Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Their first meeting is fatal. It determines everything that happens between them afterwards, everything they ever say to each other, everything they do. the problem is, that as far as first meetings go, it’s safe to say theirs is pretty shit.

Yoongi would say it’s not his fault. There were unfortunate circumstances he couldn’t do anything about. First and foremost, he was definitely not in the mood for visitors. Mainly because his heat just ended this very morning, and he’d been feeling under the weather since then still. Which is normal for him. he texted jungkook around noon that he could come back now, after he banned him to his boyfriends’ apartment for the few days yoongi would be unavailable.

The boyfriend, kim taehyung, lives in the beta dormitories. Yoongi and jungkook have their very own little flat. It was a lucky find, packed into a corner of the third floor which means it has a window more than the average flat. They each have their own room; the kitchen is spacey for a Seoul apartment and the water gets hot quickly. Yoongi spent two years in the omega dorms before his best friend jungkook started university here too and they moved together instead. a rather daring decision, because jungkook is an alpha. And yoongi certainly not his mate.

One week into jungkooks new college life he’d already been smitten with taehyung and soon after they got together. yoongi likes taehyung, he’s friendly, cute and quite smart once you get to know him better. They met a few times since then. Now, two months later, he was really glad that jungkook could stay with taehyung. heats and ruts only come every three or four months but staying at a motel each time would surely take a dig into their money.

So, yoongi isn’t feeling it when jungkook doesn’t simply come back but brings visitors with him. He’s lounging in the living room in a big shirt that reaches far down, covering his boxers. He’s still sensitive after spending three days and nights being incredulously horny and shamelessly acting on it.

Humanity has evolved a lot since their days as wolf shifters, but there are a few, sometimes annoying, aspects left to them. yoongi has no problem with heightened smell or hearing unless someone has diarrhea in a public toilet near him, but the sub-gender things can be quite exhausting. It’s not only the heats for him or ruts for alphas, their intensity is ebbing away with each generation. It’s manageable alone for yoongi, three or four days of incredible horniness, heightened senses, his pheromones making the room stuffy, nesting, hot skin and the constant urge to get fucked… it sounds like a lot, but it’s not as intense as they once were. It’s not like humans don’t manage to mate and have children without it, so it’s not biologically necessary anymore to ensure the survival of the human race. But that’s only the most prominent expression of their sub-gender.

The real annoying bits are the stereotypes. Some things being said are true, of course. Alphas and omegas do often have a certain kind of personality, of behavior. Take yoongi for example, he’s kind of small and doesn’t really build up much muscle even if he works out. he likes to cook and take care of his friends. But to reduce him to only that? horrible. And stereotypes are the worst when the person they are thrust upon does not fit into the type at all. so many omegas are different and individually amazing, don’t fit into the omega stereotype at all- but society thinks they should. Yoongi hates it.

It's not even only bad for omegas, but for alphas too, they are supposed to be big and scary, protectors and the ‘hunters’, the ones bringing in the money and having aggression issues. Jungkook struggles with it as well, he’s one of the most untypical alphas to ever exist. Aggression is a foreign word for him and while he’s working out a lot and could totally kill a guy, he’s actually very sweet and kind of shy and introverted. Maybe that’s why they get along so well.

Yoongi isn’t angry at all at jungkook, it’s not his fault, he told him it’s okay to come back here. he could have told him that he needs another day alone to recover, but he didn’t. and it’s too late too quick. When the front door clicks yoongi doesn’t react at first. he’s half asleep on the couch, airing his room out currently because it stinks of sex and slick and even if it’s yoongis own scent and the past three days he enjoyed feeling safe in it, it was horribly stuffy in the morning. As it’s November, he took a warm shower and hid away here, not wanting to stay inside his own by now cold room. he knows his pheromones are still dialed up but jungkook won’t mind the living room reeking of him excessively for a day. the washing machine whirls in the background, filled with his sheets.

He faintly registers voices in his sleep then, but the information doesn’t quite reach his brain. Instead of moving away, which could have saved him a lot of trouble, he stays. The sounds of shoes being thrown off loudly in the hallway make him wake up more. He blinks against the artificial light from the ceiling lamp he left on but doesn’t move. He’s tired and sore.

Then jungkook and taehyung suddenly run past the living room, passing by yoongis closed door. “tae ate something bad hyung, sorry!”, jungkook screams at his door and disappears with taehyung into the bathroom. Yoongi tries to process the information, yawning slowly. So that’s why it was so loud.

And jungkook must have thought he’s in his room. the couch stands with its back to the hallway door, of course they didn’t see him. suddenly, yoongi hears more steps coming inside. He sits up, panicking, did they leave the door open? Is there a thief? He sniffs the air, but aside from himself he can’t even smell jungkooks faint scent that should still cling to the apartment. And then, he enters the living room.

The sight wakes yoongi up quickly. His gaze sweeps up from his feet, clad in flat black boots. Then skinny jeans, also dark and clinging to impressive thighs, to a striped long-sleeved shirt, also skintight. Yoongi would never dare to wear something like that, but the man apparently has a perfect body and can absolutely wear it. then yoongis eyes get caught by his hair, understandably, cause it’s bubblegum pink. Yoongi has been staring wide-eyed for at least a minute before he even reaches the strangers face. he’s aware of the embarrassment creeping into him as well as the sense of wariness getting stronger. The stranger does not look like he’s about to rob yoongi, but he doesn’t recognize him either.

Finally eyeing up his face, yoongi comes to the terrifying conclusion that the guy is perfect. Strikingly handsome, like he’s just out of yoongis league, but not unrealistic like he is a hallucination. His skin seems smooth aside from a tiny scratch at his chin. There’s a little make up around his eyes, drawing yoongis attention there. Wide, dark eyes, pretty. His nose is pretty. His lips plush and perfectly formed, also pretty. He’s not smiling, just curiously looking around like he hasn’t discovered yoongi on the couch yet. He doesn’t look really mean without a smile, but very serious and mature. Stunning. Yoongi takes a deep breath.

Right in that moment the guy sees him.

“whew, you look awful,” he blurts out and grimaces right away, and yoongi knows he didn’t really mean to say that out loud and insult yoongi but the fact is, he did. Hearing the words, yoongi remembers the last time he saw himself in the mirror, while brushing his teeth in the morning. He knows his appearance hasn’t changed since then. The shirt he’s wearing could be called ratty, and while he did shower he did not make an effort to comb his hair or anything. it feels like it’s poking into every direction, but flat on the side he just napped on. His face is probably puffy and pink from not enough sleep or food and too much masturbation during the last days, eyes bloodshot and harrow. Of course he doesn’t look good, he just had his heat. Angel-stranger can go fuck himself.

Yoongi snarls at him and says just that. “fuck you. who are you even, leave my apartment!”

“jungkook told me to come in,” the answer comes straight away, petulant. so it’s not a thief or mugger, that’s good. Not really though, because yoongi is moody right now and feels like punching someone. It’s not his fault he’s an omega and has heats and looks crappy afterwards! he’s faintly aware of his own scent turning sour and worsening the living room air. he wants his quietness back.

“And now I tell you to leave, so do that,” he bites back. to his astonishment the guy doesn’t back off, but he comes closer. Yoongi clenches his teeth as the other rounds the couch fully and has now a nice view of yoongi half naked, in a mess of their couch pillows and extra blankets he planned to throw into the second washing machine load.

“I don’t want to.” How petty. The guy turns away and walks over to the window, opens it without even asking yoongi. he stands right beside it and yoongi thinks he can see goosebumps on his skin. why’s he staying in the cold? Is yoongis scent that repelling for him? does he have to make it that obvious? what an ass.

“shut that, it’s cold,” yoongi tries. He knows though, he lost any authority already he ever had. Why’s jungkook taking so long anyway, can’t taehyung stay hanging his head over the toilet alone? Not like he has long enough hair to need holding it back.

“look, yoongi-ssi? You are min yoongi, right?” the guy raises his eyebrows and yoongi can’t help himself but nod, even though he hates that the guy knows his name and where he lives and what he looks like right after his heat and he knows nothing. just how fucking handsome he is, and that the timbre of his voice is really nice. Although it sounds a little forced right now. “jungkook told me about your heat, it’s okay, I understand. But I really couldn’t breathe anymore.”

“don’t fucking patronize me, you stupid knothead!”, yoongi hisses. He can’t smell anything still and assumes the other is, despite his pretty outside, an alpha. Who else would be such an asshole to him, and yes, yoongi knows the irony of judging his sub-gender on that.

But he seems to have hit a nerve. “I’m an omega. but feel free to be a twat, I obviously intruded into your apartment and you’re sensitive-“

“shut it!” yoongi hates being called sensitive and soft. It was never meant as a good thing when someone called him that in the past, it’s not different now. he snatches a blanket and jumps up from the couch, hiding himself away under it quickly. The other watches him, eyes condescending, harsh. Yoongi hates him. this was supposed to be a day of rest and minimal interaction with others. Not getting angry about some stupid omega friend jungkook foolishly let into the apartment.

Without another word he goes for his room. he’ll rather face the cold than this guy any longer. And the stranger seems determined to turn this room into an ice chamber too anyway. yoongi can only hope jungkook will make him close the window soon. Just when his door falls shut behind him and he looks in frustration onto his sheetless bed, the open window and general mess, he hears jungkooks voice calling out for him. he ignores it. his blood is boiling, his thoughts all over the place and mainly violent. Stupid pretty omega with his stupid mean words.

☼

The second time jimin sees min yoongi the other looks significantly better. he’s been planning to apologize and maybe start this whole thing over again, ask for a second chance. yoongi wasn’t completely not at fault, but jimin had very obviously started it. just because he blurted something dumb.

It’s just- he was surprised. Jungkook had shown them photos of his roommate before, because he’s his best friend and jungkook positively adores and worships him. they’d been sitting at a table in the cafeteria then, jimin remembers well, because on his screen, jimin spotted the most unbelievably gorgeous omega to ever grace the earth. So when he spotted a rather gruffy guy with horrible bed hair and eyebags and sunken cheeks on the couch he’d been surprised, fairly. Not totally his fault, his expectations just had been a little… (very) high. It had been more of an exclaim of worry than of mock anyway. not that that mattered now.

The next thing preluding their doom was the scent. Jimin went to open a window just to escape it. not because he found it disgusting as yoongi surely thought, but because it was too good. Sweet tangerines and something like woods after a rain shower seemed to be yoongis natural scent. and underlying was arousal, sex, the remnants of a heat well spend fucking himself. jimin could barely keep himself from inhaling too much and jumping yoongis bones right then. He wasn’t supposed to be attracted to another omega like that and he didn’t like it at all.

And once yoongi reacted fairly hostile, he just couldn’t do anything other than argue back. he’s always been like this, easy to rile up. His parents hate it, not because of the characteristic itself, but because it was too alpha-like.

In conclusion, jimin is aware of his own wrongdoings but ready to continue differently. He already knows min yoongi will be a fixture in his life from now on, because if jungkook and taehyung don’t marry one day and get at least five dogs he’s gonna eat a broom. There’s no other possible outcome. and yoongi is jungkooks roommate, childhood friend, best friend. Just like jimin is to taehyung. he’s ready to be a better person and forget about it. he’ll learn many things about yoongi in the years to come, but that day he learns how incredibly petty and resentful yoongi can be if he wants to.

Jungkook and taehyung, in an effort to repair the damage done, invite both of them to a club. Jimin is familiar with this club. In fact he loves it here and is glad about the choice of place. He dressed up in ripped jeans and a flowy blouse, put on some makeup. He’s happy to hang out with taehyung, and jungkook who he’s grown to like too. And a little nervous and excited to see yoongi again.

He arrives at the club and walks in, taehyung texted him earlier that the other already were there. It’s the usual mixture of dark, seedy corners, flashing lights in every color, too loud music and too many pheromones because of all the sweaty people. most wear scent blocker in such crowded spaces, jimin does too, but there’re enough who don’t to make the dance floor hell for anyone with a sensitive nose. cursing his height, jimin trudges around in search for his friends. he greets the bartender before continuing on.

With how he’s dressed, first few buttons undone and swept back hair, people try to talk to him in the few minutes he aimlessly walks around. He declines their offers to dance politely, not particularly in the mood for a hook up and he can’t ditch his friends anyway. He’s already a few tiny minutes late, but they are used to that. he had to help his neighbor bring up her groceries before leaving, somehow that old lady always knows when jimin will leave his apartment and stops him every time like a weary old witch. It made him late to about eighty percent of any dates he ever had. Today she bought an unnerving amount of bananas and jimin did not dare to ask why.

He spots taehyung first, sitting in one of the tiny booths at the back of the room. the flowery shirt he’s wearing was a Christmas gift from jimin and with the rainbow coloration easily recognizable. Jimin shoves himself through more clusters of people and closes in. jungkook sits next to taehyung, almost on his lap. yoongi is opposite them, hunched shoulders and his eyes flitting around nervously suggesting he’s not quite used to all the crowding strangers and the pheromones.

As expected, he looks much better than last time despite that. his hair is seemingly brushed, dark and hanging in his eyes. he even chose a nice outfit, a red blouse and skinny jeans. Jimin shakes the inappropriate thoughts immediately building out of his head before he takes the last few steps and greets them happily.

The space next to yoongi is obviously left to him and he sits down. While taehyung and jungkook smile, yoongi has a scowl on his face when he settles.

Jimin barely hears him when he opens his pretty mouth, expecting a greeting at least. but it’s not.

“finally.”

“hyung, it’s not even been five minutes, don’t be a snob,” jungkook intervenes before jimin can say anything. yoongis eyes soften right away. he’s definitely weak for jungkook. but apparently not enough to just forgive jimin. he throws him a mean glance and clicks his tongue. Jimin takes a deep breath, trying to stay calm. It seems yoongi decided he does not want to try and get along with jimin after all. okay. He can deal with that.

Taehyung glances between them, feeling obviously uncomfortable. And it gets worse when yoongi just continues to be an ass. “I just hate tardiness kook, you know that.”

Is he ignoring jimin? “I’m not tardy,” jimin hisses. He can feel his own scent turning sour under the blocker. Yoongis smell is either blocked as well or too weak against the rest of the club. A tiny pang of disappointment surges through him and he seriously has to ignore that, yoongi doesn’t even smell that good. And jimin doesn’t need his scent to know yoongi isn’t elated to be here at all.

When he answers jimin, he doesn’t even look up, eyes locked onto the beer glass in front of him. jimins blood is slowly boiling while yoongi sounds cold and unpersonal. “I never said that.”

“you were implying it though.”

Jungkook clears his throat loudly and both look up. “Let’s stop that here. how were classes this week jimin-hyung?”

“relaxed,” jimin answers. jungkook only uses hyung if he wants something or he’s feeling either mushy or uncomfortable. He probably doesn’t like his best friend and taehyungs fighting. But this isn’t jimins fault. He totally would have been civil with yoongi, but the other decided to not be and shove it into jimins face. “one prof is ill, and they haven’t gotten any substitute still.”

“the one from hiphop?”

“yeah, exactly.”

Jimin dares to throw a look to his right. yoongi is grumpily scowling into his drink now, both hands clasped around it. they are surprisingly big jimin notices, long fingers with slightly pink knuckles. How they’d feel- jimin stops that train of thought. Best not go there if yoongi decided to hate him. and he’s an omega anyway. Jimin should do what his parents want for him, find a nice alpha or beta and settle with them, not be too rebellious. He slips back into the conversation quickly.

Even with taehyung and jungkook talking and doing their best to ignore it, the tension between yoongi and jimin is obvious. they don’t talk to each other even once after the first few words. Jimin carefully throws glances at him to not be caught. In the clubs artificial light yoongi seems really pale and thin.

“we should go and dance!”, taehyung finally proposes. Jimin almost jumps up at it, happy to get away from yoongis brooding existence.

He’s half down towards the dance floor before taehyung even really stands. Throwing a look back, he finds jungkook and yoongis staring after him. the younger just seems somewhat perplexed while yoongi is as hostile as ever. For a moment jimin is overcome with the urge to show his middle finger, but he turns back around before he can. No need to be as childish as yoongi now. with taehyung he disappears into the crowd until he can’t see them sitting at the table anymore.

Taehyung puts his arms around jimins waist and raises his eyebrows.

“that was definitely not my fault,” jimin defends himself right away. he promised taehyung to try and get along earlier. It takes only a few seconds for taehyung to cave in and sigh. “just forget about it, I don’t even care. It’s gonna be fine.”

Taehyung looks sceptic at that, but jimin doesn’t want to talk about yoongi anymore. the other isn’t that important. maybe he’s totally hot and smells nice, but that doesn’t mean jimin gives a shit about him. he puts his own hands around taehyungs neck loosely and starts swaying his hips, much slower than the actual beat. Practiced in dancing with him, taehyung soon follows his movements.

