Player One |Vmin

Level-44

"Park, good news, we finally figured out your sudden deafness problem. Thankfully it's nothing fatal and can be easily fixed." The doctor sighed in relief as he took out a set of papers from his drawer as Jimin sat awkwardly on the patient's bed as he listened to his doctor intently.

"R-really? Will it be fixed with regular medication or..?" Jimin questioned as he smiled at the doctor, happy to hear the good news, although it also annoyed him that it took so long to figure out the issue.

"Not exactly. You see, in your ear canal, just wear the ear wax build-up, a small bone grew there. As wax build up around the bone it prevented sound from travelling to the eardrum." The doctor explained as he took out an X-ray of the inside of Jimin ear. Jimin's eyes widened as the doctor explained further. "The only way to stop the sudden hearing loss would be to shave down the bone to let noise travel through again."

"That doesn't sound cheap..." Jimin muttered with a frown now playing on his lips as the doctor nodded with what he said.

"This is a very rare case. Although your hearing is temporarily fixed over a little bit of time, I can't promise it would be that easy forever. The bone could grow into the roof of the canal and cause permanent deafness and even pain. This shouldn't be something that you should just look over." The doctor explained as he rummaged through sheets of papers as he pulled out a page and presented it to Jimin. "This would be the surgery cause if you were to go through it."

"6800,550 won? Do you think I can afford this?! I'm eighteen and putting my little brother and I through school, he wants to go to college and so do I." Jimin's eyes started to water as he stared hopelessly at the numbers. He couldn't even imagine how he should come up with the money.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not the one who decided on the price. Think over the surgery and if you want to go through it then we will start the preparations."

/ / / / / / /

Jimin folded up the possible bills of hospital fees if he was to go through with the surgery and sighed with a groan. He bit on his bottom lip as he pushed open his maths classroom's door and avoided the student's glares as he walked up to the teacher and handed in a late slip before walking towards the very back of the classroom where his seat was. His mind went blank as the realization hit him. He sits next to Taehyung in this class because of Tae's low grades which are slowly getting better.

Jimin hasn't spoken to Taehyung since the other day. Now of all times wasn't good for Jimin to make amends with him. Still, he forced himself to pull his chair out, drop his bag onto the ground and sit next to Taehyung, groaning in relief when he finally got to sit down after the long walk from the hospital.

Jimin was surprised as he watched Taehyung slip a neatly folded white piece of paper in front of him. He had to admit, it was quite a sweet gesture which is exactly why he unfolded the slip of paper.

"Are you okay? You look tired."

Jimin smiled at the caring message and decided to write back.

"I'm fine, just drained from walking back from the hospital."

He didn't bother to refold it before pushing it over the clean desk, giving it to Tae and letting him read it before he scribbled underneath Jimin's message messily before handing it back.

"I'm glad you're doing okay. I'm wearing my ring today. I was thinking we can wear them together. We don't even have to take them off unless we're in the shower."

Jimin was quick to reply with another message.

"Would you be fine with that? What if someone finds out that we're dating?"