Work Text
03/23/18 1.39 PM
A gunshot rang through the air causing Jimin to quicken his pace. He runs a little further, stopping behind a tree to catch his breath, feeling as if he’d been running for days on end without rest.Without much time to think or stop his heart from racing, another shot is heard, this time so close that it hits the tree Jimin is hiding behind. Pushing his pink hair matted with blood from his eyes, Jimin forces his legs into a sprint once more.Somehow, knowing who his pursuer was and that he was angry, caused Jimin to run much faster than he originally thought he could; so fast that the forest blurred around him.His legs burn with exertion as he sprints away from the man with the gun, booking it towards the clearing of the forest and zig zagging through the trees to try and keep the bullets from hitting him. As he dunks under a fallen tree, he hears another gunshot, a sign that he is still being followed.Then, the growl comes.It’s deep and rumbling, as if a stampede of horses is pounding the earth into bits behind him. Jimin almost swears that the ground shakes with the deep vibrations that roll across the air towards him.“Jimin, you’re mine! If I can’t have you, no one can!”As he makes it to the clearing to look for any signs of civilization, his pursuer shoots at him again, causing him to bend over just enough to keep running and hopefully be missed by the onslaught of bullets. ‘Tonight is the night I die,’ is all that was running through Jimin’s head.Jimin hadn’t thought that his distraction plan would actually allow him to get away, so the plan from here on out? Yeah, Jimin didn’t have one.He was running around the forest like a rabid squirrel, thinking on the fly with a brain that’s surely the size of a peanut. He was such an idiot, but he knew if he stopped running he would certainly die.Making it further into the clearing, another shot was heard, but this time followed with a searing pain in Jimin’s right hip. He knew he’d been shot, if the pain was anything to go by. So, ignoring the pain, Jimin looked over his shoulder one more time, got up off the floor with his hand pressed firmly to his hip, and continued to hobble as far as he could.Jimin headed for the trees again, hoping that the coverage would give him time to escape. He quickly veered off to the right, hand still held up against his hip, hoping that the forest was thick enough so that his pursuer wouldn’t know which direction he had gone.As he ran, Jimin tried to take stock of the situation.He didn’t know where he was, nor where he was headed. He didn’t know whether or not there was a house around for miles. There really wasn’t a way to tell.The most obvious question running through Jimin’s head was how was he going to escape from the roaring lion stalking him through the forest?However, before he had time to think of anything else that may have helped him escape, a shot rang one last time through the air, hitting him in the head causing everything to go black.*************************
04/16/18 12.22 PM
“This was one case out of about seven million a year,” Sergeant John Miller sighs. “I haven’t seen it all yet, but this one still seemed different. Maybe, it was how far it went.”He sighs once more, shaking his head in disbelief as he moves around in his chair to get comfortable. He looks back at the camera and continues his explanation.“Now, you never know if these situations will end in violence. But that threat of harm, that terror that the victim is made to live with, that’s always there. And suddenly, one day, boom.”*************************
01/29/18 9.18 AM
Jimin sits on his bed, the radio softly playing in the background, with his laptop between his legs. He wants to go to college so badly, but because of the lack of funds, he has had to put it off for a year.After working full time at his town’s only diner, Delilah's Diner, he has finally saved up enough to apply to college. So that’s exactly what he has decided to do this morning, with his applications and school papers thrown all over the bed.Sure, he wasn’t applying for any Ivy League schools, but he was ok with that. Just being accepted into college and being able to go was enough for him, especially if he got to do what he really wanted to do; dance.As he submits the application for the state college, his phone rings. He looks down and sees that it’s Yoongi calling him, which could only mean one thing; he was late for work. Being so caught up in finishing this application, he had totally forgotten to check the time.Scrambling to pick up his phone, he slides the screen open to answer it.“Yoongi!” Jimin all but screams into his phone. “I’m so sorry. Uh, I’m going to be there as soon as I can. I just-” Jimin pauses to hear what Yoongi says on the other side of the phone.“No, don’t call Cherise in! I’m-I’m literally right down the street,” Jimin says down his phone as he hurriedly grabs his keys, runs across the house, and hops into his car. Without putting down his phone, he pulls out of his driveway and continues to the diner.“No, I promise I’m really almost there. Honestly, like, 30 seconds. This time I mea-” before Jimin can finish his sentence, he hears sirens and sees a cop car with flashing lights behind him through his rearview mirror.“Shit,” Jimin mumbles. “Um, hey Yoongi, I gotta go, but I-I’m gonna be right there. Don’t call Cherise or anyone else.”Jimin hurriedly hangs up on Yoongi, shoving his phone into the cup holder, and turns to roll down his window.Jimin may not want to admit it, but this wasn’t the first time he’d been pulled over for speeding. In fact, he had been pulled over so many times that he knew the sheriff by name.“I’m sorry, Sheriff Mathews. I’m at your mercy again,” Jimin starts without even looking up at the sheriff who had finally made it to the window of his car. There was one thing Jimin knew he was good at; getting out of a speeding ticket. Today was not going to be any different, especially when he was running behind for work.Well, not until he looked up through the window to find a completely different person, who was not anywhere near close to being Sheriff Matthews, looking in on him. This officer, who Jimin had never seen in town before (which was weird with how small the town was), was clearly taller than Jimin, standing at least a foot above his car, with his sunglasses pushed up his nose and his curly blonde hair spilling out onto his forehead. Saying this officer was attractive was an understatement, and Jimin really couldn’t believe he had never seen him around town before.“Oh, uh, you’re not Sheriff Matthews,” Jimin all but stutters, trying to act cool in front of this gorgeous man he’d never met before.“Nope,” he replies with a smile creating dimples at the ends of his lips that Jimin just found adorable. “Officer Ward.”“Officer Ward,” Jimin repeated, looking down to try and keep his slowly reddening cheeks from being seen and causing even more embarrassment on Jimin’s part.“Oh wait,” and just like that Jimin remembered something. He had heard Sheriff Matthews talking about how they were going to be transferring in someone from another town, someone who the sheriff himself had raised as if he were his own. Being so focused on college applications and then being late for work on top of that, it had completely left his mind. “So you’re the new guy?”“Mm-hmm,” he responded with another smile and a nod of his head.“So you’re probably not gonna let me off with my usual warning then, right? ‘Cause, I mean why would you?” Jimin finishes with a shrug of his shoulder, attempting to seem unbothered by this new presence and quite possibly trying to flirt with him in the process.Seemingly undeterred from Jimin’s flirting, Officer Ward continues. “You know how fast you were going?”Slightly disappointed at the lack of a response from the officer, Jimin continues with his flirting, or what he hopes seems like flirting. “Too fast?” he asks, the words taking on a higher pitch towards the end.“Too fast,” Officer Ward responds, with his signature smile and a slight laugh. “And,” he continues, “you were talking on your cell phone. Where you headed in such a hurry?”“Uh, Delilah’s Diner,” Jimin replies with a point up the street. “I work there.”