Work Text:
- On the cheek
Jimin is tugging on the santa hat his mother put on his head this morning before sending him to school. It’s cute, he likes it but his classmates have been less than nice about it. Jimin knows that at eight years old, he should be over these “baby things,” as mean Han Taejoon has been calling the santa hat all morning. He should have taken it off the moment he entered the school yard but he hadn’t.
He likes the santa hat. He likes that it made Jihyun giggle and pull on the pompom until the hat fell off Jimin’s head. He likes that his mother took about seventy pictures of him before they left for school. He likes that his dad said he looked lovely like that. Jimin doesn’t think it’s a baby thing to enjoy good things. He’s not a baby for loving christmas.
Still, it’s not easy having kids point at his head and laugh behind their hands. He hates recess. He always spends it alone, eating his snack and reading manga or a book. It’s not that he doesn’t like the kids at school, it’s just that his best friend goes to another school and he misses Taehyung the most during recess.
Taehyung would have loved his santa hat, Jimin thinks with a sigh. He would’ve asked his mum to get him one, too. Maybe Jimin will get him a santa hat and they can take pictures together and then Taehyung will pin the picture to the board in his room. The thought brings a smile to Jimin’s face and he feels less annoyed. When the bell rings to signal the end of recess, Jimin is smiling again.
When he gets home that afternoon, Taehyung is waiting for him on the porch. He has fake antlers peeking from his brown curls. Jimin grins and all but falls out of his father’s car before barrelling into his best friend.
“Taehyungie!” he exclaims, throwing his arms around him. Taehyung laughs and tries to lift Jimin up but the wood of the porch is slippery with snow and they almost fall.
“Careful, boys,” Jimin’s dad warns as he passes by with Jihyun in his arms. “Wouldn't want Santa and Rudolf to end up in the hospital a week before Christmas,” he chuckles and Taehyung grins.
“I’ll be careful, Mr. Park,” he says before bowing.
“Aish, such a good kid,” Jimin’s dad answers, ruffling his hair. “Don’t stay outside for too long, your mum made cocoa,” he informs them.
“Okay, dad,” Jimin nods before grabbing Taehyung’s hand and leading him to the other side of the house. They brush the snow away from the swing set and settle there, like they do every day after school. “What are you doing here? I thought you were helping your grandma bake cookies today.”
Taehyung grins before searching through his coat pocket and pulling out a carefully tied bag. He hands it over and his smile turns a bit shy. “We did. I stayed home today because my teacher is sick. I made these for you.”
Jimin grins before pulling a wonky star out of the small bag. He offers it to Taehyung but he shakes his head. “No, Jimin-ah. These are for you. I already ate some this afternoon.”
“Please, Taetae? It won’t be the same if I eat them alone,” Jimin insists. Taehyung’s smile softens and he takes the star from Jimin’s hand.
“Thank you,” Taehyung says.
Jimin shrugs and smiles. He pulls out a moon shaped biscuit from the bag before looking back at his best friend. “Thank you, Taehyung,” he counters sincerely before leaning over the chains of their swings and kissing Taehyung on the cheek.
Taehyung bites into the star with a grin still stretching his lips.
- On the nose.
“Jimin, I swear to God if you throw that ball, you can kiss goodbye to our friendship,” Taehyung says, barely concealed behind the swing set in Jimin’s backyard.
Jimin laughs. Well, really, he cackles. He throws the ball from one hand to the other and walks closer to where Taehyung stands. Well, really, he prowls.
“You would throw away ten years of friendship over one small snowball?” Jimin taunts.
Taehyung huffs. His hair is wet with melting snow, his nose is red from the cold and his eyes are glinting with mirth. Jimin’s heart skips a beat at the sight of him but it’s something that Jimin has gotten used to. At sixteen years old, Jimin is pretty good at ignoring all the side effects linked to being Taehyung’s best friend.
That’s how he explains his crush. Not that anybody ever asked. But just in case, Jimin has a bulletproof argument ready. No one could be best friends with Kim Taehyung and not have their heart misbehave every once in a while. Plus, in Jimin's defense, Taehyung looks particularly cute in winter.
“I’m wet down to my underwear, Park Jimin,” Taehyung complains, eyes peeking over one of the metal bars. “I will delete your number if you throw that ball, I swear I will.”
Jimin narrows his eyes. “You would never,” he says and takes another step closer.
“Try me,” Taehyung smirks.
Jimin laughs and hikes the ball higher, ready to aim but suddenly Taehyung lets out a war cry and before Jimin realises what is happening, his best friend is pelting him with snowballs he had hidden in his pocket. Taehyung has excellent aim so most of them land square on Jimin’s chest or his crotch.
