Chaeyoung’s not dumb. She can feel that something has changed between them. It doesn’t take a genius to realize it (Something tells her Tae had an idea and just kept his mouth shut because he’s a sadist.). Truthfully, she tried not to think much about it, but whenever she sees Jungkook doing the absolute bare minimum her heart does an unexpected leap that takes her off-guard. She’s been questioning herself a lot these days because none of her actions make sense. She’s not trying to deny what she’s feeling; she’s just perplexed by the sheer intensity of it. It didn’t hit her like a ton of bricks as one may think, Chaeyoung is a self-aware person, she could say she saw it coming (and honestly, who could blame her?) but it’s Jungkook that got her really confused. She’s great at reading signs so she can easily tell when someone’s interested in her, but with Jungkook, the lines are still a little blurred. At first, the telltales were vividly clear in the way he blushed and spluttered around her, but now that they’ve become more comfortable around each other, she can’t say for sure. He can still be a little shy sometimes, but his confidence has grown and it made her curious. Her rational side is thrown off, but her gut feeling is positive that the feeling is mutual.

Just last week, while she was going through her daily skin care routine in front of the bathroom mirror, Jungkook came in and stopped at the door, observing her intently.

“What?” Chaeyoung blinked.

“Is..is that my hoodie?” He points at the oversized sweatshirt she’s wearing. She inspects it and smiles sheepishly.

“Ah yeah, sorry about that. I’ll take it off once I’m done.”

“No.” he approaches her and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, a gentle smile on his face. “It looks good on you. You can keep it.”

Needless to say, for the first time ever in her history of interactions with Jungkook, Chaeyoung was left speechless, a crimson red blush coloring her cheeks. And that was enough to tell her what she needed to do.

***************

“Do we really have to go?” Jimin pouts, his head resting on Yoongi’s chest, arms around his boyfriend.

“Believe me, I don’t want to deal with my homophobic family either.” He sighs, hugging Jimin closer to his chest. “But my brother really wants us to be at his wedding and I don’t want to miss such an important day of his life. I want us to be there for him.” He drops a kiss on top of Jimin’s head.

“Well, when you say it like that..” he groans and lifts his head from Yoongi’s chest to look at him, still in full pout mode. “Fine, but if your mom starts talking about you again, I’m not responsible for what might happen to her face.” Yoongi laughs fondly and leans in to peck Jimin’s lips.

“Got it, baby.” he’s about to go for another kiss when the doorbell rings. They stare at each other momentarily in confusion. “uh, are we expecting someone?” Yoongi says as Jimin grumpily leaves the comfort of his boyfriend’s arms, already sending telepathic death glares to whoever disturbed them

“I’ll go check.” He walks up to open the door (He swears if it’s either Tae or Jungkook they’re about to catch these hands.) and is surprised to find Chaeyoung, looking distressed.

“Chae? You okay?”

“Can I come in?”

“Yeah, of course.” She gets in and goes straight to their beaten-up sofa (in all fairness, Yoongi was really broke before he landed himself a job as a music producer so you can’t blame him for purchasing the lousiest furniture out there. Yet, for some reason Jimin wanted to keep it. It brought back fond memories of when they first got together and didn’t want to throw it away.). Jimin takes a seat next to her, inspecting her behavior carefully.

“Who is it babe?” Yoongi calls out from their shared room.

“It’s just Chaeyoung, hyung.” Jimin yells back. He hears shuffling and then Yoongi comes out of the room.

“Hey Chaeyoung. Nice to see you.” he greets and Chaeyoung smiles at him.

“Good to see you too, Yoongi.” The elder senses that Chaeyoung wishes to be left alone with Jimin, so he goes back to his room and shuts the door.

“Chae, what’s wrong? You look distraught.” Jimin says, concerned that his friend bad has happened to his friend.

“I think I like Jungkook.” That was definitely not what Jimin has thought this would be about. He blinks twice, shell-shocked.

“What?” he whispers in disbelief. “THAT’S IT?” he shouts this time, making Chaeyoung jump from her spot. “I thought someone died! Oh god, you scared me!” he sighs in relief and leans on the couch.

“Well, it’s scaring me.” Chaeyoung confesses, catching Jimin’s full attention.

“Why? Are you scared he doesn’t like you back or something?” she shakes her head at the statement.

“It’s not about that. I’m 50% sure he likes me back.” Jimin doesn’t comment on the last part.

“So, what is it?” She grips the ends of her hoodie (Jungkook’s used-to-be hoodie) to calm her nerves and looks him in the eyes.

“It’s just, he’s different, Jimin.” She mutters weakly and Jimin’s honestly confused.

“What do you mean?”

“He’s not the type of guy I usually fall for but I did anyway.” She groans, hiding her face in her hands. “I’m screwed.”

“I’m really not following you here.” He tilts his head. “So, you’re saying you like Jungkook but you don’t like you that you do?” he quirks an eyebrow. “I don’t see any problem here. Jungkook’s a great guy.”

“Precisely!” she squeals “He’s so amazing and sweet and caring and just so beautiful..” She trails, her tone growing weak. “I don’t deserve him, Minie.” The sadness in her voice says it all and Jimin finally gets what this is about.

“Oh, Chae.” He puts a reassuring arm around her. “We talked about this. You’re not less deserving of anyone.” He says softly, running his hand up and down her arm.

“No, Jimin, Jungkook is special. He doesn’t deserve someone so insecure like me, I’ll only cause him trouble and misery just like I did with all my exes!” Chaeyoung cries and Jimin frowns at the mention of her past relationships.

