Jimin sat on his bed, listening through the wall to Hoseok and Taehyung's conversation. They had come up with a new method for getting Yoongi and Hoseok together – jealousy. Jimin was sceptical so Taehyung had told him not to worry about it, that he was the best matchmaker they'd seen in years, Jimin! and that he'd take care of everything.
Hoseok was laughing hysterically, and Jimin could hear Taehyung's embarrassed giggles following right after. Jimin groaned and laid back on his bed, not really seeing the point in the whole ordeal. The only thing jealousy was going to accomplish was driving Hoseok away from Yoongi and – right into Taehyung's arms.
"Sneaky little shit!" Jimin said, running a hand through his hair. Taehyung had been acting different since day one, being all blushy and stuttery and completely un-Taehyung like. Jimin wished there was a way to call Seokjin, tell him that Taehyung was messing things up more than he was, but there was nothing he could do.
Jimin stood up and grabbed his house keys, ready to march over to Yoongi's apartment and pull Taehyung out by his ears, but a knock at his window stopped him. He glanced outside and Yoongi was hanging off his balcony, house keys in his mouth. Jimin opened his window and pulled Yoongi inside, trying not to pull his arms out of socket.
"I have a front door, you know." Jimin said once Yoongi was sitting safely on his bed.
"Do you really think I wanted to leave my room with tweedle dee and tweedle dumb over there, giggling up a storm? No thank you." Yoongi rolled his eyes and Jimin could sense just how exasperated he was. Maybe the jealousy tactic would work after all. "Anyway, I came over here to ask if you wanted to hang out. I brought Mario Kart."
Yoongi reached into the front of his pants and pulled out the Mario Kart disk. Jimin couldn't help the laugh that escaped him, because how random is it that someone would bring over just the disk rather than the whole case. Yoongi laughed too, as if he realized just how odd it really was before tossing the disk on the bed.
"I'm actually kind of mad," Yoongi started. Jimin looked at him expectantly, and the older boy sighed. "I've known Hoseok for nine years and I've never heard him laugh like that. It just irks me that some random purple haired kid – no offense, sorry – can make him laugh harder in one day than I have in nine years."
Jimin almost felt the same way. He was upset that, after not seeing him for weeks, Taehyung wanted to hang out with a stranger rather than his best friend. However, the difference was that Jimin knew his lack of time with Taehyung was due to work, while Yoongi was left in the dark. "If it's any consolation, Taehyung hasn't seen me in three weeks and would rather hang out with your best friend rather than me."
"Maybe we should boycott." Yoongi offered, sitting up from his position against the wall. "You and me against them. We can be new best friends, two, well, four in this case, can play at that game."
Jimin wanted to shake his head, wanted to scream no! That's a horrible idea do you not realize that my wings are at stake?! but instead he nodded and leant back on his bed. "Yeah, we should. Show them that if they're going to be new best friends, we can be best friends without them."
"And then Hoseok will come crawling back to me, and you can get Taehyung back. Easy peasy." Jimin was less than thrilled to find out that he was just being used in a plan to get Hoseok back, but at the same time he couldn't be too upset, for Hoseok and Yoongi were only pawns in his chess game to get his wings back.
"What's something you usually do with Taehyung?" Yoongi asked. Jimin shrugged and tried to think about things they did that were semi-normal. Flying was definitely off the list, as was baking with the fairies or trying to get Namjoon flushed in front of Seokjin so his magic would fall out of him in glittery strands. (It always made him laugh, how Namjoon tired his hardest to be manly yet he secreted glitter when he was nervous.)
"I dye his hair for him," Jimin said, thinking back to the various colors that had stained his hands every few months.
"Well, then let's go to the store. Looks like I'm getting a new hair-do." Yoongi scooted himself off Jimin's bed and Jimin watched after him, wondering just how crazy one had to be to voluntary ruin their hair just to make someone jealous. Yoongi checked himself out in Jimin's mirror as he ruffled his hair. "What do you think, pink? Green?"
"Grey." Jimin answered easily. Yoongi looked back at him like he was nuts, hand caught in his hair mid ruffle.
"Grey? I'll look like a grandpa." Yoongi said. He looked back at himself in the mirror, his black locks falling sloppily around his face.
"It'll hurt more if we have to bleach it a lot. Going a super light color straight from black would be dumb. Grey is a good place to start." Jimin said, trying to salvage Yoongi scalp. Yoongi frowned once and pulled at a strand of his hair, sighing.
