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There are quite a few ways in which the world could let its population know who their soulmate is. Jeongguk had come up with a bunch of cool ways as a kid. A clock on a wrist, a tattoo of a meeting date, and so on. When he was younger he had spent his fair share dreaming about how cute everything could be. Surely he didn’t know what exactly having a soulmate would mean, but it didn’t matter back then.
However, the world had a whole other plan. The only clue it offered to finding your soulmate was the fact that you both sneeze at the same time. Yeah. You both sneeze. No exceptions. You sneeze? Your soulmate sneezes. No matter where they are. So even if your soulmate has a cold and sneezes their brains out every other minute, you’re doomed to do the same. The only relief? When you meet them you finally have someone to blame for al those times you spent pointlessly sneezing at nothing and wondering who the hell it might be. Jeongguk felt like he had seen it all. From his parents to telling each other to “stop fucking sneezing” during an annual autumn cold, to his friends and himself wondering whether any of those twenty-seven people who just sneezed in their lecture hall just as they did were their soulmate.
As much as Jeongguk would have loved his friend Jimin to come screaming at him that the clock on his wrist had stopped or that the tattoo on his wrist was right, he had to watch Jimin drag out an ill kid out of his classroom, screaming “WE SNEEZE AT THE SAME TIME, LOOK!” and then looking at the bright fluorescent lamp until he sneezed and the kid did the exact same with a pained expression. Jeongguk later found out that Taehyung’s face wasn’t always grey from a cold and he was nowhere near as groggy as during their first encounter.
Jeongguk didn’t even want to think of his own soulmate and in what circumstances they would meet. He was nineteen, and he had just started university on a course he had been dreaming of studying. He’d have no time to pay attention on who sneezes around him and who doesn’t.
During the autumn cold, two weeks into the term, the entire university was going crazy. Especially those affected by the cold. He was fairly sure people were paying more attention at who was sneezing during lectures than they did to what the professor was talking about. Another two weeks and Jeongguk appreciated the silence — and being able to breathe — again.
His first year wasn’t too exciting, having to complete all the necessary basic modules before he could specialise fully into social psychology. Statistics 1 was all but what he wanted to do, but he had to. Just like everyone else.
Another Monday he was sat in the lecture hall among three hundred other students, yawning as it was his nine o’clock in the morning start to the week, and stared at the projector screen in front of him. Basics of a questionnaire. He knew it all already from independent reading, but he tried not to be one of those students who depress their lecturers by being physically there and mentally somewhere completely else. Or on his phone. Or asleep. His nose had been itching for a while now, making him scratch it in hopes of relief. The next step was to yawn again, but it turned into a loud and awkward sneeze right in the middle of the lecturer’s explanation of a good open-ended question. He heard another sneeze going off five rows down in front of him at the same time as his, and Jeongguk froze in place.
Fuck.
He looked around and noticed that he was the only one bothered by the sound and relaxed his shoulders. He made sure to fight back any urges to sneeze for the rest of the lecture.
After the lecture, although he really didn’t want to indulge in such blatant curiosity, he made sure to have a look at the person who had sneezed at the same time as he did. Not that he thought it was a sign of anything. Of course not. Right? Right. It was a fellow with a deadly sense of style and a rather bored expression on his face. He was dressed in all black; boots, jeans, polo-neck shirt, duster jacket, frames of glasses. Even hair. His skin was so clear it made Jeongguk fight a wave of jealousy within his chest, and despite his “I’m fed up with the world” sort of facial expression, he was rather cute. Shorten than Jeongguk, too. Definitely cute.
“What are you staring at?” Jimin slammed his hand on Jeongguk’s shoulder and Jeongguk flinched.
“What? Nothing,” Jeongguk brushed Jimin’s hand off. “Why are you here?”
“I have nothing to do for the next hour and I’m pretty sure you don’t, either,” Jimin grinned.
Jeongguk had to check his timetable from his calendar, he still hadn’t memorised all of it and he was constantly afraid that his classes would switch places or be cancelled or something. His worst fear was to step inside a full lecture hall ten minutes late because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“Yeah, seems like it,” Jeongguk nodded. “What do you want to do?”
“I was wondering if you’d like to see if the studio is free and sing with me for a bit?” Jimin suggested and Jeongguk felt warmth spreading in his chest.
Jimin was on his third year, majoring in vocals and minoring in dance. His schedule was always booked so full in the afternoons that mornings were about the only time when Jeongguk had the chance to meet him. Especially now during his third year, Jimin had to skip a lot of casual hanging out in the evenings. During the past few weeks since the term started, singing together in a studio booth every now and then had become some sort of a tradition. Their voices worked well together.
“Sure,” Jeongguk agreed and they headed into the arts building.
The worst part about sneezing at the same time as your soulmate was that you couldn’t speed up your quest by fake sneezing. It had to be genuine. Of course nature and all types of Gods could tell apart a fake sneeze from a real one, just to make things a little bit harder for everyone. So, as much as Jeongguk wanted to try and sneeze during his next Statistics 1 lecture, he couldn’t. Though, it didn’t stop the well-dressed guy from sneezing instead, and it didn’t stop Jeongguk from nearly scoffing out loud the moment he realised that he had sneezed, too. Someone sitting next to him gave him a mean look, and he tried to soften his expression with a quick smile. He wondered if the guy was as bothered as he was now.
When Jeongguk was walking out of the lecture hall, he stared at the guy again and failed to conceal his staring before their eyes met briefly and Jeongguk felt his stomach make a backflip. “You’re imagining things,” he muttered under his breath and continued his way to his next lecture.
Jeongguk was nervously kicking rocks around with his foot while he was waiting for the bus. He had promised to meet Taehyung in town for some quick shopping and an ice-cream date afterwards.
“Yeah, well, romance is dead, Joon. Dating apps are for losers who don’t know when and where to sneeze,” a voice came from around the corner and a few seconds later Jeongguk saw the well-dressed fellow walking with another man. The other man was all about street-style and definitely not on their course.
“As if you could force yourself to sneeze,” the man rolled his eyes and Jeongguk took a few steps back to let them pass by instead of crashing into him.
They, however, stopped a few meters away from him to wait for the same bus. The well-dressed guy glanced at Jeongguk just before he was able to tear his eyes off of them and smirked.
“You’re arguing against yourself now, Joon,” the well-dressed man nudged the other man and Jeongguk heard him grunt.
He stared ahead for the rest of the waiting time, and hurried to the backseats of the bus as soon as it arrived. When the two men eventually hopped off, he saw the well-dressed man sneeze outside at the same time as Jeongguk sneezed still sat on the bench inside the bus. He shivered and tried not to think of it.
“I wish Jimin was here,” Taehyung whined mid-way through their shopping spree.
“You see him every day anyway,” Jeongguk whined back a little dramatically.
Taehyung gasped. “Well that won’t stop me from complaining, though, will it?”
Jeongguk snorted. “I guess not.”
“Do-“
“If you sneeze at the same time as someone else does on three different occasions, how likely is it that it has happened by accident for all three times?”
Jeongguk didn’t even know the words were on his mind, but apparently his brain knew better and was working faster than he was aware.
Taehyung wiggled his eyebrows. “Ooooh, have you found your fellow sufferer now, huh?”
Jeongguk blushed and regretted asking the question. “I haven’t met anyone. There’s a guy in my stats lecture who I’ve sneezed at the same time with three times now and I was just-“
“What’s his name?” Taehyung interrupted. “Who is he!?”
Jeongguk rolled his eyes. “I said I haven’t met him.”
“What do you mean you haven’t met him, you’re supposed to be happy and giggly and all that romantic shit because of your soulmate!”
“He doesn’t seem to be too bothered,” Jeongguk shrugged.
“AH!” Taehyung scoffed. “How dare he.”
“Maybe he’s a prick,” Jeongguk suggested.
“Or maybe you should go and talk to him,” Taehyung encouraged and Jeongguk backed a few steps away from him.
He really didn’t want to, but he spent his entire weekend wondering whether there was any chance for all three occasions to have happened by accident. He even tried calculating the probability, but stopped himself from doing so as soon as he became consciously aware of what he was doing. He crumpled up the paper and got rid of it.
Monday came sooner than he expected to, all time warping around his nervous thoughts. He had unconsciously dressed a little better than usually, slightly less “It’s Monday morning and I’m tired” than usual. He even arrived earlier, before the doors to the lecture hall were open. A bunch of his course colleagues were stood near the doors, but there was no sight of the well-dressed man. Jeongguk sighed.
