love or something like it

back home pt.1

The weather was warmer now, more soothing.

The trees were green again, the flowers were in bloom again and the birds had come back to coo by the windows early in the morning.

It was still cold enough for your breath to fog over the mirror but the skies- all blue and clear- smiled down at you every time you looked up and there was no time in day when the sun didn't shine on you.

It was as if the spring had come around a month earlier and flushed everything with colour and warmth.
You could even smell the bloom if you stood real still in the middle of a garden.

It was perfect. Peaceful. Normal.
It had to be- I mean, one month had passed by since Jungkook and Taehyung had returned home- everything was bound to change back to normal.

That's right- one whole ass month had passed.
Seemed surreal, didn't it?

I mean, wasn't it just yesterday the two boys were bickering over whether to eat boiled eggs or tuna sandwiches for breakfast? Or how the fight they had over abandoning the other in the middle of the forest was just earlier this week? And how Jungkook could still feel Taehyung's breath on his lips as if all had happened just moments ago?

Ahh, but the bitter, unbelievable truth still remained- one month had passed. Seven hundred thirty hours had passed. Forty three thousand eight hundred minutes had passed. Several long long unbearable seconds had passed. This all did happen.

And now Jungkook was back home- back in his college, back in that campus, back to his old routine of boxing and running and preparing for tournaments.

He was back to living his life. Everything had gone back to the way it was.
Just the way he'd wanted it to. Just the way it was supposed to be.

The only variable, however, was...

"Jimin!" Jungkook jolted to attention as a sharp stinging pain on his left arm broke his chain of thoughts, "what the fuck? Did you just pinch me?"

Jungkook had come back to his dorm room after the morning classes to rest a bit before reporting for evening practice but naturally, Jimin was there too (like he always was these days) and naturally here they were- bickering, (like they always did these days).

"What were you thinking?" Jimin asked teasingly, cocking a doubtful eyebrow as he sat up against the headrest.

And, shit, here they went again.

"Nothing, jesus!" Jungkook shouted, rubbing the reddened area on his exposed forearm, "I was sleeping."

He wasn't. But he definitely didn't think it was Jimin's business to care. Or maybe even if it was- he didn't want it to be.

"You sure? Cuz it definitely looked like you were thinking about something..."

Jungkook groaned, knowing all to well where this conversation was headed.
He had been there one too many times.

Anytime now, the bomb was gonna drop and....

"...or someone."

There it was.

Jimin just didn't know how to quit.
They'd been going round and round this argument like a fucking carousel.

"Where do you keep zoning off to?"
"You've been off ever since you came back."
"You're acting weird."
"You've changed."
"Is there someone else?"
"Who is he?"

It was always one question or the other.
Ever since he'd been back from the safe house one month ago.

"I'm not having this conversation with you again." Jungkook exhaled, bending forward to press his chest against his laid out legs to stretch. He was sore from all the extra practice he kept running off to as a way of ignoring his so-called 'boyfriend'.