Taehyung's POV

Hoseok and I grew gradually closer. It was still full of carefulness and uncertainty, but it was slowly changing. When the day of our presentation had come I knew Hoseok was nervous the moment I saw him. He arrived at our table and I put on a small smile as I greeted him.

“Good Morning.”

Hoseok responded to my greeting, but looked as if his thoughts were miles away. He then put his bag down and sat down next to me. I noticed him being fidgety.

“Hoseok, what's wrong?” I asked straightforwardly.

“What?” he asked confused and turned his head to look at me.

“You look troubled and nervous.” I said.

“I do?” he asked as he drummed his fingers on the table. I automatically reached out and put my hand over his to stop him.

“Yes.” I said and sent him a meaningful gaze. He let out a big sigh and I felt the muscles of his hand relax under mine.

“I'm nervous because of our presentation. I didn't get much sleep last night because of it. The teacher said the result will take a big part in our grade for the subject and I know I have to get a good one. I can't mess up this year or I might drop out.” Hoseok explained. I knew he wasn't a model student, but I didn't know that it had gotten that bad. And I certainly hadn't expected him to care much about it, but I guess I had been wrong.

“Relax, Hoseok, we did a good job with the presentation, it's gonna be good. Don't wrack your brains! Nervousness isn't gonna help.” I said. Hoseok sighed dramatically and pulled away his hands only to lay his arms on the table and bury his face in them.

“I know. I'm just afraid I might mess this up.” he mumbled into his arms.

“Hoseok, look at me.” I said calmly. He turned his head aside and looked up to me.

“We're well-prepared. We can do this. It's gonna be good. If you get nervous during the presentation, just send me a help signal and take a deep breath okay?”

Hoseok nodded and then turned his face into his arms again and let out a groan. I chuckled a little.

Hoseok's POV

“I really didn't take you for the stage-fright type.” I heard Taehyung say and suddenly I felt his fingers touch my neck as he slid them in my hair and caressed it a little. I was completely perplexed for a moment as an automatic shiver ran down my spine, but at the same time it felt relaxing. The tension seemed to seep out of my body, but because of the shock I automatically reacted by lifting my head a little to look at him to see if it was really his hand. He seemed to read that as rejection, because he abruptly pulled his hand back and looked a little bashful.

“I-I'm sorry, it's a habit I have. I'm sorry, I didn't think.” he apologized and looked forward.

“No, it's...it's okay.” I mumbled, but Taehyung looked as if he was extremely embarrassed about it and occupied himself with his phone. I secretly felt the wish for him to do it again, because it had felt so good and relaxing, but I couldn't exactly tell him that. It would sound weird, right? Definitely.

We didn't speak anymore after that and a few minutes later the teacher entered the room and started the lesson. We were one of the few pairs that were supposed to hold the presentation that day. I got a little nervous again, but did my best to stay calm.

Taehyung's POV

When the teacher called out our names we got up and took my laptop and all the stuff we needed with us to the front. We had a few moments to set up the power-point and once we were ready to start I looked over to Hoseok who looked back at me and gave me a reassuring smile and then I started our presentation.

It went just as well as I had expected and Hoseok smoothly presented his parts. The teacher had an approving expression on his face, gave us a thumbs up and didn't have any additional questions. We gathered our stuff and went back to our seats. As we sat down we turned to each other and smiled brightly. I could see the relief in Hoseok's face.

“See?” I whispered. “It was good! You don't have to worry.” I added. He nodded and smiled at me in such a bright way that I had never seen on him that up close. I was a little lost for a moment as we just stared each other happily, but the moment was interrupted when the next pair went to the front to do their presentation. We both focused our attention on them, but the small smiles never left our faces for the rest of the lesson.

Hoseok's POV

When the lesson was over and everyone started to pack up I let out a big sigh and turned to Taehyung.

“I'm so relieved.” I said. Taehyung smiled at me. We then started to pack our stuff, too to go into the break.

“Hoseok, if you ever need help with some of the subjects, I could help you, well if I'm good at it.” he said and chuckled a little and then added: “Or we could study together before exams.”

I gave him a genuine smile.

“Yeah, that would be nice.” I said and we just looked at each other for a moment.

