CHANGE OF RULES

OPEN UP

'I'm sorry.' Jungkook said as their bus tracked through the long road towards Busan.
'Uh... What for?' Jimin asked back, startled out of his blank staring out the window.
'You know what for.'
'...yeah. I'm sorry too.' Jimin said softly, glancing at Jungkook. 'I was just – I didn't mean it that way. Or anyway. I just-' he sighed, massaging his forehead in frustration. 'I'm sorry.'
They sat in tense silence after that, because they both wanted to ask why and neither of them dared to.
'I hurt you.' Jungkook said, because it was not a question.
'And I hurt you too.' Jimin nodded.
'I was stupid, frustrated and trampled over you because I was scared.' Jungkook said softly.
'What of?' Jimin asked, glancing at Jungkook.
And he was sure that Jimin was starting to get what he was talking about. That Jungkook knew about his feelings...
'Can you tell me why you said what you said?' Jungkook asked back instead of answering, because he was not ready to tell him that yet. Not ready to tell how he himself felt yet.
'...I don't think I can.' Jimin said after gazing at Jungkook for a while, searching his expression carefully. 'Not yet.'
'Neither can I.'
'How about we leave it at that for the time being?' Jimin smiled a troubled little smile.
'Okay.' Jungkook nodded.
'Good.' Jimin smiled a bit wider and leaned his head on Jungkook's shoulder. 'Can I ask you something though?'
'Hmm?' Jungkook hummed, moving a bit so Jimin would be more comfortable.
'Want to hang out during the break?'
'Sure, hyung.'

And that was what they did, going to cafés, eating together, walking around the city and discovering places none of them knew about. Jimin would complain about the cold and Jungkook would chide him for not using gloves and his hyung would try to put his hand into Jungkook's pocket – which he let, because it felt good like that.

He was talking with Hoseok daily, and this time it was his turn to become a support. It was weird to realize that Hoseok was not unbreakably strong as he always thought... But it was a nice change, finally understanding that he could deal with his problems, his insecurities, his feelings alone.
He previously thought that it would be scary, but he learned to love the freeing feeling of this independency from his hyung.
That he could do it by himself too.

Jungkook was slowly accepting Jimin into his space, and it felt natural. He never really felt attracted to anyone – only occasionally, and mostly when he was high on emotions – but Jimin was special.
He liked to spend time with Jimin, he liked his smile, he liked his humor, he liked to bicker with him, he liked to , he liked the way he looked at him... He liked him.
It was becoming apparent, his thoughts wandering to his hyung more often as January came around.

They went out to celebrate the New Year in the city, taking part in the bell-tolling ceremony then moved on to watch the music festivals and enjoyed the attractions of the busy night-life.
'Let's all celebrate the Korean New Year together.' Jimin smiled, cheeks flushed from the chilly winter air.
'Can you imagine the chaos?' Jungkook chuckled, as they arrived to the beach.
'Yeah... It would be a magnificent chaos.' Jimin laughed and Jungkook watched him smile, open and free. Something that he so rarely saw before.
'Oh, look! Just in time for the first sunrise!' Jimin exclaimed, excited as he held onto Jungkook's sleeve.
Jungkook glanced away from Jimin to watch as the sky turned colors, the sun greeting them with its first rays as blue turned to warm orange, reflecting brilliantly on the open surface of the sea.
They looked on as the sun climbed the horizon until the tiredness finally won out over awe and they decided to just crash at Jungkook's place.
They flopped in an unceremonious pile on the flattened futon, Jungkook's arms a loose tangle above his head as he inhaled deeply and closed his eyes, managing only a drawn-out 'Wow.'
Jimin seemed to concur as he offered a quiet hum in reply.
'I have to get up.' Jimin said eventually.
'No you don't.' Jungkook mumbled, already barely awake as he lifted an arm in the air before dropping it somewhere, where Jimin lay sprawled. The back of his hand made contact with his chest by the sound of the disgruntled string of complaints he received in return.
'I do. I feel disgusting.'
'If you're talking about the smell, you always smell like that.' Jungkook said with a yawn.
'You're a charmer, brat.'
'Just stay, hyung.'
A silent pause in Jimin's movement before a bubble of soft laughter escaped him.
The futon shifted then, and the soft, familiar fabric of the blanket was thrown in an undignified bundle over Jungkook. Jungkook clawed the material away from his face with a tired frown, meeting Jimin's amused gaze as he tugged at a corner of the blanket for himself.
'Fine, you win.' Jimin said with a lazy smile. 'Go to sleep, Jungkook.'
That was the last thing he saw as he allowed his eyelids to drop close and he thought he felt a soft flutter in his gut, but sleep consumed him before he could identify it.

They met again after they both recovered form their all-nighter and Jungkook had good news for Jimin.
'Yoongi-hyung calls Hoseok-hyung every day.' Jungkook said as Jimin sipped on his hot coffee while being bundled up in an oversized hoodie and a scarf. He was cute and Jungkook hid a smile into his cup.
'That's an actual attempt at communication, it's great...But he doesn't actually answer him, right?' Jimin guessed, looking at Jungkook pointedly who was fine in his t-shirt indoors.
'No, but he listens to the voice mail, even hangs up on me because of it.' he shrugged. 'I guess that's kind of a progress.'
Jimin hummed noncommittally while informing the master of plans, Taehyung.
'Tae says it is, but we should go to Daegu to cheer Yoongi-hyung up a bit too.' Jimin said, checking the chat he was currently having with their alien. 'He says we should go this weekend.'
'Tell him, that it's fine.' Jungkook said, sipping on his own coffee.
Because no matter how much progress he was making in relation to his own feelings, his hyungs were more important. He worried about them and there was no need to kick up the comfortable friendship he was having with Jimin while they were so miserable... But sometimes he felt like doing it anyway. Like when his hyung smiled so wide that his eyes disappeared or when he was speaking in dialect because he was embarrassed...
'I'm not your messenger.' Jimin snapped, kicking Jungkook under the table lightly. 'And how are you not cold? Are you really an ice queen or are you hot by nature?'
Jungkook stumbled over his thoughts and coughed into his cup.
'Are you hitting on me right now, hyung?' he asked when he gained the capability of forming full sentences again, raising an eyebrow as he continued. 'With an absurdly ridiculous pun too?'
Jimin attempted a noncommittal shrug but failed by a mile and ended up rubbing his hand under his nose in a sheepish motion.
'I might be trying.'
A fluttering in his gut - previously never present, or maybe it was always there but his anxiety simply drowned it out - announced itself, and Jungkook felt a sudden flush of warmth flooding over the bridge of his nose and down the back of his neck.
Jimin glanced back at him and the two of them simply held each other's gazes.
The flutter remained, the anxiety that had tangled itself in Jungkook's chest for years unraveling as Jimin smiled at him in challenge and with a range of emotions that left Jungkook speechless for the better half of the day.

'When did you know you were in love?' he asked Yoongi-hyung while they were there, because he wanted to confirm his feelings – he wanted to know that love was as simple as he never thought it would be. That he could fall in love too just like that, stumbling over his walls of anxiety, his previous inability to even come close to it... To fall for one silly pick up line after being scared for months, for years.
Yoongi just smiled at him, told him that he didn't even know until he confessed and Jungkook felt better. Because love was silly, unpredictable, simple and complex and he might felt it for the very first time in his life.
Now he just had to figure out how to do something about it.
___________________________
There you go, Kookie~ *throws confetti*
Now let's just wait and see how this unfolds... ;)