vớ vẩn n+11

7-The One Where Jeon Jeongguk Survives Long Enough To Regret His Life Choices

JIN
January 8, nearly midnight

For once the house seemed to be quiet. Taehyung and Jeongguk were out and everything was all cleaned up and Namjoon was crashed out on the couch (face covered by an open textbook which fluttered dangerously whenever he snored) and Hoseok was in the basement working on some homework or something and and Yoongi and Jimin were, uh... frankly Jin wasn't sure where they were exactly but he'd decided a few weeks ago that it was officially None Of His Business and if either of them felt like filling him in that was their prerogative.

Jin, for his part, was puttering around the kitchen like he usually did when he was a little bored and a lot worried, cleaning each individual glass by hand and rinsing bottles for the recycling bin and scrubbing the counters down and shining the sink (it was really amazing what you could do with two parts white vinegar and one part dish soap, followed up by a liberal deep clean with way too much sodium bicarbonate and an old toothbrush he'd liberated from Namjoon's side of their shared bathroom counter - lord knew Namjoon could stand to replace his toothbrush more frequently, he argued silently to himself whenever he felt bad about taking it) and so it was that Jin was in the very back of the house when the front door slammed open.

He paused at the sink and looked down at his hands in their pink rubber gloves, half submerged in soapy water, and thought very carefully about what was probably about to happen. Of course he hoped it was already Jeongguk and Taehyung but - he glanced skeptically up at the clock over the fridge - it had only been a couple of hours and this very same errand had taken Jimin and Taehyung almost all night two years ago when they'd put them through it. But then he heard Taehyung's voice hissing worriedly in the tiled entryway, his voice echoing strangely against the plaster, and Jin sighed. Pulled his hands out of the water. Stripped off the gloves, and wandered out of the kitchen.

"What," he said, "is going on out here?"

"He got everything," Taehyung said distractedly. "He got every single thing." He was standing over Jeongguk worriedly, arms held out as though he were about to hug him but keeping them hovering out about half a meter to each side, ready just in case Jeongguk tipped over unexpectedly. Which... okay, actually that seemed more likely the more Jin looked at them.

Jin jerked forward, heart leaping into his throat, hands whipping behind his back automatically to tangle with his apron strings without him even thinking about it. "Joonie," he yelled over his shoulder as he passed by the living room, "I need you!"

Jeongguk looked - he looked sort of triumphant, actually, in a curiously green sort of way. His face was drawn and there were shadows under his eyes and he wobbled slightly, shifting his weight from foot to foot as though he were trying to keep his balance on an ocean liner with questionable success. "I got everything," he slurred - then burped, going even greener. (Jin wouldn't have thought it possible, but then life was full of surprises.)

It was at this point that Namjoon lurched out to lean sleepily against the wall where the main corridor met the living room, blinking blearily and rubbing a hand over his face - cheeks flushed and indented with the telltale marks of where his textbook pages had crumpled and folded and stuck to his skin as he slept. "Why do you need me?"

"Jin-hyung always needs you," Hoseok cut in, opening the basement door at the exact right time. He paused, one foot on the top step of the stairs, staring into the entryway where Jeongguk was swaying and spinning gently as Taehyung knelt at his feet to tangle with his ever-present tan work boots. "The fuck's goin' on with the fetus?"

"He got everything," Jin said, voice tinged with disbelief. "Tae says he got everything."

Hoseok turned to fix Jin with a dubious stare, letting out a cough of incredulous laughter until he saw the dead-serious expression on Jin's face and the cough of laughter turned into just a cough. "Wait - you're not shittin' me? He got every fuckin' thing? Even mine?"