Updating a little early cause I’m pumped as cause I just scored tickets to see EXO in LA and what does that have to do with BTS nothing so here you go:

Brief MM in this chapter, beware.

이게 아닌데

“Investing in real estate is usually all about capital growth, so choosing a property that’s more likely to increase in value-” click click tap. You look up in annoyance to see that although his attention is solely focused on you, his fingers are mindlessly skittering across the table, “i-in value is crucial.” Tap tap click tap. Shaking your head slightly, you forge on trying to ignore the idiot sitting in front of you. “Buying at the right price ensures that you-” His other hand peeks up from below the table to join the first one, amplifying the steady thump thump thump of his wrists and knuckles rapping on the wood. And this is the third time this week you’ve been in this same situation, i.e., sitting in an upscale café drinking lukewarm coffee and trying to explain the fundamentals of business to a fidgety seven-year-old.

“Could you please stop?”

Jungkook freezes in his seat, tracing your miffed gaze to the pen tightly grasped in his fist and hovering just an inch above the table. “This?” he shyly asks holding up said pen. The glare you send back has him setting it down gingerly, slowly retracting his hands. “My bad, noona.”

Your brow crumples in irritation. “I told you not to call me that,” you snap, “It’s so so hot unprofessional.”

He shrugs, setting his cup back down and reaching across the table to softly squeeze your hand. “Sorry, noona.”  You shake him off and reach for the discarded pen because If this kid touches me one more time, he’ll get stabbed in the neck. He’s quick to pick up on your hostile attitude and hides his arms under the table again, “Okay, okay. I get it. No touchy.”

Somehow in the course of the month, meeting with Jungkook became a part of your daily routine. Whether he was actually a scheduled appointment or showed up unannounced, he always managed to drag you from the building for a “business” lunch, or “business” dinner, or “business” coffee (Because you’re the expert! I have no idea how to do all the business stuff, noona!). To make things worse, your mother stresses time and time again how important this partnership is, so you’re actually encouraged to meet with him frequently; yet, you can’t help but think that if the CEO knew what he was up to, she’d have him castrated. Better yet, that just might solve everything. Regardless of how many times you explain why his advances will fail, Jungkook brushes it off, not willing to accept the fact that everyone in the JC pack mates among themselves or stays single.  

“Doesn’t that seem a bit ist?” he asks. The two of you are heading back to your office (he insists on taking you back even after the meeting is over), “I mean really,” he exclaims, “Can’t you love who you want? What’s so wrong with alpha males?!”

“Well first off,” draw the line, you think, “your kind tend to be brash, cocky, pigheaded, and overly insufferable.” For how many years have you been conditioned to be weary of alphas? It’s common knowledge, really - they thrive by oppressing others; they value power over loyalty; they kill to succeed. So maybe it’s not true of all of them, you’re not foolish enough to believe that, but you’ve yet to meet an alpha that didn’t embody one or more of the stigmas. No, there had been one… But he’s far gone; Jungkook is here. Jeon ing Jungkook. “In your case,” and the venom in your voice even surprises you, “twice as annoying, childish, and overbearing.” He’s pressed back into the far corner of the elevator watching silently as you pace around the perimeter, gesturing angrily in his general direction, “Can’t you take a ing hint?! I don’t want anything to do with you. Not now, not ever. I don’t care about who you are or who you think you are; I’m tired of babysitting you everyday and getting dragged around because you’re caught up on the mate thing. Get it through your head, kid: I’m not your mate and this thing, this ‘us,’ has to stop.”

That shuts him up. It may or may not feel like a total lie. “Wow. Okay.” His tone is hard to pin exactly - it’s a mix of hurt and anger and something else that borders on total disbelief. His face is expressionless. The room falls silent.

It continues for six consecutive floors; at the seventh he waits, as always, letting you exit the car alone. The closing, silver doors typically signify “goodbye,” but this time, just as the space is narrowing to nothing, he throws his arm out to stop the opening from sealing shut. And as he steps out behind you, it’s suddenly too difficult to breathe; impossible to when he pulls you roughly into his strong chest, shaky arms reaching around to secure you there. It’s warm and tender and so right... but you stand rigid in his embrace. When he speaks, his voice is barely above a whisper, but your ears pick up the murmur despite it being spoken, choked and wet, into the crook of your neck.

