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let it be known that any and all rumors claiming that Kim Namjoon doesn't have school spirit are not only misinformed, but also just plain mean to be honest. didn't he let Yoongi convince him to run for student government in middle school, after all? and okay, sure, maybe that had mostly just been a reason for them to eat lunch together during meetings, but still. it counted. and the time Namjoon had given a speech in front of everyone at graduation, that should count for something as well!
"you were literally the valedictorian," someone mutters from the far end of the table. Namjoon vaguely recognizes them as someone he'd gone to secondary school with, though he can't remember if the two of them have had any uni classes together yet. he scowls over at them anyway.
"traitor," Namjoon hisses, before turning back to the actual problem at hand. "look, while that may or may not be true, it would only be so on a technicality. i have just as much school spirit as the next person and i don't need to step away from studying for a very important exam in order to prove that to you. so please, just let me revise in peace."
Jimin and Taehyung look down at him same as before, not a single change in expression even after his (impassioned, if complete and utter bullshit) speech, still smiling widely. no remorse from the young, these days. a tragedy.
"no can do, hyung," Taehyung grins, happily swinging his and Jimin's clasped hands between their bodies. "we're here on orders."
Namjoon almost doesn't want to ask. "orders... from who, exactly?"
"Seokjin and Yoongi-hyungs," Jimin answers, with a smirk. ahh, yeah okay, Namjoon should have guessed that much. "and they were very clear -- go and fetch poor Namjoonie from his self-imposed exile, would you? he's been so tense and grouchy lately."
Jimin's impression of Seokjin is actually pretty accurate, especially when immediately followed by Taehyung's frighteningly pitch-correct Yoongi: in case you couldn't tell, that's Jin Speak for Joon's being a dickhole, so go drag his nerd ass out of the library by force if you have to - which immediately has Jimin cracking up, far too loudly given their current location. Namjoon hears that person from before grumble at the other end of the table and can't feel sorry for them. it's what they deserve.
"yeah, that was pretty much the message," Jimin chuckles, back in his own voice once more. "and we really don't wanna have to get physical with you, but you know. orders are orders."
he shrugs, not at all repentant, and Namjoon sighs.
"fine," he relents, standing from his seat and beginning to gather his things. "but i'm bringing my goddamn notes and you can't stop me."
thankfully, they don't try to.
-
their university's annual fund-raising festival isn't actually all that large, really, only just spanning the length of a mostly unused parking lot behind the Humanities building. there are booths of all sorts lining either side of the long lot, though, snacks and games and other miscellaneous curiosities, leading up to a sizable ferris wheel at the very end. Namjoon squints up at it, trying not to feel too bitter.
"do you think they're still up there?" he asks, failing to keep the pettiness out of his voice.
Taehyung snorts a laugh. "who, the hyungs? most likely. they looked pretty comfortable, last we saw of them... if you know what i mean."
and just in case they didn't know what he meant, Taehyung wiggles his eyebrows with a greasy smirk, getting all up in Jimin's space and tickling up his sides with wandering hands. Jimin shrieks in response, halfheartedly trying to shove Taehyung away - but he was living for the attention, Namjoon could tell.
all of his friends were so gross and in love. it was exhausting.
this entire ridiculous day was exhausting, honestly; he'd given up on sleep sometime around four in the morning, after tossing and turning all through the night, and then ended up in the library not long after, studying for an exam he already knew he was going to -- well, okay. so he wasn't going to fail, because apparently that was a thing he was physically incapable of doing. but still. he probably wouldn't get the grade he wanted - and wasn't that worse, in the end? Namjoon thought so.
he also thought that maybe he was currently in the middle of a minor heat stroke, standing right here in line for... something, though he can't remember what.
"not to interrupt your weird mating ritual or anything," Namjoon starts, very pointedly doing just that. Jimin and Taehyung turn to face him in terrifying sync, still wrapped up in one another. "but what does it mean if i'm, like. warm to the touch? but have also stopped sweating altogether." he looks down at where his hands are clutching his dumb flash cards in a shaky grip. "and i think i'm shivering a bit? which is probably not, uh. good."
"hmmm," Jimin hums thoughtfully, leaning closer so he could look Namjoon up and down with a critical eye. "you don't look like you're dying just yet, but it might be a good idea to hydrate anyway."
he straightens up at once and spins Taehyung around to dig in the bag strapped to his back, making a cute noise in the back of his throat when he finds what he's looking for. next thing Namjoon knows, there's a lukewarm bottle of Gatorade sweating through the front of his t-shirt. he accepts it with a resigned sigh.
