Beyond Repair (Min Yoongi)

20. Preparation

After Yoongi was discharged from the hospital, the next few days passed relatively uneventfully. Yoongi's parents offered to come back and help take care of him (and his mother gave poor Namjoon an earful for not sending for her immediately when her son fell ill), but Yoongi had assured everyone that that wouldn't be necessary. He felt fine. He was getting better.

Jimin had moved into Yoongi's room full-time. Seokjin had moved his belongings into the room he now shared with Hoseok, and likewise, Jimin had moved his things into Yoongi's room. He had his own bed in there, too, but that was just for lounging in if ever he wanted time to himself during the day. He shared a bed with Yoongi every night. It had become part of their new routine.

Another part of their routine was that, whenever Yoongi had a nightmare that woke him up silently, Jimin would handle it, simply cuddling him until he felt safe enough to fall back asleep. But when Yoongi woke up screaming (thereby waking the rest of the household), everyone camped out in the living room. They watched movies or played games, or sometimes just talked about anything and everything until they tired Yoongi out enough to sleep dreamlessly. It was a good way for Yoongi to open up more to the others and get used to their touch again. On Friday night, after a Marvel movie marathon, Yoongi fell asleep on top of Jungkook. When the others realised this, their hearts swelled with pride. Slowly but surely, Yoongi was emotionally healing.

Yoongi groaned in protest to waking up on Sunday morning, especially waking up alone (the bed was cold, which meant Jimin had gotten up some time ago), but he sat up, anyway, scrubbing the sleep from his eyes. He tentatively stretched his arms and legs and then twisted his back from side to side, shivering in satisfaction at the series of tiny 'crack's that popped down his spine.

"Good morning," Jimin said as he entered the room. He sat on the bed and tucked a strand of hair behind Yoongi's ear. Yoongi closed his eyes and leaned into the touch, letting Jimin cup his cheek. "I was just about to come wake you. How are you feeling?"

"Good," Yoongi said automatically. But this time, he didn't have to punish himself for saying so, because he wasn't lying. His body felt better than it had in ages—his headache was gone, breathing was easier, his stomach felt normal, his muscles didn't have as much stiffness to them as he was used to, and he felt stronger. For the first time in what felt like forever, Yoongi wasn't in any physical pain at all.

"Great!" Jimin cheered. Yoongi didn't have to open his eyes and look to know that Jimin was smiling. "It's time to get ready. The press conference doesn't start until three-thirty, but the managers want us there by ten so the stylists have time to work on you."

Yoongi frowned, opening his eyes. "Work on me?"

"Yeah. You know, styling your hair, choosing your clothes, doing your makeup, the usual stuff."

Yoongi's frown deepened. "But that never takes more than an hour. Why would they need five and a half?"

"Well, I mean, if you think about it..." Jimin retracted his hand to scratch the back of his neck, pausing as if in search of the right words, "you've changed a lot since the last time they saw you. They'll need to cut your hair, find out which style will work the best, and find a way to do your hair and makeup without touching you."

Yoongi perked up at that, almost afraid to hope he'd heard that last part correctly. "They...they're not going to touch me?"

"No," Jimin said, smiling at him. "They might be used to working with celebrities, but they're experts in their field. They're good at figuring out how to work with unique clients, like those with touch aversions."

Yoongi's posture visibly relaxed, a happy sort of relief spreading through him. "Good."

"So, go ahead and get dressed," Jimin chirped, retrieving a neatly-folded stack of clothes from the foot of the bed that hadn't been there when they'd gone to sleep the previous night, "and then I'll be waiting for you in the hallway and we can go eat breakfast. Hoseok made waffles!" And Jimin was out the door before Yoongi could get a word in edgewise.