Chapter Text
Wednesday, February 7
The campus bathed in a beautiful glow - it was the golden hour. Sunlight reflected off the school building, making Jungkook squint as he made his way over to the dorms. He had spent the entire afternoon sewing for the fashion show their school had planned in a few days, something he had been stressing out over for a while. He was working on his final piece, and it was challenging: the seams never came together in quite the right way, the fragile material easily slipping out of his trembling hands. Taehyung had tried calming him down by turning on his jazz playlist, and it had helped somewhat, but Jungkook had hunched and tensed his muscles too much. He needed a shower and a good night’s sleep. So when he reached his dorm room, he did exactly that: he took a shower, turned off the lights and collapsed onto his bed. He searched for his phone blindly in his sheets, feeling around for a good minute before he found it under his pillow. He checked Snapchat to see that Taehyung had updated his story. He opened it and saw a video of Jimin and Hoseok, drenched in sweat, dancing to a song he’d heard about a hundred times by now. They were practicing the dance routine that their classes would perform together at the big event on Monday. The next video was of Hoseok sitting on the floor, breathing heavily and gulping down half a bottle of water. Taehyung zoomed in on his nose and mouth, and when Hoseok saw, he smiled, huffed and said “ah, seriously,” but it cut off mid-sentence. Jungkook couldn’t repress the smile that crept onto his face. Then, there was a video of Jimin, sprawled out on the floor, eyes closed, wearing a white tee, the way his sweat made it stick to his body showing off his chest. Taehyung zoomed in on him and Jungkook swooned over the well-defined pecs and abs. Then the video ended and his eyes were met with the “stories” page again. He blinked a few times, a blush involuntarily spreading from his ears onto his face when he realized he’d been staring at his friend again. Very early on, he had realized being friends with Taehyung was kind of a package deal: you automatically befriended Jimin as well, there was no way around it. Not that he minded. The three of them had clicked from the get-go. They bickered and goofed around, but Taehyung and Jimin never hesitated to take care of Jungkook, to play the big brothers, to guide him, to be there for him.
He’d had a crush on Jimin for a while now, had occasionally caught himself staring a little too long and making up excuses to be around him. He loved the way Jimin genuinely seemed to care what he had to say, the way his eyes curved when he smiled, the way he always tried to have a positive influence on the people around him. Jungkook also loved his passion for dance, his determination, how hard he was willing to work for his goals. He was so fond of the boy.
And then there was Taehyung, who was also in the fashion department and two years older than Jungkook. They had gotten to know each other because both of them spent a lot of time at the sewing and design rooms after class, coming up with new ideas or working on school projects. Taehyung was a very social guy, so he had no problem striking up conversations. Jungkook, however, had always been a bit shy and hadn’t been sure how to respond at first. The older boy had caught onto it quickly and had taken the lead in their interactions, never stopped trying, and after a while, Jungkook had warmed up to him and they had become friends. Thinking of his two best friends, Jungkook felt a warm buzzing in his stomach, and he fell asleep within twenty minutes for the first time in weeks.
Shortly after Jungkook had left the sewing room to head to bed, Taehyung had made his way to the dance studio where Jimin and Hoseok were practicing for monday’s performance. He walked in on them in the middle of a routine, so he sat down on the floor and took his phone out to record them. He found them so cool: every single time he saw them dance, he was swept away again by how graceful and natural their movements were. When they had been younger, Jimin and Taehyung had taken a hip hop class together. Taehyung had just done it for fun, but for Jimin it had been one of the many dance classes he took each week to improve his technique, form, strength. And then both of them had gotten into art school, Taehyung for fashion design, Jimin for dance, and there he had befriended Hoseok, who was a year above them, but had taken Jimin under his wing and always spent hours and hours after class in the practice room with him, helping him, mentoring him.
