Chapter Text
Jimin wakes up in an unfamiliar bedroom, and he glances around quickly to try and jog his memory before sitting up and stretching, cataloging the aches in his body to remind himself of the night before. Dry mouth, slight headache, sore bottom - ah, he went to a club last night to celebrate moving into his new apartment in a new city, Taehyung was not able to join him but invited him for brunch the first thing the next morning.
Jimin looks around to try and find the cause of his lower body aches and sees the covers on the other side of the bed thrown back already, and if he listens closely he can almost make out noises coming from the kitchen. He gathers his clothes and gets ready, doing his best to make his club outfit seem somewhat presentable in the daylight, and then sneaks into the bathroom to attempt to brush his teeth and feel put together enough to get home.
He walks to the kitchen to see the man he went home with the night before, Min Yoongi, cradling a cup of coffee to his chest and looking exhausted. Yoongi looks up at Jimin when he enters and gives him a small smile, gesturing with his head to another steaming mug with sugar and cream set out next to it. Jimin smiles in return, stepping over to doctor his coffee before bringing it to his lips to blow on it, savoring the smell while it’s still too hot to drink.
They still haven’t said anything, and Jimin hates this part; falling into bed with someone you met at a club doesn’t leave a lot of time for discussing each other’s intentions, and the next day someone has to be the one to break the ice and decide for both of you how the conversation is going to go. Jimin hums to himself and Yoongi looks up at him, one eyebrow raised.
“Something on your mind?” Yoongi says, his voice deeper than Jimin remembers, and he’s not sure if it’s due to the night they had or if he always has this gravely tone. Jimin shrugs, and Yoongi seems to understand what he means because he chuckles under his breath.
“This part is always weird, right? I never know if I’m just supposed to say thanks for the fun time, see you around, or if I should be more polite and beat around the bush to make it less awkward. I guess I already have though, so the bandaids have been ripped off at this point. I had a really good time last night, but I can’t really get into anything long-term right now, I just have a lot going on. If we see each other around again let’s just see what happens, yeah?” Yoongi says, looking somewhere around Jimin’s nose and cheekbones instead of meeting his eyes.
He should have figured, and if he’s being honest it would have been a crazy coincidence if the first person he met on his first night in the city turned out to be someone he’d end up in a relationship with, but Jimin can’t say he’s not disappointed. He tries not to let it show on his face though, and meets Yoongi’s gaze with a nod.
“Yeah, that sounds good. I just moved here like, a week ago, so I should probably settle in more anyway, get my life figured out. Thanks for the coffee, I should get going,” Jimin says, draining his cup and rinsing it out in the sink before moving to the door. They’d at least had the presence of mind last night to take their shoes off in the relative vicinity of the front hall, so Jimin can get them on and grab his jacket quickly, waving a quick goodbye to Yoongi and stepping outside.
He takes a deep breath on Yoongi’s doorstep; as foolish as it would have been to fall into a relationship right away, he thinks it would have been nice if it had been with Yoongi. They were compatible in a lot of ways, even if they didn’t get a chance to talk much, and Jimin wishes they would have the opportunity to get to know each other more, but if Yoongi didn’t want to even exchange numbers and try to see him again then Jimin can’t force it.
Jimin quickly figures out how to get himself home, hopping on the subway so he can shower and change into a more normal daytime outfit before he has to head back out again. Taehyung invited him to brunch to meet all of his friends, wanting to add Jimin into his circle since he doesn’t know anyone else except his new coworkers, and Jimin jumped at the chance to meet a group that Taehyung trusts instead of having to find new friends all on his own.
His new job has been a long time coming; his company is one of the most sought-after employers in the country, their benefits legendary and the work interesting and rewarding, so much so that open spots are notoriously few and far between. Jimin has been working for years to have an impressive enough resume to be considered, but he didn’t want to seem desperate, so he only applied once he felt he had well above the qualifications that his competitors might present.
The interviews were demanding but it all paid off when Jimin was offered the position; along with the lucrative pay, company benefits, and comprehensive health insurance, they even paid for him to move, helping him find an apartment as well as hiring movers and giving him a stipend to purchase furniture. Jimin knew he had made the right decision to strive to work there, and things seemed to be falling into place now that he’d made it happen.
With the small exception of a relationship. Jimin couldn’t stop thinking about Yoongi, despite the other’s wish to take things as they come, and as he steps into this apartment lost in thought his phone buzzes with an incoming message. It’s from Taehyung, making sure Jimin is still meeting them for brunch, and Jimin confirms and asks if all of Tae’s friends are coming too. Tae tells him they are and that everyone is excited to meet him, he’s been talking about Jimin as his best friend from childhood for ages so they want to finally make sure Jimin is a real person.
Jimin debates telling Taehyung about his night last night but decides that there will be time later; Taehyung is excited to talk about his friends and they text back and forth before Jimin has to get in the shower so he can be ready in time to meet them. The only one Jimin knows by name is Taehyung’s boyfriend Jungkook, having seen him on video calls with Taehyung from time to time, so he’s excited and a little nervous to meet the rest, but Taehyung has always been a good judge of character so he knows he shouldn’t worry.
He hops back on the subway after pulling himself together, having taken some painkillers along with his shower to feel like his normal self again. The cafe they are meeting at isn’t far from Jimin’s house, the apartment his company helped him find is in a pretty nice location, and it doesn’t seem like it was far for Taehyung and Jungkook either since they are waiting at the entrance when he gets there.
Taehyung lets go of Jungkook’s hand when he sees Jimin approaching and runs to hug him, almost knocking both of them over with the force he uses to throw himself around Jimin. Jimin returns the hug just as fiercely, both of them rocking back and forth a little as they soak in finally being in each other's presence again.
“Ah, Jimin I’ve missed you so much, I forgot how small you are!” Taehyung says as they separate slightly, Taehyung squeezing Jimin’s cheeks between his hands as Jimin’s arms are still wrapped around Taehyung’s waist.
“Tae! I’m like, two inches shorter than you, who are you calling small?” Jimin pretends to be offended, pinching Taehyung’s waist to tickle him, forcing the other boy to squirm away and back into Jungkook’s chest who has approached them while they were hugging.
“Oof, babe watch out, there are other people on the sidewalk,” Jungook says, clutching his stomach as if Taehyung has wounded him. “Hi, Jimin-ssi, it’s nice to finally meet you in person,” Jungkook says, sticking out his hand for Jimin to shake.
“You can just call me hyung, Jungkook, like I’ve told you every time I see you over a video call,” Jimin says, and Jungkook just mutters “as you wish, Jimin-ssi,” under his breath and Jimin rolls his eyes.
“We can go inside and sit down, Seokjin-hyung is driving everyone else and Namjoon-hyung always makes them late so we can at least get our drinks while we wait,” Taehyung says, glancing at his phone before they head inside.
“Sometimes I tell the hyungs a different time to get here than when we are actually meeting so that there is a chance we will all be on time. Usually, it’s just that Namjoon-hyung has misplaced something or spilled on his clothes so he has to change, but one time he literally broke one of his shoes as he was putting it on so you never know what it’s going to be,” Taehyung says as the waitress leaves after taking their drink order.
“Taehyung-ah, you know that’s not actually what happened,” a voice says from Jimin’s left as a group approaches them, and Taehyung pouts slightly as Jungkook snickers from beside him.
“Well, no one told us what exactly made you two so late that time, so we had to draw our conclusions,” Jungkook says, sticking his tongue in his cheek suggestively and raising his eyebrows.
The second one to approach the group blushes while the one in the front looks proud, and Taehyung introduces them as Seokjin and Namjoon, and two more follow behind them, and Jimin tries to keep his eyes from widening in surprise as he sees the person at the back of the group.
“This is Hoseok-hyung, and then at the back is Yoongi-hyung. And this is Mimi, I mean, Jimin! You’ve all heard about him so many times as Mimi, it feels weird for me to use his real name finally,” Taehyung finishes introductions as they all sit down, and by some twist of fate, Yoongi ends up in the empty seat across from Jimin and next to Jungkook.
“Hyung, I thought you weren’t feeling well, you said it was kind of bad this morning, are you okay to be here?” Jungkook asks quietly but Jimin can hear him despite the others still talking around them.
“Hyung’s fine, I’ll just have something plain to eat, I didn’t want to miss meeting Taehyung’s friend he talked so much about,” Yoongi says, his eyes flicking between Jungkook and Jimin as he talks.
“Ah, hyung is so cute, wanting to make Taehyungie happy, you can pretend to be grumpy all you want but I see you,” Hoseok says from Yoongi’s other side, pinching Yoongi’s cheek between his fingers and giggling at Yoongi’s affronted look.
They have a lovely time at brunch; Jimin can tell why Taehyung has settled in with the group as they all dote on each other at the same time as they joke around, someone always keeping an eye on each of them in turn. Yoongi unfortunately looks pained every so often, eating just oatmeal and fruit and mostly just pushing it around with his spoon. He excuses himself to the bathroom at one point, and the rest of the group looks slightly concerned but no one says anything.
