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It wasn’t until it had already happened that it finally hit him, there were now seven people living in Namjoon’s apartment.
It all started with Jimin, when he got kicked out of his old place for having a cat when his whole apartment complex had a very strict no pet policy. Being kind hearted (and rich enough to have a whole apartment where numerous rooms weren’t occupied) Namjoon naturally offered Jimin to stay with him for a while until he found a place to stay. Thinking back on it, a while had been going on for almost a year. Not that it mattered really. Namjoon loved Jimin and seeing him every day was something he could never get enough of.
And obviously seeing Jimin everyday meant seeing Taehyung everyday, as these two were glued by the hip. At first he only stayed every other evening of the week, all three would watch movies and snuggle under fluffy blankets until Jimin would fall asleep and Namjoon would take Taehyung home. Then Namjoon started falling asleep while watching movies too and there was no one to take Taehyung home. And also no way he would walk for thirty minutes at night in that area. Namjoon suggested that Taehyung stayed over and everyone seemed very excited about that idea.
It hit him that he hadn’t exactly left since that night. Well, Taehyung’s old roommate had to move out and he couldn’t afford that place alone. He was already pretty much living at Namjoon and Jimin’s place already so it wasn’t that weird when he officially moved out and handed over the keys. And Namjoon wasn’t about to complain about that, he loved Taehyung and there was nothing else he wanted more than to see him everyday.
Seeing Taehyung everyday meant seeing a lot more of his childhood best friend (well crush really but no one knew that) too and Taehyung’s sort-of-maybe-it-seems-complicated-and-he-didn’t-want-to-ask boyfriend Yoongi. Namjoon’s heart kept breaking every time Yoongi had to leave after diner or every time he saw him sneak out at dawn after spending the night with Taehyung. He was heartbroken about seeing him leave of course, he wasn’t heartbroken about them being together. If he was honest with himself he was quite jealous actually, of not being there with them. That’s why one night he couldn’t handle Yoongi having to leave in the middle of a movie while they were all piled up on top of each other in their usual mountain of cuddles.
“Just move in already. It’s not like we don’t have enough rooms.”
Yoongi thought it over for a few seconds before shrugging and saying “Yeah sure.”
Everyone was fine with it, beside maybe Jimin was a little nervous. Namjoon noticed and the younger ended up confessing his crush on Yoongi.
“I’m making it weird, aren’t I?” he worried.
Namjoon cupped his cheek and stroked it reassuringly. Jimin couldn’t stop from turning red. “You could never make anything weird. I had a crush on him too you know.”
Jimin seemed surprised. “Had?”
“Yeah, I’m getting over it I think. It’s been there for so long and I never did anything about it. It’s time to move on.”
“Don’t you want to try first? What if it turns out better than you think?”
Namjoon had let out a shy smile. “Maybe I will. But seeing him happy is enough for me.”
So at that point in his life, Namjoon had a crush on his childhood best friend, on two of his college friends who both had a crush on said childhood best friend who probably had a crush on at least one of them. And they were all living under the same roof. And somehow that didn’t seem that complicated to him.
He was collecting crushes like Pokemon cards and soon he got a new shiny one. He met Seokjin at a coffee shop on a rainy day. Namjoon was already comfortably sitting down, drinking coffee and being interrupted by texts from Taehyung while he was trying to read, when someone barged in the shop. They were soaked from head to toe and while attempting to steady their breath, they slipped on their own puddle of rain. Thankfully, Namjoon was quick to his feet and caught them before they hurt themselves. The man, whose name he learnt as he kept thanking him was Seokjin, insisted on offering something for his help and they ended up eating and drinking together for hours. Seokjin was an underpaid and underappreciated teacher, who was in an open relationship with someone named Hoseok.
