midnight | jikook ✓

eight

Long forgotten, the cold food settles isolated in the corner of Jimin's desk as his eyes stare blankly over the pages before them. He still can't get his mind to focus, the boredom eating at his sanity. Frustratingly, Jimin chucks the book at the foot of his bed, cursing under his breath. "Damn."

"Damn, indeed." Nonchalantly, a voice echoes in the distance, Jimin almost jumping out of his skin.

Jimin's head snaps towards the voice, hands fisting at his sheets. Jimin can feel his heart beat wildly in his chest, so terribly loud in his ears he thinks that the whole world could hear his shock if they strained their ears enough.

Jimin eyes make out a broad outline under the moonlight, and as his eyes gaze up towards his face, Jimin finds his breath stuck in his throat for what feels like the a thousandth time since he'd met him.

He's as aggravatingly beautiful as Jimin remembered, and it takes Jimin's breath away. He looks like he'd been personally carved to perfection by the universe himself.

However, his admiration is cut short when the boy lifts up a bright red scarf, a scowl settled deep in his features. Jimin can feel his face heating up at the distant memory, remembering how he'd wished on the stars that Taehyung's scarf would find it way back to him, accompanied by a boy with hair as dark as midnight.

Intimidatingly, the boy glares at Jimin as he winds Taehyung's scarf around his hand. "I ask you to do one thing. And you don't listen." The male balls up the red scarf in his hands and throws it at Jimin.

"I'm not staying off them." Defiantly, Jimin answers as he catches Taehyung's scarf, chucking it to the side carelessly. "You can't tell me what to do." Jimin doesn't realise his lips form a pout.

"Being childish, are we?" The midnight boy leans tiresomely against the wall. The night haired boy raised an eyebrow at his lack of response. "Not going to reply?"

"What's your deal? Why do I have to stay off your precious rooftops?" Jimin lashes out. The midnight boy's eyes harden at that, and Jimin can't quite distinguish between the fiery reds or the numbing blues that strike behind his irises. The latter scoffs at him, glaring at Jimin in his disbelief.

Jimin watches in confusion and mixed fear as the boy inches towards him, trying not to quiver in alarm when the boy's shadow soon looms over his small figure.

Jimin instinctively wants to curl in on himself, feeling so desperately small against the boy's towering build. This time, Jimin challenges to meet his eyes for a split second.

The latter sees the small boy's eyes shiver under his gaze, watching as something flickers behind his eyes. The male raises his eyebrow once more when Jimin quickly directs his focus back to the ground. Jimin vows he's never felt so frozen and numb, he can't find it within himself to speak. He almost jumps in panic when the male grabs his hand.

The taller boy swears he's never seen a hand so small, swears he's never felt a hand so terribly soft. Delicate, and awfully fragile against his. So little in his palms - he thinks Jimin's hand could just be engulfed by his own. His tiny hand rests timidly in the rough palm of his; and the midnight boy watches as Jimin's fingers curl up on itself.

Jimin is glad that the male isn't looking at him, as the crimson that paints the apples of his cheeks in embarrassment seem to shimmer against the dark of the night. He feels the midnight boy graze his calloused thumb over the soft of his palm, every lingering touch electrifying. They run down the length of his spine, vivid fireworks exploding in the crevice of his stomach. Abruptly, Jimin's eyes widen when the male grips his wrist. "This, this is why." The dark haired male promptly lets go of Jimin, stepping an infinity away from him once more.

Jimin quickly looks at the floor. He tries for his voice to sound defiant, though Jimin only sounds vulnerable, small. "What's wrong with them?" He sounds like his words are about to crack.

"Too soft. You'd bleed too easily. You seem slow as well, you'd get me caught." Jimin would be lying if he said that it didn't hurt, the familiarity of the phrase tugging at his heartstrings.

He'd always been criticised by his father for being too vulnerable, too easily hurt. Jimin couldn't help it, he found he was more sensitive than most people are. Things just hurt him a little more than they really should, and a dismissive comment that would barely cross someone else's mind after a day or two would only end up haunting Jimin for eternity.

And well, in any other situation Jimin would probably be crying right now for being called, "too soft", if another word didn't catch his attention.

"Caught?" Jimin asks, staring up at the older male in curiosity. He anticipates an answer, a reply, but the midnight boy doesn't seem to want to answer. Jimin watches as he just shrugs.

"Stop asking me questions and just stay off the other rooftops, Jimin."

"Why should I listen to you?" Jimin says bitterly. "I don't even know your name." Jimin whispers that last sentence, shuffling in his bed as he buries his hands in his lap.

"Why would you even need to know my name?" Exasperatingly, the taller boy sighs, though Jimin watches as his eyes keep darting over to his long, forgotten food sitting on top of his drawer.

And what Jimin does not expect at all is when the midnight boy quickly lunges for it in half a second. Jimin can barely even process what's happening, can't even protest against it as the boy hungrily devours the meal almost as fast as he'd grabbed it, Jimin staring at him incredously.

"W-What- you- you can't just-" Jimin stutters, staring at the boy in disbelief.

The midnight boy doesn't say anything as finishes the last of what's on the plate, tossing it back onto the table. The boy looks at Jimin amusingly as he wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. "You weren't eating it. It was getting cold."

Jimin glares, "Well I was going to. I hadn't eaten since breakfast."

Meeting his eyes at the sound of a chuckle, Jimin watches as the boy points at the window, "Did you see the weather?" The latter observes as the former gulps, nodding. "I haven't been able to eat for three days." The dark haired male holds up three fingers, illuminated by the moonlight.

Jimin only bites his lip, half apologetic.

He hears a quiet sigh. "I told you, you can stay on your own rooftop. Just don't go on the other ones."

Turning around to exit, the male begins to climb out. Involuntarily, Jimin gets up to follow the midnight boy. Jimin opens his mouth to speak once more, though the boy cuts off his unspoken words, back facing him. "Stay off the other rooftops." Jimin tilts his head right, observing as the boy easily leaps between the gaps, and runs without hesitation along their lengths.

"I'm not soft!" Jimin yells, hoping the dark haired boy hears him. He grits his teeth. "I'm not."

Jimin drifts to sleep in disbelief that night, twisting and turning in bed constantly. He doesn't seem to come to a rest, thoughts of the midnight hated boy polluting and clouding his very mind. After what feels like an eternity though, he does eventually drift off to sleep, the suns finally deciding to stop toying with him.

And when small boy wakes up, the tall boy the first thing that comes to his mind. He crosses his fingers mentally hoping that he wasn't just another figment of his wild imagination, eyes wondering to the place where he'd stood before him last night.

Jimin near gasps when he spots a slightly crumbled up piece of paper on the top of his drawer, nearly falling out of his bed in his excitement. He can't help it when he feels his heart beat erratically in his chest, this midnight boy making his heart feel things he'd swear on the stars he'd never experienced before.

Flattening the paper, Jimin can barely suppress his smile at the sight of his sketch, the roughly drawn moon. He holds his drawing up to the light, nearly bouncing on the balls of his feet. However, he notices an near illegible scrawl at the bottom of the sketch, his heart skipping a beat.

My name is Jungkook.

He despises the fact that his lip twitches upward at that. "Jungkook." Jimin mutters almost fondly under his breath.

"Jungkook, Jungkook, Jungkook."