“Ugh…” Jimin shifted, the unfamiliar leather squeaking beneath him. He rolled over, almost falling off of the narrow couch. He finally gave in, sat up and opened his eyes, immediately regretting the fast movement. Jimin held his head in his hands. He slowly got up to stop himself from getting dizzy again and turned toward the soft music and clatter of metal in a nearby room. He walked into the kitchen to find Taehyung humming while mixing something in a big metal bowl. Jimin leaned on the door frame and watched Taehyung busy himself with whatever he was making, completely unaware of Jimin being awake and watching him.

“I didn’t know you knew how to cook.” Taehyung jumped and Jimin chuckled as he stepped into the room.

“Jimin! Don’t do that to me!” Taehyung pouted at Jimin before turning back to the bowl in front of him. “How are you feeling?”

“Like . I’m never going to drink again.” Jimin pulled one of the chairs from the dining table up to sit next to where Taehyung was standing, sinking into the chair with a sigh.

“Lying is a sin, Jimin.” Taehyung shot Jimin a silly grin and giggled in response to the glare Jimin gave him.

“What are you making?” Jimin leaned on Taehyung’s arm, just barely able to look into the bowl from where he was sitting.

“The best hangover remedy—pancakes.” Taehyung smiled to himself and moved away to begin scooping batter into a pan he had put on the stove top. Jimin looked around the room and narrowed his eyes, trying to think back to the previous night.

“I was pretty out of it last night… but didn’t you bring Jungkook here too?” Jimin looked up to Taehyung just in time to see his smile drop.

“Yeah, uh…” Taehyung shifted awkwardly, keeping his focus on the pancake slowly cooking in the pan. “He woke up before you and kind of… freaked out and left.”

“Freaked out?”

“Like,” Taehyung sighed and turned to Jimin. “He saw you and panicked because of what happened last night? You two were being really gross if you don't remember.”

“I'm panicking too!” Jimin frowned. “...is he embarrassed about it? Did he leave because he regretted it?”

“Chim, the boy's got a hugeass schoolgirl crush on you, he definitely did not leave because he regretted it.” Taehyung turned back to the pancakes, shaking his head at Jimin’s shocked expression.

“Tae, don't mess with me…” Jimin crossed his arms and pouted at Taehyung’s back. “You always say that about me and there's no way he likes me like that.”

“Why not?”

“Because… because he's straight.” Jimin mumbled with his gaze on the tiled floor. Taehyung whipped his head around to look at Jimin, barking out a laugh at Jimin’s serious expression.

“Jimin…” He snorted and had to keep himself from laughing any more as Jimin looked back up at him. “Do you really think he is?”

“How could he not be? What type of not-straight person willingly has friends like Jackson?”

“Oh my naive baby boy, I don't think a straight boy would have made out with you as passionately as he did yesterday.” Taehyung smirked at Jimin, the smaller boy’s face flaring bright red. “But if you really think he’s straight,” Taehyung waved dismissively and returned to finishing the breakfast. “Then just forget about him.”

“You know it isn’t that easy!” Jimin crossed his arms and let out a frustrated sigh when all Taehyung did was shrug in response. Jimin stayed sitting quietly by the counter, wordlessly watching Taehyung take the last pancake out of the pan and begin serving. He only got up to move the chair back to the table once everything was ready.

“Bon appetit!” Taehyung wiggled his eyebrows at Jimin before sitting across from him. Jimin took a sip of his tea and shoved a little piece of pancake drenched in syrup into his mouth. Taehyung murmured something to him, unintelligible through his stuffed mouth. Jimin looked up at him and frowned. Taehyung held up a hand, swallowed and took a drink from his juice. “Stop thinking about him!” Jimin poked at his food, avoiding Taehyung’s gaze.

“...Do you think he’s worried that someone saw us?”

