Jungkook was on needles the next day.  He had managed to spill his cereal and then spill his tea. Hoseok asked multiple times what had happened last night, after he stumbled through the door drunk with tear stains on his cheeks but Jungkook avoided his questions going straight to the bed and falling asleep, too tired to think.

Regretfully the next morning he wasn’t so lucky, his mind spinning from the very first second his alarm clock woke him up at 6.15, much earlier than he was used to getting up, usually pressing snooze until the very last minute. He spent that extra hour laying in his bed, rethinking last night, every second he remembered from it.

The image of Taehyung and Jimin making out still hurt but there was nothing Jungkook could do, especially as Taehyung knew nothing of his feelings and after last night Jungkook decided that it would be better for it to stay that way. He decided that moving on would be the best option.

However, he was left with another problem. Namjoon. There was a silent promise between them not to mention this to anyone. Jungkook knew he had ed up just as majorly as Namjoon did, well aware he had a boyfriend when they shared the kiss. It had been his first kiss. Well, his first real kiss. He didn’t count the one he received in eighth grade as a dare from Jihyo as a proper kiss. It had been a shy smooch which he had pretended to hate right as their lips had left each other, even though in reality it had sent his stomach fluttering for the rest of the night, whenever Jihyo had looked at him.

He was still mulling over the problem in school but surprisingly none of the teachers didn’t even pay attention to him and he managed to end the day without any detention. The biggest issue was avoiding Taehyung, who despite only being in one of his classes, somehow always appeared around Jungkook when he was least expecting it, which put a big dent in his ‘trying to get over Taehyung’ mission. Not to mention that Jimin was attached to him, always next to him, laughing a bit too loud or standing just a step to close.

It was both, a relief and incredibly painful, to finally get back home. Usually, at this time, if not at detention, he’d be with the rest of his basketball team, warming up for another practice. The basketball season was coming up, which meant increase in training, from meeting only twice a week to practicing every day.

He found himself on the sofa, stuffing himself with doritos as he channel surfed, not even looking for anything, more interested in forgetting everything, a hangover still present, even after the whole day of feeling like . And taking the biggest ever. He hadn’t know that alcohol could do that to his body but the bathroom had smelt like a gas explosion after he was done there, no amount of air-freshener had helped him.

There was a knock on the door and Jungkook shot up, not even bothering to brush his sweatpants off from the crushed crisps. He swung the door open, expecting it to be the pizza guy but was greeted with the face of the man that had occupied his mind most of the day.

“Namjoon hyung,” he said, looking past him, unable to meet his eyes.

“Hope you don’t mind I came a bit earlier, my class was cancelled,” his smile was bashful as he held on to his bag for any kind of support.  Jungkook couldn’t answer, his mouth stuck together, aware of how much like a mess he looked. Well, Namjoon didn’t look any better, his eyes swollen and face puffy. “Can I, uh, come in?”

The younger blushed, stepping aside to let him in, “Uh, yeah, sure.”

Jungkook didn’t know why Namjoon would willingly come here earlier than supposed to but he chose not to think about it. Or the fact that right now they were the only people in this house. He stood in the spot right next to the door, watching Namjoon kick his shoes off and walk in further in the living room. The dark haired boy really didn’t want to think about what happened last night. He’d give anything to forget it but for some reason whenever he looked at Namjoon all he could do was look at his lips and remember their taste.

“I can’t believe nothing has changed,” Namjoon laughed looking around, “Last week was the first time I’ve been here in years, yet it feels just like yesterday.”

“Do you want anything to drink, hyung?” Jungkook said, silently disagreeing with him. Everything had changed and Namjoon was a fool if he couldn’t feel it.

“Yeah. Do you have some coffee?” The elder dropped his bag on the sofa, fishing a dorito out of the bag on the coffee table.

The youngest was happy for the chance to escape, “Let me go have a look.”

