Chapter Text
Sunday comes by quickly. Jimin’s nervous. They feel at a turning point, they don’t know how to say it in any other way. They feel like something has shifted the other night, but they can’t pinpoint it.
Knocking on Taehyung’s door, they aren’t ready for them to open, dressed in nothing but a robe.
Jimin smiles at them, clutching their bag closer to their chest. This is going to be one hell of a session.
Jungkook’s already there, and he’s doe-eyed, wide and a bit terrified.
“Have you seen them?” He whispers at them and Jimin huffs a nervous laugh.
“God, yes. I don’t know how we are going to survive this.”
“Aloe? Orange juice anyone?” Taehyung calls from the other room.
“Aloe for me and—” They turn towards Jungkook. “What do you want?”
“To die on the spot, but also, orange juice.”
“—and orange juice !”
Taehyung comes back and serves them, a side of their robe sliding down their shoulder.
Jimin breathes in, breathes out. It’s okay. It’s only two hours.
‘We’ll start, as always, with a few movement practices.” They say and undo the knot around their robe, it falls down and Jimin hears Jungkook’s sharp intake of breath, but he can’t look away.
The robe falls down, draping their feet in crimson. They’re wearing nothing but panties and a binder. Jimin tries not to react but it feels much more intimate than it should feel for a class exercise, this baring of oneself, this exposure of secrets, it’s far more intimate than seeing them entirely naked. They feel like they truly see them, maybe for the first time.
They look at Jungkook and he looks dazed, in his own world, Jimin snaps him out of it, asking for a sharpener.
“Okay, let’s start.”
In a way, drawing nude is simpler, without the creases, the fluid fabrics making shapes fuzzier, it feels natural.
Taehyung takes different poses, tries out different angles, never suggestive, just their body existing in this room with them.
It’s oddly silent though.
Once they’re done with warming up, Taehyung breathes out and looks at them both.
“Okay, you’ll have an hour for this one. Full body sketching, I want good proportions and shading. Ready?”
Jungkook nods and Jimin follows as well, wondering why they seem so tense.
Taehyung’s hands grab the bottom of their binder and start taking it off.
Oh. That’s why.
“Excuse me?” Jimin says and stops Taehyung in their tracks.
“What is it?”
“If you’re baring yourself to us, let me at least take off my binder as well. A sign of trust.”
“I have nothing to offer.” Jungkook replies, worried.
“Don’t worry about it.” Jimin says and stands up, turning around so their back is facing the two others. They take their shirt off and slowly wriggle out of their binder, putting their shirt back on. It feels weird to feel exposed like this, but they trust them, somehow, they know it won’t change anything to them.
When Jimin turns around, Jungkook looks vulnerable, and Taehyung is smiling at them.
“Thank you.” Their voice is breaking around the edges.
They take off their binder and lay down on a pile of cushions. They’re on the side, a leg thrown over the other, an arm under their head, hands lying on the ground, another placed on their torso, right under their breasts, resting there.
Jungkook and Jimin try their best to show how they revel Taehyung, paying attention to the curves, the overall harmony of their body, try casting the shadows over their drawing the way the sun is throwing shades on them. It’s a very intimate moment.
Once the hour has passed, Taehyung slowly gets back into a sitting position and gets up to go upstairs and grab a shirt. They come back while putting it on and walk behind them.
“So, was it hard?”
“I find that a full body is hard to grasp, the shadows were even worse.” Jimin says, and Taehyung laughs.
“It’s always like this the first time. Let me look at it.”
They lean over Jimin’s shoulder and stare.
“The legs are particularly good. You’ve made lots of progress.”
“Thank you.”
“The movement of the hands is great too. You should be proud of yourself. It lacks fluidity in the curves but it’ll come with time, same with shading. It’s good.” They squeeze their shoulders gently and walk towards Jungkook.
They stay silent for a while and Jungkook starts fidgeting in his seat.
“Is it bad?” He asks when he can’t help it anymore.
“On the contrary, it’s the first time I can feel emotion in one of your drawings. It’s excellent. You can also be proud of yourself. You’re slowly getting away from academic rigidity.”
