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Chapter Text

Jimin groaned, rising into a sitting position and rubbing his temples in circles. He felt disgustingly nauseous, his skin was sticky from dried sweat and he was sporting a great headache. For a moment, he stayed like that, hunched over and limp, too exhausted to move or blink his eyes open, and when he tried to stretch his body a bit there was immediate protest from his tight muscles and a whine slipped out.

He smacked his dry lips together, his mouth feeling like cotton as he blindly reached to his nightstand for something to drink. Fingertips touched something soft and warm, making him jerk awake, and he yanked his arm to his chest in a panic. Jimin blinked owlishly, dread starting to creep up his spine.

On the other side of the bed, laying on his back, with the right arm thrown over his eyes, Jungkook was sleeping peacefully.

Fuck.

Jimin blinked a couple of times, trying to make sense of the situation. His breathing became shaky. His heartbeat started picking up.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, oh, fuck.

The sun started to slowly fill the room with warm light and the city noises intensified as the morning crept in, and Jimin was frozen in place, the sins of last night coming to light. With trembling fingers, he grabbed the blanket and swung it off of them. Naked as the day they were born.

Jimin's breath hitched in his chest as he stared at Jungkook's bare body. His golden skin glowed under the soft morning light, making him look so young, and his chest was rising and falling rhythmically, still asleep. Jimin's eyes slowly traveled down and he cursed under his breath seeing red and long scratch lines over Jungkook's arms and torso, little love bites over his abdomen, and Jungkook looked sticky from sweat as well.

Memories flooded Jimin's mind and he remembered laughing with Jungkook, squeezing his biceps while doing so, play-fighting with him, shoving each other around, kissing.

He remembered spilling and licking alcohol off of Jungkook's abs, straddling his waist, latching onto his neck and sucking hard, and when he looked up, there was a deep purple bruise in that spot that made him groan.

Jungkook had one knee slightly bent up and Jimin peeked over, catching the sight of his penis, now soft, but Jimin definitely remembered it being rock hard and throbbing as he rode it last night. Even now, not erect, it still had an impressive size to it, and Jimin whined while squeezing his thighs closed, getting horny just from the sight and memories alone.

Humiliation and embarrassment and arousal flushed over his skin and he whipped his head around, surveilling the room. Clothes were strewn everywhere on the floor and bed and even on the desk, there was an empty bottle of tequila at the foot of the bed, next to two used condoms, and on the nightstand was an opened bottle of lube tipped over, slowly dripping to the floor.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck," Jimin cried in a desperate whisper, starting to freak out.

As carefully and as quietly as possible in order to not wake the other man up, he got up from the bed and moved around the room with silent steps, hurriedly gathering his clothes and bunching them up in front of his chest in a poor attempt to cover himself and save a bit of his dignity.

He smelled like Jungkook and he could still taste Jungkook on his tongue, his whole body ached and there was a dull pain in his lower back, and the imprint of Jungkook's hands and fingers squeezing his ass and thighs was still burning his skin. Mortification washed over Jimin when he realized he'd feel the aftermath of his tumble with Jungkook for a couple of days, at least.

Jimin snatched the condoms up, using his bare hand and not bothering to use the multitude of used tissues around them, and left Jungkook to figure out how to clean the little lake of lube and the wet spot on the bed. Like the cherry on top, he plopped the condoms on top of his pile of clothes and backed out of the bedroom, butt naked. The door closed and Jimin winced at the clicking sound, only now in this perceived safety allowing himself to breathe.

He turned around and did the literal walk of shame, five large steps until he reached his own bedroom, then he shut the door closed and didn't get out for the rest of that morning.

🎲

"You okay, Jimin?"

Jimin flinched, snapping his eyes to his friend's questioning face. Hoseok had a curious eyebrow raised and only now did Jimin realize that not only did he miss the whole conversation that was happening around him, but it was also his turn to play.

They were in Namjoon's and Seokjin's living room, around the kitchen table that they moved inside, with Seokjin, Namjoon and Yoongi sitting on the couch, while the rest of them sat on mismatched chairs, except for Taehyung, who always took over the bean bag. In front of them on the table was the cardboard map showing their current location, with terrain pieces scattered around for forests, wells and the crumbling remains of a tower, and five carefully painted plastic figurines, which showed their individual player characters.

"Uhm—yeah, I'm fine," Jimin said with the fakest voice ever, high-pitched, and an obnoxious shrug of his shoulders. He quickly grabbed his die with 20 faces and rolled it, getting a natural 1, to signify the pathetic state of his life at the moment. "Okay, so, uhm, do I just...?" He looked around the table, not exactly sure where they were left.

Five faces stared back at him, confused and a bit annoyed.

"I'm sorry, do you not want to play?" Seokjin asked with an offended voice, adjusting his silicone pointy elf ears, tucking his hair behind them afterwards. He was an elf sorcerer with great charisma.

"No, no, I do, I do," Jimin rushed to say, though Dungeons and Dragons was literally the last thing on his mind right now. He quickly looked over his character sheet, his scribbles resembling elvish more and more as the evening progressed, then he looked over the map again, pretending he was thoughtful of his next move, rather than actually trying to figure out what had happened.

"Well, then show a little life here," Taehyung whined, moving around in his bean bag and sitting upright on his knees to be taken more seriously. He was a dwarf bard, and had glitter over his face for extra bedazzle. "We're already missing our cleric, can't afford to have a rogue that's not paying attention during the final fight of the campaign."

"We are near the crumbling tower," Yoongi spoke, giving Jimin a stern look to pay attention. "Namjoon found a sideways entrance near the base and felt a strong presence of evil coming from inside. We need our rogue to lockpick the door now. I'll scratch that pathetic roll you just did because I feel generous. Give me a dexterity check now."

"A dexterity check," Jimin said with an inhale, felling the d20 heavy in his palm when he picked it up again. He shook his fist a bit before throwing the die over the table, then six men leaned over to watch, a shared groan of pain leaving all of them when the die rolled around, different numbers flashing before it stopped and the number 1 was the one on top yet again.

"Such bad luck," Hoseok murmured, taking a sip of his soda from inside his medieval looking pint.

"Alright," Yoongi sighed, scratching his head, "you tried opening the door, but you fumbled with it and accidentally activated a trap door underneath. You fall down a great distance, grasping for something to save yourself, but only darkness surrounds you. Eventually, you hit the ground, wet and cold, and you hear a cracking sound and a great pain shoots up your ankle. Roll four d10 for points of damage."

"Jesus," Jimin grumbled, picking up his d10, feeling his teammates' eyes on him. He was already low on life from a previous combat and without Jungkook they didn't have another healer. For a second, he hoped his misfortune of only rolling 1 will continue, but unfortunately he rolled a 10, an 8, a 7 and a 2.

"You take 27 damage," Yoongi said with a twist of his mouth, writing something down in his notes. "You're down to... 5 hit points."

"Fucking hell." Jimin grabbed his character sheet, crumpling it at the edges as his eyes scanned over it. "I have a healing potion! I stole it from the market."

"No, you don't," Namjoon sighed, bending his elbow on the table, tipping his temple into his fist. "You healed me with it earlier because I was dying. Remember?"

"Oh," Jimin said, furrowing his brows as he scratched small healing potion off his inventory.

"You're not even paying attention!" Taehyung dramatized with a roar of pain, shaking his fists in the air as he fell back on his bean bag. "We're doomed with a rogue that can't lockpick and no dedicated healer in the team."

"Where is Jungkook, anyway?" Namjoon wondered out loud.

Everyone's eyes fell on Jimin and he squirmed under the attention, staring down at his character sheet. He came in empty handed today, no Jungkook to play the cleric in sight, and just said the other couldn't come, no other explanation.

"He's probably spending time with his girlfriend," Hoseok said flippantly, unaware of the knife he was twisting in Jimin's heart.

"We should've just postponed this," Taehyung sighed, dragging the bowl of teriyaki chips in his lap and angrily crunching one between his teeth. "No point in trying to finish without the whole team. Can we just scratch this and redo it when everyone's present?"

Yoongi pulled a face, flipping through his Dungeon Master guidebook while everybody waited patiently. As the DM, he was shielded by his DM screen, a large three pages long wall that hid his miscellaneous notes of the general outlook of the session and reminders from the rest. He looked up with a dissatisfied twist of his mouth after a minute of reading. "It's the final fight, let's just finish it and be done."

"Man, we're getting cooked here!" Hoseok whined, throwing his hands up in frustration. He was a halfling moon druid and he was low on health, and it would've come in really handy for Jungkook to be present and heal him. "I didn't just spend a year and a half on this campaign to die fighting a stinky ass demon just because our cleric would rather get his dick wet."

Jimin slumped down in his chair, his stomach churning, but his friends remained oblivious to his turmoil.

"Yoongi, for fuck's sake, just play the cleric yourself, you're the DM after all," Namjoon sighed exasperated for the millionth time tonight.

"I hate playing," Yoongi whined petulantly from his wall of game planners. "I wanted to be DM exactly to just be the omniscient narrator, create the world, tell the story, watch you play—"

"He likes to watch," Hoseok said suggestively, earning himself a smack over the head from Yoongi's rolled up guidebook. It knocked Hoseok's fake leaves headband off a bit, but he quickly readjusted it, feeling over the more fragile parts to check that they're okay.

Namjoon leaned back on the couch with a sigh, hands tightly gripping his hair as he looked over the map and their grim circumstances with glazed over eyes. "Okay, so, because of Yoongi's god complex, we're left with no cleric."

"Hey, Jungkook's the cleric, it's his fault for not showering up," Yoongi snapped defensively, organizing his notes. He turned to Jimin, looking exasperated. "Jimin, just call Jungkook and ask him if he can come after all. I really don't have time to schedule another session for a few weeks at least."

"Why me?" Jimin protested immediately, already starting to come up with excuses in his head.

"He's your roommate," Taehyung pointed out. "Plus, you know how he is."

Shy. Quiet, reserved, nervous to talk to other people. Yet, he was anything but shy last week when he was twisting Jimin like a pretzel—

"He said he was busy," Jimin mumbled, his cheeks starting to heat up.

"You're acting weird."

There were approving hums from everyone around the table and Jimin wished he could crawl under the table and disappear from their gaze. He should've bailed tonight as well.

For the last year and a half, they met every couple of weeks or so for anywhere between five to six hours to play a 5th edition D&D campaign. It was extremely difficult to schedule a time where seven different people were available, but they tried their best and it never happened for a player to miss with this little notice and no explanation before.

Truthfully, Jimin just didn't tell Jungkook about tonight's session. Jungkook was not in their group chat and Jimin was always the one in charge to drag him to their meetings, but he's been avoiding his roommate for the past eight days, so he just simply didn't tell Jungkook. It was silent as they waited for him to say anything, but Jimin refused to cooperate.

"Did something happen?" Jimin heard Seokjin ask, leaning over to place a hand over Jimin's shoulder.

"I'm fine, god," Jimin snapped, nervously fidgeting around with his dice and rolling them, a pained whimper leaving him when literally all six dice showed a natural 1.

"Okay, this was supposed to be fun and everybody's miserable. Let's just call it a night." There were some groans from around the table, but no one protested as Namjoon got up and obnoxiously snatched his dragon born paladin figurine from the board, to make his point. "Just erase today's progress and we'll try again another time."

"That's not how it's fucking done," Yoongi grumbled and rolled his eyes in annoyance at being told what to do, but he didn't comment as he started scratching his notes. Unlike the others, he didn't partake in their silly little cosplay habit, and he was just dressed in his usual uniform—plain, loose and comfortable clothes, but his intimidating air was fitting perfectly nonetheless as a DM.

Jimin got up with a preoccupied sigh, loosening his rogue cloak until he got it off his shoulders, then he rolled it up in a messy ball. He carefully folded his character sheet and put his blood elf rogue figurine in its protective casing, then he put his dice in the little leather bag he kept them in, and put everything aside in his bag. The epic medieval battle music they had in the background came to a halt, then Seokjin flipped on the big light, making everyone blink owlishly.

Together, they picked up and cleared the bowls of sweet and salty snacks they had around, and Jimin gathered everyone's glasses as Namjoon and Taehyung moved the table back into the kitchen. While cleaning everything up, they were talking about how shitty this session was, but Jimin was tuning most everything out because his mind was solely filled with one specific quiet nerd that's been avoiding him lately, too.

Even though they lived together, it had been more than a week since he caught sight of Jungkook in their apartment, since he kept being in their shared space to an essential minimum, and the only sign that the other was still alive and living there was the fact that Jimin sometimes heard Jungkook when he came home, and just like Jimin, Jungkook went straight to his room as well. No talking about it, no acknowledgement.

"Woah, you're leaving?" Namjoon said, getting everyone's eyes on Jimin when he started putting his shoes on.

Jimin turned around with a surprised face, finding everyone went back to the living room, lounging on the couch or sitting on the floor. His head was so in the clouds that he didn't even realize it was still early in the night and the guys would probably want to hang out some more, but he really didn't feel like socializing. "Sorry, I think I'm gonna end tonight early, guys."

"Oh, boo!" the guys shouted, sending him thumbs down.

"I have an early yoga class in the morning," Jimin justified half-assed, his go-to excuse.

"Early class my ass," Taehyung scoffed, leaning on his back over Hoseok's outstretched legs on the floor, arms bent under his head in a relaxed position. "That's what you always say, yet I stopped by the studio once and Hanni said you mainly take the afternoon classes."

"Hanni doesn't know what she's talking about," Jimin scoffed, still continuing to get ready to leave.

"Hey, Jimin, if you see Jungkook, kick him for me and tell him to not miss the next session, okay?" Seokjin called from the kitchen, emerging out a few seconds later with fresh bowls of chips and popcorn balanced precariously on his arm, while the other gripped a six pack of sodas.

"Will do, hyung," Jimin said, lowering his eyes to the fingers buttoning his jacket, because he couldn't look people in the eye while lying.

"You sure you don't want to stay a little longer?" Namjoon asked from the couch just to be sure.

Jimin sighed, looking at his friends. They were all so relaxed and carefree, Seokjin flipping through TV channels for a movie they won't watch anyway, Taehyung and Hoseok trying to coax Yoongi about what the final boss will be, all while Yoongi stoically scrolled on his phone without paying them any mind, and Namjoon fussing over the snacks to make sure everybody got everything they could possibly crave.

Normally, Jimin would've loved this and they would've ended the night with him pretending he'll move in with Namjoon and Seokjin because they're such amazing hosts, but tonight there was only one thing he wanted to talk about that was not letting him relax, and it was also the one thing he could not talk about.

"No, sorry, maybe next time," he said with a smile that he hoped didn't look sad.

Hoseok threw a popcorn kernel at him and Seokjin pretended to cast a curse, but in the end they just wished him a good night and to be safe on the road. He disassociated the whole drive from his friends' house to the apartment he shared with Jungkook, worrying on his bottom lip as he thought about the younger, relying on driving on autopilot to get himself home safely.

After he got to his room that very morning, he huddled naked at the door, crouched down on the floor and ear pressed to the space between the door and the door frame, holding his breath to hear Jungkook when he woke up. He stayed like that for a long time, or maybe it just felt like that, but his legs started to get numb and hurt and he was getting cold by the time Jungkook woke up. Jimin's heart skipped a beat and his eyes widened, pressing even closer to hear what the other would do.

Through Jungkook's sounds, he could've almost imagined exactly what followed next—Jungkook woke up with a soft groan, the bed creaking when he turned to the side. Then, there was silence. Jimin bit on his tongue, listening with a booming heart. There was no way Jungkook didn't figure out what happened right then and there, no way, because there was only one other person that was in their apartment last night and that was Jimin.

There was a confused, long pause, then eventually Jungkook got up, walked around his bedroom, kicked a pair of pants on the floor, then he sighed deeply. There was the sound of aluminum foil and a water bottle being opened when he took a painkiller, then the sound of Jungkook chugging the water. Then, there was the rustling of clothes and Jimin thought Jungkook pulled a pair of sweatpants on, and he started taking the bedsheets off before he gave up halfway through.

Then, the door opened. Jimin froze, his body shaking from nerves, not even moving, not even breathing. Full of fear, he craned his neck just the slightest bit, hoping to catch Jungkook through the keyhole, but it was in vain. Jungkook stayed at the threshold of his bedroom door and their shared open space living room for a while, not moving, making Jimin internally freak out, then he casually walked to the bathroom with slow, deliberate steps.

Jimin flinched in his spot when the shower got turned on, then he heard Jungkook get in. He felt absolutely unhinged, but he listened to that man shower, get dressed, eat an apple, throw some things in his backpack and off he was after putting his shoes on. He had to know Jimin was home, because Jimin's shoes were still at the door, but he didn't say anything. He just left.

It took a long time for Jimin's brain to be absolutely sure Jungkook didn't just leave really quickly to go to the corner store and be back in a minute, and only half an hour later he left his room, bolting out the door and moving at the speed of light, rinsing off in the shower and stopping by Jungkook's bedroom to steal a painkiller pill. Being inside that room was making his stomach churn in anxiety, so he didn't hover more than strictly necessary.

Jimin put on the first clothes he reached for in his wardrobe and booked it out of the apartment, peeking over every corner to make sure he won't accidentally stumble into Jungkook until he got to the street. He made himself busy that day just to not have to go back and meet with Jungkook, stressing everyone out at the yoga studio, then he stopped by a bar and nursed cups of tea. He will not be putting alcohol on his lips ever again.

Once midnight struck, Jimin finally gathered enough courage to go back home. He waited to make sure Jungkook would be already home and hopefully asleep, so he wouldn't come nose to nose with the other man, but after he sneaked inside like he was breaking into his own apartment, he discovered Jungkook was still missing.

Anxiety filled Jimin as he tiptoed around, but Jungkook's shoes and leather jacket was nowhere to be found and his bedroom door was still ajar, showing his unmade bed, the sheets still halfway taken off. That meant he must've not come back home all day.

Briefly, Jimin assumed Jungkook must be with his girlfriend, but then he heard footsteps and keys rustling from the hallway and his blood ran cold. His legs felt like jelly as he scrambled to get to his room, slamming the door shut the same second Jungkook typed the code in and the front door opened.

For a second, it was silent, and Jimin had a sense of deja vu, waiting with his heart in his throat behind his bedroom door like a coward. Then, Jungkook kicked his shoes off and walked into his room, shutting the door. He presumably changed into house clothes and finally changed the sheets, then the bed creaked when he got in.

Jimin waited with confused panic, gasping at Jungkook's audacity when from the other room he heard Jungkook hopping on TikTok to start doom scrolling before he lowered the volume. Jimin wondered if he told his girlfriend, if they had a fight, if they broke up, if Jungkook was heartbroken. But Jungkook just scrolled on his phone until he got sleepy, then he yawned loudly and rolled over in bed, and then there was nothing from the other room.

Nothing, absolutely nothing.

Jimin was a homewrecker. He could blame it on the alcohol, but he knew damn well Jungkook was in a long term relationship when he slept with him.

Now, Jimin expected to open the front door and find the space clear, with Jungkook either away or in his own room, like they've done this past week, but Jimin's whole body froze in shock, the flight or fight instinct kicking in the second his eyes fell on Jungkook.

Jungkook was lounging in their living room, right in front of him, with no care in the world. They had an L shaped couch, and Jungkook was sitting on the smaller part of the couch that was facing the door, which was intentional, because Jimin was the one who was sitting there usually, making himself a little nest in the corner, while Jungkook liked to stretch on the longer part. Like this, he was directly in Jimin's line of vision.

Jungkook lazily pulled his eyes from the TV, like the show was too interesting and he didn't even cheat on his girlfriend with Jimin a week ago. "Hi," he said simply, his eyes slipping back to the screen.

The room was dark and he was only illuminated by the TV screen and the light coming from behind Jimin from the hallway. He was wearing gray sweats and his feet were bare, the hood of his hoodie pulled over his freshly washed fluffy hair, glasses perched on the bridge of his nose, and he had a big empty bowl next to him on the couch. He looked young and soft and nice.

Jimin gulped, his hand shaking when he closed the door. "Hi," he said weakly.

Jungkook didn't acknowledge him further, too engrossed in what he was watching, so Jimin took advantage of it to scan the other man as he took slow, tentative steps towards the kitchen. Jimin almost groaned out loud when he spotted Jungkook's still fading hickey right over his neck. Jungkook shamelessly strutted around campus like that, not trying to cover it up even a tiny bit, like it was a badge of honor. Now, it was a faint green, but he walked around with it in all shades of purple, not caring about the other people's snickering and teasing.

Jimin heard his friends joking around that Jungkook's girlfriend must've been back in town again. Jimin wanted to cry.

Maybe he should've went and hide in his bedroom, or maybe he should've sat down on the couch with Jungkook to talk with him about it, but he felt too cowardly for a confrontation and too anxious to just ignore Jungkook again, so he chose the middle way and walked to the kitchen, pouring himself a glass of water.

An invisible force was pulling his eyes back to Jungkook, and he watched the other carefully. Jungkook looked so relaxed, so unbothered, so calm. Everybody always mistook Jungkook as being very cold and closed off, but he confided in Jimin almost two years ago when he just moved in that he's suffering from anxiety, so Jimin grew to realize when Jungkook was actually shy and nervous whereas someone would've looked at him and assumed his inexpensive face was coldness and arrogance. Now, though, Jimin saw that he was truly relaxed.

"Did the payment go through, hyung?" Jungkook asked, still watching TV.

It made Jimin flinch, needing a second to register the question. "Yes, yes, it did. Thank you." The apartment was Jimin's, bought for him by his parents, so he was technically Jungkook's landlord, and Jungkook was supposed to pay the rent on the first of every month, which was a few days ago.

"Thank you," Jungkook said back. That was what he always said, he never told Jimin you're welcome or anything like that, he just thanked him, like he was thanking Jimin for letting him live there. Jimin always thought it was weird, but never mentioned anything.

Jimin took a sip of water, placing the glass on the counter as he looked over at Jungkook, wondering how the hell was he so calm. He so wanted to know if Jungkook broke up with his girlfriend or not.

"Did the guys decide when they want the next D&D session to be?" Jungkook asked conversationally, the sounds from the TV coming out like it was the climax of the movie.

Jimin looked to the floor. "They said they'll pick a date soon, but Yoongi might not be free for a couple of weeks."

Jungkook hummed, not saying anything else. Dungeons and Dragons with a bunch of strangers must be an introvert's nightmare, though Jungkook accepted when Jimin asked him to tag along and be their team's missing cleric, even though he didn't know what that meant at the time. Jungkook never looked excited about meeting to play, though he never looked excited about anything in general to be honest, but he dutifully came to every meeting and changed his plans around accordingly to be able to not miss it, something that not even the other guys did, they always just rescheduled if someone else had something to do and couldn't make it.

Jimin narrowed his eyes, trying to make sense of how this stone cold man could've made him feel so many things last week.

Jungkook sighed deeply, getting up from the couch as the movie credits started rolling in. "You should give season 2 of Squid Game a go. It's pretty good." Jimin's breath hitched in his chest seeing Jungkook walking up to him, but Jungkook just stopped a couple feet shy from Jimin, putting his bowl in the sink. It was just a second, but memories flooded in, tequila and heated breaths and moans and hands everywhere and so much pleasure. Jimin's eyelids fluttered inhaling Jungkook's perfume, that citrusy body wash that made his mouth pool with saliva. "I'll wash it tomorrow." And Jungkook simply turned around and left for his bedroom.

Jimin blinked his eyes open, watching him leave. They've always been friendly, not really friends per se, and this would've been such a normal interaction for them a week ago, but they slept together and Jungkook was being so casual—"Jungkook?" Jimin heard himself saying, his voice sounding small and weak. Jungkook stopped just before his door, glancing back at him over his shoulder. "Are we okay?"

"Yes," Jungkook said, his voice levelled, his face blank. "Why wouldn't we be?"

Because you're straight and have a girlfriend, yet you fucked me, your gay roommate! "Just checking," he said instead.

"Yeah, we're good," Jungkook assured him, looking him up and down as if Jimin was the one acting weird. When Jimin just shrugged and looked down at his glass, Jungkook took it as a sign the conversation ended. "Good night, hyung."

"Good night, Jungkook," Jimin said, watching Jungkook's back until the white door of his bedroom closed. "What the fucked?" he hissed once alone, gripping the edge of the kitchen counter with white knuckled fingers, pushing his hips back and raising his shoulders around his ears while rounding his back, taking a deep breath as he stared at the floor.

For a second, he questioned his own sanity, whether he just imagined last week, but Jungkook's hickey was very much real and it was his mouth that made it. Jungkook's pleasured moans while Jimin was sucking at his neck kept ringing in his ears, making him whimper and snap his thighs closed, rubbing them together. He glanced at Jungkook's bedroom door, staring at it with his bottom lip caught between his teeth. Jimin wanted to barge in, ask Jungkook if he told his girlfriend, if she was mad, if she blamed Jimin, if Jungkook is single now.

His fingers tingled for the door handle, but he passed Jungkook's door with only a sideways stare. From the other side, there was the swishing sound of Jungkook working on his graphic tablet. Sometimes, Jimin thought he'd give an arm and a leg to be able to read what's going on inside Jeon Jungkook's head.

Jungkook's girlfriend has always been a mystery to Jimin, just like everything else about his roommate's life. Jimin didn't know her name, what she looked like, what she was doing with her time, how things between Jungkook and her were going, nothing. All that Jimin knew was that she was from out of town and she came to Seoul every week or so, and that's when Jungkook left and spent the night at her place. Oh, yeah, and Jimin also knew that her and Jungkook were together for almost two years when Jimin decided to ruin their relationship.

With a pained groan, Jimin fell on his bed, staring out in bleak. From all the men in this world, why, oh, why couldn't his drunk mind pick literally anyone else other than his straight roommate?

🎲

"And now... release in a deep breath," Jimin said gently, exhaling deeply as he stretched forward in a child pose.