“Oh, okay.”Awkwardly, Jimin replies with a “yeah” and a nod of his head, refusing to meet Officer Ward’s eyes.“Where is that?”“It’s right up the corner,” he replies again, with a nod of his head in the direction of his work where Yoongi is waiting for him. “I’m currently headed to work.”“Okay. Good to know.”“We have the world’s best pie.”“Also good to know,” Officer Ward replies with another smile. “All right, Jimin.”“How did, how do you know my name?” Jimin responds, shocked and stuttering over his words.“Well, Matthews, he, uh, gave me a heads-up on some of the town’s more reckless citizens and their routes. I was expecting you.”Jimin, still slightly shocked, huffs and slides back into his seat. Of course Matthews would have someone keep an eye on him when he wasn’t working.“So, here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to do what the sheriff would do here. Jimin Park,” Officer Ward pauses and nods in his direction, “consider this a verbal warning.”“Well, thank you, kind sir,” Jimin replies with a bow of his head, still slightly playful.“You’re welcome. Just do me a favor, slow down and keep both hands on the wheel. If you’re not careful you’ll fly into a ditch or kill somebody.” With that, Officer Ward pushes himself up from leaning over Jimin’s small car.“I promise you,” Jimin smiles, “I will do neither of those things.”“Okay. Thank you.” And with a nod of his head and one more smile, Officer Ward walks back to his cop car, and pulls away, leaving Jimin sitting in his seat all jittery and smiling.…“Okay, so you guys got your food. Um, and you need, what was it? Hash browns and toast?” The customer nods at Jimin as he writes down the missing part of this couple's breakfast. “And anything else?”The diner that Jimin worked at wasn’t retro so much as old. The sign was made of pink, backlit letters across the top reading “Delilah's Diner,” the ‘D’ in ‘Delilah’ no longer working.The diner had a row of bar stools facing the rather small kitchen and was practically a hallway, with booths lined against the wall and a large window opposite the barstools. They were small, such that only two skinny people could fit on each side, unless they were exceedingly comfortable with each other. The booth table tops were also small, so that two people sitting across from each other were at a close, almost intimate conversational distance. The floor was a grid of large stone squares, which alternated between black and gray in a checkered pattern.Along with this, there was a decorative antique cash register and a low hanging ceiling fan, which didn’t spin. Pipes from the radiator also ran along the walls, creaking and groaning every time they were in use. All in all, the diner didn’t look the best, but their food was relatively good with Yoongi in the kitchen.Speaking of which, a bell was heard ringing through the small diner, followed by Yoongi yelling, “Order up!” and sliding two dishes full of food up onto the serving counter, bringing Jimin’s attention away from his customers and over towards Yoongi. Currently, Yoongi and Jimin were the only two working.As Jimin walked around the bar to the serving counter to pick up the food, he stopped and looked at Yoongi, resting his crossed arms on the counter. “Hey, you still owe me hash browns and toast.”“You don’t have ‘em, probably ‘cause you didn’t write them down,” Yoongi responds sarcastically, barely looking up at Jimin to continue cooking. Jimin was used to this behavior. Yoongi was always blunt and sarcastic, it was just how he was.At the moment, Yoongi looked like he had last slept a week ago; his hair was a bleached mess and around his eyes the skin looked lightly bruised. He looked like someone you’d want to avoid out on the streets with his tight black shirt, black skinny jeans with a hole in the right knee, and his black Timberland boots that came up to his ankles; it didn’t help that whenever he went outside he’d always be wearing either a hoodie or leather jacket and sunglasses. Just taking a look at Yoongi would scare anyone away, unless you were one of those teenagers that were always pining over ‘bad boys’ . That being said, he knew how to handle Yoongi and his personality.“Check your tickets. Table four.” And just like that, Jimin grabs both plates and walks back around the bar to give them to the customers.Yoongi mutters under his breath and sighs, digging through the tickets to find table four’s ticket. “Oh, come on,” he sighs yet again after finding it and seeing that Jimin was in fact correct and went to make the missing hash browns and toast.“So, since Yoongi can’t get it together, hash browns and toast on him, coffee on me,” Jimin says as he smiles at the couple, pointing at Yoongi, in turn making Yoongi huff out a little laugh.“Hey! At least I was on time, okay?”“Ha ha, very funny Yoongi,” Jimin replies sarcastically as he once again walks around the bar to stand in front of one of their regular customers, who was drinking coffee and filling out the crossword puzzle in the daily newspaper.“Good morning Evelyn,” Jimin all but chirps at the elderly woman sitting at the bar, filling up her coffee in the process. “What do you have for me?”“Uh, let me see here,” Evelyn replies as she looks back down at her crossword puzzle to reread the one that was giving her some trouble. “Ah! Okay. A ten letter word for ‘freedom’. The-the thirds letter’s a ‘B’.”“Hmm. What about liberation?”“Look at you! You are ready for college! Even though you can leave the rest of us behind, it’s fine,” Evelyn retorts jokingly at Jimin, looking back down at her crossword puzzle.“I may be ‘liberated’ from this town, but I could never leave you,” Jimin all but smiles.“Mm. By the way, there’s some extra in there this week,” Evelyn says as she points to the class jar sitting by the register. On the front, in pink scrawly handwriting, it says, ‘Jimin’s College Fund’, and just by looking at it, Jimin can tell she put quite the amount in it. “I won 50 bucks in the scratch-off.”“I can’t take that,” Jimin replies quickly, shaking his head at Evelyn, surprised that she would even want to give him any money, let alone $50.“Yes, you can, and you will. Go. Go,” Evelyn says as she waves Jimin off and goes back to her crossword puzzle.With a sigh, Jimin leaves Evelyn and her stubbornness, and walks back into the kitchen, where he unsurprisingly finds Yoongi still cooking over the stove. Jimin leans back against the counter by the sink in the kitchen and sighs, trying to relax some before he has to go back out and deal with any more customers. Customers like Evelyn, Jimin doesn’t have a problem with, especially with his outgoing personality, but some can get so irritating and Jimin decides he needs a breather, if only for a moment.“So,” Yoongi starts breaking Jimin out of his thoughts, “I don’t know what you’re up to tonight but, um,” Yoongi pauses to clear his throat, “so, me and the boys are heading to Lucky’s to play some pool and, I don’t know if you, want to go?” All the while asking this, Yoongi’s cheeks slowly redden, so much so that the tips of his ears tint pink. Out of embarrassment he refused to make eye contact with Jimin, staying focused on cooking, trying to act as nonchalantly as possible. If Yoongi had practiced asking Jimin this question all morning, just for it to come out the way it did, no one needed to know.“That’s nice. Sounds fun,” Jimin replies with a shrug of his shoulders.Yoongi looks up at this. With the way Jimin had answered, he knew there was something else the boy with the pink hair hadn’t said. “I’m sensing a but coming on its way.”“It’s inappropriate to talk about ‘butts’ in the workplace,” Jimin responds with a laugh and a smile so wide that his eyes crinkled up, making it look like he could barely see.Although disappointed and not surprised by Jimin’s response, Jimin’s smile made Yoongi feel warm inside. He could live off of that sight alone for the rest of his life and be happy, not that he would admit it to anyone.“Um, I can’t tonight. I have a thing with Taehyung and Jungkook and,” Jimin all of a sudden cuts off, causing Yoongi to look back up at him. “Lucky’s sounds fun though.”