Date: November 8th
Time: 9:57pm
Location: The sidewalk outside of the convenience store
Mood: Mother trucker hurts like a buttcheek on a stick
<><><>

Separation. She had known Jimin for how long...a month? Two and half weeks of awkwardness. A week and some days of even more awkward. But now they were going to separate and there was no guarantee they would see one another again.

It shouldn't have come as a surprise to her. Y/n always knew at some point he would leave. That the way of things would dictate it happening right when she didn't want it to was just her luck.

Sure they exchanged phone numbers. She was still shocked that she had gone through with asking him. The action had nearly killed her. She got his number. And for what? What was she supposed to do with this? Suddenly be a normal person and text him?

A hard blush filled her face at the thought. Suddenly the idea that she was stupid plagued her. She could see it now: Jimin hanging with his friends because unlike her he had a truckload of them. Having fun when Y/n, that mousy, weird girl who had can't look him in the face to talk, texts him out of nowhere. His friends would ask who he was texting and he would say something like............something mean about her that she couldn't even imagine him saying.

Something cold pressed to her flaming cheek, bringing her to jump and cringe away from the offending object.

Jimin, a cold Sprite in hand grinned back at her, letting loose a zoo of butterflies in her gut.

"I'm sorry," he smiled gently and pressed the soda into her hands which she (of course) accepted.

All of the carbonated beverages were good and brought her happiness, but every now and then she would worry if she was drinking them too much. On days where Jimin was absent the cravings were bad and her body wasn't nearly as energetic as it was when ingesting tons of sugar and caffeine.

"May I..." Half turned away, Jimin peered over at her from under his lashes. "Drive you home?"

The butterflies in her tummy were trampled by the emergence of a bowlegged elephant because she was awkward like that. Inside and out. It crashed over them and sent her stomach into somersaults.

"S-sure—I—yes—uh, yeah—o-okay."

One day, she vowed, she would be able to talk without sounding like a complete loser.

"For my lady." Jimin opened the passenger door to his Hyundai, bowing in an exaggerated manner.

"Th-thank-thank you. A-and me—and—um—n-never mind."

But today was not that day!

Dropping the soda to her lap, she covered her face in shame, while lowering into the seat and trying to calm her racing heart. She could do this. One step at a time. That's what it would take.

Step one: Breathe.

Relaxing her shoulders, she slowly inhaled through her nose.

Jimin shot into the driver's seat faster than she had expected, the same grin from earlier apparently trying for an unending streak. Forcing her eyes elsewhere, she counted to three before gently exhaling, forcing the muscles of her jaw to loosen up.

"Marshmallow?"

"Hm?" she stared avidly at the dashboard in a sad attempt to avoid his gaze.

"Your seatbelt." he softly pointed out.

Keeping her gaze away from him at all times, she buckled herself in just as Jimin decided to test the zoo raging inside of her.

"Can't let anything happen to you. You're the most precious cargo I've ever had in here."

A troop of monkeys was tugging on her heartstrings and using them to swing to and fro.

Breathing exercises out the window, she blurt out the first thought that strung itself together.

"Am not!"

Oddly, it wasn't a scientific fact but for once something personal that resided in her mind. It surprised her, while Jimin's face fell into a glare, shocking her even more.

"Yes. You are." he countered in a tone that implied that was the end of the conversation.

This wasn't an argument she would have with anyone. Relenting, and feeling as though she had been scolded by an elder, she shrunk down in her seat. Jimin technically was older than her by two months. But he wouldn't be counted as an elder.

As he peeled away from the parking spot, silence grew. There was a slight jump in the car whenever he slowed and then began gaining speed again. From years of living with two mechanics she recognized the signs of an aging transmission and contemplated on mentioning it to him. But on further thought, she decided against it. Already talking so much, asking for his phone number and accepting a ride home, Y/n was well aware that her comfort zone had already been breached thrice today and to test it would prove unwise.

In an attempt to protect herself, she stayed quiet.

Step two: Try not to embarrass herself.

Store fronts and other various buildings greeted her sight out of the window as Jimin drove like a grandma. Except that Y/n was certain that both her grandparents drove way faster than this.

"So," he drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, taking a second to glance in her direction before moving his eyes back to the road. "You go to school with my hyung...What is your major?"

"Forensic science." Her reply was quiet, but she knew like always that Jimin would hear her. Somehow his ears seemed superior to most people's.

"Really?" he sounded intrigued. "What do you want to be?"

"A blood s-spatter analyst." She couldn't help but to peek at him, curious to see what he thought of her choice of future career. A look of puzzlement graced his features.

"What's that?"

There was those monkeys again, messing with her heart to make it skip a beat. The fact that he was interested as opposed to weirded out as her brother or Jackson had been, made her happier than it should have. An often absent feeling of acceptance nearly made her want to melt.

