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Yoongi prides himself on his ability to handle his alcohol, but he often forgets that some people may not have as high of a tolerance as him.
Take Jungkook for example.
The two of them, along with Seokjin, Namjoon, and Taehyung, had all traveled to Hoseok and Jimin’s apartment for an “end of the school year/Jin is finally graduating after five years and six majors” party, and honestly, it had been going spectacularly well for the first hour or so. No one had lost any clothing, Namjoon hadn’t managed to knock over anything that was too expensive, a fantastic result for a party between seven unruly college boys.
That was until they decided to play a couple rounds of Fuck You. And everyone decided to pick on the youngest.
“Alright Jimin, who ya fucking?” Hoseok asks as he positions his hand over the card at the top of the pyramid.
Jimin giggles behind his glass before answering, “Jungkookie, of course.”
No one was surprised, everyone except Yoongi had been trying their hardest to make Jungkook drink as much as possible, and it was starting to show in his heated skin and unfocused eyes. Hoseok flips over the last card, a queen of hearts, and scans the rest of the pyramid for any other queens that can be stacked on top. Unfortunately for Jungkook, in the bottom row were the remaining queens, which meant that he now had to drink for a solid twenty seconds.
“Drink up young one,” Hoseok says as he leans back into the couch, settling into the cushions and crossing his legs.
Jungkook pouted, but dutifully brought his cup up to his lips. Rules are rules after all.
Yoongi could see how red Jungkook’s cheeks were, and they seemed to turn a shade darker with every gulp that flowed down his throat. Not that Yoongi was paying attention to Jungkook’s throat or how his Adam’s apple bobbed every time he swallowed more alcohol, causing the sweat that had gathered on his neck to slide even further down his skin. Not at all.
“... nineteen, twenty! You did it Jungkookie, what a good boy you are!” Jimin exclaims while pinching Jungkook’s cheek in between his fingers.
“Jimin, please do not corrupt the child with your extreme praise kink. Keep that in the bedroom with Hoseok,” Seokjin chastises while bringing his bottle to his lips.
Jungkook’s face just breaks into a dopey smile, eyes slowly going in and out of focus, face rosy and bright. “Thanks, hyung, you’re the best, the absolute bomb dot com,” Jungkook says, shooting up some classic finger guns and leaning backwards making soft pew pew -ing noises, until he finally loses his balance and ends up on the floor, giggling and rolling from side to side.
“Alright, I think it’s time someone took the kid home,” Namjoon announces while cleaning up the cards and shuffling them for another round.
“I’ll take him,” Yoongi says, gathering up the empty bottles around him and standing up to stretch his limbs. “I’m probably the most sober out of all of you fuckers, bunch of lightweights, I swear.”
Jimin frowns and kicks his leg in Yoongi’s general direction. “Not all of us can have livers of steel after years of drinking three bottles of soju a day.”
“You’re right, only those who are superior can, sorry you’re not on my level, Jimin, suck it.”
“I’d rather not.”
“You’re missing out then,” Yoongi sings as he trails into the kitchen to toss his bottles into the recycling.
“I don’t think I am, I’ve got all I need right here,” Jimin says, patting Hoseok’s crotch just a little too hard to be considered innocent.
Hoseok flinches and bites down on his lip before whimpering out a quiet yeah, right here babe, and Jimin just winks in response.
Yoongi returns from the kitchen and stares down at Jungkook who’s still laying on the carpet, giggling every so often and whispering something about dodo birds and how they had just the silliest name.
“So uh, what do I do with him?” Yoongi asks, hands on his hips.
“Just like, pick him up by the armpits and drag him out,” Taehyung replies. “It’s chill if you accidentally knock him into a few things, he’ll be fine, he’s sturdy.”
Yoongi shrugs and starts to maneuver Jungkook out of the living room, but Jungkook’s bulky and muscular and Yoongi has stick arms so it proves to be a very difficult and arduous endeavor. Eventually, Namjoon comes to his aid and helps Yoongi haul Jungkook’s ass out the front door. They gently place Jungkook on the ground so that he’s leaning against the wall next to the entryway, and Yoongi pokes his head in to say goodbye to everyone, before turning back around to get ready to lug Jungkook downstairs to his car.
Except that Jungkook is nowhere to be found.