The people around them stopped asking jimin for a drink or dance because it looks like he’s taehyungs partner, which is exactly what he wanted to achieve. He moves slow and lascivious, pressing his body into taehyung, his hands carding through his hair. He can feel eyes on them, others watching as they get lost in their own world. Soon he’s sweating too, breathing faster with his heart loud in his ears. The crowd around them flows like water. Sometimes they are like anchored in place and people pass them by, arms and back grazing theirs, flashes of faces illuminated by colorful lights, then they get soaked into a whirl, move around and surge up again at the other end of the room. everyone constantly moves and jimin loves it, relishes in being a part of everyone and the music, feels connected and still on his own. They don’t know him and he doesn’t know them and it’s everything that there is. The music, his body, taehyung under his hands, warm breath and a steady heartbeat matching his. They dance and dance, until the crowd spews them out back where they came from.

Taehyung just continues, not noticing their proximity to the table, but jimin looks up. jungkook is gone, leaving yoongi alone, sitting there in a flash of green and blue and pink. Jimin stares over taehyungs shoulder, feeling safe behind him, out of view himself. yoongi is staring down at his glass, deep in thought. His hand is wrapped around it still, like he didn’t even move it once. he isn’t looking particularly happy, or grim like earlier. His side profile is beautiful, jimin notes, the soft curve of his nose, stray hair falling delicately forward. Taehyung turns them a little too much, hands digging into jimins waist and he loses sight for a moment.

Then he spots jungkook coming back, shots in hand. Yoongi sees him as well and at the sight of his best friend, his face suddenly lights up. a gummy grin appears, adorably bunching up his cheeks, his eyes disappear just like jimins always do. it pangs through his chest, that he’ll probably never see that unfiltered joy directed at him. his happiness looks so easy and pretty. Jimin will have to take the seconds. Taehyung leans forward.

“what you looking at? Found someone?”

The teasing lilt in his tone makes it obvious that he thinks it’s someone for jimin to hook up with, so jimin quickly shakes his head and pulls him back into the middle of the floor. God forbid his best friend realizes he looked at yoongi, while having an expression that apparently says he wants to fuck the person at the other end. It’s foolish anyway, yoongi hates him already.

jimin decides to accept that fact quickly. It won’t do him any good thinking about yoongi in an inappropriate matter now or lose himself in daydreams of them just because he’s so hot. To him, yoongi is an asshole, and that’s that. better not let him know what jimin really thinks about him, he’d totally make fun of him. the next time they meet, he’ll be ready for him and yoongi will get a taste of his own medicine.

☼

1 year later

☼

As usual, the air in yoongis kitchen is smelling mostly of a sour version of tangerines (courtesy of yoongi himself) and cloying sweet summery berries (courtesy of jimin). As usual, there are four people cramped around their kind of small table, digging into food he made earlier. it’s Thursday, late at night, and everyone is starving. Yoongi eats another spoonful of rice with a little pork belly on top, trying to keep his calm. Outwardly, anyway. He already lost his cool the second taehyung passed their doorstep and jimin appeared behind him, clad in his brown mantle and smiling from ear to ear.

God, yoongi hates his situation, hates his past self. He looks up from his bowl, careful. Never too much, because jimin is sitting right in front of him and he can’t meet his eyes. the plate with meat in the middle of the table is slowly emptying. Jungkook and taehyung are peacefully munching away next to them, busy quenching their hunger after a day of college work. yoongi is tired too, he had long classes today followed by hours spend in his studio. but there are more pressing matters at hand.

Slowly to not raise suspicion, he reaches out with his chopsticks. His target are the pieces closer to the middle of the plate, where he deliberately put the best parts. He may cook for all of them and feed them, but some small joys he keeps for himself. or- tries to.

A second before he finally holds the price, jimins chopsticks rush out and he picks a piece from the edge, holding it between yoongis so he has to take it. jungkook looks up finally, blinking innocently. Yoongi dares to look at jimin and finds the same smug face there he’d been expecting. The blue sweater reveals too much of his collarbones for the colder weather, smooth tanned skin. yoongi is almost jealous, any tan he got over the summer lazing in the sun he already lost. Jimins hair isn’t pink anymore like when they met, but bright blonde. It’s parted in the middle, falling as if on accident over his forehead to perfectly frame his face. in short, he’s the perfect picture of a fairy – a misleading disguise.

Yoongi lets out a long, deep breath and draws his chopsticks back with the pork belly. Jimin smiles even wider, his eyes almost disappearing and yoongi hates that he looks cute with his cheeks still half full while he picks the very piece of meat yoongi wanted. It would be kind of rude and weird to take more than one piece and pile them on his rice, nobody does that. yoongi could just do it anyway, but he’s trying to behave. He promised jungkook. who is already inhaling the next bite next to him, uncaring for the obvious tension. He probably got used to it over the last year.

Since taehyung and jungkook met in college, they’ve been inseparable. Which is totally fine, yoongi likes taehyung. sure, he’s eccentric and loud and touchy. Tall and friendly, he’s attracting attention left and right if he leaves the house. Somehow he reminds yoongi of an abstract painting bubbling over with colors and shapes and blips, chaotic beauty, distracting and good-looking but also odd if you look too close. not that taehyung looks odd, he’s a perfect adonis and yoongi totally gets jungkooks instant attraction there.

No, the problem is taehyungs affiliation with jimin. they are best friends- which shouldn’t be a problem per se, yoongi got nothing to do with that. the thing is, that Jimin and taehyung have some soulmate-culture-thing going on that doesn’t let them be apart for more than a day without suffering terrible physical pain, so jimin is now a terrible pain in yoongis ass. (Not literally!) Because taehyung and jungkook want to wait until after college to move together and that means they are constantly meeting up. not as often in taehyungs flat because he has to share a room in the beta dormitories. Taehyung is over almost every day, and brings jimin with him to about ninety percent of those days.

Yoongi had asked jungkook if it didn’t annoy him or make him jealous, that jimin and taehyung are so attached. And of course, jungkook being the perfect, kind and romantic guy that he is, said he’s just happy taehyung has someone like jimin in his life and that he likes jimin too anyway. Yoongi didn’t want to destroy his best friends’ happiness and promised he’d get along with jimin then, at least stay civil. It bites him in the ass every single day.

Jimin hums while chewing his perfect piece of meat, obviously in tasty bliss. Yoongi scowls to himself. he’ll have to make a surprise attack on that meat. And how come jimin knows what he did? He doesn’t know yoongi that well, does he? They spend about fifty percent of their free time together at this point, but really that can’t be?

Yoongi finishes his piece, but instead of taking another one right away like before, he puts his chopsticks down deliberately and drinks some water. From the corner of his eyes he can see jimin hesitating, but then he picks another one from the middle and puts it in his bowl. Anticipation fills yoongi, now jimin will have to eat and while he does that yoongi can take a good piece.

He cheered too soon.

Unfortunately, jungkook and taehyung just finished their bite as well and jimin acts like he’s the host, putting meat in all their bowls. A piece from the very edge on yoongis. Taehyung thanks jimin happily and seesaws to the side, nudging jimins shoulder with his own. Yoongi concentrates on breathing normally. In, out. slowly. He won’t flip over this. everything is fine. next time. he’s a small pond, there’s no wind and no life around him, his water still, nothing can disturb him. jimin is a mere sound, miles away, not a real disturbance. Life is great.

Yoongi eats his meat. Tries to pick a good piece, but jimin already puts another side piece onto his rice. Yoongi flips.

“fucking stop it! can’t you be not an asshole for one fucking minute!”

Jungkook flinches, rice falling onto the table, taehyung chokes on his food. Only jimin was prepared for the outburst and instead of admitting his guilt and apologizing the annoying midget smirks and leans back in his chair. “what are you taking about?”

Innocent eyes blinking up at yoongi. jimin is slouching, something he never does, he’s making himself small and weak and he pouts. It’s a weapon, that pout, because now yoongi is the bad guy. Taehyung and jungkook look at him, accusing.

“you know what you did you-,“ yoongi stops before he says anything too bad. Jungkook will make him apologize if he says anything too bad. Jimin knows that and his eyes twinkle in happiness. He loves it when he bothered yoongi enough to snap. It’s horrible.

“no?”

Eyes flicking between the other three, yoongi has to admit his defeat. Again. he can’t tell taehyung and jungkook he put the good meat in the middle and jimin somehow saw through him and started taking only that while stopping yoongi from doing the same. just- no. he can’t. he sits there in seething silence for a second, then jungkook taps his arm.

“what’s going on?”

Yoongi looks at jimin and growls lowly. “nothing.”

He grabs the rest of the good meat and puts it in his bowl, stands up with a huff. “I’m gonna eat in my room,” he informs them and storms out, leaving sour tangerine and confused friends behind. he can hear jimin giggling when he crosses through the hallway. Tomorrow jungkook will talk his ear off about this and then he’ll buy some apology-food, and everything will be like before. except jimin will have another win on his tally while yoongi is staying behind. This is the worst.

☼

ugh, this is really salty.

maybe if you hadn’t added salt before even tasting, it wouldn’t be.

what are you talking about?

I’m eating exactly what you served and it’s salty.

…

Aww, don’t make that face, I can’t cook either.

Either?!? I can fucking cook!”

yes yes, don’t get worked up, it’s okay.

Don’t use that condescending tone on me…

Or what?

Yah! Give me back my food!

☼

Jimin isn’t really rich, but he definitely has more money than jungkook and yoongi together. he has his own apartment, his own car, a nice phone without cracks in the screen, he buys take-out regularly without worrying about his expenses. Yoongi doesn’t hate him for that, he’s never an asshole about it (although he’s an asshole about a lot of other things). but right now, he could slash his car tires without regret. He’d like it even, see his stupid, sleek black car ripped of it’s integrity. Fucking show-off.

Rain is peltering down around and on yoongi, but he’s still hesitating to get inside the car for a second. then the wind blows a gush of ice-cold right into his nape, and he quickly gets in. jimin is in the driver’s seat, seemingly totally content. Yoongi is not. He specifically texted jungkook privately, asking if he could pick him up somehow because he forgot his umbrella and the clouds suddenly decided to throw everything down they got. He’d been trapped at the library with no way of going home without soaking his clothes and books and foolishly decided to ask for help. they have a car, technically. Jungkooks aunt lives near them and while she’s too busy with work to be something like an authority to them, she’s always willing to lend them her old car.

He should have known that jungkooks ‘someone is coming, run to the front gate in ten minutes’ was too suspicious and did not mean taehyung or his aunt was in the car instead of jungkook himself. of course they were all busy and he sent jimin instead.

“your car smells bad,” yoongi lies instead of greeting jimin or maybe thanking him from saving him in this typhoon. Jimin smiles smugly (he knows) and dials up the seat heating. Yoongi fucking loves this car, and it smells wonderfully of berries in here because its jimins. The heat under his butt and around him makes him want to relax, sink into the soft cushioning and let jimin take him home, where he can unwind after his stressing day of lectures and research, maybe drink some warm tea and curl up in his bed.

Jimin chuckles and sets the blinker to get back into traffic. When he answers, he makes his voice a little deeper, whinier. Annoying. “hello jimin, you are so kind to pick me up and drive me home, yes I appreciate it so much and I owe you a favor, what do you want?”

“fuck off.”

Yoongi doesn’t understand how jimins scent can always stay the same when they meet. The omega always, without fail, smells of summer and meadows, ripe berries at their peak. Not once, even when yoongi throws his swear words at him or glares angrily, did it turn bitter with anger or hurt. Not like yoongi, who always gets too riled up with jimin. who easily feels hurt too, but he ignores that pretty well.

“jungkook and taehyung are busy sucking face,” jimin informs him easily. “are you gonna cook something or should we get take-out?”

Yoongi sighs. The car is now easily fitted into the surrounding traffic, smoothly cutting though the rain as they round a corner. “I’m gonna make some bulgogi.”

Jimin nods, but focuses more on the traffic than him. they stay quiet for a while, yoongi leaning back and relaxing while jimin tries to hurry them home without sliding down the wet road. At one point, they have to go straight for a bit longer, he speeds up. too much, because he forgets about the speed bump.

They see it at the same time, jimin stomps the brakes harder than before. not a total slam down, but yoongi gets pressed forward. For a moment the seating belt cuts into his chest, then a warm hand presses him gently back into his seat. He looks down, along the ring-adorned fingers, the dark coat covering his wrist, up his arm to jimins face totally concentrated on the road. Yoongi slaps his hand away.

“don’t try to do the seatbelts job, do yours and drive better,” yoongi hisses at him. jimin throws him a withering look but doesn’t answer. Yoongi is still shuddering from his sudden touch. His palm was warm and soft against his chest, reassuring. Making yoongi feel safe comfort for just a second, then he realized who the hand is attached to. His cheeks heat up. Oh god, did he really like that? a protective gesture, from jimin of all people?

He looks over once again. jimin is fully immersed into driving slowly, but his face is a little pinched. They stop at a red traffic light. Jimins head turns, slow and his mouth opens while he does it, he notices yoongi positively staring at him, he can’t say anything about yoongis blush cause then he’ll blush more and - yoongi panics.

“why even do it, are you some dumb knothead who thinks I as a poor omega should be sheltered? The seatbelt is gonna kill my fair complexion? just because I needed someone to pick me up? I know how to sit in a fucking car seat and not fall out of it!”

Something he said must have hit a nerve because suddenly jimin snarls, obviously angry. Was it the knothead thing? Yoongi knows he doesn’t like that.

“stop with the bullshit,” jimin seethes. When the light turns green, he hits the pedal a little too abruptly and yoongi is pressed backwards. “kindly shut up for the rest of the drive yoongi-ssi.”

Yoongi opens his mouth to protest or throw more insults at jimins head, he doesn’t know, but he’s distracted when jimin takes the next turn horribly sharp. Yoongi holds onto the door handle, slides to the edge of the seat. There’s a dark, grim determination in jimins face he really doesn’t like. The rest of the drive the car is tinted in silence, yoongi fighting to stay still in his seat with jimin doing his best to be the worst driver in history. He doesn’t do anything too risky, but every time he needs to slow down he does it at the last possible second, any turn is taken much too fast to be comfortable and he even takes a slight detour to prolong the drive and take another few speed bumps. When they arrive, the rain is still peltering down but yoongi exits the car without hesitation to storm inside. His books are dry, his own clothes and hair only slightly wet. Without jimin he would have been soaked. He doesn’t thank him for it and jimin smugly grins the rest of the day as he watches yoongi boiling in his own bad mood.

☼

-Beep-

-Beep-

-Beep-

Ah, finally! Taetae I-

Jimin. They are busy in jungkooks room but taehyung forgot his phone here.

Stop calling, the ring tone is annoying.

Hey? What if this was an emergency?

What if I just had a car accident and want to speak with my best friend before I die?

It doesn’t sound like you are dying. are you?

Of course not, I can drive perfectl-

Thought so, bye.

Beep ----

☼

After jungkook and taehyung met, their life follows kind of a routine. They go to their lessons, to the gym, to the park or whatever, and about ninety percent of the rest of the day they spend together. that also shapes yoongis routine. He’s introverted and likes being at home a lot. he changed his bedroom into a music studio mostly, where he produces or writes papers for college. The only things hinting it’s actually his bedroom is his actual bed crammed into a corner and the wardrobe with his clothes. Yoongi spends most of his evenings here, at home. he doesn’t really have any friends to meet up with or hobbies that require going outside.

It only becomes a problem when the jungkook-and-taehyung routine starts to include jimin. After the first few disastrous encounters both of them decide they should give up on trying to get along. It’s the only thing they seem to agree on. But for the sake of their friends, they also don’t murder each other. Everyday after college, when taehyung comes over, he brings jimin with him. it’s fine as long as the three younger ones hang out in the living room. yoongi seldomly joins them there, only hears them joke around and talk while he hides away in his own room.

He comes out for dinner though, later. either he cooks or they order take-out. yoongi decided he hates cooking for jimin. taehyung and jungkook are fine, ideal even, they gulf down every bite like starved wolves and praise him to heaven. Jimin does nothing of the sort. The first time it happened was the worst.

Jungkook was used to yoongi cooking for the two of them, knowing he enjoyed it. he also knew to not point that fact out to yoongi. taehyung was delighted as well when yoongi announced he’d made kimchi stew and helped him set the table. but jimin, that jerk, sat down and watched yoongi cook contently. Then, when everything was served and yoongi put food on everyone’s’ plates (a smaller portion on jimins), he’d spoken up suddenly, a petty smirk already contorting his face.

“already a good, refined omega, huh? Serving dinner in an apron.”

