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Weeks passed from that dinner date Jungkook and Yoongi had and with the weather many things had changed, days had become shorter, lumps of snow had replaced piles of orange and brown leaves on the streets, Jungkook’s hair had grown longer than everybody else’s in the house and his newly discovered crush on Min Yoongi had only grown stronger. He hoped that the frosty air and the busy Christmas schedule would make his feelings fade and erase the memory of that night from his mind but he only got more and more enamoured every passing day, especially looking at him play and coo at the cat. The damn cat. Jungkook couldn’t believe they actually allowed that ugly kitten they found on their way back from the restaurant in the dorm, Yoongi had said he had seen her roam around the neighbourhood often, it seemed like she liked him and he thought it was cute . Cute wasn’t the word Jungkook would have used to describe her, she was still a kitten but her face was painfully crooked, uneven eyes and a constant angry frown, plus patches of fur were missing here and there. She was really ugly, to be honest. They weren’t allowed to have pets inside the dorm so Yoongi kept her hidden in his room but when one of the managers had discovered him napping with that small ugly ball of fur on the couch one day, he couldn’t bring himself to say no.
So that’s how the rivalry between Jungkook and the cat had begun. He didn’t like her but apparently the feeling was mutual because she didn’t seem to enjoy his company at all, not one slight bit, as she would constantly hiss at him and scratch him when no one was around to witness her evil. For the others she was an angel . That little demon.
With Christmas fastly approaching, Seokjin thought they had to decorate the entire dorm with all sorts of fairy lights, wreaths, stars and any kind of Christmas decoration red, white and green coloured they could find, to get more in the spirit , he had said. As Jungkook was hanging some decorations on the tree, Yoongi came close to give him a hand.
“Hey.” He said, passing him a golden star. Jungkook looked up with a nervous smile. “Are we good?”
He didn’t sound upset or mad and Jungkook knew exactly what he was referring to. In the past few weeks, he had been trying to stop his mind from playing the conversation they had during that dinner date every time his eyes landed on Min Yoongi, how he had teased him hinting that he knew about his little crush and enjoyed the attention, the way he looked at him while saying they were officially on their first date . Jungkook didn’t want to get his hopes up, plus dating a bandmate was completely out of the question so he needed a way to get him out of his head. He stopped coming to his studio to watch him work and avoided eye contact as much as possible during photoshoots, knowing just how much they would show. At the time, he thought it was a good idea, put some distance between them, try to present himself as least interested as possible and try to trick his own mind to believe it, too. But it wasn’t a good idea, he wasn’t believing it and mostly he was forgetting that Yoongi was a friend before he was a crush.
“We are.” He said, turning to him. “I just had a lot on my mind these past few days. But I’m good now. I’m sorry I made you feel like there was something wrong going on.”
“Are you sure? You can tell me if I did something that upset you.”
“It’s really okay, hyung. Again I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make any of you worry.”
Yoongi turned back to look at Taehyung who was trying to dress up a very reluctant Namjoon with a golden garland. “I don’t think they noticed much, Kookie.”
They shared a look, for as much as Jungkook would try to hide behind a fake facade, these people raised him and could read him like an open book.
Yoongi smiled and put a hand on his shoulder. “Anyways I’m glad you’ve cleared your mind.”
If by clearing my mind you mean realising I’m completely in love with you and there’s nothing I can do about it but it’s okay then, yes, I’m glad too. The words ringed in Jungkook’s head but Yoongi was already by the couch unboxing a big package that had been delivered earlier that morning. Everyone in the room turned to watch him unwrap, curious to see what was inside the big box. He took out of the bubble wrap something that awfully resembled a garden gnome, red pointy cap, long beard, big nose sticking out and all, judging from how Yoongi was holding it, it seemed to be rather heavy.
“It’s a gift from my mom, she had it shipped from Daegu.” Yoongi inspected the “gift” as if it was some sort of ancient artefact. “It’s made of porcelain. Isn’t it pretty?” He placed it on the coffee table.
Jungkook furrowed his eyebrows, first it was the cat, now the gnome, he was really starting to question his hyung’s aesthetic taste. The cat in question slowly crawled her way to the little statue to inspect it, she had been pacing around the house touching every piece of decor on her reach and Seokjin had to stop her from knocking over stuff at least 10 times already.
