Work Text:
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Jimin and Seokjin’s house looks exactly like what Jungkook had expected it to look like when he received an e-vite to their “First Annual Christmas Party.” Which is to say that their apartment, which Seokjin usually keeps fairly minimalist in design, is covered in far too much tinsel and there are three separate Christmas trees within Jungkook’s view.
Seokjin opens the door to their shared apartment, welcoming Jungkook with ease like he’s done so many times before. The apartment had been Seokjin’s alone when he was in his final year of college when Seokjin met Jimin.
They’ve been out of college for years now, but Jimin and Seokjin just took the step to living together earlier in the year. And they’ve truly been hosting for almost any and every event that they can. They host game nights and they host movie nights and they host “bro nights” which is just games and movies. They tried to host Chuseok, even though almost everyone in their small friend group goes home for that holiday. And then, since no one showed up to their Chuseok party, they hosted an American Thanksgiving, which confused Jungkook to no end because the food that Jimin and Seokjin had prepared looked nothing like the plates he’s seen on SNS before.
So Jungkook wasn’t surprised when he received a pretty invitation marked high priority in his email for a Christmas party. The email said to bring an alcoholic beverage, a covered dish (“not something bought from the store, Taehyung-ah, you have to make it yourself”), and a Secret Santa gift for a random gift exchange.
“Oh, I’ll take the food and the-” Seokjin tilts his head at Jungkook’s pitcher. “What is this?”
“Mulled wine,” Jungkook answers. “I already mixed everything that needs to be in there, so we just have to heat it up.”
“You brought a drink that people have to heat up themselves?”
Jungkook rolls his eyes. “We can put it in your slow cooker! On low!”
“Sure we can,” Seokjin easily agrees, turning to head toward the kitchen. Jungkook still follows Seokjin into the kitchen to help him, even though he knows that Seokjin likes the food in the kitchen to be laid out a certain way all of the time. So, even though Jungkook knows that Seokjin will just move whatever he sets out, Jungkook still follows with his pitcher of cold mulled wine.
“Is Yoongi-hyung here yet?” Jungkook asks, trying to sound casual.
Though, Jungkook knows that, to his best friend, he probably sounds anything but.
Yoongi is one of Jimin’s best friends. Jungkook had met him when Jimin and Seokjin had started dating and decided to have a party to introduce all of their friends to one another (again on the party theme- Jungkook hadn’t even realized that they’d been doing this type of thing prior to living together).
Jungkook and Seokjin’s other best friend, Namjoon, got to meet Jimin’s group of friends- Taehyung, Hoseok, and Yoongi- and Jungkook is fairly certain that he fell in love with Yoongi at first sight.
The night they met they were in the very room that Jungkook is in now. He had been in the kitchen, searching for some type of bowl appropriate for serving a salad in, when the most attractive person who Jungkook has ever laid his eyes on walked into the kitchen.
“Um, hi,” the stranger had said, holding up a bottle of whiskey. “Jiminie told me that the alcohol I was required to bring should come in here?”
Jungkook had nodded, feeling absolutely out of his element because there was no way that he would be able to talk to such an attractive person without making an entire fool out of himself. “Yes- Um. Alcohol goes in the kitchen.”
The stranger raised an eyebrow. “Are you Jiminie’s new boyfriend? He’s been secretive, but he did say that you were the single most attractive person that has ever existed on the planet, and I get that.”
Jungkook had flushed, unsure how the prettiest person in the world could possibly mistake him for Seokjin- who, yes, might be the most handsome person in South Korea- because Seokjin is the kind of handsome who knows that he’s handsome. He’d always been happy in his own skin, where Jungkook had never quite felt like his skin fit him properly.
“No- That’s Seokjinie-hyung,” Jungkook had answered. “I’m not sure where he’s at. But, um, he’s really specific about how the kitchen is organized when he has guests over so I was trying to make it a bit easier on him. He’s really nervous about meeting all of Jimin-ssi’s friends for the first time.”
