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"Yoongi-yah, let’s wear our matching necklaces tomorrow!" Seokjin drops off-handedly as they’re both poking around their shared wardrobe, picking outfits for tomorrow’s shoot at the comic cafe.
Seokjin suggests it in passing and proceeds to go about his business like it’s not a big deal, like it doesn’t leave Yoongi’s mind addled and panicking.
Here’s the thing: it does.
He really wouldn’t give it a second thought on a normal day. But tomorrow was filming day. They were filming another Run BTS! episode for the millions of their adoring fans to see, and, as Yoongi had learned, their fans were nothing if not extremely attentive to details.
It took him stumbling upon entire compilations of him and the other members wearing matching or similar clothes and accessories one time too many (with disturbingly far-reaching conclusions) to make him take lengthy breaks from social media, because being reminded that they were all under constant scrutiny gave him anxiety.
You give a few t-shirts that you don’t wear anymore to Jimin and suddenly ten thousand people think you’re married, what the fuck.
It’s one thing when you’re on holiday, and acting like the world’s cheesiest tourists is part of the agenda. You can get away with buying matching clothes, hats, accessories, pretty much anything, because they’re souvenirs.
Wearing them on a completely unrelated occasion is a different case entirely.
And then there’s the fact that it’s Seokjin.
Were it any other member, Yoongi would have found it much easier to either go along with the idea or to say no, depending on how he felt about it. But it’s Seokjin, so neither of the two options are so easily available to him.
Yoongi really wishes he was as good as Seokjin at hiding in plain sight. Making it look like a joke, acting nonchalant, playing it cool.
If not, he wishes he was at least better at saying no to him.
He’s good at neither of those things, so Yoongi spends a good chunk of his night tossing and turning and stressing out. At some point he comes up with an idea that he’s more or less happy with and finally nods off, praying that tomorrow he won’t be the only one who’s happy.
*
Yoongi is no stranger to running on little to no sleep, but this morning his mind is just foggy enough to give the barest minimum of fucks to get by. He abandons the outfit he’d put together yesterday in favor of something all-black, loose and comfy.
He feels a slight pang of worry as he puts on his jewelry, but he’s incapable of processing complex emotions before his first cup of coffee.
By the time they need to leave Yoongi is coherent enough that he’s panicking again, but he tries to hide it (or to hide himself physically) by putting on his biggest jacket and wrapping a scarf all the way up to his nostrils and staying as far away from Seokjin as possible. During the ride there, during hair and makeup, during filming prep.
...Naturally, they end up sitting next to each other.
The first time Seokjin squints at his neckline, Yoongi has to suppress a strong urge to run away, screaming.
There are people around them, he tells himself, and cameras. There are the other members, and the crew, and innocent bystanders, so he should be safe, even though there is a very specific glint in Seokjin’s eyes that suggests ominously: for now.
Yoongi himself has to make a conscious effort not to peer too often at Seokjin’s throat, where a silver cross is shining brightly, transferred onto a shorter chain (which is such a Seokjin thing to do), visible more often than not.
Putting the pendant on a shorter chain for the whole world to see is just as much a Seokjin-like thing to do as it is Yoongi-like to put it on a longer one, making sure it stays hidden below the collar at all times, even when he bends sideways or leans forward.
Which doesn’t explain why, every time he catches Seokjin’s glances between takes, Yoongi feels fearful for his life. He tries to cover it up by being more talkative than usual, which doesn’t go unnoticed but he can’t help himself.
Seokjin is nothing if not an incredible actor, so nobody else suspects anything at all. They joke, they laugh, they jab at each other’s failures and praise each other’s successes like they always do.
Yoongi compliments Seokjin possibly a bit more than is strictly necessary, banters and smiles and hopes for the best.
*
It’s not a very physically demanding episode, but by the time it’s over they’re all still tired. On the ride home some of the members discuss dinner plans, but Yoongi feels full after all the snacks they’ve eaten during filming, so now he just wants to shower and hit the sack.
Seokjin is sitting somewhere where he can’t see him, and he’s not saying much, so Yoongi is not sure if he should be worried or if he’s allowed to think that he survived this day.
When they make it to their dorm, Yoongi kicks off his shoes and makes a beeline for his bedroom.
Playing dead may be a cowardly tactic, but he’s only a weak man.
...Some time later Yoongi is rummaging through his desk drawers looking for his spare phone charger, so he doesn’t hear the door opening and closing. When he registers movement in his peripheral vision and whips around, Seokjin is standing there, leaning back against the door and smiling at him sweetly.
He’s changed his clothes, but the cross necklace is still there, glimmering in the low light, as if mocking Yoongi.
"Yoongi-chi—" Seokjin says and his tone is low and sweet, but Yoongi feels as if someone shoved a handful of snow down the back of his shirt.
"Hi." Yoongi turns around and tries to look nonchalant. He takes a few steps and stops, not sure where he was heading. "I was about to go to bed, so."
Seokjin detaches himself from the door and takes a few unhurried steps and suddenly he’s right up in Yoongi’s personal space. "Were you now."
His tone is light and he’s smiling, but standing this close Yoongi can’t help but feel entirely intimidated.
"Yeah, uh…" He starts, taking a small step back ...and immediately realizes his mistake, because as soon as he moves backwards Seokjin takes a step forward, maintaining their close proximity.
Yoongi can’t bring himself to stop, so he quickly scans his options (the desk, the bed and the bathroom door) and retraces his steps to the desk, resigning himself to being backed up against it.
Seokjin is using his height advantage to loom over Yoongi slightly and that’s just incredibly unfair.
"I thought we were going to wear our matching necklaces today." Seokjin says in a blood-chillingly low voice. "I thought it would look so cute."
