misunderstood || bts x red velvet

➣ Thirty Four

Later that night

Jimin couldn't sleep.

Not after what had just happened.

Every time he would begin to drift off to sleep, his lips would start to tingle and he'd feel that bubbly feeling all over again. 

And then he would sit awake, scrunching the soft comforter in his hands to stop himself from padding into her room, to hold her in his arms.

Instead, he lay back, too hot for going under the covers, drifting into his memory of holding her, finally, and this time feeling her feelings too. Finally, he'd felt that she loved him, maybe almost as much as he loved her. 

If that was even possible.

Ever since that first day they met, the first second he saw her guilty expression when he spun round to scold her for hitting him, there was something about her.

There was always something about her.

What kind of game had he tried to play? The one where he hurt her? Or the one where he hurt himself?

It was dumb, and he cast that away from his mind.

He was so in love with her, it was like the intensity of love between his parents.

Before everything. 

Before the accident.

⇥              ✴︎             ⇤

"Eomma." Jimin called, closing the door carefully . "I'm back!" The brunet sauntered into the kitchen where he found his mother with a cup of instant tea in her hand as she stood by the stove. 

"Hi sweetie." She set her cup down just seconds before her son popped his head in the archway, smiling. "How was school?"

"Good." 

"Dance?"

"Going well."

"Okay." She sighed. Jimin was growing up. He answered her with short, abrupt phrases now. Well obviously. He's a teenager now. Her sweet little 15 year old boy. Just like every other teen.

Almost.

"How's Taehyung?" She asked cautiously. Jimin came out only a couple months back when he needed help dealing with his feelings. She'd felt grateful he came to her, even if it was for the same gender, and immediately accepted it.

"He's happy. We finally came out to the rest of the boys though." Jimin smiled, remembering the congratulating expressions on their faces. The 6 of them were a really tight group, not too popular, but well known.

"Oh?" The soup on the stove began to bubble and she stepped towards it, spying Jimin taking a seat by the island. 

"Yeah." He sighed and fell into silence, where his mother left him until she turned off the stove.

"And...?" She turned to him, expecting a blank expression, but was instead met with a small smile.

"They're so accepting." He smiled even wider, travelling back to that afternoon when he was telling the guys, Taehyung's long fingers enveloping his.

"I'm happy for you." She smiled lovingly at him before wrapping her arms around his back, the only time she'd be taller than him. "Listen, I know you don't really like her, but-"

"Oh please don't tell me you're sending Aunt Lee here." He groaned loudly, standing and picking his bag up again.

"I'm sorry sweetie, your father and I have an important dinner to attend to. It's his boss's birthday." The telltale sound of a car engine grew as his father parked the car outside. "There he is now. I've got to get ready. Do your homework okay?" She kissed his temple before stealing upstairs with a whoosh of her floral skirt.

Jimin sighed before shaking his straight brown hair out of his eyes and heading up to his room. Aunt Lee honestly wasn't that bad. Until recent times.

She hates babysitting him.

Why?

She's a homophobe.

After one of their 'babysitting' sessions, his mother had come home and asked him how Taehyung was like usual. Except this time, Aunt Lee was in the room. And she heard. She'd refused to come for a long time, but unfortunately, this dinner was so important and even at 15, his mother refused to leave him at home alone.

So, an hour and a half later, he watched his dad's Porche leave the driveway, pouting, as his parents sympathetically waved goodbye. When he'd spun around, there his aunt was, earphones in and chatting animatedly to someone on the phone, probably complaining about having to take care of her gay nephew. 

And I thought teenagers were the electronically obsessed ones.

He trotted upstairs and plopped down into his spinning wheely chair and got to his homework. About two hours later, he'd completed all of his essays and problems and went down for dinner, sure that his aunt had already disappeared into the guest room.

But no.

She was sitting at the dining table this time, but her expression was different. Her earphones were discarded, but still plugged in, as if she had ripped them out of her ears in one hasty pull. She was staring at her phone, irises glazed and tears forming. Something was off.

"Aunt Lee?" He asked quietly. She shot him a glare, but only let it last for less than a second. 

"I'm sorry." She peered back down to her blank screen, as if waiting for something. She cleared her throat. "Jimin, I'm sorry, but your parents..."

Jimin's throat closed up on him, words unable to form. He stood still, every muscle in his body tense. Something was off, so, so, off. And it was bad.

"You parents got into a car accident." Aunt Lee suddenly broke out into quiet sobs, leaving Jimin standing by his dining table in shock. "It was- kind of- bad." She managed to choke out in between sobs. "I'm so sorry." 

There wasn't much Jimin remembered from the rest of that night. He only remembered crashing through his front door and rushing off, his feet taking him to his safety haven. He fell into a familiar tree trunk but hastily pushed off to get to the front door, identical to his, except it was bright red. He knocked with urgency as a familiar woman opened to door to him.

"Oh, Jimin..." The lady trailed off when she saw the tears spilling from his eyes. It was late and the stars were out, but he was there, close to breaking down, panting as he swallowed down the tears that were forming. 

"Eomma?" A familiar voice sounded from the dining room; the voice's hand gently pulling his mother away from the doorway to see who it was.

"Jimin." He gasped, immediately grabbing the boys wrist and dragging him upstairs to his room. As the door shut behind them, the young brunet could finally let go of everything, messy sobs, his shoulders shaking with tears. One word and one word only managed to choke out.

"Taehyung."