~

Jungkook ruffled his wet hair, trying to rid his hair of the enormous amount of shampoo he had applied. He scrubbed at his body, the menthol scent of the soap calming him down. His eyes drifted to the pale red water flowing into the drain and he sighed, recalling the events of last night. One of his favorite white t-shirts had been completely ruined, all because Hoseok had gotten a little too excited with the target.

"I'll get him next time," Jungkook grumbled to himself, carelessly drying himself, more than half of his body still dripping wet as he got dressed.

He had returned home late last night and had slept even later. So Jungkook had decided to keep his repair shop closed for the day.

Dropping his used towel into the laundry basket, Jungkook made his way to the refrigerator, grabbing a carton of Tropicana orange juice and taking a swig from the nozzle. He placed it back and leaned against the open door of the refrigerator, sighing at the contents inside it.

"It's time to go grocery shopping," he muttered to himself, pulling out a tupperware box of leftover chicken noodle soup from God knows how long back. He opened up the lid and took a sniff, nodding to himself once he deemed it wasn't spoiled yet. He hummed to himself as he grabbed a spoon from the cutlery holder and plopped onto the dusty brown couch.

Jungkook's house was more like a studio apartment, attached to the rear end of his garage — a single room with an attached bathroom, a simple living area for a simple bachelor. Except Jeon Jungkook was anything but a simple bachelor.

His skeleton ring glinted as sunlight hit the metal. Jungkook placed the tupperware into the kitchen sink carelessly, not intending on washing it anytime soon. He lived like that, least bothered and least interested in keeping his house in order. He had grown used to giving no fucks about the way he lived long back.

A loud bang echoed on the main door and Jungkook sighed as he walked over to open it. He had opened the door only halfway but a figure strode in confidently heading straight towards the refrigerator.

"Excuse me," Jungkook grunted, lips curling into a small smile. "You could at least say a good morning before you decide to walk in like tha—"

A loud and dramatic gasp cut him off mid-sentence and Jungkook crossed his arms across his chest, knowing fully well what was coming.

"There's nothing in your refrigerator," the figure exclaimed, turning to face Jungkook with disappointed eyes. "And your house looks like a pigsty. When are you going to get yourself together Jeon?"

Jungkook huffed, ruffling his wet hair. "It really isn't that bad alright? Can you stop acting like my dad?"

"Being worried means acting like your dad now?" The figure exclaimed, brows furrowing in concern. "If that's the case I'm fine with being called your dad kid."

"Seokjin—"

"Cut the crap and come help me clean this mess of a house," Seokjin glared, cutting Jungkook off again.

"First of all I'm not a kid," Jungkook scoffed, rounding up his shoulders and taking the mop and bucket Seokjin was holding out for him. "And second of all my house is just fine. It's not as bad as you make it out to be."

Seokjin didn't say anything as he swept the floor, nose scrunching up as dust particles flew into the air with every little motion of the broom. Some of the dust particles entered his nose and Seokjin sneezed, turning to glare at Jungkook right after.

"What?" Jungkook asked as if he didn't know why he was being glared at. He watched Seokjin's face turn red and his lips grew into a mischievous grin at the sight. Ah, how he loved riling up the older man.

"I can't stand you," Seokjin huffed, swinging the broom around towards Jungkook's head, who in turn jumped out of the way laughing. "You eat my head every time you open that mouth of yours."

Jungkook shrugged, least bothered by the older man's complaints, popping a strip of gum into his mouth and leaning back against the counter to watch instead. Seokjin sighed, already anticipating this reaction from the mechanic.

"At least go get groceries by yourself," he spoke, turning away from Jungkook to continue sweeping. "I'll clean up your pigsty by the time you return."

Jungkook smiled, pushing himself off the counter and grabbing his wallet, excited to leave the house. He didn't want to witness Seokjin clean the house nor did he want to hear insults being thrown at him for his poor method of living. He moved towards the door automatically, not bothering to turn even as Seokjin called out his name.

"Don't come back with bags full of ramen and coke—"

Jungkook whipped his head around, a teasing grin on his face. "Which coke? I thought you never mentioned drugs in front of younger kids."

Seokjin's face turned redder, if it were even possible. He held his forehead between two fingers, closing his eyes and taking in a deep breath.

"Fuck off before you give me a migraine or I swear I will throw a knife at you."

