“Where are we?” Taehyung asks.

Jungkook has pulled into a dingy parking lot in the downtown area of Seoul.

“Where does it look like?”

“A parking lot.”

“Correct!”

“Tell me this isn’t your idea of a good time?”

“Nah, we just had to go this way so you wouldn’t see where we’re going.”

“Darn. I was so hoping to catch a glimpse of it…whatever it is.”

“Come on,” Jungkook says. He gets out of the car, and Taehyung follows him. They exit the parking lot and start walking down what looks like a very rundown street.

The cool air whips at Taehyung's hair. He shrugs his jacket on, pushing the flyaway strands back into place.

“Where are we going?” he asks again.

“Stop asking. Close your eyes.”

“Why?”

“Because I want it to be a surprise. I’ll hold your hand if you want.” Jungkook wiggles his eyebrows at him.

He rolls his eyes. “Fine, but don’t let me trip or something. And if I find we’re in some sort of weird….place, I’m-”

“Place?”

“I’m leaving,” he finish.

Jungkook smiles. “Don’t worry, you’ll love it.”

“Right.”

Taehyung closes his eyes.

Jungkook’s hand close around his, and a tingle goes up Taehyung's arm. He has to force himself to keep his eyes closed, even though he really wants to catch of glimpse of Jungkook's hand in his.

Now that he got his eyes closed, he realize how weird this must look. Jungkook’s hand tugs on his, and he starts walking. The cold air brushes his eye lids and he shivers slightly. He hadn’t expected it to be this cold, even with his jacket.

He feels like he's about to trip with every step he takes, but Jungkook’s hand is clutched firmly around his, keeping him steady.

Jungkook and him doesn’t talk as they’re walking, so instead Taehyung listens to the sounds of the street- car horns honking, people yelling…he can smell the acrid scent of smoke and something that stinks suspiciously like vomit.

Just when they’ve been walking for about ten minutes, and he's about to ask if he can open his eyes, Jungkook says, “Okay, we’re here.”

“Open?” he asked.

“Yep.” Jungkook drops his hand and turns him around, he presumes so he's facing the proper direction.

He opens his eyes and laughs.

They’re standing in front of a small building with a sign that says, Galaxy Arcade and Mini Golf.

“How did you find this?" he asks. “I didn’t even know it existed.”

“I’ve got my ways,” Jungkook says.

A bell rings at the back of Taehyung's mind, making him remember something. “Is this because I said I wanted to go to Mars?”

“Obviously. Why else would I bring you here?”

“Cause you like mini golf?”

“Everyone likes mini golf.” Jungkook says, with the same tone that someone would say, “Cows eat grass”, or “The sky is blue.”

“Pretty much.”

“Come on,” he says. “Let’s play.”

Jungkook leads him inside, and he almost gasps in amazement. The walls and carpets are themed like the solar system, with black backgrounds and gleaming white and pink stars sprawled across them. He'd expected it to be animated planets with sunglasses or umbrellas, but this looks so real.

He's incredibly surprised that Jungkook was able to find something this amazing in such a short time. The interior of the building makes him think that the outside must have been an illusion.

“This is awesome!” he tells Jungkook. That’s when he realize he’s no longer beside him. He panics for a second, before he spot his mess of dark hair by the front desk.

As he walks up, Jungkook hands him a golf club. “You’re bit on the short side, but this should work.”

“That’s nice. For your information, I’m about average. You’re just freakishly tall.” he remarks.

Jungkook grins.

“I was just telling Chungha here that this is our first time.” He jerks his thumb lazily at the pretty, artificially blond-headed girl at the counter. Her teeth stick out in a very exaggerated over bite, but other than that, she’s quite nice looking, and about their age.

“That was nice of you.” Taehyung smiles at him, but Jungkook's looking at the girl, leaning over the desk towards her and running his hands through his hair.

For some reason, there’s a stinging feeling in his chest area.

“Come on,” he says, grabbing Jungkook’s arm. “Let’s play.”

Jungkook nods, but Taehyung sees him slip a very small piece of paper across the desk to the girl, who giggles.

How nice.

“So, you like her?” he asks.

“She’s cute.”

“Don’t lie, you were totally into her.” he punches him lightly in the stomach, and Jungkook grins.

“Shut up.”

