AUTHOR'S POV
Namjoon went pale the moment Jimin mentioned that someone liked him.
The first thought that crashed into his mind was so sudden that it almost made his heart stop.
What if Jimin found out?
What if Taehyung had accidentally let it slip? He had never directly confessed to Taehyung that he liked Jimin, but some things didn't need words. Taehyung had a habit of reading people too well.
A thin layer of sweat formed on Namjoon's palms.
It was pure fear.
What if Jimin got uncomfortable around him? What if he started maintaining distance? What if years of friendship suddenly became awkward because of feelings that were never supposed to exist in the first place?
Then Jimin said something else.
He didn't want to hurt that person.
A dangerous thought quietly slipped into his mind.
What if... Jimin likes me back?
The possibility was absurd. Yet the human heart had a terrible habit of finding hope in the smallest things.
Somehow, he found enough courage to ask.
"Who likes you?"
The question came out calm, but it had taken every ounce of courage he possessed.
Jimin closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
He wanted to tell someone.
He felt like he was carrying something too heavy for his chest, and if he didn't say it out loud, he might suffocate under its weight. And Namjoon was the safest option. He was the one person Jimin could talk to without carefully choosing his words or worrying about being judged.
"Yoongi."
Namjoon simply stared at him. For a second, he genuinely thought he had heard wrong.
Yoongi?
As in...
Yoongi?
He almost wanted to ask if Jimin had misspoken, if another name was supposed to come out.
Because how could it possibly be Yoongi?
"Pardon?" he asked.
"It's Yoongi, Namjoon hyung." Jimin exhaled deeply. "He likes me."
The air left Jimin's chest as though he had finally put down something he had been carrying alone.
Namjoon, however, felt his thoughts collide with each other. He wanted to respond. But his mind was still stuck on one sentence.
Yoongi likes Jimin.
It sounded so out of place, because there was anything wrong with liking Jimin. Frankly, anyone could.
But because it was Yoongi.
The same Yoongi who always looked younger than them. The same Yoongi they had unconsciously placed in the category of someone who needed guidance and protection.
And six years. Six whole years stood between them.
The information was taking an unreasonable amount of effort to digest.
Then another thought quietly entered his mind.
If Jimin didn't want to hurt him...
Then what exactly did that mean?
Did he feel the same? Or did he simply need time?
Namjoon didn't realize he had gone completely silent until Jimin spoke again.
"What happened, Namjoon hyung? You're not replying at all."
He blinked and quickly came out of his thoughts.
"I'm... just processing it."
And that was the truth.
He looked at Jimin for a long moment.
"It's hard to digest." He paused before continuing. "That kid..." Then he corrected himself. "I mean... Yoongi likes you."
Even after saying it aloud, it still felt strange. Because in his head, Yoongi liking Jimin wasn't something he had ever considered possible.
And perhaps the strangest part of all...
Was that he still had no idea that the two people sitting in front of him weren't simply acquaintances caught in an awkward confession.
Namjoon only knew that Yoongi liked Jimin. He was still completely unaware of one important fact..
Jimin and Yoongi were already married.
"How do you even know?" Namjoon asked, his brows furrowing slightly.
Jimin let out a small breath.
"I was awake last night. He probably thought I was sleeping, so..." He paused for a moment. "He told me everything, and I heard it."
Namjoon's expression grew more complicated. "And he doesn't know that you know about his feelings?"
Jimin slowly shook his head.
"He doesn't." His eyes lowered for a brief moment. "I found out only yesterday."
Namjoon stared at him for a few seconds.
So, somewhere out there, Yoongi was carrying feelings he believed only belonged to him.
Completely unaware that the person he loved was already holding the truth in his hands.
Namjoon felt something sink inside his chest. He didn't even know how he managed to make his heart go cold enough to ask the next question.
"Do you like him too?"
Jimin immediately shook his head.
"No... I-I mean..." He stopped, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "I never saw him that way. Never."
He looked down at his hands.
"I saw him as a student who looked up to me. Someone who thought I was his mentor, his guide... someone who would protect him and point him in the right direction." He let out a shaky breath. "That's all it was in my head."
He fell silent for a few seconds before speaking again.
"But right now..." He looked exhausted. "Right now, it's too much for me to process."
He pressed his palms against his face for a brief moment before dragging them down.
"I don't know how to deal with this situation. I don't know what I'm supposed to say to him, how I'm supposed to act around him, or what I'm even feeling right now."
His voice grew quieter.
"I just..." He swallowed hard.
"I want to disappear right now rather than stand in front of him."
For the first time since the conversation had started, Jimin looked completely lost. As if someone had handed him something incredibly fragile and precious, and he was terrified of dropping it no matter which way he held it.
Namjoon hated the fact that Jimin was choosing to run instead of facing the situation, but he couldn't really blame him for it.
