Chapter Text
Jungkook woke up warm.
He sighed sleepily, then realized that he was hot.
Sticky and disgusting hot.
He hated sweating in his sleep.
Groggily sitting up, he rubbed his eyes which felt crusty.
The giant, hot sweater he’d fallen asleep in explained why he was so warm, and he chided himself to get into pajamas next time.
He realized it was still dark in his room and he blinked a few times.
He didn’t remember closing the blinds, and he didn’t remember getting into bed either.
He shuffled out the door and into the blindingly bright hallway.
He cursed under his breath, and stumbled to the bathroom, needing to shower away the gross feeling of waking up too hot and icky.
A few minutes after the cool water started raining down his face, his brain snapped to attention, and everything from yesterday flooded back into his mind.
Oh god.
Jimin must be so worried about him, and feel terrible. Jungkook was fine, he really felt okay.
Affection and falling asleep with his best friend after being reassured that everything was okay, mixed with a long night of deep sleep had done the trick and cured him.
But now, he was worried that his housemate would be beating himself up over it.
Jimin had always been hard on himself, in everything he did. Jungkook was usually the exception to that, but apparently, not this time.
He needed to make sure he was okay.
Finishing his shower hastily, he dried off, threw on some comfortable big clothes, and quickly walked across their apartment to Jimin’s room.
“Jiminie?” He asked softly, both of his hands pressed against the closed door, “are you awake?”
The door creaked open, and a worried Jimin stepped out.
“I’m okay, it’s okay.” The words tumbled out of him with the need to make sure his Jimin was alright, wrapping the shorter in a big hug. “Please don’t worry. I’m really okay…are- are you?”
Jimin’s arms snaked around his back, and he felt his hyung exhale in relief, and say, “yes” which made his heart considerably lighter.
“Everything’s okay, Min.” Jungkook whispered, and waited a long pause, just holding his friend close, before he suggested, “how about we make pancakes?”
Jimin giggled, and the sound was so beautiful that he laughed too.
“Yes. Yes, pancakes sound amazing, Kookie. Pancakes and strawberries.”
...
Jungkook cleared everything up with Yoongi shortly thereafter, making sure that his other equally important hyung wasn’t locking himself up in his music studio, with no food or sleep as punishment.
Everything thankfully back to normal, Jungkook and Jimin fell into their usual routines together.
Except that Jimin was even more affectionate than before.
Jungkook didn’t mind this at all, but considering his friend was touchy to begin with, it was now constant hugs.
“Minnie,” Jungkook giggled as his friend hugged him from behind like a suckerfish while Jungkook cooked them lunch.
“How come you’ve been so cuddly recently?”
Jimin squeezed him like a snake and said simply, “You like cuddles.”
No arguments there.
“That’s true, you know I love cuddling and getting big warm hugs from my Jiminie-hyung, but I just want to make sure, you know…everything’s okay? You’re not secretly trying to… you know, make up?”
Jimin nodded against his back.
“Yes, everything’s fine. Promise. I just love you and want to hug you.”
Happy with this answer, Jungkook didn’t question his friend’s words because Jimin had never lied to him before, and never would.
Humming contentedly, Jungkook didn’t second guess their increased skinship from then on.
Tae was supposed to arrive for lunch and videogames, and when their friend popped in the front door with his normal huge-grin Jimin disconnected himself to go and latch onto his soulmate.
Jungkook happily cooked, adding extra since Tae would definitely want to eat too.
Because of their conversation, Jungkook thought nothing of the pair of arms that snaked around him, and he whistled along with their soft speakers as he deemed their sandwiches almost finished.
The pair of hands suddenly splayed out across his stomach, making him flinch hard and drop the spatula, while cursing.
“What?!” Taehyung complained from behind him, “so Jiminie gets to touch your stomach but I don’t?!”
Jungkook shoved his friend off of him.
“The hell Tae? No!”
Jungkook scooped the spatula off the tiles and threw it into the sink.
“If the sandwiches are burned because of you I’m throwing you out.”
He got a new spatula and pulled the thankfully okay lunch off the pan, and Taehyung accepted a plate with huge puppy eyes and an adorable “thank you,” before scurrying away to hide behind Jimin.
“You’re not off the hook,” Jungkook grumbled, but more just enjoyed his hyung squirming with the threat of being stomped on by a huge bunny.
They all sat down to eat happily, and as Tae and Jimin bickered about the absurdity of jelly-filled donuts, Jungkook lamented in the back of his head that he had to wait a whole 5 more days before he could live stream again.
...
Jungkook was comfortably stretched on the couch with a movie playing, and was squished next to Jimin and Tae, who was keeping him from falling off the end.
Jungkook wanted to post for his fans, and he was sure being hungry had nothing to do with it.
Nope, nothing at all.
Even though he had eaten, his stomach still gnawed at him that he’d skipped Friday.
He couldn’t believe he was affected this much. It was honestly a little bit embarrassing.
He typed and posted, because his fans would be the only people who would understand: “My tummy won’t give me a break. I’m constantly hungry from missing our usual dinner date this weekend TnT, safe to say I won’t ever skip one again. I’m starving and I just ate *angry tummy growl*.”
People jumped on his post to leave their thoughts and encouragement:
Please eat, Kookie! If you’re hungry, just eat more!