“Jimin.” Taehyung put down his mug. “It was too dark, everyone was too drunk—nobody saw you. And even if someone did, I doubt he’d care, I think he really likes you.” Jimin blushed, a small smile spreading on his face. “The cute Jimin sitting in front of me and blushing about his gross crush can't be the same Jimin that was being all y and flirting on the dance floor last night!” Jimin giggled and shyly threw his napkin at Taehyung, the bunched up paper completely missing him and landing on the floor next to the table. The two boys laughed, slowly recovering and going back to finishing the now cold food sitting on the table.

Taehyung took Jimin home in the afternoon, ordering him to drink some tea, take some painkillers, and just sleep until he had to go to school the next morning. Jimin didn’t argue, too exhausted to even consider doing anything else. He went inside of his house and quickly greeted his brother and father in the living room before slipping away to the kitchen. He spaced out while making his tea, not snapping back to reality until he had reached his room with a hot mug in one hand and painkillers in the other. Jimin blinked down to the cup in his hand and tried to remember what flavor he had made before shrugging and accepting the fact that he was tired and way too out of it to have payed attention to a small detail like that. He downed the pills and the tea, the hot liquid burning the back of his throat in his rush to finish. He crawled onto his bed and curled up under his blankets, not bothering to change out of the oversized and extremely comfortable clothes Taehyung had lent him. Jimin and Taehyung both knew that Jimin wasn’t going to return them.

Jimin closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to relax himself enough to fall asleep. He layed completely still for a minute before shifting to stare up at the ceiling. His head was swimming and he could hear his heartbeat throbbing in his ears in the steady silence of his room. Jimin screwed his eyes shut and counted under his breath in time with the soft thumps of his pulse.

One, Two, Three, Four, Five…

---

Jimin threw himself out of bed at the sound of his alarm, successfully banging his head and his knee on his bedside table before landing on the cold floor with a soft thud.

At least he was awake.

Despite the rough start to his day, Jimin realized two things: he felt loads better than he had the morning before and he wouldn’t have to walk to school because Taehyung had promised to pick him up. Both made him feel less horrible about having bruised his knee first thing in the morning.

Taehyung was late to everything so Jimin had changed his alarms the day before. Taehyung was at Jimin’s house almost twenty minutes before the time Jimin would usually leave his house on any other day. Jimin almost couldn’t hold back his laughter when he saw Taehyung glaring at him as he stepped out of his house. He sat down next to the boy, tossing his bag onto the backseat.

“Good morning Tae.” Jimin smirked at Taehyung, wiggling his eyebrows at him. Taehyung gave him an unamused frown.

“Putting my alarms half an hour early is so not cool. I need every second of beauty sleep I can get!” Taehyung pouted at the smaller boy.

“Oh shut up, you’re gorgeous. I’m doing the world a favor by taking away some of your ‘beauty sleep’.” Jimin chuckled as Taehyung tried to keep the smile off of his face. “Just drive the car you dork.” Taehyung laughed and did as he was told.

 

Jimin started his day happy, Jungkook nowhere in his thoughts, but by second period, all he could think was “why isn't he here?” and by lunch he had barely even spared a second of his attention to any of his classes. He sat down at his usual table and rested his head in his hands. Jimin was so lost in thought he didn’t notice Taehyung as he threw himself into the chair next to Jimin, making as much noise as possible. Taehyung began talking, shaking Jimin’s shoulder lightly to get his attention.

“...you okay?”

“Huh?”

“I was talking about that er from your  class? Hoseok said that he pulled some today again and you didn’t even crack a smile?” Taehyung pressed a hand over Jimin’s. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing…” He avoided Taehyung’s unconvinced gaze. “It’s stupid.”

“I don’t care. Tell daddy Taehyung about your worries.” Jimin choked out a laugh, meeting Taehyung’s smirk with a small smile. He glanced down to their hands and thought about what he would’ve done without a friend like Taehyung.

“Do you think Jungkook regrets what happened?” Jimin said it barely above a whisper and Taehyung had to strain to hear.

“Jimin. I told you already, he’s got an almost painfully huge crush on you.” Taehyung poked Jimin lightly. “He wouldn’t regret it in a million years.”

