Jiah was planning to head home that afternoon to spend the evening with her brother. Saturday's were meant for basketball; however, Taehyung had a business call he had to tend to, so it was just going to be her and Ji Young.

A small kiss on the lips and a whisper of 'Goodbye' later, she was heading to the door.

She couldn't help but smile to herself. This all felt so... domestic.

Jiah was never one for planning a future; she was never one who dreamed of a wedding.

But in that moment, she realised she wanted nothing more.

Clicking the door opened, she took a step forward - only to bump into someone on the other side.

Looking up, she caught Jimin's eyes just before he looked over her shoulder into Taehyung's apartment. And then back to her.

"Hey!" she tried to send him a smile but dropped it when she realised he didn't reciprocate.

"Is Taehyung inside?" he asked.

She could recognise his manner straight away; he was trying to be as polite and kind as possible, but it was different to how he'd treat her before.

They'd taken a step back in their relationship, and she realised the last time they'd spoken one-on-one was at the hospital - back when she had tried to apologise to him, and he hadn't really taken that well. She felt she was walking on eggshells around him the past few days, and she hated the tension.

"He is," she kept forcing her smile, "Do you want to go out and get some coffee? I've been meaning to go to the new cafe near the company but haven't had much time to."

Jimin raised an eyebrow, eyes scanning her face as he tried to read her. Flakes of gold, yellow, orange which used to dance in his eyes hardened, seeming to come to a standstill.

Fingers flinching, she sucked in a breath as she waited for him to say no.

He'd been avoiding her all this time for a reason, right?

But, he didn't.

"Sure, let me get my keys," his tone wasn't too enthusiastic, but she could see that he wanted to try.

So she nodded, "Alright, I'll wait here."

It didn't take him too long, and he was joining Jiah in the hallway in no time, throwing on a long coat.

The silence in the air was thumping in her head, and she wondered if it affected him as it did her. She didn't have to wonder long, however.

"Isn't it basketball day today?" he asked as they entered the elevator and she tilted her head at him.

"Yeah," her tone was more questioning, "It is."

He sent her a sideways glance, a forced smile to couple it, "Taehyung absolutely adores your brother, you know, he tells me about it every week."

She could only plaster a smile to her face as well. For, while his words meant the world, she could see he was desperately trying to make small talk, and she despised it.

"Well, they both love basketball; they get along."

"I miss our high school days," his tone turned nostalgic, and Jiah had to hide the surprise from her expression. She didn't know what to make of his sudden openness to her.

"Tae and I, we used to hate each other, you know?" they were in the basement, Jiah following behind as they walked to his car, holding onto every word he was saying.

He's talking to her again.

That's got to mean something, right?

"I remember this one time," a huge, cheesy grin broke out on his face and that caused Jiah's own smile to falter.

He talked about Taehyung like he controlled the magic of the universe with every word, with every movement, with every whisper.

It only made sense. They were the only constants in each other's lives for almost ten years. They wouldn't be where they are now without each other.

"At camp, we were freshmen, he and I were assigned to the same cabin. We had hardly talked beforehand, but we already had some inherent disdain toward each other.

"Anyway, we were last to pick our beds, and he had chosen the bed under the bed next to mine. So I put my bags and everything on the empty bed next to mine.

"The next day, while I was out having activities, he and his friends at the time took my bags and moved it all to another bed on the other side of the room."

"He did what?" Jiah was shocked; she would never have thought he'd do that.

"You can imagine how mad I was," Jimin shook his head, "And as you would think, I hated him for such a long time after."

They finally reached the cafe and were stepping out as she rushed over to join him on the footpath, wanting to continue the conversation.

"And then?"

"It was like one of those dramas where the two protagonists hated each other but ended up falling in love, really. It's crazy."

"Y'all fell in love?" she asked teasingly, testing the waters.

She could tell he hadn't forgiven her; however, he wasn't letting them indulge in small talk, and she was grateful.

After ordering, he continued to speak as they headed to a table next to the window.

"The teacher once asked us to clean up the classroom after school, and that's where it all began."

"Oh my!" she faked a squeal, "How romantic."

"I was a little intimidated by him, honestly. He was in the basketball team, he was an A-plus student, all his friends were athletes as well, and he had the entire school population eating out of the palm of his hands - I'm sure it was partly because his parents owned the school, but that's beside the point.

"He just seemed so much cooler than me, the scrawny little aspiring business student, with close to zero friends and as much sport skill as a stick. He had lines and lines of girls chasing after him, and I would just watch from afar.

"He seemed like such a jerk," Jimin let out a quiet chuckle, "I really did try to put him in some mould that I had built - the rude, smart jock who toys with people for fun. In hindsight, who does that make me?

