When Jimin came to, the first thing he noticed was that his head was not aching anymore, but it felt lighter when his eyelids felt heavier. Squinting his eyes open the first thing he was greeted with were three faces looking down on him, Namjoon, Taehyung and Jungkook.
The inside of Jimin's mouth felt bitter, his lips dry. Licking on his bottom lip he squinted again. "Oh, he woke up," Taehyung's voice floated in the air before it reached him.
The faces were gone now, Jimin looked up at the strange white ceiling. Then sat up on the bed, but it was not his bed, not the one from Busan or the one from the bulletproof boys dorm.
A bag of saline was attached to his arm, his bed and the coversheet pristine white, a blue veil surrounding him with the three others sitting on their respective chairs close to him.
"You fainted last night because of high fever so we took you to the hospital. The fever has subsided now," the brunette, Namjoon said with a voice that gave away he was tired.
"Oh," Jimin only said to himself. The needle stuck on his arm all of a sudden starting to feel very real, he could feel it just sitting there inside his vein after piercing his skin tissues and muscles.
He hated needles.
"You slept for almost twenty four hours. So you missed school today," Namjoon added and suddenly Jimin felt a bit alarmed. How was he supposed to tell his mom about this? Wait, did she even care anymore?
"And we all took care of your hospital bill together, since we felt like it was partly our faults. You don't need to worry about that," Namjoon sighed softly and it suddenly dawned on Jimin.
What he did last night, every piece of memory that were lost in the sea of his plastic dreams slowly started to come back one by one. Jimin looked down biting on his lower lip hard and started to hope it was all a fever dream.
"Boy, were you scary... hyung, I mean. I should call you that," he could feel a familiar voice say tentatively. Jungkook shifted on his seat. "Are you feeling better though?"
Again, Jimin was hating this. Among the many problems he had there was one in particular he absolutely despised, his explosive anger.
He had a tendency to keep things in, suffer in silence for days, weeks, months even until one day he'd burst and lash out to someone and when he couldn't find that someone he'd take vengeance on himself.
Jimin thought that it had stopped, he was past puberty now. He thought he had his anger in control but here he was.
Tears started to well up against the corner of his eyes again. This always came after. Rain after the lighting buzz and thunder storm, tears after the pent up anger and frustration.
"I'm not from Seoul by the way," Taehyung said all of a sudden and Jimin looked up at him with eyes filled with despair.
"I feel like I should say this, that I'm a country pumpkin just like you. I was born and raised in a village in Daegu," Taehyung huffed out, his arms crossed over his chest.
"I should call the nurse. We should go home Jimin," Namjoon stood up taking his overcoat on his hands that was sitting on his lap.
Home? Jimin wondered if he meant the dorm. Did Namjoon meant that the only three of them should leave but not Jimin?
Because Jimin clearly did not belong there after what he had heard from them, and after what he had done last night. In the midst of those thoughts surging through his brain he could hear Jungkook speak up. "Is it a female or a male nurse?"
Why that mattered Jimin did not know, but when the needle was taken out of his skin and he tried hard not to scream, when the boys helped him stand up he realized he was going to the dorm with them too.
Now a different kind of thought was making Jimin feel uneasy and in pain, how he should confront the rest of the boys when he would get there.
All the way back home in the taxi he could only ask himself that while he sat sandwiched between Jungkook and Taehyung who were excitedly talking about a new video game, as if it was all normal. As if this was normal after what happened last night.
Then he wondered where he would go if they kicked him out. He looked up this dorm online back in Busan and this was the only place that he thought was affordable, and not so far from his university.
He would like to leave too to save them and himself from the awkwardness but where was there to go from here?
Jimin felt like the white door of the dorm was actually a prison gate, and the three boys around him were officers taking him down there. Jimin felt his breathing going haphazard, as if the air kept getting stuck in his throat.
He stepped inside after Namjoon opened the door, everything seemed, normal. Surprisingly. Jin was wiping down the kitchen table with a rag. He looked up to see them and immediately looked down. "You're here," that's the only thing he said. Who did he speak too, Jimin could only think.
There was nothing for Jimin to say, as if his hands were cuffed he just stood there in the living room straight. Taehyung and Jungkook made their way to the kitchen table while Namjoon placed a hand on Jimin's back, making the shorter stiffen up like a board before letting lose feeling Namjoon patting him softly.
As if Namjoon was assuring him it was okay. The clicking sound of the white door opened again, and entered two more. Jimin saw that it was Yoongi and Hoseok coming inside of the dorm and both their hands filled with bags.
