My fifth mistake, worrying for the boy.

***

"Why are you hiding behind me? What did you do?"

Taehyung grins at me in reply and cheekily kisses my left cheek before going back to his previous position, hands clasping the back of my shirt, crouching to hide his tall stature behind me. I grimace and wipe the spot he kissed with the back of my hand. Feet stomping against the marbled floor catches my attention.

"Yah!" Jungkook shouts, face distressed, pointing at my direction before realizing it was me and immediately chuckles awkwardly. "Haha, sorry noona. B-bye!" Jungkook flees and I feel Taehyung's shoulders heaving up and down behind me.

I turn around, arms crossing and eyebrow raising. "Tae."

Taehyung shakes his hands in defense. "I didn't do anything bad!" My lips form a straight line. If he didn't do anything, why was the poor boy running around with a frustrated face?

"I just - " He looks at everything except me. "maybe - kinda - you know? Put his gym clothes in a girl's locker?"

I slap a hand against my forehead. "Holding a person's disadvantage above them is considered bad, Tae. I don't even tease you for liking the same ge-"

"I do not!" He rushes to cover my mouth and continues. "Listen, that was just at the party, okay? And stop scolding me. As if you don't do the same thing to Jungkook."

Touche.

"I'm different," I try to explain. "Mine's for the genuine purpose of helping him get used to girls while yours are for pure experimentation."

"Don't see any difference," Taehyung says carelessly with a shrug.

"What do I even do with you," I whisper while massaging my temple with my fingers. I sigh and notice Taehyung sneakily take a few steps back. I clutch his white polo shirt by the neck and tut. He smiles sheepishly.

"Where."

Taehyung lets his tongue out, teasing me. "I'm not gonna te -"

I observe his clear forehead free of the last injury I'd given him. "You want another bruise?" I say with a smile. He coughs and brings a hand up to his head for protection.

"Lead the way."

***

"You shouldn't hang out too much with Taehyung," I advice as I hand the bunched up clothes doused with the heavy scent of strawberry from the girl's locker to Jungkook. Taehyung was too far gone to be even classified between being a good or bad influence. He was neither. "Trouble will find you when you do."

"Thanks, noona." Jungkook bows his head politely at me while I smile at his manners. Was he still that uncomfortable around me? "But Taehyung's fun unlike the hyungs," he replies.

"Of course you'd think that." I roll my eyes. "You're both kids."

Jungkook's forehead creases and stomps his foot in denial. "Am not!"

I smirk. "From the way you deny it childishly, I can't say any different."

"Kookie! Hurry up before lunch ends, the chocolate milk's gonna get sold out." Taehyung suddenly shows up and drags Jungkook by the head, only waving a hand at me in greeting.

"See you later, Aera baby!"

I grimace at the nickname and Taehyung laughs.

"Bye, Noona!"

I shake my head. Those two were too adorable together.

***

"You're judging me," Jin says suspiciously as I watch him inhale his 5th burger. I agree to his suspicion and urge him to go on with a wave of my hand.

"It's what I do - It's a hobby of mine."

Jin grumbles, words incoherent with the food on his mouth. "Well, at least you're honest."

I see the familiar color of Taehyung's hair at the corner of my eye and reply in a louder voice. "Well, at least you're not a kid stuck in an older body creating a scene wherever he goes," I mockingly nod in relief.

"I heard that!" Taehyung shouts before plopping beside me. I turn to him and fake a smile. "You were supposed to."

The smile plastered on my face drops off in a second at the sight of red and violets invading his clear honey skin. He continues eating as if nothing was wrong, the table going silent at his bruised face, Jungkook still standing at the side of the table, head bent down.

"Tae," I call him. Taehyung only hums in reply, shoving a spoonful of rice to his mouth. It goes on for a minute.

"Taehyung," I repeat, tone much stiffer than the last. Taehyung turns to me and grins, hiding the tiny flinch he unconsciously did at the action. 

"Who did this to you?" I ask, a subdued tone of anger in my voice, surveying the injuries one by one, eyes turning darker with each bruise I see.

I did joke about giving him a bruise hours before. I didn't think it'd actually happen.

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