Archive of Our Own

On the laundry list of things you did not have time nor patience for, your next-door neighbor Jungkook was number one on that list.

Your mutual friend Seokjin had been the one that introduced you two. You made the mistake of telling him about the vacant apartment next to you and before you knew it, Jungkook was moving in. You would chat and joke with him in the hall here and there and eventually, you started to develop a crush on him. He threw a housewarming party a few nights after moving in and after 5 Jell-O shots and 3 rum and cokes, you fucked your new neighbor on his brand new mattress.

Not in the mood to do the walk of shame, you snuck out the next morning and decided to talk to him about it later and see if he wanted to go out. You quickly learned that he was just another college fuckboy. He greeted you in the hallway, thanked you for coming to his party, and asked you to stop by again and that was that. After that night, you made sure to make your socialization with him extremely limited and for almost half a year, he seemed to make it his mission that entire time to piss you off. 

On an almost weekly basis, he was waking you up at 3 in the morning listening to loud music or because he was having equally as loud sex. His friends (Seokjin included) were no better. He would have the six of them over constantly and you could hear them through your thin apartment walls yelling and laughing too loudly. You always threatened to call the landlord while banging on his walls or front door to keep it down, but never actually went through with your threats.

The most infuriating thing about him was the fact that when his friends and other people that knew him weren’t around, he behaved like a normal neighbor. He always greeted you cordially and held open doors for you, but when his friends were present, it was obvious he was showing off for them, constantly making dirty jokes and flirting way too hard. He gave you whiplash nearly every time you interacted with him and he never brought up the night you spent together, which both irked you and hurt your feelings. You believed you were at least decent enough in bed not to have a guy pretend you never slept together.

As if the universe was conspiring against you, today - of all days - the long-awaited package you had been tracking was missing. Not only had the project you'd been working for two weeks on overtime get overshadowed by the new guy at the office, but you'd also spilled your afternoon iced coffee all over your computer, the machine shutting down before you got to save the document you had been working on all day.

The many times where your mail would go missing, it would usually end up with Jungkook. You’d lost count as to how many times UPS or FedEx got your apartments confused and you’d have something for him in front of your door and vice versa. Before dragging yourself next door, you decided to drop your purse off at home first. Upon entering your apartment, you immediately hear the soft jingle of your cat’s bell and crouch down to scratch the grey tabby’s chin.

“I missed you too, Duck,” you coo at the cat. Duck has been your best friend since she was a kitten and has been with you since you moved out of your mom’s house 7 years ago. You had had plenty of ups and downs with various friends and relationships, but through it all, Duck was by your side, offering you comforting purrs and loving nips on your fingers. “I’ll be right back, sweet girl, then I’ll get your dinner.” You place a kiss on her forehead, her large yellow eyes watching you go.

Stepping in front of Jungkook’s door, you hear the loud music and yelling men which sours your bad mood even more. Taking a deep breath you all but pound on the door. The music lowers to a reasonable volume and the door swings open. Jungkook isn’t on the other side, instead one of his friends stands there, blinding you with his megawatt smile. 

“If it isn’t my favorite girl,” Jimin says in what he probably assumes to be a sensual voice. Jungkook and all of his friends thought it was fun to flirt with you when you ran into them, but Jimin was probably the most insistent.

“Don’t start, Jimin. Where’s Jungkook?”

“Noona, you seem a little tense. Is there something I can help you with?” He stretches his arms up, causing his white t-shirt to rise and a sliver of skin to peek out. You roll your eyes at how shameless he is.

“You can help me by telling me where the owner of this apartment is. You know the one whose name is actually on the lease?”

“Did I hear a beautiful woman say my name?” Jungkook’s voice comes from behind Jimin. He pushes Jimin out of the way to reveal himself in all his shirtless glory. His buff, tattooed arm rests against the doorframe. As insufferable as he could be, you weren’t an idiot; Jungkook was fine . All muscles and honeyed skin and dark, shaggy hair. He and all of his friends were some of the most attractive men you’ve ever seen, but they were clearly fuckboys and you didn’t have time for that kind of drama. “What’s up, Noona?” He asks, giving you an annoying, bunny-toothed smile. 

You refuse to let him break you that easily, squaring your shoulders and deepening the frown on your face. “The Amazon website said I had a package. It wasn’t in a parcel locker and it wasn’t on my doorstep which means, as usual, it was probably delivered to you.”

He taps his finger against his chin, pretending to think. “Ah, that’s right! They put it in front of my door earlier. I knew you were at work so I figured I’d hold onto it for you. I’ll grab it for you.” He winks at you and disappears into his apartment.

His front door is open enough that you can see into his apartment. The rest of his friends are sitting on his black leather couch, all turned to look at you. Two that you recognize as Hoseok and Taehyung send you various air kisses and smiles. And if looks could kill, they would be struck down where they sat with the look you give them.

Jungkook is back in front of you before you can say any of the snarky things you’re thinking with both of his hands behind his back. “Word of advice for you, Noona. If you’re going to order sex toys online, you should probably make sure they put it in a box that doesn’t tell everyone what it is.” He reveals your brand new, packaged Rabbit vibrator that is indeed, just in the original product box with an Amazon shipping label on it.

