Archive of Our Own ^beta

When Jimin is six, his brother catches a fairy in a jar.

They'd been out catching fireflies, their parents watching them from the front porch, and Jihyun wanders too far into the tree line, still visible but far enough away that their mother calls for him to come back.

"I'll go get him!" Jimin chirps and waddles towards his brother on his chubby legs. "Jihyunnie, come back."

"Look," Jihyun whispers, turning around to face Jimin. His hands are cupped, his mason jar of bugs tucked gently under his arm, and Jimin expects to see fireflies when his brother opens his fingers.

There are no fireflies.

"It's a fairy," Jihyun says proudly.

A small figure, glowing gold, sits in the center of Jihyun's palm. Its wings are gossamer, but Jimin doesn't know that word yet. He just knows that they are fragile and beautiful and he probably shouldn't touch them even if he wants to.

It's hard to make out a face through the glow, hard to make out anything other than a body and wings, but the creature is shaking and Jimin wants to cry. "We should let it go."

Jihyun sticks out his lip. "I want to show my friends."

"But look." Jimin peers closer. "Look how sad it is."

The wings flutter weakly. Sad. Jimin reaches out to comfort it.

"It's not sad," Jihyun says, moving his hand out of Jimin's reach. "It's nervous so I have to take good care of it." He puts his face too close to the figure in his hands, trying to see a face. "I bet it's pretty."

"It's already pretty," Jimin tells him. Jimin wants to look at it forever.

"It can be my nightlight!" Jihyun says excitedly.

"But—"

"Jimin! Jihyun!" It's their father, walking down the hill. "You're too far out. Come closer before it gets any darker.”

Jimin turns his head to see his father, and when he looks back around Jihyun has opened the lid of his jar very carefully and slipped the fairy inside. Its little hands are pressed up against the glass. It's the last thing Jimin sees and he wants to cry again but he's not really sure why.

"Daddy!" Jihyun squeals. "I found a fairy!" He holds up his jar.

"Fireflies are fairies now," their father jokes, picking Jihyun up and resting him on his hip.

Jihyun shoves the jar closer to his face and Jimin sees the fairy shake, huddled up against the glass on the opposite side like it's afraid of scrutiny. Jimin doesn't like it when people get to close to his face, and usually their faces are about the same size as his, so the fairy is probably extra sad.

"No, dad, it's a real fairy." Jihyun taps on the glass and the fireflies whirl around. The fairy covers its ears.

Gently, their father takes ahold of Jihyun’s fingers. "Don't tap. It's rude to the fireflies." He kisses Jihyun's fingers. "Of course it's a real fairy." He smiles, but Jimin doesn't think he sees.

"I think we should let the fairy go!" Jimin pipes up, grabbing at the hem of his father's shirt. "What if it's scared?"

His dad grabs Jimin's little hand tightly. "Let your brother have his fun," he says lightly. "Fairies are courageous."

"I don't think you've ever met a fairy," Jimin accuses.

"Aren't you a fairy?" he asks with a laugh, crouching down. "You're the bravest little boy I know."

"Hey!" Jihyun wails.

"And you're the strongest," their father teases, pressing kisses into Jihyun's cheeks. "And it's past both of your bedtimes."

Jimin doesn't take his eyes off of the mason jar until Jihyun disappears into his bedroom for the night.

Jimin is sneaky. Sometimes he will creep down and steal cookies from the tin in the kitchen, and he always makes sure it's exactly where he found it, and he is always careful that the step stool doesn't make too much noise when he climbs on top to reach the counter.

Tonight he doesn't need a step stool, since his brother's bedside table is well within arms reach.

There's a creaky hinge on Jihyun's door, but his brother is a sound sleeper and it's very much past his bedtime. Jimin stifles a yawn. Sneaky sneaky.

The mason jar shines dimly in the dark room, and the fireflies buzz around happily but the fairy is sitting at the bottom, asleep. It lifts its head when Jimin picks up the jar. He tries to do it carefully, because he doesn't want to scare the fairy any more, and he doesn't want it to get thrown around like Jimin does sometimes when his grandfather drives.

"It's okay," he tells the fairy in a too-loud whisper, carrying the jar out of the room and into Jimin's, where he has the window already open. He's too small to reach the latch, so he'd complained to his mom that the room was too stuffy, and she'd opened the window when he'd asked. "I will hold it very carefully."

Gently, he sets the jar on his windowsill and climbs up on his toy box. The jar itself isn't hard to open but it takes him a moment. All of the fireflies leave first, some of them flittering around Jimin's room like little yellow-green stars, but the fairy stays, looking up at Jimin through the mouth of the jar.

"Is it too tall?" Jimin pouts. "I will set the jar sideways." As slowly as possible, Jimin lets the jar rest on its side, one chubby hand on top to keep it from rolling, and the fairy crawls along the edge until it pokes its head out of the top. "Free! See? I was very careful." He grins. "Now you can go back to mommy and daddy."

The fairy flutters its wings.

Jimin waves goodbye.

He gets in trouble in the morning for setting his brother's fireflies loose, and Jihyun doesn't talk to him for a week, but Jimin has no regrets even if he doesn't get dessert.

Years later, Jimin will stop thinking about the fairy in the jar. All he remembers are fireflies.

"I just worry about you being up there all by yourself. Like a scared baby duck."

"Jungkook." Jimin laughs, rubbing aftershave over his jaw until he smells completely like the woods. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you cared about my well-being."

"Jimin, who is going to buy me food if you die?" Jungkook demands on the other end of the phone. There’s the crunch of Cheeto puffs in the receiver.

"I'm not going to die, oh my god." Jimin frowns. "And it's 'hyung.' You're so rude. Why do I put up with you?"

"Hyung! You are living in a strange town with a strange roommate and no friends."

Jimin scoffs, drying his hair absently with his towel. "I've been here for 2 months already. What's wrong with you?"

Jungkook doesn't seem appeased, despite the fact that Jimin has always been the more friendly between the two of them. If Jungkook decided to move to Seoul by himself, Jimin wouldn't have to worry about him being attacked in an alley or anything but he's not sure he would trust Jungkook to have a face-to-face conversation with another human for at least a month. Naturally, that's what Jungkook worries about more than anything else, even when it's Jimin who makes Jungkook leave the house most of the time.

So when Jungkook asks him, "but what about your strange roommate?" Jimin takes it with a grain of salt.

"Don't call him strange." Jimin met Jung Hoseok online in a forum for dancers attending K-Arts and they'd hit it off. Hoseok was an upperclassman and already had an apartment leased with his old roommate, Lee Taemin, who had just graduated. Hoseok had offered Jimin his spare room — at a reasonable price — and Jimin had nearly cried when everything worked out.

Unfortunately, Jimin sees nearly as much of Hoseok now as he did from his hometown in Busan. Hoseok works late hours at his studio, practiced late and runs rehearsals late, as well as an alarming rotation of hookups and flings that keep him out of the apartment when Jimin's not in class. Honestly, Jimin sees more of him on campus than he does in their apartment building. "I'm safe from my strange roommate Hoseok. Don't worry."

"What about pedophiles?"

Jimin tries so hard not to roll his eyes. He fails miserably. "Now you're being ridiculous on purpose." His hair is as dry as it's going to get. He lets the towel hang over his neck. "I am, in fact, a legal adult." He makes the short trek to his bedroom from the bathroom, idly checking to see if Hoseok's light is on with low expectations. It's not. "By definition, I'm officially safe from pedophiles."

"That's what you think, hyung," Jungkook says with a snort. "You still look like a child."

"I'm hanging up on you because I hate you," Jimin tells him shortly.

Jungkook laughs. "Hyung, hyung, hyung." Jimin can hear him grinning. "Just take care of yourself, okay?? I won't be there to save you if a stranger breaks into your apartment or something."

