there’s no middle ground, but I can do without; for galmaegi
Title: there’s no middle ground, but I can do without
Recipient: galmaegi
Pairing: jimin/jungkook, background v/j-hope
Rating: PG
Summary: jimin crushes on the new vocalist and deals with it really stupidly
Notes: 5.2k, many thanks to beta S again, a/n at the end ♥
“I said no, leave me the fuck alone.”
“C’mon, man,” Taehyung scowls at him, perched on Jimin’s desk and generally being an obstructive dick, “why am I asking for your permission anyways, I’ll just make you do it. Yup, it’s done.”
“What, you can’t do that!” Jimin shrieks, looking up from his futile math homework at his so-called best friend, “I have rights! Fuck it Taehyung I am not joining your stupid band.”
“Hmm,” he steals Jimin’s pen from his stubby fingers and scribbles Jimin’s name onto what Jimin could discern was the signup sheet, to his utmost horror, “now we just need a vocalist.”
Jimin’s short limbs fail him as he lurches forward to make a grab at the sheet but doesn’t quite reach, much to Taehyung’s pleased, amused smile.
-
The end came rather soundlessly. One moment Jimin was starting his first day at highschool, fleshy cheeks and droopy eyed, chewing on his bottom lip as he gazed warily at all these other kids. In the blink of an eye there was Taehyung next to him, casually eating his packed lunchbox without permission and doodling lions in the margins of his textbook.
He went home that day, did some homework, showered, blinked again and here he is now, days away from college entrance exams, weeks away from their last school festival and minutes away from pulling his hair out from the stress. Then there’s Taehyung, who is the divine definition of nonchalant towards school, and who is also dead set adamant about forming a band.
Days like these are when Jimin questions his own better judgement to let Taehyung declare himself his Best Friend For Life all those years ago.
-
“Maybe we can get Seokjin hyung to sing for us.”
Jimin snorts over his Biology textbook. He’s half-heartedly listening to Taehyung rattle off the names of people they know who could sing for The Titans. (Taehyung took the liberty of naming their band himself, without seeking Jimin’s approval or suggesting it to him in the first place.
“Attack of the Titans, doesn’t that sound cool?”
“It sounds stupid,” Jimin had rebuffed snidely.)
“Seokjin hyung can’t even hold a note properly,” Jimin gives up, flinging Biology II angrily onto Taehyung’s desk next to him, “he’s too busy with college now anyways.”
Taehyung hums, scrutinizing his blunt, bitten nails. “Namjoon hyung can sort of sing.”
Jimin makes another strangled noise in his throat. He knows they’ve run out of options when they consider Namjoon.
“Well, you can sing then!” Taehyung flips himself onto his back, lying across Jimin’s desk and pointing his fingers in Jimin’s face, “while also playing guitar, of course. There, problem solved.”
Annoyed and assaulted, Jimin pushes at Taehyung’s face, “no, you’re crazy, I have my hands full with the fucking guitar. I haven’t touched that thing in years,” he leans his chair back dangerously, groaning, “you can either volunteer yourself as vocalist, or turn the band into some sort of musical instrument…ensemble thing.”
“I’m not gonna sing, stupid,” Taehyung waves off the suggestion coolly as if the mere idea of it is preposterous, “we’ll just have to pick someone, anyone,” he suddenly jerks upright, turning to face outside the window next to Jimin’s desk.
They’re on the second floor, overlooking a dreary little alleyway nestled between two buildings. Right across from their classroom is the freshman building, bustling with activity as juniors usually are, all fresh faced and energetic.
Taehyung gets an idea, and the way his eyes light up with it sets off alarm bells in Jimin’s head.
“The first person who stops at that window right opposite yours,” Taehyung points out, “will be our vocalist.”
“Now you’re just being a complete shithead, why do I even bother.”
Even as he says this, Jimin’s eyes are involuntarily dragged towards the window opposite. Most of the juniors are clumped together in groups, or racing hazardously down the corridors. Jimin doesn’t realise he’s holding his breath when a pretty female junior seems like she’s heading towards the window carrying some books. It wouldn’t be so bad, he thinks, if they have a pretty junior in their band, calling him oppa, and he pictures ending his school life with one final sweet school love affair.
“Hey you!”
Jimin is struck out of his reverie by Taehyung’s booming voice, turning his attention back to the window and to his utter disappointment, there is no pretty female junior. Instead, there is a bright eyed boy holding a vase of (fake) roses presumably for the teacher’s desk, standing perfectly framed in the opposite window, looking quizzically back at the weird senior shouting and waving at him.
Suddenly realising the situation, Jimin’s cheeks flush, embarrassment engulfing him as he ducks his head until it’s laying flat against his desk. He also attempts to tug futilely at Taehyung’s blazer to get him to stop that it’s weird.
“Yeah, you! With the flowers!” Taehyung doesn’t care, of course, “you should join our band!”
The boy’s frown deepens, to Jimin’s horror. He can only pray that he doesn’t complain to teachers about being harassed by unruly seniors. Out of the corner of his eye, he notices Taehyung scribbling on a sheet of paper and folding it into a paper plane, before it’s soaring across the gap between buildings into the opposite window.
“The details are on that,” Taehyung shouts across, “and Jimin’s phone number too. Think about it and meet us in the music room after school if you decide!”
With a noncommittal shrug, the boy pockets the paper plane and resumes his business.
-
Jimin decides he really hates Taehyung that evening when he’s waiting alone in the music room because Taehyung had to meet Hoseok for a bit after class. Ten minutes into waiting, the boy from the window across appears.
“Hi, my name is Jeon Jungkook,” he says to Jimin, “you a freshman too?”
Before Jimin could explode into angry now listen here you little whippersnapper, I’m older than you-- Taehyung barges in and starts animatedly asking Jungkook questions. And Jimin is just gaping like a dumb fish while Jungkook stares across him at Taehyung because he stands nearly half a head taller. What are they feeding children nowadays and how dare he.
“You are a lifesaver, Jungkookie, what would we ever do without you, how did we ever get by before meeting you,” Taehyung coos, making Jungkook laugh.
Jimin sneers. It hasn’t even been ten minutes and Taehyung is already chummy with the junior, and while he really thinks he should suck it up about being short, he can’t seem to see past the misery he’s feeling in the pit of his stomach at his current predicament. First, he’s not allowed to study for his college entrance exams, then he’s dragged into Taehyung’s stupid band, and now he’s forced to put up with this freakishly tall kid who, for the past half hour, doesn’t seem to have acknowledged his presence at all.
“So I’ll just sing for the band? That’s all?”
“Yup, the rest of us will cover the instruments,” Taehyung confirms, smiling so wide Jimin hopes his face will accidentally just split open, “and don’t worry about sucking,” he points an accusing finger at Jimin, “you won’t possibly suck as much as Jimin anyways, so we’ll just work at it.”
“Fuck you too, Kim Taehyung,” Jimin grumbles.
Finally, Jungkook turns to regard Jimin for the first time since introductions earlier, an amused smile tugging at his lips, lighting up his begrudgingly handsome face.
