four ; jimin
Jimin was tired. The exhaustion infused his bones and the weariness pounded against his heart. The feeling seeped into his skull and settled there.
And yet, when Sunday - his only day off - rolled around, Jimin wasn't as ecstatic as everyone else. His parents had cancelled on him at the last minute due to his brother spraining his ankle and having to go to hospital. And so, while everyone was going out and having fun, Jimin was staying holed up in his room with nothing to do.
Consequently, when someone pounded on his door at 11 in the morning, Jimin hopped out of bed to open it. The disappointment filled Jimin's eyes and threatening to spill out as tears. He cleared his throat.
"Yes?"
Yoongi leant towards him, peeking behind him into the room. "No, no, no," he muttered to himself.
While he collected his thoughts, Jimin took the chance to look, to really look, at the boy in front of him. His skin was rosy, as if he'd run here, and a light sheen of sweat coated his forehead. His eyes were wide, desperate almost. His lips were red and chewed. He was in a tatty grey jumper; it's sleeves hung past his fingers in a way that almost made Jimin blush for thinking it was cute.
"Where's Taehyung?" Yoongi asked, still glancing behind Jimin into the room.
"Out."
"When will he be back?" Yoongi finally looked back from the room and made eye contact with Jimin. It was strange, Yoongi talking to him like a person. Other than his very first day here, Yoongi had completely ignored Jimin's existence. He seemed to either be on the other side of the room or leaving it whenever Jimin entered.
"Taehyung?" Jimin asked with a gravelly voice, still half asleep.
Yoongi looked away. "Yes, Taehyung."
"I don't know."
For a second such a deep, visible anger rattled through Yoongi, that Jimin flinched. He cleared his throat and hoped that Yoongi hadn't noticed. "Why do you need him?"
"Not him, specifically. Jeongguk could work as well, I think? Where is he?"
"Meeting friends. What do you need?" Jimin didn't know why he was being nice. If this was happening on his first day here, after the way Yoongi had spoken to him, Jimin would've slammed the door in his face by now. "I can help," he added cautiously.
It wasn't his fault. Whenever Jimin saw anyone in need, he personally made it his mission to help them. Jimin could tell that Yoongi was clearly in need because of the worry lines on his forehead, and the way he seemed unable to stay still.
"No, not you."
"Why?" Jimin heard himself ask, his entire being filling with shame afterwards. He probably seemed so pathetic to Yoongi.
"It doesn't matter. I just need to know when either of them will be back."
"We've already been over this: I don't know," Jimin muttered, rolling his eyes. "And then I asked you what you needed."
Yoongi followed suit, also rolling his eyes. "And I already told you that you can't help."
"Yeah, so just tell me what it is."
Yoongi scoffed. "You're so goddamn persistent."
Jimin stepped back, suddenly bored of the conversation. "Fine then, leave." He desperately scanned Yoongi's face for any sign of a reaction, but it was perfectly blank. "But remember that when I saw you struggling, I offered to help."
"Is that why you're doing it? So you can hold it over me later?"
"I think you're going to be the one holding it over yourself," Jimin said. His voice didn't contain a single note of malice; it was too early in the morning for that. Instead he spoke authentically and with candour. He genuinely thought that Yoongi was desperate and needed his help.
Yoongi turned his back, angrily storming away for a couple steps. Just as Jimin started to close the door, he paused. Jimin held back a laugh as Yoongi turned to face him again. "Can you sing?" He asked, lowly.
Against his control, Jimin found himself smirking. "You mean other than my auto-tuned voice?"
"Fuck this," Yoongi spat, turning on the spot and continuing to walk away.
"Wait, wait, wait," Jimin shouted after him. Yoongi ignored him. "Yoongi, please, stop," Jimin said again, racing after the escaping boy.
Yoongi continued to ignore him, and so Jimin had no choice but to race towards him and grab his arm to slow him down. Yoongi twirled in his grasp, shaking him off. "I don't like being touched," he announced curtly.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," Jimin held up his hands to show surrender. "Let me help you," he said, lowering his voice and batting his eyelashes. It was a trick that usually worked for him.
Yoongi was apparently immune because he scrunched his face in distaste. "Why are you so desperate anyway?"
"I don't have anything else to do. I don't want to spend my day off alone in my room," Jimin answered truthfully.
Yoongi gave him a look like he was crazy, before facing the ground and nodding. He pulled at one of his sleeves. "Fine. Under one condition."
"What?"
"Next time you see Jin you have to tell him how nice to you I was. Oh, and no more being a smart-ass."
Jimin blinked. "That was two."
"Jimin!"
Jimin bit his lip at the realisation that he'd already broken one of the two rules. "Okay, okay, sorry let's go," he raced out of the building, giddy to get started. He hopped around on the spot, waiting for Yoongi at the door.
When Yoongi finally reached the overjoyed boy, he looked him up and down, once, twice, three times, before—
"What? What is it?" Jimin urged.
