"Y/n?"

"Hey."

"Hey. How are you doing?"

"Not good," you reply, voice dead. Your face is sticky from the tears. "It's all coming back around."

"It's okay," Namjoon says. "Last time Miji checked on Jimin was a week ago and he was fine. She'll be back next week and she can check on him then. He's okay, I promise."

You close your eyes. He's not okay. He's in a coma. He's far away. Across the entire globe.

"Thanks," you mutter. "That helps."

It doesn't.

He's been "fine" for months.

Almost ten months.

"Hey," Namjoon says. "If you feel like you're falling back into it, you should do something to change that. And remember that Jimin wouldn't want you to be sad. Especially not after getting better again."

You sniffle and wipe your nose. "I know. But he's not here."

"That's okay. As long as he's alive right?"

It's a miracle that he's alive. The fact that his parents didn't pull the plug on him...

You don't say that out loud. Jimin told you that none of his friends knew about what was going on at home, and you're not sure how much they've been told since he went under.

"Right," you say. "Listen, I've got to go to sleep. I have work in the morning. Thanks for calling me."

"No problem," Namjoon says. "If you need anything, just tell me. I'll do what I can from here."

"Mhm, thank you. Have a good day, bye."

"I will. Have a good sleep."

Namjoon hangs up and the line goes silent. You plug your phone in. It's time to sleep. And hopefully not dream about Jimin. It hurts more than it needs to.

You turn around, lay down, and go to sleep.

•••

"Y/n, you're here."

"Yeah, Kieth. This is my job. Of course I'm here."

You're in the break room at the Starbucks, shoving your bag into a locker and pulling your apron on over your head. Kieth was surprised to see you walk in and followed you to the room.

"Yeah but... with what happened last night, I thought you would want a break. A day off."

You purse your lips. "I'm fine," you say. "I don't want to miss work."

"Miss work? Y/n, with how much you come in here, you already work overtime almost every day. I'm like, 78 percent sure you shouldn't be allowed to do that. You wouldn't be missing work, you'd be making up for your free time."

You sigh. "I don't want to be stuck at home," you say. "I like being here because it takes my mind off of things."

You feel a hand on your shoulder and look up to see Kieth standing over you. "If you don't mind my asking," he says softly. "What happened last night?"

You look down at your hands fiddling with a hair tie. You didn't want Kieth to know about Jimin before, but now that he's seen you break down, it only makes sense that you tell him why.

"Can we just- can we work first? I'll tell you during lunch break."

Kieth nods and lets go of you, and the two of you step out of the break room to wait for customers at the counter.

When break time comes, and more baristas arrive for the next shift, you and Kieth head into the back room again to talk. You fill a cuponoodles with water and put it in the microwave to warm up. Kieth sits at the table, palms flat on the cold surface, and stares at you as you wait for the microwave to finish. Neither of you know what to say.

When your noodles finish, you grab a plastic fork and set your lunch down on the table, then sit down.

Kieth looks at you expectantly. It's so quiet in here compared to outside, where there's a faint sound of talking and machines running for the few customers that come in every hour.

Nothing.

No words.

And then...

"Y/n are you okay?"

And that's when you realize your eyes are blurry and filled with tears that you don't want to let loose.

"I... honestly? No. I'm not."

"Can you tell me what's going on?"

"How much do you know?"

Kieth clasps his hands together.

"Your mom told me that this Jimin guy was your boyfriend," he says. "And... that was ten months ago."

"Is my boyfriend," you correct him. "Is that all she told you?"

Kieth nods.

Annoyance bubbles inside of you. That was all she told Kieth and that was hardly anything at all. She made you sound like a little girl who can't get over an old ex. Weak.

"I don't know what you're thinking," you mutter. "But that was definitely not what she should have told you." You swallow and look at the table.

"Last September, I met an Korean foreign exchange student at school," you can feel your insides twist and throat tighten already. You haven't talked to anyone other than your therapist and the people who know Jimin about any of this.

"His name is Jimin. We started dating and getting closer and I found out that-" you stop. You can't tell Kieth about Sharon. "I found out about something that was happening to him that was... it was not good. I won't say what it was ex dot that it was bad. And I couldn't get him out of it. Or really, I wouldn't, because he told me not to."

Kieth frowns in confusion but nods anyway for you to continue.

You take a deep breath, finding it almost impossible to hold your tears back. "In December, it got really bad, and I mean really bad, and he- he got hurt, and-and I..." you sniffle. You're unable to keep your tears back. You bury your face in your arms on the table.

"He had to go-go to the hospital," you say. "And he-he's been in a-a coma ever since."

The room is quiet. Kieth doesn't say anything.