In shock, yoongi looked down at himself. he’d really still been wearing the black apron with the cats on it jungkook gifted him after he spilled something onto his clothes for the fourth time. jungkook was already digging in and loudly slurping, didn’t really register jimins words. Yoongi hadn’t said anything, his blood rushing at the words. He hated being called anything like a good omega, especially associated with any stereotypes there were. He would never be the ‘typical’ omega househusband, waiting at home, cleaning and cooking and taking care of the children. He didn’t want to be, and any one of his personality traits hinting that he’d actually enjoy it he actively ignored. Jimin pointing something like that out so harshly struck a chord in him.

Undisturbed by yoongis rage, jimin took a bite then, swallowed. Looked up at yoongi and had the audacity to make everything worse. “now if it only tasted good as well,” he mumbles. For a moment yoongi thought he heard wrong, nobody ever told him his food was bad, but the triumphant smile on jimins face told him otherwise.

He’d ripped the apron from his body then, took his own bowl and disappeared into his room. faintly he could here jimin saying something along the lines of, ‘I don’t know what happened’.

That incident dictated any further meals together. whenever yoongi cooked anything at all, or baked, jimin would sit there and eat it while grimacing every time he took a bite. Yoongi always told him to not eat then, but jimin would state to be hungry and eat anyway. The ultimate, worst thing was that yoongi wanted jimins approval. He didn’t know if it was an unfortunate omega thing, or his liking of any praise, but he hated that jimin didn’t seem to like his food. Just once, he wanted to hear him admit that yoongi was a good cook, an amazing one even. He wanted to see his eyes light up the same way jungkooks did when he took a bite of a cake yoongi made, wanted to see a similar blissed out face to taehyungs when he tried his pasta for the first time. He wanted it desperately and would never get it. yoongi even investigated what jimins favorite food was and made that, knowing it tasted heavenly.

While jungkook and taehyung ate until they seemed to burst, jimin nitpicked and ate slow and stopped after one plate. Yoongi had been seething then, staring holes in jimins head until jungkook complained about the sour tangerine hanging in the air.

Sometimes they got take-out, when nobody had been in the mood to go grocery shopping or yoongi was busy with assignments and tired to the bone. Take-out was much easier on yoongis mood because nobody (jimin) could nag at his cooking skills that way. Although jimin managed to pick up beef about his food choices then too.

Dinner is a constant struggle to yoongi. but it wasn’t the sole problem, he could cope with someone (jimin) not liking his food. (he couldn’t, really.)

The other thing was, that over time, they somewhat accidently started hanging out by themselves. Despite taehyung and jimin being attached at the hips, he was still jungkooks boyfriend and jimin was decidedly not. A few weeks, jungkook still shy, it was okay. Sometimes they’d kiss and cuddle while hanging out with them, but that was it. then, under taehyungs care, jungkook lost the rest of his childhood innocence and shyness about him and it got worse and worse. Taehyung was also extremely open about anything regarding his life. Especially towards jimin.

Since jimin and taehyung arrive together, the couple is rarely alone at home. they start with just taking some alone-time anyway. Somewhen during the day they’d start getting giggly and handsy and obviously horny until they disappeared together into jungkooks room. jimin would stay behind. He always took taehyung with him in his car because the beta dormitories where right between his own flat and theirs. So it didn’t make sense for him to go home. often taehyung and jungkook also finished after one or two hours, cleaned up and came back out to have dinner with them or play another round of mario kart. Which left jimin alone in their flat for hours sometimes.

What worsened that, was the layout of the apartment. The three rooms laid next to each other with the living room in the middle. Yoongi likes it that way, he never heard any sounds from jungkooks room with the puffer between them and light music turned on in his own room. everything started when jimin learned that and decided that he could stop suffering with his headphones in the living room and just annoy the shit out of yoongi in his room.

The three would hang out in the living room until taehyung and jungkook made their way out. then jimin would come, knock at yoongis door and step in without waiting long for an answer. Closing the door behind him, he confined them into a relatively small room together. yoongi always greeted him with a heartfelt ‘get out of my room’ that got ignored.

If yoongi was doing college stuff jimin would mostly leave him alone, only sit down somewhere and do his own shit. He respected that; it was almost nice to not be alone. And jimins scent would slowly permeate the air, summer and berries subtly poking at yoongis nostrils until he’d be blushing because he liked it too much.

But if yoongi was doing anything else, jimin would start bugging the shit out of him. he’d be reading peacefully until jimin would start singing and talking loudly about nonsense, destroying his concentration. He’d clean his room only for jimin to comment on every single piece of clothing or knick-knack yoongi had, and the comments were never really nice.

When yoongi was producing, jimin would start out quiet, sit next to him and watch as yoongi worked. By that point yoongi would get a little nervous, a little annoyed. Working with jimin next to him was weird. A part of him wanted to impress, create a melody or beat so good even jimin wouldn’t be able to find a fault. Another part just wanted to throw him out of the room. each time, he did nothing and tried his best to concentrate anyway.

Jimin, despite staying quiet most of the time and either dawdling on his phone or watching him, commented often enough that yoongi was almost waiting for it. he never outright made fun or insulted the quality of yoongis songs. Which was good, yoongi wasn’t so sure he wouldn’t punch jimin for it. but he also never really received a genuine compliment. It was only… suggestions and things pointed out.

The baseline slaps, that would be good to dance to, the lyrics are really deep; were the nicest things jimin let out. yoongi acknowledged those with a nod and moved on, ignoring the giddy dancing in his belly because jimin had liked it so much that he had to say anything at all, no matter if it was really nice or not. But more often he complained about yoongi using too many swear words and curses and crude jokes and innuendos. Which- maybe- he was right about, one time a professor asked yoongi to please keep his song PG13 this time, but whatever. Creative freedom and all that jazz.

So, with things being like they are, jimin and yoongi spend lots of time together. much more than he thought they would. It gives him plenty of time to look at jimin and pick up things about him. every day he comes over yoongi is reminded just how beautiful the other looks, which is just plain troublesome. He shouldn’t be thinking about that, shouldn’t be deterred. Jimin in a mere fly annoyingly flitting around his head. there’s no room to develop any positive feelings. Not about his gorgeous face nor his toned body.

From time-to-time jimin is dating someone. Apparently, he’s bi or pan or something because from listening to the others talking, yoongi picks up a few of their names. Each time the relationship ends after some weeks and jimin is kind of grumpy for a day, then he goes back to normal. Yoongi really does not care about jimin being in relationships at all. he only ever feels pity for those unfortunate souls being with jimin for longer. But maybe he’s nice to them, he’s nice to taehyung and jungkook after all. it seems only yoongi was discarded from being his friend from the very start.

Yoongi spends too much of his precious lifetime thinking about jimin, honestly. He tries not to, but it proves difficult when jimin is the one who’s eliciting the most emotion from him every day. Not good ones, yeah, but it’s kind of intense. He always gets riled up so quickly, blood boiling and insults sitting at the tip of his tongue, body posed to fight. It’s not very omega-like, but this time yoongi is not pleased with that. he’d rather be able to keep his cool and brush jimins presence off easily. But just the sight of him makes his brain go into fight-or-fight mode, ready to use any opportunity to attack possible and waiting for jimin to strike at the same time. it’s quite exhausting. They act almost civil when taehyung and jungkook are there, which is not saying a lot. it’s just that after insulting each other with no abandon, they chuckle humorlessly and brush it off as mere jokes. Not the ideal way to deal with this, but it’s working out so far.

Sometimes jungkook tries to get them to be real friends. that like each other and hang out willingly. It’s not working much at all. It’s confusing and in the end, it makes everything more difficult, worse. Especially the RM concert changes things for them, and yoongi is not sure if he likes it.

☼

What do you want?

Calm down, you look like a fuming dumpling,

it only misses steam out of your ears. I'm bored, they are fucking again.

Stay in the living room?

But I'm bored?

But I don't want you here?

Too late.

Yah! Don't rub your scent all over my rug!

Jimin!

Knot-head!

Arghghghghg!!!

☼

 “hyung?”

Jungkook sounds a little too quiet, too timid, too careful. Something is wrong. Yoongi gets up from his bed where he’d been lounging around and stumbles into the living room, rubbing his eyes sleepily. He’s wearing a huge sleep shirt hanging from his frame to his thighs and almost covering his shorts, blue with kittens on it that fly around with angelic wings. A fun birthday present from jungkook himself, who’s currently lying on their couch. Only taking one look, yoongi know what’s up.

They’ve known each other long enough for yoongi to know that this is jungkooks sick face, his I’m-ill way of lying down. he’s feeling like shit, yoongi can see that just from the way his body doesn’t look as strong and assuring anymore, his eyes closed and a small pout on his lips because everything is too exhausting. His cheeks are red. The sight jump-starts yoongi into action. he’d been sleeping in today but taking care of a sick jungkook is much more important.

Turning into a whirlwind of concerned questions and analyzing eyes, yoongi runs around their rooms. Soon he has jungkook bundled up in blankets on the couch, his room airing out a little, the heating up and medicine ready. when he forced jungkook to swallow it he takes away his phone and puts on Iron man to entertain him a little. And if he falls asleep and wakes up later, he’ll know what’s happening anyway with how often he saw the movie. Jungkook only puts up a mild protest but ultimately lets yoongi be.

His scent is ill as well, but not so much to really worry yoongi. he tries to give out some soothing pheromones but that usually works best with scenting and yoongi doesn’t want to get ill as well. maybe he could give him a blanket of his own and scent that. it won’t heal him, but yoongi know from experience it at least soothes the mind and by the looks of it jungkooks head is aching a little. He starts boiling some water for a soup before going back and crouching down next to jungkook.

“should I scent something for you?”

A lazy, thankful grin spreads on jungkooks face. “thank you, but it’s not necessary. taehyung is coming over.”

yoongi nods in understanding, although jungkooks scratchy voice makes him worry even more. He probably shouldn’t talk so much. or talk at all. “okay. Relax and try to nap a little, I’ll get some soup ready for you. and no talking!”

jungkook does not seem to share his opinion. “I texted taehyung and he-“

“no talking! You’re not straining your throat under my watch,” yoongi interrupts him firmly. With any other alpha he’d probably have to hear some weird scolding now, but jungkook sheepishly nods. It doesn’t seem to mean he will actually stop talking though.

“it’s just he-“

“nope, not listening anyway!”, yoongi singsongs and gets up. jungkook opens his mouth one more time but yoongi starts singing nonsense to show him it’s fruitless. Finally the younger gives up and sags back into his pillows, eyes half closed while staring at the tv. Pleased for now, yoongi gets to work in the kitchen, chopping some carrots and onions. Every few minutes he throws a look through the hallway to jungkook, but he’s always motionless on the couch, only a light cough disrupting the movie from time to time.

It all bites him in the ass minutes later when taehyung actually shows up. with jimin in tow, because apparently he’d been sleeping at his best friends apartment last night and jimin was so kind to drive him here and then worried so he came up with him and yoongi is standing there in his ridiculous shirt, his pale thin legs out that don’t hold a candle against jimins, bed hair and unwashed face with still puffy eyes. this is the worst.

When taehyung sleeps here and it got too late to leave, jimin does as well. He’s always banished to the couch in the living room, which is probably not the best for his back. But never once did yoongi ran out of his room like that, always changing into something better and trying to tame his hair beforehand. The only time he looked worse was when they first met.

Inwardly, yoongi curses his stupid ass for not listening to jungkook, for not putting on some more clothes. Taehyung luckily ignores his presence safe for a quick greeting to hover around jungkook and scent him. he’s a beta so his scent isn’t strong, but jungkook seems to light up a little only at his presence already. yoongi smiles to himself, for a split second forgetting there’s another person standing in the hallway and seeing everything. Until he hears a camera click.

“hey!”

“just some blackmail material,” jimin says in a soft, assuring tone. As if that sentence would calm yoongi down, coming from him. “nice shirt. They didn’t have it in your size? Like, extra small?”

Jimin is a master in spoiling yoongis mood. Yoongi, trying to appear confident about his appearance despite not being it at all, lets his eyes rake up and down the other omega, to find anything he could critique. Anything.

Ripped jeans that look entirely too expensive to be worn by a college student and sadly something yoongi would also love to have in his closet. And while he would like to shorten jimins ego, he won’t be a hypocrite. Not fully. A bright yellow shirt tucked in, only showing off the form of his shoulders. which are… nice. His hair of course the opposite of yoongis, actually brushed. Then he sees it, his last reprieve. Jimins shoes.

He always wears fancy dress shoes, no matter where they go. (It’s not hot, it’s definitely not hot, why would it be). Yoongi grins, ready to fight.

“you’re literally two inches taller than me, and only because of your heels. Are you compensating for something?”

Quite pleased with himself and jimins irritated face, yoongi leans against the counter, smugly grinning. Jimin opens his mouth, obviously ready to hit back. but he changes his mind and points at the pot behind yoongi.

“your soup is trying to escape the pot, be a good omega and stop it,” he suggests. Before he ends the sentence yoongi already turned around to turn the stove down, but he almost screams in frustration at the rest. Trust jimin to find the thing he dislikes about himself the most and prod at it to no end. Luckily, yoongi knows the same about jimin. it’s almost funny, because it’s the opposite to him.

Yoongi hates being called a good omega, especially if he indeed was one. Society and its standards can kindly fuck off, he’d like to do with his life as he wishes. Sadly, things he enjoys include too many typical omega treats, and he’d had to hear about that far more than a few times. Any alphas and even betas he dated in the past liked that he cooked and baked, that he knew how to properly clean and do laundry and sometimes even found some kind of peace in doing a plain task like that to calm down. they liked squishing his cheeks, liked him not being very tall, but not his broader shoulders. they loved that he enjoyed being the little spoon, getting fucked or manhandled.

A huge part of yoongi hated the reality they were all trapped in. The part that was a rebel, wanted to fight teeth and claw, be free from any expectations and restrictions of society. He wanted to make everyone else see that he wouldn’t back down, that he was strong and smart and worthy of more than waiting at home. that his personality is not as simple as they assume. He’s a complex being and much more than his ability to cook and be nice. But that was only a part of him. the rest of himself was, to his demise, calm and shy and liked being cute. liked cooking and napping and cuddling into the embrace of someone stronger, liked someone else honestly caring for him, at times staying pliant and good and being praised for it.

In the past he’d hated himself for that. Being the cliché he wanted to rebel against. That so much of him was exactly what they thought he was. now he was much stronger and kinder with his self. Knowing that there were so many diverse parts of himself and he could be a rebel against society whilst cooking for jungkook. yoongi may be a somewhat typical omega, but he never liked that fact too much.

Totally opposed to him, jimin seems to like being an omega, a ‘proper’ one. He looks the part even more than yoongi with his soft face and smaller frame. Sometimes (around anyone that is not yoongi) he likes to act shy and coy, let others try and flirt with him. but jimin is, deep down, not quite the perfect omega. Not at all, really.  For one, he’d never actually, fully and easily submit to somebody else. Maybe in bed, yoongi has no idea about that, but society sees omegas as the pliant house workers who do what their alpha says. From bickering with him to no end, yoongi knows by now that jimin hates being told what to do. he takes suggestions and helps if need be but it’s always his decision. As it should be. of course he helps with the dishes when taehyung asks him to, but if anyone would try and order him around like a house maid, they’d be single faster than yoongi can lie down to sleep.

Jimin is also not actually shy at all. he’s a menace and yoongi saw how he dresses and carries himself when they go out clubbing. If jimin ever was shy, those days are over long. As a dancer he’s also strong and yoongi heard from jungkook he’s actually good at taekwondo. (Which is totally not hot at all!) he also knows that jimin can’t cook that well and is definitely behind on his house chores perpetually. Taehyung told jungkook who told yoongi who laughed at jimin about it later. jimin is also obviously obsessed with being taller, quick to jump at insults, he has possessive tendencies and yoongi saw him growl at other people more than once. a few times it was himself, sometimes a too persistent guy at a club.

So when jimin calls him a good omega, yoongi just has to call him a bad one. An eye for an eye, an insult for an insult. The soup saved, yoongi turns around to triumph over the younger.

But jimin already left. That asshole went into the living room in the middle of their ‘conversation’. Yoongis chest hurts. he can hear taehyungs and jimins voices faintly, they try to be quiet because of jungkook. jimin knew he’d get an answer from yoongi. And before even listening jimin decided it wasn’t important or funny or annoying enough to wait for it. They may ignore each other occasionally, especially when they accidently pass each other in college, but once they start talking it only stops when someone else interrupts them or one of them wins. And now he just left, discarded yoongi. fuck him, honestly.

