FACE (Jimin)

Alone: 1.1

🌨️

In the back of the cab, Jimin had a mixture of emotions racing through him. He was still angry, but also scared and hurt. The other day when he read through the chat messages, he felt as if his friends were making fun of him. And as he fled from Jin's house, there was a part of his mind that imagined they were all having a good laugh at his expense.

The reality was that he left his friends speechless and in various states of shock. Some of them were angry at both themselves and Jimin. Others felt a tremendous wave of sadness hit them like a gut punch. Jungkook was literally doubled over and feeling nauseous. "We fucked up," he muttered.

"Us?!" Hobi raised his voice. "We all tried to support him. But if he thinks we're not going to say something when he's clearly spiraling out of control, well he's dead wrong." Hobi shook his head in frustration. "Fuck it. Maybe we are the bad guys here, but we had to try something."

"So what now?" Yoongi asked.

"I guess we give him some space," Namjoon responded. They all looked at each other, no one having a better idea. "I don't like it, but he seems really angry. I think we give him time and hope he eventually realizes the harm he's doing to himself."

"Hobi and I can't give him that much space. Rehearsals for my concert starts next week." Jungkook chewed on his lip rings, his eyebrows knitting together. "It's gonna be awkward as hell."

Jin wrapped an arm around Jungkook's shoulders and pulled him into a hug. "I'm sorry. I really thought it was the right thing to do."

"It's not your fault, Hyung. We all agreed to try this. I feel I'm the biggest villain here. I lied to my best friend." Taehyung had tears forming in his eyes. "He asked me if everyone would be ok or if we would lecture him, and I lied to his face. I don't know if he'll ever trust me again."

Jungkook also had tears rolling down his cheeks. He had hurt the man he'd been in love with for the past three years, and it broke Jungkook's heart every time he thought about Jimin's parting words. "He's so angry," Jungkook whispered.

The six friends hugged each other, none of them knowing what to do next. After a minute Yoongi pulled away. "He's hurt and rightly so. We should've supported him without judgment," Yoongi said while patting the maknae on the back. "But he'll come back to us. Remember how we used to fight in the dorms?" He saw nods from his friends. "We'd sometimes go weeks barely speaking to each other ... but eventually we would work it out. This will be the same. You'll see."

"Thanks, Hyung. I hope you're right," Jungkook replied while wiping tears off of his face.

(The next week)

Jimin spent the rest of the weekend going out to clubs and falling back into a stranger's arms each night. He woke up Monday sore, barely having the energy to get back to his apartment to clean up before needing to head to the studio for practice. As he undressed, he was alarmed to see bruises around his wrists and ankles. Memories of the previous night trickled into his mind. He had been pretty drunk, and found it difficult to assemble the whole picture.

Jimin was fine with many kinks, but having a complete stranger tie him down to the bedposts without even asking first was a bit much. He initially panicked until the pleasure began to take over. Jimin had verbally consented to sex, but the man took that as a green light for light bdsm.

While letting the shower stream onto his sore muscles, more visions from the previous night flooded his mind. He shivered under the hot water thinking about how the situation could've easily turned bad. Jimin didn't want to admit that his friends had a point, but he realized how vulnerable he was making himself each night.