There is a strange man in Jimin's apartment.

Jimin wakes up to a crash, a stumble, like someone tripped over an end table (Jimin himself has made that same sound countless times) and for a moment, a blissful moment, he thinks it's Hoseok stumbling in from a late night. His heart is calm for a single beat before he remembers that it's Monday, 10:17AM, and Hoseok has a class on Monday, 10:00AM, and he never misses.

He almost chokes on his own spit.

There's stumbling going on in the living room, like someone is trying to be quiet and failing miserably. Carefully, Jimin throws on a random, dirty button-down, not taking the time to button it, just so that he's now taking on a possible assailant mostly nude. There's nothing in his bedroom that might be a viable weapon except possibly the smell coming from his hamper. Maybe if he can sneak past into the kitchen he can grab a pan to protect himself.

He's going to die and Jungkook's going to kill him.

His plan is to wait until whoever it is isn't looking, slip into the kitchen, and then slam the intruder over the head, no questions asked. It's a good plan until Jimin peers around the corner into the living room and sees...skin.

Jimin has questions.

"Are you fucking naked?"

There is a strange man in Jimin's apartment and he turns around and wow, yes, naked. Jimin makes himself look at the guy's face, practically drags his eyes away, and then has to tell himself it doesn't matter if this guy looks like an angel, it's still fucking weird to be naked in another man’s house without permission.

"I am," the stranger says apologetically, like he's really sorry about it.

Neither of them moves. Jimin is significantly more shocked that this man is naked than he would have been if he'd been trying to steal their shitty television and ramyun supply.

He's not sure if having a naked man in his house is a better or worse option.

The man is tall, at least taller than Jimin is, but soft looking. Jimin could probably take him if he could get over the idea of wrestling a naked man in a non-sexual context.

But then the man asks, "Can I maybe borrow some clothes?" and that really throws a wrench in Jimin's train of thought.

"What the fuck?" Jimin scowls at him. "No? How did you get in here?"

The man points at the door to the balcony, which is conveniently open despite definitely being shut last night. That would be enough of an answer, if Jimin and Hoseok didn't have an apartment on the ninth floor.

"How did you get up there?" Jimin demands. He finds it hilarious that he could have not put on his button down, come out in only his Christmas-themed boxers, and still had the upper hand, but it's nice to see that the man isn't interested in beating Jimin and taking his stuff.

"I..." The man licks his lips awkwardly. "I flew?"

Jimin stares at him.

"Also my name is Taehyung," he says politely. "It's nice to meet you." Taehyung bows. "I'm looking for Park Jimin-ssi?"

"I am he," Jimin says automatically, dumbly, like how his mom taught him to answer the phone. It's probably not a great idea to give his name away so easily, but the way Taehyung's face splits into a huge, beaming grin is enough to have Jimin forgive himself for it. He coughs awkwardly. "But seriously, how did you get up here?"

"Jimin-ssi!" Taehyung takes a step forward before realizing that he's still nude. "Ah, you look so much different when we're both big! Although I think you look different anyway, but I think that just happens to humans with time."

Jimin opens his mouth, closes it. Takes a deep breath. "There's too much going on here and I just woke up."

"Could you throw me that blanket?" Taehyung asks politely, pointing at the basket of blankets they've collected.

Automatically, Jimin reaches down to grab one and throws it at him, watching as Taehyung somehow manages to tie it around himself like a toga. "Have we met before?" he asks, once the man is appropriately covered. "You sound like you know me and that makes me nervous."

"We met a long time ago," Taehyung tells him. "You saved my life."

"That sounds fake."

With the blanket toga covering him, Taehyung seems much more comfortable getting into Jimin’s personal space. He walks forward and takes ahold of Jimin's hand. "Jimin-ssi," he says earnestly, and his face is very close. "A very long time ago your brother trapped me in a jar and you set me free."

Jimin blinks at him. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Your brother caught a fairy, do you remember?" Taehyung presses.

And yes, Jimin remembers, but when he thinks back on it all he sees are fireflies in a jar. At the time, six-year-old Jimin had been nearly desperate to release them, had really believed that there was a fairy in that jar, but now it's a blur of haze and lightning bugs.

"I..." Jimin says uncertainly.

'You don't believe anymore," Taehyung says casually. "It will be harder for you to remember, but you can do it."

Six-year-old Jimin had really, truly believed there was a fairy in that jar. 19-year-old Jimin thinks, thinks, thinks about why and he remembers a blob of gold and gossamer. He thinks some more and he remembers setting the jar on it's side. The blob crawling out on hands and knees. Waving goodbye.

"What the fuck," Jimin whispers.

"That was me," Taehyung sings at him, grinning. He stills has Jimin's hands in his but Jimin is too shocked to move them.

"What the fuck?" Jimin asks passionately.

"I'm big now," Taehyung tells him, like maybe Jimin hadn't noticed.

"This has to be some kind of joke." Jimin stares at Taehyung blankly, shaking his head in disbelief. "Fairies aren't real."

Taehyung face turns somber. "A fairy just died."

Jimin slaps his hands over his mouth in horror.

"I'm kidding." Taehyung shoots a finger gun at him. "You believed me."

With a groan, Jimin runs a hand over his forehead, massaging his temples. "Listen, I am not awake enough to deal with someone showing up naked in my house and telling me they're a fucking fairy."

"It's not my fault you slept in so late," Taehyung points out.

Jimin looks at him incredulously. "Okay but why are you naked?"

"Oh, uh..." Taehyung looks down at himself. "When I flew up to the balcony I was still small, but when I got bigger my clothes ripped." He scratches his head. When Jimin looks over to the balcony, there are, in fact, little ripped pieces of leaf and fabric on the ground. "I forgot to consider that."

"This is ridiculous," Jimin tells him flatly. "This isn't possible."

"Thoughts like that are why there's no magic in the world," Taehyung tells him primly. "Listen, I'm here to thank you! For saving me."

"It's a little late, buddy," Jimin says. God, he needs coffee. He needs coffee and like, maybe some liquor. Nothing like day drinking to deal with an existential crisis. "It's been over a decade."

"I only just turned of age." Taehyung picks idly with the hem of his toga. It's got a ton of little Ryan's on it, a gift from Namjoon, Hoseok's most common hookup. It looks ridiculous. "My parents wouldn't let me out into the human world again until now, after what happened."

"It was just a little boy and a jar?" Jimin is so confused.

Taehyung sobers. "I would have died, you know," he says softly. "I wasn't strong enough to stay away from my family at that point. I would have died in a day or two without their magic." He purses his lips. "I know it was a little thing, but..." He smiles. "You really did save me."

Taehyung has a very cute smile.

Jimin coughs into his fist. "Okay, well. You're welcome."

Taehyung laughs. "That's not how it works."

"I thought you said you were here to thank me?" Jimin asks with a frown. "I accept."

"There are rules, you know." Taehyung scratches his neck. "I owe you a wish."

Jimin squints at him. "A wish?"

Taehyung nods.

"I don't need a wish." This is unreal. 13 years ago he opens a jar and now there's a fairy in his house telling him he has a wish. "I haven't even thought about that night in years. I don't need anything."

"The magic says that I have to give you a wish."

"Yeah, well." Jimin rolls his eyes. "Magic can eat my ass."

Taehyung snorts. "Is that your wish?"

Jimin sputters. "Get out of my house."

"I'm serious," Taehyung tells him. "I can only stay here for...I don't know. Five days? Tops. You have to decide your wish by then."

"Stay here?" Jimin falls back, leaning against the wall. "Why would you stay here?"

"I have to." Taehyung frowns, crossing his arms stubbornly. He looks ridiculous, Jimin can't think of any other words for it, but the way his jaw sets is serious. He will not be moved. "I can't leave until I pay back my debt to you. Fairy rules."

