Jimin, standing on the porch with his backpack slung over one arm, his wallet in one hand, and his shoes in the other, stared at the door for a full minute in pure confusion before sitting down and putting on his shoes. Then he started walking toward the bus stop.

Due to the injury he'd sustained in his teen years in which his step-father had slashed his chest and thrown boiling water at his face, one of Jimin's eyes had been permanently damaged, which gave him occasional issues with depth perception. He could still see out of it, but not as well as the other one. As a result, he'd never gotten a driver's license, although he probably could have with additional training and some type of eyewear, but he'd never pursued it. When he needed to get somewhere, either one of Jimin's brothers drove him, or he took the bus. Or, if it was close enough, he would walk.

Taehyung lived twenty minutes away by car, which was too far for him to walk, so the bus it was. He went to text Taehyung that he was coming over early when he realized that he didn't have his phone; it was still sitting on the kitchen counter. He debated turning back and knocking on the door until Jin let him back in, but he'd already walked to the end of the street.

He got to the bus stop and waited, and when the bus came by, he got up and headed to the back, snagging a window seat. It would take about forty minutes to get to Taehyung's place due to all the stops the bus had to make, so Jimin used the time to watch the city pass by.

He tried to focus on the scenery rather than the growing number of people around him because, even after all these years, he had retained a fear – or if that was too extreme, then at least a noticeable discomfort – around large groups of people. But he still took the bus because he didn't like to burden the others by constantly asking them to drive him places. Usually, he'd listen to music to help relax during the ride, but his headphones – along with his phone – were with Jin.

When the bus stopped at its break point halfway through the route, Jimin got off to stretch his legs and get some fresh air for a few minutes before getting back on. It seemed that he'd waited a little too long, however, because all the window seats were taken, which meant that he would have to sit next to someone else. He hesitated for a long moment and was jostled from behind by someone else trying to get on, so he pressed against the side, letting the other person proceed while he tried to find a good place to sit. Eventually, he sat down next to a woman who was on her phone.

Throughout the ride, she seemed to take up more and more space, and Jimin kept moving farther and farther until he was just hanging on to the edge of the seat. With each turn, he was afraid of falling into the aisle. Finally, his stop came and he got off, clenching his clammy hands and trying to will the slight shaking away. He felt a little light-headed, but it wasn't bad enough for him to lose his balance.

He started walking until he came up to Taehyung's apartment building, and he went inside, pressing the button for the elevator. Just before the doors closed, a girl around his age slipped in, her arms draped in bags of groceries.

"Third floor please," she said, breathless, and Jimin pressed the button.

"I'm also going to the third floor," he said, looking over at her. "Can I help you carry some of your groceries?"

"That would be great, thanks," she said, flashing him a smile that was clearly the work of braces before dangling two bags off the end of her wrist. He carefully extracted them, trying his best not to accidentally touch her hand, and when the doors opened for the third floor, he gestured for her to go first with a slight nod of his head.

She turned to the right – the direction of Taehyung's apartment – and headed near the end of the hall. Jimin knew that the last door on the right was Taehyung's, and the closer she got, the more nervous he became. But she stopped one door short, and Jimin exhaled in relief.

"This one's mine," she said by way of explanation, giving another quick smile, just a flash of teeth and then it was gone.

"Great, should I-"

"Come on in," she said as she twisted the key and opened the door.

"Um, I really don't think-"

"Can you just set the groceries down on that corner?" she asked, pointing a manicured nail to the counter adjacent to the toaster, seemingly oblivious to Jimin's discomfort.

Jimin set them down and turned back toward the door when a hand caught on his arm.

"Aren't you going to stay for coffee?"

Jimin coughed. "What?"

"Coffee, the drink," she said with a light chuckle. "How do you take yours?"

Jimin stared down at the hand on his arm with what he considered to be a fairly pointed look. "I don't. Now can I-"

"Are you a tea person? I have herbal and maybe something fruity I think," she said, letting go of his arm and standing on her tiptoes to access a cupboard above the stove, grabbing down a small tin and rifling through tea packets. "Chamomile? Earl Grey?"