Yoongi ignores the trio in the living room to his best abilities and finishes the soup. It only has to simmer for a little longer and he can give it to jungkook. but before he does that, he really needs to change his clothes. Making sure nobody is turned to the hallway he sneaks past them into his room and shuts the door quietly. Taking a short break to breathe in and out a few, slow times, yoongi calms down. no need to get riled up. jimin isn’t worth it. he’ll give jungkook his food and retreat to his room until jimin or both of them leave. Everything is fine.

Yoongi changes into jeans and a new, long-sleeved shirt. He feels better right away, less exposed. Dressed properly he makes his way back. the soup is already done, so yoongi readies a bowl of it and carries it over for jungkook. taehyung is sitting on the floor next to him, petting his hair softly. Jimin is sitting in the armchair. Which is usually yoongis place. Is he provoking him? he can try all he wants, yoongi won’t react. Just ignoring him is the best way to live.

“kookie sit up, you gotta eat something to get better,” yoongi orders. Jungkook makes a sniffling voice that’s probably an agreement, then lets taehyung help him into a sitting position. Yoongi sets the bowl down, it’s still steaming slightly. Instead of freeing jungkooks arms from the blanket burrito, taehyung takes it upon himself to feed jungkook. He even blows onto the spoon and everything. Yoongi watches for a few seconds.

“It’s good hyung, thank you,” jungkook croaks. Yoongi only nods, not protesting him speaking this time, he doesn’t want to give jimin room to call him a nagging omega. at least he’s eating the soup without looking in pain from swallowing. Taehyung feeds jungkook another bite before looking up at yoongi with a grimace. Did something else happen?

“yoongi-hyung, jungkook just mentioned the concert today…”, taehyung trails off, voice getting quieter. For a moment the sentence confuses yoongi. then he remembers their plans for today, he forgot because of jungkooks illness. One of their favorite underground rappers is performing at a club and they got two tickets. Jungkook won’t make it.

Crestfallen but trying to not let it show for jungkooks sake, yoongi nods. “yeah, I’ll just sell them quickly.”

“you should go hyung! I’ll feel bad if you don’t,” jungkook protests. He hasn’t closed his mouth from the last syllable when taehyung pushes the spoon into his mouth again. yoongi has to grin despite himself.

“are you sure? He’ll be there again, we can go later together,” he offers.

Yoongi really wants to see RM perform again, the last time being already two years ago now and the other just at the start of his career. He’s so much better now. he feels bad about leaving jungkook behind here, and deep down he also doesn’t want to go alone. Crowds aren’t his thing, especially not when they are loud, excited and mostly drunk. Being in the middle of that alone is somewhere up in his top five nightmarish social situations.

But jungkook seems determined. There’s a little fight in his eyes now, trained on yoongi. he won’t back down judging by his pinched eyebrows. “we can go later again, but you go today as well.”

Yoongi relents. How could he not, if it’s jungkook asking. Against all his beliefs and principles about alpha-omega relationships, yoongi would totally do anything jungkook asks.

“and please give the second ticket to jimin and go with him.”

Well, maybe not. He’d do a lot. a whole lot, illegal things and dangerous things and strenuous ones. But this crosses the boundary yoongi didn’t even know was there. While he squawks, offended and shocked, jimin remains still in his place. He’d been suspiciously quiet throughout the entire conversation yoongi notices now, it should have been a sign. He obviously already knows. Yoongi didn’t give much on it, but jimins face had been a carefully crafted neutral at best. and his scent is definitely a little less sweet than normal.

“why would I do that?”

Jungkook hesitates so long taehyung sighs and stops feeding him altogether, leaning back and starting to talk instead. “because we don’t have to sell the ticket then and you two can hang out more? Also you wouldn’t have to go alone.”

Yoongi contemplates if there’s any possible sentence with which he could express that the one thing he’d hate more than going alone it going with jimin without sounding like an absolute asshole, but then decides he doesn’t even have to try to know it’s not possible. He concentrates on jungkook instead. it seems the idea is from him. “I have no problem going alone. Is he even interested in underground rap?”

From the armchair, jimin scoffs lightly. Yoongi really hopes he doesn’t like being ignored and talked about like that while being in the room. taehyung throws him a look but doesn’t say anything.

“enough to enjoy a concert hyung,” jungkook answers instead. he pouts at taehyung until he gets another mouthful soup. “and I’ll worry if you go alone.”

“I can handle myself just fine even if I’m an omega,” yoongi hisses. Deep down he knows jungkook didn’t mean that aspect. jungkook just knows him very well and is aware that yoongi is not very strong or a skilled fighter or anything else that would help him in the streets late at night, alone. Without even including his subgender into that he has all the reasons to worry.

Jungkooks face turns a little disappointed. “I didn’t mean that, and you know it,” he says decidedly. Yoongi sheepishly casts his eyes away, feeling bad of accusing jungkook. “I meant-“

He looks around, at taehyung, at jimin. doesn’t want to say it in front of them. in the end, he mumbles it almost to himself only, but yoongi can decipher his words clearly. “the crowd.”

Ah, of course. Jungkook remembers his panic-attack induced teenager years and strong going aversion to crowded places. It’s why he’s not an underground rapper as well, but only a producer. Yoongi sighs. He can’t argue against that. and he can’t say he wouldn’t worry, being in jungkooks position. But accepting jimin? and why does the other not protest as well? how did they get him to agree?

“please hyung?”, jungkook interrupts his thoughts and turns his cutest puppy eyes onto yoongi. his nose is too red, his hair disheveled. None of his muscular body pokes out from the blankets, making jungkook appear really small and vulnerable. It tugs at yoongis heart. Fuck.

Hours later he sits in the passenger seat of jimins fancy car, once again. his life is taking some terrible turns lately.

“as I can’t imagine you like this either, why are you actually coming along?”, he asks jimin not even a minute into the drive.

Jimin clicks his tongue as if it’s torture to even have to acknowledge yoongis presence in his car. He doesn’t even look away from the road while answering. Well, actually that’s kind of a good thing. Yoongi doesn’t want to die in a car with jimin. would they have a joint funeral? Would people think they like each other, going to a concert and all that? even if yoongi wouldn’t be there to see it happen, that scenario gets a fast no.

“because taehyung asked me to. If I didn’t do this they’d worry and mope all evening and then pester me for weeks about it. One evening with you is a small sacrifice.”

That sounds about right. yoongi can imagine them perfectly, bringing it up every time they see jimin, ‘do you remember that time…?’ the disappointed frown, pinched eyebrows. Jungkook whining all evening because yoongi doesn’t answer his messages every second. that’s probably the one alpha-like trait he totally has – being overprotective sometimes. He’s not a dick about it though, so yoongi can accept it. unless it forces him to hang out with jimin. maybe he does have to put a stop to it.

For the rest of the relatively short drive, they don’t speak. jimin drives and yoongi stares out the window. If he forgets about jimin for a minute he’s actually really looking forward to the concert. It would have been better with jungkook of course, they could have yelled the lyrics at each other, held hands to not lose each other in the crowd and jungkook also works as a human shield to any strangers coming too close. as an alpha and omega hanging out together, they often get mistaken for a couple. It makes sense, they are close and smell like each other and jungkook is touchy. And it may be not true, but they never quite disliked it.

Now jungkook doesn’t really want to be flirted with because he has taehyung. but even before that, they didn’t like being hit on by random people while trying to enjoy a day as best friends. if yoongi went out with jungkook he wanted to be with jungkook, not other people he just met. It may dampen his chance to meet someone for himself, but that’s okay. He’s just single, not a lonely wallflower desperate for romantic love.

Minutes later jimin parks the car and they get out. yoongi stops himself from criticizing his parking skills only because he doesn’t really want to argue right now. together they go to the club and get in the line of people with tickets which moves relatively quick. The air is starting to get chilly and yoongi shudders in his leather jacket. He didn’t really dress up because it would make it look like he dressed up to go out with jimin. but he couldn’t not wear his favorite leather jacket.

Next to him jimin scans the people, the rather sketchy street, the run-down cars lining the road. The club is called ‘Noise-box’ and the inside looks exactly as one might expect it to look. Yoongi has been here a few times now, mostly when there are rap concerts or battles, also the occasional normal night to just let go. He doesn’t interact with jimin until they are inside. The room is dim with too bright flashes of stroboscopic light aggravating the eyes, sweaty bodies and too many scents. Hell, as far as yoongi is concerned.

Turning around he notices jimin looking around the room with a slight grin. He looks right at home here, with his ripped jeans and absolutely sinful shirt, crop jacket and slicked back hair. Someone right next to him rakes his eyes up and down jimins body only to lick his lips disgustingly and turn to his friends. yoongi gets a sudden urge to cover jimin up somehow, but he won’t analyze that further. But the image makes him remember the second time they met, when jungkook and taehyung dragged them to a club similar to this one and tried their best to make them be friends. it didn’t work of course, but it made everything worse for yoongi.

He watched taehyung and jimin dance while jungkook was away getting drinks, just for a moment, until they got too close, and it would have been obvious. jimin looked too hot to be true. And for a second yoongi regretted being an asshole about his few minutes of lateness. But jimin knew why they were meeting up. the whole point was to meet yoongi officially and erase the damage done last time. but he didn’t deem it important enough to be punctual. Yoongi however had been anxiously ready twenty minutes early and then annoyed jungkook into hurrying up and when jimin showed up lazily smiling and striding across the floor while people flirted with him he realized that jimin didn’t care. Not about him being jungkooks friend and about the fact that he insulted yoongi the week before and he certainly didn’t care if yoongi liked him. while yoongi had wanted jimin to like him.

In conclusion, he did the right thing.

He threw him another quick look and decided it would be best to separate right away. they’d drive back home after the concert together, that would be enough torture. Yoongi may enjoy the riled-up bickering between them sometimes and use it as an outlet for any anger he collected during the week, but he did not enjoy spending his precious concert time with someone who hated him. not his cup of tea, why spoil a good concert with that imbecile hanging beside him?

But after one single step away, jimin grabs his arm harshly. Yoongi flinches and shakes his arm free desperately, glaring at jimin. above the bass-heavy music he hisses at him: “what do you want?”

Jimin steps closer, too close. he did certainly not use any scent blocker and the familiar smell of berries makes yoongi scrunch up his nose. “jungkook said I should stay close to you.”

Yoongi snorts. “as if that’s my problem, fuck off!”

He turns away and quickly leaves before jimin can grab him again. his skin still tingles where they touched. He shoves through the crowd towards the bar and gets a whiskey to sip on before everything starts. He stays by the bar while drinking, watching over the crowd lazily. He’ll move towards the stage when the actual show starts, not now. in front of him everyone dances and jumps around and grinds on each other, pheromones and lust strong in the air. yoongi sticks his nose into his whiskey glass and breathes in. he’ll have to take a long shower after this, he can’t inflict his bed with that many smells. While waiting, he searches the crowd to maybe find a familiar face. RM could hang out in the front before his set, or another rap enthusiast he met at previous shows.

To his demise, the only one he spots his jimin. across the room, he’s dancing very suggestively, has his own admirers staring at him with hungry eyes. he winds his body around, raises his arms and swings his hips seductively. No wonder taehyung always says he’s perfect at dancing. Suddenly they lock eyes.

Jimin doesn’t stop moving, runs his fingers down his own chest, pulling his shirt down even more, he smirks and fixates yoongi with his alluring eyes. yoongi swallows, feels heat coming to his cheeks. jimin won’t see with the colored light, but he panics anyway and turns on his heels to stare at the bar instead. for a moment he thinks he can hear jimins tingling giggles above the crowd, can feel his amused gaze on his back. how embarrassing, being that influenced by mere eye contact. Luckily for him, the opening act starts minutes later, and he’s distracted.

They go through a few of guys and girls who are just starting out and get to perform only two songs. Some of them have potential, could make it further if they put in the work. but some are just plain bad. Yoongi watches and finishes his drink. He’s not drunk, but his limbs feel slightly lose, his thoughts a little more carefree. The atmosphere, lights, scents, alcohol, everything pulls him under until he’s just a part of the masses, just someone standing there and watching. He’s comfortable, relaxed.

Towards the end he leaves the bar in favor of the actual dance floor, carefully shoving himself through others until he reaches a good place. It’s the middle, with a perfect view of the stage. Not the very front where the obsessed groupies will scream and fight claws and teeth to be noticed. Then the rest of the hardcore fans will build a bulk, they aren’t as desperate but also don’t care if they hit someone while dancing. Yoongi stays right behind that.

Everything goes well until RM comes on stage. The screams get louder, people push forward to get closer, pass yoongi on their way to the front. The alpha on stage starts out with an old classic and yoongi seesaws on his feet, mouthing the lyrics with him. everything is well, until a group of yelling girls shoves forward. They stay together, even hold hands so they don’t lose each other. Unfortunately they push yoongi forward like that and he lands in the front, much too close to the stage. Fuck.

People swarm yoongi from right, from behind, left, he gets pushed forward and strong scents waft into his nostrils, making him cough. From then on it only gets worse. Yoongi starts to look at the people around him, trying to avoid getting decked by an elbow. everyone else jumps and dances carelessly, screaming lyrics into yoongis sensitive ears while he just does his best to not get beaten up.

Some asshole shoves him to the side and yoongi yelps, his heartbeat spikes. Someone’s hands land on his waist, tugs him backwards, he stumbles and closes his eyes, trying to breathe in properly but his lungs constrict, and his limbs go rigid, he tries to shove away the others before he really panics. RM is the furthest thing from his mind as he fights his way to the side but can’t, long blond hair catches in his hands and he apologizes, panics more when the alpha girl he just accidently pulled on turns around and growls at him, she looks terrifying and yoongi tries to stumble back but there’s no space. His skin feels wrong, itches, there’s sweat on his forehead and his hands feels clammy. This is exactly what he was worried about, what jungkook worried about.

Right before yoongi really starts screaming and hitting his way out, someone pulls on his elbow. he resists only for a second before realizing he’s being pulled towards the wall where he wanted to go anyway so he lets himself be moved. Until he breathes in deeply when they leave the thick of it and the smell is familiar. jimin.

Yoongi opens his mouth to rage at him but jimin snarls and pushes him to the wall, then stands close behind him. it creates a bubble of space, the people in front of yoongi pushing away, towards RM, but nobody behind him pushing as well because jimin builds a sturdy barrier. Next to him someone dances flailing limbs and all, but everyone is so focused on RM spitting bars they don’t cage in yoongi anymore. jimins smell is familiar and unsettlingly comforting. A few seconds of slow breathing later, yoongi can properly hear the music again and feels better, his chest free.

The first song finishes and RM greets the masses happily, making even more of them run forward to maybe exchange a word with him. Yoongi stays against the wall, where he’s safe. He turns around to jimin briefly and inspects him. his hair is out of place but somehow it makes him look even hotter, there’s sweat on his arms and face. yoongi gets the very weird and intruding idea to lick it off. He shakes it out of his head.

“don’t look at me like that, you were panicking,” jimin explains himself.

“and since when do you care?”, yoongi hisses, not denying what jimin said in the heat of the moment. He’s embarrassed of his own thoughts that jimin doesn’t even know.

“I don’t,” jimin hisses. RM starts his next song and the music gets louder, screams picking back up. jimin takes that as a reason to lean completely into yoongi space, almost hooking his chin over his shoulder to speak into his ear. A shudder runs down his back. “jungkook will kill me if you come home smelling so disgustingly like spoiled fruit. Just stay in front of me and thirst over RM with the rest of them.”

He sounds pretty pissed. Yoongi didn’t even notice his scent turning sour that much, but when jimin mentions it, he does realize. Sadly, he doesn’t have a very good answer to that. jimin is right, jungkook would notice if yoongi didn’t actually have a nice time. which means he has to accept jimins help. ugh.

“just for the record I’m not thirsting over him!”, yoongi spits back to jimin after a few seconds of booming music but silence on their part, deciding not to protest his presence at least. it’s already embarrassing enough that he pushed jimin away earlier and then needed him to come to his rescue. “I’m appreciating his skill.”

“well appreciate his skill now and make sure you smell better, this is rancid.”

Yoongi snarls at him but turns back to the stage. At fist jimins presence at his back occupies too much of his mind and he can’t fully enjoy the concert. He takes note of every movement, jimin shuffling on his feet, jimin tilting his head to see better, jimin reaching out and fending of someone drunk almost stumbling into yoongi. his breath hot and loud in his ear, his scent fresh and nice. Without realizing it yoongi calms down, only by concentrating on jimin and the music.

After a few more songs he manages to ignore jimin mostly. RM performs new songs and yoongi barely has time to appreciate a good line before he already spits out the next, he tries to remember the best ones while listening to him, he even dances a little. A happy smile creeps onto his face, barely registered by him. the concert is fantastic, of course it is. No one comes too close to him anymore, he can breathe comfortably. He’s part of the crowd, but not getting drowned by it. at one point, RM performing his softer songs like Seoul and Tokyo, the crowd starts swaying and pointing their flashlights. Yoongi closes his eyes for a moment, seesawing from one foot to the other. The bass thumps with his heart, RM’s deep voice reverberating through his mind, soothing and gentle. His words comforting yoongi, familiar and kind, about feelings yoongi has too, about feelings he had in the past. Sadness and love and longing, and yoongi melts with the music, sways and turns in circles because he feels like it.

