Chapter Text
Jimin sighed as he looked at the tiny room that was going to be his home for the next 10 months. This is what he deserved for putting far too much faith in people he met in freshers week.
A slightly mouldy, poorly furnished room in a house with people he barely knew. His supposed ‘friends’ had signed a contract for a much nicer house, much closer to university, within a few months of starting their first year.
Jimin remained blissfully ignorant until almost March, when it occurred to him that most of his classmates were locked into a house of their choosing. He was left scrambling in an attempt to gather up a few suitable housemates, but by that point it was only the lonely and somewhat unlikable remaining.
Thank goodness his friends from dance society had a friend that fit the bill - both lonely and somewhat unlikable. Hoseok and Taehyung reassured him that Yoongi would become more welcoming as they spent time together, but Jimin had yet to observe such an event.
During their first meeting, at a pub quiz, Yoongi stared resolutely at the water marks on the table, only looking up when addressed by either Hoseok or Taehyung, or to answer obscure questions such as the release year of Kendrick Lamar’s first album.
Luckily Yoongi was accompanied by a similarly lonely, but slightly younger, friend named Jeongguk. He at least would interact with Jimin, albeit in a rather stilted manner, preferring to spend his time staring longingly at Taehyung.
At least the room was fitted with a wardrobe, Jimin thought as he lugged his final box up the stairs. The turntable and assorted vinyl records made a thunk as he heaved them onto the bed.
Now he was in the house at last, he somewhat regretted bringing them, in a hopeful gesture of imagined pre-drinks, him and his housemates dancing around the kitchen with drinks before the club. A sobering silence echoed through the house, and whilst he was a tad nervous about spending the night in a new house, it was nothing compared the dread he harboured thinking about the rest of the year with two quiet, and slightly boring, housemates.
Yoongi and Jeongguk were both already settled, with Jimin last to arrive, and therefore the slightly resentful owner of the smallest room in the property.
As he headed to the bathroom to tidy away his toothbrush, he gazed at Jeongguk’s bay window through the open bedroom door. His small rectangular window that only opened halfway paled in comparison.
Nevertheless, he was determined to have a good year, and consolidate his dance club friendships from last year.
His first year at university had not quite lived up to stories of drunken hijinks regaled by his father, and he would make certain to have his own before the year was up.
Speaking of, he had a dance club start-of-year social to attend tonight. The white top he bought was waiting for a ‘white lie’ to be scribbled on it by a drunk Hoseok prior to the club. He’d forgotten to re-dye his hair, so the dark roots poking through would need some serious disguising before he could head out. The light pink was far more work than he had initially expected, and he was getting sick of the effort. Maybe something darker could work?
He hummed in thought as he opened the pack of clothes hangers, mulling over potential hair colours and whether he wanted to organise his wardrobe by colour or style, before being interrupted by a loud slam of the front door.
Jimin swung around with an excited smile, aiming to induce something close to excitement - or merely a polite smile - in his housemate, before quickly schooling his expression into that of mild indifference upon witnessing Yoongi’s thunderous expression from the bottom of the stairs.
‘Hi, nice to see you again’ offered Jimin in what he deemed a welcoming gesture, his voice shaking slightly at the pressure of making a good impression on his housemate. His first impression, far too drunk and screaming at Taehyung about which musical Sally Bowles was a character in in an attempt to snatch first place at the quiz, had perhaps not endeared Yoongi to him.
Other meetings had not gone particularly well either. An especially bad one consisted of Jimin drunkenly collapsing on the floor as Hoseok attempted to wrangle him into bed, Yoongi fixing him with a glare from the doorway with car keys in hand. Their only sober meeting had begun with Jimin tripping over thin air and crashing into Yoongi. No one was hurt, but from the way Yoongi pointedly looked away from him the rest of the time, Jimin was getting the feeling that he was perhaps not going to jump up the Yoongi friendship rankings particularly easily.
‘Yeah’ grunted Yoongi, staring up at him with lips pursed in judgment. He ran his hand through his bleach blonde hair as if thinking of something else to say before shrugging and retreating to the kitchen. Jimin remembered with horror he’d been transporting his fancy dress outfits mostly on his head, and shook off layers of bunny ears, flower crowns, devil horns and more onto the bed before advancing downstairs.