“You can just text me or give me a call when you need help.” Taehyung said and I laughed a little as I said: “Well, I would, but we haven't exchanged numbers, yet.”

It sounded a little different from how I had intended it, too, but Taehyung just laughed too and facepalmed himself.

“Right.” he said and pulled out his phone and we exchanged numbers. It might've not seemed like a big deal, but I felt like it was a big step for us.

Jungkook's POV

The rest of the week went by peaceful. Jimin and I were gradually overcoming the distance again that we had created. Or well, that I had created. Jin kept sending me worried gazes every time he saw us together, but I couldn't deny that even though it was hard for me I felt much happier being with him than I felt without him.

On the next weekend the weather was very good and on Saturday I got a message from Jimin asking me if I'd want to go swimming with him. There was a nice lake nearby that he wanted to go to. I was relieved he chose a lake and not some crowded swimming pool.

'Who else is coming?' I texted him and hoped he wouldn't drag Cara with him.

'Nobody. Just us.' Jimin answered and it made my heart pound a little harder. We then set up a time to meet and then I started to pack my stuff. It was very sunny and warm that day and I got more and more excited as I got ready.

A while later I was waiting for Jimin near the lake. When I saw him come from afar my mouth went dry. Jimin was wearing shorts, a loose tank top that was showing off his muscly arms and shoulders and gave a little sneak peak of his torso and sunglasses. Great. It didn't exactly make things easier for me and he didn't even take his shirt off, yet. I must've been looking a little perplexed, because when he arrived in front of me he giggled and asked me what ghost I had seen. I was thankful that I had been wearing sunglasses, too, so he didn't see the full extent of my expression. I pulled myself together and just said that I had been lost in thoughts. Jimin gave me a short hug and then we went to the lake looking for a nice place on the lawn around it. We found a place next to a tree, in case we needed shade, that wasn't too crowded and put down our stuff. It was also not too far away from the lake so that we could keep an eye on our stuff while being in the water. We put down our stuff and simultaneously took off our shirts. I had already put on sunscreen earlier so I didn't have to do that anymore. I had to swallow when I saw Jimin's upper body. His abs were incredibly y. He took out sunscreen as I took off my shoes and spread a blanket on the ground. I couldn't help but sneak a few glances at him as he was applying the sunscreen. I had to force myself to look away several times.

“Jungkook?” I heard Jimin say.

“Yeah?” I said and turned to him.

“Can you apply it on my back? I have short arms.” he said. I was a little fazed for a moment.

“Yeah, sure.” I then answered and he handed me the bottle of sunscreen and turned around. I put some of the sunscreen on my own hand and then first of all roughly spread it on his back. Then I put the bottle down and started to slightly massage it into his skin. I couldn't help notice how warm and soft his skin felt under my fingers. It felt weird and frustrating to touch him, but not really be able to touch him.

“Done.” I said and stepped back.

“Thanks.” he said as he turned around. We lazed around a little on the blanket before going into the water because of the sunscreen and talked about school and stuff. We then both took off our sunglasses and went over to the lake. There was a rack to jump into the lake and we both automatically went there. When we had reached the end we looked at each other and grinned.

“Ready?” I asked.

“Ready!” he answered and then we both jumped into the water.

We surfaced and immediately started to try to dunk each other and play around. Then we started to swim across the lake together.

“This feels so good.” he said as we swam.

“Yeah.” I agreed. We swam a little more than half across the lake and then turned around to swim back as we chatted.

When we went out of the lake Jimin ran his fingers through his hair to get it out of his face and looked way too good doing it. We went over to our blanket and roughly dried ourselves with our towels before lying down next to each other to let the sun do the rest. The sun felt nice on my skin and I closed my eyes enjoying it. At some point I turned around to lie on my stomach. I used my arms as a pillow and relaxed. I felt like I was about to doze off like that, when I suddenly felt something touch my back. Was it fingers? I turned my head aside and saw that Jimin was lying on his side and I felt him draw patterns on my skin. Shivers ran down my spine. I was so surprised by the situation that all I could do was look at Jimin dumbfounded. He returned my stare with a serious face as he continued to gently scrape his fingers over my skin.

“What are you doing?” I asked silently as if I was afraid anyone else could hear me. For a moment he didn't answer and looked down. When he looked back up into my eyes he said: “I missed you.”