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Of course Tae decided to live on the other side of campus.
Jimin usually didn’t mind the brisk walk, but when the temperature dropped below 0… well, that’s when he had a problem. The air was punishingly cold, and, to absolutely no one’s surprise ever, Tae insisted that Jimin go over to his place. “It’s bigger!” the younger boy had argued, knowing that Jimin would not be happy about it.
Days like today made him wonder if his best friend did it on purpose—Taehyung seemed to get a kick out of making his life just a little bit harder. Not hard enough to actually get mad at him, but perhaps just a little annoying. In an endearing way, of course. He was pretty sure that no matter how hard he tried, he could never actually hate Tae, even if, say, his younger brown-haired classmate decided to make him walk for fifteen minutes through the frigid cold.
Or enchanted his room to prevent Jimin from entering.
Or hid his spellbook in a really tall tree.
Or pestered Jimin until he finally gave in and adopted the stray black cat that constantly hung around his building.
Oh, spellbooks? Yeah, he must’ve forgotten to mention it—he’s a sorcerer! With magick powers and spells. Pew pew. Like that. All the benefits of the modern world with all of the conveniences of magick—being a sorcerer was awesome. Unfortunately for the world, Tae was also a sorcerer, meaning that everyone had to deal with an actual twelve-year-old with mischievous chaotic neutral tendencies having magick. Whoever in the magick realm decided that Taehyung, of all people, deserved to have an unending source of magick at his disposal needed to have their sorcerer credentials revoked and burned in green flames until nothing was left of their bad decisions.
Even though Tae was arguably the worst person to be magickally inclined, it was his non-magickal pranks that made the mage-in-training irritable most of the time. For instance—
Of course Tae had to room with the hottest guy he could find.
When they first met—and instantly became best friends as Taehyung liked to incessantly remind him—the younger boy just knew that Jimin was gay. Tae was totally cool with it, but it was his life’s goal to get Jimin with the hottest gay sorcerer he could find. And that’s where Jungkook came in.
Unsurprisingly for Jimin, Jungkook showed negative-seven interest in the pink-haired sorcerer. Jungkook was way out of his league—painfully so. Every time Taehyung not-so-subtly tried to get them together, Jungkook just rolled his eyes, and Jimin wanted to smack the living shit out of his so-called friend.
Jimin was over it now. Mostly. Probably. Kinda.
So maybe sometimes he wanted to hold Jungkook’s hand and stare up into those big brown puppy-dog-like eyes, but he knew that he had a snowball’s chance in hell of that happening. He had moved on. He was going to be fine today, he promised himself. He was just studying for an exam with Tae, it was going to be fine. He didn't even have to see Jungkook, the younger kid was always parked in his room anyways.
Pushing the door open to their shared apartment (it was never locked), he was greeted by an empty room. “Tae!” he hollered. “Where are you?”
Before he could make his way to the younger boy’s bedroom, his brown-haired friend popped up from behind the kitchen counter. “Here!” the younger mage shouted back, cheeky box-like grin taking up half his face while the other half was covered up by his purple sorcerer’s hat that he just loved to wear. Tae loved being a sorcerer, it enabled him to be a little shit.
He cocked one eyebrow in response. “Are you doing magick?” Jimin asked cautiously, watching as his best friend whipped around to make tea.
“Just finished up, actually,” he responded while pouring the hot water. Jimin plopped onto the couch in the attached living room, pulling out his spellbook to study—they had an exam next week.
Taehyung meanwhile finished making the tea, and he used his levitation powers to pick all three cups up at once. Carefully walking into the living room, Jimin looked up and side-eyed his younger friend warily.
“Someone’s been practicing their levitation powers.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know I always sucked,” Taehyung dismissively replied, setting two of the cups down on the coffee table while grabbing the last one out of midair. He didn't spill one drop of tea, which was a huge improvement from last time when he "accidentally" spilled an entire cup of scalding hot tea on Jimin's coat. Luckily he hadn't taken off the waterproof coat or that would've hurt a lot (and he would've hurt Tae a lot, too).
“Why three?”
“One’s for Kook.”
“He’s here?” Jimin glanced around, starting to regret coming over. Even if the other sorcerer was in his room, it was enough of a distraction to keep him from studying. The tea would have zero effect.
“Yeah, he’s studying though,” Taehyung replied, winking at Jimin. He assumed Tae was trying to be reassuring, but he was being anything but that.
“Actually,” the younger boy said, stopping mid-stride. “How about you give this to him?”
