yoonmin au—

yoongi is a time traveler in love, which is a problem itself. and to make it worse, it happens that he’s in love with jimin, the man behind the counter in hotel diyosuun, a timeless place where time travelers go to heal their wounds. a place jimin can’t ever leave.

> thank you @134340_HOME for the moodboard!

> commission for yoongi’s point of view in my time travel au (if you want me to write an extra for any of my aus dm me for info)
> non linear narrative... but that was a given. read jimin’s pov here: https://twitter.com/minjiiminie/status/1126854612345081856

Yoongi doesn’t know when was it that he fell in love with Jimin. He knows he’s in love with him. He doesn’t doubt his feelings and he could probably write a list of why he’s in love with Jimin and why is Jimin the person he’s decided to love, but he can’t remember when.

Was it on a coffee shop in New Jersey, three years ago? Was it in a small rented apartment, laying in bed at night when Jimin kissed him for the first hundredth time? Was it a bar, was it the Hotel? Was it a long talk inside the Hotel? Was Jimin always behind that counter?

From time to time, Yoongi is tormented by the vague memory of a brown haired boy, a cozy sweater, sitting on a armchair drinking tea from an orange mug. Yoongi looks at him through a window and it’s cold.

He has the image stuck on his head and it appears only from time to time.

Yoongi doesn’t remember when was it that he started to dream of the boy with the cup of tea. He doesn’t know when he realized that it was Jimin who he had been dreaming about all along. He just knows that it’s him and that he loves Jimin, and that he would do anything for him.

When Yoongi saw Jimin for the first time, or at least what Yoongi remembers or considers the first time even though he can be wrong, Jimin was twenty three and he was standing behind the counter at Hotel Diyosuun. Yoongi remembers that Jimin was korean and he was so familiar.

Becoming a time traveler was the only thing Yoongi could ever do. His memories from before it all started are of him stealing watches, it's what he did because he always thought they’re easy to steal. Until he stole Laura’s. And she caught him but she didn’t scream at him.

She hadn't shouted, she didn't hit him like most people who catches him stealing do.

“I think I know you… from another time.” Those were her words at that time. When Yoongi thinks back on them, he thinks he understands but he never asked Laura what she meant at that moment.

Laura told Yoongi to keep her watch. She asked him if he knew how to use it and somehow Yoongi did. Yoongi sometimes still wonders, how was it that he exactly knew how to use it? He remembered, like he had been using it all his life.

And then he learned how to travel in time.

“What do time travelers do exactly?”

“We go to the right time at the right place.”

Yoongi was fourteen, he had always been in the wrong places. “Make sure history repeats itself?

“To whoever pays more,” she says carefully. “We repeat the history of whoever can afford to win.”

Whoever paid more meant winning wars and being stupid enough to believe that time travelers existed.
Sometimes their jobs were sabotaging enterprises, strangely enough sometimes they were destroying marriages. Most of the time, they got into fights, in the middle of battlefield.

The first time Laura took Yoongi to one of her jobs, she ended up with an ugly bruise. They were in China, Yoongi has no idea where exactly, it's just a dirty alley and Laura coughs. “Do you want to meet Jimin?” she wondered, easy smile on her lips.

“Who’s that?” Yoongi winced.

When Yoongi saw Jimin for the first time, he had just began his training as a time traveler. He knew Laura for around eight months and he had never seen the older woman smile so much until she was sitting in front of Jimin drinking wine the man had poured. It cured her bruises.

She had given Jimin a gift before leaving. She had stolen a necklace from a castle they had sneaked into, Yoongi was worried at the time but it turned out it was only for Jimin.

“Why did you take him a gift?” he asked when they were on the street again. Away from the Hotel.

“Jiminie?” Laura takes a drag from her cigarette, neon lights make her wrinkles more obvious. “Well, he’s all alone inside the Hotel, poor boy can’t ever leave the counter. And he makes such good drinks, patch me up the fastest. It’s the least we can do for him,” she decides.

"If Jimin is always taking care of us, the least we can do for him is thank him."

