The year 2015

A text message changed everything on a fine spring morning of that year.

Yoongi was preparing for his speech. His book had won the best-selling title again. It was his fifth book on the topic of morality, ethics, and changing times, with some focus on grey areas.

His first book was now part of the curriculum for students studying ethics, psychology, etc. at Ivy League colleges.

He hated giving these speeches. There was nothing new about the subject that 51-year-old Yoongi wanted to say. He had been teaching for over forty years now and with the books, he honestly felt he had said it all. But sadly, some things needed to be done.

"I don't want to go... seriously," Yoongi whined to his partner.

"Stop pouting like a twenty-year-old, you're 51 now," came the response from a 48+-year-old Park Jimin.

Trying to divert everyone's attention from the disappearance of Aehyun and Jungkook—that was the foundation of their friendship. As was the odd love both of them held in their hearts for Aehyun.

For the both of them, the urge to protect the unlikely couple had grown stronger with each passing day in the past nineteen years, ever since Yoongi came back to Boseong from the day Taehyung and Jungkook met again at the You Matter care facility. Alone.

But today, he received a text from Taehyung sharing a piece of news he wasn't prepared for.

==========FLASHBACK==========

It was the winter of 1994 when Taehyung and Jungkook first met. When Jungkook was lying in the back of the van and Taehyung drove away with that van. When Jungkook decided that Taehyung was his person and Taehyung decided he was never going anywhere without Jungkook.

Two years later, when they stood at the first floor of the facility, foreheads pressed to each other's, Yoongi just stared at them through tears flowing down his eyes. He couldn't ask for anything better for his Aehyun. He knew. "NOW, Aehyun was home."

After a few minutes, Jungkook had noticed Yoongi. He had seen how he looked at Aehyun. However, this time, he decided not to run away like he did a few days ago. This time he knew Aehyun came looking for him. Just for him. This time he didn't cower from behind.

It came from a very primary instinct. Jeongguk slowly, but surely came around to stand in front of Taehyung, like a shield, with one hand acting like a barricade. His message was clear - Taehyung belongs here, with me. He isn't going to go anywhere. And even if he tries, I am not letting him go.

It was very childlike, yes, as was visible in everyone's chuckles accompanied by teary eyes, but it was a message loud and clear as well.

"No one is taking your Taehyung away from you Jungkook." Ahjussi joked, patting Jungkook's shoulder.

It was late evening when Yoongi decided to bid adieu. To Jungkook, to Aehyun, and to everything he knew of his old life.

"I will take my leave now. I hope you both never get into any trouble, but if you need anything ever, please know I will always be available." Yoongi said to both of them. Jungkook was in no mood to be friends with Yoongi (at least not then). He just nodded and moved away.

As Yoongi moved out of the room on the first floor, Taehyung stood up to follow him. He felt he needed to say more, or at least see him off till the main road. He owed a lot to Yoongi. Taehyung always thought his road to Jungkook led through Yoongi, he didn't know how or when, but he just knew it did.

He was stopped with a jerk as a set of hands held onto his jacket's hem. It was Jungkook. "No. No. Stay." Jungkook said clearly and Taehyung smiled. He knew where Jungkook came from.

"I'll just be back," Taehyung gestured, not knowing if he understood or not. But Jungkook just raised a small fist with his pinky finger sticking out. Taehyung didn't even waste a single breath to lock his own with Jungkook's. Pressing his forehead to Jungkook's again, he removed his jacket and kept it on Jungkook's lap. He also removed a shoe from his feet and kept it on the floor in front of Jungkook. "See, I can't go anywhere far with one shoe," he gestured with his hands as slowly as he could to Jungkook, and maybe Jungkook understood as he let Taehyung's hand go.

Taehyung sprinted to the garden, where Yoongi was saying his goodbyes to the staff and sharing his contact details, in case any need arose.

Then he went and stood near the stairs which led to the huge landscaped garden and waited for Yoongi to join him.

Standing face to face with each other, neither of them had anything to say and both smiled as they looked downwards. They started climbing down the stairs when Yoongi tapped Taehyung's shoulder and Taehyung looked at him, waiting for Yoongi to say something.

"Look, I have put the clock back by eight years," Taehyung looked at Yoongi and his lips carefully. Yoongi really took the pen out of his pocket and wrote a date on his palm. The date when he came to Boseong for the first time. The date on which he entered the market and saw Taehyung.

"Let's assume that you and I never met," he continued to say when Taehyung looked back at his face.

"Let's assume, you never asked me out." By now Taehyung knew what he was going to say next.

"Let's assume you will be making a new friend - Yoongi," he continued to say.

"And let's assume this friend will be helping you in your wedding preparations, if you choose to have one."

"Oh god!!!!" Taehyung thought and kept looking at him after each sentence.

"Now that you have assumed all this, and I hope you agree, why not give me your biggest grin and a hug?"

And what could Taehyung do? He smiled, freely, once again and gave his biggest signature boxy smile before engulfing Yoongi in a hug.

==========

That was 1996 and they never stayed out of touch since then, till this day.

As years went by, Taehyung and Jungkook took over the responsibility from Ahjussi for the facility and along with trusted old hands at the facility they continued to give the best care to all the kids that either came there or were abandoned by their parents.

Did Jungkook know what exactly they were doing? Or did he do it just because Taehyung was doing it?

