𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐆𝐔𝐄𝐒 ✦ jikook

f o r t y . o n e

A/N: Kudos to "The fault in our stars" for enabling me to write this not-so-cheesy chapter without much difficulty *bows*

How did you find this place Jimin?" Jungkook asks, his voice small and careful as if feared to break the delicate serenity nestling around them. Both of the males eventually scooted next to each other, to the extent where their bodies are touching, sharing warmth in the morning air. Jungkook looks over at Jimin, his bed of pink hair lazily lying on top of his shoulders, peacefully letting out puffs of air that vanishes into the atmosphere, making his nose and cheeks flushed a dewy beet red. The younger laces his and his hyungs hands together, feeling his small five fingers wrapped around his palm and fitting in the gaps between perfectly, as if they were made for each other.

"Well," Jimin drags a breath, his eyebrows twitch while Jungkook busily occupies himself with checking out the slowly melting cloud of air the older just unleashed. "After I had ended up with that horse your friend might find annoying, I wandered around the city trafficking and that's how I met this thing." Jimin smiles innocently, cherishing the bunny grin Jungkook put on when he mentioned about Taehyung's annoyance whenever Hoseok was around but without him by his side, Jungkook would find Taehyung checking on the door continuously, quietly making it a habit whenever "shifts end", quoted the orange-haired male. "Beautiful, isn't she.."

Jungkook nods in agreement as he caress Jimin's hand softly. "How about when you two meet?"

"Me and the horse?" Jimin asks himself more than to Jungkook although he has heard the question loud and clear. His lips moves as light as a feather and all the movements are caught in Jungkook's gaze as he adored every inch of his body, slowly sinking deeper into infatuation without knowing. "I was kicked out and he was my dance mate." Jungkook raises his eyebrows and continues to look at Jimin, he feels astonished at the innocent young male though he's older and definitely more responsible with his messy life. After the sudden encounter with such a reason, Jungkook couldn't know more or less about his hyung's feelings. He was certain he didn't have the faintest idea of how bad it was to be kicked out by your loved ones - he was always the one who wanted to move out first but maybe, maybe, he wants to be the one who can comfort Jimin whenever he hits rock bottom.

"Hey, although it's a bit late to say this," Jungkook fumbles with Jimin's hand after a while of awkward silence, soft to the touch as he grazes the older's skin to slow down the pace of his racing mind overflowing with thoughts. "But um, I erm...

Jungkook sees Jimin's hair lift up a bit for his glossy hazelnut eyes fixated on him. He slightly feels puzzled due to the stare and the lights flashing in reflection in Jimin's eyes. "I er..."

"I'm sorry."

"Why the hell would you be sorry for, Kookie?" Jimin replies with a question, following a breathy laugh of confusion. He was rather amazed by the younger's sudden change of activity and wanted to laugh at it. Though judging his now-serious face and sincerity laced in his two-worded sentence, Jimin suppresses his laughter and replaces it with confusion overflowing his head. Why would Jungkook be sorry? And for what if he was sorry? He couldn't have known, but what surprised him was Jungkook's glossy eyes sparkling with generosity and a hint of guiltiness, mixed with the purple lights flashing brightly behind Jimin, he was aesthetic, more than he could ever be and Jimin secretly prepares himself for whatever that happens next as his heartbeat raises with a quickened pace.

"For... um," Jungkook again fumbles with his slender and bony fingers, sometimes he reaches up to touch the piercings on his ear as he soundly draws a long puff of air, sighing in defeat while looking down at the bright city in front of their eyes. Jimin waits in anticipation but he chuckles when he sees a frustrated Jungkook, he doesn't know what has gotten into him but Jungkook just seems to remind him of a dongsaeng who was being ready to confess her feelings for him or a fluffy bunny finding his lost carrot.

Maybe he'll go with the second one.

"Well, it's because the way I treated you." Jungkook finally says, his shoulders relaxes a bit from the tension as if the weight weighing down them was lifted off. "I called you things you weren't, aren't and will never be." Jungkook emphasizes with certainty in his voice, Jimin's eyes gazes at his hands as his fingers point in three directions from left to right and bobbing his head at the word "never". "I even treated you like a slave before even though you're still my senior, so I know, in my deepest subconscious, I should have apologized for my rudeness."

Only now that Jimin realizes: Jungkook did change. The younger used to be somewhat a reckless person with a heart too cold to even break and a soul too scarred to even shine. The least that the older sees that he's opened up was like counting the tip of his fingers - fewer than he had ever imagined but staying with him, Jungkook opens up more and Jimin finds comfort in his good change. Jungkook trusts him out of a million people, with his friends at the stations and his relatives at home. Jimin has known for long that Jungkook was nothing but a nice kid with a rough cover-up to deceive people who has an intention to hurt him and only the ones who want know him wound up here to witness the beauty of a callous-covered person. "I can't blame you that time, I'm no more or less a criminal," Jimin said, barely inaudible and comforting Jungkook as he apologizes. "You could behave that way because criminals and policemen are meant to be that way. No offense that police could enslave them though, but you know, justice has to be harsh on us for the sins we've committed."

Silence dawns on them, thick and suffocating as both of them inhales a long breath of air. They sat, Jimin's head on Jungkook's shoulder and hands intertwined, sharing warmth. It was heart-wrenching when Jimin said what was in his head. Police is supposed to handle criminals roughly, that was as sure as eggs. However, using that to push further and allowing justice to be harsh, enslaving them even is just, to Jungkook, a mess that Jimin created in his thoughts.

"Jimin,"

"Hm?"

"That one crime you've committed was stealing my heart." Jungkook says as he turns his head, raven hair windswept as his barriers slowly collides, crumbling down into chunks and pebbles. He breaks the restraints, tying his infatuation down and dives into Jimin's eyes, like two mirror-like surface with a never-ending bottom that he feared he would never come up for air again.

"And if loving you was a crime, then maybe I would be the greatest thief ever alive." Jungkook whispers as he reaches his hand up to caress Jimin's cheek - who's still awestruck the moment the younger confessed to him. Jimin feels his heart tangles up in a bundle of emotions as he involuntarily leans a bit into Jungkook's touch, obediently like a kitten, closing his eyes afterwards to enjoy this precious moment. He realizes that not only he sees infatuation and loving flooding up Jungkook's gaze, gratitude and generosity laces in the younger's speech, but maybe he too, was falling deep the moment they set foot into this peculiar bromance.

"You know hyung, have been stopping myself from falling in too deep for fear you would disgust me because sooner or later, we would be parted after completing this mission. However, if you hate me for loving you, thenー"

"Then fuck that logic of yours because I love you so much that I can't imagine hating you."