Jae sighed deeply as she stared at the tv screen, she'd already gotten a perfect score on every song in guitar hero III and it wasn't even Tuesday.

Sure, being sick had some perks, but not being able to breath well enough to finish the garden?

That .

Jae set the controller down, popping the game out in order to replace it with call of duty, because she really just wanted to shoot something right now.

"Jae, I'm home." Jimin called from the front door, late as usual.

"Good to hear..." She mumbled quietly, a coughing fit ensuing right after.

"You okay?" Jimin asked as he sat down next to her on the couch.

"I have a cold, possibly a lung infection, and the guy I beat out for the job as English teacher is now the substitute. I'm fine, really." She said sarcastically before setting it to the zombies mode on the game.

"Jae, the last time you played zombies mode, you forgot to take your pills..." Jimin said as he took the controller from her hands.

"I took my pills." She said as she reached for the controller.

"All of them?" He asked with an eyebrow raised.

"You know the anti-depressants mess with me, Jimin. I don't want to take them anymore, please." She begged as she pulled her knees to her chest.

"That's not up to us, that's up to the Doctors." He said as he got up to go get the pills.

Then it started, the side affects of her not taking them.

She just broke down, tears streaming down her face, sobs racking her body.

Everything that she'd kept inside just unleashed in her all at once.

"The school therapist that they made me go see says that my dissociation is getting worse. I actually forgot that dad left, and that mom died, that I went to her funeral even." She paused, her breath catching a bit. 

"Things are starting to make less sense, and if I'm going crazy, I want to at least remember how I went." She finally finished as she pulled her blankets around her tighter, and tighter, until they felt like a second skin.

"You've only been taking the pain pills, haven't you?" Jimin asked as he sat back down on the couch.

"The other ones make me feel so weird inside. The ones for schizophrenia make me feel so dull, and dead inside. Then the anti-depressants create this kind of fake happiness that makes me too happy. The blood thinners make me too dizzy at times, they cause nosebleeds, they make me so weak. I just hate it all."

Jae hadn't ever really told Jimin how she felt about all the pills she'd been having to take, about how she hated them. How she hated the way they made her act.

Because she didn't want to put that burden on him, she'd just kept quiet and took them, until now at least.

"Look, Jae, I know that you don't like them. And I'm sorry about how they make you feel, but if you don't take them, I can't help you. If I can't help you, you go to the hospital, and we both know we'd rather not have to go there." He wasn't trying to threaten her, but if he had to, so be it.

"I... fine." Jae gave in, because she did have memories of the hospital, none of which were good.

After a bit more coaxing he'd gotten her to take the pills, and her mood was going back to normal.

She felt like she was dying inside, like the pills were taking away her humanity, replacing her with something she wasn't.

"I'll go answer the door." Jimin said as he got up from the couch, alerting Jae to the knocking from the front door.

"Oh, hey guys. Yeah, c'mon in."

Jae panicked, throwing her pill bottles under the blankets.

No one besides Jimin knew about those, not even the other boys.

"Hey, feeling any better?" Hoseok asked as he gave Jae a hug.

"A little." She lied as he smiled at her, taking his usual place on the side of the armchair.

"Guess what I brought~" Taehyung said in a singsong way as he came into the living room with a giant care basket.

"Tae, you didn't have to get that." She chuckled as he sat it down on the coffee table.

"Bull, you're practically family." He said with an impish smile, taking his seat in the armchair.

"You're all ridiculous." Jungkook said as he and Jimin sat down on the other end of the couch, Yoongi just kind of awkwardly standing back in the doorway.

"Hey, Yoongi." She said waving, feeling extremely awkward.

"Hey." He said with a quick wave.

A couple of minutes passed with everyone just talking, and Jae couldn't help but ask about the new substitute.

"So, how was he?" She asked followed by a quick cough.

"Fine."

"Boring."

"Dreamy."

Everyone turned to Namjoon who was sitting on the floor next to Jimin's legs.

"So, you gonna ask him out, or nah?" Hoseok said teasingly as he nudged Taehyung with his elbow.

"That's not allowed." Jungkook said with a roll of the eyes.

"Actually, since they're both over eighteen, and he's not the official English teacher, it's very much allowed." Jae said as she sipped on her hot tea, everyone staring at her with raised eyebrows.

"What?" She asked as they all remained silently judging her from all around the room.

"Planning on bagging one of your students, Miss Park?" Taehyung said with a smirk.

"Even if I wanted to, they're all as-" Jimin hit her shoulder and caused one of the pill bottles to roll out from under her blanket, but no one seemed to notice.

"They're still your students, doesn't mean you have to be mean."

