ᴄʀᴜᴛᴄʜᴇs || ᴊ.ᴊᴋ + ᴋ.ᴛʜ ✔️

ten: echoes and tender words

It happened again.

Going to the archery range at the end of the day, and making the mistake of accidentally falling asleep when he should have been joining up with Jungkook to walk home.

Jimin was gradually slipping into dreamland when a familiar voice awoke him.

"Now there's no way that can be comfortable for you."

He jolted. Eyes firing open, then locking onto the mint-haired boy who had crouched down in front of him. To his own relief, however, this time Jimin wasn't nearly as frantic, though his heart did accelerate noticeably at Yoongi's closeness. But fortunately he was able to calm himself to a certain degree before a stutter storm could begin.

"Two times in one week," Yoongi said.

Jimin looked guiltily to the side as Yoongi's gaze became all the more trained on him, his countenance, his eyes. The boy sighed as he stared at those eyes. He didn't speak at first, though, and by the time Jimin managed to bring himself to look at Yoongi again, he found him still staring, an inscrutable expression plastered on his gentle face. A blush settled on Jimin's cheeks.

"You look so tired."

Jimin blinked. Now that Yoongi mentioned it, he could feel the heaviness of his own eyes, but perhaps he had grown so used to ignoring it that it became almost effortless to disregard. Deep down, he knew. Yoongi was absolutely right. He was tired. And he knew why. But what he didn't understand was why Yoongi had been the one to bring it up, and why his voice sounded to be coated in genuine concern, and why his gaze grew stronger, and why Jimin felt almost trapped inside of it.

"Is it-" He cleared his throat quietly and spoke even quieter. "Is it really that noticeable...?"

Yoongi nodded without a moment's hesitation. "The dark circles under your eyes..and your complexion looks even paler than it did the other day." He sighed again. "Do you have trouble sleeping at night or something?"

"Ah-" A nervous laugh spilled out of Jimin's mouth as he attempted to break free of Yoongi's gaze. To no avail. "I guess--w-well, I mean it hasn't always been like that. That is, recently I guess it's been difficult, because of things. And it's not that I've purposely been staying up late or anything, I guess it's just...well, I, uh..." He stopped himself from continuing, the main reason being he didn't know how to continue anyway, or if he even should. So he simply pursed his lips as a way of punctuating his own sentence.

It wasn't enough for Yoongi. He, himself, couldn't explain it, why he couldn't just choose to be unbothered and walk away, as he did with so many other things. There was a funny feeling in his chest, something he knew would spite him if he turned a blind eye to this boy. In a sense, he felt responsible. But he couldn't quite explain that, either.

Shifting his position, Yoongi moved to Jimin's left side to sit next to him against the wall.

"I heard chamomile tea helps make you sleepy."

Jimin smiled, making a brief glance at the mint-haired boy, but managing to keep his head forward. "I've never tried it," he said. "Although..."

"Although what? Do you want to try it? My family drinks it all the time so we have a ton of it at my house. I could let you have some."

Is he actually serious?? "Wh--no! No, that wasn't..." Jimin shook his head. "That wasn't what I was trying to say. I just don't think tea would help much, is all. Sorry, I...I mean, thank you...for offering. That's really kind of you..."

"Mm." At the trailing off of Jimin's words, Yoongi took the time to examine the boy's expression again. He drew in a soft breath. "Is it a condition?"