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It started as a joke.
Namjoon was saying how Yoongi always acted cold but would do whatever you told him to do, complaining but never backing down.
Obviously, the youngest in the friend group put it to test.
Yoongi agreed to wear boxing gloves and let Jungkook practice his quick hits against him.
Yoongi agreed to be carried by Taehyung, piggyback style, all the way to the BBQ place.
Yoongi agreed to wear matching pink shirts with Jin on Jin's birthday, even if complaining the whole night.
Yoongi was a really good friend. It was obvious he loved his friends a lot and that's why he humored them with their every single whim, because if another person outside of his group asked for something, he denied them quickly and decisively.
Like that time Jimin’s ex asked Yoongi to lend him his motorbike just for a quick trip to the convenience store, and Yoongi said no. It was a shock at that time because Yoongi even let Taehyung, reckless and inexperienced driver Taehyung, use his bike.
Jimin concluded it was because Taemin wasn't close to Yoongi, and therefore, Yoongi wouldn't say yes to him, like he did with the rest of the friend group.
"I think it is because he really dislikes Taemin." Namjoon had said at the time, but Jimin didn't entertain that thought.
Why wouldn't he? Taemin was nice, and all of Jimin's friends liked him! They broke up only because Taemin had to move away to Japan, meaning even their breakup showed he was a good guy. There was no reason for Yoongi to not like him.
The point was that Yoongi agreed to whatever he was asked to by his friends.
Ever since that revelation, Jimin had tried to increase his demands, seeing how much he could make Yoongi accept to do before receiving a no.
So far, he hasn’t gotten a No.
"I hate these stores, I feel everyone is judging me."
Yoongi was complaining as they made their way into a beauty store. Jimin had asked him to come, and even if Yoongi had made a disgruntled face, he put on shoes and joined him.
The beauty store joined the other weird places Jimin had convinced his older friend to go in the past weeks. He really thought Yoongi would draw the line today, but he ended up getting surprised once more.
"No one is judging you."
"That lady over there definitely thinks I shouldn't be here." Yoongi disagreed, pointing at the teen at the register clearly bored out of her mind.
Jimin giggled. "I don't even think she knows we are here. I feel she will fall asleep any second now.”
"I tell you, she is thinking why is this pale man who clearly doesn't know the difference between a lotion and a cream doing in this store. I can feel her teenage judgment all the way here." Yoongi was frowning while looking at the poor girl and Jimin laughed, leaning into him.
Yoongi was adorable, not just because of his dry humor. He was wearing a too big sweatshirt, but had to take the hoodie off when he entered the store so his black hair was spiking at random places, revealing he didn't brush his hair before coming. He looked like a kitten.
"Come on, let her do her job and help me buy a new lipstick." Jimin urged him after laughing too loud waking the teenager.
Yoongi rolled his eyes. "You should have brought Taehyung with you. I know nothing about lipsticks."
"You just need to tell me which one looks better."
Jimin made the way to the brand he usually bought, looking to see if they had new products. He was hoping to find a new tint he could wear for his coming dance recital. He had one he adored, and probably the one he was going to use anyway, but it didn't hurt to find something else.
Yoongi followed him silently, dragging his feet in complaint but indulging him nonetheless. Jimin smiled to himself. His hyung was entirely too adorable. Maybe one day he would stop pretending he didn't like to do these types of things and admit he did them because he liked Jimin.
As friend. Like, he liked Jimin as a friend and liked to spend time with him as a friend.
Yeah. That.
"They all look the same to me." Yoongi said after some minutes of Jimin staring at the lipsticks, lost in thought.
Jimin returned to the real world, shaking his head.
"They are not."
"If you say so."
"They are not." Jimin repeated rolling his eyes. "Is like saying scarlet and burgundy are just red."
"Are they not?" Yoongi asked and Jimin was so offended he turned to his friend who was smiling, clearly joking, even his gums showing up.
"Shut up." He hit him in the chest
Yoongi laughed, and that made Jimin laugh as well. He could never get upset at Yoongi, even if he lacked in color theory.
Jimin grabbed the sample tube of a pretty Persian red tint and opened it, ready to test it against his skin, even if it wasn't his go-to shade.