"can't i just, you know... go back to the library?" he asks, already knowing what the response will be. as expected, his friends don't dignify such a silly question with an answer, so Namjoon asks another: "and what are we even waiting for, anyway? this line is longer than the one for the ferris wheel."
"hyuuuuung," Taehyung whines, flopping his arms about dramatically. "we've already told you like five whole times already!"
Jimin giggles against the back of his hand and then slaps Taehyung lightly on the chest with it, shushing him. he turns to Namjoon with a much more patient smile, "the dance team is doing a kissing booth this year, to raise money for the animal shelter in town."
"the shelter where i volunteer," Taehyung offers, with a tone of voice that makes it clear this isn't the first time he's said so. Jimin turns his smile on his boyfriend, where it becomes ten times warmer.
ew. and in this kind of already unseasonably scorching weather? his dongsaengs were truly out of control. Namjoon sighs again.
"aren't you on the dance team, though?" he asks Jimin, nodding his head over to the booth itself. "why are you here in line instead of with your teammates?"
"we have a plan!" Taehyung announces loudly, before Jimin can answer for himself.
Namjoon looks back to Jimin with a raised eyebrow, but Jimin only shrugs. "my shift isn't until later today... but also, yeah. we have a plan."
he doesn't elaborate, and neither does Taehyung, still grinning wildly. Namjoon looks back and forth between them a few times before giving up. he takes a deep pull from the bottle of Gatorade, hoping that it'll help, and then goes back to his notes while he waits out this damn line.
-
it takes Namjoon an embarrassingly long time to catch onto Jimin and Taehyung's plan, not until they're almost at the front of the line, only a few people ahead of them. at the same time, Namjoon realizes that there are actually two lines. and he's not standing in the same one as his friends.
but then he takes a closer look at the booth down the end of theirs and scoffs, grateful; Jeon Jungkook is twitchy where he sits, smile a bit wobbly as he accepts first, a donation to the animal shelter, and then, a kiss. Namjoon doesn't think he's ever seen the poor kid's face this red. which was saying something, since Jungkook was already kinda known for being easy to blush.
Namjoon shoots his ridiculous friends an unimpressed look. "really? this is your big plan, to literally pay Jungkook to kiss you both?"
"he wants it!" Taehyung huffs, his scowl more of a pout. "don't make it weird, hyung."
Jimin holds up a hand at the face Namjoon must have made at that. "and before you start -- what Tae means is that Kookie already told us that he, you know... wants us. but he's shy. unbearably, adorably shy. so we figured this might help."
"and if we get up there and he still isn't ready, then that's fine too. we can wait a bit longer, right Jiminie?" Taehyung looks down at his boyfriend, tucked up underneath his arm, and kisses him right between his scrunched up eyes.
Jimin giggles sweetly and Namjoon doesn't even bother containing the urge to roll his eyes. he takes another swig from his Gatorade and sways a bit on the spot, realizes that there was now only one more person ahead of him in line. and because he's so busy being disgusted by his friends, Namjoon doesn't think to check who's manning his own booth until it's too late, the chick in front of him stepping aside with a quiet squeal to reveal -- oh. oh no... oh shit, oh no. the plan, Jimin and Taehyung's idiotic plan, it wasn't just about Jungkook. it was this, too.
it was Jung Hoseok, sitting pretty in his seat and positively beaming up at Namjoon. his smile is shaped like a heart, and Namjoon's tightens sharply in his chest. mother of fuck, he was going to kill those goddamn kids.
but maybe not... right this second, actually. because just then, Jung Hoseok begins to speak.
"well if it isn't Kim Namjoon!" he exclaims, eyes bright. "i have to say, i wouldn't have expected you to come out for the festival -" he pauses with a short chuckle and a wink. Namjoon chokes on his own spit, a bit. "- much less our booth, in particular."