You snatch the box from him, feeling your face burning up. You make a mental note to leave a scathing review on the seller’s Amazon page and stomp to your apartment door. Before you open the door, Jungkook calls your name. “What?” You hiss.

“If you need some help, you know you could always ask me. The real thing is much better than some toy.” You hear his friends behind him, whistling and cheering. The cocky smile he flashes you enrages you enough to almost smack it off his face.

You flip him off and hurry inside, not caring how loud you slam your front door behind you.  You want your anger to come across as clear as possible. You may have made the mistake of being his one-night stand once before, but you weren’t going to let that happen again.

Duck is waiting by the door when you enter your home again and follows you to your bedroom. As far as you’re concerned your evening has been ruined and all you want now is sleep.

You don’t see Jungkook until three days after the vibrator incident. You’re returning home Saturday morning from grocery shopping, trying to balance two arms full of grocery bags up three flights of stairs. It’s the middle of summer so your sundress is sticking to every crevice of your body. Why do you live on the third floor of all places?  

You only make it halfway up before you need to take a breather. Jungkook comes jogging up the stairs behind you, stopping when he sees you slumped over the railing.

“Here, let me get those,” he says, reaching for the bags. You try to protest, but he doesn’t listen. You watch Jungkook effortlessly carry all of your grocery bags in one hand. Following behind him you can’t help but notice the muscles flexing in his calves and shoulders as he ascends the stairs and adjusts your bags. He’s in basketball shorts and a muscle tank and you wonder if he just came from working out. Before your mind starts to wander, you pinch yourself to stop as you reach your floor.

Jungkook waits for you to unlock the door and places the bags on the floor over your threshold. “All set,” he flashes you a large smile, his eyes crinkling at the corners.

“Thanks,” you mumble. You move to go back into your apartment, but Jungkook stops you with a light touch to your elbow.

“I just wanted to uh, apologize for the thing with your mail. I just wanted to hold onto it for you while you were at work and figured you didn’t want it out on your doormat for the whole floor to see. I was just trying to help is all.” You see the pink dusting his cheeks as he speaks and his hand scratches the back of his neck nervously. 

He looks almost cute, but you weren’t about to say that to him. “Yeah, thanks, Jungkook.” You give him a genuine smile and slip into your apartment before he can get out the next thing you see him about to say.

As usual, he went from being a douchebag a few days ago when all of his friends were watching to being bashful and shy when it’s just the two of you. You had dealt with your fair share of guys like him in your high school and early college days and you didn’t care to do it again. 

You decide to stop thinking about Jungkook and enjoy your weekend. You desperately need the relaxation after the week you’ve had. You busy yourself by putting your groceries away and doing a bit of cleaning. With work being so miserable, you felt yourself start to let everything get to you and neglected to keep your apartment in order. It was your safe haven; your space and you needed to do better.

To also be better for yourself, you decide to end your morning chores with a warm bath and a drink. It was Saturday and you had nowhere to be for two days so why not treat yourself.

After pouring your drink (Sprite and Malibu because you were most definitely a rum girl), and hitting play on your chill r&b playlist, you relax into the tub, letting the warm water soak your skin. Even Duck came into the bathroom to join you, leaning against the wall nearest to the tub to clean her arms. You close your eyes and start to drift off, a nap on the horizon.

“Jungkook, harder please!”

You flail your arm at the shrill voice coming from the other side of your wall, nearly knocking your drink off of the side of the tub. Drying your hand on the closest towel to you, you reach for your phone to check the time. It was nearly two in the afternoon and he was literally railing a girl loud enough for the entire floor to hear; and in his bathroom no less, where the acoustics were the loudest.

Grumbling to yourself, you turn your music up louder, trying to use TLC to drown out the sounds coming from next door. You sink into the tub, the water hitting your chin. If you hum along loud enough, then maybe you’ll fall asleep again.

“Yes, fuck me! I’m your little whore!”

“Oh, come on!” you yell, hoping your outburst could be heard on the other side of the wall. It wasn’t, since you could still hear the whines of whatever poor girl had settled for Jungkook. You grumble to yourself and pull the stopper out from your bath. You dry off in record time and cinch the towel tight around you as you march out of your apartment and to Jungkook’s door.

It took a couple of hard bangs before he was opening the door in nothing but a pair of boxers. He had no shame, that much had been made clear.

“Oh hey, Noona. To what do I owe this wonderful pleasure?” he asks, his eyes raking over your body wrapped in your plush pink towel.

“Jungkook, it is a Saturday afternoon and people are trying to have a relaxing day.” You hold onto your towel tighter, momentarily wishing you had thrown on actual clothes.

“Yeah, so am I,” he smirks, gesturing behind him with a jerk of his head. You see a brunette girl poke her head out from his bathroom looking annoyed that you interrupted them.

“Well keep it down. No one wants to listen to you fuck all day.”