Yoongi feels sad all of a sudden for a man he just met, but he feels incredibly sad. “Why can’t he leave?”

“He works there, always has, I think I can't remember a time where he wasn't. He’s stuck, we all take him gifts so he can see a little bit of the outside.” Yoongi hums.

“Of course, we all take him the most extravagant gifts we can find because he’s a cutie, isn’t he? Wouldn’t mind if he took my gifts as a move on him"

“You’re at least twice his age,” Yoongi mumbles

“For him age is relative.” Yoongi doesn’t get what she means until years later.

Yoongi thinks that when he was a child he already knew Jimin, from years before he started to travel. He hadn’t seen him yet, hadn’t met him yet, but he already knew Jimin and he remembers his lips, his eyes, his hands. He remembers also, all of the time, the taste of tea.

A traveler can only enter the Hotel if they're wounded, they can only leave after being healed. When Jimin’s drinks can’t cure a wound, there are other doors behind his counter. One of them leads to Urpi, to heal inner wounds, like the poison spreading on Yoongi's ankle.

He’s drugged on Urpi’s bed and the woman looks so peaceful and good, Yoongi finds himself speaking without thinking it twice. “Sometimes I think I know Jimin from a past life.”

Urpi laughs, a soothing, calm chuckle. “A past life, Yoongi?”

“He’s awfully familiar,” he mumbles.

“Not because he’s korean,” he catches Urpi raises an eyebrow and he knows they’re going to start their rant about nationalities in the Hotel but Yoongi knows Jimin is korean. “But familiar in a way I remember him like a deja vu. In a past life maybe he was my friend.” Or a lover.

“You believe in reincarnation then?” He can feel her pull at his ankle but the anesthesia has him barely conscious. “Are you really a time traveller?”

“That I am” Yoongi mumbles

“Then you know there aren’t past lives,” she says carefully. He’s too confused for this conversation

“Reincarnation would explain why I dream of him,” Yoongi tries

Urpi shakes her head. “Time is not a line, Yoongi. It’s a circle, so it never really ends and it never really begins. There aren’t past lives, it’s only a cycle. It’s always just you and Jimin.”

Yoongi falls asleep.

It’s New York. 1928. Yoongi is fifteen and he has -what he guesses is- a huge crush on Jimin. He only wants to see the man laughing, wants to see him blushing. He wishes he’d be able to visit the Hotel more

He’s finally travelling alone and he wants to take Jimin the best gifts.

He had seen other travellers give him gifts and what he noticed makes the man in the counter most flustered and pouty is when they give him clocks.

It’s a joke because in Hotel Diyosuun there’s no time, so clocks don’t work. He wants to see Jimin whining so he looks for a watch.

He has to make sure a gangster gets murdered outside his Hotel, easy job.

In a train station on his way there, he sees a troubled man in a suit and his watch hangs from his back pocket. Calling out for Yoongi.

Yoongi is good stealing watches, so that’s what he does for Jimin.

He then finds himself bleeding on Jimin’s counter which pisses the man off. Gangsters, of course he got hit by a stray bullet.

Yoongi is content Jimin is so worried though and he tries to flirt and tease but his attempts are all ignored by Jimin’s real concern: helping Yoongi.

His wound is too fucked up so he meets Koschei for the first time. But first times are relative, aren’t they? He probably knows Koschei from before, or he knows him from all of his life. “You got into a fight?” The man wonders.

Yoongi shrugs. “You gotta be careful.”

“I know.”

Yoongi only returns to the Hotel when he’s sick. He’s careful so he doesn’t get in fights or endangers himself while working but he does wear loose clothes and catches a couple of colds. Instead of getting pills or herbs, he visits Jimin.

He thinks Jimin’s drinks smell the best.

Yoongi is finally twenty one. And three months later Yoongi brings his ID to the Hotel so he can show Jimin. He learns that around eight days for Jimin are twenty four months for Yoongi outside the hotel

He wonders how all those years Yoongi waits must feel like for the boy.

With how weird time is inside the Hotel, he thinks centuries for Yoongi would be a blink of an eye for Jimin.