The color would look better on someone paler, he thought. It would pop much prettily. Not that he wouldn't look good with a shade like that, of course, but on someone like...like Yoongi, for example, the shade would fit better.
On yoongi...
Jimin got an idea.
He sneaked a glance to Yoongi who was staring at some eyeshadow with vague interest.
Jimin bit his lip.
Was it okay for him to do it? Maybe he was taking his experiment of how much Yoongi could agree to, too far. But maybe he would finally know what Yoongi’s limit was.
And it wouldn't hurt, right? At least it was harmless and not like that time Jungkook asked Yoongi to carry him bridal style for a block. Poor Yoongi complained of back pain for a whole week.
This was harmless.
"Hey, hyung. Can you help me with something?"
Yoongi hummed.
That was his, 'depend on what' sound, so Jimin just blurted it out.
"Can you let me try these swatches on you?"
His older friend turned to him, raising an eyebrow, confused. But oh, so adorable. Definitely a kitten.
"Here, pull your arm out of your sleeve." Jimin commanded.
"What? Why?" Yoongi asked, but he was already taking his arm out, his sweatshirt hanging from around his neck as his arm appeared free.
"I'll try the colors on your arm to see what they actually look like. Like this." Jimin said, doing a quick test over his own arm.
The red painted Jimin’s arm, and Jimin moved his arm this and that way too see it under the light, assessing.
"Why can't you do it in your own arm then?" Yoongi complained, but his arm was still out, so he wasn't saying no.
Hmm, Yoongi really was going to indulge him.
"Because your skin is prettier than mine." Jimin made the excuse up, hoping Yoongi wouldn't ask more.
His friend was not convinced, though. "It's not. You have prettier skin."
Jimin was going to tease him but found him avoiding his gaze.
He was blushing.
Oh.
Oh, uhm. Yeah, it was natural to be embarrassed after saying something like that. Yeah, that was it.
Yoongi cleared his throat.
"You can do what you want. Go ahead." He said shaking his arm in front of Jimin, and the youngest got to work.
5 shades after, Jimin was still wondering why on earth was Yoongi still indulging him.
His hyung's left arm was painted in 5 different tones of red, and when Jimin pouted, saying he didn't have more space for one more, Yoongi quietly raised the sleeve of his right arm.
He was a saint. Jimin was now feeling bad from taking advantage of his kindness.
At the same time, he wanted to find the thing that would finally make Yoongi say no.
When they finally moved from the lipstick section, Yoongi complained that his arm was sticky.
"It's washable." Jimin said, forgetting to mention that at least one of those tints was waterproof, so it would take longer to clean. Oops. He was already thinking about how to apologize. Maybe a basket of tangerines would suffice.
"You didn't even buy one. What was the point of that?"
"That was the point, I looked at them and I didn't like them. Imagine if I had spent my money buying something that didn't look good on me?"
"You didn't try them on you." Yoongi pouted, raising his arm to show his stained arm. "I'm the one who will die from chemical poisoning."
"Well, let me try them then." Jimin said and without even thinking twice about what he was doing, he grabbed Yoongi’s arm and brought it towards his face.
His lips found rest over Yoongi's soft skin, right over the Masoom pink.
He felt throbbing under his lips. Yoongi's heart was loud right there on the vein underneath Jimin's mouth. Jimin looked up as he dragged his bottom lip over the makeup, finding Yoongi looking back.
Mouth open. Eyes hooded.
Jimin felt an electric current run over his body, all the way from his toes to his nose.
Maybe. Maybe he finally crossed the line?
Yoongi gulped, and Jimin followed the movement of his Adam apple with his eyes.
"You—You forgot your top lip."
And oh, he really was a saint, indulging stupid whims because what was the other explanation? It's not lime yoongi lik—
"Ah yeah, let me." Jimin said, ignoring his own train of thoughts because right now it wasn't the moment to entertain the possibility that maybe his hyung lik— "Yeah, uhm, one second."
He puckered his lips and kissed Yoongi’s skin deliberately slow.
He painted his top lip with what was left of the makeup over Yoongi's skin.
Bump bump. Was his heart or Yoongi's?
