rent a boyfriend: laws of love|bts x you

017

chewing on his finger, namjoon sits outside the flower shop, yawning from how earlier it still was. the most activity he seen were grade school kids in uniforms taking their daily commutes to school and squirrels working on their winter supplies.

eventually however, the shadow of a new species appears in front of him and he looks up to address you in your work uniform; excluding the large shawl you had thrown over yourself to block out the cold.

shaking either from the cold or your anxiety you shift your feet, a bit uneasy as you stood in front of him. "is it alright if I sit?"

and as he opened his mouth it was no surprise to you that his voice didn't seem to be any warmer."I don't own the bench."

you nod, and exhale—taking a seat next to him and dropping your gaze to the ground.

"you messaged me," he eventually starts after an unusually long pause—the two of you now unfamiliar with even sitting next to each-other in a civil way. it was apparent in the way that you both sat on opposite ends of the bench, making sure not to accidentally touch.

"yeah."

he looks up, now able to see the paleness on your face and how much you were shivering; as if the cold had frozen your tongue and made it impossible for you to speak, that alone almost made him want to buy you a cup of cocoa—almost, it was a force of habit."well..."

at first you don't answer and you could tell namjoon was getting antsy, and though you wanted to continue to sit in solitude you knew however that you would have to speak up sooner than later. "you were right..."

namjoon raises an eyebrow as he slumps an arm over the wooden bench, feeling the rough edges and wondering how long it would take before he got a splinter.

you shift your gaze over to him, head low and refusing to meet his eyes. you could feel the goosebumps raising on your skin as you rubbed some warmth into your arms.
"...we're the same."

"we are," he nods without a hint of gloat in his tone nor surprise at your discovery."so why should I care about your sudden revelation?"

"I don't know why I'm being like this...I've never been a cheater namjoon—even when I was at my worst so I don't get why I would do this now. I'm in a relationship that I'm happy with. I don't want to be that person, I don't want to hurt anyone but I've never been in a position like this before...but you have."

flinching, namjoon diverts his brown eyes to the grass, ignoring the sting of knowing that you had fallen for two other people; neither of which were him.

still you were coming to him for help, it was his shoulder that you had to lean on right now, and that was better than the treatment he had received a year prior. "drop hamlet."

"jimin? how can I drop him if I was never with him!"

"well obviously he doesn't seem to know that," namjoon shoots back just as quickly as you came up with excuses, grunting as he pinches his nose."is jimin even aware that you're in a relationship?"

"I—I mean..."

"rita."

"no," you eventually huff, rubbing your eyes."I wanted jin to keep it a secret until I felt comfortable telling everyone. gyuni is the only other person who knows about us,"

"and she hasn't flipped her head yet over what happened?"

"she has no clue about jimin, how was I supposed to tell her? especially when we all know what she's going to say—you're the only one I can talk to about this namjoon."

"well if you're bent on not telling hamlet then you'll have to dump seok,"

"excuse me?"

"look you said do something, and I'm telling you to dump him, and since you obviously like someone else enough to cheat on him then I'd advise you to let him go before he gets hurt."

"but I can't do that—I really do like him."

"you're being irrational!"

"and you're not being serious! seokjin would be heartbroken...they both would."

grunting, namjoon pinches his nose."ugh."

"they're both so sweet and they've done so much for me...I can't just...break their hearts namjoon," you try to reason, covering your face with your hands—sure it was just a kiss but you knew where that kiss could've went and that's what bothered you.

"listen to me rita because you need to understand something, by trying to protect both of them you'll end up breaking both of their hearts. it's best to just pick one to let down and hope that you can salvage the other affair."

"I just don't want to be a sick person..." you sniff, trying to be a rational adult about the situation, but it was hard."I don't like hurting people and I don't know what's wrong with me."

"there's nothing wrong with you, and you're not a sick person," he mumbles as he adjusts the collar of his jacket. "It's just a classic case of the rentable flu," he shrugs and leans back, inhaling the morning air.

"rentables are notorious for being cheaters so don't take anything personal. look at it like this—five out of seven days a week you go to a job where all you have to do is date multiple people at the same time right?"

Inhaling, you lean back, following your ex fiancé's gaze. "I guess..."

"you become conditioned into thinking that dating more than one person is normal, life has so much variety that way, and when you try to go out into the normal world it's only your nature to try to have more than one partner...why do you think it's so hard for old employees to get into a stable relationship after retiring from the company?"

your head was starting to hurt and you weren't any better off then before you asked namjoon to meet with you. "just help me fix this."

"you're not getting it rita, there's nothing to fix—you either accept that you're never going to satisfied with one person or you break someone's heart, those are your options."

[+]

this chapter felt like it was missing something but i can't figure out what!