The following Tuesday, band begins. Taehyung plays saxophone, one of the most interesting and slightly awkward instruments to play; mainly because he has to keep the reed (the wooden part on the front) wet all the time, which means he has to it.

All. The. Time.

Piece of advice; never make eye-contact with someone while the reed. Most awkward experience of his life. Worse even than the talk his mom tried to give him as a freshman.

Band is made slightly better by the fact that Jungkook isn’t there. He really likes hanging out with him, and having someone to sit with at lunch is great, but all he talks about is Chungha. They started dating over the weekend, and it’s getting really hard to hold in all his eye rolls.

On the plus side, his mom and brothers have stopped bothering him about Jungkook, which is a major plus.

The major low though, is that they haven’t hung out outside of school since Mini Golf.

Thursday of that same week is band again, at seven in the morning. He rolls out of bed with a huge groan and starts getting ready.

By the time Taehyung gets out of the house and to school, he's ten minutes late. He mutters excuses to the music teacher, a tall, balding man with round glasses, who’s always squinting at the music under his hawk-ish nose.

“Hey,” Namjoon whispers to him. He plays Tenor Sax, same as him, so they’re beside each other.

“Hi.” He tries to conceal his breathy-ness, but it’s no use.

“Did you run here?”

“Practically. Did I miss anything?”

Namjoon smiles at him, “Just the usual warm-ups.”

He nods and gets to work setting up his instrument. He can’t help but feel that someone’s watching him, and indeed, when he turns back to his music, he can see Namjoon glancing at him from the corner of his eye.

He's about to ask him if he needs something when Mr. Shin indicates that they start to play.

After an hour Taehyung's lips are chapped, and his mouth feels dry and swollen. He should probably practice more. Then again, he might not have time for studying, which would mean less time for reading, all culminating in a less than expectable mark on his report card…

“Taehyung?”

He turns to see Namjoon standing behind him, and realize he's standing in front of the shelves where they keep their music folders.

“Sorry.” he backs quickly out of the way, and almost trip over a music stand. Luckily though, Namjoon grabs his arm and steadies him.

“Okay?” Namjoon asks.

“Fine. Thanks.” He knows the blush is coming before he feels it. Namjoon gives him a small smile.

Suddenly he feels like he should say something clever, or witty, or funny…come on, think…

“I’m a klutz, I guess.”

Come on, that’s the best he can do? That was so lame.

“Nah, you’re all right.” Namjoon is smiling.

“Thanks.”

Annnnd, his face is on fire.

“I’d better…um…”

“Me too. Wanna walk together?”

Namjoon means to class, Taehyung. Say yes.

He nods. Together they walk out of the music room. Namjoon hikes his backpack further up his shoulder and says, “So how are your classes?”

He tells him about them. It’s only later that he realizes he doesn’t mention Jungkook.

“How about you?” he asks, pushing thoughts of Jungkook away. We’re friends.

“They’re pretty good. Biology, physics, sociology.”

“What about the last one?”

“Spare,” Namjoon grins.

“Lucky! So you go home after third?”

“Yep.”

“Nice.”

There’s a pause, and then he says, “How do you like bio?” at the same time that Namjoon says something else.

“Go ahead,” he laughs.

Namjoon's smiling, but his hands are twisting nervously in front of him.

“Do you want to hang out sometime?”

He's taken completely by surprise. Namjoon wants to hang out with me? Is that why he’s so nervous? Maybe that’s why he talked to me in the library before school…is this a date?

Answer, Namjoon’s waiting for an answer.

“That would be great.” he blurts, “Just...text me?”

“Sure.” The grin on Namjoon's face reaches up to his eyes.

He smiles back before he realize, “Oh! I don’t think you have my number?”

“I’ll add you,” he says, pulling out his phone.

He rattles off his number to him, and he reads it back. When he nods, Namjoon says, “Awesome. Text you later!”

Namjoon hurries off to class, just at the warning bell rings. He hurries into English to find everyone already there, including Jungkook.

“Hi.” Jungkook says, leaning close to him as he puts his bag down.

“Hey.” He's taking out his books and pencil case in a hurry, trying to get ready for class, that he doesn’t notice what Jungkook is doing.

“Tae.” He says in a low voice.

He turns to find him just a few inches from him, and his heart jumps.

“Jesus, what are you doing?”

Jungkook says nothing, just stares at him. He holds his gaze, and after a few tense seconds, Jungkook pokes himself forcefully in the nose and then leans away.

He let out a very blunt snort. His mother would be so proud. “What was that?”

“My impression of you,” Jungkook says with a grin.

“Nailed it.”

“Really? You know, I practised real hard-”

He shakes his head and turns to the black board, which has today’s homework written in Mrs. Lee’s curly handwriting.

“You look happy.” The words comes from Jungkook's mouth with a hint of surprise.

“Is that against the law?”

“No, I was just observing.”

He smiles at him. “Okay then.”

“Is it a girl?” he asks in a sickly sweet tone.

He doesn’t answer him.

“It is!” Jungkook whisper-shouts. “Who is it?”

“Not telling.” he whispers back. Mrs. Lee has entered the room, and is getting ready to start the class.

“Please!”

“No.”

“Pleeeeaaaaaassssse.”

“No.”

“Taehyung, do you have something to share?”

He looks up. Mrs. Lee is staring at him expectantly. The toe of her leather boot is tapping on the ground with great fervour.

“No, I don’t.”

“Lovely. Moving on, today we’ll be starting Shakespeare…”

“You should have told her you have a girlfriend.” Jungkook whispers.

He ignores him, but looking out of the corner of his eye, he sees Jungkook's smiling.

“Not my girlfriend.” He keeps his eyes on Mrs. Lee as he speaks, talking out of the very corner of his mouth.

“Whatever. You two can double with me and Chungha.”

And, there’s the mention of Chungha again. He might have to kill Jungkook.

When he gets home, there’s a text message waiting for him.

New Message

From: unknown

2:35 pm

Still want to hang out?

With a jolt he realize that it must be Namjoon. He adds his name to his contacts and replies.

New Message

To: Namjoon

2:40 pm

Absolutely. When were you thinking?

New Message

From: Namjoon

2:43 pm

Maybe after school one day, if you can?

New Message

To: Namjoon

2:45 pm

What day do you think? :P

New Message

From: Namjoon

2:50 pm

Next week? Wednesday?

New Message

To: Namjoon

2:52 pm

It’s a date!

About five seconds after sending that text, Taehyung starts to worry about it. He usually use that expression when he makes plans, but he's starting to think maybe it wasn’t such a good idea. However, when he gets a text back, he stops worrying.

New Message

From: Namjoon

2:55 pm

Awesome! Meet you in the parking lot on Wednesday!

Apparently Namjoon doesn’t care what expressions he use. Or maybe it really is a date? Am I supposed to think it’s a date too?

The only date Taehyung ever had was with Park Bogum in eighth grade. Needless to say, he never had another date; especially after he got sick halfway through and vomited on Bogum's shoes (no alcohol involved, thank you very much). Hoseok had been sick that whole week, and mom warned him not to go, just in case he got it too, but he did. Thank God Bogum went to a public high school, and not Bangtan High.

He emails Jimin and asks him about his date, and waits for his reply before telling him about his. As his best friend, he definitely doesn’t want to steal his thunder.