Pulling up to Seokjin's place felt like a rush of nostalgia to Yoongi despite never having been here before - rather, thanks to the loud music and the scent of alcohol he knew was awaiting him, he was reminded of his first (and so far only) visit to Cat's Eye. Except Yoongi knew for a fact there wasn't going to be any graceful, mysterious dancers behind that front door.

Obnoxious, drunk dancers, maybe.

Hoseok parked his car as close to the house as he could and climbed out, urging Yoongi and the others to do so as well. He clearly had no patience, however, and raced up to the front door just to burst into the house like a cop on a drugs bust. Except he was laughing, and clearly not here to spoil anyone's fun.

"Yoongles, c'mon! Tell your friends to hurry!"

The blond merely rolled his eyes, then glanced at Jimin who also looked like he wanted to roll his eyes. But he didn't. The dancer kept that inscrutable facial expression that continued to make Yoongi wonder if the boy had any interest at all in being here. Nonetheless Yoongi said nothing and led the way up to the front door, then inside and the other two followed.

A small group of people stood by the doorway. Disinterested as to who had entered the house, they offered but a glance towards the four boys, then went back to their briefly paused conversation. Each held a red plastic cup in their hands. As did a number of the people scattered throughout the downstairs of the house, from what Yoongi could see at the moment. The living room connected to the front door occupied a much larger cluster that both looked and sounded to be playing some sort of drinking game Yoongi did not want to be apart of.

"Hobi, hey! You made it!"

A vaguely familiar voice caught the blond by surprise. Despite not being the one whose name was called, he spun his head around to watch as the party's host approached with quick, peppy steps. Seokjin. Yoongi recalled being introduced to him some time ago by Hoseok.

"I brought some friends," the redhead beamed. He gestured at the three behind him. Seokjin smiled kindly.

"Well, I only know Yoongi, but that's okay, you guys are all welcome here," he said. "A lot of people brought their own drinks, but I have eggnog and soda in the kitchen. Oh, and food. You guys can help yourselves. There's plenty, trust me."

Yoongi returned the smile just to be polite and gave a nod of acknowledgment. Then, before he knew it, both Hoseok and the host had split apart from him. He shifted his position slightly to look over his shoulder at the other two boys.

Jimin was signing something to Taehyung. Not a split second afterwards, it seemed, Taehyung let out a soft, excited gasp and made a mad dash for the kitchen.

"...is he okay?"

"I let him know about the eggnog," Jimin answered with a sigh. Yoongi cracked a smile, then nodded in understanding.

"He likes it that much, huh?"

"For some reason."

There was a bit of silence after Jimin's short reply. Feeling awkward about the situation, Yoongi allowed his gaze to drift, first down to the carpet at his feet, then over to that small group of people nearby who soon relocated to the living room.

Yelling and cheering. One of the guys amidst the larger group roared with laughter and practically threw himself onto the floor, thus evoking a similar reaction from the others gathered around the table. Some girl with a short ponytail turned up the volume of the music on Seokjin's speakers.

It took a minute for Yoongi to bring himself to look at Jimin again. When he finally did, he found the dancer scanning the living room as well, though with an even more disapproving gaze than his own.

"Sorry," Yoongi said as he exhaled. "I know this probably isn't your idea of a good night."

"Is it yours?"

"Me?" He made eye contact with the dancer. "No, not at all."

"Then why bother?"

"I'm just doing this for Hoseok's sake. He wanted me to join him on New Year's for a change and I didn't have it in me to say no."

"Mm."

In a few seconds Jimin was back to observing the strangers and activities of this party with mild interest at best. Yoongi couldn't help but feel bad. They'd be here for at least a few hours - far too long to be spent just standing around, not even talking.

"Do you...wanna go to the kitchen?" He suggested tentatively. Now that he thought about it, there was more than one plus side to this - the first, of course, being that it was simply something to do, and second because, from what Yoongi knew of Jimin's lifestyle by now, the dancer probably hadn't eaten much today.

"Why the kitchen?"

"For food, what else?"

"I'm not hungry."

"I doubt that. C'mon."

