Beyond Repair (Min Yoongi)

14. Looking Ahead

It was quiet in the dorm.

When Yoongi's parents and brother left, they had left a gap in Yoongi's chest. Sure, they had left Holly with him, and they'd only left because Yoongi could barely keep his eyes open after a day of such excitement. But despite having been craving some time to himself for a while now, he hadn't wanted them to go. Not really.

And now, it was quiet. Too quiet. Yoongi didn't know what to do with himself.

He hadn't experienced this kind of silence in a long time. He had retreated to his room about a half-hour ago and now, for the first time in a long time, he was completely alone. Well, except for Holly, of course, but poodles generally weren't very good conversationalists.

The silence he found himself basking in wasn't an exceptionally comfortable one, but it wasn't exactly unpleasant, either. It felt almost...normal.

Normal felt weird.

His new phone buzzed next to him on his bed. He jumped, the sudden noise seeming to echo through his room, snapping him out of his thoughts. Holly lifted his head from Yoongi's lap beneath the blanket, looking up at Yoongi as if to question why the phone had startled him so badly.

Yoongi took a breath, scratched Holly's head, and read the message from his brother.

Geumjae, 18:34
At the station, just waiting for the train

Yoongi breathed a small sigh of relief. He had asked his family to text him when they got to the train station, when they boarded the train, when they de-boarded, and when they arrived home. He knew it was a little irrational to fear for his family's safety, considering that there were three of them travelling together, but a part of him was afraid that what had happened to him would happen to them, too, if they weren't careful enough.

Me, 18:35
Okay, cool

It didn't seem like an adequate response, but Yoongi pressed 'send' anyway. He didn't have the energy to come up with something better.

There was a knock on his bedroom door, then, but before Yoongi could ask who it was, the person opened the door.

"Hey," Namjoon quietly greeted, covering his phone with one hand. "Is it okay if we come in?" He gestured to the hallway, where Yoongi saw everyone else waiting.

"Sure."

"Wow, what a vicious guard dog," Jungkook said, nodding at the lump under Yoongi's blanket. Holly was letting out what was arguably the least-threatening growl in the history of growls, wagging his tail.

"He'll bite you," Yoongi playfully warned, a smile ghosting across his face.

"He will not. You brag about how well-behaved he is all the time," Hoseok countered.

"Was there something you all needed?" Yoongi asked.

"Oh, yeah! Hitman Bang is on the phone. He wants to talk to you," said Namjoon.

Yoongi felt his eyebrows rocket into his hairline. "Why?"

"It's nothing bad!" Namjoon rushed to assure him. "But, uh, I think it would be easier just to let him explain."

Namjoon held out the phone and Yoongi accepted it with surprisingly steady hands. "Hello?"

"Yoongi," the CEO of their publishing company replied, his voice warmer than Yoongi believed he had ever heard it. "It's so good to hear your voice, son. How are you? How's everything going?"

"Fine, thank you," Yoongi lied. Jimin wasn't fast enough to catch Yoongi's hand but the man on the other end of the phone didn't seem to hear the echoing SLAP. "H-how are you?" Yoongi stuttered, ignoring the new throbbing sensation in his cheek.