Jimin swallows. He decides that he probably hates Jungkook too.
-
Hoseok is a year older than Jimin and Taehyung. He should’ve graduated a year ago, together with Namjoon, but Hoseok has always been more of a slacker in his studies, contrasting Namjoon. When questioned, he would say, “I’m not in any rush in life, stop and smell the grass, all is good.”
Jimin sometimes questioned what ‘grass’ fully encompasses, but he takes it all in stride. Hoseok is a good hyung, funny and even more fun to be around. They spend an afternoon shuffling through sheet music and mp3s to decide on their setlist, which was supposed to be due yesterday. Not that Jimin gives a fuck anyways.
“How about we just cover girl group songs?” Hoseok flops onto the battered club room couch, catching Jungkook’s attention, “you’re a young, blooming teenager in his prime, who’s your favourite girl group, Jungkook-ah?”
Jungkook shrugs, twisting his lips in thought. “I listen to Big Bang. I like G-dragon.”
At the mention of Big Bang, Jimin nearly want to shout with excitement because Taeyang is the coolest most amazing singer ever Big Bang is great we should be friends, but he catches himself in time, maintaining his composure. For pride reasons, he is deathly unwilling to show the freshman anything but his cold, icy shoulder.
“Jimin is literally obsessed with Taeyang,” Taehyung, on the other hand, doesn’t care about Jimin’s little pride battle, “like obsessed, like in love obsessed.”
“Shut up, Taehyung!” Jimin can feel his pride sinking slowly into the quicksand that is his gut, his cheeks heating up involuntarily.
“Taeyang is cool,” comes Jungkook’s calm reply, and Jimin looks up despite himself, to find Jungkook plugging one end of Hoseok’s earphone back into his ear.
Jimin’s cheeks feel a little hotter to his touch for reasons he shakes off carelessly. If Jungkook continues to dispense wise opinions like that, Jimin just might give him a chance.
-
"Who's the new kid?" Yoongi chirps as he flops onto the couch, shooting blatant glances at Jungkook in the corner, "looks older than you," he pauses to let Jimin’s pout fully form, "cuter too."
"Whatever, hyung."
“That’s Jungkook, our vocalist,” Taehyung beams, “he’s great!”
“We haven’t even heard him sing yet,” Jimin rolls his eyes, exasperated.
“And that’s because you still can’t play the chords correctly,” comes Jungkook’s smooth reply and Jimin’s usually slit eyes widen in disbelief. Jungkook has the nerve to punctuate his poison with a cheeky, toothy grin, which causes Yoongi to fall over in howling laughter.
“I like him already.”
“And we can’t practice until you do that, Jimin.”
“It’s Jimin hyung to you,” Jimin exclaims, his smile stiff, but amidst Yoongi’s cackling and Hoseok’s loud chattering, Jimin only manages to catch a look in Jungkook’s eyes as a reply.
-
“That kid has no respect for elders,” Jimin complains to a very indulging Seokjin. Being the oldest in their little group, Jimin figures Seokjin was the one who would best understand such issues of respect.
On a Saturday, they meet up for barbeque in Namjoon’s favourite meat restaurant, right around the corner of his university dorms. It’s strange how their group got together. Seokjin graduated before Jimin and Taehyung were around. But Seokjin tutored Yoongi a bit in his sophomore year, Yoongi played basketball with Namjoon, Namjoon hung out with Hoseok, Hoseok had recruited Taehyung into the music club in his first year, and being Jimin’s best friend, Taehyung had dragged him along against his wishes. It became a little hard to separate after that.
“He respects me just fine,” Hoseok chimes, pushing the fatty pork belly onto Taehyung’s plate because he knows Taehyung likes them, and taking the lean meat proffered to him from Taehyung’s chopsticks into his mouth, “it’s just you. Maybe it’s your face.”
“There is nothing wrong with my face,” Jimin deadpans.
“You should try earning his respect,” Seokjin says, voice laced with a certain wisdom of which Jimin wonders whether it comes with age, “or you could just sock him in the jaw,” Seokjin smiles amicably, “that always results in respect.”
-
The band formally starts rehearsing songs on a monday afternoon, three weeks before the festival. Hoseok sits comfortably behind the club drum set and tries out a few beats. Jimin strums a chord and Jungkook picks up a microphone. All eyes turn to Taehyung when he procures a saxophone from behind the couch and proceeds to flip through his sheet music.
“Taehyung, what are you doing.”
“Aren’t we practising?”
“Where’s your bass?”
“I ditched it. I want to play the sax instead,” he clarifies sheepishly, “don’t worry, nobody would notice the lack of bass anyways.”
“You can’t do that.”
“Why not?” And Taehyung sounds so genuinely confused. Jimin wants to roll over and die.
After a few failed attempts at persuading a stubborn Taehyung, they decide to just go ahead with practice anyways. Despite the smooth, out of place swooning of Taehyung’s expert saxophone in the background, and Jimin’s few slipups; they manage to run through the setlist successfully and call it a day.
-
“I can’t do it,” Jimin laments, planting his face into Biology II, revisited, “I give up, I’m gonna run away and join the circus, Tae, tell my parents I love them and that i’m sorry.”
“Mm,” Taehyung hums, eyes glued to his phone. He ignores Jimin’s whining for a further ten minutes before looking up. By then, Jimin has already simmered back down to staring forlornly at a diagram of the human skeletal system. “You can’t join the circus yet, not until the school festival is over,” he smiles at something on his phone, “but that’s a good idea. I want to be a lion tamer. Or the lion.”
Pre-exam period in the library is never a good idea. It’s like everybody perceives that by merely being in the library, they can absorb knowledge through some sort of psychic osmosis, whereas what they’re actually doing is updating their twitters about the coffee they bought just ‘to stay awake for revision, hwaiting!’
Suddenly, Taehyung bursts out into a fit of giggles and Jimin has had it up to here. “Alright, what are you so happy about! You’ve been smiling at your phone for the past hour. Are you looking at videos of cats again?”
“Nothing!” Taehyung whisper-shouts, and starts packing up his things, “no cats, nothing, I gotta go.”
“What?! Where’re you going?”
“To meet Hoseok hyung.”
“You haven’t even done anything, Taehyung, if you end up repeating the year, fucking smelling the grass like Hoseok hyung,” Jimin pauses to picture the consequences, but really, the worst thing he can think of is facing Taehyung’s mother (she always thought Jimin and his friends were a bad influence on Taehyung, what with the interest in dance and music and skipping classes to take naps in the lockers), “I swear to god I will disown you.”
“Pfft,” Taehyung gets up, “you wouldn’t, you love me too much. Study hard, Jiminnie.”
And then he’s gone, rushing out of the doors with a bounce in his step. It’s stupid, but Jimin feels incredibly alone in the overcrowded library quiet zone. He lasts another fifteen minutes before he too rushes out of the library, the feeling getting under his skin.
His wandering footsteps take him to the band club room. Maybe he could put in a little bit of practice, just so that Hoseok won’t get all up in his case again. When he pushes open the door, he finds Jungkook looking up from a pile of sheet music in his lap.
