Heartbeat // JK

43 - No Option

Lunch was loud.

Not chaotic — just full. Voices overlapping, conversations crossing into each other until nothing fully made sense unless you were part of it.

Jimin was arguing with Hobi about something pointless, Jin was eating like it was a separate activity from the rest of the table, and Taehyung had somehow ended up with someone else's phone again.

"Why do you have so many pictures of food?" Taehyung asked, scrolling.

Jin didn't even look up.

"Why are you in my phone?"

Jimin snorted immediately.

"Yeah, actually—why are you in his phone?"

"You handed it to me," Taehyung said.

Jin held out his hand.

Taehyung didn't even look at him.

"I'm still looking."

I should've laughed.

Normally, I would've.

Instead, I stayed quiet, watching it happen like I was half a second behind everything.

My phone buzzed.
I didn't look.

It had been like that all morning.

Buzz.
Pause.
Buzz again.

"You're off."

Taehyung didn't say it to the table.

He leaned slightly closer, voice low, under his breath — meant for me, not them.

I looked up.

He was already watching me. No smile, no teasing. Just... there.

"I'm fine."

"You're not," he murmured back.

"I said I'm fine."

Not quiet.
Too quick.
Too sharp.

Jimin blinked, fork halfway to his mouth.

"...Okay."

My phone buzzed again.

Jungkook moved before I could react.

He turned it face down and slid it a little further from me — not rough, not dramatic. Just... gone.

Then his hand stayed there for a second.
Close to mine.

Not grabbing. Not making it obvious that something is wrong.
Just there if I wanted it.

I felt it.
Didn't look at him.

"Eat," he said quietly.

I picked up my fork.
Didn't really use it.

"You've been holding that bite for like five minutes," Yoongi said without looking up.

"I'm pacing myself."

"That's not a thing," Jimin said immediately.

"It is today."

"Why—"

"Because I said so."

That came out sharper than I meant.

The table paused.
Just for a second.

Taehyung's eyes flicked to Jungkook, then back to me.

Jungkook shifted slightly closer in his chair.

Not big.
But enough that our shoulders almost touched.
Grounding.