They clicked so well that they met a few days later on another date. And a week later Namjoon also met Hoseok. And just when he thought his heart couldn’t be any fuller, he was proven wrong. Hoseok was still in college but Namjoon had somehow never seen him around campus. Seokjin and him had been dating for a few months. Neither of them felt comfortable in a monogamous relationship so they settled on an open one and seemed very happy about it. Namjoon had never really met anyone happy in an open relationship before, they were all pretextes for cheating really. But what Hoseok and Seokjin had seemed to make them really happy. It gave Namjoon hope, hope that maybe he could have something like that too one day. Because he knew that if he was lucky enough to get with one of his crushes, his heart would still feel sad and broken not to have everyone he loved around him.
A few weeks later and Namjoon had joined Seokseok’s (as he liked to call them) open relationship. His heart was a little fuller but it still wasn’t quite right. They met all of his “roommates” and Namjoon ended up confessing to them that he had crushes on all of them.
“I know it’s a bit much, and a lot to ask too… but… yeah.”
Hoseok held his hand between his. “It’s not too much honey bear. You can’t control your heart, I know how big it is.”
Seokjin nodded and held his other hand tight. “To be honest I understand you, all your friends are really cute and like… I wouldn’t mind being involved with all of them either…”
Is that when everything started falling into place? wonders Namjoon. He wasn’t sure exactly of when they all came to the conclusion that they all wouldn’t mind sleeping with each other. But he was sure it came from Seokjin. Seokseok were invited to dinner at Namjoon’s apartment (they still called it that because Namtaemingi sounded weird to the four of them) and out of the blue, after asking for the salt, Seokjin blurted out:
“So, hypothetically, if I were to say I’d want to be a bit more than friends with each of you, what would you say?”
Everyone was stunned for a second. Until Taehyung broke the silence. “Well I’d say you’re getting a little greedy, hyung. But sure, why not, I like you.”
“Good to know. Jiminnie could you give me some bread please?”
And that seemed to be the end of that conversation. Until one night when Yoongi really wanted to take Namjoon out for drinks, he even kept calling it a date but Namjoon knew better. He had been on those “dates” with Yoongi before and nothing had ever happened. It was just his way of calling their evening hangouts. Well it was the usual buddy date night until he found himself on his bed making out with Yoongi.
As it turns out those buddy dates were real dates all along and Yoongi had just as much of a crush on Namjoon as the younger had on him. Namjoon couldn’t have been happier about this, even though a part of him that loved sticking to his words was a bit disappointed that he didn’t manage to get over his crush.
Yet surprisingly enough, knowing that your life-long crush might be reciprocated (even if it wasn’t romantically, Namjoon was just happy Yoongi didn’t see him as a little brother) gave him the confidence boost he needed to ask Jimin out on a date. He wasn’t expecting to receive such an eager “Yes!” but he did and he couldn’t have been more happy while waiting for him in the hall of their apartment before heading out for the night.
But Taehyung came out of his room first, all dressed up and rushed downstairs to grab Namjoon by the shoulders. “Please take me with you, I wanna go on a date with you too and with you two, please say yes, please please please!”
Namjoon had difficulty registering what was going on. “What? W-Where is this coming from?”
“Listen, I’m pretty sure you’re gonna ask me out next…”
“How do you...”
“But you know how I hate being the last one, it would feel like a personal defeat, so please just take me on the date with you. I asked Jiminnie and he said he was fine with it.”
Jimin opened his bedroom door and shouted from the second floor “It’s true hyung, and it’s cold out tonight so two hands to hold is better than one.”
“Technically it would be two hands to hold is the same as two hands to hold. Because the amount of hands you can hold is first determined by the amount of hands you have,” explained Yoongi from the couch.
“Shut up, you’re just saying that because your hand isn’t getting held” retorted Jimin before going back into his room to finish getting ready. As always, he was running late.
Yoongi smirked and ate a handful of potato chips. “You say that as if a whole Hoseok wasn’t coming over tonight.”
Taehyung turned around but didn’t let go of Namjoon’s shoulders, “He’s coming over again? Maybe he should just move in like the rest of us.”
“That’s a good idea,” replied Yoongi, still chewing. “I mean if that’s alright with Namjoon, he’s still the one who owns the place.”
It took a while for Namjoon to reply because he was struck by the sudden realization of just how happy he was. “Of course he can, I would love if he would actually.”