“Taehyung, I don’t want to be invasive, but is Yoongi-ssi okay? He’s looked like he’s hurt since he sat down and he isn’t eating,” Jimin whispers to Taehyung, seated to his right.
“Oh, he’s kind of sick but he probably won’t care if I tell you. Hyung has something wrong with his appendix, he needs surgery eventually but it’s too expensive and his insurance doesn’t cover the whole amount or something. So he’s waiting as long as possible while he saves up the money,” Taehyung says.
“Isn’t that dangerous? What if it ruptures, that’s something you go to the emergency room for, right?” Jimin asks, nervous for Yoongi’s health.
“I mean, yeah, but hyung says that if that happens it’s covered in full since it’s life-saving, so that’s his last resort if he can’t save up the money in time,” Taehyung says, shrugging his shoulders.
Jimin can’t believe how casual they all are about it, but it’s hard to tell someone else what to do about their health, so he tries to be sympathetic. He assumes that the others have tried to offer help but he doesn’t know Yoongi well enough to know how he’d react to something like that, but Jimin can’t help but think through options for him.
After brunch Jimin is back in his apartment, still unpacking random boxes since he hasn’t even been in his new home for a week. He’s distracted thinking about Yoongi again, his hands picking up items and placing them wherever he finds a spot as his mind wanders. He should at least ask, there’s no harm in letting Yoongi know he’s thinking about him, right?
He gets his number from Taehyung, now that he has an excuse to know who Yoongi is, and when Taehyung pushes him to find out why he needs it Jimin caves and tells him how they met. He gets a keyboard smash response from Taehyung and then a litany of questions, all of which Jimin promises to answer the next time they see each other, both agreeing to get dinner the following night.
Jimin takes a few deep breaths before texting Yoongi, wanting to seem casual despite everything that’s happened so far.
Jimin:
Hi, Yoongi-ssi, it’s Jimin, I got your number from Taehyung, I hope that’s okay.
Yoongi:
Oh, um, yeah that’s fine. You can call me hyung, by the way, you don’t have to be so formal. Why did you need my number?
Jimin:
Ah, hyung, I hope you won’t think I’m invading your privacy, but I asked Taehyung why you looked so pained at brunch and he told me about your appendix. Were you in pain last night when we hooked up? I’d hate to think that getting involved with me caused you distress after.
Yoongi:
Well, it’s not consistent when it’s painful, it comes and goes based on the day; yesterday had been a good day which is what convinced me to go out.
Jimin:
Oh, that’s a relief.
Is there anything I can do? Anything that would help?
Yoongi:
Do you do free surgery? That’s kind of the only answer at this point, either I get the surgery ahead of time, which I can’t afford, or I wait until my appendix bursts and it’s an emergency surgery and I might die.
So unless you are going around giving out health insurance I’m kind of stuck.
Jimin:
Well.
I kind of could give out health insurance?
Yoongi:
I was joking, to be clear.
Jimin:
I’m not?
You’re clearly in pretty bad medical distress, and my job offers amazing healthcare, they cover pretty much everything.
Yoongi:
Okay, well that’s great for you but you can’t just add me to your health insurance for no reason.
Jimin:
No of course not.
We’d get married.
Yoongi:
What.
Jimin:
Getting married is a qualifying life event that allows you to make changes to the beneficiaries of your health insurance.
We can just do a courthouse wedding, handle the paperwork to get you insurance, you have your surgery and then eventually we’d get divorced. My company is pretty strict though about adding people to your insurance since the benefits are so good, we’d basically have to convince them that we are getting married for real and not doing… basically the exact thing we are actually doing, which is committing a mild to moderate form of insurance fraud.
We’ll just get visited every so often and have to convince some company reps that we love each other until the terms of the repayment expire, it’s usually a year I think.
And clearly, we liked each other enough to hook up, so that can’t be too bad, right hyung?
Yoongi:
You’re so serious about this.
Can I think about it? I’ll be honest this isn’t the direction I thought this conversation was going to go.
Jimin:
When you last went to the doctor, how long did they tell you it would likely be before your appendix ruptured?
Yoongi:
My last visit was a couple of weeks ago and they said I’d be lucky to go another month without the emergency surgery.
Jimin:
Mmhm.
I’ll get all the documents ready to make sure we don’t miss anything and then maybe we should meet for coffee tomorrow and you can decide.
This doesn’t have to be a huge deal, hyung. We’ll get married and live together for like a year and then split up, we won’t have combined much of our assets so it should be painless at the end.
Yoongi:
Are you sure?
We just met yesterday, and we barely even talked, why are you doing this? What do you get out of it?
Jimin:
I get to have a handsome boy as my husband for a year, that’s a pretty good deal I think.
Yoongi:
If you say so.
--
They meet the next morning at a cafe between their two apartments, Jimin armed with a pile of papers and Yoongi with a scowl. He holds his side as he sits down in front of Jimin and Jimin eyes the iced coffee he ordered.
“Is coffee something you can have when your appendix is like this?” Jimin asks, instead of hello.
“Already policing my diet, Jimin-ah? We’re not even together yet, never mind married, I think we can wait for you to start nagging,” Yoongi says, sipping on his Americano. “Cold brew coffee is less acidic than hot, and I refuse to give it up entirely so this is the compromise.”
Jimin frowns but moves past it quickly. “Did you have anything you wanted to talk about before we go through the terms my company has for the inspections?” Jimin asks.
“Yeah, actually. I was talking with the rest of the guys and they suggested we set up some ground rules to make sure we go into this on the same page we have to look married in public but in private we should make sure we agree to what will and won’t happen,” Yoongi says, pulling out his phone and opening it to his notes.
They go through the rules Yoongi has listed on his phone one line at a time, either agreeing or making amendments, and they end up with the following:
- No joint finances with the exception of the health insurance and sharing Jimin’s apartment. Yoongi’s lease is ending soon anyway so it’s easy for him to move in, and when they get divorced he can use the rent he saved for a new place.
- No PDA besides hand holding and forehead or cheek kisses.
- No intimate touching at home or sex, and no outside relationships while they are married. The rule originally stated no bringing hookups back to the shared apartment but Jimin was affronted that either of them would consider having an affair even during a fake marriage, so Yoongi just shrugged and adjusted it.
- No gifts that would be given during a real relationship, so no anniversary celebrations or Valentine’s Day, and birthdays would be treated the same as normal friends.
- No pet names, even in public.
- No meeting each other’s families unless unavoidable and in public.
Most of the rules make sense even if they are a little upsetting to Jimin internally; he’s not holding out hope that at the end of this, they’d end up happily ever after and stay together, but he doesn’t want just a roommate who he pretends to be in love with in public; he’s not sure what he wants at this point but he has a feeling he’s going to be disappointed no matter how it ends. He’ll just have to make the most of getting to spend time with Yoongi, even if it’s under this unusual circumstance.
The final rule is that the date of their divorce will be a year from now after the reimbursement period for Yoongi’s surgery ends. Jimin pulls out the regulations he looked up the night before from his company, and explains that in plain terms they have to be convincingly married until the company no longer feels that they are cheating the system; that is determined to be a year in all cases, although in some scenarios they can be granted exemption from the inspections should they pass well enough.
“So, someone is going to visit your, uh, our, apartment once every few months and we have to convince them we got married for a real reason and not just so I can steal your benefits,” Yoongi clarifies.
“Yeah, basically. They’ll come to ask us questions and observe us and make sure we seem like a real couple who just happened to get married right before one of us needed expensive surgery and not like people who got married for the convenience of it,” Jimin says.
They decide that if anyone asks them how they met they can tell the truth, just fix the timeline. They still met at a club and went home together, they just actually dated after instead of Yoongi telling Jimin to get lost. Yoongi frowns when Jimin makes that joke and Jimin tries to laugh it off to cover up that it really was what that felt like.
“So, roommates at home, and a married couple who are shy about PDA in public. Our friends obviously know what we’re doing so it won’t be that weird, and at least we get along, right?” Jimin says as they pack up to leave the cafe.
Yoongi nods absentmindedly and follows Jimin outside but Jimin stops him with a hand on his arm before they part ways.
“Hyung, I know we said in the rules that we won’t be intimate at home, but I was wondering if you’d be open to just like, sometimes cuddling in bed as we fall asleep and not making a big deal out of it. It’ll probably happen anyway if we share a bed and I just don’t want us to be weird every time,” he says, biting his lower lip and struggling to meet Yoongi’s eyes.
Yoongi takes a deep breath and lets it out in a sigh. “That’s fine, I guess. But if we adjust that then I want to add another rule too; we each have a responsibility to tell the other if we start developing feelings; especially given that we’ve already hooked up, we owe it to the other to be honest.”
