Taehyung said he didn’t know that Seokjin was coming home on that day, because if he knew he wouldn’t initiate a fight at school. Jungkook rolled his eyes and reminded him that he pretty much saved the older male’s from Seokjin’s wrath. Taehyung thanked him and even knelt in front of him.

“I’m going to kick you if you don’t stop.” Jungkook murmured.

Doubts were filling up Jungkook’s mind the following day. His nose felt a lot better though. He almost convinced himself that yesterday was all just a pathetic dream until he smelt something that is strongly similar to a fried chicken. His mother doesn’t cook fried chicken in the morning. He glanced at the clock on his table and saw that it’s only six in the morning and he’s not even sure why he’s even awake. He went back to sleep.

The second time he opened his eyes, his vision was invaded by blinding light that came from his window. There was a person opening the window and murmuring something about getting fresh air. He squinted his eyes and was almost tempted to go back to sleep when he realized that it was Seokjin.

Kim Seokjin.

So yesterday wasn’t a dream, holy .

“Wake up, Kookie.” He said, “Your mom left early and asked me to cook something for you.”

He was dragged to the dining area against his will and soon, he found himself sitting in front of Seokjin who is currently wolfing a bowl of rice.

He noticed that Seokjin is using his Super Mario cup that he left in the house. Jungkook’s stomach did a double flip.

It felt like he was back from the old days. Those days where he admired Seokjin because he’s amazing and not because he’s pretty much gay for him. Those days where Jungkook is satisfied just by seeing his hyung and not frustrated and broken hearted. God, he hated the fact that Seokjin had no idea what’s going on inside the young boy’s mind right now.

“You’re not touching your food yet.” Seokjin said and pointed his chopsticks to Jungkook’s plate.

“Sorry, hyung. I don’t really feel like eating.”

Seokjin frowned, “You and Yoongi are so similar in the morning I can’t believe this.”

And that’s when Jungkook felt his patience snap. It was as if hearing that name was enough to break down his defenses as he slammed his hand on the table, causing the older male to jump from his seat.

“I’m going to school.” He murmured and bolted out of the room to get changed.

“Jungkook!” He heard the older male say but he didn’t run after him. The young boy scoffed, of course Seokjin wouldn’t run after him. He was the only one chasing him in the first place.

Jungkook hated how beautiful Seokjin is. He hated everything about Seokjin and his dumb smile and laugh and everything and ing damn it he loved Seokjin.

He gritted his teeth in frustration for the whole duration of the day and Taewon just glared at him while Eunseo made attempts to talk to him.

He got through the whole school day without learning a single thing because his mind is full of Seokjin, Seokjin, Seokjin, and Seokjin. It frustrates him and he felt so constipated about this whole deal. Why is Seokjin even here in the first place? He was literally in the process of moving on from his pathetic admiration to the older male and he just had to show up at the worst possible scenario.

He figured he should grab something sweet before coming home, he badly needed to eat some muffins or something along those line as he entered a familiar bakery that he considered as his second home (with school being the third). He didn’t know if there’s anything worst that could happen to him when he spotted a familiar yet unfamiliar boy siting near the counter.

Yoongi.

Nope. He turned back and was about to walk out of the damned place when someone called him, “Jungkook?”

He was half tempted to ignore it but the other half made him turn his head and saw Yoongi staring at him.

“Jungkook, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Come here for a second.” He motioned the younger to take a seat next to him. Jungkook frowned, who is he to tell him what to do? Surely not Seokjin but he mentally slapped himself when he found himself following the instruction and took a seat next to the man that he hated the most.

“Yeah?”

The older male pulled out a laptop from his bag, turned it on, and opened a word document. Jungkook stared at the screen, unsure what this is all about.

“This part,” Yoongi said as he highlighted a set of texts in the word document, “Is the chorus. I’ll sing it once just so you know how it sounds like and I’ll ask you to sing it afterwards.”

The young boy raised an eyebrow, “Why are you doing this?”

“I need someone to sing this part.” He said as if it was the most natural thing to ask someone you just met and without any further explanation, he began singing in a low voice. Enough for Jungkook to hear him and not loud enough for the couple next to them to hear.

As much as he hated to admit it, he sounded kind of nice. He would never say it out loud though.

“Your turn.”

“No. Hyung, I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t really…” He suddenly felt insecure about his voice.

“Just try it.”

“Fine.” And he did. He was sure he was out of tune based on Yoongi’s face but whatever.

“I knew it. That was horrible.” Yoongi sighed.

“That was rude. I told you I can’t.”

