They didn't want to start the movie without Jungkook. He had seemed pretty excited about it, and besides, he had been the one to bring the suggestion up in the first place, so to watch it when he wasn't here would being nothing short of rude. So instead, to pass the time until the boy should arrive, Namjoon suggested they play Mario Kart, seeing as Taehyung had brought the game along, and in Namjoon's parents' house was a Nintendo Wii system they could use that was typically only ever pulled out of the cabinet when his little cousins visited.

"Any objections in regards to Mario Kart?"

Hoseok's hand shot up. "I have a strong objection to Rainbow Road."

"Objection overruled. We're doing it anyway. Rock Paper Scissors to see which four people get to play first!"

The outcome was Seokjin, Jimin, Hoseok, and Yugyeom as the four winners - Yoongi would have filled that last spot, but he gave it up as he insisted he would much rather sit back and watch. It was apparently "much more fun that way." And Namjoon would have argued, but he found himself enjoying being the backseat driver to four different people at once and laughed especially hard each time Seokjin would struggle trying to figure out how to stop going the wrong way on the track.

And then there was Taehyung. Anxious little Taehyung who couldn't stop firing glances at the front door and raising his ears in case a quiet knock should greet them. He'd texted Jungkook moments ago, but with no response. He checked the weather report every few seconds to see if the rain had started, since he couldn't hear it over the excitable yelling from inside the house. And tragically, at one point, it did start to rain. And there was a chance of thunder and lightning - not that Tae was afraid of Jungkook getting struck by lightning, of course, but for anyone to be outside in a thunderstorm was an unsettling thing. Especially if that person was a boy you happened to care very much about.

"Tae, you wanna go next?"

He almost didn't notice Jimin holding out a wii remote to him. But he shook his head in response, eyes returning to their sworn duty of watching the door. Jimin could sense the unease in his friend's expression. He sighed deeply.

"He's gonna be alright, Tae. And it hasn't been that long, ya know," he pointed out. "You're looking like it's been hours."

"But what if it ends up being hours??" Taehyung stuck out his bottom lip and crossed his arms. "Someone should have picked him up..."

Seokjin turned around abruptly to look at Tae, then turned again to squint at the nearest window. "Is it raining? Look, if it's raining I'll feel bad about not doing anything. Someone text him and ask him where he is."

Despite still not having received a response on his last message, Taehyung didn't hesitate to whip out his phone and type out another one.

*

Taetae:
Jungkook where r u??

Chocochip_kookie:
almost at the door
if this is the right house anyway

*

Taehyung sprang up from the floor and darted over to the front door, which he then threw open with more force than he needed to. And surely enough, right there on the small staircase in front of him was Jungkook, standing soaking wet in the pouring rain, water dripping from the dark hair that hung over his brows. He wiped his hand across his face and let the droplets be flicked off onto the ground.

"It's a good thing my phone is waterproof. Can I come inside?"

Taehyung seized Jungkook's wrist and pulled him forcefully into the house, slamming the door behind them and proceeding to give the boy a brief yet extremely tight hug.

"Wh--Tae! Why would you do that? I'm drenched!"

"Uhh." Taehyung looked down at his own shirt which was now visibly wet thanks to his spontaneous action. "Don't know. Just felt like it."

"Jungkook! You're alive!"

Jimin and Yugyeom both rose to their feet and made their way over to him, but neither stood quite as close as Taehyung, because yes, of course they were glad he had arrived safe and sound, but they didn't want to be claimed a victim of the rain, either, even if indirectly.

"If you want dry clothes I can see if any of my old clothes are still here," Namjoon piped up, and Jungkook, suddenly recalling this was Namjoon's parents' house, felt a surge of guilt at the realization he had probably tracked at least several buckets of water into the building. "Don't sweat it," the blond chuckled, taking notice of Jungkook's look of concern. "Here. Just follow me upstairs. I'm sure my mom didn't give away all my stuff..."

