This is a long chapter so sorry (also I'm trying to edit it fast so sorry if there are tons of mistakes)

Your phone alarm blares loud and clear at 9am in the morning in the guest room of Kim Namjoon's apartment in Seoul, Korea.

The dead daze you wake up in turns into immediate panic when you realize there are two other people that may be sleeping, and you scramble to find your phone and turn the alarm off.

Of course, it's lost in the blankets.

It takes you all of 47 long, rushed seconds to toss your blanket around this way and that to find the phone and hit the "stop" button.

At that exact moment, someone knocks on your door.

"Uh, y-yeah come in!" You call out.

The door opens and Namjoon pokes his head in. "I heard your alarm. We were wondering when you'd wake up. Anyway, shower's free to use, Yoongi just started making pancakes, and we'll be ready to go when you are."

"O-okay," you say. Namjoon leaves and closes the door behind him.

You spring out of bed and remake it nice and neat, then hurry to your suitcase and pick out something warm to wear. Should you wear something nice? You're going to see Jimin again for the first time in months. Tonight. Of course you should look nice.

Part of you doesn't care to look nice because all you care about is him, and he won't be making an effort either, since he's in a hospital.

You're going to be in a car for a while, and then on a train, so maybe you should wear something comfortable.

You settle for a yellow sweater and high-waisted jeans. Not completely casual but still very comfortable. And warm. Which is nice, since it's October now and the weather is getting colder

It's October. Jimin's birthday will be soon. In like... a week and a half. You didn't even think about that.

You sigh and drag your hand through your hair. First, before anything, you just need to see him again. Then you will worry about other things.

You leave the room with your clothes and other things, head to the bathroom, and take a shower.

When you come out of the bathroom, fresh and ready for the day, the smell of pancakes wafts under your nose and tempts you to the kitchen. You walk into the guest room to discard your dirty clothes in your suitcase first, then hurry toward the smell.

Yoongi is behind the counter, flipping pancakes on the stove. Namjoon is setting up a foldable table with dishes and pancake toppings. When you enter the room, he looks up, spots you, and smiles. "Morning," he says. "How did you sleep?"

"Pretty well," you say. "I should be able to stay awake all day no problem." You're still going to struggle with jet lag later, since you got in late last night and woke up early-ish this morning, but the anxiety bubbling in your chest should make staying awake easy peasy.

"That's good," Namjoon says. "There's a high chance we'll get to Busan in enough time to see Jimin before nightfall."

Yoongi says something in Korean and both you and Namjoon turn to him.

"Pancakes are done," Namjoon translates. "Now we just need to wait for Tae to get here, since he's coming with us."

You forgot you're going to meet Taehyung today.

The anxiety builds up.

Yoongi exits the kitchen with a plate stacked with pancakes and brings them to the table. "Good morning," he says in English with his heavy accent. You give him a shy wave. "Good morning."

Namjoon passes out foldable chairs. You set yours up and sit down across from Yoongi, Namjoon on your right. Before dishing up, Yoongi bites his lip in thought and then looks at you, his cheeks turning light pink.

"Uh... thank you for coming," he says. "And.. thank you for... for being there for Jimin in America."

You nod, face heating up. You're not sure what to say. "That was good English," is all that comes out, in a quiet mumble. "Um, thank you."

Namjoon translates that to Yoongi, who gives a nod and turns pinker. Namjoon grins and looks at you. "He rehearsed that all night," he says. "He wanted to say that to you for a while."

And now you turn even redder.

Thankfully, a knock at the front door saves you. "Ah," Namjoon says, getting up. "That's gotta be Tae."

Namjoon hurries to the front door and opens it, and in walks the most perfect man to ever exist. Your eyes widen. You've seen him before. On the phone. This is different.

That's Jimin's best friend? What water have they been drinking all their lives, and can you have some?

God obviously picks favorites. This man is a walking piece of art.

Namjoon closes the door behind Taehyung, who scans the room, looking for something. His eyes land on you. He lifts his hand and points a finger at you.

