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"Do those two have the hots for each other?"
Seokjin's spoon filled with pork bone soup hangs in mid-air at Taehyung's spontaneously sudden question. Soonyoung starts coughing as if the spice shot up his nose rather than down his throat, and even Wonwoo who hands him a glass of water looks a bit rattled by the question. The only one unbothered, Taehyung's eyes are narrowed, focused intently towards the restaurant door, his fierce pupils digging into the back of their university's infamous duo. Or more specifically, at Yoongi dragging an alcohol-challenged Jimin outside. It's an absurd question, but he would be lying if this isn't the first time.
Besides, Yoongi was actually late tonight. Seokjin didn't think of stopping the orange-haired boy when he ordered a third bottle of soju; it'd been a while since Seokjin's fatigue-worn consciousness had been blessed with Jimin's endless giggling over the bustling atmosphere of alcohol and warmth on the table. It wasn't until a few minutes later that Seokjin remembered why he should've, and snatched the bottle from the younger's hands. Not until Jimin went into his repertoire of reciting Shakespeare monologues (they were English lit. majors), bursting into tears at the sudden realization of King Lear's tragedy. In all honesty, Seokjin would've bothered to coax the disheartened younger and reassure the two mortified first-years (Soonyoung and Wonwoo) if he wasn't used to the procedure already; because getting Taehyung to ask the server to blast some girl group songs on the speaker was far more effective anyways. Soon enough Jimin was up and giddy again, using his spoon to tap between the air and his wrist to the beat of "Dumb Dumb", getting unshackled to another giggling mess again.
Yoongi appeared shortly after that, fury emitting from his flushed, but otherwise pale face and looking like he wanted to strangle Seokjin and Taehyung by the throat. If it wasn't for Jimin who knocked himself unconscious at that moment and saved their lives (Jimin sunbae's wasted and still an angel, sighed Soonyoung), Seokjin doesn't think he'd be listening to Taehyung's stupid prating right now. Min Yoongi is the most dangerous piece of grumpy asshole there could ever be.
"What the hell are you talking about, Taehyung."
Taehyung doesn't lower his suspicious gaze at Seokjin's dryness, his eyes continuing to chase after Yoongi and Jimin outside the window. Soonyoung and Wonwoo exchange glaces, and by now Seokjin feels sorry for them, because he knows it feels a bit self-deprecating when you discover yourself in some deep shit you never realized was university social life. He's been there, and hell, now he feels sorry for himself to be hanging out with these kids, having been discharged from the military two years ago.
Taehyung, who had been late to join them due to a grave meeting with his British Literature professor (or more like a desperate aplology on his knees because apparently he'd slept through his midterm and had received an irrevocable F), still seems to sustain an alert mind as he analyzes the situation deeper.
"You know how Yoongi sunbae shows up each and every time we hold a hweshik," Taehyung says seriously, pulling his chair closer. "And he never fails to slip Jimin out. How does he even find us anyways?"
"I thought they lived together."
Wonwoo pipes up courageously, looking more relaxed now that shades of mint and orange are out of their sight. Taehyung waits, as if Seokjin might provide them new information, such as a yes as a matter of fact, they moved in together yesterday, sighing when the only thing coming out of Seokjin's mouth is a satisfied burp.
"They don't, therefore the point."
"I'm kinda worried." Soonyoung fidgets. "Do you think Jimin sunbae's going to be okay?"
Seokjin's had enough.
"Taehyung, it's called looking after a close hoobae." He scoffs. "You'd know if you passed your classes enough to have one."
Taehyung ignores him completely.
"Although, I guess we got him for coming somewhere new today. I mean, we were lucky enough to see Jimin's rendition of Red Velvet's Dumb Dumb tonight, but Yoongi usually steals him out during his Hamlet monologues. Is it weird that it felt oddly satisfying to see him extra mad, and actually, now that I think about it, almost hostile?"
Soonyoung puts down his chopsticks, having been reminded of Yoongi's face when he burst into the restaurant.
