알았다

“What do you like?”

It’s a lazy Sunday morning and everything seems a little too domestic. Jungkook is stretched out across the couch, pretending to be half asleep to earn pity for waking up early to make his way over to your apartment. The lump on the couch is grumbling into the cushion as if it’s its fault that he’s up before 8am for the billionth time this month.

“I don’t know,” you shrug, attention on the bowl of flour in your hands, “I like what I like I guess.” You can practically feel his glare from the other room but continue working without elaborating. Apparently the other can only bear to consume what you make for him now that he’s figured out that you can somewhat cook, so it’s become a bit of a habit. Jungkook gets up early to come over before you head off to work for breakfast and on weekends he loiters around until late into the evening doing more or less nothing the entire day. Sometimes he brings work with him, occasionally he can’t make it, but six days out of seven he’s banging down your door at 5am, demanding to be let in. The first day he invited himself over, claiming that he couldn’t sleep and that it was his girlfriend's responsibility (you loved hated the way the term made your heart race) to house his restless soul. He snuggled into the couch beside you and laughed too loud at the variety show on television, ate half a freaking box of cereal, and ended up dead asleep on the floor by the time the sun had fully risen. Today, though, he’s wide awake, whining because he can, not because he’s actually tired. Wide awake and staring at you pointedly from the couch.

“Wait, what?” You shake your head out of its daze.

“I asked if you’re okay. You’ve been staring into the bowl for, like, five minutes.” Slowly your spoon continues stirring the mixture, working the dough just enough to get rid of the little lumps. “Ya,” he reaches out from beside you (when the did he get up?!) stopping your hand, “There’s supposed to be lumps, noona. It makes the pancakes fluffier.” He clicks his tongue at whatever he sees in the bowl, “Ah. My babo has no idea what she’s doing.”

It hits you randomly like this, never triggered by the same things, never lasting the same amount of time nor consistent in intensity. That feeling of impending doom that makes it hard to breathe, because deep down you know that one day you’ll have to choose between this beautiful, thoughtful, caring, stupid kid and everything you’ve ever worked for. “Ah, okay. Thanks.” You move to sent the bowl down then turn to walk away but he catches your wrist.

“Hey,” his voice is gentle. This has happened too many times; he can tell immediately. “Hey, come here.” It always works, being cocooned in Jungkook’s arms, always calms your ragged breathing and anxious heart, always results in the sweetest of promises and the softest press of lips on a wrinkled brow. “Everything’ll be fine, noona, please don’t worry so much.” The warm air that slips past his lips tickles your ear and you openly shiver, the sensation coming a bit as a surprise. The taller picks up on this quickly and blows another lungful of air right into your ear sending you squirming away and laughing softly. “Noona has to stop being sad,” he sighs as he catches you before you get to far away. He squeezes you to his body and is back to blowing into your ear while you flail around laughing so hard you could pee. “No. More. Sad. Noona.” For every syllable a gust of air teases you face and dammit Jungkook is too ing cute for his own good.

“Okay! S-stop it. Okay!” A hiccup of a laugh makes its way past your lips and he’s enjoying this a little too much. “Ya, let me go you weirdo,” you resume your desperate wiggling, “This is inhumane.” Your demand falls on unlistening ears, the other now concentrated on rubbing his nose into the side of your neck and behind your ear.

“You smell good, noona.” It’s a simple statement (you showered this morning, so yeah, smelling good is a given), but it’s the subconscious meaning behind the offhand comment that automatically brings a smile to your face. The younger noses around a bit longer, biting lightly on your collarbone and moving up to gently a stripe from the base of your neck up to the ear lobe. He bites down on it and there’s a similar reaction as before - you can’t but try and escape the sensation that has your stomach drop in a delicious way, breath struggling to keep up with your pounding heart. “You’re ears are so sensitive.” It’s observational rather than judging, like he’s storing the information away for a later date. He gives it another nip before pulling back enough to be able to look you up and down, “Are we okay?” Warm hands smooth up and down your arms, “Are you okay?” A small nod is given and an accomplished smile pulls at his lips. “Good.”

Breakfast turns out more or less edible and afterwards Jungkook is elbows deep in warm water and suds as he scrubs down the pan he managed to burn within ten minutes of him quote helping unquote. “You know,” he calls out, “you didn’t answer my question.” The pan is set aside in favor of tackling the other dishes though now he’s paying more attention to where you’re sitting at the table and scratching away at some last minute paperwork.

“Oh,” you mumble distractedly, “and what was it you asked about?” The paperwork is due first thing Monday morning and damn Jungkook for making you an even worse procrastinator with his grabby hands and endless need for attention. “You wanna know what I like?” Only silence answers you so you look up to see what the other is doing. He’s in the process of wrestling the rubber gloves off of his hands and undoubtedly on his way over to throw one at you so you start talking to appease him. “Okay, okay,” the endless papers are tucked into a folder and your hands fold in front of yourself on the table like a well behaved first grader. “What do you want to know? My blood type? GPA? IQ? Shoe size? I still have my wisdom teeth so no fun stories there...”

