Lord Of The Wolves

The Youth That Blooms With New Faces

Seokjin refuses to admit his immense attachment to the boy. He wasn't clingy (if  the fleeting glances were far from being passionately concerned), just worried (okay yes, maybe he's being unreasonably persistent). He made sure to tower over the boy every chance he gets, to embrace him in his grasp and squish him with love. It worked on everybody, and Seokjin is more than sure it worked on Jungkook  too.

Jungkook however, was a timid bundle of nerves. He was quiet, awfully so, and he did not speak much about his discomfort over the attention. So Yoongi does it for him every chance he gets, just so he could smite his brother in the head. He marches forward, tongue sharp and blunt with a flat tone of delivery. And Jungkook would often cast him a relieved look, thankful for his  helpful interferences.

"Stop smothering him. You're creeping him out." Yoongi would always chide.

And Seokjin could only stare back, flabbergasted. It's a daily occurrence, but he still finds it baffling each time. Yoongi was not a boy of action. Hell, he only dreams of pricking himself to a perpetual slumber. He wasn't one to defend strangers. And he certainly wasn't a scolder. 

"I'm only smothering him with love, there's nothing wrong with that!"

Yoongi regards his reason with disgust, "Kid doesn't seem to reciprocate."

He ends up pointing towards the child with the tilt of his chin, directing his brother to his line of sight. Jungkook simply replies with a lame squeak, having caught himself staring at the pair in an absentminded fashion. When the boy fiddles longer with his intertwined hands, Yoongi's alarms of discontent louden.

"I can tone it down, maybe." Seokjin responds, the thought too bitter as he sighs. Only for now, he leaves unsaid. He sends an apologetic smile towards Jungkook's way, scrunching his nose in distaste when his gaze lands on the smug-looking silver-haired boy.

"That's more like it." Yoongi pats the youngest boy in the room, urging him to stray away from the corner.

Jungkook sends him a wary look, still silent. He purses his lips before he sends Yoongi a small, lilting gratitude, "Thank you."

Seokjin is quite abashed that the boy himself has acknowledged Yoongi's accusation. He hopes his stare is blank as he scans the younger's appearance, seeking for any comfort that he wishes would imply he had been faultless and well-mannered with him. 

The older fails to grasp any form of answer, really, when all that Jungkook seem content to display was a reserved nod coupled with a few hums and closed smiles in between. Suppose, it would take a longer time for him to adjust and with Yoongi's lack of denial -it's an undeniable shame to concede to the truth that Jungkook might not be comfortable with any of them.

"You're staring again!" Yoongi reprimands as the silence draws on.

Seokjin grumbles an excuse before finding enough composure to say, "12 year olds are kids too you know -just because you're older doesn't mean you're not a kid, kid."

"Oh, the hypocrisy," Yoongi replies, "and you talk like an old man too."

"That's because I'm the oldest!"

"Just because you're the oldest doesn't mean you're old, hyung."

Seokjin retorts something in an immature fashion, Yoongi following suit. Soon they enter a ridiculous phase of name-calling, bantering about the most trivial of faults. Jungkook scurries off to the nearest library, where he sits with his bare feet beneath the shadows of the dusty bookshelves.

-

Days later, Seokjin finds that they've landed themselves on the same scenario. In an ironic fashion, the roles reversed dramatically.