"You know, if you put just as much effort into analyzing Chaucer on your midterm, you would've gotten an A."
Seokjin responds, placing the last piece of eggroll on Soonyoung's plate. The boy just looks like he wants to run back home.
Quite truthfully though, he thinks Taehyung's had his wait. This is already the sixth time someone's brought "them" up, and Taehyung is in fact late, considering how close he is to Jimin.
And Seokjin doesn't have the answers either.
Seokjin didn't mean to know Min Yoongi. He didn't mean to enter school a year later than when he was supposed to, and end up next to the grump in middle school. Seokjin thinks it's funny how fate works, when he unravels their history of ten years.
Even as a child, Yoongi had always been cynical, a little (very) pessimistic, grumbling about everything as he dragged his ass up to comply nonetheless. It was somewhat surprising, because at a first glance, Seokjin would never have guessed. Young Yoongi was small and pale, his soft features making him look like some sentimental character of a shoujo manga, because he spent ninety percent of the time staring outside the window. It sometimes got a little annoying, when all Yoongi did was unconspicuously stick earphones into his ear and doodle in his notebook, but never failing to grunt whenever Seokjin asked him to pass the eraser in the middle of some furious note-takings. To Seokjin who loved to cook, collect Mario dolls, and sing, Min Yoongi just never got past being a mere seatmate at school.
It's only an unexpected surprise that music brings them together one afternoon.
"You rap?"
Seokjin asks astoundedly, looking up from the notebook that Yoongi always doodled in, or at least what he thought were doodles all this time. They're lyrics, and they're quite good, and Seokjin can imagine attaching them to the melodies he hums all the time in his head.
"Yes, I mean no, I don't consider it real rapping yet, but these are just rough drafts-"
Yoongi is horrified, because he didn't mean to drop his notebook when he was picking up Seokjin's eraser for him and now everything is revealed. Seokjin watches as Yoongi stops abruptly and grumbles something under his breath, with a legitimate reason this time, he'll grant him that. Finally Yoongi seems somewhat real, and it's only when Seokjin writes back a chorus to Yoongi's verse that their so-called friendship blooms.
A tediously long friendship, that is. After years of failing auditions hand-in-hand and crying over how unrealistic their dreams were to begin with, Seokjin takes a route of arts and literature while Yoongi gives up the stage. They're so used to being together that they're kind of sick of each other at this point, yet they apply for the same university anyways.
At least Yoongi is a Composition major, Seokjin naively thinks. He's sort of excited to meet some new people and make some new friends.
Seokjin is naively wrong.
Because even in university, it's like Yoongi is his seatmate that he sees everyday at middle school all over again. Under some strange strange circumstances, Min Yoongi becomes a notable individual among the English faculty and Seokjin cannot fathom how Yoongi and his lazy-as-fuck-ass overrode the demerits of the impossible distance between the English and the Music buildings (a crucial factor of campus life). Sure, it's possible that Yoongi was known to some people in the department as Seokjin's childhood friend. But the reason behind Yoongi's nickname "Mint Suga" (first of all, dyeing his hair mint green was a huge contributor, and Seokjin recalls girls flailing over his pale mochi-like complexion, calling him eye candy, as if his presence wasn't enough) among the population of English majors rather than his own department is solely because of Park Jimin.
Jimin was a first-year English major student whom Seokjin took a liking to when he got discharged and came back to school. But really, he wasn't the only one because Jimin was loved by everyone and was already well-known; being the face of the department, the angel that brightened everywhere he went with his moon-crescent eye smiles, their sweet mascot, if you will. Park Jimin had an unexaplainable natural affinity towards people, echoing the faculty building with his sunshining smiles and giggles that sounded like pearls rolling off a rainbow.