To Yoongi's relief, Jimin didn't argue and instead chose to silently follow the blond into the kitchen, where the former expected to find Taehyung drinking eggnog around the granite island countertop. They both did seem him, though but for a breath of time before the boy skipped out of the kitchen and into the adjacent room.

It was just as Seokjin had said. Atop the counters and table were an abundance of food, a tall stack of pizza boxes, bags of chips, pretzels, and candies, and, naturally, seeing as this was a college party, there were alcoholic drinks scattered here and there as well. On the refrigerator Yoongi could see a written note inviting guests to "help themselves to the eggnog and soda inside".

He must have a lot of money to afford all this...or maybe his friends helped him pay for it all. Or he's got rich parents.

It didn't concern him all that much, so Yoongi easily put the thought aside and made his way over to the stack of pizza boxes. He grabbed a paper plate and handed it to Jimin. But Jimin shook his head.

"I said I'm not hungry."

"A slice won't hurt." Yoongi opened one of the boxes. "Look. It's just plain pizza. You can't go wrong with plain."

"Doesn't really sound appetizing."

"Then have something else. There's gotta be something here you like."

Jimin paused, stared at Yoongi, then reached to the blonde's left to grab a pretzel from one of the plastic bowls on the table. He popped it in his mouth while still maintaining eye contact and that stubborn disposition of his.

Yoongi stifled a smile.

"Better than nothing, I guess." He reached for the bowl and grabbed a pretzel for himself. Then another, and he took a third one to hand to Jimin, who accepted and ate it without a word.

Things felt a little less awkward now. Still a little odd, as Yoongi didn't typically find himself at many parties at all these days, and even more odd because of who he now found himself with. But he liked that Jimin was here. He enjoyed the dancer's company.

"Yoongi?"

It didn't register straightaway that he was being addressed, and by someone who wasn't Jimin, too. Retracting his hand from the pretzel bowl, Yoongi turned his head in the direction of the boy now walking towards him, pleasant smile upon his kind-looking face. A familiar face.

"Yoongi, I didn't know you'd be here."

"Didn't know you'd be here, either, Namjoon," Yoongi greeted, shaking the outstretched hand as he smiled back. "How've you been?"

"Good, I've been good. Haven't had much to do since we're renovating."

"Yeah, same here. It's not all bad, though, I guess. Having a little extra free time."

"Mm." Namjoon gave a small nod, dimples showing in his cheeks as he swept a gentle gaze over the blond, then laid eyes on Jimin who had been standing still and quiet beside him. "Oh, I'm sorry, I'm so ignorant, I didn't even notice your friend. I'm Namjoon." He held out his hand again. "

With another apparent look of disinterest, the dancer accepted the gesture and tersely introduced himself. "Jimin."

"Nice to meet you."

Namjoon's attention shifted right back to Yoongi.

"I guess I'll be seeing you on the 2nd, then?"

"Mhm."

"Alright, I'm gonna go. Gotta find my friend again before he thinks I ditched him. See ya 'round, Yoongi."

"Yup, see ya."

He left. Yoongi's gaze traveled back to the pretzel bowl.

"...he was certainly eyeing you up, wasn't he?"

"Eyeing-" The unexpected comment drove Yoongi to turn suddenly to Jimin, and his lips broke into a somewhat confused smile. "No, no, it's nothing like that. We're co-workers, and he goes to the same college as me. That's all. He's a nice guy."

A disbelieving side glance. Yoongi watched, puzzled, as Jimin inhaled deeply, then released that same breath before returning his attention to the blond. "I can't same I'm surprised," he said vaguely. "Honestly, I'm surprised more people haven't come up to you since we got here. With a face like yours, I'm sure you turn heads wherever you go, don't you?"

Not even Yoongi, in his history of overlooking compliments and kind remarks from strangers, could misinterpret Jimin's obvious words of flattery. He figured he'd be used to them by now but Yoongi still regrettably felt a tinge of warmth color his cheeks. "I...I really don't," he uttered in a quiet voice. Noticing that Jimin didn't appear convinced, he countered, "and what about you?"

