"Oh, you'll see! I'm a great skater" you bragged to Jimin as you headed to the rink the next Saturday. He couldn't help but smile to himself as he looked ahead while he drove you there.

You were dressed in a simple outfit today, jeans and a blouse, but seeing you looking comfortable and dressing more informally around him still made him feel like you were getting closer and more familiar with each other.

It was cute that you kind of matched, he had also picked jeans and a yellow shirt to be able to skate freely. Your make-up was far from simple today, he was not surprised considering you were going out and about.

The opinion of outsiders had certainly driven him crazy when he was struggling, he couldn't seem to ever make anyone happy. When some fans said his cheeks were cute, others said he needed to lose the fat. Then when he dropped weight, the ones that liked them missed them.

He had learned it was not about pleasing everyone, not even if they supported your career. It was about accepting yourself as you are and not over-fixating on what other people's expectations are. Doing what makes you happy.

It was easier said than done, he still was self-conscious, but comparatively he was doing much better. Jimin knew there was hope for you, he trusted you'd see it sooner or later. It was not his call to make whether you'd want to make an effort for your sake, but he'd support you.

You seemed to be very talkative today and he just gladly listened to everything you wanted to tell him. He was excited about being able to hang out beyond four walls once more and you seemed to be in a good mood despite having resisted the whole thing initially.

Slipping the boots on confidently, you thought about how there was at least one thing you could proudly show Jimin. Figure skating couldn't really be that different from double-line rollerskating, right?

Ddaeng*. The moment you stood up with way too much resolve, you fell backwards on the bench. Jimin was ready to catch you so you wouldn't fall off the other side.

"Are you okay, noona?" he asked surprised, yet biting hard on his lip trying not to laugh.

"Yes, I'm alright" you said blushing and warily stood up once more. When your legs wobbled, he hurried to stand up and held your forearms firmly.

"A great skater, huh?" he snorted as he failed to suppress his laugh.

"I don't understand, I figured balancing on four wheels was going to be much easier" you whined being extremely disappointed. This was just perfect, now you'd just look ridiculous in front of him.

"Oh, inline skating?" Jimin asked curiously.

"Figure skating" you quickly answered, your lips seemed to be stuck in a pout now and he couldn't help but look at them. He kept trying to look away and then looking back secretively, but it's like you knew when he turned to you.

"I'll hold you, just follow my lead" he said, pulling from your lower arms as he rolled backwards and out of the door to the skating rink. You shook in his arms as you nearly slipped every other second.

"This is not like ice skating, I hate it" you whined some more and he chuckled.

"Try to straighten up" he instructed and in your attempt you bent backwards and nearly rolled in between his legs.

"These wheels from hell" you grumbled annoyed as he carefully pulled you up on your feet once more. Jimin kept giggling at you and it was so embarrassing.

"It's not funny, Jimin-ah!" you complained in that same whiny voice and he smiled widely, pressing his lips together.

"No, it's not, I know" he tried to be serious, that went down the drain the moment you bent forward as he tried to up the speed a bit.

"Jimin-ah!" you whisper-yelled not to bring attention to both of you, the squeaky tone present even in your low voice.

"Don't worry, baby. I won't let you go."

You nearly choked at his words and lost balance, falling on your ass loudly and making a few people turn to you to make sure you were okay.

"I'm sorry!" Jimin said sheepishly as he failed to catch you. His arms and yours were outstretched with just his hands holding yours. Your face was flushed as you looked up at him scowling.

"I will go slower. Come on up, you're such a baby" he commented at the expression and your red face could probably be seen from across the room.

So that's why he had called you that, you weren't complaining though. But he didn't like you like that, not anymore, you reminded yourself and looked down sadly as he helped you up once more.

"You can do it, I believe in you" his encouraging words made you smile to yourself. You couldn't remember the last time someone had told you that.

