Into the Flames

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Thankfully, once I return to the condo Jin still appears to have both of his lungs. After getting some food and liquids into him, I give him the medicine I'd picked up and the poor man passes back out almost immediately. I sigh as I stroke his hair. Jin has been more like a mother to me than anyone I've ever known, strange though that might sound. It pains me to see him in this state.

Dinner, the boys decide, is take away. No one trusts me in the kitchen after this morning, much to my dismay. I'd be lying if I said that the food isn't delicious, but it just isn't the same as Jin's cooking. I feel more than a little ashamed as I realize just how much I'd been taking him for granted.

"I'll have to do something special for Jin once he's feeling a little better," I vow to myself.

It is later that night as Yoongi exercises his privileges as big spoon, that the events of the day finally catch up to me. The shiver that suddenly runs down my spine as I think about first last night's nightmare and then the stalker from the pharmacy chills me to the core.

"Are you cold, jagi?" Yoongi asks sleepily. I can hear the exhaustion in his voice, and I know that it won't be long until he drifts off to sleep.

I don't know why, maybe it's because I don't want him to worry or maybe it's because I am afraid to voice my fear and make it real, all I know is that I can't seem to tell him what is actually wrong. Instead I reply with, "Yeah, just a little."

Yoongi wraps himself even more tightly around my body and I can feel his breath against my ear as he snuggles into me. The continuous stream of air turns into short concentrated puffs as he begins speaking softly.

"I'm gonna be gone all weekend," he tells me. "Bang PD promised me that if I finish this last song he'll let me take a week long vacation."

Silence stretches before me. The tranquility continues for so long, in fact, that I am almost convinced he had actually fallen asleep. Perhaps that was all he'd meant to say? But just as I resign myself to sleep he speaks once more in a voice so quiet that I almost can't hear him.

"I want to take you back to my hometown, Daegu. I want to introduce you to my parents."

"Is that really okay?" I ask him. I am both thrilled and nervous at the prospect. There is now anxiety churning in my gut as I await his response.

"Mmm," he murmurs.

For a moment he traces small circles into the exposed skin of my hip, but before long he is passed out. I follow him into sleep, and this time it is a dreamless one.

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The weekend is passing at an excruciatingly sluggish pace. It's only Sunday morning, and I am such a raw and open bundle of nerves that I can't seem to keep my mind in one place. Thankfully Jin is back to normal and is running the household once more. Try as I might to focus on my daily duties, I cannot seem to pull myself together. This annoying state that I have found myself in reaches its breaking point with just one costly mistake.

I reach into the dryer to pull out the latest load of laundry and am brought nearly to tears by the realization that I have absolutely ruined one of Tae's super expensive shirts. The Gucci tee has shrunk so much that I'm not even sure if a child could wear it at this point. The tears begin in earnest as a wave of overwhelming stress hits me and I sit on the floor directly in front of the dryer and clutch the shirt to my chest. The tears just keep coming and in all honesty I don't really understand why I am crying. This only opens the floodgates even wider. And this is how Taehyung finds me. Losing my literal mind over a t-shirt.