THE MORNING AFTER, Alice poured herself a cup of coffee as she wallowed in her own pity. Not only was she a bit hungover, she had about an ounce of sleep despite laying in the comfort of Jungkook's cotton sheets and fluffy blankets.
She brought the mug to her lips, hissing slightly when the coffee reached her tongue and burnt it. She impatiently set the mug down, rolling her head back to relieve her shoulder pain even if it was only a little.
"Oh, good morning," a deep, raspy voice startled Alice as she turned around from the counter, her eyes landing on a half-awake Yoongi. "What are you doing here?" He asked while yawning.
"Jungkook let me sleep here for the night because Jimin brought a girl home," she explained, but saying that last part was a bit more difficult than she thought.
"Oh, right," he nodded. "Hoseok said he went to Namjoon's," he said before walking toward the coffee maker, preparing his own mug.
"Sorry for barging in," she bit her lip.
"No, it's okay. It's not your fault Jimin is reckless," Yoongi nonchalantly said, causing a laugh to fall out of her lips.
She still felt a bit bad for staying at that house all of a sudden, so she felt it was better to get back to home. It was a few floors down, anyways. She hurriedly finished the rest of her coffee and gathered her things in her purse, including her clothes from last night she didn't bother to change into, considering it was inevitably going to be extremely uncomfortable. She'd just return Jungkook's pajamas later, because it's not like they live far away from one another.
She knew she was going to have to walk into a house where Jimin was most likely in his bed with the girl from the night before, but as long as she sprinted to her room, it should be okay, right? Since Jimin told her that it had to be a secret that she lived there, she had to avoid them anyways.
But, she was surprised to see Jimin, awake and in the living room when she walked inside.
Jimin's head turned at the sound of the door, and after seeing Alice standing there, he immediately stood up and walked toward her.
She looked at him in shock, for he actually looked quite okay for being drunk last night and sleeping with a girl. He looked... composed, and it made Alice wonder whether or not he had actually brought the girl home. She wasn't anywhere to be found either, because there wasn't any shoes at the door that didn't belong to the three who lived there.
"Where were you?" Jimin stitched his eyebrows together as he asked her with a low voice.
"Wh-I was at Jungkook's," she replied, pointing to the ceiling to motion toward Jungkook's house a few floors up.
"Jungkook's?" His face fell, and his eyes landed to her clothes. They looked awfully familiar to him. "Are those his pajamas?"
"Yeah," Alice replied as her mouth began to stretch into an involuntary yawn. Jimin was about to speak once more, but she beat him to it, unaware of him trying to talk. "I'm going to go to bed," she excused herself and walked past Jimin, carrying her stuff with her. As she passed his bedroom, she took a glance through the slight opening of the door, only to see nobody in there.
Did she leave early this morning? She contemplated in her head before she declared that she didn't care if she was there or not. She was trying to push down her feelings for Jimin, and obsessing and sulking over whether or not he brought a girl home was not helping at all. So, with her chin up, she walked into her room and immediately collapsed onto her mattress. She had never been more grateful for a day off, and she was about to spend the entirety of it it laying in bed.
-
The next day, at work, Alice found herself quite busy as her coworker asked her to fill in their duties for them, so she had double the amount of elders to take care of. She knew she wasn't going to be able to leave at her usual time in order to get all of the elders into bed, so she took a quick break to call Jimin.
He answered after a few rings, and from the background she could hear faint music, most likely coming from the speakers in the dance studio.
"Hey, I gotta work a little longer today," she said into the phone. "Don't worry about picking me up," she stated.
"Mhm," he grumbled from the other side. Before Alice could say anything, the line cut.
Whatever, Alice rolled her eyes and went back to work. Ever since the day before, when she came back from Jungkook's house, Jimin was acting cold toward her. She learned to just be patient with asking whatever's bothering him, because even if she did, he would have just told her off.
Finally, after a long day of work, Alice walked outside to see the sky pitch black, covered with a blanket of storm clouds as rain heavily poured.
Not this again, Alice thought as she rolled her head back. She hadn't even noticed that it was raining, but fortunately for her, she learned from her past mistakes and brought a small umbrella in her bag.
An idea sprung into her head as she pulled out her phone first to call Jimin, to ask whether or not he had still been at the studio or not. Though, she released a sigh at the sight of a low battery symbol. Her phone was dead.
Therefore, she carefully opened the umbrella above her before walking away from the nursing home. The raindrops harshly hit the nylon of her pink umbrella as she continued walking down the street. Her shoes were getting slightly soaked from puddles but she figured that was better than being completely drenched like the last time she walked home in the rain.
It had been around 10 minutes later when a car slowly pulled up beside on her left as she walked on a wide road. She curiously turned her head to the side when she noticed it had slowed down, and recognized the car.
The window slowly opened to reveal Jungkook, leaning over from the driver's seat.
"Noona! Do you need a ride home?" He asked, concern expressed in his voice. He had to slightly yell in order for her to hear him under all of the rain. Alice hesitated as she looked at him in thought.
We're both going to the same place, might as well?
"Okay!" She said back before jogging toward his car, closing her umbrella and getting inside in the speed of light. He started to drive off with a chuckle at her previous actions.
