masquerade//pjm

twenty-three

an// happy 2022, guys! i love you all <3

~

"I don't know."

"Inverse, y/n, inverse identity." You stared at Namjoon and he shook his head, tapping at your paper. "Y/N, this is the third time we're going through this question."

"It's hard, Joon."

"I know it is but you aren't trying either." You sighed, and slumped against your desk, burying your face in your arms. He patted your back and let you lie down for a moment. You heard Tae get off of your bed and make his way over. You looked up as he peered over your shoulder at your worksheet.

"Why is this taking you three years?" You rolled your eyes and sat up as Joon adjusted himself in the chair he was sitting in. A chair stolen from your dining table. Taehyung shook his head above you.

"Cookies?" a voice came. You turned to see Jin bringing in a plate of cookies, fresh out of the oven.

"Hey, hyung-- do you have any milk?" Tae asked taking one. Jin nodded and set the plate on your desk as the whining toddler around his leg cried harder.

"I'll be right up with a glass, Taehyungie-- any for you two?" Namjoon politely declined as you nodded. "Come, princess."

"Wanna go park, daddy!" Moon cried, sobs leaving her as he dragged her down the stairs. "Wanna play!"

"It's raining outside-- we can't go right now."

"Wanna-- go--" she hiccuped. Taehyung pouted and pointed down out your door.

"I wanna go play with her," he said, patting your shoulder. You sighed and shook your head. "I'll bring you your milk." And with a grab of a cookie, he was out the door.

You thanked Joon as he moved the cookies between the two of you to share. He closed your textbook, to your relief and pushed his chair away and turned to face you at a comfortable distance.

"Let's take a break, okay?" You nodded and shoved an entire cookie into your mouth, dropping crumbs everywhere. Joon grabbed a tissue and cleaned up after you, taking slow, small bites of his own cookie.

"Thanks."

"What's up?" You looked to your best friend and sighed, shrugging. "Everything okay-- I know you hate math but you're acting a lot worse than you usually do." This made you smile as you pulled your feet up onto your chair.

It was pouring rain out and you truly had the best friends ever. They'd agreed to come over, in the rain, to help you out with your trigonometry homework in preparation for a few makeup tests you'd been given the opportunity to have. Not only that, but here Joon was, ready to talk you out of whatever funk you were in.

"Everything's okay; I'm just feeling a bit off." He nodded, listening. "I messed up pretty bad."

"What'd you do?" You picked at the loose string that'd come off your sock. He crossed his feet at his ankles by the floor.

"Me and Jimin got into a fight in front of Koo." Joon smiled. "Now he seems to be avoiding my texts or something because he's-- I don't know, scared of me?"

"What'd you fight about?" You rolled your eyes.

"Remember the prostitute thing?" Joon sighed and nodded. "That-- I brought it up and the piece of shit doesn't even remember saying it."

"Wow."

"I know and then we started arguing about jm/ex and-- I don't know, I think we freaked Jungkook out." Namjoon sighed and looked away.