You’re so kind for wanting us there, but we won’t be mad, Kookie! Don’t wait all the way to Friday for a big meal.
Just live stream now, and eat so you’re not hungry anymore! We don’t like to see our precious bunny hungry :’(
He pouted as Tae began to snore behind him, arms and legs slung across him.
Eating a big meal did sound so so amazing, but he needed to wait.
If he ate as much as he wanted now, he would be huge for work tomorrow, and he wasn’t ready for that yet.
Likewise, if he did a Mukbang, he wasn’t sure if he would be able to do another one on Friday.
That was a lot for a less than a week gap.
No, it would throw off his whole schedule, and he knew that needed to just sit tight and wait it out.
He pouted again, resigning himself to his fate.
He typed back: “I’ll eat a little bit more, but if I do a Mukbang with you guys I’ll be stuffed full for work the next few days TnT, Kookie needs more recovery time.”
Lots of people replied with sad faces, broken hearts, and lots of Fighting!
He sighed, rubbing his achingly empty stomach that grumbled in protest, and thought that Friday couldn’t come fast enough.
...
It was the longest week ever.
Every minute that brought him closer to the idea of eating a huge spread on Friday crawled infuriatingly slower and slower.
He could swear he could hear every ticking of the clock at the internship and that each second stretched out impossibly longer just to torture him.
He posted more, telling people he missed them so much, and that he couldn’t wait until they could see each other again this Friday and share a meal.
He was so giddy when he finally left work Friday afternoon, and his mouth began watering with the anticipation of all the food he was going to stuff himself with tonight.
He didn’t even care that it sounded vulgar, stuffing was exactly what he was going to do this evening.
He’d picked out three different places that he wanted food from, and he ordered more than he should have, but he was so excited that he couldn’t help it.
He chewed on his lip, checking his watch every five minutes as it creeped closer and closer to his scheduled time.
He paced his room, wanting so bad to shove anything he saw into his face, and was thankful that the deliveries hadn’t arrived yet.
He wasn’t sure if he would be able to keep himself from pouncing on them.
Especially if he could smell them.
His mouth watered again and he had to swallow hard.
Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it.
Oh my god. How had it only been two minutes?
It really wasn’t like he hadn’t eaten.
He’d had regular meals all this week, except for his usual preparations to make room the day-of, which always made it easier for him to hold all the food he would eat on-camera.
He was just starving.
The fact that he’d skipped Mukbang last week made all regular portion sizes seem unsubstantial, tiny in comparison to how hungry he was.
A cup of soup? Now it was a thimble.
A sandwich? Barely a breadcrumb.
The anticipation had been building each day it got closer to his upcoming feast, which made his stomach even hungrier.
It was like all he could think about was how bad he wanted to eat.
He needed to think of something to distract himself. Maybe if he did some planning for the livestream it would help.
Aside from just cramming food into his mouth, he wanted to find a way to make tonight a little more exciting.
He usually had one trick up his sleeve, something that he could throw in right at the end, like last time, how he’d maneuvered to make his full stomach touch his legs.
Oh god, just the thought of being full.
He was forced to swallow hard as his mouth flooded, and he racked his brain for something exciting to pop into the end of his live.
What could he do? What could he do? No. Don’t think about food.
The idea hit him.
Pop in.
Oh god, more excitement flooded his system as he started scrambling through his closet.
He wanted something he could pop.
He wanted to pop a button tonight.
Jittery excitement continued to course through him, as he searched for the perfect pair of pants.
He’d never done this before.
He usually wore sweatpants, baggy and ones that had comfortable elastic waistbands that expanded with him.
He pulled out an old pair of black pants. He usually wore black, so hopefully people wouldn’t notice right away.
He shucked off his current comfy sweatpants, and started yanking the others up his thighs.
These were tight.
They were some overly fancy skinny-jean-single-wash-raw-denim-blah-blah something that Jimin had insisted made his thighs look good. What a fancy way to say they were overpriced jeans too tight to wear in public.
He’d never gotten them out because they quite honestly made him feel like a burrito.
He excitedly ran to his mirror.
They might be the tightest pair of pants he’d ever owned, that anyone has ever owned, except Jimin. An excited prickle shivered down his spine at the thought that once he was full, he might be able to pop open the button and relieve the straining material.
He buttoned them, checking out his reflection and tugging on the waistline.
He had to admit, they actually did make his thighs look really muscular. Way better than his baggy sweatpants did.
Curse Jimin for being right.
They fit him fine at the waist, fitted, but in no way uncomfortable or appearing tight.
Experimentally, he grabbed the button and pulled hard on it.
It didn’t budge.
Crap.
He yanked on it again, and the little circle of plastic held tight.
If he couldn’t rip it off with his hands, there was no way he’d be able to with his stomach, no matter how full he was.
There was only one option… the boujee pants had to be sacrificed.
Snatching his blue pair of scissors out of his desk drawer, he unbuttoned the pants and very carefully snipped a couple of the many threads firmly holding the button to the waist.
He gave it a soft tug, and it wobbled, less firmly attached, and he cut just a few more until he was satisfied with the button’s reduced strength.
If he broke these pants, it would still be a major feat, and what his fans didn’t know, wouldn’t hurt them.
He put the scissors away and rebuttoned his pants, squeaking in excitement as their doorbell rang.
The food!
He shucked his shirt on and almost tripped because he ran to the door so fast.
...