The next day, Taehyung's phone beeps early in the morning. For some reason, he thinks it’s part of a dream where his phone is trying to eat him…but then he snaps out of his sleep deprived state. Before he checks it he rolls over and attempts to blink the sleep out of his eyes. For some reason he feels more exhausted than usual.

New Message

From: Jungkook

10:48 am

Tae hyung. It’s Sunday.

He sits up, pushing the tangle of black hair out of his eyes.

New Message

To: Jungkook

10:51 am

Yes, Jungkook, I know.

New Message

From: Jungkook

10:53 am

Let’s hang out.

New Message

To: Jungkook

10:55 am

I could probably do that.

New Message

From: Jungkook

10:57 am

Be there in an hour.

He sighs, tossing his phone in front of him.

I’ve never hung out with Jungkook for this many days in a row before…not counting school, obviously.

His stomach tightens a bit, but then he remembers that he needs to get ready. Due to Jungkook’s usual habit of being early, he knows that he needs to get ready now.

By the time he's showered and dressed, and just about to run a brush through his damp hair, the doorbell rings.

He goes down to answer it, and sees Jungkook there, grinning at him.

“Hey,” Jungkook says, “Your hair is wet.”

He nods. “Thank you, Captain Obvious.”

Jungkook grins. “Just thought I would point it out.”

“Come in,” he tells him, moving away from the door.

“We gotta go,” Jungkook says, “Are you ready?”

“Do I look ready?”

Jungkook nods. Taehyung rolls his eyes at him and finish running the brush through his hair quickly.

He comes loping down the stairs just as mom comes into the hall and sees Jungkook.

“I’ll be back later,” Taehyung tells his mom quickly, pushing Jungkook towards the door.

Mom just smiles at him.

In Jungkook’s car, his stomach makes a very loud and embarrassing sound.

Jungkook laughs. “Hungry?”

He nods. “In case you hadn’t noticed, you do have a tendency to be extremely early.”

Jungkook grins. “They have a food court anyway, so no problem.”

“They?” he asks. “You haven’t actually told me where we’re going?”

“Mini Golf,” he says, “I told you I’d teach you how to beat me.”

“Actually, you said you wouldn’t let me win. And I thought you were going to hang out with Chungha?”

“She’s out of town,” he says.

Yesterday she was working, Taehyung thinks.

They park in the same place as last time and walk up to the Galaxy Arcade. There’s almost no one inside, most likely ’cause it’s a Sunday.

When they get to the first hole, Taehyung realize that they actually are the only people in the whole place.

They move through the first, second and third holes without seeing anyone. The fourth hole is dark, but everywhere there are glow in the dark lights, making Jungkook’s shirt looks fluorescent blue.

“So,” Jungkook says, “Show me how you putt.”

“Pardon?”

“Putt. Take your shot, I want to see what you’re doing wrong.”

“Oh, that’s nice.”

He places his ball on the ground and take aim.

“That’s what you’re doing wrong,” Jungkook says.

“What?” he asks.

“You’re holding the putter wrong.” Jungkook stands in front of him, holding his hands in a different position to his.

Taehyung tries to set his hands up the way Jungkook's are, but the other says, “I’ll show you.”

Before he can react, Jungkook is standing behind him, slipping his arms around to grasp the putter.

Taehyung's face heats up at having him so close, but luckily in the dark Jungkook can’t see.

“Here,” Jungkook says. His breath tickles Taehyung's cheek and ruffles his hair. Jungkook places his hands over his. Taehyung supresses a small shiver.

With Jungkook's hands over his, the younger pulls the club back, and they swing it together. With a thwack, the ball goes flying, landing in the hole with a small ping.

For a second Taehyung stands motionless. Jungkook's arms are still around him.

“I did it!” Taehyung cries out. He twists in Jungkook's arms and gives him a hug. Jungkook’s arms tightens around him and for a second he forget where they are.

Too long, a voice in the back of his mind says, Friends don’t hug this long.

He lets go of Jungkook and steps away, but he can’t keep the smile off his face.

“Thanks!” he tells him.

“I suspect it’s because the course is relatively flat,” Jungkook says with a smirk.

“Shut up.” He punches him lightly in the stomach and moves away to collect his ball.

Jungkook gets ready to putt, but at the last second, he looks up at Taehyung with a smile. He swings, and misses.

Taehyung lets out a giggle. “Nice work.”

Jungkook pokes himself in the nose in a peevish imitation of him. It takes him two more tries to get his ball in.

When the game is over and they tally up their scores, Taehyung finds that Jungkook and him are almost tied. Jungkook beat him by two points.

“This ,” he says, crumpling the score card in his hand.

“Don’t worry,” Jungkook says, “You’ll beat me next time. C’mon, let’s get some food.”