So the two soon disappeared up the staircase, leaving Taehyung to watch with a pout upon his lips as Jungkook so quickly went away from him, drops of water making a trail where he stepped.

"Someone should have picked him up..."

He was upset. Genuinely. Not at a particular person, per say, but his heart hurt just a little knowing that he couldn't have been the one to come to Jungkook's rescue, even if he wanted to. He couldn't drive, after all, yet still did he blame himself without reason.

A few minutes later and the two boys rejoined the group, Jungkook now wearing one of Namjoon's old t-shirts and a pair of jeans that surprisingly didn't have any holes in them. And he looked quite happy to be out of those rain-drenched clothes of his, smiling a cute, pleased smile as he tugged at the hem of his shirt and stepped into the living room.

"So, did you guys watch the movie without me?"

"No," Taehyung blurted, perhaps a touch louder than he had intended. "Uh, no, we didn't. We were...going to wait for you."

"Yeah, we've just been playing Mario Kart," Hoseok added. "Fun fact, Jin is literally the worst."

"I am not."

"You kinda are."

"Yoongi, don't target me..."

"You're asking to be targeted."

"I am not."

"Joon?"

"You kinda are, Jin."

Jungkook laughed at the bickering children, lowering himself slowly to sit on the floor next to Taehyung while at the same time keeping his eyes fixed on the screen. But Tae's eyes were on him. What a beautiful side profile Jungkook had... Taehyung could imagine how it would look in the dark, illuminated by the soft glow of the television screen. He was worried, honestly. Worried that being so close to Jungkook would distract him from the movie - he had watched it before, so missing out on that wouldn't be the issue, but if someone were to notice his staring, especially Jungkook, then that would be an issue.

Don't think about it, Tae. It's gonna be fine.

"So do you guys wanna start it now?" Namjoon held up the It DVD in one hand and his phone in the other. "Or should we call in for pizza?"

"Wait till the rain lets up," Jimin suggested. "If we're having it delivered. I mean, if I were a pizza delivery guy I wouldn't want to be driving in this weather."

"Good point. But what if the rain gets worse?"

"...yeah, I didn't think about that."

"I don't think it could get worse than when I was out there," Jungkook said with a forced laugh. "I think we can afford to wait a little. Why don't we just start the movie?"

"You're the boss."

That being said, the decision was made to begin watching It, and perhaps somewhere around the midpoint of the movie, they would pause to order pizza, and hopefully by then the rain would either have stopped or at least lessened in intensity.

There were two small couches in the living room, the second of which Namjoon had pushed up against the first so that both could be within a clear view of the screen - the first seated Yoongi, Jimin, and Namjoon, while the other seated Seokjin, Hoseok, and Yugyeom. And again, Taehyung and Jungkook sat on the floor with no complaints. However Namjoon did offer to bring them pillows should they find the carpet uncomfortable at any time.

"If everyone's settled I'm gonna push the play button."

There were no verbal objections. But there was a powerful, internal one from a certain redhead who already wanted to clutch a pillow but unfortunately didn't have one available to him. The closest things he had were Seokjin and Yugyeom, who were sitting on either side of him. He didn't want to have to resort to holding anyone's hand, even though Jin had assured him he didn't mind, should his dear friend need to something to hold on to.

So he swore to himself he would try. He would try his best to withhold his screams of terror, to minimize trembling, to try to enjoy the movie rather than dread all 8,100 seconds of horror.

Nearly jumping at the title screen wasn't a good start.

Oh, nononono, this isn't gonna work at all, who am I kidding??

"Hoseok?"

There was a soft whisper by his ear. On edge, Hoseok whisked his head around only to find Yugyeom staring at him intently, sincere concern having flooded his eyes.

"Are you...okay?"

"Me?? I'm fine, why would you ask that?"

"You're clutching my hand."

Hoseok blinked. "What?"

"I-I mean, I don't mind, I was just...wondering..."

