Summer break was approaching. And that meant that preparations for the school's annual fair were to begin, taking up a large portion of the day where other classes had formerly been. Naturally, many students were ecstatic about this, for they much rather preferred fair preparations over...well, pretty much anything else. And a great number of them looked forward to the fair and were more than happy to pour hard work and enthusiasm into something that would be worthwhile.
Min Yoongi was not among those people. To him, this annual fair was just about as pointless as PE. If not more so. Nonetheless, he didn't really have a choice with this, either. Students were graded for participation. So even if all he did was glue pieces of cardboard together or sprinkle glitter on paper, he had to do something.
The classroom wasn't in any kind of order. Desks were scattered, students were scattered, supplies were scattered, Yoongi's brain felt scattered... Being sleep-deprived (yet again) didn't help. He couldn't concentrate on what he was doing, and the absurd commotion his classmates were causing only made matters worse. Honestly, at this point Yoongi was lucky he didn't have a pair of scissors in his hand, else he might have accidentally hurt himself due to lack of focus.
For a fair amount of time he was by himself in one corner of the room. Eyes heavy, stomach growling, striving to tune out all the voices clouding his head. How was he supposed to get anything done in these conditions? As if his motivation weren't nonexistent enough. He checked his phone. Namjoon hadn't texted him. Of course he hadn't. He was probably busy actually getting things done.
"Yoongi, there you are!"
Yoongi's head, nearly on the desk after he had begun to doze off, shot up abruptly at the sound of his name, and he looked up to find Jimin standing in front of his desk, carrying a large brown box atop which rested a box cutter. Taehyung sidestepped out from behind Jimin. He then waved apathetically at Yoongi, who waved apathetically back. This was becoming a regular thing. It almost seemed, to Yoongi, that is, that Taehyung was trying to be nice and social, but evidently failing each time by the obvious look of disinterest on his face. Exactly the opposite of Jimin, who unfailingly had a smile on every time he appeared before Yoongi.
"I've been here for a little while now," Yoongi said eventually. His eyes slowly returned to the colored pieces of paper in front of him. "I'm supposed to be making signs...or designing them...I don't even know anymore."
"Will we distract you by sitting here?"
He lifted his eyes. Jimin was gesturing at two empty chairs nearby as he patiently awaited a response. Taehyung, on the other hand, went to retrieve the chairs before Yoongi could even consider giving the okay.
"...does it matter what I think?" He sighed and flicked a pen cap off his desk. "I'm pretty sure no person could possibly distract me more than I am right now. So by all means." He looked at Taehyung. "Take a seat."
Jimin and Taehyung did just that. However Jimin soon stood up again, for he discovered it was much easier to work with such a large box on the desk this way.
"What's that about?"
"This box?" Jimin patted the sides of it and beamed. "No idea," he answered Yoongi. "They just told me to open it and see if I can make good use of the contents." He spun it around and briefly examined the sides of it, appearing to be checking for labels of any kind. Nothing. He shook the box gently.
"Maybe it's food."
"Tae, I don't think there's gonna be food in here."
"If it's potato chips I call dibs."
"Tae, shouldn't you be doing something?"
Taehyung pouted. "Don't wanna."
"I don't think Yoongi wants to either but at least he's making an effort. Why don't you help him?"
"I'll think about it."
"Mhm..." Jimin rolled his eyes, sighing under his breath as he picked up the box cutter. It was rather small, and the metal, rigged blade looked awfully rusty, as though it had left out in the rain far too many times. Yoongi doubted it would prove to be very useful. But perhaps, he thought, this was the only one available at the current moment. So he didn't say anything. He just watched, out of his peripheral vision, as Jimin stabbed the box cutter into the box and immediately began to struggle with it. It wasn't doing its job with ease, or at all.
"Stubborn thing..."
He shifted his position a bit, trying to attack this issue from a different angle. This led to him placing a hand on the top surface of the box close to where his other hand was. Too close. The blade of the cutter wasn't moving at all at first. But so suddenly it tore through the cardboard and cut straight into that misplaced hand of Jimin's, drawing blood in an instant and causing him to drop the tool he had been holding. The blood ran down his skin and dripped onto the box.
