━━ july 23rd, 2018.
❝ and i'm willing to go to hell and back—
and back again, if it means i get to be with you. ❞

"ew, out of all people, why her?"

"this is just a quick cash grab"

"they don't even look good together"

"it's just puppy love, they're bound to break up soon"

"she's too good for him"
"no, he's too good for her"

"guys, it's their life, stay out of it."

MIN DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE she'd been reading comments until 2am. a lot of her bits were happy for her, and a lot of her celebrity friends also expressed their joy, which min was very grateful for. but that didn't stop the disapproval from the rest of the overwhelming masses. she knew that not everybody would support their relationship, but she didn't expect it to be this many people.

   she remembered all of the hate that she'd gotten when she just started out. how the majority of the comments she got were telling her that she was too young to be successful, not talented or pretty enough, and to quit while she was still ahead. she remembered how she was so overwhelmed and tired by just that. if she thought all of that was overwhelming back then, then all of the comments she was receiving now had to be 10 times as overwhelming. she guessed it might have had to do with the fact that both her and jimin were definitely more successful now than they were back then, but that didn't do her any good in this situation.

   she was feeling a lot of things. sadness, anger, guilt, doubt, yeah, but she was also confused. just a few days before they released the dream of you music video, and even a bit after, half of her instagram explore page was just ship posts and edits about her and jimin. so why was it that now that the article was released, and those edits had basically come to life, did they all suddenly do a complete 180? why were the people who were posting about how good they looked together the same people who were sending her death threats? was her love life all just for their entertainment, and then when things suddenly don't go their way and they aren't having fun anymore, they get mad? why couldn't people just be happy for her? for them? she managed to finally find a love like her parents did, which she honestly thought she'd never be able to do and something a lot of people knew was a lifetime goal of hers. so knowing that, why did people have to be so selfish?

   and it wasn't just online, either. she'd gone out earlier that day for a meeting when a crowd surrounded the car. it wasn't full of her fans, however, but rather sasaengs and delulus. the crowd was so big, people passing by would've thought it was a line for a fan meet. the minute she stepped out of the car, hands were launched towards her, looking to swing or grab at her. luckily, there was a ton of security there long before she arrived, so none of them actually reached her, but the experience was still scary nonetheless. one sasaeng is scary enough, but an entire crowd of them? and all of this security just for her to walk into the building? if this was just the beginning, she couldn't even imagine how it would be every single time she wanted to go out.

   she felt like the whole world was against her. all of the comments, the criticism, the death threats, were just so degrading and tiring. she started to overthink again. was this really selfish of us? unprofessional? is this the downfall of my career? all because i fell in love? do my bits hate me now? did i betray their trust?

   she wanted to turn off her phone. she wanted to be able to ignore it all, but she couldn't. she wanted the hate to stop. she wanted to be able to do anything without a fear of causing a scandal. she didn't want to live in fear. she wanted to be able to live freely. to love freely. she wanted to be able to tell the world that she was in love with park jimin. she wanted to be able to say it with no regret, sadness, or guilt whatsoever. she wanted to—

"eun, are you alright?"

   min was so sucked into her own little world that she didn't even notice that her throat was aching with the way she was sobbing, gasping for air. her face was itchy and stained, and she pulled her hair away from her neck as it, too, itched with sweat and tears. she turned to look at jimin, who looked at her half asleep, half concerned. she simply just nodded her head, which jimin obviously did not believe. he looked over at the clock.

"baby, it's two in the morning, what are you doing?"

   he looked at her screen and caught a glimpse of one of the comments. he took a deep breath and sighed as he looked into her red, puffy eyes, which were now staring up at the ceiling. to him, it didn't even matter that they were bloodshot red, they were still the most beautiful eyes he'd ever seen. he truly believed that he was the luckiest guy in the world. he had no idea how he'd landed the jeon eunbyul. even now that they'd been dating for almost seven months, it was still a crazy thought to him that out of all people, he was the man that she was in love with, and it broke his heart to see her crying because of the hate she was receiving for it. now fully awake, he wanted nothing more than to make her feel better. he gently cupped her face with one hand and turned her to look at him.

"don't tell me you believe what they're saying?" jimin asked gently, brushing his hand over her tear-stained face.

   min quickly shook her head and placed her hand on top of his, rubbing her thumb softly over his hand.

