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Better || Three

better || three

summary: jimin takes you on a night of adventure after he gets dumped and does something he has never done before

word count: 4,553

genre: bestfriend!jimin, college!au, bestfriend to lovers!au - fluff/slow burn

one || two || three

“You’re joking, right?” The first thing Jimin did in the morning was come to your apartment with his blue toothbrush and razor in his hand. You were sitting on your granite counter top as you watched Jimin shave his non-existent facial hair off his face.

“I’m not.” He explained why he ran out of the mall so suddenly. Jessica had called him, asking him if he had forgotten their five month anniversary date they had planned together. After running twenty blocks to get into the restaurant, she broke up with him and left him all alone there. You could feel the embarrassment he faced, and you weren’t even there.

“You cannot be serious.”

“I wish I wasn’t.”

“Why though?” None of it made sense to you on why Jessica would break up with Jimin after he forgot about their date. You knew Jimin was head over heels for Jessica and vise versa. The first few weeks when they started dating, they constantly talked about each other all the time and could not keep their hands of each other. There were more than one occasions where you had walked in on them with Taehyung, and you wished for those images to be erased from your brain.

“I don’t know.” You stared at your best friend to see if he was lying. When Jimin lied, he would always either bite his lower lip or his leg would shake or bounce. It was easy catching his bluff in games like poker because he always made it so obvious. He continued shaving, and although he didn’t show any signs of lying, you couldn’t help but to feel like he wasn’t being honest to you either.

“I want to punch her.” You didn’t mind Jessica at all. In fact, you didn’t really know her that well. She was in one of your filler electives that you took, but she would always talk to Jimin in that class. There weren’t many times where you actually saw her and talked to her since she never spent time with the other boys like you did, and if she did, you weren’t around. The only problem you had with her was that she broke up with your best friend and didn’t explain why.

“Why?”

“Because she hurt you.”

“It’s fine.” He shrugged as if it was nothing. “I don’t really care. Her loss, not mine.”

You couldn’t believe how he wasn’t hurt. “How can someone possibly throw away two years without any explanation?”

He gave you a questionable look and then shook his head. "Dude, it was five months, not two years.”

“Same difference.” He scoffed and rolled his eyes at you as he finished getting all the shaving cream off his face with his razor. “Five months is actually a pretty long time, especially for college students. That’s almost half a year! Imagine being in a relationship for that long in college!”

He shook his head as he tried not to smile at your joke. “Can I egg her car?”

“No.” The faucet was now turned on as he rinsed his face and razor.

“Can I pour ice coffee down her bra?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Can I tell everyone that she likes to scream ‘tree’ when she orgasms?”

“No, Y/N!” He rolled his eyes.

“Then what can I do?”

“Let it go,” he said, turning the water completely off. Grabbing the blue washcloth off the towel ring, you gave Jimin the washcloth to wipe all the water off his face. Muttering a small thank you, he sighed and put the washcloth back on the metallic ring. “Just leave it alone.”

You raised your eyebrows. “Don’t you at least want to know why?”

“Of course I do, but I’m giving her some space right now.”

“Why are you like that?”

“Like what?” His tone of voice changed into a defensive tone.

“You think giving people some time and space to think about things they should regret when in reality, they’re probably suffering and sulking about the whole situation. I mean, sure, you’re not constantly annoying them, but sometimes space is not the answer, and it actually sucks.” You stared at him as he stared back at you.

“She wants space,” he said, sighing. “She even said it herself.”

“It just doesn’t make sense, Jimin. People forget things all the time, so I don’t understand why she broke up with you after five months.” He shrugged as he helped you get off the counter. “I mean, sure, you should have known better, but you can always reschedule it.”

“You’re not like most girls who try to understand. This anniversary mattered to her, so I understand why she’s mad.” You turned off the light and followed him out the bathroom to the kitchen.

Jimin knew where everything was at your apartment as if he lived there. He opened your cabinets and grabbed two bowls and the box of off-brand cereal as you grabbed the milk out of the fridge and set it on the granite counter top. Sighing, Jimin poured the cereal out of the box and into the bowl once you handed him the spoons. “Honestly, it’s whatever.”

You didn’t say anything which caused Jimin to raise his eyebrows at you as he started pouring the milk right after. “Are you not going to say anything?”

