Jungkook and Jimin had been best friends for six years. Six years since the first day Jungkook laid eyes on him—and somehow, from that very moment, something inside him had changed. Jungkook was twenty-four now. An Alpha. Tall, handsome, broad-shouldered, and covered in tattoos that ran from his fingers up his arms and toward the side of his neck. He was kind, simple, and charming, the sort of person people naturally trusted. But whenever Jimin was around, Jungkook became different. Everyone could see it in his eyes. The way he looked at Jimin wasn't the way a normal friend looked at another friend. His gaze lingered. His expression softened. His attention followed Jimin without him even realizing it. Everyone noticed. Everyone except Jimin. Jungkook had never had a mate, but somewhere along the way, his feelings for Jimin had grown far beyond what he had expected. At first, he convinced himself it was only a crush. Then the crush became something deeper. Something he couldn't easily explain. There wasn't a single day when Jimin didn't cross his mind. Jungkook had known Jimin since high school, and beneath his bed were old letters and drawings he'd kept from those years—little pieces of memories he couldn't bring himself to throw away. When Jimin wasn't beside him, Jungkook sometimes felt the emptiness more intensely than he wanted to admit. He would sit alone, overwhelmed by emotions he didn't know how to handle, sometimes crying or drinking instead of talking about what was happening inside him. But never—not once—did he blame Jimin. Around Jimin, Jungkook became the same playful idiot he'd always been. He teased him, annoyed him, laughed with him, and acted like everything was perfectly normal. The moment Jimin looked away, however, Jungkook's expression changed. His eyes became quiet. Dreamy. Almost painfully sad. Because the person he cared about most in the world was standing only a few feet away, yet Jungkook had no idea if Jimin would ever feel the same. And Jimin? Jimin was completely oblivious. Beautiful was almost too small a word for him. His dark hair was soft and striking, his eyes deep and bright, and his presence seemed to draw attention wherever he went. People had crushes on him constantly. Yet somehow, he couldn't recognize the lovesick best friend standing beside him. There was an old myth Jungkook sometimes thought about—a story that said when someone's heart yearned for something deeply enough, the universe might eventually answer. Jungkook didn't know whether the myth was real. But he found himself hoping. Hoping that somehow, someday, the universe would finally give him the one thing his heart had spent six years quietly asking for. Jimin.