Chapter Text
Taehyung doesn’t expect much the first time he sees Jimin at the threshold of his apartment. His first impression is of warm eyes crinkling with a polite smile that shows his perfectly white teeth and round cheeks. However, the nervousness hidden under that kind expression becomes pretty obvious as soon as he speaks.
“Um, hi. I’m Park Jimin, we talked yesterday about the room renting,” he starts, fumbling with his words, eyes darting around him. “I’m not even sure if I’m in a right place,” a quick giggle interrupts his sentence, “Kim Taehyung, right?”
Taehyung nods, moving from the entrance for Jimin to step inside. “You got that right, come on in.”
When Taehyung’s done making a tea for him (without sugar which he thinks is a smart choice) he finds him sitting on the edge of the couch, almost like he was too shy to sit more comfortably. He keeps looking around the place, playing with his hands. They’re cute hands, Taehyung thinks.
“So,” Taehyung starts, and as soon as Jimin hears his voice his polite smile resurfaces on his face. “Tell me about yourself.”
After a short moment of confusion, Jimin says a few words about himself and Taehyung tries to remember all of the information Jimin’s willing to share. Same age as him, dance major in a local university with a part time job on weekends, no pets, no bad habits except from staying up late from time to time. Taehyung doesn’t need much more to be convinced. Besides, Jimin earns himself an extra point for his laughter. Taehyung decides he’d like to live with someone who laughs like he does.
But to Taehyung’s disappointment, he doesn't get the chance to hear it much after Jimin moves in. Frankly, he doesn’t even see Jimin that often either. Only in the mornings when the two of them are getting ready, carefully passing each other in the kitchen and the bathroom they share. And then everytime Jimin crosses the living room before he disappears back into his own room. Taehyung assumes he’s just shy or not that sociable in the first place. Or maybe just doesn’t feel like making friends with Taehyung. Taehyung tries not to be bothered, even though he has to fight the urge to ask if Jimin hates him everytime he hears his light footsteps against the floor.
Still, even if Jimin’s not home that often, Taehyung sees his presence in the always washed dishes, neatly folded laundry, swept floor. In little things, like the extra cup of coffee he leaves for Taehyung when they don’t see each other in the morning or the fridge filled with the groceries that’s enough for two of them. Everytime it happens Taehyung sticks a post-it notes to the refrigerator door to say thank you or to leave Jimin a silly smiling face or promise to give him back half of the money he spent. He never receives any kind of answer but continues, even if Jimin finds them stupid. Probably.
And all of those small gestures make Taehyung want get to know Jimin more and more.
So, he decides to finally take the matter into his own two hands one boring evening when the option of watching a movie with someone instead of alone becomes extremely appealing. He knocks on Jimin’s door, not really expecting much to avoid feeling disappointed.
“Do you maybe like stupid romantic comedies?” he asks through the door. “Because I’m about to watch one. So I’m letting you know in case you, you know, want to watch it with m-” Taehyung gets interrupted by a door opening and Jimin’s eyes looking up at him. He internally prepares himself to hear a denial, but instead receives Jimin’s bright smile, which Taehyung isn’t prepared for.
He faintly hears, “I’d like that,” through the thoughts of “cute” and “was he this cute before” circling through his head. He quickly ushers Jimin towards the living room and onto the sofa, starting the movie before he even realizes it.
And that’s how it starts.
Their Friday movies marathons become a Thing at some point. Each weekend starts with the two of them settling on a couch with a supply of snacks and a random movie that one of them thought would be worth watching. For the first few weeks it wasn’t anything more than that, with a few comments sprinkled in now and then. But soon, sharing an opinion became staying up until 3am, too immersed in conversation to notice the approaching dawn.
Taehyung finds himself noticing more details about Jimin during those nights. The way his hair become messy when he throws his head back, hiding his smile behind his hand, high pitched laughter echoing between the walls of the silent apartment. The way he aggressively hugs a pillow close to his chest when he gets scared from some dumb horror movie. The way that quiet sniffles betray him, even though he tries so hard to hide the subtle movement of his fingers wiping away the tears that had gathered in the corners of his eyes.
