Chapter 5 - he was making fun of me

Jisoo was certain. She was dreaming. All of this made no sense. Her parents sending her into a place for crazy people, having a military schedule and a shrink and on top of it all the guy she just met a few days ago. This was such a joke. What kind of trick was her mind playing on her? Maybe she really was going crazy and that’s why this dream became even weirder. On a second thought this dream seemed a bit too real though. What the hell was going on? Jisoo didn’t dare to enter the kitchen. There was a cute old lady baking cookies and next to her was Min Yoongi. The lady finally realized Jisoo was standing there staring at them.

“Ms. Kim! It’s so nice to meet you! I’m the chef here. My name is Mrs. Park, and I will cook whatever you want for you. I do take special orders sometimes as well!” She said smiling. “I would like to welcome you here, as this will be your home for a while, I hope you will also feel like that.”

Jisoo wasn’t even surprised that Mrs. Park knew who she was. It seemed like everyone knew who she was. They all appeared to know more about her than she knew about herself and it was annoying. Jisoo realized Yoongi staring at her. “What in the world are you doing here?” he asked her.

“I could ask you the same thing” she replied, “are you crazy too?”. Yoongi could definitely hear the sarcasm in her voice.

“If you’re not crazy… why are you here then?” He wanted to know.

“It’s just like you said, the world is messed up.” Jisoo replied.

Yoongi nodded his head. “I see”.

“Do you two know each other?” Mrs. Kim interrupted them. “I was told you don’t talk to people Ms. Kim, but in that case it’s even better. Now I can give our helping hand here a real task!”

Helping hand? Jisoo guessed she was talking about Min Yoongi. So he actually did get in trouble and ended up here somehow? Or maybe he was actually crazy. He did in fact run away from the police in the middle of the night, not to mention giving alcohol to underaged girls. This was even weirder than a movie. Jisoo kind of liked Mrs. Park, but just the comment about her talking to no one annoyed her. Jisoo usually wasn’t someone that would get annoyed or would behave sassy, but lately she just felt like it. She did talk to people! Or maybe she didn’t? She actually had to think about it. Ever since Seokjin’s death she spoke maybe three sentences with her mom, none with her dad and she only screamed at the doctor. The only person she had a real conversation with was Min Yoongi. She realized she didn’t have any interest in talking to anyone. Why did she talk to Min Yoongi then? She knew why. It was because he didn’t know her. She was excited to meet someone who didn’t know who she was, who didn’t know her history or anything about her. So far he only knew, that she lived in the upper standard area and now that she was apparently crazy. Great.

Her stomach gave her a sign again. She was starving. At the same time, she was disappointed. She didn’t want Min Yoongi to see her here. When she met him she was really excited. He was the first person that just talked to her like a normal human being, who didn’t care where she was from or what had happened in her life. Then on the other hand he was a little weird himself. However, this chapter was now over as well. Jisoo decided to just go back to her room. She didn’t want to have anything to do with anyone here, Min Yoongi included. She closed the door and sat back down on her desk. She was angry. Apparently, she was an open book for everyone and everyone thought she was a freak. On top of it all she was still hungry. Maybe she really was a freak and had telepathic powers, because just in that moment someone knocked on her door. The person didn’t wait for her reply and opened the door a little. Min Yoongi’s head popped in.

“Can I come in and bring you some food?” he asked.

Jisoo nodded her head. She expected him to go back to the kitchen to get something, but he had already prepared a tray of freshly baked cookies and juice. “Mrs. Park just finished these” he said pointing at the cookies. Jisoo looked at the tray he placed on her desk.

“Now you’re not even talking to me anymore?” he asked with a slightly sad expression.

“It’s not like I know you or anything” Jisoo replied while taking the glass of juice.

Yoongi sighed: “Thanks god you didn’t lose your voice. You’re the only sane person in here. If you don’t talk to me I’m probably going to end up here like the others.” he laughed.

This boy was so fascinating. How could he be laughing in a place like this? If Jisoo understood it right, he had to do some sort of social hours in here. How could that be a good thing?

“Like me you mean?” Jisoo asked.

Yoongi’s smile disappeared. “You’re not like them. I don’t believe you should be here.”

“I guess you’re the only one then. Everyone thinks I’m crazy…” Jisoo said while putting down the glass again. She was holding it in both hands just looking at it.

Yoongi came closer looking on her desk: “Wow your drawings are quite good! Can I look at them?”

Jisoo never showed her notebook to anyone. It was her soul, her thoughts and the only place where she could be free. What Jisoo said next surprised herself: “Keep it a secret”.

