Here's My Number

36

The cafeteria this morning is alive and busy when you walk in. Your bus was late because somebody decided it was a good idea to throw a rock and it hit a girl's head. She's okay, but the bus driver stopped the bus to yell at the boys in the back, one of which had to have been the one to throw it.

Jimin is on his laptop like he is every morning, sucked into whatever it is he does. You have the vaguest idea that it's the song he showed you last time, but he hasn't shown you much, other than the beginning of the music. And that was once. He's very secretive about everything on his laptop.

You brush his shoulder with your hand as you walk behind him, letting him know you've arrived. Jimin flinches and whirls around.

"Y/n! I almost thought you weren't going to show up," he says. "What happened?"

"Got caught up. Stupid boys on the bus threw a rock at someone's head."

"Oh god, are they okay?"

"Yeah, she is. Annoyed is more like it. Anyway, whatcha doing?"

Jimin blushes and closes his laptop slowly. "Nothing," he says. "You may find out later."

You smile and take your seat next to Jimin. "Is it porn?"

Jimin chokes, violently shaking his head and turning red like one of those glass stove tops. "N-no," he stutters. "It's not that."

You giggle, smile growing wider. "Just kidding," you say. "This would be a pretty stupid spot to watch it anyway."

Jimin nods, picking up his laptop and opening his backpack to put it in. "Besides," he says. "I'm not like that."

"I know."

As Jimin leans down to put his laptop in his backpack, his sleeve falls away from his shoulder and you see it.

"Oh my god, Chim!" You gasp, reaching for his shoulder. When you touched it earlier he flinched, but not because you startled him. It was because of the burn.

You pinch the fabric of Jimin's shirt and move it to the side a tiny bit. A bright pink-red burn mark covers most of his skin there and you are unable to uncover the rest of it without pulling his shirt off.

Jimin sits up, eyes wide as he takes your hand and removes it, then fixes his sleeve. "I-I meant to cover that up," he says. You shake your head. "How did that happen?"

"Um- accident. With a... candle. Wax. Candle wax. I spilled."

You glance at his face in disbelief and then look back at his shoulder. "How did you manage to..." you trail. You reach for his sleeve again but Jimin catches your hand.

"I just want to see," you say. "When did you do this?"

Jimin averts his eyes, letting go of your wrist. "Last night. I was... playing with a candle and it happened."

You take Jimin's sleeve in between your fingers and very carefully move it away. The burn is still there. Why wouldn't it be? You stand up and peek down the back of his shirt to see how far the mark goes. Even when he sleeve is all the way off his shoulder, you can't see the end of it.

Is it really that big?

Jimin moves your hand away and pulls his sleeve back up again. "Can we not do this here? In front of all these people?"

You furrow your eyebrows, sitting back down and boring into his eyes with your sharpest look of concern and question.

"Did you treat it?"

Jimin opens his mouth to speak, but nothing comes out.

"Jimin, that's a bad burn. You need to get it treated. We should go to the nurse."