Time is so fucking funny sometimes.

Russia is cold. The job is easy, he has to wait but it’s cold and he gets frostbite.

It hurts like shit but just by seeing Jimin he’s calmer. “Hey there,” he slurs after stumbling all over the entrance of the Hotel. He hopes he didn’t look as bad as he thinks he must have looked

Jimin doesn’t notice Yoongi is hurting right away because he is distracted by a snowflake on Yoongi’s hair but he saddens once the snowflake turns to water when Jimin touched Yoongi.

Yoongi would get Jimin all the snowflakes the boy wants. He would go out to the cold again.

But why would the snowflake melt if there’s no time inside the Hotel?

He likes to think, between him and Jimin, time exists.

Koshei is scary, he’s pale and has a pointy nose that annoys Yoongi. He doesn’t like how the man looks at him, but he thinks every traveller and even Jimin finds the man scary.

“Jimin is not going anywhere,” he starts while cleaning Yoongi's wound. “You know that?”

“Is it that obvious how desperate I am to keep him for me?” Yoongi chuckles dryly. How sad is it that a time traveler falls in love.

“I didn’t meant it as, he’s not going anywhere because he likes you back. I meant it as, he really can’t leave the counter.”

“I know, Koshei”

Yoongi hates the man because he feels like Koschei knows more than he says. He thinks that Koschei is playing with him, with all of them. “He can choose when to leave though.”

“Choose? I’m sure Jimin wants to get the hell out of here. If he wasn’t cursed he’d leave this place.”

“He can leave the counter once he remembers when and where he was he born.” Yoongi blinks. “Perhaps you can help him.”

Now Yoongi knows he shouldn't trust Koshcei, he knows the man is a traitor, at least books call him that, but he can't help but think that he can help Jimin.

Yoongi guesses he just has to travel back or forward to find when and where Jimin was born. It should be easy, whenever he has a job he takes a little longer because he visits Korea every time. He just knows Jimin is korean.

Funny how he just seemed to remember that always.

Yoongi thinks it's unfair that Jimin can't experience life outside his counter. Everyone's gifts are ridiculous because those are gifts from an unknown time and an unknown place, Yoongi brings him the simplest of gifts, maps, books, tickets, in hope Jimin remembers his life.

He'd like for Jimin to remember anything, a train station, a coffee shop, a restaurant, somewhere that could help Yoongi find the right place and the right time. He tries but even with his gifts Jimin doesn't seem to remember anything, from before the counter. He doesn't remember

But Yoongi doesn't get upset that Jimin doesn't remember, he thinks the boy's mind works in the most amazing ways. He's always in awe when he brings Jimin gifts and the boy has the most strange things to say.

His eyes glint when Yoongi takes him silly things like postcards,

Jimin lists his favorite colors and he explains what each colors mean to him, how black is Koschei when he teases, how green is Esther and yellow reminds him of Abbas voice.

"But not any yellow is him, this yellow," Jimin points at the postcard in Yoongi's hands "It's you."

Yoongi crosses his arms on the counter. "How is it different?"

"Mmh," Jimin frowns, thinking, "when you go to dry places, there's sand. That's Abbas." Yoongi hums. "Sand like in the hourglasses on the shelves," he points to the many gifts.

"You're calling him old dry man?"

Jimin's eyes widen, scandalized and he looks to the back door as if Urpi is going to come out and scold them. "I never said that, Yoongi!"

"Well, I understood that," he teases.

"You understand wrong!" Jimin accuses, he doesn't like being teased but it's impossible not to.

Yoongi smiles, easy wide smile and Jimin supports himself on the counter again. "Back to your yellow."

"Explain to me." Jimin lifts the postcard, it's a field of flowers and Jimin squints his eyes at them.

"It's warmer," he starts. Yoongi nods. Maybe Jimin will give him a hint.

Warmer like the weather, a piece of clothing Jimin remembers, the painting on a wall. Anything. But he doesn't remember. "You know like the mugs I have here for your coffee, maybe that's why yellow reminds me of you." He grows quiet and then, "or you remind of yellow."

