Evanescent

Chapter 17

Jungkook closes the door softly behind him and pads down the hallway to the living room, mentally preparing himself for the barrage of questions he was sure to be met with.

He was right. He walks into the living space feeling like some guilty convict meeting with a board of judges. He lowers his eyes and drops himself on the bean bag in the corner of the room overlooking the garden, or what remained of it after Namjoon's obsession with artificial pink flamingos. His face breaks out in a small grin as he counts the half a dozen fake birds strewn across the once- pretty garden.

"-okay, Kook?"

Namjoon's strained voice suddenly snaps him back to reality and Jungkook whips his head toward him, eyes big and round with confusion.

"Um, what? I'm sorry I didn't- I wasn't listening, I'm sorry."

Hoseok walks in with bottles of water and hands them out to everyone before taking a seat on the rug, between Namjoon and Yoongi.

"It's alright. We were just apologizing for prying like that." He explains, unscrewing the cap of one and passing it to Yoongi who hands it over to Jungkook.

Jungkook nods, feeling a little on edge as he accepts the bottle of water. "No, it's fine. There's nothing going on between me and Taehyung anyway."

He feels grateful as the others nod and he tips the bottle back to down some of the cool liquid.

"Yeah. I mean, we want you to be happy and we don't care if it's with Taehyung. He seems nice, right, guys?" Jin says, looking at the rest of the boys and various nods and sounds of agreements float around the room.

Jungkook's eyebrows furrow again. He puts the lid back on the bottle and rolls it over to the side before looking up at the boys.

"I get it, Jin, but I don't like him like that. And I'm letting him stay just because we were neighbours back in Daegu and-"

"Wait, I thought you said he's from Busan?" Yoongi smirks, his eyes sharp and alert despite the alcohol he's consumed. He's leaning back lazily against the couch but his intense gaze makes Jungkook want to run. Yoongi knows something is wrong.

Jungkook's mouth opens but he doesn't know what to say. He refuses to break eye-contact with the mint-haired boy because that would make him look guilty and out of the corner of his eyes, he sees Jimin starting to grasp the situation at hand, his eyes wide and panicky.

"He is!" Jimin bursts out, startling Jin beside him, "He is from Busan but he moved to Daegu."

Jungkook wants to stand and hug the living daylights out of Jimin as he nods furiously, desperate to maintain his innocent facade.

Yoongi doesn't believe what Jimin says, Jungkook knows it because the mint haired boy is still smirking at him, looking at him like he knows all his dirty secrets. And maybe he does because he is Min Yoongi and Min Yoongi knows everything.

And Jungkook wouldn't put it past the older to rat him out to the rest.