And like almost everything else in Seokjin's life, Min Yoongi and Park Jimin's encounter is very much unexpected. It takes place during that very term that Seokjin and Yoongi come back from the military, quite conveniently in the cafeteria of the Music building. Convinced by Hoseok, Jimin's friend and Dance major, who insisted that their udon was probably the best ones they'll ever taste in their lives, a group of English majors including Seokjin, Hansol, Taehyung, and Jimin had walked all the way over to the Music building just to have some udon for lunch.
He should've texted Yoongi or something, because standing in line at the cafeteria, Seokjin spots Yoongi alone (very noticeable in his new mint-green hair that he got as soon as they were liberated), looking for an empty table with a tray in his hands.
Seokjin supposes some people just never change.
"Yoongi-ya!"
Seokjin calls loudly and waves his hands in the air, earning his friend's attention.
He believes Jimin was standing right behind him.
"Cool, how do you guys know each other?"
Taehyung asks when they join Yoongi's empty table, the younger ones bowing to Yoongi who doesn't even glance up from his bowl.
"We've been friends since, like, forever."
Seokjin explains, and everyone's heads turn towards Yoongi again for some kind of a follow-up. It doesn't happen. They look at him expectantly, but Yoongi, being a real grump of his usual self (and unfortunately only Seokjin knew that), he merely grunts between his chews and shoves more noodles into his mouth. Seokjin doesn't know how to explain that Yoongi isn't as bitchy as he comes off as, well actually he is, but he doesn't mean it, or he does mean it, but you shouldn't take it personally, because- and Seokjin is lost, he doesn't know what to say to defend Min Yoongi's cockiness and he's sort of annoyed that Yoongi doesn't even try, and shit, the silence is still hanging over them, and that's when he hears Jimin chirp brightly,
"Well, Hobi hyung, I'm going to kill you for making me walk this much if I don't feel like these noodles are having sex on my tastebuds!"
He did it again, Jimin saves him with another one of his angelic antics, and Seokjin relaxes as everyone laughs and settles down to eat some lunch. He subtly punches Yoongi in the sides for being an ass, but Yoongi is too preoccupied to give him a scowl. He's looking at Jimin with this sort of a disapproving frown, and Seokjin rolls his eyes.
Yes, that's what Seokjin remembers to have happened.
Seokjin doesn't know what the hell happened after that, but he can bet his Mario collection on the fact that Jackson Wang became the catalyst to Yoongi and Jimin's odd relationship - just the way Yoongi's notebook of doodles had been a catalyst for him and Yoongi. To be more specific, Jackson and a pail of soju.
With an infinite limit of alcohol intake, Jackson plans and executes a gathering that already sends half the crowd to andromeda by eight in the evening when it first happens. When Amber, Jackson's best friend who is a Politics major, shouts 'Obviously East Asia is next in line for hegemonic power and that is exactly why we shoud stop kissing up to United States of America!' with a slur, Jimin enthusiastically chants 'Yes! Kiss my ass, Obama! and immediately downs a shot. The two highfive each other and break out into a fit of laughter, Seokjin trying to ignore Jimin spanking his own butt as he clanks his glass against Hansol's. Jimin slowly rises to his feet, loosening his body as if to prepare himself for the continuous body rolls he's about to send down his drunk, disheveled form. Seokjin leans back for the view, the alochol settling in pleasantly. Jimin's repertoires never get boring; and now it was time for some sexy number.
"Don't you look into my eyes and lie again~ I'm sick of being alone~ Drop it."
Jimin growls seductively, slipping a few moans here and there, criss-crossing his legs, twirling his finger and doing that Girl's Day bounce and seriously, the boy needs to cut off on watching music shows for his own safety. Everybody shrieks and hollers as Jimin drops to the floor on all fours, crawling on top of the table and licking his lips like they're glistening in some strawberry tint. Jackson's banging on the table with his spoon, Amber is hooting and slapping Jimin's ass, and Seokjin cannot believe he's actually laughing and enjoying this crockery.
"Hyung, look."
Hansol nudges his side and points to the other table across the restaurant, and Seokjin reluctantly skates his eyes away to see Yoongi and his group of friends gawking this way.