He opens his eyes later, when the song fades out, still turned backwards. In a split second he registers jimin staring at him with wide, hungry eyes but after a short blink jimin is looking at the stage. He must have imagined it. not caring much at the moment, he continues turning and dancing. The flow changes and RM starts his next song, a feature with a singer about love. Yoongi grins happily and starts singing with him, fucks up the English lyrics, playfully tilts his head back.

He feels safe and happy throughout the rest of the concert. Even when it’s over and they leave, neither of them start to argue again. they don’t talk at all, yes, but it’s working for now and yoongi doesn’t want to ruin his night out. outside it’s now really chilly and they hurry to jimins car, heads bowed down and hands shoved into pockets. Inside the car their silence continues. it’s as if they both decided wordlessly to just tolerate it for the night and behave, to not fight at all cost. Better be mute than arguing.

Jimin rams up the heating, making yoongi sigh in happiness when hot air blows against his feet and face. he leans back and closes his eyes, trusting jimin to drive carefully. The car smells so much better than the overpacked club. It’s only jimins scent in here, so strong it even drowns out everything jimin and yoongi brought in with them right now. just summer and berries, warm and easy. Yoongi almost falls asleep even before they arrive.

Together they hurry up the stairs. inside the apartment, yoongis mood gets a fat setback. Taehyung is still there. But instead of sleeping in jungkooks bed like he normally does, he’s in the living room, probably to not get ill as well. on the couch, where jimin normally sleeps. They both stop and stare at the sleeping man lying there, unaware to what he just doomed them. or he was aware and decided to not care. Fuck.

In slow-motion they look up and at each other. Both are tired and exhausted. Yoongi contemplates to send jimin home for a second, but he doesn’t have the heart. Jimin drove him to the concert and helped him, he didn’t destroy his mood earlier in the car and he brought him home again. sending him across the city this late in the night would be pretty shitty.

Jimin stares at him. “Can I sleep in your bed?”

As yoongi already contemplated everything, he gives in quickly. “you wait here and shower before you set even a toe into my room,” he instructs him and quickly runs into the bathroom.

In there he panics for a whole two minutes before actually doing anything. jimin and he are gonna share his bed. they’ll fit, it’s not too small. But sharing a bed is… intimate. Yoongi only ever shared his bed with jungkook, and that like three whole times. He’s totally gonna be weird. What if he developed any weird sleeping habits? What if he touches jimin accidently? He won’t be able to sleep at all.

As quick as he can he showers and brushes his teeth, then disappears into his room wearing his pajamas. He changed the shorts to long sweats. Jimin is still in the living room but he can hear him go into the bathroom. Yoongi quickly scans his room but can’t find anything embarrassing lying around so he just slips under the blanket and presses himself against the wall.

Despite his anxiety, he notices how tired he really is upon closing his eyes for only a few seconds. The concert had been long and the day, with taking care of jungkook while taehyung and jimin hovered around here, had been exhausting. Yoongi decides to not fight it. it’s better if he falls asleep now, he thinks. with jimin lying next to him and even sharing his blanket he’ll stay awake for hours. Can’t have that.

The next thing he registers is waking up. so he did fall asleep before jimin came in. it feels like he slept a whole day, his limbs tingly and heavy, eyes glued shut. Breathing in slowly, he registers the heavenly smell. He feels comfortable in his own bed that smells of him usually, of course. But this is a whole other level. He can’t remember ever waking up to something so warm, soothing, entrancing-

Jimin. He’s still here, must be. The smell wouldn’t be as strong, and yoongi thinks he can feel the presence of a warm body next to him, can faintly hear someone breathing, a subtle heartbeat. He’s almost unwilling to open his eyes and wake up for real. They’re totally gonna fight again and he really doesn’t have the energy.

Maybe he should just pretend to sleep until jimin leaves. Yeah, that’s a good plan. Just not face the problem lying in his bed right now, not think about him and let him know he really fucking likes his scent. He could turn around though, maybe that’s better on his nose. yoongi has to let go to do that though. he has to let go. Unclasp his fingers and tilt back his head, distance himself from the warmth he’s holding-

Fuck.

Suddenly he’s very much awake and opens his eyes just to come face to face with the reality that he’s holding jimins arm captive and has his nose buried in his shoulder. Without thinking he lets go and pushes himself away, backwards. There’s not a lot of space between him and the wall. When he arrives there seconds later, the blankets askew and his vision swimming with a tear because he yawned, he realizes he doesn’t like it. The wolf part of him especially, wants to stay with jimin and his scent and feel him because that’s safe and right and makes him feel warm inside. Yoongi shakes his head.

“I almost thought you’d never wake up grandpa,” jimin says.

He’s awake! Yoongis eyes rake up and down jimin. he’s lying on his back comfortably, head turned to him, phone in other hand. Which means he’d been awake for longer than yoongi. before he can analyze that further, his brain gets the whole picture in front of him. jimins hair is mussed up, his cheeks a little puffy, lips pink in the morning sun. it looks cute.

What’s decidedly not cute is the rest of his body, because jimin had the audacity to sleep in yoongis bed in boxers. Nothing else. Yoongis eyes are pulled in by all the bare skin. thighs that could crush him, thick and beautiful, his bare chest slim but muscular, toned shoulders and a hint of abs. the chest yoongi is staring at moves, shaking a little. Jimin is laughing. at him probably.

Using all his willpower and remaining braincells yoongi closes his eyes. anything to not stare anymore. this is a trap. That there’s no blanket covering him anymore is not yoongis own fault because he rolled away, but jimins evil plan. He wanted to make yoongi stare to embarrass him later. gossip about it to his other friends, the omega he slept in bed with being totally captured by his body. how funny. Yoongi feels his cheeks heat up.

Jimin isn’t saying anything. he’s waiting there like some predator ready to pounce when yoongi makes a move. And he’ll have to make a move, soon, because he can’t stay lying in bed with jimin for much longer. Especially not when the other is practically naked. It was already embarrassing enough that he cuddled jimins arm and now he panicked at the sight of naked skin too. Jimin must think he’s some blushy virgin.

“Get dressed,” yoongi whispers. He blinks one eye open to find jimin still lying there without a care in the world, smugly grinning at him. his phone is forgotten by his side, his hands in the middle between them. He’s slightly rubbing the one yoongi had hugged. Maybe it fell asleep and is tingling now. quickly, yoongi shuts his eye again.

“who would have thought that this is what gets you,” jimin jokes, “and actually I’m kinda warm, so no.”

Yoongi clicks his tongue. he doesn’t need jimin pointing it out for him to know that this is by far the most mortifying thing yoongi has done in front of him. ogle his almost naked nemesis? Deadly. he better face the music. Or, in his case, the chest. yoongi opens his eyes and keeps them strained on jimins forehead, because he can’t look into his eyes either.

“just leave, I let you sleep here, didn’t I? now you can take taehyung and go home.”

“why would I, it’s still pretty early and I don’t feel like getting up just yet,” jimin teases. He’s clearly enjoying this. yoongi contemplates the logistics of it but trying to climb over jimin to escape won’t end well, he’s not that coordinated in the morning to avoid touching completely. And this is his room, not jimins! He shouldn’t be the one to leave.

“just go!”

That sounded a little too whiney. Jimin giggles and yoongi refuses to acknowledge the adorableness of it, glaring still at his forehead. He needs to touch up his roots soon.

“your bed is really comfy though,” jimin sighs out. then he stretches, slowly, spreads his arms and legs in starfish shape, inching closer to yoongi more and more. Yoongi suppresses a whimper at the way his arms look. How can someone have such perfect skin all over? does he sunbath naked to make the tan even? Yoongi almost yelps when a single toe nudges against his blanket-cocooned body.

He has to put a stop to this, at any cost.

“please just leave me alone!”, he asks, letting a little of his true desperation show on his face. surprised, jimin stops stretching and blinks. A thoughtful smile graces his face then and he sits up. yoongis eyes shift down to his own shirt and to the blanket right in front of him, where he’s safe to look. It’s also why he doesn’t notice jimin leaning over.

“you’re almost pretty when you beg,” jimin whispers into his ear, raspy and dark, sending a full-body shiver through yoongi. before he can even start to breathe again, jimin got up and strides out of the room, picking up a bundle of clothes from the floor. Yoongi is left with the view of his boxer-clad ass imprinted in his mind.

His next breath comes out shaky and rough. Fuck. He didn’t think waking up today would be that dangerous. He knows he’s still flushed red, his body hot not only from the thick blanket around him, his mind still tired but trying to catch up with everything that happened quickly.

He thinks their short conversation, if you can call it that, through again. waking up, scattering away and baring jimin, then consequently staring too much only to start asking jimin to leave, jimin saying that. a pretty short few minutes, actually, but they leave yoongi rattled anyway. Why is he that flustered? It’s just jimin. just-

No. jimin is attractive, but that’s it. yoongi hates him. totally. He’s an asshole. The times he’s seen him being nice and cute with taehyung have been a fever dream, mere imagination. and yesterday when he immediately came to help yoongi despite him being an ass before, that was also a sudden possession of a nice ghost, not jimin himself. a horrible personality in a perfect body. not more. No need to blush or stutter or- is his scent sweeter than normal? Yoongi knows when omegas are attracted to someone, their scents often change, just a little, sweeter and alluring, hoping to appear even more attractive. That’s not what’s happening though. yoongi is not attracted to jimin.

They wouldn’t work anyway; they are too different, they don’t fit. Yoongi knows next to nothing about jimin anyway. He’s smart and usually has good comebacks, but that’s it. and there’s not more to hope for anyways, because jimin is a shallow person with pretty fake smiles that won’t lure yoongi in anymore. so there’s no problem, nothing to worry about. There are no feelings happening. Nope. Everything is fine.

Yoongi takes a few deep breaths and slowly pushes himself out of his corner. The bed is still warm, from where ji-

The real question here, is why yoongi woke up like that. because jimin had already been awake, and therefore must have been fully aware of yoongi holding his arm and nuzzling his face in. he actively decided to not pry yoongi off of him, let him continue sleeping. Why would he do that though? jimin doesn’t do sweet things like that. his only redeeming quality is his scent. Jimin let him sleep… because that way he could stay in bed longer. He just said it himself. that he’s not a morning person is obvious, and he knew yoongi would throw him out the second he woke up. that’s it. he just didn’t want to leave the bed.

Yoongis bed is perfect after all. he chose the mattress after careful and long consideration of the softness and everything. Anyone would want to stay lying here. this is not about yoongi, or jimin. it’s just a nice bed jimin didn’t want to leave. Which means jimin isn’t secretly nice and yoongi doesn’t have a crush on him and everything is fine. it won’t happen again anyway.

☼

Don't you have a paper due? You avoided game night with that excuse.

Yes, I do, what about it?

You're lying on your bed like a pancake, doesn't look like you've been working.

Are you saying I'm lazy? I'm taking a well-deserved break.

Sure?

Yes! The fucking documents and tabs are still open on my computer! go look!

now why would I possibly want to do that?

Just leave my room then!

I don’t think I will. As you’re not using your computer I’ll borrow it for a while!

I’m just said I’m using it!

Well not anymore, I just closed your tabs and stuff. Thank you ~

☼

Jimins scent lingers in his bed for exactly two more days and on the third yoongi changes his sheets. He just didn’t to it earlier because he was busy. Not because he liked burying his face in his pillow and inhaling that little bit of berry summer left. He also started to enjoy smoothies with strawberries and blueberries, on an unrelated note.

Against jungkooks hopes, their relationship doesn’t change much after the concert. they argue just the same as before. but there’s an understanding between them. yes, they don’t like each other, but when it’s necessary they’ll help the other. It’s a silent agreement, but yoongi can feel it. like he signed a contract to do so. If jimin complains about him cursing in his own songs one more time he’ll shove him off the chair, but when jimins car doesn’t start anymore yoongi goes and looks at the engine, tells jimin what is wrong with it and then tells him he’s dumb for not knowing that himself. it’s nice like this. not having to act polite and kind around each other, they just let everything out they think. It’s almost refreshing, facing this kind of honesty. Sometimes it stings though.

A random but cold Wednesday in early December, yoongi finds himself working late in the library. He has some papers due and he really wants to finish them soon. Last year he procrastinated like hell and handed in everything just by the last possible date. When he went home to his family to celebrate, he’d been exhausted and grumpy, any festive mood flying over his head. this year he’s gonna do everything in a more relaxed manner, take his time to plan everything out and finish the papers earlier so he can actually enjoy Christmas at home with a little more energy.

When he leaves it’s already past ten and the campus dark and empty. Almost empty, he learns, because there’s a car parked by the entrance, a car he recognizes immediately. Hearing footsteps behind him, he turns to find the owner of the car walking up to him slowly.

“hey.”

Jimins head shoots up but in the dark yoongi can’t quite make out his expression. “oh, you,” he says then, “you want a ride home? taehyung is at yours.”

“yeah,” yoongi agrees, happy to not have to take the bus or walk that long. Then he realizes how easy jimin offered, how fast yoongi said yes. Are they getting soft on each other? How weir-

“Don’t touch anything though, I had it cleaned recently.”

There it is. Yoongi finds himself smiling despite himself. arguing with jimin is familiar, comforting in a way that yoongi knows exactly what to do: give back just as harsh. He nods, then inspects the car while walking around to the passenger seat, reaches out and lets his finger slide over the sleek, spotless top part. He frowns. “The outside too?”

It’s obvious jimin had, the car is squeaky clean. Jimin throws open his door while scowling at yoongi. Once both are inside, he immediately starts the car and hot air blows at yoongi seconds later. trying to be subtle, he breathes in the summery scent deeply. A look to the right shows him jimin drinking some water. His throat bobs as he swallows, a perfect line down to his exposed collarbones. Isn’t he cold? He must have been, right? he should take a scarf if he’s staying to practice dancing that late.

“by the way, do you know if jungkook plans to go home during break?”, jimin asks once he’s done.

Yoongi watches him, cuddled back into the nice seats he’s gotten used to, while jimin shift the gears and moves them out of the parking spot into the late-night traffic. “He goes home every year, so probably yes. Why?”

“taehyung thinks about asking him to visit his family before New Year.” Jimin stops at a red light. Jungkook and taehyung already met each other’s parents, but only one or two times. With them living in Seoul and being students it’s not convenient going home that often, to Daegu and Busan.

“if it’s after Christmas Eve he’ll go definite-“

Yoongi is interrupted by jimins phone ringing. It’s a soft piano melody filling the car pleasantly. Apparently he connected his phone to the car because the caller ID shows up at the screen. Mijun. His current boyfriend, soon a month now. yoongi had to listen to the other three talking about him in length over dinner.

Jimin throws yoongi a short glance. “be quiet and act like you’re not here.” he reaches out to touch the screen.

“why are you answering then if it bothers you that I’m here?”

“he’s just calling about our one-month-anniversary this weekend, just shut it for those few minutes and look outta the window or something.”

“I don’t wanna hear you be mushy or have phone sex-“, yoongi stops talking when jimins finger touches the green telephone symbol. He’s gonna be quiet, for now. the light changes, the car moves, jimin scowls at him and his boyfriends voice comes perfectly crispy through the car’s sound system.

“hey jimin.”

“hyung!” jimin sounds almost happy. “I just left the college, I wanted to text you later.”

“ah, no need anymore,” mijun says. His voice is slightly nasally, grating. Yoongi doesn’t like him. “are you busy?”

“no. I’m driving, but the streets are almost empty,” jimin answers. he smiles at the road, something pleased about his expression rubs yoongi the wrong way. “we can talk, if you want?”

“yeah, I’m calling about Sunday. I thought we-“

“I had the perfect idea!”, jimin interrupts him enthusiastically. He almost wobbles in his seat with excitement, it’s kind of ador- nope. “There’s this new restaurant we should try, some French-Korean fusion you’d like! And you said you haven’t been to an amusement park in a while, we could go to lotte world!”

He really thought that through. Two things his boyfriend will like. Yoongi kind of wants mijun to not accept. This is stupid, they should do things they both like, not two mijun likes. Although jimin probably likes both too. Yoongi tries to look disinterested, head turned towards the window to look outside. they already left the parts with lots of lit-up stores and neon signs, now slowly making their way through the living areas. Shops still open that late are far in between, so yoongi can only inspect the windows in all the blocks blinking in different lights. But really, he’s just listening in to jimins conversation.

