Work Text
“Why me?”Seokjin was tall, an imposing figure. His height was maybe his most defining feature if not for his face. High cheekbones framed a perfectly sculpted jaw, feline eyes narrowed in judgement. Or maybe it wasn’t judgement. Maybe it was condescension.Seokjin was sitting, but he was still tall. He was sitting behind a blood crimson desk. Crimson, the type of color that would’ve stuck
out if it wasn’t in place with the rest of the office. The walls to the left and right were composed of crimson colored bookshelves that reached the ceiling, filled with color-coordinated volumes.His desk was devoid of any personal touches. No photographs of family, no mug with some absurd statement on it, in fact, if Seokjin were to leave right now, there would be no indication that anyone had ever worked in the office.Jimin remembered the day that Seokjin had approached him.It’d been a cloudy day. Wind had made the leaves in the trees sway with a melancholic rhythm, and the damp soil of the worn park path made him feel as if he was sinking into the ground with every step.He'd just been fired. He didn’t know why. His former boss didn’t tell him why. All he told him was to pack up his things and go. Jimin didn’t argue, or rather, he
couldn’t argue and Jimin did what he said. He was running in the park out of sheer frustration. Jimin couldn't
remember an instance in which he'd done something worth losing his job over.
He didn't remember his boss being a tall man.Regardless, while running in the park he found himself joined by Seokjin, though he didn’t know him at the time. He offered Jimin a job and without much preamble he accepted.Maybe Jimin should’ve asked more questions.“What do you mean ‘Why you’?” Seokjin’s question snaps him out of the past, bringing Jimin back to the reason why he's in his crimson office in the first place. None of the kindness that Seokjin had exuded when they first introduced themselves is present. Is this even the same man?“Well I just mean sir-...,” Jimin hurries to correct himself, shaking his head, “I-I mean Mr. Kim, It’s my first time working at a psychiatric hospital with-”“You can say the word asylum Mr. Park. I’m not going to bite your head off.” The words that drip easily from Mr. Kim’s mouth don’t sound to assuring to the young doctor. His cold mask of indifference, of superiority , makes Jimin want to cower behind the black chair he's currently sitting in.Jimin can’t though. He can only swallow and hope Seokjin doesn’t realize how terrified he is.“Asylum.” Jimin says to show that he's listening. “It’ the first time I’ve worked in an asylum with adults and I don’t know if it’s wise that one of my patients is him.” Jimin places the file on the desk in front of him, the cream folder sticking out horribly against the red surface.Seokjin looks at the file on the table, his table, and seems as if he wants to set it on fire with his mind. Jimin think he’s about to take it when the older stands.Once again Jimin's reminded just how tall Seokjin is.Jimin remains frozen in his chair as he walks around the sanguine desk, Seokjin's eyes staring at Jimin with that judgment. Or condescension. Jimin still isn’t sure. He stops in front of the younger, grabbing the file from behind him and sitting on the desk in its place. Seokjin opens the file, flipping through papers Jimin's confident that Seokjin's already memorized.“Do you know who assigns the patients to our doctors Mr. Park?” He finally asks, cutting the tension that’s been mounting. Jimin shakes his head, but when the younger looks up because Seokjin hasn’t answered back, Jimin finds that he isn’t satisfied with just a head shake. “No Mr. Kim, I don’t know who assigns-”“I do.” He cuts Jimin off, leisurely taking a piece of paper from the file and turning it over in his hand. “I assign the patients, so by calling your last patient assignment ‘unwise’, you are therefore calling me unwise.” Jimin wants to voice that that wasn’t his intention at all, but he knows better than to interrupt Seokjin when he’s speaking. Instead, he sits in silence. “Do you think I’m unwise, Mr. Park?”At the question Jimin's head snaps forward, shaking his protests so violently he's convinced his neck is going to snap. “No Mr. Kim that wasn’t what I meant to insinuate at all! I just-”“Good.” He intrudes again, a pleasant smile back on his face. The older man lets the paper he’d been twirling before fall to the floor with a flutter and Jimin's eyes track the movement as Seokjin stands from his desk. “So then, you’re assignment isn’t unwise.” It’s said as a statement and not a question, and the eye contact Jimin had been previously holding breaks as he hangs my head in powerlessness. Seokjin is standing tall.“No Mr. Kim.”“You won’t bring the issue of another unwise assignment up.” This isn’t said as a statement but rather a command. Jimin wants to shrink into himself, goosebumps breaking out along his bare arms.“No Mr. Kim.”“You’re going to meet with this patient until I, and I alone, say you can stop.” Jimin brings his bottom lip into his mouth and gnaws on it, knowing that he's lost the argument. Maybe he'd lost when he stepped inside the crimson office.