Something clicked in Yoongi's head. Like the haunting echo of a ticking clock in a silent room. It drove him, in a feverish panic, to seize Jimin by the wrist and race out of the classroom, down the hall where a handful of students working on bulletin boards fired concerned stares at the two boys. Jimin didn't know at the time that Yoongi was rushing him to the school hospital. But at that time that was the only thing on Yoongi's mind. He was tempted to look at Jimin's hand, or to tell him to calm down, or something, anything. At the moment, though, it was Yoongi who needed to calm down. Unfortunately such a thing was an impossible task for his frantically beating heart. And he didn't really know why he was so distressed by the occurrence. Maybe it was the sight of blood. Maybe he just had hemophobia and this was the first he was learning of it.
By the time they reached the nurse's office, the majority of Jimin's hand was stained with his blood. The nurse, seeing this the second the boys stepped into the room, withheld a gasp and rushed to retrieve what she needed to treat the injury. She kindly asked Jimin to take a seat on one of the beds. And she got to work immediately.
Yoongi waited by the door. His chest ached and his mind raced. It was just a cut on the hand. Why was he so worked up? Just a cut. Just a cut. It couldn't have been that deep. He was fine. Jimin was fine. A band-aid over the cut and he would be fine. He was fine. Jimin was fine.
"Yoongi?"
Time passed so quickly. Yoongi, yet fazed by his troubling thoughts, turned his head abruptly to look at the nurse who had just exited the room. She was gazing at him with worry.
"You are Yoongi, right?" The nurse gave a soft smile. "I remember you from your last visit here. You're the kid who got knocked unconscious by a dodgeball, aren't you?"
Yoongi nodded hesitantly.
"I thought so," she said, also nodding. "Listen, you don't have to look so distraught, he'll be fine. If you want to go in you can. He's not required to stay in my office, so do me a favor and let him know he's allowed to leave whenever he wants."
With tentative movements Yoongi brought himself to open the door and enter the office/ There he found Jimin, sitting on the edge of the bed, looking down at his now bandaged hand. However he raised his head as soon as he registered Yoongi was in the room. There was a brief moment of silence between them.
"Are you okay?"
Stupid question. That was a stupid question, Yoongi.
"I am." Jimin wore a saddened smile. "It does hurt a lot, but I'm sure the pain will fade before too long. I'm just a little worried, though. Are you okay?"
"Me?" Yoongi pointed at himself, tone and expression both showing he was taken aback by the question. "I'm not the one who lacerated his hand-"
"You looked really scared."
Yoongi's breath got caught in his throat. A shaky and uncertain gaze drifted upward to meet Jimin's eyes.
"Come sit next to me, Yoongi."
He did as he was told. Though he kept some distance between them.
"I was careless, I know," Jimin said as he held the wrist Yoongi had grabbed earlier. "Should've known not to use a rusty box cutter."
He winced, fingers of his bandaged hand curling. Yoongi tensed up and instinctively reached out to Jimin, who stared back at him, face inscrutable.
"There you go again..."
Yoongi withdrew himself. "What are you smiling about?"
"Nothing, you're just cute when you're caring about people."
"Quit mocking my awkwardness."
Jimin giggled. "I wasn't mocking you."
"Yes, you were. And I'll have you know I don't really appreciate people mocking me. Dare I say it's one of my least favorite things."
"What's your least favorite thing?"
"Morning people."
"Understandable. My least favorite thing is chai tea."
"And how does your chai tea-worshiping friend feel about this?"
"I think he's still struggling to get over that fact."
Yoongi permitted himself a smile, a slight one, but it made all the difference. Jimin poked his cheek. Yoongi swatted his hand away.
"Why must you bully me?" The orange-haired boy tried to pout but his grin made it too obvious. "I'm injured, you know."
"Clearly you're well enough to tease me. I have no sympathy."
"Aww....h-hey, where are you going??"
"Back to the classroom. I have some signs to make."
"I'm coming with y--ouch, that freaking h--I'm coming with you, Yoongi! Wait for me!!"
They both ended up going back together, side by side, until they actually reached the classroom, which is when Yoongi allowed Jimin to enter first. Taehyung had been waiting in the corner. He stood up immediately upon seeing Jimin, but sat down again when he noticed that Yoongi was right behind him. And Tae's face was just coated in dejection.
He felt like a kicked puppy but said nothing.
Jimin waved to him and hurried over to show his friend his hand.
"Tae, look!" He exclaimed. "I'm all fixed up! Hurts like the dickens but I'll be okay."
"Good," Taehyung whispered, in a voice almost too soft to hear. "I was worried, Jiminie." He glanced at Yoongi who was still standing by the classroom door. "Call it a gut feeling, but something tells me he was too."
"Yeah, I think so too. Yoongi's a sweet guy."
"Mm. If you say so, Jiminie."