Namjoon laughs, this dragging little nervous thing, and turns to gesture at Jimin and Taehyung. who apparently, have finally found success with their half of the plan -- each of them sitting on one of Jungkook's thighs, trading off gentle pecks to Jungkook's dumbfounded pout and pausing to shove another bill into the donation bucket after every one, all while the line behind them looked on, both annoyed and enraptured. well then. good for them, Namjoon supposes.
he turns back to look at Hoseok just as Hoseok is turning back to look at him, expression shifting from softly endeared into something a bit more playful. "so what about you, Namjoon-sshi? ready to fork over a donation in exchange for your own courtesy kiss?"
he's smiling kindly, obviously joking around in order to lighten the mood - because Jung Hoseok is an angel fallen from heaven - but Namjoon is still too discombobulated by this entire situation to be anything besides a nervous goddamn wreck. he immediately starts digging in his pockets for the few bills he'd prepared beforehand, spluttering nonsense in Hoseok's quietly amused face. by the time Namjoon's found his money and dropped it into the appropriate bucket, the people behind him have begun grumbling as well. which only makes him that much more flustered.
he clears his throat, finding it suddenly full of cotton. a look down at his bottle of Gatorade tells him that it's empty, and that he's shit out of luck. Namjoon meets Hoseok's eyes and does his best not to grimace.
"right, so about that kiss..." he starts, his voice pretty decently steady.
but then, just as Namjoon is leaning down toward Hoseok's face, eyes trained intently on Hoseok's stupidly pretty lips, a funny thing happens: almost as if all at once, Namjoon's body kind of just... gives up on him. and so, suddenly lightheaded and weak at the knees, he stumbles and falls.
the last thing he sees before passing out completely, is the image of Jung Hoseok's stupidly pretty lips, opened wide on a shout.
-
here's another funny thing: Namjoon has been ass-over-tits, dumb as fuck, SoThisIsLove.mp3 crushing on Jung Hoseok for two whole years now. pretty much ever since his cousin Taehyung, then only a baby-faced freshman, had dragged him to a dance showcase in the hopes of spotting the actual love of this and all of my past lives, Joon-hyung. this love of his cousin's various reincarnated lives ended up being Park Jimin, a classmate from one of Taehyung's prereq science courses, who also happened to be a dance minor.
Namjoon had learned all of this with a few cursory nods of his head, listening to Taehyung gush while lazily looking through the program before the lights went down; the lower years had gone first, so Taehyung thankfully didn't have to wait long to witness his apparent soulmate's performance. after Park Jimin had flounced off the stage with a graceful bow, however, Namjoon had soon grown antsy, wondering if it would be rude to ask Taehyung if they could leave now.
but then, like a ray of sunshine slicing through an overcast sky, he had appeared.
Namjoon hadn't found out his name until later, after going back through the showcase program a second time, pausing to carefully study every face above each of the student profile blurbs until he'd found the one he was looking for -- Jung Hoseok, sophomore. dance major, with an early education and psychology double minor.
sitting alone in his shared room that night, his roommate Yoongi probably sleeping over at his boyfriend's off-campus studio again, Namjoon had sighed dreamily and decided that maybe it was time to bump up his sexual orientation from Tentatively Bisexual to Most Definitely Bisexual. the thought had made him smile.
a year after that, he had walked into Intro to Japanese on the first day of his junior year and there, sitting pretty only a few rows back from the front of class, was Jung Hoseok. a shining beacon of hope in the midst of his eight a.m. foreign language course.
somehow, Namjoon had managed to keep his cool for a whole eight days. but then Taehyung had dragged him along to a We Survived The First Week Back! party, where he'd been plied with an ungodly amount of alcohol in the name of youthful celebration and which directly led to Namjoon, in his shamefully inebriated state, making one of the biggest mistakes of his life: sitting cross-legged on the counter in the kitchen of a house that belonged to someone who he would probably never know, Namjoon had spilled all of the embarrassing beans about his crush on Jung Hoseok, not only to Taehyung... but also to his boyfriend-slash-soulmate of many lifetimes, that Park Jimin from before (and all of the months since). the one who knew Jung Hoseok, personally. the one who, at the urging of Namjoon's forever meddling cousin, had probably helped to make this happen.
this being Namjoon, waking up in an uncomfortable cot, covered in sweat except for his forehead, where a damp towel sat cool against his overheated skin.
Namjoon was tired. he was tired, and he was thirsty, and also still a little bit lightheaded. but mostly, Namjoon had questions --
"we're in the medical tent," a voice answers, before he can even open his dry mouth to ask. this voice seemed to come attached to a pair of hands, which helped hold Namjoon steady as he struggled to sit up in his shitty cot. the voice also happened to belong to Jung Hoseok, who was now holding out a small paper cup in front of Namjoon's face. "here, you need to drink something."
Namjoon does as he's told, taking the opportunity to stealthily study Hoseok's face from behind his cup of room temperature water; the furrow of his perfectly sculpted eyebrows... the concern in his usually shining eyes...... the sluggishly bleeding split in his pretty bottom lip.........
wait.
wait just a goddamn second.
he couldn't have honestly............ could he?
