One good thing did come out of your threat, Nick was finally leaving you alone. It was a small comfort, because now things with Taehyung were awkward. You didn’t even sit next to him at lunch. Yoongi wasn’t that much of a monster. Despite yourself, you found yourself peeking at him every now and then before turning back to your food, poking at it uneasily.

Even though your next lecture wouldn’t be for another 30 minutes, you couldn’t stand it anymore. With a vague excuse about having to review for your courses, you scurried away hastily to go and hide in the library. You even left the building to go to a different library and tucked yourself away in the corner of obscure music textbooks. No one could possibly find you here. That was the idea, anyway.

Much to your surprise, only a few seconds after you crouched down in your corner, someone sat down next to you. Taehyung. Your heart fluttered as you looked at him, wanting to both run away and stay here with him forever. Taehyung smiled somewhat nervously at you and nudged you with his shoulder.

“I don’t think a library is the best place to talk but it’s private, I’ll give you that.” He smiled. Talk? What was there to say? You gave a soft nod and pulled up your knees. Taehyung sat quietly for a while, fidgeting his fingers.

“So what do you want to talk about?” You finally asked once you couldn’t bear the silence anymore. Taehyung shrugged.

“I don’t know. I guess… I mean…” He looked down at his feet. “When do we have to break up?” The words hit you like a punch in the gut. Break up? Of course you had to break up. It was only pretend after all. Would you lose him altogether now? With Nick gone, Taehyung had no reason to stick around you all the time. It already felt empty.

“I don’t know.” You answered mutely. “We can’t be sure if Nick has really given up. That’s such a lame excuse, I know it is. I’m sorry. I know that it’s exhausting for you to keep doing this…-”

“It’s not exhausting.” Taehyung said immediately. “I’ll actually be disappointed if he gives up right now.” He turned to you with a smile you didn’t quite understand. You raised an eyebrow at him.

“Wasn’t our whole plan to get rid of him? Why would you be disappointed if it worked?” You asked. The tension was leaving you slowly. Just having him near you made you feel so much better. Even if you were still upset about having to break up with him. Taehyung looked at you quizzically.

“You won’t kiss me if he doesn’t come near you again.” He stated matter-of-factly. You blinked. Taehyung blinked. You stared at him, he stared straight back. Slowly you connected the dots and gasped in surprise.

“Wait, you want me to kiss you?” You asked, a little too loudly for a library. Taehyung glanced back to his feet and shrugged, then nodded. Dork. You smiled and leaned over, quickly pecking his cheek while he was looking at his feet. Taehyung’s cheeks darkened as he looked over at you.

“W-was that it?” He asked, sounding disappointed. You tried not to laugh, leaning a little closer to him. It seemed to leave him even more flustered. You decided to a little, having gained some confidence from knowing how he felt.

“What, is that not good enough for you?” You joked. Taehyung flinched, quickly looking up at the ceiling. You laughed and leaned your head on his shoulder. “What if I kiss you, and then Nick comes back?” You asked, folding your fingers through each other so as to fit them together. Taehyung slipped an arm around your shoulders, squeezing you to him.

“Then I’ll kiss you.”

“Dork. We ended up doing that thing in dramas where couples misunderstand each other.” You sighed, a little miffed at being incapable of escaping that cliché. Taehyung laughed, turning back to look at you.

“Only a little, though. I thought that you wanted to kiss me when that happened, and I wanted to kiss you. So I was really scared when you didn’t. And then you went to sit somewhere else and I thought you wanted me to leave you alone. After you got up, Yoongi told me you were trying to get me alone.” Taehyung smiled sheepishly. You bit your tongue and made a mental note to thank Yoongi for saving you from eternal unhappiness.

“Eh, yeah. Totally.” You laughed. “But he’s not wrong. I like spending time with you.”

You sat there quietly for a while longer. The library smelled a little strange, you noticed. The books in this corner were starting to gather dust. There weren’t a lot of people in this section of the library. In fact, for as far as you could see, there were no other people aside from you and Taehyung. You couldn’t see a clock either, and wondered what time it was. You did have that lecture to get to, but you didn’t want to get up. This felt nice.

“Should I walk you to class?” Taehyung asked awkwardly. “I just want to. I mean you have that class with Nick but mostly I just want to spend more time with you. Not even mostly, I just want to spend time with you. And I’m rambling now… Why do you even want to date me? I’m a mess.” He seemed to be talking himself into a corner, but it was endearing because you knew he was rambling like this because he was an inherently honest person.

“I would like it if you walked me to class. Not because of Nick, but because I like being around you.” You interrupted, giving him another quick peck on the cheek in a sudden fit of courage. Taehyung paused mid ramble and stared at you in stunned silence before smiling and leaning in to kiss you. It was an innocent kiss, but you suddenly understood what movies referred to when fireworks sparked during a kiss. Your lips tingled and it felt like something inside you exploded into pure happiness.