“Sure,” but Jungkook was already out of the room, leaving Namjoon alone, the TV playing some romantic comedy. Okay, it wasn’t just some romantic comedy, it was Love Actually.  He was stuck on the scene watching Karen dry her tears after finding out the necklace wasn’t her present. It used to be his favourite scene. Not anymore.Tears welled up in his eyes but he fought to keep them contained. He wasn’t going to be Harry.

There was a subtle cough behind him, “We only have instant co-. Hyung, is everything alright?”

Only then Namjoon noticed there were tears running down his cheeks. He quickly wiped them, smiling at the other male, “Yeah, sorry, I, uh, really like this film.”

“Oh, okay.” Jungkook scratched the back of his head, “So about that instant coffee?”

“Yeah, whatever, it’s alright,” he answered watching the other retreat back in the kitchen. His phone buzzed and he pulled it out, Yoongi’s name written across the screen. Decline. He couldn’t talk to Yoongi, not yet.

The phone buzzed again. Hoseok. He declined that call too. Namjoon knew that they both hung out together every now and then so he wouldn’t be surprised if Yoongi got Hoseok to call him. But just as much as he couldn’t speak with Yoongi, he couldn’t look Hoseok in the eyes. Because of the same reason. Jungkook. And yet there he was. In the Jeon household, alone with Jungkook. Who he couldn’t look in the eyes either.

Jungkook’s hands were shaking as he poured the boiling water in the mug. The smell of coffee hit his face and he grimaced. The only way he could ingest caffeine were energy drinks and coke. He didn’t want to go back to the living room, especially after catching Namjoon crying. Just why?

He got a can of soda out of the fridge before taking the mug and breathed deeply. “You’ve got this,” he whispered to himself. “Think of this as a basketball game.”

It wasn’t like a basketball game at all. Jungkook didn’t even know what he meant by that.

“Hey, Jungkook,” Namjoon suddenly burst through the door, bumping into him, knocking the mug out of his hands, the scalding coffee over him.

The younger boy cried out in pain, watching his mother’s favourite mug( it said ‘The Best Mum In the Whole World’) shattering on the white tiles, “.”

Then Jungkook watched Namjoon’s eyes widen in horror as he assessed the situation and felt himself doing the same, the liquid burning through his clothes and on his hands. He didn’t know what to feel, except excruciating pain of course. Namjoon rushed closer to Jungkook, grabbing him by the arms to check on him.

“Oh my god, Jungkook, I’m so sorry,” he said, looking the younger boy in the eyes and they both suddenly realised how close they were to each other, Namjoon’s bleached locks brushing against the top of Jungkook’s head and his breath hitting the other’s cheek.

In that moment, the dark haired boy forgot about his pain, feeling only the careful touch of Namjoon, who seemed to be frozen. He averted his gaze, “Namjoon hyung. I think you cut your foot.”

Namjoon looked down, blood seeping through his grey socks, and he grasped that he was standing in the middle of ceramic shards, forgotten all about them as he rushed to help Jungkook. “You’re right.”

“Yes,” Jungkook whispered looking back up at the older male. Namjoon tightened his hold as he became aware of the pain, making Jungkook wince, feeling his burns sting. Their gazes were unsure, not parting despite the pain, stuck together in the moment. But of course, all moments had to end. Time starting to tick again, together with Namjoon’s phone, which was buzzing again.

He cleared his throat, pulling away but not answering the phone. Jungkook threw him a curious stare but chose not to ask. He wasn’t that curious anyway. Okay, maybe he was but it was none of his business.

Namjoon carefully took the younger by the wrist pulling him over to the sink, “Let’s take care of you first.”

“What about your foot?”

“It’s not that bad, your burns will scar if you don’t treat them immediately,” when the younger raised his eyebrow, Namjoon sighed and explained, “I’m a medical student.”

He opened the cold water tap, letting the water pour out before sticking Jungkook’s arms below the stream. “Keep them here until I find something you can soak them in.”

Jungkook listened to Namjoon, his focused face a side he hadn’t seen before, “There’s a bucket out in the garden, I think.” Namjoon nodded at him, disappearing out in his garden.

