The music from the party became momentarily louder as the door opened once again.

"Kook. We're heading out. Do you want to share the ride or are you going to stay?"

Jungkook and Jimin both turned to face the direction of the voice and saw Yoongi and Hoseok walking toward them.

A tipsy Hoseok wore a goofy smile on his face and, upon seeing Jimin, he ran forward and wrapped his arms around the blond.

"Jiminieeeee! Come with us! We can build a pillow fort in Yoongi's living room!" he giggled as Yoongi shook his head and mouthed the words 'No, we won't'  to Jungkook.

Jimin bristled at the contact, Hoseok being the last person he wanted to show affection to.

But he responded to him anyway, "I was actually supposed to go back to your place to hang out with Taehyung. Maybe I should find him and see if he's ready to go..."

Yoongi chuckled. "I wouldn't bother--"

Hoseok interrupted with wide eyes, "You can't! Jiminie, he left fifteen minutes ago pulling two men by their neckties like a fucking dog walker. That's why I'm not going home."

Jimin checked his phone and saw several missed texts. Sure enough, his friend had given him a heads-up that he was leaving and said he'd have Hoseok and Yoongi check in with him.

"Let me know when you decide, I'm ordering the car." Yoongi said, opening the ride-share app on his phone.

No way can I be in a car with them.

And yet...

"Okay." Jimin blurted, against his better judgment.

- - -

Half an hour later, all four boys piled out of the car and went up to Yoongi and Jungkook's apartment.

Yoongi walked straight toward his room muttering about how he didn't want to wear "real" pants anymore. [me...]

An inebriated Hoseok followed, yelling "Yoongi-hyungie [a name he calls him when he's drunk] doesn't want to wear pants anymore! You all heard it!"

Yoongi silenced him with his lips and pulled him into the bedroom. They re-emerged wearing their pajamas, as Hoseok began keeping clothes at Yoongi's apartment as well.

Yoongi gave Jimin a set of periwinkle pajamas, neatly folded. "My hyungs gave me these for my last birthday, but I kind of have an aesthetic," he gestured, following his sarcastic statement, to the all-black pajamas he was wearing. "They just kinda been stowed in my closet but I figured we're similar in size, so..."

"Thanks."

Hoseok half-hopped, half-rolled over the back of the couch. "Jungkookie, find something to watch while Jiminie changes. And then you both need to sit together--"

"Hobi! Babe, come make snacks with me." Yoongi interrupted before his intoxicated and, therefore, loose-lipped boyfriend could expose the plot devised mostly by Taehyung.

"You're a fucking snack." Hoseok answered as he stood and walked into the kitchen.

"Yeah, yeah. Get in here."

-   -   -

Hoseok and Yoongi were in the kitchen waiting for the popcorn, Yoongi hugging Hoseok from behind as he swayed, humming.

The microwave beeped and Hoseok, still fairly tipsy, mimicked the noise and wiggled. He alternated changing the vowel sounds from beeeep to biiiiiiip to booooop to buh buuuuuup. Soon his noises turned into the tune of Beyonce's Crazy in Love [buuuuuh buh-da buh-buh- da buhhhhhhh] and he spun around to dance with Yoongi - in the weirdest way possible.

[a/n like this ^ y'all remember this shit? *fond sigh*]

Jungkook looked on, amused but also thankful that his hyung felt so comfortable with someone to behave like an absolute idiot. He hadn't seen Yoongi this happy in a long time.

But when he happened to glance over at Jimin, he noticed that the blond was looking at them - at Yoongi - with sad eyes.

Right.

Jungkook playfully poked the older boy on the shoulder and, once he made eye contact, wiggled his eyebrows before nodding toward the couple dancing in the kitchen.

When Jimin looked back in the indicated direction, Jungkook shouted, "Yoongi-hyung!"

The eldest turned around and Jungkook continued, pointing a dramatically shaking finger at the black-haired boy in the black pajamas, "Your d-dance... These are the evil images I see during sleep paralysis. And now they're in my waking life!"

He'd always gotten a kick out of provoking Yoongi by teasing him about his dancing, it was just a bonus to make Jimin laugh. The sound was cuter than he'd imagined.

Jungkook continued, clown that he was, masking his own laughs by pretending to sob onto Jimin's shoulder.

"There, there," Jimin, still giggling, patted the youngest's shoulder, "Yoongi's dancing can't hurt you anymore."

Yoongi stared at them for a moment and then poured the bag of popcorn into the waiting bowl. "Fine. Get your own fucking popcorn, losers." He smirked, not serious about the insults, but very serious about not sharing the popcorn.