Jimin sighs. "And what if I don't?" he asks. "You can only be here for 5 days. What if I don't have a wish by then?"

Taehyung licks his lips nervously. "By fairy law, I lose my magic," he says, and Jimin's shoulders droop. "I'll be big and useless forever, like a human."

"That seems kind of harsh," Jimin mutters.

Taehyung shrugs. "Magic is known for being black and white." He smiles. "You're the only debt I have to repay. You have time to decide."

"I..." Jimin tries to form a coherent thought and finds that he can't. Behind him, his phone rings shrilly in his bedroom. "Fuck." His heart races. "I'm going to be late."

"For what?" One of Taehyung's eyebrows go up. They are nice eyebrows. Jimin wonders if it's a fairy thing. "I just told you you have time."

"Not for that!" Jimin runs back into his bedroom. "I'm supposed to have lunch with Yoongi-hyung at noon. Fuck, fuck, fuck." He hasn't showered or brushed his teeth or anything and there is a fairy in his living room. This isn't real. "Listen I have to get ready and go. You need to stay here." He will deal with this later. Yoongi will kill him if he's late again.

"Why can't I just come with you?" Taehyung asks. He grins slowly. "Is it a date?"

Jimin chokes, gathering his clothes up to wear after his shower. "No! No, no. It's just lunch with a friend."

"Then I'm coming."

"You're wearing a toga!"

"Then let me borrow clothes!" Taehyung whines, marching into Jimin's room. "I want to see the human world! You can't keep me here!"

With a groan, Jimin throws a pair of sweats at him. "Fuck you!"

As Jimin stomps into the bathroom, he swears Taehyung looks smug.

"So." Yoongi squints at Taehyung, but he's talking to Jimin. "This is your..."

"Cousin," Jimin replies, but Taehyung clearly isn't understanding that he needs to be following Jimin's lead, because Taehyung answers, "friend."

Yoongi blinks at Jimin slowly.

"My cousin's friend," Jimin tells him, even though he's terrible at lying. "So we're friends by default."

"I'm sleeping on his couch!" Taehyung adds delightedly.

Yoongi snorts. "Don't get too excited. He picked that couch up off the side of the road. We had to take it up the elevator piece by piece at 2 in the morning."

Taehyung stares at him. He looks at Jimin. "What's an elevator?"

"Oh my god." Jimin slams his head on the table.

Yoongi stares at Taehyung now. There seems to be a lot of staring going on during this lunch and Jimin refuses to calm down because everything is a disaster. The waitress clearly thinks that Jimin is in the middle of a breakdown because she wordlessly walks over and fills up his glass of water, like that's going to help.

She's right about the breakdown. Jimin can't imagine anything about this situation turning out well.

He's seen plenty of movies where the main character has to deal with a zany misplaced someone-or-other while they figure out the modern world, and he isn't sure he'll ever be able to watch any of those again without extreme empathy to the point of physical pain. Taehyung doesn't really act like the people in the movies. He doesn't stare at the people around him in wonder. He doesn't try to use his fork for a hair brush. He doesn't accidentally piss off a motorcycle gang. Jimin's happy about that.

The only things that really set Taehyung apart from the other people around them are the facts that 1) Taehyung is almost unrealistically beautiful, 2) he is in way too good of a mood, and 3) he seems to have an obsession with children.

Every time anyone under the age of 5 passes by the window, Taehyung almost plasters his face to the glass and waves at them enthusiastically. It's happened nearly 6 times in the past hour, and Yoongi might not have said anything but every time it happens he raises an eyebrow in Jimin's direction and Jimin is forced to hide his face in embarrassment.

"Look at her little shoes," sighs Taehyung happily, waving at a giggling baby who's sitting in a high chair at the other end of the café.

"He's from the country," Jimin tells Yoongi. "Everyone is nicer in the country."

"I'm from all over," Taehyung says idly. "I think city people can be nice, too." He grins at Jimin cheekily. "You're nice enough to lend me your couch."

Jimin grumbles into his coffee.

"You're from the country?" Yoongi asks. It's mostly out of politeness. Yoongi isn't a cold person like his looks might suggest, but he does struggle with small talk, especially around people he doesn't know. Taehyung has done his best to make himself open and comfortable to be around, asking about Yoongi's schooling and picking up subjects that are clearly easier for Yoongi to talk about. Maybe this is Yoongi's way of paying him back.

Taehyung hums, thinking. "I've lived in the country. I prefer the country to cities." He smiles. "I was born in Daegu, but I haven't been there in a while."

Yoongi immediately perks up. "Daegu? I'm also from Daegu!"

"Daegu-hyung," Taehyung says brightly, and Yoongi doesn't chastise him for the familiarity. Formalities have never meant much to him anyway, unless he's bullying Jimin. "Do you go home often?"

Yoongi grunts. "Not often enough."

"You should!" Taehyung grins. "Go home for the both of us. I'll live vicariously through you."

Jimin snorts. "Something tells me you both live very different lives."

Taehyung hits Jimin's shoulder playfully. "Not so different," he protests. "We're more similar than you might think."

Jimin smiles at him innocently before leaning in to whisper into his ear. "You have fucking wings."

"Not right now!"

Yoongi groans. "Look, if you're a secret boyfriend or something, please tell me so I can leave and never come back."

"Hyung," Jimin whines. Yoongi always fucking does this. He's the worst. Yoongi is the worst. Him and Taehyung aren't even flirting. It's not like the last time.

But Taehyung just snickers, edging closer to Jimin in the booth. "Should we tell him the truth?" he asks, fluttering his eyelashes. They're really long. Jimin decides to never think about them again.

"What?" Jimin looks at him primly. "That I hate you?"

"No fun," Taehyung scolds, but he's laughing. "No secret boyfriends for me, I guess."

"You're only staying for like, a week." Jimin rolls his eyes. "That's not nearly enough time to establish secret boyfriend status."

"I think that depends on the person," Taehyung notes, waving at the baby again. "I want to hold that baby in my hands. Just for like, two minutes."

"Normal people don't do that," Yoongi says, mostly uninterested. He takes a bite of his sandwich. "Tough luck."

Taehyung covers his face with his hands for a moment and then opens them, grinning at the little girl. He does it again, impromptu peek-a-boo. Jimin can hear her giggling from here. It's really cute. Even Yoongi thinks it's cute.

Yoongi looks at Jimin. "Are you embarrassed?"

Jimin blinks at him, confused. "No. Why?"

His hyung grins, swirling his straw in his drink. "You're turning a little red." He raises an eyebrow. "Getting a little sun?"

"I..." Jimin coughs into his palm. "That must be it."

"I'm sure."

Taehyung hasn't been paying any attention. "Do you think if I walk over there and am very polite and not creepy at all, that family will let me talk to their baby?"

Jimin knows when to pick his battles. He sighs, resigned. "You'll never know if you don't try."

"Yoongi-hyung likes you," Jimin notes idly, walking back from the café after Taehyung is finally finished playing nonsense games with the little girl and her mother.

"I'm a friendly person," Taehyung tells him. "I make friends easily."

"Is that some sort of fairy charm?" Jimin asks, and it's not meant to be teasing but it does come out that way. Just a bit. "Making people like you?" He grins. "I saw the way that mother was watching you. And Yoongi-hyung let you be so familiar so fast."

Taehyung raises both of his eyebrows at Jimin. "Do you like me?"

Jimin blinks. "What?"

"Does my fairy charm work on you?" Taehyung steps a little closer, does a little shimmy that crosses the line of ridiculous.

"I'm the final boss,"Jimin replies, but he can't say he isn't flustered. "You don't get me to like you until the end of the game."

Taehyung brightens. "It's a game, then?"

