♠︎ eleven

BEFORE YOU READ:

listen up bagel buns. y'all were REAL QUIET on that last chapter. i see y'all voting, i know you're reading - just cause Jungkook be licking your neck like a tasty popsicle doesn't mean you can't type. BOTH HANDS ON THE PHONE, QUEENS.

i only say this because this book is basically going to become smut central in about five chapters' time and at this rate it'll be SILENT 😂

okay, back to our regularly scheduled programming...

CHAPTER ELEVEN

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♠︎ YOU

"Holy shit," you panted, collapsing onto the floor in a heap. "That was fucking insane."

Jimin laughed down at you, standing over you with his hands on his hips. In comparison to you - a steaming hot mess in a pile on the floor - he had barely broken a sweat, despite the cloistering heat in the house's back garden.

It was nine o'clock the next morning. You had a raging hangover, head throbbing against your skull, and yet this hadn't stopped Jimin dragging you out of bed to do a HIIT workout with him. All of your protestations had been useless. The boy was persistent.

And now, you felt like you might die of exhaustion and dehydration and alcohol poisoning all at once. 

"How do you do that every day?!" you asked, incredulous and breathing heavily, leaning back on your hands to look up at him. "I would collapse."

Jimin shrugged, flashing you a winning smile as he began to stretch out his calves. "Practice, I guess."

"Jesus, I think I might throw up," you moaned dramatically, wiping your forehead on your t-shirt. "I knew all that rum last night was a mistake."

He laughed, switching legs. "I don't know what you're talking about. I feel fine."

"Yeah, and that's another thing," your eyes narrowed at the blonde man above you. "You drank about a litre of rum last night, and you still look like a vision. Should be illegal."

Jimin rolled his eyes as his arms went over his head to stretch out his biceps, brushing his messy blonde hair. "Cuff me, officer, I'm guilty."

You snorted. "I bet you'd love that, you kinky freak."

"Yep," he smirked. "Speaking of which - it seems like you had fun last night."

He didn't point, but his eyes travelled to the thing he was speaking about. The blossom of pink on your neck was small enough to hide, but with your hair up it was clearly visible, beginning to turn into deep hues of red and purple. You tried not to blush, but your cheeks were red enough anyway from your workout that it wouldn't have mattered.

"It was nothing," you dismissed with a lazy hand. "Just fooling around."

Jimin hummed, reaching for a bottle of ice cold water. "The problem is, 'nothing' often turns into 'something' with Jungkookie. Faster than you might think. Trust me."

The words made your stomach somersault.

In all honesty, you hadn't expected that display from Jungkook last night. It had been way too fast and excruciatingly slow at the same time; you'd wanted to push him away and simultaneously draw him in closer, push him further. The feeling of his mouth against you was scalding hot, the memory of it burned into your skin, and it would last far longer than this bruise would.

Two days in, and already you were thinking about ways to lure him in. To wind him so tight he'd snap, and then-

And then what?

You didn't know, but you did know one thing for sure after last night - if he was that good with the rest of his body as he was with his mouth, you were in for one hell of a ride.

"Well, I'm not the only one who had fun last night," you pointed out now, trying to veer away from Jungkook as a topic of conversation. "I seem to remember Yoongi licking rum off your abs at one point."

"Yeah," Jimin said slowly, a triumphant smile dawning over him as he remembered. "That was hot. Yoongi has such a sexy mouth."

You quirked an eyebrow. "Really? You think Yoongi's sexy?"

Jimin tutted, rolling his eyes as though it were obvious. "I think everyone is sexy. But Yoongi in particular."

You blinked up at him in surprise. Jimin was candid about his sexuality, and you couldn't tell if he meant this flippantly, or if he really meant it. Truthfully, you weren't even sure that Jimin knew Yoongi was gay.

But before you could push him more on that particular statement, your eyes caught on something in your peripheral. Jungkook had come jogging around the corner of the house, slowing to a walk as he approached you.

Your stomach somersaulted again, because he had clearly just been for a run, and he was shirtless.

"Well, that's my cue," Jimin smirked under his breath, seeing the way your eyes failed to leave Jungkook's half-clad figure. "Enjoy."

Before you could protest, he was handing you the bottle of water, and wandering out of the garden, shooting Jungkook a knowing grin as he passed him. 