The man snorted. “I think that Jiminie’s nervous too. He was running around earlier, trying to decide which shirt made him look smartest since Seokjin-ssi has talked about how brilliant Namjoon is. Wait- are you Namjoon?”
Jungkook shook his head. “No. I’m Jungkook.” Then, he bowed far too deeply and asked Yoongi to please take care of him, even though it didn’t really matter because Jungkook was just meeting Jimin’s friends and it wasn’t like they were all going to spend tons of time together after the party. Realistically, Jungkook knew that he wasn’t likely to become a part of the pretty boy’s daily life.
Jungkook thought that he would just vaguely remember Jimin’s really pretty friend fondly in the future, and potentially regret his decision to not become close with all of his best friend’s boyfriend’s friends, and that would be the end of it.
Except Jungkook had been entirely wrong.
Not only did JImin’s friends get along overwhelmingly well with Jungkook’s own friends, but it turned out that the “hot as fuck dance major from my English class,” that Namjoon was always going on about was one of Jimin’s best friends, so the two groups continued to find reasons to hang out in order to push Namjoon and Hoseok toward one another. And by the time that Namjoon and Hoseok started dating one another, the seven of them were all actual friends with one another, so there was no reason not to keep hanging out together.
Jungkook, Yoongi, and Taehyung tended to stick together at group functions, or be put on a team together during game nights since the couples always wanted to be on the same team. After a while, Taehyung started to beg to host games so that he wasn’t third-wheeling and all of a sudden, Jungkook realized that he was being incredibly obvious with his crush on Yoongi.
Which, wow, Jungkook really developed a crush on the older boy. He thought that Yoongi was pretty the night that they met, couldn’t stop blushing any time he would say something to Jungkook, and Jungkook is still, to this day, certain that Yoongi caught Jungkook staring at his long fingers on multiple occasions throughout the evening.
Now, in the present, nearly four years after meeting Yoongi for the first time, Jungkook is still just as enamored as he had been the night that they met.
“Yoongi isn’t here yet,” Seokjin responds to Jungkook’s question. “He said that he and Taehyungie would be late- I think that they were grabbing dinner with one of Taehyung’s friends.”
Jungkook hums. He knows that there’s nothing for him to be jealous of there romantically- Taehyung is both aromantic and asexual with no desire to date anyone- but Jungkook can’t help but feel upset that Yoongi and Taehyung have such a longstanding friendship that’s on a level that Jungkook cannot seem to get on with Yoongi.
“Don’t be jealous,” Seokjin scolds, digging around in a cupboard for his slow cooker. “Seriously- you just need to tell him how you feel. He’s, like, just as in love with you as you are with him.”
Jungkook shakes his head. He absolutely cannot confess to Yoongi. Yoongi is older and cooler and he has an actual job at a record label. And Jungkook- he’s just not on the same level of cool as Yoongi. Yoongi is literally so far out of Jungkook’s league that Jungkook feels lucky that Yoongi wants to go out to dinner with Jungkook approximately once per week.
“You’re so busy being in love with him that you don’t notice how much he loves you, too,” Seokjin says, rolling his eyes. “You two talk about everything under the sun when you’re together except for your feelings.”
“Of course I’m not going to talk to him about my feelings,” Jungkook hisses, pouring his cold mulled wine into the cooker. “I would say something stupid, like admitting the fact that I’ve been in love with him since the night that we met and then he would awkwardly tell me that it’s okay to have feelings, but he’s sorry because he’ll never see me as anything other than his dongsaeng-”
“Jungkook, I’m telling you that he likes you too -”
“Keep your voice down,” Jungkook scolds. “I don’t want Jiminie-hyung to hear you! Yoongi is one of his best friends!”
Seokjin rolls his eyes again and Jungkook thinks that his eyes are going to fall out of his head if he doesn’t stop rolling his eyes at Jungkook. “First of all, Jimin loves you, too, you brat. So you know that even if he knew about your feelings for Yoongi, he wouldn’t say anything without your permission. Secondly, Yoongi doesn’t even force you to call him hyung! You only do it half of the time and he doesn’t do anything about it except smile at you!”