“Cool. That’s, uh, that’s awesome.” Yoongi wanted nothing more in this moment, than he did for the floor to swallow him up and end his stuttering ass.“Maybe another time. I like pool,” Jimin responded with another shrug of his shoulders and a small smile.Just then, they hear the bell above the front door jingling, signaling that someone had either just walked into the diner or left. Jimin popped his head around the door of the kitchen, just in time to see Officer Ward walk in. Jimin’s heart picked up and he could’ve sworn that time slowed down as Officer Ward turned and walked over and sat down at the bar; something normally only possible in movies.Jimin takes a second to compose himself, Yoongi all the while looking at him through his peripheral vision, and then walks out of the kitchen and behind the bar, stopping right in front of Officer Ward.“Hello, Officer Ward,” Jimin says with a smile and a tilt of his head. “Don’t tell me that you changed your mind about letting me go. Am I under arrest?”“Nope,” he responds with his signature smile, shaking his head fondly at Jimin. “While you are clearly a danger to yourself and others, I’m just here to inspect the pie, sir.”“It is really good.”“I’ll be the judge of that,” Officer Ward says, smile not once wavering.“Do you have a preference?” Jimin asks as he points towards the display of all of their pies.“I’ll have whatever you think I should have.”“Coming right up!” Jimin all but chirps as he bounces away to the pie display to pick one out for his new found crush.In the midst of all of this, Yoongi had been listening to the two of them shamelessly flirting. To say Yoongi was jealous would be an understatement, although he knew that he had no claim over the pink haired boy. So, he just stuck to silently mocking Officer Ward when he wasn’t paying attention to Yoongi.“So,” Jimin starts as he places a piece of pie down in front of Officer Ward, “with you being new in town and all, I figured you might want somebody to, I don’t know, show you around?”“Are you asking me out on a date, Jimin Park?” Officer Ward asks, crossing his arms and slightly smirking in Jimin’s direction.Jimin thinks about it for a moment before responding. “Friday night.”“I don’t know,” Officer Ward starts with a joking tone. “A criminal and a cop? People might talk.”Jimin giggles in response. “Let ‘em.”*************************
04/18/18 8.48 AM
“Yeah we were close,” Yoongi says as he rang his fingers together nervously. He had never been on TV before, let alone been interviewed for anything. “But, you know when Adam showed up, it ... “ Yoongi hesitated, “changed things.”“How so?” the man behind the camera asks.Yoongi sighs. “I, you know, I just felt things were different. He liked him, and what do I know?” Yoongi shrugs. “He was happy.”“Did you like him?”Yoongi gives a little smile, looking down at his feet to keep from making eye contact with the man he barely knew. “I mean, who didn’t like Jimin?”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
02/02/18 9.02 PM
Jimin sits on the wall on the outside of the town’s piano bar, one hand clasping the toe of his worn sneaker, waiting for Adam to show up. The bar started out as a plank of wood suspended between two oil drums on the beach. One of the kids at Jimin’s school, Sef, began it when he dropped out of high school at 16, much to the dismay of his overachieving parents. All those piano lessons gone to waste. Sef had moved out and couch surfed among his friends for a while, then he got mighty sick of having back aches like some old man and he got motivated. His bar was a huge success, as none of his friends at the high school were old enough to get into a real bar for drinks. He just moved his barrels and plank around to avoid the cops, announce the location on social media and pop up minutes before the start time. Sef’s raves made him pretty wealthy for a teen and everyone thought he'd be a druggie next, now that he was so flush and all. However, that's not what happened. He never touched a drop of booze, in his glass was water with food dye to make it look like whiskey, or water in a vodka bottle. Sef went right out and bought a suit, got a bank loan and started a real classy bar; a bar that became so popular with the locals that it had become a hotspot for going out on dates. That being said, this was where Jimin and Adam had decided to have their first date to get to know each other and enjoy the music.Jimin looks down at his top; in the dim street lights it was kind of see-through except for the worn out stripes on the front. With the nail of his thumb in his mouth, he scans the square looking for Adam, biting down harder than he had intended and swallowing the fragment. A pigeon was coming closer, rotating between pecking at the ground and observing him with its head cocked. He let out a laugh, releasing some of the tension he had built up as it grew closer to the time of his date. Dating was crappy and Jimin was sick of telling people about himself only for them to decide that he wasn't what they were looking for. If he had to hear “It's not you, it's me” again he thought he’d puke. Then through the crowds comes a guy in old shoes and a fading Metallica t-shirt with a big smile on his face directed towards Jimin. “Hey,” Adam breathes out as he stands in front of Jimin, pushing his curly blonde bangs out of his eyes. “I hope you weren’t waiting too long.”Jimin hops off the wall of the bar with a laugh and reaches out to give Adam a hug. “Of course not. I just got here too!”As they release each other from the hug, Adam smiles once more and pulls out a box from behind his back. “I, uh, I got you a little something.”Shocked, Jimin reaches out to take the box from Adam’s hands. “Doesn’t look like much but, uh,” Adam stops halfway through his explanation, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment, as Jimin opens the box. Jimin audibly gasps as he pulls the item from the box. It was an old retangular music box, that when Jimin opened it, a small dancer spun around to a lullaby.“Oh, wow. Thank you so much!” So far this night was going so much better than Jimin had originally thought it would.“You’re welcome,” Adam replies with a short laugh. “I remembered you saying how much you loved dancing and this reminded me of you so …”“Seriously, thank you. This is the sweetest thing anyone has ever given me,” Jimin replies with a smile.“Let’s go in,” Adam all but whispers to Jimin as he takes his hand and walks him into the bar and to a seat towards the front to enjoy the show.The smoke from cigarettes twists in its artistic way, forming curls in the gloom, illuminated only by the age-speckled bar lights. Along the wall was every hue of amber liquid in their glass bottles; every type of poison one could consume by being there. Adam raises a shaky finger to call the server, and when they did not appear he turns his head slowly to his right to watch her scrub the glass of the chiller cabinet, recently re-stuffed with those stupid garish alcopops all the teens were slurping faster than coca-cola.Seeing Adam’s dilemma, Jimin too decides to turn and look towards the bartender, only to make eye contact with Yoongi. Yoongi tips his glass towards Jimin, filled with only god knows what, as Jimin hurriedly turns back in his chair and towards the musicians, cheeks slightly flushed as he wasn’t expecting to meet him here. So through the entire date, Jimin decides to ignore Yoongi and try his best to enjoy Adam’s company, as well as the music.…Of course, Yoongi figures the officer and Jimin were on a date when they entered the bar together. He sadly wasn’t surprised, although slightly jealous as he had been trying to get Jimin’s attention for years now and keeps failing. However, he didn’t mean to make eye contact with the pink haired boy, that was entirely by accident. So he did the only thing he could think of at that moment and raise his glass towards Jimin. What he was not expecting in return was for officer Ward to send him a dirty look. He barely knew the guy and was even at the bar before they showed up, so Yoongi didn’t know what warranted the look.All he knew was that something felt off, no, not his jealousy , and he was going to get down to the bottom of it for Jimin’s sake.