Once he deemed it complete, he moved away from Yoongi and smacked his lips a couple of times to spread the makeup, noticing it had cherry taste.
Or maybe that was Yoongi's taste?
"It—" Yoongi cleared his throat, diverting his eyes anywhere else than Jimin. "It suits you."
Jimin turned to a mirror to his left and gasped at how he looked. His cheeks were pink in a weak imitation of the tint all over Jimin’s lips now.
And his lips. God. It definitely wasn't the right way to apply lipstick because his lips looked messy, almost as if he had been making out with someone...
...as if he had been making out with Yoongi.
"I'll buy it for you." Yoongi decided and before Jimin could react, he left.
There was a heavy tension between them after Yoongi returned with the new bought lipstick for Jimin, insisting on carrying the little bag for him. Or maybe the bag just looked miniscule in the large hands of his friend.
Jimin kept sneaking glances at Yoongi and sometimes would find the other already watching him.
Bump. Bump.
Now it was his heart.
They were in a mall, so it was easy to roam around window shopping without talking much, none of them feeling extra interested in a specific store. None of them opted to leave either.
Jimin wanted to be with Yoongi for a little longer, too, to try and decipher his hyung.
It was just his personality, he continued telling himself, he would do the same for any of them. Would he really? A small voice at the back of his brain wondered. Would he let Kookie use his forearm to try a lipstick? Yoongi always smacked him if Jungkook tried to lick him jokingly
He never let Taehyung clean his cheeks with a saliva coated finger like he does with everyone else, so everyone just assumed hyung had a thing about saliva, and everyone stopped.
But he let Jimin drag his lips over his bare skin, not just that, he encouraged him to do it a second time.
"Hey, I wanted to buy a perfume for my mom. Can we go there?" Yoongi interrupted his musing and pointed to a pink shop at the corner.
Jimin nodded and followed him, looking with curiosity at all the bottles of fragrances over the shelves. There were some interesting looking ones, like a bottle in the form of a shoe, another looking like an apple, and even one shaped like an astronaut that he knew Seokjin would love, so he took his phone to take a photo when Yoongi came towards him.
"Can you help me figure out if this smells too floral or good enough?"
He was presenting a discreet round bottle with a purple liquid sloshing inside. Jimin took it in his hands, ready to spray the perfume to test the smell when he thought of something.
He still needed to know just how far Yoongi would go.
He needed to be told no. Or not.
His own thoughts confused him. From one side, he wanted to find the limit to know exactly when he needed to stop pushing Yoongi around. On the other side, he wanted Yoongi to never say no to him, compared to the rest. He wanted to be his exception.
"Jimin?" Yoongi said.
Yoongi was expecting, an eyebrow raised looking completely at ease waiting for Jimin.
Jimin cleared his throat, gears working full time.
"I—I can't test it on my skin; it gets really irritated with some fragrances and I don't want to risk it."
"Oh, don't worry, let me get some of those test strips and—"
"No!" Jimin stopped him, a hand over his shoulder when Yoongi was about to leave. "The smell is never the same, it’s better on skin."
Yoongi frowned. "Then how?"
"Can I try it on you?"
Watching Yoongi’s reaction was exciting. He went from confused, to flustered, to incredulous to entertained, a smile trying to escape his lips as he tried to sound serious.
"Park Jimin, what are you playing?"
"Me?" Jimin pointed at himself innocently.
"Yes. You."
"I'm doing nothing."
"First the lipstick, now the perfume. Are you trying to turn me into a human test stick?"
Jimin giggled, delighted by his friend always playing back even if he pretended to be annoyed. That's why he loved Yoongi so much.
Like.
Love
Shut up brain, you love all your friends so why do you freak out when you think of Yoongi that way?
"Fine, I expect to get paid at the end of the day though." Yoongi agreed, raising his arm, pulling his sleeve up. The one arm Jimin didn't smear with lipstick.
"I'll pay you with food."
Yoongi rolled his eyes. "It better be BBQ then. I deserve it."
Yoongi shook his arm to have Jimin go for it, his head turning to a side to look at the store as if uninterested about Jimin testing on him.
Jimin followed the line of his neck with his eyes.