Jungkook wants to argue with Seokjin, except he really can’t. Of course, Yoongi letting Jungkook get away with pretty much anything does not equate to him having romantic feelings for Jungkook, but Seokjin’s not wrong in saying that Yoongi doesn’t scold him for not using honorifics. Yoongi doesn’t scold Jungkook for anything, really.
Jungkook jokingly called Yoongi by just his name, dropping the honorific, just once the year prior while he was drunk and not really thinking. He’d expected to be scolded, made to be a genie for Yoongi or something like that, but Yoongi had just blushed and left the room, mumbling something under his breath about “kids these days.” Jungkook tried it again when he was sober and, much to his delight, Yoongi just laughed and then choked on the air.
Jungkook’s been mostly dropping honorifics with him ever since.
Jungkook doesn’t argue his case against Seokjin, mostly because of the aforementioned reason, but also because suddenly Hoseok, Namjoon, and Jimin are all in the small kitchen as well.
“Hey, Kook-ah,” Namjoon greets, smiling gently in Jungkook’s direction, as Jimin ladles some white drink into a mug. “How are you today? How was work?”
Jungkook shrugs. “It was okay. Really busy, which is wild because I thought that all of the students would be gone for the holiday break already, but there were so many people in there all day! I swear I made more holiday special coffees today than I ever have before. And I’ve worked in that cafe for nearly three years.”
“I mean, you stayed here,” Hoseok points out. “So, other students probably stayed, too.”
Jungkook shrugs again, accepting the mug that Jimin is holding out for him. He can’t believe that so many students would stay, but there’s really no other explanation. “Either way,” he says. “It was so busy. The only thing that got me through that hellish ten hour shift was the reminder that I got to come over here tonight.”
“Is that why everything that you brought for tonight is cold when it should be warm?” Seokjin teases, putting Jungkook’s bean dip back into the oven to heat.
“Yes,” Jungkook says, simply. “I have to work and go to school while living in an apartment on my own.”
Seokjin looks like he’s about to tease Jungkook further, which is his love language with Jungkook because he and Seokjin seem unable to be sincere with one another for even a single moment even if they’re practically brothers at this point, but Jimin jumps in to stop the impending argument.
“Thanks for bringing that stuff anyway, Jungkook-ah,” he says, voice sweet and light. “We have a tree set up in the living room if you want to put your gift under the tree! It’s something that will work for anyone, right?”
Jungkook nods. Jimin had sent multiple text messages out to their group chat reminding everyone to bring fairly neutral gifts since they would be playing a game to decide who gets what gift. Jungkook had figured out from Seokjin that it was a story filled with the words ‘left’ and ‘right’ and they would be passing packages around.
“I’ll go put it under the tree then,” Jungkook says as a sharp knock comes on the door. He finally takes a sip of Jimin’s drink and realizes that it’s very alcoholic eggnog. It tastes great, since Jungkook absolutely loves rum, but he knows that he probably needs to go pretty easy on it.
“Oh, that must be Yoongi-hyung and Taehyungie,” Jimin says excitedly, as Jungkook tries to figure out which tree is the one set up for the Secret Santa presents. All three trees have gifts under them, so Jungkook just places his under the largest, most center tree. “Tae was so excited to meet up with his friend, but I think the restaurant his friend chose was the one where the waiter always hits on Taehyung-”
“Ah, that explains it,” Jungkook hears Hoseok muse. “Yoongi said that he wanted to ask- ouch?”
“Sorry,” Jimin’s light and airy voice says. “Accident.”
Jungkook isn’t sure what Jimin is apologizing for, but he’s almost positive that whatever happened was not an accident.
Another knock on the door also suggests that no one has answered the door. Which, of course, Jungkook had known because he can see the apartment door from the living room, but he thinks that it’s weird that Seokjin had so quickly opened the door for him, but no one has moved from the kitchen to get it for Taehyung and Yoongi.