If looks could kill. “Forget you,” he huffs, “Let’s talk about me then.” He plops down in the chair next to yours but scoots it impossibly close so that he can balance himself between the two seats and drape his arms shamelessly over your shoulders. “Did you know I wanted to be a singer when I was younger? I was thiiiiis close to actually doing it too.” He smiles at the memory, “I made a deal with my father that if I passed the auditions then I should be allowed to train with a company, that if I made it he couldn’t oppose anything and had to it up and support me.”

“I’m guessing that didn’t work out then.”

He snorts, “I choked so hard. Couldn’t even get my legs to move onto the stage.” He shifts a little to rest his head on your shoulder. “You’d think I would have been crushed or some , but in that instant I more or less decided that being on stage in front of people is scary as and there was no way I could do that on a daily basis. Being over worked, sleep deprived, twenty pounds underweight and on top of that be coated in makeup and thrown on stage? No thanks.”

“A lot of people are willing to go through it though. For the sake of their dream or something like that.”

“Nah,” he waves it off, “I’m glad I decided not to; I would’ve basically had to sell my soul. Plus I would have left Busan before I met my best friend Yoongi. The pretentious .” He smiles at this, no malice in his voice, “That hyung could sleep for ten years straight, he’s that lazy. Taught me everything there is to know about ing around and wasting time; he’s basically an expert at it. I also met my other friend slash mother slash leech Kim Seokjin in high school. He was technically my TA not my classmate, but he hung out with all of us like he wasn’t two years older and technically too cool for us. Now that guy is a pain in the . He once lectured me on the importance of eating ‘a properly balanced breakfast’ for a full twenty minutes cause he caught me eating a bowl of Doritos like it was cereal.” This time he sits up to throw his arms above his head in fake frustration, “Like, dammit! If I wanna eat 1,500 calories for breakfast who is he to intervene?! My arteries have nothing to do with the beautiful creation that is Doritos.” The outburst is adorable, but Jungkook suddenly remembers that he’s retelling a hit and miss version of his life story and settles back down to continue. “Anyways, the four of us were and are best friends to this day.”

“Four?”

It’s his turn to seize up as he realizes the importance of what he just said. “Oh, ha.” He looks down for a second, “I meant three. Wow, it’s too early for this, I can’t even count.” It’s not difficult to pick up on the way his hands make their way to grip onto the hem of his shirt and how he seems to have abruptly ended the story, but you don’t press him for more details and simply reverse positions and wrap your arms around his shoulders to tuck him into your side. The silence is welcome, a little tense on Jungkook’s part, but, more than anything else, comfortable. The younger slowly melts into your side as the tension wears off and he’s just about to start apologizing when you start talking.

“I know there was someone before me just like you know there was someone before you.” The picture beside his bed had clued you in. There were four beaming faces in the picture and they all looked happy, sure, but Jungkook and the still unnamed male were smiling warmly at each other rather than at the cameraman and something about the way the gaze felt deep and intimate made it clear that there was something, at least at the time, going on between the two. The thing that is more striking is the fact that the other is into men which, if your tiny full s are anything to go by, you definitely are not. It’s something the two of you had yet to talk about, but surely there’d be a time and place for it. “I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, but obviously we each have some things of our own to sort out before it causes problems between us.” A head of shiny black hair bobs up and down in a way that’s a little too solemn and it’s cute enough to invoke a giggle. “Ya! Stop being so dramatic, I’m not expecting you to be flawless, I just want us to be straight with each other, okay?” Another grave nod and this time it takes a second before his laugh breaks the silence.

“Speaking of drama, I wanna watch tv. Noona, come watch tv with me.”

Your mind drifts back to the stack of papers that have to be reviewed, but are currently stuffed out of sight inside an overflowing folder. “Not now, Jungkook. I have to finish these first.” The documents are just within reach before a large hand reaches out to push them farther away. Should’ve known.

“Nooooooooooonaaaaaaaaaaa,” he whines, lashes fluttering as his hands clasp together in front of him, “Noona, I can’t watch the next episode without you! What if something important happens and you miss it? You’re just gonna make me rewatch it anyways so we can conserve time and energy if you just watch it with me now! Huh? Huh?! That’s pretty logical reasoning, right? We’re saving the environment!”

“Jungkook...”

“Please please please?”

“Jungkook.”

“Please please please please please please please please please-”

“Ah!” There’s no winning with this kid. “Fine,” you grumble as you’re practically dragged into the other room. “But only one episode, okay?” And you try and fail to hide the smile that makes its way to you lips when he throws a You know we’re gonna end up watching the last five episodes your way.

A/N

Just some filler and fluff cause Jungkook is a cutie ^^

EXO’LuXion in Los Angeles was pumping, everybody. Best Valentine’s Day ever <3

Title from Green Day’s Basket Case - “Do you have the time to listen to me whine about nothing and everything all at once?”