“Uh, hi.” This is awkward. “What are you doing here?”
“Skipping class,” Jungkook replies, looking back to the sheets.
The upperclassman in Jimin wants to tell him off, even though he can’t confidently say that he hasn’t done worse. “You should go back to class.”
Jungkook snorts, but other than that, pays no mind at all to Jimin’s advice. “Why are you here then, Jimin? Shouldn’t you be cramming or something?”
“It’s hyung,” Jimin says through gritted teeth, “I’m your hyung.”
Jungkook raises his head again to regard him quietly, eyes burning into Jimin’s. It takes all the willpower in Jimin’s body to not look away first. He feels the heat crawling up his neck, into his cheeks, awkward and embarrassed at being stared down by a junior while standing half in the doorway.
“But you’re so short,” Jungkook smirks at him then, curling one side of his lips, just like he did the first day Jimin met him in the music room, “and cute.” A tease colors his tone and Jimin’s face flushes. The nerve.
He shuffles into the room, drops his bag onto the floor, perches onto a stool next to Jungkook and picks up his guitar.
A few moments pass by with Jimin mindlessly strumming chords, until he reaches the middle of a song and Jungkook starts humming along, the words soft and quiet. It stirs something inside Jimin’s chest, the combination of muted guitar notes and whispers of lyrics.
Jimin decides that he likes this Jungkook best so far, when he’s not making fun of his height or spitting his wit unnecessarily.
-
On the walk home, the longer way that passes through the massive park grounds behind his neighborhood, Jimin finds himself unconsciously humming one of the tracks from their set, Jungkook’s crystal, bright voice echoing in his ears.
-
The next time he walks in on Jungkook in the club room was even more awkward. Jimin only manages to stop himself in the nick of time to plaster his back against the wall next to the entrance. He tries his very best not to breathe loudly.
If his split second look inside the room was correct, then a girl from his class is in there, standing with her back faced towards the doorway, Jungkook right in front of her. It is what it looks like, Jimin supposes. He catches the ends of Minah’s girly, courageous voice, followed by a few moments of silence. He should go. This is probably private on many levels.
Before he could sneak away, he hears Jungkook’s firm voice, thank you, noona, but i can’t accept your feelings. Then Minah is brushing past Jimin without even acknowledging his presence. Jimin fidgets in place. Jungkook definitely knows he’s there now, probably knows he’s heard what happened. No amount of lame excuses would save Jimin from this terribly awkward predicament, but he’ll be damned if he doesn’t try.
“Uhm, I was just listening to music on the way here,” he lies, almost choking on saliva, “did uhm, did something-- uh, what’s up?”
Smooth, Jimin.
Jungkook just stares at him until Jimin breaks down muttering apologies profusely. He’s interrupted by Jungkook’s chuckling, “you’re cute, hyung,” Jimin looks up and notices the lines around Jungkook’s eyes when he’s smiling and forgets what he was apologizing for, “let’s practise.”
He’s never been so relieved to have a reason to cradle his guitar, to fill the room with chords instead of conversation.
-
It’s only until later that Jimin realises, a dumb, pleased smile forming on his lips, that it’s the first time Jungkook called him hyung. In the library again, he relates this casually to Taehyung, and Taehyung being Taehyung, impassively tells him, “you’re totally crushing on Jungkookie, a first year, you cradle robber.”
Jimin is so offended he kicks him in the shin under the table, “I will hurt you, Kim Taehyung.”
“You’re terrible to me,” Taehyung pouts, rubbing at the assaulted spot tenderly, “I’m ditching you to hang out with Hoseok hyung.”
Jimin snorts, “you were going to ditch me for Hoseok hyung anyways.”
Taehyung doesn’t deny that as he turns his nose up and leaves.
-
He’s never considered that possibility, being the possibility of crushing on a first year while in his last few weeks of high school, and a first year boy, who has absolutely no respect for him. It sounds ridiculous in his head but even so, he’s busy burying his heated face in his hands. Yoongi will never let him live this down.
Jimin thinks he must be some form of masochist. He won’t admit that the butterflies in his stomach roll over and do fucking flips when Jungkook teases him because that’s when his attention is solely on him, or that when Jungkook sings, it fills up his chest so much that he can’t breathe.
“Hey,” Jimin jumps in his seat, flustered when he looks up to find Jungkook, all packed up and ready to go home, “aren’t you supposed to be studying?”
“I am studying,” Jimin shrugs, trying to pretend he wasn’t just contemplating the alternate universe where he would be dating a cute freshman with a cute nose and beauty marks on his pale neck like chocolate chips--
Jungkook hums, “study hard, then,” plopping his bag onto the desk and taking a seat next to Jimin.
"Why are you here?!" Jimin wails. He could do without the extra distraction right now, but Jungkook just places a can of iced coffee onto Jimin’s desk with a smile, plugs in his earphones and says nothing more. Jimin exasperatedly resumes his revision of modern literature, or at least tries to, what with Jungkook in his peripheral, nodding to the beat of a song in his head.
Eventually, he turns around to find Jungkook with his head in his arms on the desk, dozing off. His music playlist has long since finished, Jimin gingerly removes his earphones to prevent them from digging into his face uncomfortably. This close, he can see Jungkook’s eyelashes fluttering against his cheeks and Jimin’s heart squeezes in his chest involuntarily.
-
Jimin debates whether he's just fallen into an alternate universe where it's ok to walk into Taehyung and Hoseok sucking face. He stares for a bit, backpedals almost, this close to slapping himself awake before he gets shoved aside by a trail of people led by Yoongi.
“Whoa, whoa,” he whoops and cheers, “so are you guys official now? As in not secretly dating anymore?”
“Wait, what,” Jimin tends to sputter when dumbstruck, “what the fuck what just happened.”
Nobody pays him any attention, all too busy fawning over this juicy latest turn of events. Jungkook though, Jungkook chuckles, “silly, pretty sure they’ve been together for a month now.”
Then it clicks. All the times Taehyung had ditched him during study sessions, the times he bailed on their weekly movie/hangout night, every time Taehyung fucking giggled at his phone.
The good news is that Hoseok had been persuading Taehyung to drop the saxophone because really, with two weeks from the school festival, a band without a bass player, or more importantly, a band with a saxophone, something had to be done. He emerged victorious after he very literally kissed the opposition out of Taehyung.
Jimin feels a little sick to his stomach and Jungkook isn’t making it any better by ruffling Jimin’s messy head of hair, “you’re so slow sometimes it’s cute,” he coos, and Jimin wants to scream at him. Nothing could prevent the heat flushing throughout his body all the way to his toes when he turns sharply towards Jungkook towering over him, his fingers still pressing lightly into his scalp, smiling until his eyes are twinkling pools of black.
His mouth goes dry, suddenly hit by just how smitten he really is.
-
With the notion of Taehyung and Hoseok the couple, Jimin’s mind wanders to places he doesn’t want to involving a certain first year. This realisation distresses him more than he ever thought it would. So much so that he’s decided to actively avoid him, avoid band practice altogether, despite Taehyung calling him a shithead over his choices.