“You’re not touching that little one. Come here.” Said Hoseok waving something in the air to get her attention. It was a small branch of mistletoe tied with a red ribbon. The cat briefly sniffled the plant and, uninterested, went back to her rounds of the house. “I’m going to put it here, on the entrance to the living room.” He said, letting his eyes go from one of them to the other with a smirk. “I wonder what’s gonna happen this year.”
They all looked at each other, visibly cringing at the memories of past Christmas parties. Someone always ended up naked outside in the snow, drunkenly kissing someone, licking some type of sugary substance off of someone else’s various body parts or other stupid games they were getting way too old to play. The only person that wasn’t amused was Park Jimin, ever since that night with Yoongi he had been acting differently around Jungkook. Never in a million years had Jungkook been expecting Jimin, his best friend since debut days, to barge in his room one day and ask him permission to kiss him. He had just come out of the shower, he could still feel the pressure of his fingers on his skin as he was holding his waist to pull him closer, he said he needed to know. Jungkook had let kiss him and kissed back eagerly for a few seconds. In the moment he already knew it was a mistake, he was aware of his crush on Yoongi and when that night he was asked to choose between going out for dinner with Yoongi and leaving Jimin alone in the house when he had promised they would stay together it came clear to his mind how big of a mistake that had been. He had unintentionally played and rejected Jimin, his best friend, one of the most important people in his life. He had been trying to fix their friendship ever since.
“I’m definitely not kissing anyone.” Jimin said, sending a deadly glare in Jungkook’s direction. As he said, trying to fix it. One step at a time.
“Okay! Why don’t we go out for hot chocolate!” Taehyung proposed sensing the tension, if anyone knew Jimin more than Jungkook, that was Taehyung. Everyone agreed it was a good idea on that frosty morning but Jungkook said he preferred to stay home.
“Someone has to watch over the stupid cat Yoongi forced in here.”
“Don’t listen to him, baby.” Yoongi cooed petting her head.
“It’s so sad, you didn't even name her.” Seokjin commented, putting his coat on.
“I still haven’t found anything fitting.”
“That’s because she was not supposed to be here!”
Their voices faded behind the door. Jungkook dropped on the couch to catch a break from all the decorating, he eyed the cat who was just playing with the box the gnome came in. Cats are notoriously very independent but she was still a kitten, small, clumsy and unpredictable, even if they didn’t like each other, Jungkook didn’t want to leave her alone in the house, especially not with all the fragile decorations hung everywhere. Right as he was forming that thought in his head she started playing with one of the red balls at the bottom of the tree.
“Stop.” He said with a stern voice. She sharply turned around and hissed as a reply but instead of pissing off leaving the room like she would always do, she took two agile jumps and landed on his lap to walk on the couch then back on him several times, brushing her small tail on his chin.
“You’re so annoying. Leave.” Not wanting to hurt her, he gently pushed the ugly ball of fur towards the armrest with one hand but she leaped to the left to avoid the contact, right above the coffee table, brushing the gnome with her paws. Before Jungkook could even turn to realise what was going on, the red gnome was on the floor, shattered in a million little pieces of white porcelain. Mother of God.
What the fuck am I supposed to do now, call Yoongi? Absolutely fucking not. Calling Seokjin and apologising for an accident I couldn’t have predicted in any way possible like an adult and ask him to tell Yoongi like a child, yes I will do that.
The cat ran away scared and, with his mind running on double speed, Jungkook took his phone out of his pocket. “Seokjin hyung!” He screamed in the speaker.
“ Are you trying to make me go deaf, I need my ears to sing, please .”
“Hyung, this is tragic , I don’t know what to do.”
“Did you already break something?” Someone laughed in the background.
Pause, that wasn’t Seokjin's voice. He recognised it, it was Yoongi’s , did he know already? How? No.
He laughed back hysterically. “I’m on fucking speaker... Also me? Breaking stuff? That’s not in my vocabulary.” He was already putting his shoes on. “I just wanted you to know that I’m preparing a surprise for you guys so take your time coming back.”