“Just give me a chance.”

The impromptu hug has your mind reeling hours after Jungkook, watery eyed and deflated, leaves the building.

“What was I supposed to say, unni? He just doesn’t get it.” You drape unceremoniously across your living room couch, whining into the phone about the incident earlier that day.

“I already told you,” Jimin sighs, “anything other than what you said would have been perfect.” Through the phone you can hear the rustle of sheets, “I hope you know your mouth is why only, like, three people can deal with your .” Good point. Jimin is one of your closest friends despite being a beta male and a member of the Riverside pack (So no, he’s not technically your unni, but he got the nickname once upon a drunken night). The older hadn’t started as a friend per se, but as a client’s client’s secretary. Often times he was sent to meetings on behalf of his ever-so-busy boss, meaning the two of you interacted, and still do, frequently. Turns out he disliked his uptight supervisor as much as you did and the two of you bonded over your dislike for alpha s. “I mean really,” he rearranges his sore body from where he’s stretched out across his own couch, “The kid’s just confused. You didn't have to take out your insecurities out on him.” Jimin always knows.

Maybe that’s it, you think. Maybe there just may be, possibly, could be something there? A small voice is whispering  Yes, but an even louder one is screaming Love’s not worth it! “I’m zero percent interested in this kid, okay? He’s irritating, and clingy, and, like, half my age.” What a lie.

“Please,” Jimin snorts across the line, “I think you’re more afraid that this guy managed to get under your skin.” He’s got a point. “Is it so terrible if he turns out to be your mate?”

“Very,” you deadpan, “He’s next in line for the entire goddamn mountain region; there’s no way in hell it’d work out in any other way than submission.

Cue frustrated growl. “Okay, then. Screw him. Go and find yourself a nice omega and forget about this, but my guess is that you’ll regret it until the day you die.”

“I can’t regret it, Jimin. I can’t afford to.”

“Maybe,” his voice suddenly turns careful, the sentence forming slowly, “maybe you should give him a chance. Who knows, it might just work out.”

“Who knows?” you groan, “I know, Min! Absolutely nothing will come from it, because even if he turns out to perfect for me blah blah blah, he’s still an alpha male aka bad news. He’s not the type to submit.” The line dies out and you wonder if Jimin has finally had enough of your for one day. You sigh, “Just... tell me what to do, unni.”

And Jimin thinks long and hard about what he would do in the situation, about what he’d do if he and a boy with a gummy smile were in the same situation. “Go talk to him.”

“I don’t get though,” Jungkook slams the bottle back onto the granite countertop, “Shouldn’t she feel the pull too? Am I that repulsive that she can't even sense that we’re mates?” It’s been bothering him since the first time you were formally introduced. “I feel like I’m doing something wrong because she literally hates everything about me.”

Yoongi doesn’t look away from the television, taking deep swigs from his third beer and munching on the stale chips Jungkook found in the back of his cabinet. “Then don’t do anything.” It’s ridiculously unhelpful advice at best, so the younger sinks lower into the chair, imagining the most creative ways to hide a body. “Okay, fine,” Yoongi diverts his gaze to look over at his lame best friend who’s practically brewing in his seat, “If you’re just trying to get in the chick's pants, you can forget about it.”

“Hyuuuuuuuung.” His forehead smacks hard onto the tabletop.

“Right,” he gestures in the air with the half empty bottle, “So if you’re so sure about her being your mate, then you need to convince her of it. Not just that you’re into her, but that she’s got feelings for your sorry too.”

“Ugggh! And how am I supposed to do that?!” he questions exasperated, “She can barely look at me; there’s no way she’d admit to doing anything more than tolerating me.”

Yoongi finishes off the beer and reaches for another, “Hey, at least it’s a start.”

It’s a start. He can’t help but scoff when it’s so blatantly clear that he’s seen as a nuisance, but he hopes it isn’t so/ It can’t be, not when his emotions are burning out of control and threatening to destroy everything he’s worked for and yet he can’t seem to care. There’s no way this feeling isn’t mutual.

“What if,” he’s hesitant and unsure, “What if I’m wrong and she really isn’t my mate, Yoong?” It wouldn’t be the first time I ed up.