“Is this about your idiot crush on Jungkook? I swear to god--"
“Fuck off Taehyung,” Jimin growls, turning in on himself, “I have more important things to worry about than some band right now.” And especially some stupid junior.
Jungkook is a good kid, young with a bright future of possibilities ahead of him, Jimin cannot begin to digest the complications from these stupid emotions raging inside him. He’s growing up, graduating from being a child into an adult with responsibilities and as much as he would’ve wanted to even address his very real crush on Jungkook, he simply cannot risk it. So he does what is the most logical thing to do in the face of such threat: run away.
-
The school festival is a week after the college entrance exams. A week before the exams, Jimin shuts down completely. He hasn’t spoken to Taehyung since their argument that day, even when he sees him across the room at cram school. Jimin practically lives in the library on Namjoon’s campus. He plugs in his earphones playing one of the songs that Jungkook had suggested but never made it onto their setlist and tries to simultaneously drown out the low buzz of chattering and fill in the silence; drown out the noises in his head and fill in the gaping emptiness in his chest.
And even though he thought that there was no way he could do this, take the exams, get into a good college, graduate, it all comes and goes before he even realises that hey, he kind of does miss his guitar a little bit, amongst other things (or people).
-
Three days before the festival, while Jimin is busy doing absolutely nothing in Yoongi room, he gets a KaTalk from an unknown number- it’s Jungkook.
hey where are you
how do you know my number?
taehyung hyung gave it to me, remember? on the paper plane
Oh. Jimin remembers that day, when the window opposite his framed Jungkook so perfectly as if he was the subject of some delicate photography project. That feels like so long ago, when he first secretly despised Jungkook for showing him no respect. Now, merely reading his texts is making Jimin’s heart race uncomfortably in the constricted space of his ribs. A few minutes pass by before Jimin’s phone dings with another text.
let’s hang out hyung
Jimin chews on his lip, thinking of what he should do. He’s graduating soon, the end is near, and the telltale signs of bitter regret are swimming at the back of his mind.
you only call me hyung when it’s convenient for you
He can’t help smiling a little at the obnoxious stickers Jungkook sends him.
-
November’s weather has picked up, turning a few degrees shy of outright freezing. The next day, Jimin meets Jungkook outside a cafe right around the corner of his subway stop, pulling his coat closer to himself.
“Hey,” Jungkook appears from his left, where he said in his text was the direction of his neighborhood, and Jimin has to take a moment to take in Jungkook, his fringe longer than he last saw him, his nose a shade mirroring the red of his heavy red scarf.
Jimin chews on the inside of his cheek, turning to walk into the warmth of the cafe instead.
It feels almost normal when they make their rounds looking at CD stores, instrument stores, Jimin’s favourite clothes brand and Jungkook’s favourite manga cafe. And that in itself is strange because Jimin has never hung out with Jungkook individually before, only as a band with Hoseok and Taehyung.
By the end of the day, Jungkook asks him to come back to band practice, “Taehyung hyung is getting anxious,” he shuffles his feet, outwardly nervous for once, “but he says he’s got too much pride and can’t tell you that himself.”
Jimin smiles despite himself. That does sound like Taehyung. He considers Jungkook quietly, and his yearning resurges just by looking at him. Damn it if he hasn’t missed Jungkook’s voice, smooth and clear, soft and strong. “Of course I’ll go back,” Jungkook’s eyes completely light up and Jimin has to fight to keep his breathing steady, “I won’t do that to Tae and Hoseok hyung, I love them too much.”
“What about me, hyung?” Jungkook catches him off guard, a determined look on his youthful face, a hint of uncertainty faint in the set of his eyes.
“Yeah, I-” Jimin stutters, curses inwardly and looks away because Jungkook’s gaze is crawling under the thick layers of his wool coat, making him feel hot all over, “yeah i won’t do that to you either, even though you’re a brat, and the other hyungs like you too, so--”
“But do you like me?”
Jimin is taken aback by that, “I--”
Jungkook reaches out his hand and weakly clasps two of Jimin’s fingers. He’s chewing on his bottom lip, waiting, and the agitation evaporating from his whole being is almost suffocating. Jimin thinks of how strange it is, that Jungkook is basically drawing out his confession from him, in reverse.
“You’re young,” so young, “and I’m graduating,” is the answer he settles on, even though he lets Jungkook hold onto his fingers all the way until they have to part in different directions to go home.
-
Finally, it’s the day of the senior year’s last school festival ever. The entire student body is alive with preparations despite the rapidly-turning-unbearable weather. Even though the band was Taehyung’s idea, when put into a position of leadership, he becomes utterly useless. Jimin thanks the heavens that Hoseok has infinitely better communication skills than Taehyung, though achieving that isn’t necessarily difficult, seeing as all he has to do was not sprout weird nonsense every time someone asks him a question about their setlist.
Just as luck would have it, it starts to pour freezing winter rain right before they’re about to go onstage. Jimin watches with mild terror from the corner of backstage as the auditorium fills out with students escaping the rain outside. He’s never played in front of so many people before so he proceeds to have a mini breakdown hidden in a corner, out of everyone’s way.
Jungkook manages to find him anyway, pulling him even further out of sight only to bend down and press a kiss determinedly to Jimin’s lips. Despite his efforts, a female student got the shock of her life anyways when she glides past them, and it would’ve been embarrassing, it would’ve been the absolute end of Jimin, if he didn’t enjoy it so much that he’s quietly mewling against Jungkook’s lips.
“You’re right,” Jungkook exclaims as he pulls away, dragging Jimin towards the stage as he hears the MC announce their appearance, “I am young,” he flashes him his megawatt smile, the smile that has Jimin turned to putty ever since the first time he called him out for being short, “but that also makes me invincible.”
Onstage, he mechanically plugs in his equipment and runs through soundcheck in a stupor, only mildly aware of the nearly full audience waiting in anticipation. After a wave of silence sweeps through the hall, Jungkook yells, “hello we are The Titans!”
Hoseok counts them in with a loud crash and Jimin slides in seamlessly. The first few notes of Jungkook’s verse lift Jimin into a new high altogether, soaring with the adrenaline. He catches sight of Yoongi, Namjoon and Seokjin in the crowd, he catches Hoseok’s wink and Taehyung’s wide smile, and finally, when Jungkook turns around, he catches himself falling and falling and falling.
After the end, Jimin has to grow up. He has to go to college, he has to get a job, he has to start being responsible for things in his life. But, right here with Taehyung and Hoseok, with Jungkook and an ocean of people, screaming and screaming, Jimin feels invincible.
With Jungkook, together they could be bulletproof.
we’re in love, we’re insane;
what’s the sun without the rain;
i guess we’ll find out as we go
a/n:
- oh god this turned out to be more highschool au than highschool rock band au I am so so so sorry /o\\\\ but when I read the prompt and then they comeback with school concept and then I WATCHED LINDA LINDA the plot for this just magically vomited itself
- re: college entrance exams, they’re in November?? But I have no idea if schools do something like a school festival there…let’s pretend like this school does lol
- i had a lovely time writing this because I like the jimin/jungkook chemistry but there isn’t nearly enough fic out there on it ahaha sadness
- lyrics~
Recipient: galmaegi
Pairing: jimin/jungkook, background v/j-hope
Rating: PG
Summary: jimin crushes on the new vocalist and deals with it really stupidly
Notes: 5.2k, many thanks to beta S again, a/n at the end ♥
“I said no, leave me the fuck alone.”