Sometimes Taehyung forgets his thoughts and gets lost in his own sentences when he notices the way Jimin’s sleepy eyes look at him. He didn’t even know what to do that one time Jimin fell asleep on him because he looked way too peaceful to wake.
“Sorry,” he says few hours later, visibly nervous that he woke up cuddled against Taehyung’s side. “You should have just wake me up,” he jokingly pouts, and gives a shaky giggle and Taehyung wants to coo at him and maybe guide his head back to his shoulder because wow, cute .
“I didn’t want to. You’re so warm I almost didn’t feel like I needed a blanket anymore,” Taehyung says, hoping to make the whole situation less awkward but judging by the way Jimin’s ears turn pink, he’s failing miserably. “I mean, I can’t feel my arm now, but it’s good you slept well,” Taehyung continues, feeling like he’s digging his own grave. “And it’s not like you snore or drool all over the place so there’s really nothing to apologise for,” Taehyung laughs and he’s pretty sure that if he doesn’t shut up, his soul will catapult itself from his body, never to be seen ever again.
And this becomes a Thing too, somehow. From the corner of his eye, Taehyung catches Jimin slowly getting more and more sleepy, his eyelids more and more droopy, until he moves himself close enough to rest his head on Taehyung’s shoulder. He still apologizes afterwards the couple of times that it happens but one day they both just accept it as a normal occurrence and an unchanging part of the movie nights. Taehyung doesn’t question it (most of the time) and doesn’t mind it, if anything it’s the opposite that he doesn’t like. At some point he even gets just a bit upset when Jimin doesn’t fall asleep on him. Almost like their time together isn’t quite complete without the feeling of Jimin’s body pressed closely to his own, without his fluffy hair tickling Taehyung’s nose and the sound of his steady breaths filling the room.
Taehyung realizes he might be in trouble when he catches himself reaching to brush Jimin’s hair. He stops his hand just inches away from Jimin’s head pillowed in Taehyung’s lap. After that, he tries not to think about it too much. He succeeds but only until the next Friday, when the urge to touch Jimin comes again, twice as strong as before.
One night, after he makes sure that Jimin’s asleep (waving a hand above Jimin’s head, snapping his fingers and even whistling didn’t wake him up so Taehyung assumes he's safe) he takes the risk. He runs his fingers through Jimin’s blonde hair, carefully at first, but slowly getting more and more comfortable with it. Taehyung wasn’t expecting anything amazing but it feels soft and kind of weirdly intimate. He continues the movement as he’s watching the rest of a movie and its when he hears a familiar voice that he realises that Jimin’s no longer asleep.
“What are you doing?” Jimin asks, squinting his eyes at Taehyung. He doesn’t look fully awake but the fact that he’s conscious enough to know makes Taehyung feel like dying. He backs his hand quickly and tries to answer, his voice coming out strangled,
“What? Nothing. I’m not doing anything.”
“Exactly,” Jimin mutters and for a moment he looks almost irritated. “Why did you stop?” It seems that he’s at the brink of falling back asleep and Taehyung isn’t sure if he’s even aware that he’s talking with him.
“Do you want me to keep doing it?”
Jimin nods before speaking again. His voice comes out so soft that Taehyung barely makes out the words. “It feels nice.”
When Taehyung touches his hair again he hears a content sigh and few seconds later Jimin’s asleep again.
He doesn’t remember a single thing the next morning. And Taehyung didn’t really expect anything, really. He shrugs it off, laughs and teases Jimin about his loud snoring, but he can’t help but feel the tiniest bit of disappointment, for some reason. It’s weird.
It’s fine.
And that’s how it works. They snuggle together when the opening starts and stay like that until the end credits roll. Slowly, it becomes harder to focus on the movie when Jimin’s body vibrates with laughter right next to Taehyung and when, in the glow of the tv screen, Jimin’s eyes shine with all of the emotions he tries so hard to hide.
Living with Jimin means learning small things about him, finding out his small mannerisms that Taehyung missed before. It’s hours spent on talking and equally as much time making each other laugh. It’s discovering how much easier things are when they are together and how lonely it feels when they are not.
But most importantly, it’s ignoring how, with every passing day, Taehyung falls deeper in love with him.