Beyond Repair (Min Yoongi) [UPDATED]

20. Stay In The Moment

Yoongi had expected some kind of drastic shift in the dynamic between himself and his boyfriends after the date and the kiss(es), but there wasn't one. It was more like several smaller shifts in his behavior and that of the others. He had become more tactile with them all, but not so suddenly that he felt he wouldn't have naturally made it to that point if the date hadn't happened. In every way short of an actual I love you, Yoongi told his boyfriends every chance he got how much they meant to him.

The others had gotten much more cuddly with Yoongi, in return, and they no longer hid certain physical displays of affection with each other from him out of fear of making him uncomfortable (though, he had to admit, the first time he'd walked into the living room and found Taehyung and Namjoon lazily making out on the sofa, it had taken a second for him to process what he'd seen). The level of intimacy Yoongi himself engaged in fluctuated depending on how comfortable he felt in his own skin at any given hour of any given day. He still showered at least twice a day, sometimes more after a particularly jarring nightmare or flashback. While he accepted affection at almost any time, he only initiated contact after he'd recently bathed. He still found himself isolating, at times, drawing away from unexpected touch, and not knowing what to do with compliments or praise—but he no longer jumped a foot in the air when his partners initiated contact, even kissed him, and overall, he was happy with how far he'd come.

There was still trauma, of course, and there was still comfort; the comfort just looked a little different now. Yoongi could tell Jimin had been teaching the others how best to 'handle' him when he started to spiral because they'd started taking more of a hands-on approach whenever Jimin wasn't in the room rather than seeking him out to deal with Yoongi's panic on his own. Yoongi still only slept in bed with Jimin, but he appreciated the others learning as much as they could to help him.

So, life had gone on. It almost seemed...normal. A new normal, but normal. Almost too good to be true. Maybe that was why Yoongi liked it so much.

Several uneventful days passed, each one like the last, until one random morning about a week and a half after the date. Everyone had been scattered around the living room and kitchen, eating a low-maintenance breakfast because no one had wanted to cook for seven. They'd all found something simple to prepare for themselves, such as cereal or leftovers from the previous night's dinner. Yoongi had been curled up on the sofa, contently snacking on a bowl of chopped fruit (which Jimin and Jungkook kept trying to steal from, earning them a light swat on the hand but an indulgent eye-roll and a hand-fed bite of fruit each time) when Hoseok cleared his throat from the kitchen table.

"I was thinking of going in to work today," Hoseok had said. His tone had been as casual as if he were discussing the weather but with the way everyone froze to look at him, he might as well have said he'd killed someone. "I've been wanting to get back into real dance practices. Plus, I've got some ideas for a new song and—"

"Are you bringing security with you?" Yoongi had interrupted with his mouth full. The shift in the atmosphere from laid-back to anxious had been instantaneous and harsh.

"I wasn't planning on it, why?" Hoseok had asked.

Yoongi had swallowed his food, refusing to meet anyone's eyes as he answered, "I don't want you to go alone. What if something happens?"

It was then that everyone else had seemed to realize none of them had gone anywhere alone since Yoongi's kidnapping.

Namjoon had then stood up from the kitchen table and carefully approached Yoongi, crouching down in front of him to force him to meet his eyes. When he spoke, it had been with a soft voice full of reassuring certainty. "Yoongi, Lee Daejung is in jail. He can't get to us. We're safe, wherever we go and whatever we do. We don't even need the security team anymore, honestly. We only still have them as a formality until the trial is over."