endgame - vmon/taejoon

1. PRESENT

length: 0.9k

—

NOW.

"Everything can coexist, positive and negativity," Prerna recites, "The thing that guides me and this world is ultimately those two's synergy."

"I like those lines, too," Jungkook adds, putting down his empty glass. "God, hyung, I can't believe you were just a kid when you wrote this."

Namjoon ducks his head. Accepting praise gracefully was never his forte.

"He was twenty-one, right?" Jimin asks before Namjoon can thank Jungkook. "That's not a kid. That's really old. That's two decades old. I was a baby."

"That's not old, Jiminah. You're just an infant," Jungkook says.

"I was an infant," she huffs, crossing her arms. "I'm thirteen. I'm literally a teenager. Stop infantilising me."

"Stop doing wha—"

"You are a teenager, Minah, you're an honorary member of the adults club right now," Namjoon interrupts because he knows it will escalate if he doesn't. "We need to go, but Perrie, what did you mean when you said these two lines, um, paralleled me as a person even 'after all these years'?"

Both Jungkook and Jimin grow silent as Prerna sits back and turns off her phone, and the room is quiet enough for all four of them to listen to the low-volume music floating in the background. Namjoon's music.

Last week, Seokjin thought that a flash drive full of Namjoon's old mixtapes and home-recorded albums would make a great (second) birthday present for Namjoon's daughter, who has decided to adopt poetry as her latest hobby.

He was right. The flash drive became Jimin's favourite birthday gift, and that's fine, because Namjoon knows that there's nothing too compromising asides from some colourful lyrics here and there on a few songs.

There are downsides and upsides when it comes to everything.

The downside is the nostalgia listening to his old music brings him — especially songs he put his heart into back when all he had was his heart and a wavering will to live. Jimin's hooked and she's been playing his music every single hour in every day of the past week, so he can't really avoid that.

"These two lines, they very well parallel who you are as a person? You always seem to be searching for balance and I know that desire comes from a place of maintaining equal parts of everything inside your mind because you tend to be a big thinker and a heavy feeler," Prerna says. Jimin blinks. She goes on, "so, firstly, it's admirable that you're acknowledging that balance can and does exist, and secondly, it's even more admirable that you're seeking it. I think it's inspiring that you're able to find this juxtaposition comforting despite being the extreme feeler that you are, and that I wish to attain the same thing one day. I hope that you'll teach me or that I'll learn from you from afar."

"God, I love you," Jungkook says under his breath.

"So do I," Namjoon agrees. "That's... intense. I hope you find balance too. Thank you, Perrie."

"Do you know all this because you're a physiologist?" Jimin asks, frowning. "What does juxtaposition mean? It's a pretty word. Juxtaposition."

"I'm a psychologist," Prerna corrects her. "And it means... a comparison, kinda? Like, when two things are so very different are compared to each other."

Jimin blows a kiss at Prerna, but Jungkook pretends to catch it first and eats it. Namjoon snickers.

"That's also very reflective of your libra mercury," Prerna adds, and the other three nod at her with oscar-worthy solemn, knowing expressions. She snorts.

"I don't know if it's a libra mercury thing but I think it's cool how you went on about the synergy between positivity and negativity guiding your life all these years ago and that you never once stopped believing in that," Jungkook tells him. "Like, there's that thing you do — you see the upsides and the downsides of everything and compare them. It's cool. I don't think like that."

Namjoon bites back a smile. "Thank you, Kook."

"Of course."

"I do that too!" Jimin jumps, "like. Upsides of high-school: um. Better than middle-school?"

Prerna laughs and pulls her into a hug. "Minah and I gotta go, but for real, thanks," Namjoon repeats, standing up. "For watching over Jimin while I was gone and for picking apart this song. And psychoanalysing me. Perrie, you're the greatest mind-reader in the universe."

"Ah, anytime," she grins, letting go of Jimin to give Namjoon a light hug. Jimin hugs her again too, and then stands up on her tiptoes to whisper something into her ear. Prerna winks at Jimin.

"C'mon, dad," she says, pulling Namjoon's hand towards the door before he could get a chance to ask about what that was all about, "I gotta charge my iPad and send Gigi and Blue my Zahara cover!"

And Jungkook is right. Namjoon likes to draw out the upsides and downsides, the positives and the negatives, the pros and cons, and compare them. It's just a thing his brain likes to do. It went from a tool he used for his own survival — the need to find something good to hold on to, or something bad to keep him alert and cautious — into a tool he uses mostly out of habit.

So, yeah. There are downsides and upsides to everything.

The upside is the fact that Jimin likes his music so much in the first place, and has expressed multiple times just how proud she is of Namjoon.

It's just precious. She's precious.

—

hi :3 thoughts ?

this chapter was basically. just an intro bc i wanted y'all to meet namjoon n jimin, n learn abt namjoon's thought process (upsides n downsides), n get to know everyone involved in their lives bc it takes a village to raise a child and next-door university couple prerna + jungkook are a very significant part of this village >:)

hope u liked this!!!! let me know what u think plzplzplz i don't have a beta so since this is a work in progress i'm using wattpad as my beta so like. ur feedback allows me to finish n polish this fic until it's shiny enough for me to share it on ao3 where everyone is scary

the lyrics recited above are from rm's i believe