Jimin nods in response and they wave goodbye and head off; Jimin is lost in thought as he makes his way home, trying to figure out why Yoongi was so resistant to the idea of their fake marriage possibly developing into something real.
--
Later that night Jimin heads out to dinner with Taehyung and Jungkook, and Tae has been blowing up his phone all day with questions and demands for answers about him and Yoongi, so Jimin knows that this dinner will basically be an interrogation coupled with a mild intervention about what Jimin is getting himself into.
Jungkook seems to have talked Tae into being calm for the first few minutes after they sit down, but after they place their order and the waitress walks off he can’t help himself.
“Park Jimin, what on earth are you doing?” he asks just as Jimin takes a sip of his drink.
Jimin coughs a bit before clearing his throat. “You’ll have to be more specific, Taehyung, right now I’m drinking a cocktail and trying not to spill it down my shirt,” he says, taking a loud dramatic sip and holding the glass away from himself.
“With Yoongi-hyung, you know what I’m asking about. Why are you getting married? And to someone you barely know, after just meeting them? How did you actually meet, anyway?” Taehyung asks, leaning closer and closer to Jimin until Jungkook grabs ahold of his waist and pulls him back.
“We met on Friday night, I’d finished my first week of work and just wanted to unwind, so I went out and he was there, and we went back to his apartment and hooked up. And then the next morning he said he wasn’t looking for any kind of relationship, but that if we saw each other again then we’d see what happened. And once someone says that it’s not like you can push back and ask to go on a date, right? So I left, and then I saw him at brunch, and you told me about his health issues, and then when I texted him and he said he needed health insurance, I just felt like this would be my way to hold onto him a little longer. And he went for it, I guess, I kinda thought he’d say no to be honest. We talked it over this morning and agreed on what it’ll be like, and we’re getting married at city hall on Tuesday. I assume you guys will want to be there as witnesses,” Jimin explains.
“Of course, hyung,” Jungkook says, and he and Taehyung look at each other silently for a moment before both turning back to Jimin.
“Are you going to be okay, though? Getting married but not really being able to act like it very often, knowing you’re going to have to split up at the end?” Taehyung asks, taking Jimin’s hand in his.
“Probably not, if I’m being honest. He set all these rules about being intimate together and when we can touch and what we can call each other, and I had to ask if we’re even allowed to cuddle and he seemed hesitant to even allow me that. But I don’t want to take it back, even if we just met he needs the surgery, so I’ll just have to prepare myself for the fact that it’s all temporary while it’s happening,” Jimin says.
“Maybe hyung is just worried about being in a relationship since he’s been dealing with the need for surgery for so long, maybe once that’s over and he’s healed he’ll feel differently and you can figure out what you both want in a few months,” Jungkook says.
“Ah, that would be nice, wouldn’t it? But I don’t want to get my hopes up just to be let down. Hyung was pretty clear both yesterday and this morning that he’s hesitant to be in a real relationship, and I don’t want to damage whatever kind of friendship we can build from this. I just won’t think of this as anything more than what we’re actually doing, which is roommates who pretend to be married in front of strangers,” Jimin says with a shrug, taking a big sip of his drink.
Taehyung and Jungkook both look a little heartbroken on his behalf, but they just glance at each other and decide to leave it be. They enjoy the rest of their dinner and talk about Yoongi as little as possible, Jimin explaining his new job to them and getting to know Jungkook more now that they are finally able to spend time in person.
They head home after confirming the details for the wedding; Jimin tries to convince them not to bring anything but based on the glint in Taehyung’s eye he imagines there will be flowers if not something even more extravagant.
--
Tuesday morning dawns bright and clear, an auspicious sign of good luck for a wedding if this was a standard marriage, but it’s not so Jimin takes the weather as a sign of annoyance from the universe that they are squandering this opportunity.
He arrives at the courthouse in a simple suit and finds Yoongi there waiting along with the entire group; he gives Yoongi a long look before greeting the rest of them, Taehyung almost hidden behind several bouquets, the largest of which he hands to Jimin and the other two he keeps for himself and Jungkook. At Jimin’s confused look, he just says, “we’re your bridesmaids!” and they leave it at that.
The entire group heads to the desk to register despite only Yoongi and Jimin needing to be there for the paperwork, and the attendant has a resigned look on her face like she’s seen this happen many times before. They give their names and pay the fee for a marriage license before they are told to wait about half an hour and that they’ll call their number when it’s time.
They stand in a big circle, Jimin’s fingers itching to hold on to Yoongi’s arm, and it’s only after he realizes that they’d agreed that touching in public was okay that he loops their arms together, holding on to Yoongi’s bicep with the hand not clutching his bouquet. Yoongi doesn’t react, and Jimin’s not sure if he was expecting him to be startled or not, but the rest of the boys have a quiet conversation around them as Jimin lets his thoughts drift off.
“Min-Park? Number 613? Please come up to the window,” a voice drones out from behind the counter after a time.
They all turn to walk over and Jimin’s hand slides down Yoongi’s arm as he steps away but it’s Yoongi who laces their fingers together as they step up to the desk, and Jimin tries not to blush at the chaste touch when Yoongi was literally inside him four days ago. The attendant gives them directions to the room they’ll be in and says the officiant will be there waiting, and the entire entourage heads down the hall, Taehyung already sniffling like he’s the mother of the bride.
“Taehyung please don’t cause a scene, this is going to be a short ceremony it doesn’t have to be a big deal,” Jimin begs him as they get to the door.
“It’s a big deal no matter what! My little baby is getting married,” he sobs, burying his head in Jungkook’s chest.
“I’m older than you, what are you talking about?” Jimin says, but Yoongi tugs on his hand to pull him inside before Taehyung can explain.
The ceremony is short and not very personalized, the only things that change in the officiant's speech are their names, and they give each other a small kiss at the end and sign their marriage certificate. When the officiant asks who of the witnesses will sign it all five of the other boys wait in line to participate despite only two being required, and just like the desk attendant, the officiant doesn’t even seem to notice.
“What kind of rings did you exchange? It was hard to see around Seokjin-hyung's shoulders,” Hoseok asks as they leave the room.
“I’m the oldest, it’s only natural that I stand closest to Yoongi on his big day,” Seokjin butts in from behind them.
Jimin holds his hand out toward Hoseok to show him; they’d bought each other's rings the day before, not knowing anything other than the ring size, but somehow they seem to both have gotten the perfect thing. Jimin bought Yoongi something simple and timeless, a platinum band inlaid with a single, small black diamond, not flashy or distracting but not boring. Yoongi bought Jimin a platinum ring as well but his is almost a hybrid between a traditional women’s and men's ring; it’s thinner than normal for a man and has two rows of tiny white diamonds circling the entire band; it’s delicate and catches the light just enough to draw attention to Jimin’s hand.
They go out to lunch, Taehyung insisting on giving a toast enough times that they eventually just let him, and despite their hesitation, it’s remarkably heartfelt.
“Yoongi and Jimin might not have known each other for long, but they are still committing themselves to a life together. They met by chance, like most of us, and are staying together by choice, something I think everyone can take a lesson from. Jimin and Yoongi, may you always find comfort in each other through good times and bad, and use each other as your strength when things get hard. To Jimin and Yoongi!” Taehyung cheers, and they all clink their glasses and take a drink.
Jimin stands up to hug Tae and whisper a thank you in his ear, and it isn’t until Tae swipes a finger across Jimin’s cheeks that he realizes he was crying. He sits back down and Yoongi also hugs Tae, and when Yoongi returns to his seat he puts his arm around Jimin’s shoulder and pulls him in close, Jimin letting himself enjoy the closeness while he can.
--
Their wedding was in the morning and the lunch doesn’t take long despite it being a ‘wedding reception’ of sorts, so by the time they get back to Jimin’s apartment there is still plenty of time left. A lot of Yoongi’s things are already there, and anything that he won’t need right away is in a storage unit. They each change out of their suits and meet back in the kitchen, Jimin with his laptop and some documents.
“Let’s go ahead and get you added to my plan so you can call your doctor first thing in the morning and schedule your surgery. From what I know it’s both an easy outpatient surgery as well as pretty urgent for you, so hopefully it’s quick. I’ll just need some of your personal info as we go so I’ll yell things out as they come up,” Jimin says, referencing the paperwork on one side as he pulls up the website he needs.
Yoongi sits across from him at the table as Jimin types, every once in a while asking for things like Yoongi’s blood type, his parent's names, and his hometown. They get through a lot of the steps before Jimin notices that Yoongi has had his hand on his stomach for quite some time and seems to be grimacing every so often.
“Hyung are you okay? Can we do anything?” he asks, getting up from his side of the table and crouching in front of Yoongi.
“All I can do is take painkillers and try to rest, usually, the only actual solution is getting it taken out, so I just try to minimize the pain if it flares up,” Yoongi says, scrunching his face up as a wave of pain comes over him.