Yoongi panics. Jungkook is just a small, soft, and extremely gullible boy, anyone could lure him into their car with the promise of some banana milk and a cookie and Yoongi’s friends would never let him live it down if he allowed the naive youngest to get kidnapped. Hoseok had just told him that if anything happened to his little dance protégé, he’d kick his ass so hard Yoongi wouldn’t be able to use that new vibrator he just bought for weeks. Yoongi really wanted to use that vibrator. He also didn’t want his friend to be kidnapped, but that was secondary at this point in Yoongi’s sex-deprived life.
Yoongi takes off down the hall, determined to find Jungkook in one whole piece so that he may keep himself in one whole piece and not have Hoseok tear him a new one. Luckily, Yoongi hears some subdued laughter coming from a few feet away, and sees some chocolate brown hair peeking out from between the leaves of a fake plant sitting next to one of the neighbor’s doors.
“Jungkook, what are you doing?”
Jungkook looks up, seemingly surprised at being caught. His hands are covering his mouth in order to try and suppress his constant chuckling, and his ears are bright red from both the warm summer air and the alcohol, but it’s his eyes that really cause Yoongi to falter. There’s fucking galaxies in them and Yoongi is caught in a daze, hypnotized by the stars swimming in those irises. Honestly, Yoongi is flabbergasted NASA hasn’t contacted Jungkook in search of new constellations to explore because Yoongi can see about twenty in his right eye alone.
“You found me hyung!”
“Wasn’t that hard honestly,” Yoongi says, coughing to clear both his throat and his mind. He makes a move to grab Jungkook’s hand so he can help him up, but that turned out to be a very poor decision since Jungkook’s hands were large and warm and soft and Yoongi never wanted to let go. He does though, reluctantly, once they reach the elevators and he has to reach over to press the down button.
Turns out letting go was also a very poor decision.
Yoongi turns around to ask Jungkook if they should stop for pizza on the way home, see if they can soak up any of the alcohol that’s sitting in his belly, but of course, the boy has taken off again.
A sigh escapes Yoongi’s lips as he walks back towards the hallway, looking both left and right before spotting Jungkook crouched down on the ground, a welcome mat stolen from a nearby doorway and instead held atop his head. Yoongi feels like he should be annoyed at having to keep chasing after Jungkook, but Jungkook just looks so much like a little kid that it makes Yoongi’s heart melt into a puddle at the base of his spine.
Yoongi walks over to where Jungkook is sitting with his hands clasped tightly on the welcome mat that’s currently lifted above his hunched figure. He stops in front of Jungkook, sighing again as he looks down at the boy in front of him. Jungkook’s eyes are squeezed shut, as if not being able to see Yoongi meant that Yoongi wouldn’t be able to see him. He doesn’t notice Yoongi is there until Yoongi squats down in front of him and speaks.
“Nice welcome hat, Kook.”
Jungkook’s eyes open wide, then quickly close again as a huge smile quickly overtakes his whole face, causing his eyes to form little crescents and tiny dimples to appear on his smooth, soft cheeks. Yoongi quickly moves to take the welcome mat off of his head so that they don’t get in trouble with any angry neighbors, even though Jungkook looked the absolute cutest he ever had sitting there and blinking at him with that innocent gaze.
“You found me again hyung! You’re so good at this game!”
“What game?” Yoongi asks, genuinely confused and befuddled by Jungkook’s comments and actions, but suddenly, the elevator that they had called for reaches their floor, announcing its arrival with a ding and Jungkook takes off before Yoongi has time to react.
“You’re seeking again hyung!”
“Wha - “ Yoongi exclaims and stands quickly, or as quick as he can with his weak knees that crack with every sudden movement, and chases after Jungkook as he dashes into the elevator lobby. Yoongi honestly doesn’t know how Jungkook is this speedy after ingesting as much alcohol as he had earlier in the night. He’s only mildly regretting agreeing to take him home now.
Jungkook reaches the elevator before Yoongi, with all his stupid excessive leg muscles and their cursed power. He’s giggling maniacally as he mashes down the close doors button, and Yoongi can’t reach it in time before the doors are shutting right in front of his face.
