Wonder | Jikook

Chapter 2

"Alright, alright, I'm up. I'm up." Jimin climbs to his feet, gathering their quilt from beneath him, almost stumbling as Jungkook pulls him to the edge of the roof, hopping down the ladder towards the ground, jumping the last two rungs and landing with a drop and a roll. Jimin follows after, still yawning, at a decidedly slower pace, and Jungkook is tapping his feet a mile a minute, holding the back door open for Jimin when he comes through.

"So chivalrous," Jimin says, grinning, voice still sleepy and soft.

"I try," Jungkook says, rolling his eyes.

Jimin sets the quilt on the sofa and curls up again, outside the sun is rising, the windows darkening over to keep the most harmful rays out. Jungkook shakes Jimin by the shoulders.

"Get uppp, I thought we were gonna go read today."

Jimin mumbles something and swats at Jungkook's hand, who sighs and leans closer.

"One more time in a language I understand?"

"You can... read... I'm gonna... sleep."

"Ugh," Jungkook lets out an exasperated groan and pushes away from the sofa. Jimin barely registers the thumpthumpthump of his footsteps down the stairs to the basement, or the decidedly slower thumps as he comes back up. But he does feel the weight the dip of the sofa under a decidedly heavier weight than he knows Jungkook is. Jimin peers down at Jungkook through one half-opened eyelid. Jungkook has a stack of books on his lap, the Gardening for Dummies propped up against the top, nose buried in it.

Jimin closes his eyes, "What's it say?"

"I thought you wanted to sleep." Jungkook's voice is flat, but the hitch tells Jimin that he's gloating. He loves gloating.

"I do."

"Then why do you wanna know what it says?"

"Curious."

"How're you gonna read it if you're sleeping?"

"Read it out loud."

"What?"

Jimin opens one eye again, a grin slipping over his lips, "Read it out loud. Then I'll know what it says and not have to read it myself. And I like your voice--you have a nice voice. I hear you singing in the public showers all the time."

Jimin can't really tell if it's the morning light hitting Jungkook's face at just the right angle, or if he's just blushing too hard, but the effect is nice. Jungkook's cheeks are a soft shade of morning pink, dipping in gold as he takes a deep breath and lowers his eyes to the page.

Jimin had never known so many things about cherry blossoms but he thinks that pretty as they may be, they'll never be quite as pretty as Jungkook's blush that morning.

"I've decided that cherry blossoms are my favorite flower," Jungkook says that night, their shoulders pressed, looking up at the night sky.

"You haven't even seen a real one before."

"Yeah, I know, but I saw them in that book and they're really pretty. And maybe when we get to this new planet and make friends with the people there, we can convince them to plant some."

"Jungkook, you know that they're extinct right? Where are you gonna get the seeds?"

Jungkook turns his head to give Jimin a look, "You wanna tell me that we've been able to genetically engineer human beings, control the entire genome down to the last letter, and we won't be able to reproduce a cherry tree seed to plant on whatever planet we're gonna land on?"

Jimin huffs. "Alright, alright. Point taken," and then he sighs, wistful and soft, "think it'll be nice there? Wherever we're going?"

"Better be--I'm trying to start the first ever zero-grav team there."