The sky is a pearly grey, sunlight filtering through clouds as small snowflakes float down and nestle themselves on clothes or in hair, melting on contact. Jungkook is hurrying down the sidewalk, face pink. He enters the apartment building, pressing the bell to Seokjin's apartment and smiling at the elder when he opens the door.

"Hi, Jungkookie." Seokjin pokes the boy's nose. "Your nose is red."

"It's cold out," Jungkook defends, and tugs off his hat as he steps into the apartment. His shoes slip off as he adds, "I got you a pair of earrings to wear once you're allowed to take those studs out."

"Ooh, really?" Seokjin asks excitedly, following Jungkook as he sits down at the small dining table and pulls something out of a purple paper bag. At the sight of small hoops with a metallic black sheen, Seokjin gasps, "Oh my god, Jungkook, I could never wear these. They look too cool."

"You'll look great," Jungkook argues, and lifts one of the earrings to Seokjin's earlobes. "Yeah, see? It looks awesome."

Seokjin laughs. "No, I can't see." He lifts his phone up and uses the camera as a mirror, tilting his head this way and that. "I guess it looks good."

"You look great," the boy says stubbornly, "and that's that. Don't argue with me."

There's a laugh from Seokjin. "Fine, if you insist. Oh," he adds, "and how was your date with Seojun? Have you guys kissed yet?" He wiggles his eyebrows.

"No," Jungkook says lowly, cheeks burning in embarrassment. "And stop asking me stuff like that, it's embarrassing and awkward."

"Oh, come on," Seokjin groans, "it's like, what, your third date with her? Haven't you guys at least held hands?"

"Just because she agreed to go on a few dates with me doesn't mean she likes me, hyung," Jungkook says. "Patience." When Seokjin sighs loudly, he adds, "You're the one who told me to tell her that I liked her, hyung! It's only been two weeks and three dates; she doesn't like me yet!"

"Yet?" Seokjin laughs. "You're that confident about her liking you?"

Jungkook's cheeks flush a darker shade of pink. "Maybe."

A grin stretches Seokjin's lips from ear to ear as he roughly tousles the younger's hair. "Okay, have fun wooing her."

"Yeah," Jungkook says happily, gently pushing Seokjin's hand away, "I will."

。。。

It's exactly two weeks later when Jungkook practically leaps into the elder's arms the moment he opens the door, squealing an incoherent string of words.

"Whoa, slow down," Seokjin laughs, pulling Jungkook away from him. "Why are you so excited?"

Jungkook just lets out another squeal, this time a bit quieter, and says something indecipherable. When Seokjin just fixes him with a slightly annoyed stare, he takes a deep breath and words fly out of his mouth, this time understandable. "Noona kissed me!"

"Oh." Seokjin's eyes widen a little, his eyebrows disappearing behind his bangs. "Really?"

"Yes, really," Jungkook scoffs, brushing past Seokjin and into the elder's apartment. "Why would I lie about something like that? Oh, I see you're wearing the earrings I gave you," he adds.

"Yeah, I am," Seokjin says, fingers reaching up and touching the cold metal embedded in his earlobes. His voice sounds different.

Jungkook frowns at the elder male as he peels off his jacket. "Are you sick or something? Your voice sounds weird. Don't get me sick, or noona won't kiss me again." He laughs giddily and presses his cold fingers against his cheeks. "I still can't believe she actually kissed me. I mean, she kissed my cheek once last week, but today she kissed my lips—" Jungkook emits another loud squeal again, his bunny-like teeth bared in a wide, toothy grin.

"Jeez, you really like her, huh?" Seokjin chortles, nudging Jungkook's arm with his elbow as he returns to the kitchen, where a pot of soup simmers on the stove.

Jungkook nods, inching closer to Seokjin and peering at the bubbling soup. "Yeah," he sighs. He reaches up and starts toying with the earrings in Seokjin's ears, giggling when the male flinches at the initial contact.

"God, your fingers are freezing."

"Sorry," Jungkook mutters, having no intention of apologizing sincerely for such a trivial thing. He tugs gently— or what he believes his gentle— on one of the earrings, and immediately retracts his hand when Seokjin hisses in pain. "Sorry!"

That was a sincere apology.

Seokjin just sighs at him, rubbing his earlobe before turning his attention back to the soup. "It's fine."

Jungkook pouts, feeling bad. "Sorry."

"I said it's fine, Jungkook," Seokjin says quietly, adding some salt into the pot.

"You're mad at me, aren't you?" Jungkook asks, his lower lip still jutted out. "Did it hurt that much?"

Seokjin doesn't say anything for a moment, his eyes scanning Jungkook's face. "I'm not mad at you. I'm just— kind of tired, that's all. That's probably why my voice sounds weird. I'm practically a different person functioning on less than six hours of sleep."

"You sure?" Jungkook isn't entirely sure if he believes that.

"Yeah," Seokjin says nonchalantly, waving the boy off. "Don't worry about it, Jungkookie."

"Okay."

The two are sat down at the small table about ten minutes later; the soup is complete, and steam rises off the liquid and hits their faces as they wait for it to cool down a bit. "Just blow on it a little," advises Seokjin. "I'll tell you when it's cool enough."

"Okay," Jungkook agrees.

Maybe putting all his trust with Seokjin wasn't the best idea.