He waited until everyone had went inside the lecture hall before entering, sitting on the far end of the row was his favourite place to sit, and he didn’t want to be the asshole who takes that place before the rest of the seats are full. He sat down and splattered his notebook and pens over his writing space, adding a water bottle near them. Just before the lecturer began speaking, he heard a handful of hurried steps coming down the stairs from outside the lecture hall, and then a figure sat down next to him. Jeongguk was suddenly too nervous to look who it was, and kept his gaze on the projector screen. The only thing that the stranger placed onto his writing space was his phone and nothing else. Jeongguk shivered and shook his head.
Half-an-hour into the lecture, the person who arrived late shuffled around on his seat and started stretching his neck. Five seconds more and they both sneezed, Jeongguk having no idea if it was him who caused it or the person next to him. He finally looked to his side and saw that it was the well-dressed man again. Of course it was. He blushed wildly and stopped himself from making a nervous laugh. The man looked sheepishly right into his eyes, and then turned his head back towards the front of the lecture hall. Jeongguk stuck his eyes on the lecturer and didn’t turn until the end of the lecture.
He packed everything into his bag, not having written a single note, and gulped down half of the contents of his water bottle. A part of him really wanted to say something to the man, but he didn’t know what. Asking for his name would be pointless, and telling him thanks for sneezing was dumb.
“Well look at you! You’re all dressed up!” Jimin squealed when Jeongguk walked out of the lecture hall, and every single one of his words was loud enough to be heard by the well-dressed man who was now walking away down the hall. Jeongguk could swear he saw him shake his head.
“Taehyung told me there’s something really exciting going on,” Jimin giggled. “I’m not going to mention the fact that I’m offended that he’s the one I heard it from and not you. Spill it!”
“Nothing’s going on,” Jeongguk muttered.
Jimin shoved him lightly. “TELL!”
Jeongguk had to smile at the way Jimin was slightly shaking from excitement.
“There’s this guy in my stats lecture who sneezes at the same time as I do,” Jeongguk shrugged. “But he doesn’t seem too bothered by it so I’m not going to bother, either.”
“Maybe he wants you to approach him!” Jimin winked and Jeongguk fake-gagged.
They went towards the arts building, looking for a free studio booth yet again. Jeongguk heard steps and muted speech from behind them, closing up rapidly. Jimin paused in front of a booth that was seemingly free according to its booking list, and the steps that Jeongguk heard earlier paused at the same time as theirs.
“I think we’ll have to pass for today,” he heard a vaguely familiar voice coming from behind his back. “Are you guys going in?”
Jimin and Jeongguk turned around and Jeongguk nearly squealed at the sight of the well-dressed man and the same friend he saw last week standing next to him.
“Yeah, did you have something important going on?” Jimin asked kindly, while Jeongguk and the well-dressed man were now having a staring competition. “We’re going in just for leisure so if you’ve got a project going on, we can back out.”
“Ah, it’s nothing too important for us, either,” the man shook his head slightly. “Have I seen you in one of my classes before?”
Jimin fell silent for a moment and then seemed to have a revelation. “I think you’ve been mixing some tracks during our vocal lessons at some point!”
“I’ve been mixing quite a hefty bunch of tracks, what’s your name?”
“Jimin,” Jimin greeted with a smile. “And this is my friend Jeongguk. He studies psychology. We just get a booth every now and then for a bit of relaxed practice.”
“Oh, Yoongi’s also studying psychology,” the man mentioned. “I’m Namjoon. Nice to meet you.”
Jeongguk blinked when Jimin nudged him and resurfaced into reality. The well-dressed man, Yoongi, did the same and Jeongguk felt strangely pleased for being able to steal his attention for such a long time. He extended his arm first to Namjoon and then to Yoongi, and then offered them a warm smile with a handshake.
“We’ll let you guys have your practice then,” Namjoon nodded towards the door of the booth. “Me and Yoongi can do our rap recordings later.”
“Oh, no, no, no. If you’re recording something, please, be my guest. This isn’t necessary for either of us, trust me,” Jimin worried.
They shared a look for a second and then Namjoon thanked both of them with a kind smile and went into the booth. Yoongi smiled smugly at Jeongguk, glanced at Jimin and disappeared into the booth right after Namjoon.
“So, tell me about the guy that you were talking about earlier,” Jimin requested while they were sat outside spending their hour long break.
“It’s that guy who was with Namjoon,” Jeongguk muttered and looked at Jimin like an idiot.
“Oh my god!” Jimin gasped. “Are you serious?! He’s gorgeous!”
“I know, right?” Jeongguk agreed.
Jimin nudged him lovingly. “You better talk to him as soon as you see him again.”
Yeah, he should. He really should. But Jeongguk, still, had absolutely no clue what to say. First of all, he was fairly sure that the man was older than him despite being on the first module of statistics. Second of all, if he studied psychology, it meant that he was on Jeongguk’s other lectures, too, but that Jeongguk hadn’t noticed him on those previously. Third of all, Jeongguk was intimidated by him because he looked stunning and Jeongguk didn’t. He wasn’t sure if any of these reasons were reasonable or logical, but he’d keep them for further arguments with Jimin.
He wasn’t sure whether it was by accident or not, but Yoongi again sat next to him during their next statistics lecture later in the week. Jeongguk had never felt as nervous to sit next to someone as then. Maybe Yoongi did want him to speak first.
“Do you understand any of this,” Jeongguk played dumb when he was packing his things into his bag after the end of the lecture.
“I do, actually,” Yoongi mumbled, not bothering to glance at Jeongguk. “If you think those sneezes mean something, I’ll be glad to tell you that-“
“You told Namjoon that Tinder is for losers who don’t know when and where to sneeze, I don’t think you can back out of this now.”
Jeongguk slammed his hand over his mouth immediately after spitting the sentence. He really didn’t mean to say any of it, and Yoongi was now staring at him with a mildly shocked expression.
“Alright, then, prove that you’re right,” Yoongi scoffed.
“Oh, I will,” Jeongguk spat.
He turned his gaze towards the light on the ceiling, soon catching up on the itching feeling in his nose. He scrunched his face and sneezed, Yoongi sneezing precisely at the same time.
“See,” Jeongguk shrugged arrogantly and stormed past Yoongi and out of the hall.
“What do you think you’re running away from?” Jimin stopped him by grasping onto his arm while he was trying to storm as far away from the lecture hall as possible. “Don’t suppose you tried making a move on Mr Perfect?”
Jeongguk grunted. “He’s not Mr Perfect and I’m not making a move on anyone!”
“Look at you being all flustered,” Jimin teased further.
Jeongguk rounded his eyes, whined and started leaping away again and Jimin kept his grasp on his arm and followed him.
“Do you even know where you’re going?” Jimin laughed.
“Yeah. Away,” Jeongguk muttered.
He lead them towards the studio booths in the arts building, and just as he turned around the corner, he saw Namjoon and Yoongi booking a time for themselves in front of one of the booths. Jimin burst out laughing, not caring for any attention that his laugh earned them from the two other men. The only thing Jeongguk was thinking about was how on earth did Yoongi manage to get to the booths before they did.
“Great,” Jeongguk muttered, paused, and turned around.
“What? Aren’t you going to book your time now? Too shy in front of your soulmate?” Jimin teased and Jeongguk started pacing around.
He tried his all to avoid looking at Namjoon and Yoongi, knowing that their gazes were glued to him.
“We do need vocals for one track,” Jeongguk heard Namjoon saying suggestively and he could tell his voice was amused.
“Oh, I don’t think he’ll be up for it,” Jimin answered on Jeongguk’s behalf. “He can’t even stand next to your friend because he finds him so good looking. Frankly, I do, too, but I already have my own second half to deal with.”
Jeongguk heard someone snorting and he guessed it was Yoongi. Jeongguk stopped pacing and raised his gaze. Yoongi had the most mischievous smirk on his face that Jeongguk had ever seen, and Jimin was, again, holding back a laugh. Namjoon was scratching his head, lost for anything else to say. The moment that they were all silent felt like it was years long, and after a while of debating, Jeongguk plainly rolled his eyes and left the scene. He heard Jimin dragging his steps after him, and chatter resuming between Namjoon and Yoongi.
A while later, he settled for coffee in the cafeteria, and made sure not to say a single word to Jimin. To Jimin, it was beyond belief funny and his face never stopped glowing with amusement.
"Right, so-"
"Shut up," Jeongguk cut him off. "Hyung."
Jimin snorted and shook his head, uselessly stirring his caramel latte that he wasn't planning on having at first. Jeongguk was a bad influence on him. He glanced at Jeongguk every now and then. Jeongguk was busy staring at a wall far ahead of him. The cafeteria wasn't too busy at this time of the morning and both of them let out a couple of tired yawns to accompany their tired expressions. Jeongguk made a firm decision to stare at the floor more often instead of searching for Yoongi everywhere he went around the campus buildings.
"Why are you lot looking like you've eaten a bag of rotten onions," Taehyung walked up to them and shared a quick kiss with Jimin.