‘What were you up to today?’ Jimin’s voice trailed down the stairs, leaving silence in its wake. As he turned into the kitchen he noted the back door hanging open, and a retreating figure heading to the shed.
‘Fine, don’t be friendly’ he huffed before heading to complete his unpacking. Jeongguk would be far more amenable to his attempts at friendship. He was just shy, not plain rude. He prayed that Hoseok’s assurances of Yoongi’s warmth and friendship would soon manifest.
By the time he had finished organising his things the room looked distinctly less like a prison cell, and the white top beckoned him. He had been consuming shots of Aldi brand vodka amidst unpacking at an alarming rate in preparation for this evening.
He had received several texts from both Hoseok and Taehyung, demanding his presence at the party. His chest filled with a warm tingling as he replied, excitement for this evening, and the year ahead, building by the second.
After 10 minutes of wrestling his hair into a somewhat decent look, assisted by a bumper pack of butterfly clips, he pulled on the skin tight top and baggy jeans and headed out of the house, singing a rather drunk ‘bye Yoongi-ssi’ as he locked the door.
Half an hour, and a rather disapproving look from an old lady on the bus later, he stumbled through the door of Hoseok’s house. He was greeted with a throng of familiar faces, including Jeongguk, who appeared glued to Taehyung’s side.
Taehyung let out a screech as he caught sight of him, running down the hallway to slam into Jimin, resulting in a tangled mess of limbs on the rather hard tiling, something sure to bruise tomorrow.
‘I've missed you so much my baby!’ was muffled through the lump of limbs on the floor in a drunk wail.
‘We’ve gone far too long apart, I barely recognise that tiny frame’ came an insulting follow-up. Jimin tutted, reacting with a swift tap to the head as he squirmed out of Taehyung’s grasp.
‘Hey! We’re practically the same height! And I’ve definitely grown over the summer’
This was met with an eye roll, and a proclamation of just how cute and small Jimin was, before he was tugged into the gathering, squeezing through crowds of gyrating and intoxicated 20 year olds, towards the king and host of the event.
Hoseok sat on his makeshift throne, a barely standing kitchen chair draped in purple fabric, wielding a red sharpie. Despite initially releasing a similarly unbecoming shriek as Taehyung, he gathered himself and began mulling over the white lie possibilities for Jimin.
‘Unless there have been any major changes over the summer, I assume you are still tragically flying solo in the bedroom department?’ he queried.
This was met with a disgruntled nod from Jimin. Despite his continued attempts to appear alluring, including some dark eyeliner smudged around his eyes, he hadn’t been successful in finding anyone to hook up with for long enough to even consider the possibility of sex.
After careful, and dramatic consideration, consisting of plenty of chin stroking akin to an ancient philosopher, Hoseok rose, with the ringing of a bell that gradually quietened the room.
‘I shall christen thee, Sir fucks-a-lot’ he decreed to the onlookers, resulting in a chorus of laughter and cheering, before reaching over to scrawl his nickname on Jimin’s chest in barely-legible chicken scratch. Now the slightly humiliating ritual had been completed, Hoseok sprung into Jimin, knocking him once again to the floor. Taehyung quickly assisted, creating a three-way hug that was practically inescapable.
Jimin groaned ‘I’ve missed this so much’
‘You know you love us’ came a cheeky rebuttal from Taehyung.
‘You’re late!’ Hoseok proclaimed, still clearly in his Kingly headspace.
‘You need to catch up’
‘I've been drinking plenty!’ Jimin assured, although he was cut short by a lukewarm shot glass of tequila being pressed into his hand, with nothing else to make it more bearable. This first shot was followed by three others, his friends plying him with alcohol until he could barely stand, placing them all on the same footing.
As the clock struck 12 the group of dancers and plus ones stumbled out the door, shirts announcing various untruths. Taehyung’s proudly announced him as ‘not a pillow princess’ resulting in a rather flushed Jeongguk, and Hoseok’s proclaiming him a ‘virgin’. Jimin vaguely wondered if it was mandatory for the lies to be sexual in nature, or if his friends just always had sex on the brain. The trio skipped down the street in sync, appreciating the spitting rain cooling them down slightly, with Jeongguk trailing like a lost puppy behind them.