Your eyes widen more and you stand up. "H-Hello," you mumble. Taehyung walks around the table to you, quiet and not smiling and oh lord he's gonna be mad at you for some reason, right?

Wrong. He throws his arms around you in a tight hug.

You blink.

You blink again.

You return the hug.

And then Taehyung pulls away. He has a huge boxy smile on his face and his eyes seem to sparkle. "Annyeonghaseyo," he says.

That's hello in Korean, right?

You suddenly wish you asked Namjoon to teach you common phrases and greetings before you flew all the way over here.

"Hi-hi," you say. Taehyung looks at Namjoon, smile and says something else. Then he sits down in the chair adjacent to you. You slowly sit back down in your own seat as well. Namjoon returns to the table. "He says he was excited to meet you," he says. "And you're shorter than he imagined."

Wow. Thanks for the reminder. You sigh. "I know."

Namjoon snickers at you and starts dishing up. Yoongi already has food on his plate. You wait until Taehyung begins before you start dishing up.

This feels so strange.

Of course, that would probably have to do with the fact that you're in an apartment with three other guys- only one of them your age- in a foreign country across the world, and you're only friends with one of them. You're about to trust them to drive you all the way to the other side of Korea to be reunited the love of your life, who you haven't seen or talked to in person in ten months because of a coma he was put in by an abusive host mom in America.

So yeah.

Strange.

You feel anxious and calm at the same time. Your fears keep biting at your insides, yet on the outside, you are numb. Calm. Shy. Quiet.

The rest of breakfast moves by quickly. Little is said, since Namjoon would have to translate it all, and you feel a little awkward, but not entirely uncomfortable. Taehyung mentions that Jimin talked about you a lot when they had the time to call each other, which must be why he doesn't hate you.

It feels nice to know that Taehyung doesn't hate you. Honestly. He's Jimin's best friend. You only knew Jimin for four months before he was nearly killed, and somehow those four months were enough to bring you all the way across the world for him.

Furthermore, you are the only person Jimin told about his parents and Sharon (although Mikey did find out on his own). He didn't tell Taehyung, which somehow doesn't warrant even a little dislike from him. At least, he doesn't display it.

After breakfast, you try to help clear the dishes off of the table, but Namjoon insists that you, as a guest, needn't do any work. You would argue that you being a burden on them makes it your obligation to help with chores, but you're still exhausted.

So instead, you gather your items from the guest room and follow Taehyung out of the apartment complex to Yoongi's car. Namjoon and Yoongi said they would be quick and you may as well get comfortable in the car in case you still want to sleep more.

In the car, Taehyung sits with you in the back, leaving the front two seats for Namjoon and Yoongi. He seems completely fine with it. No problems at all. He really doesn't seem to dislike you. Not even a little.

The only thing filling the stuffy car air is silence, other than the muffled sound of other cars driving past you on the street behind the parking lot.

Its quiet up until Taehyung clears his throat and casts his glorious gaze on you.

"Thank you," he mumbles. His voice is deep but gentle. You like his voice. It's the opposite of Jimin's- everything about them seems to be opposite. Their voices, their heights (you haven't seen Jimin in a year but you're positive he wasn't as tall as Taehyung is now), their level of friendliness... the two of them are different in a way that makes them a good pair.

You press your lips together for a moment, unsure of what to say. Taehyung pulls out his phone types something into it. "Jimin..." he mumbles. He glances at you, then back down at his phone. "Was... sad."

Taehyung shows you his phone. He's using a translator. That makes sense. You bite the inside of your cheek. He types in another thing and reads it aloud the best he can.

"You... made him happy." He looks back at you. "Thank you."

It's a simple way to put it, but you get it. It's essentially the same thing both Namjoon and Yoongi told you. Jimin was different before meeting you.

You have no idea what to say in return, so you open your arms without thinking and hug Taehyung. And it's not awkward. It feels normal- mostly because he hugs you back.

When you come out of the hug, you take out your own phone and pull up your own translator, then type something up to translate.

"I wish we could have met under different circumstances," Is what you type in. Whatever comes out may or may not be translated correctly, but Taehyung seems to get it.

