A Caged Bird | Minjoon

65

several weeks had gone by now since namjoon left for college—and somehow—  the world just kept on turning.

namjoon and jimin had exchanged those few texts right after he left, but that was about it.

the more time that passed, the lesser and lesser the two boys spoke.

namjoon hadn't reached out to him yet or called since then.

and jimin hadn't reached out either, so he really couldn't blame him.

he wanted to— more than anything, but he just didn't know what to say.

all he was thinking was..,

"i love you."

"i miss you."

"please come home".

obviously, he couldn't say those things, though, so it just became easier to just say nothing at all.

and it was sad.

it was so sad.

jimin did his best to keep up, though, with the world that was somehow still moving— to try and act like everything was fine.

after his talk with hoseok on the phone, things got a little better.

he visited his mom, saw areum and hoseok, and even brought sung-ha over some lunch that his mother had made and ate a meal with him.

everyone around him seemed to just try and avoid the topic of namjoon all together, but jimin still couldn't help asking about him or bringing him up in some regard. he got a little bit out of sung-ha, but it still wasn't enough.

jimin knew they were all trying to spare his feelings, but honestly, he didn't know if trying to ignore the topic at hand would make the pain any lighter.

he didn't know what to do really.

he didn't know how to cope— whether to shut down and cry or to be angry and upset. in front of others it was easy to hide his emotions, but when he was alone— that's when he'd break down.

he'd see a picture on his phone, or sweater in his closet, or even a ring slipped onto his finger (that he definitely should not have still been wearing)— and all the memories and feelings would just rush back to the surface.

to put it frankly, jimin was a mess.

and as much as he tried to hide it, he was almost certain everyone around him still knew.

but there was nothing that jimin could do about it.

the only thing he could do now was try to keep going.., to try and be okay with this new life.

this new life without namjoon in it.

-

jimin opened the café door, with his hair now cut shorter and his backpack slung around his shoulder.

he had started attending his classes again and areum and hoseok were barely in any of them. he had one quiz section with areum, but aside from that, jimin had become a bit of a loner during school.