Act I, Chapter Four

"The most intriguing people you will encounter in this life are the people who had insights about you, that you didn't know about yourself."- Shannon L. Alder

. . .

I woke up but kept my eyes closed. Mom spoke better, less slurs and more complete sentences. From the little I could open my eyes on the bed next to her, I caught the sight of Jimin smiling down at her head in his lap. He bandaged her gash again while her fingers cupped his cheeks. Jimin tried to hide it but failed each time she did so.

It felt good to see him express joy even through creased eyes. At points I wondered if it was real, or the medicine he gave for my rib pain causing me to dream about his smile. Glad either way, for a moment he found laughter in my mind.

This time, as he changed her bandage, it felt longer. There were whispers between the two and I caught on a little of the conversation before sleep knocked into me like a wave again.

"You two should go now, go now." Mom's fingers were nudging Jimin's shoulder, pointing to the door just before he helped her sit straight in the bed. "Stay away from here. She's safer there, in that neighbourhood."

"Namjoon isn't back yet," Jimin said. He cleaned up the area in which he carried a First Aid Kit. "Besides, I'll have to wait to ask her if she's willing to help with this plan once he's here. We need to keep the two of you safe and get Jungkook home successfully. To do that, she has to listen to me. I'll need her word."

"A stubborn one, isn't she?" Mom moved Jimin's hair from out of his eyes as he reached for a bowl on the side table. She laughed.

He pulled up a spoon and fed Mom what smelled like frothy soup.

"I'm guessing she got that from her Father?" he said.

"Once she gives you her word, promise me you'll arrange for the move. Don't worry about me here, I'll be safe."

"Yes, I'll try-"

"Promise me."

Jimin's face allayed. "I promise."

. . .

Past

Jordan's party, senior year. Summer around the corner after graduation and I sulked by the kitchen's counter, sitting on it with popcorn filling into a large bowl. As a helping hand for Jordan and her activities, no one fed the guests. She busied herself with her boyfriend in her bedroom, locked and in secret, leaving me a some-what friend in charge of the food. At first, no one complained but the more they drank and smoked, sober friendliness soon became drunk impatience.

"Hey popcorn girl! Hurry!" The same man who yelled about pizza an hour earlier.

"People can be rude."

I knew that voice anywhere. A voice I swooned over in freshman year, gushed over in junior year, and touched myself to in senior year. Crushes make me act like a starved bee witnessing a flower bloom. Jimin being the flower, of course.

"They can." I got off the counter and found the pulse of my heart beat signing in my neck as his drunk stance helped me off. Hold on my hips, he guided me to my feet and lingered his fingers at the curve of my pants. "I'm surprised you didn't greet me with your favourite nickname."

He laughed. Taking the bowl from my hands and lazily passing it to the obnoxious man's chest, I thanked him with a quickness. Glancing around the crowd that devoured the popcorn like vultures getting a taste for their next meal. Clear I was the only one at this party who didn't dancing while eating or drinking.

"Einy Ein Ein." Jimin's head swayed with the music as he leaned into the counter next to me. "Oh how I'll miss you when you leave."

"You're leaving too, aren't you? College?"

"Nope!" It always confused me why some drunks smiled with all their teeth. It was cute on Jimin. Everything and anything he did equated to cuteness. "I'll be staying here, looking after my little brother. Gotta start working asap."

He said more but the music drowned it out. Leaning in closer, the movement allowed him to talk into my ear. "Why haven't I talked to you much before? "

I couldn't help the small smile graze my lips. "I wish you had!"

"Talking to you now counts yes? It's all about first impressions, no?" Jimin's lip tickled my earlobe. "Or did we already have a first encounter."

"You're really drunk."

"You're really beautiful." He laughed.

The warmth on my cheeks, my chest, and between my legs all tingled with a want from four whole years ago. Trying to contain the shyness that lingered on my movements next, I told my thanks.

