Chapter Text
“I’m sorry, you want to do what?!”
Seokjin had half the mind to grip Jimin’s leg underneath the table from where they’re sitting side by side. Whether it's to ground his beloved cousin or to stop him from actually lashing out, Seokjin didn’t know.
“W-Well,” Namjoon stammers out, blushing. The usually sweet scent of watermelons spiking nervously as if he wasn’t the one who just dropped the bomb during their dinner at this cheap dumpling restaurant. “I mean… it wouldn’t be so bad, right?” He chanced a glance upon a seething Jimin, immediately flinching at what he saw. “You do it all the time, I m-mean, I would want to—like at least try.”
Right beside Namjoon, Yoongi was gawking. His chopsticks that are currently clamped around a shark’s fin are pitifully hanging in the air as his mouth falls agape.
“Joon-ah,” Yoongi breathes out, completely stunned. “Oh my god… can you… repeat that just one. more. time.”
Namjoon blushes harder. He avoids Jimin’s burning gaze on his face as he mumbles the words that disrupted their peaceful night.
“I want to try… I want to start dating, hyung.”
Jimin’s chopsticks fall loudly to the table, a look of absolute disdain coating his features as he crosses his arms and glares at Namjoon. The scent of pecan nuts wafted quite aggressively in the air Seokjin had to kick his calf to remind him to tone it the fuck down.
“Now what,” Still, there’s an edginess to Jimin’s tone. Some might mistake it for mere protectiveness, but both Yoongi and Seokjin knew better. “What the hell brought this on, Kim Namjoon?”
Namjoon fiddles with his fingers, shy. He may be the biggest man at their table, but he is indisputably everyone’s baby.
Scratch that, he’s Jimin’s six feet tinie babie.
“I guess I’m… I’m getting old? I’m twenty one and I’ve never even had a boyfriend or girlfriend.” He mumbles, and both Seokjin and Yoongi couldn’t help but inwardly coo. However, they both rein it in, unless they wanted Jimin to turn them both into fried dumplings. “And I see you do it all the time, Jimin, like we’re roommates and you seem like you’re having fun. I want to try it, too.”
Jimin remains scorchingly silent, undeterred. He wanted to excuse himself and say that it’s just his alpha that’s being possessive over the dearest unmated omega closest to his heart, but Jimin himself knows better.
Namjoon means so much more to me.
His glare was fearsome, blazing hot, as a fire in his chest gradually ignited as Jimin thought of his best friend going around to date other alphas who won’t even treat him half right. Logically, he knows Namjoon has a point. The omega was old enough and surely, he’ll want to experience that himself.
But both his alpha and the Jimin side of his brain wasn’t on board at all.
“B-But why,” Seokjin piques up, gripping Jimin’s thighs harder, feeling the way it actually trembled. “I mean… you used to say that you just—just want to finish your studies first. That you want to focus on your academics. So what changed?”
Namjoon sighed. While he knew Seokjin was right, he didn’t really know how to tell one of his closest hyungs, who also happened to be Jimin’s cousin, that he was just tired.
Tired because he can’t keep pining for his best friend slash roommate every single day. He can’t handle it anymore, having to see the alpha go on date after date after date or to just hook-up with random omegas and betas, because that’s just who Jimin is. Beautiful, irresistible, the most desirable. Namjoon loves his alpha best friend dearly, true, but he doesn’t want to live in misery forever.
If Jimin didn’t feel the same way about him then Namjoon thinks he has to move on.
“Nothing really,” Is all Namjoon says. “I guess I could just try, I don’t think there’s any harm in that. Besides, it’s just dating. I’m not even sure if I’m going to get myself a boyfriend or girlfriend yet, I just want to know how it feels.”
Jimin’s jaw clenches harder. Beyond the surge of protectiveness that he feels for his big teddy bear of a roommate, his chest suddenly ached. What if Namjoon finds an alpha who’ll take him away from me? Someone who’ll put an end to all their cuddle sessions, or someone Namjoon will prefer to sleep with every night and sing him to sleep?
That was Jimin’s job alone.
“I don’t like it,” Jimin blurts out, hating the way Namjoon’s face falls because of him, but that bitter surge of jealousy was all too consuming. Their two hyungs shoot him a warning look. “Look, I know what you want to happen, Joon. But I’m just… you know how many people in the student body are already crushing on you, right? Starting from the students you tutored to the seniors you love trailing after—it’s a long fucking line. And the moment they find out that you’re finally on the market now, I’m pretty sure a lot of them will take advantage of you.”
Oh dear lord, hell is about to let loose. There’s a dark look on Jimin’s face, and both Yoongi and Seokjin are at the edge of their seats.
“Who’s crushing on who?” Namjoon looked genuinely confused. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, Min.”
Jimin, Seokjin, and Yoongi all sigh simultaneously, half in fondness and full on exasperation. They know Namjoon’s not faking it. They know that this omega right here is all six feet, beefy, brainy, and thick muscles who’s unfortunately also a gigantic himbo.
“Joonie bear,” Seokjin couldn’t help but say, pointing at the beta right in front of him. “Look to your left, Yoongi is a living example of that.”