Yoongi likes talking to Jimin, he always makes him see things from a different perspective

He's been asking Jimin out on a date for a couple of years now. "I could take you here," Yoongi suggests lifting another postcard. It's a beach. Jimin grabs the small cardboard to study it

"You're not leaving the door open, that could damage your watch," Jimin says sternly but then he adds, "it looks pretty though, we could walk there."

"We could," Yoongi adds. If they knew Jimin’s year of birth they could leave the Hotel. Yoongi starts travelling more after that.

Yoongi keeps travelling to find when Jimin was born. He didn't need to keep the door open for his clock to be a piece of shit, and to start taking him to years he didn’t ask to.

It takes him two years back or one year before and then he has to wait for his watch to jump again.

“What the fuck is wrong with your watch?” Yuno asks. She's -as always- being a pain in the ass. She crouches next to Yoongi as they wait in a street of Vietnam.

“When it gets fucked up, It only lets me jump every two or three years.”

“And it lets you jump back to the Hotel?”

Yoongi turns to find her looking sadly at him, everyone does. “I can’t, doesn’t let me, only when I’m really injured and I guess, with how it’s being lately, it’ll only let me jump there if I have a fucking bullet on my stomach.”

She’s quiet. “Jimin is asking or you.”

“I know.”

“Do you want me to shoot you?” Yuno asks after a while. "When we're sure our man is outside the building, job is done, I can shoot you so your clock lets you go."

Yoongi stares at her. “Koschei is going to be pissed at me.”

“Does it look like I care about Koschei.”

“Shoot me.”

He made Jimin cry a little bit, but he got to see him after three years.

And Yuno has a pretty good aim, she didn't hit anything important.

“Do you think he forgets about me?” Yoongi says as they wait outside the store where the murder they have to stop will happen.

“Jimin?” Esther asks. Yoongi nods

“How could he forget about you Yoonie?” Esther looks sad. "He loves you"

“I don’t know… his memory is fragile.”

She takes Yoongi's hand into his, he always thought they made a nice contrast. "Don't let him forget about you"

Yoongi is in front of the counter and Jimin is smiling, talking excitedly about a gift Abbas got him but Yoongi isn't paying attention. He doesn't know how he got here

He suddenly takes both Jimin's hands into his, making the boy go tense and quiet. Yoongi gulps. “Don’t you forget about me,” he whispers. Jimin blushes quickly, eyes widening. “Swear to me, you won’t forget about me.”

“I won’t.”

“Don’t you-”

“I won’t.” Jimin repeats.

He repeats. “I won’t.”

He repeats.

And Yoongi starts looking for the right place and the right time again.

Yoongi finds the coffee shop in New Jersey, he was just walking, freezing, when he saw a warm light from a small store. He remembers Jimin when he looks at it through the window. He knows he’s closer to Jimin than he’s ever been because he knows Jimin is here or belongs here.

When Yoongi finds 1995 he’s a mess. His clock doesn’t let him jump to the Hotel no matter what and he has tried anything. Bruised and bleeding, he walks through Korea in 1995 and he meets Koschei, in his crow form. He knows he finally got to the right place in the right time.

Yoongi thinks about it, from time to time. He doesn’t remember his mother’s face but he remembers Laura. “You’re my son,” she had said one night. “Like Yuno is your sister.”

“She’s not. I don’t like it when you call her that.” Yoongi scoffs. “We’re family but not for real.”

Laura looks at him. She’s gotten old but Yoongi thinks he has gotten old too. “We can’t be related because you don’t look at all like me. First of all, you’re white. And do not say Yuno—“

She snorts. “Our hair color is the same” She leans over to ruffle Yoongi’s bleached hair.

“I dye my hair, crazy woman,” Yoongi looks away, he always blushes when she gets too affectionate.

“I know I’m your mother because I think I was destined to be a mother, and my son found me. And then my daughter, and I’ve been their mother,” she explains. Yoongi blinks at her.