“What do you mean?” Once Jimin was finished pouring the milk, you grabbed your bowl.

“You always have something to say.”

He was right, but you had nothing to say about that topic. You wanted to talk about what happened before Jimin ran off yesterday. Did it mean anything to him? Did he just want to kiss you because you were in a wedding dress? Was it just a ‘in the moment’ thing? Did he feel something for you? Did he feel how you might be feeling? What did it mean for you? Were you sure of your feelings? Or are you just thinking about the idea everyone keeps putting in your head?

You couldn’t possibly act like nothing happened, but you didn’t know how to bring up your almost kiss. You couldn’t just ask, ‘Hey, why did we almost kiss yesterday when you had a date with your girlfriend that you almost cheated on and that just broke up with you because you forgot about your five months together? Why did it almost happen if we are just friends?’

It seemed like if you two had kiss, Jessica would still break up with Jimin. It was either he ditched her or he ditched her and also kissed another girl.

“Do you still like her?” You asked. “I feel like you should be a little hurt, especially after five months being together.”

Avoiding your question, he looked at you and took a bite of his cereal. “Is that what you really want to say?”

“Are we really eating on the kitchen island and not the dinner table?” He shrugged his shoulders, not looking at you.

“That’s it?”

“I think you can do better.” He could do you; maybe you would know your feelings if that happened.

“I should be saying that to you.” He stopped and looked at you. “You can’t actually going on this date tonight, especially with him.”

Just like Jimin, you forgot you had a date. You were going out with a guy you sat next to from your public speaking class. He had curly black hair and hazel eyes. Although you hadn’t really talked to him, you agreed to go on a date with him.

“Now you know how I felt with the last eight trashy girls you went on a date on.”

He laughed and shook his head. “That’s different though.”

“How is it different?!”

Not looking at you, he took another bite of his cereal. “Because you know you can do better.”

___

“You’re back!” Jimin exclaimed as you walked through your front door and took off your shoes with a confused look on your face. “What? Is something wrong? Are you okay?”

“I didn’t know you would still be here?” Jimin was standing by the couch, folding the white fleece blanket you always had lying around. “I thought you would be back at your dorm by now or with the other guys.”

“Sorry,” he apologized. “I just woke up from my nap. Why are you back so early by the way? You were gone for like not even an hour. Did things not go well with you two?”

After brunch with Jimin, you studied with him for a couple hours and then got ready for your date. He didn’t want to be alone, so he stayed at your apartment. Right when you left, he started drifting him off to sleep. Not wanting him to drive tired, you let him stay to take a nap and put a blanket on top of him.

“Yeah.” You hesitantly bit your lower lip, not wanting to admit to Jimin that he was right about your date. “He didn’t want to go to the fair with me because it’s too childish, and I made some lame excuse to go home. It just didn’t work out.”

A part of you were glad it didn’t work out. You felt guilty going on a date with a guy while you still had mixed feelings about Jimin.

“But it’s the fair!” He exclaimed. “You get food on sticks, excitement from rides and toys from playing games! Who doesn’t want to go to the fair?!”

“Apparently he doesn’t.” Letting out a big sigh, Jimin beckoned you to sit down next to him on the couch. You sat down next to him, and already his arm wrapped around you, rubbing the side of your arm in small circles. “Maybe everyone hates fairs, and we’re just the weird ones who like them.”

“As if.” He scoffed and rolled his eyes. “If anything, he’s the weird one. That guy is supposed to be enjoying his time as a young adult. He shouldn’t be wanting to join country clubs and be bidding at silent auction events.”

“That sounds fun,” you said flatly, already tired of the conversation. “Imagine bidding something at a high price just so someone gets pissed off.”

Jimin laughed, and automatically, your mood was getting better. You were a little upset, but it was going away because Jimin was trying to make you happy. “We would do something like that.”

You looked at him. “Yeah, we would.”

Before he could say anything, your phone buzzed in the back of your jean pocket. You reached for it and looked at the notification: message from Jin.

[seokjinnie<3]

19:12 hey has jimin said anything to you yet? i haven’t seen him at the dorm, and he still hasn’t answered me from two nights ago.

Your head turned to Jimin. He was already looking down at your phone, grimacing at the message on the screen. “You still haven’t apologized to him?”