"What was our first encounter?"

"You were struggling with finding a textbook which referred to the Cold War in history class, remember? I helped you out in the library, that's where we met." He nodded insisting he remembered but I knew he didn't. He made me laugh the loudest, and considering it was a quiet space, I felt like a speaker embarrassed words at every peep.

Jimin asked about three textbooks that day and I told him which would work best for his thesis that semester. Effortlessly happy, he couldn't help but burst into a dance as his lips smacked to my cheek. Running away with the textbook, I had to whisper-yell my way in a chase, pulling him to the counter to sign out the book appropriately. While standing, I asked him if he kissed every girl like that when excited. He flushed with an apology. "Only if they're as beautiful as you."

This was the year before he started calling me Ein in the hallways after making a new group of friends. Also the time when I found out his one-liners with women were a pattern. I wasn't special for receiving that comment from him in the library. But standing beside him at Jordan's party now, those similar rush of feelings from the first encounter came rushing back.

"Wanna go outside for some fresh air?"

I smiled, not prepared for the hours that followed. "Sure."

. . .

When my senses officially came to, I woke a few minutes after my Mom did. I hugged her tight and she crashed into me the same. Conscious, alive and well, I asked her if she felt alright, if she needed anything, if I could do anything for her. She wiped at my cheeks and told me to slow down. When I did she laughed at my stomach grumbling. "You're the one who needs to be taken care of sweetheart, you've been sleeping for a day and a half straight."

"Mom, what's going on? What's your side of the story."

The wrinkles by the corner of her eyes softened as she nodded. I laid my head into her lap for a moment, knowing I'd be separated from her once Jimin came back to dress both of our injuries. Mom's head, my rib. A tale of two left in a damaged family.

Mom told me about Dad's death one month after. He died before my graduation and she didn't want to worry me. The woman mourned alone for those weeks and tried to cut enough flowers from the garden for Bucky, my dead hamster, every week knowing my Dad wouldn't want anything else. The funeral arrangements were paid for by the neighbourhood. I didn't expect anything less, Dad seen as a well-known and respected man. Friendly to every Service department, the Courts, the Police, Fire Fighters, and hospitals.

The only ones he refrained kindness to were people from Helloway. Mom told me he made questionable moves even though she wouldn't disclose.

"At the wrong place, wrong time when he died," she said. I wondered if she meant. What troubled him so?

She spoke about the way he was found, choked in her sobs. I stopped her. To others it may look like I pacified her, but in reality, I wasn't ready to hear it.

She went on to tell me what Jimin explained. One week after his death, she sat in his reading room and crashes sounded from upstairs. She doesn't remember which room, talking about the sound of footsteps thumping down on the stairs. She locked the door and crouched down underneath Dad's office desk, pulling the chair in to conceal her spot.

An iron rod in her hand, she told me she held it in case. More crashes, voices. All were looking for something. One, she said, yelled about evidence. They barged into the reading room, pumped from the adrenaline the locked door gave, like ants swarmed the room. When she described the Deities, I understood. When I ran off and found myself trapped in their anthill, the very way they moved became apparent.

True horror came after, she said, when they saw not only her but the key to my Dad's case files. They searched but didn't seem to find what they were looking for. Whatever the evidence, it frustrated them. One wiped the materials off the office desk in anger. Another kicked the chair. She said she jumped, her body betraying her as she whined.

A head peered down at her, grinning wide. "He had a handsome face but the most evil eyes. He called himself Noel."

"What happened next?"

"He knocked me with the iron rod, easy to snatch from my hand I regret picking it up." She touched fingers to the tip of her bandage. "Just when I thought they'd kill me when asking about evidence I knew nothing of, another crash sounded. Jimin and his service. Namjoon, the leader, is who tamed the others. He spoke about some Treaty or Truce they had and under their presence no harm could be done."

"He saved you..."

