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It was quiet. The kind of soft, fuzzy quiet of Saturday mornings. Not that Yoongi had had a quiet Saturday morning in what felt like an eternity, but he was comfortably warm, in bed, with only the soft sounds of Seokjin typing floating in the room. He had no idea what time it was, and that was a luxury.
The rest of the dorm was quiet. Hobi must be out with the kids, and Namjoon was probably tucked up in his room with his headphones crammed on his head as he tried to solve the world’s problems (or at least his own) by cramming his own head full of as many fancy words as he could get a hold of.
Yoongi was going to take a nap. Sleep a little and let time just slide by while he snuggled his pillows. He was going to dream of fluffy clouds and warm baths and dancing bits of dust in sunbeams. He was going to get in touch with his inner house cat.
He was going to kill whoever was knocking softly on their door.
“Come in,” Seokjin said, just as softly, doing his best to preserve the quiet sanctity of their room. Yoongi squinted at the door, willing whoever it was to go the fuck away and leave him alone.
“Hey, hyung. I’m sorry to bother you,” Jeongguk poked his head in, eyes quickly scanning the quiet room. “I had a question about… nevermind. I’ll go. Sorry. I didn’t mean to disturb you. Sorry.” Jeongguk was already ducking back out of the room and Yoongi was very impressed with his powers of telepathy when Jin went and ruined everything.
“No, no. It’s fine. Come on in. I was just wasting time, really.” Seokjin waved the boy in, closing his laptop with the other hand and turning his chair to face the room. Seokjin was always making time for everyone. He was unfailingly kind while also being the exact opposite of a doormat. He took no shit, gave no shits, and still managed to make everyone feel loved and welcomed. Unless they wanted to interrupt his beauty sleep.
Yoongi’s beauty sleep, however, was a different matter. With Jeongguk in the room, he was unlikely to be able to nap. Anywhere else in the world, he could tune out just about every noise and disturbance for the sake of a little sleep, but at home… The dorm might frequently be the loudest place on the face of the entire planet, and that was fine. All the noise was easy to deal with, but somehow, when it was quiet, but not quiet enough, Yoongi lay sleepless and irritated.
“I needed some help getting ready for this history test tomorrow. I really need to do well since I missed all the quizzes on this unit. Can you help quiz me to see if I even remember any of this?” Jeongguk held out a fresh-looking notebook and grinned his sweetest smile. The one that made everyone in the whole world go soft and give him whatever he wanted. Yoongi hated that smile. It was his undoing. It reminded him of the first time he met Jeongguk, when he was a small, wide-eyed baby with a bad case of hero worship. Now he was a big, wide-eyed baby with a slightly less bad case of hero worship.
Seokjin had already grabbed the notebook, eyes scanning as he nodded. “Sure. Of course. You wanna sit?” Jeongguk folded himself into a ball, dropped the floor and stared up at Seokjin.
Yoongi tried to roll his eyes, but it was sort of sweet, the way Seokjin just fell into the familiar call and response of helping their maknae get through school. Maybe because he was still in school himself. Maybe because he had accepted that being the oldest meant sheltering everyone under his fucking ridiculously broad shoulders. Maybe just because Seokjin was actually happiest when he was being helpful. Being useful. Yoongi suppressed a sigh and tried to let the words roll over him. He didn’t need the refresher on colonial history because he just didn’t care. Current events were troubling enough without adding the weight of history on top.
“Oh, right. Sorry, hyung. I keep getting those two confused,” Jeongguk mumbled after another wrong answer. He was staring at the carpet as though it held all the answers to his problems. Or at least the upcoming history test.
“Hey, it’s okay. History is kind of a pain in the ass, with so many names and places to memorize. It’s way easier to remember lyrics. You’re doing a great job.” Seokjin ruffled Jeongguk’s hair.
“Yeah? Thanks, hyung.”
“Now, when was the Korean Language Society created?” Seokjin droned on and Yoongi felt sleep slipping in. Seojin and Jeongguk were being the right kind of quiet, which was just noisy enough to ignore. He was warm and content. He was happy and at home.
He was going to throw the nearest book into the face of whoever was knocking at the door.
Namjoon poked his head in as Yoongi glared. “Hey, hyungs. I was just--oh, hi there Jeongguk.” Namjoon opened the door and slipped in, shutting it behind him as he moved towards Yoongi’s bed. “Didn’t mean to interrupt. You studying?” Namjoon asked, tucking his hands into his pockets.
“Yeah. History.”
“Yah, Jeongguk, pay attention!”
“Yes, Mom,” Jeongguk said and froze. All eyes in the room were on him. It wasn’t that he’d said it. They’d all jokingly called Seokjin “mom” at one point or another. This was different. Jeongguk hadn’t meant to say it. That much was evident from the horrified look on his face, mouth gaping open and his eyes darting frantically. Seokjin’s eyebrows were raised and he lowered his chin a fraction as he blinked slowly at Jeongguk. “Sorry. Sorry, it just slipped out. I didn’t mean it. I’m sorry, hyung. Yes. I’ll pay attention.”