“About that...”Scratching the back of his neck, he looked away for a bit, not trying to answer your question, but he gave in once he saw your death glare. “Do I really need to?”

You scrunched your eyebrows together. “Are you joking? You ruined everyone’s night, caused a scene, threw a drink at Jin and made everyone worry about you as you left the bar on foot, drunk.”

“A simple yes would have been fine too.” He grabbed his phone from the arm of the couch and began typing a quick apology text to Jin. You hear the swish sound as he sent the message. “We’re all good.”

“Are you not going out with them tonight?”

“Only if you are.”

You shook your head. “My night is kinda ruined.”

“Change into like shorts or something you can walk in,” he said. “You don’t want to be in the tight skirt and sweater.”

“Why?”

“Trust me, I’ll make it up to you,” he promised.

____

After all these years, Jimin still hated driving. He liked having conversations and liked viewing the scenery outside. Of course, he could still do these things as he drove, but he felt like he couldn’t as he paid attention to the roads. Everyone drove him everywhere, but with you, he was willing to drive.

“Where are we going?” You asked once he put the keys in the ignition.

“It’s a surprise.” He beamed.

You winced. “And you know I hate surprises.”

“That is the best part.” He booped your nose.

Not knowing where he was taking you, you decide to take a quick nap with your face pressed against the car window. As you drifted to sleep, you remember smiling as you heard his voice sing along with the radio. His voice was soft and sweet like honey, making you peacefully fall asleep.

“Brat, we’re here,” he said as he tapped on your shoulder to wake you up. “I know it was a long drive, but you didn’t need to fall asleep on me.”

You raised your head from the window, looked outside and then back to the car clock. It had been about thirty minutes since you two had left your apartment, the time it would have taken you to come back into Jimin’s hometown. “Why are we back home?”

“Ice cream,” he replied, carefully unbuckling your seat-belt. “Come on, let’s go.”

Entering the ice cream shop, Jimin watched as your whole face lit up. The ice cream shop was just exactly how you remember it. There weren’t any new changes, but the place looked so new and modern. Everything looked shiny and was crystal clear. You glanced up to the ceiling, seeing the chandelier above your head and then looked the relaxed sitting area upstairs and the famous gift shop.

Jimin laughed as you looked around the whole place. You two were both sitting down on the stools, the same stools you two have been sitting on for the last five years. “You know, your eyes lit up like a Christmas tree when we walked in. Stop acting like it’s your first time here.”

“Shut up.” Rolling your eyes, you looked down at the menu in front of you. Even though it’s been the same menu since the first time you came here, you still look at it and try to make a new choice every time. There were a total of seventy flavors, and you still had to try about twenty more. “I love this place with my whole heart.”

“Can you believe it’s almost been five years since you first came here?”

You shook your head. “I’m surprised we haven’t broken these stools yet. Five years and they’re still here.”

“I haven’t seen you two in a while! How have you two been?” The owner, Seung-hyun came by with a smile on his face. Despite your cousin, Taehyung and his actions, Seung-hyun still treated you and Jimin with respect and loved seeing the both of you eat at the shop so often.

“UNI struggles,” you and Jimin both said at the same time.

“You two sure haven’t changed.” The owner smiled. “I’m guessing you still need more time to figure out what you want?”

Although you knew he was just teasing, you could feel your cheeks turn pink. “I actually know what I want. Surprising, right? I’ll take two scoops of Scooper hero.”

“I’ll have a bowl of mint chocolate chip.” You scrunched nose in disgust, not understanding how Jimin could stand that flavor.

Once Seung-hyun left, Jimin shook his head. “Out of all the flavors, why did you choose to pick that one? You do realize Scooper hero is just vanilla with artificial food coloring, right? It’s not actually like blueberry, strawberry and banana flavor combined.”

“Let me live the dream.”

On the counter, Jimin’s phone lit up. He reached for it and unlocked his phone to see who had texted him. From the corner of his eye, he could see you trying to sit up straighter to peek at his messages.

His head turned to you, and immediately, you looked away and had a poker face. “You can just ask, you know?”

Playing it cool, you shrugged your shoulders. “What are you talking about?”

Rolling his eyes, he showed you his phone.

[tae]

19:48 hey dumbass

19:48 found an early flight thursday.

19:48 will be landing friday morning.

19:48 coming back in time for the birthday celebration boiiiii

19:49 has y/n been okay?

