It's all Jeongguk can think about for the next couple of days.

He tries to avoid bringing it up so often in fear he may annoy Jimin, so by the time Friday comes around he's ready to burst.

Jeongguk already informed Jimin of the plan beforehand: after school, he'll drop Taehyung off as usual, then swing by Jimin's house to pick up the knitting supplies, and finally take everything back to his own house.

"Is Jimin gonna want shotgun?"

"I don't think he's gonna care, Tae."

"Yo, Jimin, you wanna sit up front?"

"It doesn't matter to me..."

"...sit up front, I'll feel guilty otherwise."

Without giving Jimin the chance to argue, Taehyung climbs into the backseat of Jeongguk's car and shuts the door. The other two boys get in next, but not before Jimin waves goodbye to his best friend.

"Does Hoseok need a ride home?" Jeongguk then asks curiously. Jimin shakes his head.

"No, he's actually close to the school. He always walks."

"Oh, okay."

Getting in behind the steering wheel, Jeongguk waits till Jimin closes his door before starting the car, at the same time turning around to make sure Taehyung didn't disappear.

"It's weird seeing you in the back seat."

"Uhm, shouldn't you be looking at the road?"

"Tae, I'm still parked."

"Parked, Jimin. He's parked."

Jimin furrows his brow. "What?"

"It's a pun. Did that go over both your heads?"

"No." Jeongguk puts the car in reverse to get out of the parking space. "It was just a lame joke, so I pretended not to get it."

"...and alas, my perilous journey for true friendship continues..."

"Drama queen."

Since his phone is connected to the car's bluetooth, Taehyung takes the liberty of putting on music of his own selection until he has to leave - which is relatively soon, as it's not a long trip by car.

"Don't forget your school bag, Tae."

"Like I would," Taehyung grumbles, slinging his bag over his shoulder as he drapes his legs out of the open car door. "See you guys Monday."

"See ya, Tae."

Once he's out of the car and the back door is shut, Jeongguk watches his friend to make sure he gets inside, then starts the drive to Jimin's house.

"You can put on some music, if you want."

"Hm?"

"A song?" Jeongguk chuckles and points to the radio. "The car's got Bluetooth, so if you've got your phone you can connect it and put something on."

"Ah, no, that's okay..." Jimin shuffles in his seat. "We probably have different music tastes..."

"Nonsense. I listen to all sorts of things."

There's a red light up ahead, so Jeongguk slows down and takes out his own phone, then brings up his YouTube music playlist and presses 'shuffle'. The first song to come up is, to the boy's distress, an hour-long loop of the SpongeBob SquarePants theme song.

"This isn't what I meant," he explains, skipping the video as the light ahead turns green. He sets his phone on the dashboard. "Taehyung, you son of a gun, stop using my YouTube account..."

The quietest chuckle can be heard from the boy beside him, who rests his elbow on the door and covers his mouth with his hand. The laughter becomes more audible as the next song, a bass-boosted version of some video game soundtrack comes on, aka another selection Taehyung added to Jeongguk's playlist without his knowing.

"I'm sorry, you can skip it if you want..."

"It's okay, we're almost to my house at this point."

"Right..."

In just a couple of minutes, Jeongguk pulls onto the street he came down days prior when stopping by Jimin's house for the first time. There's a parking spot right outside.

"Are you gonna need help carrying everything?" Jeongguk asks as Jimin opens his door. "I remember you had that big tote-"

"We can downsize."

Jimin closes the door. Vaguely unsure if that answered his question, Jeongguk opens his own door and is about to step out when Jimin turns around.

"It's okay, I don't need help. I'll just be a minute."

"...if you say so."

He hesitantly closes his car door again. As he waits for Jimin to return with the supplies, Jeongguk takes his phone in hand and proceeds to delete his best friend's unwarranted music additions. As it turns out there's a lot more than he suspected - mostly memes or meme-related content that don't at all belong on Jeongguk's playlist, or at least not this one.