Not all humans are the same. Even the five fingers on one hand aren't identical, so how could people be?
Everyone has their own way of dealing with things.
Some people face problems head-on, no matter how painful they are. Some are straightforward and say exactly what's on their mind. And then there are people who retreat, who need distance and time, who run not because they're cowards but because facing certain emotions all at once feels overwhelming.
Jimin was definitely the last one.
Whenever something became too complicated, too emotional, or too heavy for his heart to process, his first instinct was never to fight it - It was to step back and create distance.
He was person who liked his own zone and specific time to process. To sort out the storm inside his head before he could ever think about facing it.
And right now, with someone else's heart suddenly resting in his hands, Jimin was doing exactly what he had always done.
"So tell him what you feel," Namjoon said straightforwardly.
"No... I can't hurt his feelings," Jimin said immediately.
The answer came so fast that it made Namjoon confused and, at the same time, something inside him hurt.
He stared at Jimin for a few seconds.
"You are confusing me, Jimin." His brows furrowed slightly. "One moment you say you don't feel the same way, and the next moment you're saying you don't want to hurt him either. So what exactly do you want?"
Jimin opened his mouth, then closed it again. Because he didn't know. That was the problem.
He didn't know.
He had never been put in a situation like this before. Everything felt too sudden, too complicated. A few hours ago, Yoongi was simply someone under his care, someone who followed him around, trusted him, and looked at him with admiration.
And now...
Now he knew those eyes had been looking at him with love.
The realization still hadn't settled inside him.
"That's what I'm trying to figure out..." Jimin said quietly, running a hand through his hair. "What exactly do I want?"
He looked exhausted.
Like someone trying to solve a puzzle without even knowing what the picture was supposed to look like.
Namjoon watched him for a moment before letting out a slow sigh.
"For you..." Namjoon began carefully, placing a hand on Jimin's shoulder to get his full attention. "Does it genuinely sound right to you? Being with someone six years younger than you?"
Jimin immediately looked up. The question hit differently than Namjoon intended.
Because the moment he heard the words being with someone, another truth crashed into his mind.
He wasn't talking about a possibility.
He wasn't talking about a future relationship. He was already married to Yoongi.
Jimin lowered his gaze for a moment before letting out a long breath.
"What if I tell you..." he began quietly. "That we're already married?"
For a second, Namjoon simply stared at him. Then he laughed, disbelieving laugh.
"Huh?"
"We're married."
The silence was so suffocating.
"No." Namjoon shook his head immediately. "No, stop it, Jimin. This isn't the time for jokes."
His voice came out more serious than intended. Because his mind refused to process what it had just heard.
Yoongi liking Jimin was already difficult enough to understand. But married? That was impossible.
At least that's what he wanted to believe.
"I'm not joking." Jimin rubbed his forehead tiredly. "Everything happened so suddenly that I never got the chance to explain it properly."
Then, for the next fifteen minutes, Jimin told him everything.
From his father's decision, to the circumstances that pushed them into marriage, to how everything happened afterward.
Namjoon remained silent the entire time. The more he listened, the heavier something inside him became.
When Jimin finally finished, neither of them spoke for several seconds.
Namjoon looked away first. Trying to process it. Trying to ignore the ugly feeling sitting inside his chest.
But jealousy was a cruel thing.
"So let me get this straight," Namjoon finally said. "You're married."
Jimin nodded.
"To Yoongi."
Another nod.
Namjoon laughed bitterly and ran a hand through his hair.
"Unbelievable."
Jimin frowned slightly. "Hyung..."
"No, because I'm genuinely trying to understand this." Namjoon cut him off. "You spent all this time worrying about the age gap, questioning whether you should even consider him romantically, and somehow forgot to mention that he's already your husband?"
His voice wasn't loud. Somehow, that frightened Jimin more. Rage is easy to recognize, it arrives like a storm. But this was different. This was the kind of calm that felt poisonous.. as if something bitter had dissolved into his blood and was now moving through him, vein by vein, too deep to pull out.
Both of them fell silent. Namjoon looked away. He never expected this.
If someone had told him yesterday that Yoongi was secretly in love with Jimin, he would've been shocked.
If someone had told him Jimin was already married to Yoongi, he would've laughed in their face.
Yet here he was. Listening to it as reality.
"So what now?" Namjoon asked.
His jaw tightened. "Now he's your husband."
The way he said the word made Jimin look up. He sounded so bitter.
"You think this is my fault?" Jimin asked quietly.
Namjoon laughed without humor. "No." His answer came immediately.
Then he looked at Jimin. "No, I think this entire situation is a mess."
Jimin stared at him.
Still unable to understand why Namjoon looked angrier than he should have.
