This is the first part of the reader's storyline with Jin.
You walked in on a hunched figure looming over your bed, his broad shoulders moving in accordance to how he removed the bedsheets from the mattress. His fingers intertwined with the silk fabric, bunching such into his arms rather cautiously. It'd make no real difference if he tried to prevent wrinkles in the material. He should've known that. He still seemed careful in his current approach. It'd been so easy to just watch him. The way he maneuvered as if he would be heard if he made one wrong move. You could assume he thought you were far away from the room among the others like you spent a lot of your time since moving to the apartment. He wouldn't have done this in your presence. At least, that's exactly what you believed.
Kim Seokjin attentively gathered items in his arms, turning around to see you leaning into the door's frame. Your arms crossed against your chest, an eyebrow raising upwards quizzically. You searched his face for something, anything to give away emotion collecting in his features.
It startled him to see you. Actual fear didn't dig into his bones, but surprise did. He dropped the bedsheets in his arms out of that, a sigh escaping his mouth sheepishly upon realization.
Busted.
He wondered how long you'd been watching him this way. It couldn't have been that long. He reassured himself of this as his hand went under his chin thoughtfully. He examined you, a slight grin coming onto his full lips.
Stepping away from the door, you picked up the sheets yourself and matched his smile before broadening it. Your body turned towards the exit as you kept your eyes on him.
"Where to?" You asked. He had to have some destination in mind. You suspected he was going towards somewhere to place laundry for another day to wash.
Considering his other actions, could you blame yourself for thinking this way? Of the days you moved into the apartment, Jin made you feel more than welcome in terms of helping you get settled and ensuring you were okay in physical health. He never stuck around to hear if you liked this place or if any of the other members made you feel inadequate. They didn't, but it surely kept center of your mind with gnawing insecurity and you were dying to talk to someone about it. Any other time you could bottle it up, but now, you needed to let out a bundle of frustrations collecting in your nervous system. He warmed you with his smile when he asked if you were hungry and if you were comfortable in the bed that used to be Min Yoongi's. He'd been attentive in checking on you, but not so much in the friend department. That's what you could use. Not, for the lack of a better term, some servant attempting to please their superior… you hated to think that way considering how much you used to look up to him when you first fell in love with the group.
Other than the questions regarding your surroundings and if you ate more than three times a day, he didn't speak to you. He spoke to the others confidently on their own, but you'd enter the room and he'd quiet down or move to another area. It baffled you how much Jin closed himself off from you. It worried you that maybe he saw you as a burden weighing down his shoulders.
"I was going to switch the sheets. I wanted you to have fresh ones," he murmured as his hand went to the back of his neck. It rubbed back and forth as he moved to the door. You followed closely behind after taking the hint with a relative ease. You both eventually found a closet and he opened it.
Removing folded covers from its contents, he gestured for you to leave the ones in your arms. They dropped as you loosened your grip, curiously following him once more. Silence fell between you two awkwardly and you felt your mind wandering despite yourself. You wanted to say something. You just didn't know what that could be.
"Are you okay with us being roommates?" You blurted out. His eyes widened for a second too long. The timing had been off. It was weird to disrupt silence even if it was awkward. You just couldn't help it, something needed you to talk to him since you felt as if you'd done something wrong. You hadn't… right? The confirmation was surely needed if you kept on guessing with the way your mood changed.
His appearance changed. Not in a way you'd think someone offended would act, but as if he were being thoughtful in his next words. "I want you to be happy here. As confident as I am, I don't think my good looks can make someone feel that way unless you make them feel welcome. You know, they're not the only thing anyway." The 'good looks' comment brought a warm smile to your face. You couldn't help but sigh out in relief. The worries in your head faded out and you clicked your tongue following him back to your shared bedroom. You both began to fix the mattress and replace the sheets with the ones in Jin's arms.
"Well, Mr. Worldwide Handsome, I thank you for the new bedsheets, but I have to be honest," you paused and he looked up from the task of tucking in blankets. "I've felt more than welcome here. I appreciate you helping me out and checking on me, but you don't have to go through these kind of troubles. I'd love to sit down and have a chat. I think that would help me feel welcome here easily." You looked up at him after completing your side and he still hadn't finished. He seemed hesitant to continue the conversation, but he managed to clear his throat and stand straight after tucking the sheets correctly. Looking over at you, he sat at the edge of your bed and nodded his head.
