Stranger | Jikook/Kookmin

12 | Little By Little

Couldn't he just... whatever.

"How do you two know each other?" Yong-sun points back and forth between Jungkook and Jimin, the blond turning around to meet Jungkook's perked eyes from where he'd been fiddling with his phone. There is a beat of silence and it's awkward as hell (oh, Jimin hacked the school for me), Jungkook waiting for his brain to function and Jimin stuttering upon Jungkook's wordlessness.

"Coffee shop," Jimin ends up saying unconfidently, absent-mindedly realizing he just spurted that without giving it much thought. Yong-sun inquires further. "Uh, we frequent the same coffee shop. Eventually we became friends."

"Oh! That is dope!"

"Jungkookie invited me to watch his dance practice today. He wanted an outsider's opinion on his improvement," Jimin smoothly transitions, passing Jungkook a soft smile and walks back until he is standing beside him. "You are nervous aren't you?"

Jungkook chuckles, nervous as heck, dropping the phone next to the speaker system and throwing a glance at Yong-sun. She is covering her smile with the back of her hand as if she knows something he doesn't – it makes Jungkook even more nervous.

"Ay," Jimin swats his arm playfully. "Don't be nervous, Ggukie. I didn't come here to judge you." Jungkook flushes, nodding once which Jimin doesn't register since he is busy asking Yong-sun's opinion about it. "He is good though, isn't he? From what he told me he has been practicing his ass off."

"Come on. I'm just trying to compensate for my inflexibility."

"All lies," Yong-sun skips towards them, poking Jungkook on the chest unexpectedly and smiling at Jimin. "He dances like he done it all his life." 

Now Jimin is making goggly eyes at him as Jungkook groans and flushes further, having to cover his face to hide his embarrassment which entertains the two even more, and without his permission he is pushed to the middle of the empty practice room to initiate the dancing. Jimin is huddled up on the floor at the wall behind them, immersed in his newfound mission of starting and pausing the music with the little remote in his hand. Jungkook can't see his face even through the mirror because his and Yong-sun's bodies are blocking half his sight, but maybe it's better this way, he thinks.

How he will do all the body rolls and manage the passionate face expressions with Jimin's – his biggest crush's – eyes fixed on him like that, no idea. He is aiming for 'not looking like a bouncy potato' vibe but they'll see. He gets immersed in his roles easily sometimes once the acting starts, so maybe he'll win over his shyness once the music starts playing.

And start playing does the music.

As he expected, the first minutes of dancing go awfully for Jungkook. He only tries copying Yong-sun without adding much of a commentary, body stiff and legs stumbling unto each other as he sweats unusually much from the pressure. Yong-sun senses how tense he is compared to usual so she slows down the moves, making him follow some simpler ones that will give Jungkook confidence in moving his body. 

Miraculously, it works. 

They keep adding unto the movements Jungkook's good at, and his confidence boosts with the idea that he has at least shown something impressive to Jimin, whatever that be. Jimin is quiet at the back but they occasionally meet eyes through the mirror, and Jungkook always catches a firm smile on his lips, unable to stay too long in the moment out of fear of breaking flow. 

During the last fifteen minutes of dance practice, Jungkook blooms. 

Yong-sun asks Jimin to finally play the song, and now that their moves are combined with the hyper-kinetic vibes of the beat, Jungkook naturally falls into his steps, able to express his emotions better with the mix of the bass drops. Their panting noises fill the room as they vigorously tap their feet and show off towards the mirror, now pouring their souls into the routine that started off choppily.