Date: Going BACK IN TIME. October 14th
Time: 12:18am
Location: Namjoon's house. Taehyung's bedroom.
Mood: Namjoon admits that Jimin does have jams, always had jams, and he was wrong this whole time
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Excitement wasn't the word for it. This was it. The best day of his life, the moment he'd been waiting, wishing and hoping for. Jimin found his mate and the need to shout it out so the whole world knew it, wasn't going to be tapered down.

Without preamble he threw open the door of his best friend's room and dive bombed right onto his sleeping form. A little over a year ago this had been his bedroom too, but since he'd moved back home to live with his father, the room now held a singular queen size bed instead of the former two twin beds.

Taehyung, sleeping on his stomach, groaned at the sudden weight and tried halfheartedly to throw him off.

"Tae Tae!!!" Jimin bounced excitedly on his back and began to persistently jab him in the back of the head with a finger. "Wake up wake up wake up!!"

"Waddayou want?" he groaned tiredly in response, not even a bit curious at what had gotten his friend so worked up.

"I found her, Tae, I found my mate!" his hands went from annoyingly poking his head to ruffling his hair affectionately. "Now go back to sleep. Love you."

"That's great, love you too." Once the other boy's weight had left him, Taehyung sent him a sleepy smile and rolled over to get comfortable once again.

This less-than-enthusiastic response wasn't near enough to bring him down. Honestly, what could at this point? The next to be attacked was Yoongi, who he knew he owed an apology to. Even if in the back of his mind he still felt wary of him. His wolf wouldn't explain why, but still persisted that this hyung was not to be trusted with their mate.

When he opened his bedroom door, all was dark and quiet, save for a sliver of moon light streaming in through his parted curtains. This was just enough to alert him of Yoongi's psychotic pet cat, Lil Meow Meow. The all black cat, save for a single white spot over one eye, was mostly hated by his friends and pack mates, but was referred to by Yoongi as his 'baby girl'. His pet was more territorial than most of the werewolves in the house, and would attack anyone who came near Yoongi while he was sleeping.

At the moment she sat above her sleeping owner's head, stationed on the pillow as if she was expecting an attack at any time.

One look from the cat's directed orange gaze had Jimin holding up his hands in defeat and backing out of the room, the moment quite reminiscent of the one he had shared with this same hyung hours before. Except that the cat was scarier than Jimin's wolf was.

His next stop was Jin's bedroom. Still awake and jotting down recipes at his desk, he gave the younger man congratulations and genuinely seemed to be happy for him.

Next was Hoseok. This hyung wasn't scary in the least (apart from the rare moments when his alpha side came out), but the sight he was met with when opening the door to his bedroom was...strange. Obviously asleep, Hoseok's breathing was deep and steady, his eyes closed and mouth slightly parted. The odd part was that both arms were in the air. One hanging loosely while the other gently stroked the skin of the other. This was weirder than Yoongi's cat. Jimin backed out, wanting nothing to do with the oddities of that room.

He debated for a moment on whether to tell Jungkook or not, but knowing the maknae, even if Jimin used his back as a trampoline as he'd done with Taehyung, Jungkook would likely sleep through the entire thing.

With that thought in mind, he literally skipped down the hall to Namjoon's bedroom. Namjoon was saved for last because this was the friend he went to when he needed advice. And seeing as how Namjoon had already found his mate, Jimin had a lot of questions.

"Hyung!!" throwing open the door to Namjoon's bedroom and announcing his arrival with an exclamation at midnight, might not have been appropriate (nor appreciated) but he really could not help himself. It was like an electric current was alive and coursing throughout his entire system, sending waves of exhilaration and emotion through him. Even his wolf couldn't seem to sit still, an odd occurrence in and of itself.

"Hyung! Hyung! Guess what!!"

Namjoon, awake and in bed with his girlfriend and appearing slightly irritated, opens his mouth to answer when he's cut off by his mate, shouting, "YOU'RE PREGNANT!"

