Work Text:
The Best Man
God , thought Jimin, this is complicated. Am I really about to do this?
He takes a deep breath, his panicked thoughts starting to pick up speed as they whizz around his head. He is really about to crash his best friend’s wedding. His most special, kind-hearted, closer than a brother friend. Though it’s likely after the events of today the closer than a brother part is going to be out of the window. Taehyung might not even want to see his face ever again when he finds out what Jimin did. Their lifelong friendship might come to a crashing, startling halt when everyone sees the potentially catastrophic events Jimin has put into motion.
He takes another deep breath, but his lungs still feel constricted and his brain has not slowed down one bit.
He had gone to Yoongi for advice originally, but had kept it deliberately cryptic so as not to give himself away.
“Have you ever believed something so strongly, deep within you, even though there’s no real world evidence to support it?”
Yoongi had been typically unphased but unable to give any specific guidance given the vagueness of Jimin’s dilemma.
“You obviously have strong feelings about whatever this is, but nothing really to back it up with?” Yoongi summarised, hands wrapping around his coffee cup as he glanced out of the window, never the biggest fan of eye contact.
Jimin nodded in confirmation, his own eyes wide as he desperately awaited some wisdom from his hyung. It came, after a short pause while Yoongi sipped more coffee, in the form of a question.
“Are those the kind of feelings you should be acting on, do you think?”
No , thinks Jimin, later, as he stands in the packed church, in his best man suit. No, you really shouldn’t.
He takes another ineffective deep breath as his overactive brain supplies his next, sobering thought.
Well, too late now.
The Groom
“Eeek” whispers Taehyung, squealing as quietly as he can in the small lobby as he waits with his wedding party to walk down the aisle. “I just feel so giddy!”
His parents smile back at him, and his mum gives his arm an encouraging squeeze. Hoseok winks and pats him on the back, subtly moving him into position behind the large wooden door. Jimin, his co-best man with Hoseok, says nothing, but wordlessly moves into formation as well.
They hear the first note of the song Taehyung had chosen as his entrance music and begin their procession into the church, packed full to the rafters of Taehyung and his husband to be’s family and well wishers, ready in anticipation to watch the happy couple say their vows.
As he parades down the aisle past the hundreds of smiling faces, he thinks
It’s not exactly how I imagined it all those millions of times before… it’s different. It just feels so real.
He knows he looks a million dollars, in the custom tailored suit of his dreams, the perfect picture of a handsome prince just like he’s supposed to.
Underneath he still feels like the same everyday Taehyung. He’s wearing the smartest and most expensive outfit he’s ever worn, but at the back of his mind he’s thinking about what a hassle it’s going to be to make sure he doesn’t spill anything on it at the dinner, especially since he’s always been such a messy eater. He will look flawless in every single one of the many photos that will be taken of this day thanks to the 5 star makeup artist they hired, but he did his own nails last night while drinking prosecco with Hoseok, Jimin and their other closest friends.
He steals a glance at his groom, standing next to him at the altar. His wonderful Jae, gazing exactly how he’s supposed to gaze, but still just Jae, the guy who made him watch 4 out of the 7 Fast and Furious movies (four, it turned out, was Taehyung’s absolute limit).
Jae, who’s tall enough to easily reach the jars all the way on the top shelf when Taehyung feels like cooking. The man who is still so awkwardly polite about farting, even after 2 years together.
That’s love for you. And this is the one who came along at just the right time. Well, he could have arrived just a little bit earlier if Taehyung was feeling like being nitpicky. He had never quite managed to make those single, longing years look as fun as they’re supposed to.
Long gone now though, much to his relief. He was finally in the promised land of couples. His parents look so happy today. The happiest he’s ever seen them in fact. Beaming even bigger than at either of his sisters’ weddings. What a day, he thinks with a happy sigh. A perfect, long awaited day.
The Boy
There’s an 80% chance that listening to that particular best man was an absolutely terrible idea, Jungkook calculates from his uncomfortable position, tensed over his steering wheel. Maybe he should have asked someone else. Even if he’d just ran the thing by someone, anyone, who could be slightly more objective. It’s probably too late now. He’s already in the carpark. He’d watched him go in, looking perfect because of course he did.
Honestly Jungkook, what did you expect? he berates himself as he bows his head deeper and hits his forehead off the dashboard a few times in an attempt to knock some sense into it. Did you expect him not to look good? That he would have gotten fat for his wedding day?
He’s going to be so mad at me , he thinks with a groan. He might never forgive me.
They’ve already been through that though, haven’t they. There had been a long few years of Taehyung hating Jungkook, even cutting him out completely and blocking him on as many platforms as he could think of.
And then there was that window. That window of time when he had the chance to make things up to him, to win him over and really build something together. He still wonders how the hell he let himself miss that window. Torments himself late at night with thoughts of what could have been if he’d only had the balls to act on his feelings, instead of chickening out and running away. He’d just been too scared, of how deeply he felt for Taehyung, of the pressure of knowing he’d already screwed it up before and realising how undeserving he was of beautiful, wonderful Taehyung.
If he’d only made the most of that window, this whole ‘emotional turmoil in the carpark on his wedding day’ situation could have been avoided completely.
That’s the one thing Best Man had been 100% right about.
But how was Jungkook to know that he was running away from his one last chance? How could he have known that someone perfectly adequate was going to come along and ask Taehyung out a month later? Mr Perfectly Adequate knew. He got his timing exactly right. He didn’t miss his window and now he was in there, living the dream.
The tune to “it should have been me” starts drifting into Jungkook’s head as he sits, despairing, in his piece of crap car, in front of the church on someone else’s wedding day.
He slams the radio on, cursing, as he waits impatiently for his next window. Any minute now, he will be getting a text from the Best Man.
The Best Man again
Jimin can admit that his timing is a little off. He’s not afraid to admit that he might have left it a little on the late side. He’s always been known to procrastinate, to steal those extra few minutes in bed even after his 4th alarm has gone off, to start his assignments the night before they are due.
To be fair, some of Jimin’s best work has been done just hours away from a looming deadline.
While that may have worked out for him in his university days, there’s no way in hell he’s about to get an A for this friendship assignment. He’s willing to accept that this will make him extremely unpopular with almost everyone who’s ever met the beautiful, blushing groom. He admits that this will make him look like the absolute worst friend in the world. He is bracing himself to be hated for his supposed betrayal.
The reason he didn’t say anything last week, or last month, or when they first got engaged is because he had been hoping that the feeling he had in his gut would go away over time and that Jae, poor Jae, would be able to convince him that he was the right man for Taehyung. Not just the one who turned up at the right time.
Now, here they are. In the church, on the day. And Jimin’s gut is still telling him what it’s been quietly telling him for 2 years. What will look from the outside like betrayal will be the only true thing Jimin can do.
People are friends with Jimin because of his trademark honesty. They don’t get any superficiality or two-faced behavior from Jimin. He is known as the master of cutting through the bullshit. But the master of no bullshit is probably not the person who should be the first choice for a wedding party. The first choice should be the unquestioningly supportive friend who’ll shower the groom or bride with words of affirmation.
Unfortunately, Jimin is not unquestioningly supportive. He has some questions. One major one is pounding through his chest right now.
“ Don’t you think you should give your ex-boyfriend another shot ?”
That’s the kicker.
There’s just the minor issue of the timing.