Stay With Us

Jimin’s POV

Maranda barely touched her food at dinner. I didn’t complain to her knowing she probably wasn’t up to really eating too much. We stayed sitting on the couch as everyone went to bed. Jin was the last one making sure the whole house was locked first. We knew he wouldn’t be back but he thought it would make Maranda feel safer.

“Jagiya you want to go to bed?” I finally asked after about an hour of just sitting in silence.

“I don’t want to go in there.” She says in the same monotone voice she had been using the whole time we had been home.

“We can sleep in my room.” I suggest to her.

“Ok.”

I get off the couch picking her up to carry her to bed. I laid her down putting the blankets over her. I changed out of my clothes putting on a pair of shorts to wear before getting in bed next to her. I pulled her into me holding her close. She seemed to feel lifeless in my arms.

“I love you.” I say lightly kissing her shoulder.

“Ok.’’ I felt tears start to form in my eyes. It hurt everything in me knowing what she had to go through and how she is now being affected by it. I pulled her in closer trying to make her feel the least bit safe right now. We continued to lay in silence till I drifted off to sleep.

I wake up to her screaming at the top of her lungs. “Maranda! Hey it’s ok I’m right here.” I say to her sitting up to take her in my arms. “Maranda it’s over. Nothing is going to happen to you.” I start rocking her to try to calm her down. She grabs ahold of me crying again.

The door is then flung open and I see V and the rest of the guys running in. Their faces relax when they see it is just us in the room indicating she had a nightmare.

“Is she ok?” Suga asks in a groggy voice.

I nod my head yes to them. I hadn’t realized Jin and Rap Mon had left the room but I saw them re-enter with blankets and pillows for everyone. They all sprawled out on the floor incase anything else happened. V came over to Maranda’s side of the bed getting in and putting his arms around her after I lied her back down facing me.

Maranda’s POV

I woke up the next morning feeling two sets of arms wrapped around me. I open my eyes facing Jimin then turn my head to see Tae behind me. I then look around the room seeing the rest of the boys sleeping on the floor.

“Jimin.” I whisper trying to wake him up. “Oppa.” I then lightly pinch his nose closed. He starts to stir then sees me looking at him.

“What’s wrong?” He asked whispering.

“Why is everyone in here?”

“You don’t remember?” He asked me confused. “You had a nightmare last night and woke up screaming so they all came in here to sleep.”

“Oh.” I say looking down.

“What was the last thing you remember?” He asks me closing his eyes and pulling me closer to him.

“Going to bed.”

“I’m glad to hear you sound like yourself again.” He then kisses the top of my head. “Try to get some more sleep. I love you.”

“I love you too.” I say snuggling farther into his chest.

I wake up a few hours later still in Jimin’s arms but I noticed Tae wasn’t there anymore. I look up seeing Jimin watching me.

“Good morning beautiful.” He says kissing my forehead.

“Good morning.” I look around seeing that the other guys are gone too. I then start to feel gross from sweating in my clothes. “I’m going to go take a shower.” I say starting to get out of bed.

“Want me to go get you some clothes?” He asks watching me from the bed.

“No I can get them.” I say walking to my room.

I hesitate before opening the door. I finally do open it and see traces of blood on the floor and the wall. I quickly grab clothes then run out of the room slamming the door before leaning on it. Jimin hears me and runs out of the room. “Are you ok?” He asks worried.

I nod my head yes then walk into the bathroom. I take off my clothes starting the shower then notice the bruises on my shoulders and upper arms. I get in the shower scrubbing every inch of me trying to feel clean. I start crying again when I don’t. I brushed my teeth about five times seeing if that would help. I finally gave up, drying off and putting on my fresh clothes.

I walk out of the bathroom seeing my door was open. I slowly creep over, looking in to see Jin scrubbing the floor and wall. I turn around to go to the living room seeing Jimin waiting for me on the couch. He is messing on his phone and I notice his busted knuckles.

I sit down on the couch next to him taking his hands in mine to look them over. He doesn’t say anything as I study them. I then look up at his face. He gets a hard look on his face still looking at his hands.

“Jimin?” I ask trying to break his trance. He looks at me with his face softening. “I love you.” I say kissing his knuckles.

“I love you too.” He takes me in his arms pulling me onto his lap. “If you don’t feel up to it that’s ok. But you want to go do something today? Take your mind off things? Get out of this house?”

I think it over for a moment trying to decide if I wanted to. It did sound like a good idea to get out of the house for a bit. “Yeah. Let’s go somewhere.” I say looking up at him forcing a smile.

We decided just to walk down to the park to get some fresh air. I started feeling a little more at ease as we sat in the grass by the lake. We weren’t saying anything just enjoying the fresh air. I looked over seeing a younger couple playing Frisbee with a dog.

“I miss my dog.” I say breaking our silence.

Jimin looks in the direction that I am staring seeing the couple. “Yeah I know what you mean. My dog passed a few years ago.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” I say putting my head on his shoulder.

“It’s ok. He was old. What happened to yours?”

“She’s with my parents. She is starting to show her age. She can’t see or hear very well anymore.”

“We’ll have to make a trip soon. This way you can see her. What’s her name?”

