Chapter Text
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Sitting on the floor of his dorm, the lights off and the curtains drawn close, Yoongi clenched his fist into his brown hair painfully. He was usually a very tidy person but he couldn’t even see the color of his desk under the piles of forgotten assignments and empty takeout boxes. It was the last day of christmas break, classes started at eight the next day, but here he was; on the phone at three in the morning.
“Just tell me if you hate me.” A female voice spat at the order end of the phone call.
“You know I don’t hate you.” Yoongi tried to sound reassuring but he was tired and his ears hurt from the screaming he had had to listen to for over an two hours now.
“Then why didn’t you call me when you got back to your dorm?”
“I called you as soon as I could...”
“Yeah right.” The girl on the phone laughed sarcastically. “You took longer than usual, where you meeting up with someone?”
“There’s snow everywhere, it takes longer to walk all the way here.” Yoongi explained as calmly as he could manage.
“Don’t get smart with me.” She scolded.
“Yunseo, come on… Let’s talk about this tomorrow?” Yoongi asked for what seemed to be the four hundredth time. He could barely keep his eyes open and he still hadn’t completed the assignments his teachers had giving him to do over the break.
“No. Let’s talk about this now. It’s not like you have anything better to do.”
“I have some homeworks...” Yoongi forced himself to admit.
“And what’s more important?” Yunseo said. “Your teachers or me?”
Yoongi knew the teachers and homeworks were more important. He was tired, physically and emotionally, his patience running thin. Though, no matter how exasperated he got, Yoongi knew that hanging up the phone would only make things ten times worse, so Yoongi didn’t move from his spot on the floor, phone lying painfully against his ear, eyes burning from sleep deprivation and untouched assignments on his desk up until he could see the sun coming through the blue curtains on his window.
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“You look like you’ve been through hell.” Seokjin commented as he looked down at Yoongi who was half asleep in his usual seat at the school’s cafeteria. “Tough christmas break?” The older suggested.
“We’ve just been up all night!” Yunseo said with a wide smile, clinging onto Yoongi’s arm.
“Yeah, just a bit tired.” Yoongi laughed. It was an obvious fake laugh and he knew Seokjin could see right through him, they had been best friends for years after all.
“If you say so.” Seokjin shrugged and from the look in his eyes, Yoongi knew they would talk about this later.
Seokjin had good intentions, he wanted to help Yoongi get out of this toxic relationship he had with Yunseo. Good intentions but bad practices; Seokjin couldn’t understand. He was tall, handsome, easy to talk to. The older never had any trouble getting into a relationship when he wanted one, which was rarely, and the girls he did date for more than a few weeks were always caring and had bubbly personalities. Seokjin lived a healthy and fulfilling life and he simply couldn’t have any insight on what Yoongi was going through.
Sure he had witnessed arguments and sometimes even the small faded bruises on Yoongi’s arms and he had been infuriated because of it. Seokjin had went straight to Yunseo and made sure she heard him clearly when he called her a ‘crazy bitch’ and warned her to keep her hands off of Yoongi. What Seokjin didn’t realize was that by doing so he had only made things worst for Yoongi, now Yunseo was careful to never cause a scene when people could see them and to never leave any visible clues as to what was going on.
From that day onward, Yoongi swore to himself he would never share what Yunseo did to him to anyone else.
____
Thanks to his poetic way of twisting words and creative thinking, Yoongi managed to get an extension of a two weeks to work on all of the assignments he hadn’t been able to complete after pretending he had lost a member of his family who lived oversea, making it impossible for him to hand in his project.
He had even managed to spend enough time away from Yunseo’s supervision to go to the computer lab and work there in peace. He liked it there; quiet, private and well lit. The sound of people typing quickly on the keyboard making it easy to sort his ideas out in his head as he started working on his third essay out of four, with only three days left before his special deadline. The subject for this one was simple enough : learning patterns in the mind of children aged from 6 to 7 years old.
If Yoongi thought life would be this easy for him, however, he was wrong. First, the lab was almost empty today, the lack of repetitive working noises leaving him in an uncomfortable silent conversation with his thoughts which was never a good thing. Second, the computer he usually working with was decorated with a post-it note saying ‘Broken’. Yoongi liked when things followed a certain comfortable pattern and the change of work station made everything feel wrong; the mouse was too big, chair too high, monitor too small. And finally, third, his phone kept buzzing in his pocket, distracting him each time he finally focused enough to start typing. Yoongi had stopped checking the messages he was receiving after the fifth one, all of them were from Seokjin complaining about his blind-date note being a good match for him because of what she ordered to eat or the unusual hobby she had; nothing important.
What he should have thought about was that Seokjin wasn’t the only one with his phone number. When he heard the hurried clacking of expensive high heels approaching the door, Yoongi felt his body tense up, a cold sweat appearing at the back of his neck.
When she came into the room, Yunseo scanned the area until her eyes met with Yoongi’s. Yoongi scrambled to save his work before she reached the place where he was sitting and turned off the computer before pulling him out of his chair. Yunseo was shorter and thinner than Yoongi but she was definitely stronger, her confidence making it easy for her to dig her freshly manicured nails into the flesh of Yoongi’s upper arm as if he would run away when she let go and drag him out into the school’s corridors (Yoongi often day dreamed about the day he would be strong enough to actually run away from his girlfriend.)
“Why aren’t you replying to my messages?” She asked harshly when they found themselves alone in a staircase. “Didn’t I tell you to stop ignoring me?”
Yoongi looked down at his feet, his hands held tight together against his stomach. He knew what was going to happen next, Yunseo would yell and yell, get increasingly angry at him no matter what he said and then…
“Are you listening?” She scolded, her hand landing flat against Yoongi’s cheek, the slapping noise echoing loudly around them.