“I can help you with that.” The older male insisted and Jungkook frowned deeper.

“Why are you doing this?” He asked, for the second time.

“Besides the fact that I will greatly benefit from this, I know how horrible your grades are—“

“Stop it right there—“

Yoongi raised his finger to his lips, “I’m not done yet.” He continued, “If the company that I’ll send this to liked this track, I can bring you to Seoul and you can study in an arts school for free. How does that sound?”

“You’re basically tricking me to audition with you for an entertainment company.”

“That’s pretty much it.”

The sound of the barista brewing a coffee and Taehyung’s mother cheerfully greeting the customers who entered the shop engulfed Jungkook’s mind. The calm atmosphere in the shop was the exact opposite of the conflicting thoughts that the young boy is currently having. He glanced away, stared at the couple sitting next to their table talk about what movie to watch before he turned his glance back to Yoongi who is now paying attention to his laptop rather than the boy sitting next to him.

He’d always dreamed of going to Seoul but his grades will never be enough to bring him there. He wanted to follow Seokjin so maybe he should give this a shot.

“I’ll think about it.” He said.

-x-

Someone has been leaving love letters in Jungkook’s shoe locker lately. Today is the fifth letter. He stared at the pink envelope sitting innocently on top of his outdoor shoes before Taewon and Eunseo approached him.

“A letter again.” Taewon whistled and Eunseo bit her lower lip.

“Do you read those?” Eeunseo asked, voice sounding small.

“It will be rude not to.” Jungkook said as he opened the envelope carefully to read the contents of the letter.

There was a minute of silence while Jungkook was reading it.

“So? What does it say?” Taewon asked.

“Says she wants to meet me this Saturday behind the gymnasium.”

The other male barked out a laughter, “Oh my god, she’s going to confess!”

“Oh.” Eunseo said as she tiptoed to get a better view of what’s written on the letter.

A sigh escaped Jungkook’s lips as he folded the paper and kept it in his pocket. “Shut up, Taewon.”

A snort, “Anyway, I’ll accompany Eunseo to the town to get that new merchandise she has been drooling at for the past eight hours. Want to come?”

Eunseo frowned but said nothing.

“I have a tutor this afternoon.”

“Right. Have fun.” Taewon grinned and Jungkook wanted to punch that grin off his face.

He walked home in a slow phase and when he arrived he saw Seokjin in their garden, feeding their dog. He stopped at stared at the older man, noticing how much he’d grown. His shoulders are wider, his hair is dyed brown, his once youthful and lively eyes that he adored so much looked older and there were visible dark circles under it.

And Jungkook hated the fact that he still looked perfectly beautiful. He wasn’t sure how long he stood there looking like an idiot until Seokjin turned to him.

“Hi.” He said as he stood up, “How was school?”

“It was fine.” He murmured and Seokjin walked closer to him. “You want to come over and eat dinner here? Mom cooked a bit too much.”

“I have a tutor coming over.” He said and he caught a bit of Seokjin’s scent. His scent is so unfamiliar and he doesn’t like it. He smelled like apple car fresheners and a bit of smoke. The younger male frowned.

“I see, I’ll just come over and bring you dinner then. Can’t let Jungkookie starve.” He smiled with his perfectly white teeth and ruffled Jungkook’s hair before retreating back to his house.

He caught a glimpse of Taehyung throwing a tantrum when Seokjin opened the door and he didn’t miss the way Seokjin pinched Taehyung’s nose affectionately before he closed the door.

Seokjin did come over at around seven in the evening in the middle of his math tutor sessions with an old lady. As expected, the old lady cooed at how good looking Seokjin is and how he’d be a perfect husband to her daughter that is around the same age as the older male. Seokjin smiled sweetly, the one that he always wore and it looked forced. Faked. Jungkook hated it but he kept his mouth shut about it. He knew better than to voice out his opinions.

The older male stayed with them for a while, he helped Jungkook understand more about how the formulas worked. It doesn’t make sense even though Seokjin is already helping him with it. His mind is drifting somewhere else and eighty percent of it is with Seokjin’s scent. If Seokjin smelled weirdly different earlier then it’s way too unfamiliar now. He smelled like heavily scented perfumes. The soft marshmallow scent of his Seokjin-hyung is buried under the strong artificial smell of strawberry that made his nose hurt.

After an hour of pointless math tutoring, Seokjin excused himself to go outside. He didn’t say why but Jungkook didn’t ask.

He didn’t come back but Jungkook didn’t let it bother him.

-x-

Taehyung and Jimin still looked like a gross sweet couple as if a fight and Jungkook’s broken nose never happened. Taehyung looked like a dog when he saw Jimin and Jimin looked like, well, Jimin.