…
Walking hand in hand out of the bar, the two were engulfed in silence. Normally, when Jimin has gone on dates, this is that part that gets awkward when he has to pretend to still be interested, only to not contact his date again, as the date had not gone well. However, this date was different and the silence between the two was a comfortable one.Jimin has to admit, his date with Adam went far better than he expected, except for the part where he had to keep avoiding eye contact with Yoongi. They got along so well that their conversation just flowed naturally; there was never an awkward moment between the two. Not to mention the fact that from the little that they were able to talk, Jimin found that he and Adam had a lot in common, so Jimin was willing to see where this went and he knew he wants to do it again.With that thought in his mind, Jimin pulls Adam to a stop and drags him over to a wall in an alleyway between the piano bar and another store, leaning up against it, only to have Adam cage him in with his arms. Before anything could be said between the two, Yoongi walks by the alley, catching the attention of both Jimin and Adam, with Jimin trying to hide and Adam starting to laugh.“Isn’t that the guy you work with?” “Yeah,” Jimin responds looking down, trying to think of a way to break the awkwardness that has suddenly made an appearance between the two for the first time that night.Suddenly serious, Adam drops his arms from around Jimin, taking a step back. “He was watching you during the show, you know? Pretty intense.” ‘Great,’ Jimin thinks, ‘ not only has the best date I’ve ever had suddenly become so awkward, Adam noticed Yoongi staring at me’. “Well, uh, that’s just Yoongi,” Jimin replies, once again trying to bring back the original mood from their date.With a slight laugh, Adam reaches out to push back Jimin’s pink bangs from his eyes, slowly bringing his hand down to caress his cheek. “Just Yoongi, huh?”“Yeah, now where were we?” Jimin pushes away Adam’s hand, only to bring his arms around Adam’s neck in order to bring their bodies closer together. “No, but, you don’t like him, right?”“What?” Jimin asks, surprise written all over his face. “No! God, no,” Jimin responds with a shake of his head and a laugh. “Cause I like you, Jimin,” Adam pauses to get closer to Jimin, their lips almost touching, “I do.”“Yeah? But do you ‘like me’ like me?” Jimin, glad to see the awkwardness gone, decides to ask once again sassily flirting with Adam.With his signature smile, the one that shows off his dimples that Jimin just finds adorable, Adam gives Jimin a flirty reply of his own, “I just said I like you.”“Wait, are you letting me in here?” Jimin, gasps with fake shock as he points to Adam’s heart.“Uh,” Adam chuckles, looking down and once again backing slightly away from Jimin. “Look, my last relationship was, uh, really dysfunctional. So..”“Someone from around here?”“No, uh, East Larson. Where I used to live.”“Oh. What’s his name?” Now, Jimin knows he may be prying a little too much into Adam’s private life, especially when they had just met, but he was curious. In his defence, who wouldn't be a little curious.“Namjoon. But I don’t want to talk about him.”“Adam,” Jimin smiles, once again bringing his arms up and around Adam’s neck, “I’m not him.”“I know. I just wanna be,” Adam hesitates, “open about everything. You know, this, whatever this is, I-I want it to be right.”Taking a moment to think about everything that Adam had just opened up to him about, Jimin looks down at his feet, fingers running through the hair at the nap of Adam’s neck.“I don’t know what to say,” Jimin quietly says as he looks back up into Adam’s eyes, “but I do like you.”Adam and Jimin stare into each other's eyes, breathing in each other’s breaths. This lasts for only a couple of seconds, but Jimin could’ve sworn it was minutes with the way he holds his breath in anticipation. And just like that, Adam leans in and kisses Jimin.Jimin couldn’t say it was the best kiss of his life, it being a little wetter than he normally liked it, but for some reason it felt right and Jimin knew he had made the right decision to flirt with the cop who had pulled him over.*************************
04/17/18 1.14 PM
“You know,” Jisoo Park, Jimin’s mom, starts as she cleans off her kitchen table, to take a seat in front of the camera crew, “one of the stories my mother used to tell me talks about resisting meanness. That was Jimin growing up.”Jisoo swallows, looking down towards the ground with a shake of her head. “Not a mean bone in his body.”“Did he date a lot before this happened?”With a sigh, “I was always happy when he found someone. Truly.” A sad look passes over her face as she continues. “For the first time since his father died, his life was in perfect harmony.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
02/15/18 10.37 PM
It has almost been two weeks since Adam and Jimin had started dating. With how everything was going between both him and Adam, Jimin thought it would be best that Adam officially meet his mom. That’s how Jimin finds himself sitting at his dining room table with both his boyfriend and his mother playing a game of UNO. He knows how meeting your significant other's family for the first time can be a nerve-wracking experience. You're anxious, want to make a good first impression, and hope they're happy to see you with their child. Even if your introductions have a few hiccups, hopefully they won't be as awkward as you think it will be going into the meeting. And that is what Jimin is really hoping for, as his mother is his entire world and the only one he really has left.They just finished up their dinner, and although the dinner may have started out a little awkward, it was going fairly well and conversation had started to flow more naturally. Not wanting the night to end so quickly, after helping his mother clear the table and clean up the kitchen, Jimin found himself asking if the two of them wanted to play a game of UNO before they called it a night.Midway through the game, Jimin decides to tell a story about him and Adam, the one where he and Adam had decided to go out on a date with each other, to his mother so she would get a better sense of who Adam is and how well their relationship is going so far.“And he was like -”“Okay, okay” Adam laughs over Jimin, shaking his head as he knows exactly where this conversation is going. “N-n-no, don’t say it.”“No, no, no,” Jimin’s mom laughs at Adam, “go ahead and finish what you were saying.”“And he was just like,” Jimin continues, “ Today, I want whatever you think I should have.” Both Adam and Jimin’s mother burst out laughing at the way Jimin tries to mimic Adam’s voice, with a little wave of his eyebrows, and fails miserably. “So I brought him the lemon meringue pie.”“That was some good pie, I do have to admit,” Adam huffs with his eyebrows raised in Jimin’s direction.Smiling fondly at her son, “I think that that’s very sweet,” Jisoo responds. “I’m happy to see that Jimin’s finally with a guy who respects his opinion.”Although Jimin is happy that the two of them are getting along and that Jimin’s mother seems to really enjoy Adam’s presence, this isn’t a topic that he was expecting her to bring up, especially to Adam.“Ay, mom, can we please not talk about that?” Anyone with eyes could see how uncomfortable Jimin has become with just that one sentence from his mother.It is silent for a moment until Adam asks, “Who’s this?” with a smile still on his face, even though it is kind of strained.Seeing this, and with the fact that Jimin doesn’t really want to talk about it in the first place, he responds, “Nobody. It’s … Just forget about it.”“He just wasn’t right for you,” Jisoo butts in, as she really didn’t like Jimin’s last boyfriend and she wants to make it known, even though it was very clear to Jimin from the beginning.Looking around the table at both boys, Jisoo can tell that she made the atmosphere a little bit awkward. She turns to Adam and tries to apologize for ruining the night. “No, no. There’s no need to apologize. I can handle it. Guess I’ll just have to step up my game then,” he replies with his signature smile directed at Jimin.Jisoo huffs a laugh, “I guess you will.”Jimin and Adam share a look across the table and he knew, right then and there, that this relationship was going to last. Or so he thought.…“Where are we?” Jimin asks with a laugh as he turns in his seat to look at Adam. With a quick smile towards Jimin so he can keep his eyes on the road, “Just trust me. It’s worth the drive I promise.”Jimin just huffs out another laugh and turns back around in his seat. The sky is starting to go dark. Under the dying sun and yellowish clouds, their black beat up truck is solely dashing towards the borderline. Jimin uses his left hand to support his head and peeks outside the window. As they continue their drive, Adam decides to turn on some music, his choice being country. Although Jimin himself doesn’t really enjoy country music, he finds it adorable as he watches Adam bop his head up and down and sing along obnoxiously to the songs on the radio. Next thing he knows, they are pulling into the driveway of what looks like a log cabin.