29 September 2017 19:34 Taehyung sat there, staring blankly into his share of Korean barbecue, groin and arms aching all the same .

He was wondering how it all came to this, how he had found such discomfort and unhappiness.

Well, as a reminder, he backtracked to 3 hours previous, where the date had originally started .

The 4 headed to a movie first, which in Taehyung's mind was: "ok, no problem, if we  watch the movie and *then* go to lunch, we'll have something to talk about it. ...besides, it's a horror movie... maybe... just maybe, I could use that as an excuse to get closer to her, maybe 'comfort' her".

 But you see, The adolescent was wrong to make assumptions.

 

To assume that Jennie could and would fit into that "I'm a girl who's easily scared", was very wrong, painfully contrary.

From the moment they got there, Jennie expressed a disconcerting level of enthusiasm, from jubilantly announcing that she'd heard that "this movie will have a lot of Blood", to "I hope this is scary enough, you know, real bone chilling stuff", you name it, Jennie was happier than a rover on an open field.

At first, Taehyung's initial reaction was "well, at least she's happy", seeing the bright gummy grin across her cheeks that had been hidden away for some weeks. 

Hell, he even took it as an opportunity to admire her a little before the movie, shower her in a few compliments.

And surprisingly, thanks to her aforementioned enthusiasm, she took an astounding interest in him, gazing into his eyes, even.

Taehyung was now happy too, going bright red with an even brighter smile.  

So all in all, Jennie was taking a breath-taking amount of interest in Taehyung.

Of course, until the movie started.

Now, all of her time and attention was away, enthusically investing in every frame, organ and scream on the screen.

And yeah, it was pretty gory. Too gory, in fact, at one point Taehyung found himself nauseous.

On the bright side, He saw himself looking at Yuna and Jimin in a sort of appreciatiation: Yuna sat there, uneasy, head resting on the latter's shoulder, all while Jimin smugly took it all in, as this allowed him to say the line: "don't worry, I'm here". It would've looked like complete bliss, if towards the end of the movie Jimin wasn't itching with every fibre of his being, to touch his companion's hand. It looked so warm and tender, laying on the adjacent armrest, and would've delighted in holding it.

But, for whatever reason, he held back.

Meanwhile, Jennie relished it, a bright and childish smile on her forehead. "Isn't this cool?" She affirmed, briefly turning to the accompanying Boy next to her. "Uh, yeah, I guess it's pretty cool", He replied, a little hesitant. "...Come *On*!, This is awesome!" "Wha-" For the rest of the movie, Taehyung sat there, pondering. The meaning of life, whether he could still have kids after what just happened, quantum physics, Einstein's theory, The reason as to why Jennie had just punched him dead centre in the groin area, python string syntax, you know, that sort of thing.

*Why'd she hit me? The ...? Was it something I said...? No. Was it something I did...? No, can't be that, she's smiling.

Maybe she was joking? That's a weird joke. Maybe she is...?*

And that's all Taehyung could think.

And so that's what he did.

Groin hurting and contusion ripe, He shook off the thought.

And Tae expected nothing more for the situation.

Until they got to the arcade.

It was pretty convenient, to boot: the four were exploring the backstreets of Seoul, looking for a *damn* good restaurant to eat at, when they come across this nifty street, a mere few blocks away from where they originally met.

It was populated with a Tattoo place, a few street vendors, a supreme shop, and, which is the main focus of the subject, an arcade.

 

"Yo, we should check this place out!", Jimin said, putting attention to his watch.

"You cool with that?" Taehyung asked, looking to Jennie in affirmation.

"yeah, I don’t see why not…", She shrugged. The four head inside the renovated looking warehouse, and are, for the most part, shell-shocked.

For the sake of description, and for unnecessary nerd pop culture references, the adjective "Tardis" was an understatement. After heading through a dark entrance area with distant booms of edm in the background, they come to a secondary and sleeker, more modern and eye catching entrance, simply popping with colour. The walls were yellow, the chairs yellow, the information desk green, the doors blue, and the floor, well, the floor was kind of grey and office, but, it didn’t do much to kill the random and funky tone. Jimin sees the information desk and snaps,

 

"Ah , that reminds me, everyone got change?" , it's an arcade, isn't it? , Taehyung remembered, frantically digging into his pockets, as he remembers the whole premise of an arcade.

 

"It's cool, i got some change", Jennie commented coolly , seeing the vastly unnecessary search for said change.

Non-chalantly, taehyung's "date"(although it wasn't directly declared aloud, it was implied by taehyung's random acts of needless chivalry throughout the outing of the four), reached into pockets of her own, producing a modest but plentiful pile of coins.

"you have this much change, just sitting in your pockets?" Yuna asked in her dress, a little baffled as to such instances, other than this, where so much money would be appropriate.

 

"Yeah, Jennie answered, slightly dismissive, as she slowly turns her attention to Taehyung,

handing him all the change in her hand, Here".

 "Ugh, thanks,". "Ok, well in that case, I'd better get some. I'll see if we can get any from the information desk".

"ugh...it's fine, I've got some money, so-" "leave it: I'll pay for it", Jimin interjected on yuna's offer, walking off to the desk where a rather robotic and cold lady lay seated.

In this short period of time, Taehyung had already found a way to make something out of nothing: He observed Yuna and Jimin's interaction, noticing Jimin's chivalrous denial too take her money.

Aish, shouldn't the man pay for everything? I feel bad now...

Taehyung tries to fix the unbroken situation with, you guessed it; more unnecessary chivalry.

"uh...I should probably do the same, here's-"

"Keep it, i mean it, Jennie interrupts, rejecting Taehyung's attempt to return her money.

She then turns to him, gaining profound and unexpected proximity, and earning a sudden draw of Taehyung's breath in reaction.

Why... Why's she so close? Taehyung, in this case, was by no means exaggerating. They were almost centimetres apart.

Taehyung headed no answer in the situation. Jennie, now smiling at her successful act to fluster the boy, simply stood on her tiptoes.

Gaining even more proximity. She closes in on his ears, simply whispering, "Besides, you're gonna win me loads of prizes, aren't you?

 

 

~*~

 

If you thought that was the end of jennies crude shenanigans, you'd better think twice. During that entire venture to the arcade, she had Taehyung as her "prize puppy", making him win gifts over and over and over and over again, tiring his poor soul.

Of course, he could put his foot down, but part of him felt somewhat obliged, considering it was her money anyways.

But beyond that, every time he had secured Jennie a Pikachu, a piece of jewlry , he earned a smile, a yelp of victory, an appreciative squeeze of a plushie toy. Hell, at one point, she even hugged him.

But, with Taehyung's scrawny physique, he often broke out in sweat, with his arms getting tired and his breath shortened. The frequency in which Jennie had him pinging from machine to machine, it was pretty much a workout.

"hey, let's check out this game!", she'd say, x amount of times, ushering the male companion onto the next . Taehyung simply sat there, over the cosy Korean barbeque, trying not to think too much about what happened in the past few hours: the random punch in the groin, the fluctuation in interest towards him, the time he almost dislocated his shoulder trying to win her some random toy animal, all of it.

 

Was it really that bad?

I mean, i did have genuine fun at that the basketball section with her, and, seeing her little beam did make me feel somewhat happy Taehyung reminiscied, Picturing the smile that Jennie showed him earlier sent him in to a day-dreamish state, simpering all over the available space of table.

"Hey...", came a voice beside him, slightly surprising him as her turned to meet it, despite the fact that had been next to him pretty much the entire time they were at this swanky back alley restaurant.

"Uh, hey, everything ok?" taehyung awkwardly shot back.