December 31, 2019 - 7:00pm

Yoongi's best friend was getting married.

Married.

How the fuck had Yoongi gotten to the point in his life where his friends were getting married?

It felt like not long ago they were college roommates saving up pennies for music equipment, having hopeful talks late into the night about the future of their music careers. The careers that the two men had both alternated between one hundred percent believing in and a thousand percent doubting would ever happen.

But it did happen. Yoongi and Namjoon had both made names for themselves first in the underground scene all before breaking their backs and working to the bone to rise to where they were today: each successful rappers who produced their own music and often collaborated together on each others' tracks.

Throughout that time of growth and struggle, Yoongi was reminded day-in and day-out why Namjoon was his best friend, his brother (though not by blood).

Through every disappointment, through every scam by production companies that tried to lock him into unfair contracts, through every dark time imaginable, Namjoon was there. Ready to talk him down or fight his demons right alongside him.

Yoongi could only count on one hand the number of things that Namjoon wasn't able to help him solve: and those things together spelled out a name he couldn't think about. Not right now.

Right now, he had to plaster on a smile because he was Namjoon's best friend.

Best friend. Brother. And now best man.

Yoongi's phone vibrated as he looked over his suit, which rested on a hanger on the curtain rod in the hotel bathroom.

He glanced at the text:

JIMIN:

um...  😬

how's he doing over there?

Yoongi chuckled.

Namjoon met Park Jimin when he was helping Yoongi find a vocalist that could harmonize with him on a backing track vocal. Jimin answered the ad and came to meet them at the makeshift recording studio in their apartment. Upon seeing Jimin for the first time, Namjoon promptly stumbled over their coffee table (as he couldn't take his eyes off the boy's ethereal features) and broke his wrist in the process.

Jimin came with them for the unexpected hospital visit and left with Namjoon's personal number.

"To check on your healing progress," the youngest insisted. (Yoongi wasn't surprised to find that Jimin fully intended to heal his roommate with his lips.)

In the years that followed, Yoongi discovered that there was whipped, and then there was Namjoon.

Jimin had the giant wrapped around his little finger and Namjoon clearly wouldn't have it any other way.

But who could blame him?

Yoongi could see that Jimin was possibly one of the sweetest people on the planet, a boy who genuinely supported Namjoon's interests and dreams, giving both Namjoon and Yoongi words of encouragement when they were still hitting obstacles on their career paths. And when Namjoon finally made it to where he wanted to be, Jimin's love and support would be just as strong through the trials that success would bring.

Namjoon and Jimin became a unit, working together on tracks mixing their rap and vocal talents to create something new. Two years after becoming official, they bought their own condo together in Seoul where they lived with their dog, Rapmon.

The two behaved as if they were long since married to the point where Yoongi often forgot that they weren't. It carried on that way until Namjoon finally popped the question. He did it by training Rapmon to bring Jimin the ring when he came home from a distraction outing with Mrs. Kim, his future mother-in-law. And everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Yoongi was truly thankful that his friend had found true love.

He texted back a worried Jimin:

YOONGI:

Joon's fine. I removed all breakables from his suite,

there's nothing flammable within reach,

and I forbid him from leaving his hotel room.

He's not even allowed to pace while practicing his vows.

You'll have an un-maimed spouse by the end of the night, Minnie

my hand to god

Yoongi heard another notification before he could even put the phone down:

JIMIN:

thanks, yoongi

it's just... you saw what happened at the rehearsal dinner

The image of Namjoon breaking the arm off of his chair just as he sat down came to Yoongi's mind. He shook his head and responded:

YOONGI:

No problem.

Focus on looking so good that he trips at the altar

and bring your relationship full-circle

😈

JIMIN:

shut up! 😖

but also:

planning on it 💅

🖤

Yoongi jumped slightly at the knock on the door joining his dressing room to Namjoon's [i don't know if this is typical, but when i was in a wedding party, the bride's people got ready in the same part of the hotel/venue and the groom's on another section]. He strolled over to the door and heard his best friend on the other side, voice full of panic.

"Yoon! Yoongi! I can't tie ties! Please--"

"Calm down, Joon. I got this," Yoongi said as he opened the door. He stopped in his tracks when he saw his friend.

Other than the stress (and concentration at fixing his cufflinks) contorting his face at the present moment, Yoongi had never seen Namjoon so happy.

[imagine it's a necktie for story purposes. namjoon is fiiiiiiinnnnneeeee]

As soon as Namjoon fixed the cufflinks in place, he noticed Yoongi looking at him, "What? Is there a stain? Did I rip something?" The taller man began frantically searching his clothes for any issues.

Yoongi chuckled, a fond smile sneaking onto his lips at the way his best friend worried over nonexistent dilemmas on his wedding day, "No, Joon. It's fine. You just... You look good. Almost like an adult," he winked as he began tying a Windsor knot - stepping back to make sure it was the proper length.

Namjoon brought his hands to his face, "Thanks, man. I'm sorry. I'm - I'm getting fucking married! This is only going to happen once, I can't fuck it up."

Yoongi stepped back toward his friend, adjusting the necktie and smoothing out the shoulders of his suit jacket. He raised an eyebrow, "Joon, do you honestly think that Jimin would call the whole thing off over an improperly tied necktie?"

"No... No, of course not. But he deserves perfection. Even though he's settling for me. Yoon...," Namjoon lowered his voice, as if someone could overhear his confession, "I haven't even finished my vows. He should call it off, I'm horrible."

"Now it comes out. It wasn't the tie at all. Do you want me to read what you have so far?"

"It's trash. It doesn't measure up to half of what Jimin deserves."

Yoongi sighed and rushed back into his bathroom to snatch his clothes, having decided he would just get ready in his best friend's suite. "Read it to me. C'mon."

They walked together back through the adjoining door into Namjoon's suite. Namjoon stood outside the bathroom with the door cracked open, reading the draft of his vows - paper scarred with scratched out words, graffitied with arrows and wrinkled from folding and refolding over the weeks of editing and hiding in his wallet.

Occasionally, Yoongi would pop his head out of the bathroom to confirm a section that he thought sounded good or to grimace over something that he hated. The words "what were you thinking?!" were used. Yoongi was a blunt man. Something Namjoon normally appreciated - just not hours before his wedding.

Eventually, Yoongi burst from the bathroom after several dissatisfied groans from his best friend, who strained to put into writing all he wanted to say to the man he wanted to spend the rest of his life holding.

Still buttoning his shirt, tie dangling at either side of his neck, Yoongi stated, "It just doesn't sound like you, Joon. Don't write what you think vows should say. Write for him."

"I just... I don't want to overthink it. I just want to... tell him...," Namjoon looked out the window with a vacant expression in his eyes. When he finally snapped back into the same reality as Yoongi, he crumpled up the paper.

"... Joon," Yoongi's eyes widened, "Don't give up, I can help you out--"

"I'm not going to write anything. I'm just going to talk to him up there."

"Are-- are you sure?"

"This day is about us. I don't need to be nervous up there, reading from a piece of paper - spending any time of our day with my eyes not on him...  I'm not going to write. I'm just going to speak myself."

Yoongi listened, absent-mindedly tying his own tie, "Okay, man. If it helps, Jimin will marry you if the only thing that leaves your lips is 'uhhhh'."

"Shut the fuck up," Namjoon playfully pushed Yoongi, who almost toppled over.

"Watch it! You can't kill your best man right before your wedding!" Yoongi scolded before straightening his own tie in the mirror.

He sent one last text to Jimin before the wedding party was called to the main hall.

YOONGI:

He's definitely fine.