Ecstatic Exuberance // JinMin

Chapter Nineteen

Yoongi saw Jimin outside and rushed to him, wrapping an arm around him before looking up and seeing Seokjin. He looked between the two and seeing the shaking Jimin, he sort of knew what had happened.

"Seokjin, can you please come and wait in my apartment? I'll drive Jimin to his work and come back." Yoongi hoped Seokjin would realise that Jimin isn't in the right state to be talking about something that was so sensitive and damaging to him that he had started shaking and probably over thinking, mulling over his times before he had managed to run away, with Yoongi's help (which no one knew about but them).

"Okay," Seokjin said, he didn't really like the way this would end up going but he closed his own door and walked into his neighbour's apartment. Seokjin looked around and sat down on the couch waiting for Yoongi to return.

Yoongi silently drove Jimin to his work, fixing his hair for him and waiting till Jungkook came knocking on the window, before letting Jimin step out of the car. The past few days had been like this. Yoongi had escorted Jimin to and from work and Taehyung and Jungkook had been taking care of him while he was at work. Yoongi thanked Jungkook again before driving back to his apartment, where he met Seokjin again.

"Seokjin... You don't look too well. Do you want some food? I hope you've been having more food than my Jiminnie has been having," he laughed without humour as he strolled towards his kitchen.

"I haven't ate a lot lately, can I have some Ramen?" Seokjin asked as he looked at the wall. "I-I just want to know- I want to know it from Jimin himself," Seokjin said as he looked at the composer. Hopefully that he could help Seokjin.

Yoongi put water to boil and turned to look at Seokjin. "He can't... He just can't tell you because if he does, there's no telling where you'll end up. It's the worst subject you could get him to talk about, his parents. They're the only people he never wants to associate himself with. He ran away from them Seokjin, cut the poor kid some slack. I can tell you all you want, I know him since we were tiny, I can tell you everything. But don't make him do this. He cares for you a lot but if you make him do this, he'll cut you out of his life and put you in the closet where he locked memories of him with his parents. I don't want that to happen to him. When that happens, it's hard to save him and bring him back." Yoongi cut open the packet of ramen and put it in the boiling water.

"Can you tell me everything, I don't want to lose him, but I do want to know it," Seokjin said as he looked at Yoongi who was making his ramen.

"Do you have any triggers? Anything that makes you uncomfortable?" Yoongi asked as he switched off the stove before adding in the dressing.

"Not really," Seokjin said as he looked at Yoongi. "Is it really that bad?" He asked Yoongi.

"It's really bad. Did you really think Jimin was going to refuse you if it was any simpler? He loves you too much you know," Yoongi said as he thought of where he could start. After making sure the ramen was ready, he served it in a bowl and took it to the coffee table so he could tell the tale while they were both sitting on the couch.

"I just don't know," Seokjin said as he took the ramen that Yoongi gave him. Not waiting for it to cool down and burning his mouth so he couldn't say stupid comments during the story.

"Well, his parents are both doctors back in Busan. Of course, they wanted his son to do the same. I'd been playing the piano in my house, which was next to his, since I was like 8 and he was 6. So of course, he found interest in it and started hanging out with me. We both started learning music and his parents were okay with it being a hobby. But when Jimin started dancing is when his parents got mad. They abused him, physically and verbally. He used to come to school bruised. He couldn't do well in the typical science subjects and that's exactly what his parents wanted. His only solace in those days were my house where he came late at night after everyone fell asleep. We'd listen to music together before we both went to sleep in our respective rooms. He had to spend a whole year without me, Seokjin and when I went back to see him, I couldn't take it. He was a shell of the bright Park Jimin I previously knew. I asked him to run away. And with slight planning, he finally was able to run away, a couple of weeks after I left Busan, so nobody could connect his running away to me. But everyone knew I'd helped him. His parents have disowned him in court. They don't want a 'dishonour' like him in their family. He works at the café and the dance academy and everything he gets from there? That's all he has to live by. He wanted to learn dancing and music and I brought him here so he could do that. I'm glad he's doing this by himself now but he's had to go to the psychiatrist and go on antidepressants to stop him from thinking of the abusive times when he was made to think he was useless and unloved and unwanted. The last time when he was being hired at the café, when he was asked about his parents, he had a panic attack so severe that he had to be taken to the hospital. That's why he doesn't talk about them, Seokjin. It's not you, it's his parents. He's too broken to talk about it. Don't make him do that." Yoongi finished before going back to the kitchen to brew himself some coffee.

