Seokjin had learned very early that his life would never look like everyone else's.
It started in high school.
At first, everyone thought he was simply exhausted.
Jin had always been the kind of student who stayed awake until two in the morning studying, then showed up to school looking perfectly fine the next morning. He was smart, competitive, and annoyingly determined whenever he wanted something.
So when he started sleeping for unusually long periods of time, nobody immediately understood what was happening.
The first episode lasted three days.
The second lasted almost a week.
Then came the episode that lasted nearly two weeks.
By then, his parents were terrified.
Doctors eventually gave his condition a name: Kleine-Levin syndrome.
A rare neurological disorder characterized by recurring episodes of excessive sleep, altered behavior, confusion, and changes in perception.
There was no simple cure.
There was no schedule they could predict.
And there was no guarantee that the next episode would last only a few days.
Jin hated that most of all.
He hated not knowing.
He hated waking up after days had passed and finding messages from people asking where he'd been.
He hated missing birthdays.
Missing exams.
Missing ordinary afternoons.
But most of all, he hated watching his parents become afraid every time he stepped outside.
Because there had been one incident.
One terrible incident that changed everything.
Jin had been eighteen.
He had gone outside alone to buy something from a convenience store.
He remembered walking there.
He remembered buying a drink.
He remembered standing outside.
And then—
nothing.
He woke up in a hospital.
His mother was crying beside him.
His father was talking to the doctor.
His older brother hadn't slept properly for three nights.
Jin had collapsed somewhere outside during an episode.
He had been lucky.
Too lucky.
After that, the rules changed.
Jin could go outside.
But never alone.
His mother accompanied him.
His father accompanied him.
His older brother accompanied him.
And when his family couldn't, there were always his friends.
Hoseok.
Taehyung.
Jimin.
Jungkook.
His family had slowly built a protective circle around him.
Sometimes Jin hated it.
Sometimes he understood it.
And sometimes, when he looked at his mother's worried expression before leaving the house, he knew there was no point arguing.
So Jin built a different kind of life.
If he couldn't live normally, he would make his version of normal.
He finished high school through homeschooling.
Then he enrolled in an online university.
He graduated.
Then, because apparently one degree wasn't enough for Kim Seokjin, he enrolled in a master's program.
His family thought he was joking.
He wasn't.
He finished that too.
At an age when most people were still figuring out what they wanted to do with their lives, Jin already had a master's degree sitting inside a frame on his bedroom wall.
He couldn't use it for a normal career.
He knew that.
But that didn't mean he wanted his illness to decide how much he was allowed to learn.
So he studied.
He cooked.
He played tennis.
He went to the gym whenever his body allowed him to.
He played piano.
He played guitar.
And he sang.
That was how he accidentally became known online.
It started with harmless Instagram posts.
A video of him playing piano.
A short clip of him singing while cooking.
A guitar cover recorded late at night.
Sometimes Hoseok joined him.
Sometimes Taehyung.
Sometimes Jimin.
And sometimes Jungkook would sit beside him and ruin an otherwise beautiful recording by laughing halfway through the song.
Jin never expected people to care.
But they did.
His followers grew.
Then grew again.
And eventually, one particular person found his account.
Min Yoongi.
Producer.
Rapper.
Songwriter.
And one of the owners of a rapidly growing music agency alongside Kim Namjoon.
Yoongi was preparing his next album.
He had been listening to hundreds of voices.
None of them felt right.
Then he heard Jin.
He replayed the song three times.
Then five.
Then he sent the link to Namjoon.
"I want him."
Namjoon stared at the message.
"You don't even know him."
Yoongi typed back.
"I know his voice."
That was enough