He zipped the windbreaker up and opened the door, the cat meowed calling his attention. She was on the carpet right in front of the crime scene, she could have hurt herself with the porcelain, not to mention she could have broken even more stuff if left alone in the house. With a sigh Jungkook grabbed her and sprinted outside to the closest retail store stuffed with Christmas decorations he had memory of.
As a celebrity, it was already extremely hard to go unnoticed in public even with several layers of clothing and accessories to cover his face but going around with a cat walking by his side drew even more attention to Jungkook. He luckily managed to sneak inside the decor section carrying her in his hands. After twenty minutes of helplessly walking around several rows of garlands, sparkles and candy cane shaped ornaments with the cat strolling in front of him unbothered, he stopped to look at a basket of stuffed Christmas gnomes, they looked nothing like Yoongi’s. Jungkook kneeled to pick one up and inspect it. After a few seconds to study the object she clawed his hand with a hiss making him drop it back in.
“Why do you hate me so bad.” She just scoffed and licked her paw. He narrowed his eyes. “You’re going to pay for this, you little ball of fur.”
Time was running out and he couldn’t find anything that even resembled porcelain, he did the next best thing he could do and went to ask the lady at the front desk if they had what he needed, completely forgetting for a second that he was BTS Jungkook and not just some random handsome guy from Busan. As expected she freaked out the second he took off the hood he was hiding in.
Defeated, hidden in a nasty bathroom with a meowing cat licking her paws on his lap, on the verge of a nervous breakdown, he did the only thing that seemed logical in times of need: call his best friend. Even if there was bad blood between them since Jimin had discovered about his crush on Yoongi and the implicit rejection that followed, they were still best friends. Jungkook knew Jimin wouldn’t stay mad at him for long and help him, just like he would when they were younger. He picked up his phone and called him from the speed dial.
“Hyung.”
“ You actually broke the gnome and you’re somewhere trying to find something that looks similar so that hyung won’t notice.”
“I-“
“ And you can’t find anything .” Jungkook sighed, a small smile on his face, no one knew him more than Park Jimin. “ Send me your location, I’ll pick you up with a manager in ten .”
They sat next to each other in silence, soft meows and occasional purrs as Jimin brushed his hand on the cat as their soundtrack. The place Jimin took them was a lot fancier than the cheap retail store, even the cat was amused and happily strolled around with various clerks tagging along to make sure she wouldn’t break anything. They didn’t manage to find anything that looked exactly like Yoongi’s ugly gnome but at least on his way back to the car Jungkook was holding something shaped like a gnome, red and made of porcelain, that alone sounded good enough to him, Yoongi just saw it briefly he would have never told the difference.
“Thank you, hyung.” He whispered, unlocking the door of the dorm open.
“Don’t.”
“I’m sorry, really. I am. There’s nothing I can say to make it better but, I... I mean Yoongi-” He tried stumbling on his words, he didn’t even know what he wanted to say exactly. Apologise for kissing him back? Openly confess his crush on Yoongi? Jimin only looked at him with a fond smile.
“You really like him a lot, don't you?” Jungkook stared at his shoes, the red cheeks definitely speaking the words for him. Jimin took the gnome from his hands and put it back on the coffee table and then caressed the cat. “You never talked to me about your crush.”
“I didn’t know.”
“You knew when we kissed.”
“You kissed me.”
He threw a pillow at him. “You kissed back, dare to deny that and I will tell hyung everything.”
“I did, I’m sorry. I did. I’m sorry.”
“You said that already.” He laughed.
“I know. I’m sorry.”
Jimin threw the pillow that Jungkook had just put back at its place again with a laugh. “Stop apologising.”
“I enjoyed our kiss, I did. I don’t regret it. I mean, I regret not talking about it but I don’t regret kissing you, you’re an amazing kisser, you know that.”
Jimin smiled. In that living room, a pile of broken porcelain between them and a cat staring at them, it wasn’t the right time to properly talk about it but then again, one step at a time.
“I know I should have told about what I felt for Yoongi right after, but… I guess I didn’t want to say it out loud, make it real, you know?”
“It was also my fault, I shouldn’t have come onto you like that. I demanded you to try things out the way I wanted without talking about it. I’m sorry.”
