Date: February 3rd
Time: 6:24pm
Location: Y/n's place
Mood: 🎵Save Me Save Me🎵
<><><>

Another few days slowly drug by. Y/n normally would be feeling constantly on edge, with dilemmas stacking up until it felt as though they were over her head.

She didn't trust her 'dad'. She hadn't told her mom or brother about how she had found him. Baek Hyeon's presence at work reminded her of the weight of the situation. She had another sibling, but held that information close to her heart. If things went sideways...It was possible that he could end up very hurt. There was no trust for her sperm donor parent because he hadn't earned it. Therefore, he couldn't be trusted with the family he had now.

Regularly these things would weigh heavily on her. Like her mental health, her conscience. But her general mood was still hanging somewhere in the uncaring to numb zone and it didn't have the same impact. 

Although one day, she was mentally and emotionally exhausted and ended up spilling everything to Jimin. Earlier in the afternoon she had spoken to her 'father' on the phone and he didn't seem to be interested in anything she had to say. After school she had an intense therapy session that had left her drained. Then work was after that. Dea (the toddler from her group that always had a pacifier in her mouth) was sick with a high fever, irritable and weak and had clung to her until eventually her mom arrived early to pick her up.

And throughout all of this, Y/n was menstruating, the cramps of which had been sent from hell. But she was a woman and had to tough it out. It wasn't too hard. Women are the stronger sex, after all.

Normally, where anxiety and depression were a constant, there settled a tired resignation, a small amount of irritation, and a splitting headache. She told Jimin everything that she had kept from him and everyone else, even as she was afraid that he would be angry that she had held onto this secret. And he had been upset about that. Although as he pointed out, that was more because she had had to face this alone, as opposed to having a stronger support system.

After he was assured that she was alright for the time being, he reacted exactly as she had expected him to. He was mad. The reaction was sort of fascinating to her since she rarely saw him show his temper. Yet she could say for certain that she was glad that his anger wasn't targeted towards her.

"Are you mad at me?" She asked this question multiple times.

That was an indication of how nervous this mood of his made her feel. In his gaze was a sharp, fiery sword, intent on puncturing the one who evoked those feelings in the first place. Lucky for him, that person was no where to be found. He surely would have been incinerated on the spot.

"No." He replied flatly in a tone that was final. "I'm mad at him. Who the hell does he think he is?!? First it's Jungkook and then you. All of these so called 'parents' ditching their kids and—" he came to an abrupt halt when he caught sight of her downtrodden expression. "I'm sorry. I know that's your dad..."

"Do you think I'm stupid for giving him a chance?" The one thought that had been nagging at her came out before she could stop it.

The silence was so loud she winced.

Eventually, he nodded hesitantly. "I don't think you're stupid. I think your decision to give him a chance is stupid. But I get it. And I support it. This could be your only way for closure."

Funny how he repeated almost word for word what the therapist said after Y/n had told her all of this. It was the only day Seo-Joon had been unavailable to go with her, but at this point she was alright without having someone hold her hand through the annoying sessions.

After talking it out with Jimin, she felt better. It had only taken 23 kisses to calm him down and a promise to being more open in the future. She had readily agreed, even though she possessed the knowledge of why she had kept this to herself in the first place. It was shame.

Unfortunately, she did feel a degree of shame about this entire thing. Even when everyone else said that her sperm donor's behavior wasn't her fault, the idea that it was refused to leave. Likely it never would.

Everything had gone back to normal between them. No hard feelings remained.

Except that Jimin became extremely clingy all of a sudden. He'd always been very affectionate but now it was over the top.

When they were outside in the cold he would grab her hand and force it into his pocket. 'To keep it warm.' He explained. At night, watching her go into her building before driving off wasn't good enough anymore. The protocol now was to walk her all the way to the door, where he would not deny her mother if she asked him in for a warm drink.

During work he would encourage his group of kids to play with hers as an excuse to be closer to her there. Hugs were a little longer and kisses sweeter. If she wasn't busy studying for her end of term exams, she would have loved it.

"What are you reading about?" It was Thursday night and she was busy Rosie sitting while her parents were gone off grocery shopping. Seo-Joon had given up on glaring at Jimin to go shower, after it became obvious that Y/n was too invested in studying than paying attention to either of the men.

"Mitochondrial DNA." she answered without taking her eyes away from her books. It could be safely assumed that Y/n was not at all invested in starting a conversation.