Smiling a small, sweet smile at him as you made eye contact, you saw his eyes curve into their crescent moon shape and wished the mask wasn't covering the rest. Then you remembered they closed when he smiled hard.

"Open your eyes, Jimin-ah. Open them, you can't see!" you demanded hurriedly and he went into a giggle fit he couldn't help. Now he was the one shaking with laughter as you held onto his forearms for dear life.

He released you not to bring you down with him as he doubled over himself. You carefully pushed yourself forward to get to him, arms spread out and flailing and that only made it harder for him to stop laughing.

"Jimin-ah, stop rolling away" you called to him as he was slowly drifting. The moment you lifted your eyes from the floor to look at him, was the moment you tumbled over and fell hard on your knees.

Jimin immediately stopped laughing and was right beside you in the blink of an eye, he made skating seem so effortless and you groaned in frustration.

"Did you hurt yourself?" he asked and looked at you filled with worry.

"I told you, these are the devil's work" you complained untying your skates in a huff.

"Let's get out and sit down" he offered as you got up with a pained face.

"Aigu! Apha!*²" you whined with the cutest pout and he only smiled to himself. He felt bad you'd fallen down, but this whole thing was so endearing it had his heart fluttering in his chest.

After putting your shoes back on, you went to the restroom and walked into one of the cubicles to pull your jeans down and inspect your knees. They were red and scratched and they really hurt when you walked. The rough fabric and concrete floors hadn't helped one bit

"I scraped my knees" you announced pushing the door closed angrily and Jimin chuckled, you were acting like a child. Before you could give him a look for that, he hugged you.

"Baby, I'm sorry" you blushed furiously at his whispering. You'd let the name slip too many times by now. It had to stop, he doesn't like you anymore. You pulled back and he removed his arms from around you furrowing his eyebrows.

"D-don't call me that" you blurted out and walked towards the tables at the side of the skating area. Jimin followed you with his lips pressed in a line, had he overdone it? He didn't mean to upset you, he was just playing.

"Sorry, noona" he corrected himself. Your heart clenched at the deflated tone of his voice.

"It's okay, Jimin-ah" you took a seat and looked at him with another shy smile. Brushing off the feeling of guilt that creeped up on you as his whole demeanor had changed. You knew he was just having fun, but you couldn't help but think of what didn't happen.

Your thoughts started going in a downward spiral. It was your fault that he didn't want anything to do with you. If you weren't such a mess, maybe you would have had a chance. Then again, maybe he wouldn't have spared you a glance if you didn't try so hard.

"Do you want some juice to go with your snacks?" Jimin asked, hoping you'd want something a little more nutritious to share with him.

"Just water, please" you mumbled, staring down at the table, too lost in your dark thoughts and anxious to even think of trying to drink anything caloric just to make him happy.

He walked away to get your drinks and came back shortly after, setting a bottle, a little bucket of ice and a glass in front of you.

"They didn't have cold water so I brought ice in case you want to cool it" he explained.

"It's okay, room temperature is fine" you couldn't drink ice cold water anyway, it made your teeth hurt, same with hot liquids. Pulling out your snacks, he saw you open your little container of apple slices.

"Do you want to share?" he offered, showing you a small bag of mixed nuts and another one with müesli. His options had been carefully picked in an effort to introduce something you might like and feel okay eating.

You stared at the snacks in his hands and debated. Müesli is healthier than granola, it's not loaded with sugary syrups or honey. That should be okay, right? A few nuts shouldn't hurt, as long as you didn't go overboard, it wouldn't be a lot of fat.

"Sure" you answered nonchalantly as if you hadn't mentally analyzed every little detail of their nutritional value just now. He pulled down his mask smiling widely, thrilled that you'd accepted his offer. Baby steps.

He couldn't read your mind though or he would have been disappointed, you thought at the sight of it. A few minutes ago you had wished he'd take his mask off to see his smile and now it only made you sad. You suddenly felt so low.