“Wow, this place is amazing!” Jimin gasps as he looks out the window towards the cabin, trying to take everything in.The cabin itself isn’t very special with it just looking like the stereotypical log cabin. Jimin can tell that the cabin is a very old one with how rustic it looks and with the built in front porch. He can imagine having a family sitting outside on the porch, possibly in rocking chairs while the children run around the front yard.What really takes Jimin’s breath away is the foliage surrounding the cabin. Trees and plants of all kinds are all Jimin can see beyond the building, giving him a sense of serenity. The forest is so beautiful and vast that Jimin thinks to himself how wonderful it would be to be able to come out here when the stressors of life get to be too much and just relax in the sound of nature. As far as Jimin can see, there aren’t other houses or neighbors anywhere around the cabin either. Absolute peace and quiet from the outside world.“I’m glad you like it,” Adam responds to Jimin’s gasp with a smile of his own. “Just wait until you see the inside.”With that being said, the two of them hop out of the truck. If Jimin needs a little extra help getting out of the truck so he doesn’t face-plant, no one needs to know.The inside of the building is just as rustic as the outside. Jimin can tell that this must have been some kind of family cabin that Adam used to go to as a child with how lived in the cabin looks and feels. There’s a couch with comfy looking blankets laying over it (Jimin makes note to use that as a chance to cuddle Adam later) and there are pictures of a young looking Adam with other people in his family everywhere. Jimin feels special that Adam would even bring him here to something that looks like an important part of Adam’s life. Of course, this wouldn’t be a normal cabin without the casual shotgun or two hanging up on the wall. While that makes Jimin a little uncomfortable, he knows that he likely won’t have to use them or see them used, making him a little more at ease with being around them.“Is this real?” Jimin asks Adam as he comes back into the room with drinks, pointing up at the large gun hanging on the wall. With a nod, “You bet.” Adam sets the beers he got for the two of them on the table in the center of the room and starts to open them. “It’s my grandfather’s old hunting rifle.”“Huh.”Adam walks over to where Jimin is standing to hand him his beer. “Here.” As Adam goes to hand over the beer he spills some on the floor. “Oh shit. Let me get something to clean this up with.”While Adam once again leaves the room, Jimin takes this as his chance to continue to look around the cabin. “Everything in here is so masculine,” he yells to Adam in the other room. With a laugh, “It makes me wanna wear a flannel and chop down trees.”“I could see that,” Adam hollers back from the other room. “The sexiest lumberjack to ever walk these woods.”While skimming through the items sitting on the bookshelf in the living room, Jimin finds an old wooden box with a clasp on the front. He’s curious as to what’s inside and picks it up to find out. Opening it up, Jimin finds what appears to be at least thirty pictures of Adam as a kid.“Aw,” Jimin gushes as Adam comes back into the room. “This you?” He asks while turning the photo so Adam can see it. “It is! You were adorable.”Adam takes a drink of his beer with a smile, “Oh, I can’t believe that you were right here, and I’ve never met you before.” With a sigh, Adam sits down on the couch and looks at Jimin.“What?”“Nothing.”“No, there’s definitely something wrong. What is it?” Jimin asks as he joins Adam on the couch.“I’m really happy with you. Seeing these photos, it always reminds me of them.”“What? Your parents?” Jimin looks down at his lap where he’s holding one of the photos. “They look nice.”With a sad smile, “Yeah.”“I didn’t mean to pry.”“No, it’s, it’s okay.”Pulling out another picture from the box, “Is this at the cabin?” The picture looks exactly like the cabin with who appears to be a young Adam, probably 12 or 13 years old, standing in the front of it. “Yeah,” Adam responds with a small laugh. Taking the photo from Jimin to get a better look, “My mom stopped coming a couple years after this, but my dad and I came every summer. Spend some time with the sheriff and his family … till my dad died.”An awkward silence engulfs the couple. “I’m sorry.”With a smile and a shake of his head, “My dad was the best. After he died, my mom kinda checked out, but she’d still send me up here to spend time with the sheriff and his family. Get rid of me for the summer.”“Sheriff Mathews?”“Yeah. Then when she passed, the cabin went to me.”After this revelation, Jimin is again hit with the feeling of being special to Adam and really grateful that Adam would even share this side of him when they’ve only been together a couple of weeks. “Thank you for telling me that.”“Thank you for listening.”They continue to look through the photos in the box until they come across a picture of another man standing outside of the cabin. “Oh,” exclaims Adam.“Who’s that?”Adam takes the photo out of Jimin’s hand, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know that was in there.”“Is that … him?” Jimin asks, referring to the bad relationship Adam referenced during their first date. “Uh, Namjoon?”Adam stands abruptly from the couch, walking towards the bookshelf, taking another swig from his beer.“It is, right?” Jimin continues to push. “Look, it’s okay.” Jimin gets up to walk over to where Adam is standing. “Everybody has stuff in their past.” With a laugh, “Even the sexiest lumberjack to walk these woods has made a mistake or two.”Adam gives a laugh of his own, “He was definitely a mistake. Things didn’t end well for us. He was hung up on somebody else the whole time we were dating. It messed me up.”“You know what’s not a mistake?”“What’s that?”“This beer,” Jimin starts as he gets closer to Adam. “This boy,” he continues as he wraps his arms around Adam’s neck. “And this place.”“I guess it is pretty good.”“You know, you never gave me a tour.”Huffing a laugh, “I can do that.”“Actually, no. I’m feeling a little dizzy.” Jimin continues to get closer to Adam.“Okay.”“I think,” Jimin starts again and bits his lips while looking at Adam’s, “I might need to lie down, if that’s okay?”“Yeah, that’s okay.” And next thing Jimin knows is Adam is leaning down to connect their lips into a heated kiss. *************************
04/16/18 12.22 PM
“Coldwater Hills is a small town, a town where everyone knows everyone,” Sergeant John Miller explains, continuing his interview.“Anytown, USA?”With a huff, “That depends on where you grew up. You know, this story, it’s as messed up as, as any town.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
02/19/18 11.00 PM
The day after the weekend trip to Adam’s cabin, Jimin works a night shift at Delilah's Diner. It’s currently 11 pm and they just closed, the diner being barely lit up with lights to ward off any other late night stragglers.
Jimin’s just starting to wipe down the counters after locking the front door when Yoongi steps out of the kitchen carrying two full trash bags. Stopping in front of Jimin behind the counter he starts, “You know, if you change your mind and want to do an Xbox and beer night, the offer still stands.”
Ever since that night when Yoongi accidentally ended up at Lucky’s during Adam and Jimin’s date, he’s been super suspicious of Adam. He has even heard from Jungkook, Taehyung’s boyfriend who is coincidentally Jimin’s best friend, that Jimin had felt a little uncomfortable with the things they did during sex. Jungkook doesn’t know the specifics, but apparently Taehyung told him that Adam was inattentive with Jimin during sex and that he was afraid that Jimin was going to let Adam walk all over him and not get anything out of the relationship himself. That being said, Yoongi is really trying to get Jimin to hangout with him instead.
“Just two friends, on a very platonic, non-weird, not at all awkward, hangout sesh, okay?” And just like that, Yoongi knows he has fucked up his chance at getting Jimin to agree if the look on Jimin’s face says anything. He doesn’t understand why he has no brain to mouth filter and he always ends up embarrassing himself in the end.
“Thank you,” Jimin responds to Yoongi’s rambling with a little huff and then goes back to cleaning the counter. With a nod of his head to Jimin who isn’t looking at him anymore, adding on to his awkwardness, Yoongi turns around and continues outside with the two trash bags.
“Have a good night!” Yoongi yells as he exits the diner, turning off the kitchen lights, leaving only one light on, plunging the diner into even more darkness than before.
Sighing, Jimin continues to quickly clean the diner so he can go home for the night.
…
Although Jimin got home late last night, he still gets up to go for a morning run. The run itself isn’t anything exciting, but Jimin’s glad that he’s able to start back up his morning routine.
Jimin slows down his running pace as he nears his door so he can pull his keys out of his pocket to unlock his door since his mom left to go grocery shopping while he was on his run. That being said, Jimin isn’t expecting anyone to be home when he walks through the door.
“Jimin. Hey.”
With a start, Jimin turns around back towards the door he just walked through to see Adam sitting on his couch. “Oh, hi! Hey, what are you doing here?”
