“Jungkook! Dinner’s ready!”

Jungkook frowned as he typed another message on his Facebook chat. “I’ll eat later, mom! I’m busy! ”

“Alright, just make sure you go downstairs and eat.”

Another messaged from Seokjin was sent to his Facebook inbox.

Kim Seokjin: I’m eating pizza for dinner because I don’t really have time to cook tonight. My roommate bought it for me <3 Isn’t he nice?

Jeon Jungkook: that’s why u r gaining weight hyung. U gonna eat the whole box by yourself?

Kim Seokjin: Hey!

The young boy grinned. He typed another message.

Jeon Jungkook: jk hyung lol

Jeon Jungkook: I recently made a Skype account bec taehyung forced me to. Do u have one?

Kim Seokjin: Ah!!! Really??? I have one, you should add me!!! It’s PinkMario.

That was a stupid username, Jungkook thought. But it’s Seokjin so it’s cute and understandable. Seokjin is too adorable despite his age.

The young boy opened the skype window and searched for PinkMario. He saw Seokjin’s account with a pink alpaca stuffed toy as his display photo and sent a friend request. In not less than three minutes, he was approved to be part of Seokjin’s contact and his screen flashed Seokjin’s contact photo signaling that the older male is calling him.

Oh my god. Jungkook mentally panicked if he should answer the call because the last time that he saw Seokjin (that is not through Facebook via selfies or selfies via Instagram) was when he left to Seoul and that was forever ago. He glanced at his reflection in the mirror from his cabinet, checking if his hair looked decent enough. Holy he looked like crap. His eye bags are visible and he got a pimple on his right cheek. He was almost tempted to pop it but decided against it because that means he’ll face Seokjin with a bleeding cheek and that’s more embarrassing.

He covered it with band aid instead.

He cleared his throat, straightened his shirt, and answered the call with video on.

Jungkook almost stopped breathing when he saw Seokjin with his mouth full of pizza. He looked like a chipmunk and that’s seriously adorable he couldn’t stand it.

“Hi, hyung.”

The older male smiled, his eyes crinkled and he waved his right hand. He still looked the same, except that his shoulders looked a lot bigger (or maybe that’s just the angle?), his hair is dyed brown, and he looked a lot thinner. As if he hasn’t been eating a lot lately but then he’s currently sniffing a box of pizza so that couldn’t be the case.

And holy what the hell his face looked smooth and his lips are pink and plump and . .

He’s not even making an effort to look good because he looked like he just got out of the bed but he looked so good. So good it hurts Jungkook’s stomach. Did he mention already that Seokjin looked good?

“What happened to your cheek?” Seokjin asked the moment he swallowed the food in his mouth.

“Oh uh, stuff.”

“Stuff?”

“Yeah. It’s nothing major, I just fell off my bike.”

Seokjin frowned, “If you’re racing with Taehyung again I swear to—“

“No! Hyung, it’s fine.”

“Alright but be careful next time, hm? I don’t want to see you with a broken nose.”

“Yeah.” Jungkook bit down his smile.

“Ahh, I think you lost like thirty percent of your baby fats in your cheek. Have you been eating properly? When I go back there for vacation you need to make sure I can still pinch your cheeks.”

“Geez hyung, I’m just growing up.”

“Are you now?” He smiled, leaning closer to the camera. “How tall are you?”

Jungkook thought about it for a moment, “I’m not sure. I think I’m going to be taller than Jimin-hyung soon. And I’m going to be taller than you soon.”

“You wish.” Seokjin laughed before he shook his head, biting his lower lip. “How’s Jimin? I heard what happened. I wish I was there to help him.”

“He’s okay…I think. He’s still at your place and Taehyung is taking care of him.”

Seokjin hummed in response and took another slice of pizza before shoving the whole thing to his mouth. How can that thing fit there? Jungkook watched him chew before the younger heard shuffling noises from Seokjin’s side. The older male turned his head to the direction of the noise, “Ah, Yoongi….how’s your track going?”

Yoongi?

“Not good. It’s completely ed up and I might just do it all over again.” A deep (and grumpy) voice replied.

“But you’ve been working on it for three months already.”

“I know.” Muffled footsteps can be heard as if he’s walking closer to where Seokjin is. “You ate more than half of it already? Hyung, what about me? I bought that.”