Taehyung loved Jimin. They had been inseparable for years. They had been there for each other through all their difficulties. Jimin had gone through the process of discovering his sexual identity, telling his best friend open-heartedly about all his doubts and struggles. But for some reason, Taehyung had been scared to share his own in turn. And only now, in their third year of art school, he had started to realize why. Because, through it all, the person who made him doubt everything had been right in front of him.
The song ended and Jimin and Hoseok almost collapsed onto the floor near their friend, panting heavily, getting tissues to wipe their sweaty foreheads with and water bottles to quench their thirst. Taehyung took some videos for his Snapchat, zooming in on Jimin’s body when he wasn’t looking. He looked at the video a few times, not sure if he should upload it, but decided to do it anyway.
“You did great guys,” he said, putting his phone down.
Hoseok smiled at him. “Thanks, Taehyungie. We’re not there yet though.”
“We’re not there yet by far,” Jimin said, pouting. “I keep messing up the middle part.”
“You’ll get it right, Jimin-ah,” Taehyung assured him. “I know you will.”
He didn’t understand why the boy was so hard on himself. Jimin always got it right in the end. Hoseok nodded in agreement, and Jimin smiled a small smile that made Taehyung’s stomach feel like it flipped over at least three times.
“So, how are your outfits coming along for Monday?” Hoseok asked.
“It’s going pretty well, actually!” Taehyung said enthusiastically. “I just have to add some finishing touches to them. One still needs some lace, there are some buttons that I ordered that will hopefully get here by tomorrow, stuff like that. I think I should be finished by Friday.”
“I’m so glad to hear that, Tae Tae,” Jimin said with a smile. “How did Jungkook do today?”
Taehyung’s face fell a little bit. “Yeah, he still hasn’t calmed down. His outfits look great, they’re not finished yet, but you wouldn’t be able to tell them apart from a senior’s. He’s just stressing himself out way too much.”
Hoseok and Jimin hummed understandingly.
“It really sucks that the entire school has to participate in the anniversary event,” the eldest said, a sad look on his face. “Normally we keep each other calm, but now all of us are busy and stressing out. Joon-ah has been coming back from the studio later every night, and he’s leaving earlier every morning. I keep telling him to sleep enough, but he never does. I don’t know if he actually eats the lunches I make for him either.”
“Does Yoongi-hyung still help him?” Jimin asked.
Hoseok nodded. “Yeah, he helps him a lot, but he has his own projects to work on as well.”
Jimin and Taehyung shared a knowing look, both wanting to ask their hyung the same thing. Taehyung grinned and said: “And what about your crush on Yoongi-hyung? Have you asked him out yet?”
The eldest of the three stood up, blushing slightly.
“Would you look at the time,” he said unconvincingly while gathering his belongings. “I should really get back to the dorm if I want to get my eight hours of sleep! Goodnight guys.”
And with that, he was gone. As soon as the door closed behind him, Taehyung and Jimin started laughing. Hoseok had never actually acknowledged it, but he was - quite obviously - in love with his roommate’s older friend, Yoongi. Yoongi had already finished the undergraduate music program, but he had taken Namjoon under his wing, to help and teach him, much in the same way Hoseok had done with Jimin. That’s how the two had grown close. So, naturally, Yoongi had started coming over to Namjoon and Hoseok’s shared dorm room for drinks and dinner, and Hoseok had started falling for him fast and hard.
Jimin rolled over so his head was on his friend’s thigh. Taehyung carded his fingers through the other’s sweaty hair.
“I’m so tired,” Jimin said, sounding like he hadn’t slept properly in years.
“Let’s go back to our room, Jiminnie,” the other boy said softly.
They got up, left and walked across the dark campus in comfortable silence. When they were lying in their beds, staring up at the ceiling, Taehyung said: “Stop worrying Jimin-ah, you’ll do great. And so will Jungkook.”
Jimin smiled, already almost asleep, exhausted from dancing too much. It took him a lot of effort to respond.
“Yeah, Tae. Thank you. Goodnight.”