1960, A Distant Memory

"Come here this instant, Jeon Jung-kook!" His mother bellowed. "I will not ask you twice."

Grabbing his muddy shoes from the ground, Jung-kook raced to the spot where Mrs. Jeon was looming at the grand entrance to their manor. He felt the drums beating on his chest and heard the bells ringing in his ears.

What is it she wants now? Jung-kook thought to himself, while discretely throwing up a glance at the woman who had her fists at the side of her hips. Beneath his long lashes, he could see that his mother was wearing a scowl on her face. This can't be good.

"What did I tell you about hanging around with riff-raffs?" Jung-kook's mother questioned, but her words had come across to Jung-kook's ears as more of an admonishment than an inquiry.

"Ermmm.... that you don't like them???" Jung-kook answered while trying to sweeten his tone, hoping his mother would find him adorable, even though at fifteen, he had already passed that age where someone would call him "cute."

"Exactly, Jung-Kook, and you know that displaying a sheepish grin won't get you anywhere." Mrs. Jeon said, seeing through his feeble attempts at feigning innocence.

"But Taehyung is not a riff-raff! He is very smart and talented, and he's also a scholar." Jung-kook protested, as this wasn't the first time, nor will it be the last that he had tried to reason with the house matriarch.

His mother lifted her arms from the side of her hips and folded them across her chest, now heaving in anger. "It doesn't matter to me how smart... that... that... rat is, you are NOT going anywhere near him."

"Why mother? You converse with his father every day, so why can't I talk to his son?" Jung-kook continued opposing his mother, knowing it will probably lead nowhere, but at least he wanted to try.

His mother's eyes grew wider perhaps not expecting her son to retort, as he would typically hunch his shoulders and retreat to his room after he had been reprimanded.

"Well... that's not the same," she stammered.

Jung-kook pressed on after seeing how his mother was hesitant. "And how is that different? They come from the same family, and they have been serving us for most of their lives, providing the food we eat so we won't ever go hungry, how are we so much better than them?"

"Just because his father's the head farmer doesn't make them equal. And I only talk to him out of necessity, not because I want to dilly dally with him!" His mother responded, a tinge of desperation in her voice.

Jung-kook's lips turned slightly upwards, a smirk forming on his face. "Well, it certainly didn't look like that when you were flirting with him this morning."

His mother's face became crimson at her son's insinuation, "I was doing no such thing! I was merely trying to be civil! As you said he has done so much for our family, and it was the least I could do."

"Stop bullshitting, Mother! Just because your shit smells like roses, doesn't mean they are!" Jung-kook shouted and stormed off in the opposite direction, failing to see his mother's eyes and mouth agape at the retreating figure.