"Morning, Jimin."

Jimin looks up from his cartoons and his bowl of cereal to see a peppy Hoseok walking through the door. He smiles slightly, shoveling another bite of cornflakes into his mouth. Jimin loves Hoseok, but the man is always so happy for what seems like no reason. Jimin doesn't understand it, but maybe that's because he has no way to relate. He doesn't have many reasons to be happy. All he has is Hoseok and his cartoons, his cereal and his pills.

"You took your medicine?" Hoseok asks, plopping the bag of groceries on the counter. It consists primarily of milk and cereal, but also some fruit, and some microwaveable meals, things Jimin can easily make without hurting himself.

"Yep." He responds. He doesn't know if Hoseok is older or younger than him, but even if he is younger, Jimin would still see Hoseok as a big brother.

"And you slept well last night?" He asks. Jimin nods once more, like he always did when Hoseok entered the apartment and asked him the same two questions before starting normal conversation. He doesn't take it personal. It is Hoseok's job to worry about him, after all, but Jimin likes to think Hoseok also comes to see him because they are friends. Ah, friends: something Jimin doesn't have many of. Or, rather, any of, besides Hoseok. And that's assuming Hoseok likes him at all—

Jimin stops himself there. He can't think about things too hard, or he'll get a head ache. But Jimin likes to hope deep down Hoseok at least somewhat enjoys his presence.

"Uh-huh." Jimin responds through his next mouthful of cornflakes, and he sees Hoseok's radiant smile before he disappears for a moment, head peeping into the fridge as he puts away Jimin's groceries. "What are you feeling today? Tom and Jerry's on." He asks, gesturing at the TV. That's another part of he and Hoseok's routine: they sit on the sofa and watch cartoons together, a highlight of Jimin's day.

"Jimin...what if we did something different today?" Hoseok asks. A tiny alarm goes off in Jimin's head, a red flag in his brain. Do something other than watch cartoons? He glances at the clock, and surely enough, the hands are still within the designated time slots he had assigned in his brain to cartoons. Brow furrowed, he eyes Hoseok. His bright grin looks hopeful. Jimin is skeptical.

"I mean, sure." Jimin says. He tries to hide his reluctance behind a smile. "Why not?" In fact, Jimin can think of a million reasons why not. His entire day would feel mixed up, and his mind would mix with it, feeling too similar to scrambled eggs in too little time. His hands are already spasming at just the thought of disregarding his routine. He can feel the bouts of confusion and forgetfulness coming on like the tremors in the earth before the full fledged earthquake strikes, like the electricity in the air that makes the hairs on the back of his neck stand up before the clouds empty their insides onto the earth with bolts of lightning and echoing thunder.

So yeah, that's why not. But Jimin would never tell Hoseok that.

"I was thinking...I was thinking we could go out to eat today." Hoseok suggests. Jimin's eyes nearly bulge out of his head at this. Eat? Out? Two words that are placed far away from each other in the Oxford dictionary of Jimin's mind. Eating is designated for home, and cereal is designated for eating, for the most part. Out is nowhere near designated for eating. Out is among words such as fear and anxiety and uncertainty in Jimin's brain's dictionary. Jimin looks down at the soggy bits of cereal that still swim in the milk. In a way, he relates to them—they look small and aimless and lost. "I know someone who'd really like to meet you over lunch."

All the doubts that plague Jimin's mind fade immediately, replaced with sudden excitement. Excitement that sends a spasm through Jimin's limbs, causing Hoseok to rush forward and take the bowl from Jimin's hands before the milk sloshes all over him. Jimin can't keep the megawatt smile off his face. "Me? Someone wants to see me?" He can hardly believe it—who would want to meet him? Hoseok smiles again, but this time, something isn't right. Either the glimmer in his eye isn't there, or his dimples don't indent as deep into his cheeks, or maybe his nose doesn't crinkle like it usually does, but Jimin senses a difference between this smile and Hoseok's normal ones. This one was almost...sad?

"Yeah, Jiminie. Someone does." Hoseok assures the skeptical man that he's not dreaming. "She's one of my friends...I think you'd really like her." He says, and that's all the convincing Jimin needs. Despite his brain that struggles to keep up with this major change, his heart is fickle and operates on a whim. His heart always wins when in battle with his brain. And in this moment, Jimin's heart is beating solely for the prospect of meeting the girl Hoseok is talking about—a friend.

