red ; bts

forty seven

The next day, waking up felt weirder than usual. You didn't have a headache, but you would've much rather preferred a headache over the heavy feeling tightening up your chest. The countdown had begun. You were that much closer to a significantly intimidating amount of power.

"How did I know I'd find you here?" You walk into the Quarter holding a cold glass of water, finding Jimin practicing his hand-to-hand combat skills on a 'shock dummy'—a specialized practice unit that Taehyung developed not so long ago which registers the force it's being hit with. You and Jimin liked to mess with them when you had stress to be relieved, which was often.

"Oh shit—Yuri!" Jimin turns around right after gifting the dummy with a strong swing kick to the stomach, breathing a little heavily with his slightly wide, surprised eyes meeting your own. That name hurts every time they say it, but you can't truly figure out why. "Y-You scared me." He says, through a couple of heavy breaths. The bandage around his hand catches your attention.

"I—uh," you pause and nod at his hand, slowly making your way further into the room, "I didn't get a chance to really apologize for that yesterday. Guess my pride was too strong. I'm sorry."

"I'm trying to be nice. Don't push it."

"Nice? Woman, you're never nice to me."

"I'm always nice, partner."

"I'm gonna pretend that phrase
didn't just come out of your mouth."

"Sorry about this?" Jimin asks, raising his hand. He senses the genuine guilt that's putting you down, hoping to lift some of it with a little chuckle. "Don't worry about it." He waves it off, making it seem like he doesn't really care. Last night there was a unit meeting about you while you were asleep. Everyone agreed to be nice and not ask questions. They'd figure out what happened at NCT on their own while keeping a close eye on you—without you knowing, of course.

"I'm serious." You extend the glass of water in your hand out to him, watching as he looks down at it in slight surprise for a few moments before actually taking it. "I want you to know that I am sorry, Jimin."

"Thanks." He takes a small sip of his water, meeting your eyes, "And I'm serious too, Yuri. Really. Don't worry about it. Unnecessary apology accepted. It's all good." He assures with a small smile, "That was actually the most badass thing I've seen you do. It was cool. I'm proud."

"Proud? Something's definitely up with you." You observe, squinting your eyes at him a little in inevitable suspicion—a sense that you've developed too keenly for your own liking. Since there's a lot of things for people to be suspicious about in your life, you're suspicious of everyone and everything as well. "Normally, you'd still be mad at me. You wouldn't have taken the glass of water, much less talk to me."

"And you say this because you know me so well?" Jimin raises and eyebrow, challenging the true balance in your bank of intellect on his character. "Yuri, no offense, but you have no idea."

You're right.
Yuri has no idea.

"Oohh," your lips curl up into a small smile as you cross your arms over your chest, "okay. Wow." You raises both your eyebrows. "Well, then, give me an idea. You know, since I have none according to you." You let out a small chuckle, "Actually, I wanna know why you say that, partner. Why would I have 'no idea' if we work and spend the most time together?"

Partner?

"What did you call me..?"

"Huh?" You act more confused than you actually are, trying to keep up with Yuri's personality as much as you can. You know you shouldn't have said that. It's too risky. But you still wanted to. You want to see if they regret what they did. You want to be less angry at them for getting rid of you like that.