“Damnit,” Yoongi groans, turning around again to instead head for the stairwell at the end of the hall, running fast, but already out of breath after three steps. He tumbles down the stairs, skipping most of them, and nearly running into the walls in his haste. He really can’t lose track of Jungkook another time, not if it’s going to cause him to have to exercise like this again. Yoongi hadn’t moved this much since he played basketball back in high school. There’s a reason he switched to music production for goodness sake. And why the heck did Hoseok and Jimin have to live on the sixth floor anyways?
Yoongi bursts through the stairwell door, but of course, Jungkook is already sprinting out the front entrance of the apartment lobby, and Yoongi has to run all the way down the corridor before he can even hope to catch up. By the time Yoongi makes it outside the building, Jungkook is nowhere to be seen. Panic and concern is starting to rise up in Yoongi’s throat, and Hoseok’s warning is ringing in his ears as he flails around trying to get a glimpse of Jungkook. Yoongi knows Hoseok would most definitely follow through with his deadly threats, and Yoongi would very much so like to keep all of his limbs, as uncoordinated as they may be. That meant that he had to find Jungkook, stat.
Yoongi slaps his cheeks and tells himself to focus , Jungkook couldn’t have gotten that far. He walks a bit further down the road before he passes a narrow alley and hears a cat meowing softly, along with a gentle shushing sound. Yoongi looks into the alley and sees Jungkook sitting down next to the bags of recycling, holding onto a stray cat that most definitely does not want to be held onto.
“Kitty, you gotta be quiet or else Yoongi-hyung is gonna find us.”
Yoongi rolls his eyes before stepping into the alley and standing in front of Jungkook. “Kook, don’t touch that, it could have rabies.”
Jungkook makes an affronted face and cuddles the cat closer to his chest. “Don’t talk about Mushroom like that.”
“Mushroom?”
“He was eating a slice of mushroom pizza when I found him, he’s not good at hide and seek like you are hyung.”
Mushroom apparently had had enough human interaction for the day, and took off out of Jungkook’s arms to head towards the other side of the alley.
“Bye kitty!” Jungkook waves before turning back around and focusing his seemingly unnaturally large eyes on Yoongi. “Let’s play again hyung!”
Yoongi is quick to react this time, however, grabbing onto Jungkook’s arm before he takes off again, and starts to drag him towards the car instead. He tries not to think about the lack of space between them, but he swears, he’s only holding on so tightly so that Jungkook doesn’t run away again. And his cheeks aren’t red from embarrassment, it’s from exertion, clearly.
Luckily, the car isn’t parked far away, and they’re able to make it there without incident. Except Jungkook puts up a fight when Yoongi tries to make him get inside the vehicle, insisting that they play another round of hide and seek.
“Hyung, how about this time, I be the seeker and you can hide? Okay, ready? Go!” Jungkook covers his eyes and starts to count, but Yoongi just stands in front of him, crossing his arms while he waits for Jungkook to finish.
When Jungkook reaches thirty, he opens his eyes, and makes a very unimpressed face when he sees that Yoongi didn’t decide to hide like he had asked him to.
“You’re no fun hyung. I’ll just hide again instead.”
Yoongi manages to block Jungkook’s path so that he can’t run away again. “Wait, Jungkook, wanna know the perfect place to hide?”
Jungkook’s eyes open wider at this, if that’s even possible, and his face is so eager, Yoongi almost feels bad about what he’s about to do. Almost. He’s pretty damn tired and would just like to get home at this point to be honest. He’s desperate.
“I know a really great hiding spot, Yoongi-hyung will never be able to find you there.”
“Aren’t you Yoongi-hyung though?”
Yoongi hesitates for only a second before saying, “No, I’m his twin brother, Yoon… sung?”
A look of amazement passes over Jungkook’s face as he takes in this newfound information. “I never knew Yoongi-hyung had a twin.”
“He does, and as his twin, I know him best, so I know that he definitely won’t be able to find you in this hiding spot.”
“Where? Where? Show me, show me please!”
“It’s in here, get in quick,” Yoongi says, opening the door to the car and ushering Jungkook inside. He slams the door hurriedly, before walking briskly to the driver’s side and getting in. Yoongi leans over and works to get Jungkook’s seatbelt in place, trying to ignore how his face is extremely close to Jungkook’s face and somehow Jungkook still manages to smell faintly of vanilla and spice, even after all that drinking and running around.