One of the car doors up front opens and Namjoon pops in. "Yoongi's just putting his bag in the trunk," he says. "Then we'll be off."

You nod anxiously. You're about to leave.

You're going to see Jimin again.

You have to repeat that in your head a couple of times to really get it. Your mind is still so slow. This doesn't feel real. None of it does. Part of you knows you're here, and another part of you thinks you will wake up soon, and another part of you thinks Jimin won't be okay when you reach him.

You have no idea if your calm demeanor is channeling what you actually feel, or if you're just biding your time, waiting for something to set you off. Everything is going too fast and too slow at the same time. It's... unreal.

Yoongi gets in the car, and with that, you're off on a long car ride to Daegu.

The drive is long, and you are too nervous to sleep through any of it. Taehyung came up with a game between the two of you where you point at random things outside like trees and buildings and signs and name out what they are in your languages. Some of the words stick with you, some of them don't.

After a while, there isn't much to spot and name, so you just use your phones and translate random words or draw pictures and honestly, it's so much fun. You thought you'd be nervous and awkward around Taehyung, but he has this aura of friendliness that takes that away.

At some point half past noon, you finally make it to Daegu with two hours left before your train to Busan departs. So Yoongi drives to some noodle place he says is really good, and all of you eat lunch there.

Yoongi was right. The noodles are amazing. You don't know what kind of things they put in yours, but it's so good. It comes with a small soup bowl with the best broth you've ever tasted.

After lunch, Yoongi drops you all off at the train station and says goodbye (since he can't come with you) and he even gives you a hug, which is really warm and comfy coming from him for some reason.

Namjoon pulls out preordered tickets (you gave him payment for yours before even coming to Korea) and hands them all out, then leads you and Taehyung to the station where your train will soon be.

The train arrives after fifteen minutes, and then takes another half hour after boarding before it leaves the station. Namjoon reserved a small train booth for you guys, so it's you and Taehyung on one side of the table and Namjoon on the other.

Taehyung insisted on sitting next to you so you could play the game together and since Namjoon already knows both languages, he can just talk to you both across the table easy peasy.

From the beginning of the train ride though, exhaustion hits you without giving you a chance, and you pass out on the table.

•••

"Y/n," Joon murmurs. Taehyung shakes your shoulder gently. "We're almost there. Five minutes to arrival."

You lift your head off of the table to find a hoodie bunched up like a pillow where you were sleeping. It's Joon's hoodie. You rub your eyes tiredly and push it toward him. "Thank you," you mumble.

Taehyung giggles when he sees your face. He rubs his cheek and says, "red." Oh yeah. You've probably got marks on your face. You rub your face, a pout on your lips.

"Minji will be there to pick us up," Namjoon says. "She's letting us stay at her house with her wife while we're here. She's really excited to meet you."

You smile a little. "I'm kind of excited too," you say. "I have a lot to thank her for."

For the next five minutes, the three of you wait anxiously for the train to come to a full stop before it finally lets you off. You drag your small suitcase behind you while Namjoon and Taehyung carry their travel bags. None of you know how long you're going to stay in Busan, so you came prepared.

You meander around the new train station in search for Minji. When Taehyung spots her, he lets out an excited laugh and hurries toward a woman jumping up and down, equally excited.

She has short black hair that almost reaches her shoulders. She wears eyeliner that really brings out her eyes and makes them look sharp, and light lipstick. Her eyes are small, but bright. Her smile is big and happy and excited.

When Taehyung reaches her, she gives him the biggest hug and he lifts her off of the ground. "Is that Minji?" You ask Namjoon, who starts toward the two. "Yeah," he answers, smiling. "It's been a while since we've seen her in person."

You follow Namjoon and stop when you reach the pretty woman. You stand awkwardly behind him and pick at your nails nervously. Jimin mentioned Minji a couple of times too. You wish you could meet all of his friends under better circumstances. You wish he could be the one to introduce you to them.

But that's not how things happened.

Taehyung puts Minji down and she gives Namjoon a hug, which is a little more calm, and then she peers around him at you.