"When there's a murder, a blood spatter analyst looks at the blood patterns to determine how that person died."

The space between his eyes wrinkled as the perplexed expression grew. "How can they do that?"

Flushing again at the unexpected question, she moved her attention to the soda bottle in her lap and began to roll it between her hands. "Trigonometry, geometry. You look at the blood and uh..." she glanced his way, expecting to see him disgusted but pleased to find him paying her every word rapt attention. "There are different types depending o-on how that person died. Say there's, uh, a spatter less than one millimeter and it a-appears like a fine spray. That's called high velocity blood spatter."

"What does that mean?"

"It-it means that they were killed w-with a huge amount of force and very quickly."

"Wah!" his eyes widened and something akin to a proud look on his face emerged. "That's amazing! You're so tiny but so smart!"

If he were her brother she'd kick him for calling her tiny. She wasn't tiny! She was fun size. Or...something. Instead she settled with her own smile.

After another quiet few moments he asked, "won't that be scary, though? You'll see a lot of violence." he frowned at the thought.

"It might be." she admittedly quietly. "But, I-I could say the same thing to you." he had mentioned in passing that he was attending the police academy. It didn't slip her notice that they were both going for careers in different branches of law enforcement. Though admittedly for different reasons. While he wished to help people, she wanted to solve puzzles and nerd out with science all day.

"You could." he agreed. A pop song playing low on the radio brought him to tap the steering wheel to the beat. An obvious inspiration for his next question. "What's your favorite song?"

That was a tough one. Usually it changed biweekly depending on her mood. Though, there was that one that always made her fun sized, gentle self feel aggressive and mean.

"Hit em' up by Tupac Shakur." The innocent look on her face, accompanied by this admission threw him for a loop. Jimin had never heard the song, but the title alone said that it probably was not for the faint of heart. An excited question from her immediately had him agreeing to whatever it was she was asking, before even hearing the request.

"Wanna hear it?!?" Seeing Jimin nodding already, she whipped out her phone and made quick work of finding the song in her library, making sure it was turned all the way up before hitting play.

"-THAT'S WHY I FUCKED YOUR BITCH YOU FAT MOTHER FUCKER-"

Jimin's mouth dropped open at the same time Y/n giggled cutely. His shock came out before he could stop it, not that she seemed to mind, as caught up in the song as she already was. "WHAT in the-"

"-first off, FUCK YOUR BITCH and that clique you claim-"

"That's...rude."

"-you claim to be a player but I fucked your wife-"

Jimin, trying and failing not to judge her too much, glanced over once but then had to jerk his attention back to her again when he noticed she was quietly signing along in the most gentle, angelic voice.

"-quick to snatch your ugly ass off the street, so FUCK peace-"

Where did this woman come from and what happened to his little, red marshmallow? He couldn't find her at present, especially when she sang along to getting someone killed and getting their 'caps peeled'. Whatever that meant.

"Sorry," blushing, she ducked her in apology once the first verse had ended, turning the volume down to a acceptable level. "I-I got caught up in it."

So did he. But for an entirely different reason.

"That's such a sweet song." he replied solemnly, pretending to be serious. To his satisfaction he was met with another giggle.

The car took a left turn, still on the path to it's destination, but obviously in a very round about way. Both knew it. Neither commented on it.

"Our music taste is opposite." he admitted before she could ask him. She had been planning to, but it was like he knew what she wanted to say before doing so and was saving her the effort. "I like soft pop, some alternative. The music doesn't matter as much as the lyrics do. As long as the message is clear and makes me think, the rest doesn't matter."

"Oh." That was as far as her socializing skills went. But also: "Cool."

"We should, uh," he wet his lips and cleared his throat awkwardly. "Try to find a new job...together. If you want," he added quickly. "It's alright if you don't—and I won't follow you there. Not if...not if you don't want me to. I want to respect your boundaries."

The entire zoo had moved to attack her heart at this point.

"That," voice slight shaky, he mistook it as a sign of reluctance and moved in to apologize. Right before the words left his mouth she went on. "Th-that sounds good."

A second went by where he was sure he misheard. Then as more ticked by he realized he had heard right. An infectious smile that he tried futilely to contain seemed to brighten the dim lighting of the car. Probably due to being so out of her comfort zone it wasn't funny, Y/n's face was shielded from view behind her hands, but if it wasn't, he would have been able to see the expression that matched his own.

"Red," he sighed, "you make me so happy."

At this point, she was surprised her heart was still beating. She'd already told this man to stop attacking her. Was that so much to ask?

"T-thanks?" she replied awkwardly as she peeked between her fingers in his direction.

