Forever And Ever (BTS)

Chapter 26

"Dad... can I talk to you about something?" Tae quietly asked Mr Kim. His father nodded, "What is it, Tae?" "Well... it's about Jimin. He told me something last week, but I don't know how to help him, so I thought you might know." Mr Kim was puzzled. Jimin seemed fine, was there something going on that he hadn't noticed? He quickly motioned for Tae to go on. "He said he has an... alter ego. Like another him. He's scared. I want to help him get rid of the other him,so he doesn't feel scared anymore." Mr Kim's eyes widened in shock. This was big, Jimin must be suffering from a serious condition. He remembered hearing about something similar on TV, but couldn't recall the name of the condition they had been talking about. "Thank you for telling me, Tae. I'll do my best to help Jimin." He then sent Tae on his way before rushing over to the computer in his study.

'Condition with alter ego' He typed, hoping to get answers. Luckily, he got the answer right away. Multiple websites appeared, all about the same condition." Dissociative Identity Disorder..." he muttered to himself. It did ring a bell, it must've been the one he had heard about before. He clicked on the first link and started reading about it. Poor Jimin, he thought, what must he be going through?

"Jimin, you okay?" Tae found his twin brother seated on his bed, looking deep in thought. "Tae," Jimin whispered, "do you think I'll ever be okay? Will J ever go away?" Tae rushed to comfort him, "Of course you'll be fine! I've already told Dad and he'll do everything he can to help-" 

"WHAT? You told Dad? Why?" Jimin stared at Tae with accusing eyes. "What do you mean, why? Dad can help, he's a grown-up! He'll be able to help way more than I can!" Confusion was all Tae could feel. He was helping Jimin, why was he upset? "You weren't supposed to tell him. I'm strange, I don't need everyone knowing about it. It was supposed to be our secret. I thought I could trust you!" Confusion was accompanied by anger. "Jimin, how was I supposed to know you wanted it to be a secret?" Jimin stood up, breathing heavily from his rage, "You always say you can tell what I'm feeling, what I'm thinking, shouldn't you have known when I told you and not any of our other brothers? Maybe you don't know me as much as you think!" Tae watched with angry eyes as Jimin stormed out of the room. "Jiminie, how could you say things like that? I'm your twin..." he whispered, with no one there to hear him. He sat on his own bed, and wept.

*******

Namjoon was sitting at the coffee table in the living room, working on his homework. Yoongi sat nearby on the sofa, watching him with curious eyes. "Joon, how do you manage to make yourself do all that work? All I can do is my English and Lit homework," Yoongi asked, baffled at his brother's ability to finish the work for all his subjects, even the ones he didn't like. Namjoon looked at him with surprise, "Why are you asking? You've never cared about studies, not ours or your own." "I... need to pass everything to graduate. It's the only way I'll be able to get to middle school and choose my subjects. But I can't get any motivation to do the work for Maths and Science, they're the most boring subjects in the world." 

"Well, I think of every lesson as an opportunity to learn something new. I don't have to like the subject for the information to fascinate me. If you think about it, your construction toys are all made from Science and Maths. Those subjects made technology possible. To me, even if I don't enjoy them or want to pursue them, being able to know how the things around me came about is worth sitting in dry lessons every day. In the future, when we have to buy things ourselves and look at our finances, we're going to have to use Maths to do those things. And Science is all around us. The trees, the roads, our own bodies. You can't escape them, whether you like it or not. You know, even literature can involve Science. Like Frankenstein, there's loads of Science in that book. But it's also philosophical. See, subjects that seem like the exact opposite can go hand in hand. It is tough to enjoy learning it, especially when your brain's not wired to do so. But I realised that this whole time, I've been appreciating what's come from these subjects when I use my phone, or watch TV. Maybe you should try realising that yourself. Those subjects you don't like are more useful than you think, that's why we're learning them. Let yourself be fascinated by the things you learn, study them not just for the exams, but to know more about the world you live in." 

