As he's walking to Austen, Jungkook catches up to him in the parking lot.

“I forgot to give you back your note.” he says.

“Oh, thanks.” Taehyung's surprised that he went to the trouble of bringing it back to him, but he's glad he did.

“Look, are you okay?” He asks, sticking his hands into the pockets of his jeans.

“Fine. I’m fine.” He nods to himself more than him. Jungkook think he knows its sort of a lie, but he drops it.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah, okay.”

Jungkook smiles at him and walks over to his car, where the girl from this morning stands waiting. She doesn’t give Taehyung a second glance.

Well, that’s interesting. The happiness he was feeling earlier sinks into the deep pit in his stomach. He hears a crackling of paper, and looks down to see that he got his note clenched tightly into his fist.

“Shoot.”

He dumps his bag in the passengers’ seat and start Austen. He doesn’t stop anywhere on the way home, and pulls into the driveway in record time. The Jeep in front of him tells him that his dad is home, and he hops out of the car immediately.

“Dad?” he yells when he walks into the hall.

“Tae!” he yells, “Hey son!”

Dad comes around the corner, and Taehyung can tell that he’s tired. His dad is tall, with salt and pepper hair and his black eyes, but right now they have dark bags under them. He’s still wearing his medical tags, so he guesses he’s just gotten home.

He gives Taehyung a big smile and a hug all the same.

“How was the first day?”

“It was all right. How was your shift?”

“Okay. No emergencies, which was nice. Lots of paper work.”

He nods. “School was the same.”

His dad notices the bitterness in his voice, and says, “Missing Jimin?”

He shrugs, but dad knows it’s true. He’s one of the only people in the family who can read him well. “Where’s mom?”

“She went shopping,” he says with a grin. “Said you need more clothes.”

He rolls his eyes, and his dad laughs. “I don’t think she understands the words, “I’ll buy my own clothes.””

Dad chuckles, “No, she doesn’t. She’s still buying your brother's clothes.”

He snorts. They’re in university, so that’s impressive. “They have the same tastes though.”

Personally he prefers comfy sweaters, worn-out jeans, t-shirts, boots…his mom and brothers love tightly fitted shirts and pants that cling to their slender figures. His mother hates his holey jeans with a passion. He had to hide them so that she doesn’t toss them.

“Are they coming home for dinner?” he asks suddenly.

“All of them? No, just your mom and Hoseok; Seokjin is busy tonight.”

He nods. “I’m going to get my English done.”

Dad nods. “See you in a bit son.”

In his room, he closes the door behind him and dumps his bag with a sigh. His mom never understands his tastes in clothing, books…pretty much anything. For example, she doesn’t understand why he needs so many bookshelves (grand total of four). The only thing she thinks he needs more of is closet space.

He pulls up to his desk, trying to start his English homework, but when he pulls out the crumpled note from earlier, his thoughts keep wandering to Jungkook, and the girl. He’s probably known her forever, and they have a deep romance that he could never understand…

Argh! he concentrates, deliberately pushing away his thoughts of Jungkook. He’s taken, he keeps reminding himself.

But he still can’t concentrate, so instead, he checks his email to find a new one from Jimin.

Message Recipient: 

From: 

I’m so not liking Busan anymore. I’ve got ok classes, and there are ok people in them, but my math class is complete rubbish.

The only good thing is, remember that guy I told you about? The one who recognized me? He asked if I wanted to hang out, so we’ve got a sorta date thing tomorrow! So excited, you gotta wish me luck!

Hopefully I’ll be able to visit soon (#road trip)!

Love from,

Jimin

He smiles at his email. He misses him so much it hurts, especially today. They've always been inseparable, so this much time apart makes his soul hurt. They haven’t talked in person for a while either, which is unusual. He sends him an email and finds himself telling him all about Jungkook. He makes sure to mention that he thinks he has a girlfriend, just so Jimin doesn’t go completely crazy on him.

He hears the front door opening and closing, and his mom’s voice yelling “Taehyung!”

He makes his way slowly to the stairs. Maybe if he doesn’t answer she’ll go away…but that probably won’t happen.

“Yeah?”

“Dinner,” she says, “And Hoseok is here.”

“Hi Hoseok.” he calls down.

“Hey Taehyungie. How was school?”

“Rad.” he answers, “How ’bout you?”

His brother’s face appears at the bottom of the stairs, smirking, “Also rad.”

At the dinner table, he meet Hoseok’s guest- a blond guy with a nicely shaped jaw. Together they look like Barbie and Ken.

“This is Hyungwon,” he says. Hoseok raises his eyebrows at him, but he has already taken the hint. You’re dating, I get it. I won’t embarrass you.

“I’m Taehyung.”

Hyungwon nods. He looks slightly uncomfortable; not that he blames him. Just meeting his mother on his own is pretty intimidating, let alone his dad and him.

At first, dinner goes well. No talk about the Forbidden Subject, but lots of questions about Hoseok and Hyungwon dating, or for how long, or future plans. All in all it’s not too bad. Hyungwon seems nice, and Hoseok seems to really like him.

They're doing spectacular until dessert, when Hyungwon brings it up. The Forbidden Subject.

“So, Taehyung. What are you thinking of doing next year?” Hyungwon looks at him with polite interest.

“Uhh…” he glances up at his dad. He’s never pushed him to have fantastic amazing goals, but with his mom it’s a different situation.

“Tae, Hyungwon asked you a question.” Mom says politely, but he can see the Answer-Correctly-Or-Die look in her eyes.

“Well, I-”

“Tae has wonderful grades,” his mother gushes for him, “He would do well as a doctor, a lawyer, an accountant…anything he sets his mind too.” His mom gives him an expectant look.

He nods. “Yeah. But I don’t really know.”

His mother shoots him a dirty look, like she’s saying, “Don’t be silly, of course you know.”

Hyungwon nods. He can clearly see the tension in the room. Taehyung feels a bit bad for him, to be honest, but he feels worse for making everyone uncomfortable. It’s not his fault he didn’t know what he was getting into.

The rest of dinner passes quietly, and he practically do a mad sprint to his room when it’s over. He doesn’t really feel like having the talk about his future with mom. Not again.

He just feels confused. The only thing he'd really been good at is Literature. He's an okay writer, but he really just love books. Maybe he could own a bookshop.

There’s a knock at his door, but he turns the light off hastily and climb into bed. A sliver of light is beamed across the floor, and he sees the shadow of his mom’s head enter his room.

Breathe normally, he tells himself.

After a second, his mom closes the door. That was close.