“You sure he won’t be able to find me?” Jungkook asks, head lolling a bit to the side and eyes slipping closed, finally worn out and tired from his extracurricular activities.
“Mmhmm,” Yoongi hums noncommittally as he finally gets the seatbelt to click into the buckle.
“What if I want him to find me?”
Yoongi pauses. “What do you mean?”
Jungkook sighs, clearly frustrated. His bottom lip protrudes out in a pout, and his eyebrows furrow together as he tries to focus his hazy mind on what he really wants to say. “He’s leaving soon. Seokjin-hyung is graduating this year, and then Yoongi-hyung is graduating, and soon everyone is gonna leave except me, and I don’t want them to go. I don’t want them to leave me.”
Yoongi relaxes in his chair. Jungkook was just anxious about not having any friends since everyone was older than him. That was understandable. He gently pushes Jungkook’s bangs out of his eyes, lowering his voice to a soothing tone. “It’s hard being the youngest, isn’t it Kook?”
“It’s hard being in love with someone four years older than you.”
A pause. Surely Jungkook couldn’t possibly be talking about him? He was drunk, he didn’t know what he was saying, it was all nonsense. “Who are you talking about Kook?”
“Yoongi-hyung, I’m in love with Yoongi-hyung!”
Yoongi jerks backward at Jungkook’s outburst, startled and a bit bewildered, because there was no way that Jungkook just said what he thought he said. Jungkook meanwhile, realized what he had just confessed and his hands shot up to his mouth as he gasped loudly and tried to save himself.
“Oh no, don’t tell Yoongi-hyung I said that!”
Yoongi’s voice is barely a whisper as he reassures Jungkook that he would keep his secret for him. He doesn’t think his brain was functioning well enough to make a sound other than that. “I won’t Kook.”
Jungkook relaxes, still thinking that Yoongi was actually his ‘twin brother’ and he hadn’t spilled a Really Big Important Secret or anything. “Do you think he’ll find me before he leaves?”
The words are spoken so softly, so full of hope and desperation that it very nearly breaks Yoongi’s heart. How could this pure child have been in love with him this whole time? How could Yoongi not have known? How could he have missed out on loving this gentle soul in return for so long?
“I’ll give him some hints as to where you’re hiding,” Yoongi says gently, as Jungkook’s eyes flutter shut one final time before succumbing to sleep.
“Thanks not Yoongi-hyung.”
Jungkook sleeps the entire way home, and wakes up confused and surprised when Yoongi tells him they’re at his apartment.
“Oh hyung, I met your twin brother.”
“Wow really?” Yoongi fakes shock, placing a hand over his chest and inhaling sharply.
“Yeah he was really nice,” Jungkook slumps against the seat but turns his head to the side to look at Yoongi with a gaze that turns all of Yoongi’s insides to mush. “Hey hyung?”
“Yeah Kook?”
Jungkook leans over the console and boops Yoongi right on the nose, causing Yoongi to go a bit cross-eyed as he looks down at Jungkook’s finger. “Got your nose.”
Yoongi reaches up and takes Jungkook’s hand in his, threading their fingers together as he rests his head against the headrest and takes in everything about the boy next to him. His round nose that crinkles up whenever he laughs, his pink lips that frame the most adorable bunny smile Yoongi has ever seen, his soft cheeks that look the best when they’re stuffed full with food, his huge doe eyes that Yoongi falls in love with nearly every time he sees them. Everything all wrapped up into the kindest being that Yoongi had ever known. “Yeah, you got me Kook.”
The next day, Yoongi texts Jungkook to offer to take him out to get hangover soup since he knows Jungkook has got to be feeling the effects of last night. Jungkook agrees, but is looking surprisingly chipper when Yoongi arrives to pick him up. Yoongi mentally curses him, damn his young blood and ability to avoid any sort of hangover.
They make it to one of Yoongi’s favorite neighborhood restaurants, the smell of spices and meat hitting them square in the face as soon as they open up the door. Yoongi breathes it all in and then directs Jungkook to a table in the back. Yoongi’s got some questions he needs to ask and he knows how shy Jungkook can get, so he wants to minimize the amount of public interference.
