“SONGS ARE LIKE THESE LITTLE TREASURES.
THESE LITTLE POCKETS OF EMOTIONAL MEMORY
THAT HAVE A WAY OF SITUATING THEMSELVES
IN PEOPLE'S LIVES.”

Today was a bright beautiful day. The sun greeted the world sweetly just as summer was about to begin. Golden fingers of sunlight shone through the trees. The blue sky was dotted with fluffy white clouds that drifted lazily in the gentle breeze. The duo stood in an open field, eating ice-creams. As always, Seokjin didn't want to eat but the other pushed a cone right into his mouth so he had no choice.

"So is it true that you don't like chocolates but like chocolate-flavoured things and you don't like strawberry-flavoured things but like strawberries?"

He blinked at her odd question and decided not to answer. It sounded like him. She smiled cheekily and continued eating.

While they exchanged a few words and strolled in peace, they saw a group of teenagers dancing together on the street. Their energetic moves caught the attention of the public as K-pop songs played randomly one after another. He didn't show interest at first, but when Yoon Min yelled, he had to take a second look at them.

"Oh my God, they're doing random dances! I wanna see," she ran towards the circle. He groaned before following her.

The game was quite interesting. Random K-pop songs will be played of all generations and those who can dance will come to the spot and dance the choreography. He remembered watching a few old videos like this sometimes. But the excited one was Yoon Min who was already cheering.

It started with Le Sserafim's Easy. Most people ran to the spot and started to dance to the choreography. Once the music echoed across the field, everyone started gathering around and stopping by to watch their dances. The song lasted for almost 30 seconds before the music stopped and those who danced got back to the crowd.

The same happened with the next one. Siren by Riize attracted fewer people now as they didn't hesitate to dance a difficult choreography. Each tried to dance in their own way, that's where the beauty and fun lay. Because some were just dancing to show off their funny moves.

The crowd were clapping and cheering for the ones who were taking part in the dances repeatedly. Seokjin started to feel quite excited watching the choreographies. He couldn't help but recall those days when he used to dance to different songs with his members. The moves were never accurate, it was all just for fun, to relieve their exhausted minds from pressure.

He suddenly couldn't find Yoon Min near him. Panic hit him for a second until he found her leading the dancers, dancing on Twice's I Can't Stop Me. Of course, she would go there. He chuckled to see her trying to dance and he cheered more when she joined occasionally.

Songs kept playing and people kept joining. In an hour, a large crowd assembled around the spot and watched the teenagers dancing. And a huge amount of people joined when they played Seven by Jungkook, Set Me Free pt.2 by Jimin as in the solo BTS songs. The whole environment was friendly and exciting because K-pop fans eventually became friends in a couple of minutes.

At one time, the next song Dynamite was on but the others, especially the regular dancers all stopped and looked at each other confusedly. The one who was in charge of the songs immediately changed the song and bowed at them to apologize.

One girl who looked 16 warned that person. "Only play the solo songs. No need for the older songs."

Before he could understand anything, Yoon Min snapped at her, "Why not?"

Her strong objection caught the attention of everyone. The music was gone and suddenly, a heavy silence grasped them. Many looked at each other and murmured unwanted opinions. The girl who was playing the songs asked her, "You're an ARMY, aren't you? Then you must know we don't listen or stream the OT7 songs anymore."

The world had stopped listening to the songs Seokjin was part of a long time ago. ARMYs only focused on the comebacks by the other members after he left the group. That's what they did. They were so ashamed and mad at him that they didn't even want to hear his voice anymore. So they only enjoyed the solo songs.

Seokjin had a slight guess about it. But now when he heard that girl saying they abandoned their songs just because he was in it, it broke his heart. Goosebumps took him over when he remembered Namjoon staying up late at night writing those lyrics, Yoongi never taking a nap until he finished the production, Hoseok and Jimin teaching the choreography as easy as possible, Taehyung and Jungkook doing their best to turn the song alive by their golden voices. Behind their every song, all of them tortured themselves to make their fans happy. But just because of him, ARMYs no longer had a love for those songs they worked hard to create. Only because of him.

While he started to feel dizzy by the heavy thought, Yoon Min said, "I know. And I also know many of us don't even mention Jin's name."

At the mention of his name, most people gasped and widened their eyes, shocked by her bold behaviour. They started to treat Seokjin like a curse. That's why, they stopped mentioning his name, stopped listening to the songs he was in, deleted his pictures, and even tried forgetting him. They forced themselves to be happy with the six members.

Yoon Min didn't look afraid even the slightest. "What are we, immature children? Why are we doing this? What's so wrong with playing -"

"No, but he did wrong. Don't you remember he was involved in a drug case? He abused his power and mistreated the company's staff members. No matter how famous he was, we cannot support a criminal," One of the dancers raised her voice.

It was a wonder how Yoon Min was able to be brave in this situation. "I don't understand you all. You people treat him like a curse! I still remember despite the evidence, Jin denied all the allegations. Instead of believing him, you guys left him, destroyed his career, and made his life miserable. How could you do that? Didn't you all make big promises that no matter what comes, you'll always support and stay with BTS? What happened to those promises? You were supposed to fight for him!"

Her strong vocal silenced everyone. They stood there quietly, thinking of remarks but deep down, they always wanted to hear something like that.