“Do you think I was destined to meet Jimin?” Yoongi whispers. He looks out through the window, it’s late night. “Do you think I was born to take him out of that Hotel? Because sometimes I think that’s the only thing I live for—“ he shakes his head. “I know that’s why I live for”

”You live for Jimin.” Laura answers carefully as careful as she cleans the pieces of her gun on the bed. Yoongi tastes the words. “The way I live for you and Yuno. I think you live for him. When you’re close to him, you just feel it right?” Yoongi nods. “Like when I found you.”

“On that street, you took my watch and I knew it was you. That’s why I know you’ll find him, because you’ll be there and you will know.”

Yoongi nods. “And once I do, when I find the place, how is he going to get out? My watch doesn’t work, you know so...”

She leans closer.

Holding Yoongi’s face with both hands, rough hands, she whispers. “Once you’re there, I’ll know it. And I’ll go for you and I’ll let the door open for Jimin.”

“How will you know when I’m there?”

“Because I’ve been telling you I’m your mother! And mothers know.” Her eyes glint.

“And how will I know when he crosses the door?” Yoongi asks, he sounds too vulnerable and he doesn’t like it but at this point he doesn’t care anymore.

“No one will be able to get inside the Hotel. Because there will be no one in the counter.” Yoongi ignores the implications.

But of course Laura sees straight through him. “I think no one will mind Yoongi, no one will mind if Jimin leaves the counter for a while. We’re all adults we can take care of ourselves.” Yoongi looks away. “Plus, all travelers are a little clumsy only to be able to see Jimin.”

Yoongi gives her, what he expects is an annoyed expression but judging by her chuckle, it only amuses her. “Don’t get jealous, we all know he is yours.”

“And I’m his,” Yoongi mumbles but Laura listens to him alright and she coos at him for being romantic, pinching his cheeks.

“Next time don’t fall for such gorgeous boy,” she jokes. “Leave the rest of us out of the competition,” she starts to tease again and Yoongi plays along.

Even if everyone says parents are always right and that one must listen to them. Laura is wrong, sometimes.

Next time.

Yoongi does a lot of stupid stuff. He gets himself in a fight. He bleeds. It wasn’t part of his job but he got himself in a fight nonetheless. When they’re beating him up he thinks it’s okay because Jimin will touch him and the pain will go away

But he can’t enter the Hotel.

From time to time Yoongi returns to the coffee shop. When his clock allows him to. He only stands outside and looks through the window and feels at ease because of Jimin’s presence from sometime. He returns from time to time.

Until he sees him there. It’s Jimin. In 2013.

Sitting on a armchair that is just in front of the bookshelf, he’s drinking steaming hot tea from an orange mug. And he looks warm and cozy unlike the outside. Yoongi looks at him through the window and he takes a minute before going inside.

He’s dreamt of Jimin all of his life.

But Yoongi is wary even if he knows he’s in front of the real Jimin. He thinks that isn’t his Jimin from the counter. But maybe he is, maybe this is his Jimin before anything happened.

Yoongi approaches him and Jimin takes care of his wounds, like any other day at the Hotel.

This time, not with healing beverages and magic touches that made bruised disappear, this time Yoongi is saved only with a really warm tea and simple bandaids Jimin carried on his bag.

Two days later, outside his building Jimin looks at Yoongi shyly, he pulls the traveler closer. When the boy kisses him after Yoongi walks him home, he just knows he’s his Jimin, from behind the counter. Because he kisses back, like he’s waited for Yoongi for over a century.

“Where will you take me, time traveler?” Jimin wonders between giggles, he’s shirtless and pulling Yoongi down on top of him. Yoongi thinks they haven’t moved from this bed in two days.

“Where do you want to go?” Yoongi asks before kissing Jimin deeply. He’s so in love.

“Mmh, what place would I like?” Jimin asks out loud, he’s playing around and Yoongi is so happy.

He kisses Jimin’s neck and whispers to his skin, “I’ll take you wherever you want to go.”

Jimin giggles. “You’re so intense.” He brings Yoongi up so they’re face to face. “Really.”

“You’re like... really intense,” Jimin repeats.

