Life's a Bumpy (and Bruising) Ride | NamKook

Confrontation

It was minute thirty (Jungkook wasn't entirely sure when they had initially arrived at the party, but he sure as hell knew they got there before midnight), and Jungkook was still hanging around in the kitchen drinking his pathetic cup of red wine. The effects of the beverage weren't instantaneous, so Jungkook figured another cup wouldn't hurt him. Which, he was correct about. His boredom had yet to be quenched, and there really wasn't anything else he wanted to do, so he poured himself a third cup, carefree and content.

He had vastly overestimated his alcohol tolerance.

He wasn't totally wasted, but hot damn if he didn't feel something. He found it a bit odd if he actually gave his brain a moment to think, that the alcohol was just now getting to him. Alcohol was supposed to be the type of drug that immediately effected someone, right? So, why the fuck did he not blackout the moment he downed the first cup?

His line of thought was really only fueled on by the fact he had instantly felt a white-hot flush infect the entirety of his face upon gulping down his third serving of wine. There was no tell-tale buzz going through his body, no dizziness of the head, and certainly, no irrational actions were being made. So, he couldn't possibly be drunk, right?

"Maybe the heat's getting to me," he muttered, tracing his finger along the rim of his red-stained cup.

(It was in the middle of winter; there hadn't been any heat since three months prior.)

Just when he figured he should probably stop binge-drinking, Jungkook felt a hot, moist breath breathe itself across the shell of his ear, encasing it with humid-like air.

He froze, stunned at the sudden sensation. He waited a moment, muscles taut with adrenaline, expecting another attack on his ear.

And his expectation was granted with another breath fanning across the expanse of cartilage, air traveling a lot too far down his ear for comfort. It was quickly followed by a wet, warm sensation tracing along his helix.

Jungkook bolted upward, having been casually sitting atop the kitchen counter, with the sudden (and obvious) realization that his soulmate was getting it on with someone. That Namjoon was getting it on with someone, who wasn't him.

He didn't know why, but the thought sent a fiery rage throughout his body.

He stormed out the kitchen in a red haze, fury fueling him on through the oblivious crowd of people. He wandered into the living room, searching the group for--for...

I don't know what he looks like.

The jarring realization didn't stop Jungkook from being pissed, however (mostly at himself for being too stubborn to meet Namjoon beforehand).

He was moments away from just lurking away from the living room and around the rest of the house in search of someone who looked to be having a good time when Hoseok's face was suddenly overcrowding his line of vision.

"Hey," he greeted Jungkook, drawn-out, and immediately overbearing. "Jungkook-ah. I haven't seen you at all during the party, Kookie. Where'd you run off to?"

Jungkook grit his teeth, cursed his luck (or lack thereof) and offered Hoseok a tight-lipped smile. "Well, hyung," he began, tone sickly sweet. "You were the one who left me in the kitchen, remember? You went off and played--what was it again?"

Hoseok answered the question with a mumbled, "Kings."

Jungkook grinned wryly at the blank look on the junior's face. "Right. Kings. And ever since then, I just stayed there."

Hoseok let out a quiet "oh" of recognition before shaking his head disappointedly. "You know, you didn't have to stay there just because I left you there."

Jungkook, already in the process of correcting Hoseok's mistaken line of thought, trembled underneath the sudden moist heat that lapped, yet again, at the shell of his ear.

This person must have an ear fetish, Jungkook grimaced, covering his heated ear with the palm of his hand.

He noticed Hoseok eyeing him with that blank stare he often got when drunk, and felt immediately unnerved and more than ready to escape the situation.

"Welp, hyung," he sighed, tone mournful. "This little chat has been lovely, but I think you should find Seokjin-hyung and have him look after you, okay?"

Hoseok blinked, slow and bleary, before nodding his head obediently and wandering off into the crowd.

Jungkook worried if the junior would actually manage to find Seokjin in the thumping crowd, before flinching back into a dancing body at the sudden sensation of teeth nibbling his earlobe.

"Sorry," he muttered to the person he disturbed, eyes flitting across the crowded room in search of Namjoon and his assaulter(?).

The discomfort of having his ear molested every five seconds and frustration with himself at not knowing what Namjoon looked like was starting to get to him. His vision was beginning to blur in the corners, and the pounding bass of the music had long since become nothing more than a muffled pressure against his eardrums.

Just when he thought his haze was getting the best of him, he spotted two lone figures in the abandoned hallway that connected the living room to the dining room. The taller of the two had their head thrown back in, presumably, laughter as they half-heartedly shoved their shorter companion away from them. The shorter refuted their rejection and brought themself closer to the taller's side-profile, face pressed against their ear--

A wash of hot air shrouded Jungkook's ear, yet again.

"What the fuck," he accidentally spoke aloud, face contorted into an incredulous expression. If it weren't for the fact that his blood pressure had significantly risen, he probably would've taken into account the handful of people around him that shrunk away from him, startled by his sudden outburst.

He stormed through the crowd, offering curt apologies to whomever he happened to plow over and made his way toward the hallway. No obstacles stood in his way, so he was able to arrive at the couple's location in record time.

He towered over the shorter of the pair, giving the visibly frightened person a pinning glare.

A silence stretched between the three, and Jungkook was beginning to regret approaching the pair without a clear plan of confrontation in his head.

He was seconds away from telling the stranger off for messing with Namjoon when said soulmate cleared his throat as a way to gain Jugnkook's attention.

It worked, and Jungkook found himself staring into mirthful chocolate eyes. The freshman tensed, not used to such direct eye contact, but somehow found himself unable to look away. The action of Namjoon's soul peering into his captivated his mind.

"Um," Namjoon finally spoke up, noticing Jungkook's tongue-tied situation. "Can I help you?"

Jungkook nibbled on his lip (damned nervous habit) and shrunk in on himself at the sudden thought of actually talking to his soulmate.

But then Namjoon's eyes lit with sudden understanding, and his defensive pose was replaced with awestruck wonder. "Jungkook...?" he whispered, bringing himself closer to the startled freshman.

Jungkook mentally smacked himself in the head when he finally remembered that his goal for the party was to avoid Namjoon, not come barrelling into his distinctly private affairs.

So, thoroughly aggravated with not only himself but also the entire universe, Jungkook replied to the wonderstruck exclamation with a gruff, "If you're gonna get it on with someone, do it a bit more discretely, okay?" He turned away from the baffled pair before they got a chance to reply to his curt message, anxious to get away from the overcrowding strangers, from the scorching house--

Away from Namjoon.