⟨Juŋkøøkˈs pøʋ⟩

Jimin indeed makes passing time interesting. The cake we made yesterday was delicious and although he said I can have the remaining, I don't think I want to any sooner.

The banking session lightened up my mood a lot, especially when Jimin got the flour all over his face. I couldn't help but laugh. I think it's the first decent laugh I'd had in a while.

Today is a new day, another day I have to spend doing nothing. Speaking of that, I've noticed that the burns on my chest have pretty much healed completely, as well as the scars on my wrist. The burn from the hair curler is still prominent, but it doesn't look so bad anymore.

My next therapy session is tomorrow and I won't say I'm very excited about it. Yeonmi is nice and all, but I just don't feel like going back there again. The grey walls are creepy, and the air from the air conditioner smells weird.

Jimin suddenly barged into the guest room, hands filled with big, cardboard boxes. He plopped him on the floor beside my bed. I sit up straight, watching him as he arranges them beside one another and starts to open them. Out comes a small, wooden doll house from the first box. It had three tiny rooms, and paint chipped off from most of the spots. My first instinct said to just pick it up and fix it because how can such a beautiful little thing be so untidy?

"Do you like to paint?"

"Uh...Yes?"

I say, though I don't have much experience in painting, I've seen people do it. Especially in the flower shops. It always had me enthralled.

"Can you help me paint these? I have some in the garage."

He says. I stare at the doll house. I'm not going to question Jimin about why he has that doll house. I make out an outline of what could look good on it. I could maybe sand off the chipped-off coatings. I could paint the entire roof in a solid colour, and then make some patterns on it by darkening its shade. Depending on the paints Jimin have, I'll have to figure out the best colour combination for this.

"Let's get the materials."

He gets up from the floor and asks me to follow him. The garage is at the back of his house. There's a little backyard that I have never seen because I was always stuck in that attic, but it's pretty cool. There are small plants put in colourful pots and arranged in rows. The grass is chopped nicely, each strain of them growing to the same level. The sky looks gorgeous from here and the trees look so tall that they seem to touch the sky.

He unlocked the lock on the rusty shutter and pulled it up. The room smelled of cigarettes for some reason and I already hated it. The walls were painted a blunt white colour. A dusty bike lay in one corner of the garage, with newspapers stacked up on the floor just beside it.

The tube light fixed on the ceiling was broken. The other side of the garage consisted of small tins of paint, just like Jimin said.

"I have white, red and yellow from when we painted the flower pots in the backyard."

He's caught me staring at them. So he brought one of the pots to me. It was painted orange, with small floral patterns on it painted with a thinner brush, and some leaves with white.

"Oh! Can you bring the dollhouse here? It's better to paint it here than make a mess inside the house."

He says and I act upon his instruction. When I come back with the dollhouse, he had already arranged everything we need. The brushes and paints. He had already got a palate to pour the paint in.

I sit down cross-legged beside him. While he makes sure the paint is good enough to be used, I inspect the dollhouse. You can't take it out into simpler parts. It's one, solid piece. So it would be nice for decoration purposes.

I peel off layers of chipped-off paint using my fingers. It peels off nicely. A little coat of white will make it as good as new. And then, I won't even need to use sandpaper to sand the paint off. Then I could paint it.

Jimin passes me the brushes. There were about eleven of them, each of different thicknesses. I use the largest one, having the number twelve on it, indicating it to be the thickest and I paint the entire piece in white.

While I let that dry, Jimin starts with his questions again. Though I don't like bringing back the memories of Jihun, I feel happy to let Jimin know. He always has the best replies.

"You never did these with your mother, did you?"

"Well, I'm now doing these with you, so it's okay."

He giggles a little and shifts more towards me.

"You know, Jungkook? You're so cool nevertheless."

He always makes me feel better about myself. I feel like it's about time I make myself clear to him. It's time I make myself clear to him about how grateful I am to him.

"Hyung?"

There's a slight pause before he replies.

"Yeah?"

I feel emotion overwhelm me when I realize just how much he had done for me. For someone who was a stranger to him just a few weeks ago.

"Thank you."

There's no confusion on his face, but he still asks me why I'm thanking him.

"For saving my life."

His lips curved up to form that beautiful smile again which turns his eyes into an upside-down crescent.

"That was not cool, Jungkook-ah. I only did what I should have done."

He says, still smiling. I may sound shellfish, but I wish I had him in my life since the beginning of my life. Life is bearable with him. Jimin was staring at with sky with interest, where the sun had positioned itself completely overhead, making it the hottest period of the day. But on the other hand, it makes Jimin's skin shine in a golden colour. So I pretend to forget about painting and with him, I watch and listen to the birds chirp.