They settle down to eat in the small plastic chairs of the food area. Now that it’s after lunch, there are a few more people here, eating, playing golf, or using the vintage arcade games lined across one wall.

“So,” Jungkook says. “Your mom seemed pretty excited to see me today.”

Taehyung pops a ketchup covered fry into his mouth and shrugs, feeling slightly embarrassed. “I told you, I don’t go out much. Jimin is the only person I’ve ever really hung out with.”

Jungkook’s eyes widen slightly, and he suddenly feel very self-conscious. Even so, that he drop his eyes to the table, hiding beneath his bangs.

“That’s okay,” Jungkook says, “I’ve been hanging out with my cousin for most of my life.”

“She’s your cousin,” he says, as if this makes complete and total sense.

“Yes, but she’s a girl.” Jungkook shudders. “She’s all…”

“Girly?”

“Yes!”

Taehyung frowns at him, reaching across the table and patting his hand. “You poor muffin.”

Jungkook grins at him, finishing off his food. He reaches across the table to snatch one of his fries.

And he slaps his hand away. “Mine.” he tells him.

“Geez, you don’t have to be so protective,” Jungkook says, withdrawing his hand, “They aren’t your children.”

At the surprised look on his face, Jungkook reaches over and grabs four or five fries before he can stop him.

He glares at him, but Jungkook just smiles.

“You’re such a gentleman,” he tells him.

"Why yes, thanks” Jungkook says, popping the stolen fries on his mouth. 

Taehyung throws a fry at him.

---

 

 

 

 

Taehyung starts at work again on Monday, heading there around five. The air is starting to cool down more at night now, and he can definitely feel it in the air as he park around the back of the store and make his way inside.

 

 

The night before, Jenny called him and asked if he could start work again. He decided since he has all his school work wrapped up and ready to go, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to start earning money again. He usually work from the middle of September up until the end of August.

He walks into The Book Nook, and immediately feels right at home. Being surrounded by the smell of pages and coffee is enough to make him happy. While the store is small, its colourful and homey, with brightly painted bookshelves lining the walls and beanbag chairs stuffed into corners for people to sit and read.

Jenny isn’t looking at him when he comes in- she’s busy helping a customer at the front of the store. He stands in line behind the customer and take in Jenny’s appearance. She has white hair that frames her tan face with it’s thick creases, but she’s still beautiful- her smile especially.

When she’s finished with the customer before him he steps up to the counter.

She exclaims, “Tae, how are you?”

“I’m really good.” He grins at her. Jenny has always been like a godmother to him- she’s known his mom for even longer than she’s known him.

“Come ’round here so I can give y’all a hug.” Jenny has a fairly thick Daegu accent, but he had never found it difficult to understand her.

He comes around the side of the blue and green counter and gives her a tight hug. For an older woman she sure squeezes hard. He haven’t seen Jenny in a while- not since he stopped his shifts to get back into school.

“How are you?” he asks her.

Jenny pulls away from him and pushes her long white hair out of her face. “I’m great, darlin’.”

“Good. How’s the Nook doing?”

“We’re good,” she says, gesturing around at the wide open space of the store.

Taehyung looks around. The bookshelves that line the walls are full to bursting with books with headings like History, Adult Fiction, and Children’s Stories. Little brown tables dot the room with upcoming bestsellers and award winning books. The areas between these tables are always cramped when people needs to walk through them, but they don’t seem to mind.

He looks up behind Jenny, at the shelves behind the counter. Mason jars filled with Jenny’s homemade flavoured candy fill the shelves, creating a pretty multi-coloured shadow on the shelves’ wood.

“You’ve been selling candy?” he ask her with a smile.

Jenny nods. “I thought the store could use a new idea,” she says.

He nods. A few months ago, the Nook wasn’t doing so well. For a while, Jenny and him both thought she was going to have to close, but then she started selling homemade candy and baked goods. Now people can come in for both books and food. She sometimes serves coffee and tea to people who ask for it as well.

“That’s a great idea,” he tells her with a smile.

Jenny points into the back office. “Your aprons’ in there, along with some brew.”

He smiles at Jenny and moves around her to the office.

Their aprons are a beautiful blue colour, matching the counter and the sign outside the store. Careful embroidery on the apron says The Book Nook in green cursive.

When he comes out of the office, Jenny is helping a customer. She smiles at him and points to a few boxes beneath the counter.

He picks them up and start to unload. This is his normal job when Jenny’s here; stocking shelves, and sometimes helping customers. He tends to help out a lot with the heavy lifting, since Jenny’s getting older.

As he's placing the last book in its place, his phone buzzes. He looks up to the front of the store. No one is here. Jenny normally doesn’t mind phones, as long as there isn’t someone he could be helping.

New Message

From: Jungkook

5:43 pm

Whatcha doing?