Jimin throws Yoongi’s other arm over his shoulder and stands up to lead Yoongi to the couch, laying him down carefully and scurrying off to the bathroom. He returns with a painkiller and a heating pad and heads quickly into the kitchen for a glass of water.
“Take these and just relax, hyung, I can do the rest of the sign-up tasks just fine and I’ll let you know if I need anything,” Jimin says as he adjusts the heating pad so it stays balanced where Yoongi needs it. Yoongi’s eyes close a little and he just nods his thanks, Jimins fingers itching with the need to brush some of Yoongi’s hair back from his face but they aren’t in public, there would be no explanation he could give Yoongi as to why he did it.
It doesn’t take long for Yoongi to fall asleep, and Jimin works to quickly get through the rest of the tasks to get Yoongi enrolled in his plan. Once he’s finished he googles what types of food Yoongi should be eating to least aggravate his appendix, and tries to throw something together from what he has in the kitchen that will work.
He gently wakes Yoongi up about an hour later, wanting him to eat and also not nap so much that he won’t be able to sleep at night. Yoongi seems to be in less pain as he sits down at the table and he also seems surprised that Jimin made specific food for him. “You made food? Why?” he asks as he picks up his chopsticks to start eating.
“I looked online for what is least likely to aggravate your appendix, and there isn’t a lot of information since your appendix isn’t used much, that’s the whole reason it gets all inflamed, but food with a lot of fiber is just easier on your digestive system anyway so I figured it couldn’t hurt,” Jimin says, looking over what he made and hoping it’s good enough.
“I get that, and thank you, by the way, but we didn’t really talk about what we would do at home for stuff like cooking and cleaning and chores, you didn’t have to cook for me,” Yoongi says, with a pleased hum at his first bite.
Jimin beams at the unsaid praise but then Yoongi’s sentence sinks in. “Hyung, I promise I’m not trying to offend you, but would I be wrong in assuming you don’t do a great job eating the kind of food you are supposed to? Given you are trying to save money for an expensive surgery it was mostly ramen, right?” Jimin asks, and at Yoongi’s nod, he just sighs.
“I can take care of you more than just financially, hyung. Just because we are mostly going to act as roommates doesn’t mean we can’t also be friends, and friends take care of each other. The next few weeks will probably be hard for you anyway, so just let me do this for now, okay?” Jimin says, and they both go back to eating quietly, the silence not awkward but comfortable, both men lost in thought.
Yoongi convinces Jimin to let him clean up after dinner and Jimin dries and puts away the dishes, partly to help but also to stay near Yoongi as much as possible.
“It’s kind of funny that we got married today and aren’t doing any of the traditional stuff, we barely had a reception and we aren’t going on a honeymoon,” Yoongi says, focused on the dishes but sneaking glances at Jimin every so often.
“Did you want your appendix to burst on a cruise ship? You have to call your doctor like first thing in the morning, hyung, you’ll probably have your surgery as soon as they can schedule it. Will you be able to take enough time off of work to recover?” Jimin asks, looking over his shoulder as he stands on his toes to put away the plates.
“Yeah, I haven’t taken time off in a long time knowing that however the surgery ended up happening I’d have to stay home after, it won’t be a problem,” Yoongi says, and by this point, the dishes are done and they are both standing in the kitchen killing time, extremely aware that once they get ready for bed they’ll have to sleep next to each other for the first time as a married couple.
Jimin is the first to make a move, awkwardly moving toward the door while still facing Yoongi. “I’m going to go wash up and get ready for bed, I’ll see you in there,” he says, and he just barely resists the urge to make finger guns with his hands as he escapes the kitchen.
He can’t quite make out the sound but he’s almost positive he heard Yoongi chuckle behind him, and he scurries down the hallway as quietly as possible so Yoongi won’t be able to tell he’s panicking. He does his nightly routine slowly but not too slowly; Yoongi will definitely think he’s being weird if he avoids going to bed, and Yoongi will probably think Jimin doesn’t want to be next to him, when in fact Jimin is facing the exact opposite problem.
He doesn’t know how he’s going to sleep next to Yoongi for the next 364 nights without doing something stupid, but he has to at least get through this first one to find out.
Yoongi must have gotten ready in their guest bathroom since he’s already laying in bed on his phone, and something in Jimin breaks a little at the thought but it’s quickly forgotten as he takes in the scene before him. Yoongi is on the left side of the bed, and either he always sleeps on that side which would be a nice coincidence or he figured out based on the nightstand that Jimin sleeps on the right and accommodated him.
He slides quickly under the covers and plugs his phone in to charge, turning on his side away from Yoongi to take away the temptation to slide closer to him. He hears Yoongi do the same and then the lamp turns off, a soft ‘goodnight’ from Yoongi signaling that he’s also going to sleep. Jimin sighs heavily and closes his eyes, hoping that falling asleep quickly will cover up the longing that is sure to be lodged in his heart every night.
--
The next morning at work Jimin arrives to find a card on his desk and a small but tasteful bouquet. The card has a printed message, not handwritten, and it’s just a simple ‘congratulations on your marriage!’ from the HR department. He also has an automated email waiting for him to let him know that the changes to his insurance beneficiaries were approved and that any large-scale insurance claims filed within the first 30 days of a beneficiary add will be subject to ongoing inspection per the employee handbook. Nothing he wasn’t expecting but he texts Yoongi to let him know everything went through successfully, getting a thumbs-up emoji in response, and another text about 30 minutes later letting him know that Yoongi’s surgery is Friday afternoon.
Apparently, his doctor was so thrilled that Yoongi was finally electing to do the surgery they moved all non-urgent procedures around to fit him in as soon as possible, and Jimin freely rolls his eyes knowing Yoongi can’t see him to be offended.
Jimin asks if there is anything he needs to do and Yoongi says he just needs to come pick him up after; it’ll only take a few hours since they can do a non-invasive version of the surgery, so he doesn’t have to stay in the hospital overnight. They figure out the logistics and Jimin does his best to focus the rest of the day, knowing that until Yoongi goes under there’s nothing for him to actively do.
--
Friday comes quickly, and before leaving in the morning Jimin convinces Yoongi to text him regular updates until he has to put his phone away, and Jimin’s anxiety must be palpable because Yoongi doesn’t fight him on it. Jimin flutters around the kitchen offering Yoongi breakfast or coffee or drinks until Yoongi finally puts his hands on Jimin’s forearms to get him to stop moving. Jimin freezes at the sudden touch, his skin hot under Yoongi’s hands, and Yoongi reminds him that he literally can’t eat or drink before the surgery.
Jimin calms down and Yoongi tells him that he’ll text as often as he can and that once he goes under it will be a few hours until Jimin needs to come to get him, and that showing up early won’t do anything except make Jimin have to sit around in a waiting room. Jimin gives in but is almost concerned at how nonchalant Yoongi seems to be.
“Hyung, why am I more nervous than you are?” he asks as he packs his bag for work.
“It’s basically an outpatient surgery, I only have to recover there for a little while since the incision is so tiny, so there’s no need to be stressed,” Yoongi says, leaning against the kitchen countertops with his arms braced behind him.
“Hyung, your doctor scheduled your surgery within 48 hours of you finally telling them you were ready to have it, maybe take a little seriously the fact that you needed this so badly they rescheduled other people?” Jimin asks, one hand on his hip as he stands at the front door.
“I am taking it seriously!” Yoongi protests, but at Jimin’s continuing glare he shrinks in on himself a little and reconsiders. “I am, or I will, I promise. I’ll text you updates as I move through the process and then I’ll tell you when they take my phone away,” he says, looking down at Jimin’s feet.
“Thank you hyung, I’ll see you later when you’re in recovery, okay?” Jimin says, and Yoongi gives a small nod before Jimin heads off to work.
If you were to ask Jimin what he did at work that day he’d have nothing to tell you; he must have done something, he didn’t get scolded by his new boss or embarrassed by his coworkers but the time passes in a blur, only interrupted by precious texts from Yoongi on what he’s doing.
He sends a selfie once he is in his hospital gown and scrub cap, and Jimin saves it multiple times to his phone gallery, not taking a risk that he might lose it someday. Once Yoongi tells him he’s been given the anesthesia he gets a final picture of just a blurry thumbs up, and he puts his phone down and tries to pass the next few hours doing something at work that takes his full attention, hoping it makes the time go by.
It doesn’t, and Jimin counts down the minutes until he can leave without having to sit endlessly in the waiting room of the hospital. He still gets there with a lot of time to kill, the nurse letting him know that Yoongi’s procedure is done but he’s still asleep, and Jimin will be allowed back to see him once he wakes up.
“And what was your relation to the patient?” she asks, typing quickly behind the glass partition.
“He’s my, uh, husband,” Jimin stutters, and he realizes it’s the first time he’s referred to Yoongi that way to another person.