“I’m so excited!” You squealed and clapped your hands together. The thought of Taehyung being back home made you ecstatic. “I missed him so much.”

Taehyung decided to take a work-study course this semester that allowed him to travel abroad. It had been a couple of weeks since he had gone, but after spending almost everyday with him for the last five years, it seemed like you haven’t seen him in a lifetime.

Although you felt a pain in your chest once he left, you were happy for him. He was experiencing new things on his own, finding himself in a new foreign country. That pain in your chest lessened once he reassured you that he’ll being something back for you.

“Why is it that you and your family like to double text? This could have been sent in one message!”

“Shut up!”

“Imagine a world without double texters,” he said. “The invention of the spam button would not need to exist then.”

Knowing Jimin was joking, you threw your head back to laugh and rolled your eyes. “You’re an idiot.”

Seung-hyun came out with your ice cream cone and Jimin’s ice cream in a small plastic bowl. As you two thanked him, he told you the ice creams were on the house and went back to work.

“I have to ask you something.” His playful tone was gone, and he spoke with a serious tone of face. “It’s kind of weird.”

“Jiminie, you know you can tell me anything.” Releasing a small laugh to make him comfortable, the corner of your mouth quirked and he started smiling a little too. You then licked your ice cream cone. “What is it?”

“S you and Jin....really a one time thing?” Not expecting him to ask you about that, you started coughing on your ice cream. As you tried to recover, he rubbed your back in small circles and played with the tips of your hair. “Are you okay?”

“Did you get me ice cream just so you can ask that?”

“No! No, no.” He protested. “I really just wanted to cheer you up, and ice cream makes you happy.”

It took you a while, but you managed to find your voice to answer his question. “We haven’t done anything except that one night.”

“You don’t like him, right?”

“No,” you reassured him. “It was a drunken thing between us, and we don’t feel that way about each other. I haven’t thought about it since the night at the club.”

“Nothing at all?”

“Nothing,” you repeated.

“Good.” The two of you continued eating the ice cream in silence.

____

“Aren’t you thankful I asked you to change?” Jimin asked as he helped you put the wristband on.

Now wearing a white t-shirt that was tucked in your jean shorts, you were able to move more freely and felt more comfortable. The outfit was simple, but perfect for the fair. “Yeah. Thank god, I finally listened to you”

“Besides, you look really cute.” It was normal for your best friend to compliment you, but it was different this time. Now with his words, you felt your stomach twisting in knots. Before you could think any longer about his words, he pulled on your hand to head towards the carnival styled games. “Let’s get you a prize.”

Jimin chose to play the game, Camel Derby first. You were assigned a specific camel, and you had to roll wooden balls into slots as fast as you could to get your camel to the end of the finish line. The goal is to finish first.

“Look, I’m beating you!” You pointed out as you rolled the balls.

“What are you talking about?” Jimin asked, taking the balls away, so you couldn’t move your camel. “Oh no, how did these get here?”

“Jimin!” You screeched, trying to get the balls away from you. He was now ahead, winning. As you tried to get the balls from him, he still kept rolling the wooden balls onto the slots.

The buzzer went off, indicating the game had finished. Of course, Jimin’s camel was the one at the end of the finish line. The worker grabbed a small stuffed blue pig off the back wall and handed it to Jimin.

“For you, my friend.” Smiling, he gave the stuffed pig to you. “It looks like you’re a winner after all.”

It was your turn to pick the next game, and you chose to play the Happy Hippo. The game was to shoot water into the mouths of the Hippos, fill the water balloons up and have the balloon burst.

There were already people, waiting to play, and there was only one spot available. Usually, you and Jimin would let someone else play, so you two could play together. This time, Jimin insisted you play, and he would just stay behind you and watch.

“Begin!” The worker said, and everyone’s water gun started squirting into the hippo.

“Aim!” Jimin shouted behind you. “You need to aim! You’re not directly shooting at the hole!”

“I am!” You laughed, not understanding why he was yelling at you. “I swear, I am!”

As you held the water gun, he wrapped his arms around you and had his hands on yours, pushing a little upwards. You let out a small shriek as you didn’t expect him to come and show you. “Like that.”

