Chapter Text
"please please please please—"
"make him stop," jimin groaned. "just agree to whatever he's asking for, i can't take this anymore."
jungkook threw his laptop aside on the bed and leveled his friend with a stoic face. "what is it this time?"
"oh, nothing much, i just need a model for my teeny tiny little project," tae rested his head atop his hands and looked up at jungkook with the most puppy-like expression jungkook had ever witnessed. considering he had one park jimin as a best friend, that was a lot to say.
"teeny tiny little project? and that's why you've been whining for the better part of an hour?" jungkook rolled his eyes. "i'm not saying yes to you ever again, remember what happened with the kittens."
"i don't know how you consider twelve kittens to be even remotely a problem," tae scoffed.
"i consider twelve kittens to be a problem when they're living in my already cramped two-person apartment that is housing three college students to begin with." jungkook closed his laptop and swept all of his schoolwork on the other side of the bed. it's not like he was getting anything done anyway. "it took us a month to find a home to all of them."
"yeah, okay, i might be able to see how that would've been maybe a little inconvenient, but let me assure you, this project has nothing to do with kittens, or any other live animals." tae blinked innocently. "i could always use a puppy or two, but considering your negativity towards the kittens—"
"no puppies, no kittens, nothing that moves and breathes on it's own," jungkook interrupted, realizing his mistake a bit too late.
"so you'll do it?" tae's face brightened up and he jumped to his feet. "yes, okay, we have to start planning this, i need to see your wardrobe, maybe we'll have to get a few new pieces, or you'll have to borrow some of mine or jimin's—except i don't think i can find anything in either of our closets to fit your thighs—"
"slow down, will you?" jungkook couldn't help but smile, defeated. "yes, i'll help you with the shoot, but i'm not buying new clothes for this. tae?"
but tae was already buried in jungkook's tiny walk-in closet, brow furrowed and extremely displeased at the choices available, judging from the disgruntled sighs he let out at every pair of jeans jungkook owned.
"we're going shopping," tae announced. "this is unacceptable. how do you own only hoodies and white t-shirts? all of these jeans are black. how do you live?"
"you tell me," jungkook muttered under his breath and glared at jimin who was chuckling in his notes on the other side of the room.
***
"have i told you already that i absolutely don't want to be here and you owe me big time for agreeing to do this?" jungkook sighed, as he pulled off surely the fiftieth pair of jeans that to his eyes looked exactly the same, but according to taehyung, every one of them had been 'horrifyingly unacceptable'.
"yeah yeah yeah, heard it the first time, i owe you my firstborn et cetera et cetera, now will you please try the lighter ones with the rips?" tae muttered distractedly from outside the dressing room.
jungkook stared at the heaps of ripped light jeans on the bench before him, rolled his eyes and sighed in defeat. "just a sec," he huffed and threw on the latest addition to the pile, hoping that's the one tae had meant. he fixed his hair out of his eyes, turned, and with faux theatrics, flipped the curtain open.
"if you tell me one more time these jeans don't 'accentuate my thighs the way they deserve to be accentuated', i'm gonna kick you through a window, just so you know."
and the person standing in front of him was most definitely not taehyung.
the staring contest that ensued was, in jungkook's opinion, in the top 5 most physically painful experiences of his life. not only had he made a fool out of himself in front of a total stranger, said stranger was also incredibly good-looking. he was all black ripped jeans, leather jacket and mint-colored hair, intimidating, but undeniably in a hot way. the guy raked his eyes over jungkook's shocked-still-of-embarrassment form and raised an eyebrow at him.
"i'd say your thighs don't need any more accentuating than they do on their own, but clearly i'm missing something here."
jungkook's heart nearly stopped beating, either from humiliation or the vigorous amounts of blushing he was doing (seriously, no one should be able to blush like this, it's got to be bad for his health). where the hell was taehyung? once in his life when he really needed the presence of his obnoxiously loud and people-skilled friend, he had vanished into thin air.
"i'm really really sorry, i thought you were my friend, i'm doing him a favor that apparently requires me to renew my whole wardrobe and i'm not really keen on the idea, i'm not actually going to kick him through a window i was just exaggerating a little—"
"jesus, kid," the mint-haired stranger cut him off. "breathe, it's okay, i kinda figured since people generally don't go threatening to throw perfect strangers from windows or any other high places."
"right, okay", jungkook fiddled awkwardly with the dressing room curtain. "still sorry if i startled you."
"that's still quite alright." the guy gave him a half smirk and jungkook's heart did a little flippity thing he had most definitely not allowed his heart to do. "but seriously, i think those look good on you." more flippity things.
"no, no, no, no, no and did i mention no?" tae hurried over and yes, thank you, excellent timing.
"what's wrong with these ones?" jungkook all but whined, slumping against the stall. "we've been here for three hours and i think i can safely say i have tried on every single pair this store has to offer."
the stranger huffed, seemingly amused and tae finally caught on the awkward tension in the air. "care to introduce me to your new friend, kookie?"
jungkook felt his cheeks heating up again. "we really just met, i don't really—"
"min yoongi", the stranger, no, yoongi, turned to push his hand in tae's general direction and to give a little bow. tae eyed jungkook from the corner of his eyes and shook yoongi's hand.
"kim taehyung. nice to meet you, min yoongi. tell me, what do you think? as you probably heard, we've been at this for hours and all the pairs are starting to blend to one in my eyes, i could use a second opinion." jungkook could hear the smug grin on his face without actually seeing it. he didn't like the direction this interaction was going. tae didn't really need a second opinion, the photography major was confident in his fashion sense and generally didn't care what other people thought about it.
yoongi turned back to jungkook and eyed him again from head to toe. jungkook tried to stay still, but being on display had never been exactly comfortable for him and he nervously lifted one hand to scratch at his neck. in his mind he maintained a neutral expression, but yoongi seemingly noticed his dislike towards the situation he'd been put in and stopped eyeing him like a prized chicken. "actually, i was just saying that i think those look good on him."
