Jin hands me a bottle of water and I take a sip, not letting my eyes wander from the now empty corner of the room.
"I see you ate all the peanut butter cookies," Jin says, and I reluctantly pull my eyes to the table to see the empty plate where the cookies were sitting just a few minutes ago.
"I didn't eat those," I say, shaking my head as I put the water bottle on the table.
"You were the only one here all day," Jin says, frowning slightly when I glance over at him. "No one else could have eaten them."
"Jin, you were gone for like fifteen minutes," I say, raising an eyebrow. "How could I have eaten an entire plate of cookies that fast?"
"Violet," he says in a quiet voice. "I've been gone for six hours."
My head shakes slightly and I laugh. "That's hilarious, Jin, but also not possible. You just left a few minutes ago. Did you decide not to go to work or something?"
Jin has a worried look on his face as he pulls out his phone to show me the time.
5:14 P.M.
"That's not possible," I repeat, shaking my head as my eyes read the time over and over again. "You just left. You left and I took a drink of water and then I... uh, I watched TV for a minute until you came back."
"The television is off," he says, pointing at the black screen. "I left here at 11 this morning. This isn't some weird joke, Violet. I promise it's been hours."
I try to blink away the tears trying to form in my eyes, confusion and fear coursing through my veins. "That doesn't make sense. You just left. You just left, Jin. I swear it's only been a few minutes."
"Calm down, okay? You're just a bit disoriented. Maybe you took a nap and don't remember falling asleep," Jin says, moving to rub my back but I smack his hand away.
"No, this isn't funny," I snap as I shakily stand and push the blanket off of me. "I'm going home. I'm fine and this isn't funny and I want to go home."
"Violet, please take a deep breath. It's okay," Jin says, standing as well as I slowly begin to back up towards the door.
I'm not registering that I don't even have shoes on or that I would have to walk all the way there. I can't even think of anything in this moment except that I was sure Jin was gone for fifteen minutes and not six hours. Where did all that time go?
I don't know what's happening to me, but I do know that I'm scared and I just want my dad.
"I need to go home," I say, my head spinning and my vision blurring. "I want my dad. I need to go."
"Violet, you need to take a breath. You're hyperventilating," Jin says as he tries to move closer to me, but I just take more steps back towards the front door. I see Taehyung standing behind Jin, watching me with tears in his own eyes.
"I don't understand any of this!" I scream as tears fall onto my cheeks. "I keep seeing him and hearing him and all of this is so scary. I want to go home, Jin. I'm leaving and you can't stop me."
"Seeing and hearing who, Violet?" Jin asks, holding his hands up as he slowly takes another step towards me. I turn around and open the front door, and the world spins even faster around me as my heart pounds faster than I've ever felt.
It feels like it's going to give out at any second.
My breathing starts to become even more labored, but as Jin tries to get to me to help, I step out into the hallway of his apartment building.
"Leave me alone," I rasp out as a pain blossoms in my chest, spreading until I can't focus on anything except the fact that I can't breathe.
"Violet, for fuck's sake," Jin yells as he tries to run to me but I shove him back as hard as I can as I lean against the wall.
I feel something dripping out of my nose, and when I reach up to wipe it away, I see blood on my fingertips.
"Please let me help you," Jin says, tears in his eyes. "You need to go to the doctor right now."
"I'm going home," I try to say, though nothing but a choked whisper escapes my lips.
"Violet!" Jin begs and before I can say anything else, I feel my eyes roll to the back of my head before my entire body tenses up, and I fall to the floor in the hallway, convulsing.
I think Jin is screaming for someone, but I can't focus on his words as everything just slowly fades away into silent darkness and I slip into unconsciousness.
I'm surprised to see the road hazily come into my view. I can't remember what I was supposed to be doing in this very moment, but I don't care to remember when I feel a hand on my shoulder.
I turn around to see Taehyung staring down at me, that everlasting sadness in his eyes as he smiles at me.
"Hi," he says, his hand moving from my shoulder to my cheek, his fingertips grazing my skin as he wipes away a stray tear.
Immediately, I wrap my arms around his torso and pull him against me, letting everything melt away as I feel his arms wrap around me and hold me close.
"You're freezing," I say, my words muffled against his chest.
"So are you," he whispers as he rests his head on top of mine.