"Y/n?" She asks. Her voice is pretty. You nod. "Um-Yes." Minji's smile brightens and she pushes Namjoon out of the way to give you a hug. You're taken aback by how friendly she is. Maybe you need to stop being nervous around Jimin's friends, because they all seem to love you.

"Hello!" Minji says, pulling away to look at you. "It is nice to meet you." Her words are broken up and awkward, so you know she looked it up and practiced just so she could say hi to you.

You really wish you did the same.

"It is nice to meet you too," you say shyly. You purse your lips and try to stop picking at your nails. It's a nervous habit of yours, along with lip biting and shuffling your feet.

Minji turns to Namjoon and says something for him to translate.

"She's gonna take us home now. Her wife is waiting to meet us there."

Her wife. Minji's supposed to be the same age as you- so that's a quick marriage. Right out of high school. This must be the lesbian friend Jimin said got bullied in high school before she met him and the others. You nod. "I'm kind of excited to meet her too."

Minji leads you and Namjoon and Taehyung out of the train station and to a car, then drives you a short distance to her house in a nice neighborhood. On the way, she talks in Korean and Namjoon translates for her - poor Joon is probably getting tired of having to do that.

Minji basically gives you a run-down on everything there is to know about her wife- which is a lot.

Her wife's name is Bongcha. She is five years older than Minji and studied English in America. She wasn't always lesbian but while she was abroad, she had an abusive boyfriend that hurt her so bad one time that she got to sue him for a lot of money. She finished college and came back to Korea, then met Minji through being her tutor.

They fell in love and Bongcha waited for Minji to become old enough before they did literally anything.

You can't imagine what that would be like for you, if Jimin was that much older and you had to wait to go on dates with him and kiss him and love him. Honestly, that sounds like torture.

But then again, so does being on the other side of the world from him for ten months while he is comatose after being almost killed by an abusive host mother that you knew about the whole time.

Bongcha and Minji aren't actually married. They just call each other wife because why not. They do live in a house together, which wasn't hard to pay off because of the money Bongcha got from her experiences in America.

Bongcha now works as a preschool English teacher for three year olds online (and tutors high school math for extra money), and Minji is studying to become a marine biologist. An aquarium nearby let her work with them to get some job experience and she really loves the animals there, so marine biology just seemed like the best option for her.

When you make it to her house, you barely have time to get out of the car before a tall woman with long dark hair and high cheekbones and fabulous makeup and snappy clothing fashion runs over to the car in her click-clackity black heels. Minji kisses her on the cheek and then gestures to you, saying something.

Bongcha's eyes fix on you and she smiles super wide. "Ah, Minji's been telling me about you," she says, walking toward you. You blink in surprise when she speaks in perfect English.

She studied in America. Right.

"Anyway, we've been so excited to meet you and are more than happy to let you all of you guys stay in our house until you get things sorted out." She says. She hugs you. Her height almost reaches Namjoon's with the heels on.

"Th-thanks," you stammer. "It's nice to meet you too. You're so- so tall."

"I am!" Bongcha laughs. "You're funny."

Uh, sure. You feel so awkward. You're the shortest person in this whole group.

"Anyway," Bongcha says, standing up straight and giving you a sadder smile. "I'll bet that you are anxious to see your boyfriend again, so I won't be the one to hold you back. Let's just get you settled in one of the guest rooms, and we can drive to the hospital."

You nod vigorously. You are very anxious. You haven't gotten a single text or phone call from Jimin in days. You have no idea how he's holding up.

With the knowledge that you are going to see Jimin again within the hour- hopefully- you can't help the nervous energy that fills you to the brim. Anxiety and eagerness and excitement and nausea mix together in a boiling pot of crazy emotions in your stomach.

After grabbing your suitcase from the trunk of Minji's car, Bongcha leads you into the house. The inside is so pretty. It's decorated with tons of pictures and the furniture is so nice and there are fall decorations all over the place. Bongcha brings you to a hallway on one side of the house and opens a door.

"This is just my office," Bongcha says. "We don't have lots of rooms for guests- it's not a big house. We cleaned up and moved the furniture around though and made space for the air mattress for you."