"Aren't you going to change out of your pyjamas?"
Jimin huffed, as if only realising now that he'd just rolled out of bed. "Fine, wait for me right here. Don't you dare leave without me." And with that Jimin bolted back inside the building to get ready for the day.
A few hours later Jimin was regretting ever leaving his room. The day was going exactly the opposite of how he'd imagined it.
"Jimin! Didn't I just say higher?" Yoongi's voice blasted angrily through his headphones.
Jimin wanted to yank off the headphones, hurl them to the floor and jump all over them. Knowing that was probably a bad idea, he chose letting out a tired sigh as his alternative. "Yoongi, my voice doesn't go any higher. I'm not pushing you on a swing, stop repeating that," Jimin joked lightly.
Yoongi remained stoney-faced on the other side of the glass window that stood between them. Jimin distantly wondered if he'd ever even been on a swing. He couldn't even picture the boy smiling.
Again, Yoongi rewinded the track. "Okay, again, go in three," he held up three fingers on the other side, lowering them one by one, before motioning to Jimin to start singing.
Jimin shut his eyes, before singing the same line again.
"Stop," Yoongi paused the track. "What was that? You're too slow on the beat."
Jimin couldn't help but scoff. "You're the one that told me when to go."
"Well, then, obviously you weren't paying enough attention. From the top."
Jimin couldn't help but roll his eyes. "Yoongi, it's been three hours and we've only done the chorus and the refrain," he said, glancing at the clock on the wall behind Yoongi.
Yoongi gave Jimin a quizzical look. "You're the one that offered to do this. In fact, you practically begged."
The comment bugged Jimin. Sue him for trying to do something good. He tried to calm his anger and speak in a soft voice. "I know, but it's just that we still have the fourth verse, the bridge and the outro," Jimin said into the microphone while flipping through the lyrics that Yoongi had given him. "And like, this is supposed to be my day off."
Yoongi didn't answer, tugging off his headphones, and standing up so abruptly that his chair rolled backwards.
Truthfully, Jimin felt like he was dealing with a child. He couldn't believe Yoongi had ever had the nerve to call him spoilt.
Nonetheless, he pulled off his own headphones, hanging them on the microphone stand and leaving the recording booth. In the back of his mind, he worried about how often he's found himself chasing Yoongi this week.
He caught him, following their usual routine and gripping him by the arm to turn him around.
"What?" Yoongi spat. "What the fuck is wrong with you? What do you want from me?"
Jimin couldn't help but stumble backwards. Where was this coming from?
"Why won't you leave me alone? It's fucking pathetic!"
"Yoongi," Jimin tried to speak in a calm and collected manner. "I can tolerate you being rude to me once, even twice, but I draw the line at three times. I've dedicated my entire day to you, because you needed me to, even if you won't acknowledge that. But I have no reason to stick around if that's how you're going to speak to me."
And with that, Jimin turned, making his way back to his dorm.
Jimin spent an hour laying in bed, replaying his time with Yoongi over and over in his mind and wondering where he'd gone wrong. He would've spent the rest of the day doing that, if he hadn't been interrupted by a knock at his door.
For the second time that day, he opened his door to reveal Yoongi. He was staring at the floor, clutching a white plastic bag to his chest. "I just need to drop this off," he muttered, shoving the bag into Jimin's arms. It radiated warmth and Jimin hugged it closer.
Jimin cleared his throat watching the boy in front of him. Yoongi was wringing with his hands, eyes avoiding Jimin's. His entire being emanated awkwardness. "Okay, well, that's it," Yoongi uttered slowly, as if every word pained him. "I'll see you around. Unless you don't want to see me. I understand if that's the case," he muttered. He stood for a second, before turning and walking back towards the stairs at the end of the landing.
"What is it?" Jimin asked, peeking inside the plastic bag. Yoongi stopped in his tracks. He turned back to face Jimin.
"Food. I forced you to miss lunch, and you're probably starving so..." He paused for a second. "And you were right."
"Say it," Jimin pushed. "Apologise." He held up the bag, "Isn't that what this is meant to be? An apology?"
Yoongi chewed his lip. "Don't they say actions speak louder than words?"
Jimin shrugged. "That doesn't mean words don't speak at all."
"I'm sorry," Yoongi forced the words out, looking away from Jimin's prying eyes. He paused, before anticipating what Jimin was going to say and continuing. "For being a dick to you when you were just trying to help me."
"See," Jimin grinned. "Wasn't that easy?"
Yoongi shook his head, kicking the floor. "I-I'll go now."
"Aren't you hungry?" Jimin offered and then mentally kicked himself. Spending time with Yoongi was not a good idea, and he knew he'd regret it when the situation inevitably went tits-up. "Stay," he found himself saying.
hi i know nothing about music (if it isn't obvious) !! are these chapters getting worse?? please let me know what you think xx i promise the next one is a little more exciting ;)
q: in which country do you currently reside?
-rachel