“He did great during the procedure, sweetheart, so there’s nothing for you to worry about, the wait is just standard to make sure he comes out of the anesthesia ready for you to take him home. Just sit tight and we’ll let you know when it’s time,” she says, looking up at Jimin with a soft smile.
He nods at her and turns to sit down in one of the plastic chairs, locking and unlocking his phone and scrolling whatever app his finger lands on mindlessly. There’s no one else in the waiting room, and Jimin loses himself to the sound of an analog clock ticking on the wall and the rhythmic typing of the nurse's keyboard, the sounds blending together to almost put him in a trance.
“-min? Park Jimin? Min Yoongi’s husband, right? You can come back with me, he’s ready to see you,” another nurse says, and he leaps out of his chair and rushes over to her. She leads him through a confusing maze of hallways before arriving at a door that blends in with all the others.
“He’s still on some pretty heavy pain medication, so he’ll be a little out of it for a while, but usually people just say some silly things on these meds, it’s a good time for their loved ones if I’m being honest. Go on in,” she says, opening the door behind her.
Jimin steps in and sees Yoongi looking down at his hands, turning them over and studying them like he’s finding out he has fingers for the first time.
“Yoongi-ssi, honey, someone is here to see you and take you home,” the nurse says, and Yoongi’s eyes snap up to Jimin, but they take a second to fully focus.
His mouth drops open in a gasp, and he puts one hand over his mouth to cover his surprise. He turns to the nurse who was already in the room and whispers to her without lowering the volume of his voice. “Who is that beautiful man? Why is he in my room?” he asks her while still looking at Jimin from the corner of his eye.
“He’s your husband, Yoongi-ssi, you were telling us earlier that you only got married recently, isn’t that right?” she tells Yoongi, and he swivels his entire body around to look at Jimin, now standing at the side of his bed and trying to conceal his laugher.
“We’re married? You married me? Do I, do I call you yeobo? Is that okay? Oh my gosh, my husband is so pretty, I think I’m dreaming,” Yoongi says, throwing his head back against his pillows and looking up at the ceiling.
Jimin just stares at him fondly before one of the nurses catches his eye. “Often people coming out of anesthesia say what’s really on their mind that they might not otherwise. You two are clearly smitten with each other, it’s really sweet to watch,” she says, and Jimin turns back and takes one of Yoongi’s hands in his, a faint blush rising on his cheeks.
“Thank you, yeah we only just got married so it’s like it still hasn’t sunk in yet, even for me not on the pain meds. Is there anything I should know about his recovery at home?” Jimin asks, trying to ignore Yoongi very delicately playing with Jimin’s fingers as he talks to the nurse.
“You’ll be sent home with a care sheet with all the information you’ll need, but the main thing to look out for is not straining the area around the surgical site; it’s a very small incision but it’s important to be careful. Lots of rest, of course, especially these first few days with the additional doses of pain medication, but walking around the house gently can be good to make sure everything is shifting back into place and healing well,” she says, handing Jimin a folder full of paperwork.
“He seems to be coming out of it well, so we’ll just need to get him back into some clothes and you can head home,” the other nurse says, and they pull out some hospital-provided sweats for Yoongi.
“Home? We live together now, right? Since we got married,” Yoongi asks, drawing out the syllables of ‘married’ to make the word even longer.
“We do, you moved into my apartment after the wedding, baby,” Jimin says.
“Oh my god, do we share a bed? We have to, we’re married, this is the best day of my life,” Yoongi says, and Jimin gives in to the temptation to giggle as Yoongi is helped up by the nurses to get dressed.
“Here you go, sweetie, don’t forget to put your ring back on,” the nurse says, handing Jimin the bag with the rest of Yoongi’s personal items but giving Yoongi his wedding ring directly.
“My Jimin-ah picked this ring out special for me, so we could get married,” he says pointedly, nodding matter-of-factly at the nurse.
“I know he did, and now he’s going to take you home and make sure you rest well,” she says, and Jimin puts an arm gently around Yoongi’s waist, avoiding the bandage, and helps him down the hallway.
Yoongi keeps talking to himself quietly all the way to the car and during the drive home, and although Jimin can’t quite make out what he’s saying he’s almost not sure if he wants to hear any more. The nurses said that people on the type of meds Yoongi had to stay under during the surgery talk about their true feelings when coming back up, but Jimin simply can’t take the risk to his heart to believe any of that. Yoongi was the one who set the rules about developing feelings, and it was too early for Jimin to get his hopes up that this might end up in his favor someday.
He’ll just treat this like a weekend away from reality, assuming that with each dose of pain medication, Yoongi will slip into this unfiltered state, and then when things go back to normal Jimin will just put his feelings back in the box where they belong and continue life as it has to be to get through the year.
They get home and Jimin carefully deposits Yoongi sitting up on the couch, he’s not supposed to sleep before he eats something light and easy to digest. Jimin precooked a bunch of meals for this exact purpose, and for now, Yoongi just gets some plain rice and steamed vegetables, without any seasoning.
Jimin comes over and sits on the coffee table in front of him, holding out the bowl and a glass of water to Yoongi, but Yoongi just leaves his arms on the couch beside him and shakes his head.
“No? Why are you saying no, you aren’t hungry? You have to eat a little something so you can take a dose of your meds and go to bed, hyung,” Jimin says, setting the glass down to the side and holding out the bowl and chopsticks again.
“Don’t want to do it myself, ‘m tired already,” Yoongi says with an exaggerated pout, and Jimin raises his eyebrows; he should probably be surprised but he’s honestly not, Yoongi is turning out to be a whinier patient than anticipated but it almost makes sense with how much he disregarded his health for so long.
“You want me to feed you?” Jimin asks, and Yoongi nods and opens his mouth. Jimin moves to sit next to him on the couch so he doesn't have to reach as far and Yoongi just lets his head fall against the cushions to face him, the rest of his body not moving.
Jimin is able to get him to eat about half of the bowl and drink the entire glass of water before Yoongi says he’s full, so Jimin puts the rest in the kitchen to finish himself before helping Yoongi to their bedroom. He goes back out to the living room to refill the water glass and grab a dose of the pain medication before heading back inside to Yoongi.
He finds him looking sadly at the door, sniffling like he is going to cry soon. Jimin rushes over to put down the water and the pill bottle and starts gently running his hands over Yoongi, trying to find the source of the problem.
“Did something happen, hyung are you okay? Is it the incision site, should I call the doctor?” Jimin asks.
“Minie left me here, all by myself,” Yoongi whines, and he tries to shuffle further down the bed to bury himself under the covers.
Jimin grabs him by the shoulders before he can get very far and holds him in place. “I just had to go get you more water and your medicine, so you can sleep without it hurting, okay? Can you take your meds for me?” Jimin asks, rubbing up and down Yoongi’s arms gently.
Yoongi thinks about it for a second but finally nods. “Will you stay until I fall asleep?” he asks, and Jimin hands him two tiny pills and holds the glass up to his lips so he can make sure to get them down. He puts the glass back on Yoongi’s bedside table and gets into bed next to him, sitting up while Yoongi lays all the way down, his head on the pillow but his arms around Jimin’s waist.
Jimin runs his fingers through Yoongi’s hair and it doesn’t take long for his hyung’s breathing to slow down and even out, the meds doing their job and taking away any pain and making him drowsy enough to fall asleep despite the early hour. Jimin stays for longer than he meant to, playing with Yoongi’s hair and cataloging every tiny detail about what Yoongi looks like while he sleeps for his memories.
--
The next morning, Jimin at first can’t quite place what it is that wakes him up. He opens his eyes and he knows that the ceiling is the one in his bedroom, so that’s nothing new. What is new though is Yoongi using Jimin’s chest as his pillow, both arms thrown around him like Jimin might try to escape in the middle of the night. He’s whimpering slightly, and despite the temptation to lay here as long as possible and enjoy the closeness, Jimin knows that the pain meds have worn off and for Yoongi’s comfort he should get up and take another dose.
“Hyung, you should get up and take some medicine,” Jimin whispers, not wanting to wake Yoongi up too suddenly in case he tugs on his incision when he moves.
After a moment of no changes, he tries again.
“Yoongi-hyung, wake up. Yoongi-yah. Yeobo, get up,” Jimin runs through a list of nicknames to see what will stick in his sleepy hyungs ears and get his attention. The last one seems to do the trick, and Yoongi lifts his head with a frown as he opens his eyes just enough to see where the noise is coming from.
“Minie? Why are you yelling?” Yoongi asks, smacking his lips together as he gets his bearings.
“No one is yelling, hyung, but you need to take more medicine and then you can go back to bed, you sounded like you were in pain,” Jimin says, slowly starting to sit up and carefully depositing Yoongi back on the bed next to him.
“Is that why my head is all fuzzy? The pain meds? I don’t remember much after waking up yesterday, did everything go okay?” he asks, rubbing at his eyes.