"Shimin." Rosie spoke his name from where she sat on the floor, playing with her LOL dolls. When he looked her way she held a finger to her lips. "Shhh. Unnie is sutting."

"I think you meant studying." He smiled.

"Dats what I said." She replied in a sassy tone. "Weave unnie awone and come pway wif me."

A look that was a cross between a pout and pleading one was sent Y/n's way but she didn't once move her attention from the books before her. Sighing, he went to where the little girl sat on the floor, wondering how on the one day he didn't have to work, he ended up watching over a kid anyway. On that point, why did the amount of work one had to put into children not make any sense? The math seemed wrong because one kid could feel like three while five kids felt like forty five.

Rosie was different from the little girls in his group at work. While they each had their own personality, they were collectively wild and destructive. Messy, hard to get under control. And loud. Very loud.

The curly-haired girl in front of him was less maintenance, but she was a type A personality and liked things to be a precise and in a well ordered manner. Looking at the dolls in front of her, each was dressed properly, the outfits matching. They were all lined up in some specific order that no one understood but her. Rosie carefully chose one for him that had pale skin and blue hair flipped to one side.

"Dis is Cheeky. You play wif her."

After accepting the doll he said in a nasally, feminine voice, "Hi, I'm Cheeky. My favorite color is magma and I'm an Aquarius."

The toddler gave him a questionable look before picking out her own dolls to play with. Returning with two, she introduced them. One with black pig tails was named Dusk and another dressed as an Egyptian pharaoh, non-creatively named Pharaoh Babe. Rosie decided that they were going to the beach together so they were all stuffed into a miniature plastic car and drove to the kitchen, the area she had deemed to be the beach.

Bored with the vanilla experience, Jimin decided to spice it up and have Cheeky get attacked by a shark while swimming.

"HEEELP!! I'M DYING!"

"Shimin!! Play da wight way!" Rosie demanded, but not a second later she dashed away, yelling that she would get help. At her return she held a washcloth that was flung out to Cheeky for her to grab onto. "Get it! Gwab dat!"

Things took a turn for the dramatic when 'Cheeky' failed to grab hold of the towel. Jimin put his all into creating the tragic scene where the doll's final moments consisted of a lot of yelling and fighting with the make believe shark. When it was clear that Cheeky was gone for good, Rosie sighed, shaking her head in disbelief and causing her curls to bounce around her face. The drama didn't seem to affect her too much, because she moved on quickly.

"She dead. Wets go back home now, guys." At that, the remaining dolls were placed back into the plastic car and carried away, leaving the deceased Cheeky lying on the kitchen floor.

When they walked back into the living room, Jimin instantly noticed that Y/n was upset. The books and papers strewn out before her lay forgotten, all of her attention now on the screen of her phone. In four quick strides he was next her, encircling one arm around her waist and pushing her hair away from her face with his free hand.

"Baby? What is it?" Although he asked, he couldn't stop his eyes from drifting to the phone in her hand. The texting app was open and displaying a curious message.

Him: hey pumpkin. i hate to ask this but I'm in dire straights
Him: can you lend me any money? i need around ₩1,000,000 to pay rent on the shop. I'm a little short because someone decided to break my window lol

"I don't have that." Y/n whispered so that only he could hear. "What if he loses his shop because of me? He'll hate me again. I-I don't know what to do. We don't have that money, especially because of the therapy—wait...maybe I should stop? I think I'm better now anyway. That way I could maybe scrape the money together. But what if-"

After a quick glance to make sure the toddler wasn't watching, he cut her off with a firm kiss to the mouth. "Shut up. Breathe. Think it over carefully."

That seemed to do the trick, as she stopped rambling and adopted a contemplative look. Once she took a moment to breathe, her face fell into disappointment. "Why would he ask me that? I don't owe him anything. He's the one that..."

As her lower lip trembled, he leaned in to give it another kiss. Unfortunately for him, that time he forgot to make sure there weren't any little eyes watching.

"SHIMIN!!" Rosie screeched. Her little feet stopped on the floorboards as she made her way over to them. At her arrival she pointed a finger at him that came dangerously close to his eye. "You no kiss my unnie! She's mine!"

He might have been intimidated if she wasn't dressed in Paw Patrol footie pajamas. He couldn't even say he was annoyed when she climbed into his mate's lap and hugged her tightly. Because the way her arms wrapped around the toddler, that seemed to be exactly what Y/n needed.