Namjoon had found his mate, Kitty, when they were all still in high school. Kitty wasn't her actual name but they'd been calling her that for so long that Jimin couldn't remember her real name any longer. Kitty had been tricky to get along with at first, but her rough edges had softened a bit once they got to know her. She'd even given Jimin some good advice, though there was a time when both he and his wolf had been somewhat cautious of her. She was some sort of scary, alpha human.

"No!" Jimin shouted, giggling and bouncing on the balls of his feet. This felt crazy good. How come he had no memory of Namjoon being like this?

Speaking of, Namjoon sits up and tiredly runs a hand through his hair. "What is it, Jimin?"

"I found my mate!"

"What!!" the pair yelled in unison.

"Yeah!" he squealed happily, not caring one iota that he sounded more like a six-year-old little girl in pigtails than a nineteen-year-old in his first year of college.

After he'd left the convenience store he'd watched over it carefully, hiding behind his phone on a park bench across the street, monitoring the handful of people that went inside in a very non creepy way.

Now go back and read that in a sarcastic tone.

From there he had followed her home, to a slightly worn down high rise apartment building, making sure she didn't come across any type of danger. He was protecting her. Protecting. Not creeping. This was all good and normal. Normal.

Normal.

The couple's two-year-old Husky came over to greet Jimin happily, licking at his hand in a bid for attention while he rattled off a complete run down of what had occurred earlier in the evening.

"-and her smell!" he emphasized, bringing a look of understanding to Namjoon's face and an: "I know, right??" Kitty rolled her eyes and muttered something about 'dog men'.

"And hyung!! She's so tiny! Like, it makes me feel like a giant and-"

"NO!" Namjoon shouted in anguish while his girlfriend pumped a victorious fist in the air.

"W-what-" Jimin began to question but was cut off again by Kitty, taunting Namjoon with a wicked grin on her face.

"Twenty big ones, that's right, bitch! I'm right and you're wrong again! What now, huh? HUH?"

A tight lipped Namjoon had climbed out of bed and was rifling through his wallet. "I don't know why you're trying to fight."

"I'm not trying to fight." she says smoothly while fanning herself with the twenty thousand won bill she'd just received. "I'm just saying—you're a loser. I won. Suck my metaphorical dick."

Before his (now very annoyed) hyung could fire back, Jimin asked in astonishment, "You placed bets on my mate?!?"

"Chill, we placed bets on everyone's mates." Kitty replied. "I have a theory. Your mates are all going to be opposites. Namjoon: smart. Me...not so much. Proven. Your mate is shorter than you—proven." Jimin grit his teeth at the reminder of his height, but then immediately calmed at the memory of his short little mate, all snug in her sweater. "Jin's mate is gonna be this badass alpha female." Jimin hoped that would true. It would be nice to see his Jin-hyung—omega, but the boss of the house, be parented for once.

"I disagree." Namjoon interjected. "Jin-hyung's mate is going to be an omega, as well. They'll spend years trying to find one another, roaming from pack to pack, all over the globe. Then one day in early winter, the first snow arrives. They both go to the Yeojwacheon Romance Bridge-"

"This isn't why I came here." Jimin said, exasperated, his eyes rolled heavenward.

"They wander around for a time, the two of them so close, yet so far-"

"I was actually hoping for some advice." Jimin tried but hyung was still lost in his own world. He turned to Kitty. "What was your first impression of Namjoon?" He gestured to his friend, now halted mid-story when he noticed no one was paying attention.

"I wanted him to leave me alone." she continued when Jimin's face fell. "But that was just me. What is your mate like?"

The inquiry gave him pause. What was his mate like? With horror, he realized he hadn't actually tried to get to know her, he'd only gone in and stared like at her like a starved cannibal! She probably hated him! Or at the very least, thought he was the creepiest person alive!