The bouncers all exchanged a fed up look as the groups approached, commanding them into a single file line for their ID’s to be checked.
Jimin recognised one of them, Wonho, from his introductory statistics module last year. They’d been flirting a bit (a lot), but Jimin was wary of his reputation, having heard plenty of cheating rumours. He stared up at the taller boy, admiring the way the black polo hugged his biceps, and feeling a bit giddy in his drunken haze. As he handed his drivers licence over, he gave Wonho a wink and a lazy smile. Wonho eyed up the words on his shirt, scoffing a bitter ‘don’t I know it’ before ushering him in.
The slight sting of rejection sobered Jimin for a second, before the heavy beats coming from downstairs drowned out any disappointment. Something to deal with at a later date, Jimin thought, before reuniting with Taehyung and Hoseok, preparing to dance the night away. And that he did. By the time it reached last call, the whole of dance society was sweaty and completely obliterated. Many were slowly trickling out with new-found companions on their arms. Whilst Jimin didn’t fall into the latter category, he had spent the night completely consolidating all his friendships from last year. He felt semi-confident in a fulfilling social life moving forwards, something he sorely lacked last year.
He clung onto Jeongguk, who had waved Taehyung a somewhat reluctant farewell before calling a taxi, mumbling about how the buses had stopped running a long time ago.
Jimin triumphantly fished the house key from his pocket, glad to be useful in Jeongguk’s attempt to quietly return them both to their beds.
‘Aha!’ he exclaimed, jamming the key against the front door numerous times before Jeongguk gently eased it out of his grasp and unlocked the door, shushing him, as if frightened of awaking Yoongi.
Jimin traipsed down the hallway to the kitchen, loudly filling the kettle and fixing himself some instant noodles, wailing to Jeongguk of his situation with Wonho, and how he was sooo attracted to him, but he didn’t have the best reputation. Jeongguk attempted to show sympathy, whilst frantically attempting to quieten Jimin.
‘Why don’t we head upstairs, so Yoongi-hyung can get some sleep?’
‘Mmmm, don’t you feel the same as I feel about Wonho as you feel about Tae-Tae’ Jimin slurred, ignoring Jeongguk’s plea.
‘Let’s talk about that some other time shall we? We’ve got to get you to bed’
Jimin felt himself being manoeuvred up the stairs unwillingly, before meeting the soft cotton of his brand new bedsheets, patterned with squirrels and hedgehogs, and completely collapsing into the mattress, becoming dead to the world.
Jeongguk quietly shut his door, creeping over to his room with the lovely bay window, and praying to himself that Yoongi hadn’t been woken up by the hassle. He knew Yoongi had to wake up in a couple of hours for work, and wasn’t liable to be quite as understanding as Jeongguk of a drunk Jimin.
Jeongguk had already been privy to multiple bitching sessions where Yoongi grumbled at Hoseok about how unsuitable Jimin was as a housemate - getting drunk every weekend with the dance club when Yoongi was already redoing his third year.
His complaints fell on deaf ears, with Hoseok waving him off with vague reassurances of how joyful and dedicated Jimin was. He failed to acknowledge the fact that Yoongi’s poor opinion of Jimin had been brought about in response to Hoseok’s own tales of Jimin’s drunken antics.
His negative opinion was only strengthened by their initial meeting at the pub quiz, where Jimin lolled all over the table wailing about musicals, and annoying the hell out of him, let alone completely sinking any chance the group had at winning.
Yep, Yoongi was harbouring some real resentment towards Jimin, and Jeongguk was prepared to thwart a housemate feud at any cost to maintain a peaceful living environment. However, that evening he was so exhausted from both mooning after Taehyung and manoeuvring Jimin around back to his room that he didn’t make back it to the kitchen to clean up the packets and kettle left in the sink from Jimin’s hastily and messily prepared noodles. Hopefully Yoongi wouldn’t take the mess to heart.