Truth be told, he was slowly bringing little bits of happiness into her life too. It was strange and unexpected, and really, not all that welcome. She had yet to figure out if happiness was something she deserved. Or even something she wanted. Depression was easier. It came naturally. Joy and a good life was something you had to work for.

Not only that, but she still wished to keep a modicum of distance between them. There was no getting rid of the idea that he would leave. All things come to end. Especially relationships.

What she had to remember was that everything she was feeling now was all biology. Dopamine. It was the chemical your brain releases when it senses a pleasurable situation. Right now, she was literally doped out. She liked to call it: The Jimin Affect.

And while all of that might be true, she couldn't deny it. She couldn't explain away her feelings, couldn't stop traveling a path that would surely end with heartbreak. Jimin made her happy, made her feel wanted. After being in the darkness for so long, it proved too difficult to evade that bit of sunlight peeking in. The darkness hid from it and she subconsciously moved towards it.

So while she remained scared and unsure, for now, she decided to test the waters that were urging her to jump in. Though jumping in was too much. It would have to be step by step. Maybe at a excruciatingly slow rate, but moving all the same.

"Is there anywhere you want to work?" he asked. "Probably somewhere you can avoid too much interaction." This came out more as a thought to himself. "I don't have any preferences as long as you're there."

"Y-you!" she spluttered, "you're doing it again!"

His eyes blew wide as he flicked his gaze to her in confusion. "What! What? What did I do?"

"Attacking me!"

"Attacking...?" Face scrunched up, he couldn't for the life of him figure out what she meant. Her hands were tightly fisted, showing no hidden signs for him to stop. "Uh...sorry?" Was what he settled with, though he still had no idea what was going on.

You're being too nice.

Like hell he was going to be anything else.

"Stop here!" At the sudden command he pulled to the curb, now more perplexed than ever. Though her home was in sight, they were still half a block from her apartment building. He'd rather drop her off at the door and watch her go inside. Probably wave until she was out of sight.

He wasn't aware of the ever watchful Seo-Joon, her giant bear of a brother waiting to pounce on him.

"Why here?" The question was posed before he frowned as he watched her getting out of the car. His wolf whimpered at the sight and he was tempted to as well. They had spent five hours together today and it wasn't enough. It was never enough.

"Just...because."

"Oh." Pouting, he leaned his head on the steering wheel. "I'll text you."

"Ok," she blushed, allowing her hair to fall in her face. "Th-thank you. For the ride."

"I'll miss you." he blurted.

She heard him and the words registered, but what she didn't realize (at first) was that she verbally answered him back. "Me too."

At the same time he perked up, she lifted wide, shocked eyes to his own. "I-I-I mean—I mean!"

Rather than finishing, she slammed the door shut and ran away. Away from the embarrassing admittance, away from the love drunk Jimin, away from those feelings that were sticking themselves on and not letting her go.

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Bonus scene

<>Girl Code<>

"Help me!" Jimin busted into Namjoon's house, shouting out for whoever happened to hear him first.

Namjoon, Kitty, Jungkook and Jin we're settled in the living room, avidly watching a K drama where the female lead's wrists were being aggressively grabbed every other scene.

"What's wrong, Jimin?" Jin asked without taking his eyes off of the screen.

The main couple were engaging in an unexpected back hug. Everyone watching gasped.

"My mate keeps telling me to stop attacking her!"

"Are you trying to mate already, hyung?" Jungkook turned wide, falsely innocent eyes on Jimin as Namjoon and Jin gasped in horror.

"Stop corrupting him, Jimin!" Jin paused the show to scold him unnecessarily.

Namjoon's hands safely covered the maknae's ears as he too glared at Jimin for attempting to dirty this precious baby's soul. Jungkook was innocent! Still an untainted baby in his hyung's eyes. All of them. They were really blind like that.

"That isn't what I meant." Jimin placated, also reaching out to stroke their pure dongsaeng's hair.

No one noticed the glaring contest between Jungkook and Kitty. Mostly because as soon as the others looked Jungkook would go back to a innocent, doe-eyed state.

Without further ado, Jimin did his best to explain the circumstances of both events where Y/n told him to stop attacking her. No matter how hard he thought on it he couldn't understand it.

And no one else seemed to. None except for Kitty who gasped and covered her mouth with both hands. "That's so freaking cute!!"

"What is?" Jimin asked desperately, turning with everyone to look for an explanation.

Sobering up just as quickly, she dropped her hands back to her lap. "I can't say."

"Oh come on," he whined. Knowing she had a weakness for cute things, he pouted while puffing his cheeks out for extra affect.

"I can't. Girl code." she explained, as if that meant anything to the group of guys.

"Girl code?" Jin asked. "What's that?"

"It means I can't tell you."

"You're mean." Jimin increased the cute power, but she purposely avoided looking.

—
Edited 7/25/22