You quietly drank your water and nibbled on the food, trying to enjoy the small portion you were planning to have. Jimin was starting to feel anxious at the silence and decided to try to get you talking again.

"So your favorite animal is the jellyfish, right?" he tried with the first thing he could come up with.

"Yes, followed by otters. They hold hands not to float away from each other when asleep, they are adorable" you replied adding that little extra fact and he gave you a side smile.

"Cute, I didn't know that. I can't decide on what my favorite animal is. What about your favorite color?"

"Yellow. Yours?" your voice started to sound a little more cheerful, he was glad he could get you talking mentioning things you liked. He pulled from the collar of his shirt and wiggled his eyebrows playfully with a little smirk.

"Glad you like my shirt then" he commented in what you thought was a flirtatious manner. "It's blue" he almost forgot to answer your question.

He wasn't even trying to flirt, but he saw the light blush on your cheeks and he reminded himself to watch his mouth not to make you uncomfortable.

"Favorite food? Mine's pasta" you shot back trying to get past that awkward moment.

"Kimchi jjigae*³. Favorite book?"

"The Outsiders" you replied without hesitation.

"Is that a horror book?" he guessed unsure, he'd never heard of it.

"Oh no, I can't read those, my imagination is too overactive for that. I stick to movies. It's an American novel, it's rather controversial."

"I'm gonna go on a limb and guess it's some sort of train-wreck"

"It kind of is, it's quite dramatic" you commented wondering how he guessed it.

"I knew it! You'd like that kind of thing" he hadn't forgotten what you told him the first time he found out you liked horror and you started sending him little walls of text sharing other things you found interesting. Dysfunctionality seemed to be one of those.

"What is your favorite book though?"

"Oh, well, I-" he hesitated and added with a little chuckle, "I've read books I probably shouldn't recommend.*⁴"

"Why? You're such a tease!" you gasped and threw a nut at his face. He looked at you with wide eyes pretending to be offended.

"Me? No, I'm an angel" Jimin said with a straight face.

"That's my line! I love it when others use my phrases" you teased him with a little giggle. Jimin looked even more offended and shocked, but couldn't keep it up and burst out laughing together with you.

You spent quite a while chatting, learning the little things you hadn't yet asked each other. The tension there was when you sat at the table slowly dissipated and you were back to enjoying yourselves.

It was usually hard to get out of your negative thoughts when you were on your own. Jimin somehow managed to distract you and you were more grateful than you'd admit. Even when you hung out with your friends in Japan, it was hard because they didn't understand.

They'd want to talk about feelings when you didn't and would just make things worse even if they were trying to help. It was so frustrating, but they didn't know what Jimin did by chance.

The feeling was odd, you didn't want anyone to know, yet him knowing your secret made things different and you liked that. He didn't push you unknowingly, he knew when something was wrong and the right way to go about things.

You felt bad at the same time. What if he was going through his own stuff and wasn't doing as well as you thought he was when it came to his own issues with his body?

One thing was what he shared publicly and another very different one was what it was really like for him. Hopefully you weren't having a negative influence on him. The last thing you wanted was to trigger him and bring him down with you.

You honestly admired how strong he was and how hard he worked to overcome his problems while being in the spotlight. There was no way you would be able to pull it off if you were him.

You couldn't even do it with a single person in the universe knowing. You were convinced you were hopeless and too old to rework your whole outlook on life. Being a creature of habit as well didn't help one bit.

-

Couldn't decide on a gif, so you get two. You're welcome, haha.

* Ddaeng is the Korean sound of a buzzer when you get an answer wrong in a game.

*² Aigu! Apha! means 'ouch! It hurts!' in Korean.

*³ Kimchi jjagae is a type of Korean stew made with kimchi, pork belly or seafood, dubu (tofu), hot pepper, anchovy stock, onions and scallions.

*⁴ https://twitter.com/_jinternity_/status/1527891461303599104?t=HjyGSUJQi9JLdSr9AtxBRA&s=19