"No." Jimin laughs. "I mean, I guess if you want it to be one."

"By the end of the five days, you'll like me," Taehyung says firmly. "I'll use my fairy charm in excess."

"You know what they say about people living together," Jimin mentions. There's a small shop here that he'd like to stop at. They have good take away lunches, and he needs one for tomorrow unless he wants to make lunch himself. He does not want to do that.

Taehyung is looking at him expectantly.

"What?" Is Taehyung staring because Jimin was lingering or...? It doesn't matter. He'll just pick something up on the way to school tomorrow. No big deal.

"What do they say about people living together?" Taehyung asks earnestly.

Jimin pauses. "I'm still getting used to you," he admits abruptly.

Taehyung frowns. "Is that what they say?" He snorts. "That seems oddly specific."

"That's not what they say." Jimin rolls his eyes. "They say you don't really know someone until you live with them."

"Ah." Taehyung looks around the street, reading the signs casually, but Jimin still feels like all of Taehyung's attention is on him. "I'm charming through and through. You'll definitely like me."

Jimin purses his mouth. "We'll see."

"Have you thought about your wish yet?"

Jimin looks up from where he's fitting the sheets onto their couch. It's a messy job but Jimin doesn't really care and Taehyung doesn't seem to even notice. If there's a warm enough blanket, then the sleeping conditions are perfectly okay in Jimin's opinion. "My wish?"

Taehyung is standing in the archway into the kitchen, leaning against the wall with a cup of hot chocolate in his hands. Taehyung doesn't like bitter things. Coffee had not gone over well. "Yeah," he says. He's wearing the largest clothes that Jimin owns, which means that they're mostly hoodies he's stolen from previous boyfriends. His feet are bare. "Do you know what you're going to wish for?"

"It's only been a day," Jimin reminds him. "And a weird one, at that." Magic. Weird. "I'm still getting used to believing in fairies, and you want me to think about a wish?"

"We're on a limited schedule."

"Right now, my only schedule is with my bed," Jimin grumbles, tossing a blanket at Taehyung lightly. It's not the one from earlier, the one with the KKT characters dancing all over it, but maybe he should have given Taehyung that one. His dick touched that blanket. Jimin doesn't think he'll ever be able to use it again.

Taehyung looks at the couch, resigned. "Okay." He sighs. "We'll talk in the morning."

Jimin actually has to get up before 7 tomorrow. He's going into classes earlier to meet with the TA, and he doubts that Taehyung will be awake before he leaves. He doesn't tell him that. "Goodnight."

Taehyung smiles at him. "Goodnight."

The last thing Jimin thinks about before he falls asleep is that he needs to get Taehyung his own clothes. Seeing him in Jimin's old clothes makes him feel weird.

Predictably, Jimin forgets to pack his lunch.

He also forgets to stop somewhere and get his lunch. On top of that, he forgets that he doesn't have time to out and pick something up during his break because he has to meet with his adviser halfway through his hour break between classes.

"I'm going to starve to death," Jimin whines, lying down on Namjoon's lap in the quad. "I'm going to wither into nothing."

"That sounds dramatic," Namjoon notes, scrolling down his Twitter feed and paying Jimin as little attention as possible while still being able to hold a conversation. "Maybe you should plan ahead next time."

"Your lack of sympathy disgusts me," Jimin tells him lightly, sitting up with a grunt. "You're going to be a shitty nurse."

"I'll be working with people who have real problems," Namjoon points out, patting Jimin on the head. "I'll care more, then."

"People like you are the reason my mother worries about me being taken advantage of." Jimin huffs sitting back on the bench. "All I do is give."

"I'm sure one day you'll get to receive." Namjoon's voice is bland even as he quote tweets something with a keyboard smash in all caps.

Jimin squints at the side of Namjoon's head. "I'm going to steal your phone one day and ask that guy you like for dick pics through your dms."

Namjoon snaps his head around. "You wouldn't."

Jimin sets his jaw. "Give me half of your sandwich."

"Extortion is illegal." Namjoon hugs his lunch to his chest protectively.

"I'm just laying out the facts."

"I am your hyung!"

Jimin flutters his eyelashes. "Shouldn't you be taking care of your favorite dongsaeng?" He pouts cutely. Namjoon has always been weak to cute things.

For a moment, it looks like Namjoon is almost about to give in, but then there's a voice from across the quad. "Jimin!"

"The police got here quickly," Jimin notes idly, turning his head to see who's calling his name. He doesn't expect anything — if it were actually the police he'd be more surprised than anything — but seeing Taehyung come bounding down the hill is a bit of shock. "Taehyung?"

Namjoon blinks. "Who?"

Jimin still isn't used to seeing Taehyung in his normal day to day life. This morning Jimin managed to slip out of the apartment without waking the fairy up, left Taehyung sleeping fitfully on the couch without a word. Now, Taehyung is wearing a sweatshirt with the sleeves rolled up and a pair of Jimin's sweats that are too baggy around the waist but too short for his legs. There's so much ankle. He looks ridiculous, but Jimin thinks that most people are staring because he's also almost too beautiful to be a real person. He's grinning and rushing down the hill, making no attempts to not make a fool of himself, and somehow his joy just...makes people stop and stare.

Namjoon nudges Jimin's side. "Do you know him?"

"Yeah." Jimin blinks. "I do." He clears his throat, pulling out of his daze. "He's staying with me for the week. He's...visiting."

"Visiting," Namjoon repeats slowly. "He can visit me, too, if he wants."

Jimin pushes Namjoon forcefully to the side, but he doesn't have time to say anything before Taehyung brings himself to a stop on the other side of their bench. "Jimin!" He beams, shooting his arm out between Jimin and Namjoon's head with almost inhuman speed. A plastic bag hangs from his fingers. "You forgot lunch!" He pauses, bowing in Namjoon's direction. "Hello, it's nice to meet you."

"You cook?" Jimin asks dumbly, staring at the bag incredulously. How did Taehyung even know where Jimin was? Or know that Jimin forgot to bring food? Or now how to make food?

Taehyung snorts. "No." He turns the bag and shows Jimin the logo. It's from the shop Jimin had paused outside of the night before. Taehyung must have noticed. "I took a guess on what you liked. Sorry if it's not to your taste."

"Ah...thank you." Jimin carefully takes the bag. His cheeks are a little flushed, and Namjoon is wiggling his eyebrows at him, but it really is a nice gesture. Jimin isn't a picky eater, necessarily, but Taehyung mostly picked staples, simple foods that most people like. "There's too much in here," Jimin notes. "I won't be able to eat all of this."

Taehyung flops down on the earth beside Jimin's feet, crossing his legs. He looks like a child this way, looking up at him. "I thought I'd buy for two, since I'd like to eat lunch as well."

Namjoon clicks his tongue. "I can't believe you tried to blackmail me out of a sandwich and the universe is rewarding you."

Jimin happily unwraps a triangle kimbap. "The sun smiles upon me. I am her favorite son."

"The sun only has daughters," Taehyung corrects absently. "She's very into feminism."

Namjoon and Jimin both stare at him.

Taehyung coughs awkwardly. "That was...a joke?"

Namjoon squints.

Jimin forces out a laugh. "Funny."

Namjoon squints some more.

Taehyung grins at him and hands him a snack. "Would you like some?" he asks brightly, and Namjoon's ears flush slightly at the attention.

There's a lot to be said about Taehyung, but his powers of distraction are top notch.

"You said that we would talk about things in the morning," Taehyung tells him. They're walking together to Jimin's appointment with his advisor. As soon as he brings it up, Jimin wishes he had somewhere else to be. "Liar." Taehyung is grinning.