"Gross," Jeongguk muttered and stirred away from his dissociative thoughts.
"You could have this, too, in no time if you'd stop being such a baby," Jimin winked at him and Taehyung laughed into their next kiss.
"Get a room," Jeongguk whined dramatically.
"You wish," Taehyung said, still keeping his eyes on Jimin.
It was cute. Jeongguk could admit that. But Jimin and Taehyung looked like they were made for each other, and him and Yoongi looked like they were practically from different planets. He sighed and watched Taehyung peck Jimin's temple and then sit down next him.
“So, as far as I can tell, you haven’t managed to grow up and talk to your other half properly, yet?” Taehyung asked and looked at Jeongguk with a slightly dazed look after kissing Jimin.
“He’s only managed to be well awkward in front of him,” Jimin explained.
“Maybe we should help him out somehow?” Taehyung continued as if Jeongguk wasn’t sitting there with them.
“What could we do? I mean I do vaguely know his friend Namjoon, but-“
“GUYS!” Jeongguk exclaimed after getting fed up with their talk. “I don’t think sneezing at the same time with someone is actually meant to mean that much if you just don’t get along.”
“Look at him,” Taehyung nudged Jimin and they both set their eyes on Jeongguk. “So clueless.”
“So lost,” Jimin continued dramatically.
“So out of touch,” Taehyung pressed his hand to his forehead and pretended to faint.
“Right,” Jeongguk smiled at them venomously, stood up, picked his bag and leaped away.
He left his latte half-full, knowing that Taehyung would take the opportunity to drink the rest of it, anyway.
Jeongguk sort of forgot that Yoongi was a psychology student, and that his statistics lectures weren’t the only place he could bump into him. The only reason why he didn’t see Yoongi at any of his other lectures was probably because Yoongi either skipped them, or he was always so late that he had a seat that let him escape easily right after the end of the session. He absolutely did not expect Yoongi to tap him on his shoulder during their cognitive psychology lecture, and ask whether the seat next to Jeongguk was free.
“Well I don’t see anyone sitting there, so,” Jeongguk grumbled.
He heard Yoongi sigh loudly before sitting down. He still didn’t place anything else on the table other than his phone, and Jeongguk really wanted to ask about it but his pride was too there for him to give in. He didn’t even bat an eye when Yoongi and him sneezed at the exact same time and even the lecturer gave them a moderately amused look. Jeongguk wasn’t sure but he might have heard Yoongi snort slightly afterwards, but he really didn’t care to get into the details of it.
“You never write any notes,” Yoongi whispered and pointed at the empty page of Jeongguk’s notebook.
“I do,” Jeongguk stated and quickly started scribbling down what the lecturer was talking about.
“So stubborn,” Yoongi mumbled.
Jeongguk resisted the urge to hum in response.
After the session ended Jeongguk stood up and was about to leave without granting Yoongi a single glance, but Yoongi stopped him.
“I’m Yoongi,” Yoongi attempted a smile.
“I know,” Jeongguk muttered and tried leaving again.
They stared at each other for a moment and something in Jeongguk’s gut twisted. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Maybe this was the moment he’d finally give in.
“I’m Jeongguk,” Jeongguk introduced himself with a slightly warmer tone.
“I know,” Yoongi just about grinned at him.
Yoongi might look like he’s from another planet, but, God, did Jeongguk hope he knew why people from that planet looked so good.
“Have a nice day,” Jeongguk blurted and finally hurried away.
Well, at least it was something. He had done something to get closer to Yoongi. Not exactly closer, but he’d done something, okay? Okay. He made sure to make everything seem to Jimin as if he had done some massive breakthrough.
After watching Jimin disappear behind the corner for his next class, Jeongguk decided to spend his entire lunch hour in the cafeteria. He had a few pages left to read for his next lecture, and he really wanted to catch up before stepping into the lecture hall.
“Do you drink yours black or with cream?” he heard a low voice from behind him while he was waiting in the queue for his turn.
Jeongguk didn’t register that as a question addressed at him at first.
“Hey,” the person nudged him in the shoulder. “Don’t ignore me.”
Jeongguk flinched. “Oh, sorry.”
He turned around and saw Yoongi curiously staring at him and then tailoring a faint smile to ease Jeongguk into the situation. The technique worked perfectly.
“Uh, I- I usually just pick a latte, to be honest,” Jeongguk shrugged. “Not very healthy, but-“
“I don’t suppose it matters with the amount of workouts you do,” Yoongi grinned at him sheepishly.
Jeongguk scratched his head. “Workouts?”
Yoongi eyed him up from head to toe and made sure to lick his lips to get his point across. Jeongguk gasped and turned away from Yoongi. He had to run up forward as he had forgotten to move along the line during their conversation.
“I wish we were as cute as Jimin and Taehyung,” Jeongguk muttered.
“What was that?” he heard Yoongi ask, standing way closer to him than expected.
“Jimin and Taehyung are cute,” Jeongguk spoke. “You and I look like we’re from different worlds.”
“Maybe that’s going to be our thing,” Yoongi said almost seductively.
“Ugh,” Jeongguk grunted. “Have you seen yourself? All perfectly dressed in black from head to toe, slender figure, gorgeous face-“
Jeongguk realised he was rambling now and stopped.
“Yeah,” he said to indicate that his speech was over.
“If your reason for why we’re from different planets is that I look good, then I’m up for a debate.”
“What do you-“ Jeongguk started until it dawned on him. “No. I’m not debating that.”
He glanced at Yoongi and Yoongi was smiling so wide his gums showed. Jeongguk hoped he could go and catch the butterfly that dared to flutter around his stomach.
“You’re surprisingly bold considering how flustered you act most of the time,” Yoongi said nonchalantly.
“I’m never flustered,” Jeongguk argued.
“OH yeah, babe,” Yoongi snorted. “Sure. Whatever you say.”
It was Jeongguk’s turn to order now and before he could say anything, Yoongi stepped in.
“Two lattes, please,” he requested.
“Separate or to-“
“Together,” Yoongi nodded.
Jeongguk stared at Yoongi, trying to find words to protest with. He was earlier planning to eat something as well but that thought went out of his mind quicker than it had appeared.
“Did you just call me babe?” Jeongguk completely ignored the fact that Yoongi paid for his coffee.
“Yeah,” Yoongi shrugged. “You are my other half, after all.”
The barista heard them and Jeongguk saw her giggle. Yoongi shook his head at Jeongguk and then gestured for him to choose a table to sit at. Jeongguk found himself hoping that Yoongi wasn't considering this their first date since the idea of having it in the university cafeteria was appalling to him to say the least. He kept on fiddling with his hands, trying to avoid looking at Yoongi for longer than one second at a time.
"Why are you on my course?" Jeongguk blurted.
"Because I like psychology?" Yoongi answered with a question.
"No, but-" Jeongguk sighed. "You're old, aren't you?"
Yoongi snorted, the sound ugly and honest. "I'm old, huh?"
"Jimin's seen Namjoon way before I started studying, meaning that Namjoon may be older than Jimin and you- Look older."
"So, how old am I then?" Yoongi challenged him.
Jeongguk felt a flush of heat on his cheeks. "I don't know."
"Fair enough, how about we agree then that I'm old and you're a baby."
"That's creepy."
"You started."
"Why psychology?"
"Because I like the idea of people more than I like the physical form of them."
"Uh-huh."
Jeongguk tried to come up with more things to spit at Yoongi but he was quickly running out of ideas. He wasn't the most talented in small talk. The awkwardness of their conversation being sound proof of that.
"I never see you anywhere else but in statistics," Jeongguk marked.
"Because I arrive at the last second and sit at the back."
"Hm."
"What's wrong?"
"Huh?" Jeongguk raised his gaze and stared at Yoongi, slightly baffled. "Nothing?"
Yoongi tilted his head slightly and Jeongguk stuck his gaze onto his eyes and leaned back on his seat. He inhaled slowly and exhaled even slower, feeling how his heart rate brought itself back to normal as seconds passed. The short moment felt a little dreamy. Yoongi's gaze was soothing, not judging at all. Jeongguk didn't know what his own gaze messaged to Yoongi but he hoped it wasn't his ingrained insecurity of being undesired by his newly found soulmate. Yoongi smiled what looked almost shy to Jeongguk and Jeongguk chuckled lightly before looking away embarrassed.
"I could get used to you," Yoongi said and after realising the words that escaped his mouth quickly shifted his attention to his latte.
"I-" Jeongguk gaped uselessly and didn't continue his sentence.
He drummed his fingers against his latte and felt his heart twist uncomfortably.
"I have class soon, I better go," Jeongguk muttered and started shuffling his belongings until he noticed Yoongi staring at him with an entertained grin. "What?"