“I thought you went in to work again today at noon.” Adam responds with a smile as he leans forward to rest his elbows on his knees.
“No, but like, how did you get in here?” Jimin asks while glancing back towards his door that was locked when he left and when he got back from his run.
“I was worried about you, so I wanted to stop by. I didn’t get to see you yesterday and I know you work again tonight.”
Seeing as how Jimin still looks confused and uncomfortable, Adam gets up off the couch and walks over towards Jimin, his signature smile nowhere to be seen on his face. “I think we need to talk about Yoongi.”
“Uh, okay? What about him?” Jimin is totally confused on where this came from. He hasn’t been hanging around him outside of work, not to mention the fact that Jimin kind of likes Yoongi and his awkward personality so he doesn’t see why there would be anything to talk about.
“I think you need to keep an eye on him. Something about him just doesn’t feel right.”
Jimin, again, doesn’t know how to respond to this, so he doesn’t. He just maintains eye contact with Adam.
With a shake of his head Adam continues, “I just wanted to make sure you were okay,” his smile returning to his face.
“Yes,” Jimin huffs with a smile of his own. He doesn’t know where this concern came from with Adam but with the awkward tension broken Jimin feels better about acting like myself in front of Adam.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, I’m, I’m good.” Jimin responds while wrapping his arms around Adam’s neck.
“Good.”
The front door opening startles the two apart as they turn around to see who just got home. Just as Jimin thought, it’s his mom returning from her grocery run with a huge paper bag full of food.
“Oh. Well, hello!” Jisoo exclaims, not expecting Adam and Jimin to be standing right in front of the door. “What a nice surprise!”
Adam reaches forward and grabs the paper bag from Jisoo. “Thank you, Adam. What are you kids up to?”
“Uh,” Jimin starts, “I just got home from a run.”
“Yeah, we’re just gonna make plans later,” Adam continues, looking at Jimin. “Right?”
“Wanna take this all the way to the kitchen for me?” Jisoo asks Adam while gesturing to the bag currently in his arms.
“I think I could do that.”
Slapping Adam on the back, “Thank you!” Jisoo responds with a laugh.
*************************
04/18/18 8.48 AM
“Did you ever say anything to her?”
“About Adam?” Yoongi asks the interviewer. “No. No, never.It was never my place.”
“Do you wish you had?”
Yoongi stops to think, a look of anguish passing over his face. “I think,” Yoongi hesitates,” I think she figured that out eventually.”
*************************
02/22/18 8.00 PM
“Hey,” Tae starts as he sets his keys down on the kitchen table in front of Jimin who is finishing his dinner. “Thanks for, uh, watching the little rugrat tonight.” The rugrat that Taehyung is referring to is his little brother. He had needed Jimin to watch him for the night so that he and Jungkook were able to go on their date. That being said, Jimin came straight over to Taehyung's house and plans to be here all night in order to watch the crazy little boy. The boy himself is very well behaved, just a little energetic, nothing that Jimin can’t handle.
“Hope I’m not keeping you from your own scandalous pursuits with Adam.”
Jimin knows that Taehyung doesn’t like Adam all to well because of how he feels that during sex Adam only really cares about getting himself off and not Jimin. Yet, Taehyung is still, Jimin wouldn’t say supportive, but he’s still there for Jimin and allows Jimin to talk about Adam’s and his relationship.
“Gosh. I’m just lucky to have some time with this little one,” Jimin says with a smile towards Jeongyu, who is finishing his meal sitting next to Jimin. “You okay, kiddo?” Jimin has noticed that Jeongyu has been a little quiet ever since Jimin got there a little bit ago.
“He’s been a little ray of sunshine all day,” Taehyung responds. “And here’s the fun part, no explanation. Yay!” Tae ends sarcastically.
Turning back to Jeongyu, “Did something happen?”
“Mm,” Jeongyu curls into himself, “this boy at school is mean. He said I threw a rock, but I didn’t throw a rock.No one believed me, they all believed him. He always lies.”
“Who threw the rock then?” Taehyung asks his little brother with his hands on his hips.
“Hey,” Jimin interjects, looking at Taehyung. “You’re not here, remember?”
“Fine.” Tae responds with his hands up. “Not here.But I’ll find out.”
Ignoring Taehyung and his bickering, Jimin turns towards Jeongyu once more. “Okay. Listen to me. Sometimes a boy like that, a boy who lies really well, no matter what, people are gonna believe him and not you. But, see, sooner or later, the truth is gonna come out because it always does.”
“Really?” Jeongyu asks with a smile.
“Really. So someday you’re gonna be able to look him in the eyes and say, ‘All the people that you fooled, they know that you are lying and they know I’m telling the truth.’ And that’s gonna be super awesome.”
“Awesome!”
“Nice job stealing my older sibling thunder.”
With a laugh, “Okay.”
“All right, kids. I’m out.”
“Have fun Taetae!”
“I will. I love you both.” With that, Taehyung walks around the kitchen table and kisses them both on the head, making a loud and obnoxious ‘muah’ sound as he does so.
“Stay out as long as you want!” Jimin hollers out towards Taehyung as he walks out the garage door.
“Okay. What’s first? Playing some video games or eating the fifty pounds of candy that I have in my bag?”
“The fifty pounds of candy!” Jeongyu exclaims.
Unbeknownst to Jimin, his phone starts to ring with an incoming call. He doesn’t hear it as it’s on silent, so he continues on his night with Jeongyu.
…
It's about 12 in the morning now, Taehyung is still out with Jungkook. Jimin and Jeongyu are snuggled on the couch in the dark under about five blankets. They moved over to the living room around 9:30 ish when they thought it was a good time to watch a movie. Jeongyu is currently asleep, he fell asleep probably 45 minutes into the movie, and Jimin is sitting next to him in the dark reading a book.
The only person that Jimin would be expecting at Taehyung’s house at midnight would be Taehyung himself, and possibly Jungkook, when they return from their date night. However, loud banging on the door scares Jimin up and off the couch and wakes Jeongyu in the process.
Jimin is kind of freaking out, not knowing who the hell would be at the door banging on it when he hears his name being called from the other side. He moves to the door in the dark to find Adam on the other side of the door.
“Hey. There’s a sleeping little boy in here!” Jimin whisper shouts at Adam as he opens the door.
“Is everything okay? Didn’t you see that I called?”
“Yeah,” Jimin hesitates. “What, what are you doing here?”
“You, you don’t have any idea what I’ve been going through,” Adam responds, starting to visibly get upset.
“Jimin?” Jeongyu yells from the living room, catching both Jimin’s and Adam’s attention.
“Hey, why don’t you go to bed sweetie? I’ll tuck you in in a second.” With that, Jeongyu gets up from the couch and heads up to his bedroom and Jimin turns back around to face Adam.
Exasperated, “What the hell is going on?”
“Everybody’s been worried sick,” Adam continues.
“Everybody? What are you talking about?”
“I thought we were supposed to be together tonight,” Adam replies with a nod of his head, coming off as very condescending to Jimin.
“Oh, we had talked about possibly meeting up.”
“Yeah, we had talked about it. So when I didn’t hear from you, I started to worry. And then I called your mother.”
“My mother?” Jimin interrupts. “What does my mother have to do with this?”
“She said you would be here,” again, coming off very condescending to Jimin. “But we couldn’t reach you, so here I am. Is your phone off or something?”
At this point, Jimin is starting to feel uncomfortable with Adam standing in the doorway of his best friend’s house getting increasingly more aggressive, when there is a child in the house. This causes Jimin to start to hide his lower body behind the door, causing the door to close a little more to keep Adam out.
