Yoongi opens his mouth to protest, then shrugs. "I don't think so," he says. "As long as it wasn't a scheme to coerce someone into something they didn't actually want." Had it been him, of course, he would have said differently, that his attempts to stay friends were fake and cruel. But in general, that isn't what he thinks, and he can't imagine that he wouldn't have wanted to be Jungkook's friend even if their feelings were different. They just fit together too well not to be close.

"But that never would have happened," he adds after a moment. "I can't imagine not falling in love with you." In any universe, in any lifetime, he feels certain, they must be drawn to each other. Maybe it's dumb, some kind of adolescent wishful thinking. Maybe it's just because all of this is still so new and exciting. Still, he means it. How could he, in any time, under any circumstances, know this boy and not love him? It doesn't make sense.