“Moppsie. She’s a Shih Tzu. I got her in the third grade for Christmas.” I say smiling up at him.

He smiles back at me noticing this one was real. “That’s cute.”

“I have pictures of her!” I say pulling out my phone to show him.

He takes my phone scrolling through the pictures then sees another dog. “Who’s that?”

I look over to see the picture. “That’s Lucy. She was my first dog. She was German Sheppard and Chow mix. She passed away a few years after I got Moppsie.”

“She’s pretty.”

“She was awesome! So protective over me. My parents usually worked late so they would sometimes let me stay home by myself while I waited for my grandma to get off work. Lucy would wait for me at the bus stop every day. There was one day when we were walking home a stranger came up to us and tried to talk to me and when he got closer she bit him.” I started laughing. “He wasn’t even doing anything I don’t think. He asked me where the closest gas station was and there was a woman and a couple kids with their own dog in the car.” I started laughing harder.

“Was he mad?” He asks laughing now too.

“No. She didn’t get him too bad. It was more of a warning bite. I was in fifth grade at the time.”

“So I started realizing something the other day.” He says changing our conversation.

“What’s that?”

“We don’t really know little details about each other. Like pets, favorite things, birthdays.” He says laughing.

I start laughing too. “Yeah I guess you’re right. Well now you know about my pets. My favorite colors are red and black. My favorite music is American 90’s anything. And I know your birthday is October 13, 1995 cause I was here for it this year. And my birthday is March 14, 1997.”

“March 14! That’s next week! Were you going to tell me?” He asks laughing.

I start laughing too. “I guess I didn’t think about it.” I keep laughing at my mistake. “You don’t have to get me anything.”

“Like hell I don’t!” He says still laughing at me. “What do you want?”

I start trying to think of something. I was never good with asking for things. “Get me whatever you want.” I finally say to him.

“You’re no help. I’ll ask V.”

We decided to go back to the house after another hour of sitting there. I was starting to get cold and I wanted to take a nap. I go into Jimin’s room to sleep when we got there.

Jimin’s POV

I checked on Maranda after an hour to make sure she was still sleeping soundly. I needed to start figuring out what to do for her birthday so I went to find V. I knock on his door seeing that it’s closed.

“Open!” I hear him shout from the other side.

I walk in seeing him sprawled on the bed texting. He looks over seeing me then goes back to his phone. “What’s up?”

I walk over sitting on the floor leaning against his bed. “Was anyone going to tell me Maranda’s birthday is next Tuesday?” I ask laughing at my ignorance.

He looks down at me then grabs his calendar looking at the date. “Shit!”

“Good I’m not the only one without a plan.” I started laughing harder.

“Damn it. How could I forget that?” He then jumps up putting on his shoes.

“Hey! I need help too. I have no idea what to get her.”

“Well come on we can both shop then.” He says putting on a jacket. We both start running to the door passing Rap Mon and Jin on the couch.

“Where are you two going in such a hurry?” Jin asks looking over the couch at us.

“Maranda’s birthday is next Tuesday. I didn’t know about it and V forgot.” I say to him.

Both of their eyes got huge. I guess they didn’t know either. “Was she going to tell anyone?” Jin finally asks shocked.

“Probably not.” V answered. “She doesn’t like to make it a big deal.”

“Check on her for me in about an hour. And call if anything happens.” I say pushing V out the door then shutting it.

V and I walked all over the city going into different stores looking for different things.

“So what are you going to do other then buy something?” He asks me as we are looking through clothes.

“At least dinner. She is probably going to shoot me for paying though.” We both laugh knowing I’m right.

“She will be fine. She knows when to shut her mouth about that stuff.” He picks up a shirt from the rack looking at it better. “She wears a lot of blue. This is cute right?” He then holds it up for me to look at.

“We should have brought Rap Mon.” I say laughing.

“Ok so clothes are out cause we have no idea what we are doing here.” He puts the shirt back then looks around.

“So what are you going to do?”

“I’ll do lunch. She won’t kill me for that. Probably just a café and I’ll give her the present there.”
I look out the window seeing a little shop with figurines in it. “Let’s try there.” I say pointing. We walk inside and are greeted by the lady at the counter.

“Is there anything I can help you boys find?”

“We don’t even know what we are looking for.” V says sighing.

“Well let me know if you need anything from the cases.” She says before returning to the book she was reading.

We are looking around at everything trying to find something she may like. I then hear V get excited. “Yah! I found mine!” I walk over to see what he found. It was a little white gold and diamond cat figurine. “Ma’am? Can I see this?” He asks getting the woman’s attention.

She comes over with the key opening the case and pulling it out. “It’s 18 karat white old with 5.00 carat diamonds.”

“How much is it?” He asks her.

“$2,000 US.” She says checking the price on the bottom.

“I’ll take it.” He says getting out his wallet then handing her his card.

“How the hell am I supposed to compete with this?” I ask him as the woman rings him up.

“Hey every man for themselves!” He says laughing. “She has to have said something that gives you an idea. I went with she likes animals and statues.”

I started racking my brain trying to think of every little thing she has told me. I then get an idea. “Hey V?” He turns looking at me after taking his card back from the woman. “How do you think everyone would feel about getting a dog?”

Notes