Seokjin has never been more embarrassed.
Seokjin swears to god, he hates being called the "mom" of their squad but fucking seriously, he just never has the heart to disappear like he doesn't care. He never intended to become the one to clean after pathetically drunk people and their disgusting mess, but for the sake of the lady that's looking his way in absolute horror, he does. Sending Jackson and Amber off in a cab, Seokjin shuffles through his way of dead bodies (metaphors were his strong point) and shamelessly holds Jimin's bag upside down. He shakes it ruthlessly, the behaviour coming off as desperate because he's really hoping to find something, which to his dismay, discovers nothing. This is the first time he's actually pissed off at Jimin, and he's literally about to step on the boy sprawled out on the floor, when he catches Yoongi in the corner of his eye.
"Excuse me, friends of Yoongi's whom I'm shocked but glad that exists," Seokjin puts on a polite smile. "May I borrow him for a second?"
He recognizes Namjoon, a Contemporary Production major whom Seokjin had met once in the past. Without a chance for him to nod, it affectively has Yoongi walking away already and Seokjin follows. He directs Yoongi to their destroyed table, and Yoongi cocks his head in annoyance, because one might think that a little alcohol in his system would loosen the guy up, but no, Yoongi gets even more grumpier. Jimin moans from the floor.
"Uh, can he stay at your place just for tonight?"
Yoongi's jaw drops.
"Fuck, Seokjin. I don't even know the dude."
"Please, I can't take him to my house."
Seokjin pleads. Yoongi looks at Jimin again, his face scrunching up in a dirty look that Jimin would never receive from the English department.
"Is he dead?"
"Urr," Seokjin drawls, and Jimin starts snoring. "No, but you saw him, he's irredeemable."
Yoongi groans, because clearly he is anything but impressed by Jimin's dancing, and the deepening of his frown indicates that Yoongi remembers him to be the one that wanted noodles to have sex in his mouth and Seokjin knows he's doomed to take Jimin back to his home where his mother will ask him questions that are difficult to answer-
"Fine."
Yoongi grumbles, reaching into his pocket and handing him his house key.
"Seriously?"
Seokjin lets out in surprise, but speedily reaches for the key incase Yoongi changes his mind.
"Wow, so you have friends and a heart."
Seokjin is pretty sure Yoongi heard him and expects a 'Fuck, forget what I said, you piece of shit,' to come in his way but his scores are really slacking today.
"I'll be home in a couple of hours."
Yoongi says instead. It's not even close, and Seokjin would've started questioning right there and then if he wasn't under such a struggle to sling Jimin's arms around his neck.
Yoongi comes home to his one-room apartment in exactly an hour, where Seokjin is flipping through TV channels and Jimin is on the floor precisely where Seokjin dumped him. Changing out of his turtleneck and replacing his contacts with his glasses, Yoongi peers down at Jimin.
"Shouldn't we put him on my bed or something?"
"Be my guest," Seokjin replies, "but you're alone on this one."
Scratching his head, Yoongi hesitates before disappearing into his room.
When Seokjin wakes up in the middle of the night to go to the washroom, the floor is bare and he sees Jimin sleeping on Yoongi's bed.
Seokjin blames himself now for blaming the drowsiness then.
With Yoongi gone for his morning lecture the next day, Seokjin forgets to be mad at Jimin as the younger male endearingly shrinks from the embarrassment. He refuses to believe that he unintentionally spent the night, passed out, on a person's bed he barely knew, and Jimin presses down on his ruffled head that's evidently spinning from a hangover.
"Sunbae's friend? Which one?"
"Remember the guy we met at the music building when we had those udons? Mint-green hair? Min Yoongi?"
"Oh." Jimin straightens, his expression changing oddly. "Well, I feel really bad. Do you think it would be weird if I call him out tonight? You know, just to make it up to him. Sunbae, me, him, the three of us."
Seokjin smiles at Jimin's sweet gesture.