“Thanks for bringing me out for food hyung, I have nothing in my apartment and probably would’ve starved otherwise,” Jungkook says, pouring himself a cup of water and drinking it all in one go.
“No problem kid,” Yoongi answers, trying not to get distracted by how good Jungkook looks just drinking a damn glass of water. Honestly, when did Yoongi get like this? Oh yeah, that’s right, last night when Jungkook admitted that he was in love with him. Yoongi had like Jungkook for a while now, but it was never this bad. He decides to get right to it. Yoongi clears his throat, ready to ask some questions to get some clarification, to make sure that it wasn’t just a drunken statement that didn’t actually mean anything, that Jungkook’s feelings were true.
Unfortunately, Jungkook had already waved over the waiter to give him their order, and the words die in Yoongi’s throat before he gets a chance to say them. He grabs a napkin and starts to fiddle with it, trying to convince himself that what he’s about to ask won’t be indefinitely life changing and monumentous.
“So do you remember anything from last night?”
Jungkook hums, looking up at the ceiling as he ponders the question. “Not really? I remember being at Hoseok and Jimin’s apartment, and I remember not being very good at any of the drinking games we were playing, but everything after that is a bit blurry.”
“Not very good is the understatement of the year,” Yoongi snickers behind his hands, but Jungkook pouts and fixes him with an exasperated look.
“Not my fault everyone decided to pick on me.”
“You’re just so cute when you lose, it’s hard not to.”
“Also not my fault that I’m just naturally the cutest in our friend group.”
“Don’t let Jimin hear you say that.”
“Oh please, he’d just run off to Hoseok for more praises to restore his bruised ego, he’d be okay.”
Yoongi laughs some more and settles back into the booth, thinking about how this is the reason he’d fallen for Jungkook when he first met him. Jungkook had been shy at first, barely speaking, but once they got to know each other more, he was easy to talk to, and always down for making fun of their other friends. Yoongi figures it’s now or never.
“You know, you get a little crazy when you’re drunk.”
Jungkook groans, placing his head in his hands and pulling at his hair slightly. “Oh no, what did I do? Please tell me it wasn’t anything too embarrassing, like that one time Taehyung convinced me to give someone a strip tease.”
“You gave someone a strip tease?”
Jungkook’s head shoots up and his eyes grow wide with panic. “No I didn’t.”
“But you just said - “
“It was a hypothetical example hyung!”
Yoongi rolls his eyes and fights back a smile, deciding to let it go in favor of getting to his actual point. “No, you just, really liked playing hide and seek? You kept running away and making me find you.”
Jungkook winces, but can’t say anything in response since their waiter arrives to drop off their food. He starts blowing on his soup to cool it down, but Yoongi waits, still fidgeting with the napkin in his hands.
“You also said some things.”
The spoon halfway to Jungkook’s mouth freezes mid-air.
“What kind of things?” Jungkook asks quietly, almost like he knows and he’s afraid of Yoongi’s reaction.
Yoongi takes a deep breath. “You said you were in love with me.”
The spoon clatters back into the bowl, splattering broth everywhere, narrowly missing Yoongi’s eyes.
“Oh my god, hyung, I’m so sorry, not just for the soup explosion, but like everything, I was really drunk, I have no clue why I would say something like that, that’s just - “
“Did you mean it?”
Jungkook’s mouth snaps closed and he gulps audibly. “What?”
“Did you mean it?” Yoongi repeats. “Are you really in love with me?”
And Jungkook, Jungkook just deflates, like he’s given up, shrinking in on himself as if by becoming smaller he could disappear forever. He avoids eye contact with Yoongi and instead stares down at the patterns in the wood tabletop. All of the air rushes out of his body and he just whispers out, “Yeah. Yeah I am.”
It’s breaking Yoongi’s heart seeing Jungkook look so ashamed, so he quickly reaches over and grabs Jungkook’s hand in his. “Jungkook, no its okay, I brought it up because I wanted to tell you that…”
Deep breath.
“I wanted to tell you that I like you too.”
A pause.
“What the fuck?”
“Excuse me, watch your language you heathen.”
“No hyung what the fuck, this isn’t cool, when did you get all sentimental and soft? You’re not supposed to like me back, this is not how I imagined this conversation to go all of the times I thought about it in the shower, you are not following the script!”
