“Jungkook? Are you still in here?” Taehyung looked inside the dark room and saw the boy bent over the bed. Walking inside, he saw Jungkook’s hands grip onto Jimin’s; both of them deep in sleep. Feeling like it was a shame to wake him up, Taehyung pulled up a chair on the other side of the bed and drifted away.

Taehyung, Jungkook and Jimin were inseparable. Ever since elementary school, they did everything together. Maybe that was what hurt the most. The fact that Jimin now held the mindset of a five year old and couldn’t do algebra like the twenty one year old he was.

“Annyeong. Did you guys loose your beds?” Jimin’s voice woke the two boys from their sleep but he didn’t seem too bothered by it.

“I’m Kim Taehyung, and thats Jeon Jungkook on the other side.”

“Are you my friends?”

“Yes.” Jimin’s eyes lit up when Jungkook gave his hands a little squeeze.

“Really? It’s nice to meet you guys! I’m Park Jimin!”

The nurse came in after, giving a little look to the two to give her a minute with Jimin. They stepped aside and watched her check Jimin for any signs of change but sighed when she saw nothing. “Jimin-ah, what’s two plus one?”

Jimin smiled, “ Three silly!”

“I’ll check on you later alright? Do you know who the two boys over there are?”

“They’re my friends!”

She looked back at the two. “Does he remember you two?” They shook their heads; no.

They were going home to their shared apartment when they’d got to an intersection. Jimin had pushed the two out of the way of the car but didn’t have time to get himself onto the sidewalk.

After the nurse left, Jimin had breakfast with Jungkook. Taehyung went home to grab some clothes and comic books. They were going to stay for a while.

“I wonder what it’s like outside.”

“Want to go?”

Jimin grabbed the younger’s hand and nodded. “Can we?”

“I’ll go ask the nurse, stay here in the meantime.”
“Yes sir!”

Jimin had a severe head trauma. Terminology that had confused even their medical student friend Jin, “It’s hard to explain. He’s just not as bright anymore.”.

“Let’s go wait for Taehyung in the front garden.”

They strolled around the flowers and stopped near the pond when Taehyung ran up to them with a few bottles.

“Want some juice. I bought some on the way here.”

Jimin reached both hands out and took the orange juice. “What are doing today?”

“I told the hyungs that they could visit later tonight. So I guess we can watch a few movies until they arrive.”

“Hyungs? Who are they?”

Jungkook nodded and started to push them back to the hospital. “We’re all friends Jimin. Hoseok, Namjoon, Yoongi and Seokjin hyung.”

The three strolled by the garden and listened as Taehyung told them about this story about a boy who lived in the garden. “He had butterfly wings that could take him high into the sky and all around the garden.”.

“He must be a happy boy! Flying is a big adventure!”

“He was happy, but he wasn’t able to leave the garden. Not unless he wanted his wings to be taken away from him.”

Jimin had a frown on his face, “What happened to the boy?”

“He wanted to explore so he was banished from the garden forever. He took his bag and left to meet people who loved him. You know Jimin, you don’t always need wings to fly.” They looked behind to find the owner of the voice and saw someone walk up to him with three others behind him. Taehyung nudged Jimin on the shoulder before cheerfully calling out “Yoongi-hyung!”.

The seven of them went back to Jimin’s room; the nurse asked a few more math questions. After she shook her head and left, Jimin looked over to the couch to where the rest of them were sitting. “What is the multiplication table? Do we eat dessert there?”, the four older boys stared with wide eyes. They didn’t know the extent to how much the accident affected him; seeing Jimin asking questions that seem rhetorical for his age felt unnerving.

“It’s when you have a number times another number. Don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of it.” Jin looked at the bandage around his head. “Does your head hurt?”

“Just a little, but I’m a big boy, I’ll be ok.”

The eldest looked away with a bittersweet smile. Motioning towards the door, he stepped outside with Jungkook close behind him.

“What exactly happened? You were all laughing over Namjoon stubbing his toe two days ago.”

“It was our fault, Taehyung and I. We were crossing the street.” His gaze went over Seokjin’s shoulder. “some driver wasn’t looking. I swear the light for us was green, we didn’t see what was coming at us. Jimin did though. He pushed us.”

“He doesn’t remember us.” It came out more like a statement than it did a question.

“Hyung, he doesn’t know past grade three mathematics! He didn’t even know who we were when he first woke up.”

