Notice: There's no yoonmin. Sorry to disappoint you.

XVI

“Are you sure he’s going to pick you up, Jiminnie?” Taehyung starts, bending over and shoving almost half of his body inside their refrigerator to rummage for food. He’s so hungry he swears he could devour the appliance if they stayed at their shared apartment for another five more minutes. “You are not imagining things, are you?” he continued, standing back up, yelping and hissing when his head banged on the freezer, stretching a hand free of frozen pizza atop his head and rubbing the hurt spot.

Jimin poke his head inside the kitchen, face contorting in a feigned offense as if his best friend had just insulted his whole clan. “Of course, I am sure. I am not making up things, Taehyung-ah,” he defended; subtly looking down his phone on his hand and silently praying for Yoongi to at least send him a simple message that he’s actually on his way to rub at his best friend’s face.

And going as far as running the whole scenario two hours ago in his head where the pale older boy promised to fetch him so they can go to Jin hyung’s together and making sure he heard Yoongi right about the picking him up thing because the least he wanted to happen was to prove Taehyung right that he’s just imagining things. That would be very embarrassing.

“But it’s been like what?” Taehyung took the half-eaten pizza out of his mouth to look down his wristwatch, chewing quickly like a little hamster and not bothering swallowing first before talking again, “45 minutes since the fifth time you told me to wait another couple minutes because your Yoongi hyung is coming— (Hey! He’s your hyung, too!) —and I sure am Seokjinnie hyung is going to burst in our door or maybe even our window any minute now if we still didn’t start walking to his apartment.”

And as if on cue, both their phone pings simultaneously, a big New Message from Jinnie hyung glaring at them on the screen.

“I told you!” Taehyung screeched, both hands flying up in the air, almost sending flying the half-eaten poor frozen pizza and his cracked-screen phone in the process and looking at Jimin with expression full of accusation.

“No, I told you, Tae. I told you not to say things like that because it usually came true and we both get in trouble after.” Jimin sighed and shook his head at the dramatic wailing that followed from the purple head, walking to their bedroom to get his wallet and keys. Keys because Taehyung might bring his own copy but he’s certain his best friend will eventually lost it somewhere in the middle of the party. It happened not once, not twice, but too many times to even remember.

“Get your things, we’ll be leaving in a minute,” Jimin shouts.

“Thank goodness!” was the answer he heard from around the mouthful of cold pizza.

“You look smitten it’s almost embarrassing.”

Jungkook was startled by the low voice coming behind him. And when he turned around to check who the hell dare cut his train of thoughts, he found it to be Namjoon; clad in all black outfit from head to toe, making his newly dyed mint green hair and ugly looking like hut haircut (thank goodness it was neatly styled up now, showcasing his forehead) stood out in the crowd and dim lights. He watched as the guy settled himself beside him, one hand tucked in his pants’ pocket and another occupied by a cold canned beer.

Namjoon looks at him, a small smile adorning his face and dimple showing as he watched the confused, almost shy face of Jungkook and nursing a very light shade of pink on both cheeks. He knew it wasn’t from beer because the younger was only sipping a cola in his own cup – probably because of Jin.

“What are you saying, hyung?” Jungkook dare asks with his eyes away from Namjoon, hoping his voice doesn’t sound weak and biting his lower lip in an attempt to control the beat of his heart that was suddenly going frantic after making an eye contact with the certain new comer still standing by his brother’s apartment door.

“You like Jimin, don’t you?” Namjoon asks instead, a certain in his voice that tells you can’t lie to me because you’ve already been caught, enjoying how the pink on the younger’s face turned a darker shade and he almost wanted to chuckle and coo but he doesn’t want the boy to escape the conversation with the reason of getting embarrassed, and so rather, he took another swig of his beer to swallow the laugh stuck in his throat.

“Ahm…” Jungkook hesitates, feeling his face warming and hands getting clammy at being caught and interrogated.

Namjoon noticed, opting to spare the boy and jumped on his own opinion about the subject. “You know, there’s nothing bad in that,” he starts, looking at Jungkook’s face looking like he’s already plotting an auto-pilot answer in every question Namjoon might ask him or splutter a lame excuse to flee from the rather awkward scene they’re both at now. “I’ve known the boy the longer I knew your brother. And I can say he’s a good boy; the kind one; the one who will drop everything when it comes to his best friend and Jin hyung. The one who still managed to smile and laughed at the bawling Taehyung despite his own eyes pricking with tears after spraining his ankle so bad he almost had his bone broken.”

“What?” Jungkook yells in surprised and whipped his head on Namjoon’s direction too fast he might’ve get whiplashed, caught himself a bit too late, feeling his face warming a bit more when he saw Namjoon’s wide, amused eyes on him. “I-I mean—“ he tried to defend but the older boy beat him to it, chuckling good naturedly and patting his shoulder with his free hand.

“That accident happened last year, a week before his baseball match.” The green haired boy explained, shaking his head like he’s seeing the actual scene right in front of his eyes once again. “He was admitted for a month’s worth of healing and full recovery if he wants to play again. And of course, the boy was deeply upset by the fact that he can’t play and he’s so stubborn he got scolding from both Taehyung and Jin and that’s when he cried his eyes out,” he paused, looking over Jungkook for a couple second before settling his eyes back on the three people still in front of the apartment’s door; Taehyung and Jimin pulling the puppy dog eyes on Seokjin after both receiving a smack upside their heads. “And he cried not because he’s in pain of the injury, but because he won’t be able to fulfill his promise on Taehyung and Seokjin to win the game.

Jimin has always been made with a heart of gold; thinking about the others first before himself. He doesn’t want to disappoint Jin and Tae and so he’s upset, he’s upset of himself for being stupid and not careful on the practice game. Saying he should’ve been more attentive because if he was just, he wouldn’t end up on that hospital bed with a cast on his foot and two boys worrying over him. Jin once told me that both boys are precious, that they both have different charms on them that you would want to protect them at all cost. Before, I don’t get what he was saying. I just thought that maybe, your brother’s just getting sentimental and overly protective of the boys because they’ve been together for so long he couldn’t imagined leaving a life without one of them. Or maybe he’s just feeling like that because he wanted a brother to take care off,” Namjoon paused once again, tilting his head on Jungkook who was now sporting a rather serious face – all embarrassment and shyness can no longer be seen, looking all attentive and curious, like he’s willing to spend all the night to hear what Namjoon has to say about his brother and the best friends. “Because of course, I didn’t know he actually has one.” Namjoon shrugged, taking a sip of his warming beer in his hand, wincing at the disgusting bitter taste and looking at the three boys having fun in the crowd in front of