“What about me?” Taehyung said eagerly. “Can I come tonight?”
The taller smiled fondly and cupped Taehyung’s cheeks with his big hands, bringing the younger’s nose to his lips where he left a small peck. “Of course you can.”
It took them probably half a day to move all of Hoseok’s belongings in, he was so relieved to get rid of his moldy apartment. At that point, spontaneous dates between two, three or even sometimes four of them were currency. None of them really questioned it though, none of them felt the need to wonder where this was leading. They were just having a grand old time enjoying each other’s company and that was enough.
A few more weeks and Seokjin barged in in the middle of the night (even though he technically didn’t live there, he still had the keys), crashed on the sofa and fell asleep for twelve hours straight. The others found him drooling on the arm rest the next morning.
After finally having his morning cereals, he declared “This is the best night I’ve ever had. I haven’t been able to sleep well for two weeks now. I’m moving in.”
Namjoon worried for a second if his apartment would be big enough for six people but remembered that most nights they were all sleeping on his obnoxiously giant bed anyways.
“Finally, took you long enough,” said Hoseok before kissing his cheek.
“I had pride in living on my own, after hearing all the other teachers coming home to their wife or husband, I was the cool young teacher still untamed. But I guess being the cool young teacher living with his five lovers isn’t that bad.” Jimin giggled a little at the crude attitude Seokjin always seemed to have. The oldest turned back to face Namjoon, a glimpse of worry in his eyes and a small pout on his lips. “Can I move in, honey bear?”
Namjoon pouted ostensibly before gently kissing his worry away. “We absolutely need to make you the coolest teacher ever, I won’t have it any other way.”
So they were six living in Namjoon’s two stories apartment, the walls were constantly resonating with laughter, their arms were always full of hugs and their cheeks warm with kisses.
Now obviously not everything was coded with pink. They were still trying their best to establish a little community, where peace and communication were the key elements. They were all very conscious of each other’s efforts and tried their best to unburden some of the load if one of them had started taking on too much. They also bickered sometimes, but Namjoon and Jimin were always there to make sure every conflict was resolved in the end.
Just as Namjoon thought things were starting to fall into a neat comfortable routine, he ran into someone on his morning run. He was wearing short shorts that Taehyung had bought for him because “I worship your legs and it is my duty to make everyone join the cult”. So the first thing that man said after he surprised Namjoon by suddenly moving to the side and bumping into him was:
“Thighs.”
Group Chat: Three gays walk into a bar
Members: Jimin, Taehyung, Jungkook
Jungkook: I saw a man so beautiful I cried
Jungkook: I also said “thighs” and ran away
Taehyung: Why am I not surprised?
Jimin: Thighs? Could you describe what kind of thighs?
Jungkook: They looked like marble, they must have been sculpted by gods
Jungkook: His melanin was popping out and his sweat looked like honey
Jungkook: He was so muscular but in a very smooth and slender kind of way
Jungkook: Kinda made me wanna choke between them
Jimin: Taetae, sounds familiar?
Taehyung: Yes but like… it’s thighs
Jimin: Wrong, it’s The Thighs
Jungkook: I’d say the thighs I saw could be qualified as The Thighs
Jimin: Have you ever met Kim Namjoon, Kookie?
Jungkook: No but I’ve heard of him, he’s a famous senior right?
Jimin: He is The famous senior
Taehyung: What he means is that Namjoon is the music major who wrote Glam’s Party(XXO) and made a shitton of money when the song became a hit. So since freshman year he’s been loaded
Taehyung: Also we live at his place and he’s our lover/we’re his lovers
Jungkook: … well that took a turn
Jungkook: WAIT
Jungkook: He’s the honey bear you’re always talking about?
Jimin: Yes!
Jungkook: Yep. That’s him. Thighs is honey bear.
Jimin: What should we do?
Taehyung: Do you want to meet him? We could hook you up.
Jungkook: That wouldn’t be cheating?
Jimin: uuh
Taehyung: Not exactly sure tbh
Jungkook: Then no thank you, I’ll just live off of the memory of his glorious thighs
Jimin: But like… Even if hooking up with him would be cheating, if we all hooked up together it wouldn’t be cheating anymore right?
