chapter // iii.

It wasn't long before the next weekend had come around. Jimin sighed as he rolled over in his bed onto his back. He'd been bored all day and felt lonely. His mother and father were out on a date while his sister was out at the mall with her friends. He was alone with nothing to do. He'd tried to play video games, but he wasn't in the mood for any gameplay. He had then went through all of his social media on his phone, but none of it had piqued his interest.

He'd been thinking about last weekend at Namjoon's apartment. He couldn't shake the image of him and Jin in the kitchen. It bothered him to no end and he had been meaning to talk to Jin about it. He then quickly scrolled through his list of contacts before stopping on Jin's name to call him. He let out a light, slow breath as the dial tone came into his ear. He hoped he wasn't interrupting any of Jin's work since he'd called his work phone. A second or two later the elder picked up with an enthusiastic "Hello, this is Kim Seokjin."

"Jin!" Jimin said. "Are you gonna be able to hang out this weekend?" he asked.

"Jimin?" he questioned. 

"Yeah." It was silent for a moment as Jin took a second to think before answering. 

"I'm not sure. It's really busy here and I don't think I'll be free any time soon. Sorry, kiddo," he replied.

"Ah, okay. I understand," Jimin said. He tried not to sound disappointed, but Jin could clearly hear it in his voice. 

"Why? Is something wrong?" the older boy asked. Jimin thought for a moment, discerning where or not he should tell Jin what was really on his mind. Finally, he let out a quiet sigh as he answered.

​"It's just that..." he hesitated. "I don't know. I don't like how Namjoon treated you," he confessed. He panicked a little when the other line was silent. He immediately regretted what he'd said and wished he'd made something up instead. "I saw you two in the kitchen last weekend when Namjoon, uh, kissed you," he continued slowly. 

"Oh," Jin finally responded. He sounded as if it didn't even bother him. "Don't even worry about that, it's no big deal." Jimin's face twisted at his words. Before he could question him Jin spoke again. "Listen, I can't talk about this while I'm at work. We'll talk about this later, okay?" Jin said carefully. 

"Uh, yeah, sure," Jimin responded.

"Okay then, bye," Jin said before hanging up. Jimin removed his phone from his ear and tossed it onto his bed. He was even more confused and didn't know how to respond to the situation, so he decided to not think about it. 

Jimin then rolled onto his stomach and closed his eyes as he tried to rest. Not even one minutes passed and he couldn't keep still. He didn't like being alone like this with nothing to do and no one to talk to. He reached for his phone again and started composing a new text to Jungkook, asking if he'd come over to study and help him with his homework. He really just wanted to hang out with him, but he knew that sometimes Jungkook's parents wouldn't let him go out because of his studies. However, if Jungkook asked to study with someone then they'd always let him. Besides, Jimin really did need help with his schoolwork. They'd just started a new project in math class and he didn't understand any of it.

Moments later he received a text back. Jungkook had responded with 'on my way', to which Jimin happily smiled. He quickly looked for his backpack to take out all the materials he needed and placed them on a small coffee table he had taken from the living room. He organized his papers and started to write down a few things on them. It wasn't long before he suddenly saw Jungkook walk into his room. He had given Jungkook a key to his house years ago in case of any emergency, so whenever he came over he usually let himself in.

"Is that the math project?" Jungkook asked before taking a seat beside Jimin. He also brought his backpack and took out his project papers, placing them on the coffee table next to Jimin's.

"Yeah," Jimin responded. "Do you get anything the teacher taught us this week? Because I don't." 

Jungkook looked at Jimin's math calculations on his project paper, then looked back up to Jimin. 

"Well all your math is wrong," he responded. "Look here," he said pointing to something Jimin had worked out. "You weren't supposed to multiply this two. And you forgot to carry the negative sign over when you went here," he said, pointing to the step below the previous one. Jimin pursed his lips in slight frustration. Math was like an unlearnable foreign language to him, so Jungkook often helped him with it since he'd always pass his math classes with A's. 

He helped and tutored Jimin for what seemed like hours until Jimin's brain physically hurt from it all. He let out an exaggerated groan as he laid down on the floor. His whole body felt stiff from just sitting and writing for such a long period of time. 

"No more! I can't take anymore math," he said as he rubbed his tired eyes. 

"You're going to fail if you don't study well," Jungkook simply responded, organizing their papers. 

