Chapter Text
Wedding Day: The Reception
It's an intimate affair in the only way that best represents Min Yoongi's and Park Jimin's commitment to each other. Surrounded by their favorite people— family, friends, their dog and cat, full of laughs, top shelf liquor and the best food if Jimin's eomma, appa and cousin have anything to say about it.
Jimin's been dying for a glass of champagne (or several) but his wedding party have threatened bloody murder because something or other is supposed to be happening that requires his full attention (and sobriety) but he just wants that nice buzz to top off the joy and beauty of an already spectacular day. Sensing his musings, his husband (omg he’s a husband) squeezes his thigh, placing his nose behind his ear for a quick nuzzle. It gets Jimin to giggle and turn back to his beloved's direction. There's nothing but love in those eyes. Eyes that he's now going to spend the rest of his life studying, cherishing, witnessing intimately. Their foreheads meet and just as they're about to seal the moment with yet another kiss, the ting ting ting of a glass causes the general buzz in the reception hall to lower.
"Okay, okay. I know it took forever…"
"Yeah, no shit."
"Kim Taehyung, I told you no swear words at my son's wedding, damn it!"
"Sorry, eomma…" Taehyung offers with the biggest unapologetic grin.
Jeongguk continues to narrow his eyes at Taehyung, causing both Jimin to laugh and Yoongi to shake his head. Those two. "Before I was so rudely interrupted," he makes a point to look directly at Taehyung before he turns back, holding up his glass. "Hyung and Jimin-ssi," he starts cheekily. "I know we've done a lot of speeches already but you promised you'd save the best for last, so here we are. You know I hate doing shit… uh stuff like this, getting up here in front of people and making a fool of myself…"
"Emphasis on fool!" Taehyung interjects, causing lots of chuckles and Yoongi to sigh, knowing that will be met with chaos.
Sure enough, at rapid fire speed, Jeongguk decks Taehyung with something from his pocket. From Jimin's angle, possibly a piece of fruit, causing the man to sputter before he gathers himself, ready to charge the younger. Before he can though, Seokjin's already there, pulling him back.
"Jeongguk-ah, you promised. You both even signed the contract." Yoongi offers in gentle admonishment.
"Yeah and I can't believe you both made me si— eomma, hyung made me sign a contract saying I wouldn't cause bodily harm to this demon on his wedding!" He pouts. Taehyung scoffs, perturbed but Seokjin must have also threatened him because he surprisingly contains any further outburst.
"Yah, Min Yoongi, don't bully the baby!" His mother chides, shaking her head.
"Yes, eomma. Even on my wedding day, you make it painfully obvious you do, in fact, play favorites." Yoongi deadpans, shaking his head while others laugh at the exchange.
His mother waves him off, blowing a kiss at Jeongguk and winking at Jimin.
Jeongguk, grinning triumphantly, raises his glass again just before Taehyung can open his mouth to interrupt. "As I was saying, I hate doing speeches like this. I needed a couple of shots to even get up here. But I promised you both I would have a gift for you. It took me years… literally, to put this altogether. Hyung, you're a terrible brother. You let me outgrow you, you don’t let me cuddle you so I have to force it whenever I come over and your cat has this weird obsession with hissing at me…"
"Is it the cat or… yah!" Taehyung shrieks because Jeongguk has pulled out a tiny water gun and zapped him right between the eyes.
"This is going to take all night." Yoongi groans, rubbing his temple. Jimin shakes his head, giggling, while rubbing his husband's (seriously, he's actually married) back.
"Anyway, you and Jimin-ssi are gross but Jimin-ssi, welcome to the family, officially. It's about time you both got your shit… I mean stuff together. Took you both long enough to finally put the rest of us out of our misery."
To no one but Jimin’s surprise, literally everyone groans and chimes in agreement. "Yah! We should've made each of you sign a no roasting agreement too!" He huffs.
"Next time we get married, none of them are invited, baby." Yoongi adds resolutely, causing Jimin to giggle again.
