.

Jimin doesn't know to this day whether his judgment was correct or not. But he was sure that he had done the right thing by telling Tan the truth, even though the pain in the child's eyes stabbed knives into his heart.

Tan was fifteen years old, not yet an adult, but big enough to understand the truth; Jimin had never lied to him, had told him from the beginning that his mother was dead, but hadn't previously found the courage to tell him that his biological father was serving a life sentence and that he was in a psychiatric hospital because of his mental condition.

Taehyung lost it the moment he killed Yoongi. The police found him drinking, laughing, and crying at the crime scene, and after undergoing trials, the medical consultant concluded after an examination that he was suffering from severe complex bereavement disorder and OCD.

"Mr. Park, you may now visit the patient." Announced the nurse.

The sky was unchanged, rainy as ever, and Jimin wondered if the tear rolling down his cheek was from the depressing weather or from the hesitant steps Tan took toward the door of Taehyung's room.

The sky was the same, gray, but Jimin wished that a rainbow could color it a little once this heavy burden was off his chest.

Tan hesitantly approached the chair where Taehyung sat, eyeing the person he had never seen before but who he assumed shared the same blood; with each step, he took in more details of Taehyung, noting that they shared the same eyes and wondering if they also shared the same smile, but he couldn't confirm it, for the man before his eyes expressed no emotion, he was blank and empty of any facial movement that might help him with his curiosity.

The sky was the same as always, but Tan was sure that his world would never look the same again after this day.

Taehyung didn't move an inch and paid no attention to his visitors until a hoarse voice, still struggling with puberty, suddenly brought him back from his dark and endless trance:

"I'm here, Father."

A/N

As we've come to the end of this book, I would like to thank every kind soul who supported my work; you're the best, and I love you so much.

I hope to see you around in my other works as well; be happy, healthy, and loved.

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This was Shadows' first cover when I just started it back in August 2022.

And these are some banners I created for fun.