Taehyung looks at them and smiles.
“Should we have breakfast now?”
There’s a tension in the air that won’t dissolve, and Jungkook won’t stop fidgeting.
Taehyung retrieves the food they’ve brought and hands over the aloe vera and orange juices to Jimin.
They follow them to the first floor where Taehyung flops on their bed.
“Welcome to my abode once again.” They say with a warm smile.
Jungkook goes to sit at the end of the bed, cross-legged, and Jimin follows his lead, drops the juice boxes on it and sits cross-legged next to Taehyung’s pillows.
“I should take down the price for you. You are friends to me now.”
Jungkook rubs his fingers around his eyebrows, worriedly. Jimin’s concerned.
“Listen.” He starts saying. “I need to tell you something.”
And, here it is. Jungkook’s bolder than Jimin. Fair. He wins.They’ll be happy watching from the sidelines.
Taehyung stands on their elbows, eyebrows furrowed.
“What’s going on?”
“I don’t want to take advantage of your kindness. Thank you for everything you have brought me so far, but I feel like I’ve been deceiving you.” Jungkook cracks his knuckles together, nervous.
“What do you mean?”
“Taehyung-hyung, I’m falling for you, and I don’t want to take more than what’s been given to me. I’ve kept to myself long enough in my life, hiding to people that I was gay, trying to go out with women and please my family, but I’m tired of this life. You have given me the strength to be who I am. And I am in love with you.” Taehyung looks shell-shocked. Jimin’s heart is racing, aching, both at the same time. They’re happy and sad, can’t choose an emotion, just feel like a mess. But Jungkook isn’t done, because he turns towards Jimin and opens his mouth once again, not letting Taehyung reply. “And I have feelings for you too as well hyung. Our talk the other day helped a lot. You made me realize it was okay to feel for more than one person at the same time. So here I am. This is me putting myself naked before you, as vulnerable as you have been earlier.”
No one speaks for a full minute. Jungkook looks exhausted, like a balloon you’ve just popped, sitting down, shoulders hunched as he sips from his orange juice.
“If it weren’t noon I would’ve asked for vodka to go with my juice.” He laughs, nervous.
“Jungkook…” Jimin starts. “Are you okay Taehyung-ssi?” Jimin asks.
Taehyung shrugs, licking his lips, eyebrows raised.
“Just give me a minute to process this.”
“Sorry, I have to break it out to you as well.” Jimin replies and closes their eyes, exhales slowly and prepares themself. “I feel the same way you do, Jungkook. Been prodding around but I thought you only had feelings for Taehyung.”
“I felt the same way too.” Jungkook replies.
They both turn to look at Taehyung who still hasn’t moved.
“Wait. We do have a problem here.” They say, and Jimin instantly gets worried. Have they read everything wrong and they’re actually totally uninterested? “How do I kiss you both at the same time?”
And Jungkook starts laughing, oh so nervous, breaking down into a fit of laughter he can’t stop, relieved, and starts crying instead.
“I can’t believe it’s happening.” He says as Jimin crawls to take his hand and Taehyung finally moves towards him to put a hand on his back, soothing. “I can’t believe—you like us both too?”
“Can’t imagine you without the other.” Taehyung answers without missing a beat. “Thought I was obvious. Why are you crying sweetie?” They say, brushing a tear off Jungkook’s cheek.
“I just never thought I’d actually get to live happily the way I am.”
“And the way you are is perfect.” Jimin tells him, kissing his hand, over and over again.
“It’s just, being a gay man in Korea, hell, being gay isn’t the simplest way to live.”
“Look at us.” Taehyung tenderly says. “We’re outcasts and we’ve found our own kind to live with. We can find happiness in the spaces we create.”
“Things will move, it’ll get better for us in time. We fight simply by existing. You’re brave.” Jimin kisses his arm, gets closer to his shoulder and Taehyung’s hand moves there. Jimin kisses their knuckles, one by one, smiling when they see their smile.