"Anyway, that day while we were cleaning, he accidentally spilt the bucket of soap water all over me. The asshole was holding it over his own head because he thought he was funny, and then tripped, and I got the end of it.

"I was so mad, you can imagine, I already hated him, and this was all I needed to go off at him.

"But then he started apologising for the dumb stuff his friends did at that camp, and it took me by surprise. We spent the rest of the afternoon laughing over random things and having fun while cleaning.

"After that, he started sitting with me at lunch a few times of the week and invited me to his basketball games here and there. I was so intimidated there though, so many girls would be chanting his name, trying to give him sports drinks and hand towels, he was so popular."

Jiah wanted to add something - joke about how Jimin was tearing at her ego with all this talk. But to see the way his eyes shimmered when talking about his best friend, she'd never want him to stop.

"This turned into us hanging out every day, he started to take an interest in the books I was reading, my studies as well. We'd take turns on how to spend our lunchtimes, sometimes at the library and sometimes at the basketball courts. He taught me basketball, but to this day I suck at it.

"Soon enough, we only ever hung out with each other. Of course, he was still friends with half the basketball and football teams, but I found that he'd rather spend his time with me than with them. I used to doubt it; it was too good to be true. He was the smartest kid in school, captain of the basketball team, had all the girls chasing after him and was the wealthiest kid there - why would he want to hang out with me?

"But he's like that. When I think I don't deserve him, he shows me that he loves me, he shows me that there's no one else he'd rather spend his time with.

"We both suffered losses, him with his parents, me with my siblings. We stuck together through it all. During those late nights, screaming over that cliff, weeping our asses off in our pitch-black bedrooms. We never let the other go through anything alone, you know?

"His pain is mine. Mine is his."

At some point, while he was speaking, the barista had set their drinks at the table, sensing the sincerity of the conversation and leaving without saying a word.

Jimin lowered his eyes from hers then and started to trace the rim of his mug with his thumb. Jiah could physically see the machinery turning in Jimin's mind - cogs grinding and turning against each other.

"We've got ourselves into a crazy situation," he finally said, still struggling to meet her gaze, "All four of us."

That surprised her. She thought he had just been referring to the two of them but was empathising with her too?

"I truly like you, Jiah. You've been able to make that loser believe that he's worthy of love. Worthy of lifelong love. He'd been chasing after such momentary states of happiness his whole life, and now he truly understands what it's like to want to be happy for eternities to come. You're the only person to thank for that, Jiah."

She watched his expression then, the way his eyebrows furrowed, skin wrinkling in the middle like dunes. Eyelids twitching as butterfly wings hiding a secret.

Letting out a quiet sigh, she waited. He looked as broken as a father sending their son to war; he could only hope for the light at the end of the tunnel while being deathly afraid of the uncertainty of what's to come.

"I'm sorry, I could go on and on when it's about Taehyung," he cleared his throat, "I'm sorry for being so wicked toward you," he let out softly, looking up to her now.

Eyes a mirage of fire, not because they burned with intensity but because the gold in his irises and the red rims of his sclera could only reflect a flame.

"Jimin, I would have never called you wicked-" she was quick to correct him.

"Still, I wasn't very nice to you. I thought that was it, Jiah," he bit his lip, and she knew it was to will the tears back, "I thought it was game over for him, and you were the only person I could blame for it."

"Understandab-"

"Still, I shouldn't have treated you that way. I was so mad at him for everything afterwards. I'm sure I even said something stupid about how he should leave you. And I'm so sorry about that. Taehyung is more than just a friend to me, Jiah."

She nodded, a smile starting to appear on her lips, "I know."

"If anything happens to him, I'm never forgiving myself."

"You and me, both."

He returned her smile, "That asshole doesn't know what I go through because of him. Gosh, I damn near had a heart attack seeing him unconscious, I swear if he goes - I'm somehow going to end up following him even if I don't like it."

"Don't say that," she frowned again, "But yeah, I understand what you mean. I actually asked to have coffee with you because I wanted to apologise to you. Taehyung getting in trouble, being hospitalised for a week, that's all my fault.

"I wish I could have done something to stop it all, but I couldn't."

"I know, Jiah," his sigh was as heavy and hopeless as a thousand soldiers', "We just have to believe that the future will be kinder to us, that all this is worth something, right?"

"Here's to hoping," she forced a smile, holding her coffee up for him to clink with his own.

"Here's to hoping."

--

Taehyung groaned as he paused the basketball game he was watching, standing up to answer the door. He had finished his meeting early and was excited to spend time alone to watch some sport after so long.

He didn't like being interrupted.

"What?" his tired voice let out before even checking who was on the other side.

A pair of surprised eyes blinked back at him, causing Taehyung to cough awkwardly.

"Sorry, I'm a little tired. Hey, Jungkook, what's up?"

