Lean On Me (Yoonmin)

THREE

The atmosphere in the car was unusually subdued. The end of promotions usually sparked a barrage of cheers and celebrations, but not tonight.

Jimin looked around at his members. Namjoon and Seokjin had fallen asleep, the former's head resting on the shoulder of the older. Hoseok and Jungkook were discussing today's performance in hushed tones, whilst Taehyung was staring at the floor.

Jimin sighed. It was his job to make sure everyone was ok, to make sure that if anyone had any worries, that they would always come to him. Maybe he didn't always have the best advice, but somehow everyone always seemed so much brighter after talking things through with him. He felt like it was his unofficial role, to look out for everyone else. And it felt like he was failing at it right now.

He glanced at Taehyung and put his hand on his knee. The younger male pulled his gaze up to meet Jimin's concerned one.

"You ok?" Jimin asked.

Taehyung paused, seemingly deep in thought. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking."

"Anything you want to talk about?"

He paused again. "It's just... I saw Suga hyung last night. Or more like this morning. He made a joke so I thought he was ok you know? But maybe I should have made more of an effort. Taken the opportunity when it was there to try to talk to him, to get him to come with us today."

Taehyung returned his gaze to the floor, his eyes glassy. Jungkook, who's conversation with Hoseok had come to an end when Taehyung had started talking, placed a comforting hand on his knee, gave it a light squeeze and sent a small smile his way. Taehyung returned the smile but stayed quiet.

"Come on Taehyungie, we know what our Suga hyung's like. He'll appreciate you making the effort you did, I know he will. But if he doesn't wanna come out of that studio then there's nothing on this Earth that will change that."

Jimin smiled at his friend who smiled back, his eyes returning a faint glint of reassurance.

Hoseok and Jungkook soon resumed their conversation, this time with Taehyung joining in, as Jimin found his thoughts drifting to his bandmate back at the dorm. He wished he knew how to handle this situation. It's not like Yoongi had never talked about his struggles before, but now he was deep in the throws of it, getting through to him seemed impossible.
Maybe he should have recognised the signs? Jimin hadn't known Yoongi when he was at his darkest, but that doesn't mean he shouldn't have recognised that something was wrong. Or maybe he did, but his brain was denying it because it was simply easier that way. Either way, Jimin acknowledged that he'd been a pretty crappy friend to Yoongi lately. He'd like to have blamed it on the busy schedule, the constant practice, the fact that Yoongi said he wanted to be alone... but deep down he knew these were all poor excuses. 

No more excuses, Jimin promised himself. As much as he wanted his hyung to open up to him, to share all of the troubles tormenting that brilliant mind of his; Jimin knew that even if Yoongi didn't want to talk, he could still be there for him in other ways. Sometimes simply just being there could be enough... It was worth a try.

**********

Jimin took a deep breath and then knocked on the studio door. He'd checked all the other rooms first, even though he knew this is where he'd find him.

The car had arrived at the dorm a few hours earlier, but Jimin had decided to wait for a little while before approaching his hyung. He thought it best to give his members a chance to settle down so the dorm was less noisy, and part of him was hoping that his hyung might have come out to greet them on their return. As the car pulled up to the tall building, images had entered his head of Yoongi sat at the dining table as they all piled in, looking up from his meal to greet them all with his wide gummy smile. Jimin hadn't seen that smile for a while now.