A Fractured Mind | 민윤기

Six

23 March 2018

The day had come. It had created much anxiety and overthinking for Victoria, who didn't know what to do with Yoongi when they were alone. He was clearly introverted and Jimin basically drop-kicked him into the situation, but they were still going through with it. Maybe Jimin would be there to ease any awkward tension, she hoped.

Of course, she had no such luck. She knocked on the door and heard a faint "It's open." It was clearly Yoongi who said that, but maybe Jimin was in another room. She entered gingerly, the only sound being her keys jingling in her pocket, and closed the door behind her.

The living room before her was empty, as was the kitchen that shared the large space. "Yoongi?" she shouted.

"In here," he shouted back.

Victoria followed the sound of his voice and pushed open a slightly ajar door. In front of it was a doormat with a cat holding its middle fingers up saying "Go away". Yoongi was sitting on his bed, staring at his laptop screen intensely. The room was generally very dark. The bed was black, the curtains were black. No sunlight was allowed in.

She forced a smile. "Hey." He barely nodded in response. "Um...where's Jimin?"

Now he stared looked up at her with a blank expression. Their eyes locked for a few moments until he looked back down at his screen. "If you want to find Jimin, he's in the dance classroom."

"Oh, that's not what I meant," she retracted with a nervous laugh, her face flushing. "I'm sorry, I'm just a little....I've only ever studied with Jimin before." She started over to him, keys jingling once more as she set her bag down next to the dresser. "I didn't mean to make you think that—"

Victoria was so busy trying to explain herself that she didn't notice Yoongi gaze up at her with wide eyes. His bottom lip trembled slightly before he burst out in broken sobs. She paused, surprise taking over her entire body.

"What—what?" she asked frantically as his cries filled the room. She turned and looked at the door before examining herself.

Yoongi turned away and pointed to her with a whimper. He then covered his ears and squeezed his eyes shut as the heartbreaking noises kept leaving his mouth, cheeks wet with tears. Then it hit her. The keys. As quickly as her body let her, she pulled the jingling keys out of her pocket and threw them on his floor where they landed with a slight thump.

She approached him cautiously as he lowered his hands and scanned the room. "They're gone," she said soothingly.

The man sniffled and rubbed his eyes with the back of his hands. "Sorry," he mumbled. "The Jingles scare me."

Victoria recognized this. She assumed it was little space, an upcoming term in psychology for a headspace that people regressed into when stressed or reminded of trauma. They had spoken about it in one of her classes last year. She wracked her brain on how to deal with this situation.

As she recalled, littles normally liked having a nickname. "Yoonie," she ventured, seeing if that would work. Yoongi turned his attention to her with doe-eyes. "You don't have to apologize, sweetie." He lowered his head for a moment and muttered something she couldn't hear. "What was that?"

"Minnie isn't here," he said louder, shyly gazing at her. "Will you cuddle with me?"

It was a bit of an uncomfortable situation, but she hated seeing him upset. "Of course."

He scooted over on the bed and reached out for her. Victoria laid down and pulled him into her embrace, stroking his hair as he nuzzled his face into her chest and wrapped his arms tightly around her waist.