Yoongi leaned over to go through the pages. He stopped at one page: “Is this your boyfriend?”

Jisoo didn’t remember drawing this picture of Seokjin, but there it was. This happened a lot to her, she drew pictures without realizing what she was drawing. That’s why she usually never showed this notebook to anyone. “No” she answered.

Yoongi looked at her for a while expecting an answer, but Jisoo didn’t say anything. Yoongi closed the notebook. “You should keep drawing, you’re good!”

“Min Yoongi” Jisoo turned sideways to face him “why are you here?”

Yoongi scratched the back of his head. “Well… I tend to get in trouble for things others did. I guess I should stop being loyal to these idiots. Anyways somehow it ended like this” he said.

“How bad did your friends screw up?” Jisoo asked.

“Bad enough that it got me here… but don’t worry now that you’re here it will be fun!” He smiled.

Jisoo’s heart started racing. Would he be here every day? If this really was a dream she might as well ask. “How long do you have to stay here?”

“I don’t know how to explain this, but I sort of live here. I’m not a patient, I would rather say I’m a resident here.”

Jisoo couldn’t sort what he was saying. He lived here? That means he didn’t have to do social hours right? That on the other hand meant he wasn’t a criminal and that he wasn’t here due to his friends, which led her to the conclusion that he was just crazy and an actual patient here. Actually, Jisoo didn’t really care why he was there. It was great, at least she could spend her time with a somewhat normal person in here. In that moment someone knocked. Mrs. Park came in and looked at the two. “Min Yoongi, you know I like you a lot and you’re really helpful, but your job isn’t to find a girlfriend in here and confuse the patients” Mrs. Park told him “You should finish what you started before just running off, I do not have four arms you know…”.

“Sorry, I’m coming”. He smiled at Jisoo: “bye, see you later then”.

“Bye” Jisoo replied as he was leaving her room. Her heart was still racing. She would spend at least the entire summer with him. She didn’t mean it in a romantic way, but at least she had something close to a friend. At the moment she really needed one.  

Later she went to eat lunch. There were some other patients she hadn’t met yet, but she was not planning on staying in this institute anyways. She went over to the buffet. Of course, they had a lot of different dishes. From Pasta, Pizza to Thai Curry. Jisoo went for the curry and took a bowl of rice. The cookies filled her up, therefore she wasn’t that hungry. She wanted to eat just in case she would be starving again and another reason was Min Yoongi. She was hoping he would still be there. Jisoo sat down at an empty table. It was some sort of Hotel cafeteria with different table sizes and nicely arranged furniture. The tables were distributed throughout the room.

After around 10 minutes Jisoo heard his voice: “Can I sit with you?”

Jisoo looked up, it was Yoongi. Jisoo nodded with a smile. “You need to help me out” he continued. Jisoo was confused. Wasn’t she the patient that apparently needed help?

Yoongi explained: “See that girl behind you with the long blond hair?”

Jisoo turned around and saw her immediately. It was the same girl she saw this morning at breakfast. “What about her?” Jisoo wanted to know.

“Thing is… she creeps me out! She told me she wanted to be my girlfriend last week.”

Jisoo had to laugh “and you don’t want her to be your girlfriend?”          

“Obviously not. Mrs. Park also thinks I have some sort of interest in you, so I want you to help me keeping it that way.”

“You want me to pretend to be your girlfriend?” Jisoo asked. She was a little shocked. This guy actually was weird. Now she was sure he was a patient here as well.

“No that’s not what I mean. But just in case the creep ever asks you, please tell her we have a thing or something… just tell her anything that would keep her away from me… Can you do that please? I know it’s a weird request.” he continued.

He definitely was weird. On a second thought this could turn out to be really funny. She had never done something like this. In fact, she never even had a boyfriend. Before Seokjin’s sickness she just didn’t have any interest in dating and after he became sick she had no time. Seokjin’s health was her first priority. Jisoo continued eating her food, while Yoongi kept staring at her.

“You know you’re weird right?” Jisoo finally said. “Stop staring I’m trying to eat”.

Yoongi smiled at her: “I’m just trying to make it convincing for the scary girl and you’re not so bad to look at”.

This conversation started to make Jisoo uncomfortable. It’s not like she didn’t like being called pretty, but she didn’t know if he really meant it or if he was joking. The thing that annoyed her the most was his looks. He was extremely handsome. If Jisoo wouldn’t have other things on her mind she would’ve fallen for him the very first second, he talked to her on the streets. This guy’s looks were just simply perfect. His dark hair and fair skin combined with his eyes gave him a mysterious aura. She was drawn to him, she could physically feel it.