“If you don’t want to listen to it, you could always come in and join us.” He has the audacity to step aside and make a gesture for you to go in.

You stare at him incredulously. “Are you out of your mind? I’m not having a goddamn threesome with you!”

He shrugs. “If you wanna come back later, we could always just have some one-on-one time. You know I’ve always wanted to be alone with you, Noona.” Typically, Jungkook’s comments got under your skin enough to embarrass or frustrate you, but something about that comment has you clenching your fists. He was really going to stand here and pretend like you hadn’t slept together before. You felt your blood boiling as you stare at the stupid smile on his face.

“Jungkook, I’m not going to ask you again. Keep the noise down or I will report you to the landlord.” Whether it’s your tone of voice or stern expression, you see Jungkook’s infamous fuckboy facade slip.

“Noona,” he says in a soft voice only you can hear, “Are you okay? I’m sorry.”

Is he sorry for being an asshole in front of his latest conquest or for denying that you had sex? You don’t know and don’t really care and just want to be back in your apartment. “Whatever, Jungkook.” You walk away and go back inside while he stands there looking lost in thought.

You had long since come to terms with the fact that even though Jungkook was an ass most of the time and got on your nerves to no end, you still harbored your small crush on him. The times that it was just you two in the hallway or the lobby of the apartment, you could see the type of guy he was deep down when he wasn’t trying to keep up this front around others. He could be sweet, considerate, and chivalrous if he stopped caring about what other people thought of him and his reputation. At the end of the day, he was a grown man and it wasn’t your job to give him a life lesson.

Another few days went by without you seeing or hearing much of Jungkook, which was odd to you given how much of a nuisance he was. It’s during the middle of the workweek when you’re returning home that you see a note taped to your door. You eye it suspiciously before grabbing it and going into your apartment to read it.

Noona,

I want to apologize for how much of a shitty neighbor I’ve been. If you’ll let me make it up to you, I’d like to take you to dinner this Saturday night. I made reservations for us at the new Italian restaurant around the corner. I overheard you on the phone one day in the hall telling a friend you wanted to go, so I wanted to treat you and make up for how terrible I’ve been. If you don’t want to, I understand, but I hope you’ll meet me there at 6. If not, you can text me and tell me to fuck off.

- Jungkook 000-xxx-xxxx

You re-read the letter a good three times to make sure you aren’t dreaming. You turn to check the peephole on your door. You’re sure he's outside laughing at the prank he concocted or even one of his friends who’s trying to set you up. When you see no one, you read the note one more time and decide you were, in fact, not dreaming.

This could still very well be a big joke or an excuse that Jungkook uses to try and get in your pants again so a big part of you is screaming not to meet him on Saturday….but, another part of you says what if it isn’t a trick and he does want to apologize for his behavior up until now and wants to be friends. An even smaller part of you is convinced that it’s a real date, but you try to ignore that.

Against your better judgment, you head to your closet to pick what you were going to wear Saturday night.

The restaurant you’re meeting Jungkook at isn’t the quality of a McDonald’s, but it also isn’t a Gordon Ramsay owned establishment, so your outfit is casual yet a little dressy. Your best friend Joohyun FaceTimed you as you got ready (she wasn’t thrilled you’d be eating there without her) and helped you decide on a simple red dress and a pair of black satin wedges.

You breeze through the front door, mustering all the confidence you had, and stop in front of the hostess podium. After giving her Jungkook’s name you force yourself to follow after her as she leads you through the maze of tables. 

Jungkook’s back is to you so he doesn’t notice you arrive until the hostess bids you a good night and leaves. He stands up and rushes to pull your chair out for you to sit, mumbling what sounded like a greeting before returning to his seat across from you.

You were used to seeing Jungkook in different attire throughout the short time you’ve known him. On his way to and from working out, he’d be in his basketball shorts and tank tops. On days he had class, typically he’d be covered in various pairs of black jeans and baggy t-shirts. Even on the numerous occasions, you’d have to bang on his door in the middle of the night because of his noisiness, you’d see him either shirtless and only in sweatpants or full matching pajama sets. This is your first time seeing him in formal clothes and you have to scream at yourself not to gawk at him.

His usual unruly black locks are parted in the middle and styled neatly, but he’s left the natural waves in. The black button-down and black blazer he wore fit perfectly on his body, the arms of the blazer hugging his biceps and shoulders. His black slacks were cinched with a belt around his unfairly small waist and looked like second skin around his strong thighs.

This is similar to what got you in bed with him the first time, only it’s much worse this time. You chant to yourself in your head that tonight is about you getting a free meal, letting him beg for your forgiveness, and making him drive you home. That’s it!

“Uh, Noona?” Jungkook was looking at you with worry. You didn’t even realize you had spaced out.

“What?” You take a sip of your water and fiddle with your menu, anything, so that you aren’t looking directly at him.

“I just said that you look pretty and I’m really happy you came.” He smiles softly at you, clearly getting flustered.

“Oh, thank you.”