He had a nice neck. He supposed. Could necks be attractive? Pale, strong.
Impulsively, Jimin sprayed the perfume in the neck dip. Yoongi startled, head whipping so fast that Jimin could almost hear a crack.
"What—?"
"Shh, let me hyung." Jimin said, leaning like a moth to the fire.
Or like Icarus to the sun.
Bump. Bump. His heart kept thumping as a warning when Jimin got so close he could feel Yoongi’s heat.
Then he inhaled.
The perfume was floral— lavender actually. It was sweet, not abrasive, not offensive. It was nice.
And underneath, a different smell.
Rich. Familiar. Yoongi's.
One time Yoongi gave his jacket to Jimin, after Taehyung thought it was hilarious to drench him in soda at the amusement park, and Jimin slept with the jacket on in Jin's car. He was so sad to give the jacket back. It smelled like safety.
He leaned closer, his nose dragging across Yoongi’s neck to get closer to his smell, wanting to surround himself with Yoongi.
"Jimin." Yoongi gasped, a hand flying to Jimin’s waist, to push him or to pull him closer. He definitely wasn't pushing him away. "I'm ticklish."
That was Jimin’s cue to step away. His head was spinning. Maybe the perfume was strong after all.
He looked towards Yoongi, who again, was looking back. Jimin’s air left his lungs at Yoongi’s expression.
He looked fucked and that's an image Jimin never thought he was going to see.
Lips parted, eyes dark. The grip on Jimin's waist was scolding hot where they touched. And the bump bump throbbing inside Jimin’s head just got louder.
"Fuck, I—sorry, I gotta go." Yoongi said and Jimin was confused until he looked down and, yep, that was a boner. On his hyung. Because of him.
Jimin bought the perfume while Yoongi was away, probably off to the bathroom to ... take care of himself. Thinking of Jimin?
God. Jimin's cheeks were red when he paid, smiling to the lady who told him it was a good gift.
No way in hell they were going to give it to momma Min. What if Yoongi got a boner around her, remembering what happened between him and Jimin?
No. The perfume was for him, as a souvenir, since there was not a shirt he could buy that read "first time I gave hyung a boner".
He dropped his head in his hands.
What the hell.
Yoongi's hip hop playlist was filling the intense atmosphere inside of the car. Jimin was glad for it because he really didn't know what to say to break the silence, his head swimming with ideas that were too dangerous.
There were two bags between his legs, as a reminder.
He had the new lipstick that Yoongi bought after Jimin basically made out with his arm in a public store. Like an animal.
He had the new perfume he bought after smelling Yoongi’s neck in a public store. Like an animal.
Like a dog sniffing another's dog butt.
What was next? Peeing Yoongi’s shoes? Surely his hyung would put a limit to that.
An image of Yoongi giving his shoes to Jimin without looking at him came to his mind "Yeah sure, just buy me new ones after you're done" he would probably say.
Jimin snorted at his own imagination
"What's so funny?" Yoongi wondered, sneaking a glance at Jimin before the light turned green.
He looked nice driving is what Jimin always thought. Ever since he was too young to drive himself, he admired how cool his hyung looked behind the wheel.
One hand only. Soft gaze.
Pretty.
He kept staring at Yoongi as his friend maneuvered the traffic. Obviously, he knew his friend was pretty, he wasn't blind, but it never hit him like now.
"Nothing." He answered, too late even the song changed to a different one.
Yoongi raised an eyebrow. "You have been acting very weird today."
"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm the same as always."
"But not when you're with me." Yoongi mumbled. The words probably weren't meant for Jimin, spoken softly accompanied by red cheeks.
That wouldn't stop Jimin, though.
"What do you mean?"
"Nothing." The older dismissed it, clearly wanting to move on. But Jimin was nothing if not stubborn.
"No, no. I want to hear what you meant."
Yoongi waved his free arm as if pushing the words out of the car.
"It's nothing, just, you usually act like that with the others. Not with me."
"Like that?"
"You know... touchy." His cheeks were burning. "Invading their personal space and all. You do that to Hoba, or Tae, especially Tae. But not me. Until today. For some reason."
"Sorry."
