“SOME PEOPLE ARE BORN WITH TORNADOES IN THEIR LIVES,
BUT CONSTELLATION IN THEIR EYES.
OTHER PEOPLE ARE BORN WITH STARS AT THEIR FEET,
BUT THEIR SOULS LOST AT SEA.”

Seokjin did not tell Yoon Min about Baek Heesung.

What was he gonna say anyway? That the person who harmed him in the past made a threat to hurt her? This information would only press the girl to worry unnecessarily. Because like his manager, he also believed Heesung was in jail and wouldn't have any hopes of getting out. They were safe from the drug addict's spiteful intentions.

But no matter how much he tried, a part of his heart nagged him often, warning him about the possibility of his fear. The fear of putting Yoon Min in danger because of him. The thought of her being in the clutches of the man he despised so deeply. Most of the time he convinced himself that would not happen at all, but sometimes, doubt crept in.

“I think the noodles are cooked enough.”

Yoon Min's voice helped him come back to reality from his useless thoughts as he realized he was standing like a statue in front of a boiling pot. Quickly he turned off the heat and released a relieved exhale. He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he had lost track of time.

She stared at him in concern. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah...of course.” He flashed her a quick smile. “Where were we?”

“It's your turn to ask.”

They were playing 20 questions while cooking naengmyeon together in her kitchen. Seokjin had started to teach her cooking for a while. She wasn’t a fast learner but she was getting better every day.

“Oh, okay. What is your... favourite movie?”

“The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings. I'm a Tolkien nerd.” She beamed and moved to another counter to slice the toppings. “What’s something you wished you had more time for?”

She always asked deep things, questions he had never been asked. It made him think and feel different, in a good way.

"Living as an ordinary guy. No celebrity pressure, no fame, no uniqueness. The time before, I was a trainee when I was just a boy. My friends say they envy me because of my superstar life but sometimes I envy them,” he slowed. “I would like to experience a world where I am not a member of BTS. Where I didn’t debut and instead pursued my acting degree. I wonder how my life would've turned out then.”

“Or...maybe you would've been a journalist. Oh, a farmer!” she called out from behind.

He smiled. “I think I would be good at farming. My uncle has a strawberry farm and my grandfather had a small bee farm. I used to work there sometimes so I have a knack for it. Then again, what am I not good at?”

Her chuckle made him smile more. He asked her then, “And you? What would you be if not who you are right now?”

She hummed before answering, “In another world, I would like to live in a healthy family with supportive, cool parents like yours. I would want to be a beautiful woman with gorgeous hair and an incredible body figure. I would be writing books and helping people. Maybe then you’d come across my name and read one of my works.”

“Me? A farmboy? Pretty sure farmboys don't read books.”

“That reminds me, did you ever finish the book I gave you? It's been months.”

Seokjin was rinsing the noodles under cold water. “Yes, and Augustus's death wrecked me. Why couldn’t it have a happy ending?”

“Because there are no happy endings in real life.”

Her voice turned sombre, and she moved to his side with a bowl of half-sliced boiled eggs, sliced beef, kimchi, cucumbers and radish. He gave her a raised eyebrow in response to her previous statement.

“Surely some people get to experience happy endings.”

“What happy endings? What are they anyway? They lived happily ever after— have you ever wondered what that means? Because in real life, people had to keep on living. Can you say they were happy till the end?” she questioned seriously. “In real life, the only true ending is death, and I don't think anyone dies happy.”

After the confession on the bridge, Yoon Min started to be more herself around him. This time, her self included her raw beliefs and negative feelings. She didn’t hesitate to show her depressed side to him, and honestly, he loved her more for her honesty. It assured him that she trusted him with her flaws.

He shaped the noodles into a neat mound and placed them inside a bowl. “Why do you think people in real life can't have happy endings like in stories?”

“Because they make mistakes. They are afraid to speak their minds. They let go of people who mean the world to them. They are selfish and rude. They don't fight for what they love. They give up too quickly. The world isn’t likely to become a better place, Jin-ssi. It’s been foreseen to have a sad conclusion as well. That's why I don't believe in happy endings.”

But sometimes her thoughts were too heavy and dark for him to comprehend. Her beliefs outshined his theories to the point of leaving him speechless.

“Yeah, happy endings are rare, like unicorns. You only hear about them but never find one. Just because something is close to unrealistic, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist,” he said. “That's why you read books, right? To have the experience of being someone else, to know another person's soul from the inside. To feel their sorrows and joys.”