“uh, what?”, mijun says then, and for a moment yoongi thinks that he wants to object jimins planning because of his choices regarding only mijun. but then he doesn’t, and yoongi doesn’t even pretend to not listen anymore. “first, it’s not polite to interrupt me all the time jimin. and why would you plan that out?”

Jimin hesitates for a second, but he doesn’t seem upset just yet. “sorry. did you already have something in mind? It was just a-”

“I’m thinking about it,” mijun interrupts him and yoongi decides that he’s an asshole. Not only a little bit, but fully. He’ll have to tell taehyung to tell jimin to break up with him. “and you know I don’t like it when you prance around like that and try taking control of shit, it’s not cute.”

“I wasn’t doing it to be cute! and I didn’t know you think our anniversary date is shit to you,” jimin petulantly bites back. he’s glaring at the road now, very obviously ignoring yoongi who raised his eyebrows and stares at the screen with mijuns name and the red heart on it. his finger is itching to tap the end-call symbol.

“that’s not what I meant, and you know it. don’t be difficult now,” mijun says absolutely condescending, “but you should take my feelings into consideration here. I’m your hyung and an alpha, it’s not good to let you walk all over me and my authority.”

“authority? You’re my fucking boyfriend, not my boss!”, jimin hisses. It’s the first time yoongi heard him curse like that. between the two of them he’s the one with the curse words, and jimin does the dismissive looks and faint scoffs. It’s jarring. But really, mijun deserves much more. Apparently he’s still stuck in the last centuries when omegas just realized that it is in fact totally weird that they have less rights than alphas.

“and as your alpha boyfriend I’d really like to not be under your thumb all the time! you like being taken care of, you said that yourself!” mijun is now harsh and cold, nothing left of the little fondness his voice had at the beginning of this. yoongi sits there frozen and stares at jimin, who’s still steadily driving, like his body is on autopilot. This is almost worse than hearing him be mushy for a few minutes. Is he really together with that kind of asshole? He didn’t think jimin would tolerate such bullshit. Mijun is really taking off now, talking non-stop. Jimin just listens stoically.

“I know you’re not one of those obnoxious omegas going to protests and having weird ideas about their future! You told me you like it when I call you cute and pretty, but really this isn’t cute anymore. your personality is warped or some shit, fucked up! I thought I snatched a nice little omega and now you’re all demanding and commandeering?

“It’s like you tricked me into this! what the fuck is up with you? you’re not like you were during out first dates anymore, and it’s so exhausting? You were shy and sweet and then you do a 180° into this? What happened to you, because it definitely wasn’t me! and when you’re angry you’re dangerous, why the fuck would you literally kick me out of bed? that fucking hurt! What the fuck do you want from me! I’m an alpha, not a mind reader, and you’re breaking us apart! I really liked you.”

Mijun takes a deep breath, probably to continue his truly horrendous speech, but jimin scoffs loudly. “I thought I liked you too, but now I realize you’re a prick. I’m officially breaking up with you and if you ever contact me again, you’ll regret it.”

Before jimin can even reach out, yoongi already pressed the end-call symbol. The car fills up with quietness, neither of them saying a word. Jimin is staring at the road, still driving like this all doesn’t concern him. but when yoongi looks up from the screen and at jimins face, he can see the pinched eyebrows and frown, his eyes not wet with tears yet, but glaring.

It’s kind of awkward then, and yoongi scrambles for something to say.

“at least that wasn’t phone sex,” he bursts out suddenly and immediately realizes that maybe joking isn’t the right option, but it’s too late and when jimin whips his head around and stares at him wide-eyed he just continues, inwardly begging himself to shut up. “unless that’s some kind of roleplay you do, nothing against some fake hate sex, right? I mean, 18^th century marriage fight? Not my thing for sure, but-“

Yoongi stops himself. jimins expression is a whole other level of weird because there suddenly is no expression, he turned back to the road quickly buts his eyes flit towards yoongi often enough. He doesn’t seem upset or amused or anything at all. breathing in deeply, yoongi registers that his own scent is a little too intense, making it obvious he’s agitated. Jimins own scent isn’t very prominent, but the hint of it yoongi catches is definitely not pleased.

“uh- I’m sorry. congratulations on breaking up with him though, good riddance. He was definitely pulling you down, his views are archaic, really, better you noticed now than in a few years when you’re married and pregnant and realize that actually he makes you sit in a chair and knit socks all day-“

When jimin finally lets out a snort, yoongi stops. At first he thinks jimin faked it to yell at him right after, because was yoongi really just that insensitive asshole joking around while jimin just lost his boyfriend? And while he was the one to do the breaking up, at the very least he just found out a person he was actually intimate with is an asshole. And it’s never nice to find out you’ve been actually very wrong about another person. Yoongi feels his heartbeat pick up, his mind scrambling for an apology, completely disregarding that it’s jimin he’s with right now and making him angry is what yoongi usually wants to do.

“god, you’re horrible,” jimin gasps out then and starts giggling. His torso sways towards the window, his head half tilted down half not while he peers at the street. he’s driving along slower than necessary, yoongi didn’t even notice they slowed down during his rambling. But now jimin is genuinely laughing, loud and unabashed and his shoulders are shaking while he lets out those disgustingly sweet giggles, light, joyous music to yoongis ears. He can feel himself automatically smile back.

Jimin giggles throughout the next three full minutes and maybe yoongi joins in soon enough, overcome with a sudden, euphoric feeling. his heart is thumping loud and fast, his vision is laser focused on jimin and he can’t pull away from him, his body is warmer than before. he’s overheating, in a good way.

He never made jimin laugh before.

Not genuinely anyway, he earned himself quite the few taunting chuckles. But not like this, never. Jimin laughs often, especially with taehyung and jungkook because the three of them together are nothing if not ready for the next dumb joke. He laughs less when yoongi’s with them, busy concentrating on either insulting him, finding a way to insult him or getting insulted by yoongi. not much to delightfully giggle about there.

Now jimin is laughing because of him, and yes, yoongi just totally embarrassed himself when it should have been jimin. that break up was a tiny clusterfuck in itself and if jimin would have cried now yoongi wouldn’t even have said anything bad, really. he’s an ass to jimin, but not that bad. He’s not competing for most horrible person of the year, just for most-annoying-to-park-jimin.

By the time jimins laughter tingles out they already arrived in yoongis street. They say nothing as jimin parks the car, but this time it’s not awkward or hostile and tense. It’s somewhat comfortable. Just two guys sitting in silence after laughing together. something in yoongi churns around, something deep inside he can’t be bothered with right now.

They don’t get out of the car right away though. jimin isn’t moving at all, he’s staring out the front and even his side profile is stunning and he also looks like he wants to say something. yoongi waits.

“do you really think that?”

When the questions comes, suddenly and with a full head tun on jimins end that brings yoongi suddenly to face him and his deep eyes, he doesn’t even really understand what jimin wants. In his mind they’ve been sitting here for hours and nobody ever said anything, until jimin turned and faced him. “what?”

“that it’s,” jimin hesitates, purses his lips. though it doesn’t really seem to be that he’s unsure about what to say, rather that it’s yoongi he’s talking to. His eyes wander over his face, down his body to where yoongis hands unconsciously fiddle with his jacket’s pockets, up again. it seems to be enough for him to continue. “that it’s good that I broke up with him. That what he said is wrong. Everything.”

“Jimin, he’s a dick! you better not listen to anything he says!”, yoongi immediately says. He leans forward, at once able to look into jimins face without feeling heat spread over his cheeks or being overcome with that weird feeling that always makes him look away. behind jimins eyes there’s an unsure glint. “You don’t really think he’s nice, right? a good boyfriend?”

“no no, I know he’s... not,” jimin waves him off with a grimace. “It’s more about. My parents. And my future, and- anyway. I- he’s… he’s right, I do want someone to take care of me, but I’m not some typical omega no matter how much I want to be-“

Yoongi decides to intervene right away. no matter how much of an ass jimin can be to him, he could never let another omega think anything like what jimin apparently thinks. “Stop stop, already so much to unpack there!”, yoongi leans back in his seat again, “Why do you want to be a typical omega? Isn’t it better to just be yourself?

Jimin scoffs and opts to look towards the front again, yoongis inquisitive stare now unanswered. “But nobody wants myself! I don’t want to be treated like they treat me when I am myself. Just like he did right now! I don’t want to be an outsider, the weird one, the tough omega nobody likes. I like being pampered often, someone doing shit for me or buying something, presents and flowers or being praised and whatnot- but apparently being who I really am means I can’t have that in their eyes!”

Jimin gets louder slowly, breathing heavily. His stare is kind of mean and yoongi’s glad he’s looking outside and not at him. “That’s kinda… dumb. sorry. and what do your parents have to do with that?”

“They are… traditional,” jimin sighs, “Want me to marry a good alpha and have children, take care of everything at home like my mother does. And it’s not like I explicitly don’t want that, I do, just- not like this. not with those kind of people, cause it never works out. and my parents, they, they don’t really think anything not traditional is really working. they want me to be happy, in the long run. And they know an alpha taking care of me would do that. they think that, anyway.”

A lot to unpack there. It’s just a basic, prime example of what thousands of parents teach their children everyday. Yoongis own parents kind of think so too and had a hard time getting used to yoongis ‘revolutionary’ views. They aren’t very happy with many of his choices, but they accept him as he is- a few disappointments sprinkled into a kind of nice son. He could do much worse, yoongi thinks. his parents love him still even if they don’t always understand him. it’s not a problem, he doesn’t understand them either. it doesn’t sound like jimins parents even know about jimins predicament though. that he’s maybe not really that happy with what his future looks like right now. yoongis gonna have to hold a speech, and he’ll try his very best to convince jimin to take the risk of fighting his parents on this. he doesn’t quite know why it’s so important to him though, that he’s almost desperate for jimin to understand.

“You know jimin, maybe you should think about what you really want. You alone have to live with every single choice you ever make in your life,” yoongi starts, and it’s a heavy start but a good one, words flowing out of him steadily while he’s stares at jimins head to somehow imprint his own knowledge and experiences there, “and sometimes we don’t even get to choose, and those situations are shit. Like your subgender, I know enough people who’d change theirs in a heartbeat. But there are enough things where what you want and choose matters, so put your hands on that. change what you want to change and keep what you want to keep. If you want a relationship with someone taking care of you without suppressing half your personality because it’s not enough ‘omega’ like, then find someone who won’t! I don’t know who you’ve been dating all the time, but pick a non-asshole next time it might surprise you and be exactly what you’re looking for! Do you really want to be a ‘good pretty omega’ all your life? Live with someone who only wants you because of your subgender? not because of everything else you are?”

“no!”, jimin protest and finally turns back to him. he’s frowning now, his scent a little uneasy. “but I’ve never met someone like that!”

“Wrong!” yoongi has to grin while he points at himself. “what about me? I’d never make my partner be something they aren’t. and I’m also not a typical omega either- or look at jungkook! does his behavior scream ‘alpha’ to you? doesn’t taehyung love him just as he is? we’re not what society thinks of us because of our subgenders. We are who we want to be, and if you don’t really want to be a goody two shoes omega then don’t. there are plenty of people who’d like to date someone like that and treat you much better than him.”

Jimin still seems sceptic, he raises his eyebrows at yoongi and shifts in his seat. Obviously no convinced yet.

“Don’t look so unbelieving,” yoongi huffs. “Like, have you ever dated anyone nice? An alpha or beta?  or even an omega at all?”

Looking away suddenly, jimin clicks his tongue. It’s a very clear no, even without words. That’s sad. But yoongi can’t say he hadn’t met people like jimin before. omegas or even betas and alphas who think what the past dictates is the only way, who listen to their dead-on traditional parents and choose out of obligation rather than because of what they want. People who never had one relationship that lasted long and was happy, didn’t end in yells and crumbles. But it’s often difficult to break out of that cycle.

“look, I’m not here to judge your experiences, but they are severely limited,” yoongi offers, trying to sound nice, not like he’s lecturing. He’s trying to help, not make jimin angry. “Broaden your horizons! Go out! hook up with some omegas!”

“With an omega?”, jimin exclaims, shocked. He furls back around to yoongi, eyes wide.

Yoongi stares back equally surprised. “Oh god, don’t tell me you only ever had sex with those knothead alphas? Did you ever even top?”

It’s probably the first time yoongi has ever seen jimin blush. Soft pink on his cheeks and looking quite vulnerable, jimin is a sight pulling yoongi in, making him want to hug and comfort and offer advice and help and a shoulder to lean on. He shakes himself out of it. this conversation is already a lot for them, they never talked seriously before.

“you’re missing out, seriously,” he quickly adds, turning his own gaze away from jimin. The blush is really fucking adorable. But yoongi can’t look at it too long. Silence spreads, yoongi at a loss of what to say and jimin probably too. He’s got a lot to think over already. out of the corner of his eyes yoongi watches as jimin stares out into the dim street. There’ just another car in front of them, nothing interesting. Remaining like that for a few minutes, yoongi shudders. The heating had turned off with the car and it’s not enough to sustain yoongis preferred temperature anymore.

Finally, jimin gives him a hum and climbs out of the car. It could be in agreement, just acknowledging what yoongi said, a noise to shut him up for now. yoongi hopes it’s the first. he doesn’t want jimin to continue beat himself up and date assholes. Just because he’s jungkooks friend now and that would make him sad. Not because he likes jimin or anything.

Together they walk into the flat. Taehyungs shoes and coat are both there, which means jimin will stay here too to drive them home tomorrow. yoongi doesn’t really care at the moment and clambers off to change into pajamas. He’ll shower in the morning, he didn’t so anything sweat-inducing and his limbs are dead-tired. When he leaves the bathroom, jimin is leaning against the wall beside it. the hallway is dark so yoongi can’t see his expression at all.

“I just broke up with my boyfriend and had to listen to you talk for more than a minute,” jimin whispers, sounding much more like himself, “so for compensation I’m getting your bed tonight.”

Yoongi may have felt sympathy for him earlier, but there are limits. “forget it.”

“we’ll share it then,” jimin quips and slinks past him into the bathroom. He shuts the door in yoongis face.

Muttering curses under his breath, yoongi tracks into his room. jimins bag is already lying innocently on his comfortable chair. It’s so gonna reek of jimins summer berry tomorrow. yoongi is tempted to throw it off to the ground just to be petty, but he decides he’s too tired. (It’s not because he likes jimins scent, really not.) He puts his own college stuff away and falls into bed, rolling himself up into a blanket burrito. He won’t throw jimin out verbally, but he can make sure the other knows he’s not exactly welcome here. This is yoongis bed, the place he’s most at home, most comforted. Where he spends his heat, where he’d make his nest. He doesn’t have one build right now so it’s not as bad but letting someone else into their bed at all is not something light for an omega.

By the time jimin comes back, his natural scent mixed with yoongis lemon shampoo (why his and not jungkooks?), yoongi has half-dozed off and the remaining energy he has can’t be wasted on emotions. All he can do is blink his eyes open and watch as a half-naked man tiptoes through his room, coming closer and crawling onto his bed. the lack of light obscures anything about his body and yoongi, in the back of his mind, is glad. That would have woken him up, surely. The disturbance of his bed is weird, especially because it’s jimin. they aren’t friends but they are close and jimin smells nice. Yoongi at least won’t gag having his scent here.

Jimin doesn’t even hesitate to peel yoongi out of his blankets. It’s jarringly cold for a second, yoongis body already used to the comfort and warmth under the blanket, then jimin slips in and tucks it down around them. his skin brushing yoongis arm is warm and soft, so yoongi doesn’t complain. He’s already half nodding off again. jimin stops moving soon enough and settles, a warm and sturdy body in yoongis bed. any annoyance he feigned before already left his mind and he hums, content to drown in jimins scent until he falls asleep. He quite likes the mixture of jimin, natural summer and berries, his own shampoo, and his own scent. It’s fresh and comforting, soft. Alphas scents usually are a little harsher, spicier, but with both of them being omegas everything is cozy and soothing. Yoongi sighs and buries his head in the pillow pyramid in front of him. he could get used to this, his sleepy mind provides, and he can’t find the energy to suppress the thought effectively. Before he knocks off, he thinks he feels jimin shifting closer, cuddling deeper into yoongis bed, yoongis scent.

In the morning yoongi wakes up alone, but there’s a warm spot right next to him, so close it’s not possible they didn’t touch during the night. After waking up fully and registering jimins lingering scent, yoongi decides to forget about it quickly. Better for his health, he concludes. Later in the kitchen he finds jimin using yoongis favorite mug (he totally did that on purpose judging by his smirk) to drink his coffee and starts cursing him out. they use the ten minutes before taehyung wakes up to complain about each others sleeping, yoongi claiming he didn’t get a wink of sleep at all. (He slept better than most days. jimin can’t know.)