“Sorry.” Was all Yoongi could manage to say.
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One day left, his assignments were all due the next day and he still have two essays to write and his usb key containing multiple hours of work and research was lost. There was no way he could re-write five essays in one night, even if he pulled an all nighter, and he knew if he didn’t hand in those assignments he might as well quit college altogether because it would hugely affect his average grades.
Yoongi couldn’t remember if he had time to take his usb key out of the computer the day before when Yunseo had come to meet him at the computer lab, but then again he didn’t remember much from the previous day. He figured he had probably left it there after searching his dorm room, bag and even the pockets of the jeans he was wearing when he had used it last. Yoongi decided to head to the computer room as soon as his class ended to see if his key was still there, if it wasn’t he would need to at least attempt on recreating his work anyway.
The corridors were filled with students who thought their appointments were more important than his, but Yoongi had no trouble pushing them out of his way to reach his destination faster; he really couldn’t waste any more time being polite.
So when he reached the door leading to the stairway and Seokjin was blocking it with a cheeky smirk, Yoongi shoved him out of his way before he could even say ‘hi’.
“Is that a way to greet an old friend?” Seokjin whined.
“I don’t have time to mess around, hyung.” Yoongi grumbled, going through the door and climbing up two steps at a time, Seokjin trying to keep up the pace behind him.
“What’s up?” Seokjin sounded slightly amused at his grumpy friend.
“I have a ton of work to do and very little time, alright?” Yoongi knew he shouldn’t be rude to his best friend, it wasn’t Seokjin’s fault that he had lost all of his saved work.
“Oh your essays? I thought you were done with those?” They exited the staircase into a less crowded corridor, the sudden silence causing them to whisper.
“Almost, but I lost all of it.” Yoongi groaned, the only thought of it actually being true made his stomach turn with anxiety.
“What? How?” Seokjin stopped in his track. “Did that bitch delete it again?” The older had a very short temper when it came to Yunseo.
Yoongi shrugged, the last thing he wanted to do right now was talk about Yunseo. Actually, the last thing he wanted to do was talk at all.
“Do I need to talk to her again?” Seokjin looked like he was ready to fight, the anger in his eyes clearly obvious.
“No, hyung.” Yoongi sighed, realising the silent treatment wouldn’t get him out of this situation anytime soon. “Look, I appreciate you wanting to help and all but really, don’t.” Yoongi instructed the older as he placed his hand on the handle of the computer lab. “It will only be worst if you talk to her.”
“Yoongi, it can’t be worst than it already is.” Seokjin’s hand rested on Yoongi’s back gently, they had been friends long enough for him to know quick movements easily startled Yoongi, his tone filled with something that could be categorized as pity.
“Trust me, it can.” Yoongi brushed Seokjin’s hand off of his back. “Anyway, I just lost my usb. It has nothing to do with her.” Yoongi finally said.
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Yoongi was convinced Seokjin was in love with the sound of his own voice. That boy could talk for hours on end, and today was no exception. The tall man had sat at a free monitor at the right of Yoongi, the left one already occupied, and talked about his day for over an hour, effectively distracting Yoongi from actually getting any work done. When the older finally left, saying he had some group project to work on, Yoongi let out of sigh of relief.
Despite everything that was going wrong today, he felt like the atmosphere of the room without Seokjin was just right to focus on the task at hand. Quiet, private and well lit. The boy sitting next to him typing fast and hard, the sound of the keys filling Yoongi’s ears in an hypnotising rhythm that calmed his nerves. He cracked his knuckles and gave himself a silent pep talk, slowly gaining the confidence he needed to do his work as fast as humanly possible.
A cough startled him, turning his head to stare at the boy at his left only to find him staring back shyly.
“Hum… You’re Min Yoongi, right?” The voice seemed too high pitched to be coming out of this boy’s mouth.
“Why?” Yoongi made sure his tone was unpleasant. He had just managed to get rid of Seokjin’s endless babbling and now this random guy was trying to strike up conversation? Not today.
“I found this here earlier, is it yours?” The boy spoke softly, he seemed hesitant probably because of how Yoongi had reacted the first time he had tried interacting with him.
Yoongi eyed the item in his hands, a small black usb key with his Min Yoongi scribbled lazily on it, the same usb key that contained all of his hard work.
“Ah, yes thank you! I’ve been looking everywhere for it.” Yoongi took the item and stared at it for a moment, this stranger had just unknowingly saved his entire college career. He felt a bit of remorse about being so rude when this guy was actually trying to help him out. “Sorry. I thought you were someone else.” He lied easily with a sincere smile before plugging in the key and opening one of the files on it to get to work.
“Did you have any important files on there?” The small voice continued to speak even after Yoongi had torn his attention away from the source.
Yoongi was in a good mood now and decided to indulge into some casual chatter with whom he learned was Park Jimin, a younger boy who was majoring as a veterinary. Bubbly personality, bright smile and warm giggles, Jimin seemed to genuinely care about whatever Yoongi had to say.
Yoongi was surprised at how easy the conversation flowed between them making it easy to both talk and type at the same time. Yoongi’s laughed wasn’t forced like it had been for the past week and he felt himself finally relax as he finished typing out the final chapter of his essay, saving the file and unplugging his usb key.
“I actually have to meet up with my girlfriend in a few minutes.” He packed his books back into his bag and got up from his chair. “I guess I’ll see you around?” Yoongi asked with a smile.
“Sure, have fun!” Jimin replied, smiling wide, his eyes turning into crescent moons.
Yoongi left the computer lab feeling a strange mix of pride and newly found confidence. His work done and ready to hand out to his teacher felt like a huge weight lifted off of his shoulders and Yoongi decided to treat himself and Seokjin to some Korean BBQ that night to celebrate.
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