"I don't like grey. Can we do something more fun?" Yoongi asked. Jimin shrugged, it was his hair after all. Yoongi suddenly smiled, his gums showing as he stomped excitedly. "What about blond? Jimin we could die your hair too."
"We're not dying my hair, it just went back to natural. We can do whatever you want, but I think grey would look nice." Jimin said. He scooted to the end of his bed and slipped on his shoes, instinctively reaching for his enchanted jacket, but he let his fingers fall away from it upon realizing he didn't need it anymore.
Jimin made Yoongi walk to the store, saying that it was only a block and Yoongi would survive the fifteen minute walk. Yoongi complained the whole time, saying that his feet were going to bleed and Jimin was going to have to pay for his hospital bills when his lungs gave out.
"Would you shut up, we're here." Jimin said, opening the door. He followed after Yoongi, letting him lead his throughout the store. When they got to the cosmetics section Yoongi immediately picked up a box of pink hair dye and Jimin pushed it out of his hands lightly.
"What, do you have something against pink?" Yoongi asked, picking the box back up. Jimin sighed and took it back, shoving it back back on the shelf.
"No, I'm trying to salvage your scalp. Let's do grey, and then if you hate it we'll come back and get pink. But going from black, to bleaching it blonde, to dyeing it pink is going to make you hate yourself. Trust me, I have naturally dark hair that I dyed bright orange once. It was the worst pain of my life. Bright pink would be one thousand times worse for you." Jimin tried to reason, picking up a box of grey hair dye. He showed it to Yoongi, who just huffed and left the aisle. Jimin followed him into the snack aisle and picked up liquorice, while Yoongi picked up a bag of chocolates.
"Liquorice is so nasty," Yoongi said, staring down at the package in Jimin's hand. Jimin shrugged and put the hair dye and liquorice on the counter. He felt around in his pockets for the wallet Seokjin had given him, but Yoongi was tossing money down on the counter before he could take it out of his pocket. "You're going to dye my hair, let me at least pay for your snacks."
Jimin nodded and let Yoongi pay, and forcefully gave up the bag after Yoongi insisted on carrying it. Jimin whistled softly as they walked back to their apartment, a tune that his mother used to sing him when he was little. Jimin missed her, it'd been a while since he'd seen her, and now that he was in the mortal world he had absolutely no way to contact her. He didn't have a way to contact anyone unless Seokjin called him first.
"You okay?" Yoongi asked, brushing his hand on Jimin's shoulder. Jimin stopped whistling and nodded, letting his hair fall in front of his eyes.
"Just miss my family, that's all." Jimin shrugged and Yoongi nodded, flipping the bag awkwardly from one hand to the next.
"I know how you feel. I left my family in Daegu to come here for work. I think it's been a year or so since I've actually sat down with my family and talked about family things, usually we just have short phone calls about gatherings I can't make it to, or birthday's that I accidentally forgot." Yoongi sighed and shook his head before smiling softly and looking at Jimin. "But enough about me, tell me about your family and friends back home."
"Well, I actually just recently moved out of my parents house to live with Taehyung and our other friend Jungkook." Jimin said, choosing his words carefully. He had to be cautious, he didn't want to accidentally say something that would give away the fact that he once had wings, or that he was part pixie. "My parents are great, I think out of all the time I've been on this earth, and all the love I've seen come and go, that my parents is the strongest."
"My mom is kind of crazy, you see. She would always yell at my dad for no reason, but instead of feeding off her anger he'd do this thing where he would nod and go, 'yes dear, I totally understand.' And then when she was done having her moment she would apologize and that would be the end of it." Jimin smiled as he thought of his parents. "They just work for each other. And I know it sounds really mushy, but I want that, you know? I won't ever have it because of my job, but that's what I want. I want true love."
Jimin didn't realize they'd arrived back at their apartment until Yoongi was opening the door so he could walk inside. He blushed when he realized that he'd rambled the whole rest of the way home, and opened his mouth to apologize when Yoongi cut him off.
"You know, Jimin, I never really believed in love. I always thought that it was a hoax, that people said they were love and got married just so they didn't have to be alone. You're starting to make me think a little differently."
Jimin smiled widely, proud of himself. "That's always been my goal. To make everyone believe that there's love for them out there. Because there is, if you look hard enough for it." Jimin stopped for a second to press the elevator button before looking back at Yoongi. "And sometimes, it's right in front of you."