She hesitated but nodded.

“When a book has a happy ending, you are happy. But when it ends tragically, your life is altered a bit, right? You think of wanting the characters to have a happy ending. I believe it's because you want a happy ending for yourself. That's how we, humans are; we struggle to express ourselves. We know what we want to say, but we don't know how.”

He turned the stove off and turned towards her. Her sparkling eyes stared into his eyes. “So even though you say happy endings aren't real, deep down, you do think they are not so bad and want to have one too. Maybe there are no such things as happy endings like you say, but let's not make it an actual thing. Who knows? Maybe a happy ending is waiting for you as we speak.”

She failed to control her lips and ended up smiling. “And what happens if I don't get a happy ending? Will you take the blame?”

Attacked by her question, he laughed. “No.” Sneakily, he put his arms around her waist in the next second, pulling her closer. “Blame our stars.”

Yoon Min couldn’t even reply because his lips crashed into hers. She balanced herself on her toes and gripped his biceps to lose herself in the whimsical moment. He smiled, a hand sliding into her hair while the other wrapped around her waist tightly. For a heartbeat, there was only the warmth of their pressed bodies and a spark kindling in their hearts.

At one point, she pulled herself completely out of his arms and teased, “We are supposed to eat.”

He smirked. “You taste better.”

A line of colour stained her cheeks. She bit her lower lip to control her smile. “Charming. But that won't work on me.”

“You are just hungry, aren't you?”

“Yes. So let's eat our food and have a ramentic night.”

Seokjin chuckled in approval. They ate together what he cooked, and she helped, and honestly, the food tasted better. Then they went to her building's rooftop where an empty wooden low table was placed for people to sit and relax. They made themselves comfortable on the table and watched the stars.

The weather had an interesting energy. The summer was over and the days were cooler as autumn blessed the earth. There was a chill in the air overnight and stars spread out in the night sky. They huddled up together with a blanket covering their legs, shoulders touching.

In the middle of their stargazing and quiet conversations, Seokjin nudged her arm and said, “I wrote a song about you.”

Yoon Min reacted exactly the way he expected. Her pupils dilated automatically, her eyes' edges softened and if he was not wrong, there were hints of tears in her eyes. She always looked at him as if the light of her favourite person created a sparkle inside her eyes, so effortlessly and universally.

“A s-song?”

“Yes. And it was my first time writing a love song. So you can't judge me if it turns out bad.”

Her face was red already. “Wow. Can I hear it?”

"No way! The album will be out a week later. You can hear it then,” he asserted. “So don't do anything, especially don't act cute.”

She pouted. “At least tell me the title.”

There was no harm in that, he supposed. The tracklist will be out soon anyway. He cleared his throat to act cool. "Whispers of The Night.”

Her facial expression changed slowly. He knew she was impressed. After all, he worked really hard on that specific song. He summoned all of his songwriting experience, took help from his poetic feelings and poured them into the song. In the end, he felt proud of what he had created.

Yoon Min responded nothing. Instead, she placed a hand on his cheek and pulled him for a kiss. His cheek warmed after she pressed a soft kiss there, which made his heart skip a beat. He wondered when he would get used to her touches.

“You shouldn’t have,” she murmured before placing her head on his shoulder.

His body went rigid at her resting her head on his shoulder. He slowed down his breathing because he didn’t want to disrupt her comfort by moving. There was still a lingering warmth in the air but always a constant reminder of the cold to come. Clouds appeared in the sky, hiding some of the lights behind them.

“I don't have the right to accept anything you do for me. It is...far more than any fan deserves,” she added after a breath of silence.

Seokjin tilted his head to look at her. “How many times have I told you not to degrade yourself?” She didn’t answer, so he continued, “I meant what I said earlier in the kitchen. You deserve the most beautiful and purest love in the world. Not only to be loved by others but to be loved by yourself. I hope you believe you can still make a beautiful life for yourself even if you lost your childhood and teenage years to grief and trauma. You deserve the best kind of happy ending out there. Never forget this.”

She seemed to like what he said because he could see her smiling. Then she lifted her head off his shoulder and met his eyes. “Can I be honest with you? There is no happy ending for me if you are not there.”

Something about her confession made him fall in love with her again. He smiled and, ever so slowly, planted a kiss on her forehead. She melted in joy when he did that. Then he met her sparkling eyes again. “Me too.”

☆THE FAULT IN OUR STARS☆

THANK YOU FOR READING
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