As the time to go down to your hometown came closer, you became sicker and sicker and Jimin worried about you. You barely kept your food down anymore and when you saw your weight dropping, it became specially hard to ignore the dark thoughts that encouraged you to keep up with it.

This weekend was going to be busy for Jimin, he invited you over to the dorms so you could keep each other company. He was going to have to reorganize his bedroom as Hobi was moving into Taehyung's old room now that he had moved out just before Christmas.

When the doorbell rang at their apartment after the doorman let you in on the ground floor, the person who opened the door was not who you expected.

"Girlfriend!" Hobi welcomed you and gave you a tight hug. You laughed in his arms and wrapped yours around him. It had been months since you'd seen him, you'd only exchanged a few messages here and there.

"It's so good to see you, Hob-ah. Not sure what you mean with girlfriend though" at your words, he pulled back looking puzzled.

"Didn't Jimin-ah ask you over Christmas?"

"No, in fact, he didn't. He never asked me so I don't know, to be honest." you said crossing your arms playfully. Just then Jimin walked into the living room looking at you with wide eyes.

"Excuse me? Am I not your boyfriend?" he tilted his head and placed his hands on his hips looking particularly sassy.

"I mean, you introduced me as that to your best friend's parents. Maybe you were trying to cover up the fact that you'd been sleeping around and were bringing your hook up as a date" you teased him picking your words carefully.

"Wow" he said raising a hand as if trying to stop you from going on and turned around to walk away. Hoseok giggled at the silly exchange, you did look so much more comfortable together these days.

Shortly after, you entered Jimin's room to find his things scattered all over the floor, bed and furniture. He glanced at you over his shoulder and moved a few boxes from the bed to the floor so that you could sit.

"So, now that you are here. I've been meaning to ask you something" he said seriously and you looked at him with furrowed eyebrows.

"What is it?" you suddenly were really nervous.

"Would you be my girlfriend?" he asked smiling widely and giggling when you slapped his arm in protest. For a minute he had you there.

"Mm, I don't know. I was hoping for a romantic night. Maybe in the garden section at Lotte under an umbrella, with a romantic frozen dinner while sitting on plastic furniture" you replied stifling a laugh.

"Ah, I see. You and your expensive taste, I don't think I can afford that" he commented shaking his head amused as he grabbed a pile of clothes and rearranged them on the side of the closet that was his roommate's.

"I like what I like" you replied shrugging and smiling to yourself entertained.

"Did you have a good night?" he changed topics and suddenly his facial expression was somber.

"Not exactly" you said shaking your head, trying to make it as if it wasn't a big deal. It had been a while since you had slept uninterrupted, your anxiety wouldn't let you sleep well and you'd even been sick in the middle of the night just from your head never stopping.

"This is not right. Let me come with you" Jimin insisted. He had offered to go to Gwangju together several times as he saw your decline, but you kept refusing.

"Can you not?" you growled irritated. How many times did you have to say no? It was better if your family knew as little as possible about your personal life. You certainly didn't want your mother to get in the way of your relationship.

"Who cares what they think?" Jimin grumbled in frustration.

"I do, Jimin-ah" you said dryly and he looked back at you displeased as he hung some jackets.

"Last time your mom was here, she left you feeling like shit" he commented not taking no for an answer once more. The plan was to not stop insisting knowing it had been that bad you had ended up breaking in front of him, you'd never done that before or since then.

"You don't understand, visiting my parents on my own is bad enough" you started and were interrupted by Hoseok who came in the room to look for more of his things.

"Are you going to Gwangju?" he inquired excited at the idea, grinning brightly.

"Yeah, it's my brother's birthday and I figured I should go see him" you commented feeling the opposite way.

"When is it?" Hobi asked curiously as he thought about his schedule.

"It's actually the weekend after your birthday."

"We can go together then! All three of us, I will drive" he offered thrilled at the idea and, before you could get a word out, Jimin spoke first.

"That sounds like a great idea, hyung" your boyfriend exclaimed and looked at you, "doesn't it?". He raised his eyebrows and sucked in his lips with an annoying expression on his face and you rolled your eyes.

You thought about it for a minute for the umpteenth time. Having Jimin there would be great, for you, but not for anyone else. He was more than supportive and he'd comfort you, yet if your mother knew of his existence, you were afraid things would take a turn for the worse.