Jungkook opens his mouth to say something else, but a waiter appears and asks to take your orders. Jungkook orders a pasta that you didn’t recognize the name of and you stick with a cheese ravioli and glass of red wine. The prices next to everything catch your eye and you can’t help but wonder how a college student can afford this meal, but you don’t want to question him.

After the waiter leaves, there’s a beat of silence before Jungkook lets out a loud sigh. “I don’t want tonight to be weird. I want to enjoy my time with you, so lemme just get it out now. I’m sorry about how much of an ass I’ve been to you. I know that when the guys are around I behave like-”

“Like a fuckboy?” You interrupt, sipping more water. 

“I-” Jungkook stops talking and chuckles. “Yes. Like a fuckboy. I don’t mean to. It’s just that, I don’t know, Jimin-hyung will start talking about a girl on campus that he’s into and make a joke, then I just go along with it and we keep going. I think I’m just so used to talking like that with them that I always do it,” he shrugs. “I know that’s not a good excuse, but I don’t mean to hurt your feelings or anything and I’m sorry.” You watch his hand move up to tug on his dangling earring out of nervousness. 

“You don’t hurt my feelings. You make me want to murder you and bury your body under the floorboards,” you say with a straight face. Jungkook’s eyes widen and you both stare at each other. You break into a laughing fit first with him following.

Your waiter is back then, setting your wine in front of you and handing Jungkook his iced tea, then disappearing again.

“In all seriousness Jungkook, I don’t hate you or anything. All I ask is that you be considerate.”

“I can be better at that, I’m sorry.” Jungkook gulps his iced tea and clears his throat a few times. You can tell there’s something else on his mind. After a few more minutes of silence, Jungkook asks how your day at work was and you can’t help but launch into a story about your terrible coworkers while he listens attentively. You typically try not to complain about work, but you hate your job so much that it only takes a small bit of prodding to have you ranting.

Soon after you finish a story about your boss, your waiter is back with your food and conversation flows on. You reveal to Jungkook more about yourself, like how you knew college wasn’t for you after a single semester, and instead of getting a 4-year degree, you settled on a certificate in Social Media Marketing. You jumped right into the working world after that, taking nothing away from your quick college stint except for a friendship with Seokjin and hatred for higher education.

Jungkook begins telling you about his classes. He’s a photography major with a minor in music. He originally didn’t want to go to college because his parents wanted him to major in business, but they compromised with him and agreed to pay for what he wanted to do if he would at least go. They help pay for his apartment, but he also works part-time as a personal trainer at the gym closest to your building. He loves singing, video games, banana milk and he really wants a dog, so he dog-sits Taehyung’s dog often to fill that desire.

As the night goes on, you learn more about Jungkook in almost two hours than you knew about him in nearly half a year and vice versa. He isn’t half as bad as he pretends to be, but you can’t help the voice in the back of your head that keeps bringing up the brief time you spent in his bed. You don’t want to ruin the evening, but since he’s already being so open and honest, you have to find the right time to bring it up.

It’s nearly ten when Jungkook glances at his watch and says you should both head home since he has to get up early to work in the morning. He offers you a ride home which you accept, mostly so you don’t have to pay for a Lyft for a second time tonight. When the valet brings his car around, a sleek black Hyundai Ioniq, he holds the passenger door open for you. You can’t help the way you feel when Jungkook is so polite to you. You tell yourself it has nothing to do with the lingering feelings you have for him and more to do with the lack of chivalry from other men you’ve dated.

The ride home is comfortable, Jungkook turning on the radio and letting it play quietly in the background. He hums along to the song playing and rests his hand on the center console. He looks at ease and has the tiniest smile on his face. As much as you don’t want to sour the mood, you’ll be back to your building in about ten minutes and you already talked about so much tonight, why not get the answers you’ve been agonizing over for months.

“Why do you ignore the fact that we slept together at your housewarming party?” You blurt the question out before you can back out. Jungkook stops humming and his hand on the steering wheel tightens, his knuckles going white.

“What do you mean why did I ignore it? You’re the one that left before I woke up. You never brought it up so I didn’t either.”

You blink at him. “What?”

“I figured you wanted to avoid talking about it and forget it ever happened. I get it, we were both drunk and stuff like this happens,” he shrugs and your mind feels like it’s short-circuiting.

“What?” You repeat.

“You don’t have to explain anything to me. I know I’m younger and I’m still in college and you’re like an entire manager at this fancy marketing company and are so out of my league that I can’t even measure it. I just really like you so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get to be with you, even if it was just for the night.” Jungkook lets out a sigh as he pulls into his assigned parking spot. He turns to you, probably noticing the surprised expression on your face. “I’m sorry if I’ve made things awkward now. I had a really good time with you tonight and I hope we can still be friends.” 

The whole situation is so ridiculous that you want to laugh, but Jungkook is looking at you with what seemed like genuine anguish so you refrain for his sake. “Jungkook, we’re both idiots.” 

“What?”

“First of all, I never brought it up because you never did. I thought you were the one that only wanted a one-night thing, given the way you act with women.”

Jungkook groans. “We are both idiots.” He lets out a laugh that you imitate, the two of you breaking into a fit of giggles.