☼

Ok listen.

Imagine you got a concert and the perfect song choice,

but there's just something wrong about it. What do you do?

I don't have time for your imaginary scenarios.

Just answer!

Probably make a cover?

Exactly! So, I have a dance recital and wanna use "seesaw",

 but I need a version without swearwords and a little bit slower.

...

Come on, you know how important the music choice is.

And I already had an idea about the choreography!

You're annoying as fuck. Mayyyybe I’ll find time to do something.

Yay!

Oh and, maybe hurry up, it's next week.

Yah!

☼

Despite what yoongi thought, it doesn’t end with that second time. he also thought the first and last time would be the same, but soon he has to learn that jimin, now that he had tried the much better substitute that yoongis bed is to the couch, would never sleep on said couch again.

Taehyung and jimin stay over often, even during the last weeks of December. All four of them started to gather around in the living room with their college papers and tried memorizing things or typed furiously away on their laptops to create papers that actually sounded like they knew what they were doing. Sometimes taehyung and jungkook, as photography majors, stepped out and took photos, sometimes jimin only joined them after practicing in the studios for hours, exhausted and sweaty and drenching the room in ripe berries before he showered. Yoongi only left for his own room to compose sometimes.

They all liked suffering together in the living room instead of doing it alone. The despair in their friends faces created a smidgeon of consolation, a feeling of togetherness, of not being alone. Yoongi often opted to prepare healthy snacks, but on the occasions he couldn’t be bothered jimin picked up things from a bakery or ordered something.

After their talk in the car, jimin hadn’t breached the topic again and yoongi hadn’t dared to either. jimin was probably thinking about everything anyway and yoongi said what he thought he had to say. He did notice that jimin didn’t start dating anyone new during that time. It was just a mere, accidental observation he made because jimin was at his flat all the time and talked to the other two. His own arguments with jimin were thriving, both throwing themselves into it with vigor and passion.

But it didn’t matter how much jimin criticized his meals, how many jabs yoongi made at his studying methods, how often jimin scoffed when yoongi so much as raised his head, at the end of the day when jungkook and taehyung had disappeared into their by now almost shared room, jimin refuses to sleep on the couch. Yoongi didn’t really know why they’d always wait for the other two to go to bed, they certainly knew what was happening anyway. they couldn’t very well hide smelling slightly of each other, the glaring absence of a second used blanket or anything else that’d indicate someone sleeping on the couch. Or the very simple but blatant fact that jungkook and taehyung respectively had seen jimin coming out of yoongis room in the morning.

He'd picked up to go jogging no matter what the weather was and slipped out of the warm bed by ungodly times, leaving yoongi to wake for a minute and then fall back into slumber when he learned that it was only jimin leaving. After the jogging, jimin came back with a red nose and red fingertips. He’d either steal only yoongis favorite mug, or when he had the unfortunate luck of being in the bathroom while jimin came back, the mug and the coffee yoongi definitely made for himself and not for him. two weeks into it, the semester almost ending, yoongi lost a little fight in him drowning in assignments and just reverted to making two cups of coffee in the morning to avoid losing his own. It worked well in that department, but jimin immediately took it for granted and began to complain about the way yoongi made that coffee.

At night, when he wanted to sleep in yoongis bed, jimin was much nicer. He let yoongi use the bathroom first and then, when yoongi had already cuddled under his blanket, he’s show up in the room’s door with a pout on his face, complaining about this or that, a cold drift in the living room, not liking sleeping alone, whatever. Sometimes he practically guilt-tripped yoongi into not protesting, mentioning how he’d had a long day at practice and the couch hurt his back and he’d surely flunk his performance tomorrow should he sleep there. Yoongi didn’t want to listen to complains later that he was at fault for a bad grade, so he just agreed each time.

Jimin would then slip into his bed, and they found themselves lying close together in the middle of it, falling asleep easily. Yoongi came to expect jimin showing up in his room at night and didn’t try to sabotage that occurrence much. He didn’t try to hog the complete, honestly rather large blanket, didn’t try and hide all the pillows but the one he was using (maybe one time and jimin stole that pillow from him, forcing yoongi to get up and get one out of his cupboard where he hid the rest), or spread out like a starfish so there wasn’t any space left (maybe two times, jimin just took his arm and lifted him up, shoved him to the side and lied down in the same manner, not even budging when yoongi tried to do the same, forcing him to sleep curled up into a tiny ball beneath jimins arm).

Shortly before the semester ended, taehyung suddenly remembered having to do an assignment for one of his creative photography classes. It had to be with at least one person in focus and taehyung immediately decided to thematize friendship, platonic love, and needed two friends. he couldn’t very well photograph himself and jimin, so the role fell onto jungkook and yoongi. as the good hyung he is, bribed with puppy eyes and take-out and a back massage, yoongi agreed.

Already the next day found them all gathered in the living room. they had to seize their chance and use the good weather, the bright sun shining natural light into the room. yoongi complained about the unnecessary presence of jimin only quietly to himself while the other didn’t once lose his triumphant smirk throughout the shoot.

Taehyung had thought of a whole concept and got clothes from all four of their closets and the arts department, creating a few outfits they’d have to wear. The first one ended up being completely in dark blue. The sweater yoongi got was from the arts department and sadly worn by someone before who had a very distinctive smell of something acid. At least yoongi imagined in real life it would be acid, but the remnants clinging to the fabric were already enough to have him breathing shallowly. Everything started out easily enough, they had to stand next to each other with neutral faces, lit up by the sun while taehyung flitted around with his camera. Jimin sat on the couch eating cookies yoongi had baked the day before and watched everything play out. He’d said previously the cookies were too sweet for his taste but yoongi still had to watch him eat about half of them since yesterday.

When they could finally change clothes yoongi practically ran into his room to do so, not even looking at the bundle taehyung pressed into his hands to wear next. that’s why he only noticed in his room that the bright yellow, loose sweater belonged to jimin. he’d seen him wear it before and the smell was of course very strong. Yoongi took a deep breath, summer and the sweet taste of berries flooding his senses, causing a shudder to run down his spine. Only after telling himself to calm the fuck down and stop being a creep he changed into the outfit, completed with bright blue jeans and a bucket hat.

Traipsing back into the living room, he finds jungkook already done and huddled around taehyungs camera with the other two, all staring down. while taehyung points something out for them, jimin is the only one noticing yoongis entrance. He looks up slowly, eyes seeming to stick to every line of yoongis body. He’s staring hard. He probably doesn’t like yoongi wearing his sweater. Jimin never meets yoongis eyes, because he stops with his eyes on yoongis chest, frozen still.

Until taehyung notices his friends’ odd behavior and looks up as well, nudging his side, eyes flicking between jimin and yoongi. “what is it?”

Jimin blinks, seemingly pulled out of his thoughts harshly. “he looks like a dumpling, I got hungry.”

“you’ve been eating my cookies all day,” yoongi hisses. A dumpling, really? unconsciously he brings a hand up to his own cheeks and walks over. Time to hit back. “can we hurry up, I want to get out of all these stinky clothes.”

“oh, of course hyung!”

Taehyung positions them again however he wants, takes his photos before giving them even more clothes. By the third outfit jimin starts commenting, apparently realizing that it’s the perfect opportunity since yoongi has to keep his mouth closed unless he wants the photos to look weird. According to jimin, his hair looks crispy, his legs like those of a chicken, it’s funny when he stands on his tiptoes to look into jungkooks eyes, he looks constipated while trying a serious face. the others of course take it as good fun and giggle around, not really noticing that yoongi is miffed. Or that jimin doesn’t say anything like that about jungkook. It’s not that yoongi is insecure about his appearance, or that it’s a sore spot at all. people have told him he looks hot or cute or pretty often enough that he knows jimin is just trying to pick a fight again while having actually nothing to fight about. Jimins words don’t cut deep at all, but he’s annoying none the less. And the worst is that yoongi can’t say much back. anything bad about jimins body would be a total lie and yoongi can’t even think of any insults when he looks at him.

“oh god, it wasn’t the sweater with his skin!”, jimin exclaims later when yoongi is swallowed by a green pullover. “he still looks like a dumpling! It’s the cheeks! what was that short movie again, Bao?”

Yoongi clicks his tongue and sighs deeply. His patience is at its end. “just because you look like a fucking disney prince all the time doesn’t mean you have to compare me with movie characters!”

“that’s not the comeback you think it is,” jimin points out smugly.

Growling to himself, yoongi steps forward and pulls the last outfit from taehyungs hands. it’s all black, but while he can’t discern what kind of clothes they are, he can smell jimin all over them. just like the jeans he’s wearing, the red blouse from before, the white button down. “why am I getting jimins clothes all the time?”

“be- because he’s your size?”, taehyung stutters, surprised by the outburst.

Yoongi, not having an answer because that’s true and he swims in taehyungs and jungkooks clothes, huffs to himself and stalks into his room. he can hear jimin giggling before he shuts the door. the black bundle reveals himself to be a long, pleated skirt and a lacy top yoongi puts aside for a second. Yoongi never wore a skirt before, and while per se he has nothing against it he already feels too naked with the fabric just swishing around his legs like that. lots of male omegas wear skirts and dresses, but yoongi never wanted to, doesn’t think they suit him very much. he hasn’t seen jimin in one either, but this smells like him so he must have worn it before. the image bubbling up in his head is quickly shoved aside.

Only his friends (and jimin) will actually see him wearing it though and yoongi ignores the fresh air around his ankles successfully. The top going with the skirt is even worse he learns, black lace forming flowers and leaves, pretty and delicate but almost see-through. It’s not even a little scratchy when he pulls it over and situates the long sleeves and the collar, the fabric soft and smooth. Curious how he looks, yoongi turns to look into his mirror. As predicted, his skin shows up everywhere, even his nipples are kind of visible. The fabric hugs his torso almost too tightly, accentuating every tiny curve, especially his waist where the skirt begins and falls prettily over his hips. Objectively, the outfit looks really good, sexy even. The problem is, that yoongi never wears things like that and feels unnecessarily exposed and dressed up and really a little like he’s a fraud, only remotely looking fine because of the outfit.

Breathing in deep and slow to calm down only brings another overwhelming whiff of jimins scent with it. yoongi stops himself from imagining jimin in this very outfit because the image leads to jimin first peeling him out of it, the piercing gaze he always adapts around yoongi on his bare skin, the black fabric gliding off with a quiet rustle. With trembling hands, yoongi smoothes down the skirt carefully, pets down his hair neatly.

Suddenly someone knocks at his door. has he been in here that long? Still distracted by everything, he just says ‘yes’. He didn’t expect the one getting him to be jimin.

“we’re waiting, did you get lost in your own apartment?”, jimin spits out even before the door swings open fully. Yoongi barely suppresses a surprised squeak. He’s not ready to face jimin in this, but there’s no choice anymore and he turns around, the door opens fully and there’s jimin, a half-eaten cookie in hand as his eyes find yoongis body. something shifts.

Yoongi can’t quite put his finger on it, but this time jimins stare has a very different note to it and he squirms under his eyes, feeling himself blush. To deflect, he fights back. “did your last braincell get lost in your body? it doesn’t seem to be where it’s supposed to,” he says and tips his head with one finger, smug and acting with a confidence he definitely does not possess.

There’s no immediate answer from jimin. only his eyes indicate he’s there at all. trained onto yoongi. it almost looks like he’s enjoying the view, a lot- yoongi watches as jimin swallows dryly, his pupils glued to yoongis chest. Faced with a total lack of reaction to his words, yoongi huffs and decides to put it behind him quickly. He walks over to the door where jimin still blocks the way.

Getting closer, jimins scent gets stronger, and yoongi realizes what exactly he noticed earlier. jimin is, at least a tiny bit, turned on. His scent is betraying him, too sweet and heady to pass as normal. Yoongi stops right in front of him. his heart pounds, his cheeks are red, but he’s feeling more confident than ever, because jimin is obviously affected. And yoongi likes that, likes it very very much. It puts them on a more equal footing, because until now yoongi thought only he found jimin attractive, but jimin not him. obviously that was wrong.

Yoongi smirks and taps jimins chest. “you’re being obvious. look somewhere else, I’m not a piece of meat.”

It finally pulls jimin back into the world where he can take part in a conversation. He scoffs and steps out of the way, although his eyes still don’t leave yoongi. “It’s always sad when such a pretty body is wasted on an idiot.”

“Thanks for the compliment,” yoongi whispers more to himself and wooshes past jimin. he can only hope his own scent didn’t make it obvious that he likes jimin liking him. his body. whatever.

Before entering the living room he barely registers jimin calling out to him, just so he can hear it but jungkook and taehyung won’t. “a great ass on an even greater ass, the irony!”

“whaa, hyung! You look hot!”, jungkook greets him with. Yoongi smirks and does a tiny twirl for him. He didn’t notice back then but bickering with jimin blew off any nervousness or insecurity he had about wearing the lace top. not even all the exposed skin bothers him that much anymore. jimins reaction was unequivocal. And the familiarity of fighting him definitely distracted yoongi. he manages the photoshoot easily with jungkook (who wears a similar lace top and wide-legged pants, looking really hot as well) and taehyung complimenting him the whole time. jimin only shortly joins them before leaving to make some tea. Yoongi looks after him for a moment. He has no idea why jimin chose to leave. It can’t be because he doesn’t like yoongi in those clothes after all.

Yoongi is still glad when he can change back into his own, comfortable and opaque and baggy and warm clothes later. he cuddles into the couch and jungkook while they share some well-earned food. Taehyung sits next to them and already looks through the photos, as the due date is in a few days. jimin disappeared to some meeting he claimed to have, but to yoongi it looked more like fleeing a scene of crime. Later that night he learns his room still smells of jimin with a hint of arousal. Despite the cold he opens the window and waits under his blanket until he can’t smell anything but himself. indulging that kind of scent is dangerous.

Only a week later they all go home for Christmas. Taehyung and yoongi, both from Daegu, go there together and only separate at the train station. Yoongis holiday stays completely eventless. His parents and his brother are the usual, kind but probing for news on the relationship front (since his brother married they annoy yoongi even more), the presents exactly what he told them (if he doesn’t give them something specific to buy he ends up with useless junk). Satisfied and surely weighting a few kilograms more than before he goes back to Seoul right after the new year.

Jungkook and taehyung both fall into the apartment a day later and insist on cuddling him for a whole movie to make up for the separated time. the semester starts out almost the same as last year. There’s just one glaring difference. Not that it bothers yoongi, he likes it, totally. He’s more relaxed this way, has his own space not invaded that often, doesn’t have to share his bed. two weeks in, he asks taehyung anyway.

“by the way, where’d you leave jimin?”

It’s been a few days since yoongi saw jimin, because he hasn’t shown up on Fridays and Saturdays anymore. only during the week. Comparing that with him almost moving into yoongis room before, it’s jarring. Taehyung, lying on jungkook who is lying on the couch with his head in yoongis lap, pouts.

“at work! it’s awful!”

Jungkook sighs, as if he heard that before a few too many times. Yoongi is confused, but before he can ask taehyung continues whining, voice muffled now as he buried his face into jungkooks chest for comfort. “I mean it’s good that he has a job and all, but I miss him! I can’t live seeing him only four days a week, but he works Friday, Saturday and Tuesday! And he needs rest and time for his college stuff and I can’t constantly go to the club and it’s awful! Hyung!”

Yoongi, still shocked, ignores most of that to come back to his initial question. “since when does jimin work?”, he asks dumbly. Jungkook clicks his tongue and shakes his head, which means yoongi just disappointed him with not knowing something he should know in jungkooks opinion. Yoongi never has an idea how he should know, but jungkook always acts like there was a meeting about it and yoongi just didn’t listen so it’s his fault he doesn’t know. Just because he doesn’t gossip much.

“this year? Keep up hyung!”

“it’s not like he told me?”, yoongi defends himself. “where even?”, he adds, thinking about who’d employ park jimin of all people, who can’t cook and doesn’t like cleaning and is an annoying little shit overall. Maybe something with dance, cause he studie-

“the club, ‘Sweet night’?”

The club. Jungkook must see the cogs turning in yoongis head, turning the wrong route, because he swats at his arm.

“yah, get your head out of the gutter, not as a dancer! He’s the new bouncer.”

“bouncer?”, yoongi spits out in surprise.

Taehyung pulls himself off jungkook to sit and straddle his hips instead, raising his eyebrows at yoongi. “do you think he can’t be a bouncer cause he’s an omega? I thought better of you,” he scolds and clicks his tongue. Yoongi splutters, embarrassed, wants to say that’s not what he was thinking, feels himself flush red. Then taehyung starts snickering, jungkook giggles.

“har har, funny,” yoongi huffs. He leans back to relax again, wishing the blush on his cheeks away.

