Jinkook Ao3 / You Came For Me (You Stayed For Us) by kuragecharms

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

It was a Friday evening at the start of his first spring semester in college when Jungkook first met the Kim Seokjin. As with most of the intimidating and romance-involved things in his life, it happened entirely by coincidence, and of course caught him entirely off guard.

Jungkook walked into the gym, tossing his backpack into one of the footlockers to the side next to the door and taking only his water bottle with him as he sat down on one of the benches. If it had been a morning class, he surely would have been rushing in at the last second, as difficult as he was to wake up. But since this was an evening beginner weight-lifting course, Jungkook was there nearly 15 minutes early. He played around on his phone as one by one deep-voiced men of different levels of muscular fitness filtered into the room. One of them waved and greeted Jungkook as he went past, since they had already been in a couple classes together, having their sports management majors in common; but for the most part he was left alone with his 9gag memes.

About five minutes before class started, an old, short Russian man in a red and black tracksuit walked in, tossing his duffel bag next to the blue bench that lined the main wall and surveying the room casually. He met eyes with Jungkook, his wrinkled, leathery face curving upwards into what Jungkook knew from experience was a smile, but which on first glance could have seemed a grimace.

“Ah, John. We meet again.” The man said, patting Jungkook on the shoulder. Jungkook smiled, looking down at his knees and trying not to look too amused. The man had misread his name on the first day, and being the shyer person that he was, Jungkook had never had the heart to correct him. He seemed to really like Jungkook, and even picked on him in class a little, just to see if he could keep him challenged when he excelled in certain areas faster than his classmates - something Jungkook enjoyed using to fan the flame of his big - if quiet - ego.

“Hello, Professor Vasiliev.”

The man scowled, giving Jungkook a light punch in the arm that nearly bowled the gangly boy over, repeating the gesture until Jungkook laughed and corrected himself. “Hello, Mr. Pasha.”

“Drop the mister or I’ll sock you in the jaw, pipsqueak,” Pasha teased, moving away to clamber up into a standing position on the blue wooden bench, looking over the students milling around.

“Let’s get started, no use in wasting the minutes your parents are paying for. Get your asses over here and form two lines.” The class shuffled around until they were spaced out across the room, and Jungkook automatically tried to stand in the back of the class and in the corner, but Pasha’s teasing didn’t want to wait even a first class. “John, what the hell you trying to pull? Get yourself over here in the front so I can keep an eye on you.” He gestured as if angrily to the front of the line, and Jungkook smiled as he followed the command, warming at the attention and, as  always, amused by Pasha’s antics. Pasha bent down and reached into his duffel bag and pulled out a light-blue plastic hippo toy that looked as if it was made for a dog or a small child. He gave it a hearty squeeze, making it squeak obnoxiously loud and causing some of the students to giggle, then passed the toy from hand to hand as he spoke.  “Okay, weaklings, welcome to beginning weight-lifting class. If you’re in the wrong place...well, I pray for your poor mother and all the bullshit she has to deal with, because how do you get this mixed up with something else?”