a few days had passed and namjoon was busy working on his finals homework. jimin had a bunch of work to do as well, but before he could start on his homework, he knew he had some unfinished business to attend to. as soon as jimin heard from joon that he was booked for the next few hours, he knew immediately what he was going to spend the day doing.

ever since hoseok had kissed him that night, jimin had been left feeling a bit weird about the whole thing. of course, none of it was his fault, but still. jimin couldn't help but feel guilty about it.

he hadn't talked to aruem or hoseok since it happened, but jimin had heard from joon texting with aruem that they had been taking a break from dating.

and of course, jimin felt terrible. who wouldn't feel terrible? it was a very weird situation and jimin couldn't help but feel partial to blame.

and that's exactly how jimin found himself standing outside of aruem's front door, knocking on it lightly.

it only took a few minutes of waiting, jimin shifting his weight back and forth between his heels and the balls of his feet, before the door opened. aruem was standing right in front of him, wearing her sweatpants and hoodie.

"jimin?" she asked, clearly confused.

"h-hey," jimin said, putting on an apologetic smile.

jimin knew he probably wasn't aruem's favorite person at the moment and he really wanted to apologize to her. more importantly, he wanted to come on hoseok's behalf and try and mend their relationship... at least a little bit, if he was able to.

"...hi," aruem said.

jimin just stood there for a moment, nervously.

"can i come in?"

aruem just stared at him for a moment, before speaking up.

"well... i mean... my place is kind of messy and-"

"i don't mind," jimin said, quickly.

aruem sighed, with a nod.

"okay," she said.

she moved her body out of the door frame, allowing jimin to walk in.

she shut the door behind him and jimin slipped off his shoes by the entrance, now just wearing his socks that had cute little cats all over them.

"lovely place you have," jimin said, looking around, frowning a bit to himself when he saw a framed picture of her with hoseok sitting on the table beside her couch.

"thank you," she said, walking over to the couch and sitting down, jimin joining her.

"so... what's up?" she asked, still confused as to why jimin was sitting in her house in the first place.

jimin just sighed, his whole overly nice facade fading away.

"aruem, listen," jimin started, "namjoon told me he texted with you a little and i know hoseok told you everything that happened when he came over to my place."

aruem just shifted eye contact, nodding.

"look... he did kiss me. and honestly, i was shocked... and i'm really sorry that happened. i just... i had no idea that-"

"that he liked boys?" aruem asked, with a sigh, "me neither."

jimin nodded.

"he does," jimin said, "at least... i think he does. but... that doesn't mean he doesn't still love you, aruem. he did make a mistake, but you have to... at least somewhat understand why it happened, right? i bet he's been holding that inside for a while, you know? always wondering if he could be with a guy like that. it's hard to question your sexuality. i think it's something he's thought about for a long time and finally, his brain just had enough of wondering about it- he wanted to know the truth and he just... just kissed me."

aruem nodded, understanding where jimin was coming from.

"i mean... he doesn't have real romantic feelings for me, i know he doesn't. he's just confused right now, but i know his heart is with you. i know that. he still loves you a lot. and i know he feels awful about what happened and the last thing that's gonna help him right now is you shutting him out. what he's going through... that's already lonely enough. it's scary and he needs you by his side."

aruem just sat there for a minute, before shaking her head, and looking up at jimin.

"he could have just told me," she said, her eyes finally starting to water, "i don't care if he likes guys, too... i don't care about any of that. he didn't... he didn't have to... to cheat on me."

a few tears rolled down aruem's face and jimin couldn't help but feel horrible.

"you're right," jimin said, "he shouldn't have cheated. that was wrong."

aruem nodded, wiping her face off.

"you have to understand, aruem. he didn't know how you would react. some girls don't care about stuff like that... but you'd be surprised how many straight girls want nothing to do with guys who are... fluid or whatever. it's scary. i know that doesn't make it okay, but it helps you understand why he did it, right?"

aruem nodded, still wiping some tears off her face as they fell.

"i... i really care about him," she said, her eyes bottled up with tears, "i do understand why it happened. it just... it hurts. it wasn't so bad with joon... i never really felt like we had that kind of connection anyway, you know? he's more of a friend to me. but hobi... he cares about me, i know he does. and i care about him, too... i-i love him... so much. and i can't help but feel like i'm not enough for him, you know? i try so hard and it's just never enough."

the girl was crying a lot more, jimin surprised she was opening up to him so much.

he felt glad though, happy to be someone she could talk to.

jimin leaned in and hugged her, letting her cry and telling her he understood.

"it's not your fault, aruem. he's going through something right now, but it has nothing to do with you. he loves you and i know at the end of the day, you're worth more to him than any of this shit," jimin said, pushing the hair that was sticking to her face from crying to rest behind her ears, "has he called you?"

aruem nodded, biting down on her lip.

"texted?"

she nodded again, before speaking up.

"he's called me so many times and texted, too. and he came over a bunch of times. i wouldn't let him in and i told him to leave," she said, a few more tears escaping her eyes.

"have you talked to him at all?"

aruem shook her head.

"not since he told me what happened."

jimin nodded.

"well... do you want to talk to him?"

aruem nodded quickly, still crying.

"yes. so bad," she said, wiping off the new tears, "i miss him so much. i just... i never wanted to be that girl that just gets back with the cheater, you know? i never wanted to be stupid like that."

jimin nodded.

"but you know deep down hoseok's not your stereotypical 'cheater', right? you know why he did it and you know he would never do it again. and you know how awful he feels."

aruem nodded.

"i know. i know he didn't mean it."

"it was a mistake," jimin said, "a big mistake. but... i really think you should talk to him. i can't say for sure, but i bet you he's going crazy. he hasn't even been showing up to class."

aruem just sniffled a bit, nodding in agreement.

"i'm gonna talk to him. i need to talk to him."

jimin smiled softly.

"i think that's the right thing to do," he said, "and hey, if it doesn't work out, there's plenty of other fish in the sea. you're beautiful and nice, and caring, and i'm sure any guy would kill at a chance to be with you."

aruem smiled back at him.

"thanks," she said, "for... for coming and talking to me. i actually feel a lot better."

the two continued to talk for almost an hour, jimin telling her that she could always come to him if she needed anything. aruem appreciated him reaching out, she really did, and she was definitely happy she could now consider jimin a friend.

and when jimin finally left her place, he felt great- the weird feeling he had about what had happened being completely gone.