   "no, no, i don't." she said, speaking the partial truth. "it's all just so tiring. it's so tiring and discouraging to see hate all over my feed. what am i doing wrong?" she complained, trying to hold back her tears from falling again. "is it so wrong of me to be happy? isn't that all what we want? to find love?" she continued through sniffles and hiccups, her voice breaking. jimin could feel his already broken heart shatter into a million more pieces at her desperation. he got up on his elbow and kissed away the tears she couldn't stop from forming out of the corner of her eyes as she continued sobbing.

"no, you aren't doing anything wrong" he assured through the kisses, "it's them." he pulled away, wiping away the tears that managed to escape.

   they both stared at each other in silence, taking in and admiring the other's features as min's ragged breathing slowly steadied. jimin licked his lips, ignoring how the saltiness of her tears remained on his tongue, pressed his lips together, and creased his eyebrows slightly in thought. he turned his gaze onto the phone she was holding onto so tightly in her hands and thought of an idea.

"maybe you should take a break."

   taking his hand off her cheek, jimin gently tugged her phone out of her hands, turned it off, and reached over her to put it on her nightstand. as he was retreating his arm back to his side, he pulled min closer to him, laying them both back down, and guided her head to his chest. he wrapped his arms around her, causing min to return the gesture, holding onto him like he would disappear.

"off of social media?" she asked into his chest.

"no, just in general."

   she looked up from his chest and into his eyes in bewilderment and disbelief.

"why? i already took one when my dad died—"

"a few years ago"
they both said at the same time.

"exactly. that was years ago, and you need to take another break now. i worry that if you don't, and you push through it all, the hate will get to you and your mental health will worsen again. and not to mention, your life is seriously in danger right now! people are already following you around. doing simple, everyday tasks requires at least ten bodyguards around you at all times. you need to take a break for your sake, and so that you'll be able to come back stronger." he voiced his opinion, concern lacing his tone.

   min stared into his eyes for a little bit longer, speechless as she tried to read his expression, before ultimately burying her head back into his chest.

"how are you handling this so well? are you not getting as much hate as i am right now?"

   jimin scoffed.

"oh no, i've gotten a lot. most of them were mainly about how you are way out of my league and that you deserve somebody better than me." he answered, causing min to furrow her eyebrows. "and to be honest, i almost believed them. but in the end, i just turned off my phone and got something to eat instead, and i haven't been on social media since then."

   jimin hugged her frame tighter and buried his face in her hair.

"i'm choosing not to believe in anything they're saying, because i have faith in your love. in our love for each other. and you shouldn't believe them either. they don't know what we've gone through, and i'm willing to go to hell and back— and back again, if it means i get to be with you." he muttered lowly as he kissed the top of her head. min could feel her heart beating out of her chest at his words, and due to their close proximity, jimin could feel it too, causing him to smile.

   for the next few minutes, they laid there in comfortable silence. eventually, jimin broke the silence and started to softly sing to her, knowing how much it calmed her, hoping to get her to fall asleep. and as min finally succumbed to the darkness that was pulling her in, she couldn't help but feel just a little bit more thankful. yeah, the hate really, really, sucked, but the more time she spent with jimin, the more it became worth it. she was so, so thankful to have him in her life. he was everything she could've ever asked for and more, an immense amount of more. he kept his promise, giving her the love and security that she had been deprived of, and she swore to herself she was going to make every effort to return it and make sure he knew how much he meant to her. she was still deciding if she should listen to him, but she knew that either way, her decision wouldn't matter as long as they stayed together. if they worked through this together, then they could face not only this, but anything else thrown their way. with a content warmth mending her heart, she slowly fell asleep as jimin continued singing, softly drawing circles on her back.

"you gave me the best of me,
so you'll give you the best of you
you found me. you recognized me.
you gave me the best of me,
so you'll give you the best of you
you'll find it, the galaxy inside you."

   "i love you." min mumbled tiredly, right as her fatigue overtook her senses and she fell into slumber.

   jimin slowly stopped singing and observed min, who was finally asleep. he admired her quietly for a moment. she was even more beautiful, if that was possible, when she was asleep. at peace. he smiled to himself, beyond grateful that she would always be in his arms at the end of the day. he placed a soft kiss on her forehead before resting his head on top of hers again. tangled in each other's embrace, jimin slowly fell asleep as well.

"i love you more. god, so much more."

━━━━━━━━━━━━

a/n:
i was listening to
magic shop (also at 2am)
and had a random burst
of inspiration for this chapter.
(i ended up finishing at 4am lmao)

sorry if i scared you with the
warning in the last a/n. it's kind of funny
to me how so many of you thought
they would break up when it was
actually the complete
opposite :DD i'm
realizing now how misleading
it was, but i did say
you'd probably like it more lol