"What about me?"

Oh, he's doing this now, is he? "You've got a..." Don't make it awkward. "...face."

"This is true."

"You know what I mean..."

"I do not. Do tell."

He absolutely did. The subtle smirk on his face wasn't so subtle to Yoongi, who wanted to cross his arms like a stubborn child and just walk away. Instead, he reached for another pretzel and tried (and failed) to ignore the faint chuckle that fell from the dancer's mouth.

He saw it as a lucky break that someone came up to him again so soon. Not Namjoon this time, though. Not anyone Yoongi knew. And unfortunately, the blond quickly discovered, this person wasn't quite as pleasant to be around as the boy's easygoing co-worker.

"Well, you're pretty, aren't you?"

Slurred words spoken by a messy-haired male, clearly tipsy but at the same time sober enough to hold himself steady and form coherent enough sentences.

Yoongi bit his tongue.

"Hey, what's your name, boy?"

"Yoongi. Please leave me alone."

"I'm not here to bother you, pretty boy," the stranger insisted, but his hand moved forward to take Yoongi's wrist. "I just wanted to tell you you're pretty, that's all. Is that a crime?"

"It's not, but you're starting to make me uncomfortable."

"Uncomfortable??" He clicked his tongue against his teeth, chuckling. "C'mon, don't say that...listen, how 'bout you give me your number, and I'll send you a text so we can talk later, huh? Well, I don't have a problem with talking, now, too."

Yoongi couldn't bring himself to tear his arm from the stranger's grasp. Being the opposite of a confrontational person, it was a force of habit to avoid these types of situations altogether so that he'd never have to feign bravery or push himself out of his comfort zone in any way. It didn't help that this stranger was bigger than him, either.

They'd go away eventually. They had to.

"He's busy."

At Jimin's unannounced entrance into the conversation, both Yoongi and the stranger both turned towards him. "Busy?" the latter of the two repeated, quirking an eyebrow. "What are you, his boyfriend? You're not doing a good job of standing up for him, then, if that's the case."

"He's told me to be a little less possessive going into the new year," the dancer said, a blatantly passive-aggressive grin stretching across his face. "But, come to think about it, it's not the new year just yet."

With that comment, Jimin reached his arm out to wrap around Yoongi's waist and tugged him closer.

"I've no interest in being polite to you. Go find someone else to bother. We're busy."

Yoongi held doubts in his mind the stranger would listen. If he didn't look intimidating enough standing at least six feet tall, being under the influence of alcohol never seemed to bode well in most encounters.

But the stranger did listen. After scoffing and spitting at the floor, he spun himself around and exited the kitchen without another word.

Yoongi felt a wave of relief wash over him. He dodged a bullet this time.

"I owe you, Jimin..."

"Owe me what?"

It was his own mistake, Yoongi thought, turning his head towards Jimin at such a short distance from each other. The dancer effortlessly shifted the other's position so that they were face to face.

"Owe me what, Yoongi?"

Familiar. With this closeness, the blond's mind brought back that memory of just five days ago. At his apartment.

"It wouldn't make you uncomfortable, would it? Another kiss from me."

He closed his eyes without realizing. Before he could stop himself. And of course, Jimin took advantage of this and drew Yoongi close to capture the blond's lips with his own - sweet, but also salty from the pretzels they had both eaten. Yoongi's fingertips felt fuzzy. The back of his neck, too, and his cheeks which were now burning from the second collision of their lips.

"YEEEEAH, YOONGI, THAT'S MY BOY!!"

The sheer embarrassment of hearing Hoseok's voice call out abruptly urged Yoongi to push Jimin away, but his efforts failed as the dancer pecked the corner of his mouth, then proceeded to delicately reinitiate the kiss.

—

i was nodding off while editing this so if there are any grammar errors that's why

also i'm so dumb y'all because of the gap between my updates i forgot that in a previous chapter i wrote that jeongguk worked at a diner, not a coffee shop, so i had to go back and edit that part slightly but whatever it's not that important,,

third of all yes, i have a love-hate relationship with cliches lol