"Kook, we're on the same course," Yoongi laughed and Jeongguk tried not to pay attention to how his body shivered when Yoongi called him by his nickname that he hadn't yet introduced to him.
"M'yeah," Jeongguk paused and pressed his back to his chair again.
There was a painful silence between them again.
"Look," Jeongguk sighed. "I'm sorry. I'm very nervous and I'm acting like a fool. I'm sorry, I really-"
He felt Yoongi's knee pressing against his knee under the table and welcomed more shivers running down his spine.
"Shared silence is one of the biggest compliments you can grant each other," Yoongi said calmly. "Well, that's what I think, at least.”
"I'm afraid you'll think I'm a stuffy teen who has nothing to offer to you," Jeongguk complained and regretted his complaint immediately after.
"And you think you do?" Yoongi teased.
"AH!" Jeongguk bent his neck backwards to stare at the ceiling. "So ruthless."
"Just a little challenge."
Jeongguk laughed nervously and absent-mindedly grabbed Yoongi's hand off the table. He pressed the pads of his palms and fingers and focused on calming himself down again. It wasn't the best of habits but Jimin let him play with his hands whenever he felt like he was too much and wanted to retract in his own shell. Yoongi didn't take his hand away and let Jeongguk do his thing.
"Does that calm you down?" Yoongi asked and nodded towards their hands.
"Yeah," Jeongguk nodded back.
"Feels nice."
"Yeah.."
Yoongi suddently squeezed Jeongguk's hand and Jeongguk quirked his eyebrows. Yoongi shrugged and Jeongguk finally relaxed. He couldn’t help but notice how attentive Yoongi now was. He was looking through every single detail about Jeongguk, watching his expressions and tiny movements. Like he wanted to know exactly how Jeongguk’s existence worked. The thought of it made Jeongguk blush again and he pressed his chin lower to avoid eye contact. He tried not to think of the fact that Yoongi voluntarily walked beside him to their next class, and made sure to sit next to him throughout their next two lectures. When Jeongguk was younger, he always imagined himself being very confident in front of his soulmate, but the reality now seemed to be highly against that belief. But the moment they walked out of their last lecture, and both of them sneezed on the way out, the way that they laughed at each other made Jeongguk believe that maybe one day he wouldn’t have to think twice before grabbing Yoongi’s hand.
“Ooooh, I saw you guys,” Jimin twittered on the phone later in the evening as soon as Jeongguk picked up.
It was Jimin’s fourth call and he knew he couldn’t afford ignoring him for too long.
“Tae says you guys are well hot next to each other,” Jimin continued and Jeongguk could imagine Taehyung wiggling his eyebrows in the background.
“At least I didn’t have to force-drag an ill kid with a snotty nose out of my classroom,” Jeongguk made fun of them.
“Hey, that was quite romantic if you think of it,” Jimin pointed out.
“I doubt it’s anything but wonderful telling your friends and family how you guys met.”
“Most of the pairs meet like this, how else would you sneeze enough to figure out.”
“Aw, you really think that. Cute.”
“Alright then, stop being so cocky about it, not all of us have a chance of staring at fluorescent lamps waiting for a sneeze to prove a point to Mr Perfect.”
Jeongguk gasped. “How dare you!?”
Both of them burst out laughing.
“I’m surprised you have time to call me,” Jeongguk pointed out.
Jimin sighed. “I decided to take it easy for today. I feel like I haven’t had much rest for weeks.”
Yeah. They haven’t had too much time to spend with each other. He couldn’t blame Jimin, though. Being on his third year certainly required more focus. Especially because he had a minor subject, too, and Jimin wasn’t the kind of person to not do his best. Jimin wanted to please everyone. Oftentimes, as Jeongguk was now noticing, he put his own well-being on hold because of that.
“You should rest more often,” Jeongguk suggested.
“Well, they say one rest day per week is enough,” Jimin attempted a cheery voice.
“It’s not a rest day if you skip two out of five hours of your practice, though, is it, hyung? A rest day is a full day of rest.”
“Kook-ie,” Jimin spoke, softening his voice. “You don’t have to worry about me. I know what I’m doing.”
“I do worry about you, hyung. You’re too hard on yourself.”
“Results don’t come without hours and hours of practice,” Jimin explained. “Unfortunately.”
There wasn’t much that Jeongguk could say against that. He was right. Jeongguk just hoped that there was an easier way.
Jeongguk went to sleep thinking about how Yoongi hadn’t demanded any honourifics out of him so far. It was a bad habit for Jeongguk, but since Jimin and Taehyung never demanded them, either, he had the habit of not using them at all. Of course that was not the case with real adults, but just among students — definitely. It wasn’t easy to figure out who was older than him and who wasn’t. Seeing as Yoongi was a prime example of attending his first year in university way later than most people did.
He fell asleep with the corners of his mouth twitching upwards.
The next day he had free of lectures, but as of now it had become a habit for him to go back to the campus site and fish out every single break that Jimin might have had to see him. If anything, Jeongguk was able to offer Jimin company. Jimin would be way worse off if Taehyung and Jeongguk would let him isolate himself into the surroundings of work and nothing else. At one point or another he got urges to text Yoongi something, just to- Just for the fun of it. Maybe to annoy Yoongi. Maybe. But he didn’t have Yoongi’s phone number. Or Yoongi’s anything for that matter, and he wasn’t entirely sure whether that was a bad thing at all. Jimin and Taehyung had fallen head over heels almost immediately, but it was clearly evident that the case wasn’t like that for himself and Yoongi. Not at all. But he wasn’t most vocal about his feelings, anyway, and he had a hunch that Yoongi was like that, too. His parents had fallen head over heels, too, and that was the reason why he used to expect that meeting your soulmate would be fireworks and fire, even if either had a snotty or an itchy nose. He had never considered that it was acceptable to be a little lame. Not that he’d admit that himself and Yoongi meeting each other was a little lame. He wouldn’t let Jimin enjoy such a victory.
“What are you here dreaming about?” Jimin walked up to him, ruffling Jeongguk’s hair and grinning. “I only have 15 minutes to spare, if you can’t tell by the fact that I haven’t showered. Have to go back to train.”
Jeongguk nodded. “I am aware of your sticky, disgusting presence, thanks for checking.”
Jimin laughed. “You never change.”
“I’ll change for worse if I ever do,” Jeongguk winked and invited Jimin to sit down on the bench with him. “How’s the choreography?”
“It’s alright,” Jimin updated. “Kind of feel like I’m majoring in dance now with all these practice hours.”
“Not much to practice in terms of singing with your voice,” Jeongguk pointed out and pressed his lips into a straight line.
“Thanks, Kook,” Jimin said softly, nudging their shoulders together. “Tae’s going to check up on me during next break. In case you’ve got something else to do and you’re here just to please me.”
“Is this a subtle hint for me not to turn up so Taehyung could indulge into your sticky, disgusting presence with a few gross exchanges of saliva?”
“I would have showered by then, but yeah, seeing as you like everything sounding vile and appalling, yes, we are going to exchange some saliva if you will.”
“Delicious.”
“Kook,” Jimin cackled. “I’m going to go back now. Thanks for seeing me, though.”
“No problem, hyung,” Jeongguk smiled and let Jimin go back to the dance studio.
Jeongguk rolled his eyes to himself after Jimin had left, and then continued his way on. Library was the only option for him unless he wanted to spend the rest of his day in his apartment, and that wasn’t an option at all. By the time he had spent two hours in the library he wished he had Yoongi’s number after all. Not that it was vital for him to text him, but now that he knew of the possibility, he’d love to use it.
By the end of the third hour, Jeongguk had settled for intensely staring at a wall ahead of him. His head was full of social learning theory and he was ready to give up, but he wasn’t the sort of person to leave the last ten pages unread just because he was too lazy to look into them. He was surprised by a sneeze coming from himself, and an echoed sneeze that came from a little further away. He carefully glanced to his side and saw Yoongi at the far end of the room smirking at him. Jeongguk grinned quickly and returned to his last ten pages. Last ten pages. Focus.
“Didn’t expect you to be the library kind of guy,” Yoongi’s voice paused his thoughts as he saw him place his books next to Jeongguk’s, and sitting down.
“You’d be surprised,” Jeongguk mumbled and re-focused.
Seven more pages. He could do it.
“What d-“
“Shh,” Jeongguk shushed and heard a concealed snort from next to him.
He drowned his mind right back into the book and didn’t resurface until the pages were read.
When he did resurface, he saw a yellow post-it note stuck to another one of his books. The handwriting on it was a little messy, not too attentive, saying: “I’d prefer ‘I must read this, hyung’ instead of ‘Shh’.” He turned his head towards Yoongi and sheepishly smiled at him. Just after Jeongguk had time to enjoy Yoongi not demanding any honourifics from him, Yoongi was demanding them as if he knew what was going on inside Jeongguk’s head.
