『 POLISHED METAL 』 ⇢ Park Jimin

Chapter 38: Acknowledgement

"Do you mind telling it to me then?" I watched as Taehyung dragged the limping Jimin to Jimin's room.

Mina sighed once again before turning to me, "I—I don't think the story should come from me. I think you should go talk to Jimin when he's sober."

"Oh, I see." I nodded at her before sinking myself into the couch.

She placed her hand on top of mine, "All I could tell you is, the best way to get to know a person is to see things from their perspective, try to be in their shoes and see how they feel." 

Right after Mina's explanation, she stood up and walked over to Taehyung who just came out of Jimin's room. They exchanged a few words before Taehyung escorted Mina out the door.

I glanced over Jimin's room and hummed.

Taehyung said that Jimin is drunk, but how exactly do you deal with a drunk person?

As soon as Taehyung walked back into the living room, I turned to him, "How do you deal with a drunk person?"

In my 20 years of living, I have never encountered someone drunk as my mother and father never drank wine around me and I was also isolated from the human world for 12 years so that really isn't a surprise.

"Well—they need to freshen up first so I suggest handing him a glass of water." Taehyung shrugged before grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge and walking towards me, "You don't mind handing this to Jimin?"

I shook my head and took the bottle from his hands, "No, not at all."

I walked to Jimin's room and opened the door slowly before trudging inside, closing the door behind me.

"Mina, is that you~?" Jimin slurred as he turned to my direction.

"Uhm, " I started before shaking my head and taking small steps towards him, "I'm not Mina, I'm Eunjin."

"Staph lying! I know you're Mina!" He exclaimed before throwing a pillow in my direction.

I yelped slightly as I managed to barely dodge the pillow. Geez.

I was knowledgeable enough to know that people did act kinda funny when they're drunk. 

"I'm not lying, I really am Eunjin," I stated bluntly and slowly walked over to him before sitting on the edge of his bed, where he laid on.

"Sure, whatever you say—but I still don't believe you." He pouted and hugged the pillow beside him.

I sighed and handed him the bottle in my hand, "You should sit up and drink this."

He sat up as told and yanked the bottle away from my hands, almost instantly, before gulping it down and finishing the whole thing.

Wow, I didn't know he was that thirsty.

He put the empty bottle in my lap before plopping back into his bed, letting out a sigh.

I was about to get up and leave Jimin to rest until he spoke up, "Why is it so hard to have feelings for someone?"

"What do you mean?" I sat back down and tilted my head.

"We talked about this earlier, didn't we? In the bar..." I looked over to Jimin and he had his hand over his forehead.

"Talked about what?" I asked.

He let out a deep sigh, "Come on, don't act as if you've never confessed to me in the bar," He glanced at me before covering his face with his arm, "I appreciate how you feel for me, really—I'm sorry I couldn't return your feelings though. I feel like crap after rejecting you. You've always been such a good friend who'd always be there for me, even when I'm at my worse, but that's why you deserve a better guy than me, Mina. You don't deserve an idiot like me, we talked about this in the bar, didn't we? How I couldn't accept your confession because of how I feel about Eunjin?"

Wait, what?

Hold on a minute.

Did I hear that right?

"What did you say?" I asked once again, leaning closer to him to make sure I didn't mishear him.

"We talked about how I felt about Eunjin!" He exclaimed.

He talked about...me? With Mina?

But why? Why would he need to talk about his feelings towards me to another person? 

Curious, I gulped and turned to him, "And what do you feel towards her?" 

I can't believe I'm pretending as Mina just to learn something about myself. It's not like he'd believe me either when I tell him that I'm not Mina, right?

I'm so...selfish. Am I becoming more humane now that I spent more time around other people?

That must be it.

"I can't believe you weren't listening to me," He pouted and sat up, gazing into my eyes as I gulped, "I like her, I really like her and I know what you might be thinking, 'Jimin you might be crazy enough to a like a girl that you barely knew for the past few weeks' but I can't help it."

He takes a breath before speaking up once again, "I can't help but melt every time she smiles or chuckle lightly, or when her eyes light up when she's curious. I even love how blunt and straightforward she can be but at the same time, she can also be vulnerable and sensitive. I get worried whenever Eunjin's scared or frightened. It pains me to see her curl up in fear whenever she encounters another person because of what happened to her in the past. I never want to see scared, I want her to smile brightly and laugh. She has been through a lot and she doesn't deserve any of this, she could've achieved so many things if she wasn't so scared, that's why I'm so eager to help her get over her phobia. I—I don't even mind if she doesn't like me back, all I want is for her to stop fearing other people and smile more often."

"Jimin..." I felt something warm and wet slide down my cheek. I didn't even realize I was crying until my tears dripped down onto my lap. 

I didn't know that he was so passionate about curing my phobia, I thought he only did it because he promised to, the first time we met. 

"To be honest, I sometimes believed that Eunjin would actually like me back but I'm foolish to think that, right? It's impossible," He let out a deep breath, "But I won't care if she doesn't feel the same anymore, as long as she lives a happy life, I'm happy." 

No.

No.

No, you can't say that!

Jimin, you can't say that. You can't just sacrifice your feelings for my happiness. You can't assume my feelings for you either. I might have not been very open around you but you should not be so sure of your assumptions. 

There were times when I felt weird around you, and I'm not sure if that was what you would call 'like' or 'love' but I'll find out how I feel towards you or if I'm just being in denial of my own feelings. 

I want to be able to do something for you too. I want to see you stay happy, like how you always were. You shouldn't...you shouldn't have to sacrifice your feelings so that I could be happy. It's not right.

I looked over to Jimin to see him yawn and cuddle the pillow he was hugging. He's probably exhausted. 

I need to do something before I leave though. 

I wiped the tears off my face and looked around before grabbing a pen and a post-it note from Jimin's desk. I wrote a few words on the post-it note before placing it onto Jimin's bedside table. 

I walked over to Jimin's door and switched the lights off, murmuring, "Good night" before exiting his room and shutting the door quietly.
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A/N: I'm sorry for this short chapter : ( I wrote this during my exams but I'll be back soon with longer chapters!