“C’mon, man,” Taehyung scowls at him, perched on Jimin’s desk and generally being an obstructive dick, “why am I asking for your permission anyways, I’ll just make you do it. Yup, it’s done.”
“What, you can’t do that!” Jimin shrieks, looking up from his futile math homework at his so-called best friend, “I have rights! Fuck it Taehyung I am not joining your stupid band.”
“Hmm,” he steals Jimin’s pen from his stubby fingers and scribbles Jimin’s name onto what Jimin could discern was the signup sheet, to his utmost horror, “now we just need a vocalist.”
Jimin’s short limbs fail him as he lurches forward to make a grab at the sheet but doesn’t quite reach, much to Taehyung’s pleased, amused smile.
-
The end came rather soundlessly. One moment Jimin was starting his first day at highschool, fleshy cheeks and droopy eyed, chewing on his bottom lip as he gazed warily at all these other kids. In the blink of an eye there was Taehyung next to him, casually eating his packed lunchbox without permission and doodling lions in the margins of his textbook.
He went home that day, did some homework, showered, blinked again and here he is now, days away from college entrance exams, weeks away from their last school festival and minutes away from pulling his hair out from the stress. Then there’s Taehyung, who is the divine definition of nonchalant towards school, and who is also dead set adamant about forming a band.
Days like these are when Jimin questions his own better judgement to let Taehyung declare himself his Best Friend For Life all those years ago.
-
“Maybe we can get Seokjin hyung to sing for us.”
Jimin snorts over his Biology textbook. He’s half-heartedly listening to Taehyung rattle off the names of people they know who could sing for The Titans. (Taehyung took the liberty of naming their band himself, without seeking Jimin’s approval or suggesting it to him in the first place.
“Attack of the Titans, doesn’t that sound cool?”
“It sounds stupid,” Jimin had rebuffed snidely.)
“Seokjin hyung can’t even hold a note properly,” Jimin gives up, flinging Biology II angrily onto Taehyung’s desk next to him, “he’s too busy with college now anyways.”
Taehyung hums, scrutinizing his blunt, bitten nails. “Namjoon hyung can sort of sing.”
Jimin makes another strangled noise in his throat. He knows they’ve run out of options when they consider Namjoon.
“Well, you can sing then!” Taehyung flips himself onto his back, lying across Jimin’s desk and pointing his fingers in Jimin’s face, “while also playing guitar, of course. There, problem solved.”
Annoyed and assaulted, Jimin pushes at Taehyung’s face, “no, you’re crazy, I have my hands full with the fucking guitar. I haven’t touched that thing in years,” he leans his chair back dangerously, groaning, “you can either volunteer yourself as vocalist, or turn the band into some sort of musical instrument…ensemble thing.”
“I’m not gonna sing, stupid,” Taehyung waves off the suggestion coolly as if the mere idea of it is preposterous, “we’ll just have to pick someone, anyone,” he suddenly jerks upright, turning to face outside the window next to Jimin’s desk.
They’re on the second floor, overlooking a dreary little alleyway nestled between two buildings. Right across from their classroom is the freshman building, bustling with activity as juniors usually are, all fresh faced and energetic.
Taehyung gets an idea, and the way his eyes light up with it sets off alarm bells in Jimin’s head.
“The first person who stops at that window right opposite yours,” Taehyung points out, “will be our vocalist.”
“Now you’re just being a complete shithead, why do I even bother.”
Even as he says this, Jimin’s eyes are involuntarily dragged towards the window opposite. Most of the juniors are clumped together in groups, or racing hazardously down the corridors. Jimin doesn’t realise he’s holding his breath when a pretty female junior seems like she’s heading towards the window carrying some books. It wouldn’t be so bad, he thinks, if they have a pretty junior in their band, calling him oppa, and he pictures ending his school life with one final sweet school love affair.
“Hey you!”
Jimin is struck out of his reverie by Taehyung’s booming voice, turning his attention back to the window and to his utter disappointment, there is no pretty female junior. Instead, there is a bright eyed boy holding a vase of (fake) roses presumably for the teacher’s desk, standing perfectly framed in the opposite window, looking quizzically back at the weird senior shouting and waving at him.
Suddenly realising the situation, Jimin’s cheeks flush, embarrassment engulfing him as he ducks his head until it’s laying flat against his desk. He also attempts to tug futilely at Taehyung’s blazer to get him to stop that it’s weird.
“Yeah, you! With the flowers!” Taehyung doesn’t care, of course, “you should join our band!”
The boy’s frown deepens, to Jimin’s horror. He can only pray that he doesn’t complain to teachers about being harassed by unruly seniors. Out of the corner of his eye, he notices Taehyung scribbling on a sheet of paper and folding it into a paper plane, before it’s soaring across the gap between buildings into the opposite window.
“The details are on that,” Taehyung shouts across, “and Jimin’s phone number too. Think about it and meet us in the music room after school if you decide!”
With a noncommittal shrug, the boy pockets the paper plane and resumes his business.
-
Jimin decides he really hates Taehyung that evening when he’s waiting alone in the music room because Taehyung had to meet Hoseok for a bit after class. Ten minutes into waiting, the boy from the window across appears.
“Hi, my name is Jeon Jungkook,” he says to Jimin, “you a freshman too?”
Before Jimin could explode into angry now listen here you little whippersnapper, I’m older than you-- Taehyung barges in and starts animatedly asking Jungkook questions. And Jimin is just gaping like a dumb fish while Jungkook stares across him at Taehyung because he stands nearly half a head taller. What are they feeding children nowadays and how dare he.
“You are a lifesaver, Jungkookie, what would we ever do without you, how did we ever get by before meeting you,” Taehyung coos, making Jungkook laugh.
Jimin sneers. It hasn’t even been ten minutes and Taehyung is already chummy with the junior, and while he really thinks he should suck it up about being short, he can’t seem to see past the misery he’s feeling in the pit of his stomach at his current predicament. First, he’s not allowed to study for his college entrance exams, then he’s dragged into Taehyung’s stupid band, and now he’s forced to put up with this freakishly tall kid who, for the past half hour, doesn’t seem to have acknowledged his presence at all.
“So I’ll just sing for the band? That’s all?”
“Yup, the rest of us will cover the instruments,” Taehyung confirms, smiling so wide Jimin hopes his face will accidentally just split open, “and don’t worry about sucking,” he points an accusing finger at Jimin, “you won’t possibly suck as much as Jimin anyways, so we’ll just work at it.”
“Fuck you too, Kim Taehyung,” Jimin grumbles.
Finally, Jungkook turns to regard Jimin for the first time since introductions earlier, an amused smile tugging at his lips, lighting up his begrudgingly handsome face.
Jimin swallows. He decides that he probably hates Jungkook too.
