Serendipity || Park Jimin

008:
Kim Jiyeon

For the past week, nothing interesting had happened.

I just repeated my daily cycle of sleeping, waking up to see if anything's changed before heading back to sleep.

I had slept so much in the past week that I was certain that I had slept more than I once had in the previous life before I lost my memories.

At first, every time I woke up, I was hoping something would be different. That something would change.

Just anything.

But everything remained the same.

By now, I wasn't surprised to wake up to the same empty room that I resided in for the past few days, all alone.

It was a new normal.

However...

To my surprise, there was something different about this morning.

This morning, I had woken up to the sounds of someone crying.

It was strange... I was sure I was alone in this room.

I opened my eyes and sat up, rubbing my tired eyes. I let out a yawn as I ran my fingers through my hair, pulling at the knots. I quickly scanned the room, searching for the source of the crying.

I was shocked to find that someone else was really in this room with me.

Sitting in a chair in the corner of the vast room was a boy with pale blonde hair. He tightly held onto a bright yellow blanket and quietly cried into it.

I threw the thin white blankets off of me and stood up, stretching a bit before making my way towards him.

As I got closer to him, I was kind of expecting him to notice me be afraid but surprisingly, he didn't pay any attention to me at all.

Instead, he buried his face in the yellow blanket and let out quiet whimpers. His body slightly shook as he exhaled and let out a silent cry.

I slowly inched closer and kept creeping closer waiting for him to notice but he never looked up once.

It seemed like he didn't know I was even here at all.

Tired of waiting, I decided to interact with him.

"Hello...?" I softly asked while reaching out to touch his shoulder. My hand gently rested on his shoulder and my suddenly close contact with him scared him.

He jumped at my touch and frantically looked up at me with teary red eyes.

"Are you crying?" I quietly asked, lifting my hand off his shoulder.

His eyes grew wide before he buried his face in his blanket once more, shaking his head.

"No... not..." He shouted, but the blanket he had buried his face in muffled his speech.

"What was that?" I asked again, giving him a curious look.

He shook his head and looked up at me with his puffy red eyes.

"I said I wasn't crying..."He replied. He bit on his lips and wiped away the tear that was rolling down his face.

It was obvious that he was lying and trying really hard not to burst out crying in front of me.

"It's okay if you were crying... I'm not going to judge you..." I whispered as I crouched down besides him.

I gently stoked his arm with a light touch as a sign of reassurance. He turned to me with a curious look on his face.

"R-really?" He asked as he wiped away more tears.

"Yeah, I promise," I replied, giving him a kind and warm smile.

"Um... Okay... Yeah... I was crying..." He whispered, before shamefully looking away.

"Why were you crying?"

"Huh? Oh... I woke up here, alone with no memories and I was so scared. I don't know what's going on..."

The boy lets out a nervous laugh and wraps the blanket over his head and tightly around himself. He shivered a bit and nervously laughed.

"I'm pathetic right?" He said, laughing dryly. I frowned and shook my head in protest.

"That's not pathetic. If I was afraid, I would be crying too," I said, hoping to make him feel better about himself.

He leaned back in his chair, thinking about what I had just said.

"So, how did you end up here?"

He leaned forward and brought his knees up. He rested his head on his knees and watched me, waiting for an answer.

"I actually woke up here like you with no memories of anything. The only thing I know is my own name."

I scratched the back of my head and looked up at him.

He appeared to be deep in thought. He quickly glanced around the room and turned back to me.

"There's no exit here, is there?" He asked in a flat tone.

I shook my head no.

"Dang it," he whispered, leaning back in his chair.

A moment of silence passed by before I decided to start the conversation.

"What's your name?" I asked, glancing up at the boy sitting in the chair, pulling the yellow blanket over his eyes.

"Jimin, my name is Park Jimin."

"My name's Kim Jiyeon."

I smiled at him and stood up. He gazed up at me and squinted against the bright light coming through the window above out heads. He scrunched up his nose as he squinted up.

I laughed at the cute image before pulling the blanket off his head.

"Do you want to be friends?"

I held my hand out and smiled, waiting for him to respond.

"Yeah, sure."

He returned and a smile and laughed.

And that was the beginning a new friendship between Park Jimin and I.