He pushed it too far. Yoongi was kind enough to humor him, but he was clearly annoyed. Although he did get a boner. Was it an angry boner? Did those exist?
"Don't apologize. It's okay. I lik—" Yoongi cleared his throat, eyes stuck on the road even if the light was red. "It's fine."
There was a voice in Jimin's head urging him to pay attention. It begged him to put two plus two. It was a persistent voice, talking so quickly that it felt like static in his brain.
"Do you ... want me to keep doing it?" He wondered, and all the noise inside his head stopped.
Waiting.
Yoongi looked at him briefly, finding Jimin’s intense gaze, gulping.
"Ye—Sure, why not."
Jimin deflated. That's not what he wanted to hear. That wasn't acceptance, but reluctance.
This was it, then?
It was just Yoongi's nature, after all, to accept whatever his friends did to him. It was not whatever Jimin was imagining the past hours.
It was nothing special. Yoongi was just going along.
Jimin was angry, he realized. At himself for letting himself believe for a second...
At Yoongi, for being so damn confusing. He was fuming. Heart constricting in his chest.
"Ok." He said because Yoongi was staring at him, but Jimin didn't look back. He turned the music up and looked to the window to his right.
He was wrong then.
If any other of his friends had pushed Yoongi’s buttons the way he did today, they would all have received the same outcome
Reluctant acceptance.
Why did he think otherwise? Did he believe he was special?
Ha. What a joke. Why would he, out of anyone, receive special treatment? It wasn't like yoongi liked him differently than the others. It wasn't like yoongi liked him the way Jimin wanted.
It wasn't like Yoongi liked Jimin romantically.
There. He opened the box with the thoughts that started flying inside his mind in the shape of heart balloons.
That was it. Jimin was upset about finding out that Yoongi didn't like him that way.
Maybe this whole day had been a subconscious urge on the behalf of his heart to find out if he and Yoongi had something. And they didn't.
He didn't even know he wanted Yoongi to like him that way.
How funny, finding out he had a crush and finding out it was not meant to be all in the same day.
He wanted to be done with today, climb to his bed, bury himself in the covers, and cry himself to sleep.
God damn it brain, why did you decide to have a crush on Min Yoongi?
The car stopped. The music too.
Jimin realized they were outside his apartment, having missed the rest of the route submerged in his thoughts.
"Why are you angry at me?" Yoongi asked him before Jimin had the chance to run away.
Yoongi was looking at him. Confused. Hurt.
That face of ignorance annoyed Jimin even more.
Was he really so obtuse to not understand what was going on? Was his detachment from Jimin’s emotions so big he couldn't even begin to fathom the idea that Jimin was upset because of his rejection?
Could he not understand his heart?
The words came out of his mouth without him planning to, like knives cutting the thick atmosphere inside of the car.
"Kiss me."
Yoongi's eyes grew big, and his mouth slacked. The words hanging heavily between them.
"What?"
"Kiss me." Jimin repeated, like a challenge. Like a plead. His last one, because surely this was the limit
Surely, this was where the line would be drawn, finally putting an end to Jimin's hope, so he could be free to leave, so he could go to his apartment and forget he even indulged in the fantasy of something else.
Yoongi was quiet for just some seconds, his eyes searching Jimin’s face.
"What the hell." He finally spoke.
Jimin closed his eyes, his heart breaking. He knew it was coming. He knew he was going to be rejected.
Then, Yoongi's seat belt snapped with a sharp click and Jimin's eyes opened to find him leaning over the console.
"What the hell." Yoongi repeated, his hands finding Jimin's face like he had been waiting for permission all along. "Sure."
Jimin didn’t move. Couldn’t. Bump Bump, his heart beat loudly replacing the hip hop from before.
When Yoongi finally kissed him, it was the lightest brush of lips. Gentle. Testing.
Jimin's breath hitched, all thoughts muting, begging him to feel the moment, the softness of it, the tenderness. Yoongi was holding his face as if he was precious, hands trembling in a rhythm that matched Jimin’s stuttering heart.
Then Yoongi separated, just a centimeter. "I have always wanted to do this."
Before Jimin could reply, he was getting kissed again.
