Jungkook should have known.

A familiar girl showed up to him, looking everywhere but him. Her hands are clutching a box and Jungkook wondered what that was.

“Oh,” he managed to say in a failed attempt to reduce the awkward silence.

Somewhere in the back of his head, he knew this was coming he was just in denial the whole time.

Eunseo let out a loud sigh before she shifted awkwardly in her position, “I’m so sorry.”

“Uh.” He stared dumbly at the girl. “What?”

“You’re probably disappointed that it’s me.”

The back of Jungkook’s head is already shutting down at this point.

“I’m not—I mean.”

“I’m sorry, can you listen to me for just five minutes?”

“Oh. Okay.”

“I’ve always liked you for as long as I remember but seeing you look at Jin-oppa with such admiration, it made me chicken out.” She laughed before she continued. “So I thought that ah, I don’t stand a chance.”

Jungkook’s eyes widened. “Wait—“

“I’m not done yet.” She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, it was obvious you had this crush on him. Who wouldn’t? But that’s not the point. When he left, I saw how devastated you were so I did my best to be close to you. I don’t know why I did that; it wasn’t because I wanted to take advantage of the situation though. Maybe because I just... want to be there for you, as someone who cares a lot for you. In the end I ended up falling deeper for you so I tried to treat you like how Jin-oppa would. That didn’t work, obviously.”

“Eunseo…”

“Anyway, I’m not expecting you to return my feelings. I just really want to tell you this, especially knowing that the person that you like is dating someone else.” She smiled. “You’ll need a lot of help and I want to let you know that I’ll support you as a friend.”

“Why?” Jungkook clenched his fist. “That would hurt you, right?”

“I don’t really care.”

“And it’s going to be useless, I’m five years behind him.” He’s already frustrated at this point.

“It doesn’t matter.” She closed her eyes and handed Jungkook the box the she was holding. “And happy birthday. Me and Taewon bought that yesterday.”

-x-

It was a new pair of shoes. The one that he’d always wanted. The one that he’d always told his mom to buy for him but she wouldn’t because it’s expensive and his grades are horrible.

He forgot that it was his birthday today.

The things that Eunseo told him earlier made him realize a few things and that included (but not limited) to his stupidity. Eunseo was there all the time and he was dreaming for someone unreachable, but the idea of dating Eunseo doesn’t appeal to him. Eunseo is like his sister, a close friend, and he doesn’t trust himself to take a good care of her. He’ll end up hurting her and he would kick himself. She obviously deserved someone better.

He stopped in front of Seokjin’s house and noticed that the lights are off. That meant Taehyung isn’t home too so he couldn’t brag the shoes that he got. Too bad, he’ll definitely cry of jealousy if he found out.

He reached his house and opened the door without freaking out because he thought he lost his keys. He stepped in the dark house and the lights.

A series of Happy birthdays! And loud screaming courtesy of Taehyung, greeted him the moment the lights were on. Jimin and Taehyung let out a party popper causing the strings of assorted colored papers to be thrown right directly to his face and he was sure he accidentally inhaled one. Seokjin was holding a cake and Yoongi was holding a party hat. He watched in surprise as Yoongi walked closer to him to put the party hat on his head.

“I…” Jungkook stared at them with wide eyes and open mouth. He heard Taehyung yell ‘you’re fifteen!’ and Jimin bouncing excitedly next to Seokjin.

Seokjin.

Seokjin was holding the cake with a huge grin on his face. “Make a wish and blow the candle!”

And Jungkook did.

Seokjin looked like he was about to say something when Yoongi cleared his throat and uttered the following words:

“How long are you going to stand there? I’m starving.”

-x-

Jungkook received a message from his parents greeting them a happy birthday and a series of apologies because they cannot make it home since they’re in a business meeting in Seoul for three days. He also received a message from his older brother with ten different emojis and happy birthday in caps lock with six exclamation points.

He also received a message from Taewon and Eunseo greeting him a happy birthday and hoping that he liked their gift to him.

Speaking of gifts, Taehyung gave him a pair of iron man socks, Jimin gave him new earphones, Seokjin gave him a box full of iron man collectible items (that includes limited edition figurines, holy ), and Yoongi… he was honestly surprised Yoongi even gave him something. He received a dozen of handkerchief from Yoongi.

“I didn’t know what you would like and that was the safest option.” The older male reasoned when Jungkook opened his gift and sent him a questioning look.

The moment the clock reached eleven thirty in the evening, Taehyung was dead to world on the couch together with Jimin, and Yoongi went back to Seokjin’s house to sleep. Seokjin and Jungkook were the only ones left awake.

Seokjin was washing the dishes and Jungkook was busy cleaning the table. Taehyung really did make a mess on it with his horrible idea of splashing chocolate syrup on Jungkook’s face, in which the younger was able to avoid.

As soon as Seokjin was done with the dishes and the table was back to its original state, the older took a seat and let out a yawn.

“Hyung.” Jungkook called from where he was standing, still holding the towel that he used to clean the table.

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

“Yeah.” He nodded his head. “Okay.” And maybe Jungkook was just imagining things but Seokjin’s voice was shaking.

-x-

Seokjin will leave in four days and Jungkook’s mother found out about Taehyung and Jimin, also Seokjin and Yoongi.

“I can’t believe this.” She said as she took a sit on the couch, exactly where Seokjin would sometimes take a nap when they were younger, careless.

Jungkook’s body was frozen, he couldn’t even move. Although it was a given that everyone pretty much knew that the two children of the Kim household were… gay, he never expected his mother would know. In all honesty, she was always never home to begin with. They never got those pies or food from their neighbors because they made a bit too much, or was never invited to any party except from the house next door. From Seokjin’s mother who would always make sure to cook a bit more so she could share to the lonely house of the Jeons next to them.