“By the way,” you say, catching your breath. “I have a crush on you too.”

Jungkook stops laughing suddenly and turns his entire body to look at you. “Wait, you have? Present tense?”

“As much I wanted it to go away, and I really wanted it to, you’re too damn charming for your own good.”

“D-does this mean tonight can be considered our first date? Maybe?” He bites his lip, obviously nervous.

Can it? Even though you still harbored a crush on Jungkook, he was still a fuckboy and you would only invite that into your life if you could lay down some ground rules.

“I will only call this a date on three conditions,” Jungkook nods for you to continue. “One, you have to keep the noise down. No blasting The Weeknd at full volume at 3 in the morning.”

“Done.”

“Two, stop saying gross shit to me when your friends are around. No jokes about your dick or fucking you or anything like that.”

“I can do that.”

“Three, I’m not one of the little girls from your college that are just gonna beg to sleep with you. I am a grown woman and I need to be courted. Wined and dined and all that jazz.”

“You have my word, Noona. I can meet all of your conditions. You don’t have to worry.” He hops out of the car then and runs around to your side to hold the door open for you. “And if we’re still being honest, the only reason I was being loud like that is because I just wanted to see and talk to you."

You scoff. “All I’ve done is bang on your door and curse you out. That’s what you wanted?”

“Honestly, I was taking whatever I could get from you.” You notice him breaking into a blush as he says this, making you smile. You hope Jungkook can keep his word as he claims.

Jungkook has surprisingly stuck to his word even two months after your first date. You had gone on dates together nearly every weekend since, sometimes to restaurants, to the movies, and in each other’s apartments for dinner and binge-watching anime. 

Whenever his friends would see you in the hallway and Jungkook was there, he would quickly shut down any crude jokes they’d try to make, and eventually, they began to greet you normally with no lewd looks and no hint of flirtation. The noise next door also died down to a regular, comfortable volume so you no longer had to threaten any of the men that would frequent the apartment.

You’d learned so much about Jungkook in that short amount of time and every bit of him was equally as endearing. Even Duck had warmed up to him, and she usually hid when men were in your apartment. When he was over, she’d trot over and rub against his legs until he leaned down to scratch her chin or behind her ears. You had never told anyone, but you used your cat to judge people who came into your space, and the fact that Duck took a liking to him so quickly made you feel warm inside.

Getting to see the real Jungkook that was there underneath his fuckboy tendencies definitely affected you. The butterflies in your stomach were hard to ignore when they started to flutter whenever he would laugh or tell you about his day or simply do small, sweet gestures for you. 

Both he and his friends told you that he was turning down every girl from school that approached him since the two of you started dating which, according to Seokjin who had stopped you in the hall one afternoon on his way to Jungkook's, was a very big deal. He was quite popular and slept with any attractive girl that wanted him. “It has to mean he’s serious about you since he’s given up pussy for you.” Seokjin had graciously told you.

This is something you keep in mind when you hit your three month dating anniversary which Jungkook insists is a thing that you celebrate. As soon as you get home after work, he’s knocking on your door with various shopping bags in his arms. While you do your usual after-work routine of feeding Duck and checking your mail, he draws a bath for you, complete with scented candles and bubbles, and tells you to enjoy it until he says you can come out. You weren’t about to argue with a nice bath, so you do as he says. Once you start to prune, he says you’re allowed to get dressed and come out.

As you throw on your pajamas, you smell what reminds you of Indian food. Upon padding into the living room in your slippers, you discover your nose is right. You see the spread of naan, jasmine rice, and tikka masala on your coffee table, but the rest of the living room is what truly catches your attention.

Jungkook has thrown sheer, shimmery covers on your two living room lamps, dimming the lights. Behind where your tv is mounted on the wall, he’s strung up twinkling fairy lights. The warm scent of the same candles that were lit in the bathroom linger with the smell of the naan, making your mouth water. Jungkook himself is standing in the living room holding a pile of blankets and tosses them onto the couch when he sees you.

“Ta-da! It’s nothing super extravagant, but we’ve been dating for three months now and I know how hard you work, so I wanted to do something nice with you.” 

Tears mist your eyes and you furiously wipe them away before they can fall. This may be a small gesture for Jungkook, but it is the nicest thing that anyone you’ve ever dated has done for you. Walking over to him quickly, you throw your arms around him, catching him off guard and causing you both to topple onto the couch.

“Thank you,” you whisper. You lean down and place a soft peck on his lips. Before you can pull away, his hand cradles the back of your neck, bringing your lips together with more force. Your lips move together in a slow, languid kiss as you savor the moment. Jungkook’s tongue swipes against your bottom one and you open for him with no hesitation. Kissing Jungkook makes you feel as though you’re floating. He has a way of using his mouth that has you feeling dizzy just thinking of other places he could use it.

The kiss was becoming much more heated with you straddling his waist while his hands were trailing down your spine and grasping your hips.

“I think,” you breathe out, separating from him, “we should eat before the food gets cold.”