Jeongguk rolls his eyes before continuing. "Anyway, grossness and demon cats and friends aside, I just want to say that I love you both. Thank you for putting up with me and for showing me real love can exist even if you're disgustingly whipped for each other. It's been a pleasure being among the first to witness this love blossom and before I get weepy, I'm going to cut the talking short and present you with my gift. Don't ever say I never gave you nothing, especially with all I had to put up with to even put this together. And also this should really seal the deal that I am, in fact, the best man here. You're welcome."
"Boo! Down in front!" Taehyung heckles and Jeongguk not so subtly gives him the finger.
The reception hall staff have lowered a screen and Jeongguk moves to the side to speak to someone who has wheeled in a projector. Jimin looks at Yoongi, who is equally intrigued by what could possibly be happening. It would make sense that Jeongguk might gift them a video of some kind, considering he's always with a camera. But they're both unsure of how this could go.
"If he shares a compilation of baby photos, I'm going to murder him…" Yoongi whispers.
"But you were the cutest baby, yeobo!" Jimin coos, squishing Yoongi's cheeks. Yoongi kisses his nose, causing him to giggle.
As the sound starts, sure enough the video shows a compilation of baby footage collected from both Yoongi and Jimin's families, with Frankie Valli's Can't Take My Eyes Off You playing (a nod to that being one of their songs). People coo and laugh.
Jimin, who had an obsession with One Piece, in his pirate era. Yoongi, who oddly developed his side eye game from the moment he took his first breath. There's an uproar of laughs when there's nothing but a continuous compilation of Yoongi side eyeing people, including when a newborn Jeongguk lays wrapped in his arms and Yoongi's clearly looking at whomever is speaking like their entire existence should cease to exist.
"You've always been like this, hyung. You should really work on that in your old age," Jeongguk whispers, standing behind them. He throws his head back in a robust laugh when he is, in fact, met with Min Yoongi's side eye.
The compilation transitions and eventually there's Jeongguk in front of the camera.
"Hello. This is director, Jeon Jeongguk. Testing. Testing. Ah… here we are."
The next edit cuts to his voice behind the camera. "In your own words, I'm going to ask each of you to tell the story of how Yoongi and Jimin fell in love."
As he narrates this, the camera cuts to different people: Min Yoongi's parents and elder brother, Park Jimin's parents and younger brother, Jimin's halmeoni, Kim Seokjin, Kim Namjoon, Jung Hoseok, Kim Taehyung, Yoongi's childhood bestie, Song Jieun, Jimin's dance bestie, Lee Nayeon, and the crowd has the hugest reaction seeing their cat and dog in a chair.
The Interview
(Question 1: How did Yoongi and Jimin meet?)
[Kim Taehyung]
Jeongguk: State your name.
Taehyung: You know my name.
Jeongguk: Cut. You're fired.
(Jimin almost falls out of his chair laughing)
Jeongguk: How did Yoongi and Jimin meet?
.
[Kim Seokjin]
Seokjin: Oh, that's an easy one! I was there. I set them up!
(This causes Jimin to squawk and Yoongi to laugh)
Jeongguk: Hyung, I was there too, that's not what happened!
Seokjin: Yah! You're not the one being interviewed!
Jeongguk: Cut! *sighs* Take 57...
Seokjin: Don't make it seem like I’m being unprofessional when you interrupted!
(At this, everyone laughs but Seokjin scoffs at the screen. "Yah! What kind of director are you?!")
.
[Kim Taehyung]
Taehyung: …when they officially met or like the first time they actually saw each other?
Jeongguk: Seriously, why do you have to make this so complicated? Just answer the damn question!
Taehyung: Yah! You're the one making things complicated!
Jeongguk: Oh my God, I'm dealing with a moron.
Taehyung: You're so lucky you have all those muscles because otherwise I'd kick your --
.
[Jimin's Parents]
Jimin's Eomma: When was it… 4 years ago? Right, jagiya? When we had that birthday event we were supposed to be catering for, remember?
Jimin's Appa: How could I forget? We almost lost money because your son's head was so in the clouds.