"Were you at the studio late?" Alice asked as she ran her fingers through her moderately damp hair.
"Yeah, I decided to stay with Hoseok-hyung a bit later than the others," he nodded. "They should be home by now."
Alice just nodded in response, leaning back into the seat in comfort. Her back was killing her and she couldn't wait to get into bed.
"Oh, by the way, sorry for not being awake when you woke up yesterday morning," he spoke up again, glancing between her and the road.
"Don't worry about it," she waved him off. "I'm the one who stayed over so suddenly, I should be the one apologizing," she chuckled lightly.
"No, you know you're always welcome. Especially when Jimin-hyung brings girls home, that must get annoying," he snickered.
"You have no idea," she shot him a fake grin as he continued to laugh. She just turned to look out the window, her smile fading as she watched the raindrops patter onto the glass.
A couple minutes later, they got to the apartment building and the two had to practically sprint to the entrance, still getting slightly wet in the process. Alice thanked Jungkook for the ride before getting off the elevator at her floor.
She opened her front door to reveal a pacing Jimin, his phone in his hand as a worried expression painted his face.
"Jimin...?" Alice rose her eyebrows at the sight as she slowly started to take off her shoes. His head quickly turned to her, his expression of worry only deepening.
"Why weren't you answering your phone?" He furrowed his eyebrows, holding up his phone that he held so tightly that his knuckles were almost white.
"My phone died," she stated. Only, it sounded more like a question than a statement.
"Why didn't you call me before to pick you up so you didn't have to walk home alone at night? And in the rain again?" He looked at her with a piercing stare. "Do you know how dangerous it is?"
"Woah, don't worry," Alice's voice remained calm as she walked to the dining table to set down her bag. "I didn't walk home in the rain."
"What do you mean? How did you get home?"
"Jungkook gave me a ride," she shrugged as she nonchalantly started to take out the contents in her bag.
Jimin's once worried appearance started to form into one of anger, of bitterness.
"So he picked you up from work?" He asked her, his voice lower than before.
"No, I was walking and he saw me in his car," she replied.
"And you got in?"
"Yeah? We were going to the same place anyways," She turned her head toward him, starting to realize his bitter tone.
"You should have told me to pick you up when you called," he grumbled.
"I didn't know when I was going to get off- wait, is this a big deal or something?" Alice interrupted herself and cocked her eyebrow at him.
"Forget it," he scoffed and started to turn around, but she stopped him with her hand on his arm.
"No," she furrowed her eyebrows. "Why have you been angry toward me since yesterday? Did I do something?"
"I'm not angry," he shrugged her hand off of him, quite harshly, as he eyed the floor to avoid her gaze.
"It seems like you are!" She crossed her arms. "Tell me what's wrong, Jimin, stop treating me like this. I'm your best friend and I live with you."
"Just because you live with me doesn't mean you have to worry about me so much all of the damn time," he squinted at her, his blood starting to boil a bit more.
"It's not my fault you invited me to live here!"
"It's not my fault you're homeless!" Jimin yelled loudly, the intensity of his voice obvious by the way it bounced off the walls. Alice felt as if an arrow struck her heart at his words. Never did she think that Jimin would take it that far, over something so utterly stupid and insignificant, but he did, and it hurt her more than it should have.
Alice clenched her jaw before turning on her heel and stomping toward the door, slipping on her loose sneakers as she hastily walked out of the apartment.
Overwhelmed with anger and aggravation, Jimin gripped onto a glass cup and flung it onto the blank wall, causing it to shatter into a thousand pieces.
He panted as he leaned against the dining table, his fists buried in his hair. Beside his breathing and his rapid heartbeat, the only thing he could hear was the sound of heavy rain outside.
He glanced toward the shattered pieces of glass on his floor, before the image of Alice walking in the rain, getting drenched, played in his head.
Fuck, he thought. I can't let it happen again.
Without a second thought, he hastily went to the door and slipped on some shoes, grasping onto an umbrella as he exited his apartment in a hurry.
By the time he had reached the outside of the apartment, he was already running, looking around for Alice in a state of panic. He hadn't even opened his umbrella and he was getting soaked by the pouring rain.
"Alice!" He yelled in desperation, his voice echoing. He ran onto the main road, looking around but realizing his hair was starting to drip into his face, blocking his view. Out of utter annoyance, he opened the umbrella and hovered it over him. "Alice!" He yelled again. He continued his search, jogging down the sidewalk until he reached an alley, glancing down it.
His heart nearly stopped when he saw the silhouette of Alice, walking away from him. He sighed of relief and was about to call out her name, but something caught his attention.
A man had ran toward her from the side, with an umbrella in his hand. He watched as the man take his jacket off and draped it over Alice's shoulders, and when Jimin saw his side profile, he immediately recognized it to be no one other than Minjun.
His face fell at the sight, his grip on the umbrella weakening as his heart dropped. His hair was still dripping onto his face but he didn't notice, his attention only focused on Alice as she continued to walk further away from him.
He took one last look before turning away and walking back home, finding each step heavy and difficult to perform.
I ruined everything, Jimin thought as he continued to walk further and further away from Alice.