Chapter Text
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
Jimin breathes out as he lets himself fall on his knees. The song ends and his heavy breathing sounds overwhelming in the now silent practice room. Sighing, he slowly gets up and goes to fetch his water bottle in his bag. As he straightens back up, his hand shoots out at the wall as a wave of tiredness overtakes his body. He cautiously lets his body slide down against the wall and takes a big gulp of water to soothe his dry throat. The practice room feels empty when there is no music playing. Jimin looks up at his own reflection in the mirror that takes up the whole length of the wall in front of him. He cringes as he sees the bags underneath his eyes and his tired posture. It is time to call it a night.
He quickly packs his things and fetches his phone, which was still connected to the sound system, before heading out of the practice room. It’s not that late, about 6pm, but he knows his best friend is probably already home and waiting for him.
Jimin quickly walks to his car. It’s raining and it’s already dark, both perks of winter he doesn’t like. The early darkness is the worst of them though. He longs for the days to lengthen already, as it makes him feel particularly moody, but that won’t happen for another few weeks. As he gets in his car, he quickly closes the door and places his bag on the passenger seat. He checks his phone before starting the car: he has 3 new messages. All of them from his roommate and best friend, Kim Taehyung.
From: Taetae
Chimm, are you finished yettttt?
From: Taetae
Chimchim, I'm all alone :(
From: Taetae
You shouldn’t be practicing so much, I miss you
He chuckles at the persistence of his friend and quickly replies.
To: Taetae
I’m done, be there in ten ❤ Can you already order our favourite for tonight? I’m not in the mood for cooking
After sending the message, he finally starts the car and puts his windshields on. It is raining more than he anticipated, as he has to put them on the highest speed. He drives out of the parking and heads towards the dorm he shares with his best friend. The rain is pouring hard, making it difficult for him to see the road properly. He isn’t alarmed though, he knows this road by heart and there aren’t that much people on the road even though it is a thursday. Quietly humming with the song on the radio, he takes a right turn on the main road. Suddenly, he sees a small, dark form in the distance. Something is laying on the side of the road. Jimin slows down when he gets closer to the object of his curiosity. An alarm blares in his head when he sees a dark red puddle surrounding the dark, huddled form. It’s not a random object, but an animal.
He stops the car a few feet from the animal while worrying his lip. Maybe the animal is already dead or too hurt to be saved, but a small voice inside his head is telling him to check for himself. Finally, the curiosity decides for him and he takes the umbrella in his car before opening the car door. He gets out of the vehicle and slowly approaches the hurt or dead animal.
The sound of the rain trickling on the umbrella doesn’t mask the heavy pounding of his heart to his own ears. Every step closer makes his anxiety rise and he feels his palms beginning to get sweaty. As he gets closer, he slows down until he can make out what is in front of his eyes.
He recognises the thing laying on the ground and can’t contain a gasp. It's a cat. And as he crouches to look at it better, it turns its little eyes towards him and lets out a desperate meow.
- - -
“Alright, it’s all done, big girl. You can go home now!” Seokjin exclaims happily after a last ruffle through the pup's soft brown fur. The Labrador puppy sways her tail happily and goes to lick her owner’s face, who was helping by holding her still for the shots. The owner is a petite girl with round glasses and freckles. She looks to be around her twenties and she has kind eyes and long, brown hair. It is the first time she has come to the vet centre, as Seokjin knows all his clients on a first name basis (he’s pretty charismatic, if he dares say so himself).
“Yoongi, can you make sure her papers are updated? She got a shot for parvo, hepat-”
“Hepatitis and rabies, yes, already noted, boss”, Yoongi replies, while smirking proudly.
“Yah, don’t interrupt me like that, you brat!” The vet replies while smacking him softly on the head. He smiles politely to the owner of the puppy, who's laughing because of their antics.
“Thank you for everything, doctor”, the girl says, while extending her right hand. Seokjin immediately shakes her hand and responds: “It’s my pleasure! Normally she won't have any reaction to the shot, but if she does, please come back so we can check on her”. He can’t help but wink playfully at her while opening the door for her to walk out. The girl blushes visibly and waves goodbye before walking to her car.
“Do we have any more clients booked before close-up?” Seokjin asks his assistant while cleaning and disinfecting the consultation table and the few utensils he used during the consultation.