(Jimin whines, causing Yoongi to rub his back while his own shoulders bounce in laughter)
Jimin's Eomma: We booked this really high end birthday event for a chaebol family. Appa was quite good at marketing back then and landed the deal. So we asked Jimin and his cousin to help because Jimin was home for break and Seokjin was trying to start his own venture into owning a restaurant. And they were so excited to join us but then some of their old friends stopped by and told them to come out and have drinks.
Jimin's Appa: And we told them what the schedule would look like. So we thought they should hang out after everything was over. But you know how you young kids are these days.
Jimin's Eomma: I can't believe those two really snuck out. They're always like this.
Jimin's Appa: That's your side of the family. Yah! (Eomma wacks him, everyone watching laughs)
Jimin's Eomma: So anyway, they snuck out on us, days into prepping for this catering event. Next thing I know, Jimin comes home and he's a blushing mess. You couldn't get him to concentrate for three days straight. Aigoo, you should've seen the way he was floating around here! (Eomma gets up and demonstrates guiding her arms around in a prancing motion and everyone laughs, even Jimin has to)
Jeongguk: If he couldn't concentrate, how did you get through the event?
Jimin's Appa: We fired him. (Everyone is in an uproar)
.
[Kim Namjoon]
Namjoon: You know I often wonder about this. How two people can just catch each other's eye and then just like that, things change. It's like is that fate, or is that a coincidence? I don't really know but I've been thinking about that a lot, you know? If it's fate, then what does that mean? Does that mean something bigger than us conspired to work together to put this whole thing together? And if so, does that make us less inclined to truly be autonomous? If not, what are the odds that these two people at this point in time on this day would cross paths?
Jeongguk: *sighs* Hyung, just answer the question...
Namjoon: What was the question again?
.
[Jung Hoseok]
Jung Hoseok: We took a trip to the beach to celebrate that you were becoming an adult. You and hyung got lost from the rest of our group. And you were trying to figure out how to get your camera to work, I remember because we just surprised you with it and you said you wanted to make sure to get as many moments as possible. We were walking on the boardwalk. And hyung was trying to help you while we were all headed to get something to eat. But then I looked up and you two weren’t with us anymore. Then when we found you… wait, was it that you were upset because hyung wasn’t listening or because he wasn't buying you the skewers you wanted…?
Jeongguk: Hyung, we can't keep doing all these takes!
.
[Min Yoongi's Parents]
Yoongi’s appa: Because you couldn't work that fancy camera of yours.
Jeongguk: *whining* Appa!
Yoongi’s eomma: Don't tease the baby! (everyone laughs)
.
The film cuts to a blurry scene before slowly but not entirely going into focus. It's older footage. First of Jeongguk's big eyes which causes everyone to laugh yet again. Then he moves away from the camera. The backdrop looks like a sleepy beach town, one part of a boardwalk. The filters are all wrong, the angles are slightly tilted. Standing by a pier is Yoongi, turned away, at his side, slightly off camera.
Jeongguk: Hyung, keep still. I just need a focal point!
Jeongguk moves towards Yoongi after having tried to give the man several directions to no response. He waves a hand in front of his face before the other flinches back a bit.
Jeongguk: *huffs* I know you space out but what the hell are you even staring at?
He rolls his eyes after following Yoongi's gaze before shaking his head and uttering some choice words (all picked up on the camera). This causes Jimin, especially, to laugh in surprise. They’ve never seen this footage before.
Jeongguk's still slightly in front of the camera trying to pan in and out but the angle still allows the viewers to see the moment Yoongi and Jimin both lock eyes. They freeze and there's several beats before it appears that Jimin says something to Seokjin then starts walking towards them, causing Yoongi to gasp.
Jeongguk: You've gotta be shitting me.
.
[Jeon Jeongguk]
(Jeongguk's now in front of the camera set up where all of the other interviewers have been seated thus far.)
Jeongguk: I guess this is as good a time as any to fess up. I never told you both that I caught this moment. I'm not sure why. Well, actually, at first I forgot. (This causes a lot of chuckles in the reception hall from people who know Jeongguk well) Then I found it and thought I should archive it. I actually wasn't aiming for either one of you after Yoongi hyung started being gross. You can see from the way the camera's kind of tilted and the filters are terrible. It was completely an accident but… I guess to answer Namjoon hyung's question, in my opinion, you can still say it was fate in a way.