There was a wave of sighs as his yoga students stretched, and for a second it was totally silent in the room, apart from the rhythmic pendulum from the hallway ticking slowly. Jimin felt his muscles extending and stretching, the tension and stress from the last few days slowly easing out of his body. He tried to concentrate on his breathing, on his mind and body connection, clearing his thoughts. He was not thinking about Jungkook—

"Alright," he said, not as soft and gentle as he needed to be, straightening his back and sitting up tall on his shins, "this will be all for today's class. Thank you so much for joining me today, I hope you enjoyed this gentle workout and found it relaxing. Feel free to stay in this position for as long as you need."

As quietly as possible, he got up and tiptoed around the yoga mats, smiling and bowing politely to the people who were slowly sitting up. This was his last class of the day, he scheduled it to finish early to meet with Hoseok afterwards, so right now he only had to clean his classroom and then he was free to leave.

While he waited for his students to clear the room, his eyes caught the sight of Hanni, his coworker, peeking inside the room through the glass window on the door, a concerned frown between her eyebrows. Jimin shook his head questioningly, opening the door and stepping outside.

"Oppa, did you already send the program for this evening's class?" she asked, sounding on the brink of panic. "Because I already talked with Jihyo and she said she didn't get any emails from you with the program, and she can't stay because someone needs to pick her kid up from daycare and the person she asked to do that bailed on her, and she needs to leave now, and if you leave as well there's no one for the evening class and I don't know the program, only you and Jihyo know it, but Jihyo is leaving and she doesn't have the program to show me, and I don't know the program—"

"Hanni, breathe," Jimin said, keeping his palms up to stop Hanni's rambling and guide her through a deep breath. "What happened?"

"Jihyo needs to leave," Hanni sighed deeply, her shoulders slumping down in exhaustion. "And she asked me to cover her evening class. But I've never covered that class before and I don't know the program, but Jihyo said she worked on it with you. Can you just show me the program so I'm not completely unprepared for the class?"

"I have it on my laptop, it's okay," Jimin said, taking her hands into his and starting to walk with her to the staff room, and immediately there was a relieved sigh from Hanni. "If you want, I can just take this class myself and cancel on my friend."

"There's no need, I have a class after this anyway, so I'll already be here either way. Plus, I really need to get some extra hours before school starts again and I switch to part time."

Jimin nodded, pushing through the staff room door and getting to his locker, typing the code in. Hanni waited next to him, anxiously peeking inside as Jimin searched into his gym bag. He pushed aside his day clothes, snacks, toiletries, and he kept searching even though his heart sank the second he pulled the zipper, because right away he realized his bag was way too light for his laptop to be inside it. He kept rummaging things around, hoping his laptop would just suddenly materialize there, and Hanni watched with increasingly more worried eyes.

"I... forgot my laptop home," Jimin whispered, looking at Hanni with concern.

The breath hitched in Hanni's chest, staring at him with panic. "Oppa," she said, her voice wavering, "I need to do this class, and I don't know what sequence you and Jihyo planned."

"I know, I know," he sighed, wrapping his fingers around his chin as he stared out thoughtfully. "How about you do one of the routines you already know?"

"It was already advertised as a vinyasa yoga class and the older students will expect Jihyo's moves," she sighed, starting to bounce on her feet anxiously. "Please, oppa, I really need the money from this. Don't you have the plan on your phone or something?"

"No, it's only on my laptop," he said with a groan, messily stuffing his bag back inside his locker after he snatched his keys.

"Don't you have someone back home to send it from your laptop?" Hanni proposed, skipping to keep up with Jimin as he rushed out of the locker room.

"Security restrictions, can't send it," Jimin said, pushing through every room and hurrying to get out to his car, cursing their company's paranoia. "I'll drive home and bring you my laptop."

"I won't have time to learn the program then," she whined with a panicked cry, looking on the brink of crying. "The class is in two hours, it will take you at least an hour and a half to get home and back."

Jimin came to a halt at the front door, closing his eyes and inhaling deeply, making Hanni stumble to a stop next to him, hitting her hands against the door. He counted to ten, trying to convince himself this was a horrible idea, while Hanni waited on baited breath. "I can... I can take over the class," he offered again, almost begging for her to accept.

Hanni looked at him with wide eyes. "Oppa, I really need the money."

Jimin's chest expanded with a sharp breath, keeping it in for a long moment, then he slowly released it. "Then... I will ask my roommate to bring my laptop over."

There was a second of silence, then Hanni wrapped her arms around Jimin's neck. "Thank you, oppa," she said gratefully, squeezing him for a second before stepping back. "I'll go to my next class now, but you come whenever your roommate arrives."

"Sure thing, Hanni," Jimin sighed, watching her leave in a trail of panic that's not specific for a yoga studio.

With dejected steps, Jimin dragged his feet back to his classroom, finding it empty now, and retrieved his phone from inside. It's been another week of him and Jungkook avoiding each other, though after that one evening now they didn't take it so extreme anymore and could get out of their rooms at the same time as the other if they needed, though they kept their interactions to a minimum. It was the same as before and yet it wasn't, at least for Jimin, who still couldn't look at his roommate without seeing him naked.

Jungkook did some extra art classes at his college before the new school year started again, but Jimin was pretty sure that day was his free day, because Jungkook didn't seem in any hurry to get out of the house that morning as Jimin was getting ready for work.

Jimin knew better than to call Jungkook, so he texted him instead, checking if Jungkook was home to begin with. The answer came just a couple minutes later and Jimin didn't know whether he should be relieved or not when Jungkook said that he was. Briefly, Jimin explained the situation and asked Jungkook for the favor, and almost immediately Jungkook agreed. His replies were short, to the point and cold, just yes to being home and okay to Jimin's requests. Jimin was used to this kind of communication between them, but he still wished Jungkook would give more away.

Jimin quickly shot Hoseok a text letting him know he'll be half an hour late, then he started disinfecting the yoga mats in his studio. Usually, the students do it themselves, and Jimin knew his students did it this time around too, but he needed something to distract himself while he waited for Jungkook. He probably could've left and told someone from reception that Jungkook will stop by to drop his laptop, but he was feeling like he was losing his mind and a part of him desperately craved to talk to Jungkook, but Jimin realized it will take some time for the other to process it and be ready to talk about it, so Jimin was giving Jungkook space and not pushing him.

So, Jimin cleaned his studio spotless, revised his schedule and restocked the snack station, overall just making himself busy with mineal tasks. Then, his phone buzzed as he was wiping down the reception desk, and before he could reach for it he saw Jungkook walking through the front door.

"Jungkook, hi," Jimin said, rounding the desk, his legs feeling like jelly as he walked out to the other with a nervous smile. The younger arrived earlier that Jimin expected him to and he was dressed in a black pair of sweatpants and a plain oversized t-shirt, his face bare and hair not styled, wire framed glasses on, making Jimin's heart skip a beat, and fortunately his hickey faded completely, so Jimin wouldn't have to stare at his mistake anymore. "Thank you so much," he said, stopping a respectable distance away.

"You're welcome, hyung," Jungkook said with a polite voice, handing Jimin his laptop. His eyes went up and down Jimin's body for the briefest of seconds, and suddenly Jimin was very self aware of the fact he was only wearing black yoga leggings and a skin tight green top, his uniform accentuating every line of his body. Jungkook's eyes didn't stray for long, though, quickly looking straight into Jimin's eyes.

"You really helped me out a lot, there's been a problem with the schedule and we couldn't have held one of the evening classes without this," Jimin said to keep the conversation going, waving his laptop between them before shielding himself with it to feel a bit more covered up.

"Glad I could help, hyung." Jimin almost gasped out loud when Jungkook glanced at him and the corners of his lips were quirked up in a smile. It was an awkward smile, like Jungkook wasn't used to smiling at people, and it only lasted a second before he looked away. His posture was detached and uninterested, and he must've looked relaxed to a bystander, but through years of living with Jungkook Jimin came to notice the way his fingers twitched to scratch his arms, a sign Jungkook might be nervous. "Does that mean you'll be here all evening?"

"Oh, no, I—" Jimin stopped himself, bitting on his bottom lip as he thought about it for a second. "I already finished, but I'm meeting with Hoseok after this." The six of them would sometimes meet with each other outside of DnD sessions, always chucking it off to the fact they've known each other for longer and they're used to doing it, and while Jungkook never showed any interest in meeting with any of them, Jimin always wondered if it bothered him and if he felt excluded.

"Oh," Jungkook said, his voice flat, "are you guys meeting to play D&D?"

"No, no, just me and Hoseok," Jimin hurried to say. "I'm stopping by his atelier to waste some time with him. You'd be invited if we were to play D&D." Jungkook nodded, stuffing his hands inside his pants pockets, and Jimin wondered whether Jungkook knew or not that the group had already attempted to meet without him. "It might be this Friday evening, though," Jimin found himself saying, even though they didn't talk about it yet and their sessions have always been scheduled on Saturday evenings, but on Friday evenings Jungkook used to meet with his girlfriend. He didn't go out last week, and Jimin didn't remember Jungkook ever missing two weeks consecutively. "Is that okay?"

Jungkook looked at him like he knew exactly what Jimin was implying. "Yeah, I can make it," he said casually, his shoulders squaring up when rushed footsteps rang around the hallway.

"Oppa," Hanni said out of breath, her sport shoes screeching when she came to a halt next to them, "is that your laptop?"

"Yes, this is it," Jimin said, just letting it happen when her stressed out hands reached for his computer, immediately soothing herself once she had it in her hold, and a shiver ran down Jimin's spine when Jungkook's eyes unintentionally traveled over his uncovered body for a second.

"You saved me," she said dramatically, hugging the laptop to her chest, then she glanced to the side and her eyes locked onto Jungkook. Jimin could've practically seen her thought process, and he couldn't blame her. Jungkook was extremely good looking, with his soft, boyish looks and face piercings and arm sleeve tattoos bringing a certain edge to him, combining everything together harmoniously, especially after he bulked up this past year, and even Jimin himself used to catch himself staring at his roommate from time to time even before they hooked up. Which reminded him to blush. "Hi, I'm Hanni," she said, extending a hand out.

"Jungkook," he said shortly, shaking her hand for a second before hiding his fist back inside his pocket.

"You must be Jimin's roommate. I'm his coworker," Hanni said cheerfully, and Jimin wondered where her hurry to learn the evening yoga class from earlier went all of a sudden. "I am twenty one, how old are you? Can I call you oppa?"

"Yes," Jungkook mumbled, subconsciously moving a step closer to Jimin and further away from Hanni, and Jimin watched the interaction trying to control the pained expression on his face.

"Thank you so much for bringing the laptop so quickly, oppa," Hanni said, stepping closer to Jungkook. "Have you been here before? Do you know the place?"

"Once or twice."

"Did you ever take a yoga class?" Jungkook's uncomfortableness seemed to go over Hanni's head, because she was too mesmerized by how good Jungkook looked to notice the way he was huddling up into Jimin, and instead she stepped even closer. "I can give you my number and you can stop by for a free yoga class with me whenever you're free, my treat for the help."

"Jungkook needs to leave now, Hanni," Jimin said when Jungkook got so close to him in his attempt to run away from Hanni that their arms almost brushed together. "And you need to learn that routine."

"Of course," she sighed, finally taking a step back, and immediately Jungkook was able to breathe better, looking grateful for that save. "Let me just give you my number before leaving."

"You don't have much time, Hanni."

Hanni sent him a subtle look to stop ruining her game. "It will be just a second, oppa," she said, already slipping her phone out from the side pocket of her leggings.

"Jungkook is also in a hurry."

"Just a second—"

"Hanni—"

"Oppa, do you have a girlfriend?" she asked Jungkook, looking confused as to why Jimin wouldn't just let her flirt with Jungkook and get his number.

Immediately, both men froze, and just for a single, brief, mortifying second, Jungkook's eyes slipped to Jimin's. It had dread course through him and he realized that whatever the answer to that would've been, it was bad and it was also his fault.

It seemed that Hanni finally realized she went too far and struck a cord, and she took another step back. "I'm sorry, did I say something—"

"Thank you for bringing my laptop, Jungkook," Jimin said over her, his face hard and his chest heavy. "I owe you one."

"You're welcome, hyung," Jungkook mumbled, giving Hanni a curt nod before turning around and walking away, somehow still managing to appear cool and unbothered.

"Oppa, did I say something wrong?" she whispered as soon as Jungkook got out of earshot, looking remorseful.

"Don't worry about it," Jimin sighed, tapping his laptop. "Go and learn for that class. Keep my laptop with you in the studio and look at it throughout the class, to make sure you don't get lost. It's a bit of a harder routine, so you can call me whenever you need help before the class."

"Thank you, oppa," Hanni said, bowing her head in dejection, and Jimin squeezes her shoulder to not be hard on herself, because Jimin knew she also had a rough day.

Jimin watched her go, already starting the laptop while still walking away, and he stood in the middle of the reception area for a second longer. For a moment, it felt like him and Jungkook were making progress, finally having a conversation longer than a couple words, but now he felt like they were back to square one. He was thinking that he finally felt ready to talk to Jungkook about what happened, he at least needed to know whether Jungkook told his girlfriend about it, but after this he'd probably need to wait a little longer. 

Jimin was texting with Hoseok earlier that day when his friend suggested they meet up to hang out just the two of them and hinted that he had something important to talk to Jimin about, so after changing from his work clothes and making sure everything was alright before leaving the studio, Jimin parked in front of Hoseok's atelier.

Hoseok had a little Etsy business where people could commission him for hand painted and customized D&D or other media figurines and it's been lucrative for him ever since he started, so as of a couple months ago he got himself a little atelier because the paint and glue fumes were getting too much in his own apartment. Jimin walked up to Hoseok's building, nodding in greeting to a couple of people smoking outside, and one of them was kind enough to swipe his key card and hold the door for him, so that he didn't need to buzz Hoseok.

Hoseok's atelier door was once a plain cold grey, but now it was painted to mimic a wooden tavern door, with green fake moss around the base, and even the door handle and keypad were spray painted an aged shade of brass. Jimin typed the code in, a strong scent of paint thinner hitting him as soon as he walked inside.

"Ah," Hoseok laughed from his desk, turning around in his chair to look at the intruder, "so roguish of you to just sneak up on me like this. What happened to knocking?"

"You wouldn't have given me the code if you wanted me to knock," Jimin said with a small smile, kicking his shoes off and slipping his feet inside a pair of slippers Hoseok kept at the door. It was just an open room, not that spacious and very crowded, with an organized corner of shipping boxes needing to be sent out in a day or two to the side, floor to ceiling shelves with craft supplies, posters with inspirations on the walls and Hoseok's work table next to a big window for light, and he was already working on painting a figurine. "Sorry I'm late, I had to resolve something at work."

"Eh, I don't mind," Hoseok waved him off, turning back to his work. He had his glasses on and a face mask pulled under his chin, and he was wearing a paint stained t-shirt with an apron with even more stains over it. "Bring me some more tissues, will you? And something to drink, I feel like I'll faint soon."

"You forgot to air properly. Again." Jimin swiftly cracked the window open, sending a fresh whiff of air inside, and he moved to grab a box of tissues next, cranking the air conditioner up as he moved to Hoseok's mini fridge, grabbing two cans of soda from there. "What would you do without me?"

"Probably die from paint intoxication." Hoseok groaned stretching his back, arms above his head, and he murmured a thank you when Jimin opened a cold can of soda for him, immediately taking a sip. "I was so into this, I wouldn't have even noticed you were late if you wouldn't have said so," he said with a hiccup from the acidulated drink.

"Big order?" Jimin asked, dragging a chair next to Hoseok and sitting down. In front of them were a few bare figurines, some already partially painted and waiting for the paint to dry, and even one almost finished.

"Yes, and a personal project, actually," he said, putting his soda away and picking up a brush in one hand and the almost finished figurine in the other. "I thought we might start on our characters for the next campaign, since we're the artistic souls of our group. Namjoon can't hold a paintbrush to save his life."

Jimin smiled, wondering if Hoseok knew Jungkook was actually doing an art degree, wondering if any of the guys knew. "I still don't know what I want to play as next, but I can help you with some of your orders."

"I'd thank you for that," Hoseok said, wrinkling his nose at the pile of figurines on the other side of the table, waiting for him with a tag with the customer's description on them. "I think I'll be late on some of them, which I always hate. Can you start painting some orcs? Just the base color, I'm doing the detailing afterwards after the paint is dry. I ordered us some food, by the way. I got your picky ass your favorite."

"You're my favorite," Jimin sing-sang, looking through the figurines for the orcs and sorting them to the side. "You should start looking for an assistant if you don't want to turn down customers, it's getting ridiculous how much you work on these. And maybe you wouldn't be late if you weren't working on your personal project."

"That one is of the utmost importance." Hoseok brought his figurine up in the light, looking at it with one eye closed and the tip of his tongue sticking out from the corner of his mouth, examining it. "Does this one look like Jungkook?"

"What?" Jimin quipped, a sense of panic taking over him just from hearing his roommate's name, his hand dropping an orc.

"Jungkook," Hoseok explained, shaking his head as he dipped his paintbrush into a different, darker shade of red, and started painting over the figurine's tunic. "I'm making him his own figurine for his birthday. It kinda sucks that he doesn't have a figurine of his own and has to use a default one. Plus, I still feel bad for missing his birthday last year."

Jimin winced, making himself busy with his own figurines. Jungkook never mentioned his birthday to them, but they were all playing D&D last year, right at the beginning of the campaign, when Jungkook excused himself to go and take a call outside. Seokjin overheard him talking with his mother and thanking her for wishing him a happy birthday and he freaked out, asking Jungkook why he didn't tell them beforehand so they could prepare something for him. Jungkook kept his face expressionless and unbothered as he shrugged and said it's not a big deal and he didn't want to celebrate his birthday, anyway.

"It's supposed to be his human cleric. Maybe it's useless to do this when the campaign ends soon, but it might be a nice memory of his first campaign," Hoseok said, getting a glue coated brush and starting to spread it all over the base of the figurine to apply fake grass next. "What are you getting him?"

"Haven't thought about that yet," Jimin mumbled, feeling a heaviness in his chest. "Hey, Hoseok, do you—do you remember when we thought Jungkook might've been a homophobe?"

Jimin didn't know anything about Jungkook when the younger just moved in, so he was wary of bringing his hookups home or having his queer friends over until he was absolutely sure it was safe, but at Jungkook's first D&D session he accidentally walked in on Namjoon and Seokjin kissing in the kitchen, and he just shrugged and grabbed the bag of chips he came for, making abstraction of them and acting like nothing happened. From that day forward, Jungkook has been their token straight friend. And up until a week ago.

"Yeah," Hoseok chuckled, tongue sticking out between his teeth as he stroked precise lines on the figurine, waiting for the glue to get tacky. "Kind of feel bad about it now, but he is always just so closed off and serious, you just never know what's going on in his head. But he's cool."

"Yeah..." Jimin chewed on his bottom lip, staring at a random figurine with a thoughtful furrow in his brows. "Would you—I mean, would you—" He stopped to sigh deeply, pinching the bridge of his nose and closing his eyes, getting his friend's curious eyes on him. "Would you ever see him with a man?"

Hoseok's eyebrows shot up, staring at him with shock. A long moment of silence passed between them, in which Jimin was second guessing ever bringing it up. "See him with a man... like, sexually?" Hoseok asked for clarification. Jimin nodded. "I mean, Jungkook is not really the type I'd see in any sexual context... with anyone," he said with an uncomfortable chuckle, his forehead creasing in confusion. "He's just so cold, I can't even imagine him having sex with his own girlfriend. He always struck me as ace or aro."

Jimin lowered his eyes in his lap, fidgeting with a paint box, getting forest green under his nails. He'd scratch ace off that list. "Yeah, I guess you're right," he chuckled nervously, wanting to kick himself for ever opening his mouth.

He felt Hoseok's eyes on him for a lot longer, though he didn't acknowledge it. "I guess... there is a possibility. We should never assume. And we were already wrong about him once, so who knows, maybe he's bi or something." It sounded like he was only saying it for Jimin's sake and he didn't actually believe it. "Do you... have feelings—"

"No!" Jimin cut him off right, giving Hoseok a dead serious look, shaking his head. "No, I was just wondering."

Hoseok studied his face, the frown between his brows starting to look suspicious. "Good," he said after a moment. "Because, you know, Jungkook has a girlfriend."

"Yeah, I know." Jimin turned his face away, dipping the tip of his brush inside green paint, starting to messily swipe it over an orc with a shaky hand.

Hoseok's questioning eyes stayed on him for a long moment, but he seemed to catch on that Jimin didn't want to talk about whatever was on his mind. "I actually wanted to talk about Jungkook with you," he said with a shrug, eyeing Jimin warily as he got back to painting. "I was talking with Taehyung and we were thinking about throwing a surprise birthday party for Jungkook at your guys' place. Maybe we pretend everyone forgot about his birthday, then when he comes home we do that corny surprise! and play something afterwards, I don't know. Seokjin already offered to bake a cake."

Jimin nodded, trying his hardest to look normal as he looked at Hoseok. "Yeah, that would be nice, Hobi. I don't know how much Jungkook will like it, though."

"Eh, maybe we'll finally get him to crack. He seems all cold, but I get a feeling he has a soft side to him, am I right?"

Jimin gave Hoseok a tight smile and nodded. Being Jungkook's roommate, he obviously got to see Jungkook more than anyone else from the group, and up until a couple of weeks ago he wouldn't really have called Jungkook warm or soft.

Jungkook was obviously gravitating more towards Jimin from anyone else in their group and has warmed up more to Jimin than anyone else, but even then, Jimin wouldn't say Jungkook had a soft side for him. More like, Jimin was the one Jungkook would lean in towards when he had a D&D related question and would sometimes talk with Jimin about his day, and then there was that time Jungkook told Jimin that he has anxiety and he's not actually cold and uncaring.

And then that night two weeks ago happened, when Jungkook got drunk and opened up and became a whole different person, even managed to joke and laugh with Jimin like never before, and then he was so passionate when he kissed Jimin, when he got Jimin in his bed—

Jimin cleared his throat, squeezing his thighs together, and he flinched when he lifted his eyes and found Hoseok grinning suggestively at him, and only then did Jimin realize he was biting down on his bottom lip and his cheeks were warm.

"Someone has a crush on our Jungkookie," Hoseok teased, bumping their shoulders together.

"Oh my god," Jimin groaned, bowing his head and raising his shoulders around his head to hide his face.

"No, no, I get it. A little harmless crush never hurt no one, and he's so cool and mysterious with his whole quiet and reserved thing. And, come on, we've all seen him in that leather jacket."

Jimin groaned obnoxiously, making Hoseok cackle. "I hate you. I do not have a crush on Jungkook."

"Sure, and elves are not tree huggers," Hoseok snorted, getting an elbow nudge from Jimin.

"Hey, I'm a blood elf."

"Oh, yeah," Hoseok said, nodding along as he looked out the window, reminiscing about Jimin's figurine that they've painted together in Hoseok's dorm room a year and a half ago, and he still kept the picture of that figurine as his profile picture for his Instagram and Etsy account. "Anyhow, you get what I'm saying, you've fallen for Jungkook's introvert charms."

"You don't know what you're talking about," Jimin scoffed, shaking his head as he turned back to his orcs.

The delivery guy arriving with their food was Jimin's escape, as Hoseok let him off the hook to go fetch the food.

For the rest of the hangout, Jimin skillfully avoided the Jungkook subject and instead did the mandatory shit talking about their jobs that they actually loved, they speculated about what final boss Yoongi might have chosen for the final fight, talked about what characters they're planning to play in their next campaign, and Hoseok told Jimin to watch Squid Game season 2 as well. Jimin inquired about the next time they'll meet to finish their campaign and Hoseok suggestively said he'll find a way to make Yoongi come around and change some things around in his schedule to meet up sooner. Jimin wrinkled his nose and didn't ask.

By the end of it, Jimin had his social batteries fully charged and he was feeling lighter, leaving with Hoseok after they got a good number of figurines down and Hoseok said he desperately needed a shower and a nap, and that disturbingly accurate figurine of Jungkook's cleric watched Jimin leave until the door closed.

Jimin parted with Hoseok when each got into their cars, and though Jimin already had dinner with Hoseok and it was getting late, he stopped by a takeout place and got kimchi fried rice and side dishes, thinking that if Jungkook would turn down dinner with him, he'd at least have leftovers for the next day. He desperately needed to interact with Jungkook, he felt like he would go absolutely insane otherwise.

By the time he opened the front door of their apartment, Jimin already started overthinking that maybe Jungkook was out—maybe with his girlfriend—but Jungkook's shoes were placed neatly at the door. The living room was clear as Jimin tentatively walked inside. He didn't remember either one of them staying inside their rooms as much as they did now, and he was saddened by the situation.

Placing the bags of food on their coffee table, Jimin's body was buzzing with anxiety as he walked up to Jungkook's bedroom door, clenching and unclenching his fists, and with a booming heart he knocked. A curious silence passed from the other side, then Jungkook got up from his desk chair and walked over to creak the door open. Jungkook was wearing a large pair of checkered pants and a white undershirt, his eyes looking a bit red and tired behind his glasses, and his right wrist was wrapped tightly because he has probably been drawing for a long time.

"Hey, what's up?" Jungkook asked, his voice a bit husky.

Jimin faltered for a second, lowering his eyes to the floor, and suddenly he felt shy. "Hey, I got us some food... If you're hungry..." The invitation sounded stupid the second the words left his mouth, because Jungkook probably ate already, Jimin already ate, anyway, and they've never done this before. They weren't the kind of roommates to have their names written in sharpie on things in the fridge, but neither one of them got food for themselves just like this before.

Jungkook peeked over the top of Jimin's head, catching the sight of bags of food overflowing from their coffee table, then he looked at Jimin with a raised eyebrow. It was silent for a moment, then he shrugged. "I could eat," he said simply.

A relieved breath of air passed Jimin's lips, because he didn't think he could've survived a rejection to this olive branch he extended. "Okay. Okay, thank you. Come on, while it's still warm."

There was the ripping sound of Jungkook taking his compressive wrist bandage off, then he swiftly grabbed a hoodie from his bed and pulled it over his head, covering up. Jimin looked the other way, his steps self conscious as he walked over to the couch. The silence was awkward and he turned the TV on to have some noise in the background, giving Jungkook a brief smile before quickly looking away. Together, they took the food out in silence, and neither one commented about the random early 2010s drama that was playing on TV.

