Chapter 1- Professor JK

The lecture hall hummed with the soft rhythm of rain tapping against the wide windows. The smell of damp earth floated faintly through the air, the kind of scent that made people dreamy.

Professor Jeon Jungkook was standing by the blackboard, a piece of chalk in his hand. He had been explaining a passage of literature, but his students had noticed something strange—every time it rained during class, he would pause for a second, as though caught in a memory, and a small smile would appear on his face.

Today, someone finally dared to ask.

“Professor,” a girl near the front row raised her hand, her eyes bright with mischief. “Why do you look so happy when it rains? Don’t most people get gloomy?”

A ripple of laughter ran through the class. Jungkook blinked, caught off guard, but his lips curved.

Another boy, leaning back lazily in his chair, added, “Is it because you have a romantic story about rain? Maybe a secret love story?”

The room buzzed immediately with interest. Whispers flew from one desk to another.

“Come on, sir, tell us!” another student called from the back. “We won’t write it down in notes, promise.”

“Yeah,” a girl chimed in, “you always tell us about poets and their tragic loves—what about yours?”

Jungkook tapped the chalk lightly against the board, buying himself time. He wasn’t a man who shared personal things easily. For years, his story had lived quietly inside his chest, too precious, too fragile to give away. And yet… perhaps because the rain was falling just like it had back then, or perhaps because of the way his students’ eyes were glowing with curiosity—today felt different.

He set the chalk down carefully on the ledge, dusting the white powder from his fingers. Turning back to the class, he folded his arms and leaned against the desk.

“My love story, huh?” he murmured, his voice low but steady. “Well… it isn’t the kind of story you’d expect. It wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t even simple. But it was… mine.”

The laughter faded into silence. Dozens of faces stared at him, expectant and eager.

Jungkook’s gaze drifted to the window. Rain trickled down the glass, just like it had that night. For a moment, his reflection overlapped with the memory of another boy’s smile.

“It began years ago,” he said, almost as if speaking to himself. “On a rainy evening, when I stepped off a bus. I didn’t know it then, but I was about to meet someone who would change my life forever.”

The students leaned forward in their seats.

“He was standing there, drenched from head to toe, staring up at the sky as if he’d never seen rain before. Everyone else was running for shelter, but he… he looked like the rain belonged to him. I remember thinking he was the most beautiful person I had ever seen.”

A soft chuckle escaped him, tinged with something bittersweet.

“His name,” Jungkook said finally, “was Taehyung.”

The rain outside seemed to deepen, as though it, too, remembered. The classroom blurred at the edges, and his words carried them all into the past, where a younger Jungkook first laid eyes on the boy who would become his everything.

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