STRANGER; 낯선 사람 - taekook; vmin

10. spring day

this is the finale to war of hormone. please enjoy!

don't forget to comment. I'm emotional.

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"Do you live here now?" Noona asked at the breakfast table, not bothering to be polite in front of her abeoji. It was just the four of us at the table, Jimin omma had left early for work and made us fried rice and vegetables to eat, a quick and effortless meal for a busy omma.

I expected Jimin appa to scold her, but he kept silent and allowed his daughter's rudeness in front of him. I had a hard time swallowing my Ta Bom orange juice after that.

Jimin appa shortly left for work and noona went back into her room to study for her fancy bourgeoisie university. I sat by the living room window, enjoying the view of Jimin's garden while he gathered his things to study as well. The rose garden was no longer there and the small trees had been stripped from their lively green leaves by an unforgiving winter, but they looked beautiful nonetheless. They were just going through one of their many phases, I thought, and hoped that this part of my life was a phase just the same. I wondered if abeoji had a decent meal before leaving for work and if omma was being treated fairly at the temple.

"It's freezing", I commented to Jimin, tugging on the sleeves of his clothes on me that were a size or two too small. He was staring at a math book over the table. "How is your wrist?"

"It doesn't hurt as much as I thought. How are you?"

"I'm fine", I answered without making an effort to sound convincing and looked away to the window again.

Jimin wasn't as mad with me that morning, judging by the way I woke up with him grabbing on my torso as a sloth hangs onto a branch. His cast was hard and uncomfortable to have against me, I woke up a couple of times before taking his arm and carefully turning him to the other side. His face was still peaceful and sound asleep while I handled him. Looking at him like that, I reached the conclusion that I could never not have him in my life, for being around him even in the darkest times was what brought me comfort. I laid my head on the pillow again and unsure of my next move, didn't retrieve my hand, letting my long arm hold his tiny figure. Were boys supposed to do that? Is it okay that this feels incredibly healing?

I woke up with an involuntary reaction from my penis, as I do each morning, but at that specific moment, I had another dude in my arms. Before checking to see if he was awake, I reached down my underwear to make sure it hadn't been a wet dream. Thankfully, it wasn't the case, so I silently left to the bathroom to deal with the situation.

It was just another day for us; we studied, ate, fought, and pretended that nothing happened. We studied some more, listened to music in his walkman even though he had an amazing cassette player, but having the earphones in was a lot more fun.

Jimin ended up recording me a whole tape with my favourite songs so I could listen to music at home too -- at home there were only abeoji's Michael Jackson's vinyls, and after almost ten years listening to Thriller, it gets quite old.

"Do you think we could talk through a walkie talkie when you're home?" Jimin blurted out when we were solving a problem that involved calculating the range of walkie talkies in the field and in the city.

"I think so, but maybe not", I crossed the answer. "The range reduces when there are buildings."

"We should try it sometime."

I shrugged. "Sure. But I don't have one."

I wanted to talk to him about Ye-ji. I wanted to make my feelings clear and tell him that their friendship was my priority and that I'd find a way to put what I felt for her aside if it hurt him so, but I couldn't stop seeing her as he wished. She was my friend too, just as much as him, and I missed her. I lost count of how many times I breathed in to say all those things, but I breathed out in silence every time. I found that I wasn't comfortable with talking about my feelings, and he probably wasn't either.