Work Text:
“Thank you for the ice cream, hyung, it was so good~” Jungkook sing-songed as they walked up toward the store the rest of their band said they were going to when they split off twenty minutes ago.
“You’re welcome!” Taehyung chimed back. “Does this mean you’ll stop picking me up and throwing me when I call you Jungkookie?” The younger boy glanced over at his lanky best friend, ready to glare daggers at him before seeing that the boy’s mouth was curved into his signature box-smile, eyes disappearing into little crescents—too cute and innocent to verbally threaten.
“Maybe I'll let it slide once…” Jungkook admitted, defeated by Taehyung’s killer box-smile. The older boy smiled even wider, which Jungkook didn’t think was possible. “But don’t press your luck,” Jungkook added, warning venom dropping off of his harsh voice. Taehyung playfully punched him on the arm, which Jungkook let slide without a response; there were too many people around to properly shove Taehyung around to get him to shut up.
(And maybe today Jungkook wanted to be messed with by his hyung. He would never tell Tae that, though.)
Taehyung pointed out the store that Jimin had mentioned wanting to go to out of the row of shops lining the northern edge of the mall they were visiting. The older boy ran up ahead, leaving Jungkook to speed walk behind him in tow. Instead of heading into the store, Taehyung decided to press his face up to the window, squishing his cheeks against the cold glass while he eyed the inside of the store. Taehyung spotted the rest of the five Bangtan members in line to pay for their purchases, so he waved Jungkook over to the window.
Starting to window shop, the two boys looked at all the clothing and souvenirs for sale, pointing out anything that looked interesting. It took approximately 2.8 seconds for Taehyung to find the stuffed Pokémon plushies (Jungkook: “We can buy those at home, Tae!”), and not even two seconds later Jungkook found the one mannequin wearing a plain white deep v-neck T-shirt (Taehyung: “To add to your collection, Jungkookie?”).
“There was your one ‘Jungkookie,’ Tae,” the maknae warned. Taehyung paid no heed to the younger boy:
“Jungkookie, look at this one!”
This kid was just asking for trouble.
Jungkook actually did move himself over to look at the mannequin that Taehyung was pointing at—mentally noting to kick the shit out of Taehyung back at the hotel—and he noticed that the display was wearing what could possibly be one of the ugliest shirts he had ever seen: a yellow-and-dark-purple-striped polo shirt with a dark blue collar. He was internally gagging because how dare Taehyung drag him over for that.
“Taetae, that is literally the most disgusting shirt I’ve seen.”
“What do you mean?” Taehyung quizzed back.
“Look at the colors, they’re so ugly! They clash way too much, and then the collar is a totally different color, too. It looks so silly—”
—While Jungkook was ranting about the shirt, Jimin exited the store, babbling to Hoseok about what he bought.
“Jimin, you could have waited until we got back to the hotel to put on that shirt,”Hoseok whined.
“—I literally can’t imagine anyone wearing this, Tae, it's just so hideous—”
“But I wanted Jungkookie and me to match!” Jimin replied while pulling a matching yellow-and-dark-blue-striped shirt with a purple collar out from his shopping bag. The younger boy noticed Taehyung and his boyfriend at the window and ran up to them. “Jungkookie~” he chimed.
“—I have never seen anything tackier in my life—
Jimin stopped a few feet away from the two other boys. Taehyung looked over and noticed him, but Jungkook just kept ranting.
“—I would rather die than someone catching me alive in that shirt—”
It was then that Jimin realized what Jungkook was talking about, seeing the shirt in the display case. His mouth fell open, and Taehyung tried to stop the maknae by tugging on his shirt sleeve to no avail.
“Jungkook,” Taehyung whispered.
“—It’s like one of the unattractive shirts that Namjoon would wear to look like a gigantic dork. Do I look like a dork to you, Tae?
Taehyung tugged again, this time much harder: “Jungkook,” he hissed.
“What,” Jungkook replied agitatedly, giving in to the annoying tugging. The younger boy turned to face Taehyung, who motioned toward Jimin standing behind them.