"Thank you," Jungkook murmured before taking a bite of food.

"You're welcome," Jimin murmured back.

It was completely silent apart from their chewing noises and the TV, with the volume that was just low enough to make the clicking of their chopsticks obnoxious, but Jimin didn't remember where he put the remote, and he felt too uncomfortable to ask Jungkook to get up from the couch to look for it.

"The food is very good," Jungkook said, eyes glued on the TV. "It's a lot."

"Yeah, I thought we could have leftovers for a couple of days, so that we don't need to cook for a while," Jimin said, scratching his head.

Jungkook nodded, moving his food around in his plastic container. "I should give you half for this."

Jimin sighed, the sweet spiciness on his tongue replaced by something bitter, and suddenly his jaw became heavy and he felt the need to cry, so confused and frustrated as to where the Jungkook from that one night disappeared and what he did to deserve this. He wished for Jungkook to be relaxed and carefree, joking and flirting with him, and he wanted Jungkook to pull him onto his lap and kiss him, just like he did once before already. "There's no need," he choked out. "I've got this one."

They ate slowly, because neither one of them was hungry, and at some point they collectively gave up, leaning back on the couch and just watching the too quiet drama playing. Jungkook was lounging on the long part of the couch, while Jimin huddled up in the corner with a thin blanket over his legs, keeping his chin in the palm of his head as he watched the TV.

With a subtle sigh, Jimin turned his head to the side, shamelessly starting to watch Jungkook. He was so calm, so relaxed, almost falling asleep, and Jimin wondered whether Jungkook would ever want to talk about the fact that they slept together, if he'll pretend it never happened forever, if he'll just move out one day and—

Then, Jimin's breath hitched in his chest, his lips parting when his eyes fell over Jungkook's lap. Jungkook had both hands in his lap, his arms relaxed, but the thumb of his right hand was jabbed so painfully into the space between his left hand's thumb and pointer finger that it almost made Jimin wince. Jungkook did that a lot, whenever he'd be anxious he'd stab his fingernail into his hand so that the pain would distract him from whatever was making him so nervous, he had the light colored crescent moon scars on his skin to show for it.

Sometimes, Jimin would see Jungkook talking with someone and he'd have his fists balled up inside the pockets of his pants, and when he'd get his hands out Jimin would catch red half circles on his skin. It made the frown between Jimin's eyebrows soften.

On the day Jungkook moved in, Jimin made a joke about how intimidating Jungkook seemed and how he won't have to worry about burglars and stuff now, and Jungkook mumbled something about having extreme social anxiety. It always made Jimin cut Jungkook some slack and not take it personally when Jungkook would come off cold, and it made him try to convince his friends that Jungkook just needed more time to warm up to people and they should keep inviting him.

With an inhale for courage, Jimin shifted his legs underneath him, keeping his eyes on the screen as he inched one foot closer, pushing his socked toes against Jungkook's. It had Jungkook's whole body tensing, having stopped breathing, but he didn't move an inch. Jungkook stayed like that, on high alert, then, slowly, little by little, his body relaxed and the tip of his toes pushed against Jimin's just the slightest bit.

Something fluttered inside Jimin's chest, making the corners of his lips lift into a little smile. He continued watching TV, getting a bit sleepy, and he almost cooed when he glanced into Jungkook's direction after a few minutes and Jungkook had one hand over his stomach, while his other arm was bent under his head. Progress, this is what it felt like.

Jimin's hand slithered underneath his butt to grab his phone, and that's when he realized he was actually the one who was sitting on the TV remote, and he quickly raised the volume to a respectable level, and almost immediately there was a hum of agreement from Jungkook. Jimin's thumb swiped over the screen of his phone, starting to read over the many notifications coming from the D&D group chat. His eyes quickly read everything, then he let his phone fall on his lap.

Jimin looked at Jungkook thoughtfully for a long moment, pondering, then he glanced back at the TV. "Jungkook?" he asked softly, getting a sleepy hum from Jungkook. "The guys are thinking about meeting next week on Saturday for the last session of our D&D campaign. Is that cool with you?"

"Yeah, I'm cool. With that," Jungkook said fragmentary, clearing his throat afterwards.

Jimin nodded, shooting the guys a text letting them know both him and Jungkook could make it. "Cool."

It was silent for a second, and Jimin wondered if Jungkook was paying attention to the random drama they were too lazy to switch from.

"Hyung?" Jungkook whispered.

Jimin hummed.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome, Jungkook," Jimin said softly, something melting inside his chest hearing how small Jungkook's voice sounded. Jimin pushed his toes against Jungkook's. Jungkook pushed his toes against Jimin's.

They laid together as they watched TV.

Chapter Text

Jimin took a deep breath, expanding his chest to maximum capacity, and he kept it in while he counted to ten. Then, he let it all out in a shaky exhale, his eyelids fluttering open, and he stared up at the ceiling of his and Jungkook's living room.

Both of them had the day off, but while Jimin was whisking himself a matcha latte that morning, Jungkook said he'll be out for a bit later that day, but he'll still be back before they need to leave, to which Jimin only hummed and didn't even look up from his cup. Jimin never inquired Jungkook about his whereabouts, it wasn't Jimin's place to, and even to just ask Jungkook where he was going in a friendly curious way would've felt charged now, so Jimin didn't open his mouth.

Fortunately, though, Jungkook spared him hours of overthinking and told Jimin he was running really quickly to the crafts store to buy himself some special kind of paper he needed. They both came to a silent mutual understanding to not talk about what happened, and things were more or less exactly like they were before.

Closing his eyes again, Jimin hugged his knees into his chest, taking one breath, then he extended his arms alongside his body, placing the palms against the thick yoga mat, and lifted his legs straight up in front of him. Hips pressing into the ground, ankles stacked over his knees and knees stacked over his hips, he stayed in this pose for a minute.

The thing was, Jimin was feeling guilty for not feeling guilty. In today's day and aged, he could've very easily resolved to some good old fashioned internet stalking and find out who Jungkook's girlfriend was and shoot her a hey, girl message, but he didn't want to. Jimin's moral obligation wasn't home as much as Jimin knocked on its door, and he had to give up and admit that while he felt like shit, he didn't regret it.

That night was one of the most fun Jimin had with another man in a long time, maybe ever, and the only thing that Jimin truly regretted was that it probably won't happen ever again. The sex was hands down the best sex in his life, he never had a man be so into him as Jungkook was in that moment, and Jimin's never seen Jungkook drunk before, but drunk Jungkook was a whole different person—he was open, carefree, loud, and so fucking smart and witty.

Pressing his palms into the ground, Jimin lifted his hips and low back up off of the mat, bringing his hands to his lower back for support, and extended his legs straight up in front of him, finding a supported shoulder stand.

Something embarrassing was burning inside Jimin and he couldn't stop thinking about Jungkook as much as he tried; even now, when Jimin was supposed to relax and clear his mind, he was still thinking about Jungkook, for god's sake. Jimin'd never had a thing for quiet and cold men particularly, but the contrast between Jungkook's day to day detached and unbothered personality and how he fucked Jimin into the mattress like there was no tomorrow kept causing Jimin to wake up hard and needy and hump his pillow while staring at his bedroom door in annoyance.

Slowly, Jimin lowered his feet until they touched the floor behind his head, knees over his forehead in plow pose, then he interlaced his fingers into a fist, placing them against the mat behind his back. Lately, Jimin found himself hunched over in anxiety as he worried to no end about his situation with Jungkook, and this back bend was doing wonders for that.

Jimin didn't even know Jungkook was into guys to begin with, Hoseok was right that he shouldn't have assumed, but Hoseok was also right that Jungkook was so shut off and inhospitable that no one would've associated basic human functions to him, Jungkook almost came off as a robot incapable of human emotions.

Someone stopped right before their front door and started typing their code in, making Jimin's eyes snap wide open. Shit, he must've overestimated how much it would take Jungkook to go to his crafts store and be back, and now he's stuck in an even more embarrassing pose than downward facing dog. With frantic moves, Jimin shot his legs back, his spine arching and then straightening vertebrae by vertebrae, and he pushed himself upright on his butt the same second Jungkook walked in through the door.

Jungkook froze mid step, staring at Jimin in surprise. Jimin had pushed their coffee table to the side to have more space for his yoga mat since his bedroom floor was a mess, he was wearing a tight pair of biker shorts that rode up to his upper thighs and a random baggy t-shirt he got from the hamper, and Jimin knew he must've looked frazzled.

"Hi," Jimin said belatedly, getting up on his feet and quickly turning his calming meditation music off before starting to roll his yoga mat. "Sorry, I was feeling kind of stiff and I'm not stopping by the studio today, and my room looks like a tornado attack, so I thought I'd just stretch here really quickly before we leave." Jungkook was silent, and when Jimin glanced at him over his shoulder he found Jungkook staring at his clothes. "I swear I'm wearing pants," Jimin laughed awkwardly when he realized his baggy t-shirt was completely covering his shorts, and he started tugging on them down until they reached around his mid thighs, then he briefly lifted his t-shirt above his hip to show Jungkook. "See? Pants."

Jungkook sucked in a sharp breath, consternation flashing over his face for a second before he looked to the side. "I think you're wearing my t-shirt," he mumbled.

"Oh!" Jimin almost screamed, horror taking over him when he looked down and recognized the graphic design as something Jungkook sketched a few months ago and had printed on a basic black tee. "I'm so sorry, I didn't even fucking realize. I just took a random thing from the laundry—"

"It's okay," Jungkook cut him off, flinching and looking away when Jimin tried to take the t-shirt off. "You can keep it."

Jimin stopped with his arms crossed in front of him, gripping the edges of the t-shirt, half lifting it up to his torso. "I can keep it?" Jimin asked, slowly letting his arms down.

Jungkook shrugged, kicked his shoes off and stuffed his feet inside his house slippers, then he marched straight to his bedroom with his head bowed down. "Yeah."

And just like that, he was gone. A frustrated groan made its way out from Jimin's throat before he kicked his rolled up yoga mat to the floor.

That evening, they were supposed to meet for their last D&D session, and so far Jimin thought he did a pretty good job with not letting Jungkook find out about their poor attempt to play without him. Their team had high charisma and low intelligence, which perfectly described them, and it's no wonder they made their whole team with no dedicated healer and only realized it at the first session, and that was when they started looking for someone to play a cleric. Jimin had asked Jungkook to tag along, who was only Jimin's roommate for a couple of months at that time, and now Jungkook was their most valuable player, because he was keeping everyone alive with his healing powers.

After a quick shower and immediately realizing Jungkook's t-shirt was actually yesterday's t-shirt, with a faint smell of Jungkook's sweat and perfume that almost made Jimin go insane, Jimin briefly debated if he should wear Jungkook's shirt out of the house, but he wasn't all that far gone. Yet. So, Jimin changed into a fresh set of clothes that were entirely his own, and then knocked at Jungkook's door when it was time to leave, finding his roommate ready and waiting for him.

Jungkook wore simple clothes, just a pair of dark blue jeans and a plain white t-shirt, and had his leather jacket folded over one arm, because by the time they would've finished it would've been early morning and cold outside, while Jimin wore a black cloak with red on the underside over his dark roguish clothes. Jungkook never dressed up on theme for the campaign, which was pretty on theme for him, and that made the other guys feel judged at the beginning, but then Jimin pointed out that Jungkook never commented on any of their costumes and he never even gave them any weird looks, which made them stop complaining when there was so little communication from Jungkook.

They left in Jimin's car and drove in silence to Yoongi's place, stopping by a convenience store to buy their contribution of the snacks, and both of them eyed the liquor corner warily and didn't step near it. Instead, Jimin silently slipped a bag of spicy shrimp crackers into their cart, Jungkook's favorites, and Jungkook wordlessly grabbed a back of mini milk chocolate candies, Jimin's favorites. Jungkook carried everything all the way up to Yoongi's apartment, and Jimin saw Jungkook's free hand anxiously scratching his other arm as the elevator got them up to the fourth floor, but Jimin didn't comment on it.

"Well, well, well, here's our cleric," Seokjin said as soon as he opened Yoongi's front door for them, sending a spike of panic through Jimin's chest. "Glad you could join us today, glad you could grace us with your presence. Please, please, enter our peasant dump. Hoseok, bring the diamond chair for our dear cleric, would you?"

Jimin blanched, peeking to find Jungkook's reaction, but Jungkook kept his face empty, not giving anything away.

"Stop messing with him, hyung," Hoseok laughed from inside, peeking out from behind Seokjin and taking hold of the bag of snacks Jungkook was holding. "Glad you could make it tonight, Jungkook-ah. We were a mess last time without you."

Jungkook subtly glanced to the side, catching sight of Jimin's guilt filled face. "Sorry about that," Jungkook said with a slight bow. "Something came up."

"Jungkook, you don't have to," Jimin whispered, the tips of his fingers brushing Jungkook's elbow.

"Eh, I'm just pulling your leg here, Jungkook-ah," Seokjin laughed, patting Jungkook's shoulder before stepping back to give them enough space to walk inside and take their shoes off. "I'm just glad it wasn't anything bad, you usually never miss a session."

Jungkook didn't say anything to that, nor did he meet Jimin's eyes, he just left his things at the door and walked to the bathroom after excusing himself. Jimin hissed a curse under his breath and skipped to Yoongi's living room, where the guys were already surrounding the table, annoying Yoongi by trying to help him set up his DM screen, actually trying to find out what he had planned for tonight.

"It is The Tarrasque, isn't it?" Taehyung said, impatiently bouncing on his feet as he playfully tried to peek at Yoongi's notes, and he seemed to have found the bard hat that he forgot to get last time, his turquoise feather tucked in the strap of his hat swishing around in the air. "You've blue balled us all this time just to go with a classic, didn't you?"

"It's Isshin," Namjoon said from the couch where he was cuddling with Seokjin, both of them looking at his phone and going through a list of the possible final bosses for their D&D campaign. Namjoon had his cheekbones farded to look like fading scales and he wore a breastplate print shirt, while Seokjin looked ethereal with his fake elf ears and elven teardrop headpiece. "He has a bone to pick with us and wants to see us crash and burn."

"My bet is on Radagon," Hoseok said, adding Jimin's and Jungkook's snacks on the dedicated table, wrapped in garlands of fake leaves and wearing a great replica of his wolf familiar on his shoulder, something that Jimin knew Hoseok handcrafted in his studio all by himself.

"Marut."

"Bahamut."

"Xanathar."

"Would you guys just shut up?" Yoongi snapped in a tired voice, shooing Taehyung away. "You'll literally find out in ten minutes, stop being kids. Where's Jungkook?" he inquired Jimin in a cutting voice, threatening him to say Jungkook is missing again.

"He took the liberty of using the bathroom without consulting the DM police beforehand," Seokjin said from the couch, thoughtfully reading over that list. "Owlbear? You wanted to do something simple for Jungkook's first campaign?"

"Warm," Yoongi said plainly while organizing his pens, shooting a murmur through the other men.

"Alright, look who has a soft spot for Jungkook," Namjoon whistled lowly, changing the search on his phone for some easier bosses.

"I'm not surprised, they both have to suffer as the only introverts among a bunch of extroverts," Seokjin said, peeking over Namjoon's shoulder to watch his phone screen, absentmindedly unwrapping a sour candy. "Bugbear Chief?"

Yoongi rolled his eyes in annoyance, smoke almost coming out of his ears, and he threatened them with a long warning groan. "If you keep this up, you're gonna make it lackluster when we do get to that point. I didn't go haywire with it, but it's not so simple that you'll be fighting teddy bears."

"But the suspense is killing me!" Taehyung cried theatrically, falling on the couch over Seokjin's and Namjoon's legs, hand over his forehead in drama as he pretended to die.

"You are a perfect bard," Seokjin commented fondly, one hand patting Taehyung's shoulder and the other brushing the hair out of Taehyung's forehead. "Love the feather."

"Don't touch it," Taehyung said immediately, jerking his head away and protectively cupping both hands over his hat. "My cat played with it and I just glued it down, it's still fragile."

Jimin took a deep breath, feeling so much anxiety thrumming through his body that he thought he might just faint if he didn't scream from the top of his lungs in that second, a long and discharging scream to cool off, and he desperately needed to talk to someone about him and Jungkook. Across the room, Jimin's eyes met Hoseok's, and Hoseok's hand stopped midway to his mouth, salted popcorn between his fingertips, and with a quick once over Jimin's face a concerned frown formed between Hoseok's brows before he lifted an eyebrow in question. Wordlessly, Jimin gave Hoseok a subtle nod and then turned around, slipping out of the room unnoticed.

Eyeing the bathroom door like it's going to explode, Jimin entered Yoongi's kitchen, letting the door open, and a few seconds later Hoseok stepped inside, looking at Jimin with worry. "Hey, you okay? You had those eyes," Hoseok said, closing the door, and he immediately skipped closer after Jimin waved him over with urgency. "What is it?"

When Jimin lifted his eyes, there was only panic and maybe something a little unhinged in them, his hands were trembling and he was biting on the inside of his cheek so hard that he was almost tasting blood on his tongue, but Jimin just needed someone to talk to and Jungkook won't talk to him—"I slept with Jungkook," Jimin mumbled intelligibly.

Hoseok frowned, drawing his face closer. "Jungkook did what?"

Jimin bounced on his feet impatiently, the blood circulation all over the place and his legs like jelly. "I slept with Jungkook," he hissed, somehow even quieter.

"Huh?"

"I slept with Jungkook!" Jimin almost yelled then, his voice breaking, and both of their eyes went wide in shock, then Jimin slapped a hand over his mouth in horror that he actually said it.

"What—"

Both of them flinched in surprise when a loud gasp came from their side, and when Jimin snapped his head around a cry of pain started threatening its way out when he saw who was at the door.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no," Hoseok hurried to say, taking two large steps and clasping a hand over Taehyung's mouth before the other could let out a scream of shock. "Shh, shh—"

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Jimin hissed, getting into the two men and cornering his friends against the wall, grabbing whatever body part he could've reached for to keep them silent. "Not a word! Jungkook's in the bathroom." Taehyung tipped his head back until his chin looked infinite, his face contorting in horror as he looked at Jimin with wide eyes. There was an indignant and stunned sound from Taehyung, muffled by Hoseok's hand, and his eyes were so widely opened that Jimin was afraid they might pop out, completely white and round and pupils dilated on Jimin in stupefaction. With a wince of regret, Jimin grabbed the other two men and roughly shoved them in the farthest away corner from the door, his legs shaking. "Be quiet!"

"You slept with Jungkook?!" Hoseok screamed in a whispered hiss, glaring at Jimin like he had two heads, and his hand stayed tightly clasped over Taehyung's mouth, shoulders hunched up to his ears in defense. "As in, you both fell asleep in the same bed or something?"

Jimin's knees gave up on him for a second and he gripped both fists around the other's arms while dramatically lowering halfway to the ground, then he shot upright with his head thrown back. "Slept, as in, I had sex with Jungkook." Taehyung's and Hoseok's eyes widened even larger, and Jimin was sure the only thing keeping Taehyung's jaw from dropping to the floor was Hoseok keeping it attached to the rest of his face with his hand. "What do I do?" Jimin whined in a desperate cry, flinging his hands around to relieve some of the stress, looking up at the ceiling so the tears of frustration won't spill.

"Wha—How—Why—" Hoseok stuttered, so bewildered that he stopped for a second, staring at the floor to fully process it, but it seemed that the mental image was slowly forming in his head the longer he thought about it, because his eyes widened in horror before he shut them closed, furiously shaking his head to get the image out of his mind. "Jungkook? Seriously?" he asked then, clear judgement in his voice.

Jimin nodded, sucking his lips inside, and he was jumping from one foot to another as he looked between his friends. The initial shock from their face was slowly replaced with utter judgment when the seconds passed by and Jimin didn't say he was joking and the reality of it started to sink in. With a deep breath for oxygen so that his poor brain won't completely give up on him, Jimin pressed one hand into the nearest wall, feeling lightheaded. "Listen, it happened, Jungkook refuses to acknowledge it happened, and I'm losing my mind, not exactly in this order."

"What—Okay, when?" Hoseok managed to say after a second of gathering his thoughts, his forehead creased, and they were whispering and being huddled together like the other guys would hear them from the other room. "When did it happen?"

"Three weeks and four days ago," Jimin said, his face crumpling seeing their reactions.

"That's almost a whole month!" Hoseok cried in an incredulous hiss. "And you still didn't talk about it?"

"No, we avoided each other all that next week afterwards, that's why I didn't come with him on our last session." Jimin spun around in frustration, screaming a silent scream in his hands to let some of it out, then he spun back around and faced his friends like nothing happened. "And now, we just pretend nothing happened, which drives me insane. I want to know what he thinks. I can't keep living like this."

"You didn't try to bring it up at all?" Hoseok asked after he cleared his throat, making Jimin grab him by the collar of his shirt and bring their faces inches apart to show him how dire the situation was.

"Hyung, he didn't talk to me for a week. He avoided me. I didn't even see him at all, we just lived like a pair of Harry Potter house elves to each other for a week, then I came home one night and he was watching TV in the living room and acting like nothing happened."

"Well... maybe he doesn't want to start the conversation himself, but maybe he'll talk about it if you bring it up first," Hoseok said with a helpless shrug, jerking Taehyung flush against his side when Taehyung tried to break free from his grasp. "It also doesn't sound like you tried either, and you've always been the one with the propaganda that Jungkook is actually just shy and not a psychopath. I think you have to bite the bullet and sit Jungkook down yourself and lead the conversation." Hoseok stopped to think about something, his eyebrows pinching together and his mouth twisting to the side like he didn't want to ask the question. "Do you know if... he's still with his girlfriend?"

Bottom lip jutting out in shame, Jimin lowered his eyes to the floor, shrugging, letting the silence be his answer.

"Shit," Hoseok sighed deeply, scrubbing his face to reassess. "Nothing to do about that now. You simply need to talk with him, I don't know what else to tell you. If he's avoided you for this long I don't think he wants an audience, so I can only help you with a pep talk to approach him when you guys are alone."

Not able to bear it for a moment longer, Taehyung shoved Hoseok's palm off of his mouth, making the two other men startle with his sudden determined gesture. "How was the sex?" he asked seriously, like it was the most important thing in the world.

A shiver of that heated memory ran down Jimin's spine and his thighs instinctively flexed closed, staring at Taehyung with sober dead serious eyes. "Best sex of my life. Hands down."

Taehyung nodded solemnly. "Spill."

"He—He—" Jimin choked up a pathetic sound, his eyes glazing over thinking about it, and he stuttered trying to get any word out for a second.

Taehyung nodded again, like that was answer enough. "That good."

"I don't think he's straight, Tae," Jimin sighed in exhaustion, his shoulders slumping down as he finally said what's been bugging him. "I mean, when we—when we did it, he just knew how to... I don't think it's the first time he hooked up with a guy," Jimin finished, looking at his friends with squinted eyes to see if they understood.

Because Jungkook wasn't clumsy or clueless, he didn't need to ask Jimin any questions or guidance, he knew exactly how he had to open Jimin up beforehand, he didn't hesitate when he coated his fingers with lube and fingered Jimin, he wasn't thrown off by touching another guy. Jungkook knew how to curl his fingers to hit Jimin's prostate with experienced precision, knew how to make Jimin gasp and writhe on his fingers, knew how to stroke Jimin and position his hips for the perfect angle. Jungkook wasn't inexperienced, he actually seemed to have done this a million times before.

"Maybe he's bi," Taehyung suggested.

Jimin sighed deeply, dropping his head over Taehyung's shoulder, and immediately one of Taehyung's arms wrapped around Jimin. "It's not that. It's hard to explain, but that wasn't a bi guy that had a girlfriend for two years and used to hook up with dudes back in the day. I think he's gay. It's just—the sex was so fucking good!" he said with a frustrated groan, burrowing his head in the crook of Taehyung's neck and shoulder, embarrassed to even be talking about this. "My god, it—I don't even know where to start."

"Please, don't start at all," Hoseok said with a scowl from behind Jimin, placing a hand over Jimin's hip. "I still want to think Jungkook is a pure and innocent soul trapped inside the body of a guy who's so introverted he doesn't even know what sex is." Jimin had to bite on his tongue to keep his mouth shut to that.

"I do," Taehyung scoffed. "How big is his dick?"

"Yah!" Hoseok let out a shrill sound of protest, jumping on Jimin's back and struggling to cover Jimin's mouth with his hand before he can answer. "Enough, no more!"

"I'm dying of curiosity," Taehyung argued back, struggling to fight Hoseok's arms off. "I literally want to know everything."

Jimin huffed, trying to push Taehyung back a little, because he was not the kind to kiss and tell, but Hoseok pressing into his lungs from the back was making it difficult to talk, and then the door opened abruptly and all three men froze. Jimin blinked, his heart dropping to the pit of his stomach when he saw Jungkook, halfway inside the kitchen, hand on the door handle, frozen mid step and looking at them with a surprised eyebrow, his face void of any emotion, as always.

And suddenly, Jimin realizes what position he was in, sandwiched between his friends and all of them looking busted, like Jungkook just walked in on them trying to have a threesome. All at once, Taehyung and Hoseok and Jimin jumped away from each other like they've been burned, clearing their throats and skittishly looking around like nothing happened.

Jungkook tentatively stepped inside, eyeing them cautiously as he moved to throw some candy and snacks wrappers in the trash. Through the corner of his eyes, Jimin realized that both Taehyung and Hoseok were avoiding looking at Jungkook, like they couldn't face him now knowing what they knew, and Jimin wanted to groan in despair.

"Jungkook," Jimin said, glancing at Jungkook before quickly looking away, "we were just... just..."

"Talking about tonight's session," Hoseok said for Jimin, giving Jungkook a wide forced smile, then he shoved his hands inside his pants pockets and found something really interesting on the floor.

Jimin winced, something bitter and frustrated filing his mouth seeing how uncaring Jungkook was, even though he had to know they were just talking about him. Jungkook only hummed, starting to put the trash into the recycling bins, unaware of the way Jimin's shoulders slumped down in a rejection he didn't even know he gave.