-
Hoseok is a year older than Jimin and Taehyung. He should’ve graduated a year ago, together with Namjoon, but Hoseok has always been more of a slacker in his studies, contrasting Namjoon. When questioned, he would say, “I’m not in any rush in life, stop and smell the grass, all is good.”
Jimin sometimes questioned what ‘grass’ fully encompasses, but he takes it all in stride. Hoseok is a good hyung, funny and even more fun to be around. They spend an afternoon shuffling through sheet music and mp3s to decide on their setlist, which was supposed to be due yesterday. Not that Jimin gives a fuck anyways.
“How about we just cover girl group songs?” Hoseok flops onto the battered club room couch, catching Jungkook’s attention, “you’re a young, blooming teenager in his prime, who’s your favourite girl group, Jungkook-ah?”
Jungkook shrugs, twisting his lips in thought. “I listen to Big Bang. I like G-dragon.”
At the mention of Big Bang, Jimin nearly want to shout with excitement because Taeyang is the coolest most amazing singer ever Big Bang is great we should be friends, but he catches himself in time, maintaining his composure. For pride reasons, he is deathly unwilling to show the freshman anything but his cold, icy shoulder.
“Jimin is literally obsessed with Taeyang,” Taehyung, on the other hand, doesn’t care about Jimin’s little pride battle, “like obsessed, like in love obsessed.”
“Shut up, Taehyung!” Jimin can feel his pride sinking slowly into the quicksand that is his gut, his cheeks heating up involuntarily.
“Taeyang is cool,” comes Jungkook’s calm reply, and Jimin looks up despite himself, to find Jungkook plugging one end of Hoseok’s earphone back into his ear.
Jimin’s cheeks feel a little hotter to his touch for reasons he shakes off carelessly. If Jungkook continues to dispense wise opinions like that, Jimin just might give him a chance.
-
"Who's the new kid?" Yoongi chirps as he flops onto the couch, shooting blatant glances at Jungkook in the corner, "looks older than you," he pauses to let Jimin’s pout fully form, "cuter too."
"Whatever, hyung."
“That’s Jungkook, our vocalist,” Taehyung beams, “he’s great!”
“We haven’t even heard him sing yet,” Jimin rolls his eyes, exasperated.
“And that’s because you still can’t play the chords correctly,” comes Jungkook’s smooth reply and Jimin’s usually slit eyes widen in disbelief. Jungkook has the nerve to punctuate his poison with a cheeky, toothy grin, which causes Yoongi to fall over in howling laughter.
“I like him already.”
“And we can’t practice until you do that, Jimin.”
“It’s Jimin hyung to you,” Jimin exclaims, his smile stiff, but amidst Yoongi’s cackling and Hoseok’s loud chattering, Jimin only manages to catch a look in Jungkook’s eyes as a reply.
-
“That kid has no respect for elders,” Jimin complains to a very indulging Seokjin. Being the oldest in their little group, Jimin figures Seokjin was the one who would best understand such issues of respect.
On a Saturday, they meet up for barbeque in Namjoon’s favourite meat restaurant, right around the corner of his university dorms. It’s strange how their group got together. Seokjin graduated before Jimin and Taehyung were around. But Seokjin tutored Yoongi a bit in his sophomore year, Yoongi played basketball with Namjoon, Namjoon hung out with Hoseok, Hoseok had recruited Taehyung into the music club in his first year, and being Jimin’s best friend, Taehyung had dragged him along against his wishes. It became a little hard to separate after that.
“He respects me just fine,” Hoseok chimes, pushing the fatty pork belly onto Taehyung’s plate because he knows Taehyung likes them, and taking the lean meat proffered to him from Taehyung’s chopsticks into his mouth, “it’s just you. Maybe it’s your face.”
“There is nothing wrong with my face,” Jimin deadpans.
“You should try earning his respect,” Seokjin says, voice laced with a certain wisdom of which Jimin wonders whether it comes with age, “or you could just sock him in the jaw,” Seokjin smiles amicably, “that always results in respect.”
-
The band formally starts rehearsing songs on a monday afternoon, three weeks before the festival. Hoseok sits comfortably behind the club drum set and tries out a few beats. Jimin strums a chord and Jungkook picks up a microphone. All eyes turn to Taehyung when he procures a saxophone from behind the couch and proceeds to flip through his sheet music.
“Taehyung, what are you doing.”
“Aren’t we practising?”
“Where’s your bass?”
“I ditched it. I want to play the sax instead,” he clarifies sheepishly, “don’t worry, nobody would notice the lack of bass anyways.”
“You can’t do that.”
“Why not?” And Taehyung sounds so genuinely confused. Jimin wants to roll over and die.
After a few failed attempts at persuading a stubborn Taehyung, they decide to just go ahead with practice anyways. Despite the smooth, out of place swooning of Taehyung’s expert saxophone in the background, and Jimin’s few slipups; they manage to run through the setlist successfully and call it a day.
-
“I can’t do it,” Jimin laments, planting his face into Biology II, revisited, “I give up, I’m gonna run away and join the circus, Tae, tell my parents I love them and that i’m sorry.”
“Mm,” Taehyung hums, eyes glued to his phone. He ignores Jimin’s whining for a further ten minutes before looking up. By then, Jimin has already simmered back down to staring forlornly at a diagram of the human skeletal system. “You can’t join the circus yet, not until the school festival is over,” he smiles at something on his phone, “but that’s a good idea. I want to be a lion tamer. Or the lion.”
Pre-exam period in the library is never a good idea. It’s like everybody perceives that by merely being in the library, they can absorb knowledge through some sort of psychic osmosis, whereas what they’re actually doing is updating their twitters about the coffee they bought just ‘to stay awake for revision, hwaiting!’
Suddenly, Taehyung bursts out into a fit of giggles and Jimin has had it up to here. “Alright, what are you so happy about! You’ve been smiling at your phone for the past hour. Are you looking at videos of cats again?”
“Nothing!” Taehyung whisper-shouts, and starts packing up his things, “no cats, nothing, I gotta go.”
“What?! Where’re you going?”
“To meet Hoseok hyung.”
“You haven’t even done anything, Taehyung, if you end up repeating the year, fucking smelling the grass like Hoseok hyung,” Jimin pauses to picture the consequences, but really, the worst thing he can think of is facing Taehyung’s mother (she always thought Jimin and his friends were a bad influence on Taehyung, what with the interest in dance and music and skipping classes to take naps in the lockers), “I swear to god I will disown you.”
“Pfft,” Taehyung gets up, “you wouldn’t, you love me too much. Study hard, Jiminnie.”
And then he’s gone, rushing out of the doors with a bounce in his step. It’s stupid, but Jimin feels incredibly alone in the overcrowded library quiet zone. He lasts another fifteen minutes before he too rushes out of the library, the feeling getting under his skin.
His wandering footsteps take him to the band club room. Maybe he could put in a little bit of practice, just so that Hoseok won’t get all up in his case again. When he pushes open the door, he finds Jungkook looking up from a pile of sheet music in his lap.
“Uh, hi.” This is awkward. “What are you doing here?”