New Message

To: Jungkook

5:45 pm

At work. You?

New Message

From: Jungkook

5:47 pm

Bored. Hungry.

New Message

To: Jungkook

5:49 pm

So eat something :)

New Message

From: Jungkook

5:52 pm

Are you hungry?

For a second he stares down at Jungkook's text. Normally he's here at the Nook until ten, and then he eats when he get home. But I am hungry, he thinks to himself.

New Message

To: Jungkook

5:57 pm

Yeah a bit. Why?

New Message

From: Jungkook

5:59 pm

Good.

He rolls his eyes. Jungkook always sends him cryptic texts, so it’s not something he's surprised about.

Jenny motions him over to the front counter.

“I’m going to get something to eat,” she says, pointing at the ceiling. Jenny’s apartment is right above the store. She often takes breaks to get off her feet, something he doesn’t mind at all.

“Okay,” he tells her, “I can look after things.”

“Do you want something?” she asks kindly.

He tells her no and she makes her way to the back of the store, where there’s a back staircase leads to up to her house.

Not even ten minutes later, the chime over the door rings out. He gets to his feet, brushing off his apron-

And see the messy brown haired head of Jungkook.

“Hey,” Jungkook says, coming into the store. In his hand is a white paper bag. Unconsciously, Taehyung's mouth starts to water.

“Hi,” he says, smiling at him.

Jungkook looks really pleased with himself. “Delivery,” he says.

He gestures to the counter, placing one of the two stools on the other side, so Jungkook can sit.

“I can’t sit back there with you?” Jungkook pouts.

“No non-employees behind the counter,” he grins.

Jungkook smiles, setting the bag on the counter. He pulls out two burgers and fries, along with bottles of iced tea.

“You might be my favourite person.” Taehyung tells him, grabbing for a fry.

“You were hungry,” Jungkook says.

“I’m starving.”

Jungkook hands him one of the burgers. “This one is yours,” he says, examining it, “No pickles.”

He raise his eyebrows at him. “Thanks.”

“You look surprised.” Jungkook grins at him.

“How did you know I don’t like pickles?”

“It’s my job to know,” Jungkook says slyly.

He smiles at him, and they dig in. He hadn’t realized how hungry he was until he started eating- he practically devour his food.

“So,” he asks, wiping his mouth, “Why aren’t you with Chungha tonight?”

“She’s working,” Jungkook says.

“She was working the whole weekend too,” he smiles.

Jungkook shrugs. “She works a lot. Something about saving for college.”

He nods. “I’m doing the same.”

“You don’t work a lot,” Jungkook says, matter of fact-ly.

“This is my first shift back. I’ll probably be working every other day, and Saturdays from now on. At least that’s what happened last year.”

“So no more weekend hangouts?” Jungkook frowns.

He’s cute when he frowns, Taehyung realize- he gets a little wrinkle in his forehead.

“We can still hangout,” he tells him. “It’s not like I’m moving away.”

Jungkook smiles at him and looks around the store. “I like this place. It’s…”

“Homey?” he suggest. They get that a lot from customers.

“Yeah, that’s a good word for it. It’s a nice place to just hang out.”

He nods, taking a drink from his iced tea. “I’m a big fan of it here. It’s not usually too busy, so it’s nice to just-” he stops himself. The answer is too lame to say out loud.

“It’s nice to what?” Jungkook asks, giving him a small smile.

He shrugs, thinking about whether or not he wants to tell him. He decide to give it a chance. “It’s nice to just be alone with books sometimes.”

Jungkook surveys him for a second before giving him a radiant smile- one he haven’t seen on him before. It makes Jungkook's face light up.

“So, how’s your cousin?” he asks him, searching for a change in subject, fearing his face going red.

“Good,” he says. “But we only have one car, so she keeps bugging me-”

Jungkook stops mid-sentence, and pulls out his phone. “.” He says.

“What?” he asks, leaning over the counter to see his phone.

“It’s my cousin,” Jungkook says.

“Speak of the devil.” Taehyung smiles.

“Yeah.” Jungkook grins, “I gotta go. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Sure,” he tells him. “Thanks for dinner!”

Jungkook waves a goodbye as he leaves the store.

Taehyung cleans up the food wrappers, feeling refreshed. By the time Jenny comes back downstairs, there’s no evidence that Jungkook was ever here.

Since dinnertime is always quiet, he gets started on some of his Calculus. However, his mind starts to drift to Jungkook.

He seems to hang out with me more than Chungha, he thinks, He’s always saying she’s busy and hanging out with me.

He shakes the thought away, turning his thoughts to Wednesday, when he'll be hanging out with Namjoon. His stomach twists in both happiness and nerves.

Namjoon’s nice, he tells himself, It’ll be fun.