Jimin sighs, a sad smile flashing onto his face before he schools his features into something softer; he’d known that all of Yoongi’s sweet words yesterday were just something from Yoongi’s subconscious, so he’s not sure why he continues to let it break his heart.
“The doctor said it went really well, you were already awake when I went in to take you home, do you remember seeing me at the hospital or coming home last night?” Jimin asks, moving off the bed to refill Yoongi’s water and grabbing a small protein bar for him to eat alongside the pills.
“I remember being in the hospital bed and seeing you, and then being home, but nothing else, and none of it is concrete, it’s all blurry around the edges,” Yoongi says with a shrug. Jimin hands him the pills and water, and then the snack, sitting on the edge of the bed close enough to feel Yoongi’s body heat through the blanket but not actually touching him.
“It’s still early, you’ll probably sleep most of the weekend so you should go back to bed, I’ll get out of your hair so you can rest,” Jimin says, standing up and straightening the bedding from his side of the bed before grabbing a change of clothes to take with him to the bathroom.
“Hey, Jimin?” Yoongi gets his attention before he walks out, and Jimin tilts his head in acknowledgment halfway through the doorway.
“I just wanted to say thanks, I’m still not entirely sure why someone would do this for me, or if I deserve it, but it means a lot that you would take care of me like this despite only knowing me for a week. So, thank you,” he says, and the earnest look on his face has Jimin’s eyes threatening to fill with tears, wishing Yoongi would be that open and unguarded with him always.
“You’re welcome, hyung. And you do deserve it, you don’t have to prove something to be worthy of being taken care of. Get some rest, I’ll come in later and see if you’re hungry for lunch,” Jimin says, and leaves the room before Yoongi can reply.
He spends the rest of the morning alternating between his normal weekend chores and a kind of structured, obsessive pacing that if anyone were to see it they’d immediately sit him down for an intervention. They’ve known each other for a week, and minus the initial four days where they weren’t married, that's 51 more weeks that they will be husbands, at minimum. The next day or so while Yoongi is on his higher-strength pain meds will be the worst, Jimin needs to be attentive to his needs and Yoongi is likely not able to regulate his feelings well.
Once Yoongi is out of the worst of his recovery his dosage will decrease, and he’ll be able to handle himself around the house as well as have more control of his words; Jimin will go back to work on Monday while Yoongi takes his well deserved week of sick time. Jimin isn’t entirely sure what a regular routine for them even looks like, given they had two nights together before Yoongi’s surgery so he’s trying not to let his expectations be clouded by how affectionate or not Yoongi might be during this initial weekend.
It’s only around an hour later that Jimin hears shuffling coming from down the hallway as he makes himself something simple for breakfast. Yoongi comes waddling into the kitchen, a blanket wrapped around his entire body, and instead of going to the couch like he’d assumed he walks up behind Jimin and just stands directly behind him, plopping his forehead onto Jimin’s shoulder.
“H-hey, hyung, you okay? Does something hurt?” Jimin asks, keeping his hands still in front of him as he carefully stops slicing fruit.
“No, but the bed was lonely with just me. Can we lay together on the couch while I nap?” Yoongi says into Jimin’s neck, turning his head to the side and letting little warm puffs of air tickle Jimin’s skin as he talks.
Jimin resists the urge to coo at how cute Yoongi is being while he asks and instead tries to nudge him away from where Jimin is using a knife.
“If you go lay down I’ll come over with my breakfast and sit with you. Are you hungry yet? Do you want some fruit or yogurt?” Jimin asks, nodding his head toward the living room to get Yoongi to walk over by himself.
“Do we have tangerines? Will you peel them for me?” Yoongi asks, and his wide pleading eyes could convince Jimin to do anything he asks, he’d peel a hundred tangerines a day for him if only he looks at Jimin like that forever.
Jimin just nods and rummages through their fruit bowl, pulling out a few tangerines and placing them on the tray he’s using to carry his breakfast out. He walks out to find Yoongi glaring at the TV remote like it’s personally offended him by not turning the TV on automatically, yet he’s not attempting to remove his arms from inside his blanket burrito.
Jimin sits down and puts the tray on the coffee table, and Yoongi immediately lets himself fall to the side onto Jimin’s chest. Jimin lets out his breath all at once as Yoongi’s head collides with him, barely catching him as Yoongi refused to move his arms out from inside his blanket.
“Can you feed me, please? And put on Twilight? ‘M gonna nap again, I think,” Yoongi says into Jimin’s shirt, snuffling back and forth into the fabric.
“Twilight? That’s your comfort movie?” Jimin says incredulously, leaning forward carefully, holding Yoongi up with one arm and grabbing a few tangerines to drop in his lap.
“Yeah, it’s so dumb, it’s easy to watch. All of the characters are stupid, except Alice, she was cool. The whole plot would have been over in like ten minutes if Alice was the one Bella fell in love with instead,” Yoongi says, wiggling around to get comfortable facing the TV.
Jimin sighs and rolls his eyes slightly knowing Yoongi can’t see him, and grabs the remote to scroll through all the streaming services in search of the vampire teen romance. He peels the tangerines as the movie starts and feeds Yoongi a slice at a time, being careful not to let his fingers linger near Yoongi’s lips for too long lest he give in to temptation and do something he’ll regret.
They sit like that for a while, and Yoongi’s breathing evens out but Jimin isn’t sure if he fully falls asleep or is just dozing and letting the sounds of the movie soothe him. Partway through the movie, Bella gets a cut on her finger, and Yoongi sits up suddenly and asks Jimin to pause it.
“Jimin, what happens if a vampire doesn’t like how blood tastes?” he asks.
“What? Hyung what do you mean?” Jimin replies, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
“They have to drink blood to live, but what if it tasted bad? Would they go hungry?” Yoongi looks upset on the vampire's behalf as he tries to puzzle through his confusion.
“Vampires aren’t real, hyung, it doesn’t matter if they like the taste or not,” Jimin says, trying to get Yoongi to lay back again.
“Don’t say that, what if there is one nearby? They have like, super good hearing, they would know you are talking badly about them,” Yoongi says.
“Okay, hyung, I’ll keep quiet. How about we settle back down and finish the movie, if you want to sleep you can,” Jimin says, running his fingers through Yoongi’s hair to try and lull him back to sleep.
Yoongi hums, clearly still thinking about how to solve his self-inflicted thought exercise, but as soon as Jimin hits play he’s distracted again by the screen, entranced by the drama unfolding. Jimin never thought this would be the type of comfort movie Yoongi would ask for but the more they watch the more he kind of gets it; the story is easy to understand even if the characters are acting ridiculously, and he’ll even admit that the baseball game was exciting to watch, the way it was filmed and the music it was paired with.
The movie ends and Jimin lets the credits play as he looks down at Yoongi, who is finally sleeping soundly. He’s careful not to jostle him as he gets up, surrounding him with pillows to keep him supported and comfortable. He takes the next hour or so while Yoongi is asleep to putter around the house, cleaning up and making sure there is enough food that Yoongi can tolerate and also having tiny mental breakdowns every fifteen minutes or so.
He’s continuously telling himself not to read too much into Yoongi’s behavior while he’s recovering; the pain meds are strong, and it’s not unusual that while in a slightly less than lucid state he would want comfort, so Jimin needs to be careful not to take it as anything personal. He knows that Yoongi likes him at least in some respect, they slept together and are now married at least in name, but Yoongi was clear when they set up their agreement that it wouldn’t become anything else, and Jimin agreed so he has to hold up his end of the bargain.
At least, to Yoongi’s face. Internally, it’s probably already too late, given the way his stomach fills with butterflies and a blush rises to his cheeks every time Yoongi looks at him fondly, so Jimin just needs to train his body not to react so obviously, since falling back out of love with Yoongi seems to no longer be an option.
The rest of the weekend passes by in a routine they establish once Yoongi wakes up again; he’s grouchy and in pain while Jimin grabs him a new dose of meds, and once he takes them he sits in silence, scrolling on his phone until the meds kick in, the furrow between his eyebrows disappearing as the pain decreases. Then, he wants a snack or a meal, and this is why Jimin prepared so much food while he was asleep, because as soon as Yoongi decides he’s hungry he has very little patience. Once he’s eating they watch TV or a movie, most often something animated or easy to follow, since even in his medicated state Yoongi can clearly tell he won’t be able to pay much attention and will fall asleep partway through.
Both nights Yoongi is awake enough to get himself washed up and ready for bed but as soon as he enters the bedroom, Jimin sees him pouting and holding his hands out to be held. Yet another thing that Jimin is assuming will be forgotten once Yoongi’s dosage decreases and he’s more lucid, so while Yoongi quickly falls asleep after demanding a kiss (“not on the forehead, Jimin, a real one, on the lips”, to Jimin’s great dismay) Jimin stays awake, memorizing how Yoongi’s soft breaths feel against his neck and cataloging the different freckles on Yoongi’s soft skin.