Meanwhile, Namjoon knew exactly why. Because the person he had quietly loved for years wasn't confessing a relationship. He was confessing a marriage.
And somehow, that hurt far more.
"Whatever," Namjoon finally muttered, leaning back in his chair. He rubbed his face with both hands before looking at Jimin again.
"So now what?"
Jimin remained silent.
"Either give him a straight answer or don't give him false hope." His voice was again sounded calm. "A straightforward answer is bitter, sometimes painfully so, but at least it ends the uncertainty."
He looked directly at Jimin. "Do you know what's worse than rejection? Hope."
He paused for a moment.
"Because rejection hurts once. False hope hurts every single day. It makes people hold on, wait, overthink every word and every action, and keep believing that maybe, just maybe, things will change."
His expression softened a little.
"If you don't see him that way, don't accidentally make him believe that you might someday. And if you genuinely don't know what you're feeling right now, then tell him that too. Be honest."
Namjoon sighed again.
"Just don't leave him standing in the middle of nowhere, holding onto a possibility that doesn't exist."
Jimin listened quietly, letting every word sink in.
"I won't," he said softly, a small, tired smile appearing on his lips. "Thank you for this, Namjoon hyung. I really needed it."
Namjoon gave him a slight nod.
Jimin nodded back. Then he turned and walked away.
Namjoon didn't move. He simply stood there, watching Jimin's retreating figure until it disappeared from his sight, leaving him alone with a conversation he wished had never happened.
Jimin lay awake inside the tent, both hands tucked under his head, his eyes staring blankly at the fabric above him without really seeing it.
Namjoon's words kept circling inside his mind.
Does it even sound right to you? Dating someone who is six years younger than you?
He let out a slow breath. Then he heard voices.
Yoongi and Jungkook.
They were coming back.
Almost immediately, Jimin turned onto his side, his back facing the entrance of the tent. He quickly closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep.
"Hyung, now rest," Jungkook told Yoongi.
A few seconds later, Jimin heard him leave. Then came the soft sound of the tent opening.
Yoongi entered carefully because of his injury. Jimin heard every small movement, the rustling of clothes, the faint creak of the mattress as Yoongi sat down, but he didn't move an inch.
After a moment, the mattress dipped slightly.
Yoongi must have been looking at him.
"Sleeping already?" he whispered, more to himself than to anyone else.
Jimin kept his breathing steady.
Yoongi noticed a few strands of hair resting on Jimin's forehead. Slowly, he reached out and brushed them back.
His fingers barely touched Jimin's skin.
Jimin didn't move.
"Why do you look so distant all of a sudden?" Yoongi asked softly.
The question made something in Jimin's chest ache. He didn't know either or maybe he did.
"Maybe your mood is just bad," Yoongi murmured, almost as if he was trying to comfort himself with that explanation.
Then, after a few seconds, Jimin felt movement.
Before he could understand what Yoongi was doing, a pair of soft lips gently touched his cheek.
A kiss very innocent one. But it made Jimin's heartbeat rise out of nowhere.
His fingers curled slightly against the pillow beneath his head.
"Good night," Yoongi whispered.
Those were the last words Jimin heard before he felt the mattress sink again as Yoongi lay down beside him.
The next morning, they decided to leave.
The camping trip had only been planned for three or four days, and it was already the third day. Besides, they now had another reason to return.
Yoongi's injury.
As soon as Jimin woke up early in the morning, his instincts took over before his thoughts could.
He immediately sat up and started gathering his belongings, quietly stuffing everything into his bag before Yoongi could wake up.
Even though he had promised himself that he wouldn't run away...
His actions seemed to have made a decision of their own.
By the time Yoongi opened his eyes, Jimin wanted to be somewhere else.
Anywhere but beside him.
He stepped out of the tent and found Namjoon and Taehyung already taking down their tents. After seeing them, Jungkook had also begun doing the same.
"Jimin?" Jungkook looked up. "Yoongi hyung is still sleeping?"
Jimin nodded.
At the mention of Yoongi's name, Namjoon's hands paused for the briefest moment.
Yesterday's conversation returned all at once.
We're married.
He likes me.
I don't know what I'm feeling right now.
The memories flashed through his mind one after another.
He lowered his head and continued his work.
No matter what happened, he wouldn't let this ruin his friendship with Jimin.
He had been telling himself exactly that since yesterday.
"Jungkook." Jimin's voice pulled everyone's attention toward him.
"Wake him up. I'll take down your tent instead."
Jungkook frowned. "Why don't you do that? Let me do my own work."
Then...
"Jungkook, why do you always have to question everything?" Jimin's voice came out sharper than intended. "Can't you just do one simple thing I'm asking?"
The sudden outburst made everyone look at him.
Even Jimin himself seemed startled by his own tone.
"...Okay."