“Is it something bad?” Yoongi asks, he knows the answer already before Jimin says anything because the younger lifts his legs up to wrap them around Yoongi’s waist and keep him close.

“I didn’t say it was bad,” he’s all giggles.

“I’m only pointing it out,” Jimin is squirming but because Yoongi is trailing his hands up his thighs. Something he found out about Jimin outside the Hotel, he’s ticklish. “You kiss like... starved,” his tone and expression are playful, “and you fuck like—“ Yoongi kisses him.

“I’m not going anywhere, Yoongi,” Jimin whispers. He rolls his hips, “you can take your time.”

He doesn’t want to scare Jimin so he tries not to cry but it just hurts so much to hear him say he’s not going anywhere. He takes a deep breath and kisses him slowly, there’s time.

“How did I know you had a mole here,” Jimin giggles when Yoongi is trying to sleep. The boy has so much energy, but Yoongi isn’t surprised about that.

“Where?” Yoongi asks, groggily.

“Here,” Jimin whispers and kisses his neck, right below the end of his jaw. “I just knew.”

“How come?” Yoongi knows but he asks nonetheless, maybe Jimin will remember the cut Yoongi got and that he cured on the Hotel.

“I don’t know, I was laying here,” Jimin curls on Yoongi’s chest. “And I thought, I want to kiss Yoongi’s mole, and I just knew... this one,” he smiles.

Jimin doesn’t remember him and he swore he wouldn’t forget.

It’s New York. 1928. An easy job, stop a gangster from getting murdered outside his Hotel. Yoongi can do that.

Jimin had begged to come but Yoongi never takes the younger with him when he has a job. Also, his clock is being weird and sending him to the wrong time.

This time, he got to 1928 with no trouble but too close to the murder for Yoongi’s liking so now he’s stressed in the train station. He needs to make it in time. He’s been here before, ten years ago perhaps.

When he’s waiting in the train station, a kid steals his watch.

With no clock Yoongi can’t leave New York. He’s been stuck for a year, so it’s only been around four days for Jimin. That’s fine. Hopefully the younger doesn’t miss him that much

But wasn’t Jimin in 2016? Or is he in the counter? Yoongi doesn’t understand, how can he forget?

He asked Jimin not to forget.

Yoongi gets it. It’s his watch. His watch got stolen by a kid in a train station of New York in 1928. Yoongi is such a fucking idiot. He curls to himself.

Jimin has it. He stole it to himself back in 1928. It’s on the counter, Yoongi stole his own watch to give Jimin a gift.

What a fucking idiot.

It is happening again.

Yuno searches for him only two months later. “You fucked up! Didn’t finish the job!” What a greeting. “They’re royally pissed at Laura and I.” She paces around.

“Why did they send you here?” Yoongi stands up from the bed. Shouldn’t have they sent you years before? To fix it?”

“I was looking for you dumbass.” Her face contorts in pain and she crosses the room to hug him.

Yoongi buries himself in her skin, his sister. She smells like the Hotel. “Tell Jimin he has my watch... It’s on the counter. Tell him it’s there that he doesn’t need-”

Yuno is gone.

Yoongi thinks his tears should run out soon.

“Here’s my theory,” Jimin starts. His legs are thrown over Yoongi’s lap in the couch and the elder can see Taehyung roll his eyes at Jimin’s antics from the kitchen. Jimin is serious. “You’re... my lover... back from Joseon Era.”

Taehyung snorts. “Okay, that one is new!”

“I told Jimin you two were taking things too fast,” Taehyung explains. “No offense, Yoongi.”

“None taken,” the traveler says amused from the living room.

“And he’s trying to prove to me why he thinks you’re meant to be.”

Yoongi plays along, humming loudly. “We are meant to be”

“Thank you,” Jimin smiles up at him. Taehyung rolls his eyes again.

“But, I’m not sure about the Era. I just think... we know each other, from somewhere before.”

Jimin goes quiet at that. He easily lifts himself up to be sitting, legs still across Yoongi. “I think so too.”