Monday comes all too soon and with it a lowered dosage of pain medication for Yoongi and a return to work for Jimin. He has plenty of food already made in the fridge that suits Yoongi’s healing body, as well as a plethora of groceries should Yoongi decide he wants to cook for himself. Yoongi looks more like himself, the fond, adoring looks from the weekend gone and replaced by friendly glances and very little eye contact; not cold or disinterested but Yoongi is definitely keeping his distance now, and Jimin forces himself not to be offended.
Jimin stops himself from telling Yoongi to text him to come home if he needs anything, knowing that the elder wouldn’t bring himself to reach out unless it was a severe emergency no matter what Jimin says. He heads off to work with his head in the clouds, unable to focus on much besides Yoongi, and when he gets to work he finds an email from his health insurance company about the first of their scheduled interviews that has him heaving a deep sigh and texting Taehyung. They decide to meet for lunch so that Jimin can explain everything in person, with the condition from Tae that Hoseok will be there too given he and Taehyung are coworkers.
Jimin gets to the restaurant after them, and he groans in relief seeing that Taehyung already has a drink waiting for him despite the early hour. He slumps into the chair and takes a big drink, Taehyung and Hoseok both raising their eyebrows at him.
“I figured it was something bad when you texted to go out for lunch on a Monday, but wow, this is a lot even for you,” Taehyung says, wincing when Jimin all but slams the glass back onto the table.
“I don’t think I’m going to survive the year, Taehyungie. I think my heart will give out long before we get to that point, a shriveled husk of what it once was as I suffer due to my own hubris,” Jimin says, running his finger along the top edge of his glass. He misses Taehyung and Hoseok looking at each other with concern, too busy watching the condensation run down the side of the glass.
“Ooookay, Jimin, why don’t you start from the beginning and tell us what happened?” Hoseok says, trying to gently coax Jimin away from chugging the second half of his drink.
“Well, you know why hyung and I got married, and the circumstances around how we met and all that,” Jimin says, and at Hoseok’s nod he continues. “Hyung said from the beginning that he wasn’t interested in a relationship, and then when we decided to get married we made a set of rules to follow, and at the end of the rules, hyung said that if either of us develop feelings we had to make sure to tell the other. And to me, that sounded like ‘we better not develop feelings’ because why say it so plainly if that wasn’t the case right?”
Jimin takes a deep breath and looks longingly at his cocktail that is now in Hoseok’s hands out of his reach and drinks some of his water instead. “So hyung and I are just friends, which is fine, but I am clearly in over my head already because I've had feelings for him the whole time. Technically, I’m not breaking the rule because he just said we had to say something if we develop feelings, right? And I already had these, they aren’t suddenly developing,” Jimin says, now clearly waiting for a response.
“On a technicality, yeah I supposed you’re right, but I’m not sure a marriage is something that should even have technicalities,” Hoseok says, still holding Jimin’s cocktail hostage until he finishes his water.
Jimin just waves his hand in Hoseok’s direction and keeps going. “That’s not even the problem, the problem, you see, is that Yoongi has been on pain medication since coming out of surgery, and according to the nurses, the original dose that he was on made him say ‘what was truly on his mind that he might not say otherwise’, which is weird, I thought people just cried over not being able to feel their toes or something,” Jimin complains.
“If Yoongi-hyung wasn’t crying over his toes what was he doing?” Taehyung asks.
“He was talking about how pretty I was and how lucky he was to be married to me, all this romantic stuff. And that was just while we were still at the hospital, when we were home all weekend he wanted me to cuddle him and feed him, and he would look at me like, like it was real. Like he was feeling what I was feeling right back, like this wasn’t just a health insurance scam,” Jimin says, grabbing his drink back from Hoseok and finishing the whole thing in one gulp.
Taehyung and Hoseok look at each other again for a moment, and Taehyung shakes his head and then gestures at Hoseok with a nod, who then sighs before turning back to Jimin, his fate seeming to have been sealed wordlessly.
“Jimin, what if the nurse was right? You said she told you that the pain medication made hyung say things he normally would have kept to himself, right? Not that it made him make things up that weren’t true,” Hoseok says gently.
“But what if it’s not? We’ve only been married for a week, we still have to stay together the entire year for this to work, what if I tell him and you’re wrong and then I have to live out the rest of the year faking it in public but then knowing that he pities me, knows I have feelings for him but he doesn’t return them and it’s just…. sad. I don’t think I could handle that, hyung, I think it would break me,” Jimin says sadly, meeting Hoseok’s gaze for just a moment, his eyes starting to fill with tears before he looks down at the table.
“I’d rather keep it to myself, love him quietly on my own but know that he cares about me at least as a friend, rather than risk being pushed away due to making him uncomfortable,” Jimin says, looking at Taehyung this time, his friend's eyes also becoming watery at Jimin’s morose conclusion.
“If that’s what you want, Mimi, it’s your choice. You know you can always come talk to us if it gets to be too much, okay?” Taehyung says, reaching across the table and grabbing Jimin’s hand.
“Yeah, I know. Thanks, Taehyungie, Hoseok-hyung, I’ll be fine, it’s just a lot,” Jimin says wetly, taking a deep breath and clearing his throat.
“But where is our waitress, I want another drink.”
--
Jimin gets home after work to find Yoongi up and wandering around the kitchen, putting something together. He stands in the entryway for a moment, quietly toeing off his shoes and hanging up his coat, trying to extend the time before Yoongi notices his arrival. He’s dressed softly and his hair is all over the place like he took a nap and couldn’t be bothered to do anything about it apart from running his fingers through it.
“Hi hyung, are you cooking?” he says quietly, hoping not to startle Yoongi too badly.
“Oh, hi Jimin-ah, yeah I know you made stuff but I got a little restless after I woke up this afternoon so I figured I’d make something fresh. I haven’t cooked in a long time so I hope it’s good,” Yoongi says, moving effortlessly around the kitchen, his claim of not cooking at odds with his ease in the space.
“You look like you know what you’re doing though,” Jimin points out, and he takes a seat at the bar counter to stay out of the way.
“I used to cook a lot more, but buying fresh ingredients all the time is expensive, and of course, I was saving money anywhere I could, so I’m just a little out of practice,” Yoongi says with a shrug. “You should go wash up, I think I’m almost done,” he says, and Jimin dutifully follows directions and heads to take a quick shower.
Yoongi is in fact an excellent cook, and a blush rises to his cheeks once Jimin tells him so. They spend the evening continuing one of the shows they started the night before, although after a bit Yoongi confesses that he has no idea what’s going on since he was still out of it toward the end of the weekend. Jimin just laughs and they put on a movie they’ve both seen, and Jimin grabs a dose of the pain meds Yoongi takes for bed so that they’ll make him sleepy at the right time.
They get ready for bed separately, as they have every night except when Yoongi first came home from surgery, and when Jimin enters the bedroom Yoongi is already flat on his back, phone plugged into the charger and eyes closed. Jimin tries to get in as smoothly as possible, turning out the lights and laying flat on his back as well, but try as he might he doesn’t feel sleepy.
He’s thinking about everything and nothing, and as he tries to move his brain to think of non-Yoongi-related things he feels the bed dip and something press against his side. He looks down at Yoongi’s head nuzzled against his chest, and based on his breathing he’s almost positive Yoongi has been asleep the entire time, moving without thinking. Jimin quickly checks that the site of Yoongi’s surgery isn’t pressed against anything, and this time when he lays back and closes his eyes, sleep comes right away.
--
Yoongi is taking the week off of work to recover so it’s Jimin’s alarm that wakes them up the next morning. Before he can reach over to turn it off he feels Yoongi freeze on top of him, clearly awake and realizing where he is. He pulls away from Jimin slowly as if hoping that if he doesn’t move too suddenly that Jimin won’t react, despite the alarm still going off and Jimin’s arm reaching to turn it off.
Yoongi rolls over and sits up, and Jimin is finally able to lean up and reach for his phone to silence the alarm. He turns to look at Yoongi who is sitting facing away from him, and when Yoongi turns to look over his shoulder his eyes widen in surprise to meet Jimin’s gaze. He jumps up, holding his hand over his sore incision site, and with a blush rising on his cheeks stammers out that he’s going to get ready and then make Jimin breakfast before he leaves for work.
He speeds out of the room and Jimin just sits there baffled for a moment before flopping back against the pillows, letting out an exasperated sigh, and staring up at the ceiling.
Only 51 weeks to go. He can definitely do this.
--
Three weeks after Yoongi is allowed back at work, so four total weeks since his surgery, the couple is sitting at their dinner table on a Friday night, each with a pile of flashcards. Their first interview is the next morning and they’ve spent the past few weeks learning about each other to present to the interviewers that they are a real married couple.
“What’s my favorite color?” Jimin asks.