“Technically, I still don’t know your age so you might be my age,” Jeongguk said in his defence.
“Yeah, but I’m old,” Yoongi dragged the last word. “I’m twenty-three so make sure you don’t forget that.”
“Yes, hyung.”
There was a short silence between them.
“I don’t have your phone number,” Jeongguk marked.
“You don’t,” Yoongi confirmed.
Jeongguk expected Yoongi to continue, but he didn’t.
“Are you going to give me your-“
“Alright you little shit, just because I’m your soulmate doesn’t mean you can act like brat.”
“Whatever you say, hyung.”
“Are you using honourifics against me now?” Yoongi gasped in a pretentious manner.
“Whatever you believe, hyung.”
“I’m done with you.”
“But, hyuuuuung,” Jeongguk whined and watched Yoongi’s expression go from annoyed to murderous before snorting loudly.
Jeongguk heard a sigh from next to him and smirked all to himself. He noticed the way that Yoongi was spinning his pen between his fingers and started trying to copy the motion. It took him only a few minutes to set the same pace that Yoongi had.
Yoongi suddenly slammed the pen against the table.
“Huh?” Jeongguk winced.
“How do you do that?” Yoongi muttered.
“Do what?”
“That pen thing. It took me weeks to move it this quick.”
Jeongguk saw this as an opportunity to display his greatness. “Well-“
“Ugh,” Yoongi grunted before Jeongguk could even start saying anything, judging the expression of his face to predict the quality of the words he’d be speaking.
Jeongguk snatched Yoongi’s book onto his side of the table and started reading. Yoongi gave up before even trying and just nudged himself closer to Jeongguk so he could continue reading.
“Gross,” Jeongguk muttered.
“Are you talking about me?”
“Yeah.”
Next thing he knew he was shoved off his chair and the book was moved back onto Yoongi’s side of the table. He cackled at the situation and received angry looks from other students sitting a little further away from them. Jeongguk stood up and sat back down next to Yoongi, shuffling his chair very close to Yoongi. Very close. Close enough for Yoongi to scoff a little and move away from Jeongguk. Jeongguk took great pleasure in the situation and giggled.
“Have dinner with me,” Yoongi said, not granting Jeongguk a single glance.
Jeongguk straightened his back and cleared his throat. “What? Why?”
Yoongi slowly turned his head and glared at him. “What do you mean why? Why the fuck do you think I’m asking you to have dinner with me?”
Jeongguk chuckled nervously. “I- I’m- Yeah?”
“What yeah?”
“I’ll have dinner with you.”
“Cool.”
Since Yoongi was reading the exact same things that Jeongguk did just a while ago, Jeongguk ended up reading half of the reading material twice. Yoongi no longer minded Jeongguk sitting so near to him, or at least he didn’t show any signs of discomfort. At some point Jeongguk found himself leaning onto Yoongi’s shoulder, but quickly retracted as soon as he became aware of it. Their meeting might have been lame, but it was quite cute. Definitely cute. Not that Jeongguk would admit that one, either.
“Today?” Yoongi broke the hour long silence.
“Dinner? Yeah,” Jeongguk said and his smile turned way warmer than he had planned.
Yoongi turned his head to glance at Jeongguk just in time to see his smile, and for a moment there was an equally warm smile on his face as well.
“Now?” Yoongi asked wishfully and Jeongguk just nodded, causing an instant shifting around and packing bags to leave the library. Yoongi took the lead and grabbed Jeongguk’s hand, and the way some people looked at them while they walked through the streets turned Jeongguk’s cheeks pink and heart beat a little faster. Maybe they did look good together, maybe Taehyung had a point to his comment. Yoongi lead them to a restaurant that Jeongguk had been at before, it wasn’t too special but the food was always delicious.
“What do you want to order?” Yoongi asked after browsing the menu for a while.
“Surprise me,” Jeongguk muttered and kept his eyes on the list.
Yoongi glared at him. “Come on.”
Jeongguk placed his menu on the table. “I’m serious.”
“Kook-“
Jeongguk ignored the way his body shivered at the nickname. “I mean it’s a way of getting to know you. Order me something that you like. Like I said, surprise me.”
Yoongi thoroughly looked through Jeongguk’s expression, making sure he was actually serious. “Okay.”
Jeongguk flashed that warm smile again and, to be honest, he didn’t know since when he even had that smile. He couldn’t recall a time in which he could have used it before. Maybe around Jimin, sometimes, but otherwise… Never. He felt butterflies simmering in his stomach and smirked quickly at the feeling.
“What do you do with your life,” Yoongi asked him after the waiter brought them water and two beers. “Like, in general. Tell me who you are.”
Jeongguk experienced a flashback to his summer job interview from a few years back and felt his gut twist uncomfortably. As if he knew anything about himself that was worth telling. Jimin would have been a better person to ask, he’d have the outsiders view.
“I do psychology, sing with Jimin every now and then, gym four times a week,” Jeongguk listed and simultaneously figured that he was about the most boring person he had ever heard of.
Before Yoongi could point out how boring he was, he decided to continue.
“I do like, um- Photography. As well,” Jeongguk resisted sighing at how anticlimactic everything was.
As if Yoongi cared for any of this, really.
“But-“
“I like photography as well,” Yoongi smiled and Jeongguk thought the smile was more meant to himself rather than to Jeongguk.
“You do?” Jeongguk asked with glimmering eyes.
“Mm.”
“We should go on a photography hike together,” Jeongguk blurted before having any time to realise what he had said. “Or not.”
“Or yes,” Yoongi said nonchalantly and gave Jeongguk time to recover from how flustered he got.
The food arrived and the waiter placed a bowl of doenjang-jjigae in front of Jeongguk and another in front of Yoongi, and then placed an array of kimbap between them.
“Soybean paste soup?” Jeongguk wondered out loud.
“I like simple,” Yoongi flashed a quick smile.
“I like your smile,” Jeongguk marked nonchalantly and pretended like he didn’t see the way Yoongi looked at him after that.
Yoongi walked him home despite Jeongguk’s attempts to decline and turn him around. Yoongi had even paid for his share of the dinner, including the beer and a bottle of soju for each. They were tipsy, both of them. Slightly leaning on one another every now and then, Yoongi’s head falling on Jeongguk’s shoulder once or twice, fingers brushing against each other until either got fed up and grabbed another’s hand, giggles and tipsy talk about the world and its troubles. When they were at the front door to Jeongguk’s apartment building, the way Yoongi glanced at his lips a few times too many, didn’t go unnoticed.
Jeongguk brushed his thumb along Yoongi’s jaw and went on to cup his cheek. “Can I-“
Yoongi leaned closer so that the warm huffs of air spread across Jeongguk’s lips. “Yeah.”
Their kiss was so light Jeongguk could barely feel it, but it was good. He felt bubbly on the inside, stealing a second chaste kiss off of Yoongi and smiling faintly into it. Yoongi placed his hands lightly on Jeongguk’s shoulders and stole a third one, and he giggled and something about it made Jeongguk feel like not many people in the world had heard that sound coming out of Yoongi.
“Good night,” Jeongguk said, his voice more like a whisper than anything else.
“Good night, Kook,” Yoongi replied and cupped Jeongguk’s cheek for a moment, rubbing his thumb over it. “You’re beautiful.”
“You’re drunk,” Jeongguk laughed and Yoongi burst into a laughter as well.
“Yeah, I am, you’re absolutely terrible,” Yoongi chuckled. “My bad.”
Jeongguk bumped their noses together, risking getting smacked and that’s exactly what Yoongi did before Jeongguk ran away inside the building.
He took a moment to look at himself in the mirror while washing his face, and for a moment, with the blush accessorising his cheeks, he could almost see why someone might find him looking sweet. He shook his head in disbelief of his own thought processes and finished brushing his teeth. Doses of extra positive feelings were having an impact on him.
Next day when he was running late to his only seminar, he called Jimin in a hurry and requested a bit of his time at some point during the day.
“I’m actually at home,” Jimin said with a bright voice. “I decided to take a day off like you recommended me.”
Jeongguk was slightly dumbfounded. “Really?”
“Yeah. I do overwork quite a lot and even if this might not become my habit for now, I appreciate your care. Although, I’m supposed to be the one taking care of you. I’m your hyung.”
“Being a hyung doesn’t mean you don’t need to be taken care of, hyung,” Jeongguk smiled, knowing that Jimin could probably hear his smile.
“Thank you, Kook,” Jimin said and Jeongguk could hear his smile, too. “Anyway, you can come over at any point. Taehyung has a full day of lectures and seminars, anyway.”
“I’ll come over after my seminar, I’m running late, see you, hyung,” he huffed and ended the call just in time before running inside the classroom.
