In the Dead of Winter || •PJM• ✔️

The Best Friend

DAY 784

One day after his night watch with Y/n, Jimin finds himself waking up. He glances at the wall clock in the room and sighs. Eight o'clock. He's early. Jimin yawns and stretches, brushing the braid that's still in his hair back a bit. He doubts he'll be taking it out anytime soon. Even when he showered last night he didn't bother.

He glances at the clock again. Wow, so they have batteries too? Jimin shrugs it off. Batteries are probably the last thing people grab when scavenging. Slips their minds that batteries can be useful for things like this; instead they go for the basic needs like food, water, and medicine. Putting one battery in that clock can last a year. Jimin's guessing they've had to change twice. It's been a little over two years since the apocalypse happened. Amazing how sometimes it feels like yesterday. Yesterday when he was sitting on the couch with his family, watching the news. Then everything changed.

There's a knock on the door. Jimin groans. "Come in." It opens, and in comes a pad of paws and the little kid Jimin saw before. "Ves, right?" Jimin asks.

"That's me," he replies, petting the German Shepherd next to him. "Jungkook sent me. Something about not wanting you to miss breakfast."

Jimin blinks. "It's eight o'clock."

"Oh that clock's off, we've been meaning to fix it. It's actually ten." Jimin jumps up, throwing on a shirt so he's uh, not shirtless in front of the little kid, and brushing around the braid in his hair. Ves raises a curious brow. "Y/n did that for you?" Jimin hums, in a hurry to put his beat up shoes on. Ves notices and snorts. "There's extra shoes in the empty rooms down the hall. You're kind of in the empty hallway, so feel free to search the whole place. If there's someone in it, their name is scratched on the door. Otherwise, it's all yours."

He glances at Ves, slowing down his movements. "Thanks."

There's a few beats of silence while Jimin gets ready and Ves pets the dog. "You know, she normally doesn't braid that much," Ves says.

"Oh yeah?" Jimin asks, focusing on grabbing his backpack.

"Honestly, the only time she does hair is when someone asks her to." He goes still. "I don't think I've ever seen her do nails before either, not even her own." Jimin stares at the ground with wide eyes. So he's not imagining it after all.

"Where's Jungkook?" Jimin asks instead of replying.

"Outside, probably with Katherine."

Jimin turns to Ves. "Are they...?"

"Dating? Doubt it," Ves says with a shrug. "I know Jungkook likes older girls, but Katherine's thirty and he's twenty-four, doubt he'd go six years older. Doesn't seem like the type."

Jimin eyes the kid. "You know, for someone so young, you don't act it."

"I grew up in the apocalypse. I know it's only been a little over two years, but Y/n always tells me that it's enough to mess me up for life."

"She says that?" Jimin asks.

Ves waves the air with his hand. "No. She tells me that it makes me more mature. Learning how to be quiet, to put survival over what I want."

"And what do you want?"

Ves tilts his head back and forth, considering the question and petting the dog some more. "To be a kid."

Jimin softly smiles and approaches, kneeling in front of him and the dog. "Well, petting the dog helps," he says.

Ves returns his smile. "Yeah, yeah it does."