“How can you be so sure?” Jimin looked up, brows furrowed. “Jungkook didn’t come to school. I may not have known him for as long as you have but he hasn’t missed a single day of school, not even when he got so sick last month with that really bad cough and lost his voice for a whole week.” Taehyung looked at Jimin with a mixture of guilt and something else Jimin couldn’t quite place.

“Don’t worry too much about it Jiminnie. He’s almost as much of a lightweight as I am and definitely had way too much to drink on Saturday, he probably can’t stop throwing up or something.” Jimin scrunched up his nose at that, trying to hold back the smile threatening to break out on his face as Taehyung started laughing. “Now go get yourself some food because there’s no way I’m going to let you leave this cafeteria without eating.” Jimin half groaned, half giggled as he stood up, scurrying away from Taehyung’s hand tapping his . Taehyung watched Jimin walk to the line. Once Jimin was distractedly talking to a younger boy Taehyung didn’t recognize, Taehyung stared down at the dark screen of his phone with uneasiness making his stomach do flips inside of his abdomen. The screen lit up with a message, he picked it up and unlocked it, messages exchanged with Jungkook glaring up at him. Taehyung had known Jungkook had planned on staying home since before he had gone to pick up Jimin.

 

MAKNAE

tae

i think i messed up

[4:37 AM]

SIX

its 3 in the ing morning kook

go to sleep

[4:40 AM]

MAKNAE

i cant im having a crisis

[4:40 AM]

SIX

u g h fine

whats wrong bby boy

[4:41 AM]

MAKNAE

i ed up

with jimin i mean

[4:41 AM]

he was drunk

and probably hates me bc i was an to him before

and when jackson finds out

oh my god tae i really cant take his bull rn

what am i supposed to do

[4:42 AM]

SIX

take a breath kook

jimin definitely doesnt hate you, quite the opposite actually

and jackson wont find out, nobody even saw you two

but if he does and starts

ill beat him up 4 u

[4:44 AM]

MAKNAE

you? beat jackson up?

you save ants from being stepped on

[4:44 AM]

SIX

touche

[4:45 AM]

MAKNAE

…

wait

[4:48 AM]

tae

[4:51 AM]

if you were saying what i think you were saying about jimin

i ing

[5:03 AM]

taehyung

please

[5:31 AM]

tae

i cant

[6:23 AM]

SIX

tell him then

dont ing lead him on

[6:52 AM]

MAKNAE

hyung

i cant

cant you just

please

it would hurt less if you told him

im not going to school today

i dont think i can talk to him

[6:58 AM]

SIX

i’m not going to hurt jimin like that

not even for you jungkook

[7:01 AM]

MAKNAE

no

taehyung

[7:23 AM]

SIX

i’m going to school

figure your out

[7:26 AM]

MAKNAE

i dont want to hurt him

[7:44 AM]

tae you know me

please

i just cant

[7:53 AM]

taehyung

[9:16 AM]

im sorry

[10:03 AM]

SIX

goddammit kook

i dont have band practice today

i’ll go over after school ends and we can talk ok

[11:49 AM]

MAKNAE

thank you tae

[11:55 AM]

SIX

dont thank me just yet

[12:04 PM]

“Why do you look like someone just texted you that your pet goldfish just died?” Jimin placed his tray on the table before leaning over to look at Taehyung’s phone. Taehyung had just barely had a chance to press send and lock his phone, chuckling and giving Jimin a soft pat to the crown of his head. Jimin looked up at him with a suspicious and confused look but shrugged once Taehyung waved dismissively, thinking that it must’ve been something unimportant. If only he knew.

 

---

 

new chapter up after years of waiting (jkjk lol)

i've been pretty busy and uninspired but i was on a roll this past week and wrote almost three whole chapters? expect a shorter update very soon :) anyways, hope you enjoyed this chapter! the main plot is f i n a l l y being revealed slowly, please look forward to it picking up! see you next time~