"I really don't need a wish," Jimin tells him, honest and open. Truthfully, the idea of a wish is almost too much pressure. He can ask for anything. He needs nothing. There's too much in between. "I just...can I just wish to be happy?"

Taehyung hums. "To an extent, happiness is a choice." He frowns. "I'm not sure my magic is enough to grant you that."

Jimin chews on the inside of his mouth. "You won't make this easy for me."

"You have time," Taehyung assures him, grinning and taking his hand. "You'll think of a good wish."

Jimin walks into his appointment with butterflies in his stomach and it's not about his schedule.

"Jimin, I'm bored."

Jimin looks up from his homework and sees Taehyung absently channel surfing. His first day with Jimin he'd been obsessed with watching the news, but then Jimin had gotten tired of it and shown Taehyung Netflix, and after that things took a turn for the weeb.

"You're bored," Jimin repeats, trying not to laugh as Taehyung nods solemnly.

He shouldn't be surprised. Jimin has had a tough schedule this week, and Taehyung has spent most of his time inside of the apartment or wandering Jimin's campus. Jimin suspects that Taehyung has ventured out into the city on his own, but as long as he makes it back in one piece and there aren't any officers knocking down their door, Jimin is okay with Taehyung taking the time to explore.

Still, Taehyung is a bundle of energy even on a rainy day, a restless kind of person, and Jimin knows that if he's bored they have no option other than to do something. "Do you want to go get coffee or something?" Jimin still has homework to do.

Taehyung frowns. "Then I'll be bored in a coffee shop."

"You're inconvenient." Jimin sighs and stretches, popping his back. He's been studying for a while and this project isn't due for another three days. Maybe a break would be good. "What time is it?"

Taehyung's eyes glaze over. "7? Ish. Dinner time."

"Do you want to go to the night market?" Jimin asks. His stomach is grumbling. Neither of them have eaten anything. "The food is pretty cheap and it's something different." Tourists go there all the time. Taehyung is somewhere between a tourist and an impossibility. "You'd like it."

"If there is food then I'm there." Taehyung stands up. They've finally gotten him some of his own clothes, baggy pants and sweats and t-shirts that he, for some bizarre reason, has cut random holes into. If it's chilly, he borrows Jimin's hoodies. Jimin likes those days the best. "I want chicken."

"You're going to buy food from the first stall we pass," Jimin tells him knowingly, grabbing his wallet and jacket. "Put your shoes on."

When they get there, Taehyung proves Jimin wrong. He buys from the second stall they pass, hot gyerangbbang, and he buys for Jimin as well. The sentiment is nice, despite the fact that the money is Jimin's anyway.

Jimin takes Taehyung to a bbopki cart and isn't surprised when he immediately makes friends with the halmoni who hands them their sweets. "This is my first time here," he tells her happily.

She looks at Jimin. "I hope your friend shows you all the best places."

"I took him here, didn't I?" Jimin quips, grinning.

"Do you enjoy flirting with me or the nice old ladies more?" Taehyung asks him later, licking stickiness off of his fingers.

"There's something about their charm," Jimin teases, threading his arm through Taehyung's elbow. "It radiates maturity."

"Alas, something I lack." Taehyung shakes his head. "Perhaps in 40 years I'll be a suitable flirting candidate."

Jimin snorts. "I'm a flirty person. I'll flirt with anyone."

Taehyung raises an eyebrow. "Are you saying I'm not special?"

Jimin hums, thinking. "You're using my money and sleeping on my couch. Maybe you should be flirting with me instead. Seduce me with your wiles so I don't kick you out of my home."

"Am I not flirting with you already?" Taehyung's eyelashes flutter. Jimin thinks about them again (they're so long) even though he told himself he wouldn't. "You're special to me, Jiminie."

For a second, Jimin is flustered. Really, truly flustered. It confuses him. "A third day friendship kind of special."

"Maybe just a normal kind of special." Taehyung shrugs. "I like you. You're nice."

Jimin laughs. "That's not special," he tells him. "There are plenty of nice people in the world."

"I find the fact that you didn't immediately wish for something expensive and ostentatious pretty telling," Taehyung admits. "I've heard of plenty of people going out to grant wishes. I've never heard of anyone being refused." He looks at Jimin flatly. "You're either picky, misguided, or good at heart."

"I'm probably misguided." Jimin laughs. "It seems silly to accept a wish for something I found so small at the time." Unscrewing the cap of a jar hardly merits eternal youth or overwhelming success or whatever it is Jimin is supposed to be wishing for. In fact, it seems almost immoral.

"And when I do force you to make a wish, your first thought is just happiness." Taehyung clicks his tongue. "Unheard of."

Jimin flushes. "I feel like that's a perfectly reasonable wish!" he insists. "I'd rather be happy than rich."

"Telling."

"Aish." He pushes on Taehyung's shoulder, almost sending him into a nearby booth. "Leave me alone."

"You're cute when you're flustered." Taehyung grins and it's like the sun came up early. "I hope the people around you make you blush all the time. It's adorable."

"Fuck you." Jimin runs his hand through his hair. "I'm good for one more thing. What do you want?"

Taehyung lights up. "Chicken!"

Predictably, on their search for chicken, Taehyung sees a mountain of dried squid and buys that instead. Jimin buys tteokbokki and they eat from each other's plates.

Taehyung looks up at the sky. "I miss the stars."

Jimin looks up. "We're in the city," he says after a moment. "It's harder to see stars here." Jimin misses them, too. Seoul is beautiful and alive, but there are things he misses about home. Mostly his family, but other things, too. The feeling of it.

The night market is packed, loud and busy, and honestly Jimin takes some comfort in that, the anonymity of a crowd. Still. "Come." He grabs Taehyung's wrist. There's sauce on his fingers, and he carefully holds it away from Taehyung's skin, but he's not gentle as he pulls Taehyung out of the crowd.

Taehyung follows. Jimin isn't sure whether Taehyung is just that easy-going, or if he trusts Jimin enough to be led without question.

They go to where it's quiet. The noise of the night market isn't far behind them, and there's the din of the streets, cars, people, but everything is muted. Despite the lack of people pressing in on all sides, this feels closer. The space between things can be felt, noticed, and so it seems to shrink.

"I've forgotten what quiet sounds like," Taehyung says with a sigh. "I like quiet sometimes."

"You're so loud, I wouldn't have guessed." Jimin grins, but the quiet lifts off some weight.

They find a bench to sit on, rest their feet before they make their way home, and it's not so late that the tiredness is bone-heavy but it's a nice kind of sleepy. Taehyung lays his head on Jimin's shoulder. "I'll be sad to leave you."

Jimin jerks slightly in surprise. "Oh." Taehyung's time is limited. Jimin isn't surprised that he's leaving, but he's surprised that Taehyung is thinking about it. "You can come back if you want, though. Right?"

Taehyung doesn't reply.

"Oh." Jimin swallows.

"Do you like the city?" Taehyung asks after a while.

"I do." There's no hesitation. "I could live anywhere, I think, but I like the city."

"I have lived everywhere." Taehyung looks up, pressing his chin into Jimin's shoulder. "I liked living in Busan a lot, even if we weren't there for very long."

"I like Busan as well." Jimin brushes dirt off of Taehyung's leg. Quiet. "Taehyung?"

Taehyung hums.

"If you had a wish, what would it be?"

"Ah..." Taehyung sits up slightly, like he needs to be in a better position to think. The wind blows his hair. He looks like an angel in the lowlight. "I want to go to the beach."

Jimin blinks. "The beach?"

Taehyung scratches awkwardly at his cheek. "We were in Busan for a while, but I never made it to the beach. I've never been. I think I'd like to go."

"I love the beach." Jimin swallows. "You'd love the beach."

"I think I would." Taehyung beams. "One day, I'll be big again, and then I'll spend a whole day there and I won't care about getting sand between my toes."