They both looked so hopeful and you sighed closing your eyes and bringing a hand to your forehead feeling defeated. Why did they have to be so cute? Why did you feel bad saying no to their big glassy eyes and cute little pouts?

"I...will let you know" you told Hoseok not wanting to make a big deal out of this. He knew nothing about your relationship with your family and you would rather it stayed that way. It's not that you didn't trust him, you just didn't really talk much about your personal life with many people.

Once he picked up the box he came to look for, you became quiet. Jimin looked over at you, your arms were crossed and you were biting hard on your bottom lip. You were clearly annoyed at what had just happened.

"Baby" he drawled as he walked up to you with a sheepish smile, you met his eyes unamused.

"You need to stop playing dirty. Now Hob-ah wants to come too" you complained with a frown. He leaned in, resting his hands on your knees, and looked in your eyes smirking. What was he up to?

"I'm trying to help you, I'm worried about you" he said pressing a sweet kiss on your forehead, maybe he wasn't trying anything. Sometimes you forgot he was just naturally charming. How was it possible that he wanted you as his girlfriend? The idea was still mind-boggling to you.

When you looked down at you lap and started playing with your nails nervously, he slowly pulled back and headed to the bathroom to rearrange his stuff on the shelves and drawers. Hopefully giving you space to think about it would do the trick.

You curiously peeked inside the drawer on his bedside table, which he had left open, and smiled.

"Jimin-ah" you called him from the bedroom and his head poked out from the door. "What is this?" you asked innocently, but you knew well what it was.

"Oh, um. That's a finger separator, you know, for when you get your nails done. You should know" he said calmly pointing at your acrylic nails.

"Really, I've never seen these. Aren't they usually soft sponge? This is stretchy" you commented sliding it on your fingers and opening and closing your hand. A smirk slowly drew itself on your face, you couldn't hold back anymore.

"It's the finger exercising device!" you said in between giggles and he took it from your hands blushing bright red. He thought you seriously didn't know what it was, but you were an ARMY, of course you would*.

"Put that back" he demanded looking indignant with an involuntary pout and knitted eyebrows as he felt flustered. He threw it back in the drawer.

"Does it work?" you kept poking fun at him and he looked down at your hand. It wasn't big.

"My hand is bigger than yours anyway, what does it matter?" Jimin held out his pinky finger and looked at you intently. You chuckled, was he trying to prove a point or show you that the stretching piece really worked?

You held out your finger and with your nails it obviously looked much longer. He protested when you shrugged your shoulders and claimed his pinky was shorter.

"No, that doesn't count!" he whined.

"You counted your nail, why can't I count mine?" you called him out and he huffed. He walked around you to be able to see where your nail ended and held his finger up next to it once more.

"See, mine is longer. I told you," he announced proudly.

"It's not, even without the nail, look" you showed him they were virtually the same length.

"I'll get a measuring tape, you'll see" Jimin was so adamant about proving this and it was so entertaining. It was adorable too, you had to play along.

After going through a specific box, he pulled out the tape and walked back to you, making you hold out your pinky for him once again.

"Yours is 5.5 cm. Last time I checked, mine was 5.7 cm long*²" Jimin passed you the measuring tape and you confirmed that was still the number. He looked at you smugly and you just laughed.

"2 millimeters" he pointed out as if the difference was huge, but you wouldn't stop laughing. His cheeks just turned redder and you had to stop yourself.

"You're right, you're right. You win" you said holding your hands up in surrender and he nodded eagerly, of course he was. You chuckled when you saw him walking away satisfied with a pile of clean towels.

Spending your whole weekend with Jimin did help you not focus on your anxiety, it was at its worst when you were alone with your thoughts. You had a harder time eating though and it didn't go unnoticed.

If this was you before even seeing your mother, Jimin couldn't imagine how much worse it would be once you came back from Gwangju. He wished you didn't have to go through all this, specially not alone, that you didn't mind her comments, but she seemed to have a strong grip on you.

-

* From the Army Calendar of the Official Japan Fanclub: https://www.tiktok.com/@tweetsofbts/video/7029277436714011906

*² Jimin has given us this piece of information as TMI.