Seokjin nodded and resumed his efforts at quizzing Jeongguk into the ground. Yoongi pushed himself up to sitting, reaching for his phone. He sure wasn’t going to be able to sleep now. He was too busy trying not to laugh. He didn’t want Seokjin to shift his glare at all.
Namjoon settled into the spot next to Yoongi. “Whoa,” he whispered. “Seokjin hyung is kinda scary intense today.” Yoongi nodded in as dismissive a way as he could manage. “It’s so cool that he helps Jeonggukie with his homework though. I guess since they both still take tests, they have to stick together, right? It’s just so nice of him.” Namjoon was rambling. Yoongi was used to it. He often got into a mode where the words just seemed to fall out of his face without his brain doing a damn thing to stop them. It was like thinking on the outside and while it was occasionally hilarious to see how absolutely transparent Namjoon was, currently Yoongi was more worried about not incurring the wrath of his roommate.
“Shut it and wait your turn,” Yoongi said with a jerk of his chin towards the rapid fire questions coming from their hyung. Namjoon wisely nodded, settling in with his hands tucked under his thighs and a look of wonder shining behind his glasses. Seokjin was in fine form, looking like a slightly sleep deprived professor.
“Wow,” Namjoon sighed.
“You’re doing it again. That outloud thing.”
“Right. Sorry, hyung.”
Another knock on the door had Yoongi rolling his eyes, but this time he was free from murderous intentions. “What do you want?” he grumbled towards the closed door. Taehyung pushed the door wide open and grinned.
“Hey hyungs. Maknae. I was, uh, just gonna ask Seokjin hyung for help with lines. I think I’ve got this scene down, but it always helps to have someone actually, you know, to bounce the lines off of.”
“Two more questions for Jeongguk, then you can have me all to yourself,” Seokjin said as he scanned the papers in front of him. Yoongi elbowed Namjoon, who seemed to have completely forgotten why he came to their room anyway, but Namjoon just grinned.
“And an audience, too!” Taehyung said with delight as he began shoving things around the floor with his feet to make a workable stage.
Jeongguk answered his final questions with his adorable grin firmly in place and then scooted on the floor to get out of the way. Yoongi stared at him. He wasn’t leaving. Jeongguk was done with his history review, but he wasn’t leaving. Why wasn’t he leaving? The living room was bigger and more equipped to handle whatever the kid needed. Why was he sticking around to clutter up Yoongi’s quiet space? Just to be an audience to some rough acting? It hardly seemed worth it to Yoongi, who briefly considered leaving, but this was his room, dammit.
But it was Seokjin’s room too. Seokjin loved it when he had his people close, loved being in the center of all the chaos of the dorms. So Yoongi shifted until he was comfortable and gave into a fond smile as Taehyung began getting into character. Seokjin stood, rolled his shoulders and shook his hands out before grabbing the script. He read through it quickly, nodding and squinting as he parsed what the scene needed. He shook his hair out of his face and smoothed his hands down his shirt.
“Alright, Taehyung. Begin when you’re ready.”
Taehyung cleared his throat and flashed one last wide grin before letting his face settle into seriousness.
“He’s so professional,” Namjoon whispered. Yoongi elbowed him and shushed the response Jeongguk had opened his mouth to give.
“Watch the show, kids.”
It was actually pretty entertaining. Taehyung did have his lines mostly memorized, but in the reading, Seokjin was playing at least three parts. Maybe four. Yoongi kind of lost count.
“He’s really good.”
“Shut up, Namjoon.”
He wasn’t wrong. Yoongi watched as Jin dropped in and out of characters fluidly, changing the tilt of his head, the tone of his voice and becoming someone different. In between lines, he coached Taehyung, moving his hands and shoulders around as though positioning a doll, tilting his head and offering suggestions on which words to stress. Taehyung nodded, asked more questions, and repeated the lines so many times, Yoongi was begining to think the words were losing their meaning.
Somewhere along the way, Jimin wandered by, poking his head in. Namjoon waved him in so as to not disturb the performance. Jimin stepped over Jeongguk and planted himself at Yoongi’s feet and they all watched. Why did they even bother having separate rooms in the new dorm if they were all just going to cram themselves into this one? Yoongi knew what Seokjin would say if he ever grumbled the question out loud. Always room for Bangtan.
“Best mom ever, right?” Jeongguk said with a grin, looking over his shoulder at Namjoon’s star-struck expression.
“Watch it, kid,” Yoongi said, but there was no force behind it. Jeongguk was right. Seokjin was pretty amazing.
Hoseok walked past the door that stood open wide. He walked past again just a heartbeat later and stopped. And stared, head whipping back and forth as the lines were spoken, his eyebrows wrinkling in concentration. Taehyung was gesticulating wildly, in the midst of an impassioned rant. Seokjin stood a out of the way of his flailing limbs, nodding and grinning as Taehyung took his advice to heart and really let the emotions flow through his voice. It was such a stunning smile, so fond and proud. Yoongi loved that smile on Seokjin, loved to see it aimed his direction. Hoseok seemed perplexed by it, however.
“Wait,” Hoseok interrupted, waving his hands almost as frantically as Taehyung had been, “which one of you is the girl?”
Taehyung and Seokjin both squinted at Hoseok and, perfectly in sync, pointed at the other.