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The first time Yoongi heard about the kid that looked like him was when Jimin had been scrolling through their Twitter one morning and his picture had popped up.
“Holy shit,” he had muttered out loud, which had prompted Taehyung, who was resting in the smaller boy’s lap, to look at him curiously and peer at the screen. The both of them had promptly turned to look at him, which of course he had ignored.
“Hyung,” Taehyung had started. Shit. He prayed that he was talking to someone else but when he cracked his eyes open from where he was laying on his makeshift bed of three chairs, Taehyung was staring st him.
“You should come here and look at this…”
His brows knitted together. “No,” he replied lazily, and closed his eyes to see if he could fall back asleep.
It worked for the most part, and it was easy to ignore their hushed conversation until someone walked in. He opened his eyes just the tiniest fraction to see Jungkook walking over to the two boys that were still intently bent over Jimin’s phone.
A call of “Yoongi hyung!” came from across the room and now it was time to pretend to be asleep in a desperate hope that they would leave him alone.
There was silence that followed and Yoongi breathed out in relief.
Until -
“Hyuuuuuunggggggg.” Came Jungkook’s whispered voice and a rush of hot air that was very, very close - too close, infact - to the shell of his ear. Yoongi suppressed the urge to jump out of his skin and/or deck the maknae in the face so instead he just went with a low growl of annoyance, warning Jungkook to not push his luck.
Which Jungkook paid no attention to, of course, because his long fingers were soon dancing up and down Yoongi’s sides in a bad attempt to tickle him.
“Mmmmmfg. Go away Jungkookie, I'm sleeping,” he muttered dismissively.
Jungkook’s fingers were tickling around his neck now, in featherlight touches that nearly made him want to squirm away.
“Kookie,” he murmured. “Stop right now before my fist ends up in your asshole.”
“I don’t know about you, hyung, but to me that would be more pleasure than punishment…”
There was a sultry purr and another ghosting of hot breath into his ear and then the feeling of something wet - the maknae was literally licking his earlobe - and that was enough for him.
“Jungkook.” He growled, opening one of his eyes to see the boy pulling back, his eyes dancing teasingly and a satisfied smirk on his handsome face. “What the fuck do I need to see so urgently?”
“You have a twin!” He grinned, but it faded when he saw the look of what the actual fuck that Yoongi’s features drew into. “See, I told you he wouldn’t believe me!” Jungkook tossed over his shoulder at Jimin.
“Hyung, you really do have a twin!” Taehyung called.
Yoongi closed his eyes again. It’s all noise… meaningless noise, he thought to himself.
Jimin hopped out of his chair and made his way over to where Yoongi was lying and poked him in the side. “Yah hyung, look! It’s almost scary!”
When Yoongi made no attempt to move, Jimin stuck one of his fingers into his ear. His eyes flew open and then he spat out a curse word, squinting at the bright screen that was being held a centimeter away from his nose. He plucked the device away from Jimin and held it at enough distance that he could actually see what was on the screen.
Which was a boy, with short, strawberry pink hair. He had a round face that ended in a surprisingly sharp looking jaw and a pointed chin. His eyes were curved into half crescents, the corners of his mouth were lifted up in an almost awkward looking, polite smile, the whiteness of his teeth standing out even against his pale, flawless looking skin.
He handed the phone back to Jimin.
“He doesn’t even look like me, I don’t know why you kids were making such a fuss about it,” he grumbled. He was about to close his eyes when the phone was shoved into his face again, showing a picture of him and this kid, comparing them from three different angles.
“So we have the same face, if you’re drunk and blind.” He muttered.
“No no, but hyung - listen! His name is Lee Jihoon, he’s a member of that massive rookie boy group that pledis started, he - he hates waking up, he’s got a sharp tongue, he’s only three years younger than you, he does a bunch of the producing….” Jimin rambled on but Yoongi interrupted him sharply.
“He’s not my twin.”
But he tucked away the name and facts and made a mental note to search him up on Naver later.
When Jimin caught him on his phone a few weeks later, watching YouTube videos of Lee Jihoon, or Woozi (which was his stage name) and he begrudingly admitted that him and Jihoon were similar, the orange haired shithead had promptly crowed it to the rest of Bangtan and Yoongi just as promptly decided that Park Jimin was no longer his favourite dongsaeng.
They were at an awards show when Yoongi saw him for the first actual time.
His “twin”.
He had gotten used to the Taehyung’s jeers of “how’s your twin, hyung? Am I talking to Jihoon or Yoongi right now?”
They were performing one of their songs and Yoongi tried his hardest not to watch every move the boy made. However, every few minutes Jimin would lean over and whisper something about the boy in his ear, maintaining a straight face that Yoongi knew he was struggling with cause of the dozens of cameras that were capturing their every move, but honestly it wasn’t really helping much. Stuff like
“Woah, he nailed that move!!”
and
“Hyung, are you watching him dance? He probably dances better than you!”
