Low Stress: Bite Me (Jikook)

Chapter Four: Unhealthy Attachments

Jeon Jungkook heard that some people are born with missing parts. His, he thought as he stared at the empty score sheet in front of him, must have been his brain.

The thirty second vocal piece for the Intro to Music Theory dictation quiz played twice, and Jungkook was able to set the scale in minor and figure out the tempo, but the rhythm was tricky. He couldn't tell if the vocalist used eighth rests or simply staccato for the last measure. The vocal technique of cutting off a note's lingering sound was a cheap trick for the professor to test - drawing a dot verses a rest making a world of a difference.

He did his best to ignore the girl sniffing tears to his left. Jungkook couldn't even judge her because if it weren't for Taehyung and Jimin being in the same room as him, Jungkook would be crying too.

Speaking of Jimin, Jungkook couldn't help stealing glances at the TA. He was sitting in his desk chair, AirPods connecting to his laptop as the rest of the class took their quiz. Jungkook would bet money that he was watching the same kdrama he had opened on his laptop yesterday, but he didn't have the confidence to go up and ask him about it. Or talk to him in general.

Something shifted yesterday. Jungkook physically felt it, but he couldn't understand exactly why. What did I do that was so bad? Was yesterday enough to snap Jimin back to the reality of their situation? That Jungkook could only ever be his student? Or was it something else entirely?

Jimin, however, was a menace. Some special kind of torture to test Jungkook, because when Jungkook walked into class today he was surprised to find Jimin wearing his common style of flowy loose clothing and tight pants. His shirt, a pastel blue silk one with a v, revealed his sharp collarbones and lined muscles - and it did nothing to hide the hickeys Jungkook gave him. The only thing genuinely covered was the bite mark Jungkook knew was bruised on Jimin's neck. A weight formed in his chest as he tried to catch Jimin's eye, guilt and confusion numbing him.

"Euphoria tonight? I can use the drink." Was all Taehyung said when they sat down. Some other students snickered or looked at the hickeys with envy but Taehyung only lifted a brow.

Jungkook had nodded in response, knowing his friend connected the dots between Jimin's hickeys and Jungkook visiting his office hours. Then again, Taehyung also had bigger problems on his mind. The quiz, for one. And the fact that Seokjin and Namjoon were going to be on campus soon. Something Jungkook himself should be more stressed over himself than the fact that things had ended so weirdly with Jimin yesterday - or why Jimin didn't feel like hiding the hickeys.

* * *

"You want a hit?" Jung Hoseok said as he sprawled on Min Yoongi's couch, his sweats tugging at his waist.

Park Jimin snickered, waving his hand to push away the smoke from Hoseok's lips.

"I don't smoke, Hobi. I've got better drugs."

"Oh?" Hoseok said, raising a brow before knowingly popping his lips. Yoongi entered his living room then, drying his hands on a towel after throwing a frozen pizza into the oven of his apartment kitchen.

"By drugs, he means me." Yoongi said bluntly and Jimin rolled his eyes, pouring his friends another round of cheap soju they'd bought to pregame the bar tonight.

"In your dreams old man." Jimin replied, finding a pillow on the ground and tossing it at him. Yoongi laughed, hiding behind Hoseok so that it hit him instead.

"Children." Hoseok huffed, taking a long hit of a slim black pen he held in his hand, the smoke lingering in his mouth before he released it. "Behave."

Jimin knocked a shot back, drinking the sharp liquid down like water. The movement caused the fabric of his shirt to shift, spotlighting the dark bruises on his neck.