“I’m going to kill you, you snake” he threatens. He forgets all about finding a shelter in favour of running straight at Taehyung and jumping on him. Taehyung’s eyes widen as Jimin gets closer but he laughs and opens his arms for him when Jimin jumps. They end up on a heap of tangled limbs and ringing laughter on the snow blanketing Jimin’s backyard.
“Traitor,” Jimin growls and Taehyung laughs again before rolling them over and covering Jimin from head to toe with his own body.
It’s suddenly not so cold anymore. Taehyung smiles down at him, eyes filled with stars. “All is fair in love and war,” Taehyung replies before kissing the tip of Jimin’s nose. Jimin is blushing; he can feel the fire in his cheeks but he prevails and plows on.
“How is this for love and war huh,” he says before crowning Taehyung with snow. His best friend shouts so loudly that Jimin’s mother stumbles out to check on them.
That’s enough to distract Jimin from his scrambling thoughts.
- On the mouth.
Jimin is reading. He really is. So what if he has read the same sentence twenty times by now? And what if he’s been steadily shedding tears for the last hour? He’s still holding a book and staring at words. That’s how reading works. This is absolutely not a way to hide his tears or pretend he’s not nursing a heartbreak. It’s Christmas. He’s back home with his family, there are cookies in the oven he spent all morning preparing and he knows for a fact that his parents got him a new laptop for christmas.
He’s fine. A few tears won’t change that.
There’s a knock on his door and Jimin huffs. “Jihyun. I told you to fuck off!” Jimin yells before turning the page. Jimin narrows his eyes at the blurry words and renews his efforts.
A moment later, the door clicks open and Jimin rolls his eyes. “I’m fine-,” he starts but the rest of the words die on his tongue when he sees who’s standing in the doorway.
“Language,” Taehyung says with a weak smile.
“Taehyung? What? When? How?” Jimin sputters as he straightens up. He quickly wipe away his tears.
Taehyung is supposed to be in Japan with his boyfriend Hiro. He told Jimin at the beginning of the break that he wouldn’t be coming home for Christmas because he already came back for Chuseok. Last summer, Taehyung managed to get into a prestigious art program in Osaka. They were about to start their third year in university and the day Taehyung told Jimin he got into the program, Jimin had to quell a confession he’d been practicing all summer.
Jimin thought being in love with your best friend for most of your life hurt. Then he watched said best friend board on a flight to another country and start dating a model. He understood hurt a lot better after.
(Granted Hiro wasn’t an actual model but he looked the part and Taehyung literally met him because he modelled nude for one of his art classes.)
Hence the tears hidden behind a book. Christmas was their holiday. Taehyung had spent every christmas eve with Jimin’s family. So many of Jimin’s favourite memories are linked to Taehyung and christmas, their laughter ringing in his mind as they put up christmas decorations or helped Jimin’s mum bake cookies.
Jimin has never really held any hope that he and Taehyung would wever be together. In fact when he decided to confess last summer, it was in part because he wanted to put it all behind him. He thought that one of the reasons why he couldn’t move on from Taehyung is because he never told him how he felt. He reasoned that keeping this secret from him when they never hid anything from each other, was one of the reasons why his heart remained stubborn.
Jimin knows where they stand. He’s always been painfully aware of their situation. Taehyung will never love him like that and Jimin has made his peace with it. More or less. However, being away from him during christmas hurt more than he could say. The kind of hurt that felt too personal, too shameful. It made him feel small and too young.
Ever since he fell in love with his best friend, Jimin has been harboring the terrible thought that he’s been loving Taehyung wrong. That he’s too much, that he’s a burden. A bad friend. It’s not something he dwells on because Taehyung has never given him any reasons to believe those thoughts.
Up until two weeks ago when he called to say that he couldn’t be there for Christmas; while Jimin had been counting down the days when he could hold his best friend in his arms again.
Yet here Taehyung stands, two days before Christmas, in Jimin’s room.
“What? Don’t I get a hug?” Taehyung asks, putting his bag down.
Jimin flings himself out of the bed and runs to him. Taehyung takes a couple of long strides, meeting him in the middle of the room.
“Tae?” Jimin asks, a sob catching in the back of his throat.
“It’s me, Jiminie,” Taehyung reassures, pulling him that much closer. “Why were you crying?”
Jimin wails and shakes his head, unable to produce coherent thoughts, let alone speak them. He clings to Taehyung, hands fisted in his puffy winter coat. Taehyung doesn’t ask for clarification. Instead he buries his nose in Jimin’s neck and holds him tight.
Some time later, Jimin pulls on Taehyung’s hand and leads him to the bed. Taehyung sheds his coat and scarf as well as his baggy trousers before slipping under the covers with Jimin.
