escape | ot6 + yoongi

j u n g k o o k

Yoongi was six years old when he first met Jungkook. The boy was smaller back then, barely five years old. He's looking at Yoongi with those huge doe eyes with his mouth slightly open and showing off his bunny teeth. He's absolutely adorable and Yoongi suddenly lost interest in the toy cars he was playing with, in favor of just looking at the boy who is evidently gawking at him.

"Can I play with you?" Jungkook asks, voice high-pitched, before crawling onto Yoongi's side and touching the toy car he was previously playing with.

"Yeah, okay. My friends aren't here right now so it's okay," Yoongi answers, giving him a small nod.

Jungkook grins, starting to make weird sounds while playing with the cars. Yoongi couldn't help but smile. The boy is too adorable for his own good. And maybe Yoongi wouldn't mind playing with this kid. He seems nice enough.

It becomes an everyday routine. Jungkook would approach him at the playground, and start playing with him until their parents come to take them back home. Yoongi enjoys it, honestly. He enjoys being the center of Jungkook's attention. He always feels left out when he's with his friends because he feels like his friends like each other more than they like him, and that's really upsetting. He tells Jungkook about this once, when they were sitting side by side and talking about weird things like how birds can fly but chickens can't.

"I don't think my friends like me," Yoongi says with a pout, looking at his friends from far away who are completely avoiding him by now. They used to play together all the time before Jungkook came, and now they're not even talking to him.

"That guy with ugly hair?" Jungkook asks, pointing at the direction of Yoongi's friends. Old friends, maybe.

Yoongi nods, trying to fight off the laugh threatening to escape his lips after hearing Jungkook's words.

Jungkook grins at him, taking his hand and holding it tightly. Jungkook has such a strong grip for a child his age. "It's okay. You have me now. You don't need them."

And he's right, Yoongi thinks. Jungkook has been there beside him ever since they first met, never leaving his side even once. Jungkook stays, unlike his friends. "Yeah, thanks Jungkookie."

Jungkook shifts closer, grip tightening even more and making Yoongi flinch a little. Jungkook really doesn't know how strong he is. "I'm the only one you need," he says.

Yoongi thinks that it sounds weird coming from Jungkook, but he ignores it. It's not bad. Jungkook is so nice to be willing to stay with Yoongi after all this time.

❀

Jungkook is late today. His mother usually drops him off at the daycare center right after Yoongi arrives. It's lonely, Yoongi realizes, to not have Jungkook by his side while other kids are playing around him. He sighs, gripping the new toy cars his father gave him as a gift for his birthday. He wanted to show them to Jungkook because surely, Jungkook's big eyes would sparkle with so much happiness after seeing them, and well, Yoongi likes seeing stars in Jungkook's eyes.

But Jungkook is not there. Why isn't he there? Yoongi wanted to spend his birthday with his best friend.

Yoongi sees Jihoon under the tree, looking at him with this weird expression on his face. Yoongi bites his lower lip in nervousness. Jihoon hasn't talked to him in so long. They used to be best friends. What if Jihoon hurts him today?

Yoongi sees the boy walking towards his direction, eyes scanning their surroundings and looking for something Yoongi doesn't know. When Jihoon reaches him, he just stares at the boy. "Where's Jungkook?" he asks.