Seokjin rolled his eyes, “I saved the last two slices for you.” 

The older male moved to the side and a short boy took a seat next to him and grabbed a slice of pizza. The boy frowned at the screen, “Who’s that?”

Jungkook blinked. He swallowed the appearance of the other boy. Short height, black hair, bangs that can almost reach his eyes, thin lips, and small eyes (or maybe he’s just squinting).  

Seokjin beamed, “It’s Jungkookie!”

“Oh. That child you always talk about and the reason why you’ve been collecting iron man s lately in addition to your Mario collection.”

Seokjin’s eyes widened and slapped the other boy’s arm, “You’re not supposed to say that!”

“Iron man…?” Jungkook finally talked after recovering from his awkward silence.

“Ah! It was supposed to be a surprise!!” Seokjin ruffled his hair in frustration which earned a laugh from the shorter male next to him.

And Jungkook watched them. Watched and listened to them talk about things that doesn’t make sense. Or maybe Jungkook is just not paying attention to what they were talking about because he could feel his hands go numb and his chest getting tighter in every minute that passed. They looked comfortable with each other. Seokjin looked comfortable with Yoongi and the way Seokjin talked to him sounded so casual. Compared to how he talked to Jungkook.

He felt jealous and angry. He wanted Seokjin to talk and look at him like that too.

“Jungkook?”

The young boy was snapped out of his thoughts with Seokjin’s voice calling his name.

“Yoongi asked if you can sing? I told him I don’t know because I never heard you sing before so…”

“Ah. I don’t know. I don’t really….”

Yoongi crossed his arms and tilted his head, “Your voice sounds nice. Anyway, hyung I’m going back to my bed and run from my responsibilities for the meantime. Remember what you promised yesterday.”

The older male turned his head to the screen in surprise and back to Yoongi as if Jungkook is not allowed to hear that. “I know. Yeah, good night.”

Seokjin turned back to him and started talking about how Yoongi produces music and that he’s having trouble with a track lately. He wrote a song but he couldn’t find someone to do the vocals for it. He said he doesn’t really work for any company and is actually still in college taking up a business program.

He also found out that Yoongi is an underground rapper and he’s apparently really good.

Jungkook only had half a mind to listen to the older male. His thoughts are bothering him and figured he doesn’t like the Yoongi guy.

He’s way too close to Seokjin and it doesn’t sit well with Jungkook.

“Jungkook? Are you okay?” Seokjin’s voice is laced with worry.

The young boy shook his head, forcing a smile. “Yeah. I need to go. I haven’t eaten dinner yet.”

Seokjin’s eyes widened, “Kookie! You shouldn’t skip meals!”

“I know, hyung. I’m going to eat now. I’ll talk to you soon.”

He skipped dinner and didn’t get a blink of sleep that night.

-x-

 “Mr. Jeon, what’s wrong with the sentence written on the board?”

Jungkook slowly stood up from his seat and he could feel everyone’s stare at him. He stared at the board and read the sentence that is written in English.

‘He placed the dog in the table.’

He frowned, “Umm…dogs are not allowed on tables?”

The teacher let out a sigh of defeat before signaling Jungkook to sit down. Everyone in the class roared in laughter what the hell.

Eunseo sent him a disappointed look, “You don’t remember what I tutored you? It’s supposed to be on not in.”

The boy took his seat, burying his head on his desk. “How was I supposed to know that?”

“I just taught you the difference of on and in the other day.”

“I don’t remember.”

“You’re not paying attention to me.” She clicked her tongue.

“What do you expect from him? He doesn’t even know what July is.” Taewon from Eunseo’s side butted in.

Jungkook shot his head up and glared at Taewon’s direction. “That doesn’t make you better than me.”

“Shut up, you two!” Eunseo hissed under her breath. Careful not to be heard by the teacher who is now raising her eyebrow to their direction. She sent a sheepish smile to her before she turned her attention back to Jungkook, patting his back.

“It’s alright, Jungkook. It’s not the end of the world, I know you’ll get better.”

Taewon scoffed but said nothing in return (which to Jungkook’s relief because he might just punch his dumb face anytime soon).

Normally, he would slap Eunseo’s hand away whenever she pats him but this time he didn’t. He let her hand rub soothing circles on his back which actually helped him calm down.