"The dream." Jimin laughs. "One day, you will."

That night, Taehyung sits hesitantly down on the makeshift bed, looking like he has something to say.

"Goodnight," he says instead.

Jimin ruffles his hair. "Goodnight."

Good night.

Jimin wakes up too early.

His sleep schedule runs odd hours. He tends to stay up too late out of habit, a college reality, practicing or studying or hanging out with friends. On the nights he does manage to go to bed at a reasonable time (even for a university student, his hours are atrocious) he wakes up throughout the night, often so awake that he can only sigh and choose between playing phones games listlessly for hours or go ahead and get started on his day.

Today he wakes up slowly, feeling his body come awake piece by piece until his brain is buzzing like he never slept at all. He sits up with a heavy sigh, rubbing sleep from his eyes while searching blindly for this phone in the darkness. The LED hurts his eyes but he squints to look at the time. It's just shy of dawn, too early to be awake but too late to force himself back to sleep. His usual ritual involves going and making sleepy tea and reading something boring. It's too much work at this point. His body run on a five hour system these days. The few times it actually meets its quota it decides it can't handle any more and he's forcefully pulled into alertness.

Jimin's dream is lingering, a sparkle in his mind's eye. He remembers, floating lights, and Taehyung smiling, cupping something in his hands.

Fireflies.

He's come to associate them with magic now. With Taehyung. He isn't sure if he associates Taehyung with magic. It's hard to think of something so solid as something so abstract. When Taehyung is standing in front of him, Jimin doesn't think about magic, he doesn't see a fairy. He just sees a boy.

Taehyung says that he'll grant Jimin a wish, but is that even possible? Is magic real? Is this real? Jimin wants to say he's really been thinking about what to wish for, but not only does it feel wrong to accept compensation for something he did without effort or thought, it's also hard for him to wrap his mind around the fact that he could ever be granted a wish. A real wish. People spend years thinking of what to wish for, but the reality is a harder pill to swallow.

Maybe a part of Jimin still struggles with believing. Sometimes he thinks back on that night when he was a child and his conviction that there was a fairy in the jar baffles him. At the time, it had been fact, no questions asked. But now, all he remembers are bugs and lights.

Fairies aren't real, he'd told Taehyung not so long ago, and at the time they hadn't been. But maybe that's a choice, too. You tell yourself there's no such thing as fairies and then all you see are fireflies. If you tell yourself something doesn't exist, for you, it ceases to.

If not believing is a choice, then surely believing is a choice as well. So what is he choosing?

In three days, he's made up his mind, a decision he hadn't known he needed to make. All he sees now is Taehyung.

He calls his brother.

Jihyun is the only one Jimin knows who might be awake at this hour. His schedule is almost as fucked up as Jimin's is, except Jimin prefers late nights and society has decided that morning people are more productive.

His brother is clearly surprised to hear from him. "Hyung?" he asks, a familiar voice. It's been too long since Jimin called. He tries to stay in touch with his parents but his brother is so busy it's hard to keep up. Jimin is also busy, but right now it's the middle of the morning and neither of them are doing anything because people shouldn't exist at this point in the day. "You're up so early."

"Not by choice," Jimin says with a laugh. His fingers pick at the edge of his comforter. "I was just thinking about you. Figured I'd call."

"I'm about to go out for breakfast, but I have time before class starts." Jihyun's voice is small and tinny, a reminder of the distance between them, but at least this way they can be a little closer. "What are you thinking about?"

Perhaps Jimin should just be honest. "Do you remember that one time when we were really little, and you said you caught a fairy?"

Jihyun snorts. "Why are you thinking about that right now? It's too early." His groan turns into a laugh. "Yes, I remember. You let out all of my fireflies and I wouldn't play with you for a month."

That's true. Jihyun had been full of righteous anger and Jimin hadn't gotten dessert.

Jimin sighs. "Do you remember why we thought it was a fairy?" He's not sure why he's so curious.

Jihyun pauses. "Huh." Another pause. "I don't know, actually." A small laugh. "Kid's imaginations are pretty wild, I guess."

"I just..." Jimin draws his knees into his chest. "I remember being so upset, like, really upset. I really believed it. Baby Jimin wasn't playing games."

"Your heart is too soft." Jihyun hums. "You cried about everything. I'm not surprised you tricked yourself into believing that."

"Be nice to me. I'm your hyung," Jimin pouts. "And you believed it, too! Tell me you didn't."

Jihyun laughs. "Of course I did. Otherwise I wouldn't have been so mad at you."

Jimin slumps back against his headboard. "So, when did you decide that you didn't believe anymore?"

"You shouldn't wake up this early, hyung," Jihyun comments. "It makes you weird and philosophical."

"Fuck you," Jimin says cutely.

Jihyun snickers. "I don't know if you ever decide to stop believing in magic. You just stop believing in magic. It just happens."

Jimin licks his lips, thinking. "That's kind of sad."

Jihyun sighs. "Yeah."

"Maybe we should start believing in magic again."

"If you want to do that," Jihyun says with a smile, "I'll believe with you."

Jimin laughs. "Easy as that?"

"Easy as you want it to be."

Decision made.

"I'm making eggs." Taehyung is wearing a ruffled apron that he either magicked up or he found somewhere in the dark recesses of their pantry.

Jimin blinks at him from the doorway. "I see." He takes a seat at the kitchen table, clunking down. He has been awake for a few hours now, but it's still early in the morning. Taehyung looks like he's been awake for a while. "I thought you didn't cook?"

"The Internet tells me how," Taehyung says sagely, tapping his forehead. "And these eggs were about to go bad. I figured I'd try to be useful."

"How polite." Jimin looks at the mountain of eggs. "How are we going to eat all of those?"

"With coffee to wash it down." Taehyung looks at the coffee pot. "I wrestled with it. I think I won."

"You don't even like coffee." Jimin grins. He needs coffee as soon as possible. The bags under his eyes are huge, he can feel them.

"You drink so much of it." Taehyung shrugs. "I had nothing better to do."

"You get restless in the mornings," Jimin observes.

"I don't like doing nothing," Taehyung corrects.

"I'll decide if you beat the coffee pot or not," Jimin says decidedly, getting up out of his chair and going to grab a mug. "Do you want some?"

Taehyung holds up his own cup. "I just have juice."

Jimin hums absently. "Cute."

Taehyung raises an eyebrow at him.

"I didn't mean you were cute," Jimin tries, muttering as he pours himself coffee. "Juice is cute."

"Interesting." Taehyung stifles a laugh in the ruffles of his apron. "Are you sure you didn't mean that me drinking juice is cute?"

Jimin's mouth is dry. "I'm positive." He puts too much sugar in his coffee because he's thinking about sweet things. "Don't tease me. I was going to surprise you with something." He realizes it's true literally as he says it, a murky thought brought to light in the back of his head.

Taehyung pouts. "Better than eggs and coffee?"

Jimin shrugs. "I guess we'll never know."

"Tell me." Taehyung sets his spatula down, frowning.

Jimin takes a pointed drink of his coffee. He grimaces. Too much sugar. He pour more coffee into his cup to try and even it out but now it's just at dangerously full levels and it's still too sugary. Lose-lose.

"If you tell me, I'll be on my best behavior," Taehyung says crisply, smoothing out his hideous apron like he's making a point.

"In that case..." Jimin grins at him. "I still won't tell you."

Taehyung slumps.

Jimin laughs. Cute. "Have you ever been on a train?" He should really put Taehyung out of his misery.

"A train?" Taehyung blinks. "I have wings. Why would I take the train?"

Jimin shrugs. "Hmm. I don't know."

"Jimin! Why would I take the train?"

"Your eggs are burning."

"Fuck." Taehyung turns around and picks up his spatula.

