Still With You [A Jikook Fanfiction ©️ Book 2]

Chapter Twenty Three: The Aftermath

Faint mutters awoke the maknae in his tearful, exhausted state. An arm was firmly wrapped around his waist as a body comfortingly hugged him - but he knew it wasn't Jimin. It was Seokjin.

The younger had run to his elder brother in a stream of pitiful tears, screaming down the door, not caring who heard or who he awoke. Sensing Jungkook needed time with the man who had been a fiercely significant figure in his upbringing, Hoseok had respectfully left the room and crashed with Namjoon and Yoongi.

They'd said nothing. Seokjin had simply sat on the bed with Jungkook in his arms, fighting the urge for his own tears to spill as his little brother hugged him tightly and sobbed himself to sleep. He had heard the argument. The entire corridor had. He knew why Jungkook was in tears.

What he didn't know however, was why Jungkook had reached the conclusion Jimin had cheated on him. Because that wasn't Jimin at all. The older of the pair had fought so adamently to win Jungkook's heart that his intense love for the maknae was undeniable. With all his heart, the eldest singer of BTS desperately prayed that this was all a huge misunderstanding.

*
"You think its disgusting... Don't you?"
Taehyung's eyes widened in shock, "What?!" he spluttered, "N-no Jimin this is your life, your body. If you want to get with a guy like that then that's your choice." He gently wiped a stray strand of hair away from Jimin's bowed head, intently watching the singer's face deepen into an expression of distress. But the contemporary dancer still said nothing in response.

"I'm not wrong... Am I?" Tae silently whispered, clasping his fingers around Jimin's tightly. The teenager looked at him in silent confusion. "It was a man... Wasn't it?" And slowly, despite his initial fears, Jimin reluctantly nodded his head. A single tear rolled down his cheek, "Hey.... Hey bubba don't cry... Its alright ok? I don't think anything less of you."
Jimin sniffed, tightening his grip around Tae's fingers, "T-thank you." he stuttered silently.
"Besides," His soulmate smiled warmly, "Now we can have secret gay advice discussions and I dont have to simply settle with talking to my reflection."

The young singer shifted in his half conscious, half disorentated state.

***
Sae-mi glanced up wearily as a knock sounded on the hotel door, a smile flickering onto her face as Taehyung opened it and Jung Hoseok's head hesitantly appeared. He muttered something to a sleep deprived Tae, who nodded and instantly passed out on the second bed within the room. She watched silently from where she sat as his hyung gently tucked him in, whispering sweetly to him as the younger sniffled.

"How is he?" Hobi murmured silently, lowering himself lightly onto the first bed, where Jimin was lying within Sae-mi's lap, sobbing into her chest. The young artist had great admiration for the stylist in that moment. Just like Taehyung, she'd been up since the early hours of the morning with Jimin, unable to sleep. Even though help had been offered so she could sleep, she remained where she was so not to disturb or further distress the singer.

Sae-mi gave the disorientated youngster a sympathetic smile, "He hasn't moved since Namjoon brought him here." She watched silently as the rapper gently brushed a comforting hand through the young singer's hair, sighing bitterly at the mess of an evening. They'd had such a wonderful afternoon and then...this had happened. Whatever 'this' was really.

The two spent the next half hour seated there, taking turns to gently comfort the distraught Idol and making quiet small talk about anything that came to mind. As the hour drew on, they suddenly found themselves reminising about their childhood. All previous tension simply seeming to... Flutter away.

"I had this dog," Sae-mi muttered, resisting the urge to chuckle heavily at the memory. Hoseok couldn't ignore the small flickering spark within his chest that was beginning to reignite at the sound of her repressed laugh. "I was so young I didn't understand that I couldn't dress her or give her water from my teacups like my toys and threw a tantrum when my parents told me off." Although he was listening to every single word Sae-mi was saying, Hoseok had seemed to become entranced by her voice. By the sweet, melodic tones that wafted from her soft lips, each sentence smoothly lifting and dropping in tone as if a blissful lullaby urging Hobi to sleep.

She grinned tiredly, running her fingers through Jimin's hair as the youngster shifted again within his drowsy state, "Then, on my eighth birthday when I'd finally succumbed to the realisation that 'dogs didn't wear my dolls dresses', my aunty bought me this toy dog," A smile flickered onto Hoseok's face as he sensed where this story was heading, "And you could dress it up. So then you had this eight year old kid who had been told by her parents that she couldn't dress up the family dog, then gifted a dog you could do the one thing to that I'd been told not to... My parents were livid." Even if he had not been listening to her story, Sae-mi's wide smile was enough to bring a flitter to his chest and his own grin to spread across his face. In the back of his mind, he tried to picture eight year old Sae-mi arguing with her parents over the family dog, but everytime he formed even the slightest watery scene, the smile currently displayed across her face simply shadowed it.

"I have a dog... But I don't get to see him much." Hoseok murmured. Below them, Jimin shivered within his unsettling sleep. The dance leader gently prised himself off the bed and approached the cupboard that held a few spare blankets. These he delicately wrapped around the younger's shivering frame. About to withdraw his hands he was shocked to find the singer reach out within his sleep state and entertwine his fingers around Hobi's right hand.

He sighed, seating himself back onto the bed. But it had not gone unnoticed by either of them, that, due to Jimin's desire for his brother's comfort, both rapper and stylist were now seated with shoulders gently brushing.
"What dog do you have?" Sae-mi whispered, her eyes flickering momentarily to where a shuffling sounded across from them. Her smile widened at the sight of Taehyung, who had curled himself adorably into the tighest ball possible.

"He's a Shih Tzu. His name's Mickey." A jolt of panic raced through his chest as he came face to face with an expression of disbelieved shock, "W-what?" he whispered nervously. Sae-mi let out a surprised laugh.
"Minnie is a Shih Tzu."
Hoseok spluttered, "Minnie?"

The two spent a brief moment laughing to themselves in disbelief, each one unable to deny the attempt their brains were making to draw conclusions from such a coincidence. Hobi didn't believe in destiny as much as Jungkook did, but he never saw reason to entirely negate it. Drawing their gazes together, both melodic tones of laughter faltered.
"Hoseok..." The rapper gulped, his eyes flickering involuntarily from the warm, chesnut coloured eyes in front of him, to the soft quivering lips that had uttered his name.

His breath deepened, his heart truly encapsulated by the soft tone of her voice, the sharp intake of breath that graced her mouth at the gentle action of their foreheads delicately colliding. A shaking hand placed itself upon his chest and in that moment, Hoseok was certain the young woman before him could feel his heartbeat pounding involuntarily out of his chest.
"Beautiful..." He whispered, adrenaline thundering around his head as slim fingers bunched his shirt material tightly, slowly, gently, drawing him closer.

Their movements suddenly stopped, her lips so close that if he closed his eyes and thought hard enough, Hobi could already feel her touch. "H-hoseok... We can't do this now..." she murmured, but it seemed as if another voice within her mind was causing her to hesitate, "We-we need to take care of Jimin." But once more, her words failed to motivate her actions.

Hoseok closed his eyes. He drew a hand up towards Sae-mi's cheek and lightly cupped the side of her face. He no longer needed to imagine what the touch of her lips felt like.

"Sometimes beauty can grow from chaos." he muttered.

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