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

Chapter 3

“I can’t believe we’re going to the Kim Seokjin, Kim Voted-Most-Mysterious-Hot-Senior Seokjin’s house. For a birthday party.” Taehyung said for the nth time.

“I let you come because you were so interested, but don’t embarrass me,” Jungkook demanded.

“No, you let me come because you know I’m awesomewith kids,” Taehyung laughed. They rang the doorbell to the apartment door, and it was opened a moment later by Seokjin himself, wearing one of those gaudy rainbow pointed party hats made of cardboard, a noisemaker dangling from the edge of his mouth and confetti stuck over one ear.

“Jungkook, you came!” Seokjin cried out, seemingly unaware of the dumbfounded expressions on Jungkook and Taehyung’s faces. He gestured them inside, turning his back to call down the hall that Jungkook had arrived.

Taehyung looked over at Jungkook and quietly whispered, “Not the circumstances you thought you’d hear those  words coming out of his mouth, I’ll bet.” Jungkook roughly elbowed his friend in the chest. Taehyung grunted just as Seokjin poked his head back around the corner.

“Come on inside!”

Jungkook refused to look, but he knew Taehyung was wriggling his eyebrows in his general direction. Now was not the time to play into Taehyung’s game of sexual innuendo - nor was it the time to once again wonder if he should explain to Taehyung who would be ‘coming inside’ whom - but a time to take advantage of this rare opportunity to see how Seokjin lived. The place was simply furnished, the walls mostly blank and the floor littered with children’s toys and discarded papers and clothing. The living room where Seokjin led them had one big, black, leather couch and a small wooden coffee table that was covered in markers and crayon, where Jimin sat with a little cup of juice. He was sipping it rather daintily, using both hands and chubby little fingers gripping the sides as he lifted it to his face, which was covered in the dustings of what appeared to be the remnants of the bowl of BBQ potato chips sitting in the middle of the coffee table. A TV show was on, and it only took Jungkook a moment to recognize it as Barney. A pale man with mint green hair sat on the couch, looking bored with his arms stretched across the back and armrest. On the other cushion was a black-haired man who was all tanned, bony elbows and teeth, who was patting Jimin’s soft head of hair gently. All of them wore matching horrendous party hats, and Seokjin was already handing two to Jungkook. Something about the small, gentle quiet of the group made Jungkook’s chest clench.

“I’d like you to meet Hoseok and Yoongi,” Seokjin offered, gesturing to the black haired and mint-haired men, respectively. “Guys, this is Jungkook from my weight-lifting class, and...um..?”

“Taehyung,” the man grinned, his eyes locked on Yoongi with a gleam in his eyes that Jungkook knew was already leading to trouble.

“Are you guys hungry? We have spaghetti that’ll be ready soon, but there’s snacks and stuff everywhere, so help yourself.” And with that, Seokjin was already slipping off into the kitchen, the distant sound of boiling things and the smell of tomatoes lingering in the air.