Chapter Text
“Here we are!” Seokjin said, stopping the car, which made one of the cardboard boxes fall on the floor.
“Note to self: Never let Seokjin drive a car again.” Jimin said, picking up the box.
Yoongi sighed. “I told you right away you should have let me drive.”
“Silence back there!”
The three of them laughed, but once Jimin actually looked out of the window, his laughter faded.
Up on the small hill was a house. A pretty house, painted light blue, with white windows.
It was his old family home. He had lived here with his brother and mother, until he had moved out 3 years ago.
Now, his mother had died. And he was back here, because his mother wanted one of her sons to keep the house.
So he did.
He couldn’t ask Yon-rae to come back here, he was married now and lived several hours away.
But Jimin had only ever lived about fifteen minutes away, close enough to be able to visit his mother more often than his brother ever did.
And now she was gone.
Two weeks ago the funeral happened, he and his brother had hugged for the first time in years and cried into each other's shoulders.
Jimin snapped out of his thoughts when a warm hand touched his shoulder. “Are you okay?”
He nodded.
“Don’t worry so much, Yoongi. I’ll be fine. Now let’s go! I still need to cook you something.”
Seokjin was about to protest, since he was a professional cook in training, and could clearly cook better than Jimin, but Yoongi gave him A Look which made him stay quiet.
They got out of the car and carried the boxes up the hill.
Jimin really hadn’t brought that much stuff. Seokjin had once asked him if he was a minimalist (which he wasn’t), to which Namjoon - Seokjin’s boyfriend - had replied that Jin was simply overly chaotic.
Before he unlocked the front door, Jimin took a deep breath.
His friends watched him, both wearing worried looks. But he was okay, really.
The door opened.
The sun was shining through the windows, making small specs of dust dance in the air.
“You can just leave the boxes here, I’ll unpack later.” Jimin said, gesturing vaguely.
“Make yourselves at home! I’ll go make some food.”
He hurried off into the kitchen, feeling four eyes staring at him.
Alright, maybe he was being a bit weird. But he wasn’t going to start crying again.
He cooked three very simple bowls of Ramen, setting them down on the old, wooden table one by one.
The three friends dug in, not sure what to say. They had cried and hugged and cried again a lot in the last two weeks and Jimin was eternally thankful to all of them.
They were his best friends.
Seokjin and Yoongi, who he had known the longest, and Namjoon and Jungkook. They were the best friends in the world.
“So, Jimin.” Yoongi said eventually. “Did you think of an ending for the book yet?”
Jimin shrugged slowly. “Not really…”
“I can’t believe best selling children’s book author Park Jimin is struggling with imagining a nice and wholesome ending to his story!” Seokjin commented with a full mouth, waving his chopsticks.
“Don’t you always think of the endings first?” he then asked, mouth less full.
Jimin nodded.
“I do! But this time… It’s hard.”
Yoongi nodded, patting his hand.
“Take your time.”
He gave Seokjin another Look.
They both had rather different ways of treating someone who was going through a hard time.
Seokjin was always joking around, trying to make everyone feel happy and laugh a lot. Make them forget about the sad things.
While Yoongi liked talking about things, for hours if needed, allowing him to cry and feel better afterwards.
Both of these options weren’t bad, both of these options had helped Jimin immensely already.
But these two couldn’t really agree on what was better, so they kept bickering.
In a way, their endless bickering also cheered Jimin up. He didn’t know it any other way.
After another hour or two his friends had to leave.
Seokjin had a cooking class tomorrow and Yoongi didn’t own a car, so he had to carpool with Seokjin.
They asked him several times if they should stay the night, Seokjin saying he would ditch his dreams of becoming a professional cook in a heartbeat for Jimin, which made Jimin cry again, so they ended up hugging again, with both Jimin and Seokjin sobbing and Yoongi trying to calm them down.
Jimin assured him that he would be fine. He needed some time to unpack and to think about his book.
He ended up ushering them out of the door because they were so worried and promised them to text them if he needed anything.
When he closed the door behind him, he sighed.
He hadn’t really thought about what it would be like to be alone in this house.
It wasn’t nice.
He shook his head, as if that would banish all the sad thoughts, and started unpacking.
Eventually it was 11pm and Jimin was incredibly tired.
He lied down on his mother’s old bed and fell asleep in an instant.
The next morning he woke up to his phone ringing.
He was still half asleep when he picked up.
“Hey Jungkook… What time is it?”
“It’s nearly 12! You need to get out of there.” The younger announced. It wasn’t a question. It was an order.
“Meet me and Yoongi in half an hour at the cofée shop!”
“Why..” Jimin started, but his friend had already hung up.
He was tempted to turn back around and just sleep for the rest of the day, but he knew that Jungkook would drag him out of this house if he had to.
So he did what he was told. He got up, took a shower and went out.
The coffée shop wasn’t far away, so he could walk.
It was a surprisingly warm spring day, the trees and flowers were blooming everywhere.
The sky was light blue and the sun warmed his face.