<><><>

Hyuna was furious. Jimin was angry. The therapist was annoyed. They all warned her not to give the man who abandoned her any money. Even Y/n was disappointed.

In herself. They'd made progress. But then a bad decision she had made on a whim came back to haunt her. Why had she done that? It was completely out of character.

Then in yet another weak moment, she had admitted everything to her mom, who it would be safe to say, was completely outraged.

"Actually," she spit in a voice full of venom, "he owes me billions of won in child support."

"So...I guess that means you don't think I should give him the money?" Y/n asked an unnecessary question and was met head on with her mother's scorching glare. Though that quickly melted when she took her in her daughter's lost expression. In answer, her mom enveloped her in a hug.

"What I think is that you're smart. You already know the answer."

"What answer is that?" She mumbled into her Mom's shoulder.

"That you can't squeeze blood out of turnip. If we could all shit money, we'd all be shit rich."

"Eloquently put, mom."

"Yes. But trees are sacred, as are we all, as a part of nature. Praise be to the Goddess, Earth."

"Oh my god."

"Don't use Buddha's name in vain...By the way," she pulled away to point at a toy nearby. "Why does your sister keep saying this doll is dead? I've found it in the garbage bin three times already."

Dealing with her parental issues, and how she was supposed to tell this man that she has no money to give him, was already a heavy burden. Then there was Hyuna, who finally fessed up in the only way she knew how: straight to the point and without tact.

"Remember that whole thing I told ya about my disease?" she brought up over lunch in the university cafeteria.

"About your lupus? Of course. I checked out three books from the library on it-"

"So ya know how it's destroying my kidneys? Great! Phewww so good to get that off my chest."

"...What?" It was clear by Y/n's startled tone that she did not, in fact, know about anything destroying anyone's kidneys.

But Hyuna figured if she was going to die anyway she might as well fling herself into the flames of this conversation. It was one that she had put off for too long. The main reason she had was because she didn't want to let Y/n down. Not like this. Death was irreversible. But the truth was that it seemed to be fast approaching. There weren't very many chances left to tell her this.

"Yeah. Um. I gave ya a half truth. I have lupus...and it produced this demon baby called lupus nephritis that attacks my kidneys. It's wrecked the fucked outta them and none of the treatments worked...are ya still listening?"

Hyuna fell silent when her friend held up a hand to signal for silence. She didn't know what to expect next, whether Y/n would cry or attempt to help. That was generally how people reacted to the news.

She sat in silence before speaking up. "What is the cure? How do you fix it?"

So she hadn't put that together yet? Hyuna looked to her lap. "Uh—about that. There's dialysis, and I've been on that for a good while. That's...kind of the reason I'm always nauseous. At this point I can only hope for a transplant but," she glanced up only to find Y/n's feelings walled off by a stony expression. "The list is long and with my blood type it makes it hard-"

A spoonful of rice hitting her square in the face cut her off. Hyuna sat in shock as each grain landed in different places, a few sticking to her chin and even more taking occupancy in her hair.

"BITCH! What the fuck!!!"

"That's what I was going to say!" Y/n accused, the dishes rattling as she slammed her spoon down.

If Hyuna wasn't stunned before, she was now. Y/n was angry? Y/n could get angry??? She found herself shrinking back at the next question shot her way.

"How long?" When Hyuna failed to answer, she raised her tone. "How long have you known this?!?"

"Oh no they're breaking up," one nearby student whispered to another. Both students at the next table were heartbroken. Y/n and Hyuna weren't aware of it, but they were popularized and looked up to for being a pair of 'lesbian queens' after Hyuna had lied about the two dating. Everyone still in the closet admired them, and were distraught to witness their ship sinking.

"Since I found out?" Hyuna answered with some sass but avoided eye contact when Y/n looked at her sharply. At that she amended weakly, "since last August."

"That long? You didn't think I should know this???"

Everyone listening in (an alarming amount of the study body) concluded that Hyuna must have been cheating on Y/n. They were crushed. CRUSHED.

Even the Dean, Bang Shi-hyuk was trying not to cry. He was their biggest fan.

Another handful of students were reeling from shock because they were all under the impression that Y/n was mute.