"No tea for me, thanks," Jimin said. He was an innately polite person, so it took effort to make his words sound at all sharp. He wasn't sure that he'd successfully conveyed his desire to leave, and his doubt was made reality when she turned back to him, setting down the tea tin before hopping up on the counter.

"I haven't seen you here before," she said, tilting her head. "You said you live on the third floor? I'm pretty sure I'd have noticed. I know pretty much everyone who lives here."

Jimin just blinked before sending a quick look toward the door, trying not to be too obvious because he didn't want to hurt her feelings, but he was secretly worried about getting locked in somehow. "I don't live here, my brother does."

"Your brother?"

"Taehyung," Jimin said, and when her eyes didn't light up with recognition, he pointed a thumb towards the wall she shared with Taehyung. "Your neighbor."

"Oh! Him! Yes!" she said, clapping her hands together in something akin to delight. Jimin had to admit that she was cute, but he'd had enough of relationships. Between his first girlfriend, who had dumped him and immediately latched onto Yoongi, and Jeongyeon, who had used him as a pawn in her relationships with Yoongi and then Hoseok, he'd had enough of female intervention. He couldn't lie and say that he didn't get lonely sometimes, but he had their dad to take care of and work to finish and a house to keep in order. He could be happy for his brothers about something without necessarily wanting it for himself.

"He's sort of a shut-in, isn't he?" she asked before waving her hands defensively. "Not trying to be mean. But I think he's lived there for a couple of years now, and I've only seen him a few times."

"He works from home," Jimin said. He had grown to harbor a natural distrust of strangers, which led to him revealing as little information as possible. However, once someone became his friend, he fully invested his trust in them. He knew it wasn't a perfect system, but he'd been wounded by too many people in the past to blindly believe in everyone. He was a little older now, a little more cautious. And he didn't know this girl, and from what she'd said, it sounded like Taehyung didn't know her, either.

"Is he like a high-end fashion designer?" she asked. "He's sort of got the look."

"An artist," Jimin corrected. He forced himself to lean against the counter and attempt to relax. The door was open, and he could leave any time he wanted. She just wanted to have a conversation. "He's really good," he added, unable to hold back. All of his brothers really impressed him, and he couldn't help but imprint his impression on others.

"I'd love to see some of his work," she said, smiling against but without showing her teeth this time. Two dimples showed, and there was a reflective coating on her lips. Maybe some sort of gloss.

"You should ask him," Jimin said, trying to deflect the comment. He didn't want to agree to anything on Taehyung's behalf and get him sucked into something.

"I should," she agreed easily. "I think I heard his door shut a while ago though, so he must be out. Oh! But I could text him. Here," she said, sliding over her phone after opening the Contacts app. "Add in his number. Yours too," she said. Another smile.

"I-" Jimin fumbled for an excuse before realizing that he actually had one, or half of one at least. "I don't have my phone on me, sorry. I don't remember his number offhand." The second half was a lie, but it was true that, thanks to Jin, he was missing a phone.

"Oh," she said with a small frown. "Well, that's fine, you can just put yours in and I'll text you, and then you can respond with his number once you get your phone back."

Jimin stalled. He knew his own number and also knew that she probably wouldn't buy it if he said otherwise, but he didn't like the idea of giving his number to someone he didn't really know. "What did you say your name was, again?"

"Mirae," she said, running her hand through her bangs.

"That's a nice name," Jimin said while pretending the enter contact information. He then faked saving the contact and handing it back to her. "Well, Mirae, it was nice meeting you but I have to go. Have a nice rest of your day!" he said, heading out the door and searching up and down the hallway for an escape.

"You too," he heard her call from inside the apartment. The counter she was sitting on meant that she was facing away from the door and that he was hidden from her line of sight. "Hey wait, I never got your name. Hello?" she called out, hopping off the counter and hurrying to the doorframe, looking up and down the hallway, but Jimin was gone.

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published 07/08/20