Chapter 6: hold me tight

True love, true love

Jimin returns to his dormitory dripping from head to toe because it is pouring outside and he conveniently forgot to bring his umbrella out. That, together with hiding in a corner of his room while sobbing quietly into his palms in the dark instead of taking a warm bath, causes Jimin to start sneezing and shivering uncontrollably despite being under at least five blankets the following day.

“You’re running a fever, idiot!” Jungkook groans and pins down a squirming Jimin, refusing to let him get out of bed, “Why are you so stubborn anyway?” Jimin folds his arms across his chest and glares at his friend. Jungkook just rolls his eyes and throws a bag of something to him. “I have to go to class, take your medicine and go to sleep,” he mumbles and stalks out of the room. Upon hearing the door shut, Jimin empties the bag’s contents and sees some fever medicine, a bottle of water and a small note. “Get well soon Jimin! ♡”, the pink paper reads and Jimin recognises it as Taehyung’s handwriting. He cracks a small smile but it quickly disappears as he drops the medicine onto his lap.

If it was any other day, he would be so grateful to have friends like Jungkook and Taehyung, but not today. Today they are just obstacles to his mission of seeing Yoongi; it’s a Saturday and he does not want to miss an appointment. However, he knows that Yoongi will probably not turn up at all.

He takes out his phone and goes to his messages, opening a chat titled yoongi hyung.

You: forgive me

read yesterday, 7:24pm

He stares at the words below his message and continues staring, as if by staring intensely at his phone a reply from Yoongi will magically appear and everything will be fine. He sighs and throws his phone across the bed but immediately scrambles to catch it when it is about to bounce off the bed. He cannot afford a new phone.

A migraine hits him and he throws his head back into his pillow, popping a few pills into his mouth and swallowing them dry. He shuts his eyes, lulling himself to sleep and praying that everything will be better once he wakes up. Maybe Yoongi will not hate him and his chest will not feel so constricted.

He dreams of warm eyes and a gummy smile but cracks start appearing on the porcelain skin and slowly, the figure breaks apart and drifts away into the wind despite Jimin screaming for him to stay. 

He wakes up in cold sweat, panting profusely.

There is a loud knocking on his door, echoing around the empty apartment. Jimin winces and drags himself out of his bed, wrapping his blanket tightly around himself. He opens the door with sweaty palms and Jungkook’s face greets him, his forehead creasing in worry but still wearing a lopsided smile. He immediately presses a hand to Jimin’s forehead, heaving a sigh of relief when it does not burn to the touch anymore.

“How are you feeling?” he asks and enters the apartment with his shoes, earning a weak kick from Jimin. He scowls and removes his boots meekly.

“Better. Why did you come? You could have just texted to ask if I’m okay,” Jimin answers and side eyes him suspiciously while passing him a glass of chocolate milk. Jungkook gulps it down gratefully and settles onto the couch.

“You're hiding something. You’re not acting like yourself, Jimin,” he sets the milk down on the table and crosses his arms, looking at the older boy who moved to a corner of the living room, face peeking out from the blanket, and waits patiently for a reply.

The latter looks away, mumbling a quiet ‘I’m fine’ while mustering a tight smile. He isn’t exactly the best liar and Jungkook can see through his façade right away.

“Spill, I have all the time in the world,” Jungkook presses on, staring intently at him.

Jimin fumbles with his fingers and tugs at the ends of his shirt, contemplating if he should tell the younger boy everything. He really needs to get things off his chest but Jungkook does not need to know how terrible a person he is. Furthermore, falling in love with your professor is illegal, isn’t it?

He takes in a deep breath, counting to ten, trying to calm his erratic breathing.

“I-I'm a mess Jungkook,” Jimin starts shakily, already starting to feel tears form, then continues on about everything that happened: Yoongi offering to tutor him, the first time he saw Yoongi smiling, Yoongi somehow knowing what his favourite tea is, Yoongi comforting him in the dark, the diary, the look on Yoongi’s face when he chased him out of his house, how ty he feels right now.

“I think I’m in love with him, Jungkook, and he probably hates me after what I have done!” Jimin cries and buries his face in his blanket, the turn of events sinking in on him again. He feels a soft hand on his shoulder and sobs even harder. He does not deserve Jungkook’s sympathy at all, because everything is Karma getting back at him for reading someone else’s diary.

“Hey, hyung, I’m sure Professor Min is just shocked that you read his diary. He sounds like a really nice person and he will never hate you for that,” Jungkook squeezes Jimin’s shoulder and he looks up with teary eyes.

“You really think so?” Jimin sniffs, wiping at his face with the back of his hand. Jungkook just nods firmly and offers an assuring smile.

If Jimin isn’t in love with a certain professor, he would have fallen in love with his best friend there and then. He throws his arm around the taller boy and pushes his face into his shoulder, wiping his tears and snot all over it.

“What should I do?” Jimin mumbles into Jungkook’s shirt.

“Firstly, you should talk to him and secondly, you should stop crying because you look so ugly now and you’re dirtying my shirt.”

Jimin immediately lets go of Jungkook and screams at him. The younger boy simply throws him some tissues to blow his nose in.

After Jimin has calmed down and promised to talk to Yoongi, the two of them are sprawled across the couch watching a Ghibli film Jungkook brought along with him while eating pizza. Occasionally, Jimin has to pause the movie and glare at Jungkook because the latter keeps sneaking pineapple from his Hawaiian pizza into Jimin’s Pepperoni pizza, knowing how much Jimin hates pineapple.