Jungkook watched in horror as a smiling Yoongi took the bowl, grabbed Hoseok's hand, and walked into his bedroom.

"Hyuuuung! I think you're a great dancer! I can lower my standards -- come baaack!"

But his pleas were met with a tipsy cackle from Hoseok as he shut the door.

When Jungkook turned to his left again, Jimin was looking at him expectantly, "Well? Are you going to make us some popcorn?"

Jungkook was desperate for popcorn, and while his heart leapt momentarily at the use of the word us, he was not desperate enough to use the microwave. He had this thing about microwaves...

Jimin stopped waiting around for a response and rose from the couch. He wandered into the kitchen, grabbed another packet of microwave popcorn from the box on the counter, tossed it into the microwave and pressed the button with the popcorn icon.

Jungkook watched the smaller boy as he moved around the kitchen looking for a bowl.

"On your right, middle shelf," he called out from the couch.

"Thanks."

"Do you have a movie preference?"

"Umm... I typically go for rom-coms or dramas, but after the week I've had... I could honestly go for something in which everybody dies."

"Must've been some week," Jungkook replied as he saw Jimin glance toward Yoongi's closed door, where they heard a small thud and the couple's sudden laughter. What the fuck are they doing in there? --Back to Jimin.

He wasn't doing a good job of making Jimin forget about Yoongi.

"So... everyone has to die?"

"Preferably." Jimin answered, opening the microwave at the beep.

"I gotchu."

- an hour into Life (trailer linked below if you've never seen it) -

The astronaut onscreen battled with the monster as she floated outside the space station. The music intensified as the beast made its way inside her space suit's antifreeze chamber and ruptured it. She sputtered and gasped as the fluid steadily flooded into her helmet and slowly drowned her right outside the entrance. So close to safety, yet she would never see the inside... her colleagues... her planet... ever again.

Before her dead body slipped away ominously out into deep space, the monster crept out of her suit and latched itself back onto the space station, whose inhabitants were panicking as they watched it squeeze itself back inside through a vane in one of the turbines.

"You didn't say this was creepy as shit!" squeaked Jimin, cowering and hiding his pink face behind Jungkook's shoulder.

They'd had a couple more drinks in addition to their snacks during the movie.

"You said they all had to die. You didn't say it had to be death by rainbows and kittens!" Jungkook smiled his bunny smile as Jimin grabbed his shoulder at the next jump scare. "Don't worry, I won't let it get you."

"Is that supposed to be fucking reassuring?! If it can kill Deadpool, it can fucking kill you! I don't think I can do this, Kookie!"

Jungkook internally uwu-ed at the nickname. "C'mon, it's like forty more minutes."

Jimin gripped Jungkook by the shoulder with both hands at this point. "I will literally have nightmares for the rest of my life and you will be paying for my therapy when I'm stuck rocking in a fetal position muttering about tentacle monsters. Turn it off!"

How could he argue?

Jungkook turned on The Great British Bake Off, hoping the confections could counteract any nightmare-inducing scenes from the previous film.

"Ohthankgod," Jimin heaved a big sigh.

The two watched the show for another half hour, each commenting on the creativity of the bakers and the shared jealousy over the resulting desserts.

"I wish I knew how to cook. I know I work in a restaurant, but I am completely useless." Jungkook laughed as he looked over at the sleepy blond.

"Mhm." Jimin's eyelids were heavy as he tried to stay focused on the screen.

Jungkook turned to continue watching the show and froze when he felt Jimin's head on his shoulder. His heart did a backflip. Stop talking! ...Or keep talking?! What the fuck do I do?

After a few minutes, Jimin was asleep with his head resting on the younger's shoulder. Jungkook continued to stare at the screen, not really watching - just concentrating on not freaking out.

He couldn't help but smile his bunny smile when Hoseok emerged from his roommate's bedroom, carrying their empty popcorn bowl to the sink.

Hoseok took one look at the two on the couch, clutched his hand to his chest and stage-whispered to the youngest, "I ship this so hard."

[a/n]

i know what it looks like.

i KNOW.

but, i promise you guys, this isn't turning into a

jikook/kookmin book

i just want to lay some sort of foundation

and build some characters

before some things happen

🤫

(and we had 60 chapters of sope,

so it's clear where my loyalties are. lmao)

movie mentioned ⤵️ (which made me hella paranoid)

https://youtu.be/LeLsJfGmY_Y