ᴘɪᴄᴛᴜʀᴇsǫᴜᴇ. | ᴊɪᴋᴏᴏᴋ ✔️

30 | i'll be your lifeline

Jeongguk sits patiently on the bedroom floor, folding his legs and watching with fond eyes as Jimin goes about doing precisely what he said he would

Showing the other his plushie collection, which, Jeongguk soon discovers, he severely underestimated. Because Jimin seems to be materializing them. From under the bed, buried under some covers, some thrown here and there, some he even pulls from out of his closet and dresser drawers. Animals, video game characters, strange little creatures Jeongguk can't even give a name to. And they come in all sizes, from the smallest being able to fit in the palm of his hand to the largest being more than the size of his head.

Jimin gathers them all together. All twenty or thirty-something, gathered together in one great big pile he pushes towards the space between him and Jeongguk.

And he sits back to gaze at them. This group of plushies in all their quirky yet charming individualities, held in the boy's gaze in such a conspicuous tenderness. It seems he forgets Jeongguk is there for a moment and reaches out to play with the ears of the Pikachu plush.

"You like them a lot."

"Mhm."

Jeongguk can't help but smile, watching Jimin place the little yellow mouse on his lap. Then he grabs another one of the Pokémon plushies and puts that on his lap, too.

"This isn't even all of them."

"I-it's not?" In genuine shock, Jeongguk's jaw drops. The other boy shakes his head.

"I've been collecting them since I was a kid. I have the others in boxes in the basement. Sometimes I switch up which ones I keep in my room."

It appears to Jeongguk less of just a collection and more of an obsession. Not simply the amount of plushies, per say, but it's the way Jimin looks at them that strikes him as different. Like it's not a mere I like these things kind of gaze - more of the these are necessities kind.

His suspicion only grows as he watches the boy slowly wrap his arms around a large group of them and pull them close to him.

A desperate child, clinging.

"Do you just like them 'cus they're cute?" Jeongguk asks, gingerly reaching out to touch the little stuffed whale. He keeps his focus on Jimin to avoid missing any shift in the boy's expression.

And he catches it. A spark of sorts being set off in those eyes, ever fixed on these inanimate belongings of his.

It takes even longer than expected for him to respond. As if his thoughts slowed to a complete halt.

Jimin hides his mouth behind some of the plushies.

"They're...family...to me..."

A whisper, small and soft but filled with emotion. Jeongguk retracts his hand as Jimin appears to be reaching for the little whale.

Family.

Based on Hoseok's description, anything could conceivably be considered more of a family than Jimin's parents were to him. And that's the saddest part of it. That Jeongguk could already understand where Jimin is coming from without even hearing it from the boy himself.

"Did your parents ever hug you?"

Likely triggered by the question, Jimin's arms tighten their hold of the plushies. He nods but he doesn't even seem convinced about it.

"My mom used to hug me, it just always felt...off..."

Depressing. Jeongguk feels a chill sweep past his heart, and he has to resist the urge to throw aside Jimin's plushies to hug him. "So is that why, then?" He asks in a soft voice. "Why you started collecting them."