"Is that cheesy? I think it's just being honest. I was so shy before I met all of you," Jungkook recalls, falling quiet as he reflects upon those early days. It must have started after his father's death, Jungkook thinks. With his father gone, with his home life so much more somber, Jungkook began to carry that mood into the rest of his life. He tried not to intrude. Tried not to be trouble to anyone. But shyness wasn't exactly considered a virtue for boys of his age — if anything, it made him the target of bullying, made some of his peers assume cowardice on his part.

It wasn't until he met the others and became the recipients of their warmth that Jungkook remembers coming out of his shell. They never pressured him into speaking when he didn't have the words. Never forced him to do something he was uncomfortable with.

They accepted him as he was, and saw the potential in what he could become, perhaps no one more so than Yoongi.

"You remember, right? I think in the beginning, I basically kept bowing at the waist whenever I came across any of you. I don't know how you saw that and decided you wanted me around," Jungkook laughs.