Jimin looks at him seriously, he brings one hand to Yoongi’s neck. “I really think so too.” Yoongi gulps, he doesn’t want to say anything, he wants Jimin to remember. “I feel like... I already know everything there is to know about you.” Jimin whispers, probably embarrassed.

He glances Taehyung’s way, to make sure his friend isn’t listening. “Does that make sense, Yoongi? That I feel like I’ve known you my whole life?”

“Yeah, it makes sense,” Yoongi whispers back. “The same happens to me.” Jimin smiles shyly, with a cute blush and he kisses him.

Urpi stands in front of him, her long black hair is braided. Yoongi doesn’t know when was the last time he hadn’t been crying.

“If Jimin isn’t on the Hotel, then who’s going to receive your watch? And if he doesn’t receive it then it’s lost forever and you know it’ll kill you.”

“You’re going to ask him, to go back to the Hotel, so I can give him my watch as a kid?” Yoongi cries. “So the damaged thing is not lost forever?”

“Yes,” she says coldly. And Yoongi always hated Koschei. And for what.

“I’d rather die,” Yoongi says angrily. “Let it kill me.”

She looks away. “I have to take care of my travelers and we won’t allow them to die. I’m just letting you know.” As if that was a courtesy.

“If he goes back to the Hotel he’s going to get stuck there forever again. I don’t want to—“

“It’s his choice Yoongi,” she says calmly.

“Can’t Aglaope fix my watch? Isn’t that what she does?” Yoongi is upset, he’s tired, he’s hurt. He was a kid.

“We need someone in the counter,” Urpi explains.

“She won’t fix it because you need to get Jimin back there? You’re just using me to get him back there?”

“Do you live for Jimin, Yoongi?” she asks. He nods slowly. “You’ve realized that he is the purpose of your life?” Yoongi nods.

“Jimin lives for the Hotel. His purpose is there.” Yoongi feels his tears wet his skin. He doesn’t feel like that’s true. Doesn’t want it to be true.

“He says yes every time!” Yoongi sobs harder. “He will say yes when you explain that it’s to get my clock back but it’s a lie— and he will get back there!” his words are slurred by his sobbing. “Stuck there again,” he repeats and cries.

“He says yes because he loves you.”

That’s why it’s all determined, that’s why he knew how to use a clock when Laura met him, that’s why he knows where Jimin is from even if the boy didn’t speak korean, he lives so Jimin falls in love with him and accepts going to the Hotel.

Yoongi hates himself so much sometimes.

Yoongi can’t stop crying, feeling helpless.

“When he agrees to go to the Hotel, you’ll get your watch back and you’ll go back to the start.” Yoongi only sobs. “And you’re going to fall for him again.”

He nods, because he knows. It’s not like he wouldn’t do it again.

It’s a shame Yoongi doesn’t remember the first time he met Jimin, not the countless times he’s meet him in the Hotel when he’s fourteen and dreaming of a boy or in the coffee shop from New Jersey, after years of searching him. He doesn’t remember the true, real, first time.

Where he was mesmerized by the younger not because they’ve been in love forever and Yoongi had unknowingly been searching for him but because he saw for the first time what love looks like. It’s a shame he doesn’t remember the feeling that caused them to get inside the circle.

Sometimes Yoongi thinks Koshei looks at him in pain.

“What did you do this time?” Jimin scolds as soon as Yoongi walks inside the Hotel.

“Is that a way to greet me?” Yoongi complains pretending to be hurt. He walks to a blushing Jimin who is already making tea behind the counter.

“I hate it when you hurt yourself,” he mutters.

Yoongi brings his hands up, they’re swollen from closing a door forcefully on them. Jimin takes Yoongi’s hands into his and they watch as the slowly returns to its natural color. “Don’t hurt yourself for me,” Jimin whispers

Yoongi knows Jimin can’t hurt himself inside the Hotel.

But he finds himself asking nonetheless, “don’t hurt yourself for me either.”

Jimin brings his hands up to Yoongi’s face, gently strokes his skin. Yoongi closes his eyes but Jimin doesn’t promise he won’t.

I feel like I gave more answers this time around, thank you for letting me indulge myself with this story