"Jimin!" Hoseok shouted as soon as he saw the younger boy, slipping out of his sneakers the taller practically ran to him. "Are you alright?" Hoseok's concerned eyes raked Jimin's face for something, what? Jimin only nodded and the latter gave a bright smile showing the huge bag on his hand. "I brought beers!"
"And I brought a cake...," Yoongi finally caught up to them slowly, his eyes on the floor and his head hung low. "But its date is expired for a day. The store manager gave it to me."
"I'm sure it still is tasty!" Hoseok cheered for him while a sound of the microwave made Jin ran to it in the kitchen.
Even from there he complained while taking something out of the microwave. "I can't believe you two brought beers and an expired cake for a sick person," When Jin turned he had a blank expression on, a bawl filled with liquid in his hand. "He should eat porridge, not those."
"I...," Jimin shifted from his right foot to left and suddenly he realized all eyes were on him. Almost choking up on his breathe, he tried to calm himself down. "I want to drink beer and eat that cake. A-and the porridge too."
"He's probably hungry," Namjoon softly said from his side.
"Alright! Set the table! I can't believe this," Hoseok put down the bag on the tiled floor and rolled up both of his sleeves before placing them on the sides of his waist. "I can't believe yall. Last night those all happened only because I was not here."
A loud sound of groan came from both Jungkook and Taehyung.
Soon chairs were gathered, beer bottles were opened and the cake laid half eaten on the middle, a big plate of tteokbokki (after Namjoon ordered it) laid almost empty too.
"If you did not like my nagging, you should've said so, y-you should've," Jin slammed a hand over his mouth letting out a small burp before he continued whining again.
"Damn, you should've said so. And who knew you wanted to eat the dishes I made?" he held out his hands to Jimin who sat on the opposite direction. "I wanted to share but you never spared a glance while I was cooking in the kitchen."
It was because Jimin always acted like he was not interested even though Jin's food smelled great, looked even better. Jimin did not want Jin to think he was miserable.
"Just tell us all your problems dude, just like you did last night!" Jin complained again but this time looking a bit furious.
"Yeah, tell us," Jungkook's face was as red as a tomato after being so drunk. All of their faces flushing red, some almost falling asleep yet chugging down the alcohol. Only Jimin and Yoongi looked sober, still. Jimin had a higher alcohol tolerance when Yoongi looked like he barely even touched his first bottle.
"Who knew you did not like me-" Jungkook pointed to Jimin, his finger swaying to the sides. "Being comfortable with you. I thought you would like that cause you'd be taking classes with students my age. J-just tell us things beforehand," he stuttered out before placing his finger on his forehead and grabbing the side of his head the next second.
Jimin was starting to feel a bit lighter now, he took a long swig until he had finished his fourth can. Taehyung whistled with his flushed face. "Look at him go! You keep exceeding my expectations since last night!"
The shorter placed the emptied can on the table with a loud clank. The kitchen table was surely not meant for seven as the chairs barely fit, squished in all together. It was a chaos before them and Jimin wondered even in his dizzy state of mind how angry would Jin get at this mess after he'd sober up.
"I want respect in the house. I want you to call me hyung cause I am older in age," Jimin then turned to Jin who had his eyes closed off and looked like he was asleep with his shoulders slumped. "And I want you to cut me some slack. It's my first time outside my home and I know I'm not good at things. I just... I just need some time."
"Okay, done," Jin said with his eyes still shut. "Done!" Jungkook shouted the next second.
Jimin wondered how he was speaking his mind so fluently, now that he was not angry anymore too. Even though he had thought about telling them this for a long time, his tongue would twist while standing before them.
But now he was doing it, saying it finally even though the scenario was different from what Jimin had imagined. "And I want Namjoon hyung to take less time in the toilet if he's using the one in ours side."
He was drunk, Jimin realized he was finally drunk. No other way the words would fly out so swiftly from his mouth, but he was liking this. Finally voicing out thr thoughts that were killing him. So Jimin could not help but giggle a bit too loudly.
Namjoon's loud groan made him stop. "But I'm constipated. A-and I'm-" he slurred off, pausing for a second. "And I'm sorry for calling you antisocial last night. But lot of times before when we sat like this or had dinner together I knocked on your door. But you always had yourself locked and never opened up... So we stopped doing so. We just did not want to bother you."
"Right, right," Jungkook mumbled with his head swinging around up and down.
Did they? Did they really knock? Jimin could not tell because when he was in his room he always had his earphone on with music. That's what he thought would be best for his loneliness, who knew there was another way open for him too. They had it opened for him but he was ignoring it without realizing.
"And I want you to talk to me sometimes since you're my roommate," Jimin pushed away the thoughts in his head and turned to Yoongi who had his eyes down, his fingers scratching on the surface of the bottle before him.
