​Hi guys! So this is a bonus chapter to this story! I repeat, BONUS, meaning, this is not yet the end so please don't kill me! I noticed that most of the chapters were in Mino's perspective so I wanted you guys to see how Taehyun felt about things. 

Thank you everyone for keeping up with this story despite the slow updates! I love you all <3

[They Say It was Called Love]

They say it wasn’t just a fever.

Taehyun was looking at the boy with the messy hair, sun-kissed skin glistening under the pumpkin-tinged afternoon light, eyebrows furrowed together as his eyes were directed towards the big thick book that had the problems to his answers and the answers to his problems and-

What was he even saying? Taehyun’s thoughts were a mess.

His mind couldn’t seem to grasp why he couldn’t take his gaze away from the tanned kid- there was something fascinating and pleasurable(?) with the way the boy had his lips in a pout and how the other would constantly scratch his head whenever he would check if he got the problem right (on the solutions sheet Taehyun provided) and then discover that he had a slight error or two. But they were just working on some really simple algebra and it was a mystery on how the boy could get more crosses than checks. 

Taehyun tried to stop himself from laughing but he ends up hiding a grin behind a book he pretends to read.

“Hey.” 

The boy, Mino, was talking to him. Taehyun waited for him to say another word, his face still hidden behind the book, because he wasn’t really sure. 

“Taehyun?” Mino’s voice was lower, more piercing but it still sounded warm, comforting and it made a part of him flutter. Taehyun puts his book down. 

He sees the boy’s face directly in front of him, staring at him, eyes in a desperate plea, hands tightly gripping onto the volume of paper on the table, and it was obvious from the sight that Mino wanted to throw the math book away. 

Taehyun sighed but he felt himself secretly smiling inside. He was bored anyway. “Okay, you can stop now.”

Mino abruptly raises his hands in victory, his bangs falling messily into his vision but the boy didn’t seem to care. Taehyun wanted to touch them, to sweep those strands of hair away from the other kid’s face. He didn’t understand what he was feeling but there was this desperate desire in him to extend his hand towards the oblivious boy. 

And he actually found himself doing so. All Taehyun wanted was to reach for Mino’s hair and touch it because it looked so soft and wonderful but he ended up brushing the palm of his hands against the cheeks of the dumbstruck boy. 

Taehyun noticed how Mino suddenly looked at a loss of words as he suddenly froze to his seat. 

“Sorry.” Taehyun says, his voice dispersing into the background as if it were nothing.

Mino chuckles softly, “It’s okay.” 

He gives Taehyun a crooked smile that somehow turned into something a little more hesitant. 

They say it has something to do with your feelings.

Taehyun feels happy, blight, content and he finds himself smiling out of nowhere, even while doing the most mundane things like tying his shoe lace or going to the groceries and picking out vegetables with his mother. 

All these feelings were foreign to him and he’s not sure if he’s handling everything properly but he likes to assume that he does. His phone blinks and he sees a text coming from the only other contact he has on his phone besides his mother.

Why is this problem asking me to find an integer? What’s an integer? ㅠㅠ

Taehyun smiles again.

They say it has something to do with your heart.

Taehyun knows that he wasn't well-liked. Or maybe it was more of, he's aware of the fact that most people didn't really care about his existence. The class was asked to group themselves into pairs for a project they have to work on for the whole term and it made him feel anxious.

He wasn’t really someone who cared about other people. He liked being alone, he was used to being alone and he didn’t need other people barging into his life. He was perfectly capable of working on the project on his own and any addition to his perfect one-man team would just be a bother. 

But everything changed and it was all because of that tanned kid with the stupid grin. He’s feeling tense, edgy even, because even if he didn’t want to admit it, he was clinging onto this hope that someone will choose him.

Everyone instantly charged towards their partners like they had some sort of pre-made arrangement going on. Taehyun remains glued to his seat, his eyes only looking ahead because he knows. 

No one will choose him. No one wants to be with him. It has always been that way.

