Yoonmin in Malta

16 - When Yoongi leaves (II)

Exhausted from their trip to Gozo, the friends return to their apartment in the dark.

"V is coming in! He has to choose his room, did you close the doors?", Jimin reminds his friends of their room-sharing game. The group gathers on the sofa in the living room, looking at each other mischievously.

"V, pick a room, go!" Namjoon encourages the newcomer, who is busy looking around the corners of the apartment he's already allowed to enter.

"There are three rooms, those two here..." Jimin points to two doors leading from the living room.

"... And one upstairs."

"Which one is the biggest room?" asks Taehyung.

"We're not telling you!" explains Hobi and continues, "That's the whole point! Because you might have to sleep on the floor if you make the wrong choice".

Determined, Taehyung goes to the door behind which Jungkook's single room is located.

"I'll take this one," he says and opens the door. He takes a look inside and asks, "Is this everything?"

"Yes, this is the only single room. Congratulations, you'll be sharing it with Jungkook," Namjoon enlightens him and slaps Jungkook's shoulder, who grins sheepishly to himself.

Neither of them suspects that Jungkook was the one who described to Taehyung which room he himself occupies. Apparently, Taehyung took the description as an invitation, but neither of them has any intention of enlightening the others about it.

Hobi then takes Taehyung on a tour of the rest of the rooms and is very happy that he didn't choose to stay in his and Namjoon's room, which only has two narrow single beds.

"Let's eat. I'm hungry!", Jimin addresses his remaining friends on the sofa. "How about ramen?" he suggests.

"Yes, ramen would be perfect. Quick and delicious!", Namjoon decides, while Jimin already disappears into the kitchen to heat up the water.

"If Yoongi were still here, we'd have to peel garlic for ramen," Jin says with a tired but hearty laugh.

"Yoongi hyung just keeps inventing new dishes," Jungkook joins in his laughter.

The mood at dinner is cheerful, despite the exhausting day and the loss of their friend Yoongi, who had to leave them early.

Taehyung, however, is still too exhilarated by his new surroundings and decides to throw a little party in the kitchen after dinner.

Armed with Namjoon's Bluetooth speaker, he does exactly what the rest of the band did on their first night in the apartment; he sings, raps and dances to BTS songs.

To the song 'Answer: Love Yourself', Taehyung starts rapping the first verse, which is actually Yoongi's part.

Meanwhile, Jimin is getting ready for the night in the upstairs bedroom and hears the music coming from the kitchen.

When he hears Yoongi's voice, he suddenly comes out of the room and yells at the top of his lungs: "Suga, I miss you!".

It hurts him that Yoongi had to leave just when they were about to find out how they feel about each other. Or were they? Jimin thinks about what happened in Malta the last three days. He drops onto the bed with a swing and as soon as his body touches the soft mattress, he realizes his serious mistake in thinking.

During the entire vacation, they did not even speak once to each other.

Only during the nights they exchanged a few words, driven by their passion. But they didn't talk at all; and certainly not about what exactly is going on between them right now. What could have been, if only they had been more honest with each other?

Immediately, Jimin feels an unpleasant heat rising inside him and something deep inside his chest starts to burn. He doesn't even know what he feels for Yoongi. Desperately, Jimin searches his mind for an explanation; he tries to find words for his feelings, but fails. Just as he is about to give up and crawl into bed, Taehyung appears at the door.

"Jiminie! What's wrong, my love?" he says worriedly, as if he sensed Jimin's desperation and immediately came to his aid.

"Tae!" Jimin calls out in a broken voice and opens his arms to take his best friend in a tight embrace.

"Is it because of Suga-Hyung?" recognizes Taehyung immediately, who has just heard Jimin's cries that he would miss Suga, so he made his way to him.

"Tae, I have to tell you what exactly happened in Taipei," Jimin bursts out with a broken voice. He is now ready to talk to his friend about what has been bothering him for weeks.

Taehyung nods knowingly and waits patiently for Jimin to regain his composure to talk about the night in Taipei when he and Yoongi had their falling out.