Jimin has always lived in his own bubble, a bubble he has unconsciously created to escape a dark and miserable past. Few people are allowed inside his little world - Yoongi is one of them. But what if it was time for his bubble to burst? What if Yoo...
This is not an update, not really. Writing the previous chapter (which is the climactic one in the story, but you might have understood that), I figured I should add this annex, just to give you little extras (it does not belong to the story per se, but I reckoned it would be nice to integrate it).
I'll try to make a few analyzes–which are absolutely NOT meant to be pretentious or anything, and do not prevent you from making your own interpretations. I don't know if this is a usual thing to do, but I'm willing to try. Don't hesitate to share your hypotheses!
First, I'll add two images of Jimin as I see him in the story, at two different stages: "before" and "after" chapter 18 (or, before/after the bubble burst).
Before (or "Bubble" Jimin):
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About Bubble Jimin: As you can see on the picture, his hair falls down on his face, and roughly forms a "ball", or a bubble all around his head. In the same way, he always wears comfortable, casual clothes (like large hoodies)–though they look cute on him–which could hint at his need to feel reassured, to feel at ease, but also at a form of unsuitability in the world (he just does not fit).
After (or "Bold" Jimin):
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About Bold Jimin: His hair is much messier, indicating his rebellion. He opts for leather, and jeans: those two are tight clothes, they form a "second skin", almost a shell–he puts on yet another mask to face the world without Yoongi.
Then, I've recently listened to a song, "Faded" (but not Alan Walker's version, it was Conor Maynard's cover), and I found that some of the lyrics were quite appropriate for my story.
First, the lyrics fit "Bubble games" because of their insistence on sight and light, which, to me, are quite connected. Indeed, Jimin and Yoongi experienced a complementary and interdependent relationship as expressed in "You were the shadow to my light": Jimin's light (he is mainly characterized by light/innocence in my story) is opposed to Yoongi's darkness (he is characterized by mystery, and nothingness). I would link light to sight in the sense that, once Yoongi's gone, Jimin cannot see clearly, or does not will to see: "Did you see us?", "Afraid our aim is out of sight", and "Wanna see us, alive" all deal with vision being lost or questioned (because Yoongi is no longer there to shed some light on the world for Jimin, let's say).
Then, I would venture on the theme of unreality. The key word of the song is obviously the title, "faded", which is reminiscent of something "erased", for instance in memory. It is interesting to note that both the locutor and interlocutor in the song suffer from "fading" ("Another start, you fade away", "I'm faded"), because Jimin fades along when Yoongi disappears (he is thus "So lost"). But unreality also intervenes through the idea of hallucination (because, after all, Yoongi is just "another dream"). Effectively, two essential questions are asked in the song, which could be totally uttered by Jimin: "Was it all in my fantasy?", and "Were you only imaginary?"
Finally, the rap part illustrates Jimin's dealing with the aftermath of Yoongi's loss (chapter 18). He tries to get better (or look like he's got better) by forgetting about Yoongi and changing his whole personality overnight, it seems. But this attempt at reinventing himself fails, because, for example when he chooses to date Hoseok, he actually tries to recreate what he had with Yoongi (so there's no moving forward), which is expressed through "So I could be with you, but I still think of [him]" (here, it would be Jimin talking to Hoseok, and then about Yoongi). There's another moment in the rap which could be relevant, its very end: it underlines Jimin's incapacity to cure himself, his tendency to always look for what will hurt him the most (he almost wills to hurt, in order to keep the memory of Yoongi alive): "The past can only hurt you if you let it, / But I let it, 'cus I'm still about you / Life is fucking crazy but it's crazier without you".
Yes, I study literature at school. And I just could not resist this annex. There's so much more I'd like to reveal about the whole story, because I've worked on symbolism a lot, but I've said already too much I guess. Anyway, if you have any comments, I'm at your disposal, I love discussing interpretations, theories, etc.