He really hated how people turn to look at those who arrive late as if they’re in a zoo looking at a wild animal. Jeongguk bit back a sigh and quickly hurried to sit down.
“Aw, you had dinner,” Jimin beamed.
“Yeah,” Jeongguk said, a bit light-headed after explaining his experience. “I-“
Jeongguk gulped and sighed.
“Yeah?” Jimin encouraged.
“I really like him, Jimin,” Jeongguk said faintly.
He glanced at Jimin and Jimin was looking at him with glistening eyes. Heart eyes? Yeah. Jeongguk could see hearts in Jimin’s eyes.
Jeongguk sighed. “I really, really like him.”
“Aw, Kook,” Jimin cooed. “God, I never knew you could be this cute.”
“I’m sorry,” Jeongguk pressed his head down.
“Oh no! No, no, please, I’m happy for you!” Jimin worried. “Does he know?”
“I don’t think he takes the soulmate thing too seriously,” Jeongguk raised his head back up. “I think he’s just seeing what might happen and if nothing then he’ll continue his way.”
“What are you talking about?! Didn’t you just say that he was kissing you back?” Jimin came nearer and rubbed his palm between Jeongguk’s shoulder blades.
“I did,” Jeongguk pressed his head down again.
“Aw,” Jimin sat down on the opposite chair and lifted Jeongguk’s chin up with his fingers. “I’m sure he likes you, too. The soulmate thing isn’t there just for jokes.”
Jimin distracted Jeongguk’s thoughts by offering him a round of Mario Kart, and they spent a good few hours trying to see who’s the best of the best in the game. Jeongguk couldn’t believe that Jimin was in his life, wondering each and every time what good he had done in his previous life to deserve such a wonderful friend.
The weekend felt painfully long, especially because Jeongguk still didn’t have Yoongi’s phone number, and he was aching to be in his presence again. How soppy. He’s not usually soppy, yeah? Yeah.
“Can you give me your phone?” Yoongi asked him during the Monday morning statistics lecture.
Jeongguk unlocked his screen and pushed the phone towards Yoongi and Yoongi nonchalantly pressed in his number and saved it as “Yoongi-hyung”, followed with a pink heart.
“Aw, hyung, you’re so soppy,” Jeongguk smiled.
“No, Kook,” Yoongi offered his phone back. “This is your phone. You’re the soppy one.”
Jeongguk scoffed and grinned seconds later.
Just as he was about to focus back on the lecturer, Yoongi nudged him. “Come on then. Send me a message so I can save your number.”
Jeongguk smirked and wrote “You’re cute” and pressed ‘Send’. Yoongi let out a low grunt at the sight of the message and huffed before saving the number on his phone. Jeongguk saw him writing “Kook” and adding a pink heart after it, although he was fairly sure he didn’t realise that Jeongguk was looking.
Yoongi
Library and then pizza at mine?
Jeongguk
Yeah I’m game
Right after pressing ‘Send’, Jeongguk felt himself getting nervous over the fact that Yoongi had invited him into his apartment. He wasn’t too experienced with relationships, but he was fairly sure that going to someone’s apartment on a second date wasn’t common. Unless it was for sex. He shifted around in his seat and decided to fully focus on the lecture instead of his thoughts. He found an excuse to run away straight after the lecture and stuck with Jimin for all of his one hour break, claiming that the reason why he wasn’t spending time with Yoongi was because he didn’t see him at the lecture at all.
Mondays weren’t his favourite days to go to the library. He hadn’t slept enough because of the weekend, he felt rather sluggish and most of his books were left at home. He did have one of them with him, so he placed it in front of himself when they got to the library after their last lecture. Yoongi took out three books and Jeongguk felt a wave of guilt over the fact that he wasn’t prepared as well as Yoongi was.
Jeongguk ended up staring ahead for an extensive amount of time, before Yoongi noticed that he hadn’t turned the page for at least twenty minutes.
“Kook?” Yoongi snapped his fingers in front of Jeongguk’s field of vision.
“Are you sure you want that?” Jeongguk blurted, unaware of the underlying thoughts in his head.
“What?” Yoongi asked and Jeongguk could see the curiosity flickering in his eyes as he looked through his side profile and nearly, nearly went in to brush his fingers over his cheek.
“You don’t have to invite me over just because we’re deemed soulmates and you feel like you have to make it work.”
Jeongguk really hadn’t planned to sound as snappy as he ended up sounding.
“You think this isn’t working?” Yoongi asked and inched away from Jeongguk.
“I didn’t say that, I just- I feel like I’m not really your type and you’re just waiting for a moment where I realise that maybe sneezing at the same time as someone else isn’t as good of a reason to stay together for life as the society makes it sound.”
Jeongguk turned his body to face towards Yoongi and saw Yoongi’s shoulders sink a little. “Do you say that because you feel that way?”
“Not necessarily. I just- You’re older and you probably have a history and I’m just a boring teenager.”
“Jeongguk, I-“ Yoongi sighed and looked down in a way that made Jeongguk’s heart ache. “I spend time with you because it’s comfortable and I like spending time with you. I’ve only just got to know you, and I-“
Jeongguk wanted to reach out but he couldn’t let himself, and Yoongi was speaking again before he could do anything about it.
“I believe in the bonds. Sneezing might be stupid but I really do think that it’s not there for nothing.”
“Oh,” Jeongguk sighed and his breath was slightly shaky.
“Yeah.”
A gloomy silence fell over them and Yoongi returned to his reading, and Jeongguk continued staring at the walls just like before.
It was a little awkward for a while, he could admit that. Yoongi was waiting for Jeongguk to break the tension, maybe even grab his hand but while they walked towards where Yoongi lived, they shared a painful silence between them and Jeongguk tried to kill time by glancing at the stars instead of doing anything about the situation. Downsides of two awkward people sharing a bond together. Neither of them was assertive when it came to expressing emotions.
It was a nice apartment, though. Not too big, but Yoongi made it look spacious by having a minimal amount of furniture and white walls paired with black furniture and glass surfaces here and there. It looked just as expensive as Yoongi’s fashion sense, and Jeongguk wasn’t surprised at all.
Yoongi offered him a beer and they shared a short conversation about what sort of pizza they would like to eat. Jeongguk was fiddling with his hands nervously and he could feel his shoulders shaking slightly from the building tension. He tried to concentrate on his breathing instead. Yoongi was sat on a couch and Jeongguk was sat in a white plastic ball chair that he was pretty sure was worth a fortune. Yoongi had his eyes fixed on Jeongguk and Jeongguk had his eyes fixed on an empty white shelf.
“There is one thing,” Yoongi sighed. “-that I think could get in our way.”
“What is that?” Jeongguk replied a little too quickly.
“You doubt yourself. So much. I hear it in your words and I see it in the way you behave. I swear I can see it in your gaze sometimes as well and I just- Don’t,” Yoongi cut off his sentence and sighed. “Please.”
Yoongi patted the space on the couch next to him and Jeongguk accepted the invitation by hurrying to sit next to him. As soon as his ass planted on the couch, he grabbed Yoongi’s hand and started pressing the pads of his fingers. He heard Yoongi let out a satisfied puff of air and smiled shyly.
“I like you, Kook. That comes with the deal,” Yoongi said.
“Mm,” Jeongguk nodded and he could swear he heard the unspoken “Do you like me, too?” lingering in the air, but he couldn’t quite yet say it out loud.
Yoongi shuffled slightly closer, pressing their sides tightly together and Jeongguk acted on his urge to hide his face into the crook of Yoongi’s neck. The scent of Yoongi’s cologne was a little overwhelming at first, but Jeongguk got used to it in a couple of seconds and he- God, he really didn’t mean to, but he started tracing a path of kisses from Yoongi’s neck to his temple and by the time he was at his temple and realised what he had done, Yoongi was already shifting on the couch to turn his body towards Jeongguk and he feared the worst but-
Yoongi gently cupped Jeongguk’s jaw and started pressing feathery light kisses over his cheekbones, nose, eyelids-
“It’s okay, baby,” Yoongi whispered and his hands fell on Jeongguk’s shoulders, lips barely brushing. “Kiss me.
The pet name did a thing to Jeongguk and suddenly his entire body was full of butterflies and light shivers. He ran the tip of his tongue over Yoongi’s lower lip and leaned in to close the gap. It was sickly sweet but Jeongguk never said no to that and it felt so good. The press of Yoongi’s hands on his shoulders was comfortable and he let his own hand slip to press against Yoongi’s side, sliding further to the small of his back and pressing enough for Yoongi to inch a little closer.
Yoongi’s phone rang and he pressed his palm on Jeongguk’s chest to push him away, both of them a little out of breath.
“Yeah?” Yoongi answered. “Pizza?”