“And you’ve always been with them since you were a baby.” She sighed. “I don’t want to see you with them ever again. This will be the last.”

“What?”

“I said—“

“I heard you.” Jungkook frowned, he bit his tongue when he saw his mother’s glare. “—mom.” He continued in an attempt to sound a bit respectful towards his mother.

“Good. I don’t want to repeat myself.”

“But why? They’ve been…nice to us, mom! They take care of me and that’s something you failed to do! They’re like my family! You’re not even here with dad yesterday and it was my birthday.”

“Don’t talk to me like that!”

“I’ll talk to you however I want!”

“Listen,” She said, “I don’t want you to be like them.”

“To be like what? Say it.”

“I want you to have a normal family and two children.”

“You’re not the one who should decide on that.”

“Jungkook. That’s the only gift that you could give to me, and your father, as our son. We raised you.”

“No. You didn’t. You only gave me financial support but you’re not the one who raised me. It’s the family next door. It was Jin-hyung, it was Taehyung-hyung, it was Jimin-hyung. Not you, or dad.”

“Seokjin.” She rubbed her face with her palm. “I’ve always thought he was a perfect son. But look at him now. I also heard he started smoking, is that true?”

“Why the do you care?”

Her eyes widened. “Jeon Jungkook—“

“For all you know maybe those are false rumors, or maybe it’s true but he got a reason for it.”

“There’s no acceptable reason to smoke.”

“There is. How would you know? You’re not him.”

“Young man, you have no idea what you’re saying. You’re fifteen. You’re too young for this.” She closed her eyes in anger, leaving no room for further argument. “I’ll let your father know about this. He needs to control you better so you won’t turn out like them.”

And that was it. The argument ended like that and Jungkook was left with no choice. He can’t run away like what Jimin did, he had nothing with him. As much as he hated to admit it, he needed their financial support. So he let it end there. He didn’t protest when his mother confiscated his phone, or blocked any forms of communication that he had with his friends.

He’s also not allowed to go out. His grandmother was sent to their house to watch him while his parents are at work and Jungkook wanted to die of suffocation. .

It was the afternoon before Seokjin’s flight when his brother visited him. He sent a sheepish smile to their grandma and pulled Jungkook to the bathroom upstairs. He locked the door and frowned at his brother’s questioning glare.

“Hey, midget. Before you say anything else, I want you to thank me.”

“What the ?”

“I heard what happened and it to be you right now.”

“ off, I’m leaving this bathroom.”

“Hear me out.” The older male blocked the doorway. “You want to see Seokjin, right?”

“I’m not allowed to see him. Hell, I’m not even allowed to see anyone at this point.”

“I talked to Eunseo, she should be here in thirty minutes so I want you to get dressed. Something casual. I don’t want you to go out looking like a hobo.”

“What? You’re siding with mom and forcing me to be straight and date Eunseo?”

“Where the did you get that idea.” It wasn’t even a question, he continued. “We’ll make it look like you’ll go out with her. Grandma would like her, she looks like your typical Korean Barbie doll. She wouldn’t think twice before letting you out.”

“And?”

“How stupid are you? And then you’ll see Seokjin! Bam! Simple. Now, get dressed.”

 Jungkook didn’t even needed to be told twice before he ran to his room as fast as possible.

The plan was simple. He’ll wait in his room, Eunseo will ring the doorbell, ask for Jungkook, he’ll show up, ask for grandma’s persmission, and his brother would act as their chaperon to watch them and make sure no funny business would happen.

It was a good plan. It was so good it will graduate middle school and high school with flying colors.

As soon as he heard the doorbell ring, his brother left his room and gave him a wink. “I’ll call your name and that will be your cue to go down.”

Surprisingly, for something that his brother planned, it went perfectly well. His grandmother was cooing at how pretty Eunseo is and how his grandson is so lucky. The ‘couple’ left the place with Jungkook’s brother grinning. As soon as the house was out of sight, the older male cleared his throat.

“Seokjin doesn’t know about this by the way, but he’s in their bakery right now so meet him there.”

“He doesn’t know about this?” Jungkook asked.

“Yeah. He will be against this so just make up up so he won’t send you home.”

Jungkook frowned and turned to Eunseo.

“Have fun,” she said.

And he gave her a smile in return before he ran to the direction of the familiar establishment.

His legs felt like jelly when he reached the bakery, he opened the doors and a familiar male, who was previously pulling Taehyung’s ear in the cash register turned his attention to him. His eyes went wide.

“Jungkook?” He asked, blinking once, twice, before he let go of Taehyung’s ear.

Taehyung yelled in delight but Jungkook tuned him out, his attention was at the taller male next to him.

“Hyung, can we talk?” Jungkook bit his lower lip.

“You’re not supposed to be here. You’ll get in trouble.” Seokjin shook his head.

“Please don’t send me home.”

“Give me a good reason why I shouldn’t.”

Jungkook took a deep breath. It’s now or never. He doesn’t want to regret not doing anything for the rest of his pathetic life. Although he pretty much made himself clear that he would give up, this will be his last chance. He won’t let this slide. Maybe the galaxy aligned themselves just for Jungkook’s selfish wish when he blew his birthday candle on his fifteenth birthday. Or maybe his wish was finally granted when he folded that one thousandth paper crane. That sounded impossible but it won’t hurt to dream.

“I want to take you out on a date, before you leave.”

Twitter: @tsoookie