“And why would I do that?” he retorted. Taehyung had that stupid shit-eating grin on his face, that one that he always had whenever he was messing with him. This was when his best friend really got on his nerves.
“He mentioned you the other day.”
Jimin immediately rolled his eyes. “Why would he talk about me, Tae?”
“He said he missed you coming around.”
“Uh huh.” Yeah right.
“C’mon Jimin, just bring him his tea,” the younger boy whined.
Jimin ignored him, staring down at his spellbook but not actually absorbing any of the words on the page. Jungkook? Jungkook missed him? That’s rich. Jungkook wouldn’t even bat an eye at him when he dropped by last time. Hell, even the first time Jimin visited Tae and his new roommate, Jungkook had to be coaxed by Taehyung for an awkward five seconds to introduce himself. And now his hot roommate misses him? Yeah right. Next Taehyung's gonna brag about how he's going to be Merlin's apprentice. Fat-fucking-chance. The brown-haired boy was just being annoying.
“Pleeeeeeeeeease,” Tae whined again.
Then again, Taehyung could be infinitely more annoying about this if he kept refusing.
“Fine.”
He snatched the mug straight out of Taehyung’s hands, and brusquely made his way to Jungkook’s room. Knocking twice, he entered without waiting for a response. The raven-haired boy was sitting at his desk, which was facing away from the door.
“Not now, Tae, I—“ Jungkook finally looked over his shoulder, seeing that it was not, in fact, Tae. “Oh.”
“Hey, Tae made you tea,” he interjected. Walking up to the younger boy’s side, he plopped the mug onto his desk, then hurriedly walked back to the door.
“Thanks,” he heard Jungkook murmur.
“Mmhmm,” he replied. So much for that.
Taehyung was smiling when he got back, of course. That stupid shit-eating grin, no less. Why was Tae so irritating today?
Jimin didn’t speak one word for fifteen minutes. Screw Taehyung and the stupid games he played with him and Jungkook. He was fucking over it, and it was starting to seriously get on his nerves. Never before had he been this upset with his best friend, but it was starting to cross a line.
After the long period of silence, Taehyung finally decided to pipe up and ask something: “How long has it been since you got here?”
He rolled his eyes in response. “I don’t know, fifteen minutes?”
Just then, the door to Jungkook’s room clicked open.
“Ah, perfect timing!” Tae exclaimed. With that, he snapped his fingers, and a small raincloud appeared directly above Jimin’s head. Instantly, it dumped a bunch of water on top of the pink-haired sorcerer’s head, drenching the older boy.
“What the actual fuck, Ta—“ Jimin started to say while parting his soaking wet hair out of his eyes.
“W-why are you wet, h-hyung?” a small voice interjected. Both Jimin and Taehyung’s heads snapped around to look at Jungkook’s doorway. The raven-haired boy looked awfully vulnerable for someone who was bigger than both of them.
“Hyung? You never call me hyung—“
“Yes I do,” he weakly argued. Jimin was still taken aback by how... how small the younger boy seemed. Something was wrong.
“No, you don’t,” he insisted, waiting for Jungkook’s response.
“Why are you wet?”
Jungkook's eyes darted down to the floor, like he wanted to look anywhere but directly at Jimin. He was still unsure why the raven-haired boy was even talking to him, especially now of all times! Three months of minimal communication and now they might as well be shooting the shit about the weather. What was going on? He didn't have time to figure it out.
“Why don’t you ask your roo—wait,” Jimin stopped himself, eyes fixated on Jungkook. “Are—are you blushing, Jungkook?”
“N-no!” The younger boy attempted to cover his face up with his hands, which only made him look more ridiculously vulnerable. For such a big scary sorcerer, Jungkook was endearingly adorable when he was embarrassed.
“You’re lying, you’re blushing!”
“S-shut up! No I’m not!”
This time, Taehyung interjected: “No, he’s right, Kook. Your cheeks are bright pink.”
“No they’re not!” Jungkook insisted before retreating into his room. The door slammed shut with a thud, earning a shudder from both boys still in the living room.
“What the fuck was that?” Jimin snapped his fingers too, drying his hair and shoulders instantly.
Taehyung shifted in his seat, taking a few moments to respond. “Notsure,” he spat out quickly.
He eyed his friend warily. “You did something, didn’t you?” Jimin started—then it hit him. “You spiked his drink with something! That’s why you had your hat on in the kitchen! That's why you were doing magick when I got here!”
“I—I would nev—“
“Don’t even think of lying to me, Tae,” Jimin warned. At that moment, the pink-haired boy opened up the palm of his right hand and summoned a small ball of green fire. Taehyung gulped.
