after he had finished up showering, jimin dried himself the best he could with the fluffy white towel and allowed the still running water to soak out all of the blood it had gathered from wiping off his chest. luckily, the shower didn't leave even the smallest hint of red for anyone to be suspicious about anything, and he managed to get dressed into new clothing before the twenty minutes was up.

jimin ran a hand through his blond locks, stepping aside once he slid the door open so the black haired nurse could go collect his dirty outfit and inspect the small bathroom for anything that may insinuate something not okay had happened or he had done while she wasn't in there to make sure. once she was satisfied she bid him goodbye, calling for the guards waiting outside of jimin's cell to let her out and let in another much older woman who was wheeling a chart with her that held a plate of food and some water.

the older woman took the other's place, the heavy metal door closing and locking behind her as well. "hello young man, i brought you some food." her aged face wrinkled under her fond smile as she motioned for jimin to sit down on his bed so she could carefully set the tray on his lap. "i was told to stuff you up, so i'd start eating."

jimin hesitantly picked up a plastic spoon on the tray and brought a bit of soup to his lips. it had been so long since he had last had anything to eat or drink, so when the warm substance danced on top of his taste buds he felt as if he could die from gratitude because of the warmness traveling down his throat that instant. it was rather soothing to his surely swollen, pained vocal cords from all the shouting and loud sobbing he had done.

the old nurse smiled happily, taking a seat next to the young man while he hungrily shoveled spoonfuls of the soup, being so hungry that he'd occasionally lap his tongue over the plastic utensil.

jimin felt as though even if it only lasted a short tine, this was contentment. his mind was pretending as if jungkook's touches really were scrubbed away by such a short shower, and his stomach was filled with warmth from the hot soup. right now there was no problems. right now there was no shadow figures and nothing to be afraid of. right now he was feeling satisfied; even if he knew it wouldn't last longer than a few seconds.

☤

the sound of a clock ticking was the only thing that currently filled the empty office room. it made him a little bit timorous to be alone just waiting for whatever was going to happen. jimin swung his feet back and forth in the chair since they couldn't fully rest against the ground.

surely whatever namjoon wanted to talk to him about wasn't going to be good news, it didn't seem like it ever was with him. jimin could only sit perturbed in the room and wait.

whether it was lucky or not, it didn't take long though before the peach hair colored man opened up the door and joined him inside.

"it's nice to see you all cleaned up, jimin." namjoon spoke sincerely, happy that the broken, sunken in looking boy from earlier looked a lot more pristine and plump like the day when he had first saw him before everything started turning into a bad downright confusing mess.

the boy nodded his head slowly, not offering much energy in response. "...you too."

namjoon let out a sigh, wondering what he was expecting to get back in the first place. it wasn't his fault he couldn't help the kid, and it also wasn't his fault he had to lock him in confinement, but of course jimin didn't know that. he just knew that namjoon was the one that said he didn't need treatment for anything he insisted he did and that he was that last face he had seen before being locked away for eighteen hours.

the psychiatrist was just doing his job, not being able to do or prescribe any medication to someone who's medical record and tests suggested they didn't need it. if he did that he'd surely be fired and lose his degree.

jimin stayed quiet while the other man took a seat at his desk and grabbed a remote on top of it. he turned on a television on top of his wall, gesturing jimin to look over at it.

"this is the footage from the camera in the confinement room you were assigned to." he explained before clicking the fast forward button to get to where he wanted to in the video.

"why are you showing me this?" jimin questioned quietly, honestly fearful because of the fact that he was planning to follow jungkook's words and pretend he was alright in order to get released faster.

"because i need you to explain what's going on." the man said, picking up a pen in his free hand and finally stopping the video at a certain marking point around three hours in.

the video was black and white, clearly meaning the camera was a night vision one. he could see himself in a corner of the room in fetal position rocking back and forth while tugging on his hair. a few seconds later angry tears ran down jimin's face as he started yelling something.

"what were you saying here? we unfortunately can't have audio on because it'd take up too much battery and the camera would die before the time was up." namjoon explained, seeing the boy's confused expression.

instant relief flooded into jimin's system as he heard that there was no sound. he could lie his way out of this.

"i was just saying i wanted out of there. i was crying and rocking because it was cold and i didn't like it."

"mhm." the man hummed in response, believing him.

then jimin's grip on his hands in the video started getting tighter, more tears started running down his face and his mouth opened wider, clearly meaning he was screaming louder.

"what about here? what are you saying?"

"begging for someone to let me out." he answered immediately, the lies slipping smoothly off his tongue unhesitatingly as if it had been the actual truth. "it was scary being in the dark."

namjoon wrote down his words before picking up the remote again and going forward a bit more. jimin's face paled a bit as he saw himself slapping his hands against his head while clearly screaming before one arm suddenly stopped and grabbed the hand attached to his broken wrist harshly as if to stop himself.

namjoon paused the video as jimin looked at it in an expression that almost read horror. he knew jungkook wasn't real, and he knew everything was in his head, but seeing it for the first time like this was terrifying. in the view of someone's else's eyes, it looked as though jimin was crazy.

he had figured that he was the one carrying out the actions jungkook did physically after some research on the internet awhile back, but actually witnessing the reality versus what his own eyes had shown him was overwhelming.

"can you explain this?" namjoon asked, pen hovering over the notebook that was always sitting on top of his desk, ready to write down anything he had to.

"i-uh-," jimin closed his eyes, trying to calm himself. if he wanted all of this to end he needed to just breath in and think of an excuse. "i was hitting my head because the sound of nothing for so long was kind of suffocating. then i realized i was going to hurt my wrist more so i stopped myself."

the older man nodded again, his pen scribbling something down before playing the video again.

"this is the last bit of footage we have to go over, and i really need an explanation for this."

in the video jimin gave a little sob before laying down on the ground on his side. promptly, he got up and started walking towards the area the camera was. almost as if he could see perfectly in the pitch black room, his hand easily guided itself behind the camera suspended securely on the wall and shut it off.

this must have been what jungkook was doing when he walked away for a little bit.

"how did you know where the camera was? especially in the dark?" namjoon questioned, full attention on the blond sputtering to find an answer to tell.

"i-i saw it from when i first got locked in. when the door was closing i saw the light glint on the lens. since i was angled towards it for so long, i just kind of remembered."

the lie was a bit of a stretch, but his body was actually coincidentally pointed towards the direction of the camera since it was on the other corner facing directly in front of where he had been resting against.

"still, why did you turn it off?"

"i motioned that i wanted to go to the bathroom like you said but no one ever came. i figured you lied to me so i thought there was no point of it to keep filming me if you weren't actually watching."

this time that wasn't a lie. jimin had waved down the camera blindly —obviously not actually knowing where it was— but no one ever came. he knew namjoon lied about being there to keep watch.

the man sitting at the desk let a frown replace his lips. "i was for awhile but then i had to go take care of another one of the patients i'm assigned to. i left one of my assistants in charge of watching you, but he never mentioned you wanted to go."

jimin didn't give a response, simply looking down at his feet with a glare at the ground.

"did the shadows or jungkook bother you at all?" the psychiatrist asked slowly, knowing the male was mad at him. he didn't exactly believe in their existence, but he was just genuinely curious.

jimin inhaled a little bit of air, licking his dry chapped lips as he turned his face to look up at the other male. it wasn't too hard to lie about everything else, but this one was different. this one made a mix of guilt and nervousness stir up in his stomach. "no."