“I can grab the door, too, I guess,” Jungkook says loudly enough for everyone in the kitchen to hear him, which isn’t too loud since the apartment is relatively small.
“Thanks, Jungkook-ah,” Jimin calls back. “You’re the best!”
“Hi Yoongi, Taehyungie-hyung,” Jungkook greets when he opens the door. “The rest of the hyungs are being weird and wouldn’t come get the door and I think that Jiminie-hyung and Hoseokie-hyung are fighting but it’s hard to tell.”
Taehyung tilts his head while Yoongi slips around Jungkook to get into the apartment, hand briefly touching Jungkook’s side as he moves past him. Jungkook tries to ignore the flush that he knows is rising on his cheeks at this moment to continue talking with Taehyung.
“Why are they fighting?”
Jungkook shrugs. “Hoseokie-hyung was in the middle of talking when Jimin accidentally hurt him, so I think he was cutting him off from saying something,” Jungkook explains. He knows that that’s not technically fighting, but Jimin and Hoseok never so much as glance at one another the wrong way, so it’s definitely out of character. “I was in the living room, though, so I didn’t see what happened.”
“Huh,” Taehyung says. Then, “Well, let me in there. And go say hi to Yoongi-hyung. He was talking about how excited he is to see you the whole walk over here. Apparently you guys didn’t get to have your weekly dinner and he’s missing his Jungkook fix for the week.”
Jungkook blushes. It’s true that he and Yoongi had to cancel their standing Thursday night dinner since Jungkook had been scheduled for the evening shift that day- something that he begged his manager to not do again, then was ruthlessly teased by his coworkers who definitely know that he is in love with Yoongi. Jungkook just hadn’t expected for Yoongi to miss him so much. After all, Yoongi made it a point to come into the cafe that Jungkook works at on Friday morning since they didn’t get to spend time together the night before.
“Okay,” Jungkook says, ignoring the pointed look on Taehyung’s face. Jungkook may not want to share his feelings for Yoongi to anyone other than Seokjin and Namjoon, but that doesn't mean that he’s not extremely obvious about them. Jungkook has only told his two best friends, but he’s fairly certain that everyone knows about them.
That’s another reason that Jungkook can’t ever tell Yoongi about his feelings. He’s seen the way that Yoongi looks at him when he comes a little too close to sharing the truth in his heart. Yoongi often looks at him as though his own heart hurts for Jungkook. Sure, he’s often a bit tipsy when he’s close to confessing, but that just makes Jungkook more certain that Yoongi must know about his feelings. Otherwise, why would he look at him like that? Like he might break if he goes through with confessing?
Still, Jungkook listens to Taehyung’s advice and sets off to find Yoongi. He needs a little bit of liquid courage to talk to Yoongi tonight- his feelings are a bit more intense since he only got to see Yoongi for a few minutes the morning prior and absence makes the heart grow fonder and all of that good stuff. So he chugs the eggnog, even though it’s thicker than most of the alcoholic drinks that Jungkook usually consumes, and heads to the kitchen to refill his mug and grab Yoongi some as well.
“Yoongi,” Jungkook sings as he sits down next to Yoongi on the love seat, already feeling the effects of the rum. “Yoongi, it’s so nice to see you. I missed you.”
Yoongi smiles at him, his grin wide and gummy and the best sight that Jungkook has ever seen. “I missed you, too, Jungkook-ah,” he says, leaning toward Jungkook to bump their shoulders together. “Don’t you ever get scheduled on a Thursday evening again. Hyung needs his weekly dose of chaos.”
“Okay, Yoongi-hyung,” Jungkook says, adding the honorific in because even if Yoongi doesn’t scold Jungkook for not calling him hyung, Jungkook absolutely loves it when Yoongi speaks in the third person like that. It makes his heart feel all kinds of fuzzy and Jungkook doesn’t entirely know why. “I already asked my manager to never let it happen again. I told him that he can schedule me for Saturday and Sunday mornings, as long as I never have to work a Thursday night again because those are the most important nights in the world.”