"you were?" tae's eyes glimmered with mirth and jungkook swore he'd never agree to anything tae proposed ever again. "well, i think i can live with that. i suppose we're done here, i'll wait outside, maybe get us some take away dinner? i'll call jimin." and then he rushed out of the dressing room area, with a not-so-subtle wink to jungkook's absolute horror.
"thank you," he huffed after tae was out of earshot. "we would've been here for hours if not for you."
yoongi smirked at him again. flippity flip flip.
"i didn't quite catch your name, kookie, was it?" yoongi asked with a straight face, but his smiling eyes betrayed him.
jungkook had lost count on the amount of blushing he'd done in the last ten minutes. "jungkook. jeon jungkook."
"well, jungkook, it has been very nice to meet you." yoongi dug a piece of paper out of his pocket. he quickly scribbled something on it and extended his hand to give it to jungkook, for the first time looking like something that resembled jungkook of his own fidgety behavior. "for next time you want someone to rescue you from something that drives you to kick people through windows." jungkook was surely imagining the faintest of pink dusting the other's cheeks.
yoongi fidgeted a little on his feet, then nodded as if he'd come to a decision and walked out of the dressing room.
jungkook stared after yoongi, dumbfounded. he looked down at the piece of paper in his hands to read what yoongi had written. no actual words, just a number.
well, maybe he could give tae a free pass for now.
***
"of course you're gonna call him," tae seemed extremely offended by jungkook's reluctance of actually using yoongi's number. "he was obviously into you and judging from the shade of red your ears were the whole time you were talking, you didn't consider him to be hideous either."
jungkook groaned and buried his head even deeper into his pillow. "i'm not cut out for this. random guys don't just give me their numbers. how should i know if he just goes around giving his number to everyone? it's likely he's already forgotten all about me and if i just text him out of the blue, he won't know who it is and then i'll have to explain and live through my most embarrassing moment all over again and then he'll remember how weird and awkward the whole thing was and question his sanity for giving me, a headcase, his number in the first place."
jimin and tae both tilted their heads in the exact same angle. "yeah, that's ridiculous," jimin said dryly.
"he was looking at you like he literally wanted to devour you," tae rolled his eyes. "you're gonna text him a simple 'hey, remember me, the headcase from the other day at the store', and he's gonna be over the moon that you finally reached out and fast forward five years, you're married with two golden retrievers."
"why are you so invested in this," jungkook whined. the older boys shared a look and the room fell silent. too silent. "what are y—"
"done!" tae chirped from the foot of jungkook's bed. the younger whipped his head up from the depths of his pillow mountain and faced the gleaming boy with eyes as wide as saucers.
"oh no you did not," jungkook gasped when he spotted a familiar object in tae's hand.
"sometimes cupid needs a little help," tae grinned and jimin chuckled beside him.
"come on jungkookie, what's the worst thing that could happen?" jimin tried his best to actually sound sympathetic.
"he could answer," jungkook muttered and eyed his phone like it had done something to greatly offend him, calculating the best way he could still save the situation. he could always just delete the message and then block the number, right? okay yeah, that might be even worse than the message taehyung had sent. jungkook read it again and again, hoping that if he stared at the screen hard enough, he could will the message to disappear.
to min yoongi:
hey it's jungkook from the other day
you remember me i hope
just in case, let me remind you:
thighs
"couldn't think of something less embarrassing?" jungkook glared at his gleaming friend.
tae just swatted at him dismissively. "it's your punishment for taking so long. it's not appropriate to make a gentleman wait more than thirty-six hours. it's been five days."
"hyung, how many times have you watched sense and sensibility today?"
"twice, but i don't see what that has to do with anything?"
pling
three pairs of hands dived for jungkook's phone, jimin coming out of the pile of limbs in victory.
"read it out loud," tae was practically jumping out of his skin while jungkook tried to suffocate himself with his pillow, again.
jimin furrowed his brow and tilted his head at the phone in his hand. "kookie, are you sure you saved the right number?"
jungkook sat up straight and looked back and forth between his friends, puzzled. "yeah, i'm sure? why? what did he say?"
jimin offered him the phone and jungkook quickly opened the short thread of messages. read it. read it again. sat up to fish the piece of paper that had yoongi's number on it out of his pocket. checked the number. checked it again.
"well, i guess that's it then," he gave a small smile and shook his head. "maybe now that that's all cleared up, i can actually get some schoolwork done." and the he discarded his phone on the bed, sat up and walked out of the room. jimin and tae stared after him.
"what did it say?" tae whispered, frustrated. jimin nudged the phone to him and tae's eyes widened as he read the message.
from min yoongi:
i'm sorry but i think you have the wrong number
"what the hell?" tae squinted at the phone, furious. "who does something like that? giving a fake number? i don't get it."
"poor jungkookie," jimin sighed. "i don't get it either, but i guess some people are just assholes like that."
tae huffed, still staring at the phone, annoyed. "i'm gonna find out who this 'min yoongi' person is and give him a piece of my mind. you just don't do shit like this. and he seemed like a decent human being, but i guess you can't really judge a person based on a few sentences."
jimin eyed him, worried. "tae, don't do anything stupid. better to just let it go." he stood up, glancing at the door jungkook had left wide open after him. "i'm gonna order some chicken from the place kookie likes and then we're gonna watch a movie, preferably not infinity war, i'm not in the mood to see kookie crying today. you go keep him distracted."
tae sighed and carefully placed the phone on jungkook's nightstand. "yeah, i'll go. ice cream for dessert?"
jimin smiled. "of course."