Taehyung: Jimin’s got a point
Taehyung: And also we really don’t know if it’s cheating or not
Taehyung: We’re scared to ask to be honest. Cause… What if there’s no feelings? What if we just love them too much? That’s why we haven’t done anything with you
Jungkook: Mmh.
Jungkook: You’re dumping a lot on me right now.
Jungkook: First of all, if I say that I like you both is that gonna ruin things orrr
Jimin: Nope! Cause we like you too!
Jungkook: Oookay so what i’m hearing is we could all have been happy together if it weren’t for Sir Honey Bear with The Thighs?
Taehyung: I like that you call him Sir. And yes and no. There’s more of Sirs actually.
Jungkook: Care to elaborate??
Jimin: Well there’s Yoongi hyung, Hoseok hyung, Seokjin hyung, Namjoon hyung, Taehyung and me. We’re all living together and kind of? seeing each other maybe?
Taehyung: Now that we talk about it, for people who swear only by communication to resolve any conflicts we sure have never talked about our “status”...
Jungkook: Maybe do that before trying to add me to that very intimidating mix please
Jimin: Yeah you're right, we may have come off too strong…
Taehyung: Sorry Kookie, I think we got overly excited…
Jungkook: No no it’s okay. Just.. not sure I want to get into a 6? 7? people relationship
Jimin: You could always come over for dinner to meet them. We’ve been meaning to introduce you to rest anyways.
Taehyung: Our precious little sophomore that we needed to show around campus and ended up falling in love with uwu
Jungkook: i
Jungkook: love?
Taehyung: It was a joke, chill
Jungkook: haha yeah mmh sure haha funny one!
After Jungkook had stormed off, Namjoon was left awestruck. He felt a familiar tingling in his chest, a sudden heaviness to his breath and he grunted in frustration and shouted “Not again! I have five lovers why must you do this to me, heart!?” Passersby were eyeing him suspiciously so he put his earbuds back in and tried his best to resume his run.
When he got home and Yoongi saw him still clearly flustered, he asked what was wrong and the younger couldn’t contain himself.
“I got another fucking crush!”
Yoongi laughed fondly at how genuinely angry Namjoon seemed to be. “Honey bear it’s okay, you don’t need to be so angry about it.”
“But I do! I live with five incredible men and I still find it in me to fall a little bit in love with a complete stranger who bumped into me, said “thighs” and ran off?”
“He said what?”
“Thighs.”
“I like him already.”
Before Namjoon couldn’t even begin to look for that stranger, he appeared on his doorstep with a bottle of rosé.
“Hi, I’m Jungkook, Taehyung hyung and Jiminnie hyung’s friend?” He said extending an open hand.
Namjoon looked a bit shocked at first but he shook the hand. “Namjoon. They didn’t mention you were coming.” He turned around to see the living room and saw the two juniors poking their heads out of the door, looking at them with curious and excited eyes. “What is this about?”
“Just thought you might like each other,” said Jimin between giggles.
“Hum… Sorry for running into you the other day,” Jungkook said as Namjoon walked him to the dinner table.
“Oh it’s, it’s fine. It’s probably me who ran into you, so I’m sorry.”
Before Jungkook could apologise once again, Taehyung and Jimin jumped on his neck, peppering him with kisses. And soon Hoseok was all up in his face too, they seemed to know each other from Hoseok’s dance classes. With everyone getting acquainted to Jungkook, Namjoon didn’t have much time to get to know him. But watching him interact with all his lovers brought warmth and comfort to his heart. He fitted in perfectly.
The dinner went by in a blur of laughter and alcohol. Namjoon didn't plan on drinking that much, but he kept hiding behind his glass every time Jungkook glanced at him, and he didn’t want it to look like he was hiding so he kept taking little sip after little sip. Until he had already downed half a bottle.
Seokjin noticed how much of a flustered mess his was and squeezed his hand under the table. Namjoon felt reassured until he heard him say:
“So Jungkook, how's your love life?”