The vet centre had actually been his grandfather's. The man had worked for as long as he could, since caring for animals was his one and only passion. Unfortunately, he couldn’t work anymore because of a few health issues and he was starting to be a little too old to work. Seokjin had always been passionate about animals, just like his grandfather, who had been delighted to show and teach him all he could about caring for them. This had led Seokjin to study for veterinary medicine like his grandfather and finally taking over the vet centre once his grandfather couldn’t work anymore. He had quickly realised handling a vet centre by himself was incredibly difficult because of the duality of caring for the patients while also taking care of all the administration that came with it. This was the reason why he quickly decided to hire a vet assistant to help him manage.
Yoongi had been the first one to respond to his ad and when he came for an interview, Seokjin was sure he was perfect for the job. Yoongi had explained he was a fourth-year vet student and that he was looking for a job to help pay his bills. He first appeared a bit cold and stoic, but once he saw the three puppies that Seokjin had in his care at that moment, his detached appearance melted to reveal a caring individual. He had held the babies very carefully while his eyes were twinkling with excitement. It was easy to tell him he got the job.
Working with him had been a breeze. The young man was responsible and showed he could handle the papers like a professional (which Seokjin was kind of jealous of, since he was a disaster with them). They had quickly become good friends, even though they were still boss and employee.
“Nope”, Yoongi replies, popping the ‘P'. “If you want to, hyung, I can close up tonight. I know you are excited to go on your little date”, he slurs while smirking at his friend.
“You would do that? Oh my, Yoongi offering to stay for me, that’s new! I can’t help but take you up on that offer”, Seokjin laughs.
“You can tease me all you want, I know you’re super stressed about your date. Where is he taking you by the way?”
“Ugh, you’re right, but he’s so cute ! I don’t want to mess this up… He’s taking me to that one barbecue place that opened a few weeks ago. I heard it’s pretty good”, Seokjin replies while blushing a bit.
“Oh yeah, I was planning on going with Hoseok, but we still haven’t gone yet. You’ll have to tell me how it was. I want details on your evening with lover boy”, he smiles playfully.
“You know you’ll hear more than you’ll like”, Seokjin grins while jiggling his eyebrows. “Well, I’ll just go then, before you retract your offer”, he laughs as he grabs his bag and coat before walking towards the door.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, hyung. Have fun!” Yoongi exclaims.
“Bye, see you tomorrow!”
The door closes behind Seokjin and Yoongi lets out a huff. There is still half an hour before closing hours. He doesn’t expect anyone to come in for the rest of the evening, but he is expected to keep the centre open until the official closing hours. He busies himself by sorting through a few papers and tidying up the desk. When it is about ten minutes until he can close up, he goes to see the few patients that are at the clinic to stay the night. There is a beagle that had gotten sterilized in the afternoon. The operation had been successful, but since it still is a pretty invasive operation, she has to stay under supervision for at least 12 hours to make sure everything is okay. She still looks a bit drowsy from the anaesthetics, but when she sees that Yoongi is there, her tail weakly moves a few times to show she is happy to see him.
One would think the animals hate vets because they are associated with pain and fear, but Yoongi liked to think that they had the habit of liking him for some reason. He had never encountered aggressive animals, even though their owners sometimes warned him beforehand that their pet can be scared or aggressive towards strangers. It did come in handy as a future veterinarian to be able to handle animals without the animals feeling threatened.
He moves to the next enclosure and feels his heart constrict as he watches the old cat that is there under observation. It has had feline diabetes since it was a kitten and had been treated from the start, but with the age his condition started going downhill. There was a point where the medication began having less effect. Seokjin was still trying to test out a new medication, but after this, there wouldn't be much options left.
At the moment though, the cat is looking alright. Its eyes are big and bright when it looks at him. Yoongi smiles a bit before checking the rest of the enclosures. They are supposed to be empty, but he knows sometimes Seokjin forgets to tell him when an unexpected guest comes in.
Just as he finishes checking everything, Yoongi hears the bell of the front door ring as someone enters the vet centre. He hears ruffled sounds, so he quickly walks to the waiting room. There is a young man standing in the middle of the waiting room with a cardboard box in his arms. He looks completely distressed and Yoongi almost thinks he can see the man shake from where he stands. His instincts taking over, he walks towards the box and takes a peek. There is a cat in the box. It’s barely breathing and there is a lot of blood coating his matted fur.
The young man opens his mouth, but Yoongi speaks before him: “Okay, I see we have a little situation here. How about you give me the box and explain to me calmly what happened?” he says as he delicately takes the box from the pale man.