"Sure."
He whips out his phone to text Yoongi. Because well, it wasn't weird.
Within a few weeks, Seokjin, Yoongi, and Jimin soon becomes a regular "thing". The three of them start to hang out together more often, and soon enough it's only natural that Yoongi spends his time in the lounge of their English faculty building, studying until Jimin or Seokjin is free. He becomes the talk of their major, or amongst the female population to be exact, as they call him 'Mint Suga', screeching, or fan-girling as Taehyung calls it, whenever Yoongi orders a mocha latte and picks out a spot at the lounge.
Seokjin doesn't do anything about the unusual spiral of dynamics until Chwe Hansol, the genius that switched from Biology to English at the age of seventeen, drops the first question.
"Is Jiminnie hyung dating Mint Suga?"
Seokjin spews his congee all over Hansol's face.
"Kid, what the hell are you talking about?"
Seokjin cries out, not knowing that he would repeat the words to Taehyung in the near future, much nearer than he'd prefer. It's an official confirmation that Seokjin isn't the only one noticing things and getting an unusual vibe when he sees Yoongi and Jimin together, and Seokjin isn't sure if this alarms or relieves him. It's frustrating because he can't exactly pinpoint what's different, because it's not there physically but just out of reach hovering over the air, and Seokjin is still that element that makes the trio complete. Jimin's laugh rings from the other end of the cafeteria and Seokjin sees the boy doubling over at something stupid that Taehyung probably said. Seokjin isn't going to grab onto the fact that he feels that Jimin is brighter and more giggly than ever. If he's going to base this on an essay-writing, that sounds like the weakest argument he's ever come up with.
And then Min Yoongi's official pick-up rounds begin. Whenever the English faculty has a hweshik, or a night out, Yoongi starts to appear at the end of the night (but just the beginning for the stress-heavy students) to lift a ball of drunken flurries called Jimin on his shoulders and leave without a sound. In about a year, it upgrades to dragging Jimin out by his wrist before the younger male can finish grinding his crotch in mid-air to EXID's Up & Down.
Jackson Wang did not like this at all. And Seokjin has to agree with the upset Rhetorics major; one of the most anticipated part of their drinking rounds is in seeing Jimin reenact a scene from Macbeth (doing quintuple roles, for he insisted on doing Lady Macbeth and the three witches all by himself), sniffle a few tears, and then getting down to do one of the sexiest versions of Hyuna's Red.
"Mint Sunbae! Why thou taketh my lambkin merrymaker Jiminnie from twerking to Red?!"
With his decision-making skills numbed by alcohol, Jackson cries out with a total negligence for fear. And seriously, Seokjin would chuck his can of beer at Jackson's face if he isn't thrown off by the impassiveness of Yoongi's face. Yoongi is one less of a wild character, but that doesn't mean he's unemotional; Yoongi was, and is, always grumpy. Yet right now, Yoongi's posture isn't lazy nor is his gaze languid, he's looks crisp and alert and icy, as if he could slice Jackson with his looks.
"Get one of your own, aight?"
His voice is low and brusque but crystal clear, and the silence is only shattered by Jimin's giggling.
And that's when Seokjin finds justice behind trying to walk in on them doing something, he doesn't know what, but anything that can provide him answers. He surges into Yoongi's apartment unnoticed, only to end up helping the composition major soundproof his room. He skips class to see what Yoongi and Jimin might be doing in an empty lecture room, and they're fucking fighting over what movie they should watch: Inception or Wolf Boy, because Taehyung highly recommends it.
Seokjin is on the verge of just giving up.
"This is fucking hell, like these noodles are raping my tongue."
Jimin hisses, pushing away the bowl of fire chicken noodles.
"Or, you could just say that they're spicy."
Seokjin suggests healthily. As much as he appreciates Jimin's originality, Seokjin wonders how he's passing his courses with such analogies.
"Want ice?"