“I, uh—I might have put something in his tea, Minnie.”
“Oh,” Jimin replied, the green flame in his hand pulsating with life. This little shit. “And what exactly did you add?”
“N-nothing big,” Tae choked out. “Just an emotion draught, that’s all.”
“Which emotion draught?”
“theonethatamplifiesfeelings,” he squeaked out.
Jimin willed the flame away from his hand, getting up from his seat with a dramatic sigh. “I can’t believe you.”
“What!? I was getting tired of him openly pining over you after you’d leave, so I decided to, um, hasten the process.”
For the umpteenth time, Jimin rolled his eyes. Yeah right, Jungkook was not interested in him, and he wasn’t going to let Taehyung’s stupid shitty pranks get in the way. He dropped his spellbook on the coffee table with a loud thump and hauled his ass to Jungkook’s room to make sure he was alright. He could probably whip up an antidote or quickly mitigate some of the symptoms if the younger boy wanted. After that, he could kick Taehyung's ass for being such a crappy friend. Unlimited source of magick and what does he do with it? Make his roommate and best friend suffer. What an insolent little shit.
He knocked twice on Jungkook's door again and entered.
“Jungkook?” he asked. This time, the younger boy was not at his desk. He surveyed the part of Jungkook's room near the door, but he couldn't see much: there was a wall to his left and a huge dresser to his right. Did the kid cast an invisibility charm? Or did he teleport? He didn't think Jungkook knew teleportation magick, that was some advanced shit. Jimin stepped in further, looking over at Jungkook’s bed in the corner on the right.
Bingo. One big ball of linens that was roughly Jungkook-sized.
“Jungkook? Are you okay?”
The linens shifted.
“Hyung?” came the small voice from the bed.
“Yes, Jungkook, I’m here. Are you okay?” Do I need to kill Tae for you? he wanted to add.
Jimin waited for a few moments before he got his reply.
“N-no,” the younger boy murmured from under the sheets. Jimin took a seat near the foot of Jungkook’s bed, careful not to get to close to the raven-haired sorcerer’s body.
“What’s wrong, Jungkook? Does it hurt?”
“Ye—“ hiccup “—Yes.”
“Why does it hurt, Kookie?”
“Be-because you hate me,” Jungkook said, finally throwing his linens off his upper body and looking directly at his pink-haired hyung with glossy, wet eyes. They were starting to look a little bloodshot, like he had been crying for an hour rather than two minutes. Whatever Tae used on him, it was fucking strong, especially if it reduced someone who controlled their emotions well like Jungkook to a sniveling bed-ridden ball of feels.
Wait—what? Jungkook was supposed to hate him, not the other way around?
“I don’t hate you… why would you think that?”
"Yes you do."
"No, I don't."
“You don’t hate me?” Jungkook repeated, looking incredulously at him with those wet puppy-dog eyes. “Then why did you stop coming over? Why don’t you ever talk to me anymore?”
He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Jungkook? The kid who couldn’t say more than five words to Jimin all semester? Complaining about him not being there? And not talking to him? Then again, if Taehyung was actually telling the truth, and he was just loosening up Jungkook’s bottled-up emotions, and Jungkook was actually asking about him all the time when he wasn’t around… shit, the younger boy might actually like him?
Jimin laughed, earning another incredulous stare from Jungkook.
“W-why are you laughing?”
“It—It’s just that… that all this time I thought you hated me. Because you never talked to me and you never seemed to want me around so I stopped coming over.”
Jungkook’s face twitched, contorting at the corners of his lips. “So, you don’t hate me?” he asked.
“No,” Jimin emphatically replied. “I, uh, actually like you a lot, Jungkookie.”
“You’re not lying?”
“No, of course not!” he re-assured. “C’mere,” Jimin asked, scooting closer to the younger sorcerer while the younger boy straightened himself up. Jimin then reached in for a hug, encapsulating Jungkook in a tight embrace on his bed.
“I like you a lot, Jungkookie,” he whispered, caressing the younger boy’s back and threading his dark tufts of hair through his fingers. “I like you a lot,” Jimin repeated.
Just then, he heard a faint snickering from the doorway, and he knew exactly who was listening in on their conversation. Moving his left hand from Jungkook’s back to his own side, he flicked his wrist to ignite another green fireball.
“Tae, if you’re not gone in five seconds, I will singe every last one of your brown tufts of hair from your bowl-cut.”
With that, he heard the door click shut, leaving him and Jungkook in peace.
(And maybe a little in love)