From behind him, Taehyung placed a hand over Jimin's low back for support. "How you doing, Jungkook?" Taehyung asked friendly, actually managing to look at Jungkook, though Jungkook was avoiding eye contact.

"I'm good, hyung," Jungkook said simply, finishing up before washing his hands in the sink. It was awkwardly silent and neither one of them had any reason to still be there besides Jungkook, who moved to the fridge and started running through the beverage options. There was the sound of glass and metal sodas clinking together, and Jungkook was just pretending he wasn't feeling their curious stares on him, seeing about his thing like he had horse blinders on. "There's only one plum soda left, hyung, do you want it?"

"Yes," Jimin said, somehow knowing Jungkook was talking to him and not anyone else, and when Jungkook semi closed the fridge door and twisted to the side to hand Jimin the cold can of soda, he flashed Jimin a small polite smile, and as pathetic as it felt, it made Jimin feel a bit better the receive even this small amount of attention from Jungkook. "Thank you."

"You're welcome, hyung," Jungkook said, something on his face hesitating when he caught the way Taehyung elbowed Hoseok, and his face became expressionless again. Jungkook hooked a couple of bottles of soda between his knuckles—a little frown forming between Jimin's eyebrows when he realized they forgot to buy banana milk for Jungkook again—and then closed the door of the fridge with his elbow before he turned around to leave. "Yoongi is waiting for you in the living room."

Jimin let out a disheartened sigh watching Jungkook's back leave, turning to Hoseok with his lips turned downwards.

"And that was the best sex of your life? Hands down?" Taehyung asked, looking at Jimin doubtful.

"You need to talk to him about this," Hoseok said, twirling around and getting hold of Jimin's hand, tugging him out of the room. "It's weird that you didn't address it for this long."

"And it's also your fault," Taehyung added, pushing Jimin from behind. "You've seen how widely he smiled at you, he's obviously wanting to talk about it, stop dragging your feet."

"Don't make fun of him," Jimin sighed, letting himself be moved around by his friends like a ragdoll.

"The important question is, do you think you can fix him?" Taehyung teased, earning himself a rather rough shove from Jimin that wasn't all that friendly, since he was feeling even more protective over Jungkook now.

"Reminds me of why I only wanted to tell Hoseok," Jimin grumbled, keeping his eyes narrowed on Taehyung until Taehyung broke into a sheepish grin.

"Sorry. Totally rooting for you. Go get yourself that good dick."

Hoseok made a loud groan to warn them to drop it, pushing both of them inside the living room and ultimately ending this conversation now that the rest of the group could hear them. Now, Yoongi had all his set up done and Seokjin and Namjoon were already sitting down next to each other at the table, with Seokjin having one leg thrown over Namjoon's lap and Namjoon massaging his ankle.

"Finally," Yoongi groaned when they walked inside. "The chaotic trio is back. Alright, gather around," he said with a clap of his hands, getting some sarcastic comments from Taehyung and Hoseok, but Jimin was too preoccupied getting incapacitated by Jungkook's stare to hear them.

From the snacks corner, Jungkook looked at Jimin over his shoulder, an air of apathy in the way his shoulders were slightly drawn in and his head bowed; he slowly looked Jimin up and down, ignoring Jimin's eyes, then he turned his head to look at the way he was shuffling the bags around with no purpose. It had an anxious shiver run through Jimin and something pulling in his chest, really wishing he wouldn't be a coward and have the courage to talk to Jungkook. As always, Jungkook stalled around, waiting for Jimin to take a seat first, then he casually sat next to Jimin to make it look accidental, this time with Yoongi on his other side.

"We'll start from where we were left in the session before the last. You're fresh out of the eldritch forest—"

"Can we skip checking the camp on the side of the road?" Taehyung cut Yoongi, looking up at him with big eyes. "I mean, we already know it's nothing there except for a band of orcs that are gonna beat the crap out of us."

Yoongi blinked at him slowly, hands clasped together, sitting up so that everyone could see him above his DM screen. "No, you cannot, because your characters don't know that yet—"

"I don't get good vibes from that camp," Seokjin butted in, scrunching his nose as he looked at the map. "My suggestion is we go straight to the crumbling tower."

"You can't—" Yoongi pinched the bridge of his nose between two fingertips, closing his eyes as he took a deep breath. "You don't know there's a crumbling tower yet."

"No, no, I can see it," Taehyung said, cupping a hand over his forehead and squinting his eyes as he looked straight ahead. "It's ri-i-i-ight over... there! I can see it in the distance," he said, pointing.

"You can't see shit," Yoongi said with a roll of his eyes, his voice dripping with annoyance.

"I see it, too," Seokjin added to Yoongi's torturing, flicking Yoongi's bag filled with miscellaneous and grabbing a little castle construction in the palm of his hand. "I can see it right down that hill and I can see it in your DM bag."

"Your character can't see my DM bag," Yoongi bickered back, snatching the little plastic tower and yanking his bag flap closed.

"My familiar just went up and down that hill and she's seen the crumbling tower as well," Hoseok said, petting the wolf on his shoulder.

"And I can see the tower with my dragon born vision," Namjoon said, circling his fingers around his eyes.

"I spot the tracks of the carriages they used at the construction of the tower in the dirt," Jimin said, pretending to trace the tracks with his finger over the map.

Yoongi sighed deeply. "You guys are ridiculous," he said, like he already gave up on everything, then he turned to Jungkook, quirking up a challenging eyebrow.

Jungkook shrugged. "I see the tower, too."

"Unbelievable," Yoongi snorted, collecting the three miniature tents and throwing them inside his bag before slapping the tower right in the middle of the map. "Alright, just so you know, it's not fair to Jungkook that you already know part of what's happening. Did you at least give Jungkook a brief recap about the last session?"

Jimin stiffened in his seat, hand sheepishly reaching behind to scratch his nape, a pathetic excuse already on his lips, but Jungkook had his back.

"Yes, hyung," Jungkook murmured, looking down at the little default figurine Yoongi gave him, a block colored red figurine, his right hand lazily scratching his left forearm.

Yoongi didn't seem convinced at all, especially looking at Jimin's guilty face, and he shot Jimin a questioning look. Jimin shrugged a shoulder, looking down at his lap, and through the corner of his eye he watched Jungkook trying to self soothe himself, craving to reach out to him, maybe interlace their fingers together so Jungkook would stop. "Alright," Yoongi said, deciding to not dig into that mess as he quickly looked over his notes. "Alright, my team of clairvoyants, you are near the crumbling tower—"

"I find an entrance with an evil presence coming from inside," Namjoon interrupted Yoongi.

"I try to lockpick the door," Jimin said with a sigh, already getting his d20 ready.

"No!" Yoongi snapped, switching his notes around. "There is no hidden entrance. Next."

"C'mon, babe, don't be grumpy," Hoseok said with a grin, his hand reaching out to tickle Yoongi's belly until Yoongi's rolled up guidebook smacked his wrist, making him quickly retract it. "Not in front of the others," he said while rubbing his wrist, still grinning.

"Alright," Yoongi snapped again, already looking like he's close to losing it. "Let's start for real now. You reached the crumbling tower. What do you do?"

Jimin took a small inhale, looking up at the others from beneath his bangs as he scooted his chair closer to Jungkook, immediately getting Jungkook to still in his seat. Without looking at him, Jimin pressed his thigh flush against Jungkook's. Jungkook was frozen in place for a second, his hand still on his forearm, fingernails digging into skin.

Then, slowly, his hand fell down, leaving red trails on his skin, and he focused his attention on the map instead. Jimin thought Jungkook's eyes briefly slipped to Jimin's face, but it was too quickly to know for sure, and then Jungkook pressed his thigh against Jimin's. It had a small hopeful smile spread over Jimin's lips, finally able to concentrate back on the game.

Yoongi clapped his hands together to get everyone else's chatter to stop, looking at them expectantly. "Let's play some Dungeons and Dragons."

🎲

Jimin pushed his hair back, feeling a sudden surge of adrenaline coursing through his body, like he was actually about to enter the dungeon of the Big Bad Evil Guy in real life, the rest of the group angsty as well. From his side, it was obvious Jungkook wasn't feeling the same, because he was the only one who was calm, watching the table quietly. Jimin picked up his d20, rolled it, groaned when he got an 8, which with his ability modifiers ended up being just 1 short of what he needed to open the Final Gate safely and stealthily.

"Should've just let me kick the door down," Namjoon sighed, shaking his head.

"Well," Yoongi blew a raspberry, "you push on it, try to get the ancient stone to move, but just when it starts to give in, a big explosion hits the wall from inside, sending you flying in the air, and pieces of rocks hit the whole team. Everyone rolls one d10, except for Jimin, who rolls three."

With a sigh, Jimin noted down all the damage he just took, back to barely being alive, then he handed Jungkook his d10, since Jungkook didn't have his own like the rest of them.

Yoongi tapped the screen of his phone, changing the lo-fi tunes from eroic to omnious, looking at them with slanted eyes. "The room becomes dark and chilly, the torches are blown off all around the stone walls, one by one your little sources of light disappear, utter darkness surrounding you. Suddenly, there's a whooshing sound above your heads, the wind knocking your hats down."

Taehyung grabbed the edges of his hat, staring at Yoongi with wide, attentive eyes.

"For a second, it's silence, the kind that makes your skin crawl on high alert, every hair, scale and fur on your body standing up. Then, there's a thundering roar echoing around the dungeon, metal clanking, bones rattling, claws scratching over stone, and in the darkness, you're suddenly illuminated by a great flame, hurling at you with frightening speed. At the end of the tunnel, you see," he slammed a figurine right in the middle of the table, making everyone flinch, "An Ancient Red Dracolich Dragon."

There were curious and interested ohh and ahh from the table as they leaned in to appreciate the intricately painted red dragon, big and raised in a threatening pose, with his wings splayed behind it and fangs out in a hiss, red scales dusted with black to look charred, and even Jungkook looked mildly interested.

"A classic with a twist," Taehyung murmured, hand reaching out for the dragon before Yoongi swiftly slapped his wrist.

"No touching," he said shortly. "The flames reach you, engulfing you in a warmth that feels deadly, evil, then they die just as quickly as they appeared, leaving you in total darkness. There's the rough sound of claws over stone and you realize the dragon is coming to you at fast speed. Hearing it like it's coming from inside your head, you hear," Yoongi turned to Namjoon, "son."

Namjoon's eyes widened. "Daddy?"

There was snickering from around the table as they broke character, then they quickly cleared their throats and resumed the game.

"You enter combat now," Yoongi said, turning the page on his notes. "Roll for initiative."

They rolled to establish in which order they will attack, then everybody did an action—Hoseok turned into his werewolf form for better attack, Jimin hid into a corner to later sneak up on the dragon, then he drew closer to Jungkook and whispered in his ear what to say to cast a protective spell on his turn while Namjoon got his weapon ready, Seokjin cast a fire damage spell that missed, and Taehyung... started singing a little song to lift their morale.

"Shouldn't Namjoon try talking things out with his father first?" Taehyung mussed, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "I mean, this is a family matter after all. Sure, they didn't see each other for a whopping 400 years and Namjoon didn't know his dragon father had been brought back from the dead, but let's see if he's reasonable first."

"You want to make a diplomacy roll?" Yoongi asked, looking at him with an amused eyebrow.

They looked at each other, everyone knowing it's a dead cause, then they shrugged and agreed to do it.

"You seem to have angered the dragon," Yoongi said with barely concealed amusement when he rolled a natural 20 for the bad guy, making them snort and laugh. "You try extending an olive branch, but the olden dragon's sanity and mental clarity are long gone, muddled by time and black magic, and he slips back into not remembering you. Blind, he spits flames up to the ceiling in a roar of pain, melting the stone and transforming it into molten lava, which drips down on you."

"Can I push him out of the way?" Jimin asked, since Namjoon was right near his hiding spot, and Namjoon barely had any health left after he singlehandedly took down all the skeletons that were guarding the tower.

"Agility check," Yoongi permitted.

Sweat breaking on his forehead, Jimin picked up his d20, smoky transparent, with numbers painted in silver. It weighed in his hand, his heart booming in his ears, and then he rolled the die. It jumped around, every eye on it, slowed down, tipped once over to the side, then settled on 13.

"That's a 19 with my modifiers," Jimin said, breaking into a grin. It was near perfection.

Yoongi rolled the die for the enemy. The table was silent apart from the sound of his die hitting the table, then it stopped loudly. Natural 20.

A breath broke from Jimin's mouth, staring at it incredulously. He lost.

Yoongi shifted around from one foot to the other, staring at his dice with a frown. "You manage to push Namjoon out of the way," he said slowly, weighing everything. "Namjoon rolls a d10 for damage from the fall of your push." Everyone held their breath, a sigh of relief leaving them when Namjoon only got 1 damage. "Unfortunately, you weren't fast enough to get out of the flames' way and it licked at your back, smoldering you. Four d10."

Jimin gulped, rolling, his frown deepening exponentially seeing the high numbers he was rolling only on the worst of the situations. With trembling fingers, he calculated the total damage, the guys peeking over at his character sheet. Jimin wrote the number down in pencil, a sharp intake of air being heard from someone when they saw how much life he was left with. Jimin raised his eyes, staring at Yoongi with a hard face, everyone's gaze somber. "-9 health," he said.

At -10 health a player was officially considered dead from the game, and under 0 he couldn't do anything before getting healed first. The guys shuffled around anxiously, then Jungkook inched closer, wordlessly pointing to something on his character sheet from his inventory, his way of asking Jimin something. It was a large healing potion.

"Jungkook's got a potion!" Jimin said, looking at Yoongi with wide eyes. "He can throw it at me."

Yoongi's mouth twisted looking over the map. "Jungkook is on the other side of the corridor, he can't throw it safely, especially since you're not able to catch it. He'd have to walk on the molten lava for this."

Jimin's eyes slipped to Jungkook, mentally wondering if it was too much interaction for him to do, but Jungkook just nodded without looking at anyone, holding his palm out for Jimin to give him the die.

"Don't do it, Jungkook!" Taehyung cried dramatically from his seat, pretending to faint from the suspense. "You have a wife and kids waiting for you, it's too dangerous!"

Jungkook had a very basic backstory—he was a farmer with a family on a ranch that let their team stay over the night in his barn to rest while they stationed in his town to take care of the skeletons terrorizing the town's people, and upon talking with him, they discovered Jungkook was raised in a temple and trained there, and now was the town's healer after he gave up on that life for the woman he loved, and they persuaded him to join them in their quest to find out where these evil forces came from and stop it.

It was something Jimin and Yoongi made up on the spot for him on the first session Jungkook joined them, since Jungkook got put on the spot after Jimin failed to warn him he'd have to make a little presentation like back when he was in kindergarten, and he completely shut off and refused to talk.

Now, Jungkook was silent again, thoughtfully staring at his figurine, an almost angry frown splitting his forehead, his jaw locked as he thumbed over the plastic ridges. "Can I say something?" he asked then.

The guys looked between each other, perplexed, since Jungkook usually kept his character interaction to a minimum and avoided roleplaying.

"You want to tell us something?" Yoongi asked for clarification, looking at Jimin for an answer. "Do you want to take a break—?"

"No... I want to say something as my character," Jungkook said, still not raising his head.

It made them even more surprised, and a restless feeling ran through Jimin, on the edge of his seat. Yoongi scratched the back of his head, unsure of what to do. "Sure. Roll a die for—" he stopped himself seeing everyone frowning at him and Seokjin silently scowling and waving for him to shut up. "Sorry. Yeah, just go ahead and say it."

It was silent as Jungkook was making up his mind, looking for his words, the apples of his cheeks getting pink, and with each uncomfortable second of silence that stretched by everyone just switched to staring at Jimin, as if to ask him what was wrong with his roommate. "I got a letter," Jungkook started suddenly, clearing his throat after he heard how loud his voice was. "From my town. Letting me know that my wife... is no longer my wife."

It had the breath hitch in Jimin's chest, his eyes widening slightly as he stared at Jungkook, and he felt the blood run from his face. The table was silent, realization quickly falling over them.

"Oh... god," Seokjin said, looking at Jungkook with his eyebrows pinched together. "I'm sorry to hear that, Jungkook. Are you okay?"

Jungkook nodded, gnawing at his bottom lip, staring at his figurine. They didn't know how to react to that, but there was something knowing in Hoseok's and Taehyung's eyes when they looked at Jimin. Guilt and shame started crawling up Jimin's face, staring into space as he thought about the relationship he helped destroy.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Namjoon asked, looking at Jungkook with compassion, trying to catch his eyes. "Breakups are hard."

Jungkook only hummed. "Mhm."

"Did something happen?"

"No, things just... fizzled out," he said distantly. He sounded unaffected, cold.

"Still," Seokjin said, his face worried. "You've been together for, what? Almost two years? We're here if you want to talk about it, you know."

"Wasn't meant to be, it's fine."

Seokjin pressed his lips together in a tight line, taking a step back, and Namjoon only patted Jungkook's shoulder for support, not getting any reaction from the other.

"I'm sorry, but when did this letter arrive exactly?" Taehyung butted in, leaning with an elbow over the table, propping his chin in his fist, trying to appear casual.

Jungkook finally lifted his eyes, staring straight at Taehyung. "About a month ago."

Something fluttered inside Jimin's stomach.

Taehyung nodded lightly. "And when you say about a month ago, you mean more than a month ago, or less than a month ago?"

"Taehyung, what the fuck?" Seokjin muttered with a frown, grabbing Taehyung's shoulder to get him to stop. "Jungkook, you don't have to—"

"More," Jungkook said tightly, not looking away from Taehyung's face, "than a month ago."

The implication was clear in his voice and the three men exchanged a knowing glance that went unnoticed by the other members of the team, maybe apart from Jungkook himself, but he didn't show it. If what he was saying was true, then he didn't cheat on his girlfriend with Jimin. Jimin was just a rebound.

It felt a bit awkward after that, Namjoon, Seokjin and Yoongi looking at each other uncomfortably before making themselves busy looking over their character sheets and notes. "Alright," Yoongi said, scratching his chin. "Uhm—everyone heard you character's news about your life back home and we all express our condolences—" he stopped himself, wondering whether Jungkook said his fictive wife died or something or if he's out of line, then he shook his head and decided to skip over that. "Now, do you still want to give Jimin that healing potion?"

Unexpectedly, Jungkook actually looked at Jimin, making Jimin's heart skip a beat and straighten up in high alert, then he turned to Yoongi and nodded. "Yes."

"Roll a d20."

Jungkook didn't even blink picking up Jimin's die, barely held it in his hand for a second before letting it fall on the table, not even rolling it. Natural 20.

"Good job, Jungkook," Seokjin whistled, something in his eyes softer looking at Jungkook now.

Yoongi nodded, almost proud. "Jungkook walks over to the pool of lava unnoticed by the dragon, jumps and lands on a tiny piece of floor that was untouched by the ceiling, and carefully tips the mouth of the bottle to Jimin's lips, pouring the healing potion down his throat. Jimin, roll a d20 to see how much health you gain."

Jimin didn't remember what he rolled then, he distantly heard Yoongi saying something, the game resuming and the guys playing, but it was being heard distorted, because all his attention was on Jungkook. It was the first time in almost a month since they held eye contact for an extended period of time, and Jimin missed seeing Jungkook's round brown eyes, his cute nose and rosy lips, that little mole underneath, and for some reason he wasn't finding Jungkook's emotionless face so cold and distant in that moment. It was familiar. And even though Jungkook wasn't letting anything show, his eyes had a certain darkness in them behind his glasses as he looked at Jimin's face, from one eye to the other.

"Hyung?" Jungkook asked suddenly, getting the table to quieten down. "I'm sorry, I don't think I'm feeling too well. Would you guys be okay if we postpone finishing the game one last time?"

"Of course it's okay," Seokjin rushed to say before Yoongi could even open his mouth and blow it. "We could meet some other time, we don't have to finish tonight."

There were sounds of reluctant agreement from the table, and something in Jungkook's stare felt charged, making Jimin's skin prickle for some reason. "I think me and Jungkook will leave early, since I drove us here," Jimin said, not looking at anyone else.

"So early—" Yoongi stopped himself with a pained groan when Seokjin kicked him under the table.

Jungkook got up from the table casually, slowly collecting his phone and figurine, waiting for Jimin to get his stuff as well. It went on in a haze, Seokjin got Jungkook to the side, probably to remind him that he was there if he needed someone to listen to him, and meanwhile Jimin promised to Hoseok and Taehyung that he'll talk to Jungkook before doing anything stupid. Jimin was fidgeting at the door, feeling like the goodbyes were taking forever, wondering how Jungkook stayed so unbothered.

Once the door closed, Jimin almost let out a sigh of relief. They looked at each other, wordlessly walking inside the elevator, out of Yoongi's apartment building, inside Jimin's car. It was silent there as well, no one talking as Jimin started to drive.

On the back of his mind, Jimin knew he should talk with Jungkook, should ask him if what he told the guys was true or if he only said it for his sake, if they should acknowledge their hookup and what it might mean for them. Instead, Jimin was silent, and Jungkook expectantly didn't open the conversation himself. The city lights flashed them as they drove to their apartment, playing shadows over the board, radio playing faintly in the background. The silence was thick, but comfortable in a way.

They didn't exchange a word as they got back home, left the car, went back up. Jimin's legs were resembling jelly with each number changing on the elevator screen, each number Jungkook typed in their keypad, each number of all the dice he saw that day. So many numbers, all of them tangling together in his mind, making things slow and difficult. So many numbers, so many possibilities, so many outcomes.

The door shut behind Jimin and it made him flinch, the familiar layout of their living room looking different today. Jimin looked to the side, seeing Jungkook just looking at him. It was quiet and Jimin didn't know what they were doing, what he should do, he just looked at Jungkook and Jungkook looked back at him.

Then, Jungkook turned around and walked to the kitchen with relaxed steps, leaving Jimin to follow him with his eyes from the door. With slow moves, Jungkook opened a cupboard, pulled out two shot glasses, then a half empty bottle of alcohol. He poured himself a shot, downed it, made a sound at the burning sensation in his throat. He poured another, placed it down on the counter, and raised an expectant eyebrow to Jimin.

Without knowing what he was even doing, Jimin found his legs taking him closer to Jungkook. He didn't think about it, even though he swore to never drink alcohol again, especially not with Jungkook, and just took the shot, downed it. It burned. "God," he choked, coughing a little.

Maybe it was the alcohol, but Jungkook actually had a little smile tugging at the corner of his lips, eyes twinkling looking at Jimin. He poured in both glasses, this time drinking at the same time. Jimin heaved, his eyes stinging, and the alcohol was rapidly going to his head. He was not lightweight by any means, he always held his alcohol, but it was a little too fast, even for him.

Jungkook's face was twisted in pain, trying to cope with it, and he held the back of his hand over his lower face, eyes tightly squeezed as he took a second to hold himself together. Then, he snorted a laugh, looking at Jimin with squinted eyes, grinning widely under his hand, his face red and lively.

It had Jimin beaming, suddenly finding Jungkook so warm and welcoming, and he instinctively drew closer, his hand sliding on the counter towards Jungkook's. Without taking a second to think, Jungkook's fingers intertwined with Jimin's over the surface, squeezing his hand as he poured two more shots for themselves. It was more difficult now, especially with only one hand, and Jungkook chuckled when he spilled some of it, making Jimin laugh as well.

"Cheers."

"Cheers."

They grinned at each other, taking the shot glasses with their free hands. Judging by Jungkook's face, it was definitely too much for him, because he was all flushed and his eyes were glazed over when he slammed the empty glass down.

"No more," Jimin coughed, his chest burning. "Fuck, that's enough."

"Fuck, it burns so bad," Jungkook groaned, hitting his chest with a fist. "We're emptying it in the sink after this."

"Agreed."

"Hyung, no." Jungkook laughed, stretching to grab the bottle when Jimin tipped it over to the sink, but their movements were sluggish and the bottle ended up just being safely placed in the sink instead. Jungkook shook his head, hair falling softly over his eyes, then he planted both hands on the countertop on either side of Jimin's hips, looking at him with a lazy, boyish smile. "You looked very pretty tonight," he said softly.

Jimin blinked, his heart skipping a bit. "Just tonight?" he asked sweetly, tying his arms around Jungkook's neck.

"Mm, every day, hyung." Jungkook pressed a kiss over the corner of Jimin's lips, soft and gentle, very casual, like he'd done it a million times before, though it knocked the air out of Jimin's lungs. "Hyung is pretty every day."

"Then maybe my dongsaeng should tell me that sometimes," Jimin whispered, his breathing stuttering, the alcohol making it slow for him to process when Jungkook started leaving butterfly kisses over his cheek and jaw, barely brushing the skin before moving on. "You never even look at me lately."

"I look at you all the time, hyung, but you always avoid my eyes," Jungkook murmured, his lips ghosting over the skin of Jimin's neck now, a finger hooking around the thread tying Jimin's rogue cloak together and loosening the knot.

Jimin only gulped, tipping his head back to enjoy more of Jungkook's warmth on him, letting his hands travel down over Jungkook's chest, looking at him down his nose, at that full head of raven hair. Jungkook looked up at him from beneath his bangs, Jimin's reflection in his glasses. His eyes had a curious glint, studying Jimin's face as he moved his head over Jimin's neck, not really touching anything, just testing the waters.

"You can touch me," Jimin gave permission, his pulse racing when in the next second there was a hot palm cupping his hip, though Jungkook's lips didn't quite touch him yet.

"You can touch me," Jungkook parroted, the tip of his tongue sticking out, giving a small lick over Jimin's Adam apple, just to give him a taste before he quickly tipped his head back.

Jimin gulped, the movement having Jungkook's lips brush over his skin, and a rush of heat spread through his body. Tentatively, his hand came up, fingers cradling through Jungkook's hair before cupping his scalp. It made Jungkook blink, looking a bit drunk not just on alcohol. Then, a hand wrapped around Jimin's other hip, having his skin tingling. It was all shades of wrong, Jimin was the oldest and should be responsible, but looking into Jungkook's eyes right now Jimin thought the younger still wasn't ready to talk about it.