This seems to piss Adam off even more so to deescalate the situation, Jimin invites Adam in to go check his phone.
Picking up his phone, Jimin can see that there are probably a hundred missed calls and texts from Adam. “How many times have you called and texted me?”
“I was trying to get in touch with you okay? When I didn’t hear back, i-it made it worse.”
“My mom has also been calling me all night?”
“You made us all very concerned about you.”
“Adam,” Jimin starts, speaking slowly so he understands, “I’m babysitting for my best friend.”
“Well, it would’ve been nice to know that. Anything could have happened to you. When you didn’t answer I thought that maybe Yoongi-”
Cutting Adam off, “My phone ringer is off. That’s not a crime.”
In response to this, Adam takes in a deep breath and walks around Jimin to get to the other side of the kitchen table and puts both of his hands on the top of it, huffing the entire way. “I always wanna be able to find you.”
“Why?” Jimin asks, starting to get upset himself.
Just then, Taehyung comes in the garage door back from his date night. “Hey, guys, what’s up?”
“Hey,” Adam starts. “Do you mind giving us a minute? We really need to sort some things out.” At this point, Jimin thinks it’s very obvious how upset the two of them are and with Taehyung being his best friend since elementary school, he’s sure that Tae picked up on it.
“No, I don’t think so.” Tae responds as he walks up to the pair and gets in between Jimin and Adam.
Sighing, “Okay.. Then come with me.”
“No, I have to finish up here.” Jimin crosses his arms and looks away from Adam.
“Taetae!” Jeongyu yells as he runs down the stairs towards his brother and the fighting couple.
“Jimin, look. Please.”
“I think you should just go.”
“Okay? Think for a second. Think about what you’re doing.”
Giving a sarcastic laugh Jimin replies, “You just slow down.”
“Hold on, okay? Jimin, just… Let’s, let’s just start over.”
“We can talk about it,” Jimin sighs. “But not right now, and really, really not here.”
“Come on,” Adam practically begs. Jimin, however, is not going to give in. He did nothing wrong and Adam can’t just come and yell at him when he’s busy just because he couldn’t get a hold of Jimin.
With a nod of his head Adam finally gets the hint and heads to leave. “Goodnight.” Just like that, Adam is gone leaving Jimin in the kitchen with Taehyung thinking what the hell just happened.
*************************
04/19/18 9.00 AM
“Yeah,” Taehyung starts as he gets comfortable in his chair in front of the camera. “I guess I’m the brassy best friend. Straight talk. I take zero crap. Jimin,” Tae sighs, “not so much.”
Taehyung takes a minute to look down to his lap where he’s playing with his fingers. “And I’ll, I’ll never forgive myself for not pushing him to see it for what it was.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
02/24/18 1.15 PM
“I can’t tell you how much I need this friend's night out,” Jimin walks into his kitchen from the laundry room while on the phone with Taehyung.
“
Have you heard anything from him?”
Tae asks through the phone.
“He’s being really sweet,” Jimin sighs while looking down at the kitchen table that's holding a vase of roses. “He sent me flowers.”
“
Ah
.”
“I,” he sighs again, “feel bad, like… you know, maybe I screwed up.”
“
It was not your fault, my little mochi, at all,
” Taehyung reassures Jimin. “
So don’t worry about it.”
Jimin knows that Taheyung dislikes Adam even more after what happened the other night. Once Adam had left, Jimin had burst into tears, confused as to what the hell even happened and confused over whether or not he still had a boyfriend. Taehying had to console him all night after putting his brother back to bed.
“He’s been texting me. And, uh, I think maybe I should hear him out. What do you… think he’s thinking?”
“
You know you don’t want my opinion on that, Chim,
” Taehyung sighs. “
Okay, if I’m being honest, it, it was a bit much for me. That’s all I’m going to say. And be smart if you do start talking to him again.”
“Yeah,” Jimin agrees as he leaves the kitchen to walk to his room. “I just think, you know, maybe, like, he was having a bad day or… there could’ve been something going on.”
…
Later that evening, Jimin walks into his bathroom to start and get ready for his night out with Taehyung, Jungkook, and Yoongi. Everything that has happened with Adam is still on Jimin’s mind, but he’s at the point where he’d do anything to get his mind off of it.
He knows that he wasn’t in the wrong and that Adam was overreacting, but Jimin can’t stand confrontation and discourse between anyone that he cares about. That’s why he’s always so passive when it comes to arguments and things he wants. He obviously knows that this isn’t necessarily a good trait because he rarely stands up for himself, but he really thinks Adam is feeling really badly about what happened the other night.
Fixing his hair in the mirror to make sure it falls just right, Jimin starts to hear what sounds like the music box that Adam had gifted him on their first date. Jimin is a little confused on where it is coming from and how it even got turned on as he is the only one in the house.
Silently, Jimin starts to make his way out of the bathroom and back into his room to see what is causing the music box to go off. He makes sure he is looking around each corner as he makes it back to his room to make sure no one else is in the house.
As he makes it to his room, to his horror, he sees that someone is indeed in the house, or at least, had been. The music box has been moved off of his dresser and is sitting in the middle of Jimin’s bed. As the ballerina spins around, Jimin also notices a folded up piece of paper being held in the dancer’s clasped arms.
Cautiously, looking around his room to make sure the culprit is no longer in the room, Jimin moves towards his bed and slowly picks up the music box and takes the note. Jimin places the closed music box back down on his bed and opens the note.
‘Jimin,
I miss you. I’m out back.
Please let me see you.
-Adam’
Jimin makes his way outside to meet Adam, but as far as he can see, there’s no one there. This whole situation is getting even more creepy and at this point, Jimin plans on giving Adam a piece of his mind because shit like this isn’t okay.
Jimin continues to walk to the old garage that they have in their backyard, trying to see if maybe that’s where Adam went. Jimin takes a look inside the garage and sees that no one is in there either. In his last ditch effort, Jimin starts to walk around the garage, again not finding anyone.
As Jimin comes to a dead end, he heaves a sigh. He is done with Adam’s shit and really just wants to go out with his friends, especially Yoongi. Ever since dating Adam, Jimin hasn’t been able to actually hang out with Yoongi because Adam didn’t like him. Jimin still doesn’t understand this as Yoongi is just a soft ball of awkwardness and gummy smiles.
Running his hand through his hair, Jimin goes to turn around and head back inside when he hears someone calling his name. Turning around, he can see Adam heading his way.
“Jimin,” Adam starts with his hands up. “Just wanted to talk. I wanted to explain the other night.”
Jimin folds his arms across his chest with a scoff. “Okay. Go ahead.”
“I don’t think you understand how much I care about you,” Adam continues after seeing the unhappy look on Jimin’s face. “I think about you all the time. Let me,” Adam sighs, rubbing up and down Jimin’s arms, “start over. Prove to you how much I care about you. Maybe we can go back out to the cabin again?”
“Adam-”
“Or … have a date night?” Adam asks while reaching up to touch Jimin’s face.
“I, uh .. Adam, just don’t,” Jimin shrugs off Adam’s hands and pushes him back a little.
“You promised me we would talk.”
“We will, just not … right now and not here.”
“Are you lying to me?” Adam asks, stepping back into Jimin’s personal space starting to get obviously angry.
“No, of course not. This just isn’t the way it should’ve gone! This whole thing with the music box, it’s creepy! Why can’t you see that? Not to mention, I miss hanging out with my friends!”
Adam sighs, looking at Jimin with a blank face. “Is Yoongi one of those friends?” he asks while reaching behind Jimin. Being that they are next to the garage, there are tools for the yard hanging on the side of the old building. When Adam’s hand comes back around, he’s holding a rusty rake that was hanging up on the wall with the other tools.
