Three Strikes • Chapter 4 part 2 • 1K (Patreon)

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He steps one leg into the kayak, it wobbles under his foot and he loses balance.

“Oh fuck—“

He holds on to the nearest thing, which happens to be Jeongguk’s wrist.

Jeongguk doesn’t say anything, just lets him hold him, silently guides him down to sit, steadies the kayak with his other hand.

Damn him.

Why is it always the silent ones that get to him?

He looks straight forward, tips of his ears burning.

It only gets worse from there on.

He’s lucky Jin and Taehyung are already paddling along in the distance when Jeongguk takes a seat behind him.

Way too close. This kayak wasn’t made for two and it’s clear when the warmth of Jeongguk’s thighs wrap around his hips. They are ass to fucking crotch in this thing.

Jin can not get too close. Another fishing trip would ruin him. 

A paddle gets pushed into his hands, he doesn’t even hold it properly but they’re already going. Jeongguk just paddles by himself.

They’re not talking then?

Okay, well, he can do that. Talking up til now has never worked.

“Race to the willow?” 

Jin asks, grin on his lips.

Jimin has no idea what it’s about, he gets a puzzled look from Taehyung as well. 

It seems to be a brother thing.

“Let’s go.”

He doesn’t get a heads up, they just take off in their small kayak, he holds onto the paddle for dear life while Jin and Taehyung come up next to them, trying to flip them over.

Jeongguk is quite fast though, completely on his own he just creates a massive drift between them.

“Shouldn’t I paddle too?” 

He asks, looks over his shoulder at Jeongguk. Who looks ridiculously good by the way. He called his outfit questionable earlier but fine he gets it now, a greasy white top is exactly right for this occasion. 

The contrast against his sun-kissed skin, the print of his nipple piercings through the fabric, yeah, hello, good afternoon.

“Yeah, face forward hyung.”

Oh, right.

He quickly turns his head, won’t admit it to his worst enemy (Jin) but Jeongguk commanding him around makes his body burn hotter than the sun. 

He tries to paddle along but quickly finds out that he’s slowing Jeongguk down instead. And it’s fine, he wasn’t made to row boats, it’s better this way. 

So for quite a while he just relaxes, enjoys the sun on his skin, pretends he can’t feel Jeongguk’s thighs closing around his hips, or hear him take deep breaths behind him. 

The distance between Jin and Taehyung and them gets bigger and bigger, until they’re completely out of range. 

“There’s a bit of a current coming.”

Jeongguk calls from behind.

He blinks, grabs his paddle.

“Should I help?”

“No.”

Good.

He puts his paddle back down.

“You’re a little bad at this, hyung.”

The lack of emotion behind the tone almost has him offended. Almost. But there’s something else there, something that nudges him, makes his eyes go wide.

Is Jeongguk.. trying to flirt?

“Am I?”

“Mm.” Jeongguk hums. “Terrible actually.”

oh god. 

textbook flirting.

Jeongguk is flirting. 

His cheeks burn up quickly.

“I can ask to switch.” He proposes, just to test something. “You with Jin, me with—“

“No.” Jeongguk cuts him off, chest pressing closer against his back. “You stay with me.”

Oh.

God.

His stomach flips.

The jealousy. It’s because of him.

He whips his head back so fast his shades fall off. 

“Fuck!”He tries to catch them but accidentally knocks them away and they drop into the water. “Fuck no!”

Not his Tom Ford’s— 

He reaches into the water but the current is pulling them away, and then without any prompting Jeongguk stands up and dives into the water. 

“Oh!”

The jump makes the kayak wobble, and though he’s holding on for dear life, he sees it happen, it flips over and he’s head down underwater.

It’s cold and the current keeps pulling, he’s disorientated for a second or two but then quickly gets out of the kayak and swims to the surface.

The only thing he’s got is a paddle, the kayak gets dragged away. He stares at it like a titanic survivor, without the whistle.

He looks around then, sees Jeongguk’s head appear above surface, he looks a little bit like a wet dog, black hair flat over his head, covering his eyes.

“I got them—“ Jeongguk brushes his hair back, looks around until their eyes meet. “Oh.”

Jimin bites back a laugh. 

Jeongguk just swims up to him, holds onto the paddle as well. For a moment they just look at the kayak in the distance, drifting away.

He doesn’t explain what happened, Jeongguk probably makes the equation in his head.

So when he looks at him, he gets a small apologetic smile, and his Tom Ford’s handed back to him.

Ah, Jeongguk can be adorable too. 

“Thank you.”

He puts them in his pocket underwater, zips it closed.

“The kayak’s gonna get dragged into a stronger current so, let’s just get to land first.”

——————-

They reach a little bit of greenery along the riverbank. Jeongguk lifts himself up swiftly, sits down on the grass, offers his hand next thing.

Jimin grabs it, doesn’t let his strength kink get the best of him when he gets pulled up, just sits down next to Jeongguk, puts the paddle down.

So far, their kayak adventure.

He can’t believe he only got two full seconds of flirting in before the universe fucked him over. Something about them as a pair must be cursed

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