"You're right. I think I went a little overboard. I'm sorry about that. I don't want you to think I'm pressuring you or anything. I want to treat you like family. Like the others; I think I forgot that I socialize with the others." He rubbed the back of his neck apologetically and you couldn't help but laugh gently. You sat at the other edge across from him.
"It's no problem at all, Jin. Trust me. I'm glad we cleared things up."
At two in the morning, the last thing you wanted to be doing was groggily slipping out of bed and having your feet touch the cold floor on your way to a relatively foreign kitchen. But did you have a choice? Your stomach didn't give you one, growling loudly enough to wake Jin on his side of the room at behind the partition dividing it. Yawning, you padded your way into the area to find the lights were already on. Blinking your way through the sudden illumination to your currently sensitive eyes, you tried to adjust to the brightness. Once you came through, you recognized Jin sitting at the table with his glasses adorning his face and food coming up to his mouth.
If at any moment you didn't wish to make eye contact with someone, it was now.
Your eyes met through glass barricade, his blinking a few times and yours blinking a hell of a lot more since they still held sleepiness in the lids. You maneuvered from your spot to where Jin was sitting for a seat of your own. He kept watching you, now sans food in his mouth as he tilted his head.
"Couldn't sleep?" He asked gently, concern in his eyes as he curiously looked at the way you nodded your head.
"Yeah. Hard to sleep when you're hungry. Stomachs can be unbearable. Either you get too little food and they hurt, or you get too much food and they hurt. There's no winning unless you eat enough but who does that?" You joked, knowing fully well you were all eating healthily and in good portions. He caught onto your joke, standing up to go to the fridge to make you a plate of leftovers from the dinner you had that night. He brought the plate over after a couple of minutes of quiet, moving his chair a little closer. It was a small distance but you surely noticed.
"You could never have too much food," he said. It earned him a sleepy smile, one he happily returned.
The two of you ate together in silence. One could've possibly dropped a pen that sounded like an echoing cave with how quiet it became. You suddenly became self conscious about your own chewing, whether it was too loud or if you were being rude by disrupting anything when your nails tapped the table for a couple of seconds. Regardless if you were sleepy, you found yourself a bit restless with the veil of awkwardness filling the kitchen. It could be pinned as anyone's normal reaction, but you couldn't stand it any longer when you were at your last couple bites.
"Did you have trouble sleeping?" You questioned him, daring to break the thick, awkward haze plaguing the two of you. His shoulders seemed more tense at the question and he stared at his empty plate for moments too long. For a second, you thought you said something wrong. You were about to apologize when he looked from the plate and straight at you.
"Something like that. I didn't exactly have the most pleasant dream. You could only imagine how that turned out." He stood up to pick up your plates and maneuvered over to the sink. Your eyes fell onto his broad shoulders, teeth biting against your lip. You hadn't even known him for a week and you already wanted to prod in something he most likely didn't want to talk about.
Instead, you looked up at the ceiling and began to talk. "When I have unpleasant dreams, I think about when I've been at my most happiest." Jin looked over at you after cleaning the dishes. "I like to think about my childhood. When things were carefree and I didn't have to worry about the things I do now. I didn't have insecurity until I began to understand how people can be and how family can be as well. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love my family, but I do think a lot of how I act falls back in my not so pleasant experiences with them." You had to stop, looking at the wall in front of you. Even if you weren't directly staring at him, you knew he still watched you.
"Some of my most happiest moments derive from being carefree or accomplishing amazing things. I never thought I'd be a part of this group for example. Yet, here I am eating at two in the morning with Kim Seokjin." Relief washed throughout your system when your heard his chuckle filter through his voice. You blew out a breath and smiled. "I suppose some of my most happiest times come from embracing these members as my brothers. They're what keep me sound and complete. Even if they tease me for my age or call me a child, I'm happy to be with them… and I'm happy you aced the audition. I knew there was something special in you."
A blush bloomed to your cheeks and he seemed to notice because he winked. Not slyly or arrogantly, but in a gentle way. The kind of gentle that touch is to a blanket. "I think we should be getting back to bed soon. We have a busy day ahead of us as always. I don't want to be blamed for our new member falling asleep during practice." You stood up from the chair and walked in front of him on your way back to your shared space. You didn't look back until you noticed he lingered behind to stay in the kitchen a bit longer.
You wondered what he dreamt of and what woke him from his sleep.