The doorbell rang. Once. Twice. Thrice. It was the pizza. This time, Jungkook was sure of it. “Namjoon,” he called out but there was no answer. “Ah, it.”

The younger boy closed the tap, his burns beginning to sting again, relief gone. He hurried out to the living room, pulling out the money from his pocket, “I’m coming.”

He swung the door open, smelling the pizza already, despite the situation his stomach grumbled. The pizza guy took in Jungkook’s wet sweatpants, red arms and flushed face. “One pepperoni and one meat special?” his voice was monotone.

“Uh, yes.”

Namjoon barged into the living room, trudging a bucket of water with him, water spilling over the edges, “Oh my god, Jungkook, I told you to stay at the sink. I said I’ll take care of you and I meant it. ”

Jungkook threw a guilty stare at him, “I was hungry.”

The elder just huffed, putting the bucket on the table before approaching Jungkook and pulling the money out of his hold. “Stick your arms in it,” he said before turning to the pizza guy, “How much is it? No, never mind, just keep the change.”

Namjoon pressed the money in his hand and grabbed the pizzas, shutting the door in front of the confused pizza guy, while Jungkook watched from the sofa, his hands losing feeling from the freezing water, “He’ll sure have quite the story to tell at company dinners.”

“Well, then let’s think that we did him a favour,” Namjoon sighed, plopping down on the sofa next to Jungkook.

“What about the mess in the kitchen?” the youngest wondered.

“Did I say ‘’ already?”

Let’s just say Hoseok wasn’t very impressed when he finally got home. The light’s were all on, Jungkook and Namjoon sitting on the sofa, empty pizza boxes in front of them and white bandages over his brother’s arms.

“Do you want to explain this?” he crossed his arms, throwing pointed looks at both of them.

Namjoon sighed, “Not really.”

“If you didn’t want to get questioned, then you should’ve saved at least some pizza for me,” Hoseok said, opening a can of diet coke.

“Don’t tell that to me, Jungkook ate most of this. I don’t know where it all goes honestly,” Namjoon glared at Jungkook, who didn’t even pick his head up from the English work Namjoon had set him earlier.

“True,” Hoseok nodded, “Oh, yeah, I just remembered. Yoongi was looking all over for you today. He said you’ve been ignoring his calls.”

That piked Jungkook’s attention, remembering the buzzing phone in the kitchen. Had that been Yoongi? Was that the reason Namjoon had showed up so early today?

Namjoon didn’t answer, looking back at the TV, sipping soda too. He hadn’t dared to make another coffee after what happened in the afternoon. Hoseok watched his best friend, “What did you do, Joon?”

“Can you help me with this, Namjoon hyung?”  Jungkook suddenly spoke up, disrupting their conversation. “I don’t understand the question.”

He smiled at the elder, who flashed him a thankful grin. It was followed by a flash of pain in his heart but it was easy to ignore it. As long as he wasn’t alone. Namjoon read over the page, “You have to decide if the sentence is in past perfect or present perfect and then finish it.”

“What’s present perfect?” Jungkook asked, pursing his lips together.

Namjoon sighed, “How are you in the 12th grade?”

“Teacher’s mostly feel bad for me at the end of the day,” Jungkook slumped in his seat, dropping the pencil.

“I cannot understand how,” his brother ruffled the younger’s hair before running off, “You’re a little .”

Jungkook flipped him off as Namjoon laughed, “He’s right though. You should know this by now.”

“Let me be delusional. There is nothing else going on for me,” the youngest said.

Namjoon chose not to answer, looking at the clock, “It’s half ten, let’s wrap this up. Just finish this page as homework, yeah?”

“Do you have somewhere to be?” Jungkook was curious.

“I’m a student. I never have anywhere to be,” an image of Yoongi flashed through his mind. “But I don’t think we’ll do much more today.”

So this is it for this chapter and while it might seem as a filler, it is very important for character development and maybe,juuuust maybe I enjoy the mess that is NamKook a bit too much^^