The Jimin Effect ✔

Part Three/Chapter Nine

Jungkook:

Jungkook moved through the next steps in a trance: showering, dressing. But increasingly his mind raced, I have to talk to Jimin, I have to know what is going on. That became a plan, of sorts, to talk to Jimin.

He settled into the staff table at the canteen in his usual place, and waited for Jimin to walk by. His heart always skipped a beat when he saw him, and today was no different. Jimin had tanned, nearly burned in the afternoon sun, his cheeks were pink and he looked like a beachwear model, down to perfect sandals on adorable feet. Sigh, this boy will literally kill me, I swear.

He watched like a hawk but Montero was talking to other friends and didn't approach Jimin. Jimin sat across from Jungkook, across the room, but always just across from him so Jungkook could watch him in his quest to eat endless fruit and flirt at the same time.

Today when Jimin met his eyes, he was nervous, Jungkook could tell, he smiled a bit oddly. He ate a bite of rice and beans and broke eye contact with Jungkook as he talked with Taehyung.

Jungkook caught his eyes again, and glanced toward the bathroom and raised his eyes at Jimin. The teenager nodded, barely, and Jungkook got up to go to the bathroom. He waited impatiently for Jimin to come, and locked it behind them so no one else would come in.

"Jungkook-ah...". Jimin's hands were on his chest, and Jungkook could hardly look at him, afraid to lose the questions and anger inside him in Jimin's eyes and smile and waist...

"Listen, we need to talk for more than a minute. There is a janitor's closet down the hall and around the corner, wait one minute and then follow me, do you understand?"

Jimin:

Jimin's heart pounded at the tone in Jungkook's voice and the way he wouldn't meet his eyes.

"Okay...Jungkook-ah..."

Jungkook left the bathroom and Jimin followed a minute later, glancing nervously to make sure no one saw him as he went farther down the hall, away from the dining area and toward the kitchen in the back.

He found the closet Jungkook described and went in. It was small, but not so small that the man couldn't pace nervously, almost a shuffle in the small space, but not quite.

"Jungkook-ah? What—" he grabbed his arm. Jungkook's face was contorted with stress in a way Jimin had never seen.

"What's—what is going on with Montero—tell me the truth Jimin, are you still fucking around with him?"

Jimin swallowed nervously.

"N-No." He wasn't sure what to say. What if Jungkook broke up with him? He couldn't stand it.

"Why does Montero think he can lay down on top of you like it's nothing?"

Jimin didn't meet his eyes, picked nervously at a seam in his pocket.

"Well..." his mind raced. Tell me the truth, Jimin.

But how? "I guess he's been...locking me out?"

"Locking you out? What do you mean?" Jungkook's face was concerned and confused.

"Well...like I leave the window of the cabin open so I can climb back in after I leave you at night, and Montero keeps closing and locking the window so that I have to text him to open it, and then when I do...". Jimin trailed off, not sure how much to share, at what point Jungkook was going to say: You know what Jimin? I don't know what the fuck I was thinking.