His head was feeling all fuzzy and it was making him a bit more sensitive, shuddering when Jungkook's palms wrapped around his waist next, feeling him. "You're so small," Jungkook sighed, like it was bothering him, finally placing a proper kiss over Jimin's neck. Like he knew Jimin was about to change his mind.

Jimin closed his eyes, battling with himself for a second as his hand fisted the front of Jungkook's shirt. "Exactly how drunk are you?"

"Extremely. You?"

"Wasted."

Jungkook's lips were on his before the word was fully out, heatedly pressing into his mouth, demanding, taking. It was mostly teeth and a bit painful at the impact, but then the wetness and warmth of Jungkook's mouth registered in Jimin's brain and the pain became pleasant.

Jimin yelped in surprise, scrambling to grab onto Jungkook for support when he suddenly got hoisted up, his thighs reflexively wrapping around Jungkook's waist, but he was already very secure in the other's arms. He wanted to say something, but his mind was feeling heavy and words eluded him, so confused when the furniture started moving around them and suddenly the only thing Jimin saw was the back of Jungkook's bedroom door.

"You want this?" Jungkook broke this kiss to ask, his eyes glazed over and heated.

Jimin blinked at him, unable to actually verbalize it, so he just nodded. Maybe, in his head, it was somehow less bad if he wasn't explicitly saying he wanted Jungkook to fuck him into the mattress.

Jungkook's lenses had little smudges of their skins brushing against the glasses when they kissed, and Jungkook quickly took them off, click clack as he folded them, then they were thrown over on his nightstand. "I said, you want this?"

"Yes," Jimin said, confronted with the fact that he was sobber enough, actually, at least enough to consent knowing he shouldn't.

"Me too," Jungkook said with a relieved sigh, lowering Jimin on his bed and crawling on top of him, nosing over his collarbone. "Been wanting this for the whole month."

Jimin had enough mental clarity to register that Jungkook just acknowledged their previous hookup, looking at him with surprise in his eyes. But Jungkook didn't seem to think it was a big deal, because he quickly moved on, his hands roaming over Jimin's belly underneath his t-shirt, leaving trails of heat with his fingertips. Jimin spread his legs to let Jungkook slot between them, kissing down Jimin's neck and hiking up his shirt.

When Jungkook grabbed the hem of Jimin's top, Jimin eagerly raised his arms, but there was the problem of his cloak still being tied around Jimin's neck and messing things up, making Jimin get stuck with his shirt over his face and his cloak choking him.

"Hold on," Jungkook giggled, a bit drunk, grinning widely when Jimin reappeared from underneath the collar of his shirt, hair ruffled. "Sorry," he said, sounding anything but, kissing Jimin's lips and nose as he untied his cloak and then took everything down.

"I like it when you're like this," Jimin sighed, lifting his shoulders off the mattress to make it easier. "You're always so serious."

Jungkook gave him a small smile, like he was feeling sorry. "I like you all the time," he said, tugging his own shirt off his head before he lowered himself back over Jimin.

Jimin made a small sound, taken aback by all these little confessions Jungkook was dropping on him in his drunk state of mind. It got swallowed by Jungkook's mouth, however, slowly slotting their lips together, tilting his head and parting his lips, licking over Jimin's bottom lip. Jungkook was moving like liquid, his warm large palms traveling over Jimin's body as he was pinning him down, his weight comforting in a way that made Jimin melt, becoming pliant.

Jimin moved easily, laying back and letting Jungkook take the lead, enjoying how Jungkook was touching him softly, squeezing his flesh and delving into his mouth without a hurry. He lifted his hips with one swift move when Jungkook unbuttoned his jeans and started tugging them down, and a moan slipped past his lips when Jungkook cupped him over the material of his boxers, applying the perfect amount of pressure over his half hard cock.

"Think I forgot to tell you last time how much I love your cock," Jungkook murmured, making Jimin's cheeks burn. "Prettiest one I've ever seen." Jimin gasped when Jungkook's hand wrapped around him, sending all the blood south and making him fully hard, squirming. "That's the sound I've missed."

Jimin groaned, spreading his knees further apart after Jungkook started stroking him. His eyelids fluttered, catching Jungkook watching him intently, and he gulped and squeezed his eyes shut to get away from those brown eyes. Jimin's hands started traveling over Jungkook's chest and stomach, licking his lips feeling those hard ridges of muscles, his fingertips identifying every line and curve. The way Jungkook said such things so casually was leaving him trembling, his stomach swopping thinking Jungkook had been thinking about him. On the back of his mind, Jimin also noted the implication that Jungkook had seen multiple cocks.

"Don't tell me you'll get shy now," Jungkook said, flashing him a smirk, tugging Jimin's underwear down with his cock, letting it slap against his lower stomach. "We didn't have this problem last time."

"You're so chatty now," Jimin huffed, pushing himself higher up on the bed with his heels, his cock twitching when Jungkook cupped his balls and gave them a gentle tug.

Jungkook smiled at him softly. "I thought you liked me like this?"

"Still do," Jimin said, watching Jungkook roll his balls in the palm of his hand. "I also... like you all the time." Was it the alcohol talking for him? Maybe, but that didn't mean it wasn't true.

Jungkook looked at him with a twinkle in his eyes, one corner of his lips lifted as he lowered himself over Jimin's body. "I can shut my mouth, if you want."

Jimin bit his bottom lip, watching Jungkook's face hovering a few inches above his cock. "That can also work."

Jungkook gave him a little wink, smirking as he kissed over the head of Jimin's cock. Just that first touch had the muscles in his stomach clenching and unclenching, a quiet moan leaving Jimin seeing Jungkook lick over his shaft, one hand massaging the base as the other was trailing up and down his inner thigh. Jimin leaned back, closing his eyes, humming to let Jungkook know how good he was making him feel.

But Jungkook was in the mood for teasing, apparently, because he kept dodging taking Jimin's length into his mouth, instead nipping on the sensitive skin between his hip and thigh, teasing his fingertips over Jimin's backside, licking over his tip and dipping his tongue into his slit, but never quite putting his mouth on him fully.

Jimin's eyes snapped open, an amused smile playing over his lips, stretching to the side and starting to rummage through Jungkook's nightstand like it was his own. He grabbed the bottle of lube almost immediately, handing it over to Jungkook. "While you're there, you can start prepping me. And now you don't get shy," he said, taking hold of himself and pointing the tip of his cock to Jungkook's lips, tapping it over the lower lip.

Jungkook grinned, his teeth flashing, teasingly grazing Jimin's sensitive skin, and he gingerly took the bottle. "Thank god, I thought you weren't going to say anything. For a second, I got worried you might've fallen asleep."

"Well, you're certainly not doing anything to keep me awake," Jimin grinned, something thrilling running through him seeing the challenging look in Jungkook's eyes.

Without taking his eyes off Jimin's, Jungkook popped the cap of the bottle open, pouring over his fingers an amount that made Jimin's eyes twinkle. Jungkook rubbed his fingers together, warming it up, and the loud obscene noise made Jimin shiver. "Hold your ankles," Jungkook commanded, slapping his wet palm over Jimin's backside, making him gasp, and he started generously spreading the lube around, filling his crack with it, coating his cheeks, testicles, and then circled his fingers around the base of his cock.

It took a second for Jimin to register the situation, shuddering at the wet feeling covering him and the squelching sounds that were making him burn up. Then, he raised his legs and bent his knees, trembling fingers looping around his ankles.

"Ah-ah-ah," Jungkook tutted, grinning at Jimin when he looked down. "You know how I want you," he said, grabbing one of Jimin's ankles and pushing it up, all the way until his leg straightened up in the air, then he got halfway up and pushed Jimin's ankle further, until it reached around Jimin's temple. "There," he said, face full of satisfaction. "The other one, too. Come on."

Jimin chuckled shaking his head, easily folding himself in two, flashing Jungkook everything. It was something Jungkook discovered last time, how flexible Jimin actually was, and after that he knocked Jimin off of him, stopping him from riding his cock, and then bent and pulled Jimin's legs in all kinds of difficult positions, eyes rolling to the back of his head.

"God, fuck," Jungkook groaned, his eyes following the lithe line of Jimin's legs, one hand cupping himself over his pants when his eyes finally landed down, over Jimin's backside. "This has been the only thing I'm thinking of jerking off in the shower lately."

Jimin slapped a hand over his mouth, keeping his ankle hooked in the crook of his elbow, wondering if Jungkook will regret this unfiltered version of himself giving so much away the next day. He wanted to tease Jungkook about it, tell him his desperation was showing, but when he opened his mouth an embarrassing sound left him, his muscles locking when Jungkook circled over his rim with the pad of his finger once before pushing on it, applying pressure, but not breaching. Jimin held his breath in anticipation, those sounds setting his face on fire, and he pulled his legs even further to invite Jungkook.

"Tell me if this is entertaining enough for you, hyung."

Jimin gasped, a full body shudder shaking him when Jungkook pushed one finger in, taking Jimin's cock into his mouth at the same time. "Mmm—ngh," Jimin moaned, turning his head to the side on the pillow, his jaw going slack. The change from Jungkook barely touching him and leaving his wet butt to tremble in the cold bedroom air to pleasure from both sides gave Jimin whiplash. He felt himself clenching around Jungkook's digit, his cock twitching embarrassingly needy in Jungkook's mouth.

Again, the way Jungkook was sucking his cock—bobbing his head and hollowing his cheeks on the upstroke—and fingering him—carefully, slowly adding a second and a third, crooking them to hit Jimin's prostate immediately—it didn't strike Jimin as straight, and he was dying from curiosity.

Jungkook kept progressively adding more lube, making the slide so slippery that Jimin was a spasming, clenching mess, sliding around the wet blanket in the rhythm with which he was thrusting his hips down, fucking himself on Jungkook's fingers. God, Jungkook was using so much lube every time, Jimin was sure he must be running out of it every two or three sexual encounters.

"Jungkook," Jimin chuckled nervously when he felt a possible fourth finger prodding at his rim. "I don't stretch like that."

Jungkook popped his lips off Jimin's cock with a dirty sound, his lips wet and red as he pulled them into a grin. The tip of Jimin's cock bounced up and down, grazing Jungkook's chin, and he kept fucking his fingers in and out of Jimin's hole with that same ruthless pace. "Last time, you begged me to slip a finger or two alongside my cock. Remember that?"

That shameless reply had the breath hitch in Jimin's chest, his eyes looking caught as shame whipped at his face. Shit, he didn't remember saying that, but now he was wondering how drunk Jungkook was last time to remember such a thing.

"But I think you're only mouth." Jungkook smirked, making Jimin shudder when he slipped his fingers out. "You're so tiny and tight, you were struggling to take my cock last time."

"Was not," Jimin whispered breathlessly, his eyes glazed over as he watched Jungkook get up, unbutton his jeans and let his cock spring free. "Please," Jimin whimpered involuntarily, letting go of his legs and crawling closer to the younger man, something desperate on his face seeing Jungkook's dick. It was thick and long, a flushed shade of pink, and the head looked sticky with precum.

"You look so pretty when you beg," Jungkook said kindly, one of his hands coming up to Jimin's face and taking his chin between his fingers, softly rubbing his thumb over Jimin's bottom lip. He only took his pants and underwear down as much as in was necessary, still hanging low around his hips, and the hand with which he'd been fingering Jimin wrapped around his full cock, stroking himself, covering his hard length in lube. God, even his wrist was wet. "Open up."

Obediently, Jimin opened his mouth, sticking his tongue out and looking up at Jungkook with sparkling eyes as the tip of his cock got pushed past his lip. Jungkook grinned down at him, his thumb slipping underneath his cock, pushing down on Jimin's bottom lip and tongue. Jungkook was hot and heavy on his tongue and it was making Jimin's mind reel.

"Prettiest lips," he murmured, slowly thrusting his hips forward, driving the tip of his cock all the way to the back of Jimin's throat and staying there a second, then slowly pulling back out. Jimin fought off his gagging reflex, breathing through his nose deeply and relaxing his throat, his eyelids fluttering when he felt it brushing his tonsils, then they pooled with tears when Jungkook dragged his cock out. No choking. "Good boy."

Jimin shuddered at the compliment, burning all over, and heat and pleasure were pulsing on his lap without even having to be touched, his hole devastatingly empty and begging to be filled.

"Do you want to come once before I stuff you full of cock?" Jungkook offered generously, pulling out after a few more slow thrusts.

Jimin took a big intake of air, his whole body thrumming, unable to sit still, desperate for release. "I'm not close."

Jungkook gave him a soft, compassionate smile. "Sure, sweetheart." He crowded Jimin onto the bed, made him crawl backwards and slip on that wet spot when he climbed on top of him. "Can just say you want to come on my cock twice."

Bitting on his bottom lip, Jimin watched Jungkook finally kick the rest of his clothes off before he started looking for something in his nightstand. Though Jimin didn't want to admit, Jungkook did make him come embarrassingly fast last time, two, almost three times, and Jimin was burning so hot now that he was sure the same thing will happen in the next couple of minutes as well.

"I wanted to try something new," Jungkook said, looking at Jimin with an easy smile as he took out a box from inside, showing it to him. "If you're up for it."

Jimin's whole body stilled, his eyes widening slightly looking at it, something hot licking over his lower back. Ribbed and dotted condoms. He was not going to last a minute.

"You don't have to," Jungkook said with an amused glint in his eyes, already lowering the box back inside seeing Jimin swallow his tongue. "I have regular, too."

Jimin bit on his bottom lip, Jungkook's hand halting hearing the curious sound Jimin made. "I never tried it before."

Jungkook shrugged, placing the box of condoms between them on the bed. "Me neither, I was just curious." He quirked up an eyebrow at Jimin, the corners of his lips lifting like he already knew the answer. "So?"

Jimin felt absolutely unhinged as he picked up the box. "I really want to last at least a little bit," he said sheepishly, not confirming nor denying, fidgeting with a corner.

Jungkook grinned at him devilishly, forcing Jimin to lay on his back when he stepped closer on his knees on the bed. "Why? Nothing hotter than you coming nonstop on my cock." Jungkook hissed, grabbing his cock and pumping his fist a couple of time, like the thought alone was too much to handle.

Chest flushing, Jimin opened the box, took one condom out.

"Yeah?" Jungkook grinned, already snatching the condom from Jimin's hand.

"Yeah," Jimin laughed, his chest rising and falling rapidly as he leaned down.

"If it's too much, tell me and we're switching." Jungkook ripped the package cleanly, throwing it on the floor before starting to roll the condom down his shaft. He paused after a second, his eyes questioningly moving from one side to the other as his hands slowed down, assessing the new sensation. He looked at Jimin, grinned. "Spicy."

Something fluttered inside Jimin's stomach seeing how easily Jungkook threw his legs over his shoulders, eyes rolling to the back of head as he started kissing the inside of his thighs, bit behind his knee, wrapped his hands around Jimin's ankles and pushed them against the mattress around his head. The blunt head of Jungkook's cock started pushing against Jimin's rim, making him twitch and shudder, clenching greedily to suck him in quicker.

"Mmm—fuck, even tighter like this," Jungkook panted, the tip pushing through. It had an electric effect on both of them, stopping for a second, trembling, taking everything in. "How's it?"

"Fine," Jimin gasped, out of breath. He was feeling impaled, Jungkook was the biggest guy he ever took, and the condom was making his skin prickle with goosebumps. "Ahh—" Jimin's back arched right off the bed when Jungkook pushed forward, eyes flying open to stare at the ceiling and its glow in the dark stars, his lower belly clenching and unclenching, legs shaking around his head. Even though he was prepped thoroughly and literally dripping lube, his walls burned with the stretch and the foreign pattern of the condom.

Jungkook moved slowly, agonizingly slow, making Jimin feel every inch of his cock, the drag bringing tears to both of their eyes. When Jungkook's hips met Jimin's wet ass, he stopped for a second, both of them panting breathlessly. Jungkook looked up at him with a smirk, skin all flushed and hair messy, eyes unfocused. "Just let me know if you're about to come just from me sliding it in. I wanna see your face when you fall apart."

Jimin chuckled breathlessly, trembling hand coming up between them to push Jungkook's hair off his forehead. "Don't think I can keep going with this condom if I have an orgasm now. Too oversensitive."

Jungkook hummed thoughtfully, a small frown between his eyebrows. "Didn't think about that," he sighed, full of regret, slowly dragging his cock out until only the tip was in before pushing forward.

It had Jimin gasping and squirming, his body jerking around uncontrollably, trying to get away from the extreme sensation, if not for Jungkook pinning him down.

"We could, technically, switch the condoms now," Jungkook thought out loud, trying his hardest to keep his expression unaffected, though Jimin noticed his face was redder and he broke into a sweat, "and after, let's say a minute and thirty seconds, after you have your first orgasm, we get a special condom again."

Jimin bit on his bottom lip hard, huffing for air, his chest full of barely restrained moans.

"Or, we could," Jungkook continued, picking up the pace, making Jimin gasp out before a string of moans tumbled out of him, "fuck you with this until you're spent, and give you a three minutes break before you're begging for it again." Jungkook rolled his hips knowingly, smirking when he hit just the right spot, having Jimin scream. "Maybe I'll try even stretching you with my cock and my fingers after that."

"Jungkook!" Jimin wailed, his hand scrambling between their sweaty bodies, then he wrapped his hand around his aching cock and started jerking himself off, fast and hard. His jaw fell open, eyes widening out full of tears, and he caught Jungkook's self satisfied grin as he stared at his face in great interest.

The slide of his hand was wet with the amount of lube that had spread all over his middle section, a bit awkward with Jungkook's hard abs pressing on him, but the real pleasure that was setting his insides on fire was coming from Jungkook ribbed and dotted cock, splitting him in two in the most delicious way. Suddenly, his body stilled, all of his muscles locking, and he looked at Jungkook's smug face in utter disbelief. Intense heat shot up his spine and made him jerk up, back arching off of the mattress so bad that Jungkook had to wrap an arm around him and keep him still.

"Fuck—ahhh—mmm!" Jimin moaned, wave after wave of pleasure shaking him, so intense that tears spilled from the corner of his eyes, and he felt his own cum shooting up over his and Jungkook's stomachs, making the slide of his hand even dirtier.

"That's it," Jungkook gloated, chest puffing up in pride, and he stopped grinding his hips for a second, pulling his cock out until he could comfortably wrap his hand around the base of his cock and squeeze, like he was afraid he would be next. Jimin's whole body was spasming uncontrollably, his stomach clenching so hard that it had him whimpering. Longest, most devastating orgasm. "Prettiest cumshot," Jungkook said with a grin, setting the tips of Jimin's ears ablaze when he swiped his fingers over Jimin's cum, massaging it onto his belly.

Jimin panted, looking at him a little dazed, wet from head to toes. Every nerve ending in his body was buzzing, his limbs numb, occasionally twitching. Jungkook winked at him and settled down, making him whimper when he pushed his whole cock back inside.

"You want me to slip out?" Jungkook murmured, softly kissing his neck. "The way you squeezed around me almost had me fainting, by the way."

Jimin chuckled breathlessly, still too amazed by how fast he reached his climax, throwing an arm around Jungkook's waist, feeling the sweat pooling on the small of his back. Now, his legs were strewn around Jungkook's hips awkwardly, but it felt like the only comfortable position, occasionally twitching with aftershocks. "You can stay," he whispered, his voice hoarse, quieter than he intended.

It made Jungkook shiver, the cock inside his twitching and making Jimin tremble. "Sorry," Jungkook chuckled. "You sounded good. Think you can go again?"

Jimin inhaled deeply, looking at him incredulously, opening and closing his mouth. "I think so?" he chuckled, making Jungkook's grin pull wider. "But give me a moment."

"However long you need, hyung," Jungkook said, starting to pepper kisses on Jimin's neck, soft and gentle, careful to not be too much. "You were so hot."

Closing his eyes, Jimin knotted a hand in Jungkook's hair and hummed. With each second the kisses kept getting bolder, getting a little bit of tongue, then teeth, and soon enough Jimin felt hot and bothered again, his soft cock becoming hard alarmingly fast.

"A bit over to the—"

"Side," Jungkook finished, nipping behind Jimin's ear, finding that spot exactly that always had Jimin shiver. "I know."

Jimin inhaled deeply, something in the way Jungkook said that setting something heavy in his chest. He didn't dwell on it, though, the alcohol wasn't letting him anyway. But Jimin was also remembering stuff from last time.

"Oh, fuck," Jungkook moaned loudly, his cock twitching rhythmically inside Jimin and involuntarily giving a couple pushes. "Fuck—yes, right there. Can you do this again, just like last time? But harder, I want harder. More."

Jimin moaned, eagerly sucking over Jungkook's neck, biting hard, leaving a bruise that Jungkook will wear for days.

"Yes, yes, just like that, yes," Jungkook gasped, starting to thrust his hips into Jimin, and Jimin started to meet him halfway, already restless and needy again.

They ended up frantically humping each other, Jungkook slamming his cock inside Jimin in a way that had him screaming, slowing down every so often so that Jimin could keep nibbling on the new hickey, branding him.

Jungkook came with a long groan, pumping his cum into that ribbed condom that had Jimin's legs shaking, cradling the back of Jimin's head and pushing Jimin's teeth deeper into his neck. Jimin ended up finishing a second time, crying and heaving while Jungkook jerked him off, his softening cock feeling swollen inside his abused hole.

After that, Jungkook took off the condom and threw it on the ground after knotting it, offhandedly telling Jimin that he should record himself jerking off and coming all over himself to send Jungkook the video while he cleaned Jimin's stomach. Then, he dragged Jimin into his arms, securing his legs around him, and nuzzled his nose in Jimin's hair, inhaling the perfume of his shampoo.

"You should stay over at my place tonight," he mumbled into Jimin's hair, playful and sleepy. "It's late, I wouldn't want you wondering around late at night to get home, it's not safe."

Jimin chuckled softly against Jungkook's chest, slowly running his fingertips over his bare skin, feeling safe and warm and comfortable. He didn't say anything, too sleepy to get up.

🎲

Jimin woke up with a pain throbbing in his right temple, his eyes squeezing shut to deal with the morning light, but then the color of the bed sheets caught up to him and the blood froze in his veins. He took a deep breath, holding it in as he opened his eyes. Jungkook was sleeping next to him.

Deja vu hit Jimin full force and he raised up, groaning seeing the state of the room. Clothes everywhere, both of them naked, covered by Jungkook's thin sheets, but at least there wasn't a puddle of lube on the floor now.

He couldn't do it.

He didn't waste time freaking out about it this time, he shot right up from the bed, wincing when that delicious soreness shot up his low back, making him stop and shudder, eyelids fluttering. He permitted himself only a second, though, then he quickly started snatching his clothes from the floor and that damned condom, not daring to look at Jungkook too long before he could get second thoughts and cuddle up into Jungkook's side. He bunched everything together in front of his torso, almost 100% sure he also got Jungkook's pants in the mix, but he didn't stop to check because—

Jimin froze, staring at the bed.

Jungkook blinked at him, mid stretch, eyes still sleepy. His gaze traveled up and down Jimin's body slowly, confused, probably needing a second to realize what was happening and that he wasn't dreaming, then he fixated his stare on Jimin's face. The bruise on his neck was bigger and darker than the last one, more accusatory.

It was awkward, silent and tense. Jimin felt caught, guilt and shame flashing over his face, and he opened his mouth to explain this.

Then, Jungkook gave the smallest, most imperceptible nod, and he turned around in bed, his back to Jimin, blanket clinging around his hips, and hugged Jimin's pillow. He didn't say anything, just rolled over and pretended to sleep.

He was giving Jimin an out.

Jimin stood there for a long moment, watching Jungkook pretending to sleep.

It had never been Jungkook ignoring him for almost a whole month, it was Jimin picking up his underwear from the floor and scurrying to his own room, waiting ear on the door for Jungkook to leave before he could go out. It was Jimin avoiding Jungkook, and Jungkook giving him space.

With a sharp intake of air, Jimin walked out of Jungkook's bedroom with whatever he grabbed from the floor, closed the door softly, and entered his own room.

Chapter Text

It happened again.

Jimin promised himself he wouldn't let it happen again unless he and Jungkook talked about it first, but he also promised himself he won't drink ever again, so he had a past of breaking his promises.

This time was different though, because Jimin was not hungover when he woke up in Jungkook's bed the next morning. No sickness in his stomach, his head didn't feel like it was going to explode and there was only a barely noticeable alcohol taste in his mouth. Last night, Jimin knocked on Jungkook's bedroom door, their not emptied bottle of tequila and two shot glasses in hand. Jungkook looked at him with a confused eyebrow, then his eyes twinkled when he spotted the bottle. They sat on Jungkook's bed, did a naked shot, then they started making out. Neither one of them was drunk, but Jimin needed that one shot to blame it on the alcohol the next day.

Now, Jimin was also alone. He blinked to get rid of the sleep and looked around the room. Still just as messy as ever, but Jungkook was gone and his half of the bed was cold.

"Fuck," Jimin groaned, slumping down in the bed, staring at Jungkook's nightstand. There was a glass of water, some painkillers and a protein bar that Jungkook left for him. He must've gotten ready quietly, not so that he could sneak out before Jimin woke up, but simply to let Jimin sleep more. Jimin wanted to slap himself.

Sighing deeply, Jimin got up, his body tingling nicely, and looked around the room. Jungkook's bedroom was always a mess, books and drawing supplies scattered everywhere, like nothing had a place of its own. Jimin's eyes lingered on the title of some books, sucking in a sharp breath recognizing most of them being pretty popular self help books, but it felt weirdly intimate and personal to poke at and look through Jungkook's stuff, so Jimin quickly grabbed his clothes and walked out, his new morning routine lately.

He was going to talk with Jungkook about it. Tomorrow.

🎲

"Don't you—don't you guys think this is a little over the top? I mean, we talked about a small get together, and this is anything but small."

Hoseok rolled his eyes, knocking their shoulders together as he passed Jimin in his now very crowded living room, plopping a cardboard box full of colorful tinsel and inflatable balloons on the coffee table. "Please, we're no more or less people than we always are when we usually meet. Jungkook will manage this." He started rummaging inside, hand shoved up to his elbow as he loudly shoved things around, searching for something specific.