Spluttering, Yoongi drops the shark’s fin, face entirely red because he trusted his beta boyfriend to never spill his secret of once upon a time, being one of the seniors Jimin was referring to. “Hey!”
“Seokjinnie hyung,” Namjoon gasps, half scoldingly and half scandalized. “Your boyfriend does not have a crush on me, stop it!”
Once again, Yoongi spluttered. But this time, he looked more offended as he stared at Namjoon. “Excuse me, Joon-ah, how can you say that?! I spent my weekly paycheck just to get you that Ryan bear and—”
“Whatever. That’s not the point.” Jimin cuts him off before Yoongi can go on another rant about his once crush on Namjoon that still ticked Jimin off for whatever reason. “What I’m trying to say here is that by letting you do this, we’re basically throwing you into the lion’s den, and I would hate to see you all eaten up by a bunch of knotheaded freaks.”
Jimin ends his statement with a light growl, and Seokjin is counting on his guardian angels to stop his little cousin from going absolutely livid.
Against all odds, Namjoon’s face surprisingly softens. He reaches out in front of him to clasp Jimin’s smaller hands in between his own. He gently caresses the smooth knuckles before grinning.
“Minnie, you know I love you, and you know I’m thankful that you’re always there to protect me.” Namjoon says, a soft smile on his face, thinking that this was just his alpha roommate speaking. Meanwhile, Jimin is trying so hard not to soften. “There’s gonna be some bad guys out there, but I know that I have you, Jinnie hyung, and Yoonie here to help me choose the right person. I’ll be fine, baby, don’t worry.”
The face Jimin pulls looks like an odd split between endearment and pain. He didn’t know how to get through this without his own feelings surfacing, but he also didn’t want Namjoon to date anybody…
Anybody that’s not him.
That’s it.
“You know what, Joonie,” Jimin grasps his fingers back, holding his larger hands firmly in between his smaller palms. “If you so badly wanted to know how it feels like to be on a date, then you can date me.”
As expected, Namjoon freezes in his seat. Yoongi leaps from his chair, basically looking at Jimin as if he was a ghost, while Seokjin looked like he was about to faint. Jimin ignores them, eyes solely focused on his best friend.
“Wait, what?” Namjoon asks to clarify.
“I mean, I could do it.” Jimin tried to shrug it off, trying not to make it seem like a big deal as if his own heart wasn’t about to jump out of his ass. “Date me instead.”
Silence again. A long, tense stretch of absolutely no one saying a single word. But then, Namjoon’s face pulls into a frown.
“Minnie,” He mumbles, chewing on his bottom lip. “I appreciate that, really. But I… I don’t want to seem that pitiful that I had to—my best friend had to resort to dating me just because I’m awfully inexperienced.”
Seokjin and Yoongi’s indecorous looks are then transferred to the omega. Jimin looked like he was actually shot, like a bloodied man scorned on the ground, how can Namjoon even think like that?
“Joonie, what, no,” Jimin profusely argues back. “That’s not it.”
“Then what is?”
“I just… look, I don’t really trust anybody, much more another alpha who could take advantage of you, so let me. Let me show you how it’s done. Let me show you how you deserve to be taken out… how you deserve to be treated.” Jimin rants, desperately trying to keep all his feelings contained. “I just don’t want you to get any less than what you rightfully deserve.”
Namjoon prepares to open his mouth, but not a single word comes out. A thoughtful look crosses his face as the three men watch everything unfold in bated silence.
“So it’s like… a free trial for dating or something?” Namjoon asks before grimacing at his own words. Jimin looked like he wanted to laugh and cry at the same time.
“A free trial.” Seokjin balks and Yoongi’s face pulls into something so devastating Seokjin thought he was the one being free-trial zoned.
“I guess you could say that.” Jimin clears his throat once he gets over the shock. “You don’t have to accept. But I just want to show you what you deserve, at least I would know it since I’m your best friend.”
Best friend. Namjoon hopes his face didn’t contort into something offensive at that.
As they all wait for what Namjoon has to say, Jimin watches him carefully with a placid look on his face. It’s a stark contrast to how he’s internally berating himself over allowing his jealousy to reach this point, but he already got the words out. Namjoon knows Jimin wants to date him—free trial or not.
Then, after a long moment of heart-pounding silence, Namjoon says, “Okay.”
Yoongi and Seokjin look at the omega with wide eyes as Jimin felt every single cell in his body sigh in utter relief.
“Oh-kay?” Jimin clarifies.
“Yeah, okay.” Namjoon mumbles, before saying it even more determinedly, “Take me out on a date, Minnie.”
Jimin can’t even deny how his heart skipped several beats at those words. He smiled so hard, Seokjin snorted beside him and Yoongi aimed for a glass of water because the entire scene just left him parched. This is all Jimin has ever wanted—to take his best friend out on a date and finally tell him about how he feels. Who cares if it’s just a free trial or a pseudo-date, Jimin will take it.
He’ll take everything Namjoon is willing to give him.
“It’ll be my pleasure, Joonie bear.”