“Skipping class,” Jungkook replies, looking back to the sheets.
The upperclassman in Jimin wants to tell him off, even though he can’t confidently say that he hasn’t done worse. “You should go back to class.”
Jungkook snorts, but other than that, pays no mind at all to Jimin’s advice. “Why are you here then, Jimin? Shouldn’t you be cramming or something?”
“It’s hyung,” Jimin says through gritted teeth, “I’m your hyung.”
Jungkook raises his head again to regard him quietly, eyes burning into Jimin’s. It takes all the willpower in Jimin’s body to not look away first. He feels the heat crawling up his neck, into his cheeks, awkward and embarrassed at being stared down by a junior while standing half in the doorway.
“But you’re so short,” Jungkook smirks at him then, curling one side of his lips, just like he did the first day Jimin met him in the music room, “and cute.” A tease colors his tone and Jimin’s face flushes. The nerve.
He shuffles into the room, drops his bag onto the floor, perches onto a stool next to Jungkook and picks up his guitar.
A few moments pass by with Jimin mindlessly strumming chords, until he reaches the middle of a song and Jungkook starts humming along, the words soft and quiet. It stirs something inside Jimin’s chest, the combination of muted guitar notes and whispers of lyrics.
Jimin decides that he likes this Jungkook best so far, when he’s not making fun of his height or spitting his wit unnecessarily.
-
On the walk home, the longer way that passes through the massive park grounds behind his neighborhood, Jimin finds himself unconsciously humming one of the tracks from their set, Jungkook’s crystal, bright voice echoing in his ears.
-
The next time he walks in on Jungkook in the club room was even more awkward. Jimin only manages to stop himself in the nick of time to plaster his back against the wall next to the entrance. He tries his very best not to breathe loudly.
If his split second look inside the room was correct, then a girl from his class is in there, standing with her back faced towards the doorway, Jungkook right in front of her. It is what it looks like, Jimin supposes. He catches the ends of Minah’s girly, courageous voice, followed by a few moments of silence. He should go. This is probably private on many levels.
Before he could sneak away, he hears Jungkook’s firm voice, thank you, noona, but i can’t accept your feelings. Then Minah is brushing past Jimin without even acknowledging his presence. Jimin fidgets in place. Jungkook definitely knows he’s there now, probably knows he’s heard what happened. No amount of lame excuses would save Jimin from this terribly awkward predicament, but he’ll be damned if he doesn’t try.
“Uhm, I was just listening to music on the way here,” he lies, almost choking on saliva, “did uhm, did something-- uh, what’s up?”
Smooth, Jimin.
Jungkook just stares at him until Jimin breaks down muttering apologies profusely. He’s interrupted by Jungkook’s chuckling, “you’re cute, hyung,” Jimin looks up and notices the lines around Jungkook’s eyes when he’s smiling and forgets what he was apologizing for, “let’s practise.”
He’s never been so relieved to have a reason to cradle his guitar, to fill the room with chords instead of conversation.
-
It’s only until later that Jimin realises, a dumb, pleased smile forming on his lips, that it’s the first time Jungkook called him hyung. In the library again, he relates this casually to Taehyung, and Taehyung being Taehyung, impassively tells him, “you’re totally crushing on Jungkookie, a first year, you cradle robber.”
Jimin is so offended he kicks him in the shin under the table, “I will hurt you, Kim Taehyung.”
“You’re terrible to me,” Taehyung pouts, rubbing at the assaulted spot tenderly, “I’m ditching you to hang out with Hoseok hyung.”
Jimin snorts, “you were going to ditch me for Hoseok hyung anyways.”
Taehyung doesn’t deny that as he turns his nose up and leaves.
-
He’s never considered that possibility, being the possibility of crushing on a first year while in his last few weeks of high school, and a first year boy, who has absolutely no respect for him. It sounds ridiculous in his head but even so, he’s busy burying his heated face in his hands. Yoongi will never let him live this down.
Jimin thinks he must be some form of masochist. He won’t admit that the butterflies in his stomach roll over and do fucking flips when Jungkook teases him because that’s when his attention is solely on him, or that when Jungkook sings, it fills up his chest so much that he can’t breathe.
“Hey,” Jimin jumps in his seat, flustered when he looks up to find Jungkook, all packed up and ready to go home, “aren’t you supposed to be studying?”
“I am studying,” Jimin shrugs, trying to pretend he wasn’t just contemplating the alternate universe where he would be dating a cute freshman with a cute nose and beauty marks on his pale neck like chocolate chips--
Jungkook hums, “study hard, then,” plopping his bag onto the desk and taking a seat next to Jimin.
"Why are you here?!" Jimin wails. He could do without the extra distraction right now, but Jungkook just places a can of iced coffee onto Jimin’s desk with a smile, plugs in his earphones and says nothing more. Jimin exasperatedly resumes his revision of modern literature, or at least tries to, what with Jungkook in his peripheral, nodding to the beat of a song in his head.
Eventually, he turns around to find Jungkook with his head in his arms on the desk, dozing off. His music playlist has long since finished, Jimin gingerly removes his earphones to prevent them from digging into his face uncomfortably. This close, he can see Jungkook’s eyelashes fluttering against his cheeks and Jimin’s heart squeezes in his chest involuntarily.
-
Jimin debates whether he's just fallen into an alternate universe where it's ok to walk into Taehyung and Hoseok sucking face. He stares for a bit, backpedals almost, this close to slapping himself awake before he gets shoved aside by a trail of people led by Yoongi.
“Whoa, whoa,” he whoops and cheers, “so are you guys official now? As in not secretly dating anymore?”
“Wait, what,” Jimin tends to sputter when dumbstruck, “what the fuck what just happened.”
Nobody pays him any attention, all too busy fawning over this juicy latest turn of events. Jungkook though, Jungkook chuckles, “silly, pretty sure they’ve been together for a month now.”
Then it clicks. All the times Taehyung had ditched him during study sessions, the times he bailed on their weekly movie/hangout night, every time Taehyung fucking giggled at his phone.
The good news is that Hoseok had been persuading Taehyung to drop the saxophone because really, with two weeks from the school festival, a band without a bass player, or more importantly, a band with a saxophone, something had to be done. He emerged victorious after he very literally kissed the opposition out of Taehyung.
Jimin feels a little sick to his stomach and Jungkook isn’t making it any better by ruffling Jimin’s messy head of hair, “you’re so slow sometimes it’s cute,” he coos, and Jimin wants to scream at him. Nothing could prevent the heat flushing throughout his body all the way to his toes when he turns sharply towards Jungkook towering over him, his fingers still pressing lightly into his scalp, smiling until his eyes are twinkling pools of black.
His mouth goes dry, suddenly hit by just how smitten he really is.
-
With the notion of Taehyung and Hoseok the couple, Jimin’s mind wanders to places he doesn’t want to involving a certain first year. This realisation distresses him more than he ever thought it would. So much so that he’s decided to actively avoid him, avoid band practice altogether, despite Taehyung calling him a shithead over his choices.
