autumn leaves [jikook]

8

"So Jimin, what did this boy do to you?"
He stopped shovelling ice cream in his face and looked at Hobi, who was munching on chocolate, but also looking very determined to make Jimin talk.

He gulped, deciding to be indirect rather than lie for now. "Well, I really liked him and I thought he liked me too, but when we were just about to, uh, take it a step further, I had doubts, so I questioned him about it."

He continued with a mouthful. "But then he got really upset, and I just don't know. I think I should've let him explain himself."

Hoseok nodded, a thoughtful expression possessing his face. "What were your doubts, exactly?"

He hesitated. "I've known him for a long time, and he's never told me about being queer or anything, but he kissed me back and seemed really... okay with everything we were doing. Then it kinda escalated and I wanted to be sure he wasn't just in it to see if he liked dick or not."

Hobi let out a soft laugh, but Jimin saw his expression soften and realised that tears were threatening to spill down the younger's cheeks, the thought of Jungkook just too overwhelming for his current state of mind.

He held Jimin in his arms as he spoke, resting his chin atop the younger's head. "It's not the worst situation. I think you should get in contact with him, and try to let him explain himself. If he was upset that means he must care about you, so just hear him out."

Jimin smiled warmly against his tears, hugging his hyung back. "Thank you."

"It's alright, I'm always gonna be here."

"What about you, though?" Jimin asked, playing with the strings of his hoodie. "Are you like, happy with Aaron?"

"To be honest... happy is a bit of a stretch. I'm only in it for the sex obviously, so I doubt it'll last long. This kind of relationship makes me really uneasy."

"I knew thot Hoseok was just an act!" Jimin exclaimed, a smile on his face as Hobi giggled.

"Yeah, guess she is. I'm really, really not into that personality anymore," He sighed, falling back into the bean bag. "Maybe I should ghost the French boy."

"Is his dick big?" Jimin asked so neutrally that it made Hoseok choke.

"Y-yes?"

"Keep him until you find better."

The older laughed before shoving a handful of chips in his mouth. "Good call, Chim."

~

Jungkook was emotional over a boy, which was another thing he quickly learned he hated. He had never cried over girls, because he'd never really liked any girls, so this kind of hurt was new.

He'd taken time to reflect on the situation, and realised that his feelings for Jimin had been growing for a long time now, ever since they parted ways when the older went off to university two years before Jungkook graduated high school.

In a way, he'd managed to take Jimin for granted all those years, still knowing him as his closest friend, but only delving much further into the thoughts and "what if's" their seemingly simple relationship held after they had temporarily lost touch.

Since they recently reconnected as the younger started his first year on the same campus, the feelings only seemed to evolve into more intense, more frequent confusion. Jungkook always, until recently, chose to ignore it, brushing it off as dumb immature thoughts. But looking back on it now, he had no idea how he couldn't see it as homo from the beginning.

But, temporarily accepting he'd already managed to drive a wedge in between them and put whatever they had in danger of disappearing, he figured he could fix everything by eating prawn chips sandwiched between two slices of leftover meat lovers pizza, watching reality tv, and sobbing uncontrollably into pieces of scrunched up toilet paper.

His phone buzzed on the table beside his bed and, being a little pissed off that someone had so rudely interrupted his alone time crying session, he answered it reluctantly.

"Hello? JK?" It was Yoongi, sounding rather miffed himself. "I've locked myself out of my apartment. I called my landlord but she won't be here until tomorrow, and I really need a place to stay. Do you have room on your couch? I'll even sleep on the floor if it's not too hard."

Jungkook sighed internally. "Why didn't you just ask Jimin to crash at his place?"

"He's not answering my calls or texts, I think he has someone over."

Jungkook's heart sank. Not answering texts? Did Jimin already have a boyfriend, or was he involved with someone else? He swallowed his tears so Yoongi didn't notice. "When are you coming then?"

The older thought for a moment before answering. "Well I'm going out for lunch with Namjoon, and we might go back to his studio to work, so I'll probably show up around five-ish if that's okay?"

Jungkook shut his eyes to stop himself from crying. "Yeah, that's fine Hyung."

"Thanks JK, I owe you. See you in a few hours."

The call ended, Jungkook made another pizza-prawn chip sandwich, pressed play on his favourite scene of episode twenty four, season seven of The Real Housewives of Seoul, and watched as Eunwon slapped the living shit out of the hot pool cleaner because he took her favourite Porsche for a joyride. Jungkook laughed for a moment before reverting back to sobbing, his red nose stuffed into a handful of tissues.

~

Jungkook jolted awake to an alerting knock on his door, then began to panic as he realised his face was swollen and his eyes were puffy, meaning Yoongi would without a doubt be able to tell he'd been crying.

A series of knocks rang through the apartment again, followed by a tired, deep voice calling out for him. "Jungkook? Where you at? Are you asleep again?"

"Fuck, fuck, fuck—" Jungkook flicked his hood over his head and pulled on the strings, making it tighter around his head until only his round nose poked out of a small hole. He felt around blindly until he reached the front door, finally opening it to his impatient friend standing in the hallway.

"Jungkook, why are you wearing your hoodie like that?"

He could sense Yoongi's disappointment and instantly sagged at the older's tone. "I, uh, I'm ugly today."

Yoongi let out a heavily sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. "You? Ugly? Bitch where?" He reached up and pulled the hoodie out to its normal shape, then scrunched up his nose as he saw Jungkook's swollen face and blotchy red skin. "Oh, you don't look so good. Have you been crying?"

At this point, the younger was so fragile anything could set him off, and as the words came out of Yoongi's mouth he instantly started crying into his hands, louder and uglier than he'd ever cried before.
"Oh, JK, come on... let's get you inside."