They walk into the golfing area, and the stinging feeling goes away at once. From where Taehyung's standing, it looks like they’re in a miniature version of the Solar System.

Each hole is themed with a different planet, but they start at the sun and work their way (presumably) towards Neptune.

As they start their game, Jungkook talks about their English project. Jungkook wants people to find Halloween and Christmas themed objects and bring them back to them for prizes like chocolate.

“What kind of objects do you mean?”

“I dunno,” he says. He swings his club and gets a hole in one. He throws his hands up in triumph. “Beat that!”

Taehyung smirks at him. He never had been good at sports, but that doesn’t include mini golf.

“I was thinking we could work on this for the next couple weeks. Since we have a lot of the same classes, we can help each other with homework.”

He's swinging his club just as Jungkook talks, but he stops suddenly. Just to clarify- “So you want to hang out to work on this?”

“Yep.” He’s leaning nonchalantly on his club, smiling at him. Taehyung swings his club and get a hole-in-one.

“Hah!” he shouts.

“Nice. But I’m still winning!” Jungkook sing-songs.

“Yeah, yeah.”

They make their way through the holes, acting completely and totally normal, but when they get to the hole titled “Uranus,” Jungkook bursts into a fit of giggles, startling the group of ten year olds behind them. He practically has to drag him away so he can calm down.

At the end of the game, they tally up their scores. Taehyung realize that although Jungkook has got some hole-in-ones, he’s been letting him win.

When he calls him out on it, Jungkook shrugs, a huge smile splitting his face.

“I will beat you next time,” he tells Jungkook. “But you have to play like you normally would.”

Jungkook smiles. “You would lose terribly.”

“Shut up, I’m being serious.”

“So am I. But you’re right, we should do it again. It was fun.”

That almost makes it better, but then he catches the wink Jungkook gives Chungha, the blond-head from earlier.

“Let’s go,” he says, trying to hide the irradiation in his voice. “I have to get home to do my history homework.”

“Yeah right,” Jungkook snorts. “Knowing you, you’ve already finished it.”

He doesn’t answer. Apparently Jungkook knows him more than he thought.

On the drive home, they discuss their project more. Jungkook is very creative, and ends up thinking up most of the ideas for the scavenger hunt.

When Jungkook pulls up at his house, he grabs his bag and hops out of the car.

“I’ll text you later,” Jungkook says with a smile.

“You should make sure Chungha hasn’t texted you first,” he replies, “You don’t want to miss her.”

Jungkook smiles at him. “Will do. See you tomorrow.”

“Later.”

Jungkook drives away, as soon as he gets to the front steps, the doors flies open, and Seokjin and his mom comes tumbling out the door.

“How was it?”

“Did he kiss you?”

“Are you dating?”

He rolls his eyes. They’re acting like a bunch of freshman. “It was fun, he didn’t kiss me, and no, we’re friends. I’m going upstairs.”

Their faces fall, but they didn’t ask any other questions. Seokjin however, follows him to his room again.

“What happened?” he asks. He shuts the door behind him, which Taehyung's thankful for.

“It was fun until he started flirting with a girl.” he admits.

“Well,” Seokjin says. The smile drops off his face, but he looks thoughtful. “If you two are just friends, it shouldn’t bother you when he flirts with girls.”

Seokjin gives him an imploring look, which is irritating as hell, but somehow he knows he’s right.

If he keeps insisting to himself that they’re friends, he shouldn’t be jealous of other girls…we’re friends, he tells himself firmly. Just friends.

He looks up at Seokjin, who is so beautiful that he’s probably never had these problems. “You’re right.” he tells him.

Seokjin nods at him. “I usually am.”

A small smile creeps over Taehyung's lips. “It was fun hanging out with someone other than Jimim.”

“It’s good to have a group of friends. Something is always new.”

Seokjin smiles at him one last time, and leaves the room, closing the door quietly behind him, which he's thankful for.

It must be easy for Seokjin to say that. He’s always had a big group of friends. Taehyung, on the other hand, rather have books than friends, even though that probably isn’t the greatest socialization idea. What he really needs is to talk to Jimin, but he’s getting ready for his date, and he'd hate to bother him with all his thoughts.

Instead his thoughts turns back to the blond-head at the counter. So what if Jungkook talks to her. It shouldn’t bother me.