“Did you guys realize what happened to BTS after Jin left? Their popularity and fame are drowning year after year. Other groups are taking the lead in YouTube videos. No more Grammy nominations, or Billboard nominations, they don't win any award in MAMA or Melon, I don't even remember when was the last time we broke a record. See how the group is messed up because of his absence? See how we've been so blindly stupid that instead of helping them, we're acting like we never knew them? Have you all seen?"

A few girls started nodding their heads though they didn't open up their mouths.

"Look, Kim Seok Jin is innocent. He always was and always will be. It was us who didn't trust him enough and turned the world this way. I know there was evidence and signs that proved he was wrong. But do they matter? What we needed was Jin's statement and he clearly denied it. We should've believed him back then. We shouldn't have left him like that...after swearing millions of promises. It was entirely our fault.

"I know every single ARMY misses him. I know there isn't a single day we don't think about him and want him back. I know we all want that. So let's not hold ourselves back anymore, thinking we shouldn't support his misdeed. Let's not treat him this way...he doesn't deserve it.

"He is still a member of BTS. He still has a rightful place among them and in our hearts. I mean how long has it been since we heard a news about him? It was almost two and a half months ago when HYBE announced he would be participating in their next comeback. None of us know where he is, how he is, what he is doing. And we didn't care the slightest.”

She paused to take a breath and stared into the souls of the crowd. "I'm an ARMY and I'm one of those fans in the world who still believes in him. I don't know about you all, but it's about time you change your minds and come back to being real ARMYs."

There was a bone-chilling silence among the crowd. No one was even whispering. When was the last time they heard something like this? If this girl could openly support their abandoned idol and still love him, what was holding them back?

On the other hand, Seokjin was frozen in his place, his shattered heart wavering by the touch of Yoon Min's unbreakable support for him, her strong love for his existence. He had forgotten how it felt like to be supported and worshipped by the fans, how it felt to listen to well-wishes and watch the world going crazy for him. He had forgotten it all.

But her voice reminded him of a glorious part of his life.

The girl who was selecting the songs released a loud sigh. She didn't ask for anyone's opinion or think about the consequences. She just took her phone, scrolled through her playlist and played a special song. Moon, the beloved solo song of Seokjin, began to play and refreshed the environment.

Some girls started to smile while others were already rocking their bodies. The sound of his forgotten voice played freely in the field, slowly turning the atmosphere emotionally cheerful. A boy started clapping his hands rhythmically to the music, encouraging others to follow him. Somehow, the whole situation changed. Their deep hatred was replaced with the old joy whenever they thought of their worldwide handsome. Everyone was vibing to the song and once again, his precious lyrics touched their hearts and so they decided to change themselves.

Seokjin only stared at whatever was happening in front of his eyes. Was it a dream? He was used to seeing nightmares every night so could it be that God bestowed a sweet dream once? Was it possible that the fans were listening to his song again, dancing, laughing, wiping tears of joy? If this wasn't actually happening, then he wanted to wake up from this dream.

But it was real.

He no longer could control the overwhelming emotions at bay, as he let go of his tears. His eyes were blurry from his tears and he covered his mouth to decrease the sound of his sobs. He couldn't let people know he was here. The long-forgotten idol who was now the centre of joy around this place couldn't let them figure out his presence. He wanted to cry so happily and live in this moment. He couldn’t believe his eyes or his ears for this magical moment. And who made it possible?

Yoon Min. But where was she?

Controlling his sobs, his eyes looked around for her; the girl who made this possible, the girl who managed to light up his dark soul, the one who spoke so highly of him as if he mattered the universe to her. The one who stayed with him when no one did.

All of a sudden, his arm was grabbed and he was pulled in a direction suddenly. He found the new song very familiar, as if the life in the song was a part of his soul and that's when he realized, Permission to Dance was playing. And many people were already gathered in the field and dancing.

A blissful, surprised smile bloomed on his face as he looked down at the girl, holding his hand who was no other than Yoon Min. She pulled him to the spot and let go of his hand, gesturing for him to start dancing.

Seokjin gasped and shook his head before trying to escape. But she grabbed his hand again and yelled, "Jin-ssi, don't hide anymore! You can't let go of something that makes you happy!"

It wasn't about hiding. Yes, it was but he mostly worried about the choreography. God knows when was the last time he actually danced the moves and to be honest, it was years ago. He didn't remember the steps or the lyrics. How could he possibly dance?

"Yoon Min, I-I—”

He wanted to tell her something but she yelled again, "Start dancing and your body will remember eventually. Stop caring about everything and just dance!"

As he was wearing a mask, no one recognized him and took him for some random fanboy and pulled him to dance with them automatically. Seokjin was shocked, and nervous to do anything at first. But gradually, with the help of the music and the helpful support from the fans, he was actually remembering the steps and felt the need to transform the music into movements. He began with small, weak movements that slowly cascaded into long steps and like that, he was dancing along with the others carelessly, who only cared about happiness at that time.

He then saw the faces of the people around him. No one cared about anything, not their studies or careers or personal problems; they danced because they wanted to because dancing felt right at that moment. In that one united moment, they were all happy. In the wave of emotions, he too was happy to be found again.

In a small part of the gigantic world, an idol was almost dying. But he was saved by the strength of a fan's voice. At that moment, they kept dancing, and dancing, and dancing until the stars denied them.

Because happiness was the only thing that had mattered then and no permission was needed to find it.

☆THE FAULT IN OUR STARS☆

THANK YOU FOR READING
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A/N: I remember this was a tough chapter for me to write. Please forgive me for the unsuitable writing style. Also sorry for some cringe lines.