Yoongi chuckles. “Did you actually tell him that he could schedule you every weekend? You know that he would do it.”
“No,” Jungkook giggles, happy to know that Yoongi can always tell when he’s just being dramatic. “I didn’t actually tell him that. I like having rotating weekends.”
“I know you do,” Yoongi says. “But I’m glad to hear that Thursday nights are your favorite. They’re my favorite, too.”
And that gives Jungkook pause.
Because as much as Jungkook tells Seokjin and Namjoon- and, hell, even himself- that he can never confess to Yoongi because there’s no way he could ever be on the same level as Yoongi, there are definite times where Jungkook thinks maybe .
Thinks that maybe Yoongi could like him back. He thinks that maybe he’s just as important to Yoongi as Yoongi is to him. Thinks that maybe standing Thursday night dinners aren’t just because Yoongi needs some chaos in his week (he’s best friends with Jimin, Hoseok, and Taehyung- Jungkook is sure that he easily gets enough chaos from the three of them when they’re all together), but maybe because he just wants to see Jungkook.
Maybe he just wants to have Jungkook in his house, be able to make sure that Jungkook gets at least one meal per week that he didn’t buy either at his job or the convenience store down the street from his apartment.
Maybe he wants to sit with Jungkook for hours and talk while they drink a few too many beers, which happens every single week without fail because Yoongi always buys an entire case for the two of them and Jungkook never works on Friday mornings and his classes don’t start until the late morning.
Maybe Yoongi likes it when Jungkook gets a little too drunk to get to the bus stop, feeling too tired and emotional from spending hours with Yoongi, talking about everything and nothing all at once.
Maybe Yoongi is relieved when he gets to watch Jungkook fall asleep on his couch instead of stumbling back home, always tucked under Yoongi’s favorite throw blanket which Jungkook has to convince himself not to steal every single time that he wakes up and can only smell Yoongi around him.
Maybe , Jungkook thinks. Just maybe .
But, for now, he can’t deal with a maybe. He can’t confess on a maybe. He has to be absolutely sure that Yoongi likes him back in order to openly tell him that he’s not only in love with him, but would also like to spend most of his evenings with Yoongi instead of just Thursday evenings.
In fact, ideally, Yoongi should be the one confessing. Jungkook’s feelings are so obvious that he’s sure all of Yoongi’s best friends know about them, so there’s no way that Yoongi doesn’t also already know. Unless, of course, Yoongi is exactly like Jungkook and doesn’t listen when his friends tell him that his crush likes him back.
Which is too high-level mental gymnastics for Jungkook to attempt to do while he’s a little tipsy.
“I brought you this eggnog,” Jungkook says, holding one of the mugs out to Yoongi. “I know that you probably would prefer bourbon in there, but you know that Jiminie-hyung prefers rum-”
“Thank you, Kook-ah,” Yoongi says, cutting off Jungkook’s lowkey embarrassing rambling. “Hyung will drink it well.”
Jungkook smiles, feeling light and at ease now that he’s sitting beside his favorite person in the world. Sure, he gets to talk to Yoongi almost every day through text messages and sometimes phone calls when he can’t sleep and Yoongi offers to talk on the phone, telling Jungkook stories about everything and nothing all at once until his soothing voice lulls Jungkook into a deep sleep.
But nothing compares to being with Yoongi in person.
There’s something about being able to press himself into Yoongi’s side, listening to him talk about his week, talk about all of the stressful things that are going on at his adult job, talk about the tracks that he’s working on and the famous idols that he’s working with. Jungkook loves it. He could get lost in Yoongi’s voice so easily, could drown in the honey-covered words falling out of Yoongi’s lips with ease.
He just really, truly feels at ease with his favorite hyung around.