This was it! He's going to be alone forever!

Despite the inner turmoil, he managed to get out the only thing he could definitively conclude about her personality. "She's shy."

The memory of her pink dusted cheeks and ducked head filled him with a swell of love, but it was quickly dashed when he remembered that he probably came off as a freak of nature.

"Oooh." Kitty nodded as though realizing something. He perked up in hope. "Yeah, she probably wants you to leave her alone."

"Don't tell him that!" Namjoon argued, always protective of his dongsaengs. "Jimin, find out what she likes and try to appeal to her that way."

"But don't be overbearing." Kitty supplied with a look towards her boyfriend.

In the end, their words did bring Jimin some comfort, and an inkling of what he should plan for. Namjoon said to find out what she likes.

OBVIOUSLY the only way to do that would be to get a part time job at his cousin's convenience store. That way, they could spend hours together everyday. Then OF COURSE the next thing to do would be to find out if there was any unoccupied apartments in her building. After that the most EVIDENT step to take would be to find out if she went to school and where.

There wasn't enough time in the day for this. With panic he began to calculate how many hours he had to spend away from her, worry increasing the more he thought about it.

Maybe he should quit school.

Maybe you shouldn't. Our mate seems capable of handling herself.

Where he got off with that idea, Jimin couldn't fathom. His Y/n was just a human, and a tiny one at that. Humans were fragile, and thinking of this human in particular made him itch with apprehension and a constant, gnawing worry, one that he had an inkling was never going to leave him alone.

What if she bumped her head and it cracked her skull? What if she slipped and broke her neck? What if he hugged her and her lungs exploded???

You're ridiculous.

After taking a moment to cool down, he conceded that his wolf was probably right. Humans were fragile, but they weren't that breakable. And then there was Kitty's words: "Don't be overbearing." Out of everyone he knew, she would be the most likely to understand his mate's feelings. Kitty wasn't exactly normal, but she was human as well, and could tell the perspective on werewolves and mates from the outside and in.

Regardless of the late (or early) hour, Jimin drove home in his dad's ancient hyundai. There was little doubt that his father was sleeping, no matter the hour. Ever since his mom's death he'd been somewhat of an insomniac.

The relationship between father and son had been rocky, to say the least, for a good four year stretch post his mother's passing. Of course the older man had been broken; his soul mate was dead. He became distant and emotionally unavailable. It had left the then middle school aged Jimin lost. Always lonely, missing his mom and now his dad, wishing for the days that he hadn't known at the time would later in life be remembered as the best days of his life.

Family picnics and movie nights. Weekend trips to the mountains where they would pick persimmons from trees and then eat them with their feet dipped in the cool mountain stream. So many bedtime stories and giggles. Summers where they caught fireflies and winters spent ice fishing and roasting marshmallows over fires.

All of it gone with three words. Terminal pancreatic cancer.

How three words could change someone's life so drastically, how it could break a family, how it could kill someone, wasn't something he could give an answer to back then. He'd been thirteen, still a child, but forced to grow up early. Three words caused childhood to be a forgotten dream. Three words ripped him from a happy, sheltered life. Three words took his mom and left him alone.

More than anything else, Jimin hated being alone.

But alone he'd been. His dad withdrew completely. Perpetually curled into the fetal position, he claimed everything hurt. From moving, to breathing, to talking, to crying, everything hurt and everyone should just leave him alone. In the beginning, that had been the last thing Jimin had wanted. Leaving his father to grieve all alone in the same house they'd shared with his mate, it would be cruel.

Yet the more time passed on and the further away Jimin was pushed, sadness turned to anger. Why was his mom the only one missed? Didn't his dad realize he was alone, too?

Over time Namjoon had invited him to live in his house with their other friends and pack mates. Namjoon's parents were rarely home so the guys had turned it into their own home. Even with the ounce of guilt forever settled in his heart, Jimin jumped at the chance. He was grieving too, and he didn't think he could move past it while being in such close proximity to his dad. And if he wanted to help his father move past it, first he had to heal himself.