Oh shit.
Oh shit oh shit oh shit.
There was Jimin wearing the very same shirt Jungkook had been ripping on for the past forty-five seconds. Not only that but he was also holding up a matching polo with slightly different colors. His boyfriend’s face looked like it was in total shock with his mouth hanging open into a small ‘o’ shape; the most gut-wrenching part was how glassy and wet Jimin’s eyes looked, like the waterworks were ready to start any moment. The older boy’s grip on the matching shirt slipped, the polo falling to the ground with a soft thud.
“Jiminnie, I—”
“U-ugly?”
“No no, I can exp—”
“You t-think it’s u-ugly?” the smaller boy choked out.
“Jiminnie, no, I didn’t mean it li—”
Before Jungkook could continue, Jimin turned around and ran away past the front of the store, whizzing past Jin and Namjoon who were just exiting.
“Jimin? Wait, Jimin, where are you going!?” Jin asked, hurriedly passing his shopping bag to Namjoon while running after the shorter boy. Hoseok passed his stuff to Yoongi and chased after him, too, leaving Taehyung, Namjoon, Yoongi, and Jungkook still standing at the front of the store.
“Nice going, kid,” Yoongi dryly said, an ever-so-subtle hint of malice present in his voice.
“What happened?” Namjoon piped up.
“Jungkook dissed the matching shirts that Jimin had gotten for them,” Taehyung replied.
“Really?” Namjoon didn’t seem to believe it. “Why?”
“I, uh, didn’t know he was behind us…”
“I see…” Namjoon was deep in thought. “It seems like an accident, but you know better than anyone how much Jimin-ah values you and your opinion, Kookie. He loves you so much, and he just wanted to make you happy.”
“He wouldn’t stop blathering about those shirts in the store,” Yoongi interjected.
“Yeah.” Namjoon continued, nodding his head in agreement. “And you also know how sensitive he is. He doesn’t handle things like this well, especially from you, Kookie. He wears his emotions on his sleeve when it’s about you.” Namjoon sighed and let a tense pause fall over the four of them momentarily. “I think he’s going to need some time, you should give him some space. We’re supposed to go get dinner now…”
Yoongi grunted.
“Just leave him alone for the time being? I don’t need this getting any worse, you guys can sort it out tonight. Meet us at the hotel in thirty minutes so that we can go out and get dinner.”
With that, Yoongi and Namjoon left to head back toward the hotels—and to find Jin, Hoseok, and Jimin.
Jungkook felt so stupid. He knew that Jimin liked those types of shirts, and he knew that Jimin liked to do cute coupley shit like getting matching shirts, so he should have watched his mouth instead of being a gigantic dick. While Jimin was off getting gifts for him, he was eating ice cream with Taehyung—what kind of shitty boyfriend was he? Everything in his body was screaming at him to go find Jimin and scoop him up into a big hug and tell him that he didn’t mean it, that he loved the shirt because Jimin had gotten it for him. He looked up toward where Jimin had been standing and remembered that his boyfriend had dropped it when he ran off. Walking up to the shirt, Jungkook picked it up off of the ground, neatly folded it, and held it protectively close to his body. Taehyung walked up next to him, throwing a consoling arm around his shoulder.
“I’m so dumb, Tae,” Jungkook mumbled.
“Yeah, you are.” Jungkook looked up and glowered at his friend. “It’ll be fine, Kook-ah. He loves you too much to break up over a stupid shirt.”
“I know, but—”
“But, yeah, don’t screw this up too.” Taehyung cut him off.
Everything up until dinner was a blur, Jungkook internally torturing himself for hurting his squishy perfect boyfriend. He had a plan, though. He wasn’t going to push it during dinner but after dinner… he was going to fix this mess.