The guy that had hit on her multiple times but had never gotten the chance to introduce himself because of Hyuna always butting in, was psyched. Those two breaking up meant he had a chance with Y/n!

He really was lost in his own world.

"Honestly, no." Hyuna bit back as she tried to ignore the fierce glare she was on the receiving end of. "We just met a couple months ago. I don't have to tell you everything." It was the worst thing she could have said, and the moment the words came out she wished she could take them back. Especially when Y/n's tone lowered and she replied in a voice aching with sadness.

"But I told you everything."

She had. The introvert had shared everything. From her biggest secret, her feelings, to the guy she liked. The extrovert had bottled everything up and kept it to herself. It felt backwards. And like a betrayal. In time she would realize that Hyuna was right. She didn't have to share everything, and the one piece of information that she had held onto was significantly more profound than anything Y/n had told her.

But in the present, she didn't think of any of that. Although she carried a cold exterior, her mind was already piecing the puzzle together. Way back when Jimin had cut his arm and ended up in the hospital, she had run into Hyuna there. The coincidence was overlooked, as she hadn't placed any importance on it. Now it clicked. If Hyuna was getting dialysis treatments, it must be there.

With some effort, she pushed all of her feelings aside and focused on the task at hand. Hyuna was a butthole. There was no denying this fact. In the future, Y/n would be angry with her. However for now, she would focus on saving her dumbass friend. Without saying where she was going, she left the cafeteria (affectively cutting class for the rest of the day) and Hyuna behind.

All of the Hyuna/Y/n shippers cried at the dramatic end to the 'couple'.

Bonus scene

<>Invaded Privacy<>

"Red?"

"Hmph." Y/n crossed her arms and turned away from Jimin, giving him the green light to turn up his cuteness power.

"Reeeeed! Marshmallow! My red baby marshmallow mate~" he sang.

But Y/n wasn't having it. Not this time!

"You looked in my underwear drawer! That's not okay." Clasping his hands in front of him, he bowed his head and began to nod obediently. "It was an invasion of privacy! And perverted! What's in my underwear drawer is none of your business! And for your information, that wasn't drugs in there, it was catnip!"

"Why do you have catnip in there?" This was asked in a disbelieving voice, annoying her even more. As if she would lie about something this unimportant. She only lied about her feelings. And who she was dating. And important events happening in her life. That was it!

"I was trying to lure this stray cat in but then someone else caught it before I did." The memory still irked her. The elderly neighbor in the next building over had got the fluff ball and gave her a good home. Y/n had wanted to do that. Who cared if her building didn't allow pets? She could be a rebel sometimes.

"Awww," Jimin's eyes turned to hearts. "That's cuter than if it had been drugs."

"It would be cute if it were drugs?" She stated incredulously.

A stupid grin stretched across his face. "I just pictured you...all tiny...and cute...smoking a blunt. It would have been adorable!"

"You're weird." She grumbled with a judgmental stare. Then out of no where: "How would you like it if I looked in your underwear drawer?"

A moment of thought was spared to the idea before he nodded reluctantly. "Go ahead."

She didn't really want to look in there, as it felt wrong. But at the challenge she decided to play along and feign nonchalance, walking over to the dresser drawer he pointed at. Besides an apology, this might be an adequate way to show that he regretted intruding into her space without permission.

The inside of Jimin's drawer was fairly unremarkable. A variety of color met her eyes. All rolled up in neat rows was what appeared to the type of briefs one might buy at a convenience store. She was about to close it back when something tucked into the very back caught her eye. Curious, she reached in to bring it out, all under the equally curious eyes of Jimin.

When it was out in broad daylight for the both of them to see, she couldn't think of anything to say.

Why was there a picture of Taehyung in her boyfriend's underwear drawer???

Why was it ALWAYS Taehyung?!? First 'Tae Tae is mine', and now this? At this point, Y/n wouldn't be surprised if they ran off together and got married and went to Cancun and picked fleas off of each other on a beautiful, sandy white beach!!

Because did werewolves have to worry about fleas????? SHE WANTED TO KNOW.

"I can explain this." Jimin said unconvincingly. He couldn't explain what he didn't know. Why was that picture there? He'd never seen it in his life.

"Goodnight." Completely done for the day, Y/n dropped herself on his bed and rolled herself up in his covers like an omelet. "I'm tired. Goodnight."

"But it's 10am-"

"I said goodnight, Jimin."

—
Edited 9/29/22