The sound of laughter brought both of their glances to the door. “C’mon, we can talk about this more later, for now all we can do is be there and keep him company.”

Taehyung watched Jimin with sad eyes. Hoseok was telling him a story about the one time he burped while asking his teacher a question and couldn’t help but look away when Jimin’s eyes disappeared into his smile.

“He’ll be ok.”

“He’ll hate us. Jungkook and I.”

“No he won’t. If he did then he wouldn’t have jumped in to push you out of the way in the first place. Give him more credit.”

“Always the smart one Joonie.”

“That’s Joonie hyung to you Tae.” The latter only hummed in response.

“Where did Yoongi hyung go?”

“Went out to buy take out, it’ll be a boys night.”

“Jimin likes ice-cream, let’s call and make sure he gets some.”

“You really think Yoongi hyung is going to forget about what Jimin likes? I swear to god he is his favourite out of all of us.”

“Someone seems jealous.”

“I’m not jealous. If anything, you two need to be there for Jimin ok? With the four of us at work, only you two have such accommodating schedules at uni.”

“Anything for Jimin.”

Yoongi came back with boxes of ddeokbokki and two tubs of ice-cream. They ate like they hadn't in weeks and the nurse had to come in with water; warning them to slow down. Jimin asked a lot of questions and they didn’t stop answering them.

“How did we meet?”

“You grew up with Taehyung and Kookie. The four of us came into he picture in high school when you and Hoseok meet in the dance club.”

“An it was the most lit club at that. It was only popular after we joined.”

“I can dance?”

Yoongi took a scoop of ice-cream from Jimin’s tub before ruffling his hair. “You can do anything you ever wanted.”

The next day, Taehyung couldn’t concentrate in any of his classes. Not without Jimin making lame puns at the teacher’s assistant or the smell of cologne that was specifically named after Jimin in Taehyung’s mind. His day went by like a blur and almost raced out of the lecture room by the time his last class ended. He met up with Jungkook at the subway station, the boy had

forgot his assignments in two of his classes and got caught doodling on his papers.

“It just isn't my day today.”

“You too right?”

Their smiles returned to their faces when they saw Jimin on the bed folding paper cranes. His eyes lit up when he saw his two friends walk in.

“The nurse taught me how to make paper cranes. Want me to teach you? They say that if you make a thousand you can make a wish that’ll come true!” Despite learning how to make paper animals back in fifth grade, Taehyung sat next to Jimin and listened intently on how to make a paper crane. Jungkook took out his homework and worked quietly on the other side of the bed, silently praying for the boy to stop flying and come back to them.

Weeks went by. Jimin wasn’t getting any worse and he was learning new things everyday. The four eldest came on the weekends while the two youngest came everyday after class. Jimin was always folding cranes and Taehyung would scold him whenever he got a paper cut.

Final exams and assignments were handed over to them and just like that their visits no longer contained the loud chattering and off pitch singing. It was now just the sound of paper turning and music blaring from headphones. Jimin was beginning to feel lonely despite the company and the picture books in the children’s department were all read. Though the story of the boy who could fly was still in Jimin’s head.

It was a Sunday night and Jimin looked at the clock, ten o’clock, the sun had already set a long time ago and sitting the bed he pulled out the box that he kept under the bed. Hundreds of paper cranes of bright colours and different sizes. Jimin was proud to be able to count so high and he was only a few hundred off from a thousand. The nurse came in around eleven and smiled as she watched Jimin diligently fold paper cranes, one after another. He had a wish and told himself that he would write it down on the largest crane out of all of them.

Taehyung and Jungkook didn’t visit on Monday nor Tuesday. Wednesday rolled by and they walked into the room to see Jimin asleep with fingers wrapped with bandages. It might had been the stress from their exams or the lack of sleep but seeing Jimin hurting himself over something so small made Taehyung mad. When Jimin woke up, he gave a bright smile. It had been a few days since he had anyone visit and he stayed up all night in case they did decide to come by. His smile froze when Taehyung gave a frown in response.

“The nurse says that if you keep looking like that you’ll stay like that. Tae, that look doesn't suit you.”

“You should stop making these cranes. You’re hurting yourself.”

“It’s ok! I’m a big boy! I want to make a wish with them.”

“You don’t get it Jimin, just because you make these stupid cranes doesn’t mean it’ll come true!”