Jimin’s breath hitches when he sees the rake, his anxiety with the situation starting to get even worse.
Seeing as how Jimin isn’t going to answer his question, Adam looks down at the rake in his hand and then back up at Jimin. “You still wanna be with me don’t you? Because… I think there is something powerful between us.”
Jimin gives the best smile he can muster, hoping that Adam can't tell just how frightened he actually is. “Yeah…” Jimin responds, trying to say anything at this point that’ll make Adam leave faster.
“I know we’re supposed to be together,” Adam continues, “you know? I just need you to understand me the way I understand you.”
“Yeah…”
Adam reaches his hand back up to touch the side of Jimin’s face. “We all make mistakes. We occasionally hurt those that we love the most. I need you to know that I’m hurt.”
“Okay,” Jimin starts. “I understand…”
There’s a pause between the two after Jimin says this. Adam continues to look at him with his blank face, all the while still holding the rake between them.
With a nod of his head, Adam continues to look at Jimin with his blank face. “Good. I’m glad we talked.”
Jimin can hardly focus on the last part of the conversation with Adam with the rake being waved around in front of his face. “Please just keep this little misunderstanding between us,” Adam interrupts Jimin’s fear. “In a town like this, people get the wrong idea. They start to talk. But this is just between us, okay?”
Hell no
, is all that Jimin is thinking. As soon as he can leave, he will be spilling all of this to his friends. Jimin has never been this scared in his life.
Adam laughs, a smirk appearing on his lips. “You look like a scared rabbit.” Jimin laughs along with this joke, again hoping that Adam can’t see how fake it is. “Look, I’ll, uh…” Adam continues, “I’ll leave you alone. But we’ll talk soon. Okay? I’ll call you?”
“Mm-hmm.”
With that, Adam shoves the rake into Jimin’s hands, and with one last smile he turns around and leaves. Once he’s sure that Adam is gone, Jimin releases the biggest breath of relief. He can't wait to get to the bar his friends were all hanging out at.
Jimin heads back into the house and finds his mom making guacamole in the kitchen. “Honey, what’s--” Jisoo starts when she sees how startled Jimin looks.
“Mom… I, I, um…”
Rushing up to Jimin, Jisoo takes him into her arms. “What’s wrong? Hey, baby, are you okay? It’s okay. I got you.”
After a long pause, Jimin responds, “It’s Adam. I don’t know what just happened.”
…
“He said that to you?” Taehyung yells over the music to Jimin. Jimin was able to make it to the bar on time and is just finishing up telling everyone what Adam had done earlier that day.
“Why would you tell him that you’re okay and that he could call you?” Jungkook continues.
“I was too busy being afraid of the rake he was waving in my face!” Jimin yells back at Jungkook after finishing his shot. “Not to mention the fact that he was able to get into my house without anyone letting him in!”
Seeing that the others are starting to finish their drinks, Yoongi decides to go get them more drinks. “I’m going to go get us more drinks,” he yells over the music. “Anyone wanna come with me to help carry them?”
“Oh, I’ll help!” Jimin yells back with a hand raised, starting to feel tipsy from the couple of shots he’s already had.
“Are you really okay?” Yoongi asks Jimin, leaning up against the bar after giving the bartender their order.
“Can I be honest?” Jimin starts.
“Of course.”
“I was really scared tonight. I’ve never been that scared before, especially around Adam. But, with the way he was talking to me, it felt like he was kind of, uh, threatening me I guess? Like, he kept saying to keep the conversation between us and that it wasn’t a good thing to have it spread around town because it would hurt his reputation,” Jimin huffs. “Not to mention the whole rake thing. I mean, he’s, he’s never hurt me before, but still.”
“No, I totally understand that,” Yoongi responds, taking everything that Jimin was saying seriously. Jimin really appreciates this because he always feels like whenever things happen to him or between him and Adam, it’s always what Adam wants and not what Jimin wants.
“Thank you,” Jimin responds with his first genuine smile of the night.
“Of course,” Yoongi says with his signature gummy smile.
They turn around to pick up the drinks that the bartender just set in front of them when Yoongi stops Jimin with a hand on his shoulder. “No, but seriously, let me know if anything happens or if you feel like you’re in danger. Hyung will be there for you every time.”
“Thank you, Yoongi-hyung. I really miss hanging out with you.”
“Hey now, that’s your fault!” Yoongi jokes while bumping shoulders with Jimin on their walk back to their table.
“More like Adam doesn’t like you so he never wanted me to hang out with you,” Jimin grimaces while saying this, knowing how pathetic it makes him sound.
“Well, now you don’t have to worry about it. Tae, Kook, and I always have your back and I know that I’ll always be here for you, even if it’s just to complain about how you got pulled over again.”
“Hey now!” Jimin exclaims, bumping shoulders with Yoongi as they reach the table where Taehyung and Jungkook are currently sitting.
“Took you two long enough!” Taehyung yells with a wink at Jimin, effectively making Jimin’s face heat up with a blush.
Looking around the table, Jimin can definitely say even after everything, he is very thankful that he has friends like them.
…
02/25/18 12:07 PM
“What happened?”
“It was nothing,” Adam responds with a shake of his head and his signature smile. “What did he say?”
“His mother called it in,” Sheriff Matthews responds with a disappointed look. He had just called Adam into his office and now Adam is sitting in the chair in front of his desk, feeling much like a student talking to their principal.
“Well,” Adam starts, “did she actually report something?”
Sheriff Matthews puts in his reading glasses to read the report sitting on his desk. “Why then were you hiding behind her shed?”
“It was a private place and there was a garden in the back.”
“Was there a rake?”
“Um… yeah,” Adam responds with a shake of his head. “There was a rake and a hose and a shovel and… everything else you would find in every garden within a 50 mile radius. So what?”
After a silence where Matthews just blankly stares at Adam, Adam continues, “He’s just upset. We had a good thing goin’. But we hit a rough patch. That’s all. I feel bad for him.”
“You know,” Matthews sighs, “I knew your dad for a lot of years. And I knew when he was lying to me.” Adam just continues to smile. “Are you lying to me?”
“You know me, Sheriff,” Adam laughs. “I wouldn’t lie to you. He’s just… off. End of story.”
…
Adam leaves Sheriff Matthew’s office pissed the fuck off. He is fuming. How dare Jimin tell everyone all this shit about him? He did nothing wrong!
Adam walks around the corner and ends up in front of the secretary’s desk.
“I’m sorry you have to deal with this,” the secretary starts once she sees Adam standing in front of her. “Believe me, I can tell you stories about Jimin Park. He’s not worth it.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
*************************
04/19/18 2.34 PM
“You’ve known Adam for years?” the interviewer starts.
“Yeah,” Sheriff Matthews responds with a nod, taking a sip of his coffee. “You know? And I, uh, I knew his father for a lot longer than that.”
The camera pans out, showing the rest of Sheriff Matthews office, as well as his right arm in a sling. “I promised him I’d, I’d look after his boy. And I did.”
“What about Jimin?”
“What about him?”
“After the incident behind the shed, you didn’t put a stop to it.”
“Is there a question in there or…” Matthews stares blankly into the camera. “What incident behind the shed?”
“He cornered Jimin,” the interviewer continues, “with a rake.”
“Did he?” Matthews asks. “No, seriously, did he? You see what I’m saying? We don’t know. Look. Everything that happened… it’s terrible, in hindsight, but at the same time…” Matthew shrugs.