"You guys sure brought food over like you're feeding a whole army though," Jimin grumbled, eyeing the cake Seokjin set up on the kitchen counter, which could easily feed twenty people.

"I can take care of all this if you don't want leftovers," Namjoon said, quickly snatching his hand back and hissing in pain when Seokjin slapped his wrist for trying to steal a little bit of frosting off Jungkook's birthday cake.

"I hardly think Jungkook will be mad about too much homemade cake baked with love," Seokjin scoffed, juggling making space inside Jimin's and Jungkook's fridge and warding off his boyfriend trying to taste the cake with his foot at the same time. "Plus, we have to make it up for last year."

"Especially since Jungkook might start being more than just a friend to this group," Hoseok whispered in Jimin's ear with a grin clear in his voice, pinching his lower back.

Jimin stiffened, straightening his back and throwing Hoseok a reprimanding glare over his shoulder.

"And we are keeping it simple," Yoongi added, setting up a selection of table top games for them to play later. "Hoseok wanted to rent a pony for today. You're welcome for me talking him out of it."

Hoseok sighed like he was still not over that. "He's just so quiet. I feel like he didn't get a childhood birthday pony, and if only he'd get one now, then he'd open up."

"Neither one of us got a birthday pony growing up. He's just quiet, let him be," Jimin sighed, tip toeing around the ripped packages covering the floor and snatching them up on his way. "We are definitely not singing karaoke," he said firmly, pushing the set of microphones Yoongi pulled out of his gaming bag back inside. "Come on, do you guys not know him at all?"

"I just thought we might get him to come out of his shell like this." There was a loud disappointed groan from Namjoon when Seokjin finally managed to push him off long enough to shove the cake inside the fridge and kick the door closed. "Babe, I made that cake and you even ate some of the scraps last night. It's not that good, let it be." Seokjin casually spanked Namjoon's butt to send him out of the kitchen, then he turned around to face Jimin like nothing happened. "At least give karaoke a try, okay?"

"I hate it when you guys are trying to push him," Jimin sighed, walking inside the kitchen and starting to rummage through a cupboard for a garbage bag for all the trash the guys were making. "I'm not even sure he won't just walk out the door the moment he sees what you guys did of the living room. Okay, we draw the line at the banner."

Hoseok paused, looking at him with raised eyebrows, one foot propped up on one of their chairs and holding both ends of a banner with Happy Birthday, Jungkook! printed on it. "But, we already bought it. It has Jungkook's name on it, we can't ask for a refund or use it for someone else's birthday."

Jimin pinched the bridge of his nose between two fingers, closing his eyes as he took a deep breath. "Alright, the banner stays, but no karaoke, and we also don't make him stand around awkwardly while we sing him a happy birthday." There was a string of booing from around the room and someone even threw a deflated balloon at his head. "Yeah, boo me all you want, but I'm the one that knows him the best out of all of us, and Jungkook would hate it."

"Well, you do know him better than us," Hoseok said with a wink, hopping up on his chair and stretching his arms up to set the banner.

Blood rushed up to Jimin's cheeks and he threw the balloon towards Hoseok's back, but it lamely fell on the ground.

"Is there something going on between you two?" Seokjin asked with a grin, propping his hips against the kitchen counter, arms crossed over his chest.

Jimin lowered his head, hiding his face between raised shoulders. "No," he mumbled. "Maybe."

"No? Jungkook just casually wanted to let everyone know that he's single last session?" Yoongi asked, looking at Jimin with a mischievous smile.

"Did you guys talk about it yet?" Hoseok asked, balancing precariously on his chair, trying to stick one corner of the banner on the wall. "Bring me some tape."

"Not yet... tomorrow," Jimin mumbled, flinging his arms around before he threw Hoseok the scotch tape, then he grabbed the other corner of the banner to keep it straight.

"Oh? Did something already happen?" Seokjin asked with great interest, taking over gathering the trash. "I wanna know the tea too."

"There is no tea—"

"I could swear there was a look between them two last time," Yoongi said to pour gasoline over the fire.

"I saw it too. It was very cute," Namjoon chimed in.

"There was no—"

Everybody froze, whipping their heads around to stare at the front door when there was a knock. Pale faces stared at each other, panic starting to crawl up their spines.

"Off, off, off!" Seokjin hissed, waving his hand at the banner before he rushed to gather the gift bags from the table.

"Fuck," Yoongi cursed, carelessly shoving everything back in his game bag. "I thought you said he won't be back for at least an hour?"

"That's what he said," Jimin squealed, spinning around when Hoseok flew by him with the banner, running down the hallway. "And he wouldn't—he wouldn't knock. But hide just to be sure," he said, wincing when he saw Namjoon running around like a headless chicken before he hid behind the curtains like he was in a cartoon. Jimin turned around, his palms sweaty as he walked up to the front door, eyeing it with worry. He waited for everybody to settle, then he looked over his shoulder to check it was safe before he grabbed the handle. Taking a breath for courage, Jimin put on a pretty smile, like he wanted to look good for Jungkook, then he opened the door. "Fuck. It's just you," he said flatly, his shoulders dropping when the door opened.

There were curious movements from behind Jimin and then disappointed groans. "Great, I took the banner down for nothing. And just when I finally got it straight," Hoseok scoffed.

"Perfect. I hope I didn't break anything when I yanked the gifts down. Anybody got Jungkook anything fragile?" Seokjin asked, getting the gifts from behind the couch where he hid them.

"No! I got him something fragile!" Hoseok cried, abandoning the banner and running to check.

"Wow, never got such a lackluster reaction when I entered a room before," Taehyung scoffed from the door, stepping inside and kicking his shoes off.

"We thought you were Jungkook," Jimin explained, turning around and taking the bags of food Taehyung brought to the kitchen, making them join the other food they already had, adding to the feast. "You didn't stumble into him on your way here, did you?"

"I don't think so? But he's so quiet he could've just blended in the background and I wouldn't have noticed," Taehyung said, sticking his head out and looking up and down the hallway, checking that Jungkook's hasn't been behind him all along. "Clear."

"And my gift is whole," Hoseok said with a relieved sigh, carefully placing his gift bag in the middle of the table, where it was the safest. "Even though, maybe a more suitable gift for Jungkook would've been a deep clean."

"Hey, Jungkook's room is off limits," Jimin said, skipping across the living room to shut Jungkook's bedroom door. "And mine too, for that matter."

Hoseok rolled his eyes, stepping back up on top of that chair. "I was in a rush, I just opened the first door I saw, I thought it was neutral territory. And I'm not judging, my place is a pigsty."

"Amen," Yoongi grumbled, starting to get his games back out.

"You should leave already," Seokjin told Jimin, sitting down on the floor crosslegged and throwing the bag of balloons in front of himself to start inflating. "This was close. We need to have someone on Jungkook until we're done."

"I don't think it's necessary," Jimin said, getting his phone out to check that he still didn't receive any messages from Jungkook.

"Uh, it most definitely is. Can't have a surprise party if the birthday boy walks in on us, it will ruin the surprise. And we can't have that, the surprise is literally half of the surprise party." Seokjin stopped for a moment, blowing so hard into the balloon that his face turned purple.

Jimin shifted from one foot to the other. "I mean, I can just text him to get something from the store and let me know when he gets inside the building to help him with the bags."

"We want this to be a surprise, but let's not make him run errands on his birthday," Namjoon laughed, taking a corner of the banner and trying to walk to the other side to straighten it before he tripped and almost ripped the whole thing in half. "Shit. Sorry."

"Okay, you are on balloon duties now," Seokjin said, getting up and waving at Namjoon to take his place, letting his half inflated balloon fly away before it fell on the floor pathetically. "And you," he pointed to Jimin, "out with you. Make sure Jungkook doesn't come home too early or that he doesn't have other plans for tonight. And don't make him suspicious."

"And come back with more tape!" Hoseok yelled, one socketed foot raised and firmly planted on the wall to apparently give him the perfect angle to hang the banner. "I want to put some balloons on the walls, too."

"No, it's crooked!" Seokjin yelled, tripping over himself to get to Hoseok and grab the banner. "To the left!"

"Hyung, it is straight!" Hoseok cried, trying to push him away with his foot.

"It's so crooked, oh my god," Seokjin groaned, grabbing Hoseok's ankle and tugging him down. "Namjoon-ah, isn't it crooked?"

Namjoon looked at him with wide eyes and raised eyebrows, a little bit afraid, then his eyes fell on Jimin. "Oh-oh, um, I think I'll go with Jimin to get Jungkook—"

"Nice try. Come on. You're the tallest, carry me on your shoulders as we put this up," Seokjin said with a roll of his eyes, waving Namjoon over, who complied with something under his breath. "Jimin, I will literally break your legs if we don't throw a successful surprise party because you're too chicken to talk with Jungkook about whatever it is that's going on between you two."

Jimin sighed, slowly turning around and putting his shoes on, on a second thought thinking that he'd rather not be there. "Make sure you don't demolish the apartment while I'm gone, okay?"

"Can't make any promises!" Seokjin yelled, throwing himself on Namjoon's back.

"Ngh!" Namjoon whimpered, looking at Jimin with pain in his eyes. "Help me," he pleaded.

"Oh, shush," Seokjin said gently, patting Namjoon's cheek as he wrapped his legs around Namjoon's neck.

"Sorry, hyung," Jimin said, stepping out into the hallway. "I'll get you some more tape!" he said before closing the door.

Alright, some alone time with Jungkook while the guys got the place ready, that won't be too hard. Ever since that morning when Jungkook left him goodies on the nightstand, things had been easier, less tense overall. Over the last month alone they ended up cuddling on the couch while they watched Squid Game season 2, with Jungkook spooning Jimin from behind and softly kissing his neck, and while they were doing their weekly grocery shopping a few days ago, they just casually walked around the store holding hands, without even mentioning it.

Maybe they didn't even need to talk about it, maybe they could just slip into a relationship without the trouble of an unnecessary talk. Just this morning, when Jimin woke up in Jungkook's bed, instead of getting out at the speed of light, he turned on his other side and tentatively touched Jungkook's hip, burrowing his nose in his hair. Neither one of them smelled of alcohol and they just cuddled in bed, and Jimin sat on Jungkook's chest and kissed the corner of his mouth as he said he'll leave in a bit for his yoga classes, and Jungkook kept a hand over Jimin's ass as he said he'll have a few classes in the morning and then hang out with some of his classmates afterwards.

Which was where Jungkook should be, and he didn't even question it when Jimin texted him to ask where he was right now, he just gave Jimin the name of a coffeeshop near campus. And despite the few butterflies in Jimin's chest, he didn't overthink it too much as he drove to that coffeeshop. He barely even thought about how familiar the drive was because he dropped Jungkook off earlier that day, when they casually shared a kiss. He was definitely not thinking about it as he pulled up in the campus parking lot and paid for an hour. Or when he walked up and down the street looking for that coffeeshop, peeking at their windows looking for Jungkook.

Although, Jimin definitely wished they would've talked about it when he walked inside that coffeeshop.

Jungkook was sitting at a booth near the door with a small group of people his age, smiling softly as he listened to a guy talk, his shoulders relaxed. But what made all the blood run from Jimin's face was the girl wrapped around Jungkook's arm. She was pretty, with shoulder length pink hair and a cute smile, hugging Jungkook's tattooed arm and resting her cheek on his shoulder. They looked comfortable and familiar, like that position was nothing out of the ordinary for them.

Jimin didn't recognize her for anyone he knew, but suddenly he realized she must've been Jungkook's girlfriend. A sense of sickness washed over Jimin and he felt the need to sit down. Maybe they got back together, maybe Jungkook and her never actually broke up, or maybe she was a new girlfriend, and suddenly Jimin was feeling too shell shocked to process the sight, and he slowly turned around to leave.

"Hyung!" Jungkook's voice had an immediate effect on Jimin, stopping him in his tracks. Jimin slowly turned his head to look at him, finding Jungkook scrambling to get out of the booth in a panic and push the girl away. "Jimin-hyung, hi. This is Yuna, she's a friend. A classmate, really."

Jimin looked at Yuna, who was just curiously peeking up at him while trying to straighten her hair and shirt from being shoved to the side, but she didn't seem bothered by the title Jungkook just gave her.

"Jimin?" the guy Jungkook was listening to said, whipping his head around and grinning at him. "Jimin the boyfriend?"

Jungkook paled, staring at Jimin with a blank face and wide eyes. Jimin felt his face heating up, his eyes widening slightly in shock, and he was getting whiplash right now.

"Oh, are we finally meeting him?" the other guy said, craning his neck to look Jimin up and down. "You were right, he is really cute."

Jungkook looked at Jimin all in a panic. "Hyung, I never told them we are—"

"It's okay," Jimin cut him off breathlessly, moving without thinking when he wrapped a palm around Jungkook's nape, dragging him into a kiss. It was quick and small, looking like an european greeting more than a kiss, only catching the corner of Jungkook's lips, and it had electric zaps shooting through them, both flinching at the contact. When they pulled back, they were looking flustered.

"Awww," Yuna cooed, looking at them with heart shaped eyes and hands clasped together. "You guys are so cute!" she squealed.

Jimin gave Jungkook a small smile, not able to stop himself even though he knew he shouldn't when he leaned closer and brushed his lips over Jungkook's ear. "Happy birthday," he whispered.

It had Jungkook tense up, looking at him surprised. "Thank you," he whispered back after a second.

"Come sit with us," Yuna said cheerily, scooting in the booth to make space for them. "We're so glad to meet you. Jungkook doesn't talk much about himself, but he said that you guys sometimes meet with your friends to play... Dungeons and Castles? Sorry, I forgot."

"Dungeons and Dragons," Jimin corrected, swiftly sitting down in the booth first, so Jungkook would sit only next to him, feeling weirdly possessive. "I got him into playing sometime last year and he's already carrying the whole team."

"Ah, got the first part right," Yuna laughed. "Yeah, Jungkook's always had this effortlessly being good at everything he tries thing. I'm not jealous, but I do secretly pray I see you trip and fall on your nose one day, just to make sure you're actually human."

"Hyung," Jungkook mumbled from his side, anxiously scratching his arm, "why are you here? Let's leave."

Jimin looked at him with a raised eyebrow, one hand already reaching out to touch Jungkook's arm, but Yuna beat him to it, lightly slapping Jungkook's wrist away, rolling her eyes at Jimin with a playfully annoyed look. "Let's stay with your friends a little longer, Jungkook-ah," Jimin said gently, scooting closer to Jungkook and twisting his middle so that his back was now blocking Yuna's way. "I came to meet with you, sorry I didn't give you a heads-up. We'll leave in a bit, okay?"

He was dying from curiosity to know who Jungkook's other friends were and he also needed to keep Jungkook out of the house for a little longer, but there was something on Jungkook's face now that was making Jimin's eyebrows frown questioningly. Jungkook was nervous, not in the way he got whenever there was attention on him, but nervous in a way Jimin's never seen him before, eyes wearily flicking around, looking for an exit.

The other two men presented themselves, Sunghoon and Hyunjin, and together with Yuna they were all taking the same classes with Jungkook in university. They all looked kind of similar to each other, all dressed with stylish clothes with lots of accessories, and they joked about how they adopted Jungkook as the introvert of their group.

"All the teachers feared that we'll corrupt him," Yuna laughed, slurping the last drops of her latte. "At first, one of the cool teachers asked me to sit next to Jungkook for a two person project our first year, and we've been inseparable ever since. Partly because nobody can stand how obnoxious I am, party because I'm too cute for Jungkook to resist me when I feel the need to yap and vent to someone that actually listens. And then obviously I had to have Jungkook meet these two idiots."

"Hyung," Jungkook whispered, tugging on Jimin's sleeve. "Let's go home."

"Aw, he's afraid we'll embarrass him, guys," Sunghoon chuckled, grinning at Jungkook devilishly. "Afraid we'll tell your boyfriend about that time you—" he stopped himself, staring at Jungkook with raised eyebrows and lips sucked in, but when Jungkook didn't even attempt to react he deflated in his seat. "Damn, you're no fun."

"Stop trying to tease Jungkookie," Hyunjin said, wrapping an arm around Sunghoon's shoulders and kissing his temple. It was casual enough that most people wouldn't think too much of it, but his fingers lingered on Sunghoon's shoulder long enough for Jimin to recognize the level of intimacy, and for a second Jimin stopped to wonder whether Jungkook is friends with only queer people. "You can stop trying to bolt out the door, we promise we'll be good."

"Mhm," Jungkook hummed, lowering his eyes to the table and frowning at his cup of coffee, fingernails pushing into the inside of his palms.

"We'll have to leave in a bit anyway," Jimin said with a polite smile, pressing his thigh against Jungkook's. "We have a guy coming to look at our water boiler and Jungkook promised to help me clean afterwards. Water infiltration is no fun, we're lucky we have an awesome landlord."

Jungkook relaxed next to him, sending Jimin a small grateful look, and his hands softened.

"Man, and we wanted to hit the club," Yuna whined, twisting her mouth in disappointment. "We didn't go in so long, I miss wasting my money on overpriced alcohol."

Jimin chuckled, thinking that he's saving Jungkook's ass big time right now. "I don't think Jungkook would've wanted to go, anyway."

"We used to go clubbing all the time before you two started dating," Hyunjin chimed in, giving Jimin pause.

Jungkook tugged on Jimin's sleeve again, more frantic now. "Hyung—"

"Yeah, we used to go to Doors every Friday after Art History," Yuna said casually, pushing her empty glass to the middle of the table.

Jimin stared at her, speechless. From his side, Jungkook stilled completely. Jimin knew Doors, it was one of the few gay clubs in town, nothing flashy or fancy, but that was where Jimin used to go way back in college whenever he felt like hooking up with a man, before he switched to the green smoothies and morning yoga classes lifestyle. But even though it had been some years since Jimin stepped foot inside that club, he was almost 100% sure it didn't become a club where straight people go now.

Subtly turning his head to the side, Jimin caught Jungkook guiltily avoiding his eyes, his neck flushed pink, and that was enough of a reply for him. And suddenly, Jimin felt so absolutely stupid, a single question running in his mind—Why on earth, if Jungkook's supposed girlfriend was living out of town, why would Jungkook be the one to leave every Friday night to spend the night at her place, since she was living, again, out of town?

"I know what you're thinking," Yuna laughed, and Jimin was sure his face was full of consternation to say the least when he blinked at her. "What would a girl be doing in a gay club, right?" She tapped her head like that was the most ridiculous thing ever. "It's just a guaranteed way that no one will hit on me so I don't even need to think about it. And the guys love the validation they get, since apparently they're hot or something."

Jimin forced a smile, though one eye was twitching, still trying to piece everything together. "I'm sorry, I guess I just can't picture Jungkook partying at a club."

"Well, he never stayed long enough to dance or anything," Sunghoon snorted. "He always left early with a guy."

Jungkook sucked in a sharp breath, crossing his arms over his chest and starting to furiously scratch himself, skin turning red. Every ounce of decorum dropped from Jimin's face and he fully turned his head to stare at Jungkook, his blood boiling. All this time he spent stressing he was a homewrecker, avoiding Jungkook to not be faced with his mistake, wondering if Jungkook only said he broke up with his girlfriend before they slept together just to save them some face, all for that night to have never been an affair, because there was no girlfriend to begin with.

"Sorry, I... I didn't mean to say something..." Sunghoon said, worry filling everyone's face as they sensed the abrupt way tension settled between them. "But Jungkook's been skipping club night ever since you guys started dating."

"Yes, Jungkook stopped tagging along a long time ago," Yuna agreed immediately, looking at Jimin with wide eyes. "Like, two or three months ago—"

"Five months!" Hyunjin cut her off loudly, sending her a look. "More like, six, maybe even seven months ago. God, it's been so long, I think the last time Jungkook went to the club was last summer. Don't listen to Yuna, she has no concept of time."

"Yes, I'm an idiot," Yuna said with no hesitation. "I don't know what I was talking about, don't mind me."

"Yeah, and Jungkook didn't actually hook up with a lot of guys, I made it sound all wrong," Sunghoon hurried to add. "He would just sometimes do that, it wasn't that often. What do I know?"

"Yes, you know how Jungkook is. He's a really sweet guy, he's not a fuckboy."

"Can you imagine?" Yuna laughed nervously, looking like she was sweating bullets. "Sunghoon mostly said that as a figure of speech."

"I mean, we're all adults here—"

Everybody started talking over each other, trying to convince Jimin that Jungkook was actually a virgin, while Jungkook was stubbornly looking to the side, his foot furiously tapping the floor like a bunny stomping, face all red. With a sigh and a bitter taste in his mouth, Jimin wrapped a hand around Jungkook's arm to stop his scratching, getting the voices to die down. "I think the boiler guy should arrive soon, we better leave."

Jungkook shot up from his seat before Jimin even finished his sentence, grabbing his bookbag and jacket in a hurry. Jungkook's friends were looking at them with a pained expression and wincing, scrambling to find something to save the situation, though they didn't even know what the actual problem was. Jimin assured them that they didn't say anything wrong and that they simply needed to leave and he was actually here just to pick Jungkook up anyway.

Yuna grabbed Jimin's wrist and looked deep into his soul as she said that she's actually an idiot and Jimin shouldn't listen to her because Jungkook didn't come to Doors in a whole year, and Jimin regretted ever feeling smug about the fact that his hair was nicer when he dyed it pink last year than hers was right now. Jimin assured her she didn't break them up—even though they've been too big of idiots to talk about whether they even were in a relationship or not—and almost immediately there was a relieved sigh from around the table.

"I'm sorry," Jungkook mumbled as soon as Jimin stepped out through the coffeeshop door, hands deep inside his pockets and fists balled up, staring at the ground like he was mad at it.

Jimin sighed deeply, not even finding it in himself to be mad at Jungkook seeing him like this. "Come on... We really need to talk about this when we get home," he said, shoving a hand inside Jungkook's pocket and dragging his fist out, intertwining their fingers together before he started walking towards his car. Jungkook gulped audibly, nodding his head before he followed along. "Aw!" Jimin yelled suddenly, snatching his hand away and staring at Jungkook with shock in his eyes. "Jungkook, you're hurting me."

Jungkook looked at him with wide eyes and parted lips, his face filling with guilt and shame when his eyes fell on Jimin's hand, held by Jimin's other hand to his chest, the imprints of Jungkook's fingernails on the back of Jimin's hand. "I'm—I'm so sorry, I didn't realize—I didn't mean to, I just sometimes—Are you okay? I'm so sorry."

"I'm fine, don't worry," Jimin sighed, letting the tension ease from his body as he took a step closer and grabbed Jungkook's hand again before Jungkook could examine his hand and make himself feel even guiltier. "Just... take it easy," he said, looking at Jungkook from one eye to the other. "When you're doing it to yourself, too."

Jungkook nodded, his eyes falling to the ground in shame for having his habit directly addressed.

"We'll need to talk about this when we get home as well," Jimin told him, watching him carefully as he started walking again, catching the way Jungkook frowned and his shoulders slumped down.

"But I said I'm sorry."

"I know, but talking about it is not a punishment."

Jungkook didn't say anything to that, though it was clear he wasn't agreeing. Together, they walked to Jimin's car and silently got in. Neither one of them said anything as Jimin drove, the air feeling thick with emotion, and Jimin took this time to think things over, though he couldn't figure out what was going on in Jungkook's head to pull a stunt like this. From his side, Jungkook was not able to sit still, his legs bouncing, his hands scratching, his eyes flickering everywhere out the window. Jimin let him, he knew this was Jungkook's way of self soothing himself, though he'd whisper an easy under his breath when he'd get too rough.

"I am sorry," Jungkook said when they were in the elevator, buzzing from nerves. He had his arms folded over his chest and the skin peeking from underneath the sleeves of his leather jacket was red and raw, and he was looking everywhere but at Jimin.

"I know you are," Jimin said slowly, putting a hand on Jungkook's shoulder to calm him down. "You've never had a girlfriend."

It was a statement more than a question, and Jungkook sighed deeply before slowly nodding his head. Jimin pressed his lips together, the confirmation feeling somehow lackluster and cathartic at the same time. On one hand he was relieved that he really didn't ruin a relationship, on the other hand this whole situation was too weird. He knew it was also his fault for refusing to talk about it, even more than it was Jungkook's, since he was the oldest and arguably the most hostile at the beginning.

As the elevator stopped at their floor, Jungkook was dragging his feet to their apartment, clearly afraid of the inevitable, and Jimin didn't feel any more sunny about it as he typed their code in and opened the door.

"SURPRISE!"

Jimin almost had a heart attack, a hand slapped over his booming heart and eyes blindly looking around, trying to make sense of the situation. The light was flipped on, there was a loud pop that made them flinch, and bright colors burned his retina—confetti slowly floating around, shiny balloons covering the ground, a big Happy Birthday, Jungkook! banner hanging on the wall first thing as you walked in, with a shiny line in the middle where the guys accidentally ripped it and fixed it with tape. It was still kind of crooked.

"Happy birthday, brother!" Taehyung said, wrapping his arms around Jungkook's shoulders and flashing him a wide smile, party hat on top of his head. Everyone was wearing a party hat, cheering and clapping loudly. Jimin didn't know where the party hats came from.

Jungkook slowly turned his head to Jimin, looking mortified, and Jimin winced before reluctantly shrugging.

"There's the birthday boy," Hoseok said, hooking his arm around Jungkook's and dragging him inside. "Come, we've got you a hat."

Taehyung hooked an arm around Jimin's neck and brought Jimin's ear close to his mouth. "You were supposed to text us when you got here," he whispered. "I got cramps waiting with my eyes on the peeping hole."

"Shit, I totally forgot," Jimin winced, tripping over himself taking his shoes off. "Jungkook doesn't want that hat."

The guys stopped, all of them surrounding Jungkook, with a cardboard golden crown above his head, like this was a real ceremony. "You said no song, now no crown?"

"No crown," Jimin confirmed, taking the crown from Yoongi's hands and immediately getting disappointed groans from everyone except Jungkook. He gave Jungkook an apologetic look, scrambling to find a way to kick the guys out, since there were more pressing matters at hand.