He's in the process of removing the last few videos when the front door to Jimin's house shuts. Turning his head, Jeongguk finds the boy carrying a smaller version of the large tote he had a few days ago. It's still a decent size, and also see-through, so Jeongguk can pick out a variety of colored yarns and supplies crammed in it.

He opens his door, gets out quickly, then opens the back door for Jimin, who slides the tote across the seat before reclaiming his spot up front.

They drive back to Jeongguk's with few words exchanged. Upon arrival, Jeongguk exits his side of the vehicle, opens the back door, then takes out the tote of knitting supplies while the other boy watches with a somewhat displeased expression.

"I can carry it..."

"Do you not want me to?" Jeongguk asks. "It's not a problem."

Jimin seems to give up quickly, which draws a smile from the other.

"C'mon."

He encourages Jimin to follow in his footsteps as he walks up to the front door. Since it's not too heavy Jeongguk is able to balance the tote in one arm and open the door with the other. He pushes it open, steps inside, and finally invites Jimin to do the same.

The boy stands still for a moment. His uncertain, timid eyes meet Jeongguk's.

Jimin, please, you're so adorable...

"My family's nice, I promise."

It appears to give him a little push. Dropping his gaze to the ground, Jimin steps inside the house. Jeongguk closes the door behind him.

"Mom, I'm home!"

From another room, his mother emerges with a welcoming smile already plastered on her kind-looking face. Jeongguk informed her the other day he'd be bringing someone over, wanting to steer clear of any awkwardness a surprise visit may entail.

"You must be Jimin!" She greets happily. Normally, Jeongguk's mother would immediately go for a hug, but at her son's request, she keeps a small bit of distance to avoid making the boy uncomfortable.

Shyly, Jimin nods and bows his head. "It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Jeon."

"And it's nice to meet you. I can already tell you've got better manners than Taehyung."

At the unexpected comment, Jeongguk lets out a hearty, genuine burst of laughter, which in turn triggers his mother to laugh as well.

"I'm only joking," she insists. "Please don't tell your friend I said that, Jeongguk."

"Oh, I'm telling him."

As he fights off the urge to laugh again, Jeongguks sets the tote on the floor just so that he can take off his shoes - Jimin does so, too - then picks it back up again to take upstairs. Jimin hurries after him and the boy's mother returns to whatever task she had been doing moments ago.

"My room's right over here."

"Your...room?"

"Yes?" Another chuckle spills out of Jeongguk's mouth. The door's opened a crack so he can simply push it fully open with his shoulder. After doing so, he once again places the tote carefully on the floor, then faces Jimin to wave him over. "You can close the door."

"Oh...okay."

With concern Jeongguk watches Jimin push the door shut, then turn around again to reveal the soft shade of red on his cheeks.

Oh. He's shy. Oh, my gosh. No, he's too precious. I can't take this.

"The floor's pretty comfortable." Jeongguk lowers himself to sit in front of the tote. With visible hesitance Jimin does the same. "I did some cleaning in here yesterday so we'd have room. I know it's not the biggest space but we're just knitting, not doing acrobatics. You don't need a ton of space for knitting, right?"

The other boy shakes his head. "No. I've done it at my kitchen table before."

"Do we need anything to get started or is it all right here?"

"Right here."

Clutching the sleeves of his shirt, Jimin lifts his arms to open the tote, leaving the clear plastic lid on the floor beside them. He takes out a pair of scissors, two long plastic needles, and a few other small tools all stored in a bag inside the tote. He purses his lips as his eyes shift towards Jeongguk.

"Do you wanna pick the colors?"

"Can I?" An enthusiastic grin stretches across Jeongguk's face. "Are we making a scarf??"

"We can..."

"Okay, I pick...yellow and black. Bumblebee style."

At this request Jimin roots through the yarn to pick out the spools of yellow and black. Then he closes the tote again and pushes it aside.

Jeongguk can see his cheeks are even redder now. Cute...

"Okay, so...the way you should always...start any knitting project is to-"

A knock at the door interrupts him. Both boys turns towards the source of the noise.

After a second, the door opens, and who should waddle in but Jeongguk's four-year-old little brother, curious eyes finding their way to Jimin almost right away.

