✔️ Tongue-Tied ➳ vmin

🥕8🥕

"Taehyung!"

Lurching forwards to pull Taehyung back to safety, all Jimin's hand grasps is thin air, his voice drowned out by Taehyung's insane bellows. Leaping into the open, vulnerable and exposed in the glare of the torchlight, Taehyung flails like a gangly oversized chicken.

"[Can't catch me, old fart!]"

Taehyung's maniacal yelps pierces the stagnant air as he tears off down the lawn, the giant blundering after him, profanities ringing deafeningly through the dark. Zipping away in the opposite direction, Taehyung's outline is swallowed up into the darkness, his taunts echoing in the atmosphere.

Jimin doesn't know how he gets back to the dorms, his body moving without him making a conscience decision. He scrambles upwards and falls through the window into his room, a permanent buzzing in his mind due to shock.

Shutting the window with shaky hands, he collapses onto his bed, taking care not to wake a sleeping Seungcheol. Staring blankly at the ceiling, his head spins with surging perplexity, his thoughts as messy as a preschooler's playroom.

Kim Taehyung just dived headfirst into danger like an idiot for him. Park Jimin. The one that always pushes him away.

His heart quivering in his chest, heavy with unbearable worry and confusion, Jimin throws a hand over his eyes, question marks floating above his head. Even when spears of light pierce through the silts in the curtains, Jimin lies awake, his mind preoccupied with Taehyung's fate.

*********

Barging into the room with a hasty knock on the door, Jimin's eyes dart around the space, searching for that glint of sunset-red.

"Joshua, where the hell is that idiot?" His gaze falls on Taehyung's bed, already made up with his stuffed lion sprawled across the pillows.

Joshua sets down his guitar, surveying the perturbed boy thoughtfully. Jimin smooths over the creases in his pants, bottom lip wedged between his teeth. He looks worse for wear, shoulders and body tense, eyes raw looking from a lack of sleep. No amount of hostility in his words is enough to mask the plain disquiet he's giving off.

"...You know, you and Hoseok-hyung aren't the most subtle when it comes to after-curfew-expeditions."

Jimin's forehead creases. The bed creaks as Joshua gets up, crossing over to the window. With a flourish, he draws open the curtains, blinding sunlight spilling into the room, making Jimin squint.

"Decent view from up here," Joshua offers, expression carefully blank. "Perfect for keeping a look out."

Jimin fists his own shirt, a sinking feeling in his stomach.

"Apparently some asshat decided to take a random piss at some godforsaken hour in the garden," Joshua continues without hesitation. "Got into a whole load of bullshit for that."

Guilt corrodes Jimin's insides, gnawing corrosively at him like acid. His stomach churns uncomfortably, a sickening feeling arising in his chest. His hands tighten around the fabric of his tee, like how he had clung to Taehyung the night before.

There's a brief silence before Joshua speaks.

"Said idiot's serving his sentence at the Bio building—"

Jimin's halfway out the door when Joshua calls him back.

"Oh, and here." He tosses something to Jimin, the other boy fumbling and almost dropping it.

Unfurling the bundle meticulously, Jimin recognizes his hoodie with a jolt, the faint scent of detergent causing tears to spring to his eyes. It's clean and ironed, obviously handled with utmost care. He gives a loud sniffle.