“You went home, right?” Jungkook asked.

Jimin looked up from his half eaten sandwich. They decided to spend their afternoon in Taehyung’s shop and binge eat some food.

“Yeah. I did.”

“What happened?”

“Nothing.” Jimin frowned, “Literally nothing. They ignored me.”

“Oh.” Jungkook looked down on his empty plate.

Taehyung’s mother walked to them and asked if they want more. Jimin said he’s fine already, Jungkook said he wanted water, and Taehyung said he wanted another slice of chocolate cake.

“By the way.” Jimin said when Taehyung’s mother left, “Remember Hoseok-sunbaenim?”

“Uh-huh.” Taehyung nodded, “That dancer guy from Seoul that you won’t shut up about.”

“Right. So I uploaded a dance cover in Youtube and he noticed it! He even commented on it and said I did great!” Jimin was literally bouncing on his chair at this point.

Taehyung grinned, “That’s great.”

“I know right? I can’t believe this!!” Jimin fanned his face.

The young boy observed them, the two never changed at all. They’ve been like this as long as Jungkook can remember while Seokjin is so different. Although he’s still the same caring Seokjin but he’s completely different at the same time.

But maybe Seokjin never changed at all, maybe it was just Jungkook because the innocent admiration that he felt for the older male bloomed into something more.

Jungkook’s phone vibrated, fished it out of his pocket and saw a message from his mother. He groaned.

“Eunseo?” Taehyung asked.

“No it’s mom, she said she needs to talk to me about…that fight the other day. You know, the one where you broke my nose? Apparently the school called her.”

“Oh that means they called my house too and Jin-hyung is home. Oh my god.” Taehyung eyes widened in realization and Jimin rolled his eyes.

“I’m not helping you out of this.” Jungkook grinned and left the place.

He jogged on his way home, he knew not to make his mother wait when she’s upset. He passed by Taehyung’s place and out of habit he stopped and stared at the house. He saw the door open and Seokjin stepping out with a phone on his ear. Taehyung is ed. Jungkook thought, smirking at himself.

He stared at the older male, the latter probably didn’t notice his presence as his face shifted into a disappointed one. Jungkook couldn’t hear what he was saying but it looked like he’s apologizing. He remembered that day when he punched his classmate’s nose because he was making fun of Taehyung and wondered if Seokjin made the same face when he received the call. He felt guilty.

He doesn’t know why he couldn’t leave and face the wrath of his mother. It’s going to get worse if he continued to stand here and make his mother wait longer but Seokjin’s presence is so strong that he couldn’t take his eyes off him. Seokjin shook his head, ruffled his hair in frustration, kicked a rock, and sighed.

Seokjin let out one last frustrated sigh as he hung up. The younger thought that he would walk back to the house and maybe call Taehyung but he stayed in place. The older male took out a small box from his pocket and a lighter. Jungkook squinted his eyes before realizing it’s a box of cigarette. A lighted stick already made its way between Seokjin’s plump lips when the older male noticed the younger’s presence. His eyes widened and Jungkook panicked.

“Sorry!” Jungkook managed to say before he ran to his house.

-x-

“I’m grounded.” Taehyung pouted when Jungkook visited him the following day after school. “I can only go to school and go straight home and I literally can’t escape because Jin-hyung is with me. So as much as I want to see your embarrassment of rejecting a love confession, I really can’t.”

“Who said I’ll reject it?” Jungkook asked.

“Oh.” The older male tilted his head, “But…okay. Never mind. Speaking of the devil, Jin-hyung is here to pick me up.”

He turned his head to see Seokjin with Yoongi, his face looked guilty when he saw Jungkook. “Hi, Kookie.”

“Hi.” Jungkook replied.

“Are you on your way home?”

“No. I…” A pause, “I have something else to do.”

“Yeah. He’s going to get a girlfriend.” Taehyung said.  

Seokjin’s eyes widened, “Oh?”

“I’m not!” The younger said out of embarrassment and shot Taehyung a glare.

He caught Seokjin’s scent again and he still smelled like artificial strawberries. Maybe he needed to use a strong scent to cover up the smell of smoke. God, why didn’t Jungkook realized it sooner.

He scrunched his nose and walked away from the three to meet the mystery girl.

He saw Taehyung whining when Seokjin grabbed Yoongi’s hand so they can walk home. He turned his head away and promised himself not to look back. 

Thank you for reading!! You can fite me in my twitter @tsoookie 

lmao jk, next chapter will be up soon.