He pressed his lips into a fine line before answering, "I uh, thought Jiah might be here. She wasn't answering her phone, and I didn't know where else she'd be."

"Oh, right. It's basketball day, so she's probably at the courts with Ji Young. That's probably why she wasn't answering her phone."

Jungkook opened his mouth to speak but settled for nodding instead. Taehyung noticed the way his chocolate eyes somehow seemed to imitate ash, a loss of colour. And when he talked of Jiah, they would transform to a more saturated state, almost turning a whole new shade.

"Do you," he let out another awkward cough, "want to come in?"

"Oh, you don't have to," the cherry rising in both their cheeks was all too obvious. They had never spent time alone before, and while both of them doted on each other's best friends, they were still a blundering mess around each other.

"It's fine, I wasn't doing anything important anyway," he lied. "Come in, do you want anything to eat?"

"That's okay, Taehyung, I'm fine."

"A drink? I know it's not technically evening yet, but it's never too early to crack open a beer."

The side of Jungkook's mouth pulled up in a smile as he scanned the cupboard next to Taehyung's fridge.

"I always knew you weren't a beer guy," pointing his chin at the bottles of alcohol he shrugged, "Should we pop open one of those?"

Taehyung broke into a grin, "I thought you'd never ask."

Grabbing his favourite whiskey, he pulled out two glasses and set them on the counter at which Jungkook found home in the bar stool. In one swift movement, he poured a serving for them both before joining him on the adjacent seat.

"Hmm," the taste of the drink sent a low moan through his lips, and the men laughed at that.

"You seem to miss this, Taehyung," Jungkook shook his head to himself, "Actually, Jiah only ever drinks beer, I'm sure you miss it."

"She does," he pouted jokingly, "I haven't had whiskey in six hundred years."

A small silence hung over them, then. Both of them wanting to break it but not knowing how.

It wasn't long, however, before Taehyung did.

"Jiah's never told me," he started, "how did you two meet?"

"Jiah and I?"

"Yeah, I hope you don't mind me asking. She told me you guys were friends in high school, but that's about it."

"It's simple, really," he hummed, "Where should I start- Oh! Right, so I moved from Busan in my junior year of high school. It's a long story, but I basically wanted to escape the life my father had planned for me, and he allowed me to come here for the remainder of my schooling. So I took him up on that.

"I didn't have friends for a few months, and I was totally okay with that. But one day I remembered my father telling me about a fight club near school, and how if I was ever feeling lonely I should visit. He had friends there, you see, so I would never be alone.

"I decided to visit, and I got well acquainted with most people there, and when they found out I went to that school, they introduced me to Jiah. At the time she was just a fighter and didn't know about the club being a front for a huge criminal organisation.

"We were in only one class together; that's why I had never seen her before. But yeah, after meeting her at the fight club we instantly became joint at the hip. You see, fighting together forms a bond between two people that will never come undone."

Taehyung nodded. He didn't need that explained to him. While it wasn't physically, he and Jimin had been fighting the world together since high school. He knew the sentiment like no other.

"It's hard to know when Jiah cares about you, you know? In high school, I thought she was way too cool for me, that she couldn't care for me because I wasn't on her level.

"But sometimes she does things, she puts herself in harm's way and inconveniences herself to help you, and that's something I will never take for granted.

"She showed me she loved me from the beginning; she showed me that while it was hard to talk to her about things, I would always have a home with her and that rubbed off on me a little too much.

"I know people think your soulmate is the love of your life, but I truly think she's mine. While there is no way in hell I'd want to be with her romantically, I could never imagine my life without her."

Taehyung grinned, "Don't you worry. I don't think your soulmate has to be your love interest either. I'd admit without a doubt that Jimin's mine."

"They just have that effect on you, you know?"

Taehyung nodded dreamily, clapping him on the shoulder, "Now there's something we can toast to," raising his glass to Jungkook's they clinked them together, "To soulmates, people we could never live without. To Jiah and Jimin."

Hello loves!

How have you all been? I promised a new update every Monday, but this is a day late and I'm sorry about that! 

How have you all been? How is lockdown treating you guys?

I'm so thankful that you are still reading this story, despite it being so long omfg

The story is going to have 54 chapters y'all, we're almost at the end!

Man, I literally cried writing this chapter and the three to come, honestly, it's so sad at the end of a story when you finish. These characters are literally my kids I adore them all and never want to let this story go. I hope y'all enjoy the rest of the story, and I will have  a few bonus chapters at the end for various things as well!

The fact that Jimin actually said in that vlive that 'when it's Taehyung we're talking about, I could go on forever'  HUHU

I was also thinking of doing a little question and answer chapter at the end, a sort of reflection, so please, if you have any questions - let me know of them here!

As always, I love you guys heaps! And your comments and votes always mean the world to me.

Thank you so so so much for everything guys xx

-Tee