“Now you’re staring as well, we’re even” he said. Jisoo was embarrassed that he caught her staring as well and started to blush.

“You seem like a happy person, Min Yoongi” Jisoo said with a bitter smile on her face.

Yoongi’s expression became dark “You know what’s funny? I think I can read you like an open book but no one else can apparently. How come you show me what you think but shut everyone else out? Actually, I’m not allowed to know anything about the patience here but when it comes to you I’m really interested. I really don’t think you’re crazy. You’re just going through a hard time.”

Jisoo noticed that he changed the topic back on her, but she didn’t want to force him to talk about things he wasn’t ready to talk about. “Because you don’t know me”.

Her answer confused him “what do you mean?”

“I mean you don’t know me. You don’t seem to know who my family is, which means you also don’t know anything about my life. That’s why I like to talk to you. You’re the first person I met in my life that knows nothing about me.”

Yoongi couldn’t reply for a few seconds. Maybe he didn’t know what to say, but eventually he smiled again. “So you wanna be friends?”

Jisoo’s heart was beating really fast. She tried to focus. What was wrong? Maybe she had a heart disease now. What was this feeling? Maybe she was just excited as she made a friend for the first time in her life. All of her so-called friends were children of her parents’ affiliates, and therefore it was expected that she would hang out with these people. A real friend was something she only had in her brother. “Sure why not” Jisoo answered with a big smile on her face.

“So you actually do talk to people, Ms. Kim. This is excellent.” she heard Mr. Bang say behind her.  “Actually, I was searching for your friend here, but seeing you already making progress is amazing”, he continued.

Progress? Was he actually kidding? It’s not like she didn’t know how to talk. She just didn’t want to talk to people that did only care about the money they would get from her parents.

“What is it, Hyung?” Yoongi asked.

“I need to talk to you” Mr. Bang said.

“About what?” Yoongi wanted to know.

“I just got a phone call. Just come to my office when you have time” he said and left the room.

Yoongi’s expression has gotten really dark within seconds. It scared Jisoo a little bit, but she didn’t want him to notice. “So he’s your Hyung?”

“He’s an old friend of my mother, so he likes to help me out from time to time” he said. While talking his expression changed again. It seemed like before, as if Mr. Bang never entered.

“I guess I should go see him then. Finish your plate. I’ll see you later” Yoongi said.

He indeed was a weird person, Jisoo thought. What kind of person would live in such an institution without being a patient? She guessed it had something to do with his relationship with Mr. Bang, then on the other hand it was none of her business. It was just so interesting to find out things about a person she chose to meet. Not like she actually chose to meet him, but it was the first time for her in years that she talked to someone because she was interested. Usually she would ask her school friends questions because her parents would ask her about them. It was better to already have answers ready, otherwise her parents would tell her, that she didn’t put in enough effort into her friendships. Her parents have always been annoying like that. Sometimes she thought they actually wanted her to make friends with influential people, but later Seokjin and her came to the conclusion that the used their kids to get to know the influential parents.

“Unnie, do you want to go to the movie room with us?” the small boy from breakfast asked. Jisoo didn’t even notice him entering the room. “We will watch the news and after that a quiz show! You should meet our other friends as well” he said while taking her hand. Jisoo wanted to clean up her plate first, then she thought that they would probably have staff to clean it. The little boy dragged her into the movie room where a few people were already seated. It wasn’t really a movie room, more like a big living room with three large couches. In the back corner there was also a black piano. The news channel was on, but not on a regular TV but on a huge screen through a projector. It was true this facility was made for troubled rich kids, it was obvious. The food was luxurious, they had every sort of entertainment, each room at an individual bathroom and there was probably even more she didn’t know about this place yet. The boy dragged her to one of the couches and sat down. “Unnie, sit next to me!”. Jisoo followed his order and watched the news carefully. She just noticed that she didn’t watch TV in a really long time. She had no interest in the news whatsoever, as she knew that the media was never telling the truth. She had experience with paying off the media to spread wrong info, so why would the media stop at national news? This was all fake and paid by people like her parents. However, she had nothing else to do, so she might as well just look at the screen.

After the news they watched different quiz shows. A few people in there started talking about it and laughing. Others like the little boy were totally bewitched by the screen. In moments like this Jisoo would usually take out her notebook and start scribbling. She had left it in her room. Just when she wanted to get up to go get it Min Yoongi entered the room. “You’re here!” the creepy girl said. Just as he entered the room she stood up and seemed really happy.

“Hyung, can you play the piano for us? You didn’t play for so long!” the boy said.