That was where he'd found a new family. His hyungs, Taehyung, and Jungkook. It wasn't at all the same, and somehow, that was better. It didn't feel like his mom was being replaced or someone was erasing her memory. This was a happy place that he could heal and learn to enjoy life once again.

When he moved in it was Namjoon, Yoongi and Hoseok. Each had their different reasons for moving in and away from their parents. Yoongi had three adorable, little, and very loud sisters who, it seemed, their mission in life was to keep him from sleeping. They were only babies but Yoongi insisted that they woke up several times a night screaming for the singular purpose of bothering him. Hoseok, like his father, had alpha blood. It's difficult for alphas to live together, especially in a confined space for long. Too territorial. After a dispute that they'd long gotten over by this point, Hoseok ended up staying for good.

After Jimin came Jin. He still remembered the memory fondly.

The house, for lack of better words, was a mess. Not surprising when it consisted of four teenage boys. Mirrors were streaked, floors dirty, crumbs on the couch and on the sticky counter tops had become the norm. Meals were lackluster at best, and ramen was considered a major food group all on it's own.

Needless to say, Jin, a neat freak and born parent lost it when he came to visit. A visit that ended with him living there. After that day there was a set routine, divided chores, and healthy, full meals were provided.

Taehyung and Jungkook had been the last, making this new family whole. Those were years he would forever whole dear and close to his heart. Even now when he'd repaired the relationship with his one remaining parent, at times he found that he still longed for those days. Not to say that he wasn't happy where he was now, because he was. He just loved his friends deeply and missed them.

Unsurprisingly, his father was still awake by the time he made it home. Lounging his in his favorite armchair, he was clad in pjs and a pair of reading glasses, a Stephen King novel propped open on his lap.

The likeness between to the two unmistakable. They could almost be mistaken for twins, if he hadn't inherited the round softness, and slight plumpness in his face from his mom, instead of the angular and sharp features from his dad.

"Chim." He was greeted with a smile and a reminder of his childhood nickname. A name he'd ended up giving his cat, who had remained at Namjoon's house when he moved. He missed his Chim Chim, but was afraid that a move from the other cats, and the only home she had ever known, would be too much for her.

"Guess what." Jimin forwent a greeting to jump ahead to the good news.

His dad's eyes studied him for a moment until a familiar gleam, a moment of realization reflected back at him. "You found your mate."

Was he that obvious? With barely controlled excitement he nodded and his dad's face split into a wide grin. "That's wonderful news."

He nodded again, this time steeling himself for his next words. Jimin was beyond the moon about it, but there was a slight amount of hesitation, one prick of fear in the next part he had to tell. "She's...she's human."

With bated breath he halted, sizing up his dad's expression. At his words he'd frozen, just for a minuscule second that felt much longer than it really was. Quickly, so fast he might have thought he imagined it if he hadn't known any better, a flicker of pain and a wave of sadness crashed in the older man's gaze. Just as soon as it appeared it was gone, and Jimin let out a quiet sigh of relief when his dad stood to hug him.

It was a silent, but meaningful moment that they shared, neither of them needing any words exchanged to understand what was being said between them.

When they parted, his father fixed him with a serious look.

"What's your plan?"

"I-"

"Listen son," he clapped a hand onto his shoulder, "humans are strange and finicky creatures, you need a game plan."

"Namjoon-hyung said to find out what she likes and appeal to her that way."

"It's a good start, but you need more. Where does she work, live, go to school?"

"She works at Ye-Jin's shop and, hang on I wrote down her address-" he relayed the address back to his dad who informed him that he knew someone who lived in the same place.

"Don't worry, Chim, I can finagle you in there. Now. Allow me teach you how to stalk—I mean pursue—a human."

—
Edited 7/3/22