...because when Jungkook places a spoon of soup into his mouth a few minutes later, as per Seokjin's command, he spits it back out almost immediately, jumping out of the chair.

"Fuck— My tongue!"

Seokjin looks up, eyes wide. "What happened?"

"My tongue is burnt," Jungkook hisses. "I can't feel anything. My tongue tastes dead."

"Aww," Seokjin coos, unable to stop his laughter. He pinches Jungkook's cheeks. "You're such a baby, burning your tongue like this."

Jungkook lets out an angry huff as he crosses his arms, not caring that he looks childish. "Excuse me, hyung, I am not a baby. I'm old enough to have a girlfriend—"

"Okay, okay, we get it," Seokjin says, rolling his eyes, "you have a girlfriend. Stop bragging."

"I'm not bragging!" Jungkook cries, cheeks dusted with a light pink blush.

Seokjin just snorts and averts his attention to the offending bowl of soup. "Let me taste some of your soup; I want to see how hot it is."

"I spat in that," Jungkook says loudly as Seokjin dips his spoon into his bowl.

"Don't really care," is Seokjin's casual reply, chuckling at Jungkook's slightly grossed out expression. Gingerly, he takes a sip. His brow creases, and he sticks the whole spoon into his mouth. "How the heck did you burn your tongue? This isn't even hot!"

"Isn't even hot?" Jungkook repeats incredulously. He grabs his spoon and takes a small sip, yelping. "It's still just as hot!"

"It's not hot!"

"Yes, it is!"

Jungkook ends up finishing the soup a good forty five minutes later, being extremely careful about making sure the soup doesn't burn his tongue even more than it already has. Seokjin scoffs at him.

The sun starts to set soon after, and the two males are lounging on the sofa, eyes focused on the TV.

"I'd laugh at this if it weren't for the laughter track," mutters the teenager, taking his head off Seokjin's shoulder. "The track makes everything unfunny." He slides his head down so that it's resting in Seokjin's lap, and looks up at the elder. "Big Bang concert tickets go on sale in two weeks."

Seokjin looks down at the boy and runs his fingers through his hair. "Do you have enough money?"

"Not yet," he sighs. "They're so expensive."

Seokjin nods, smoothing the hair off Jungkook's forehead. His other hand rests on the boy's right arm, and he lazily traces circles on the soft skin. And for a second— just a split second— Jungkook thinks Seokjin is going to kiss him. But nothing of the sort happens, and Seokjin looks back up. "I talked to Jimin yesterday."

"Really?" Jungkook asks. "About Tae?"

With a brief glance at Jungkook before looking back at the screen, Seokjin nods. "He told me why he doesn't want to date Taehyung."

Jungkook's voice is hushed as he asks, "Why?"

"Don't tell Taehyung, okay?" Seokjin requests. "Jimin told me not to tell Taehyung."

"I won't," Jungkook says immediately, and presses a hand against his chest, making Seokjin snort with amusement.

"So apparently," Seokjin says slowly, "Jimin hasn't come out to his parents yet, and they're... really homophobic."

"...Oh."

"Yeah." Seokjin wets his lips. "And he told me that he's not comfortable dating a guy until he's told his parents."

"So he's just gonna let Tae— suffer?" Jungkook questions, irritated. "He could've told Tae, and they'd still be happy, and Tae wouldn't be so upset— This is a perfectly valid reason. Why didn't Jimin hyung just tell him?"

Seokjin shrugs. "I don't know."

Letting out a loud sigh, Jungkook sits back up and rests his head on Seokjin's shoulder. "Jimin hyung had better tell Tae soon, or I'm gonna tell him myself."

"Don't," Seokjin says firmly. "He told me to make sure Taehyung doesn't find out."

"Why not?" Jungkook's eyes narrow as he lifts up his head and stares at Seokjin. "Why does Tae have to be the one who's upset about this?"

"Jimin is upset, too—"

"Yeah, but if Jimin hyung had just told Tae—"

"Let it go, Jungkook," Seokjin says gently. "Just let things happen on their own."

Unsatisfied, Jungkook leans against Seokjin again, and is about to lace their fingers together before stopping himself. When the elder blinks curiously and reaches for his hand, Jungkook pulls it away, turning to a confused looking Seokjin. "Now that I have a girlfriend, wouldn't it be weird to hold your hand? I mean, we're friends, but— I don't know. Doesn't it seem kind of odd to you?"

Seokjin blinks a few times, staring at his fingers. "I suppose."

"Yeah." Jungkook leans against Seokjin again, not quite letting his head rest on the elder's shoulder. He links arms with Seokjin as the two continue to watch the images on the screen.

Jungkook would be lying to himself if he said that he didn't want to hold Seokjin's hand.

。。。

A/N: 1739 words, are you guys proud of me? o(^▽^)o also, I hope you guys had fun reading this bc a lot happened: jinkook fluff (or as fluffy stuff can get between friends), vmin development, and kookjun stuff (seojun + jungkook)

also, damn, y'all got so worked up last chapter (and I feel like you guys are gonna freak out for this chap, too). okay, so just to make things clear, seokjin and jungkook will end up together. I like my happy endings. so don't flip shit lmao

I'd love it if you left a vote and a comment if you enjoyed this chapter, and as usual, excuse any typos bc I'm a lazy fuck that hates proofreading, please and thank you! see you guys next chapter!