He glances up at you, eyes half-lidded and breath coming out in short bursts. “Good idea.” He smiles dreamily at you and sits up, carefully lifting you from his lap.

The rest of the night is spent watching bad horror movies and laughing at the absurd acting and stories. It’s nearly midnight when Jungkook helps you clean up and says goodnight. You share another lingering kiss at your front door before he’s gone and in his apartment. 

As you’re turning off the lights in your living room, your phone lights up with a text.

Bae Joohyun 🍉💗 : is your boyfriend still over or are you two still “celebrating?” 👀

Y/n : he’s not my boyfriend first off and no he’s home now

Joohyun is calling only seconds after you sent her the text.

“Joo, do you know it’s midnight? We both have work in the morning.”

“That’s not why I called, Y/n! What do you mean Jungkook isn’t your boyfriend?!”

“What do you mean, what do I mean? He’s not my boyfriend.” You plop into bed, sighing as you pull your comforter up.

“You mean to tell me it’s been three months and he still hasn’t asked you to be his girlfriend? And you haven’t slept with him?”

“Joo-” You know where this was going. Joohyun hasn’t trusted Jungkook since you started dating and even if she supported you and your happiness, she was still wary.

“Don’t ‘Joo’ me. This is still weird to me and I don’t like it. Didn’t you say he used to give it up to every girl at his school?”

“Yes, used to. He and the guys say he hasn’t been with anyone since we started dating, remember?”

Joohyun scoffs. “Yeah, that’s what he and his friends tell you. Y/n, you need to demand that he make it exclusive with you. It’s clear he likes you since you were telling me only a few hours ago how he was making a big deal out of a dating anniversary. There’s no reason he shouldn’t ask you to be his girlfriend at this point.” She’s right. The thought had crossed your mind that tonight he would ask you and you were still a little disappointed when he didn’t.

“I have been thinking about it...”

“Exactly. Give him a few days or something and if he doesn’t bring it up you need to. If he likes the way he acts like he does, it shouldn’t be a problem.” She makes you promise her you would and says goodnight. 

Another three dates go by and still nothing from Jungkook about asking you to be official, so you decide you’d just have to do it yourself. The two of you were going to play mini-golf and get barbeque, so you plan to bring it up over dinner.

After ending a FaceTime call with Joohyun to show her your outfit, to which she praises how great your ass looks in your jeans and that Jungkook would be a fool not to wife you up, you feed Duck dinner. You think about how to style your hair as you’re pouring kibble when you hear voices from outside your door. Once the bowl of food was down for the tabby, you glance out of the peephole.

You see Jungkook’s friend Yoongi standing closest to your door. Taehyung, whose fire truck red hair is unmistakable, and his small dog Yeontan, were next to Yoongi. You can’t see Jimin, but you can hear him. “Jeon Jungkook! Open the door!”

“Oh, Jeon just texted me back,” Yoongi says. “He’s on his way now from class, but he has plans with Y/n tonight, so we can’t hang out.”

Jimin groans. “He always has plans with Y/n! We haven’t had a good gaming session in weeks!”

“It’s because he’s so far up her ass,” Taehyung chimes in. “I just wish he’d fuck her and get it over with, then maybe we can hang out again.”

You scowl at him through the door.

Yoongi punches Taehyung in the arm. “Don’t say that. He seems to like her.”

“Had I known I’d be losing my best friend, I never would’ve made that damn bet with him.” Jimin sighs loudly.

He never would’ve done what?

Before you can stop yourself, you’re throwing open your door so hard that it bangs against the wall. The three men in front of you trip over themselves to make space between themselves and you.

“Jimin, what did you just say? You never would’ve made a what with Jungkook?”

“I, uh, I…” Jimin stutters, looking to Taehyung and Yoongi for help. Both of them shake their heads, still keeping their distance from you.

The sound of humming has the four of you staring down the hall towards the stairs. Jungkook comes towards you all with his backpack slung over one shoulder and a smile on his face. “Hey, hyungs. Hey, noona.” Jungkook clearly wasn’t reading the atmosphere. “Noona, I just have to shower and we can go.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you.” Jungkook finally takes notice of your expression and the tone of your voice.

“What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong? I’m an idiot, that's what’s wrong!”

“Wh-”

“When were you going to tell me that I was a fucking bet?” Jungkook blanches, his mouth closing. His gaze immediately shoots to Jimin. “Yeah, I heard Jimin’s big ass mouth complaining about us spending so much time together. Even said that he wishes he hadn’t made the bet with you.”

“Noona, I can explain-” Jungkook begs.

“Don’t bother. I should’ve known this was too good to be true. I’m sure you’ve still been sleeping around too.”

“I haven’t!”

“Whatever. I don’t care what you do anymore.” You turn away and go back into your apartment. Jungkook is quick to follow behind, wedging himself in the door before you can slam it shut. “Jungkook, go away!”

“Noona, please just hear me out!” You put all your weight into trying to push him out of your doorway. He’s much stronger than you, of course, so he doesn't budge much.