Yoongi asks, getting up enthusiastically when Jimin's orange hair flops up and down. Seokjin doesn't find it that bad, but Jimin is busy flapping his hand over his mouth when Yoongi comes back with a bowl of ice. Jimin's lips are very obvious and huge by now; they're red and puffy from putting up with heat and chemically-engineered flavour. Yoongi grabs a tissue and wipes the corner of his mouth, a gesture coated with unmistakable fondness that Seokjin drops his chopsticks. Jimin smiles and pops an icecube in his mouth, his cheeks bulging like a hamster. Yoongi lightly taps Jimin's round cheeks with the tip of his fingers, and Jimin starts giggling. He motions Yoongi to lean in, and if this is the Yoongi Seokjin knows, his Yoongi would never comply, because ignoring personal space and closing in on someone just so he could lend his ears is something Min Yoongi's character would never allow. But Yoongi does, he does with so much inclination and familiarity as if he does it all the time, and a new smile that Seokjin's never seen before rests softly on Yoongi's mouth. Jimin whispers and Seokjin can hear him; it's nothing but a mere 'thanks', and Seokjin has so many questions, like why did Jimin have to ask Yoongi to lean in to say thanks in his ear and why does Yoongi look so happy to hear a thanks, again, in. his. ears?
It's some magical fuckery Seokjin has never seen before and he has a hard time comprehending it.
Seokjin's not hungry anymore, and this better be a remarkable discovery he made because he is never not hungry. Things are beginning to click in his head, but this time Seokjin's more alarmed than relieved. He's trying to think, but Jimin's laughter sounds more bouncier and animated, accompanied by crunching sounds of frozen ice. Nowadays Seokjin feels like Jimin laughs way too much for no particular reason and its one of those exact times, as the icecube slips out of his mouth and falls onto his pants. Yoongi reaches for it, his hand briefly resting on Jimin's thighs before he holds the melting piece of cube to Jimin's chin. Jimin lowers his head and sucks the cube into his mouth.
Seokjin stares.
Seokjin stares, because he can't bring himself to ask. Why he'd been so slow, when Hansol or Taehyung (even Taehyung noticed, for fuck's sakes) apparently caught on, is still a mystery, but Seokjin feels it's too late. So what if they are? Seokjin realizes now that Yoongi never had a girlfriend and maybe this was why- but that's not important at the moment, because what if they're not, what if they haven't come to terms with their own feelings and Seokjin ruins it for them? What if it split them up? What if it split him and Yoongi up?
They're all very valid questions so Seokjin just sits there, pretending not to know like every other day.
"They are currently dating."
Seokjin just knows that his mind is out of it, having spent sleepless nights with every inch of himself reeking with caffeine and stench of finals. Which is why he has to blink once, twice, and three times before Jungkook's words can sink in properly. It's that time of the year again, and this year the victims are Hoseok and Namjoon who are taking a break from school to serve in the military. A couple of friends had gathered to note the occassion, and Seokjin would tease the 94-liners if the atmosphere isn't so damn depressing already. Taehyung comes late as usual, his excuse being that after seeing a D+ next to his final paper, he'd called the professor to double check it, only to get it revised to an F. Filling his glasses with tears, Taehyung proceeds to drink his problems as Soonyoung, Wonwoo, and Hansol fall into a deeper pool of depression at the thought of being next-in line of going to the army. Jeon Jungkook is the last and a new one, apparently Yoongi's hoobae as a first year Composition major and amazingly Hoseok's sister's boyfriend's younger brother. And it's him that drops the bombshell on their otherwise miserable table.
Right after Taehyung arrived, Jimin received a call from Yoongi because the moron lacks the most basic sense of direction and can't find their bar. Seokjin wants to snatch the phone and explain it's because he'd grumbled the entire time Seokjin described the location this morning, but really, he knows better. After two minutes of hopeless directioning, Jimin leaves to find Yoongi himself and everything starts with Namjoon's mindless utter,
"I wonder how Yoongi sunbae's going to react to Jimin enlisting next year."