The blonde mulls over the prospect, “I think the only way to be sure is to talk to her, kid. Tell her how you feel and see how things go.” His attention is back on the bright screen, “If she is your mate, you’ll be able to get through to her. Somehow.”

At one point in his life, Jungkook was sure that he had met the love of his life in a beta named Taehyung.

“Hyung, what does it mean to love?”

It’s a deep question for a ten year old, and a difficult one for a twelve year old to answer concisely. “Well,” he starts slowly, “It’s different for different people I guess. You can love your parents, and your friends, and the color yellow, and the winter time, and stuff like that. Loving something is like liking it a whole bunch.”

That wasn’t the answer he was looking for. “No, hyung, I mean,” he pauses, “What’s it like to love somebody?”

“Well, I don’t know, Kook. I’ve never felt it before so I’m not so sure.” He holds out a crooked finger in the other’s direction, “But when I do, you’ll be the first to know. Promise.”

It’s hot. Jungkook is drenched in sweat and his hair is plastered to his forehead from struggling to keep his voice down when his entire body is screaming for release. “Tae,” the helplessness in his voice makes his skin crawl, but he’d trade all his pride to prevent the steady snap of hips from ceasing, “Tae, please mmmnn-” The older is hovering over him, drilling into his and biting on his shoulder to suppress his own noises.

“Quiet, baby,” he coos, “If my parents hear us we’re dead.” They’ve made their relationship work despite it being a bit unconventional. Taehyung showed signs of being a beta earlier that year, and just around his birthday it turned out to be so. With it came a bout of territorialism, something that led to him scenting the younger wolf frequently, roughly, and hungrily. They had yet to talk about what it all meant - Jungkook had yet to show his status, though it was undeniable that he would prove an alpha, and Taehyung had made no move to mate or claim the other. They just ed, no questions asked. Despite the lack of investment from Taehyung, Jungkook was falling hard for him, he didn’t know how to bring it up, and he didn’t really want to lest it cause tension between them. It was simpler that way.

“I- I ing love you, Tae.” So much for not bringing it up. The pounding continues, maybe even harder than before, as each chases their high; the hand on his hip presses into the bone harder and harder, a tale tell sign that the beta is about to finish inside him. Three more pumps directly into his prostate and Jungkook is coming untouched onto the bed below him, clenching his tight enough to pull Taehyung over the edge right after him. He's rigid above him for a minute as he focuses on controlling his breathing and his erratic heartbeat.

“I think I love you too.”

They eventually move out and find an apartment together (they tell their parents things like “as friends” and “in order to be closer to the college”). Taehyung is in his final year and Jungkook in his second; it feels like everything is going their way, they’re unstoppable, inseparable, and somehow managing to scrape by gradewise. Everything’s perfect until Jungkook starts to show. The older can sense it before it actually appears, his seasoned nose picking up on the shift rather quickly. From the time the sugary-sweet scent begins to stick to Jungkook’s frame, things change. The older becomes strangely distant at times, stops coming home at a decent hour, practically tiptoes around Jungkook when he’s there, and eventually asks to cut things off.

“But why, hyung?” he asks tearfully. It doesn’t make sense. “You said we- We- Why would-” It hurts too much to complete any of it, and quite frankly, Jungkook doesn’t know how to anyways. “I love you.”

“I know, Kookie, I really do,” he sighs, “And there was a time when I really loved you back, but this is, he is different.” That’s what it is. There’s someone else. “Look, I can’t explain it, Kook. When you find your mate, everything changes.”

“Yeah,” he grits bitterly, “I guess it does.” He leaves with that, leaves everything they built together back in the two bedroom apartment, all the memories and possessions and regrets scattered throughout the rooms in picture frames and vhs tapes and dust. “I guess it does.”

And now Jungkook understands: things do change, they have to. Now he feels so vulnerable and yet so invincible, unhinged and yet so certain.

Jungkook learned a long time ago what love is. This time it’s different.

A/N

Wow, what? The ending was a last minute addition that kind of got carried away… sns.

Yes, Jimin is a dude and yes, JCs are kiiiiiid of anti male; however, Jimin’s not an alpha and he’s not the type of wolf they vow to avoid so it’s perfectly fine for you to be good friends.

There’s still a little bit of denial ahead, but I promise there’ll be a time when we get over the Jungkook-is-twelve thing (even though he is lol). Peace out, boyscouts!