DMF: Post-Court Trial Talk

“So. Tell me the truth.”

Yoongi busies himself with buckling his seatbelt while pretending not have heard his brother’s words. Seokjin adjusts the rearview and sighs after a long pause.

“Yoongi-yah.”

“You can drop me off outside Huening Kai’s parents’ garage—“

“So that’s it? You don’t want to explain what just went down back there?” Seokjin gestures to The Cacao Crushers’ front entrance. Yoongi’s gaze trains to the glass doors, where just beyond it, the rest of the guys they’d left behind are standing to clean up the table.

“I don’t know where to start,” Yoongi admits, willing away the beginnings of a throbbing headache knocking at his temples.

“So you didn’t purposely ask to meet me at this coffeeshop where your first love happens to be working, or mentioned that Jimin is apparently in Seoul, too?” Seokjin says as he pulls out into the driveway. “‘Cause that’s what I’m seeing. Clearly, you’re still hung up on him.”

“It’s not a matter of being hung up. I just…” Yoongi cards a hand over his hair and leans back against the passenger seat. “…I just didn’t want to be alone in knowing.”

Seokjin falls quiet, then. Maybe whether he’s in disbelief or because he knows how much this means to Yoongi without having to be told, Yoongi can’t tell.

It’s been a slow, torturous past few weeks for Yoongi, and today he finally decided he didn’t want to feel so lonely in the knowledge that Jimin is back, and Jimin seemingly hates him. He wanted Seokjin to witness it firsthand.

There are a thousand and one questions plaguing his mind, too, such as—

“So he really went and left for Australia, huh?” Seokjin voices out loud. Yoongi shrugs.

“S’pose so.” And now he’s back in Seoul, and studying in the same university as Yoongi, too. As much as he doesn’t want to get ahead of himself with assumptions, part of him can’t help but wonder—does Jimin’s presence here mean he’s keeping that promise they’d made, three years ago?

“His parents must have divorced, then,” continues Seokjin, turning the corner. “I don’t understand why he couldn’t just tell you that. Why he had to leave you hanging—“

“Hyung,” Yoongi says in a warning tone.

“I’m just saying, man,” persists Seokjin. “I hated seeing you like that. You were miserable in Hong Kong.”

“Jimin has nothing to do with it,” Yoongi lies.

“Right, and he has nothing to do with you insisting you get into KU, either?”

Yoongi ignores him, passively watching the reds and oranges of bumper lights pass them by as they fall in with the road traffic. Outside, the world is blurry from the drizzle of raindrops. Summer is coming soon.

“Well, now he’s back,” Seokjin says. “Are you planning to ask him anything? You should at least talk.”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to do,” Yoongi mutters. “Was planning to get things straight once and for all, today.”

“But?”

But it’s complicated. Yoongi can’t pinpoint it, but the Jimin from three years ago is different from the jaded, hissy guy he just spoke with earlier. “But it’s gonna be a little tougher than I imagined.”

“Do you still like him?”

Yoongi’s throat clams up. He prides himself on being a little bit of a human encyclopedia, always having the answers for everything, but for once he’s left feeling conflicted about the answer. Does he still like this Jimin, or is he simply trying to get a glimpse of the boy he used to love? “He’s changed, hyung. So have I.”

Seokjin nods slowly, and Yoongi already knows what his brother thinks of his non-answer. “Well… as long as you get your answers, then I’m cool. Just don’t be reckless, Yoongi.”

“You don’t need to worry.” Yoongi folds his arms and closes his eyes, leaning his head back on the seat. “I’ve got my own way of doing things.”