Without arguing further, he immediately left to wake Yoongi.
Jimin didn't say anything else.
He simply bent down and started removing Jungkook's tent, his movements quicker than necessary. He was taking his frustration, simply.
As if keeping his hands busy was easier than admitting the real reason he didn't want to wake Yoongi himself.
Jungkook went to wake Yoongi, and Jimin started removing Jungkook's tent.
Jungkook entered inside and saw Yoongi sitting there while rubbing his eyes. He understood that Yoongi had just woken up. His hair was messy, and he still looked sleepy.
"Hyung, let's go. We need to leave," Jungkook said.
Yoongi immediately noticed that Jungkook's mood wasn't good.
"We are leaving already?" Yoongi asked and somehow felt bad, thinking maybe it was because of him and his injured leg that everyone had to leave early.
"What happened to your mood?" Yoongi asked, looking at Jungkook.
"Jimin..." Jungkook sighed in frustration and sat down beside him. "I don't know what's wrong with him. From yesterday, he's been behaving weird... and since yesterday, he keeps telling me to do his work..." Jungkook complained.
'I thought it was only me who felt Jimin was behaving weird,' Yoongi thought in his mind.
For some reason, he felt a little relieved now. At least Jimin wasn't only avoiding him. He was acting strange with everyone.
Yoongi slowly got up and came outside.
His leg felt much lighter than yesterday. At least today he could put it on the ground. Only the wound hurt now, unlike yesterday when his whole leg had been throbbing with pain.
He slowly walked toward the tree trunk and sat beside Jungkook.
The two of them silently watched the older trio remove the tents and pack everything into bags.
Today, no one was really speaking.
Jimin was minding his own work and avoiding everyone's eyes. Namjoon Hyung looked like he was taking his frustration out on the work in front of him, folding things a little too harshly. Jungkook's mood was completely ruined, and Taehyung looked just as confused as Yoongi, his eyes moving from one person to another as if he was trying to solve a mystery.
"Something is wrong with everyone," Taehyung said loudly.
But no one paid him any attention.
Yoongi also noticed that even Namjoon was behaving strangely with him.
"Hyung..." he called out, wanting to ask something.
But Namjoon walked forward as if he hadn't heard him at all.
Yoongi blinked and looked at his back in confusion.
A second later, Taehyung came from behind and put his hand on Yoongi's shoulder.
"I'm wondering the same thing. Why are the three of them acting like they all got cheated on by the same person?" Taehyung joked.
Yoongi couldn't help but shake his head.
At this point, even he wanted to know what exactly had happened overnight.
In the end, everyone sat on their bikes.
And as always, Yoongi had to sit with Jungkook.
They arrived after a few hours. Taehyung and Namjoon changed their routes according to where their houses were.
Yoongi thought at least he would get a chance to talk with Jimin now. Since morning, he hadn't talked to Jimin. In fact, he hadn't even seen Jimin's face properly.
"I'm so fucking tired," Jungkook said as he parked the bike and removed his helmet. He ran a hand through his messy hair and stretched his back.
"Me too... my leg is hurting after sitting in the same position for hours," Yoongi admitted.
As soon as they stopped, Yoongi looked at Jimin.
Jimin quickly parked his bike and entered the house without paying any attention to either him or Jungkook.
Yoongi's eyes followed him until he disappeared inside.
His chest suddenly felt heavy.
"Let's go, Yoongi Hyung. I'll help you walk," Jungkook suggested as he got off the bike.
"I can walk today. There is no swelling anymore," Yoongi told him.
The two of them slowly came inside.
When Yoongi entered the bedroom, he threw himself onto the bed with a tired sigh. His entire body felt exhausted after the trip. He looked around and noticed Jimin wasn't there.
The only thing he could hear was the sound of water running from the bathroom.
A small smile appeared on his face.
"Now he won't go anywhere. I can spend some alone time with him," Yoongi told himself.
For some reason, he had been wanting to talk to Jimin the entire day.
He wanted to ask him why he was behaving so strangely.
He wanted to know if he had done something wrong.
After some time, the bathroom door opened.
Jimin came out after showering. He was already wearing comfortable clothes, and a towel was wrapped around his neck. His hair was damp, with a few wet strands falling onto his forehead.
Yoongi immediately sat up on the bed.
His eyes automatically went to Jimin.
"Jimi..." he tried to start a conversation.
At that exact moment, Jimin's phone rang. Jimin immediately picked up the call.
"What?"
"Hm..."
"Sure... I'll come immediately... okay... I'll be there in ten minutes."
Jimin said those words and immediately turned around. Without looking at Yoongi. Without asking him anything. Without even finishing listening to him.
He simply left the room.
Yoongi remained sitting in the same position on the bed.
The only thing he could think was...
Why are you ignoring me?
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