Yoongi first looked at the creepy girl and then back at the boy. “I mean if my precious Yeon Ho wants me to play, I will”, Yoongi smiled at him. Everyone else in the room abruptly stopped to watch the game show, turned off the volume and cheered Yoongi on. For Jisoo it seemed as Yoongi played for them occasionally. As soon as Yoongi sat down at the piano everyone was quiet. Then he started to play, and it was beyond Jisoo’s expectations. He was amazing! First, he played some classical pieces that Jisoo could recognize, later he played other pieces, that Jisoo either didn’t know or where his own creations. He was a genius. She was more than impressed. Not only could he dance but he was also talented at the piano. Everyone just sat there listening to him. It felt as he was hypnotizing everyone. It calmed Jisoo down as well. She could listen to him play for hours, but then he decided that it was enough for that day.

“That’s enough” he said.

“Hyung! You’re so great! Let’s finish watching the show!” the boy called Yeon Ho said. It was amazing how fast little Yeon Ho changed his interests.

“Here! You can sit next to me! If these two move over there’s enough space for you!” the creepy girl added.

“Thanks, I’m good” Yoongi said with an awkward smile. He went to the couch Yeon Ho and Jisoo were sitting. He took Yeon Ho and put him on his lab. Like this he was sitting right next to Jisoo, which made her heart race a little more. It was interesting to watch Yoongi play and chat with Yeon Ho while watching the TV show. It reminded her how she was usually chatting with Seokjin while they were watching TV. Back then she was truly happy. A little later Yeon Ho fell asleep in Yoongi’s arms. He was really cute sleeping there in peace. At 10PM Mrs. Bang came in to turn off the TV.

“It’s bed time everyone, you should be going into your rooms now”, she ordered them. This was worse than in kindergarten. It seemed like watching TV was some sort of group activity here, at least she still had internet on her cell phone. Yoongi stood up, holding Yeon Ho in his both hands.

“Good night everyone” he said, without looking at anyone, then he carried Yeon Ho out. Jisoo didn’t feel like going to bed already but everyone stood up and actually left the room. If this was a house for crazy people, they certainly behaved well. Jisoo then had no choice but to leave the room as well.

“Good night Ms. Kim. You should get some rest, as your treatments will start tomorrow”, Mrs. Bang said. Jisoo ignored her and left the room. To her surprise no one else wandered in the hallways. She might as well just go into her room too. As she entered she looked at her room again. She noticed there was no TV or Computer, her phone was beside her bed on the nightstand though. So she wasn’t completely cut off from the outside world. Other than that, her room did look like a mixture of a hotel room and a dorm room. Everything was of high quality and really fancy. At least she had her own bathroom. She went in to wash her face and brush her teeth. It was only then that she noticed her outfit. She was still wearing the hospital gown! She felt embarrassed. Why did no one tell her? If she would’ve gone to school like this everyone would’ve pointed out her awful outfit and her messy hair. That’s why no one told her anything… the way she looked like really seemed like she was a crazy freak. They were probably scared to even talk to her! Great, just great, Jisoo thought. Her face burned from embarrassment. She was thirsty all of a sudden. Just as she wanted to get out of the room, she saw a white box under her table. She went over to check it out, it was a fridge! Maybe tonight was her lucky night, but there were a few bottles of water inside! Jisoo took one and drank the entire bottle in one go.

“God how embarrassing. I bet that’s why he was staring at me all the time. He was making fun of me!” she told herself. Jisoo was thinking back to the time she met him first. She just arrived here this morning, yesterday she was in the hospital. How long has she been sleeping there? Right, the doctor said she had been sleeping for two days. In conclusion that would mean she met Yoongi on the streets four days ago and again that very night. That would also mean it was Sunday. The sweater! Jisoo was even more embarrassed now, she let him pay her taxi fee and even took home his sweater without repaying anything and now she didn’t know where it was! Jisoo went to sit on her bed to her pillow in both hands and put her face in it to scream. She just let everything out. After calming down a little she took her phone to watch some videos online. She needed to distract herself. She took her phone and saw a light blinking in the left corner of the screen. She didn’t expect any message from anyone. She opened the phone to check out the message. It was from an unknown number:

~ good night

Who was sending her a message at this hour? Could it be… Min Yoongi? It was true that he had her phone number, but she didn’t have his. Should she be asking or just pretend she knew who it was? What if it wasn’t him but someone else from school maybe?

               ~ good night

Jisoo replied. She laid on her back and waited for an answer but after a while there was no response. She was somewhat disappointed and decided to go to sleep. She did have to start her military schedule the next day. Even though she wasn’t planning on getting a real treatment at least she wanted to look like a normal human being tomorrow.