"We did." Yoongi responds, trying to sound confident, trying and failing miserably.
Seokjin grins in a way that promises nothing but trouble. He raises one hand and hooks his index finger over the edge of Yoongi’s loose collar. Yoongi’s breath catches in his throat as Seokjin pulls the fabric towards himself and peers inside the opening with a slight pout.
"This hardly counts."
Yoongi can feel a heat creeping up the back of his neck, spilling over his cheekbones and igniting the tips of his ears. He tries to put any distance between them he can, which is not a lot, because his butt is pressed against the edge of the desktop and there’s only so far his t-shirt will stretch.
Yoongi’s desperate squirming must get to Seokjin, because he suddenly lets go of his collar and visibly deflates. "You could have just said that you don’t want to. It’s not a big deal."
Yoongi immediately stops fidgeting and looks up at Seokjin.
Seokjin looks… bummed. Yoongi wants to punch himself in the face.
"I didn’t not want to." He says looking down again, because he’s unable to look Seokjin in the eye while he’s saying this out loud. "I did, because it is a big deal. It’s just, you know."
He glances up again and sees Seokjin looking at him, sad and understanding.
"Too big?" He asks with a sad smile and Yoongi wants to punch himself again.
"Kinda, yeah. Too... public." Yoongi nods, and for a few moments they stand there, stewing in glum silence. He’s scared to look up so instead he reaches out and fiddles with the hem of Seokjin’s t-shirt. "I want to. Do stuff like that. Just… give me some time. Let me work my way up to it."
A moment later, Yoongi lets out a startled squawk as Seokjin squeals and scoops him up into a tight hug.
"Yoongi-chi-i—" Seokjin hums happily, as he holds Yoongi close and spins back and forth a few times, swinging him around like an oversized ragdoll. "Stop being so cute, you’re going to kill me."
He places an unnecessarily loud smooch on Yoongi’s cheek and gently sets him down so that Yoongi is sitting on the desk with Seokjin standing between his knees. Yoongi feels like his face might explode.
Seokjin’s expression changes abruptly then, happy smile fading, and suddenly Yoongi is feeling like a trapped animal all over again.
"I’m still annoyed with you though." Seokjin informs him. He leans forward, crowding Yoongi’s space again, and Yoongi tries to lean back, but Seokjin puts one hand on the side of his face, lets it slide down along the side of his neck, dips into his clavicle and tangles his fingers around the thin silver chain Yoongi is wearing. Seokjin pulls on it until he reveals a glinting cross — twin brother of the one dangling from his own neck — and then keeps pulling, forcing Yoongi to pitch forward, until their chests are flush and their noses are brushing. His hand closes into a fist around the chain, pulling it taut, making sure Yoongi cannot escape.
As if Yoongi is even capable of thinking about escaping at this point. He tangles his loose fists into the fabric of Seokjin’s t-shirt over his waist and closes his eyes, accepting his fate.
"It felt like you were teasing me," Seokjin whispers, his breath ghosting over Yoongi’s lips. "All day." Another faint touch of breath has Yoongi shivering. "Every time you leaned over, it took all of my self-restraint not to pounce you in front of everyone." Seokjin sighs and lets out a quiet tsk tsk tsk. "It was unbearable."
"I’m… sorry?" Yoongi dares to peek at Seokjin through his eyelashes and immediately regrets it. Seokjin looks very much like a cat that’s about to thoroughly enjoy playing with its food.
"You better be." Seokjin grins darkly as he focuses his intent gaze on his mouth. "Making your hyung have such a hard time."
Yoongi licks his lips. He can’t help it, it’s like a Pavlovian reflex. He’s feeling tingly all over and his brain is going fuzzy from the proximity. They’re too close but also not close enough.
"Maybe… I can make it up to you… somehow?" Yoongi is breathing a little heavily, and it has nothing to do with the chain around his neck being pulled.
Seokjin lets out a quiet chuckle as he skims his lips along the corner of Yoongi’s mouth. It barely counts as a kiss, but Yoongi chases it nonetheless when Seokjin pulls away.
"Oh, you most surely can," Seokjin mutters and chuckles again. Yoongi can feel Seokjin’s free hand slide into his hair, making him tip his head, angling his face just right. "I have a few ideas."
With that, Seokjin leans forward again, closing the distance, pressing their bodies together, and there is no more talking for a while.
*
...It was Hoseok’s own fault, really. Who schedules additional dance practice in the morning on a weekend, anyway.
Nobody was supposed to be awake this early, nobody expected him to get up at ass o’clock and stroll into the kitchen, where he then proceeded to trip over a chair and face-plant into the rug with a muffled shriek.
Yoongi fixes him with a venomous glare and makes no move to help him get up.
"H-hyung..." Hoseok chokes out as soon as he resurfaces from the rug. "How… Why… Uh… How did you even get it?"
He reaches out incredulously and pulls lightly at the frilly hem. Yoongi scowls and bats his hand away.
Yoongi shrugs and goes back to making breakfast. He himself doesn’t know — and doesn’t want to know — how Seokjin managed to get his hands on the maid outfit. Maybe he stole it from storage, but he probably just charmed the stylist noonas into giving it to him, no questions asked. Seokjin, he’s capable like that.
Yoongi is also pretty sure the original headdress didn’t have cat ears.
The dress still fits perfectly, and he for the life of him doesn’t know how he should feel about that.
Yoongi leans down and scratches his leg, right above the edge of his white thigh-high. He picks up the tray with breakfast for two and turns to face Hoseok, who’s still gaping at him wordlessly, kneeling on the rug.
"If you tell anyone, I will murder you in your sleep." Yoongi tells him without any sort of inflection, walks around him and exits the kitchen, the tiny jingle bell on his choker tinkling quietly.