Yoongi looked at Jeongguk as if he had no idea they were there to eat pizza.
“Ah, pizza. Of course, sorry,” Yoongi said, slightly embarrassed if Jeongguk was the judge to his voice. “I’ll pick it up in a moment.”
Jeongguk offered Yoongi a shit-eating grin and Yoongi glared at him before running out and downstairs to pick up the pizza. Jeongguk took his chance to take a deep breath and just… Accept that what just happened really happened. He was slightly baffled, and maybe even a little confused. Although, after their kisses last week, it was obvious it would only go onwards from there.
Yoongi returned with two boxes of pizza and placed them on the small coffee table.
“Soju?” Yoongi offered and Jeongguk nodded. Yoongi brought two bottles of soju from the kitchen and sat back down on the couch. Jeongguk then spotted a speaker standing next to the TV, and requested for a permission from Yoongi to put some music on. He was afraid to eat in silence with other people, but he didn’t let Yoongi know.
Two bottles of soju turned into four, two for each, and they were soon tipsy, and very much edging on the state of drunkenness. Their speech was a little slurry and their shoulders were bumping and their laughter dragged. Both of them were relaxed and carefree. Jeongguk placed his head resting on Yoongi’s shoulder and Yoongi’s hand slipped to rest on Jeongguk’s thigh. Yoongi’s hand was warm and Jeongguk hummed a little. He felt like this could be the perfect chance to be a little more emotional than usual, but there was nothing that came to his mind that he could say. His mind was littered by images of them kissing each other, and he really wanted to continue with it a little longer than-
Yoongi shifted a little, forcing Jeongguk to raise his head back up and without a warning he kissed him, slightly more fiery than previously, and Jeongguk gave in. He heard a faint whimper and he wasn’t sure whether it was him or Yoongi, but he didn’t care much. Yoongi licked over his lower lip, and Jeongguk parted them, giving Yoongi the opportunity to lick into his mouth. He let their tongues explore, tangling and sliding against against each other at each collision until Jeongguk caught Yoongi’s lower lip between his teeth and dragged it a little before letting go. Yoongi hissed and his hand slid onto Jeongguk’s side, disappearing under his button-up and making Jeongguk wince at the contact of their skin.
“Do you like this?” Yoongi whispered, hot breath ghosting over Jeongguk’s lips.
“Are you serious?” Jeongguk panted and kissed Yoongi quickly. “Yeah I do. I like it, hyung.”
He heard Yoongi hum in agreement and then his lips were gone off his mouth, tracing over his cheek, behind his ear and over his neck. Yoongi opened the two upper buttons of Jeongguk’s shirt to get better access and nibbled the skin at his collarbones, making Jeongguk shiver and sigh, drowning in pleasure. Yoongi dragged Jeongguk’s shirt slightly higher, giving him better access to his upper back and- He dug his nails deep into Jeongguk’s skin and dragged them along, and suddenly they couldn’t hear any of the background music. Only the loud, sighing moan that escaped Jeongguk’s lips and Yoongi went in to bite at his earlobe.
“I’m so glad I am the one to hear you moan like that, baby,” Yoongi whispered and Jeongguk shivered at the tickling hot breath.
“It’s only going to get better when I ride you, hyung,” Jeongguk replied with a trembly voice.
The words sank in, but he couldn’t bring himself to feel embarrassed. He’d never say things like that, not ever, but the soju was affecting him and the moment was too intense for him to stop himself from speaking. Yoongi groaned at his words.
“Not today, not yet,” Yoongi said quietly while running another set of kisses from behind Jeongguk’s ear and down his chest. “I want to explore you, Kook. Want to make it worth to you in the end.”
Your touch is enough for me, Jeongguk thought but he figured Yoongi probably heard his thoughts, anyway. There was a surge of something in his veins and he surprised himself by pressing his hand on Yoongi’s chest and shoving him lying down back against the couch. Jeongguk hovered over Yoongi and went in to dig his teeth gently into Yoongi’s neck, groaning slightly when Yoongi slipped another hand under his button down. He returned back to Yoongi’s lips and kissed him with a little more pressure this time, a little sloppier as the alcohol stirred in their brains and made them both feel funny. Yoongi gave Jeongguk’s tongue easy access to his mouth, parting his lips instantly at the contact of their lips and Jeongguk could feel the electricity between them surging. He then planted gentle kisses over Yoongi’s cheeks and jaw and eyelids, continuing his way down back to his neck and chest, and at his next bite he dug his teeth a little deeper and Yoongi moaned and then his nails were sinking into Jeongguk’s back again and dragging and- Jeongguk had to pull away with a whimper unintentionally escaping his lips. His chest was heaving and he took a moment to comb his fingers through his hair and look at Yoongi. He was doing too much to keep himself from getting hard and right now everything was getting a little too much for him to be able to continue trying. He was lucky all the alcohol was his ally and not an enemy.
“What?” Yoongi asked slightly concerned, quickly bringing his hands from under Jeongguk’s shirt to his face.
“I’m getting hard, I can’t continue,” Jeongguk chuckled, his voice filled with more air than laughter.
Yoongi chuckled with him. “Would you like me to take care of that?”
Jeongguk felt his own gaze soften. “Not now, hyung. Not yet. I want to explore us, too.”
Yoongi nodded and Jeongguk let him climb back up into a sitting position. He planted a kiss onto Jeongguk’s cheek and brushed his thumb over the other. “It’s alright.”
They cuddled into each other for the rest of the evening, pretending to watch a movie on Yoongi’s laptop, but mostly just enjoying the closeness of their bodies. Jeongguk was checking the time every now and then so he wouldn’t miss his last bus home. He hadn’t realised earlier that there was such a large distance between their apartment buildings, feeling like their walk from campus to Yoongi’s home wasn’t as long as it actually was.
“Good night, hyung,” Jeongguk said after throwing on his jacket and leaned in for a peck.
Yoongi let the kiss linger for a little longer than just a peck and Jeongguk smiled into it.
“Good night, Kook.”
Jeongguk couldn’t blame his hand for drifting under the waistband of his boxers before going to sleep. Not with those images.
Jeongguk slept so well that night that he had accidentally turned off all the alarms in his sleep and continued sleeping through his lectures. He woke up to messages from a concerned Jimin, claiming that he had been waiting for him outside a lecture hall and saw no signs of Jeongguk anywhere. Jeongguk laughed at himself before replying that he had slept past his alarms. He only had one seminar for the day left, and he quickly dressed himself into the first decent set of clothing he could lay his eyes on and went in to brush his teeth and splash his face with water.
While he was rushing towards the campus site, he realised that he had forgotten to brush his hair and started desperately trying to comb down his hair with his fingers.
Two of the seminar groups were having their session in rooms opposite to each other, and when he stomped into the hallway, he saw Yoongi leaning onto a wall with his eyes fixed on his phone. This time he wasn’t dressed in all-black, his polo-neck was deep dark grey. Jeongguk smiled unwillingly at the sight of Yoongi and only then realised how dumb he probably looked. Yoongi raised his gaze when Jeongguk approached him.
“You look a bit,” Yoongi smacked his lips, trying to find the right word. “Shagged.”
“By my hand and by my sweet dreams, yeah,” Jeongguk muttered and felt his face go red at his own words.
Yoongi took his chance to ruffle Jeongguk’s hair up a little more. “Wouldn’t sound so sweet if I said those same words.”
“It’s because you’re old, hyung,” Jeongguk replied and got his shoulder smacked. “See you after class.”
He grinned at Yoongi before following the seminar leader into the room opposite of the one Yoongi was having his class in.
When an hour later he walked out of his classroom, Yoongi was there waiting for him and just before he was about to cling onto him and walk out together, Jimin turned up out of nowhere and grabbed Jeongguk by his arm.
“I need to borrow your boyfriend,” Jimin flashed a grin to Yoongi.
“He’s not my-“ Jeongguk started.
“Will you just shut up,” Jimin said, more a command than a question and Jeongguk zipped up his mouth.
He turned his head back to glance at Yoongi, and Yoongi was just sheepishly scratching his head and watching them leave.
“What’s up, hyung?” Jeongguk asked after Jimin had said absolutely nothing for five painfully long minutes.
Jimin shoved Jeongguk on a bench outside. “Sit.”
Jeongguk rolled his eyes and sat down.
“Taehyung told me he loves me,” Jimin said in such a dramatic manner Jeongguk had to laugh. “Hey, don’t laugh at me!”
“Did you tell him you love him, too?” Jeongguk asked through his chuckle.
“I forgot!” Jimin whined.
“Is this why you had to drag me out and pretend like it’s the end of the world?”
“He’s being weird now!”
“How could you even forget? What did you do? Just sat there, nodded and continued munching on fried chicken?”