Not focusing on the game anymore, you tilted your head to the side to stare at him. He was talking to you, but you didn’t hear a single thing that came out of his mouth; you paid attention to his plump, pink lips and the way they moved as he talked.

Your senses came back once you heard a loud pop. You looked ahead and noticed that everyone’s balloon was big and filled, but yours was nowhere to be found. Jimin had popped it.

The worker gave you the biggest animal from the back wall: a raccoon.

“I love it!” You shouted as held onto it tightly, forgetting all about the blue pig Jimin had just won earlier. “It’s so big!”

Laughing, Jimin held onto the blue pig and tucked a strand of your hair behind your ear as you held onto the raccoon. “It’s practically bigger than you.”

You and Jimin walked around a bit, looking all around the fair. There were adorable kids everywhere with stuff animals walking besides their parents and couples together holding hands and eating fried food on a stick.

For some reason, most of the rides were closed. The only ones that were open were the little kids rides and the Ferris wheel.

“You know, I’ve never been on the Ferris wheel.”

Not believing him, you raised your eyebrows. Your family along with Jimin’s always went together to go to fairs or amusement parks. Even though Jimin would complain about doing roller coasters and other heart-trembling rides, he still did there; there was no way he did those before riding a Ferris wheel.

“You guys would always avoid them, so I never rode in one!”

“That’s because there’s other fun things to do!” You insisted. “We didn’t want to wait in line just to sit on a cart.”

“Should we go on it now?”

You shrugged your shoulders. “Why not?”

____

Being in tight spaces was probably one of the most terrible things in the world, but heights was definitely right after that, and unfortunately that was what ferris wheels are. You could have rode any other terrifying ride that was in a tight container that went in the sky because they always moved and kept you distracted. On the other hand, you focused how tight you were enclosed into the cart and how high you were going up slowly from the ground.

“Hey, you’re okay,” Jimin reassured as you tightly wrapped both your arms around his right arm. Your chin rested on his shoulder. As the ferris wheel started to go up higher from the ground, you held Jimin tighter, afraid he would let go. You closed your eyes, not wanting to see how far up you were. “I’m here.”

“I’m only doing this for you, loser,” you said with your voice trembling. “For you.”

The sounds of Jimin’s laughter eased you a bit. With your eyes still tightly shut, you released your hard grip on Jimin, so he (and his arm) could breathe. “It’s okay. Trust me, open your eyes.”

“Are you crazy?”

“Just look at me.” You felt Jimin’s hand cupping your cheek, and he gently moved your head in his direction. “Focus on me.”

You opened your eyes, and the black and white world was now filled with color as you looked at Jimin and the sunset around him. The feeling of your fears and worries went around when you looked directly into Jimin’s eyes. “I’m scared.”

“I want to talk to you about something to distract you. It’s weird, but I have to let you know.”

His statement surprised you. It wasn’t what he said, but the way he said it. There were times where Jimin would speak with a serious tone, but he was never this serious, especially, with you. It was a new thing that you were experiencing.

“What’s up?”

“I wanted to let you know that I wasn’t going to kiss you yesterday at the wedding dress shop thing.” He let out a small chuckle. “I really thought it would be funny to let you try on dresses.”

Throughout the whole day today, you thought of countless scenarios of how to bring up the wedding shop dress incident and what you would say to Jimin. None of those scenarios had Jimin bringing it up first. You didn’t know what to do or say in this situation.

You scoffed. “Who said anything about kissing me yesterday?”

“No one,” he said, scoffing like you. “I just didn’t want you to get the wrong idea or anything. You’re my best friend, and you looked beautiful yesterday. How could I not stare? But I wasn’t going to kiss you because we’re best friends. Nothing more.”

“I was beautiful yesterday but not today?”

“Look, you’re facing your fear and making jokes! You must feel better now.”

For some reason, you felt worse and more confused. Did that mean anything? Were your feelings indicating you like Jimin that way? Finally, tearing your eyes away from Jimin, you look at your feet. You were moving slowly, at a top of the ferris wheel, yet the feeling you had felt like you were at rock bottom.

The ride stopped after a whole ten minutes.

“Are you ready to go back to your dorm?” He asked. You never answered his question as someone behind you accidentally pushed you closer to Jimin. Before you could say anything, you looked up and, Jimin, the person who was your best friend that didn’t want to kiss you, pressed his lips onto yours.

Better || Three

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