Luckily taehyung takes pity on him. “jimin learned taekwondo for a long time, he’s totally capable. they were sceptic at first, but he’s doing great!”

“aha,” yoongi makes, “and why does he need a job suddenly?”

He thinks taehyung will say that jimin wants to buy something expensive, wants to save up for a world trip or it’s just a whim because why not. Instead, taehyung starts ranting about jimins parents.

“he talked to them during the holidays, subtly asked what would happen if he didn’t date an alpha at all, but an omega maybe. and they were all like, but who’s gonna take care of you, that’s weird, hope you grow out of that phase, we’ll let you do what you want now but you better come back to your senses soon! They were total assholes! Jimin even cried because of them, and I told him to not let them get to him because they don’t know the world anymore, it’s not the nineteenth century! So jimin went to them again and said he’d show them he can take care of himself and date whoever he wants and he won’t ever need an alpha. He got the job, he pays his own rent now and everything! His parents will realize their traditionalist views are outdated soon enough!”

“ah-“, yoongi interrupts him, suddenly a little uncomfortable delving into jimins family matters like that, “should you be telling me all this?”

Taehyung blinks, surprised. Jungkook joins the conversation again. “he said you made him think about all that? that what you said helped him realize some things?”

“you mean after the breakup?”, yoongi asks, now remembering that jimin told him about his parents already and that it could totally be true that this fight was partly his fault for encouraging jimin. well, in yoongis opinion it is definitely the right thing to stand in for what you want.

“yep! You know I was really glad when he told me you talked,” taehyung says, suddenly growing somber. Yoongis jaw almost drops, because why would taehyung be that happy about something simple as that? it’s not like anyone else couldn’t have told jimin those things. Probably even taehyung himself. “his parents always had a big influence on his views and life choices. They are happy with their life and jimin wanted that happiness too, so he clung to that example. But you’re both omegas with very different views and I think it really helped him to listen to yours. Me and kookie can’t really say much cause we don’t understand the way you do, but I’m glad it worked out like that. I think he’s much freer now, taking a look at how you do things and thinking about it. he also stopped dating those hopeless idiots!”

Yoongi stares, too surprised to answer. Jungkook can’t sit up with taehyung on him, but he tries turning around to yoongi anyway. Yoongi just can’t take him quite serious with how he’s blinking up at him with big eyes. “you know what hyung, you should totally follow jimins example and learn some things from him as well!”

“what?”, yoongi exclaims, on the edge of offended, because while jimin definitely had problems with his ex-boyfriends and his parents and letting his subgender dictate his life, yoongi doesn’t – he lives the way he wants to no matter what society thinks of him being an omega. His parents just have to deal. “I’m perfectly fine with how I am!”

Jungkook scoffs, sits up and pulls taehyung off of him so he can look into yoongis eyes. “hyung, anytime someone else points out that you’re doing or enjoying anything remotely typically omega you explode!”

“no I don’t!”

“you do!”, taehyung leans over jungkook and fixates on yoongi, “and everyone knows, that’s why teasing you is so easy for jimin. He knows you’re fussy about that.”

Yoongis tsks, “I only don’t like people saying that I enjoy it because I am an omega! And jimin can go suck a dick.”

“you’re so deep into your revolutionary and uprising mentality that you set off if anyone mentions you’re good at taking care of people at all!”, taehyung argues while rolling his eyes. yoongi can only stare back, offended that maybe, maybe taehyung is right. he knows he’s kind of difficult about that.

In the end, he settles on a simple argument that bests every other argument ever brought up. “you’re stupid.”

Taehyung snorts.

“you are!”, jungkook starts anew, obviously not finished with lecturing yoongi. While letting out his passionate rant, he leans forward more and more. “you can’t deny it! jimin and you aren’t very ‘typical’ omegas at all, the majority of omegas isn’t. But while jimin doesn’t like being different and tried to suppress everything that would make him stand out, you do the same thing reversed! You just can’t cope with being remotely like everyone thinks you are because you think it proves that they are right with their prejudices about omegas. But being like that you deny yourself so much you actually like, so get over yourself! Jimin changes, he accepts himself much more now and he’s happier with it.”

Silence settles, jungkook breathing heavily as his mouth, in a tiny frown, finally stills. Taehyung and yoongi both stare at him.

“and by the way,” he suddenly adds, “your stupid fights with jimin are exactly about that! you don’t understand each other that easily so instead of trying to, you ignore every tiny thing you could appreciate about the other and bicker all day cause it’s fun and it’s less vulnerability and work!”

Yoongi flushes. Why would jungkooks start with his and jimins relationship now? That got nothing to do with any of it. Also, his accusations aren’t true. Yoongi is fine as he is. He stands up then, abrupt and too fast to seem casual. “I got some college stuff to do.”

Leaving the room, yoongi can feel their eyes on his back. until he hears taehyung whisper loudly. “gonna be honest here kook, that was really fucking hot.” He slams the door shut behind him and leans against it, sighs and closes his eyes. Of all the things he could think about right then, from jungkooks psychological analyses to finding out where his headphones are to protect his ears if they stay in the living room, yoongis mind supplies him with one single picture: jimin in jeans and a black shirt clinging to his arms like yoongi has seen all the bouncers wear, standing in a dancing crowd and commanding everything with his glare, then manhandling someone outside, maybe using some fancy taekwondo, his muscles flexing in the shine of colorful spotlights- yoongi shakes his head. Don’t think about that, he tells himself, don’t you dare think about it.

☼

Guys stop I wanna play this one!

It’s a claw game.

And? I want this plushie, it’s the perfect shade of pink.

It’s rigged.

You think I won’t be able to get the one I want?

Yes?

Have some faith and watch.

…

Well-

Don’t fucking say anything. I got it.

I just think it would have been less expensive to buy it at a store…

But you do you, I guess?

☼

My own shadow running from me, hiding away behind the darkness of

Shadow hiding away

Out of my shadow staring back, two eyes, and they know they know they know

what I feel

And maybe they are right and it’s my fault but what then, what am I to do

What then, shadow, answer, echo, show me

But it can only be what I already am

Only know what I already know

It’s mine

Shadow

-

Someone rings the bell repeatedly. Yoongi puts his pen aside with an annoyed huff. It can’t be taehyung and jungkook, they went out to eat at McDonalds spontaneously only ten minutes ago and yoongi knows they’ll need longer than that. somehow going out to eat always ends with them sitting in the restaurants or bars for double the time any sane person would need, not because they eat that slow but because they start to talk and cuddle and yoongi has seen before how waiters just can’t bear to throw them out because they are just so cute and lovey-dovey and they always let them occupy the table for too long.

So yoongi, not in the mood for greasy fast food, stayed behind and buried his head in his lyrics notebook. The rude interruption pulled him out of a quite successful phase so he is a little grumpy while stomping to the door. it’s Tuesday, very late evening. It can’t be the mailmen. Maybe the neighbor? Yoongi tries to school his expression into something nice in case it’s someone important and opens up.

He drops said expression very fast because it’s only jimin hovering there, huddled in a thick puffer coat. For a moment yoongi considers telling him that taehyung and jungkook aren’t here and then promptly closing the door in his face, then he feels a little bad about that initial idea and decides to let jimin at least wait in the living room, it’s not like it would be the first time they are practically alone in the apartment while jungkook and taehyung hide away in jungkooks room, but then everything gets thrown overboard, because jimin has a pretty bad black eye. And a scratch on his chin.

Yoongi gasps, and jimins scent hits him finally, a little sour and distressed and yoongi goes into autopilot. Jimins is hurt. He’d been working, so it must have happened at the club and oh god what if there’s worse under the coat? Instead of saying anything, yoongi grabs jimins coat at the front and pulls him in harshly, making him stand inside before shutting the door. jimin opens his mouth in surprise, the healthy eye wide while the bruised one is a little more droopy than usual. But yoongi doesn’t let him get a say in.

“is it just your eye? Or anything else? Does it hurt a lot? can you see?”, he frantically rains a few questions onto jimin, then takes the zipper of the coat and opens it, pulling the heavy thing off of jimin and letting it fall to the floor carelessly. Jimin is wearing a dark green shirt and jeans. Yoongi examines every inch he can see of him while holding onto his arms to keep him from moving.

The skin he can see of his arms and shoulders seems unblemished, it’s only the bruised eye and two tiny scratches, one on his chin and one on his neck. He looks like he recently sweated a little, obviously due to the clubs horrible air, his hair is messy without making him look bad, his expression somewhat surprised. Yoongi doesn’t care about that, he turns around the arm in his hand. As dreaded, jimin soft hands are battered too, knuckles bruised and two are even bloody.

Yoongi pulls jimin into the living room then and sits him down on the couch. “Don’t move even a finger!”, he orders and runs into the bathroom. He’s almost lost in tunnel vision, zeroes onto the first aid kit in the cupboard, a small towel he soaks with warm water, then back to jimin. Distinctly he registers his own distressed scent, his heartbeat definitely too fast for such a minor injury. Jimin is still where he left him but now reclined against the couch, much more comfortable, doesn’t seem like he’s hurt at all. He watches as yoongi kneels on the couch to his right with attentive eyes.

“hey, stop fretting, it’s okay.”

Ignoring jimins words, yoongi grabs his face and starts carefully dabbing away at the scratches, leans close in to examine them. they aren’t deep or too long, so he lets them be and concentrates on jimins eye. There’s no blood but he carefully dabs around with the towel anyway, cleaning some sweat from his hairline.

“min yoongi!”

Yoongi makes a non-committal noise and puts the towel aside to open the kit, searching for something soothing, cooling. Right when he finds a fitting lotion someone grabs his wrist. Jimin. he looks up at him from where he’s hunched over, already panicking inwardly if jimin is in fact hurt somewhere else and yoongi will have to bring him to the hospital but why didn’t he go there right away-

“hey, calm down! I’m okay, I promise!” jimin raises his eyebrows, but it does not make anything better because yoongi can only look at the bad eye anyway. “take a breath, come on. I’m not gonna die cause of a silly bruise like that.”

Right. it’s just a black eye. Yoongi takes a breath and because he’s so close to jimin it’s not much of his own smell which must be quite awful by now. it’s pure jimin-summer-berries, sweet and comforting and he totally knew and told yoongi to breathe in because of that. jimin slowly lets go of his wrist, his eyes searching out yoongis but he avoids his gaze. Now rather mechanical, yoongi continues. He puts some soothing cream around jimins eye, then cleans his knuckles and puts some of it there too. Jimin stays silent while he does so, only flinches when yoongi dabs the little blood away. he doesn’t ask what happened, it’s kind of obvious.

“yoongi?”, jimin prompts him on when he finished and sits there, motionless, eyes trained onto his bright red knuckles. He didn’t even use honorifics. Yoongi never allowed jimin to call him hyung, and until now there hadn’t been a need to call out his name in between all the fighting. His name sounds soft in jimins mouth, something nice and malleable. He doesn’t look up anyway. “thank you. I’m good, so don’t worry about me.”

Yoongis first instinct is to jump up and claim he’d never worry about jimin in his wildest dreams, but he doesn’t. jimin thanked him, genuinely. And yoongi can’t possibly deny he did worry about jimin after throwing a fit about a tiny black eye. Yoongi looks at it again, and it really isn’t too bad. God, that was embarrassing. Now that the frenzy is over, he can feel himself blush. Fuck, he really made a fuss about jimin being minorly injured right now. fuck.

As if to make everything worse and stack onto yoongis embarrassment in front of jimin alone, the apartments door opens again to let in jungkook and taehyung, who spot them in the living room and come right over. when they see the black eye they are shocked too, but yoongi notes that neither of them lose it like he did. They run over and ask if jimin is okay, but they certainly do not try to bring him to the hospital. Yoongis heart pounds more suddenly, just when he thought he’s calming down, but he’s thinking too much and jimin is right next to him, with how yoongi sat down his knee is pressed against his thigh, the first aid kit still on his lap, his hands jittery.

He saw jimin injured and immediately went ballistic. Taehyung and jungkook, much closer friends with jimin because they don’t fight all day, didn’t. why does it mean so much to him? why couldn’t he bear the sight easily? Why did he care so much? yoongi feels his thoughts go haywire. He slowly packs away the first aid stuff and closes the case. Only then does taehyung really notice him and what he’s been holding.

“oh, hyung,”, he makes, eyes wide and questioning, but they are directed to jimin seconds later. yoongi has no idea what his face is doing right now, or his scent, so he stands up and wiggles the kit in his hand to show them he’s gonna put it away. he almost runs from the room, his thoughts still busy with the question why he panicked. He stores the kit back in the bathroom and steps into the hallway just to hear jimin answer a question, obviously about yoongi himself.

“I have no idea. He went all aggressive care mode on me out of nowhere?”

Jungkook hums, loud enough that yoongi can hear with the open door. “It’s still smelling sour in here. He doesn’t like injuries even if it’s just bruises or tiny cuts at all.”

Yoongi hears someone open the window. He takes a breath, now that jimin is gone he smells himself. ugh, horrible. Still trying to be quiet, he tiptoes towards his own room. he can’t go back there right now. they’ll either tease him or ask him serious questions and right now he can’t cope with either. the last thing he hears is jimin. “Why’s he so confusing? I almost thought he’d laugh at me when he opened the door but he-“

Yoongi closes his door and leans against the wall. He panicked because someone was injured. Not because it specifically was jimin. jungkook said it, yoongi doesn’t like any injuries. When jungkook sprained his ankle years ago yoongi was panicking too. It doesn’t mean anything.

That evening jimin doesn’t even ask when he crawls into yoongis bed, his hair still a little wet but he’s warm and his scent comforting. Yoongi tried to go back to writing lyrics earlier but they didn’t come out like he wanted them to anymore so he tried to catch up with some college work.

“hey,” jimin whispers. He’s lying still on his back, staying within his side of the bed. yoongi curled up away from him, but he can hear him perfectly well. When yoongi doesn’t answer, jimin just continues. somehow he knows yoongi isn’t asleep yet. “can I have another pillow? I wanna cuddle something.”

“no,” yoongi growls. A part of him wants to give him one of the pillows, he has enough lying around he only uses when making a real nest. But he said no all previous times jimin asked about additional pillows and he can’t suddenly go soft on jimin. and he’s also not being nice because of the black eye, jimin said he’s okay so he can deal. Yoongi hears an amused huff behind him but ignores that and curls up tighter. He’s tired.

Minutes later, yoongi almost drifting off already, he's ripped back to the world brutally. There's something around him, something warm and heavy and tight and yoongi yelps in shock before he even begins to understand that it's jimin. Jimin?

"The fuck are you doing?" he whisper-yells, not knowing how to feel. Just out of paralyzed shock he doesn’t move. Jimin is warm and sturdy and his scent is much closer now, lovely, comforting, lulling yoongis senses into trusting jimin. and yoongi loves cuddling. Usually. With people he actually is close to. Jimin has never before even touched this much of him, not to mention for that long.

Unlike yoongi he's calm and obviously content with how this played out. His chest is pressed against yoongis back and he's lying higher than yoongi, so a thigh pushes forward into his butt. Yoongis own legs are curled up so he's free from jimin there, but suddenly it’s a little too cold there now that the rest of him is getting additional heat. Jimins pushes his arms forward around yoongis waist instead of answering right away, small hands settling on his stomach, and he feels something inside swooping high and low, a weird sense of nothing stuck in his throat. Jimins chin moves a little against his hair when he speaks.

"You didn't give me a pillow and I told you I want to cuddle,” he says. Like it’s the normal reaction to just cuddle yoongi in place of a pillow. logical. Like it doesn’t make yoongi feel all weird and fluttery.

"Take a damn pillow if it's that important to you," yoongi argues, only thinking about how he can escape the situation. He can't be liking this, it's jimin. No matter how nice it is to be spooned, how warm jimin is, how yoongis limbs already relaxed and how he's comfortable and almost purring. Jimin scoffs behind him.

"No, too late!” Jimins thumb strokes over yoongis stomach, gently sending sparks through him. Yoongis breath hitches, he tries his best to ignore the situation still. “I like humans more than pillows anyway- and you don't need to act like you're not enjoying it, my nose is working."

Yoongi clicks his tongue. He's well aware how he smells. Content, pleased, much more prominent than normal. With a sigh he gives up and closes his eyes, letting his body do what it wanted to the whole time and mold into jimin. he’s so perfectly warm and embedded between jimin and his blanket and the pillows. They’ve never been this intimate and yoongi can’t deny that he doesn’t mind it at all. he’s quite pleased even.

Yoongi sleeps better than usual. But he wakes up when jimin leaves for his stupid morning run and feels the loss more than ever. He turns around and pushes himself into the warm spot where jimins scent is the most prominent and tries to fall back asleep, soaking up the last of his warmth.