No matter how much he tells himself that, it sort of does bother him. Then again, just because he's now Jungkook's friend, doesn’t mean he can’t have other friends…or a girlfriend… He shouldn’t be jealous because Jungkook's super social and friendly.

His phone beeps, and he finds himself hoping that it’s Jimin. Maybe he needs help with something.

New Message

From: Jungkook

5:53 pm

Guess where I am?

He holds off a minute before answering. He wasn’t expecting Jungkook to text him that soon. Most of the time he doesn’t have to worry about missing messages- the only people who really texts him are Jimin, mom and dad.

New Message

To: Jungkook

5:56 pm

I dunno?

New Message

From: Jungkook

5:58 pm

Guess.

New Message

To: Jungkook

6:01 pm

I dunno! Just tell me :P

New Message

From: Jungkook

6:04 pm

You’re no fun!

New Message

To: Jungkook

6:06 pm

You could just tell me!

New Message

From: Jungkook

6:09 pm

At the Galaxy Arcade ;)

His stomach does a weird flop, but he pushes it away. If Jungkook's with Chungha, that’s okay. No big deal.

New Message

To: Jungkook

6:11 pm

With the blond-head?

New Message

From: Jungkook

6:12 pm

Yes xD

New Message

To: Jungkook

6:14 pm

Cool!

New Message

From: Jungkook

6:16 pm

Gotta go, we’re going to hang out ;)

New Message

To: Jungkook

6:17 pm

Talk to you tomorrow

At least I know he’s hanging out with her. Taehyung heads down to dinner to find that no one questions him about Jungkook. Seokjin must have talked to them. Don’t get him wrong, he's grateful, but the tiny voice in the back of his head tells him that he should be able to deal with this by himself.

There’s no talk about his university choices either, which he's definitely happy about. The Forbidden Subject is not something he wants to deal with right now.

“How’s your boyfriend?” Mom asks Hoseok.

“He’s good.”

“That’s nice.”

Basically, their conversation is awkward for the rest of dinner, owing to the fact that his mom isn’t able to bring up her favourite subject- him. He desperately wants to talk to Jimin, but he knows that he probably won’t get back to him because of his date.

Oh dear.

He does have another friend he can talk to. If they were really friends it shouldn’t be a big deal to talk to him about his family or to tell him stuff about him. Friends share stuff, right?

Up in his room, he holds his phone in his hands, contemplating whether or not he wants to text Jungkook. After about five minutes, during which his phone nearly crushes his nose, he decides to just do it.

New Message

To: Jungkook

7:12 pm

Dinner time is awkward.

New Message

From: Jungkook

7:14 pm

Why?

New Message

To: Jungkook

7:15 pm

Seokjin talked to my mom about bothering me.

New Message

From: Jungkook

7:18 pm

Bothering you about what?

New Message

To: Jungkook

7:20 pm

About what I’m doing with my life

New Message

From: Jungkook

7:22 pm

Shouldn’t that be your decision?

New Message

To: Jungkook

7:23 pm

Obviously you haven’t met my mom.

New Message

From: Jungkook

7:24 pm

I met her earlier, remember? :P

New Message

To: Jungkook

7:26 pm

Right.

New Message

From: Jungkook

7:27 pm

Anyway, don’t worry about it. It’s your decision, right?

New Message

To: Jungkook

7:28 pm

Truth.

New Message

From: Jungkook

7:30 pm

Lol! See you tomorrow :)

Universal speak for, I’m busy, don’t talk to me.

He tries to go to bed early, but he can’t sleep. His mind keeps swirling with thoughts of the scavenger hunt project, his future, and Chungha, the blond-head from the Galaxy Arcade. They’re probably sharing some romantic dinner or something….then again; maybe he had just watched too many movies.

The stinging sensation from earlier is back as he thinks about Jungkook kissing her goodnight…

Stop it! he tells himelf, we’re friends.

Suddenly his thoughts are on Namjoon, and the way he was acting in the library. Slightly overly attentive, but still really, really nice. And cute.

Namjoon is nice. And funny. I could like Mark, he realize. If he ended up liking me…but do I want Namjoon to like me?

He rolls over in the darkness and shuts his eyes, but he can’t push away any of his thoughts.

Why does everything have to be so difficult?