Jimin grins into his coffee even though it tastes like shit.

Taehyung is bouncing up and down on the platform. "The train!"

"You've changed your tune." Jimin laughs. "Mister I-Have-Wings."

"I didn't know the train would be so fun," Taehyung tells him, holding his backpack in front of his chest like a child. "Wings are also fun, but there are more people here to see."

It's not a particularly busy day at the station, but there are enough people here that it feels just shy of crowded. Taehyung's train ticket is clenched in his fist. Jimin's not even sure the conductor will be able to read it. "People here aren't very friendly," Jimin warns him, "because they're all running late."

"Are we running late?" Taehyung looks down the tracks to see if the train is coming. "I don't see anything."

"You'll hear it," Jimin says, rather uselessly considering the thunderous noise that's getting closer and closer.

Taehyung isn't expect the wind as the train pulls into the station. He looks delighted as it licks at his clothing. "Where are we going?"

Jimin hadn't let Taehyung look at their destination. "It should be on your ticket."

There's the trick. Taehyung uncrumples the paper and squints at the small print. "We're going to Busan?" He looks at Jimin, confused. "Did you just randomly decide to head home?"

"I haven't been home in a while," Jimin admits, plucking the ticket from Taehyung's fingers and smoothing it out. "I'm taking you to the beach."

Taehyung's face lights up, and the last minute travel plans are worth it.

From the station in Busan, Jimin ushers Taehyung onto the bus, hands over a fistful of quarters, and waits.

Taehyung is extremely close to him. There's plenty of space, a variety of other seats to choose from, but Taehyung seems about two seconds from vibrating right out of his skin and seems to think pressing himself into Jimin's side will help him maintain control of himself. Even still, he's buzzing with energy. Jimin puts one arm around his shoulder to try and keep him settled, but all it does it transfer the energy up his arm. Contagious.

It's not great weather for a beach day, but Jimin has lived by the water for his entire life and he knows what it's like to see the sea and be in complete awe. He feels like after so many years of beach days he should be immune to the water, to it's power, but every once in a while he sees the ocean and it sweeps him right back under.

Taehyung is plastered to the window of the bus as soon as the water can be seen in the distance, fingers pressing sticky against the glass, and Jimin wants to be embarrassed but he's not. He just finds it cute. The other passenger's seem to feel Taehyung's excited, and they're all smiling at him as he stares at the water with big eyes.

"His first time?" an older woman asks, one delicate hand on the rail of the bus.

"Yes." Jimin grins. "He's like a child."

Taehyung doesn't even hear.

"The ocean turns everyone into a child," the woman says wisely. "That's its magic."

"Magic?" Taehyung finally looks around, twisting his body to look at the woman. His eyes are so big and Jimin wants...Jimin wants. Fairy charm. Who knew. "Is there magic?"

She laughs. "In the sea? Always has been." Her smile softens. "It's nice that the universe gave us a little bit of its magic to touch. It's in the little things."

"There's magic in everything," Taehyung tells her, sitting back down in his chair but the tips of his fingers still trail on the glassy, smudging lines that no one would dare chastise him for. "There's enough magic in the earth itself to support all sorts of dreams."

"You'll fit right in with the sea, boy," the woman says fondly. "There's magic in you, too."

If only she knew.

Well, Jimin thinks, as he watches Taehyung try to settle himself back in his chair, maybe she does. Taehyung has this way about him, like he's glowing all the time. Soft and warm, all the time. Jimin had joked that it's his fairy charm, that the magic is just oozing out of him, but Jimin has never met another fairy. Maybe it isn't a fairy thing at all. Maybe it's a Taehyung thing, and the magic is in who he is instead of what he is.

The bus pulls to their stop, and Taehyung turns to grin at Jimin excitedly. "Now?" he asks, grabbing Jimin's hand. "Do we get off now?"

Jimin laughs. "Yes." He barely has time to grab hold of his bag before Taehyung is dragging him off of the bus. They both wave at the nice old woman, and she smiles at them as they leave.

It's not swimming weather, sometime between summer and winter, but Taehyung kicks off his shoes the moment they reach the boardwalk. "Are you really so interested in getting sand between your toes?" Jimin asks jokingly, but he's reaching down to take off his own. Taehyung is bouncing on his heels, waiting somehow both patiently and impatiently for Jimin to be ready. As soon as Jimin has socks and shoes in hand, Taehyung comes behind him and pushing his bodily into the sand.

"Toe sand is a gift," Taehyung says. His voice is deep but his excitement is young and infectious, and Jimin finds himself skipping behind Taehyung, howling with laughter for no reason as they race towards the waves.

It only takes a moment to realize that the water is much too cold to stand in, but Taehyung is alive and on fire and so he doesn't see to mind, even as the hem of his pants are splashed with saltwater and his toes turn purple and wrinkly. He kicks water and soaks a splotchy stripe down the side of Jimin's pants.

It's war.

Jimin is cold and shivery, soaked nearly to the bone, and the tepid air isn't enough to keep him warm. He should have brought blankets. Despite the chill, Taehyung is beaming, water dripping from his the tips of his bangs, breathing heavily, shirt sticking to his chest. "I love the beach!"

"I..." Jimin is out of breath. "I'm happy." He coughs. "I'm happy for you."

Taehyung spins, wringing water out of his t-shirt until it hangs heavy and misshapen around his waist. "The ocean is so beautiful." He looks out at the horizon. "Imagine being a mermaid. You would be surrounded by this all the time."

Jimin frowns at Taehyung. "Are they real, too?"

Taehyung laughs. "Everything is real, Jimin," he says, "if you want it to be."

Jimin's father shows up at the boardwalk a few hours later. Taehyung and Jimin are munching on snacks from a nearby stall. There is sand in Jimin's shorts now, but a nice old man let them borrow a blanket, and Jimin had a spare hoodie in his backpack, so they're only cold the few times they unlatch from each other and brave the wind. "Jimin-ah!"

Jimin twists in Taehyung's grip. "Dad!" He throws off the blanket, not caring about the chill as he runs up to shore.

"Don't hug me," his father warns him. "You're wet and sandy."

"I'm your most precious son," Jimin replies primly, and he grins as his dad laughs and opens his arms. He wraps his hands around his dad's middle. "It's been too long."

"A few months." His dad laughs, but the hand in Jimin's hair is gentle and speaks louder. "Not so long in the grand scheme of things."

"Let me be happy to see you," Jimin pouts, jutting out his lip, but he pulls away with a grin. "Thanks for coming to pick us up on such short notice."

"Was getting out of Seoul after your classes okay?"

"Easy as pie."

"Hello, sir." Taehyung comes up behind them, the blanket draped awkwardly over his shoulders and Jimin's backpack hanging from a couple fingers. He bows politely. "You have a good son."

His father stands up a little straighter, one hand on Jimin's shoulder. "Thank you," he says.

"Dad, this is Taehyung." Jimin reaches out and takes Taehyung by the wrist. "I told you I would be bringing him! He's never seen the beach."

"Jimin made my wish come true," Taehyung tells him, shining like the sun even though he looks like a half-drowned dog.

"Well." Jimin scratches the back of his neck. "Fair is fair."

"It's nice to meet you, Taehyung-ssi." The man bows slightly and then gestures towards the van waiting in the lot by the boardwalk. "Let's go home."

"Jimin's never brought a boy home before," Jimin's mother says while they eat dinner, and Jimin almost chokes on his noodles.

"It's not—"

"Is that so?" Taehyung asks, eyebrows up. "He's such a catch. I'm sure there were plenty of people knocking on the door."

Jimin scowls at him. "It was only ever Jungkook, and I hate him." He takes a sip of water. "All he ever wanted was to steal my Playstation and call me short."

Taehyung takes a happy bite of his meal. "I think we'd get along."