“Can I hold you?” he asks with his big brown eyes. Jimin’s heart turns over in his chest.
“Yeah,” Jimin rasps, throat still filled with tears.
They fall asleep like that, with Taehyung clinging to Jimin like his life depends on it. Jimin falls asleep as easy as breathing; something he hasn’t been able to do since Taehyung boarded that plane.
Jimin wakes up from his nap when he feels a nose travelling from the back of his neck up to the crown of his head.He shivers but hides it by stirring and turning in Taehyung’s hold. His own face is still stiff from sleep and all the tears he shed earlier so when he smiles at his best friend, it feels like his cheeks are cracking.
“Hey,” Taehyung grins at him, voice still gravelly with sleep and face puffed up like a brioche. God, he’s so beautiful, Jimin aches with it.
“You’re here,” Jimin says and if he sounds a little breathless, no one can hold it against him.
“I am,” Taehyung nods. There’s something a little too tender in his gaze, something that Jimin wants to shy away from. When they were growing up, Jimin had no problem with being seen by Taehyung. The way Taehyung looked at him brought him comfort and safety. It didn’t matter that the rest of the world didn’t care about Jimin; he had Taehyung, Taehyung understood him. That was more than enough.
Later, when his feelings changed, when they turned pink instead of yellow, Jimin felt like being seen completely by Taehyung would only lead to turmoil and disappointment. It got harder and harder to hold his gaze, let himself be seen.
Today however, it seems impossible to avert his gaze. There’s something in the depth of Taehyung’s eyes that is making Jimin’s heart rebel. He scoots closer, wraps one of his legs over Taehyung’s hip.
“Where’s Hiro?” Jimin asks softly. Jimin has been such a good friend; he trained himself to say the name with cheer, stamping down on his heartache with both feet.
Taehyung cringes. “It’s over,” he replies. Then he sighs and shakes his head. “It never really started, to be honest,” he adds.
Jimin frowns. “What do you mean?”
“Hiro is nice, I liked him but we both knew this wasn’t going anywhere. He was just a distraction,” Taehyung says, eyes looking down at Jimin’s hands. He takes hold of one of them and laces their fingers together. Jimin’s heartbeat is galloping down his veins.
“A distraction from what?” Jimin asks, throat dry.
Taehyung looks up at him, gaze intense. “From missing home.”
“Oh,” Jimin breathes out, unable to fully quell his disappointment. He looks up at the ceiling and tries hard not to start crying again. It’s so stupid. He’s so stupid, letting himself have hope at the slightest impossible hint from Taehyung.
“Jimin,” Taehyung says softly. Jimin can’t look at him yet, his eyes still prickling. “Please, don’t hate me,” he says and at that, Jimin looks at him. “Please, beloved,” he adds with tears in his eyes and Jimin’s heart lurches and breaks at the sight.
“Taehyungie, why would I hate you?” he says with a semblance of a laugh. He doesn’t think he could ever hate him, no matter what happened between them. He cups his cheek and thumbs away a stray tear that rolls down Taehyung’s cheek.
“Because you are home, Jimin. To me,” he says with trembling lips. Jimin stops breathing. “Because I’ve tried so many times to keep you in the best friend box. I tried so hard to love other people the way I love you but I never seem to find a way to contain what I feel for you. You’re always spilling all over me.” There’s a plea in Taehyung’s eyes, something entirely too familiar to Jimin. “When I got into the program, I was so relieved because I thought that a little distance would help. I thought I could move on from you and go back to only having platonic feelings for you. But then I came back for Chuseok and when I saw you, my heart burst. It was like I was able to see colours again,” he grins down at Jimin, seemingly bemused by his own words.
Jimin’s chest feels like it’s filled with rose petals and cotton.
“I was not happy with myself. Like, at all. So when I got back to Japan, I thought that if I started dating again, I would be able to distract my own heart. But,” he shakes his head sadly. “From the very beginning, Hiro could sense that my heart wasn’t in it. We gave it time, hoping that things would change but I guess he got bored of waiting. He dumped me last week.”
Jimin stares at him, eyes wide and lips parted. He can feel his heart somewhere in his throat.
“Taehyung. Please. What are you saying?”
Taehyung swallows and takes a deep breath. “This is me confessing my everlasting love for you. Non-platonic love. Like, wanna kiss you on the mouth, hold your hand and eat your ass and go on dates under the moonlight kind of love. A love that I’ll tell my grandchildren about. Hopefully, our grandchildren,” he says and he’s smiling but he looks so young and earnest and small in that moment that Jimin feels his heart grow five times its size. “I’m in love with you, Park Jimin and I’m done fighting it. It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
Jimin has been steadily crying through the entire speech but at those words, he lets out an embarrassingly wet sob.
