FLOWER | Winrina

Chapter 31

Minjeong's phone went to voice mail when Jimin tried to call her once she finally had her phone back, and she tried not to let it bother her. She knew that Minjeong might be with her sister, so she just lay in her bed feeling numb. The events of the previous day were dawning on her, and she knew that no matter what happened to her wrist or her head, her mom wouldn't be any less mad than she'd been previously. And that meant that her relationship with Minjeong was at risk.

Her mom had the painkillers that she was supposed to take for her wrist, and when they'd gotten home, Tiffany had made sure to let her know that she couldn't have any for another three hours. Nevertheless, Jimin's wrist was hurting, her heart was aching at the idea of whatever "rules" her mom was going to put into place the following day, and she just felt like curling up into a ball in her bed and crying.

So she did.

Minjeong called her back only like half an hour later, but Jimin didn't answer in favor of texting, because she was still crying and she didn't want her girlfriend to worry. 

To Minjeong - Hi :)

From Minjeong - Sorry I didn't answer earlier. :( I couldn't sleep last night and I didn't fall asleep until this morning. Slept a while.

A phone call came in again from Minjeong, and Jimin sighed, sitting up a bit in her bed and wiping the tears off of her face the best she could before answering. "Hey." She knew the greeting sounded sad.

"What's wrong?" came the immediate question.

"Nothing," Jimin insisted without thinking, really preferring to talk about anything other than herself.

"Jimin..." Minjeong's voice was careful. "Please tell me what's wrong."

"Everything," Jimin gave in, defeat in her voice. "My mom knows about you and me, I'm never going to get a sliver of freedom ever again, and I can't even draw to stop thinking about it."

"Did you and your mom talk about what's going to... happen, or whatever?" Now Minjeong sounded scared, and that hurt Jimin's heart, because she wasn't close enough to hug Minjeong against her, and even if she was, her wrist might prevent it. It was an awful feeling.

"Tomorrow," Jimin murmured, tears welling in her eyes again. She felt no better than she had weeks prior, when she'd spent nearly a whole day crying or sleeping, and that's what she felt herself heading toward. "If I'd worked to stay better friends with Jeno, he never would've told my mom about the alcohol. And she wouldn't have taken my phone. And she never would've seen that text from Aeri. If I'd been more careful... if I'd told Yuuto to go the speed limit when we first left, we wouldn't have been at the same intersection as that drunk driver. Fuck, I should've done so many things differently."

There was a quiet breath on the other side of the phone. "You couldn't have known that anything was going to happen, Jimin, either time. You cannot blame yourself for it all."

Jimin hit the speaker on the call and tossed her phone next to her, burying her eyes against her pillow. "It would be so much easier if my dad was here. If he could... talk to her, or if I could t-talk to him. He would've been so much better about a-all of this. I m-miss him so m-much, Minjeong." And now hot tears were leaking from her eyes into the previously dry pillow case surrounding her pillow.

"I know."

Wanting to say something else, the dark-haired girl opened her mouth again to talk before she just choked out a sob and then buried her face completely into her pillow and cried. She wasn't sure for how long she was on the phone with Minjeong, because at some point, her phone beeped to tell her it was at low battery and then shut down before she could say anything to her girlfriend. She'd hastily plugged it into its charger before crying more.