Only when you realized that it was time to inhale again did you realize neither you nor Taehyung had moved since he kissed you. Partially to , but also to bring both of you back to reality, you pressed your lips a little harder to his before pulling back. Taehyung blinked repeatedly, collecting himself.

“I had to. I couldn’t risk it.” He said, taking one of your hand as he got up, helping you up as well. Instead of heading to class, he stood there for a little more before asking. “But you are my real girlfriend right now, right?”

“Yes Taehyung. We’re really dating right now.” You affirmed, squeezing his hand. Course, you had to remind yourself, and started walking. Just a moment later, Taehyung pulled you back, embracing you from behind.

“I don’t want to leave yet.” He whispered, brushing his fingers over your shoulders as he rocked you carefully. “I feel like we shouldn’t have to run off to class at a moment like this. How am I supposed to just go on with my day when all I want to do is to be near you and hold you like this?” It made your heart flutter. That was what you wanted to do as well, desperately. Classes, you reminded yourself. You needed the attendance credit. But Taehyung…

“Taehyung you’re making it really hard for me to be strong right now. I’ve never skipped a class in my life.” You tried, though you were already hugging his arms to your chest and closing your eyes.

“I know and I don’t want to tell you to skip. I just want you to stay here with me.” He muttered, as if those two things weren’t mutually exclusive. You chuckled and patted his arms softly, turning around to hug him properly.

“You can sit in on my course if you want. It’s just a lecture.” As if you’d be able to focus while Taehyung was there. Taehyung didn’t complain though, simply beaming as he grabbed your hand and kissed your cheek. You assumed that was a yes and pulled him along.

Because the lecture hall was large enough to seat 300 students, no one noticed Taehyung sidling up to you in the back. Your notebook was on the table for taking notes, but with Taehyung holding your hand underneath the table, you couldn’t type all that well. Even if you’d had both your hands available, though, you wouldn’t have been able to write. It felt like someone was blowing bubbles inside your chest, and every few seconds you had to look at him to make sure you weren’t actually dreaming. Every time, he was there, smiling right back at you.

It wasn’t until the end of the lecture that you noticed you hadn’t seen Nick the entire lecture. You couldn’t say whether or not he’d even been in the hall. That was a good sign. One good thing on top of another spectacularly wonderful thing. For once, you took your time packing your things up as Taehyung waited impatiently beside you.

“Can we go on a date?” Taehyung asked, immediately taking your hand in his again as you walked out of the lecture hall. What he meant by that was, of course, ‘can we go on a date right now?’. You bumped your shoulder to his playfully and shrugged, squeezing his hand.

“If you don’t have any courses. I won’t let you play truant.” You teased. Taehyung immediately denied having classes, which you knew to be a lie. Eventually, much to both your regrets, you walked Taehyung to his lecture. With a last exchange of kisses, just to be safe, Taehyung went inside and you installed yourself on a chair outside the classroom.

The hour passed tediously slow. You tried your best to review some things and work on your model, but your notebook ran out of battery almost immediately and you couldn’t concentrate any longer. Even your phone didn’t provide any distractions as you just ended up staring blankly at the clock. In the end, it was very much worth the wait.

The moment Taehyung walked out of the lecture, you ran up to him and hugged him. People did stare quite a bit, but you didn’t care and neither did he. Someone who did care for the excessive amount of PDA was Hoseok, who smacked Taehyung’s shoulder a little roughly as he appeared behind him. Taehyung jumped, having been completely lost to the world.

“Hey!” He protested. Hoseok just smirked at him and pretended to do it again.

“So, this is your definitive choice?” He then asked you, to which you nodded. Hoseok raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “Seriously? I mean I know you two love each other…-” Both you and Taehyung sputtered at this in protest. “…- But seriously? Are you ready to be a babysitter for the rest of your life? This guy once got tired of waiting for his bus, so he got on a random one and stayed on it for three hours, fully expecting said bus to eventually go where he needed it to go!”

“That was one time!” Taehyung huffed. Hoseok tsked at him and redirected his gaze back to you. You cast one glance at Taehyung and felt the smile tugging on your lips. Immediately you nodded. That was just the kind of person he was, and you liked that person. Hoseok clapped his hands.

“Alright, just know that you’re stuck with him now. We won’t take him off your hands, that’s not how he works. I’d leave you two alone, but I rather suggest both of you off somewhere more appropriate.” He winked at you, leaving you blushing, and went on his merry way. Luckily it didn’t take very long for either you or Taehyung to recover from that, and you did ‘ off’ to a better place together.

The rest of that day, and for the days that followed, you spent time together between and after classes, hanging out wherever and eventually even going to Hongdae together. You knew at some point, you had to go back home and Taehyung couldn’t or wouldn’t come with you. His life was here, his friends were here, his dreams for the future were here. You knew all of that, but at the moment none of that mattered. Right now, you were happy together, and that was what mattered.