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

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Chapter Text

Taehyung choked on his cola, nearly spitting it across their dorm room as Jungkook sat cross-legged in front of the air conditioner. “Oh my god . You’re telling me theKim Seokjin is in your weight-lifting class? Is it too late to add a course?!”

“ Taehyung ,” Jungkook snarled in warning. This reaction was exactly why had had waited a month into the semester before telling his roommate about the situation.

“What?! It’s not like you have a chance with him, he’s one of the most sought-after seniors on campus, and even the smoothest kids I know were outright rejected.” Taehyung rolled his eyes, re-adjusting the sweatband on his brow that held his bangs away from his eyes, little beads of sweat forming on his tan skin. Jungkook hated how Taehyung could be sweaty and gross in cut-off sweats and still look like a model. “You’re the most awkward person I know, how do you even manage to talk to him?”

“Just...little-by-little,” he said quietly, his eyes flickering off to the side. He honestly thought that Pasha was deliberately pairing them up as much as possible now, but he didn’t want to say it aloud because he was sort of afraid that if he did, it would stop happening by some sort of spell-breaking ability in the universe. The more he hung out with Seokjin, the more he wanted to know about him. At first, he had thought he wouldn’t be able to talk directly to someone with a face like Seokjin’s, but somehow, the senior always made it easy. He goofed off good-naturedly when Pasha wasn’t looking, he made jokes and seemed to always enjoy himself, whatever they happened to be doing. He even seemed to likeJungkook, greeting him at the start of every class. Jungkook wondered if it was just something that happened when he was in an easy-going course like beginner’s weight-lifting, or if Seokjin was always like this.

“You want me to come help?” Taehyung offered.

Jungkook arched an eyebrow at his roommate. “What? No, I don’t need help existing in the same room as a classmate.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Taehyung laughed breezily. “I can help you find a way to hang out with him outside of class.”

At that offer, Jungkook halted for a minute, staring into the air conditioner and seriously considering it. After a moment, he shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. But thanks, Tae.”

“Suit yourself,” Taehyung shrugged, moving to go back to his homework. Taehyung was the sort of guy who had a ton of friends, made acquaintances just by going to the bathroom for a quick pee between classes, but he was also nice enough to share his skills with those less extroverted than himself - for which Jungkook was glad and had glided by with for his entire university career so far. But with this instance, with the strange, secretive aura Seokjin gave off, Jungkook felt an odd inclination to just leave it up to fate. Maybe it was because he definitely didn’t want to admit to Taehyung that he was starting to have more than just a passing crush on his classmate with the quirky laugh and the little curves tucked into the edges of his smile. Jungkook sighed, flopping down onto his bed.

It turned out, Jungkook’s hunch about fate was closer to the mark than he probably would have liked.

It was a little over a week later when Jungkook first came across Seokjin outside of class by chance. It shouldn’t have been so surprising, considering their campus was pretty small, but Jungkook was thrown by the weird encounter, nonetheless. It was a Thursday evening, just before twilight. The heat of the late-summer afternoon lingered, and he could already see a couple of lightning bugs flickering across the park that stretched parallel to the main campus. He had gone out for a run as part of his project for a class, and had changed into a white T-shirt and gray cut-off sweatpants. He was already panting a little, and he regretted not having taken a little extra time for a warm-up.