Chapter Text
When he sees him for the first time, it’s in a crowded room of a cafe.
The noise around him has muted down to a faint hum, his vision funneling on the boy- man?- sitting at the table with another male as he speaks animatedly. He can’t hear what they’re saying, they’re too far for him to be able to. But he sees the way his lips spread, almost box like, into a grin as he slaps at the shorter male’s shoulder.
He doesn’t know why his attention is drawn to him. It’s all seems like a normal outing to him. The boy is beautiful, he’ll admit. A sort of beauty that makes Jungkook stop in his place in line to admire for a moment longer, before someone bumps into him and jostle his thoughts ( and body ) into remembering that he’s holding up the line.
Forcing his eyes away is hard. Jungkook doesn’t want to look away, scared he’ll miss out on something important, and it unnerves him a little how attached he’s already gotten to some stranger.
He’s not a loner,not by any means, but he doesn’t actively search out people to hang out with. He also doesn’t latch onto fleeting moments or memories that won’t hold any significances later on in his life. They’re nice in the moment, sure, but they leave an ache in him that he never knows how to solve.
So he doesn’t latch. But he will try at times to make nothing into something.
By the time he has ordered his drink ( a caramel macchiato with caramel drizzle and extra caramel ), he’s forgotten about the boy who had caught his attention. He’s more concerned with getting his drink in his hand and into his stomach so he can head back to his shoebox of an apartment and stress over whether he should study or just play games for the rest of the night.
His fingers tap at the countertop nervously until he’s handed his coffee and he accepts it with a small bow and ‘thank you’. The familiar weight in his hands calms him slightly as he pulls out his phone to check if anyone has messaged him and starts towards the exit.
All thoughts about the pretty boy are gone.
They were gone, until his foot catches on the edge of a bag and his phone and coffee fly from his grasp as his body staggers forward, trying to balance itself out. It’s a struggle, but he flings his arm out, hand scrambling for purchase on the table by him to keep him from breaking his nose.
It works to keep him upright, but his knees still hit the wooden flooring and it makes him wince in pain. The skin of his knees will be a pretty purple blue hue tomorrow morning and he dreads the thought of having to explain that to his hyungs after they find out.
Knowing them, they’d probably jump to the conclusion someone had tripped him if not jumped him and it’ll cause a major headache to have to explain that, no he was not jumped, he had just tripped on some bag and only managed to hurt his knees.
Actually, getting jumped sounded less pathetic than that.
“Oh god, are you okay?” The voice that floats towards him from his right is such a smooth baritone, it sends Jungkook’s heart fluttering slightly. Whether in embarrassment or slight arousal, he’s not too sure about at the moment.
He glances over in the direction of the voice and feels the air in his throat catch when he locks eyes with deep brown ones.
His body stiffens and Jungkook can’t seem to pull away from the stare. Most of the noise has died down again and all he can do is focus on the person sitting to his right. It’s quiet for a beat. He wonders when everyone had gotten silent or if it was the fact that he can really only find himself to focus on the other.
The awkward air doesn’t last long because the guy offers a smile and sweet jesus Jungkook really feels like his heart is going to beat out of his chest. It’s ridiculous. He doesn’t even know this man -boy?- and his heart is already acting like he’s known him for forever.
“Hello? Are you okay? Did you hit your head?” The concern seeping between the male’s words is enough to snap Jungkook back to reality, make him realize he’s being a complete idiot and feels his cheek burn as he jolts up to his feet.
“Sorry, sorry. I’m okay.” He bows, head hung slightly as he apologizes and feels the quickened pitter patter of his heart when the brunet laughs again.
“You’re the one who tripped over my bag and you’re apologizing to me? I should be the one asking for your forgiveness.”
Jungkook’s head snaps up at that and he shakes his head.
“You never have to apologize to me.”
Stunned silence rings out once more and Jungkook finally grasps the way his words don’t really make sense and he feels like flinging himself in a hole. He doesn’t even know why, but the thought of this beautiful male apologizing for something he has no control over settles wrong in his gut.
He shuffles on his feet for a moment longer, before he bows deeply once more another apology slipping from his lips, this time for his weird outburst, and promptly leaves the cafe after picking up his phone from the floor. The shouts coming from behind him cut off when the door slams behind him and he continues his power walk for a few blocks until he’s sure that no one has followed him and he can breath properly without his embarrassment swallowing him whole.
The beating of his heart has yet to settle and Jungkook finds himself sagging against the side of a building, hand placed atop it in hopes that the simple action will ease it.
He doesn’t understand why he’s so affected by such a small thing as a few simple words and someone’s laughter. Things like that have never bothered him before, and now the embarrassment is slowly being replaced with a slight emptiness. It has him rubbing at his chest as his features twist into concern.
Surely he can’t be that affected by someone he’s just met, right? He’s been exposed to countless of beautiful people before, so he shouldn’t feel so…
Desolate.
Vibrations from his pocket pull Jungkook from his stupor and he fumbles around for a moment, fingers a shaking mess as he pulls his phone from his pocket and glances at the screen. A sigh of relief slips from his lips as the screen flashes and reads Yoongi Hyung and he waste no time in pressing the green circle on his screen and bringing it up to his ear.
“Hello? Hyung? Ah, yeah, I went out to get coffee but I’m heading home now. I should be there in about fifteen minutes.” He pauses, hears the gruff protest of his hyung saying he doesn’t want to wait outside that long and feels his lips quirk up into a tiny smile. “I should have an extra key hidden in the plant next to my door. Wait for me inside, hyung, okay? I won’t be long, I promise.”
He only gets a grunt in to confirm that Yoongi has heard him and the call ends, leaving Jungkook to steady himself once more and shake the last of the weird cafe incident away, pushing it to the back of his mind to forget it.
Inhaling deeply, he nods once, twice, and sets off back home. It wouldn’t be good to let Yoongi muddle around in his apartment by himself too long.
“Taehyung, that was-”
“I know, Jimin. It was him, which means the cycle is going to start soon.” The pink haired male glances at his friend, worrying settling in the pits of his stomach as watches the other watching the door where the other male had fled.
Taehyung sighs, eyes sliding shut and presses back against his seat. Another cycle meant that he would be seeing more of Jungkook. His heart is still a storm inside his chest, a frantic beating of longing and an ache of emptiness that has him curling his fingers into fist and taking a deep breath.
He opens his eyes and turns to Jimin, offers him a somber smile, a stark contrast to what had been gracing his face earlier.
“Time to call the others and let them know.”
It was time to prepare for another heartbreak.