Seokjin checked his phone for what felt like the hundredth time. He’d offered to stay behind after vocal practice to wait for Jungkook so he wouldn’t have to walk back to the dorm. Though he wondered if it was worth going back to make himself some tea since Jungkook had decided to practise a little longer than usual.

“Come on, Jeon Jungkook,” he muttered to himself.

As if he’d been heard, Jungkook appeared from the booth. “Oh, Jin-hyung…”

They stared at each other, quite quite awkwardly.

“Have you finished?” Seokjin asked.

“Yeah.”

He stood up and gestured for Jungkook to follow him to the car but the youngest was staring at him unsettlingly.

“What’s the matter? Is there something on my face?” Jungkook simply pursed his lips. “Is it a bug?” Seokjin tried. “Is there a bug on me?”

Suddenly, Jungkook grinned, confusing him even further. The youngest pointed to his sweater. “You look like a banana.”

Seokjin blinked. “A what? A banana? Excuse you, young man! This is the handsomest I’ve ever looked!”

“Don’t you say that about everything you wear?”

“Probably,” he said. “Are you going to argue with me about that?”

“No.”

“Good answer.”

Jungkook was still shy, and didn’t talk much with the other members despite Seokjin’s nagging. Their manager had told him that, if he was going to be a celebrity, he would have to be charismatic. That meant interacting with a lot of people and having a good relationship with the group. Seokjin thought the manager was too tough on Jungkook; he couldn’t help being shy. But then again, he was way too soft for Jungkook.

He could never bring himself to scold Jungkook, no matter what he did. He usually left the shouting and scolding to Namjoon, he was better than him at that.

“Did you have a good day at school?”

Jungkook lowered his head. “It was whatever.”

“Whatever?”

“Yeah.”

Jungkook was being difficult with him, but Seokjin wasn’t a quitter. So he tried again:

“What about your friends?”

“I don’t have any friends,” Jungkook mumbled. He reached into his pocket for his phone, trying his best to make it look like he didn’t want to talk.

“Don’t you want to have friends?” Jungkook shook his head and Seokjin sighed. “You can’t be with us all the time, Jungkook, you need to be friends with people your age.”

He’d been told this a thousand times before, by Namjoon, by Seokjin, by Yoongi, over and over. He wished they’d leave him alone. Jimin and Taehyung would never bring it up, neither would Hoseok. Why did it have to be a problem? It wasn’t a problem. He was fine.

“I don’t want to talk to anyone,” he said, and stared warily at Seokjin.

Seokjin could sense from the slouch of Jungkook’s shoulders and the defeat in his voice that he wanted to be left alone. He pursed his lips into a thin line, eyes full of concern for the boy. Whenever Jungkook got like this, he would always tell himself that it was just him being a teenager. “He’s just being a teenager, it’s nothing to worry about,” Namjoon would say. But he did worry.

They had to be responsible at all times, because Jungkook was growing up and it was up to the members to raise him.

a/n: sorry this chapter is short and not as good. I'll try to update this story when i can, and i'll work harder on my writing <3 thank you all for reading