⊱ • IMBROGLIO • ⊰

Jimin thought nothing of her the first time he saw her. Oh look, there’s a member of Lovelyz was what had passed through his mind upon seeing her in the waiting area for Music Core’s year-end special. There was nothing remarkable about her – she was pretty, but not strikingly so, and she didn’t seem to have to have anything outstanding about her. It wasn’t even that she had made a poor first impression. Rather, she had left no impression and Jimin’s mind had wandered off to another topic of interest within three seconds of spotting her.

The second time he saw her was on the stage of MBC Gayo Daejun. This time, out in the frigid cold during the harshest time of winter, her smile was warm, as was the affection she doled out to her members. Even though all she had to protect her from the icy wind is a parka, leaving her legs (which he cannot help but admit look nice) bare, she was radiant. He learned her name when another girl shouted “Myungeun!” at her and he watched as she laughed at some joke that was lost in the noise of the crowd around them.

Jimin thinks then that love at second sight is possible.

Spare moments between rigorous practice sessions are spent on his phone, looking up anything and everything he can about her. Her full name is Park Myungeun, she goes by the stage name of Jin, and she is one year younger than him. Jimin is silently thrilled by this, because he has never been the type to go for older women (even though a part of him thinks he might have made an exception for her). There is a bit of jealousy in the pit of his stomach as he finds out that she goes to school with GOT7’s Youngjae and seemed to be good friends with the other boy at that. Feeling a bit like a stalker for looking into her information so thoroughly, Jimin tries to tamper down the excited burst of giddiness at just the thought of her, but dives even deeper anyways.

He is enraged though, as he looks through articles discussing her and her group, at the relentless comments people are leaving about her. Jimin wants to do nothing more than find these people and tell them to just look at her, because she shines in a way that they will never be able to. He hopes that she never has to read their cruel remarks, but he also hopes that if she does, that he will be around to reassure her that what they say is nothing but bull (and perhaps take her into his arms, but that is a different matter entirely).

With rue, Jimin notes that Lovelyz debuted the week after his own group had ended their promotions. Seeing each other backstage at music shows would have been the easiest path to at least friendship, but given the concerts set for BTS, he doubts that this will be possible for a long time. Instead, he contemplates any other way that he will be able to get to know her.

At night, with headphones settled into his ears and a blanket wrapped around him, Jimin sets his phone to play Gone and lets her soft voice lull him to sleep.

The boys of BTS are lounging around the living room of their dorm when Jimin drops the bomb.

“I think I’m in love with Jin, guys.”

Jungkook sputters on his drink and Seokjin full-out chokes on the sweet potato he had been enjoying. Other than that, the only reaction Jimin receives from the other members are wide eyes and slack jaws.

He is confused to say the least. He was hoping there would be at least some show of support, or maybe even some teasing. So then why— Ah, he gets it.

“Oh! You guys don’t need to worry. Even though I’m in love, I don’t plan on dating any time soon! I won’t jeopardize our group like that!”

There is still only silence, minus the agonized sounds coming from Seokjin as he simultaneously tries to dislodge the bite of potato he had swallowed in shock and contain his wails of despair, to greet Jimin’s enthusiasm. Jimin looks every bit like a lost puppy as he looks from member to member, waiting for someone to answer him.

Namjoon decides that if there is any time to act as a leader, it is now.

“You, uh, realize that just by confessing this, you’re kinda jeopardizing our group right?” His voice hitches at the word confessing and Namjoon can only think that dealing with a situation like this was definitely not in the list of responsibilities for a leader.

Jimin is emphatic as he shakes his head in disagreement.

“I swear, I won’t let this get in the way of anything! I’ll just think about these feelings on my own time, like I’ve been doing!”

Jimin tries to muffle a giggle of giddiness and Yoongi blanches because the boy just giggled and sounded every bit like a high school girl talking about her first crush. Taehyung is too busy hitting Seokjin on the back, as the oldest member’s face was turning a nastier shade of red by the minute, to even notice. Namjoon is grimacing as Jungkook is actually flailing at the recent turn of events.

Seokjin, after finally clearing out his windpipe, is quick to jump away from the circle they had formed in the room. Standing at the edge of the living room, looking poised to flee at any moment, he turns wild eyes on each member before finally settling on narrowing his gaze at Jimin.