Soon enough, everyone else returns from the kitchen, sitting down on the various mismatched pieces of furniture that Jimin and Seokjin bring out of storage when they host- seriously, Hoseok is sitting on a beanbag chair and Taehyung is in the computer chair from their home office. Jungkook moves in closer to Yoongi to make room for Seokjin on the love seat as well. Jungkook thinks that Seokjin must be doing this on purpose to push him further into Yoongi, because there is definitely enough room for three people on their couch.
The seven of them are all talking, catching up since some people haven’t seen each other in person for close to a month, when Jimin gasps from the couch.
“What’s wrong, baby?”
“Whose gift is that?” Jimin asks, pointing at Jungkook’s gift.
Jungkook smiles proudly- he’s always been excellent at gift wrapping, watching random videos of those who have presents wrapped so well that they almost always seem like they should be used exclusively as decoration. So, he assumes that Jimin is impressed by his superior wrapping skills. Plus, when Jungkook has a bit in him to drink, his platonic praise kink always seems to kick in.
“It’s mine,” he says.
“Why did you put it under that tree? I told you that there was one for the Secret Santa gifts!”
Jungkook blinks. “Hyung, it’s not at all obvious which of your three Christmas trees is meant to be for the secret santa gifts.”
“Well, everyone else put their gifts under the right tree,” Jimin huffs.
Jungkook turns to look at Yoongi, who is clearly hiding his laughter behind a fist pressed to his lips. “How did you know which tree to put your gift under?” Jungkook hisses.
“I didn’t know,” Yoongi whispers back. “I just guessed and happened to guess correctly.”
“This is sick and twisted,” Jungkook whispers back, knowing that Jimin is still probably staring at him, waiting for him to move his gift. “Which tree is it supposed to go under?”
Yoongi shrugs, eyes shining with mischief and Jungkook wants to be mad, but he could get lost in Yoongi’s sharp eyes so, so easily, that he has to look away and doesn’t have enough time to be upset.
“Sorry, Jiminie-hyung,” Jungkook says, standing up. “I’ll go and move my present under the correct tree.”
“Thank you,” Jimin says.
Then, Jungkook realizes that he has to figure out which tree of two he’s meant to put his underneath. Just looking at them, Jungkook couldn’t tell you straight away which tree is meant to be for this party specifically. The two trees on either side of the big tree are both the same size and decorated fairly similarly.
Jungkook looks at what gifts are underneath the tree already and decides to shove his under the one on the left, since there are six gifts there, with a few different wrapping papers. He figures that Jimin and Seokjin used the same paper, as well as Hoseok and Namjoon, so this is the only clue he has for this.
Realizing that the room is still eerily silent, Jungkook walks back to the love seat, worried that he messed up once again. But Jimin simply thanks him again, then carries on talking with Hoseok about the dance instructor he’s not getting along with at work.
“Thank god,” Jungkook sighs when he sits back down, picking up his eggnog and taking a large gulp. “Felt like everyone was watching me diffuse a bomb right there. And here I thought that the most stressful part of the night would be-”
Jungkook cuts himself off. He was about to say that the most stressful part of his night would be seeing Yoongi, all cute and cozy in his holiday sweater that has a reindeer on it that he’s worn every single year for Christmas since Jungkook met him, and not confessing.
But clearly Jungkook can’t say that out loud.
Instead, he takes another gulp of his eggnog, realizing that he’s already had two glasses of the heavily spiked drink and he’s really feeling the effects of it now. His mind is in that fuzzy state that it always seems to be in when he’s drinking or within two meters of Yoongi.
“Yoongi, do you want another drink?” Jungkook asks, standing up once again. “I need a new one.”
Yoongi shakes his head. “I’ve only had a few sips of mine. It’s really strong.”
“Jiminie says that’s what makes it good,” Seokjin notes. Then, apparently because he doesn’t want Jimin to hear him, he whispers, “Since literally no one actually likes eggnog.”
Jungkook snorts, wobbling a little as he tries to move past Yoongi. He hopes that Seokjin decides to move onto the couch with his boyfriend and Namjoon so that he can sit next to Yoongi comfortably. Yoongi’s cologne makes Jungkook feel even hazier than his voice and the alcohol does, so sitting pressed up against him is nice but it’s also torture for Jungkook’s poor, gay heart.