"Do you even know how a Playstation works?" Jimin demands.

"I'm a very quick learner," Taehyung tells him, and the conversation moves along easily from there. It's almost like his mother hadn't implied they were dating at all. If the implication bothered Taehyung at all, he didn't show it. In fact, he seems intent on pushing the ruse forward, cleaning food from Jimin's lip with his thumb, putting his hand on Jimin's thigh under the table, talking about their outings like they were dates.

Were they dates?

Useless thoughts. His mother is happy, and that's all that really matters.

"We were so worried about sending him to the city," she tells him, and Jimin groans. He's heard this so many times. "He's a friendly boy, but things happen, you know how it is. I'm so happy he's found someone like you to spend time with."

Jimin stabs viciously into his meat. "This is embarrassing."

"I think it's cute." Taehyung laughs. "I'm happy to provide. I'm an excellent companion.

"Yeah," Jimin grumbles. "You need to work on making coffee, though."

Taehyung shrugs.

It's all very domestic. Jimin doesn't really want to leave.

That night, Jimin's mother makes up Jihyun's bed for Taehyung, and Taehyung nods thankfully, appreciatively, says something else about their hospitality, but there's a strange tightness around the corners of his eyes.

Jimin walks into his childhood room from brushing his teeth and finds Taehyung sitting awkwardly on the bed, clutching a pillow to his chest. "I don't want to sleep in there," Taehyung admits quietly, crumpling the tag on the pillow up in his fist repeatedly like he's nervous. "It reminds me of..."

"Oh." Jimin hesitates in the doorway. "We can switch rooms or—"

"We can share," Taehyung says. He clears his throat. "I mean, I'm okay with sharing the bed. If you want to. I don't want to kick you out of your room."

Jimin swallows. "Okay." He walks over to his bedside table. "I sleep better when I share, anyway."

"Me, too." Taehyung laughs. "And a bed will be nice after so long on the couch."

So long. It's been about five days.

Jimin slips under the covers. Taehyung is like a radiator. The bed is big enough for them both, but Taehyung has always seemed to be a touchy person and he presses in close. "Is it..." Jimin looks at Taehyung as he settles in the bed. Their faces are too close together. "It's day 5, isn't it?"

Taehyung bites his lip. "I can wait a little longer," he whispers.

"But—"

Taehyung slips his hand around the back of Jimin's head and presses him into his chest. "Sleep."

Jimin hadn't really been tired, but the beach had worn him out, and the travel, and Taehyung smells clean and warm, and his arms are soft around Jimin, and this place is familiar but it's new at the same time, because Taehyung is here. "Just for a while."

"I'll..." Taehyung clears his throat. "I'll wake you up before I go."

Jimin is so tired, suddenly. He mumbles something, but his brain and his voice are detached and he couldn't tell you for the life of him what it was.

Taehyung holds him tighter.

I don't want you to go.

It's 3AM, and Jimin wakes up for no reason. He's not as warm as he should be.

Taehyung is sitting on the edge of the bed.

Jimin groans, propping himself up on one elbow. "Is it time?" he asks groggily, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

Taehyung looks over his shoulder at Jimin in the bed, and for a moment Jimin thinks that he's glowing gold. Maybe he is. Maybe it's a dream, or a trick of the light.

There are fireflies in a neat little line on the open windowsill.

"Yeah." Taehyung sighs, running a hand through his hair. His bedhead is atrocious. "I think it's time." He smiles sadly. "I can't wait anymore."

Jimin sits up a little more, reaching out a run his hand up and down Taehyung's arm because it feels like something he should do. "I have my wish," he whispers.

Taehyung raises an eyebrow. "Eternal youth? Ultimate power? Wicked luck?"

"I don't need that." Jimin laughs. His hands pull on the material of Taehyung's sleeve, something to hold on to. "I wish that we can see each other again."

"I..." Taehyung shuts his mouth and regathers his thoughts. "A simple wish."

"I think, if I don't ask for this, you'll disappear forever." Jimin smiles. "So come back, you fucker." Taehyung snorts. Jimin flicks his shoulder. "Even if it's just for a day."

Taehyung reaches over and puts his hand on Jimin's knee. His palm is unnaturally warm, almost to the point of burning, and then the burning spreads through all of Jimin's limbs until he’sfull of warmth and something that glows.

Taehyung's hand moves from Jimin's knee, and instead of pulling back he comes closer, his hand tracing up Jimin's neck, his thumb rubbing the line of Jimin's jaw. Jimin's eyes flutter shut.

Lips press against his forehead.

He opens his eyes, and Taehyung is smiling at him. "It is done."

"Go home," Jimin tells him, but he holds onto Taehyung's wrist and leans his head forward so their foreheads are pressed together.

"I know you, ah, didn't wish for it." Taehyung brings Jimin's face up to his and touches a soft finger to the center of Jimin's forehead, where his lips still burn. "But I figured I'd leave you my Blessing."

"Fairy charm," Jimin says soberly, but he's glowing inside. "Typical."

Taehyung laughs. "Goodbye, Jimin."

Jimin smiles, bringing his knees into his chest. "Not forever."

"No." Taehyung stands up and goes to the window. "Not forever."

"I just worry about you being up there all by yourself."

Jimin huffs, kicking a box out of his way so he can set down the tub of books down on his couch. "Would you rather I stayed in that apartment alone for the rest of my life?" he demands, holding the cellphone between his ear and his shoulder. "I just graduated. I deserve a new place."

"What if you have crazy neighbors?" Jungkook asks. "What if one of them tries to kill you?"

Jimin laughs. "No one has tried to kill me in at least a week."

The move has been annoying. Almost as annoying as apartment hunting, but they finally found a place with a low enough rent that he could support himself with his new job at the loss of the prime location of his last apartment. He's mostly been living alone for the past two years. Jimin stayed in the apartment he and Hoseok shared after Hoseok graduated, and the kid that moved in after Hoseok was local and would spend his weekends and evenings at home with his family.

It was nice have the apartment to himself without the pressure of the entire rent, but his new job pays well.

It's a little lonely without someone else's trash to clean up, but Jimin will manage. He's in the process of looking for a roommate, but he'd had to sign the lease so quickly there wasn't enough time to vet everyone. The perfect match is out there somewhere.

"If someone knocks on your door in the middle of the night," Jungkook warns, "that's the beginning of a horror movie and you're not supposed to answer."

"You'll be in Seoul soon yourself," Jimin reminds him. Jungkook will be living in the dorms of Jimin's old university after studying abroad. It's a bit of a downgrade. "You've traveled all over the place. If you're this nervous, the city will eat you."

Jungkook sighs. "I'm just trying to take care of my hyung."

"Brat." Jimin snorts. "Your hyung can take care of himself."

There's a knock.

"Hyung." Jungkook's voice is sharp. "Was that a knock on the door? What did I tell you!"

"It's the middle of the day," Jimin tells him absently. No use telling Jungkook it wasn't the door. It was his fourth story window. "Hardly prime crime hour."

"They'll say they're asking for sugar but they're actually the devil."

"Isn't that Rosemary's Baby?"

"Fuck if I know."

Jimin makes his way into his living room. Knock knock knock. Familiar.

The window comes into view, and Jimin's heart stops, starts again, and beats five times as fast. "I have to go," he tells Jungkook, his smile widening. He turns off the phone in the middle of Jungkook's lecture on stranger danger.

He unlatches the window.

Taehyung grins at him from the fire escape. "Hey there, stranger."

Jimin is warm. "Took you long enough." Two years.

Taehyung carefully steps into Jimin's apartment. "I'm here to grant a wish?"

Jimin can't help it. He laughs, reaching out with two fingers and wrapping them around Taehyung's own. Taehyung beams.

Wish granted.