The rain poured quietly over the rooftops of their small town, casting everything in a gray melancholy. Inside the old library—forgotten by most and remembered only by those who needed silence—two boys sat side by side.
Jungkook, with his sleeves always too long, traced circles on the fogged-up window. Beside him, Taehyung flipped the pages of a poetry book they’d read a dozen times. Neither spoke. They never had to.
The unspoken between them was always louder than words.
“I hate this town,” Jungkook whispered finally, voice catching like a breath held too long.
Taehyung looked up, his eyes soft. “I know.”
“They’d never understand,” Jungkook added, glancing at the world beyond the glass. “What we are. What we could be.”
Taehyung closed the book. He didn't smile, but his voice was gentle when he said, “What we are!”
Jungkook turned to him. Their knees touched. The space between them was too small to hold so much longing.
“I wish…” his voice broke. “I wish we were born somewhere else. Somewhere we could just be... us.”
Taehyung nodded. “I think about that a lot. Waking up next to you. Holding your hand in public. Kissing you without having to look over my shoulder.”
Jungkook's lip trembled. “I’m tired of hiding, Tae.”
“I know,” he said again, quieter this time. “Me too.”
That was the last time they met in the library.
A week later, Jungkook was gone. Rumors whispered of his parents sending him away—"to fix him." Taehyung walked the same streets every day, hoping, praying he’d see him again.
He never did.
Years passed. Taehyung stayed. The town stayed. Nothing changed, except Taehyung grew older with a hollow in his chest that never healed.
One cold evening, long after everyone had forgotten, he returned to the library. The same poetry book still sat on the dusty shelf.
Tucked inside was a letter. Yellowed. Torn at the edges. But the handwriting was unmistakable.
.
.
.
Tae,
I couldn’t say goodbye. They wouldn’t let me. But if I had the chance, I would’ve told you everything.
I loved you. I still do. I always will.
In another life, we wouldn’t have to hide.
In another life, I’d be yours.
-Jk
.
.
.
Taehyung sat down, held the letter to his chest, and cried for the first time in years.
Outside, the rain began to fall. And this time, the world felt a little heavier for it.