"Jimin's a buzz killer, but you do want the crown, don't you, Jungkook?" Seokjin asked, clasping his hands around Jungkook's shoulders and leaning forward to stare at him with puppy eyes.

Jungkook squirmed around on the chair the guys sat him at, then he shrugged.

"Perfect!" Hoseok said, grabbing the crown from Jimin and carefully placing it on Jungkook's head. "Alright, Jimin already threatened us, so this is the only obnoxious thing we'll do today, we're not making you stand around awkwardly while we sing for you, okay?"

There were amused chuckles when Jungkook sighed out in relief, sounding genuine, and then the guys took turns wishing Jungkook a happy birthday, keeping their promises and keeping it simple and not over the top.

"Sorry, I forgot to tell you. The guys wanted to throw you a surprise birthday party," Jimin said once they were alone, sitting down on the couch next to Jungkook's chair. "Kind of late telling you now."

"It's fine," Jungkook murmured. For a second, they just looked at each other, unsure what to do now, and then Jimin just nodded, a little at a loss and thrown off.

"Alright," Namjoon said with a clap of his hands to get everyone's attention. "We don't want you to feel uncomfortable on your birthday, we can just play some games or D&D if you want, and the decorations were just a thing that was fun to do. We got you some gifts, do you want to open them now, or do that after we leave?"

"After—"

"Can you open mine now?" Hoseok asked hopefully, bouncing on his feet with the gift bag he brought held close to his chest, pouting and giving his best puppy eyes.

Jungkook shifted in his seat. "Okay."

"Yey!" Hoseok let out an excited squeal, jumping up and down like a happy child for a second before he skipped to hand Jungkook his bag, and the rest of the guys chuckled and sat down at the table. Catching the way Jungkook's eyes were flickering around, looking self conscious, Jimin's thigh pressed into Jungkook's almost subconsciously. "I don't mean to be shady to the other guys, but you'll love my present the most. No offense," Hoseok said, making a dramatic bow as he handed Jungkook his gift with both hands.

Looking a little bit like he's under a microscope, Jungkook took the bag, keeping his shoulders tensed and his jaw clenched as he rummaged inside for a second, until his fingers wrapped around the figurine, then he pulled it out halfway, looking at it confused for a few seconds until he registered what it was, then he froze, staring at it without breathing.

It was the figurine Hoseok was working on that day Jimin stopped at his atelier, looking incredibly detailed and realistic now. It was an almost one on one copy of Jungkook, same raven hair and big brown eyes, with a scrutinizing look, red fire cape flowing behind him over his silver scale mail, the same one he gained at level 12 after they beat a slew of hellbeasts that ambushed them, blunt mace strapped to his hip and staff held out high and ready to fight.

"Happy b-day!" Hoseok said, beaming at him.

Everyone else was holding their breaths waiting for his reaction, and eventually Jimin looked over at him, pushing Jungkook a bit with his knee to remind him to react. Jungkook had his head down, hair hiding his face, and his shoulders were so high up that they almost reached his ears, holding that little figurine carefully in his palms like he was afraid he'd break it.

"It's your character," Hoseok said when the silence got too much. "A human cleric, with your scale armour and staff. To remember this campaign. And if you want, I can help you do your own figurine for the next campaign, too."

There was a sharp inhale of air from Jungkook and he held it in his lungs for a long moment, the hands holding the figurine starting to shake a bit.

"Jungkook, man, don't cry now," Hoseok said, wrapping an arm around Jungkook's back in an awkward half hug. Jungkook drew inwards even more, tucking his chin into his chest, to the point no one was seeing his face anymore, but he remained unmoved like a statue. "C'mon now—Or cry, I don't know," Hoseok stuttered, looking around with bewildered eyes once he realized this was the first time Jungkook had outwardly expressed any kind of emotion.

The guys were just as shocked, staring at Jungkook like they were watching a baby deer stand up and walk for the first time. But while Jimin knew this was an important moment for Jungkook, he felt the corners of his mouth draw downwards, jaw becoming painfully heavy, and he watched from beneath his eyebrows the way Jungkook's shoulders were shaking lightly. Even though he knew it was unfair, the only thing Jimin was thinking about was if those tears were real, whatever other lies Jungkook told him and how he could've just continuously lied for two years straight.

"I'm sorry," Jungkook said with a broken sob, carefully putting his figurine on the table, and the sound had Jimin's stomach churning.

"There's nothing you need to apologize for," Seokjin said, getting up and rounding the table to hug Jungkook as well. Jimin watched as one by one they got up to give Jungkook an awkward hug and a pat on the back.

"I have to say, Hoseok is right, my present is nowhere near as good," Namjoon laughed sitting down, getting laughs of agreement.

"Thank you, Hoseok-hyung," Jungkook said with a small bow, his face looking flushed when Jimin caught a glimpse of it.

"You're welcome, kiddo," Hoseok said with a few awkward finger guns and ruffled Jungkook's hair before sitting down. "Alright. Okay. Didn't really expect a reaction like that, but I have a sense of pride in my chest right now."

"Now, don't rub it in our faces," Yoongi said, throwing a balloon at Hoseok's head.

Amidst the guys talking, Jimin's and Jungkook's eyes met, and something heavy settled over Jimin's chest seeing Jungkook's red teary eyes, and he quickly looked away. The multitude of dishes were brought out and they started to dig in, and while Jungkook was fortunate enough to be left alone for being quiet, Jimin didn't receive the same grace and the guys picked on him and joked around that he was sulking for not being the center of attention for once. Seokjin cut them slices of cake, toffee and banana flavored, like Jimin told him to, and they ate without singing Jungkook a happy birthday.

The guys were having a good time and were oblivious to their inner turmoil, so Jimin gently nudging them to leave went unnoticed, and they ended up playing a couple rounds of Cards Against Humanity. Jimin was just throwing cards down without even reading them first and he didn't think he won even one joke, and Jungkook didn't have much luck either. Yoongi's stories weren't all that interesting today and Seokjin's dad jokes were falling particularly flat for Jimin, and not even Hoseok's pictures of his latest creations drew much of a reaction out of him. One eye was constantly on Jungkook, on the way he was standing completely straight and tense, fingernails digging into his forearms.

Cards Against Humanity was pretty quickly switched to their D&D campaign, since they were all too excited to finally end it. Jungkook's new figurine was sitting nicely between the others, newer and shinier than the rest.

They picked up where they left. The Dragon was killed and it raised back to life, as any respectable Dracolich Dragon would. The crumbling tower was crumbling on them. Seokjin was trapped under a piece of rock that fell from the ceiling. Hoseok failed an intelligence check and his familiar ran away. Namjoon managed to pierce one of the Dracolich Dragon's wings, but in return he got thrown to the opposite wall, taking great damage. Jungkook ran out of healing potions and now his only weapons and healing power was his staff and spells. Jimin was currently holding the title of the worst thief ever, failing every agility check he took, and he pretty much tripped and fell right in front of the Dragon every time he moved.

"Alright, all I'm saying is, logically speaking, the morale of this team all hangs on my shoulders, and if you really think about it, what's a team with no morale? Nothing, that's what. Without me, you're so demoralized that you can't work as a team properly. Now, I know we didn't have a great couple of turns, but imagine how it would've been without me. So, this is my little argument of why you should help me."

Hoseok blinked at Taehyung bored. "Babe, I'm dying myself."

"Try to call your puppy again!" Taehyung whined, petulantly kicking his feet under the table. "You're all dead without me, just saying."

"Don't call her a puppy," Hoseok scoffed in great offense. "She was more than that to me, she was—"

"Please remove any characters from the table that are no longer in the game," Yoongi said casually, flipping a page in his guide.

Hoseok stopped, staring at him with raised eyebrows, and he affectionately petted the back of his wolf familiar figurine. "But she's not dead. She just ran down the hallway, she'll come back."

"Until then," Yoongi whistled and swirled his finger in the air, pointing at the figurine.

"Drunk on power," Hoseok grumbled, reluctantly taking his wolf down. "Alright, what did you want?"

"Get me out of this hole," Taehyung said, repeatedly tapping his bard figurine on the map to make his point. "I don't know, crawl inside and grab my hand, do something. This is literally my lowest point, I wouldn't want to miss the final fight. I'm begging you."

Hoseok lifted an eyebrow. "Go on."

Taehyung raised his eyebrows. "Kinky. You really want me to drop to my knees and beg? Cause I'll do it—"

"I won't allow it," Yoongi cut him off sharply.

"You don't get it, I don't want to miss—"

"You're not begging my boyfriend," Yoongi said before he caught himself, quickly clearing his throat and trying to move on. "Anyway—"

"Ayyy," Hoseok grinned, reaching out to tickle Yoongi's belly. "Look at you, being all possessive."

"Anyway!" Yoongi said loudly, slapping Hoseok's hand away. "What are we doing?"

"Well, since Namjoon can literally finish this in one turn, I guess you'll just have to watch it from your hole." Hoseok turned around to face Yoongi, completely ignoring Taehyung's offended gasp. "I use my crossbow and shoot."

"Roll a d20." Yoongi rolled a die for the enemy as well, then he wrote something down on his notes. "Nice shot. It's left at... 18 health."

"I can take it down right now!" Namjoon said, bouncing up and down on the couch in excitement. "My turn. Long sword. D20." Namjoon looked at his die, winced when he saw a sparkly 2, and looked at his ability modifiers.

"You fling your sword and nick the Dragon's chest, but you were too slow and it backed away before you could swing again. 12 health left now. Really carrying us with that strength bonus, Joonie."

"Glad I could set an example," Namjoon said with a roll of his eyes, though it was clear it was bothering him that he won't be the one throwing the final punch.

"Jimin," Yoongi said, making him flinch back to full attention. "I need a 12 damage hit. Think you have what it takes?"

"Or," Seokjin said, shrugging and lifting his eyebrows. "You could let Jungkook be the one to kill the Dragon. Since today is his birthday, it would be nice if he wins this campaign. First campaign, first win."

"Oh, no," Jungkook mumbled, shaking his head. "It's okay, I don't want to."

Jimin chewed on his bottom lip, staring at the little cloaked elf that was his thief. Jungkook would hate the attention, probably was hoping the campaign would end before his turn was even up so he could skip talking and the possibility of roleplaying. Jimin tried to catch Jungkook's eyes, but he was looking down at the ground, covered by his hair, slowly scratching his arms. Drawn in, closed off, comfortable in his secrets and bad habits.

Jimin picked up his d20. "I try to call for Hoseok's familiar again," he said, catching Jungkook whipping his head around to look at him through the corner of his eye, though he didn't pay him any mind. Jimin shook his fist for a couple of seconds, then rolled his die, eyes lazily following the numbers flashing on top. A loud gasp left Jimin when the die stopped and the number 20 was on top, eyes widening in shock. A natural 20. He didn't get a natural 20 in months.

"Uh—Uhm—Uh—The dog comes back," Yoongi stuttered, so stunned that he forgot what he was supposed to do for a second. "Hoseok's familiar hears your call echoing around the ruins and she gets out from underneath the column she was hiding under, skipping back to your location and successfully avoiding the Dragon, and she safely stops next to you."

"My baby," Hoseok cooed, proudly putting her figurine back on the map.

"Great. She gets to watch, while I'm stuck in a hole," Taehyung complained, stubbornly covering his face up to his eyes with the front of his shirt in protest for being left in his hole.

"Any other action you want to do on your turn?" Yoongi asked, looking like he already knew the answer.

"No," Jimin said with a shrug. "I end my turn."

The attention quietly shifted to Jungkook, who started scratching his arms faster. Through the corner of his eye, Jimin saw Jungkook silently holding his hand out, palm up for Jimin to give him his d20, though Jimin ignored him. The seconds ticked by and nothing happened. Everybody started staring at him when Jungkook awkwardly retracted his hand.

"I think Jungkook needs your d20," Seokjin said, looking highly entertained.

Jimin hummed cluelessly. "Does he?"

Jungkook shifted next to him before clearing his throat. "Can I please have your die, hyung?"

"Yes."

Jimin tipped his head back to look at Jungkook as he handed him his die, and he caught curious brown eyes looking at him from underneath black hair before they skittishly looked away.

Jungkook rolled the die clumsily, like he wanted to be over it as soon as possible.

Yoongi cleared his throat. "You have to say what you're doing before you roll," he said patiently.

"Oh," Jungkook mumbled, ducking his head. He was a bit thrown off balance and stared at his character sheet blankly, his eyes not moving. "Um, I attack with my sword?"

"You... don't have a sword," Yoongi said after checking his character sheet, looking over his inventory. "Jimin, do you want to help Jungkook?"

Jimin was idly playing with the corner of the map. "Jungkook needs help?"

It was quiet, then Jungkook shifted in his seat again, fists balled up. "Hyung, can you help me?"

Jimin casually turned around to look over Jungkook's character sheet, completely ignoring everyone's amused eyes and how Taehyung and Hoseok were whispering together. By this point, Jimin knew Jungkook's character sheet like the back of his hand, but he still took his sweet time reading over his inventory. "What do you want to do?"

"I..." Jungkook trailed off, shrugging. "Attack?"

Jimin hummed and nodded, looking at the two attack options Jungkook had. "Use your mace."

"Thank you," Jungkook nodded, leaning back in his seat. "I use my mace."

Yoongi hummed, a grin spreading on his face seeing Jungkook rolled a natural 20. Seokjin gasped and covered his mouth, Namjoon's jaw dropped, Hoseok was hanging by the edge of his seat and Taehyung's shirt fell back into place. Even Jimin's body stood straight up, a wave of shock and excitement running through him. Jungkook looked around with wide eyes, a bit panicked. "You deliver the final blow," Yoongi said excitedly. "How do you do it?"

Jungkook started breathing heavily. "I-I hit him—"

"Do you lunge yourself at the Dragon?" Namjoon asked, staring at him with wide eyes and partly raised.

Jungkook nodded nervously. "I lounge myself at the Dragon..."

"Do you swing your mace?" Taehyung asked animatedly.

A sweat broke on his forehead and Jungkook momentarily stopped his scratching to wipe it. "I swing my mace..."

"Do you make a little prayer before your attack?"

"Yes... I pray..."

"Is your arm trembling?"

"My—my arm is t-trembling..."

"Are you screaming a battlecry?"

"Yes—" Jungkook stopped himself, absolutely red faced, and his hands were shaking so much that he couldn't even scratch his arms anymore. "Uhm—"

By this time, the guys were all standing up, stirring closer and closer to Jungkook with exhilaration in their eyes and excitement in their steps. "Battlecry! Battlecry! Battlecry!"

Looking on the brink of a panic attack, Jungkook looked to the side at Jimin for help, eyes unfocused, face red and sweaty, chest heaving.

Jimin looked at him with a hard stare. "Yell, Jungkook."

Jungkook gasped breathlessly, betrayal flashing over his face for a split second before he gulped audibly and turned back to the map, hiding his face around his hands as he stared down at the table. He looked stressed out like he was asked to solve a nuclear power plant problem. "Ah," Jungkook attempted, kind of pathetically—his voice broke, quickly cleared his throat afterwards.

"Come on, you need to scare an ancient dragon!" Namjoon laughed, slapping a hand over Jungkook's back.

A little whimper slipped from Jungkook's lips before he coughed to cover it. "Ah!" he said, a little more life in it.

The guys laughed and riled him on. "Louder!"

"Ah!"

"Louder!"

"Ahh!"

"LOUDER!"

"AAAAA!"

Jimin slapped a hand over his mouth, staring at Jungkook with wide eyes, stunned by the loud scream that just came out of Jungkook.

"Wow, holy fuck!"

There was laughter and whistling as Jungkook got swarmed in a mess of limbs and congratulations and pats on the back, and when he found a break and leaned back Jimin caught a glimpse of his face, and Jungkook looked flustered and breathless and alive. His eyes were bigger than ever and they were sparkling, all the blood rushed to his cheeks and he was panting, the corners of his lips curled in an incredulous grin.

"Great job, Jungkook," Yoongi said with a proud grin, clapping his hands together. "Alright, Jungkook does a little prayer to the gods of his Temple, the sacred words falling from his lips in a murmur as he swings his mace. Your arms are trembling, straining from fighting for so long, and your heart is thrumming in your chest. This is the moment. All these monsters you've fought—imps, orcs, hellbeasts, dragons, and now... the biggest one of them all, the Dracolich Dragon. Its powers slaughtered your town, it burned Hoseok's forest and it annihilated Namjoon's family. The old Dragon is in pain and it's almost begging you to kill it. With the hatred of the people you've seen being killed right in front of your eyes, your mace falls directly over the Dragon's head."

"God, I sure wish I could see this," Taehyung complained, his shirt lifted all the way up and covering his face.

"You ignore the idiot bard in the hole," Yoongi said. "From your teammates' attacks, you can see the Dragon's skull is already cracked, and that's exactly where you aim. Your mace pierces the Dragon's skull, hitting its brain. The coldness and darkness surrounding you suddenly stills, like it's confused, then you feel it just... dissipating. It's like the evil that once surrounded the world died with the Dragon. That heaviness that weighted you down for so long is suddenly lifted off your shoulders and hopefulness fills your hearts, seeing The Great Ancient Dracolich Dragon fall. And the Dragon finally rests its eyes, and just like this, its world ends, not with a bang... but with a whimper."

There was cheering and clapping from around the table, and Jimin's cheeks were hurting from how wide he was grinning, and he was feeling weirdly proud when he looked to the side and found Jungkook smiling and clapping along.

"Wait, I prepared something," Yoongi hurried to say when he remembered, scrambling to get his phone out and patting Hoseok's arm. "Get the—Get the—Do the thing."

"Oh, right," Hoseok said, searching for something in a bag he had on the ground, then he slammed a replica of a defeated dragon on the table at the same time Yoongi pressed the button to play a great roar of pain, followed by omnious music. It was the skeleton of a dragon wrapped around itself in a sleepy position, dead, and Taehyung leaned forward to poke at it. "Don't look too close at the details, it was a last minute idea."

"Hobi, this looks amazing," Jimin said, squinting his eyes while looking at it.

"This is it?" Jungkook asked, surprising Jimin when he asked Yoongi directly.

"Yeah," Yoongi shrugged. "Kinda. There isn't a real ending to a D&D campaign, we can always keep going and finding new adventures, but this was the final boss I planned and the guys want to start a new campaign with new characters so yeah, this is it. Let's go around the table and say what our characters will do in their retirement. You don't have to do this."

"Well, I for one will have to hold a little funeral for my father," Namjoon said, keeping silent for a second. "That's enough."

"I will take my baby," Hoseok said, affectionately hugging the figurine to his face, "and we'll start anew, find ourselves a new forest to live in. You are all welcome to join."

"Guys, I'm still stuck in that hole."

"Um, can I say something?" Jungkook asked quietly, surprising everyone. Jimin looked over, finding Jungkook awkwardly staring at his lap, idly scratching his hand.

It took the guys a moment to react.

"Yeah, yeah, of course."

"Yeah, go ahead."

"We're all ears."

Everyone put their phones down and gave Jungkook their full undivided attention, which might not have been the best idea, because it made Jungkook draw inwards a little to hide himself.

"Uhm... I just wanted to tell you that this was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it, even though it might not have looked like it... And, I'd really like to do this again... And..." His eyes flickered to Jimin. "I really am sorry."

"What are you so sorry about?" Hoseok chuckled, bumping his shoulder with Jungkook's, and he opened his mouth to talk again about his plans with his familiar.

"Can I," Jimin hurried to say, ruffling his hair, "say something?"

"Sure."

Jimin gulped, feeling his heart in his throat, and he breathed deeply through his nose, catching Jungkook's eyes for just a second before Jungkook looked away. "I also had a lot of fun, and I... I know we had a rocky start, and I know I made a lot of mistakes throughout this journey, and there are a lot of things that I'd change now if I could, and I want you to know that I'm very, very sorry."

There was awkward silence after that, and besides Jungkook who was looking flustered, everyone else was staring at him confused. "Uhm, thank you, Jimin, that was... nice. Hoseok?"

"I—" Jimin cleared his throat, shuffling around nervously. "I just wanted to add that I really regret... leaving the inn."

A mixture of surprise and confusion passed around the table, and Jungkook ran his tongue over his teeth while he nodded. "It was really shitty when you did that... Twice."

Shame ran up Jimin's neck and he scratched at it. "I know, and I'm sorry. I freaked out and I didn't know what... I didn't think."

Seokjin leaned over to Namjoon, staring at Jimin and Jungkook. "I don't think this is about the campaign anymore," he whispered loudly.

"I'm getting out of my hole for this."

"I left you supplies—or rations, or whatever, when we found ourselves at the inn again and I woke up before you did," Jungkook mumbled, transparently showing how bothered he was with that by scratching himself.

"I—" Jimin huffed in frustration, grabbing Jungkook's hand to stop him. "I know that, and that was very sweet of you, and I've also been getting you food rations after we spent a night at the inn after that. And the reason I left those two first times was because... I thought you were married."

It was silent after that and Jimin peeked at everyone from under his bangs. Jungkook was furiously chewing on his bottom lip now that Jimin was holding his hand and the audience was very attentive, following closely.

"I was never married," Jungkook mumbled, keeping his eyes on the ground.

A sniffle left Jimin and he scrubbed his face with his free hand. He was so shocked that Jungkook actually addressed it publicly like this.

"Wait, I'm confused," Taehyung said after a moment.

"Yeah, I'm lost," Seokjin chuckled. "You've never had a girlfriend?"

Jungkook blushed furiously, drawing inwards and tucking his chin into his chest, frowning at the floor. He nodded.

"What about the kids?" Taehyung wondered aloud.

Everybody stared at him.

"Seriously?"

"What's wrong with you?"

"Are you stupid?"

"I was trying to make a joke!" Taehyung whined loudly, covering his face with his shirt again. "I'm back in my hole."

Jimin turned back to face Jungkook, who immediately looked away. Jimin pinched the bridge of his nose and massaged upwards to smoothen out his frown. "I felt like... a harlot."

There was a snicker and then a groan of pain from Taehyung when Seokjin nudged him to shut up.

"I know. I'm sorry. I should've said something," Jungkook mumbled.

Jimin took a deep breath. "What happened? I mean, did you break up a long time ago and never said anything? Did you ever have a girlfriend? Why did—Why?"

Jungkook's whole body was tense as an arrow, jaw clenched as he looked to the side. "I never had a girlfriend, never in my life."

"You're gonna have to explain yourself more than that, he was freaking out like never before," Hoseok chuckled awkwardly.

Jungkook sighed deeply, scrubbing his face, red as a tomato and agitated, and when his hand fell down his eyes found Seokjin, who raised an eyebrow. "When I first hung out with you guys, Seokjin-hyung teased me about a hickey I had and asked me if my girlfriend did that, and I didn't know if you guys were cool with gay people, so I panicked and said yes."

Six sets of eyes stared at Jungkook, stunned. The tips of Jungkook's ears were bright red and Jimin's hand slipped from his from the shock, so Jungkook went back to the scratching and stabbing his hands with his fingernails, not meeting anyone's stare.

"Wait, did you think we're homophobes?" Taehyung asked, like there was a great joke here. "Dude, we thought you were a homophobe!"

Jungkook looked at him taken aback. "Me? What did I do?"

"Well, what did we do?" Seokjin laughed. "I'm sorry, but did you look at us? We all look like we worship the same phallic object."

"I don't know," Jungkook whined, embarrassed, his eyes flickering to Jimin. "I wasn't really sure if I was straight or not back then, and I just hooked up with a guy for the first time when Seokjin-hyung asked me, so I panicked—"

"Wait, why did you look at Jimin like that?" Taehyung cut him off, pointing between the two. "Are you hinting that Jimin was your gay awakening or something?"

The thought had the blood rushing to Jimin's cheeks, and the brief eye contact with Jungkook's panicked face confirmed just that.

"Alright, we're intervening way too much," Seokjin said, waving them off and slapping a hand over Taehyung's mouth. "Shut the fuck up or they're going to kick us out," he hissed.

Jimin chuckled, the interruptions helping him not get heated up, and even Jimin had a small amused smile before his eyes met Jimin's. Jimin sighed deeply, taking hold of both of Jungkook's hands and waiting until the younger looked at him. "I'm sorry I left. Twice. I was an asshole for that."

"It's okay, I forgive you," Jungkook said with a shrug, head hung down. "I don't blame you. I'm sorry I didn't tell you I don't have a girlfriend. And I'm sorry I pretended nothing happened afterwards, but I was freaking out big time. For me, you're not just a proximity crush."

"Hey, you're not a proximity crush to me," Jimin said softly, tugging on Jungkook's hand. "I mean, I never really thought about you like that before because I always thought you were in a relationship, but this past month... we've clicked pretty well, didn't we?"

One corner of Jungkook's lips lifted up thinking about it. "Yeah, we did."

Yoongi leaned closer to them, palms planted on the table. "Is it safe to say that the cleric is not married?"

"Yes," Jungkook chuckled, his cheeks burning.

"And is it safe to assume that the thief will no longer sneak out of the inn, tavern or camp ever again?"

Jimin nodded, pressing his lips together, embarrassed. "Yes."

"And," Yoongi looked between one to the other, "would the thief and cleric want to embark on a campaign of their own?"

Jimin felt silly with those questions, he wasn't a child, and his first knee jerk reaction was to laugh and wave them off, switch his attention elsewhere, but the breath hitched in his chest when he met Jungkook's eyes. Jungkook was looking at him nervously, anxiously waiting for his answer, and Jimin realized that he couldn't keep going with his lame excuse of communication skills, because he's been hurting Jungkook more than he even realized. He assumed that just because Jungkook wasn't talking about how hurt he was, then he must've not been hurt at all.

"Yes," Jimin hurried to say, his heart crumpling a little seeing the way Jungkook's face immediately lighted up. "Yes, yeah, of course."

"Jungkook—?"

"Yes."