Jimin's heart is racing as Hoseok helps him out of his car. Driving in a car was something Jimin hadn't done since last month's monthly medical evaluation at the hospital, but it still manages to make him nervous and disoriented. He doesn't know how fast they're going, but it feels like a million miles per hour, judging by the rate the scenery out the window blurs and whizzes by in the blink of an eye. The car ride is long forgotten as Hoseok steadies his two feet on the ground again. Jimin grips his cane tightly, palms sweaty with nerves.

Despite his nerves, he can't suppress the smile on his lips. What is this feeling that bubbles in the pit of his stomach? If he were to ask Hoseok what said bubbly feeling is, he knows he'd probably tell him it's just gas. But this is different. This makes Jimin walk with a skip in his step—well, to the best of his ability, anyway. His limp in his left leg hinders him a little. He feels this urge to laugh, though nothing is funny at all. And he's smiling so constantly and with so much conviction that his cheeks hurt and he can't see due to the way his eyes crinkle when he smiles.

"Where are we going?" Jimin asks Hoseok, who walks alongside him. He can tell Hoseok is in caretaker mode rather than friend mode right now just by the way the other man looks at him—though he normally smiles, his lips are pressed into a thin line as he walks with Jimin. He watches him closely, analytically. Jimin doesn't blame him—when they do go out, though these times are few and far between, the outcome is rarely good. Once, Hoseok took him to the grocery store, which ended in Jimin having a panic attack in the ice cream aisle. Another time, Hoseok brought him inside the gas station whilst stopping to refill his car, and that resulted in Jimin hiding in the bathroom and refusing to come out for an hour. Being outside the comfort of his own home overstimulates Jimin sometimes, and no doubt, this kind of behavior is what Hoseok is looking for. "Hoseokie?" Jimin has to prompt the man again before he realizes he was spoken to.

"Oh, uh...some coffee place." Hoseok says offhandedly, still not a million percent focused on the conversation.

"Oh, coffee." Jimin says. Does he like coffee? He doesn't remember. "You think they'll have cereal?" Jimin asks, and at this, Hoseok breaks into the familiar smile that Jimin loves so much.

"Maybe, Jiminie. But they've probably got other good stuff, too. Look, it's right there." Hoseok points. Jimin follows his finger to a quaint looking building with patio seating, all the tables shaded by peach colored umbrellas and matching chairs. Serendipity Café, the white sign reads in the same peachy colored letters. "Oh! And that's who we're meeting! She's already outside." Hoseok says, his finger landing on the one girl Jimin hadn't noticed sitting beneath one umbrella at a table. Jimin's eyes come to rest on her face—

Jimin stumbles a bit, bracing himself on his cane.

Hoseok immediately rushes to steady him.

"You okay?" He asks, the concern he was feeling earlier back and more intense than ever. But Jimin—Jimin hardly hears him. He's staring with a dazed smile at the girl waiting for them.

The girl is breathtaking. Jimin hasn't met that many girls before, just a couple doctors and nurses at the hospital, and that's about it. But he doesn't need to know that many to know that this girl is the most beautiful he's ever seen, so stunning he might go out on a limb and say the most beautiful girl he ever will see. Her hair is short and wavy, shiny and black. Sparkling eyes the color of molten caramel under miles of long lashes. High cheekbones, cheeks with dimples indenting the rosy flesh. But what quite literally almost just knocked Jimin over is her smile. The way her nose crinkles a bit as her pretty lips reveal an even prettier heart shaped smile. Bright enough to compete with the sun rays and the moonbeams and the glow of the stars—

"Jimin?" Hoseok tries again, and Jimin comes back into the atmosphere again. Finally remembering to breathe, Jimin glances at Hoseok. "Everything okay?" Okay? Now that his brain is functioning again, it's attempting to compensate for all the new information. New place? Will he like it? Does he like coffee? New stranger? Who is that stranger? A girl? Are all girls that pretty?

Jimin feels dizzy, like he normally does right before he gets one of the splitting headaches that accompany confusion.

But then his eyes return to the girl, and a sense of clarity cuts through the dizziness. A light in the dark. She's noticeably worried now, looking over at him and Hoseok to make sure everything's okay.

Is everything okay? Jimin asks himself again, desperately trying to unscramble his brain.

"I don't know." Jimin says honestly, and Hoseok nods.

"Okay, well, let's go sit you down." Hoseok decides for him, and Jimin lets him help him over.

"Who is she?" Jimin asks under his breath while they're still a good distance away.

"Her name's Cha Chungha. She's a friend." Hoseok says, tacking on the last part to reassure him, and it does the job. A friend.

Maybe everything is okay.