"Do you want any coffee, Seokjin?" He yelled from his kitchen.

"Yes please," Seokjin replied to Yoongi. He cursed himself for being so stupid. He should've trusted Jimin over this subject. He should've asked Yoongi earlier. "I should've just asked you the first time he told me," Seokjin mumbled to Yoongi as he looked into the empty bowl of his ramen. A little of the seasoning left on the bottom with a little of the warm water.

"I- I don't know what to say, I want to apologize to him right now," Seokjin said determined. "Can you go with me to the café?" He asked hopefully.

Yoongi came back with two cups of hot, steaming coffee. "It's alright. I just wish you'd trusted him a bit more. Neither of you would have been put through this pain if you had. But hey, getting over these early in the relationship is better, right?" Yoongi sat next to Seokjin, smiling gently at him

"Yes, I should've, but people have misused me, I trusted people way more in the past," Seokjin mumbled as he took the cup of coffee. "It's just- I love Jimin so much," Seokjin said, "it's just that I- I don't know," his voice flowed away as he sipped the coffee. He emptied the cup in one sip. He was really tired so he could use this.

"Can we visit Jimin in the café, I want to apologize, tell him how much I love him, How I never want to lose him."

Yoongi chuckled lowly, "made for each other, aren't you..." He sipped at his hot coffee, "Just wait a bit, yeah? Lemme just finish the coffee." Yoongi got up and retrieved his phone, unlocking it and opening a certain folder in his gallery.

"Here, these are pictures of Jiminnie from back in the days. You can't tell him I showed you these though," Yoongi said teasingly, hoping to lighten the mood a bit.

Seokjin took the phone as he looked through the pictures. Stumbling upon a picture of a, 9/10 year old Jimin in shorts, his legs full of bruises. "T-this will haunt me," Seokjin said as he looked at the picture. He hoped Yoongi would finish his coffee soon. "I have a joke," Seokjin said as he looked at Yoongi.

"If Alexander Hamilton is on the 10$ Bills, doesn't it make them Hamiltens?" Seokjin grinned as he looked at the smaller boy sipping his coffee.

Yoongi spat out his coffee on the table, drenching his magazines before he turned to glare at Seokjin, "you know what? Just because of that joke I'm going to sip on my coffee slower." He threatened with a playful squint of his eyes. "But that picture, not all the bruises are from his parents. The rest are from like, dancing."

"Please don't sip slower I want to apologize to him okay," Seokjin said as he was about to throw Yoongi's cup of coffee out of his hands. But he wouldn't knowing his neighbour so far that wouldn't be a good idea.

"Can we go already?" Seokjin whined as a little kid.

Yoongi got off the couch and shrugged, "sure. Let me finish my coffee first." He finished his coffee and grabbed a CD from a stack he had made in a corner of his living room. "Songs I recorded. Jimin sang and we played the instruments. You wanna hear?" Yoongi said as he waved the CD in front of Seokjin.

"Yeah sure," Seokjin said waiting for Yoongi to finish his coffee now playing the songs.

Yoongi finished his coffee and put his mug in the sink, grabbing his jacket, phone and keys before knocking Seokjin out of his thoughts.

"Let's go? He should be getting his break in a bit." Yoongi said as he looked at the time.

"Let's go," Seokjin said as he almost stormed out of the apartment running out of the complex to Yoongi's car.

Yoongi laughed internally, congratulating his friend on finding someone like Seokjin. He followed Seokjin and unlocked the car, getting in and buckling in swiftly, pulling out as soon as he could from the apartment complex, driving to the café through one of the shortcuts he'd found over the years of driving there.

so close to the end :)))