Jungkook hears Yoongi say something to Seokjin as he walks into the kitchen, swearing that this is going to be his last alcoholic beverage for the night because he thinks that a fourth will make his lips far too loose.
“Jungkook-ah.”
Jungkook jumps, a strangled noise coming out of his throat, and spills the eggnog out of the ladle and onto the counter. “Fuck,” he says, immediately looking around for a paper towel to clean it up. Seokjin is way too fucking particular about this kitchen and he’s going to know that Jungkook had to move the rice cooker placed on the counter in order to clean up his mess.
“Here,” Yoongi says, handing him an entire roll. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. I just was a little worried because you were swaying out there, so I just wanted to make sure that you were okay.”
“Thanks, Yoongi-yah,” Jungkook says, trying to play his embarrassment off as coolly as he still can. Which is probably not very cool at all. Yoongi had followed him in here because he was concerned that Jungkook had already had too much to drink and then Jungkook jumped, screeched like he was watching a horror movie, and spilled eggnog everywhere. “Very kind of you! Very cool and good stuff that you’ve done here.”
Jungkook is trying not to look Yoongi in the eye, because he’s once again experiencing first-hand just how out of his element he feels around Yoongi, but the silence coming from the elder boy makes Jungkook look up.
Yoongi’s head is tilted, concern taking over every part of his face. “Jungkook, are you okay? You seem a bit off tonight.”
Jungkook sighs. “I’m just- I don’t know.”
“You know that if something’s going on, you can talk to hyung, right? Like if there’s something that’s bothering you or making you anxious-”
“I’m not anxious,” Jungkook says quickly. “I am just having a hard time being cool tonight.”
Yoongi snorts, but not in a mean way- more like he thinks it’s a silly thing for Jungkook to be so worried over. “Jungkook-ah,” he says, voice soft and soothing like it always is, reminding Jungkook of his favorite nights in the world. “Who do you even need to impress here? It’s just us.”
“You, of course,” Jungkook says without even thinking about it. His eyes probably become comically wide as he realizes exactly what he just said. He just basically admitted that he feels the need to impress Yoongi, which is pretty much a confession in itself. “I mean-”
“What?” Yoongi asks, eyes wide, searching Jungkook’s own like he’s trying to detect any dishonesty in Jungkook’s words. “You- You want to impress me ?”
Jungkook sighs. He’s already halfway out with it, thinks that maybe if he just tells Yoongi about his feelings now, then he’ll be able to be rejected and move on, rather than spending all of his time with Yoongi so worried about slipping up. He thinks that might be better.
Jungkook’s not sure that he’s ever going to be able to get over Yoongi, but that’s a different problem entirely.
“Kook-ah,” Yoongi says, softly. “You can talk to me.”
“I know, Yoongi-hyung,” Jungkook says, feeling overwhelmed. “That’s the problem- you’re so easy to talk to that I keep almost saying the wrong thing.”
Yoongi blinks. “I don’t think you could say the wrong thing,” he says, voice quiet. “Not if you say what I want you to say.”
It takes Jungkook a moment to process those words, a long moment where his head is still a bit fuzzy and he thinks that his brain is functioning just a little too slowly due to him very quickly drinking Jimin’s eggnog. “Wait, what?”
“Unless I’m totally misreading this,” Yoongi sighs. “Sometimes I can’t tell. I’ve never been able to tell with you, Jungkook, and I don’t know what to do about it. Sometimes I’m four seconds away from telling you that I’ve been in love with you since the day that we met and then I back out because I don’t know if you feel the same way-”
“Feel the same?”
“And Jimin and Hoseok and even Taehyung all tell me that you like me, too. They say that they can see it written on your face but every time I look at your face, all I can think about is that there’s no way to know, that maybe I’ve misread all of the signs, and I don’t want you to be uncomfortable around me if I told you. Because then what?” Yoongi asks, voice a bit too loud, sounding frustrated with himself. “I have to be in the same room as you and I don’t get a cuddly Jungkook who wants to sit directly next to me and that would be worse than the pining feels.”