Four Years Ago: A beach town near Busan
Jimin
"Jimin-ah, relax before you get premature wrinkles. Isn't hyung always telling you to live a little? You came all this way. I can't believe you're the one having second thoughts." Seokjin shares, bouncing excitedly now that they've created enough distance to where neighbors might not be able to let his parents know they’ve seen them.
"Yeah, that's before I thought about the fact that appa offered to pay for your deposit upfront, hyung. If they catch us out here after we agreed to wait…"
Seokjin places a supportive arm around Jimin's shoulders. "Technically, we didn't agree. They just suggested and we nodded. Plus, I already told you, Changwook-samchon loves me. If everything goes to shit, I'll take the blame. But it's just one day out, blow off a little steam, catch up with some friends, have a few drinks. They'll barely even notice we're not there." He waves off, assuredly.
But Jimin still doesn't feel so sure. Still, perhaps his hyung is right. He has been studying quite a bit and even though he'd agreed to help his parents, this wasn't his original idea of a break from his classes. Still, he loves his parents and would do anything for them. Their excitement made him excited. How could it not? And they're working so hard to ensure he can still afford school, even though he insists on having a part-time job to their chagrin.
"Now, what we really need to focus on is how much junk food we can eat and drink before our faces turn puffy." Seokjin-hyung offers, taking his phone out. "It also wouldn’t hurt to figure out where the lighting is." He adds, chasing the light.
He loves his older cousin, they're practically like siblings. But the man has the strangest priorities sometimes. He's happy for him, though. It was very brave to step away from his original path of working for a top level company executive to pursue his culinary dreams. His parents, Jimin’s aunt and uncle, were a bit weary. But Jimin’s eomma, especially, called for a family meeting where they all sat together to develop a plan that felt feasible for all involved. Jimin wishes he could give back in the same way his family’s always been there for him like this. But they told him his job was to actually finish school. Emphasis on finish.
They’re just about to turn off the boardwalk to meet up with their friends when Seokjin stops because he’s caught a great angle with lighting and wants to take a selca. At the same time, Jimin, bored and still worried he might get a call or text from his parents at any moment, is looking around at anything and nothing. He gets that feeling that he can feel someone staring. It’s in that moment, he turns and locks eyes with the cutest boy he’s ever seen. Standing by the pier, a dark hat on his head, turned backwards, distressed jeans and a long, dark sweater. From here, Jimin can’t fully make out his features but there’s just something about him.
They stare for what feels like an eternity before Jimin instinctively starts moving. He turns back, “hyung, hyung… we have to go over there. By the pier. I think that's my future husband.”
Yoongi
Even though he didn’t outwardly show it, Yoongi truly was excited for this road trip. Sure, Jeongguk was potentially on the verge of working his last nerve, especially now that they’d surprised him with the camera but the younger definitely deserved moments where he could be an excitable, bouncy puppychild. Besides, it was a great time to celebrate— him finishing conscription, Jeongguk becoming an adult, Namjoon Namjooning, Hoseok and Jieun almost but maybe not tip toeing around each other. It’d been a while since they were all able to get together and the drive was nice and relaxing too.
"Jeongguk-ah, you should get some test shots out of the way so we can do a fun photoshoot." Hoseok shares while they’re all huddled, trying to figure out why the camera isn’t working.
Namjoon reaches his hand out. "Here, just give it to me, I’m sure I can figure out why…"
“NO!” Everyone blurts, collectively, causing them to laugh (except Namjoon)
“You… you just search for the address of that spicy squid place you told us about, Namjoon-ah.” Jieun shares, patting him on the chest placatingly.
Pouting, Namjoon goes back to his assigned task, leaving Hoseok to pose against the wall of a shop they’re standing in front of in order to help Jeongguk focus his lens. Jieun rolls her eyes but grins at his antics, swatting when he tries to get her to join.
Yoongi moves to Jeongguk’s side. “What’s up, Jeonggukie. Do you want hyung to look at it?”