She rolled her eyes, a small smile on her lips.

"I'm not supposed to, but it doesn't mean I don't." She said before a sip of her tea.

"Don't what?" Jungkook said with a wiggle of his brows.

"Like someone?" Namjoon craned his neck to stare at Jae.

"It's about time, I mean sooner or later you were going to have to take interest in someone." They teased as she sat there, staring at her cup.

Her stomach started growling and she debated going to make food when everyone else's stomachs growled too.

"Is everyone staying for dinner?" Jimin asked as he got up to go make food, Jungkook following like a puppy.

"Free. Food." Namjoon said making motions with his hands.

"We should at least help." So one by one they left, except for Yoongi and Jae.

"You dropped this." Yoongi said as he handed her the pill bottle that rolled out from under her blankets earlier.

Her face fell when she read which one it was.

The one for schizophrenia.

"It's alright, I take them too." He said with a small smile before settling down in the armchair.

She looked up at him, wondering why they were so different.

It never looked like he faked smiling, or pretended to be having a good time, he looked like everyone else.

Not someone who struggled with schizophrenia.

Not someone like her.

Someone who struggled to keep their head on straight, or to smile regularly, or even laugh.

Then again, maybe it's because his wasn't hereditary.

He didn't grow up with a mom who wasn't quite all there, who forgot that she had kids some days.

Then again, maybe he was like that because he didn't mind that feeling of being numb inside.

Whatever it was, she almost wished she had it, just so she wouldn't mind taking her pills everyday.

"That's not how you cut an onion!" Jungkook screeched as something fell in the kitchen.

Jae giggled, it was most likely Namjoon, because he couldn't cook to save his life.

"You have guitar hero rocks the 80's?" Yoongi asked as he looked at the game that was propped up in the bookshelf.

"Yeah, you like guitar hero?"

"I love it, my family and I used to play it on Sunday when we got back from church."

"There's a guitar behind the bookshelf if you wanna play, this drama's boring. Would've been fine, but it's Park Shin-Hye." She said with a goofy grin.

And that's how it all started.

That's how they became friends that day.

A bottle of pills.

And a game with nothing but smooth 80's music.

~~

"Bye guys." Jae overheard Jimin say as she made her way up to her bedroom, wishing nothing more than to be wrapped up in the comforter.

"Goodnight." She heard Jimin say from the doorway as her eyes started closing, the world quickly turning black.

As soon as Jae was asleep, Jimin knew what he was going to do.

He loved his sister, and that's why he thought he had to do this. He thought he had to be the one to bring the money in, to support them. He knew Jae would hate him for a while if she found out where he was going, but all that mattered to him was that she was taken care of no matter what had to be done.

~~

"A mimosa, please." A young woman asked as he walked over.

"Coming right up."

So far the night was going smooth, until someone who Jimin held dear walked right through the door.

"What are you doing here?" He asked as they sat down on the bar stool, tapping their fingers on the counter.

"Well, originally I came for a drink and maybe a bit of dancing. But now I'm here to ask you why you didn't tell me that this is where you worked?"

"Because I didn't want you to tell Jae, she keeps hounding me about where I work." He said wistfully.

"I'm your boyfriend, I'm supposed to know things like this. Or have you forgotten about that?"

"Kook, it's not like that. I just... I love you, and if I didn't worry about Jae finding out, I would have told you. I just thought it was better if I didn't." He reached out to touch his boyfriends hand, something he always did whenever they got into an argument.

"Fine, you win. But seriously, is this where you want to spend the rest of your life working? Because if you don't make the effort for school, this is where you'll be stuck."

"I couldn't find anywhere else that would really hire me, I don't have a college degree and I wasn't exactly a straight A student in high school." Jimin shook his head slightly, refilling another customers drink before returning to his boyfriend.

"I have an uncle who owns a book store, if you're willing to help him, I'm sure he'd hire you. Anything is better than this, please." After a few seconds of puppy dog eyes Jimin knew he'd lost to the younger.

"Fine. I'll quit after tonight, and contact your uncle as soon as I can."

Jungkook perked up, leaning over to kiss him, slightly biting at Jimin's lip.

"It's a part-time job, so you'll have more free time for your sister, and maybe we could think of other things too..."

Jimin didn't mind this, Jungkook was the dominant one in the relationship and he found it refreshing.

"Sign me up..." Jimin joked as Jungkook grabbed his jacket from the back of the chair.

"I will. Bye, Jimin."

"Bye, Jungkook."

The whole thing was rather eventful, Jimin deciding he wasn't going to work as a bartender, Jungkook showing affection in public... everything was just kind of happening.

He liked it.