“You think about me in the shower?”
“Not important hyung!”
Loud cackles escape Yoongi’s lips as he tilts his head back, hand on his stomach as he tries to catch his breath. “Sorry sorry, you’re right, that’s not what we’re talking about. Although I would like to hear more later.”
“Hyung, please!”
Yoongi lets out one last guffaw before he settles down. “I’m sorry that things didn’t go according to your plan Kook. But this is reality, I do like you back, and I want to be with you. I know you’re scared about me graduating, and that’s probably why you never told me about this.”
“How did you…”
“You’re very loose-lipped when you’re drunk, you know that?”
Jungkook crosses his arms and petulantly sticks his tongue out at Yoongi before allowing him to continue.
“I just want you to know that I’m not going anywhere anytime soon Kook,” Yoongi says, soft and gentle and serious. “Actually, I haven’t told anyone this, but I’m planning on staying here at the university to get my Master’s after I graduate.”
Excitement dances across Jungkook’s face and his smile grows large enough to where it looks borderline painful. “Wow, really hyung?”
“Really, I’ve already talked to my advisor about it.”
Jungkook leaps up from his spot at the table and crosses over to the other side, enveloping Yoongi in an absolutely bone crushing hug. “That’s so great hyung, I’m so happy for you.”
“Thanks Kook.”
Jungkook pulls away, hope lighting up his eyes with a brightness Yoongi has never seen. “So that means that you’re staying?”
“For at least a two more years, yeah.”
“Oh wow that’s awesome.”
“It would be even more awesome if I got to spend those two years with you, like, together. As boyfriends.”
Red blooms across Jungkook’s cheeks like the softest of roses. He’s so pretty Yoongi thinks he’s going to pass out, but he can’t, he needs to pull it together so that he can explain to Jungkook how much he means to him.
“I like you so much Jungkook, almost since the day I met you when Hoseok dragged you into my studio so he could show off his new protégé. You’re kind, and gentle, and sweet, but you’re also funny, and sarcastic, and so full of life you make even my tired old ass want to get up and just do something, to just live and be free and actually enjoy life for once.” Yoongi pauses, taking a deep breath before he continues. “I never told you because I thought you would think it was weird for someone four years your senior to be crushing on you, and I figured you just wanted to be friends, so I kept it in. But then you confessed last night, and I’ve never been so grateful for Jimin and his stupid drinking games in my life. And when you told me about how you were so scared about me graduating, about me leaving you, it made me realize that I didn’t want to lose you either. Not when you could be like, the love of my life or something. So here I am, probably sounding exactly like those dumb rom-coms Taehyung likes to watch, telling you how much I want to be with you.”
Tears are forming in the corners of Jungkook’s eyes, threatening to spill over and cascade down his perfect, porcelain cheeks, but Yoongi manages to catch them with his thumb before they fall too far. Jungkook’s lower lip is wobbling ever so slightly and Yoongi tries not to be distracted by how kissable it looks, but it’s pretty fucking hard when Jungkook is biting down on it, turning it red as cherries.
“But hyung,” Jungkook swallows nervously. “Hyung, you’ll still be leaving me in two years, it won’t matter.”
Yoongi’s hands travel down to where Jungkook’s are sitting in his lap so that he can intertwine their fingers and stroke the back of Jungkook’s hands with his thumbs. “We don’t know what’s going to happen in two years Kook. I could get a job here, you could choose to get your Master’s in something, or maybe we’ll both decide that college is the absolute worst and that we’d be much better off working as alpaca farmers in the countryside.”
A watery laugh spills out of Jungkook’s mouth, and Yoongi smiles because he’s missed that sound so much. It’s his favorite song.
“We don’t know what will happen Jungkook, that’s why we have to take a chance, that’s part of the thrill of being alive, you’re the one that taught me that. I know you’re scared, but you don’t have to worry so much. I’ll always be there for you. I’ve got you.”
Jungkook smiles, close lipped and sincere, and nods, seemingly convinced. Yoongi can see it in his eyes that he’s committed, and so Yoongi smiles too, bringing Jungkook closer to him so he can tuck his head under his chin and wrap him up in a soft, comforting hug.
“Yeah, you got me hyung.”