Yugyeom bit his tongue with force and considered for a moment that maybe he shouldn't have said anything at all, maybe now that he had brought it to the boy's attention, Hoseok would tear his hand away and be extra careful not to bring it anywhere near his again, and that he had foolishly thrown away this opportunity all because he had opened his mouth. Not so.

"Just bear with it, please."

Hoseok tightened his grip. Not to a painful degree, but enough so that Yugyeom felt an immediate rush of warmth to his cheeks. And it was a good thing Hoseok didn't look into his eyes just then. That would most likely have been an instant KO. Throughout the movie, however, things didn't get better for Yugyeom's poor little heart. At Pennywise the clown's first appearance, the fear-filled Hoseok latched onto Yugyeom's arm, pulling himself closer and closer every time there was a moment of particularly unsettling tension. Which was often. Half an hour into the movie and the red-haired boy had his arms fully wrapped around Yugyeom's body, one leg over his lap. On occasion he would even bury his face into the boy's shoulder, so disturbed by what was on the screen that he couldn't bear to look at it and for some reason just closing his eyes wasn't enough to shield it from his mind.

Yugyeom could only hope no one asked him what his favorite scene of the movie was later, because how was he supposed to pay attention with his crush literally crushing him??

Jimin caught sight of them out of his peripheral vision. And he was jealous, he wouldn't even deny that, because a part of him wished Yoongi could be hugging him like that right now. Sadly, though, the strongest reaction Yoongi showed towards the scariest scenes was a scarcely visible flinch and occasionally a soft swear under his breath. Jimin himself was quite jumpy but not at all to Hoseok's degree. And besides, he wasn't quite bold enough yet to even touch Yoongi's hand, let alone cling to him.

Jungkook had nerves of steel. Not a trace of fear on his countenance, not even when he would say aloud, "that was scary." No, instead of fear, there was pure excitement present in the boy's big smile and in his wide, brightened eyes, as though he was anticipating something sweet around every corner and was not once disappointed. Taehyung didn't know how he could do it. The first time he watched the movie, it was with his family, and his sister relentlessly teased him afterwards about how pale his face had become by the end. It was oddly calming, though - Jungkook's expression, not the movie. Tae had been right. In the soft glow of the screen, Jungkook looked even more beautiful, smile outlined by a light that would every so often flicker, because as everyone knows flickering lights are a necessity in horror films. It was distracting. Just as he had feared, Jungkook's beauty was distracting.

Last of all were Seokjin and Namjoon. The two were sitting on the ends of the separate couches that had been joined together by the armrests, awfully close due to them both using those armrests and also unconsciously having situated themselves to be leaning slightly to the side, towards each other. Seokjin was a flincher. And again, just like Yoongi, not to Hoseok's degree of flinching, but he wouldn't deny to being thoroughly spooked, and he would at times - without looking at him - whisper to Namjoon about how he didn't understand how someone could think up these kinds of nightmares. And Namjoon just nodded and agreed and would laugh quietly whenever Jin would bring up the topic of Hoseok and Yugyeom and how if Hobi gets any closer to him they're gonna end up morphing into the same person.

Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity to Hoseok but a mere few minutes to Jungkook, Namjoon paused the movie and announced he would call in for pizza - well, he planned to pause the movie, but apparently they had all lost track of time and there were only fifteen minutes left of It, so they figured they might as well finish those last fifteen minutes before ordering anything. And Hoseok, for one, had never been so glad for a movie to be over, though when the lights were turned back on, he still needed a moment to hold on to Yugyeom while he caught his breath. Yugyeom took advantage of this moment and ran his fingers through Hoseok's hair both for his own benefit and hoping it would help ease the boy's nerves. It worked. Quite well, in fact, well enough that Hoseok relaxed his head on his friend's shoulder and closed his eyes once again.

And quietly under his breath Seokjin whispered, "Make that five hundred shekels."