Mom nodded. "Jimin scooped me up before the second swing. That Noel boy got his neck pretty bad, I could've sworn he almost died from the way he bled. The rod could've puncture his artery."

"Everything calmed for the rest of the month. Jimin is the one I spent most time with, he's the healer for his section. That's what I last remember anyway." Mom shook her head. "I held off even further from telling you about your Dad in hopes to protect you. I wanted things to settle down here so that when you did come, we'd be back home with Bucky."

I smiled, shaking my head with gentle laughter.

"Then you texted saying you were on a plane. Taehyung, another boy is in charge of my phone making sure it's secured and doesn't get hacked. He read it and told the others. I panicked and knew I had to bring you here, long enough until the boys made a plan."

I nodded. "That's when you told me Dad died, just before I took off."

She squeezed me in her arms, kissing my forehead. This is all I needed the moment I got home from the plane. This moment, nothing else. I wish I could stay here, ask more questions. Ask about the conversation Jimin and Mom were having, but froze when a soft knock echoed at the door.

He nudged his head in, calling for my name.

Mom helped me sit up. She smiled at Jimin, nodding at him to take me away. I wondered where it'd be. I noticed a bag in his hand and a towel in the other. We walked into the hallway, his hand at my back. Gently guiding me past the elevator and to a room separate from the section I knew too well now.

A door to a bathroom opened, dimly lit by candles with a bath already ready for my body to dip into. My mouth in awe. Jimin went inside the space and littered the pieces on the counter table nearest to the sink.

Toothpaste, toothbrush, soap, disposable shaving razors, lady hygiene products, and clothes fell from the bag. He sorted the clothes in one section, quiet without looking at me at the door. A t-shirt and shorts. They smelled new, black with white strips on the sides. The fabric of the shirt was a long white one. As he opened it to fold, it matched his body's curves. Butterflies danced within my belly at the thought of Jimin's shirt smelling of him.

"Thank you." I said. Stepping on the cold tiles of the bathroom.

"Before you get in, I'll take your bandages off?"

He didn't look at me. Helped out of my cardigan, he offered to look away but I said it was okay. I liked the way his dark eyes fawned over the side of my hip when my tank peeled over my head. I got out of my pants, standing in my bra and underwear.

Jimin's eyes weren't intruding and that tempted me more. "I heard your conversation with my Mom while waking up once, something about a promise?"

His fingers froze on the bandage at my neck. A minor gash there. It took a while for him to work around my body, I forget just how scraped up I got. When his palm grazed my forearm, studying the bruises, I shivered. "We were talking about a conversation I'm aiming to have with you."

"Which is?"

"Will you listen?" His eyes finally met mine. I held a breath, nodding. "I wanted to ask you if you're in it, with me. I can't have you running around any and every time you get upset. Talk to me, don't throw pillows. I'm going to be your crutch in this process whether you like it or not. I definitely don't like it."

He hates me. I could see the frustration on his face.

"You're asking me if I'm in on this plan? To save your friend and keep my Mom safe?"

He nodded. "To protect mine and yours, as Namjoon would put it, a team in this. Away from the battle, away from the War. We'll have to act as a distraction."

Jimin's eyes bounced from the gash on my rib to my eyes. He disposed of the bandages and washed his hands. As he turned, I slipped the underwear from my hips and unhooked my bra. Freeing myself from what held the rest of me in a modest gaze, I sought out his eyes from the mirror. Jimin's neck bobbed, eyes stern in keeping professional as he turned around and dared himself to stare away from my breasts.

"It's sweet that you're giving me some room for my own agency when we both know I don't have a choice."

Jimin sucked in his cheeks. Anger, agitation, or sexual frustration that lingered in his eyes? "I don't either."

"Alright then, here's to protecting our own." I moved my hands to cover my breasts already seen by the man who tried his hardest not to invade. "I'm in. I promise I'll listen to everything you say from here on out. What should I do first?"

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ACT II will be released April 23rd, 2021.