Despite the sun, his friends were sitting inside.
Of course they were.
Jimin was convinced that Jungkook was either a big nerd who never got to see the sun because he only played games, and therefore had developed an allergy to the sun - or he was a vampire.
Maybe both.
Entering the coffèe shop he immediately spotted Jungkook - he was the only person with a long-sleeved top.
He was wearing a black hoodie, as if it were the depths of winter.
“Aren’t you hot in that?” Jimin asked, sitting down across from him.
Jungkook grinned. “If I have to sweat for the aesthetic, I will.”
He got up and hugged Jimin fiercely.
“How are you?” he asked, eyes filled with concern.
Jimin smiled.
“I’m alright. I actually slept okay?”
They sat down and ordered.
Yoongi would come too, in a few minutes, so they got an Americano for him. He never drank anything else.
They spoke about this and that, nothing too deep, and Jimin appreciated it. It was nice to feel a little bit more normal again.
After a few minutes Yoongi entered, wearing a black, long-sleeved top that was kind of similar to Jungkook’s, which made them all laugh.
“I can’t believe you two aren’t dying in these things.” Jimin said, sipping his iced tea.
“I prefer not being properly perceived by the normal human eye.” Yoongi said.
“And you think a warm hoodie in summer will help you with that?”
“Jimin, it’s spring.” Jungkook said, looking a little offended.
Jimin shook his head but was smiling.
If Seokjin was Jimin’s loudest friend, then Yoongi was his quietest friend, shortly followed by Jungkook.
They were both really introverted, especially around strangers, but the five friends had always found common ground.
Now that it was just the three of them, they were chatting and laughing a lot, but Jimin didn’t miss the looks Jungkook and Yoongi exchanged, like they had to tread carefully. He appreciated his friends’ concern, he really, really did, but at this point he thought they were being a little too careful.
But he had told them that several times already and their behavior hadn’t changed, so he had given up.
He couldn’t stop them from being worried.
Yoongi’s phone started ringing and he excused himself, so only Jimin and Jungkook were left at the table.
“Yoongi is so worried.” Jungkook said when his hyung had left, looking at Jimin with big eyes.
“I mean, so am I. We all are.” he sighed. “But Yoongi is really worried.”
Jimin smiled and took another sip.
“I wish he wouldn’t stress himself out like that. But that’s how he is…”
They both sat there in silence for a few seconds until Jimin looked up.
In a conspiratorial tone and wiggling eyebrows he asked Jungkook, “When are you going to do something about your massive crush on Yoongi?”
That led Jungkook to choke on his coke.
“What are you saying?!” he looked annoyed, but Jimin didn’t miss his cheeks getting red.
He simply laughed, not saying anything else.
He had known about this for years. Jungkook had started crushing on their hyung when they were still in highschool. He hadn’t explicitly told anyone, but Jimin could tell that he was right, judging by the way Jungkook was wiping away the coke and muttering something under his breath.
Jimin wasn’t exactly a matchmaker, but he was going to have to keep an eye on this.
He wasn’t going to tell Seokjin though, because Seokjin was too much of a loudmouth.
And he also wouldn’t tell Namjoon, because Namjoon was bad at keeping secrets from Seokjin.
A few moments later Yoongi returned, shoving his phone in his pocket.
“What’s up?” Jimin asked.
“That was Mary.”
He sat down and gave Jungkook, who was still wiping away coke, a confused look. Then he turned back to Jimin.
“She’s mad that you told her that she can’t work with you, so now she’s pestering me.”
Jimin sighed.
He had nearly forgotten about Mary.
Mary Lawson, an artist, who would have been the illustrator for his new book - had she not stolen art from someone else and sold it as her own.
Namjoon had found evidence of that a while ago and called a “war council” (his words, not Jimin’s). Jimin had confronted Mary, who denied all allegations.
The artist who had his art stolen even told the police about it, but they didn’t care enough to do something. Typical.
“Why is she pestering you? You’re not even the author.” Jungkook looked confused.
“It’s because we were supposed to work together. She would make the illustrations, I would make the music for the audio book. We would have had to compare our work to make the general vibes fit… Also, I’m the only one who didn’t block her number.”
Jimin’s eyebrows shot up.
“Why not?”
Yoongi frowned.
“I don’t know how…”
Jimin and Jungkook laughed and started calling him grandpa, which got them some very dark looks.
Jungkook helped Yoongi block the number and told him he could always ask for help if he needed it, which made Jimin smile. It was cute.
“You still haven’t found a new illustrator, have you?” Yoongi asked.
Jimin shook his head.
“Nope, no one seems to be available. Either that, or they charge way too much money.”
“I might have an idea.” Jungkook said, grabbing his phone.
He didn’t say more than that.
“... What’s the idea?”
He didn’t reply.
Jimin and Yoongi exchanged a look.
After a long moment, Jungkook returned to the world of the living and held up his phone. He was grinning and his eyes looked like they were sparkling.
“I might have a fitting candidate for the job!”