“Yoongi-hyung, you’re in love with me?”
Yoongi makes an unpleasant face, something like he thinks that he’s made a mistake by telling Jungkook all of this. “And that ,” he says. “You always call me Yoongi and you only add hyung when you’re being cute or when you’re being serious.”
“Confessing to each other is serious business, Yoongi-hyung,” Jungkook says.
Yoongi sighs again, bringing his hands up to run them through his hair. “I know that it’s serious, that’s not what- Wait. Confess to each other?”
Jungkook laughs softly. “Yes, confess to each other , Yoongi-hyung. Because I’ve been in love with you since the night that we met, too.”
“You wouldn’t look me in the eye,” Yoongi accuses.
“I thought that you were cute,” Jungkook counters. “It was too hard to look at you when I thought that I was never going to see you again.”
“Well, good to know that you had no faith in me staying hyung’s boyfriend,” Jimin yells from the living room and Jungkook belatedly realizes that everyone can hear them. Yoongi seems to realize that as well, if the blush on his face is anything to go by. “I never had any faith in you confessing, either!”
Jungkook rolls his eyes. “Not thinking that we would become as close as we are has nothing to do with Jiminie-hyung or Seokjinie-hyung. Even though they think that everything is about them.” He says it loud enough that he knows that Jimin and Seokjin can hear him, even though apparently they’d be able to hear him if he was just whispering.
“You really thought that I was cute?” Yoongi asks, blushing slightly still. Jungkook’s not sure if it’s from the idea of Jungkook thinking that Yoongi is cute or left over from feeling embarrassed about all of their friends hearing their conversation, but Jungkook doesn’t care either way. He still thinks that Yoongi is adorable.
So he nods. “I thought that you were the prettiest person I’d ever met. I still think that, by the way. My feelings have only gotten stronger for you over the years.”
“Mine too,” Yoongi admits. “I actually was going to finally ask you out on a date for today. A lunch date before this. I wanted to ask Thursday, but then the work schedule thing happened and Taehyung needing an emotional support hyung to join him at lunch-”
“Oh, that’s why Jiminie-hyung physically assaulted Hoseokie-hyung earlier,” Jungkook says, realizing that Hoseok had been about to spill the beans that Yoongi was planning on taking Jungkook out. “Well, ask me now, then.”
“Ask you what?”
Jungkook rolls his eyes. “On a date, Yoongi-yah,” he says, playfully. “Ask me on a date.”
Yoongi smiles. “Okay. Jungkook-ah, would you like to go on a date with me?”
“I would love to, Yoongi,” Jungkook says, reaching his hand out to cup Yoongi’s face. “I’d also love to kiss you. Can I?”
Yoongi nods, his eyes shining so brightly for Jungkook that Jungkook isn’t sure how he ever doubted that Yoongi might have feelings for him. “Please,” he whispers.
So Jungkook leans in, bending his knees slightly as Yoongi lifts his chin. The kiss is soft, sweet, slow, and utterly perfect.
“Yoongi-hyung, I do love you,” Jungkook whispers.
“I love you, too.”
“Now, let’s go back and join the party,” Jungkook says, intentionally dropping the volume of his voice even further. “I got Seokjinie-hyung to send me the left-right game that we’re playing to determine who gets what gift, so I know exactly where I need to sit to make sure that Jimine-hyung gets the mint chocolate flavored condoms I bought.”
Yoongi laughs, loud and unrestrained and it is the best thing that Jungkook’s ever heard in his life. He grabs Jungkook’s mug, fills it halfway with the eggnog, and leads Jungkook back into the living room.
And once they’re settled back on the love seat, Jungkook leans in to kiss Yoongi on the cheek. He hears his friends whooping and teasing, but Jungkook doesn’t mind. Jungkook finally feels completely content.
🎄