Jinyoung waved off Eric after he dropped him off at thirty miles an hour outside of his small house, then running to the front door. He rang the doorbell only to find that it wasn't working and instead resorted to knocking on the door. No one answered.
"Jackson, Jackson, please open the door," he called, grabbing the handle and shaking it a few times. Silence came from in the house and he ran a hand through his hair in frustration.
He could see an open window above the porch and quickly, he scaled the tree next to it before struggling to get across into the room. It was obviously the guest room, there wasn't really much that was in it other than basic furniture and some pictures. But Jackson had been staying here, Jinyoung could feel it.
Was Jackson really changing that much? The room wasn't trashed and the bed was actually made.
He heard the shower running from the pipes through the thin walls. Biting his lip, Jinyoung sat cross-legged on the bed and stared at the door.
It suddenly hit him that he would be seeing someone that he loved that liked him back until he thought that this was all purely for manipulation. What would he even say?
Jinyoung's heart started to beat faster as he heard the water shut off and he realized that he still had no idea what he was going to say.
The door opened after a moment and Jackson stood there with a snapback in hand, no shirt and a pair of basketball shorts. He stared at Jinyoung for a moment before yelling, "ERIC!"
"He's not here," Jinyoung whispered, "He went to go drive into Jimin and Jimin's dorms."
Jackson rolled his eyes and walked in, throwing open the dresser drawer to pull out a shirt. "How did you get in here?"
"...you left the window open."
"Why are you here?"
"...to apologize...?"
"Is that a question?"
Jackson stared Jinyoung down with a steely gaze and when the younger didn't answer, he turned and started towards the door. He was planning to just go for another run, anywhere away from "Father's Favorite".
"Please Jackson, talk to me?" Jinyoung sounded desperate. He was desperate. He is desperate!
Jackson stopped and scoffed, "Talk to you? I have nothing to say to you that I haven't said already."
"Then just listen. Listen to me, just for a few moments," Jinyoung begged, moving to a standing position.
Jackson sighed and cursed his aching heart, tugging on the shirt in his hands and looking at Jinyoung through wet bangs. The younger was having trouble controlling his heart to that he could formulate sentences.
"I....Jackson," he stuttered, "I..."
"You what? Look, I don't have time for this, I'm meeting Bambam for breakfast in an hour--"
"I am so so sorry."
Jackson looked at him with a raised eyebrow for a moment before turning to fully face him. It wasn't until then that he set whatever anger that had previously been there aside and realized just how pitiful Jinyoung looked at the moment. He had never seen him like this.
His hair was oily and his face greasy with thick bags under his eyes from a lack of sleep. His skin was red and blotchy everywhere from the rainy weather that had been happening for the past few days and Jinyoung looked much skinnier than he did when Jackson last saw him.
"I don't think...I don't want to think that you hate me," the dark-haired boy spoke, holding his arms with his hands, "I want to imagine that this isn't my fault but in your eyes...it is. And it should be, I should've been doing more to help you and I am so sorry."
Jackson looked at the shivering boy a few times over, his heart telling him to take care of Jinyoung and nurse him back to health while his mind still told him that he was unconvinced. And it was obvious that Jinyoung knew he wasn't convinced.
"Um...before you walked in, I was getting into a fight with your father about how much he was pushing you and I was about to tell him off truly when you walked in," he continued, "And Jaebum took me away from the office and to Hoshi's and he told me that you saw this as a betrayal and I couldn't let that stand."
"You "couldn't let that stand" ?" Jackson asked, suspiciousness lacing his voice, "You can't be serious."
Jinyoung would've replied to his statement but he was caught in his mind, he was caught in an apologetic loop that prevented him from perceiving anything that Jackson said.
"...so I started looking for you and when the teachers said that you'd dropped out of college, I started getting really really worried and as much as I felt guilty I couldn't think about myself because I didn't know if you were hurt," Jinyoung didn't miss a beat and he was starting to run out of air and get light headed.
"Jinyoung..."
"...and I asked our friends if they knew where you were and no one knew so I went to Hoshi and he said that you were here and I didn't know where Eric's house was so I tried to get Hoshi to tell me and then Hoshi said he didn't know but he knew that Park Jimin did and I asked which one and he told me he didn't know..."
"Jinyoung, stop."
"...so I went to both Jimins and that took about a day but they only knew where his studio was so I was waiting to try and see if I could run into Eric there but I was outside for like, two days before he came and..."
This time, Jackson didn't interrupt him but the black vision that Jinyoung was getting did. He cut himself off and grabbed the chair next to him, taking in shallow breaths before he forced himself to continue.
"...and then he drove me here and the only thing I could think was you hating me so much more than you did before because I showed up and I got scared--"
The lack of food, water, sleep, good living conditions and air to his lungs cause Jinyoung to faint, Jackson lunging forwards to catch Jinyoung's body. He shook him for a moment, calling his name for a moment before his hand went up to the desk and pulled down his phone.
He called the hospital and had them send an ambulance to come pick Jinyoung up but whatever the woman on the other end was saying made it no further than the phone. Jackson could only hold Jinyoung close and run his fingers along his arms.
"Jinyoungie?" he whispered, hanging up the phone and dropping it to the floor next to him, "Don't play with me, I'm not going to apologize this way."
Tears pricked his eyes as he could feel Jinyoung's pulse getting weaker, holding him tighter and curling up with him in his arms.
"Jinyoungie," he whimpered, running his hands through his hair, "I'm sorry."