Namjoon and Jin decided that dinner at the hotel restaurant would be easiest. The seven boys crowded into a booth, taking extra care to seat Jungkook and Jimin as far apart as possible. It didn’t help much, though; the tension was definitely there. Jungkook might has well have been a stone statue, petrified in his spot after he realized that Jimin had changed out of the yellow-and-purple polo shirt and into an oversized sweater, that the ends of that sweater were definitely wet from the older boy crying into the sleeves, and that there were undeniably tear stains trailing down his cheeks. Luckily, Taehyung and Hoseok were doing a good job of keeping Jimin happy enough to make it through dinner. Every once in a while, Jimin would steal a glance at his boyfriend, his eyes darting back down to his own lap when Jungkook sensed his boyfriend’s eyes on him and looked over toward Jimin’s end of the table. Before the food came out, Jin leaned over and whispered into Jungkook’s ear:
“It’ll be fine, Kook-ah.”
Jungkook, still looking mortified as ever, turned toward his hyung.
“He wasn’t upset at you, just sad. Just make him feel better, please.”
The maknae nodded just as his okonomiyaki was placed in front of him. Jin made him feel slightly better, but he still knew he had his work cut out for him.
After scarfing down his food, Jungkook excused himself from the rest of the group—who were heading upstairs to bed—so that he could run over to the florist down the street. The shop was about to close, but he knew what he was looking for. Spotting the perfect bouquet, Jungkook ran up to the cashier and shoveled money out of his wallet to pay. He ran back to the hotel and to his joint room with Jimin, hoping that his boyfriend hadn’t fallen asleep yet.
Before going to his room, Jungkook stopped at Taehyung and Hoseok’s shared room, knocking politely. Taehyung knew exactly why Jungkook was there, grabbing the shirt-in-question and wordlessly handing it off to the maknae with a smile and a nod. Jungkook shyly smiled back, heading to the room next door that he shared with Jimin.
Pulling out his key card to the room, Jungkook opened and closed the door as quietly as possible, hoping not to disturb his boyfriend. He had no such luck, though—as soon as he walked into the bedroom, he could see Jimin sitting at the foot of the bed with his head turned toward the door and his eyes wide open and a tissue in one of his hands.
“Baby, I’m so sorry for earlier,” Jungkook started, walking up toward Jimin. He pulled out the bouquet he had bought earlier, holding it out for Jimin to grab. Jungkook had chosen a mix of yellow, purple, and blue flowers, all intermixed and looking extra perky. Jimin’s eyes grew wide at the site of the flowers, hesitantly taking them from Jungkook to smell them. His eyes lit up a bit when he pulled back, looking back at Jungkook expectantly.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to make you cry, and I hate myself so much for it. It’s true that I didn’t like the shirt when I saw it in the store, but the second I saw you wearing it, I loved it so much. You make anything look good, Jiminnie-ah,” Jungkook took a deep breath and kept going. “And, um, I have the shirt you got for me. You know you’re the only person who could make me want to wear something that isn’t black or white.”
Jimin giggled at the comment, eyes melting into small little crescents. Jungkook’s face started to light up, too, sensing that the worst was behind him. He lifted the white T-shirt he was wearing up over his head with his arms.
“Kookie, you don’t have to—”
Jungkook stopped with his arms holding the shirt he had been wearing extended over his head. Jimin started blushing intensely seeing Jungkook bare-chested.
“You don’t have to wear it if you don’t want to,” Jimin whispered.
The younger boy just smiled, pulling his shirt off the rest of the way and putting the yellow-and-blue-striped polo on. The taller boy then sat down at the foot of the bed next to Jimin, wrapping his arm around the smaller boy’s waist and pulling him close. Jimin rested his head in the crook of Jungkook’s neck, snuggling into his warmer body while playing with the flowers in his bouquet.
“I want to,” Jungkook softly said.
A comfortable silence broke out between the two as they stared out their hotel room window, looking out toward the twinkling city lights surrounding them.
“Jiminnie?”
“Kookie?”
“Is that my sweater?”
“Umm, maybe…”
“You look so good in it… Maybe we should get matching sweaters.”
“Uh, about that.”