“This is some practical joke, right? Where’s the hidden camera, guys?”

Everybody turns hopeful eyes to Jimin, because that explanation would be the easiest way out of this mess. But he only feels confused, because why would this be a practical joke?

“Not … that I know of?” Jimin’s voice is hesitant because he suddenly feels like the others aren’t all that receiving of his news.

Any hope that Seokjin was holding onto is wiped away and he suddenly feels faint. Slumping onto the couch, he thinks the beginnings of a headache are coming on. “What kind of ty situation is this?” His voice is exasperated and tinged with anger, because what was Jimin thinking by bringing this up?

Hurt by ’s tone, Jimin suddenly feels affronted. Why couldn’t the members just be supportive? It wasn’t like they hadn’t gone through phases of having crushes, either.

“What do you mean by that, huh? Is there something wrong with me having feelings?” This is the first time he had ever felt so strongly about a girl, and if Seokjin was going to be a about it, then so was he.

The tension suddenly rises in the room as the normally happy-go-lucky Jimin is looking on the verge of picking a fight with Seokjin. Yoongi and Namjoon, leadership be damned, are quick to escape, not willing to stick around for when the hit the fan.

“There isn’t anything wrong with you having feelings, but why the do they have to be for me?”

“You? What do you mean you? I don’t have a crush on you!” Jimin looks taken aback, because he had never known Seokjin to be particularly crazy. How did he come to this conclusion?

Seokjin looks aggrieved, because for some unfathomable reason, Jimin is looking at him like he is the dumb one in this situation. “Don’t give me that , Mr. ‘I think I’m in love with Jin’!”

“I am in love with her! Jin from Lovelyz! Park Myungeun! Not you! What the ?”

“Don’t ‘what the ’ me, you brat! Why didn’t you just say her real name in the first place?!”

“Because you guys wouldn’t know who she was if I said that!”

“And you think using my stage name is a better idea?!”

Realization dawns on Jimin’s face as the situation finally connects in his mind.

“Oh , you guys use the same stage name!”

Seokjin looks appalled that this thought is only occurring to Jimin now. Taehyung looks like he’s about to rupture an organ from trying to mute his laughter and Jungkook looks crestfallen that the blooming love story has suddenly wilted to a halt.

“Don’t worry, man. If I liked guys, I wouldn’t like you!”

Jimin is all smiles and sunshine as he says this, his previous anger quickly dissipated, so Seokjin has no idea whether this is meant to be comforting or an insult. Deciding to erase this entire incident from his memory, he writes it off as neither.

Now that the waters have somewhat calmed, Jungkook is finally brave enough to speak.

“Uh, so … What was the whole point of telling us this?”

“Because Taehyung knows Sujeong from that gig they did together and Sujeong is in the same group as Myungeun, so I can use this connection to get closer to her!”

Taehyung immediately ceases his spasms of laughter and perks up at the mention of Sujeong.

“You’re a genius!”

Looking smug, Jimin doesn’t even need to reply because obviously, he’s a genius.

“If you can get close to Myungeun, then I’ll be able to get closer to Sujeong without seeming creepy either!” Taehyung looks shocked at his own sudden display of genius and Jimin faintly feels as if his situation is being used. Still, even if Taehyung was doing this for an entirely selfish reason, it would help both of them in the end.

Throwing an arm around Taehyung’s shoulder, Jimin begins to steer the boy to another room.

“We should discuss our action plan!”

The two walk off and Jungkook scampers along behind them for whatever reason. Seokjin thinks that if he doesn’t die of exhaustion from their packed schedule, then he will die of exasperation from having to put up with his group members.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ fin. ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

Okay, this did not go at all like I planned and I'm not satisfied with it. :( I was aiming for some JiEun, but then veered for BTS!antics ... and ended up getting a poor mix of both. I'm so sorry for dumping this super disjointed bit on you guys, haha. It's a little past 2AM and I felt bad for not updating so I decided to just ... write, but now I feel bad for posting something of subpar quality. OTL Maybe I'll get around to rewriting this one day, once grad school apps are off and done with! But until then, more of these weird (?) stories are highly possible.

Anyways, thanks for reading & much love to the new subscribers that I haven't had the chance to thank personally! ♡