The main characters of the movie just kissed and Jimin squirms, shouting about how grossly in love they are. Suddenly, Jungkook muses, “Hyung, how do you know you’re in love?” When he realises what had just slipped out of his mouth, his cheeks blossom into colour and he looks away mouthing curses.

Jimin almost chokes on his soda. He turns slowly to look at Jungkook properly and the boy is stuffing pizza into his mouth.

“Taehyung?” Jimin guesses and Jungkook’s face turns a deeper shade of red. Jimin giggles at the sight of the almighty Jungkook blushing at the mention of a name. He reaches out to ruffle his hair and Jungkook swats his hand away, his free hand still stuffing pineapples and ham into his mouth. “It’s so obvious, Kook,” Jimin chuckles and goes back to the movie, waiting for his best friend to speak up.

“Do you think I stand a chance, hyung?”

“You’ll never know if you don’t try,” Jimin shrugs his shoulders. Jungkook lets out a huge sigh and takes a huge bite off his pizza.

“Do you believe in me?”

“When do I not believe in you?”

“I hate it when you answer my question with another question,” Jungkook huffs and wipes his hand with a napkin. They continue watching the movie in silence and when the ending credits roll in, Jungkook stands up to leave.

“Good luck Jungkook! If everything fails, I’ll be here for you with open arms and tubs of ice cream!” Jimin sings, leaning back against the door frame while waving.

Jungkook turns back and smirks, “You too.”

When Jungkook finally disappears into the lift, Jimin shuts the door behind him and lets out an uneven breath.

He needs all the luck in the world, plus a little more luck.

Monday morning arrives in a flash. Coincidentally, the first class of the week is English and a grey-haired professor walks into the lecture hall, wearing a pair of ripped skinny jeans which shows off his milky white complexion. Jimin gulps and opts to look at his table instead.

“I hope you didn’t forget that we have a timed assignment today,” Yoongi says and looks at the whole class except for him, avoiding any eye contact. He tries not to get too affected by that and freezes in his seat for another reason.

He totally forgot about it.

When Yoongi gives out the topic of the essay, Jimin curses softly and plants his face onto the table. His mind is blank and all he wants to do is crawl under his table and pretend that he does not exist.

In the end, he just scribbles a huge ‘sorry’ across his paper and proceeds to take a nap. He hopes that this will attract Yoongi’s attention.

Even though it is a very desperate and poorly thought out plan, he first caught Yoongi’s attention by submitting a failing essay after all.

He wakes up to loud knocks and vibrations against his table, groaning at the interruption. When he looks up, rubbing his eyes, he spots dark grey hair and shoots up immediately. His eyes dart around and he realises that class has ended since there is nobody else in the room except the both of them. He had slept throughout the whole class - two hours straight to be exact.

Yoongi is standing in front of his desk, one leg tapping on the ground impatiently and the other giving Jimin’s table a hard kick. Jimin stares into his eyes and sees fire burning in them. “What is this, Park Jimin?” Yoongi says, waving the piece of paper around.

“I’m sorry, hyung.”

“What are you trying to do, Park Jimin?” Yoongi yells and Jimin flinches. He has successfully gotten Yoongi’s attention but the latter probably wants to murder him now.

No matter how hard he tries, he just makes things worse. Hot tears start to brim his eyes and he wipes at them hurriedly, hoping that Yoongi will not notice. He hates how he breaks under pressure so easily.

“Stop crying Park Jimin!” the professor scolds and tugs at Jimin’s hand harshly, “Look at me.”

Jimin forces his head up and looks at him through blurry vision. “Are you angry at me?” he asks in a tiny and constricted voice. His throat hurts so badly, as if something is suffocating him. “I’m sorry.”

“Stop apologizing,” Yoongi cups his cheeks with both hands and looks him straight in the eyes, “stop apologizing, you brat.” His gaze softens suddenly, catching Jimin off guard.

“I missed you so much, hyung.”

The sentence rolls off Jimin’s tongue before he even realises it and he quickly covers his mouth with one hand. Yoongi releases his hold on him, raising one brow.

“You aren’t disgusted by me?”

Jimin eyes widen and he looks at him incredulously. “Why would I be disgusted by you?” he says a little too quickly and defensively.

“I don’t know- maybe because I’m- I’m-”

“Hyung, I like guys too,” Jimin blurts out suddenly, shocking himself, but for the first time in a long time Jimin feels like he can finally breathe easier. He shuts his eyes, bracing himself for Yoongi’s reaction.

Silence follows and Jimin opens his eyes slowly, thinking he might have screwed up again.

However, the sight before him makes his knees weak.

Yoongi is beaming, his smile so bright and blinding that it makes Jimin smile along as well. The older man suddenly breaks out into soft laughter and when Jimin hears it, his heart dances along to the sound.

“Hyung,” he breathes and takes a step forward.

“Jimin, stop right there,” Yoongi shies away and covers his face with his hands, trying to hide his widening smile. Jimin defiantly shakes his head and moves forward to spin him around, pulling him into a tight hug and squeezing him in between strong arms.

“I was so scared,” Yoongi whispers and tightens his grip around the younger boy. Jimin just buries his face into Yoongi’s shoulder and realises that he still smells like expensive cologne and fresh laundry.

They break apart laughing. When their gazes meet, Jimin finds the answer to every single question running through his head. 

a/n: /screams into the void/ I'M BACKKKKKKKKKK 

writer's block is horrible but here i am

i'm so happy that my exams are over and i can finally catch up on all my unfinished shows

thank you for your patience and i hope you liked this chapter 

feel free to comment too, whether to give feedback or shout at me or anything, really. i won't bite!! (❁´ω`❁)