Hoseok catches Namjoon staring at his mouth and chuckles lightly, very obviously trying not to smile too wide so as not to exacerbate his injury. which was without a doubt Namjoon's motherfucking fault in the first place.
he throws his head back on a groan, staring up at the slightly fluttering ceiling of the medical tent, which he addresses as he apologizes. "i am. indescribably sorry, for so incredibly many things."
"is that right?" he hears Hoseok laugh, much more comfortably this time. "what are some of these things you're sorry for?"
"Taehyung, for one," Namjoon starts, unable to lower his gaze and look at Hoseok properly. like a loser. "and Jimin, for another. they mean well, but they're... absolute menaces together, as i'm sure i don't have to inform you."
"you don't," Hoseok confirms, solemnly, the laugh still lingering in his voice.
Namjoon continues. "i'm also sorry for holding up the line, and giving you crumpled bills for the donation drive. the animal shelter deserves better."
"i'm sure they won't pay too much mind to the condition the donations arrive in, as long as they arrive at all," Hoseok sighs, soft, clearly amused. and maybe a bit... fond? Namjoon doesn't give himself time to hope.
"i'm sorry for passing out," he says, quickly, doesn't let Hoseok get past assuring him that that isn't at all your fau-- before blurting: "and i'm sorry for whatever i did to injure your stupidly pretty lips."
Hoseok's protest seems to die on his tongue, mouth falling shut for a moment before curling into a shy smirk.
"stupidly... you really think i have pretty lips?" he asks, and --
Namjoon is tired, and thirsty, and still a bit lightheaded. he finds that he also doesn't have the energy to lie anymore.
"i think you have pretty everything," Namjoon admits, finally looking back into Hoseok's face.
he's smiling, wider now than before, bottom lip bleeding down the side of his chin. and he's still every bit as heavenly as the first time Namjoon ever laid eyes on him.
-
"okay, but you have to admit - that's a pretty fucking adorable getting-together story," Jimin says, waving his chopsticks around for emphasis.
"exactly," Taehyung agrees, at his side. "a story you wouldn't have if not for us, i might add!"
Namjoon groans into his hands, and Hoseok, already slumped into his side, only tucks himself deeper against Namjoon's shoulder as he shakes with laughter. at least someone was finding this argument entertaining.
"for the last time," Namjoon tries, speaking slowly as if trying to explain a complex concept to children. which he was, apparently. "that wasn't our getting-together story. because we didn't actually get together until much, much later."
"after a painfully long series of terribly awkward and adorable dates," Hoseok supplies, helpfully. he's breathing normally now, but his entire face is still grinning. one of Namjoon's favorite looks on him.
"yes, exactly. thanks, babe," Namjoon knocks his head lightly against Hoseok's and then turns back to level his dongsaengs with a hard stare. "Hoseokie and i had to suffer through those awful first dates in order to get to where we are now, and i won't have you erasing our efforts just so we can fit into your false narrative!"
quiet laughter immediately erupts from their small group, an almost perfect counterclockwise domino effect around their table, starting with Hoseok at Namjoon's left; when he looks, Seokjin is literally holding Yoongi's hand over his own mouth to (unsuccessfully) contain his giggling. but Namjoon does not budge. and neither, apparently, does his cousin.
"but hyung! you can't deny that without our plan, you probably wouldn't have even confessed in the first place!!" Taehyung asserts, gaze adamant.
Namjoon takes a breath to refute such an erroneous claim -- but then, a hand curls gently around his upper arm, pretty lips speaking damply against Namjoon's ear.
"Joonie-yah," Hoseok breathes, a smile in his words. "let him have this one, hmm? i think it's nice, that they want to be a part of our story... don't you?"
Namjoon sighs, grumbles a resigned i guess so as he turns his head slightly to press a quick kiss to the tip of Hoseok's nose in acquiesce.
"oh gross," Jungkook says, finally back from the phone call he'd taken in the middle of their meal. gagging exaggeratedly, he squeezes himself back into his spot between Jimin and Taehyung and then grimaces over at Namjoon and Hoseok. "can we please not do pda at the dinner table? people eat here, you know."
Namjoon takes another breath, but then he feels those fingers tighten around his bicep again just so, and he exhales with a shake of his head. yeah, okay. the kids could have this one too, and whatever other stories they came up with.
so long as Namjoon got to keep his happy ending.
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