Strings of Fate

Chapter 42

"Want to hang out at our place until your mom and brother gets home?" Jimin asked as they pulled into the Park family's driveway.

"If no one minds," Jungkook replied.

"Of course no one minds, you're always welcome," Jimin assured and his brother nodded in agreement.

"You do realize your basically family at this point?" Jihyun stated and then went on to elaborate, "our families are close and my parents already consider you to be their son just like all our friends."

"Jihyun is right. You mean a lot to Jimin and Jihyun so you mean a lot to us as well and we consider you family," Jimin's grandfather added.

"Ok then, thank you for viewing me in such a way," Jungkook responded with a warm smile.

The family along with Jungkook filed out of the car and into the Park's house. Jihyun, Jimin, and Jungkook quickly heading upstairs to the game room. They decided to play video games and argued over which game to play for a solid three minutes before ultimately settling on Mortal Kombat. Jimin played against Jungkook first and once he'd lost, Jihyun took over and they proceeded to take turns playing. After playing a few rounds and losing more than winning, Jimin decided to just watch the two younger males.

"Are you sure? We could just play something else?" Jihyun stated and Jungkook nodded.

"No it's ok, you two play, I'll join in again when my wounded pride is repaired," Jimin joked.

"In that case, you'll never be playing again," Jihyun teased causing Jungkook to burst out laughing as Jimin gave an indignant look to his younger brother.

"Yah! Who taught you to be so disrespectful and mean?" Jimin asked, flicking his brother's forehead, causing the younger to whine and rub at his forehead.

"It's not my fault your so bad at fighting games hyung!" Jihyun protested.

"Actually, it is, you take over the PS4 all the time and so you get to develop your skills while all I do is watch," Jimin pointed out, choosing to ignore the fact that he, himself, usually chose to not play when Jihyun would offer him the other controller.

Jihyun rolled his eyes at Jimin while saying, "that's just an excuse!"

Jimin chuckled as Jihyun started the game again and played against Jungkook. The two were skilled gamers and so the fight would last a while. As such Jimin turned to his phone to scroll through social media. As he turned on his phone, Jimin was met with a message notification from Taemin. He frowned as he swiped away the message without looking at it. He'd gotten a message earlier while he was at the restaurant with his family and friends, but he'd ignored the elder then as well, not even looking at the message.

You're being petty, Jimin thought to himself. But he really couldn't help it. Even if he had said it was ok to Taemin, in his heart he knew he felt uneasy. It was mainly because Taemin hadn't provided him with the reason for the elder's inability to come. Saying it was personal... it just didn't settle right with Jimin. He wanted to know what happened, to at least have some idea even if it wasn't the whole truth. The way it stood right now, he had many guesses why Taemin couldn't come but no idea if any of them were even possibly right.

Pushing the negative thoughts away, Jimin opened up his Twitter to scroll through it. As he was doing so, his phone screen suddenly lit up with an incoming call from his boyfriend, who he had been trying to ignore. Jimin bit his bottom lip for a few seconds before getting off the sofa and heading towards his room to take the call.

"Hello?" Jimin spoke into the phone once he had closed the door to his room and answered the call.

"Hey love, sorry for calling suddenly, but you hadn't responded to my texts and I was worried... but are you busy? If you're busy should I call later?" Taemin asked.