A Taste of Sugar : 김남준 ✔️

•053

A month. Another whole week had passed and still nothing. And with every passing day, Namjoon only became that much more convinced that she had run away, and was never coming back.

Suga had tried to say that- coming from someone who had done a lot of running away in the past- that was ridiculous, she had too much of value keeping her here. She was just taking her time. But Suga didn't know Y/N like RM did. What he knew he probably heard from Jimin- which, given how the blonde had holed up in his bedroom, not talking to anyone, for the past five days, couldn't have been a lot.

It was becoming increasingly obvious just how dependent on her the both of them had become, but Jimin moreso than Namjoon. Namjoon was hurting, for sure, more than he ever had before, but Jimin was barely functioning. It was all Taehyung seemed to talk about. He was worried, convinced that something else had happened, but whenever the redhead asked all he got in return was a "I lost my best friend." before the other would pull the duvet up over his head.

Namjoon sighed, pulling the collar of his turtleneck up over his mouth and flicking off the TV with the remote beside him. Tiring. It was tiring. He didn't have the energy to be angry, or distressed anymore. Just sad. An echoing sadness that filled his stomach and rang in his throat when he breathed. Things were actually going well for him at the moment. The company had finally taken off. But he couldn't even be happy about that.

Just as his eyes were closing- it was late- he was disturbed by what might have been a knocking at the door. He sat up, still, listening to be sure he wasn't hearing things. His lethargy was met with an insistent mashing of his doorbell.

Grumbling- which soon became annoyed yelling- at the person who was creating so much noise, he padded barefoot to the door, yanking it open. When Jimin's deep frown greeted him, he faltered backward in surprise. "Jimin- you...?"

The younger looked at his face for a moment, then down again. The distress was obvious on his face. Jimin had never been very good at hiding what he felt. Namjoon knew immediately that the other man was still angry at him. Which meant he was only here because he felt he had no choice. Worry brewed in the pit of Namjoon's stomach.

"I know where she is." his heart stopped.

"What?" a million thoughts raced through Namjoon's head all at once, forcing him to stay quiet as each fought to come out first. "You- when? How? Did she- no, that doesn't matter." he corrected himself, shaking his head as he frowned. It didn't matter how Jimin knew before he did. Or how long he'd known. Or even why he was coming to Namjoon with this information. "Where is she?"

Jimin's face grew darker, expression far away. "She went back to Busan."

"Busan?" it didn't make sense. Why would she have gone there? She'd been so pained when she talked about that place- so vehemently against returning to her parents... why would she go back there of her own will? "Why would she go back there..?"

Looking back at Jimin's face, the reason for his distress finally clicked within Namjoon. "Oh, shit... are you okay?"

Busan, where Jimin's parents still lived. His abusive father. His quiet mother. All those horrible memories. Jimin shook his head. "I just want to see Y/N. Tae won't... he wouldn't come along." Namjoon wondered what had happened for Taehyung to refuse, but didn't ask. "Will you come with me?"

"Of course." the immediate answer seemed to surprise Jimin, because his gaze immediately flicked back to meet Namjoon's. But, he stayed quiet. "Let me go grab some things."

The blonde waited in the doorway as the brunette moved quickly around the house, to his bedroom to pull on some jeans and then to root out his keys and phone.