It was as Jungkook drew closer that you realised how utterly fucked you were. He looked unbelievably sexy, and he wasn't even trying - he'd clearly been running for a while, because his body was sheened in a layer of sweat, glimmering in the sunlight. 

He was as muscular as you'd expected, all hard ridges of olive-brushed abdomen and pectorals, broad and hard and delicious to look at. Not to mention the beauty of the intricate ink that defined the muscles of his arm even more, winding from his shoulder down to the snake at his wrist.

"Be still my beating vagina," you muttered under your breath, unable to believe your eyes.

The man was like walking pornography.

"Hey," he greeted simply as he stopped in front of you, gazing down at where you sat. It was easy and unfazed, as though last night never happened. "How you feeling?"

"Hot," you said matter-of-factly, not intending the double meaning, but seeing Jungkook smile anyway.

"Well, yeah, I know that," he said, amused. "I meant the hangover."

Oh.

He was feeling cocky today. 

You figured it must have something to do with his mark on your neck, that was causing the smug grin he wore now. Either way, it felt like the tables had turned, and you were not happy about it.

"I don't have one, I'll have you know," you lied huffily, trying to stand with confidence but still wincing at the burning pain in your muscles as you rose. "Jimin just put me through some kind of physical torture this morning."

"Oh?" Jungkook's eyebrow raised. "I'm sorry I missed that. Someone has to put your bratty ass in it's place. Although knowing you, you probably enjoyed it."

"What would you know about my ass?" you shot back. "You haven't had it yet, junior."

Jungkook's mouth opened to reply, but something seemed to stop him at the last minute. You could almost see him trying to calm down, to not lose his cool. He was feeling victorious after last night, you could see that. He didn't want to lose his upper hand already. 

Instead, he indicated to the water bottle in your hand, distracting himself. "Can I?"

The internal brat in you rubbed her hands together wickedly. 

"Sure," you said sweetly. "Just - hang on..."

You pulled the cap off the top of the bottle, taking one final long sip, though it still left around half the water in there. When you were done, your lips parting from the bottle top, you saw Jungkook extend his hand out, ready to take it from you.

So you raised the bottle over your head, and poured the ice water down the back of your shirt instead. 

"Ah - that feels good," you gasped in surprise at the sensation, exaggerating it ever so slightly for Jungkook's benefit. You knew that the rivulets of ice water were running down over your neck, soaking the front of your shirt too, and one look at Jungkook told you his gaze was fixed there, the wet space between his bruising mark and where water was gathering in the swell of your chest.

"Oops," you shrugged in mock innocence after a few seconds, holding up the empty bottle. "It looks like there's none left. Sorry, bun."

Jungkook's jaw clenched at this final straw. The nickname.

The one that nearly had him kissing you yesterday. 

For a long and tense second, he simply glared at you. He held your gaze, though you sensed he was dying to look back at where your mark sat on your neck, sheened with ice water.

"You," he began in a low, quiet voice, "have got to learn some fucking manners."

Your stomach lit up with electricity. "Or what?"

"Or there'll be consequences," he shot back instantly. "And you won't like them."

"Oh, I beg to differ. As we've recently established, I just love to be tortured," you replied lightly. "Now, if you don't mind, I have to go shower. And I'm just so warm, Kookie, I might have to strip off and walk to the shower naked. I sure do hope none of the other boys are awake yet, don't you?"

But as you moved past him, Jungkook caught your wrist in his hand, pulling you in towards him. Last night came flooding back, the feel of his body pressed into yours, the way he loomed over you, made a thousand times worse by how ridiculously mad he looked right now, his sweat-dampened hair hanging prettily over furious eyes.

"I dare you," he warned, squeezing your wrist. "I fucking dare you to do it. See what happens."

For one whole moment, you genuinely considered it.

It would be truly devilish. And you couldn't deny that your body was beginning to crave the knowledge of what Jungkook would be like when he fully let go.

But at the end of the day, you were still sore from the workout - not to mention the hangover. If Jungkook was going to punish you for something, you'd rather do it when you were feeling a little more like yourself.

"You're lucky I'm in an obedient mood today," you said casually, pulling your wrist from his grip. "Another time, hm? It'll give you a chance to mark me in some less... visible places."

With that you were walking away from him, leaving him out of breath and simmering in the garden.

You grinned to yourself as you heard the deep, steadying breath he took behind your back.

If you were lucky, it wouldn't be long now before he snapped completely. 

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