The commotion riles up Yeontan who barks through the entire exchange, tugging on his leash. You don’t even notice Duck come up behind you to investigate the noises. Yeontan must see her because, in one go, he uses all his strength to take Taehyung off guard and dart forward so the leash flies from his hand. Yeontan dashes between your legs, into your apartment, and towards Duck. She hisses at him, running away from him and doing two laps around your living room.

Your attention is taken away from kicking Jungkook out to calling Duck’s name to get her to come to you. Everyone watches as Duck turns to swipe at the small dog. She hits him on the snout, making him whine, then begin barking at her again. Before you can snatch her up, she’s out the door, darting between Jimin and Yoongi’s open arms.

“Duck!” You elbow Jungkook out of the way and run behind her, following her down the stairs. When you reach the lobby, you see the front door is propped open while two movers try to maneuver a couch inside of the building. “Did either of you see a grey cat run by?!” The two men shake their heads but move to allow you to squeeze past them to get outside.

“Duck!” You call her name again, eyes scanning the sidewalk for her. After a few seconds of not seeing her around, you were blinking back tears, your chest feeling tight.

“Hey, Y/n,” Jungkook’s hand comes up to rest on your shoulder. You flinch away from him, your fear dissipating and being replaced with anger.

“You! This is your fault! I told you to leave me alone and now my cat ran away because of you!” You shove Jungkook’s chest making him stumble backward. 

“Please listen to me, Y/n,” he pleads.

“Stop talking to me! I never want to see you again!” You turn and Taehyung is standing directly behind you with Yeontan in his arms.

“Y/n, I’m sor-” You push past him, ignoring him completely. Yoongi and Jimin quickly get out of the doorway to let you inside, obstacle-free.

It isn’t until you’re back in your apartment with your door shut and locked that you slide to the floor, sobbing loud enough that you know your neighbors can hear you.

Three days you spend holed up in bed. You call out from work and spend the days crying, sleeping, or watching tv. Your apartment is too quiet without the sound of Duck’s tinkling bell or even her small paws scratching at her litter box.

Knocking could be heard at your door each day that you were isolating yourself. Both Jungkook and Joohyun had tried to talk to you through the wood, and even Seokjin had attempted a couple of times. You couldn't find it in you to socialize. Not only did you lose your cat that you’ve loved and cherished for the entirety of your twenties, but you were also beating yourself up over Jungkook. You had let your guard down and started to let him in, choosing to think he was a better person than you initially thought, only to get your feelings hurt. You saw yourself loving him potentially, but to know he didn’t care for you the way he let on, hurt more than you thought it would.

You’re on day four of wallowing in your feelings when you figure you should eat actual food and stop drowning your sorrows in water and puffy Cheetos. While you wait for the pot of water for your ramen to boil, you play your appropriately named ‘sad girl hours’ playlist and scroll through apartment listings. Your lease would be up soon, but at this point, you were close to just breaking the lease.

A loud knock on your door nearly sends you out of the stool at your kitchen island. It’s almost after midnight, so it can’t be Joohyun unless it’s an emergency. Slowly sliding off of your seat, you tiptoe to the door and peek out, seeing Jungkook’s round, brown eye staring back. You gasp and duck out of the way as if he could see you through the peephole.

He knocks again. “Noona, please open up. I heard you pause your music which means you’re probably in the kitchen.” 

You groan and you know he hears it. “I told you I never want to speak to you again, yet here we are, speaking.”

“I’m here for a good reason, Y/n. Just please open the door.” He sounds as exhausted as you feel.

“Why should I?”

“I need to show you something important that you’ll want to see.”

“Jeon Jungkook, if I open this door and find out you’re making a joke about your dick I will make sure you don’t see your college graduation.” You whip the door open, fully intending to be further irritated, but falter when you see a familiar grey ball of fur on your welcome mat. You drop to your knees to greet her, your eyes brimming with tears.

“I saw her outside the building just now when I was coming home from work. She let me scoop her up and bring her up here. I think she recognized me.” Jungkook says as Duck rubs furiously against your fingers. 

Vision blurry, you look up at Jungkook who is smiling softly down at you. “Th-thank you. You don’t know how much she means to me.”

“I have an idea. I’m happy she came back to you.” The two of you stare at each other and you can feel a small smile on your face that matches Jungkook’s.

The timer on your stove goes off, signaling that your water has finished boiling and ruining the small moment you two shared. Duck trots into the apartment, immediately going to her food bowl which was still full from the night that she ran away.

“Y/n, listen, I-” Jungkook’s eyes dart around the room as he starts to talk, but he stops when he catches sight of your laptop screen. He brushes past you and beelines for the computer, seeing the homepage of a nearby apartment building pulled up. “Are you moving?” There is what sounds like panic in his voice.

Caught up in reuniting with Duck, you forgot the anger you were harboring towards Jungkook until that moment. You walk over and close your computer then continue preparing the meal you had started. “What’s it to you?” 

“Noona, you can’t leave.”

“And why not?”

“Because I’ll miss you too much,” he says brazenly. 

You turn to glare at him. “You can’t just say shit like that to me! Do you have any idea how humiliated I felt having to overhear your idiot friends talk about how they wished they never made a bet with you about me?”

