A Caged Bird | Minjoon

57

it was the night after jimin and namjoon had their fight and it had been almost nine hours since jimin left joon's house, fuming. they hadn't spoken and neither one of them had reached out to the other.

namjoon wanted nothing more than to talk to jimin, but sung-ha had advised him against making any sudden moves until he calmed down.

namjoon had been so frantic and crazy, he couldn't even tell sung-ha what had happened. he couldn't do anything but cry all day. he had trapped himself in his room for the remainder of the night and cried into his pillow all evening. he kept on replaying everything that happened and wondering where he went wrong.

it was pathetic.

sung-ha had tried to cheer him up, tried to talk to him, but namjoon just ignored every knock at his door.

he didn't know what to say.

he didn't even know what had happened.

what changed?

what made jimin go from being so supportive to being so furious with him in just an instant?

it wasn't until almost eight-thirty hit, that namjoon heard another knock at his bedroom door.

"joonie, can i please come in?" he heard his grandfather say, "just let me check on you.., i made you some dinner."

namjoon considered it for a moment.

he eventually sniffled and nodded, then realized his grandfather couldn't see him.

"okay," he said, weakly, waiting for him to come in and see how pitiful he looked.

sung-ha opened the door, with a tray of food in hand.

he frowned when he saw namjoon, then walked over to set the tray on his bedside table.

he sat down on the edge of the bed beside namjoon and ran his fingers through his hair, trying to comfort him.

namjoon still had his eyes clenched shut, knowing if he opened them again, he would cry.

"do you want to tell me what happened, joon?" he asked, softly, "what did jimin say?"

namjoon just shook his head into his pillow, eyes still closed.

"he got upset, huh?" sung-ha asked, "that he didn't get in?"

joon didn't reply.

sung-ha frowned.

"did he say something that hurt you, joonie?" he asked.

namjoon nodded.

"you know he didn't mean it, joon," he said, "not that it makes it okay, but you know how he is. he has strong feelings. he can be a bit... dramatic... sometimes."

namjoon finally opened his eyes, revealing his tears. he just shook his head slowly.

"i don't understand," he said, as his voice embarrassingly cracked, "why... why he got like that. he was so, so angry, grandpa. i-i've never seen him like that before. it was like... like he hated me," he continued, still crying, "he was fine with me leaving before. he told me to. i-i don't know what changed. what... what h-happen-"

sung-ha shushed him in a comforting way as namjoon got more worked up, clearly still shaken up from the argument.

"it's alright, joon," he said, "you know he doesn't hate you. you know that's not true."

"i-i don't know," namjoon said, voice still shaking, "he told me that he was r-really upset that i... that i was going. and he just... got so mad about it. a-and he was trying to act like i wasn't upset, too. like... like i didn't care or something."