"Hyun-ie, buddy, we're busy-"

"But I wanna say hi to ya friend." The little boy sticks out his bottom lip and puts on his best "puppy dog" look that works to his advantage 90% of the time, including now.

"What's ya name?"

"Uhm..." Jimin looks away for a moment as Hyungi steps up to him. "I'm...Jimin. What's yours?"

"Hyungi!! I'm Gukkie's bruvher. I like ya hair, Jimin."

It draws a small smile from him, though a bit of a puzzled one, by the looks of it. Jimin touches his hair. "Thanks...it's nothing special."

"But I like it." Hyungi gives a firm nod. "Ooh! Did ya know, Gukkie can play kitar!"

"Kitar?"

"Guitar," Jeongguk says and shakes his head. Surprised, Jimin turns to him.

"You can?"

"Mhm."

"Gukkie, play something!"

"Uh, Jimin, would you mind?"

"Hm? Oh, uhm, no, g-go ahead."

At this point Hyungi is already attempting to drag his older brother's guitar case over to him, clearly struggling, but the effort makes Jeongguk's heart happy.

"Sit down, buddy, I got it."

Setting the case on his bed, Jeongguk opens it and removes the instrument. He sits on the edge of the bed to play.

And the other boys listen. Hyungi, sitting on his heels with the biggest smile on his face, and Jimin, with a dazed one on his own. Jeongguk can't help himself. As he plays, he watches Jimin's face.

A sweet, peaceful moment. Times like these make him glad he learned guitar.

After finishing the song, Jeongguk lowers his instrument and smiles at his friend and brother, who both clap, Hyungi much more enthusiastically so. Being a four-year-old, however, his attention becomes quickly diverted, once again by Jeongguk's friend who's now sitting close beside him.

"Why ya shirt so big?"

Without warning the little boy reaches out to take the bottom of Jimin's shirt, then lifts it about an inch before Jimin panics and pulls it back down. Jeongguk panics, too, setting his guitar down so he can grab Hyungi's wrist.

"Hyun-ie, don't do that!"

"I was just askin'..."

"That doesn't matter." Mortified, Jeongguk releases a deep sigh as he glances at Jimin apologetically. "Hyun-ie, I think you should go now."

"I'm sorry..."

"It's fine, but we're trying to do something here, okay? I'll play with you tomorrow."

"Okay..."

Hyungi pouts and exits the room, shutting the door behind him.

"...Jimin, I am so sorry, he's never that brash-"

"It's okay," Jimin insists, though his voice is a bit shaky. "He's just a kid, he didn't mean it in a bad way..."

"Still, I thought he knew better."

"Really, it's okay."

As if to prove his claims, Jimin lifts his head to gaze up at Jeongguk with reassuring eyes. The latter smiles at him.

"So, Jeongguk, do you...take requests on the 'kitar'?"

Marry me. "I suppose I can," he says with a chuckle. "What do you have in mind?"

Jimin looks at his hands, entwining his fingers on his lap. "Do you know sparks?"

"Taylor Swift or Coldplay?"

"Coldplay."

"Of course." He beams as he takes his guitar in hand again. "Coldplay's what got me started on the guitar to begin with. I've always loved their music."

Jimin is pleased by the positive response. He starts to adjust his position on the floor, but in a few seconds he's sitting beside Jeongguk on the edge of the bed thanks to the guitarist's gentle encouragement.

And he plays Jimin's song request. And another request. And one more, because apparently the knitting supplies in the middle of the floor went on incognito mode.

It doesn't bother Jeongguk, that's for sure. Of course, he was genuinely looking forward to Jimin teaching him how to knit, but he can't complain about the current situation, either.

For the most part, it's silent aside from the rhythmic, peaceful strumming of the guitar. But at one point Jimin speaks up.

"The guys at school would be so jealous of me...probably hate me for this..."

Jeongguk smiles uncertainly. "What?"

"I'm at your house, in your room, and you're playing songs on the guitar for me..."

"Mm. Lucky me."

It silences him just like that. A soft hum, two words, and a sweet side-glance.

Jimin's face is cherry red again.

—