laws of love do not exist

eomuk

"What? Are you sure? I— Right. Okay. I'm sorry, it's just a little... surprising." Seokjin swallowed audibly as he listened to his brother talk. His foot tapped against the carpet while he chewed on his bottom lip repeatedly.

Jungkook silently watched him from the floor.

"No, yeah, okay. Okay. Thank you for... yeah." Seokjin let the phone fall into his lap after the call ended. He sighed through his nose and rested his jaw on his palm, his elbow supported by the arm of the couch.

"Jinnie-hyung?" Jungkook whispered from his place on the floor, sitting criss-cross under his favourite fluffy blanket. Seokjin either didn't hear him or didn't bother to pay attention. Jungkook pretended it didn't hurt.

"Who was that, hyung? Your brother?" Jimin asked as he returned to the room with another sippy cup filled with Jungkook's favourite juice. "What did you talk about?"

Seokjin kept his gaze on whatever part of the wall seemed most interesting as he answered. "Nothing, just... Family stuff," he said, his voice uncharacteristically flat.

After Jimin placed the sippy cup on the coffee table in front of the youngest, he turned to Seokjin with a look of concern.

"Hyung, are you sure? You seem kind of..." He left his sentence unfinished when he saw how Seokjin's other hand, placed on his lap, clenched till the knuckles were white.

Jungkook hadn't taken his sad eyes off his boyfriend.

"Alright, Jungkookie," Jimin started, all traces of worry fading from his voice and expression as he diverted his attention to Jungkook. He sank down to his knees to be eye-level with him. "So, bunny, would you like to keep playing in your room, little one? Or—"

"Not little." Jungkook didn't spare Jimin a glance.

"Oh," Jimin muttered. He blinked a few times. "Okay, um..." He sighed. "Do you still want the juice, bun?" he finished quietly.

Jungkook solemnly shook his head. Jimin nodded once and, grabbing the cup, took his chance to escape to the kitchen under pretences of not letting the drink spoil.

While in the kitchen, Jimin's face dropped the second he no longer had to put up a front. Yoongi was sitting at the table and he glanced up at his boyfriend over the rims of his glasses.

"Min? What—"

"Seokjin-hyung got a phone call and is acting strange; strange enough to knock Jungkookie from his headspace that he so desperately needs." Jimin bit his lip as he bustled around the kitchen, trying to pour the juice back into the container without spilling any. "He didn't tell me what it was about."

Yoongi hummed. "Do you know if it was family related?"

Jimin shrugged with one shoulder, putting the container of juice back into the fridge. "Dunno, but probably."

Yoongi let his notebook drop to the tabletop when Jimin sat down with him. "I'm sure he's fine. If Jungkook really needs to be small, his brain will make him drop farther later. It's happened before. It's all fine."

Jimin just shrugged once more.

"Seokjin-hyung! I'm going—!"

"Okay."

Hoseok froze on his walk to the door. "What? I was gonna say, I'm going to—"

"I said, okay, Hoseok," Seokjin snapped. "Go wherever."

"Hyung," Namjoon muttered, his eyebrows drawn together in concern. He was looking up from his book that he had been reading on the couch. Seokjin hadn't moved from his spot from earlier with Jungkook. "What's going on? He was just—"