"Oh, thanks for the encouraging words," Jimin said sarcastically. They fell silent as Jungkook went back to his work and Jimin continued to lay on the floor. Boredom took over him again. He rolled over to Jungkook and lightly smacked his thigh, gaining the younger's attention. 

"Jungkook... Let's do something," he said.

"Like what?" Jungkook put down his pencil and turned his body to face Jimin.

"We should go out."

"I can't. I told my parents I'd be staying here the whole time and I don't want to get into any trouble." Jimin snorted at his words. He was bored out of his mind and wanted to do something fun. He hit his thigh again as an idea popped into his head.

"Wanna drink?" he asked with a mischievous smile. Jungkook raised an eyebrow and took a moment to respond. The question surprised him a little, and he culdn't tell if Jimin was being serious or not.

"No, sorry."

Jimin sat up and shrugged his shoulders. He pushed himself off of the floor and walked out of the room. Before Jungkook could question him he was gone. He picked up his pencil again and started on the next math problem on his paper. He had almost completed it when Jimin came back into the room with a big bottle of alcohol in his hand. He sat himself a little bit away from Jungkook as he pulled the cap off of it. At the very sight of the bottle Jungkook became tense and cautious.

"Where'd you get that?" Jungkook asked, putting his pencil down. His attention was now completely on Jimin. 

"Top shelf of the cabinet in the kitchen" he chuckled. "I take it out sometimes whenever I wanna drink." Jimin was always the more daring one out of the two. He wasn't afraid to push his limits. Sometimes this scared Jungkook and he'd grown genuinely worried that he'd make a huge mistake one day, but thankfully Jimin knew when to stop what he was doing if it got bad. 

"Aren't they gonna notice that some of it's gone after you drink it?" he questioned, crossing his arms. 

"Pshh, please. They've never even touched this. They like the harder stuff they keep in their room. I doubt they'll even notice when this is gone." he smiled again, seemingly proud of himself. "Are you sure you don't want some? It's flavored and it's not as strong as the usual stuff." He held the bottle up to the younger's face. Jungkook thought about it as he stared at the bottle. 

"What kind of alcohol is it?" he asked slowly.

"Vodka," Jimin answered as he shook the bottle around. Jungkook then shook his head.

"I think I'll pass," he said. 

"'Kay." Jimin brought up the bottle's top to his mouth and slowly rose the bottom up as he took a sip of it. Jungkook always felt both uncomfortable yet aroused whenever he watched Jimin drink. It was a strange feeling that was hard to explain or understand. "What?" Jimin questioned after he finished his sip and put the bottle down. Jungkook shook his head. Unfortunately, Jimin drank more than occasionally, and sometimes he would get tipsy around Jungkook. He never knew where he got his alcohol--he never asked--but he assumed someone was hooking him up with it. Maybe he had just been stealing from his parents' alcohol this whole time. He'd already been supplied here.

Thankfully no one ever noticed when Jimin drank because his naturally giddy personality was similar to his hyper and care-free intoxicated personality. As long as he didn't get drunk no one ever noticed if he had been drinking, well except Jungkook. For whatever reason Jimin only openly drank around him, so Jungkook could easily tell apart certain mannerisms from the sober and intoxicated Jimin. 

"Nothing," he answered as he turned back to his work. He was about to finish solving the answer to a problem when he was suddenly pulled from behind, bringing him down to the ground beside Jimin. 

"What the hell?" Jungkook said, pretending to be mad. Jimin took another sip before putting the bottle down on the floor. He put an arm around his younger and smiled. 

"You're gonna die studying," he said. 

"At least I'd die doing something productive." Jimin chuckled at his words. 

"Why do I like you so much?" he laughed, his cheeks already starting to redden. Jimin ruffled Jungkook's hair before closing his eyes. Jungkook's cheeks started to glow a light shade of pink, and he was glad Jimin didn't see it. He waited for Jimin to say or do something again, but he had become completely still. 

"Hey, did you just fall asleep?" Jungkook lightly pushed him. Jimin suddenly pulled him closely into him. 

"Shhhh," he hushed, his eyes still closed. 

"Um," Jungkook laid silent next to Jimin, staring at his fake sleeping face. He knew Jimin liked to be active when he drank, so falling asleep right after having a few sips was unusual for him. "Could we at least lay on the bed or something? The floor is uncomfortable," he said. He was met with no response. Jungkook rolled his eyes as he continued to lay on the hard floor. His mind eventually dozed off so much that he'd actually fallen asleep.