Visibly feeling better once the box is in the assistant's hands, the man breathes in a bit before talking: “I was heading home from dance practice when I saw something on the road. I thought it was just another random object that someone had thrown on the road, like trash or something, but when I came closer I saw it was a cat. I couldn’t just leave it there to die. It looks so hurt, I really hope you can do something.” He looks a bit desperate and for some reason Yoongi doesn’t like that expression on him.
They both walk in the auscultation room and Yoongi very carefully takes the cat out of the box. Immediately, he begins to examine the wounds from where blood is still leaking. If he doesn’t hurry up, the cat will probably bleed out. Fortunately, he quickly finds the wounds that cause the bleeding and is pleased to find they are reasonably clean cuts. Clean cuts are a lot easier to stitch up.
He takes all the utensils he's going to need as well as the anaesthetic and the shaving machine. While Yoongi is gathering everything he needs, the man is still standing rather awkwardly next to the consultation table. He looks at the cat and slowly lifts his hand to stroke it. After a few seconds, he visibly relaxes and continues stroking the poor cat.
“Do you maybe need help with anything?”, he asks and he coughs a little because his voice cracks a bit when he talks.
“You can keep stroking him while I work, it will calm him down. By the way, my name is Min Yoongi. I’m actually the assistant, but I can work around this. The vet is out for the evening”, Yoongi responds while smiling kindly at the man. He starts shaving the area around the wounds and he sees confirmation of his earlier thought of the cut being clean but deep.
“Oh of course, my name is Park Jimin. Thank you for accepting to care for the cat, Min Yoongi-ssi”, he says while bowing. Yoongi smiles at his sudden show of respect without looking up from his work.
“I’m only doing my work. Do you maybe know who the owner of the cat is?”, Yoongi asks while disinfecting the damaged area thoroughly. He takes his time to examine the cut, to make sure none of the important organs are affected. Fortunately, only the abdominal wall has been damaged, so he only has to find where the blood is still leaking from. He quickly finds the damaged blood vessel and makes sure it is secured before starting to stitch the deeper layers of the wound.
“No, I don’t know. I found him a few streets away from my dance studio. I think he might have been hit by a car or something”, Jimin responds while chewing his lower lip. Seeing the veterinary assistant work makes him realise the man is actually very handsome. He can’t help but gaze at his cat-like eyes and pouty lips. His eyes trail further down as he admires the man’s hands. His fingers curled around the utensils are long and slim and his hands show delicate veins climbing up his forearms.
Yoongi nods: “Yeah, I guess that could be it. I do find it weird that the wound is that clean though. It must have been hit with a very sharp object. But well, it doesn’t really matter.” His voice startles Jimin, who had been deep in thought, but he doesn’t notice it. He’s done with the deeper layers and starts the superficial stitching. “I’m going to check if he has a chip, so I can find his owner. Thank you for bringing him here. I’ll make sure he goes back to his owner or he’ll go the shelter to be adopted once he’ll be recovered.”
“He’ll go to a shelter?”, Jimin asks. His heart squeezes at the thought. “What if no one wants to adopt him?”
“Don’t worry, Jimin-ssi, I’ll make sure he finds a home. And who knows, maybe he already has one. He’ll be okay.”
Finally done with the stitching, Yoongi quickly bandages the wound to avoid getting it dirty and diminish the chances of it getting infected. He checks if the cat doesn’t have any other injuries, but this seems to be the only problem. He starts cleaning the blood off the rest of the fur and when he’s done, he says: “All done! In a week or two, this will all be a bad dream.”
Jimin is a bit startled but quickly softens when he sees the bright gummy smile Yoongi is showing.
“Okay, alright. Uhm, how much do I owe you?”
“This isn’t your cat, you don’t have to pay for it. We have a special fund for animals like this little one here that are found hurt without their owner”, Yoongi chuckles. His chest feels a bit warm at the thought that a stranger would want to pay the veterinary costs for a hurt cat even though it isn't his own.
“That’s a really good idea. Thank you again for caring for him. Could I maybe come by tomorrow to check on him?” Jimin asks while hopefully looking at Yoongi.
“Yes, of course. We open from 10 AM to 6.30 PM. You can visit whenever.”
“Great. I’ll go now... Goodbye Min Yoongi-ssi.” Jimin waves a bit and steps outside.
“Bye. See you tomorrow”, Yoongi quietly responds as he closes the door.
Unknowingly, they both sigh at the same time before one goes home and the other starts cleaning up.