"Well, it's not like he has any power to smuggle Jimin out of it."
"You know, you can hurt yourself to avoid it." Hoseok pipes up, adding a hasty not that I thought about doing it, afterwards. "It's illegal of course, but you can at least get downgraded to doing public service. They can see each other every day then."
"Oh my god. Fuck, you're right."
"Oh sure, if Jimin's thick thighs can prove that he's too weak."
Taehyung snorts, picking at the plate of nachos.
"The most likely scenario we'll get is waking up to the breaking news of an undergraduate Composition major who broke the barracks from outside to get into the military for the first time ever in the history of South Korea."
Seokjin stiffens, because he can feel where this is going, but Soonyoung's already opened his mouth and he's too far from where Seokjin is sitting to shove a handful of nachos down the boy's throat.
"That makes no sense. Unless Yoongi sunbae and Jimin sunbae are, you know..."
Soonyoung freezes, and Seokjin wants to throw his arms in the air, but apparently they haven't reached the climax yet because Jeon Jungkook clears his throat.
"They are currently dating."
Silence.
"What, nobody knew?"
Jungkook looks around. Seokjin's kind of just sitting there, only to be nudged by Hansol who mouths 'I told you so'. The gloomy raincloud over Taehyung's head disappears with a pop as he swerves his head at Jungkook and drops his jaws. Hoseok is struck speechless, and Namjoon just blinks rapidly as if he just saw a ghost.
"I thought everybody knew." Jungkook turns to Hoseok. "You seriously didn't know?"
"Wait, what?! Are you fucking kidding me, that means I was right! I WAS SO FUCKING RIGHT"
And voila. Kim Taehyung's resurrection. Jungkook nods nonchalantly.
"They were so obvious in our lounge, I'm surprised that this is news here."
"See, I told you! And you told me to shut up, hyung."
"Shut up, Tae." Seokjin leans over and addresses Hoseok's sister's boyfriend's younger brother. "Are you sure? Did Yoongi tell you?"
"Well-"
"No way, it's probably some other people with the same names, like, Bang Yoongi and Oh Jimin."
"I WAS RIGHT THE ENTIRE TIME-"
Kids are still yapping away and Seokjin silences them with a snapping shh, because he really needs to know.
"Jungkook, how did you know?"
Jungkook looks a bit flustered as the oldest interrogates him, but Seokjin doesn't know the kid enough, and he might be blabbering uncomfirmed shit and Seokjin is indeed, very alarmed right now. Not wanting to be the one to disclose personal information that isn't his, Jungkook eyes Hoseok for help but Hoseok is already on the other side, his eyes burning with curiosity. Jungkook bites his lips, slowly starting off with,
"Well, I've only heard this from Jihoon."
Jungkook's story starrs another fellow Composition major named Lee Jihoon. Seokjin's heard of him before, since he is one of Yoongi's closest hoobaes and another well-known individual for a cute reason actually; he looks like a smaller version of Min Yoongi and behaves like one too. Both being the disinterested grumps they are, Jihoon is also uninvolved and indifferent to other people's business.
But there is one, a single notable incident where Jihoon mingles in someone else's personal concern, and it turns out to be about Min Yoongi and Park Jimin's annoyingly vague relationship. It's an ordinary day at the Music faculty and a huge group of composition majors are eating udons at the cafeteria when out of the blue, Jihoon inquires blatantly.
"Yoongi hyung, are you dating Jimin sunbae?"
Yoongi looks up from his bowl, and Jihoon sees Yoongi blushing, blushing, something that rarely veils Yoongi's face even when Jihoon endlessly praises or admires the elder's work.
"Why?"
Yoongi tries to look collected and picks up his chopsticks again. Jihoon supposes that he's pretending to go back to eating, but he knows Yoongi enough to know that his sunbae actually hates their cafeteria udon.
"Because I'd like to know before I make a move."