“I got it, hyung. I think… it’s just that—"
“Guys! I found it. It says we’re not too far!” Namjoon announces abruptly. “We can finish up with things when we get inside."
They all begin walking again. Yoongi and Jeongguk are slightly behind Namjoon, Hoseok and Jieun. Namjoon excitedly shows the other two something or other about the restaurant when Jeongguk’s camera makes a sound, causing the younger to squeak.
“Yah! Jung Hoseok, we’ll catch up with you guys in just a minute.” Yoongi calls but the trio keep walking while Yoongi’s turning to Jeongguk. “What happened?"
“I don’t know. It just made this noise. I’m wondering if I should power it back off and on again. Hyung, do me a favor, stand over there so I can get a focal point.” Jeongguk asks, pointing by the pier.
Jeongguk sets the camera up at an angle while trying to tinker with its features. Listless, Yoongi stands, first looking out at the water. It’s nice to catch the breeze, the dance of the waves and the smell. He looks up at the cotton candy sky and thinks this might be a great moment for Jeongguk to catch… if he can catch it.
He’s still just staring out into nothing and everything when the prettiest sound he’s ever heard catches his attention. Someone is giggling and there’s something about it that immediately pulls his head in that direction. There, not far from him, is an angel. The most pretty, beautiful, stunning angel with cotton candy hair to match the sky.
He hears Jeongguk say something before waving a hand in front of him. It takes him off guard and causes him to flinch but he doesn’t lose sight of the beauty before him. When the angel finally looks in Yoongi’s direction, he hadn’t realized how long he’d been staring but it holds even longer. They lock eyes for what feels like an eternity and already, Yoongi knows he could stay lost in those eyes forever.
The boy says something to his companion before he starts walking directly towards Yoongi, causing him to gasp. He’s internally panicking. Is his breath okay? Does he smell right? What should he say? Should he be the one to speak since the cutie took the first steps? None of those questions get answers. The angel turns back and Jeongguk is shouting about getting his camera to work while also rushing Yoongi off.
“Hyung, they said it’s crowded and if we’re not there they’ll give up our table. Hurry.”
Jimin
“Jimin-ah, I don’t get what the big deal is. You saw a pretty guy. You see them all the time. You’re cute, you’re related to me, you’re bound to run into cute guys all the time.” Seokjin mentions, as if it made the most logical sense.
Jimin’s been complaining ever since some supposed future husband of his walked away, leaving the younger to blame him.
“If you hadn’t called me back to look at your selca, I was headed over there to talk to him! I may never see him again, hyung!” Jimin huffs petulantly.
When Seokjin hyung called for him, distracting him from his initial goal, he’d turned towards him, almost immediately turning back in a fit, only to find the guy was gone (and with him, Jimin’s dreams). Now’s he’s not too sure what he was meaning to do walking over to him but the point is his cousin is a major cockblocker.
“Jimin-ah, need I remind you, you didn’t even want to come out in the first place. Really, you should thank hyung for getting your heart racing.” At Seokjin’s words, Jimin scoffs. “Think about it. You got to see some eye candy and now you can leave this trip on a high note, considering you are not well suited for long distance and you’ll be stuck serving kimchi all weekend so you can’t even have a fling if you wanted."
Jimin doesn’t care if Seokjin hyung has reasonable points. He’s too busy pouting. Hyung doesn't understand what that felt like. Almost as if time itself stopped for two people for a brief moment...
They’d just finished catching up with their friends and were heading back home but Jimin’s mind has been in shambles since he’d been abruptly pulled away from that moment. Even more so because Seokjin hyung won’t help him retrace his steps, considering it’s been hours, claiming to be so tired suddenly and laying it on thick about how they need to sneak back home soon.
As if someone is speaking his thoughts aloud, he hears, “hyung, we lost everybody again because you can’t let go of the fact that this mystery guy you saw doesn’t want you! We’ve been searching for hours. I haven’t seen you in forever, hyung. We may never get a trip like this again, considering how hard it was to coordinate all of our schedules. You promised we’d…"
Jimin looks up and is immediately met with the same eyes he saw back on that pier. Up close, he’s even more handsome than Jimin even thought.
“Hi."
“Hi."