“Why are you crying, love?”
Jimin wails for the second time that afternoon. “Because I t-thought I would never hear you say that,” he says, valiantly trying to swallow more sobs. “Because I’m so in love with you, it turned me into a mess,” he complains.
Taehyung’s breath hitches. “You. You love me?”
“You’re my person, Kim Taehyung. My soulmate. My heart. You’ve been my home, too. Please,” he begs.
“Please what, sweetheart?”
“Please kiss me,” Jimin asks, already pulling Taehyung down.
Jimin will never forget the first time Taehyung presses his grinning mouth against his, their wet cheeks brushing against each other.
- On the palm
“Jimin?” Taehyung calls as he steps into their shared apartment. Jimin grins to himself and calls out to him.
“I’m on the balcony,” he says.
“What the fuck are you doing out there? It’s freezing so -,” he grumbles but stops when he steps onto the snow covered balcony.
It’s a fairly small space but Jimin did his best to make it look enchanting. He wrapped twinkly light over the railing and over the door. He managed to find nineteen purple roses in the dead of winter, one for every year they’ve been best friends. He put them in five different vases, one vase for every year they’ve been boyfriends. He lit up candles, unfortunately some of them blew out because of the wind, but that’s okay; the Seoul night skyline offers a nice enough background.
“Jimin?” Taehyung looks down at him. Jimin’s knee and shin are wet and cold but he feels warm.
“Hi,” Jimin says. “Say, what are you doing for the next seventy years?” he asks softly before pulling the ring he spent weeks selecting out of his pocket.
Taehyung has tears in his eyes. “Are you proposing?”
Jimin laughs. “Oh sorry, I forgot to actually say the words,” Jimin clears his throat for effect but also to clear the tremble out of his voice. “Will you, Kim Taehyung, my favourite birthday wish, my only christmas kiss, the brightest star in my night sky,” Taehyung laughs and kneels in front of Jimin.
“Yes!”
“Wait, let me finish,” Jimin tamps down on a smile.
“But I already said yes!”
“You are such a spoilsport!”
“And yet you want to marry me,” Taehyung grins in triumph. “Ha, Park Jimin wants to put a ring on it.”
Jimin feels himself soften. He nods, eyes filling up with tears. “I really do. Will you marry me?”
The smile drops from Taehyung’s lips, his gaze turning the kind of tender that he only saves for Jimin. The kind of intimate and sweet that has always made Jimin feel like the king of the world.
Taehyung nods as tears fall down his cheeks, the same way they fall down Jimin’s. “Yes, Park Jimin. I’ll marry you. Yesterday, today, tomorrow. Any day. All the days.”
Jimin laughs in relief and pulls him into a kiss. “Yay,” he says when he pulls back. He slips the ring on Taehyung’s finger while Taehyung leaves a trail of soft kisses down his neck.
“I love you,” he whispers right against Jimin’s ears.
Jimin brings Taehyung’s hand to his mouth and kisses the center of his palm. “And I, you.”
- On the forehead
Jimin is rudely woken up when something heavy falls on his back. Or rather someone.
“Appa!” Hani singsongs in his ear. “It’s snowing!”
“Great,” Jimin mumbles as he sleepily pats her cheek. “Go find Taehyung.”
“She already found Taehyung, you sloth,” his husband says from the other side of the bed. Jimin blinks his eyes open and finds twin unimpressed gazes turned on him.
Warmth blooms in Jimin’s chest. He wraps his arms around their daughter and pulls her into a more comfortable position. He kisses her cheek and feels Taehyung pressing a kiss to the crown of his head. “Morning, beloved,” he whispers and Jimin’s toes curl in satisfaction.
“Morning, family,” he replies.
“Come on, Appa. You promised we’d decorate the tree today,” Hani pouts. She’s way too good at that, Jimin notes not for the first time.
“But it’s sunday,” he pouts back. “It’s sleep day,” he adds.
In answer, she scoots up until she can lay a soft kiss to his forehead. “Pwease?”
Love is a living thing, buzzing and twirling and bubbling inside of Jimin’s chest, making his throat feel a little too tight.
“Come on, sweetheart,” Taehyung adds. He leans down and kisses the exact same spot Hani just did. “I made breakfast,” he adds when he pulls back. Jimin cups his cheek to keep him in place and tilts his head up, silently asking for a kiss. Taehyung grins before pressing his smiling mouth to Jimin’s.
“I love you,” Jimin whispers when he pulls back.
“And I love you, too.”
“I love you three!” Hani exclaims. “Now, let’s go eat and decorate the tree!”
Taehyung and Jimin exchange a fond grin.
“Let’s!” Jimin says.
And so, they do.