Well, it’s nice. Her hand is small and soft, it feels nice.

But he couldn’t help but to feel the uncomfortable sensation in his stomach as if he swallowed one whole fried chicken with Taehyung’s sprite plus root beer combination drink. He felt like cheating to Seokjin just for thinking her hands felt nice and soft and that maybe he kind of wanted to know what it feels like to hold it—okay, control it Jeon Jungkook.

It’s ridiculous to think that he’s cheating because why would Seokjin care? It’s not like they’re a thing, that there’s something special between them. If anything, the only special thing between them is that Seokjin treats him more brotherly than what he does to Taehyung and it’s frustrating.

Jungkook hissed under his breath and ruffled his hair in frustration which made Eunseo retreat her hand in surprise.

“Sorry.” She said, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.”

-x-

“Jungkook, you’re turning fifteen soon and holy . You’re growing up so fast.” Taehyung wiped a fake tear from his eye, “I remember those times when you were young and you like to eat bunny shaped cookies and now look at you, probably jerked off while thinking of Jin-hyung.”

“Shut up.”

“Taetae.” Jimin hissed.

“Aww, Jiminie. Don’t be mad, I was just kidding.” Taehyung grinned, leaning closer to peck the shorter boy on the cheek.

Jungkook made gagging noises, “You two are gross. Get a room.”

Taehyung blinked, “We’re in a room.”

“You’re in /my/ room. Get out.”

“Is this how you treat an older person? I’m going to tell Mr. Kevin the Frog.”

“Oh god, off.”

Jimin gasped in horror and Taehyung laughed his off.

Jungkook squinted his eyes as Taehyung decided to lie down on his bed.

“What are you two doing here? Aren’t you guys busy or something?” Jungkook inquired, getting annoyed by the presence of the two older males invading his personal space which is his holy room.

“Why can’t we be here?” Jimin asked.

“Yeah, you’re our baby Jungkookie. At least we have the right to be here.”

 “I’m not—“ Jungkook frowned, “Whatever.”

There were few minutes of silence (which Jungkook was grateful for), save from the Jimin’s constant humming while watching videos from his phone before Taehyung decided to break it.

“You have skype, right? Let’s call Jin-hyung.” 

“I just called him last night.”

“So?”

“What if he finds it annoying?”

“Why would he?”

“Because I just called him last night.”

Taehyung tilted his head and Jimin mirrored the gesture.

“We’re not calling him.” Jungkook huffed. He turned his computer on.

Jungkook should have known better that no one can stop Taehyung whenever he wanted something. It’s either you do it or he forces you to do it. There’s nothing in between and Jungkook never learned his lesson.

As soon as his computer went to life, Taehyung pulled Jungkook’s computer chair away from the computer and opened the skype app before the younger can process what just happened. The next thing he saw was Seokjin’s contact ID flashing on the screen and the skype tone that the younger found annoying.

“Who gave you the permission to touch that?!” Jungkook pushed Taehyung away from the computer only to stare at the screen in horror. It’s not like he can hang up now, not when Seokjin just answered the call.

Although this time, Seokjin’s camera isn’t on so they can only hear his voice.

“Oh, Taehyung and Jiminie are there!! Hi!!” Seokjin said from the other line.

Jungkook stared dumbly at the screen, specifically at Seokjin’s pink alpaca stuffed toy display photo.

“Hyung, sorry to bother you…that was Taehyung who called you.”

“Oh no, it’s fine. I just got out of shower when I heard the call.” A chuckle.

Oh god. HOLY . Did he hear that right? Seokjin just got out from the shower holy . The mental image of Seokjin in nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist and wet hair was sent directly to his . .

Jimin moved closer to Jungkook’s side, smiling at the camera. “Hyung!! Can you turn your camera on? Jungkook wants to see you here.”

This er.

“Ah, but I’m still getting changed. Wait a minute.”

Jungkook froze as he heard shuffling noises from the other line. He could hear the closet opening and closing, Seokjing groaning probably trying to wear a shirt, and some other noises that Jungkook doesn’t know what but whatever.

He took a sharp breath and silently thanked Taehyung for calling Seokjin at this time.