Jungkook threw the pillow at him softly. “Don’t apologise, idiot.”
With giggles they made up, just like they used to when they were teenagers.
“We need to clean this mess up quickly, they’ll be here really soon. Oh and when they come back act normal .”
As the door opened with the usual loud cheers, the cat immediately ran back to brushing her crooked little face on Yoongi’s legs. He petted her lovingly, still wrapped in his heavy coat, nose red from the cold. Jungkook couldn’t understand how he could look at her with so much affection but he couldn’t ignore the warm feeling that the sight of so much fondness created in him. So fucking whipped.
“So what’s the surprise, Jungkook.” Taehyung asked while taking his shoes off.
“The what.” He asked back confused.
“The surprise. You said you were preparing a surprise for us.” Yoongi commented absentmindedly.
Shit, the surprise. “I never said anything about a surprise.” He lied and glanced at Jimin asking for help.
“I’m pretty sure you did.”
“I can’t remember anything about a surprise.” Interrupted Jimin to support the act.
“Weren’t you gone already when Jungkook called?” Namjoon asked, dropping on the couch next to Jungkook. “Actually where did you go exactly?”
“What’s up with this interrogation?”
“No need to be so defensive. Let them be, Joon.” Seokjin said, he let his eyes travel from Jimin to Jungkook. There was no point in trying to hide anything from him, Seokjin could right through their bullshit.
Taehyung looked towards the couch furrowing his eyebrows. “Was the gnome there already? It looks kinda weird.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
That sparked Yoongi’s attention, looking extremely amused as he walked towards the living room to see for himself. The moment he stepped in the cat started meowing like crazy where she was laying on the couch.
Jungkook muttered a nervous shut up at her because she was drawing too much unwanted attention to the gnome but she wouldn’t stop, Yoongi tried to approach her to pick her up but she hissed aggressively when he moved one foot. Confused, he halted at the door to the living room and she stopped whining. Everyone turned around towards him, just as confused.
“Fucking weird.” He commented.
They all followed her with their eyes as she walked up to Jungkook and started headbutting his calves, it wasn’t clear what she was trying to achieve.
“I think she wants you to follow her.” Taehyung noticed. “Yeontan always did that when he was a puppy.”
“Yeontan is a dog. This is a cat.” Pointed out Jimin, looking extremely intrigued by this sudden change in behaviour. Even in the few hours Jungkook, the cat and him had passed together, she had been very quiet and calm, pushing away any type of touch from Jungkook without making a fuss about it, only allowing Jimin to pet her. This sudden call for affection was completely out of character.
“Just do what she wants.”
Jungkook stood up and let her drag him somewhere. Focusing on not stepping on her rather than where he was going, he ended up right under the doorframe of the living room with Yoongi, the small space forcing them in close proximity, when their eyes met Yoongi was smirking and Jungkook could feel his cheeks starting to burn. The other guys made a collective teasing sound, something like a prolonged oh . Breaking eye contact, they both looked up to realise they were standing right under the mistletoe Hoseok had hung earlier that day. Jungkook wanted to dig a hole in the ground and disappear right there but unlike him, Yoongi had a huge grin plastered on his face.
“Should we kiss?” He teased. Jungkook’s eyes grew triple the size and he choked on air making him laugh. “Okay then maybe next time, bunny.”
He was still shocked but Yoongi nonchalantly kneeled to scratch the cat sweetly. “Little one, were you plotting this all along?”
“That little shit.” Commented Jimin under his breath, it made Jungkook laugh and relax a little.
“You know what,” Yoongi said, turning back to Jungkook. “We should call her Mistletoe.”
“What?”
“A name. For her. Mistletoe.” He pointed at the little branch above their heads.
“No, I mean why are you asking me, it’s your cat.”
Yoongi smiled and picked up Mistletoe to get to eye level with Jungkook. “Well, we were together when we found her, it’s our cat. We’re kind of like her parents.”
Everything that day had seemed pretty much unreal to Jungkook but in that moment, as Yoongi was holding the cat between them with the biggest smile on his face, he was sure that his love was the realest thing he could ever feel. “Deal. But I get to call her Toe.”