Yoongi looked up at him, his serene eyes boring onto Jimin's. "I thought you wanted to be alone. One time I came back early and saw that you were crying in the dark. You tried to hide."
Yoongi looked down again on his finger that was scratching on the surface. "I thought it would be awkward for you. So I spent time with the rest in the living room or in the kitchen."
So he did see that. Sometimes Jimin did cry to himself alone in that dark room that felt unfamiliar to him.
And Yoongi just did not want to bother him.
A trembling and long sigh escaped Jimin's chest before he focused on the blue hair beside Yoongi that was gulping down a bottle.
"Taehyung," he said in which the said boy put the bottle down and pointed to himself with wide eyes.
"Me?"
"Yes, you. Stop acting like a prick," Jimin let out a sigh again, but this time it was shorter and less ragged. "We are the same age yet you act like you don't even know me outside of here. Stop being so stuck up. And stop putting loud music early in the morning. I get you like pop, I like it too. But I have a migraine and I hate getting headaches early in the morning."
"B-but that was not me!" Taehyung scrunched up his small face. "Hoseok hyung exercises in the morning with that music."
The mentioned boy put his hand up and slowly raised his head with a bright and creepy grin on his face. All this time Hoseok had his head down on the surface of the wooden table.
"Sorry, whackass! First tell me, do you have a sister around your age?" Hoseok asked Jimin who had his eyes wide now.
"There he goes. His personality doing a 180 again after getting drunk," Jin groaned to himself.
"No?" Hoseok told to the wide eyed Jimin. "Well, fuck! Not even a relative around that age? An aunt or something?"
Jimin shook his head and the next thing Hoseok did was bellow as if his precious one had just died and grab his own curly hair in frustration. "I'm dying alone! I'll never get a girlfriend!" his face twisted and turned.
"I thought you had one... I saw at the uni-"
"Serim? That's just my friend!" Hoseok shut off the mumbling Jimin. The latter letting out a hiccup in surprise, the only senior he had looked up to seemed totally different.
"I never dated too. So-" Jimin trailed off, hoping that it assure the once-kind-now-drunk senior.
"Well, the rest had! And here I am unable to like a person for long!" Hoseok bellowed again. Jimin was surprised and looked around to see that everyone else had nonchalant faces in the table.
"Well, I dated a good few times," Taehyung murmured to himself.
"I don't know, but I think I'm dating right now?" Jungkook answer-asked with hooded eyes, the rest on the table giving him a look.
"That's unbelievable with your condition," Taehyung frowned to himself.
Jin had his finger pointed to Jungkook for no reason but then it turned to Yoongi. "Wait, you dated too?"
Yoongi exhaled, taking a sip of his drink this time around. "When I was a teen yeah. It was pretty serious and lasted for a few months."
"Wow," Jin had a knowing look on his face, his finger shaking up and down in the air. "I thought you were asexual. Like an amoeba."
"See? Everyone has dated," Hoseok pulled onto his own hair again. "Now let's play a game," immediately he let his hands fall on the table with a loud thud and looked up again with that creepy grin on his face.
Jimin furrowed his brows, everyone was so peculiar here. No one was normal, but that made him feel normal. They were all peculiar just like him.
"Who in this table does not have a big secret?" Hoseok looked around to catch all of their eyes until his landed on Jimin, those eyes shimmered in an unspoken joy. "At least I can win in this. I have a big ass secret."
Jimin stayed quiet, he had a secret. His mom, his broken family and a broken home, the reason why he took a two year gap, he had not told those to these boys. What was surprising though, that everyone else in the table were quiet as well.
Suddenly it felt like they had all sobered up, all of them sat silent without dozing off or complaining by themselves or groaning. Even though their faces were still flushed they sat quietly.
Jimin looked around to meet their faces. What was this? All of them?
"All of you have secrets?" Hoseok cried out, soon after letting his face fall on the table again. "I hate this. I'm leaving this place."
"I think he talked about leaving the dorm at least a hundred times now," Taehyung broke the thick atmosphere and everyone went back to their drunk ranting or falling asleep with their mouths open.
The chairs in the table could barely fit, Jimin shifted in discomfort. He had thought about this before too but this time, the thought that his chair did not belong here did not cross his mind.
Maybe, this could be a home for him, right here.
---
A/n: I was crazy to write 3k words in one go. Sorry this chapter is so long but I wanted it all to fit here rather than breaking the chapter in two.
What's your favourite track from agust d 2?
Mine are dwaechita (obviously), interlude: set me free, dear my friend, what do you think and moonlight (this reminds me of nevermind)
Also please watch fantasia by monsta x if you haven't yet! Love you <3