Jimin and Taehyung nearly snapped their necks glaring at the oldest. Namjoon almost choked on his food. Jungkook was as red as the wine in his glass.
“I… I’m still looking for something.”
“Looking for what?” asked Yoongi.
“The bells to sing. I know it might seem childish, but I like the idea of fated love. Like hearing bells after first meeting your soulmate.”
Jimin and Taehyung held each other's hand, Seokjin drew irregular circles on Namjoon's.
“The feeling of finding someone and just knowing that something is right. Like the big clock of the universe stops ticking for a moment, the hands realign themselves and the whole machinerie starts beating again, but with a rhythm that just feels a little different yet so right.”
“That's beautiful,” Namjoon managed to say, his mouth dry.
“So kind of like us?” said Hoseok shyly.
Yoongi hums. “I love you all. I feel like I don't say that enough. Or at all. So here it is. I love you. Each and every one of you.”
Taehyung couldn’t help giggling, embarrassed. “I love you all too. This is new…”
Hoseok shook his head, “I think it's long overdue. I love you all.”
“I love you all too… So so much,” Jimin's voice was shaking with emotion.
“Me too,” simply said Seokjin before looking at Namjoon. Somewhere in the mix of the confessions, he had started crying.
“You have no idea how happy I am right now. I've been in love with you for so long and I never thought…” A sob interrupted him. Jimin stood up and rushed to his side to hug him tightly.
“We know, honey bear. We know.”
After a few more kisses, hugs and cheek squeezes, Namjoon had calmed down. His heart was so full, to be surrounded by six people he loved so much. His stomach was also so full of alcohol. Wait, six people? Namjoon looked up to see Jungkook standing against a wall, looking at the six of them fondly.
“Jungkook, oh my god, I'm sorry. This is awkward…”
The youngest shook his head. “Not at all. You all look so lovely, it's comforting.”
Taehyung went over to kiss his cheeks, and Hoseok wrapped himself around him.
“I like you, Jungkook,” he finally confessed.
If he thought he couldn't get any more flustered, he was wrong. Jungkook turned beetroot red and started stuttering, not sure how to respond.
“Hey guys, wanna date Jungkook?”
“Yes!” replied Namjoon, a bit too eagerly, to Yoongi's proposal.
“Jungkook, wanna go on a second date with us? We're six, good looking and Namjoon has a lot of money. We're quite the catch.” Seokjin stood up and walked over to cup Jungkook's cheeks. “Aw you're so warm,” he said in a pout.
“Jin hyung…” Jungkook couldn't find the words in his throat, he barely managed to nod, with Hoseok and Taehyung hugging him from both sides.
They spent the rest of night snuggled under every blankets they could find in the apartment. Yoongi insisted on walking Jungkook home. When he left, something felt empty again. They all felt it.
It didn't take them long to take turns having dates with Jungkook, but even though they were impractical, the best ones remained when the seven were all together.
Months later, there was Namjoon, coming back from the kitchen with two bowls filled with homemade popcorn, seeing his six boyfriends intertwined on their extremely large yet somehow too small for them couch. Yoongi was resting his head on Hoseok's shoulder and paying with Jungkook's fingers as his legs laid on Taehyung's lap. Jungkook was curled up on Hoseok's lap and Jimin was rubbing with back mindlessly. Taehyung was using Seokjin's arm as a pillow while the oldest played with his hair, smelling its flowery perfume.
Namjoon stopped for a second to take in this breathtaking view. They were his. And he was theirs.
“I have the food!”
The entire room erupted in joyful screams as they made room for Namjoon in the middle and somehow managed to get even more tangled up.
“Wait, who has the remote?”
“Yoongi hyung had it last.”
“I put it on the coffee table.”
“It's not there anymore… Taehyung is it under your butt?”
“Hey! Everything doesn't always fall under my butt!”
“Well… is it?”
“Maybe…”
Downstairs, the doorbell was still indicating the 4th floor as Kim Namjoon’s appartement but underneath it was a little piece of paper, glued to the letter box, with pretty glittery letters that spelled “Honey Loft.”