Work Text:
it starts on a quiet spring morning when yoongi is using his backpack as a pillow, resting in the cool shade of his favorite tree in the small fenced area behind his dorm most students don't know exist, and a boy with a big grin and bright eyes appears above him talking a mile a minute and illuminates yoongi's world lighter than the rising sun ever could.
it starts when that same boy and his high pitched giggle are the only thing yoongi can focus on while they all find out that jimin has never drank before and is, as expected of a first timer, unable to handle even the smallest amount of hard liquor. he sways against yoongi's side, slipping cold hands onto the warm skin hidden behind yoongi's sweatshirt and tells yoongi that he thinks they’re best friends now.
it starts when jimin dances across the stage like he was born for it and there is a skip in the beat of his heart and a warmth in his stomach and yoongi thinks, ‘i’m in love’.
it falters when jimin bounds into yoongi’s suite just as he gets deep into the research, feeling a breakthrough coming, for his senior thesis and yoongi drops everything just to find out what could have his crush bouncing so excitedly, thinking it may end in an invitation out that yoongi could, finally, finally, nudge into being a real date. jimin’s hands twitch at his sides, the way they do when he has something he really wants to say, usually a secret, as if he’s holding them in his fingers and is itching to release them. he rambles, all nervous energy, and yoongi’s heart sinks so deep into his stomach he doesn’t think it can ever be retrieved, “so, i’m pretty close to hoseok hyung, recently, but you’ve known him so much longer, and... i just wanted to ask... do you think he’d... you know... ever want to go on a date with me?”
it falters when hoseok follows yoongi for the midterm break, his own parents traveling internationally and leaving him no one to go home to. he starts their vacation worryingly silent, his own constant happy aura muted for three days straight before yoongi comes flying into him early on their fourth to ask what’s bothering him so much and hoseok looks at him, more serious than yoongi ever knew he could be, to ask if yoongi thinks that jiminnie might be interested in him as, you know, more than friends.
it ends with yoongi in a reluctantly worn, borrowed black tuxedo that sits uncomfortably loose on his shoulders and a tie pulled tightly around his neck because hoseok is the best at tying them but yoongi was too scared he might start crying if he looked directly at his friend, so he had to default to namjoon who’s fingers are a little too clumsy to do a good job. he stands to the left of hoseok, too deep in his secret affection to admit it’s breaking his heart every second he exists as hoseok’s best man. he stands to the left of hoseok with his hands folded behind his back and he stares at the church doors and pretends he doesn’t hear the boy he’s been in love with for five years saying “i do” at a wedding where he isn’t the groom.