“I’m in love with you both. Sounds corny as hell, but fell in love at the moment you sat down and smiled at me the first day.” They tell Jimin, caressing their cheek. “And fell in love with you when you ran to your seat, in a rush, like I was going to scold you.” They confess to Jungkook, a hand in his hair, brushing them.
Taehyung kisses his neck, softly, until Jungkook stops shaking, and Jimin kisses his wet cheek, pampers it with small tender pecks.
“Let’s go and freshen you up. Okay?” Taehyung tells him gently and Jimin gets out of bed, taking his hand in theirs. Jungkook stands up, feeble, a bit disoriented.
They go to Taehyung’s bathroom and Jungkook cleans his face, looks at them in the mirror and gives them a small smile.
“I have no idea how this works.” He confesses, and it makes them all laugh.
“What about a funny movie tucked in bed?” Taehyung suggests.
“I’d love that.” Jimin replies, and Taehyung takes their hand in theirs.
“Okay.” Jungkook nods, sniffling one last time.
The movie helps Jungkook calm down, wrapped between Taehyung and Jimin, holding both of their hands in his. Once it ends, they order something to eat and lightly talk about their week, and the realization that they’re in love with each other doesn’t change their dynamic after all.
“We’re going to have to communicate a lot.” Jimin says between two mouthfuls. “Maybe too much, but is there too much communication possible when it comes to love?”
Taehyung snorts.
“That’s corny.”
“You’re corny.” Jimin says and leans in to kiss them as they’re munching on their lunch. Taehyung, Jungkook and Jimin’s eyes go wide after what they’ve just done but—
“It just felt natural, I’m so sorry. I—”
Taehyung kisses them back, taking Jungkook’s hand in theirs, stopping their kiss only to kiss Jungkook as well. Jungkook sighs into it.
“Our first kiss will forever be remembered along the flavor of excellent kimchi.” Taehyung says, grinning.
“To hell with it.” Jimin says and leans over to kiss Jungkook.
They both feel soft, but in different ways. Jungkook kisses shyly, with attention and care, adjusting to their partner’s rhythm, but Taehyung, when they grab Jimin by the shirt to fully kiss them, Taehyung ravishes, they take what they want and sweep the rug from underneath your feet. It’s breathtaking. They wonder what their kisses feel like.
Once they’re done with lunch, and lots of kisses interrupting it, they decide to cuddle in bed.
“I thought you were interested in each other.” Taehyung says, their arms wrapped around both of their shoulders, looking at the ceiling. “You had this amazing chemistry going on between you two, and then, after your tattoo session, you felt different, like something had happened between you two.”
“Yeah.” Jimin hums, looking at the clouds slowly advancing through the glass roof.
“We’d just admitted to each other we were in love with you.”
“Oh.” Is what Taehyung replies. “So you were just agreeing on pining together?”
“More or less.” Jimin sighs. “I thought I didn’t really stand a chance and I liked seeing you two together so I thought why the hell not let them be happy together.”
“But you’d told me you’d been in a thruple before?” Jungkook asks.
“Yeah, a bad one, didn’t think a good one could happen to me.”
“We’ll make it a good one.” Taehyung says, kissing their hand. “What made you confess Jungkook-ssi?”
Jungkook laughs, nervous.
“It was you exposing yourself to us, the trust you’ve given us, I felt like I had to come forward with my feelings and stop being a coward when it comes to love.”
“Freeing yourself…” Taehyung says. “That’s why your drawing was so different from the others.”
“I drew it with my guts and not my brain this time.”
“You did well.” Taehyung hums.
“What if we drew each other this afternoon? No time pressure, nothing but exercising and drawing with our feelings? Maybe dabbling a little with watercolor for a change?”
“I’d love that.” Jimin says and climbs over Jungkook to kiss Taehyung, slow and careful, a hand on their chest, the other one next to Jungkook’s face. They kiss him right after, small kisses they leave on his lips, on his nose, his eyelids as he softly laughs.
“I really am in love with you both.”
“Good, because we’re not going anywhere.” Jungkook scoffs between two kisses.
They tenderly part ways during the afternoon, kissing each other goodbye and Jimin feels giddy.
Maybe they’re allowed gentleness in this world after all.
They’ll gladly take it.