“Is this about your idiot crush on Jungkook? I swear to god--"
“Fuck off Taehyung,” Jimin growls, turning in on himself, “I have more important things to worry about than some band right now.” And especially some stupid junior.
Jungkook is a good kid, young with a bright future of possibilities ahead of him, Jimin cannot begin to digest the complications from these stupid emotions raging inside him. He’s growing up, graduating from being a child into an adult with responsibilities and as much as he would’ve wanted to even address his very real crush on Jungkook, he simply cannot risk it. So he does what is the most logical thing to do in the face of such threat: run away.
-
The school festival is a week after the college entrance exams. A week before the exams, Jimin shuts down completely. He hasn’t spoken to Taehyung since their argument that day, even when he sees him across the room at cram school. Jimin practically lives in the library on Namjoon’s campus. He plugs in his earphones playing one of the songs that Jungkook had suggested but never made it onto their setlist and tries to simultaneously drown out the low buzz of chattering and fill in the silence; drown out the noises in his head and fill in the gaping emptiness in his chest.
And even though he thought that there was no way he could do this, take the exams, get into a good college, graduate, it all comes and goes before he even realises that hey, he kind of does miss his guitar a little bit, amongst other things (or people).
-
Three days before the festival, while Jimin is busy doing absolutely nothing in Yoongi room, he gets a KaTalk from an unknown number- it’s Jungkook.
hey where are you
how do you know my number?
taehyung hyung gave it to me, remember? on the paper plane
Oh. Jimin remembers that day, when the window opposite his framed Jungkook so perfectly as if he was the subject of some delicate photography project. That feels like so long ago, when he first secretly despised Jungkook for showing him no respect. Now, merely reading his texts is making Jimin’s heart race uncomfortably in the constricted space of his ribs. A few minutes pass by before Jimin’s phone dings with another text.
let’s hang out hyung
Jimin chews on his lip, thinking of what he should do. He’s graduating soon, the end is near, and the telltale signs of bitter regret are swimming at the back of his mind.
you only call me hyung when it’s convenient for you
He can’t help smiling a little at the obnoxious stickers Jungkook sends him.
-
November’s weather has picked up, turning a few degrees shy of outright freezing. The next day, Jimin meets Jungkook outside a cafe right around the corner of his subway stop, pulling his coat closer to himself.
“Hey,” Jungkook appears from his left, where he said in his text was the direction of his neighborhood, and Jimin has to take a moment to take in Jungkook, his fringe longer than he last saw him, his nose a shade mirroring the red of his heavy red scarf.
Jimin chews on the inside of his cheek, turning to walk into the warmth of the cafe instead.
It feels almost normal when they make their rounds looking at CD stores, instrument stores, Jimin’s favourite clothes brand and Jungkook’s favourite manga cafe. And that in itself is strange because Jimin has never hung out with Jungkook individually before, only as a band with Hoseok and Taehyung.
By the end of the day, Jungkook asks him to come back to band practice, “Taehyung hyung is getting anxious,” he shuffles his feet, outwardly nervous for once, “but he says he’s got too much pride and can’t tell you that himself.”
Jimin smiles despite himself. That does sound like Taehyung. He considers Jungkook quietly, and his yearning resurges just by looking at him. Damn it if he hasn’t missed Jungkook’s voice, smooth and clear, soft and strong. “Of course I’ll go back,” Jungkook’s eyes completely light up and Jimin has to fight to keep his breathing steady, “I won’t do that to Tae and Hoseok hyung, I love them too much.”
“What about me, hyung?” Jungkook catches him off guard, a determined look on his youthful face, a hint of uncertainty faint in the set of his eyes.
“Yeah, I-” Jimin stutters, curses inwardly and looks away because Jungkook’s gaze is crawling under the thick layers of his wool coat, making him feel hot all over, “yeah i won’t do that to you either, even though you’re a brat, and the other hyungs like you too, so--”
“But do you like me?”
Jimin is taken aback by that, “I--”
Jungkook reaches out his hand and weakly clasps two of Jimin’s fingers. He’s chewing on his bottom lip, waiting, and the agitation evaporating from his whole being is almost suffocating. Jimin thinks of how strange it is, that Jungkook is basically drawing out his confession from him, in reverse.
“You’re young,” so young, “and I’m graduating,” is the answer he settles on, even though he lets Jungkook hold onto his fingers all the way until they have to part in different directions to go home.
-
Finally, it’s the day of the senior year’s last school festival ever. The entire student body is alive with preparations despite the rapidly-turning-unbearable weather. Even though the band was Taehyung’s idea, when put into a position of leadership, he becomes utterly useless. Jimin thanks the heavens that Hoseok has infinitely better communication skills than Taehyung, though achieving that isn’t necessarily difficult, seeing as all he has to do was not sprout weird nonsense every time someone asks him a question about their setlist.
Just as luck would have it, it starts to pour freezing winter rain right before they’re about to go onstage. Jimin watches with mild terror from the corner of backstage as the auditorium fills out with students escaping the rain outside. He’s never played in front of so many people before so he proceeds to have a mini breakdown hidden in a corner, out of everyone’s way.
Jungkook manages to find him anyway, pulling him even further out of sight only to bend down and press a kiss determinedly to Jimin’s lips. Despite his efforts, a female student got the shock of her life anyways when she glides past them, and it would’ve been embarrassing, it would’ve been the absolute end of Jimin, if he didn’t enjoy it so much that he’s quietly mewling against Jungkook’s lips.
“You’re right,” Jungkook exclaims as he pulls away, dragging Jimin towards the stage as he hears the MC announce their appearance, “I am young,” he flashes him his megawatt smile, the smile that has Jimin turned to putty ever since the first time he called him out for being short, “but that also makes me invincible.”
Onstage, he mechanically plugs in his equipment and runs through soundcheck in a stupor, only mildly aware of the nearly full audience waiting in anticipation. After a wave of silence sweeps through the hall, Jungkook yells, “hello we are The Titans!”
Hoseok counts them in with a loud crash and Jimin slides in seamlessly. The first few notes of Jungkook’s verse lift Jimin into a new high altogether, soaring with the adrenaline. He catches sight of Yoongi, Namjoon and Seokjin in the crowd, he catches Hoseok’s wink and Taehyung’s wide smile, and finally, when Jungkook turns around, he catches himself falling and falling and falling.
After the end, Jimin has to grow up. He has to go to college, he has to get a job, he has to start being responsible for things in his life. But, right here with Taehyung and Hoseok, with Jungkook and an ocean of people, screaming and screaming, Jimin feels invincible.
With Jungkook, together they could be bulletproof.
we’re in love, we’re insane;
what’s the sun without the rain;
i guess we’ll find out as we go
a/n:
- oh god this turned out to be more highschool au than highschool rock band au I am so so so sorry /o\\\\ but when I read the prompt and then they comeback with school concept and then I WATCHED LINDA LINDA the plot for this just magically vomited itself
- re: college entrance exams, they’re in November?? But I have no idea if schools do something like a school festival there…let’s pretend like this school does lol
- i had a lovely time writing this because I like the jimin/jungkook chemistry but there isn’t nearly enough fic out there on it ahaha sadness
- lyrics~