Goosebumps rise on Taehyung’s skin as he takes in the older boy before him.

 

“I was exploring the area and found this outside leading me in,” he says, offended. Did this other boy own this place or something? To prove his point, Taehyung holds up the card he picked up on the ground outside. He was going to just walk past it but he recognised the face on the transportation card to be that of his neighbour’s. Now that he couldn’t just ignore.

 

Taehyung turns to Sera and aims the card at her, throwing it in her direction. He realises that he might have used a bit too much strength when he sees the card fly over his target. Damn.

 

“Hey!”

 

Out of nowhere, Taehyung’s body jerks back as someone shoves him on the chest.

 

“Where are your manners?” The other boy spits at him. Was it him who pushed Taehyung? Taehyung tilts his head at him. What had he done to offend him?

 

“Jjun, what’s wrong with you?” Sera speaks up as she moves to pick up her card now laying some ways behind her.

 

Curiosity gets the better of Taehyung as he voices up, “Is that your boyfriend?”

 

Sera’s eyes widen as if he’d just cussed her ancestors out. She shakes her head in quick denial before introducing the boy.

 

Kim Namjoon is his name, Sera says. Taehyung can’t help but notice the slight frown on Namjoon’s face as Sera introduced him as her childhood friend. Acknowledging the seniority of the boy before him, Taehyung dips his head in a greeting only to get a cold response in return.

 

The trio stands around awkwardly before Sera clears . “Ice cream, anyone?” She suggests.

 

The three of them end up in a soup and rice shop for lunch instead because apparently, Sera‘s sporting a cold and her Namjoon was against the freezing dessert. Now seated at a round table, Taehyung and Namjoon are engaged in an eye battle initiated by none other than the older boy himself.

 

Taehyung wonders for a moment about why he’s even doing this but the competitive spirit in him refuses to let him give up. Namjoon’s stare grows in intensity by the second as if he’s trying to look into Taehyung’s soul. Sweat breaks out at the nape of Taehyung’s neck. So focused on winning this meaningless competition, Taehyung doesn’t notice as a small hand creeps towards the back of his head. When he finally regains his composure, he’s nestling a large bump on his forehead.

 

“What was that for?” He glares at the culprit of his possible concussion – Sera. He realises that Namjoon’s forehead also shows a patch of red but the older boy merely frowns.

 

Sera shrugs. “Someone had to step in before you two actually kill each other.”

 

Were they going to kill each other? No, Taehyung thinks it was a one-sided war on Namjoon’s part. He had thought about it briefly but still doesn’t quite get the reason behind Namjoon’s hostility towards him.

 

“Have you already decided on what you want to eat?” Namjoon changes the subject casually. Taehyung could tell Sera was resisting an eye roll as she tells them that she has already ordered.

 

“Actually, you two were already acquainted before this, aren’t you?” Sera asks randomly.

 

“What are you talking about?” Taehyung suddenly thinks of something and side tracks to ask her, “Can I go over tonight? I need help preparing for tomorrow.”

 

Sera blinks thoughtfully for a moment. “I’ll go over.”

 

Fine by him, Taehyung just needs some help with his materials for school tomorrow.

 

“You’ll be in the same class as Sera?” Namjoon breaks Taehyung’s train of thoughts with his question. Taehyung mumbles a straightforward answer, earning him an eye roll from sera.

 

“Jjun, you…” Sera’s voice trails off as soon as she starts. Following her gaze, Taehyung notices that she has her eyes widened on Namjoon’s arm. Is that a scratch?

 

With a bit of fussing around, Sera leaves her seat and rushes out of the shop. She did tell them to start eating if theirs came first but Taehyung supposes that he’d be waiting for her anyway. As soon as she’s out of sight, Namjoon turns back to study Taehyung.

 

“You two look close,” the older boy says simply.

 

“Do we?” Taehyung raises an eyebrow. He’d only met the girl for… how many days now?

 

Namjoon furrows his eyebrows, his lips pressed into a tight line. If Taehyung is getting the vibes right, he’s pretty sure that Namjoon likes Sera a lot more than the childhood friend the girl claims them to be.

 

He smiles his signature gummy smile. “You don’t have to worry about me, hyung.”

 

Namjoon looks slightly annoyed but doesn’t bother correcting Taehyung’s term of endearment.

 

“Sera’s not my type of girl,” Taehyung tells Namjoon honestly. Sure, she’s a nice girl with a bonus pretty face, but she’s just not his cup of tea. Taehyung makes sure to clarify this with the other boy before he misunderstands anything.

 

“So you’re not interested in her?” Namjoon asks, his expression relaxing a tad. Taehyung shakes his head reassuringly.

 

With girl issues out of the way, Namjoon seems to have gotten quite friendly with Taehyung, the both of them chatting about random guy topics. Taehyung mentions that he’s from the countryside and Namjoon’s ears perk up in interest. Their food had arrived a while ago but neither of them were going to start without Sera.

 

Speaking of whom, Sera tumbles back into her seat looking a bit out of breath.

 

“Where did you go?” Namjoon asks, worry filling his eyes.

 

Sera eyes them suspiciously. “What did I miss?”

 

“Taehyung was just telling me about his hometown,” Namjoon explains. “Daegu seems like a pretty nice place.”

 

Taehyung chirps in, “Hyung, let’s go there sometime. I’ll show you my farm!”

 

From the corner of his eye, Sera shakes her head.  Then, snapping awake, she pulls Namjoon’s arm towards her and examines the scratch on his arm. All that fussing around for a scratch! Taehyung wriggles his eyebrows at a flustered Namjoon. The older boy’s face flushes slightly as Sera cleans the wound and applies ointment on it. Finally, she slaps on a large plaster over the whole thing. Namjoon flinches.

 

Maybe it’s a little bit more than a scratch, Taehyung deduces from Namjoon’s pained expression.

 

“Now, let’s eat,” Sera announces having cleared the trash of gauze and plaster wrapper off the table.

 

Taehyung stifles a laugh and it comes out sounding like a snicker. Namjoon raises his eyebrows at him and Taehyung wriggles his own in response. Despite his cool demeanour, Taehyung knows that Namjoon is secretly feeling all fluffy on the inside. A smile steals Namjoon’s lips but he hides it quickly.

 

Sera clears by the side having witnessed their little exchange of weird facial expressions.

 

“Eat,” she repeats and Taehyung digs into his lunch, famished from the earlier conflict with Namjoon. Now that he has cleared the air with Namjoon, Taehyung slurps up his soup with a light heart.

 

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