밤┆night
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there was no expectation, or reason, or even remote explanation for why the empty carton of lo mein noodles were colliding with the side of his head. it came in a greasy mass of cardboard and chopstick spears that could have blinded him, if he wasn't smart enough to block the surprise assault with raised arms.

"dude. what the fuck." he said, picking a noodle that got stuck to his messy bangs. now he'd definitely have to shower thanks to the other.

he answered with a lot of sass, hands on the hips, raised eyebrow, the whole display. "don't dude me." jimin said, now holding out his phone to show the single tweet on the screen. "what the fuck is this?" he asked.

the younger wanted to chuckle, considering this small scene reminded him of every movie ever where the crazy girlfriend got possessive and insane over something that meant nothing. "it's two words." was his answer. of course it was complete sarcasm coming from the need to play dumb. jimin knew this, what kind of friends would they be if he didn't know how the other behaved most of the time.

"jungkook you have one friend." jimin said, sitting back down in one of the gaming chairs and rolling over to take another spring roll.
there was takeout food all across the desk, the keyboard now pushed back enough to make room for their 2 am dinner. one gaming stream turned into several more and soon they realized it was the next day and their stomachs were screaming. "-and it's me." jimin continues, a mouth full of spring roll.

the younger tucked his hair behind his ear and shrugged, "you forced your friendship upon me." jungkook pointed out.

it wasn't that long ago that the two met, maybe some months from the beginning of the year. jimin had a way of making it seem like he's known someone forever when it could really have been minutes. "you shouldn't have tried to buy the last fruity lucky charms." jimin smiled back at the memory.

an argument turned the two into snack buddies at midnight, sitting on the curb outside a grocery store with an empty box of cereal between them. eventually jimin found out who jungkook really was, his online persona that somehow didn't match the secluded life he lived. it was weird, thinking they had the same career choice but they carried it out so differently. with one channel having lots of guests and dance offs and attending events with other creators, the other was simply happy with himself and those who cared to watch.

jungkook didn't like all that extra stuff. he didn't like collabs or events or anything he couldn't control. being in his room with his camera was the safe space, it was his world to create and be the controller of.

"i really want guac now. my friends got some." jimin sighed and sat back in the chair, as if he didn't just eat enough for two people. there was always room for more in that small body. "and i still want you to meet my friends." he added.

jungkook only hummed, swaying back and forth in the chair with his fingers folded together over his stomach. "they seem loud."

"you don't even know them." jimin was about to start again, that ramble about how boring it was that jungkook didn't want to hang out with anyone and they'd never get anywhere on this topic because it's been literal months. the shorter male could at least respect the fact that his friend was always blunt and honest.

"everything you say about them tells me they're loud." jungkook explained.

he reached for another spring roll. "but i'm loud." jimin said.

"i can handle you."

"so you can handle them." jimin tossed back. "it's the same concept." he said.

the younger hummed and pushed aside the takeout bag and started to type away. some editing programs were pulled up and the screen glowed onto his face, illuminated every feature and the dark circles under his eyes. jimin knew the conversation was over, the boy was about to be lost in his own mind perfecting the next video and working on it until the sun came up and told him to finally sleep.

jimin took his turn now, grabbing the last few snacks from their dinner and walking over to the bed. he flopped down on the mattress and kicked off his boots to the floor. it was a mess in here, as usual. he couldn't even clean his own apartment, so there was no way he'd help jungkook with his. jimin was happy he at least had roommates that kept up with it.

the glow of the monitors didn't bother him as he finished eating and tried to sleep. neither did the gentle keyboard tapping or occasionally mousclick. it was almost soothing, like background noise that lulled jimin asleep in his friends bed soon enough.

jungkook knew the other would fall asleep quick, he always did. depending on how selfish jimin was, jungkook would either fit on the other side of the bed or there'd be no room and he'd sleep on the couch that night.

it didn't matter that much though, because deep down jungkook liked having him around, not matter how much he denied it or joked that jimin was pushy and too much. he was just enough.

they were such opposites, polar in fact. jungkook glanced over his shoulder and saw how the boys chest rose slowly, soft breaths from sleep. that's when he pulled out his phone and ignored the footage on the computer screen. now he was too busy scrolling through the timeline, reading through posts and replies and wondering what it was like to say something and have people respond. of course he'd tweet and there'd be thousands of replies and things, but it was different.

jungkook adored his viewers, never calling them fans and never considering himself above them in any way. he liked thinking of them as friends, and they were, but there was still that little reminder that it wasn't quite the same. he wasn't like jimin, being able to be social and talk to anyone and just connect with them.

maybe that's why he keeps the kid around, because it's way to pretend like jungkook could do that too. he could talk and joke and be around someone and not want the ground to swallow him up and never spit him out. he could sit at night and scroll through twitter and pretend like maybe one day he'd had friends like that and be comfortable and so free.

it sounded stupid. jungkook closed the app and stopped pretending. he faced his computer and he busied his hands, focusing on something that actually made sense, and he listened to the sound of his friend soft snores to remind him he wasn't actually sitting alone.

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pls vote & comment <3