come home ; ym | tk | nj

12.

Song of the chapter: Bird by Billie Marten

Also! Please read!

From today on, I will update this book every second Thursday, aka the next chapter will be out on July 18th!

Also, in one chapter, I wrote that Jimin's parents apparently didn't know he was gay but he still came out at his graduation which would've meant that his parents hadn't gone to his graduation??? Yeah forget about that, I will rewrite that part – just so you know, Jimin's parents went to his graduation and found out that he was gay there!

~

It is half past seven (almost, not quite yet; really, it is 7.27pm) when Yoongi finds himself standing in front of a house that is already familiar to him. Not very much, though; the last time he has been here is already a bit more than two years ago, and even a bit before that, he was here, too, but only once, for one afternoon. He knows the kitchen pretty well, has sat at the dinner table, knows the bathroom and, most importantly, he knows Jimin's room.

Yes, it's the Park's house.

Yoongi checks his phone again. 7.28pm. Still two minutes... would it be bad for him to show up a little earlier? He said he would be there at half past seven. Maybe Jimin's parents aren't ready yet and they will be mad if he rings the bell now –

The door flies open. Yoongi looks up with wide eyes only to see Mrs. Park standing in front of him, a warm smile on her lips.
"Oh, Yoongi! I knew I heard something outside."
He tried his best to be quiet.
"Come in, dear, please!"
He does. It isn't cold outside, but the warmth inside the house still engulfs him and makes him feel at ease. Jimin's mother takes his jacket and hangs it up for him, then they walk into the dining room. The table is already set, steaming food in pots and pans leaves almost no space for anything else.
"Sit down! Cheolmin should be here any minute."
Cheolmin? Yoongi barely has time to wonder who that could be when Jimin's father enters the room and bows his head at him. Yoongi bows back.
"Good evening. I hope you found the address easily," the man says and sits down. Yoongi nods and sits opposite of him, a bit reluctantly. His whole body is stiff, he doesn't dare to move too much or say anything.
"Good. Jisun spent the entire afternoon in the kitchen to prepare todays dinner, so I hope you brought enough hunger."
"Oh, of course," Yoongi replies just to have said something once. He is still confused as to why Jimin's parents have invited him over. Surely, he hopes it's partly because they like him – who doesn't want their crush's parents to like them? – but especially because of the way they met, he doesn't know what they want to achieve with this invitation.

Jimin's mother joins them shortly after. She sits down, a warm, happy smile on her lips, and for a moment, Yoongi gets lost in the look of her face; it's truly scary how much her son resembles her. Yoongi blinks to force himself to look away from her.
When they start eating, it's in silence, and it takes them a while to start a conversation.

"So," Mrs. Park says, "You were friends with Jimin?"
Yoongi knew this question would come. And why not? It's not the Park's fault that Jimin and his relationship was a bit more complicated than just that.
"Uh, yes," he replies and nods, "We went to school together... well, I'm two years older than him, and... uh... it was all kind of a coincidence." He looks down at his food.
Yoongi still vividly remembers the day he first talked to Park Jimin. Of course, he had known who the boy was even before that, but the day in the classroom, when Yoongi had hit his head and Jimin put a band aid on the wound, was the very first time they talked.
Oh, what Yoongi would do to go back to that day. He would do so much differently; most importantly, he wouldn't let Jimin go on that one fateful day, 23 days ago.

"Jimin never mentioned you, I believe," Mrs. Park says, "He talked a lot, about all kinds of things. But I don't remember him saying something about a Min Yoongi."
Yoongi presses his lips together. He is sure that Jimin's mother didn't mean to be rude, but her words still hurt. Luckily, he knows why Jimin probably didn't tell his parents; at the time when they were a thing, he wasn't out yet, and instead worried about his parents' reaction to the lack of girls in his life.
"Yeah, we, uhh," Yoongi stutters, trying to come up with a believable excuse, "We sometimes talked, but we only got close after his graduation. We met by chance in a café and... talked."
Talked. Not quite.
Jimin's mother nods once. His father glances at Yoongi.
"He was very quiet during that time," he sighs, "After his... his coming out."
Yoongi looks up in surprise. He isn't sure in what direction this conversation is going now, and he is certainly not sure whether he likes it. How well did Jimin's parents really take their son's outing? Yoongi has no idea, he hasn't talked to them about it – and honestly, he didn't plan to.
"Oh, he used to tell me everything," Mrs. Park says, and the smile from her lips is gone. Now, she looks drained and exhausted, and honestly, Yoongi can fully relate. He doesn't want to imagine what it must be like for the parents to lose their child like this.
"He was such an open kid, and after his graduation he just... turned all to himself. I don't know why," she continues and shakes her head, "Such a pity, really."