Inside, the room is bright and well-lit from the afternoon sunlight spilling through the window- the blinds are down, casting striped shadows over the soft brown carpet.

There is a corner desk that has been cleared off except for a collection of funko pops and a lamp. Next to the desk are two file cabinets pushed together against the wall. There's no other furniture there.

In the middle of the room, there is a large queen sized mattress underneath the window. It has a set of black sheets wrapped around it and a couple of soft blankets folded and stacked neatly on top.

In the other corner of the room, there is a tall stool, but that's it. The room is empty other than those things.

"You can set up your suitcase on the stool," Bongcha says. "So you don't have to get down on the floor to pick out your clothes."

You lift up your suitcase and carry it to the other side of the room- you don't want the dirty wheels to touch the clean carpet- and set it on top of the stool.

"Thank you," you say. "This is really nice- also, what's that smell? It smells amazing."

Bongcha beams at you. "I've been doing some learning in the kitchen," she says. "I've been making hotteok."

"What's that?"

"It's kind of like a pancake with filling in it."

"Ooooh it sounds good."

"It is! You can try one."

You smile and follow Bongcha out of the room she prepared for you. She's so nice. You like her.

"This door," Bongcha says, tapping on the door directly across from yours, "is the bathroom. Just so you know. And the room next to yours is where Namjoon and Taehyung will be sleeping."

You nod. "Okay."

Bongcha leads you back into the main room, which is a living room and kitchen, but big and spacious. The lights in here are more yellowed and golden, which is really nice for the aura of the room. She walks over to the kitchen counter and picks up a plate with a steaming stack of what you assume is the Hotteok.

"Try one," she offers. "It's delicious."

You take one of the pancake-looking hotteoks off of the plate and bring it to your face. It's warm and smells sweet. You take a bite.

"Oh my god," you mutter around the mouthful of hotteok. "This is amazing."

The inside is filled with a chocolatey goo that melts in your mouth. Bongcha sets the plate down on the counter and smiles wider somehow. "Thank you!"

Minji and the boys file into the room from the hallway, probably having just seen their room. Bongcha picks up the plate again and holds it up. "Hotteok?"

•••

Your knee bounces anxiously in the car on the way to the hospital. You sit in the middle seat in the back, Taehyung on your left, Namjoon on your right. Taehyung taps his fingers on his knee, biting his lip. He's nervous too. Namjoon seems calm on the outside, but his hands are clasped together tightly, knuckles white.

All of you are nervous.

"We're here," Minji says quietly up front. You look out the window. A giant building looms ominously over the car as Bongcha slowly drives past it into the parking lot.

Your heartbeat slowly builds up faster and faster the closer you get to seeing Jimin again. By the time Bongcha parks the car, your knee is bouncing up and down really fast. No one stops you though.

Taehyung opens his door and gets out of the car first. You spring out of the car through his door as if staying in the car will kill you. He looks up at the hospital and swallows.

"Jimin," he murmurs. He points to the building. You nod, understanding him completely. Jimin is inside. You're going to see Jimin again.

Is he okay? Will he be back to normal and not like he was during your last call? Will he remember any of the calls with you? How bad are his wounds? How long is he to be hospitalized? Is he awake right now? Is he asleep? Is he on the other side of one of the many windows on that building that are facing you?

Is he anxious like you? He doesn't know you're here. Is he all alone? Has he tried to reach you?

Once everyone is out of the car, you share uneasy glances with both Namjoon and Taehyung.

This is it.

You're finally here.

You've been waiting for this moment for way too long.

Everything that you just suffered through for the past ten months is all useless now. Jimin isn't dead. He's here. You went through all of that for no reason. It's time to let that go.

You take your first steps toward the hospital.

Yeah sorry about the length and speed of this chapter. I just needed to fill in the blanks before meeting Jimin again and I didn't want to split it into a bunch of different chapters. That would feel longer.

So you get Jimin in the next chapter!!!! I'll start writing that tonight.

Have a good day/night!<3

-L