“Chae, you know; I know you know that all your exes were major and that you did nothing wrong. And we’re all insecure in our way, that’s part of being human.” He tries to reason but Chaeyoung shakes her head.

“But it’s not right to hold your partner captive to them. They’re not his problems, they’re yours.” Jimin stares at her broken state, feeling a tad bit emotional. Ever since Chaeyoung’s first love rejected her so harshly, she’s been seeing herself as less than everybody; her ethnicity made her feel exploited. Some found her unappealing because she’s Asian, while others dated her solely to fulfill their Asian . Regardless of what she was on the inside, she was reduced to what she was on the outside, and that broke her in more ways than one. It broke Jimin too, and he hated that he couldn’t be there in Australia with her to remind her that she’s beautiful just the way she is (and punch those s who hurt her.). Although, truth be told, Jimin had -and still has- his fair share of insecurities so the topic hits close to home.

“Okay, story time!” he takes a deep breath and continues. “Remember back in high school when you tried to reach me for a week and I went MIA? Remember I told you that I was busy with preparation for entrance college exams and you accepted my excuse?”

“Yeah?” she says, a little startled by the change of topic but curious as to where it’s going.

“Well, I lied. I had fainted during dance rehearsals and didn’t want you to worry about it because I knew you’d fly all the way from Australia just to make sure I was okay.” Chaeyoung’s face drops, a sudden feeling of guilt washing over her.

“I didn’t know..” she whispers.

“Yeah, that’s what I said.” He chuckles lightly. “I had issues with the way my body looked. Everyone in class were tall and lean while I was short and had chubby cheeks. So, I starved myself and practiced hard till late at night.” He confessed and saw how Chaeyoung’s close to tears.

“I’m so sorry Jimin, I’m sorry I wasn’t there.” Her voice cracks as she hugs her best friend and he pats her back.

“It’s okay, I’m better now.” He stops and takes another deep breath. “That year was when Yoongi and I started dating and I swore I wouldn’t let him know about any of my body issues, I didn’t want to weight him down with my problems. I loved him so much that I pretended to be fine because I couldn’t bear the thought of losing him. But he found out eventually. He was there when I fainted and the first thing I saw after I woke up on the hospital bed was his crying face. It hurt so much to see him like that I just wanted to let it all out, I wanted to yell at him to not waste time on a person like me and go find someone better. And I did. I pretty much shredded myself in front of him just so he can leave. But he stayed and made sure I noticed he was there for me in every step of the way.” He smiles affectionately. “He called me beautiful every day, brought me these random cute gifts to make me smile, he came to every of my dance shows to support me. He was there for me and through him I learned to gradually reconcile with my body and forgive myself for hating on it. Of course, there were still bad days where I wanted nothing but to die, but Yoongi was there, holding me from harm’s way, protecting me from myself.” He breaks the hug and cradles Chaeyoung’s head. “Chae, don’t jump in assuming no one is going to be there waiting for you. You are worth it. No one should make you feel lesser than what you are, and what you are is a beautiful soul.”

“Jimin-”

“It’ll take months, years, hell maybe even forever for you to finally be free from yourself. But, promise me this. Promise me that when things get hard, you’ll see yourself through my eyes or Taehyung’s eyes or Jungkook’s eyes, because then you’ll realize how incredibly amazing you are.” They’re staring intently at each other, eyes wet with tears and hopeful smiles adorning their faces.

“I promise.”

“Jungkook’s not like the others, you know he adores you, Chae. And I know he’ll be there for you no matter what. Just have some faith, you guys are practically a match made in heaven.”

“Okay.” Chaeyoung lets out a shaky breath and hugs Jimin again. “I’m so lucky to have you and so happy that you have Yoongi.”

“Me too.” He hugs her back tightly. “I’m glad you two are in my life.”

They wipe their tears with laughter and just sit there in each other’s arms for a while, enjoying the comfortable silence they’re bathing in, until Chaeyoung gets up, hugs her best friend for another time and leaves. The sound of the front door closing brings Yoongi out of his room. One look at his boyfriend’s tear-stained face and he’s crouched in front of him, cupping his cheeks in concern.

“Baby, you okay?” Jimin thinks it’s impossible for him to love Yoongi more than he does and every time he is proven wrong. He falls into his boyfriend’s arms and hides his face in the crook of his neck.

“I love you so much.” He mumbles, voice muffled. Yoongi chuckles endearingly and holds him tight, gently dropping a kiss at the back of his head.

“I love you too, Jiminie.”

Jungkook could notice something was wrong the moment Chaeyoung stepped into the apartment. He sets his plate on the table and quickly walks up to her.

“Hey, you okay?” Chaeyoung’s heart clenches with affection for him and without giving it a second thought, she wraps her arms around him and rests her head on his chest. Jungkook stands stiffly, his mind suddenly shutting off. His arms hang loosely on his sides, not sure what to do with them. In his defense, he has never hugged a female human being before and he absolutely didn’t think it could make him this nervous.

“You’re supposed to hug back, idiot.” She murmurs, her voice too soft to be scolding. He hesitantly does so, wrapping his arms around her waist, albeit in an awkward manner. She could feel his frantic heart beats through his thin jumper and for some reason that makes her smile widely.

“Y-you okay?” he repeats the question, stuttering this time.

“I am now.” A pause. “Jungkook?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

He doesn’t know the meaning behind her words nor does he inquire about it. He relaxes under her touch and hugs her closer, resting his chin on top of her head.

“I’m here for you.”