It was hot outside, the sun high up in the sky even though the day had hardly moved anywhere close to noon. Jungkook squinted his eyes at the sun, cursing the weather as he walked in the direction of the nearest supermarket. His black t-shirt seemed to stick to his skin, its sleeves already sucking in the moisture. He ran a hand through his damp hair, brushing the strands back as he walked into the air-conditioned atmosphere of the supermarket. He fished out his wallet from the pocket of his drawstring pants, counting the money inside to check how much he could buy.

"Well shit," he grinned, licking his lips as he trudged forward happily.

He had been paid a hefty amount last night for carrying out his task. Jungkook had stowed half of it away under the mattress back home like always, along with the little money he earned from his repair shop. Of course he loved working in his garage — it was a skill he had learned by himself, and it was a place he had developed by himself after all. But Jungkook loved martial arts more than he loved anything in this world. As a little boy, he had wanted to grow up and teach martial arts. He had wanted to open up his own dojo.

Somewhere along being tossed into the streets and fighting for survival, somewhere along being picked up by a man in a suit and being given shelter, somewhere along holding guns and firing bullets and walking away with blood on his hands — Jungkook's childhood dream of opening up a dojo and teaching martial arts had evaporated into thin air. Even then some part of him had wanted to save up money. He didn't know why he was doing so or what made him so determined to save up whatever he got, but Jungkook had grown into that habit.

"Jungkook," he heard someone call out in a chirpy voice. He turned his gaze from the shelf of ramen to find an old lady smiling at him, her hands pushing a shopping cart that was almost full.

"Mrs. Park?" Jungkook grinned back, eyes taking in the boxes of pasta and tubs of ice-cream in the cart. As his eyes drifted back to the old lady he realized she was pointing up at something on the shelf.

"Could you please pull out one cheese hot chicken and one kimchi flavoured ramen? I can't reach the topmost shelf."

"Of course," Jungkook reached out with ease and grabbed the two packets she had asked for, putting them in her cart.

"Thank you," she smiled, eyes disappearing.

Jungkook realized Jimin had the same smile. He shook his head, not understanding why Jimin had even popped up into his thoughts. He smiled back at her, nodding as he turned around to go to the meat section, only to bump into someone. He didn't move of course but the person he had bumped into stumbled back a few steps before Jungkook caught their wrist.

"My fault," Jungkook muttered, looking up. Jimin stood before him, eyes wide and cheeks dusted the slightest hue of red. With a start Jungkook realized he was still holding onto the man's wrist. He immediately let go, the same hand going to the back of his neck. "I wasn't looking," he said, moving to let Jimin walk over to his grandmother.

"Minnie did you get what you wanted?"

Minnie, Jungkook thought, well fuck me that's so cute. Jimin walked over to his grandmother, dropping a bottle of citron tea and a six-pack of soju into the cart. Jungkook rose an eyebrow, impressed at the amount of alcohol. He realized Jimin was quite the drinker.

"Of course it's soju why am I not surprised?" The old lady smiled, slapping Jimin's arm playfully, causing the latter to cover his face in embarrassment.

Jungkook hadn't noticed but he was staring at Jimin. He only took notice of his own actions when Jimin raised his head and locked eyes with him. And heck, Jungkook would never tear his gaze away, he would stare until the person opposite him gave up and looked away.

Jimin let his eyes trail down Jungkook's arm, the one covered in a sleeve of tattoos. He had not noticed that tattoos despite having encountered the mechanic twice, maybe because he was too shaken up by the ripped muscles of his chest that strained against his tight tank tops.

Jungkook had a lot of tattoos, and now that Jimin was looking carefully he could see a bit of ink on the mechanic's neck as well, part of it hidden under his black t-shirt.

"Let's go? I need to start preparing for lunch too." Jimin heard his grandmother speak softly, gently touching his arm and snapping him out of his trance.

He turned his gaze away from Jungkook to nod at her, and as they walked towards the cash register Jimin turned back over his shoulder to shoot one last glance at the mechanic. Jungkook smiled, saluting Jimin with two fingers and winking at him. Jimin gulped, instantly turning back around and pushing the shopping cart faster towards the cash register.

~

note:
um... surprise? BECAUSE I GOT TOO OVEREXCITED HHHH 🤡
okay but for real though watch me struggle later because my dumb ass keeps publishing all the drafts without any self-control i—
so we know now that hoseok and seokjin are koo's friends, let me know which bts member (STRICTLY OTHER THAN TAEHYUNG) you would want to be jimin's friend in the story :')
also fun fact; i HATE engineering thx for coming to my ted talk