The next kiss was deeper. Yoongi’s hand finding Jimin’s jaw, thumb grazing skin as he leaned in, taking control.
Jimin's fingers curled instinctively in his shirt, holding on. Begging not to stop. His head was spinning. The heat between them raising, dizzying and real. Bump Bump. Yoongi was everywhere, his mouth, his hands, his tongue. It was overwhelming. It was everything.
Yet the confusion only grew stronger, his brain unable to disconnect completely. Not waiting any longer, Jimin pushed Yoongi away. Panting. Sweating.
"You're not kissing me just because I asked, right?" He quickly said, before his bravery faded away. "You're not just, indulging in my whims like you did at the store or like you do when Jungkook wants you to help him with something, or when Jin hyung asks you to go fishing or—"
Yoongi grabbed his hands, stopping his thoughts. His lips were red, the same Masoom shade of the lipstick he bought, and Jimin thought he had been right, the color looked much better against his pale complexion.
"Is that what this is? That's why you were doing those strange things?"
"... Maybe" Jimin whispered, and Yoongi laughed, but his expression was soft. Endeared. "But just because me and the guys were saying how you always agree to whatever we want, and I wanted to see how far I could push you."
Yoongi’s face fell. "So, this was just a test." He started to move away, but Jimin caught his hand, keeping him from escaping.
He interlocked his fingers with Yoongi, pressing their hands against his chest.
"It started that way, but then I—" Take a deep breath Jimin. " I thought maybe you were agreeing to all my requests because you like me."
Yoongi hummed. His eyes were in their joined hands.
"I like to make you all happy." Yoongi confessed and Jimin dived into his heart. "I'm not affectionate, like you, so I don't know how to let you all know you're my favorite people in the world. So, doing those things, fishing with hyung, cleaning after Jungkook, carrying Tae… I do that to show you how much I like you." He lifted his gaze to Jimin and if possible, his eyes softened even more." But with you Jimin, it is different. Maybe I would let Taehyung use my arm like a lipstick tester, but I wanted to be your lipstick tester."
He got closer, his nose brushing Jimin’s cheek, and their hands were shaking, swayed by the Bump Bump of Jimin’s heart.
"Maybe I would let Jungkook sniff a perfume on my neck because he is sensible to scents. But God, I want you to get that close to me again. I want you in my space."
"Does this mean you'd kiss Hobi hyung if he asked?" Jimin wondered, fishing for the answer he knew was coming. But he needed it spelled out loud.
Yoongi chuckled and moved away just a little to capture his eyes again. He brushed a finger in the same path his nose did before, leaving a trail of fire in his path.
Jimin was melting.
"If the situation demanded it. Maybe. Like, if he needed me to kiss him to scare an ex away? Maybe."
And Jimin smiled because he knew it to be true. His hyung, always ready to please them. To love them.
"But you Jimin. I don't need a reason. I want to kiss you."
"Then do it." Jimin asked, and Yoongi, once again, fulfilled his whim.
And it was simple like that. That's why it had been so confusing the whole day because Jimin knew Yoongi would do the same for all of them, but it didn't mean his bond with Jimin wasn't different.
He mistook reluctance with disposition.
There was not a line to cross, because Yoongi's love knew no limits.
Later, when Jimin invited Yoongi over. After they kissed more, cherry coating their lips thanks to the new lipstick. After they willed their erections away because it was too soon, Yoongi made a question.
"I am different to you too, right?" He was raw and scared just like Jimin had been in the car, his hand was playing with Jimin’s hair, unable to stop touching him since they were in the car.
"What do you mean?"
"You are physical with the guys too. I have even seen you kiss Tae, but this is different, right?"
And Jimin understood that not only him had been confused. He kissed Yoongi’s cheek, sighing at the soft skin under his lips, inhaling the perfume his hyung was still wearing.
"That's how I show my love." He answered, echoing Yoongi’s answer. "But you're different. If I kiss Tae, it is to lift his mood. If I kiss Kookie, it is to tease him. If I kiss you, it's because I want to kiss you."
Yoongi smiled, and Jimin's heart and brain sighed in harmony.
"Then do it." Yoongi requested.
And how could he deny anything Yoongi wanted?
"Sure."