“I know, okay. I know how that sounded, but you were not a bet like that,” he takes a deep breath and runs his fingers through his hair. “Everything I told you on our first date is true. I’ve liked you since the first day I saw and you told me that the apartment was vacant. The guys all knew and they’d give me shit every time you were around. I was tired of it and Jimin finally bet me that I wouldn’t be brave enough to ask you out and then I did.”

He sounds genuine and you want to believe him so bad. What if he’s lying? You would hate yourself if you let him hurt you more than once.

You turn back to the stove to stir your noodles. “I wish I could tell you I believe you and that we’ll be good again, but you know I don’t trust easily. I sat in this apartment for days thinking I was just a game to you and that sucked so bad.”

The sudden feeling of two warm, strong arms wrapping around your waist makes you jump. You should tell him to let you go, but you missed this. You missed him. “I’ll earn your trust back, Noona, I want to be with you so bad. Hell, I wanted to ask you to be my girlfriend the night that shit hit the fan.”

You can’t help but chuckle at that. “I was going to ask you to be my boyfriend that night too.” 

Jungkook’s grip on your body tightens. “I promise you I’ll make you trust me again, just please don’t move away.” You don’t say anything in response, but you let him hold you for a little while longer.

“Duck, Parsnip! Dinner!” The sound of Duck’s bell comes closer to you followed by your new puppy’s nails hitting the wood floors. The chihuahua mix makes his way to you first, tail wagging as he waits for you to set down his food bowl. Duck stands up on her back legs for her dinner and dives face-first into the kibble as soon as the ceramic dish is down.

A knock on the door has you and both of the animals taking notice. Jimin, Seokjin, and Yoongi are on the other side holding bags of what you know to be decorations and snacks. Jungkook is working late on his birthday, so you and the guys decide to surprise him with a small party. It’s your first celebration in your shared apartment with Jungkook, so you want it to be perfect.

True to his word, Jungkook spent the remaining three months of your lease seeing you every day and winning you back. He’d bring you food or make your meals, always managing to bring you small gifts and doing any and every sweet gesture he could think of.

Two months of dating he asked you to be his girlfriend and you decided not to move. Shortly after that, he asked you to move in with him when your lease would officially be up. He wanted to prove how committed he was by wanting to live with you and promising to add your name to the lease once he renewed.

Naturally, you were hesitant, even if a big part of you wanted to. He had been able to win you back and you believed in how much he truly liked you, but moving in was a big step. When you asked Joohyun what she thought, she was all for it. Ever since Jungkook started courting you for a second time, she was all of a sudden a fan of him. Something about how she’d never known of a man putting in this much effort for a woman so he had to be telling the truth.

Following your gut, you decided to go for it and move in with Jungkook. After living with him and dating him for more than half a year, you were both on the lease and decided to welcome a puppy into the home, fulfilling Jungkook’s long-held desire for a dog of his own.

“Noona, where should I put the gifts?” Taehyung asks shortly after arriving.

“You can set them on the dining room table,” you say as you finish frosting Jungkook’s birthday cake. Hoseok and Namjoon finish hanging up the streamers around the apartment while Jimin and Yoongi blow up the last of the balloons. Seokjin is kind enough to help you cook dinner for everyone while Taehyung keeps Parsnip, Duck, and Yeontan (who Duck now tolerates) occupied amidst the commotion. 

While you are sticking the candles atop the cake and Seokjin takes the last simmering pot off of the stove, Joohyun comes bursting through the unlocked apartment door, panting. “Jungkook is on his way! He’s checking the mail so I ran up here.”

You place the decorated cake on the counter and remove your apron. “Okay, we have probably less than sixty seconds, let's move, people!” The seven of you rush around the apartment, turning off the lights and finding places around the apartment to hide. You and Joohyun are crouching behind the couch when you hear the front door open.

“Babe? Is Joohyun here? I saw her-”

“Surprise!” When Jungkook flips on the light you all jump out causing him to stumble back in shock. He recovers quickly, plastering a huge smile on his face. One by one, his friends rush over and pull him into a group hug, giving him various birthday wishes. Joohyun hugs him next and he compliments her speed at beating him upstairs. You’re last to greet him, letting him tug you into him for a hard kiss that lasts so long, Taehyung has to yell for you two to get a room.

“Happy birthday, baby,” you tell him, kissing him once more on the cheek.

“Thank you, Noona,” he kisses your forehead. “I love you,” he whispers then heads straight for the cake with Seokjin yelling at him to eat the food that he slaved over the hot stove for first.

You stand there, jaw slightly slack. That was the first time Jungkook has told you that he loves you. While you didn’t expect it, you can’t deny the warmth blooming in your chest.

Jungkook glances at you over his shoulder. I love you too , your mouth to him and you swear his smile widens so much that his cheeks will hurt.

Looking at things now, you can’t see your life without Jungkook. Through everything, he’s cemented himself firmly in your heart. You’d have to remember to give him an extra special birthday gift later to thank him for deciding to be your next-door neighbor.