That effectively jolts Yoongi. He looks like he's struck with a mixture of shock, confusion, anger and betrayal, but after staring at Jihoon's face for a minute, his facial muscles begin to relax.
Jihoon's a little shit, cleverly trying to pull something out of him, but Yoongi knows about Jihoon's undying crush on Kim Mingyu, a tall and tan stud from the Theatre department that comes to borrow their equipment sometimes. Yoongi has a sudden urge to mess with the younger male, but looking at his face is almost like looking into a smaller mirror, and Yoongi can't deny that Jihoon's like a little brother to him. Besides, Yoongi's been a bit restless that he'd lost the timing to announce that Jimin can't be shared.
Jihoon doesn't seem to enjoy the drag of the answer, because he opens his mouth again.
"And even if you're not, it would suck to be stuck between two people who are trying to test how far friendship and ambiguity can take them."
With that Jihoon goes back to his udon, his first ever snooping coming to an end.
If that's a story passed from ear to ear, Jungkook personally wintnesses the legendary second incident. It takes place at the cafeteria again, and Jungkook is peacefully taking a sip of his water when Yoongi slams his tray down in front of them, looks directly at Jihoon and says,
"We are dating, it's been twenty-four hours, so don't even think about it."
The water going down the wrong pipe, Jungkook involuntarily sprays a mist of water across the table. Unimpressed by the mini-rainbow floating above his sandwich, Jihoon cranes his neck at Yoongi and smiles.
"Alright, I won't."
The story ends much too abruptly, but Jungkook is done.
His body suddenly loosening, Seokjin feels something hot crawl up from the pit of his stomach. It has nothing to do with the fact that Yoongi and Jimin are in love, but with the fact that he heard it from someone he'd only met today, and that he was getting the same treatment with the people Yoongi knew for only one to two years. Taehyung leans back, his face sulking as he dips a nacho in sour cream.
"Wow, I'm so disappointed in Jimin. How could he not tell me?" He chomps down on the nachos indignantly, "And Yoongi sunbae too, he should've at least told Jin hyung."
"Maybe the atmosphere here wasn't as welcoming."
It sounds as if Jungkook's voice carries some intentional thorns, and Taehyung sharply whips his head.
"What do you mean?"
"It was pretty obvious, so rather than being interested in if they were dating or not, we were more interested in when they were going to tell us."
Jungkook sounds fucking smug, and Seokjin decides that he doesn't like this Jungkook kid after all.
"At least we saw it coming," Namjoon says, shrugging and wrapping his arm around Hoseok's shoulder. "They look good together."
Sure, Seokjin grumbles. Honestly, Seokjin had never been able to picture Yoongi in an intimate category with anybody. But he'd seen how natural Yoongi looked with Jimin in the picture, and he's happy for him, slightly disgruntled, but sure, he's happy. Seokjin gets up to breathe some fresh air, because Taehyung and this Kookie kid are actually yelling and flinging nacho chips at each other across the table.
Besides, something else of more importance occurs to him now; that Yoongi may actually have been considerate of him by not telling him. He'd been pretending to be oblivious about it all this time, but Seokjin is now pretty sure that Yoongi would've noticed his pathetic attempt. No matter how many pages of notes Seokjin took in class, Yoongi had always been slightly smarter.
The night is still young. Puffs of cloud forms as Seokjin sighs, and he turns around the corner when fuck, he sees the familiar heads of mint and orange locks brushing together under the street lamp. They're kissing, and Seokjin is being a creep and watching, until Jimin's giggles wake him up and forces him to retrace his steps. So this, this is exactly what Yoongi's been trying to avoid, and Seokjin isn't sure if he appreciates it or just wants to punch Yoongi in the face.
Seokjin is lying if he hadn't gone through the list of some potential love interests the moment he picked up his education again, but he'd taken his eyes off of Kang Seulgi because it was his last year and he needed to graduate for fuck's sakes, not that it matters now because fuck Min Yoongi, and he's going to hook himself up the very next day.
Seokjin's had enough of being the third wheel.