Did Taehyung want to do it, or was he doing it because Jungkook belonged to this place and always looked happy there?

They didn't stop to think or care. So they never moved anywhere.

These questions were redundant in the light of the facility's needs and demands, which they both took over extremely well.

Taehyung promised Yoongi that he would be there for at least one of his events. After a few years, texting arrived, then the internet, and much later evolved the technology of video calls. Keeping in touch kept getting easier. Their conversations lasted longer now, compared to the letters they had to resort to earlier. But unfortunately, Taehyung could never make it to any of his events.

*********

During one such conversation in early 2002, Yoongi asked Taehyung if he knew where his friend was."You know, the one who gave you the pen that day to write that note to me?"

Jimin... Taehyung thought, and a thousand images flashed in front of his eyes. He had promised Yoongi that he wouldn't get in touch with anyone ever from his past. And he had kept that promise. He couldn't risk everything he had built with Jungkook.

With all these thoughts swimming in his head, he shook his head a no, with unshed tears brimming his eyes.

"Wait," Yoongi said suddenly, and moved away from the computer screen. Then he adjusted the web camera as someone from the left came and sat there, and Taehyung immediately reached the screen to touch it. There was his friend, Jimin, who had helped him throughout his life, but who Taehyung could never go back to.

After apologising multiple times, Taehyung finally asked about the reason for Jimin being there.

"I just got his case to finally settle in court." Yoongi smiled and Taehyung's questioning looks grew more inquisitive.

After Taehyung disappeared for the first time (this was when they left Boseong for the very first time, even before Yoongi reported Jungkook missing) and there was no sign of Jungkook, Seokjin knew Jimin would be his best bet to lead to Taehyung. It was that first interrogation where Jimin got his name involved in the case.

After the entire fiasco of Seoul and Jungkook really going missing, the case needed to be closed for legal reasons. As the person needed to be declared missing/dead and the property needed to be transferred to next of kin. Unfortunately Jimin became an unfair target of all queries. He was not only questioned on several, several occasions, but there were a couple of times he was even beaten up by the police.

However, after Yoongi returned to Boseong, Jimin had had Yoongi with him all along. The first time Seokjin saw Jimin in the lockup after the Seoul incident, he had called up Yoongi.

"I am sorry, I didn't know who else to call. But this poor guy is suffering unnecessarily. He doesn't know where Aehyun is, or what happened with Jungkook. He is just bearing the brunt of a failed system." Seokjin had pleaded to Yoongi. He felt guilty in a way about the fact that it was because of him that Jimin's name was there on the file.

"Don't beat yourself up for it, detective. If not then, maybe later. If not you, then maybe someone else - Aehyun's only friend's name WOULD have appeared on the file. Don't overthink." Yoongi tried reassuring Seokjin.

That was the first day Yoongi sat across from Jimin and they spoke. It didn't take him long to figure out that Jimin would do anything to protect Aehyun. Even if it meant to keep doing rounds of the police station for life. But Yoongi didn't want to put him in a more difficult situation.

"What he doesn't know, cannot harm him." Yoongi had thought and never told Jimin about his friend. It was not out of lack of trust, it was to protect Jimin. Lying to the police after knowing would make things more complicated for Jimin. At that time, when he was saying that he didn't know anything, he was telling the truth, and it was much easier to sell the truth to the police anyday.

It took many years, innumerable meetings and a lot of paperwork by Yoongi to get Jimin out of this soup. Yoongi was happy to do it. His meetings with Jimin were getting more and more interesting each day.

"Listen, if you're going to hand me over a ledger for all the expenses after I am out, just let me be here. I have ZERO money." Jimin had firmly told Yoongi in the initial days. He couldn't fathom why Yoongi was helping him.

Yoongi just smiled through the entire journey with no rebuttals. Though he would have never admitted it during those meetings, he developed a very soft spot for Jimin. It was really something, watching him smile through all the pain and humiliations, and still finding the strength to crack a joke or two at him.

And here they were in 2002. It was only when he knew Jimin was in no danger that he had told him the entire history of Aehyun and Jungkook. He was sitting on the carpeted floor of his house, at the foot of the chair Jimin was sitting on. He lived in Boseong now. He just could never leave.

"I have no words to express how sorry I am. Not because I lied, I had to do that, and I pray that you see that too. But I felt bad each day seeing you in this much pain." Yoongi didn't hold back his tears on that day.

Jimin climbed down from his chair to sit next to Yoongi, holding his hand in his, "I never knew anyone else could love Aehyun as much as me. And today, when i know, there is nothing better I could want. If I had to go through it again, there's not a single thing I would change," he said, holding Yoongi's hands in his.

With no place to go back to, and his house not in the best condition as his daily earnings took a hit, Jimin took Yoongi's offer of an invitation to stay with him. He took it because it made practical sense, but not without offering to help Yoongi in some form and manner.

"We will figure that later, I have enough things on my plate. I am sure you will be of great help, but before all of that, do you want to talk to Aehyun?" Yoongi asked, as he set up the computer screen and webcam.

And here they were, Jimin and Taehyung, his Aehyun - talking - correction, crying and wiping tears watching each other.

"I will come and see you soon with Yoongi hyung. He says he will let me know when it is safe for us to meet." Jimin said, blowing a big flying kiss to the screen.

==========