“They aren’t stupid! Kookie! Tell him they aren’t stupid!” The youngest stood there not saying a word and it made the anger in Jimin boil. How could none of them understand him? “Leave! If you think these are stupid than leave!” With the pride that was in Taehyung, he stormed out of the room. Jimin was surprised that he really left and tried to keep his tears in, he glanced at Jungkook who still held his ground by the wall.

“Are they really stupid?”

“Jimin, you need to understand that just because you fold them, doesn’t mean th-”

“You’re the same! You think their stupid! I can’t believe you!” Jimin threw his pillow at the boy and only cried harder when he left. The nurse came running in when she heard the sobbing and held Jimin tight as she hummed a soft tune.

“Did they give up on me?”

“Give up?”

“I know I’m not as bright, I only know how to count to a thousand. But I’m really trying.”

“Listen to me, your friends love you too much to give up on you.”

“Taehyung! Hyung!”

Taehyung didn’t know why he was angry, he was angry at why the world made Jimin to be like this, why someone so beautiful could be so detained inside a hospital room, why he was so selfish to wish that Jimin would just wake up and go to school with him. “What Jungkook?”

“That wasn’t right, we need to go back and apologize. C’mon hyung.”

“Why is he still in there?”

“You know fully well that they want to take tests on him so they can try and help him.”

“That’s the problem. He isn’t getting much better! There’s no point so why keep him imprisoned there? He doesn’t have a choice!” Jungkook pulled Taehyung into a hug and only tightened his hold when Taehyung started to sob.

“We can visit tomorrow ok?”

The next day, Jimin pulled on a jacket and sneaked out of his room. Taehyung and Jungkook came into the room surprised to the core when they saw in the place of jimin was abundance of paper cranes to which no doubt amounted to a thousand. Taking the largest out of all of them Taehyung unfolded it and yelled at Jungkook to call the rest of them over. The words written on the paper made his heart tremble.

“I want to explore.”

Jimin didn’t know where he was going, he followed street names that sounded familiar and came across an intersection that seemed so familiar but Jimin just couldn’t recall the memory.

“What do you mean he’s gone?” Seokjin had his phone one speaker in the car with Hoseok, driving way past the speed limit to the hospital. The rest of them were already there and they needed to figure out where Jimin was.

“He’s just gone hyung!”

“Why the hell am I going to the hospital if he isn’t there? Go split up and look for him godddamit! We’ll look near the coffee shop beside the mall.”

Jungkook shut the phone and looked around the room. “Where could he have gone?”

“Not that far, he’s on his two feet, let’s go.”

Jimin stood there for an hour, like something was waiting for him. He pulled at his hair but the memory that he wanted to remember so badly just wouldn’t come to him. He waited and waited until he heard a familiar voice.

“Jimin! Guys he’s over there! Call Seokjin and Hoseok hyung!” Jimin saw Taehyung run over to him with a red folded crane in his hand. “God Jimin, you scared the crap out of me! If you wanted to explore you could’ve just told us.”

“You were busy.”

Jungkook was breathless and rolled his eyes. “Busy or not, we would’ve made time for you.” Yoongi came over and pulled Jimin into a tight hug.

“Why would you just run away?”

“You don’t need wings to fly hyung.” Yoongi laughed at the irony of his words.

“Why are you just standing here though?” Namjoon was looking around, not seeing anything interesting.

“I don’t know, I can’t remember. Do you know why?”

Jungkook gulped as he took in the streets. “It was where you got hit Jimin. Do you remember?”

“No, but does this means that I have to go back to the hospital? It’s no fun.” Taehyung gave the crane back to Jimin.

“If you don’t want to go back, you don’t have to. But are you ready to come to us?”

“Will I be allowed to explore?”

“Of course.”

“Are you sure? I’m not that smart.”

“Jimin.” Namjoon bumped his shoulder. “I think the two of them had been waiting for far too long for you to come back.”

“And we’ll be here for you every step of the way.” Hoseok yelled from the car. Seokjin unlocking the car for them to enter. One by one, they got in and Jungkook held his hand out to Jimin who was just watching.

“Come back to us.” And like magic, Jimin took his hand with a smile and jumped in.

Taehyung, Jungkook and Jimin were inseparable. Ever since elementary school, they did everything together. Maybe that was what hurt the most. The fact that Jimin now held the mindset of a five year old and couldn’t do algebra like the twenty one year old he was. But despite that, Jimin was still able to bring a smile to their faces faster than any sports car in Italy; with him around, he was their wings. And you know what they say, flying is a big adventure.