There were chuckles and Jungkook's cheeks burned from how fast he answered, sheepishly scratching the back of his head. Guilt was swirling around in Jimin's chest and his bottom lip started trembling seeing Jungkook's shiny eyes, crinkling in happiness. There was so much emotion on his face, so many feelings that he went through today. Without thinking about it, Jimin's knees bumped against Jungkook's when he leaned forward and softly pressed their lips together, and immediately Jungkook kissed him back.

Someone whistled and Taehyung got up to loudly clap for them, and when Jungkook shyly hid his face in the crook of Jimin's neck Jimin immediately wrapped an arm around his shoulders and drew him closer, smiling as he looked back at the guys. Hoseok winked at him.

"I feel like we gained a lot of experience here, like we levelled up our team's morale here," Seokjin said, wiping an imaginary tear from the corner of his eye. "We really achieved something here."

"Baby, I think Jimin ended up upstaging your gift after all," Yoongi teased, and Hoseok pretended to punch the air.

"No, but seriously, I do think this was an important moment for you. For us," Seokjin said, lounging over the table to squeeze Jungkook's arm, smiling at him. "I know you don't like being under the spotlight, but you really did great today expressing yourself, I'm so proud of you. You've always stayed a bit to the side, I feel like we all got closer to one another today."

Jungkook looked over at Seokjin with half his face pressed against Jimin's neck, seemingly mulling something over. "Can I be added in your group chat?" he asked after a long pause.

Everyone froze, staring at him.

"You are in the group chat," Seokjin said with a voice that didn't sound like his own, all the color drained from his face. Jungkook just nodded and looked away. "No, no, don't do that," Seokjin laughed nervously, fumbling for his phone to check. "You are in the group chat."

"Yeah, you just never text," Taehyung said, starting to sweat, his hands shaking as he got his phone out in a panic.

"Oh my god, he's not," Namjoon gasped, a hand slapped over his mouth in shock and eyes wide.

"Who's the admin of the group?" Seokjin snapped, scrambling to get his phone from the floor where it fell. "I'm killing whoever's the admin."

"Jungkook, I swore we thought you were in the chat," Hoseok said with a panicked face, looking at him with wide eyes, phone in his hands.

Inside Jimin's arms, Jungkook drew closer to him. "It's fine..."

"It is so not fine," Seokjin seethed, boiling, his phone still eluding him. "Who's the admin?"

Taehyung looked like his whole world dropped when he pulled up the group's details, snapping his eyes at Seokjin in fear. "I am so sorry."

"You're the admin?" Seokjin growled, and Taehyung started into a string of apologies. "Good thing you're already in a hole."

🎲

"Hyung, today is not my birthday."

Jimin paused, looking over his shoulder at Jungkook with raised eyebrows. The night just ended and the guests just left after helping them clean up and put the leftovers away, leaving the place more or less exactly how it was before they arrived. Jimin just finished waving and closing the door when Jungkook blurted that out, looking stressed. "What?"

"My birthday is in September," Jungkook said out of breath, fanning himself like he's been dying to get it out all evening, taking his paper crown off like it's a fraud. "It's always been in September."

"Wait a second—" Jimin said, fingertips over his lips, staring at the floor as he processed the information. "Seokjin overheard your mom wishing you a happy birthday last year today."

Jungkook shook his head, wiped the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. "I don't know what Seokjin heard, but my mom wasn't wishing me a happy birthday, I just felt too awkward to say anything because Seokjin got so heated. And now—I don't know—I just walked in and I panicked—"

"It's okay," Jimin cut him off, trying to not burst out laughing because Jungkook was dead serious. "Just another misunderstanding. Do you want me to tell the guys?"

A long sigh of relief heaved from Jungkook, his tense body going limp, eyes closed. "Yes."

"Okay," Jimin chuckled, waving him over to come closer, then he tied his arms around Jungkook's neck, kissing his cheek. "Any other misunderstandings that I should know about?"

Jungkook seemed to hesitate. "I didn't... like your homemade kimchi," he mumbled in Jimin's neck.

"Kind of figured that one out," Jimin whispered. He waited a moment longer for something else, but this seemed to have been all, so he simply enjoyed Jungkook's warmth, how nice and familiar his body felt against his, how Jungkook hummed when Jimin started lightly scratching his back. "This has been a long day for you, huh?"

"Yeah," Jungkook sighed, one hand cupping Jimin's hip.

"Why don't you go and take a nice shower, hm?" One of Jimin's hands started twirling Jungkook's soft strands of hair between his fingers, and he tipped his head back to look at Jungkook's face. Jungkook hesitated to move, his palm tightening around Jimin's hip. "We are okay," he assured him, cupping Jungkook's cheek and softly kissing his lips.

It seemed to soothe Jungkook a little, who gave Jimin a small smile and took a step back towards the bathroom. "I had fun today, though. Thank you."

"You're welcome. I really liked your battlecry."

"Ah." Jungkook's footing stuttered walking backwards, and his cheeks flushed as he sheepishly scratched his head. "Uh, thanks... it was..."

"Scary?" Jimin asked, watching him with a fond smile, arms folded over his chest.

"Yeah," Jungkook chuckled, fumbling when his back made contact with the door. "I'm gonna..." he said, pointing over his shoulder at the bathroom.

"Mhm," he hummed, biting down on his grin watching Jungkook go. Once alone, Jimin made himself busy tidying up the place even more, just to keep himself occupied. Until the party ended, Jungkook had held Jimin's hand, leaning into his side as he listened to the guys laugh and tell stories, and he even told a joke or two himself by the end of the evening.

Keeping it sensible, Jimin let his eyes linger on Jungkook's half naked and wet body when he emerged from the bathroom and crossed the living room to get to his bedroom, who sent him an embarrassed and sheepish grin before shyly ducking his head. After that, Jimin quickly showered and did his skincare routine, then put on the t-shirt and boxers he brought with himself.

When he stepped out, his skin slightly pink and steamy, he found Jungkook anxiously waiting for him on the couch. "You're wearing my t-shirt," was the first thing Jungkook said when he saw Jimin, looking at him with raised eyebrows.

Hooking a finger around the hem of the t-shirt and looking down at it, Jimin saw Jungkook's colorful and swirly design, smelling of the brand of fabric softener they use. "You gave it to me, remember?"

Jungkook bit on his bottom lip and looked at him amused, cheeks blushed at the memory. "Well, yeah..."

Jimin chuckled and sat down next to him on the couch. Jungkook wore a different shirt printed with another one of his own designs and loose checkered pants, looking soft and smelling like fresh laundry. "We could share it."

"Sure," Jungkook chuckled, his eyes drifting downwards. All his muscles tensed up when Jimin's fingertips started running up and down his forearm with featherlight touches, tracing the long lengthwise lines of his fingernails, and he uncomfortably shifted to hide himself. His skin was red and irritated, pierced on some spots, and the old scars were standing up in relief along with the new ones.

"Let's go to bed," Jimin said softly, looking at Jungkook with a forced smile, his heart breaking a little seeing what Jungkook did to himself.

Jungkook forced a smile as well, keeping his arms close to his body. "My place or yours?"

"Mine," Jimin said with a fond chuckle, making Jungkook's eyebrows lift up in surprise.

It's not like Jungkook's never been inside Jimin's room before, but he never stayed the night because they always went to Jungkook's room whenever they had sex. Jimin's room was quite literally the opposite of Jungkook's, all white and minimal, with green hanging plants by his mirror and an absurd amount of scented candles, his yoga mats lined up against one wall.

"Sit down on the bed," Jimin said, moving to get something out of a drawer, and he heard the mattress dipping when Jungkook sat down, and when he turned around he found Jungkook curiously looking around the plain room. "Let me."

"You don't have to," Jungkook said, hesitantly bringing his arms out when Jimin stopped in front of him, between his knees.

"I know, but I want to." Jimin took a decent amount of soothing lotion and started gently spreading it over Jungkook's skin, patting it in. "Why do you do this?"

Jungkook looked down at the floor like he was ashamed. "I don't know... It helps when I get anxious. I don't like it either."

Jimin nodded understandingly. "Does holding hands help?"

Jungkook's eyes flickered to the faint red crescent moons on Jimin's hand that he caused. "I don't know..."

"Hey," Jimin said, leaning down and kissing the tip of Jungkook's nose. "Don't even think about that, I'm not made of sugar." Jungkook didn't look too convinced and just nodded before letting his eyes follow Jimin's fingertips. Jimin sighed softly looking at him and decided to change the subject. "So, you told your friends I'm your boyfriend?"

Jungkook's face immediately flushed bright pink. "Ah, it's really not like that. They were talking about all of us moving in together and I told them I'm already living with you and they wanted to know what you are like and I said you're... cute."

Jimin smiled fondly seeing Jungkook get so shy. "I think the exact term was really cute." Jungkook playfully rolled his eyes and swatted Jimin's hip, bringing his other arm up. "You can tell your friends I'm your boyfriend now."

One corner of Jungkook's mouth lifted up in a smile, his eyes twinkling. He waited for Jimin to finish tending to his wounds, then he shifted backwards in bed and they both got under the covers. "They're not really my friends. They're just my classmates."

Settling over Jungkook's chest, Jimin brushed the tips of their noses together. "They seemed to think you're their friend."

"Yeah, well, that's just how they are," he said with a shrug.

Jimin watched him closely for a second. "Jungkook, do you think the guys are your friends? Hoseok and Yoongi and everyone?"

Jungkook's eyes shifted around, a slight frown between his eyebrows. "The guys are your friends."

"No, they are our friends," Jimin said firmly, pushing the hair back from Jungkook's forehead and making Jungkook look at him. "They're your friends, too. The guys really like you, just look what they pulled today."

Jungkook's smile didn't seem genuine, like he knew better but didn't want to upset Jimin. "I wasn't even in the group chat, though."

"But they genuinely thought you were—"

"But you knew I wasn't." Jimin stopped, looking at him caught. Jungkook gave him a sad smile, his eyes shiny. "You knew I wasn't, though."

"I-I knew," he got out with a gulp, shame creeping up his neck. "I don't know why I didn't say anything, I'm sorry."

Jungkook nodded, his hand trying to reach out and scratch his arm out of habit before Jimin stopped him. "Did you not want me to be friends with your friends?"

"No, Jungkook, I swear it's not that. I don't know, I thought there's no need since I'm telling you everything they were talking about anyway, I thought you wouldn't like their jokes, I wanted to keep you all to myself, I thought you didn't want to—I don't know why I did this. But I'm so sorry. Please forgive me."

"It's okay," Jungkook calmed him down, looking guilty for even bringing this up. "I don't mind. I could've also asked to be added before, but I didn't, so it's fine."

Jimin searched his face for something to indicate that there was any animosity or resentment, but there was nothing of sorts in Jungkook's beautiful eyes. "Please, the guys really like you, don't think they're not your friends because of me."

"Hyung, they really are not my friends," Jungkook stressed. "They are your friends, not mine. And that's fine. I don't really have any friends."

"Jungkook, that's not true—"

"I know what they say behind my back," Jungkook said, looking away with a tight jaw, making Jimin's eyebrows shoot up in surprise. "They think I'm just your weird and creepy roommate. They don't like me, they just needed someone to complete the D&D team. It's fine."

Jimin was speechless, staring at him with parted lips and disbelief in his eyes. Despite the carefree smile Jungkook was putting on, a tear rolled down his temple, and that had Jimin snap, throwing his arms around Jungkook's neck and hugging him tightly. "Jungkook, that is not how it is. At all. You are quiet, the guys know that, but they don't think you're weird or creepy or anything and they don't think you're just my roommate. I would not be friends with them if that was the case. I would've punched them if they said that."

A sob broke from Jungkook and he tried to hide himself, a set of tears falling freely by now, and Jimin pinned one of his wrists against the mattress to stop him from scratching, careful to not squeeze too much.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. You're our friend, and you were not here just because we needed an extra person, I'm so sorry I made you feel like that. I'm so sorry I left you, I was so stupid to do that, a coward—"

"Hyung," Jungkook gasped. "I can't breathe."

Jimin immediately jerked away, pushing himself upright with his palms planted on either side of Jungkook's head, his eyelashes wet and sticking together when he blinked at the younger through the dim light of his bedside lamp.

"I'm so sorry, Jungkook," Jimin whispered shakily.

"It's fine, hyung," Jungkook tried to laugh it off, quickly wiping his face. "I told you, I forgive you, we're fine. And I also lied—"

Jimin cut him off with a kiss, wet and salty, desperate. "Whatever you've done, it wasn't nearly as bad as what I did," he whispered over Jungkook's lips.

Jungkook sniffled, still not looking convinced. "I know you were talking about me in Yoongi's kitchen that day."

Jimin took a deep breath, looking at him with concerned eyebrows. "I told them we hooked up," Jimin admitted, his heart starting to pick up and his stomach clenching. "I was freaking out and I asked them for advice. I know I should've just talked to you instead. I promise you we didn't say anything bad about you." Jungkook looked away, chewing on his bottom lip, and the frown between his eyebrows softened a little bit when Jimin kissed his bottom lip. "I told them we had the best sex of my life."

That made an eyebrow quirk up on Jungkook's forehead, watching him closely. "Did you?"

"Mhm," Jimin hummed with a smile, moving his leg up when Jungkook hooked his fingers under Jimin's knee and tugged.

"And did you mean it?"

"Of course." The kiss they shared was soft and slow, a first for them, with no need to blame it on the alcohol or call it a mistake the next day. Jimin looked at him, wiped to residual moisture from Jungkook's eyes with his thumbs. "Jungkook, why do you think you don't have any friends?"

Sadness flashed over Jungkook's face and he avoided Jimin's eyes, his fingertips starting to anxiously fidget with the material of Jimin's t-shirt, pinching it. "What do you want me to say? I had a group of friends that was actually bullying me all along, and I was too stupid to figure that out. Isn't it obvious?"

"It's not obvious if you don't say it," Jimin said gently, caressing Jungkook's face. "I'm sorry that happened to you. You do have friends now and they all like you. Even Yuna and those guys, I didn't spend much time with them, but I could tell they like you a lot. And if anyone ever messes with you ever again, I will beat the crap out of them."

Jungkook chuckled wetly. "You're threatening a lot of violence today. Isn't yoga supposed to keep you calm?"

"Not when it comes to this," Jimin said, protectively holding Jungkook's palms.

Jungkook looked at him with a small smile, his bottom lip starting to quiver and his eyes pooling with tears, overtaken by emotions. "I promise I'm not a liar," he said in a shaky whisper. "I just get panicked sometimes and I don't want to get people mad and—"

"I know, I know." Jimin quickly leaned over to kiss Jungkook's face, his cheeks, forehead, lips, nose, his fingers intertwined with Jungkook's and keeping his hands against the bed, around Jungkook's head. "I was shocked at first, but I know now you didn't do it maliciously. And I avoided a talk with you for so long, I promise you I'm not mad."

Jungkook looked up at him with glistening eyes. "I thought I fucked up," he said, voice crumpling. "I thought you'll be mad and tell me to move out. I thought you'll tell the guys and they'll think I'm—fucking weird, and we won't meet to play again and I thought... I thought I destroyed what we had. I thought I fucked up."

"You didn't fuck up, Jungkook," Jimin said, nuzzling his face with Jungkook's, cupping one cheek and trying to soothe him. "That didn't happen. That's not going to happen. We finally got to talk about us, and you'll come to every D&D session and every hangout and I'll drag you to Hoseok's atelier so you guys can paint together, and I promise... I promise everything will be okay."

Jungkook sniffled, looking to the side as he swiftly dried his face. "Are you going to be here next morning?"

"Yes," Jimin said before Jungkook could even finish his sentence, sealing it with a kiss. "I promise I'll be with you next morning and every morning."

Jungkook nodded, looking at him with big worried eyes, and Jimin got him a few tissues to dry his face and a bottle of water, quickly wiping his eyes as well before he got back into bed and cuddled with Jungkook. The way Jungkook was clinging onto him was needy, but Jimin didn't even mention it, letting Jungkook shimmy his way between Jimin's legs and pressing with his face on Jimin's chest, looking up at him for reassurance once in a while to steal a kiss. Jimin held him, lazily running a hand up and down Jungkook's back, the other petting his hair, quietly kissing his forehead.

"Hyung?" Jungkook mumbled, sounding drowsy, face smushed against Jimin's chest. He squirmed around sleepily until Jimin hummed in response. "Are we boyfriends now?"

"Yes," Jimin whispered, his lips lifting into a smile.

"Mhm," Jungkook hummed. "Will we go on dates?"

"Yes, many dates."

Jungkook seemed to think that one over, so quiet that Jimin thought he might've actually fallen asleep. "Um, that girl from your yoga studio, is she always working there?"

"Hanni?" Jimin asked, his eyebrows pinching together in confusion. "Yeah, pretty much. Though she'll switch to part time soon."

"Oh," Jungkook said, and the sigh he let out sounded relieved. "And when exactly is she not there?"

Jimin chuckled. "How about she switches first and then I tell you when you can stop by to see me without bumping into her?" he asked with an amused smile.

"Very good idea," Jungkook mumbled, turning around on his side, and Jimin moved to hug him from behind.

Jimin kissed the back of Jungkook's neck, raising up on one elbow and looking down at Jungkook peacefully sleeping for a moment. "Jungkook?" he said, kissing the shell of Jungkook's ear when he hummed. "I'm really glad we talked."

Jungkook sighed sleepily. "Me too, hyung."

Jimin smiled and leaned down for a final good night kiss, then he enveloped Jungkook in his arms and listened to his breathing slowly leveling out before the exhaustion caught up to him and he fell asleep as well. In the morning, he woke up before Jungkook did, and he patiently waited in bed, idly tracing the lines of Jungkook's face and shoulders, leaving little kisses. Jungkook's forearms were still covered in red lines and irritated, proof of how stressful yesterday was for him, and Jimin carefully applied some more lotion while Jungkook slept.

When Jungkook woke up, he looked around the room disoriented and confused, then his eyes caught Jimin and a happy smile immediately spread over his lips as he stretched.

🎲

"Ohhh, these are so cool," Taehyung said, putting the t-shirt over the front of his torso and looking down at it with an impressed frown and his mouth dropped open. "Spectacular, give me fourteen of them."

"Ah, look at mine," Namjoon squealed, proudly holding his t-shirt up for everyone to admire. It was an oversized black t-shirt with a dwarf warrior, swinging an axe in the air, mid running. "Looks so badass."

Jungkook blushed, shifting around on the couch with a proud smile as he watched the guys wander over his designs. When a hand ran up his back and tangled in his hair Jungkook tipped his head back, his smile widening.

"Told you they were gonna be a hit," Jimin murmured, kissing the column of his neck.

"They really like them," Jungkook said, the surprise clear in his voice.

Seokjin let out a high pitched sound when he saw his shirt, a beautiful image of an elf shooting an arrow on it. Ever since Jimin brought Jungkook to Hoseok's atelier, they started meeting up to sketch together every other weekend, and after a few weeks Jungkook casually told Hoseok about the shirts he's been printing. Jimin listened to Jungkook excitedly talk about how interested Hoseok's actually been and how he suggested Jungkook open his own etsy shop to sell his designs. It took a bit of convincing for Jungkook to give it a shot, and eventually he agreed and Jimin spent time helping him figure out the logistics and set everything up. Now, it was a good side hustle, especially with Hoseok's help.

"We need to take a group picture. It's a must," Seokjin decided, waving everyone to put their shirts on and get in formation. "We're changing the chat picture."

"But I love that picture," Taehyung whined, head popping out from the collar of his t-shirt when he pulled it down.

"I look like shit in that picture, it's nonnegotiable. Come on, quickly," he clapped to rush them.

Their group chat picture was a picture of them on a random night out, a bit drunk, and Seokjin was caught mid sneezing, but he somehow still looked better than all of them. In that picture, Jungkook was smiling shyly, chin propped over Jimin's shoulder and hands placed over Jimin's stomach, with a pair of bunny ears that Taehyung swore were not his fingers.

"Do you guys want me to take the picture?" Jungkook asked, already taking his phone out.

Seokjin whipped his head around at the speed of light. "You stay right in the middle," he said firmly, no room for arguments.

Jimin chuckled, pushing him from behind. "You want me to stand in front of you? You can hug me from behind again."

"I think I'm okay," Jungkook chuckled, looking actually giddy as he put his shirt on. It had a happy looking character on it, bright blue hair falling to his shoulders, with pretty splashes of color and musical notes and flowers surrounding him. "But can you stand next to me?"

"Of course."

They were in Jungkook's and Jimin's living room, waiting for Seokjin to prop his phone up on one of their shelves and set a timer. Jungkook looked over his shoulder at Jimin with a nervous smile, eagerly intertwining their fingers together and relaxing when Jimin flashed him a reassuring smile.

A few seconds passed.

Namjoon was crouching down with peace signs in the air. "Did you set the timer on a full minute?" he gritted through his smile.

"Thirty seconds," Seokjin hissed, never breaking his charming smile.

There was a groan from everyone else, frozen in place. "Ten seconds would've been enough," Hoseok grumbled.

"Shh!"

Through the corner of his eye, Jimin caught movement and his hand shot out and grabbed Taehyung's wrist, squeezing it warningly. "Don't. You. Fucking. Dare," he said with a smile at the camera.

Taehyung's face hardened, fighting off from bursting out laughing, and he begrudgingly gave up on trying to give Jungkook bunny ears again and let his hand down.

The timer ticked, faster and faster, and then there was a specific click and a flash, and everyone relaxed into a sigh.

"Alright, I look fabulous," Seokjin said with a satisfied nod, setting the picture, and immediately Yoongi complained that he was blinking, but it went unaddressed.

"Alright, all around the table," Jimin said loudly. He was the DM for their new D&D campaign, and the shirt Jungkook designed for him was depicting him leaning over a wooden table with a map, figurines and dice, a sultry look on his face and a multitude of tiny hearts around him. "Are you ready?"

"Bring it on!" Taehyung shouted.

"The tavern is bustling," Jimin began with a lower voice, setting the atmosphere. "A small army of orcs have taken over your town more than a year ago when the Great War started. They destroyed your grain cultures, slaughtered your animals and took your weapons for their own soldiers. Whoever challenged them has been killed. The town's ex mayor called for a secret meeting in the old dilapidated tavern. We need a resistance! he said, slamming a fist on the table." Jimin slammed his fist on the table. "We need a team of strong, young people to rebel. Who's willing to risk their life?"

Excited grins went around the table as they looked at each other, then Jungkook squirmed around nervously when they expectantly looked at him, because Jimin told them Jungkook wanted to go first. Jungkook cleared his throat, reached his hand out and flexed it over his thigh. Jimin subtly leaned closer and took hold of Jungkook's hand under the table for support, away from everyone's eyes, even though they all knew and didn't care. "Me," Jungkook said.

Jimin squeezed his hand proudly. "Who is that lad? the mayor asked, his eyes blindly searching around the room."

"His name is Saer," Jungkook said. Character names were something they only bothered with in the first D&D session, because they were all getting forgotten afterwards. Jungkook wanted to try a really extroverted and outgoing character to get out of his comfort zone, though he was very nervous about it, and Jimin suggested that he could narrate what his character was doing instead, if his actions were too unnatural for him, and Jungkook liked the idea. "He is a bard who—No, he's a—Um—"

Everybody stood quietly while Jungkook gathered his words, waiting patiently, just like Jimin told—threatened—them to. Jungkook's face was flushed and he was looking down, rhythmically squeezing Jimin's hand.

"You're doing great," Jimin whispered under his breath.

Jungkook cleared his throat and nodded, looking at the colorful figurine Hoseok helped him paint for a distraction. "His name is Saer and he is a half elf, tall with a limber body. He has long blue hair and a scar over his cheek. I—he seems to be in his early twenties, which must be around eighty years in elf years."

Jungkook looked proud of himself as he finished, and he smiled widely at Jimin when he lightly squeezed his shoulder.

"You will have to excuse me, young man, but my eyesight is starting to fail me and the last year has been hard on me. I do not recognize you, the mayor said."

Taking a deep breath for courage, Jungkook said: "You do not recognize me because I wasn't raised in this town, like the rest of the people here have been. I was raised in another town, a town of elves, but they have not been treating me well. I didn't know anything else apart from their mistreatment and I thought it was okay, but when the orcs took over my town and I had to flee, your town took me in warmly and I... I mean, I liked it more here. So I want to repay your kindness by trying to fight the orcs off."

He fumbled by the end of it and got the second part all out in one breath to be done with it, but Jimin's never been prouder, his eyes squinting shut from how widely he was grinning. Jungkook's face was bright red and he was breathing heavily, looking high on life and like he could barely believe he just got all that out in front of so many people.

Some of the guys started clapping before Jimin quickly threw them a cutting look to stop and not make Jungkook feel self conscious, and the sound died all at once.

"We are very grateful for your courage, Saer, may the gods bless you. Anyone else up for the task?"

Taehyung's arm shot up and Jimin pointed at him, and immediately Taehyung started rattling off about his character. A small tug on his hand drew Jimin's eyes down and he smiled when he saw Jungkook looking at him curiously, and he leaned closer, wrapping a palm around Jungkook's forearm.

It's been months since Jungkook last scratched himself, old scars faded and new ones didn't appear, and now there were only faint light lines on his skin, ones that Jimin took care to kiss every night and every morning. The only drawback that Jimin didn't consider a drawback was that Jungkook still needed to keep his hands busy, so he was constantly holding Jimin's hand or touching his body in one way or another at any given time.

"How did I do?" Jungkook whispered.

"You did great, baby, I'm so proud of you," Jimin said, quickly pecking his lips.

"Hey!" Taehyung said, scandalized they weren't paying attention to him. "Stop flirting with the DM, it's not fair."

Jimin chuckled and rolled his eyes, kissing Jungkook one last time. "I love you, baby."

"Love you too."

🎲

LOOKING FOR A ROOMMATE

District: Hongdae.
Rent: one million won per month.

It is a two bedroom apartment on the third floor. Will be sharing with two other roommates (that share the other bedroom together for money reasons).

MUST NOT: be a smoker, listen to loud music, have large pets (small ones are okay), be a homophobe.

MUST: be tidy, pay the rent on time, knock before trying to enter the other bedroom.

If interested, please contact us!

Details below.

ENᥫ᭡

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