Seventeen ended up winning a rookie award and Yoongi couldn’t help but clap and he couldn’t help the grin that split across face either as they made their acceptance speech.
“Look hyung, the one boy is crying… I remember our first award….” The smile dropped from his face and he turned to shoot Jimin a look .
And then, the moppy haired boy - Vernon - leaned over and said something to Jihoon and Yoongi’s stomach did a weird flip flop but it didn’t compare at all to when, a moment later, the most feline, mischievous yet innocent, heart stopping, brilliant smile spread across Jihoon’s plump cheeks. He had thought it was something when captured on camera, but looking at it in real life was almost like looking at a sunrise through a dirty window and then having someone come along and wipe all the dirt off.
“He’s cute, yah?”
Jimin was in his ear again, breaking the moment with a knowing smirk, and Yoongi shot him a look of pure daggers, before he decided it was probably best to ignore him and then maybe, sometime - or knowing Jimin, it would be never - he would finally get the hint.
They were rehearsing for another awards show again now, surrounded by other idols and groups as the organizers went over all the information about how it was going to run and where everybody was going to stand. Taehyung was off - probably talking to Byun Baekhyun, EXO’s powerful vocalist who he had just a teensy, tiny, major crush on. He liked to claim that it was one sided, but Yoongi will never forget the one time they had been shooting for an MV and he had been sleeping when a phone went off and he had thought it was his and grabbed it. It had turned out to be Taehyung’s buzzing consistently with texts from “ Baekkie oppa ”. He read the beginning of one (“ Taetae, you’re soooooo handsome~~ ♥ ” ) and had promptly put it back, recoiling.
Hobi had been running around with Jimin and Jungkook, mimicking them. Idiots.
Seokjin had disappeared in search of food. Typical.
To say that Min Yoongi was bored, would be an understatement.
Now Namjoon….. Namjoon was talking to people; he could see his head peeking out from above everyone’s heads, a perk of being tall, his blonde hair moving as he nodded, agreeing with whoever he was talking to. And socializing was definitely not one of the things he was planning to do, but it was at that moment when Jungkook appeared, his eyes bright and cheeks flushed.
“Hyung, come here for a sec - “
Yoongi was immediately suspicious. “No.” He replied.
“You got anything better to do?” Jungkook smirked, and Yoongi twisted his head to try to find Namjoon.
However Namjoon must have been looking for him, cause praise the lords, it was his lucky day and the two made successful eye contact. Yoongi tried not to make pleading eyes, but he was saved from the embarassment when Namjoon mouthed something at him that looked like
“Come over here.”
“Namjoonie’s calling me,” he told Jungkook, trying his best not to look too smug.
Honestly, he was incredibly lucky Namjoon waved him over with a jerk of his head and he wandered over without a second thought, hearing Jungkook whine disappointedly. Min Yoongi, you are the luckiest man in the whole of Korea, he thought to himself. Albeit he was a bit curious as to why he was being called over, only to get closer and see the trademark cheshire smile of Lee Jihoon peeking through from behind Namjoon’s elbow. He felt strange, almost like he just got doused in ice water. He never thought he’ meet the kid , let alone have Namjoon…… standing beside him and chatting with the tiny boy?
For some reason, their height difference - Namjoon’s whopping 1.81 - only made Jihoon - a mere 1.64 - look more tiny and delicate, and even though there were only three years of age difference between him and his “twin” (Jihoon was also older than mother fucking Jungkook), his pale, illuminated skin and round face, combined with his short stature gave him the appearance of being much younger. Yoongi stood a few feet behind them awkwardly until he shuffled a bit to one side and appeared in their peripherals and Jihoon’s eyes flicked over and locked with his and an almost expectant kind of expression flickered over his face briefly and for a second Yoongi felt a sudden kind of head rush, the kind that he would usually associate with passing out. But then Namjoon turned towards him, his face splitting into his trademark smile, dimples deepening into his cheeks.
“Hyung,” he greeted him cheerfully. “There’s someone who I think you should meet!”
He dipped his head to greet the smaller boy, trying to pretend that he hadn’t spent countless hours watching videos of him on Youtube.
“Min Yoongi.” He introduced himself easily, his trademark smooth slur ever present, a bit of his of his accent peeking through thanks to his nervousness.
“Lee Jihoon.” The younger responded, the corners of his lips curling up into his trademark cat-like smirk, and it took every ounce of Yoongi’s willpower to not blurt out that he knew what his name was. He also knew a lot more things about him besides his name too though, but now was not the time to get into that, so he just kept his mouth shut.
“We were talking about music and he says he does a lot of the producing and stuff,” Namjoon explained. “So I told him he should talk to you.”
Yoongi shrugged. “Um. I do what I can but I’ve debated talking to our managers about releasing an album of outtakes that consist of mostly Hobi making weird noises and you going off about random stuff. But I haven't.”
Namjoon clapped him on the back half heartedly. “Have I ever told you that you’re the best, hyung?”
“All the time.” He replied dryly.