“Yes Mr. Kim.”The small smile is back on, dripping condescension. There's no question of it now. Seokjin rises from his desk and walks back to his in his office chair, stepping on the paper he'd let fall to the ground with a purpose. "Good, I'm glad we're in agreement. Now unless there's something else?" He asks with a malice that tells Jimin there will be nothing else.Jimin shakes his head no as he answers, "No Mr. Kim, that will be all." He rises from the black chair, back stiff and legs numb. Jimin kneels on the floor to pick up the paper Seokjin had stepped on, feeling the man's presence above him even though Seokjin was out of sight. Putting the rumpled sheet in the manila folder, Jimin stands back up. "Thank you for seeing me." Jimin tacks on as he turns around, daggers piercing into his back from the gaze the doctor knows is trained on him. On numb legs he walk towards the door, placing his hand on the knob and turning before a throat clearing makes him turn back."I assign everyone with a reason." Seokjin explains, opening one of his desk drawers and taking out a computer. "I expect great results, Jimin." He can't find it in his power to respond so instead he nods, plastering a smile on his face that Jimin is sure resembles more of a grimace. 'My name from his mouth doesn't sound right.'Without another word he steps out and shuts the door behind him. Jimin's met with the long hallway that he came down to get to the office, bare gray walls devoid of any signs that someone has touched them. His shoes squeak obnoxiously on the ground as he makes his way back to civilization, the crimson office a horrible nightmare behind him. After too long a time he's met with another door, this time being led into the lobby of the mental asylum.The lobby of the asylum is dome-shaped with multiple doors leading to different parts of the large building. The lobby houses a spacious wait room, not that it's ever filled with any visitors. Seokjin's office hallway is directly across from the entrance to the building, and the doors to the left and right open up to hallways that lead to patient rooms and session spaces. Cameras record 24/7 and there isn't a single place where a tiny screen isn't watching. Jimin can count five in this room alone.To his immediate right is Seojin's secretary at her desk. She looks at Jimin, asking how everything went. The doctor doesn't trust his voice to respond and she seems to fully understand this as she gives Jimin a sympathetic smile, silently telling him that she in some way or form knows what he's just been through. She's have to had seen hundreds of people coming out of that hallway with equally horrified expressions.Jimin walks to his left, pushing open the door that will lead to the patients room he had tried to get Seokjin to revoke. The walls here are an even duller grey, closer to black than they are white. The air conditioning hums in the background, white noise to the multiple taps of shoes and clack of heels on the tiled floor. Everyone Jimin passes gives him a look that tells the doctor they know he's new and that they've never seen him before. He nods in acknowledgment as he passes them, reading the white signs attached to the wall that give directions for certain spaces. The white signs stand out in the grey-walled hallways, red pointed arrows and letters like blood splatter on a clear canvas.Jimin takes the two rights and the left that lead him to the Criminal Ward, mentally thinking about how he's supposed to start off with his new patient. Jimin's the third psychiatrist in two months and all the notes the previous doctor's had written about him are incomprehensible nonsense with one conclusion:He's insane.As if everyone here isn't.They hadn't gotten past ten sessions with man before they were turning in their resignation forms. The notes Jimin had been given of the sessions never focus on him. Somehow they all end up focusing on the psychiatrist and how he got to be in the care of the criminal. The writing all focuses on the family, school, previous jobs, and life of the doctor not the patient. All in all, they're useless, meaning that he has to start from scratch.Jimin finally stops in front of door CW10, the last one at the very end of the hallway. A police officer is stationed here. Actually, a police officer is stationed at every door here. His eyebrow raises when Jimin steps in front of him. "You Dr. Park Jimin?" He asks, clearly already having been informed of his arrival. Somehow."Yes that's me." He confirms trying to look past him into the square window of the door."Eager aren't you?" He laughs to himself, sharing an inside joke. "I promise you won't be eager when you meet him." Jimin shrugs."Have to pay the bills." He comments lamely, the man laughing harder at the absolute truth in his voice."Don't we all." He agrees, turning around to face the door. "I'll get him set up at the table. He's all yours when I come back out." Jimin thanks him and nods, stepping back a little so he has enough room to open the door. The bottom scrapes loudly against the floor, almost like a scream. It'd be impossible to escape without that door making noise. Jimin assumes that's what it's for. The police officer comes out a minute later, holding the door open for him. The police officer shoots him a wane smile, mouthing
good luck.The door slams shut behind Jimin as he steps inside, his eyes first noticing the man in handcuffs sitting at a table in the middle of the room.Said man looks up at Jimin, his eyes expressive and not the empty husks the doctor had expected to see from a monster like him. Jimin opens his mouth first."Dr. Park Jimin," He introduces himself, "I'll be your new psychologist."His new patient grins, eyes dark with amusement."Min Yoongi." He drawls, "Let's hope you last longer than the others did."