But then you feel his hands on your shoulders pull you up. Kieth is sitting next to you now. He looks into your eyes. "Hey," he says. "That... that sounds painful. But... if you met him in September, and you only knew him until December-"

"I know that seems like a short time, but we went through things. Lots of things. And I fell in love with him. That's why I can't get over it. He's still alive. There's still a chance that he can come back."

More silence.

For a while, that's how you sit. In silence. You take that time to stop crying and clear your face of any evidence that that is what you were doing.

Except now that Kieth knows, it'll be kind of hard to pretend you're happy now.

•••

A week passes by so excruciatingly slow that by the end of it, you're a mess. A mess because of the anxiety of not knowing how Jimin is doing.

But Namjoon said that Minji promised to check on Jimin the night she gets home from her vacation, and that's today. This morning. Late at night for them, but morning for you.

You wish you could thank Minji. She appeared on a call with Namjoon once- months ago- to introduce herself and tell you that she would be taking care of Jimin, since Namjoon had to go back to Seoul (he had been there with all of Jimin's other friends to wait for his arrival at the hospital, and stayed until they couldn't anymore).

You've been waiting for two hours, pacing around your room, trying to be patient. But it's been two weeks since Namjoon told you Jimin was okay. What if something happened to him since then? What if he improved? What if he got worse?

You wish that he woke up, but you know he didn't.

You refused to go to work for the morning shift just so that you could wait for Minji's update. When you told Kieth, he said you should stay home for the afternoon shift too, but you don't know if you will.

You hear a knock on your door. "Yes?" You call to whoever is behind it. It opens, and your mom comes in holding a plate with food on it.

"I know you don't want to come down and eat much," she says. "But I still want to bring you something. Just in case."

You purse your lips and keep your mouth shut for as long as it takes mom to set the plate down on your desk and leave.

You stare at the plate. On it is a pretty basic dinner. Mashed potatoes, peas and chicken. It smells fresh. It smells good. You sigh and pull out your desk chair to sit down and eat what you can.

You take a bite out of the chicken. Right as your teeth sink into the tender white meat, your phone buzzes. You tear the bite away from your fork and chew it as fast as you can as you reach for your phone and pull it out of your back pocket.

Namjoon wants to FaceTime you...

You slide the button to answer and set your phone against a pencil holder in front of your plate.

An unfamiliar boy's face appears on the screen before you and you freeze. He says something in Korean, but you get the feeling it's not directed at you. You swallow your meat and let out a hesitant, "Hello?"

The boy's face brightens up on the screen and he flashes a shy smile. "Hello," he says. "I am..." he scrunches his face in thought, "...in the car with Namjoon."

The boy moves the camera to show the back seat of the car where Namjoon sits, holding a puppy.

A puppy! It's so cute! Your lips form a smile before you can stop it. Namjoon sees the screen and smiles back. "Hi Y/n," he says. "I would have called you myself, but my hands are full."

"That's okay," you say. "Who's was that little angel there?"

"This is Yoongi's new puppy. We just took her to the vet."

"She's so cute! What's her name?"

"Holly. Anyway,Minji texted me and I figured you probably wouldn't want to wait for me to call you later. I also realized you haven't met Jungkook yet."

Jungkook faces the camera toward himself again and waves, flashing you a big smile. "I am Jungkook," he says. "I am trying to learn English. Namjoon is... helping? Helping me."

Jungkook's accent is adorable. And so is his smile. It reminds you of a bunny. You nod and say, "You're doing great."

"Thank you!" Jungkook says. He turns the camera back to Namjoon, who now looks a little apprehensive.

"Okay so," he says. "I got the text from Minji earlier and... I... I don't know how to tell you this."

Your heart stops. Your blood freezes. Your heart stops. You can't breathe.

"What... what is it?"

Namjoon looks at you through the screen with a cautious expression on his face.

"Don't... don't get too excited about what I am about to tell you," Namjoon says. "Because there's good news and bad news, and I think I should start with the good news."

You nod. Your hands shake. You take another bite of your chicken, slowly, because you want to get in as much as you can before you lose your appetite. You know it's going to happen.

"Tell me," you say. "I... I can take it."

"Minji says that when she went to the hospital, Jimin's nurse told her that... that he..."

Please, please don't let him be dead.

"He woke up on Tuesday."

Your heartbeat speeds up, and you feel breathless. You want to smile, to laugh, to give yourself a moment to be happy, but you're hesitant. Jimin didn't call you. It's Friday, and if he's been awake since Tuesday, why hasn't he called you?

"What's the bad news?"

"He's missing, Y/n. He isn't at the hospital and the nurses won't tell Minji where he went."

JFBSJJFSJJFJD

At least he's awake right? Where do you think he is?

Have a good day/night!<3

-L