Namjoon rolled his eyes and made a face at him as Taehyung came up behind him and tugged on his elbow, drawing him away.
“So….” Yoongi started, trying his hardest not to be his usual awkward self. “Producing, huh?”
Jihoon’s eyes lit up delightedly, but his mouth tugged up into an embarrassed smile. “I don’t really know that much, to be honest.I’m definitely not as good as you are, sunbae. I just kind of fiddle with stuff but for all the big parts our manager does a lot of it, really...”
Yoongi raised his eyebrows, mentally tucking away the fact that Jihoon just called him “ sunbae” . “Ah… come on, you don’t have to be modest,” he shrugged. “Producing’s hard, and everyone has to start somewhere, right? I’m not even really that great myself. What kind of programs are you using?
It doesn't take long for Yoongi to feel a whole lot less nervous and a whole lot more comfortable talking with the smaller boy. And although Jihoon does ooze an aura of cool, easy confidence like Jungkook or Namjoon and he speaks with a brisk firmness he is also, as it turns out, is a quick thinker and quite intelligent, and he listens with rapt attention when Yoongi talks about problems he’s encountered, or struggles they've gone through. The conversation flowed surprisingly easily, both boys relaxing as the initial awkwardness faded.
“It's like, one day recording goes as smooth as glass… The next day the complete opposite!” He rolled his eyes and Jihoon nodded in agreement, sympathizing. “It doesn't help that vocals are usually the most picky, either,” he added, and Yoongi wrinkled his nose. “Rappers are pretty bad too though, myself included….”
Jihoon laughs, and it sounds like the best sound in the world to Min Yoongi.
If he's being honest with himself: if socializing meant talking to Lee Jihoon he would have no problems becoming the most social person in the world. But unfortunately his good luck seemed to have run out and just as they started on the topic of triple layering vs auto tuning, the awards show organizer interrupted them, his voice booming from the speakers above them as he asked for all idols to be ready to do another run through. Yoongi’s almost hesitant to end the conversation.
“Um, I guess I should… you know. “ He finished awkwardly.
“Yeah…..” Jihoon looked around for a second before jamming his hand into his pocket and fumbling around, pulling out a slim phone. His thin, delicate fingers swipe across the screen briefly and then Jihoon is looking at him, a pink flush spreading across his cheeks. “Um, sunbae? Could I have your number?” He asked hesitantly. “If it's okay with you, of course-” he adds hastily.
“Sure,” Yoongi agreed easily, his mouth splitting into a grin as he gets passed the phone and quickly taps out his cell phone number. “Honestly, just message me or something anytime you need help or whatever.” Jihoon’s mouth twisted up into a mischievous smile.
He ignored the butterflies in his stomach, but before he left he had to say something .
“Jihoon-ah?”
“Mhm?” The boy looked up from his phone screen, his eyebrow knitted together.
“You…. Um, please don't call me sunbae,”
Jihoon’s face trasformed into an embarrassed smile.
“Oh, okay.” He looked almost relieved, which amused Yoongi.
“Thanks for talking with me hyung, it was... really cool.” Aware of other idols looking at them, Jihoon bowed politely. His smooth, confident demeanour was back, and Yoongi reflected it with a simple nod of his head.
“Text me,” he murmured.
One of Jihoon’s eyebrows raised a fraction, the smile on his face morphing into somewhat of a mischievous smirk. “Of course,” he replied easily. “I’ll do that right now, actually.”
When they finished the run through and Bangtan shuffled into their van after a long day, Yoongi grabbed the hoodie he had left there that morning, feeling in the pocket for his cell phone with an almost nervous anticipation.
Two texts from Taehyung - three texts from Jungkook - one text from a new number.
Hey, it's Jihoon.
Yoongi smiled to himself as he saved the number.
“Yah hyung…. what are you smiling about?” Namjoon pointed out loudly from the passenger sear of the car.
“None of your damn business,” he shot back lazily, snuggling into his sweater and sinking deeper into his seat. If these idiots stopped bugging him he might actually have a chance at catching a nap on the way back to their dorms.
It's a week later and 3:30am and he's in the studio cursing this goddamn fade in that he can’t seem to get right no matter how hard he tries when his phone chimes softly. He frowns as he rubs his temples, deciding that if it's another app request from Seokjin - Candy Crush, FarmVille, or Piano Tiles - he's going to delete the offending apps off his stupid phone. But it's not, it's a message.
>> Lee Jihoon: hey. are you awake, hyung?
Yoongi stares at the screen. What possibly could this kid want at 3:30 in the morning? He decides the track can go fuck itself for three seconds while he types a reply instead.
<< Min Yoongi: something like that… in the studio. brain dead.
Part of him knew that if any of the others saw this, he would be screwed. They still hadn't stopped bugging him about his little interaction with "Jihoonie" at the awards rehearsal.
He hears his phone go off again.
He waits three seconds before grabbing it and deciding that everyone else can go fuck themselves, too.