“I don’t even think that is on the list of questions, but it’s blue. When is my birthday?” Yoongi asks him in return, eyebrow raised.
“March 9th, and I don’t know what they are going to ask but wouldn’t it be embarrassing if it was easy stuff like this and we mess up? Where did I grow up?” Jimin asks, flipping through his cards.
“Busan, and we probably should go through things like, how did we meet, why we live in Seoul, what each of us do for a living, things with more substance. They are going to want us to explain things, not answer like we are on a quiz show,” Yoongi says, letting his cards fall out of his hands onto a messy pile on the table.
“Do you even know what I do for work?” Jimin asks, eyebrows raised.
“Not in a way that I could easily explain, but I know enough,” Yoongi says, not looking Jimin in the eye.
“Hyung, come on, are you taking this seriously? There are going to be people here in the morning and you have to convince them that you married me because you actually like me and know things about me as a person,” Jimin says.
“I do like you,” Yoongi mutters, and Jimin’s eyes widen a fraction but he’s going to pretend he didn’t hear anything; now is not the time for a spiral into whose feelings are real to what degree.
“We just have to act normal in front of them tomorrow, like when we go out to the bar with our friends, and answer their questions without seeming weird or anxious, do you think you’re ready?” Jimin asks, leaning forward onto his elbows on the table.
“If either of us is anxious it’s you, Jimin-ah,” Yoongi says.
“Having anxiety is pretty normal, hyung, it’s not the same as being anxious. But if you think you’re fine then we can stop practicing,” Jimin says and scoots back from the table.
“I think we’ll be fine enough to talk to some people, most couples don’t know every single little thing about each other even after being together for a long time, so I’m not that worried,” Yoongi says.
Famous last words.
The next morning, Jimin sits calmly on their couch with his coffee as he watches Yoongi silently pace across the apartment. Every once in a while he’ll balance his hand against the site of his surgery; even though it’s fully healed at this point and barely even left a scar, the motion a soothing automatic movement from when he was recovering.
“Hyung, please come sit down, you’re going to wear a path into the carpet,” Jimin says. “You were the one last night saying not to be worried, and now you’re more stressed out than I am. All you have to do is sit next to me and act a little affectionate and answer their questions, you can just put your arm around my waist or hold my hand, it’s not like they are going to ask us to prove that we’ve had sex or something,” Jimin explains.
Yoongi splutters his response, flailing his hands a bit as he finally sits down. “That’s, not what I’m worried about, oh god, are they going to ask about our sex life? What if they look for lube or condoms, what do we say?” he asks, wringing his hands together so much that Jimin grabs one to stop him.
“First of all, this is my apartment and I own both lube and condoms, so it’s not a big deal, and second of all they aren’t going to demand we prove anything like that, that’s so invasive. The worst case is they ask us if we have a sex life that we are happy with and we say yes and move on. Don’t work yourself up over nothing, we practiced all the important stuff, right?” Jimin asks, rubbing his thumb over the back of Yoongi’s hand to calm him down.
Yoongi takes a few deep breaths, and just when he looks like he has calmed down there is a knock at the door and he jumps off the couch, looking like a startled cat about to run and hide under a piece of furniture.
“Hyung, stop, just hold my hand and come answer the door,” Jimin whispers, holding his hand out to Yoongi as he stands up and waiting with his eyebrow raised until Yoongi steps over and takes it. Jimin leads them to the door and doesn’t give Yoongi any warning before he opens it.
“Hi there, welcome, I’m Jimin and this is Yoongi, it’s lovely to meet you,” Jimin says, making sure he sounds cheerful and welcoming, giving a little bow as he speaks and watching Yoongi from the corner of his eye as he bows as well. In their doorway stand two women with clipboards, one taller than both Yoongi and Jimin and one very small and slight.
“Hello to you both, my name is Sohyun and this is my colleague Hyungseo, thank you so much for allowing us into your home,” the shorter one says, and Jimin and Yoongi step back so they can take off their shoes and follow them into the apartment.
“Can we get you anything to drink? Coffee or tea, or water?” Jimin says, and Sohyun shakes her head.
“No, thank you, hopefully, this won’t take too long! Now you can both have a seat, I’ll be asking questions and Hyungseo will take most of the notes, so don’t mind if she’s just over there scribbling away,” Sohyun says with a giggle, and Jimin isn’t sure if she’s actually happy or if she’s just forcing a smile onto her face as part of her job.
They both nod politely and she gets started right away. She fires questions at them quickly, easy ones that are designed to make sure that they even know each other, before she starts asking about your relationship.
“So, tell me how you met,” she says, and Yoongi and Jimin glance at each other before Jimin starts talking.
“When I moved back to Seoul I didn’t know anyone here except a childhood friend of mine, Taehyung, and so when I was here looking for apartments a few months before moving I decided to go out to a club and just get to the know the area I was hoping to live in. I met hyung there and we hit it off and uh, went home together,” Jimin starts; they’d extended the length of their relationship by a bit just in case anyone went looking into the dates of when they’d first met.
“At first I told Jimin I wasn’t looking for a relationship, and he hadn’t found a place yet either so he agreed, but then it turns out that his childhood friend is a friend of mine as well, so we actually met again the very next day when Taehyung brought Jimin to brunch to meet everyone, and then we kept seeing each other and decided to actually try, and here we are,” Yoongi says, and he puts his arm around Jimin’s waist.
Hyungseo is scribbling furiously on her clipboard while Sohyun just stares at them, her same plastic smile planted on her face. She waits until the sound of Hyungseo’s writing slows down, not looking over at her but just listening, before asking her next question.
“Now, what would you say are your favorite things about each other?” she asks, and Jimin and Yoongi look at each other, trying to decide who goes first, and Jimin is surprised when Yoongi takes the lead.
“Jimin is the brightest thing in any room he’s in, he has this way of making everyone feel at ease when he’s around, you just can’t help but feel better for being near him,” Yoongi says, his hand tightening around Jimin as he speaks but he’s looking right at Sohyun as he talks. She tilts her head to Jimin to let him know it’s his turn to speak, and he takes a moment to feel touched by Yoongi’s response before he talks.
“Yoongi-hyung is the most supportive person I’ve ever known, whether it’s a big project at work or just having a difficult conversation with a friend, he always wants you to do well and will do whatever he can to make sure you succeed,” Jimin says, putting his hand on Yoongi’s knee while he smiles at Sohyun.
She looks pleased; or at least, she doesn’t look displeased, her face not having changed much in the time she’s been with them. Hyungseo is once again furiously taking notes, and once she’s done Sohyun stares at them a few moments longer, just blinking, and Jimin’s hand tightens on Yoongi’s leg as he tries desperately not to break her gaze.
“You two certainly seem like you truly care about each other, can you tell me why you didn’t take a honeymoon after getting married?” she asks, one eyebrow raising just slightly on her otherwise statuesque expression.
“Well, hyungs condition was getting more urgent, so we wanted to focus on his procedure and his recovery, and I guess once that was done we didn’t really think about taking a trip or anything,” Jimin says, looking at Yoongi with a small frown; they hadn’t anticipated this question so Jimin is just winging his answer, hoping for the best.
“You know, it’s important for a newly married couple to spend time away from their normal life and surroundings and really cement their bond as a newly formed couple. Crucial, one could say, critical even,” she says, and her gaze sharpens even though her smile never wavers. Jimin gulps and he feels Yoongi take a deep breath next to him.
“Yes, of course, we’d love to spend time somewhere relaxing together, we just haven’t had time to plan since we were focusing on my health for so long,” Yoongi says, and Jimin nods in agreement.
“Well, that’s no trouble, we find that this happens a lot with couples in similar situations as yours, spending so much time working so hard on another aspect of their lives that they move straight into married life without taking time for this pivotal experience as a married couple,” Sohyun says, and she holds up a hand without looking, into which Hyungseo places a small pile of pamphlets.
“Take a look at these, all you have to do is let us know how quickly you can take a week off from work and we’ll get everything set up for you! Jimin-ssi, there’s already a program through your benefits to handle all the financials so you boys don’t have to worry about a thing, just get your bags packed and get your cute selves to the airport, okay?” she says cheerfully, the smile for the first time feeling like it just might reach her eyes.
They both nod in agreement and she does as well, and Hyungseo hands her the clipboard full of notes for her to sign. She flips through them quickly before signing at the bottom of the last page with a flourish and then handing them a small card.
“We’ll see you in a few months, and hopefully our visit then will be as pleasant as this one was!” she says, bowing as she and Hyungseo head toward the front door, Jimin and Yoongi trailing behind. They offer several bows as they leave and as the door closes they each wait a few moments to allow the women time to move down the hallway away from potentially being in earshot.
They stare at each other for a second, both trying to comprehend what just happened.
“Did we just get threatened?” Yoongi asks.
“I guess we’re going on vacation,” Jimin says with a shrug.