Nightingale | Jikook | [✓]

10 - Atmosphere

"You want to help me?" Jungkook asked, his eyes closed as he inhaled Jimin's calming scent from the shirt. The younger was still avoiding looking at Jimin, out of pure embarrassment now that his panic attack stopped.

Jimin has never felt such a strong need to hold someone before but his attraction for the younger made it so darn impossible to hold back. He just didn't want another episode of Jungkook's breakdown.

"Of course, I do. It's curable, Jungkook. I can get you help. We can get you a therapist-"

"I don't want a therapist, Jimin. Some stranger trying to touch me; trying to cure me. It's all too frightening," Jungkook spoke into Jimin's shirt as he lay on the couch.

"I...am out of options, my pretty. If we don't get you a therapist, how can you be helped?" Jimin asked as he crossed his legs on the ground, watching Jungkook's sleeping figure on the couch.

"Jimin, I can't go to therapy. I don't trust anyone enough. It's scary. You saw what just happened... It'll be worse if it was an actual stranger," Jungkook said. His eyes were still closed. He felt drowsy and just wanted to sleep at this point. The alcohol in his body and the events of today just made him feel sleepy.

"Do you trust me that much?" Jimin asked as he studied Jungkook's perfect profile.

"I trust you enough. I may not trust you completely, but it's more than anyone else. You're the only one I'll allow to get so close to me," Jungkook stated. Jimin noticed Jungkook's tired appearance and could hear it in his voice as well.

"Maybe... I could be your therapist?" Jimin proposed. Jungkook thought about it, but his sleepy mind couldn't instantly wrap around the thought. Jimin thought it might've been a bad suggestion, but he didn't expect Jungkook's answer.

"Okay..." Jungkook said, before he dozed off on Jimin's couch, holding the older's black dress shirt to his nose.

* * * *

The next morning, Jungkook woke up with the biggest surprise when he found himself sleeping on Jimin's couch. That wasn't the only surprise. The second surprise had to have been Jimin sleeping on the other couch in the living room, wearing his sleepwear. Jungkook also had a blanket draped over him, but no pillow under his head because Jimin didn't want to touch him during his sleep. If the older man wanted to gain Jungkook's trust, that was one way he could work on it; not touching the younger without his verbal consent.

Jungkook yawned as he sat up on the couch, his eyes raking in Jimin's sleeping figure on the adjacent couch. It was about five in the morning, telling by the time on the analogue clock above the threshold of the living room entrance. Jungkook felt a warmth blooming in his chest when he noticed that Jimin didn't leave him alone last night. Jungkook, however, knew that he had to get up so he stood up quietly and gathered his belongings, before leaving the apartment.

Jungkook didn't want Jimin to find him there that morning. He couldn't bare to make it even more awkward between the two of them. Jungkook felt awkward after yesterday, and he assumed Jimin would feel the same way too, but the older didn't.

Jungkook took his time to walk home, enjoying the solitude and using this opportunity to think about the events of yesterday. He was afraid, but what scared him more than anything was Jimin's willingness to help him. Jungkook never met anyone quite like Jimin. The older man was just so...special.

Fifteen minutes later, Jungkook entered his match box apartment. The apartment was just one room, with a tiny kitchen in the corner, a toilet and shower in the opposite corner, and a single bed in the center. He sighed as he looked at his tiny apartment that was nothing compared to Jimin's apartment. He felt even more poor, compared to how he usually felt, now that he was working for Jimin, but if the model would pay him well then maybe Jungkook could find himself moving out of this sad excuse for an apartment someday soon.