Yoongi was speechless. When had his younger brother become so intellectual? Or maybe he had just been too oblivious to notice. Namjoon was becoming more of a genius each day. He really should pay more attention to Joon's words. "Not bad logic, kid," he said, ruffling Namjoon's hair. He had to remain cool, he wasn't about to let his brother think he was becoming soft. Namjoon beamed, "Thanks, hyung! I hope you're able to motivate yourself soon, you can do it! Fighting!" Yoongi had to fight back a grin as he walked up to the bedroom, feeling the strange urge to follow his brother's footsteps and get his work done.

*******

"Yoongi...you actually did the homework?" Mr Kang asked in awe. Yoongi nodded with his usual blank face. "See, I can be smart when I want to be," he deadpanned, trying to seem annoyed with his teacher's gawking, though he would later admit to himself that he slightly enjoyed being the cause of Mr Kang's amazement. "It's a miracle that you want to be in the first place," Mr Kang said softly, still in shock that the one student who had vowed to never conform to the system was handing in homework for the subjects other than English and Lit for the first time. Yoongi allowed the corner of his mouth to tilt up, "I got inspired. I have a reason to do the work now."

*******

"Jiminie, please talk to me! I'm sorry I told Dad, please forgive me!" Tae had been following Jimin around the whole day. Even when Jimin had gone into the bathroom and locked the door, Tae had stood right outside and shouted through the door. Their other brothers looked at them in confusion. The pair of twins had never fought before, and though the rest didn't know what it was about, they knew it was serious. However, Jimin and Tae had always been able to make up, so they didn't pry. "Jimin, just give me one minute to talk to you, and if you're still angry I'll never talk to you again!" Tae pleaded, spouting whatever popped into his brain in his desperation. He knew never talking to Jimin again wasn't possible, but whatever got him to reply would work for now. Sure enough, Jimin finally turned around, "One minute," he hissed. They sat down on Tae's bed. "Jiminie, I'm sorry for telling Dad about J. I should have asked you what you wanted first. I'm such a bad brother..." Tae lowered his head in shame, feeling like he'd committed the worst crime ever by doing something against his twin's wishes. Jimin saw tears start to drip from Tae's eyes onto his shirt. His glare started to disappear. He knew Tae was truly sorry, and he was never one to hold a grudge. "Okay... I forgive you." Tae glanced up, and upon seeing Jimin's small smile, lunged at him, engulfing him in a baby bear hug. "Thank you, Jiminie!" Jimin grinned, he had missed hanging out with Tae. After a while, Tae stopped crying, pulling back to look at Jimin. All of a sudden, he had a thought. 

"Actually, Jimin...I want to tell you something too." At Jimin's questioning look, he went on. "I have something...weird about me too. Every time someone raises their hand, whether it's to wave at me or to answer a question in class, I feel scared. I keep thinking they're going to hit me. I don't know why... all I know is that it started after Dad...you know..." Both of them winced, remembering the night Mr Kim had hit Tae. "I thought it would stop because I'd forgiven Dad and I still love him, but it continued. It still happens now. I don't know what to do either, just like you..." Jimin held Tae's hand, ever the supportive brother. "It's okay Tae, I'll take care of you in any way I can. If you want, we can tell Dad about you too, then he can help both of us." But Tae shook his head, "No, Dad should help you first. I'll tell him once you're cured, It might be too much for him to help both of us at once. Let's let him fix us one at a time, then he won't feel as burdened." Jimin nodded, agreeing even though he wanted Tae to be cured as soon as possible too. 

*******

Yoongi strolled through the door with a smug look. He had stayed in school a bit later than the rest, so they had gone home first. Mr Kang had asked him to have a talk with him in his office. Turns out, the teacher wanted to praise him for doing his work. Even better, all the teachers had marked his work first since they were curious to see exactly how much effort he had put in. The results shocked everyone. Yoongi smirked as he showed his marked work to Namjoon. "Looks like your hyung's really a genius after all." Namjoon's eyes grew big as he saw Yoongi's scores. "Woah, hyung, you got almost full marks for all your work! Well done! I knew you could do it!" Yoongi didn't stop the smile this time. "Thank you Joonie, I couldn't have done it without you," he said, calling Namjoon by the affectionate nickname he rarely used. Namjoon froze, then grinned back at Yoongi, proud that he had managed to help him, and proud that Yoongi had found his motivation.