A few minutes of awkward silence and Taehyung’s annoying wiggling of eyebrows at Jungkook was enough to send the younger boy to hell. Soon, Seokjin turned his camera on and the young boy tried so hard not to bang his head on the desk.

Seokjin’s hair is wet. His lips looked a lot fuller than usual (it looked so kissable holy ), and he’s wearing a shirt that looked a bit small to him. It’s too fit and Jungkook can trace his broad shoulders and defined chest. Holy crap to the hell and back. He didn’t know he was this gay.

Judging from his background, it looked like he’s in his room. There are two beds on each side and a small nightstand in the middle. The bed on the left side looked occupied with a small lump covered in several blankets.

The bed on the other side is full of stuffed toys, definitely Seokjin’s bed.

Seokjin started blow drying his hair while he asked Jimin about his day. Jimin answered animatedly and talked about Taehyung accidentally blowing up the chemistry laboratory which earned a horrified scream from Taehyung as he tried to cover his with excuses that it wasn’t that bad, and that Jimin is exaggerating.

Seokjin raised an eyebrow at Taehyung but laughed afterwards.

“Is he treating you well, Jimin? Tell me if he made you cry so I can fly there and kick him.”

Taehyung frowned in protest, “Thank you for your trust, hyung.”

Jimin chuckled, “Don’t worry, hyung. I feel a lot better than how I did back home.” He said, his voice dropping a little.

Jungkook stared at Jimin, he knew Jimin loved his parents a lot so he probably missed them now. He couldn’t even imagine how Jimin even managed to keep his cool up after all of these horrible events. Maybe he’s a lot stronger than what Jungkook thought.

He noticed Taehyung’s hand making its way to where Jimin’s is. He grabbed Jimin’s hand and squeezed it lightly and Jimin returned the squeeze. The shorter male turned his head to Taehyung, gave him a smile, and Jungkook felt like he shouldn’t be here.

But he remembered this is his room and Seokjin is watching them too.

As if the older male could read his mind, he turned the blow dryer off and smiled a little at the camera. “I should probably hang up now?”

Jimin turned his head to the computer screen and whined, “But hyuuuung, we missed you!”

“Don’t worry Jiminie, we can talk again soon.” He said and as if on cue the small lump on the bed started moving.

Jungkook watched Seokjin turn his head to where the bed is, “Is sleepy head awake already?”

A low mumbling sound followed that sounded like ‘ off, I’m sore’ was thrown to Seokjin’s direction.

Seokjin rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the screen, “Still grumpy as ever.”

Jungkook noticed how Taehyung bit his lower lip, “You gotta go, right hyung?”

“But Jungkook hasn’t talked to me yet.”

The young boy stiffened, not sure what to tell the older male so he said whatever came to his mind first. “Are you coming home soon?”

Seokjin’s eyes widened in surprise, “I’ll try…your birthday is coming, isn’t it? What do you want?”

Jungkook shook his head, “You don’t have to, just come back home.”

Taehyung made gagging noises and pushed Jungkook off his chair, causing the younger to fall on his . “That was too cheesy I’m going to throw up.”

“Kim Taehyung.” Seokjin said, in a voice that spoke ‘you disappoint me’.

-x-

Even though Seokjin insisted that he had to go, the call lasted for one more hour because of Taehyung’s large mouth and the two older males didn’t leave until thirty minutes later.

Jungkook stared at the ceiling of his room, the same view he always looked at for as long as he remembered. The same view he saw with Seokjin whenever he slept over. The same white ceiling that he’d look at whenever he talked to Seokjin about school and his annoying brother. It still looked the same but looking at it now feels a lot different than how it used to.

His limbs are longer now and his pants that used to fit him is now too tight to even bother using. His shirts are smaller than him now and the sweater that Seokjin gave to him as a gift when he was younger doesn’t fit him now and it made his chest ache.

He’s growing up. He’s outgrowing his clothes and his toys are already kept in the basement together with the stuffed toys that Seokjin gave him but the way Seokjin treats him is still the same. Even through the bright screen of his computer, he can tell that Seokjin saw him nothing more than a kid that he needed to take care of.

He let out a long breath and stared at the ceiling in anger and loneliness. He doesn’t understand why he had to feel like this towards the older male or why does it even had to be him. Maybe his older brother is right, he really doesn’t stand a chance.

He wanted to get over this as soon as possible.