Jimin scoffed. “Mind you, we were in the middle of a heavy make out session.”
“That makes us two then,” Jeongguk wiggled his eyebrows and Jimin gaped uselessly. “Anyway, just tell him that you love him too?”
“But it has to be special now that I’ve fucked up,” Jimin was back to whining again. “And what do you mean that makes us two? Did you already manage to shove your tongue down Yoongi’s throat?”
Jeongguk cackled. “Fuck right off, hyung.”
Jimin gasped. “You’re a dirty little shit, aren’t you? I thought you were innocent.”
“Innocent? Would you like me to get dirty with you?”
Jeongguk was then smacked multiple times while he did nothing else but cackle a little more.
“If you want it to be special, then make it special. What else do you want me to say? Take him on a walk in the evening and shove a take-away hot chocolate in his one hand and grab his other hand and tell him you figured you love him, too. Not that difficult,” Jeongguk explained.
“That’s pretty cute,” Jimin was still holding his hands on Jeongguk’s shoulders in case he’d say something else worth smacking him for.
Jeongguk shrugged. “I bet he doesn’t care about the words anyway as much as he cares about that you’re there with him.”
“But he’s being weird.”
“Taehyung’s always weird, I’m still amazed you can tell the difference weird and weird.”
Jimin snickered a little. And Jeongguk could almost hear the endearing monologue that was going on within Jimin’s head about the wonders of Taehyung. It’s not like Jeongguk was jealous, but they really were a wonderful couple.
Jeongguk wouldn’t like to admit but being called boyfriends by Jimin did spark interest in him. Yoongi had requested him to stop doubting himself, but- Would Yoongi like to be Jeongguk’s boyfriend? They hadn’t known each other for long enough, probably. And-
Jeongguk gasped. “Oh god.”
“What?” Jimin asked and finally sat down next to him on the bench.
“I never told him I like him, either.”
“That makes us two then,” Jimin mocked Jeongguk’s tone and got smacked instead. “Is he a good kisser?”
“God, yes,” Jeongguk laughed airily.
“So, a keeper?”
“It’s not just that. I know it sounds lame, but he makes me feel safe and confident in who I am.”
“A keeper, then,” Jimin grinned and rubbed his palm across Jeongguk’s spine.
His mind was racing for the rest of the day. One moment he was focused on how to tell Yoongi that he didn’t mean to ignore his confession. Another moment he was focused on the whole boyfriend thing. He rushed to his lecture so fast and so deep in his thoughts that he couldn’t have possibly noticed in time before he ran straight into Yoongi and was faced with a pair of slightly offended eyes staring up at him.
“Sorry,” Jeongguk mumbled and his face spread into a smile.
“So rude,” Yoongi scoffed.
“I’m sorry, hyung,” Jeongguk corrected himself.
“I like the shagged look on you,” Yoongi marked.
“I bet you do,” Jeongguk winked at him and went ahead to walk into the lecture hall.
Jeongguk felt like Yoongi definitely noticed that he didn’t have much willpower to concentrate on the contents of the lecture, and- Be his imagination damned if all of this was a dream, but Yoongi grabbed his hand and started pressing the pads of his fingers just the same as Jeongguk usually did to him. Jeongguk relaxed into the feeling and took a deep breath. If they weren’t in a lecture hall he would have leaned his head onto Yoongi’s shoulder, but he kept himself from doing that, simply settling for smiling faintly while looking at their hands.
At some point, after going through his list of worries (two worries. a list of two worries) for the millionth time, a lightbulb lit inside his brain. They had just left the lecture hall, and Jeongguk quickly made an excuse to leave, blaming it all on Jimin. He had made sure to sneakily ask Yoongi what his plans for the rest of the day were, and so he was sure that in case he would proceed with his plan, Yoongi was free to meet up at any point. Yoongi headed towards the library, and Jeongguk headed towards his home first hand.
He rushed in to shower straight away, washing himself with his favourite shower gel and singing a song a little louder than usually. The closer he was to executing his plan, the better he felt. After stepping out, he dried himself and went in to pick a better set of clothing than the one he had showed up to his classes today in. Black jeans, white shirt, denim jacket. He dried his hair and pampered his face with a selection of his favourite skin care products, and finally was left with just looking through his appearance in the mirror. He looked good. He wasn’t as slender as Yoongi and he couldn’t afford expensive designer clothing, but he looked good. His muscular frame was good contrast to Yoongi’s smaller one. Taehyung definitely had a point about them. They did make quite a couple. Jeongguk then grabbed his wallet, keys and phone, and headed outside.
There was a cafe near the library and Jeongguk knew from previous experience that their hot chocolate was heavenly. He went in a bought two take-away mugs of his favourite: hot chocolate with a hint of chilli powder. To say that Yoongi was a little dumbfounded was an understatement when he knocked on his shoulder and tailored a grin for when Yoongi would turn around.
“Kook? Weren’t you supposed to be with Jimin?”
“Pack your bags and let’s go,” Jeongguk smiled even wider and Yoongi obeyed with curiosity glimmering in his eyes.
When they walked out of the building and Jeongguk finally shoved the other take-away into Yoongi’s hand, Yoongi gave him a very confused but sweet look, and bowed slightly after accepting it. Jeongguk lead their way into the park near-by, noticing how the stars were visible that night and yes, yes, his plan was going well.
He grabbed Yoongi’s hand and let them settle in with the silence for a while.
“What’s going on, Jeongguk?” Yoongi asked, his voice syrupy and anticipating.
Jeongguk hummed. “Nothing much.”
“Kook,” Yoongi continued playfully and squeezed their hands. “What’s up?”
“The sky?”
Yoongi groaned. “I should’ve guessed.”
“I just figured that yesterday I,” Jeongguk gulped.
It’s not the end of the world, it’s not the end of the world, it’s not the end of the world.
“I left something unsaid,” Jeongguk continued.
Yoongi probably knew already what he meant, but he let Jeongguk take his time.
“I really like you, too, Yoongi,” Jeongguk whispered and felt heat shooting up straight into his cheeks.
Yoongi smiled, squeezed their hands again and pointed towards a bench. “Let’s go sit down over there.”
Jeongguk felt a rush of shivers over his body. What if Yoongi had re-thought his previous statement? What if- Yoongi pulled on his sleeve and Jeongguk sat down next to him, returning back to reality from his thoughts. Jeongguk took his chance to start pressing the pads of Yoongi’s fingers. He had nearly forgotten about his hot chocolate and they ended up taking a sip of their own exactly at the same time, bursting into a series of giggles straight afterwards.
“What’s the whole deal about me not being your boyfriend?” Yoongi asked and Jeongguk felt a wave of embarrassment wash over himself.
“That what Jimin said earlier?” Jeongguk asked as if he didn’t know what exactly Yoongi was referring to.
“Mm-m,” Yoongi hummed.
“I- Um- I just-“ Jeongguk never failed to become a stuttering mess whenever the situation was too much to handle. “I’m- You- Would you- I mean would you like to be my boyfriend?”
Yoongi laughed in such a manner as if it was all too obvious and Jeongguk was missing the point. “Well, it’s quite a commitment. I’d have to deal with sneezing through colds with you, in your presence, and try not to fight you over the five hundredth time you spread your snot everywhere. You’d also have to deal with me when I’m having a cold. Besides, you’re absolutely terrible and have no respect towards your hyung whatsoever, so- I’d say-“
Jeongguk inhaled sharply to prepare himself for the truth.
“Yeah. I’d like to be your boyfriend,” Yoongi grinned wide enough for his gums to show and the grin was too contagious for it not to catch up to Jeongguk as well. “I don’t suppose I have to ask whether you would like to be mine?”
“Well. I’ll probably be at a job interview one day when you catch your cold and I’ll have to sit there with my healthy self sneezing my brains out in front of my future boss who hates me. Not that running away from you would provide any help because a bond is a bond and it was there before and will be there forever. Just now I know the face of the person who’s trying to sabotage my life and- Well, it’s not the prettiest face to say the least. And you’re old. Like, very, old. I don’t know if I can deal with that. So, I’d definitely say yeah. I’d like to be your boyfriend as well.”
Jeongguk could see Yoongi fighting back an urge to smack the shit out of him for his words, but he did nothing else but widen his smile. He then placed his hot chocolate carefully next to him on the bench and attacked Jeongguk with an open mouthed kiss. Jeongguk laughed into the kiss at first and Yoongi took his chance to nibble at his lower lip gently before Jeongguk got over his fit of laughter and kissed him back.
“I hate sickly sweet, but you make it tolerable,” Yoongi mumbled between the series of their slow and chaste kisses.
“So romantic, hyung,” Jeongguk teased.
Who cares if the sky was clear that evening for you to see the stars when the stars were right in front of you?