Strawberries and cigarettes

31- Jimin

Jimin was looking out the window of his bedroom, sitting there on the window ledge in his pajamas. It's been two weeks now since he'd been outside. In the beginning, he'd not even been able to leave his bed other than for going to the bathroom. Jimin's pink hair had grown out a little and his face was puffed up and swollen from all the nights he would wake up screaming and crying in the last fourteen days.
Taehyung was trying to take care of him as best as he could but there was this numb feeling inside his body as well as the knot that was building up in his chest every time he was thinking about what happened.
It was like he could still feel the coldness of the water creeping up his legs until it reached his head. His aching head that was filled with terrible images of what could possibly happen to him. Filled with fear about his future and about his friends. Jimin couldn't even close his eyes without seeing the kidnappers right in front of him, laughing about how he was crying and sobbing, all tied up and wet.

Due to the constant darkness that had surrounded him in the swimming pool, Jimin sill noticed just how sensitive he'd become to brightness. At night, when a car passed their apartment and the front lights shone in through the window, he winced, all muscles of his body tensing up at once. In general, he was way easier to scare than before. Almost every sound made him jump and putting on headphones didn't necessarily improve the situation because then he felt out of control and vulnerable. Cut off from the real world and unable to recognize danger. He didn't want to be afraid anymore. He wanted to go back to normal and be able to live his life without Taehyung bringing him food, telling him when it was time to shower, and putting him to bed.

Right now, his friend wasn't home, he was working at the car wash a few minutes away and after his shift, he said he'd go get Jungkook from the hospital.
Another thing that made Jimin feel terrible:
Even though he didn't really like the black-haired, it wasn't like he couldn't stand him at all so he still felt extremely guilty about being the reason he got injured. It was because of him that Jungkook got shot and by now had gone through several surgeries and almost two weeks in the hospital. Because Jimin had been weak enough to let himself be kidnapped. Because, as always, he depended on someone else saving him. Taehyung didn't deserve a friend like him who couldn't do anything on his own. A friend that was always on the receiving end and never gave back even though he was older than him.

With a groan, he got up and turned away from the window to look at the clock. It was 2:40 pm and the other wasn't going to come home for another three hours.
What the heck was he supposed to do to survive this time without dying of boredom?
Normally, he'd just go for a walk, get some air, or workout but Taehyung wouldn't want him to leave the apartment all alone and he was a little weak to go to the gym anyway.
Still, his body was itching to be moved after all this time of lying around in his bed, trying to just sleep it all off.
He'd read through more webtoons and short-stories than in his entire high school life, sometimes reading stuff twice just because he was so bored.
After a couple of days, he switched to watching movies on his phone, knowing that it wouldn't necessarily help his eyesight but he didn't really care.
After all, there was really anything else he could do in here, was there?

With lazy steps, he dragged himself to the kitchen and opened the fridge to see if they had anything he could snack right now but there were barely any groceries left.
Jimin groaned in frustration and let his head fall back so that he was staring at the ceiling when suddenly, he noticed a spider handing there, right above him.
His face formed a frown at once and he took a step to the side to increase the distance between him and that ugly thing.
The urge to leave this apartment increased the longer he stared at the six-legged creature and after a few more seconds, he spun around on his heel and headed towards the bathroom.
After a short, hot shower he got changed and grabbed his keys. Jimin had to prove to himself that he was more than capable of going for a walk on his own. It was in the middle of the day after all and even though it was now the 3rd of November, the sun was shining with a warm light. Still, he decided to put on a denim jacket over his long-sleeve oversized shirt that he combined with black skinny jeans and timberlands.
Without wasting another second to check his hair of something – it probably looked like a mess anyway – he left the apartment and got into the elevator. He had put on an alarm for 4 pm because that was when Taehyung's shift was over. Then he'd have enough time to get back home while the younger would check Jungkook out of the hospital and hopefully be back at the apartment before him.