Chapter Text
“b-but it’s girly, and weird,” jeongguk peered over the pudgy case carefully, a dim fear flaring low in his eyes as he kept his hands held tightly behind his back, worried of contracting its “girly”ness just by touching it, “and i want a cool one.”
“and i’m telling you that i don’t have a cool one right now okay?” seokjin groaned, digging the heels of his palms into his eyes, “look, mom said i had to give you some of my stuff for school but she didn’t say anything else. if you don’t like sailor moon then that’s not my problem.”
jeongguk puffed his flaming cheeks out, the agitation he was trying so desperately to convey to his elder brother lost somewhere amidst squawked words and a restless mind. so he tried again, calmer this time.
“it’s not that i don’t like sailor moon, i mean i think she’s really pretty an- what?” he glared at seokjin’s raised eyebrow, “i-i-taehyungie has a spiderman one and jiminie has a hulk pencil box and i really really want an iron man one, or at least thor, so can’t you just take me to the shop to buy me one?”
“no.” seokjin answered shortly.
he sighed seeing jeongguk’s eyes conveniently filling with tears, knowing deep down that he would have been throwing similar fits if the roles were reversed, “look gukie, just use it for your first week okay? i’ll look through my stuff and find you another one by then.”
“but the first week is when you make friends,” jeongguk’s hands caught in the front of his little hoodie to stress his point, “it’ll be too late by then,” he was really hoping his dramatics were appealing to seokjin’s more fabulous side, but the chances of the situation changing seemed slim.
“then you’ll learn that being cool isn’t everything,” seokjin patted his head comfortingly.
jeongguk sniffed, big eyes trembling with excitement at a sudden prospect, “maybe joonie hyung has one?”
“i am not-“ seokjin cut himself off exasperatedly, seeing the dumb hopeful expression on jeongguk’s face, “i’ll ask him.”
“right now or-“
“i’ll ask him jeongguk, that’s all i’m promising. now go away.”
jeongguk sniffed again, little hands coming up to reluctantly clutch at the sailor moon pencil box, “it’s almost like we’re poor or something,” he grumbled, making his way towards the door.
“what was that?”
jeongguk shot seokjin a sweet, toothy grin, “nothing hyung, goodnight.”
………
“that’s lame,” jeongguk blinked up from the page he was scribbling over. shading if you asked him but the crayons had created more of a mess than anything.
“what?” it was one of the older kids, the cool ones that had been coming to art class a lot longer than jeongguk, he could feel his little rabbit heart starting to pick up pace just at being spoken to.
“i said your pencil case is lame,” he didn’t sound particularly mean, conversational in fact as he sat down next to jeongguk. he looked off into the distance, as though someone else entirely had said that.
“oh,” jeongguk looked at the box, frowning slightly, “it’s a box.”
“that’s even worse.”
“sorry.”
the other boy shrugged, “i kinda like it.”
now jeongguk was terribly concerned, he worried what growing up must do to your brain. he had always comforted himself by knowing that seokjin was just insane and namjoon slightly eccentric, but the more he saw of adult life the more confused he was. even if this child was no more than six years old.
“do you……want it?” jeongguk tried, unsure whether the boy was still paying any attention to him.
the boy looked at him, cheeks hollowed out with air, “no, not really, i just think sailor moon’s kinda pretty.”
maybe he wasn’t that insane afterall.
jeongguk lit up, sitting straighter and grinning blindingly at the other, “i think she’s pretty too!”
“cool, i’m yoongi by the way,” the kid added disinterestedly, watching the other children for someone else to go and bother.
“i’m jeongguk.”
“do you uh,” yoongi looked at him, sleepy smile finally breaking onto his little face, “wanna watch anime together sometime or something?”
jeongguk bit his lip, “i’m only allowed to watch tv for an hour on the weekends. and my mom doesn’t let me watch just any anime, she says some are scary.”
“oh,” yoongi chewed on his sleeve contemplatively, wheels turning to come up with a plan, “do you want to be my boyfriend?”
“what?” jeongguk scrunched his nose, unsure of what exactly that word meant.
“like my big sister, she has a boyfriend, hoseok.”
“okay?”
“do you want to be my boyfriend?”
“why?”
yoongi sighed exasperatedly, “because then i can protect you from scary things and your mom will let us watch anime.”
“oh!” jeongguk felt stupid for taking this long to figure out the plan, “okay.”
“cool,” he had gone back to looking disinterestedly at the other kids drawing.
“do you think joonie hyung and seokie hyung are boyfriends?” jeongguk frowned, an eerie realization dawning on him.
“probably,” yoongi shrugged knowingly.
the bell rang, shattering jeongguk’s deep thoughts abruptly, yoongi disappearing almost instantly out the door with his little power rangers backpack. seokjin stood in the doorway grinning, jeongguk ran up to him to show him his art.
“it’s a horse on top of a house.”
seokjin squinted at it, “…..okay. hey good news, joonie found you a mickey mouse pencil box so you don’t have to worry about looking girly anymore.”
jeongguk smiled, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet, “great! i can give it to my boyfriend. come on hyung, last one out is a dumbass.”
“give it to your what?” seokjin spluttered, hurrying after jeongguk towards the car, too stunned to call jeongguk out on the word “dumbass”.
“my boyfriend hyung,” jeongguk rolled his eyes, “keep up.”