And it's okay. He inhales but dread slowly seeps through his veins and he hates it because if he was going to be honest with himself- what he really fears the most is seeing the seat around the corner, that seat near the window, that seat owned by a particular kid with messy hair and large grin- to be empty. 

The unease was killing him so he takes a peak to check.

The boy was gone.

Of course, what was Taehyun thinking? Mino had many friends, so why would the boy choose him? He laughed to himself as he realized how pathetic it was, clinging onto that gullible little hope that vibrated somewhere in his chest. He was being stupid, again.

"Yo."

Taehyun hears someone calling him. And he knows that voice all too well. 

He looks up, sees the other kid grinning and he succumbs to a sense of relief, comfort and joy that drapes over and around him. 

His heart began beating so fast and all he can think about was white. teeth. white. so. white. teeth. teeth. white. white.

And he knows that he isn't sick.

"What are you waiting for? Let's talk about this fast because I'm starving."

They say it was something you can't do anything about.

"Do you like Mino?" The kid with the beautiful doe eyes asks Taehyun. The two of them were seated alone as the other three were busy bickering about something over the cafeteria counter.

"Yes, I like him." Taehyun chews on his sandwich. Of course he likes Mino. He likes talking to the boy about the most trivial things, he likes seeing the boy's bright smile every single day, he likes how the other boy's voice would resound in his mind over and over again, he likes how the boy's bangs would fall messily onto his face when he was frustrated- he likes all those and more. So much more and he doesn't know if words were enough to articulate everything. 

Jinwoo eyes him curiously and gives him an amused smile. "What I meant was, do you like like him?"

The boy with the soft, deer features directs his gaze towards a certain kid with neat hair, pale skin and skinny frame that was busy arguing with Mino over a piece of pudding. 

"You know, I like Mino because he gives so much energy to the group, like some big baby." 

Taehyun felt a lump on his chest at Jinwoo's sudden words. Jinwoo notices this so he abruptly follows, "I like Hoon too because he cares a lot for everyone. And I like you too, because you seem really nice." Jinwoo looks at him and smiles.

Taehyun manages to mutter a quick thanks as the other boy continues.

"But, my like for you guys is different from how I like Seungyoon."

Taehyun looks at Jinwoo, puzzled, as he sees some sort of spark in the other boy's eyes at the mention of Seungyoon's name.

"He's annoying, he nags a lot, he talks non-stop and he's always so full of himself, but I like him still. If you ask me why, I wouldn't know what to say. He makes me feel things I don't normally feel and do things I won't normally do. He makes me smile, laugh, cry and he would make my chest hurt too but it's fine. I felt weird, confused, frustrated but I soon grew to accept them. My feelings."

Jinwoo smiles softly and Taehyun wonders how a boy could look so pretty. "Those feelings are okay. There's nothing wrong about them." 

Taehyun looks at Mino from afar and thinks of the many times he felt the same things for the noisy kid.

"So..." Jinwoo starts then continues, Do you like Mino?"

"Yes." Taehyun answers more firmly this time.

"Why?" 

"I don't know."

Jinwoo gives him a reassuring smile.

They say it wasn't wrong.

"Do you like him?" Mino had a smile on his face but Taehyun knew that it wasn't all too sincere. There was bitterness in the older boy's tone that clawed right into Taehyun's stomach.

"What?" Because no, he didn't like that cashier guy. Was Mino mad because he thinks Taehyun could just like random guys? Or was it because he was disgusted- of the possibility that the younger liked boys.

Taehyun didn't want Mino to hate him. Taehyun didn't want to lose him.

"Why would I like guys?" He tells Mino as if he were proving a point.

Mino manages to let out a chuckle but Taehyun notes that it still sounded all too fake. It was so obvious. 

Taehyun tells himself to never have this conversation with Mino again. 

They say it makes you feel weird- happy, sad, happy, sad, happy.

It was something that came to be gradually. His classmates started talking to him and with that, he found himself slowly opening up. 

Taehyun laughs at some random joke the guy in front of him tells. He's having a conversation with a girl that asks him about today's lesson. The professor is complimenting him because he has been participating in class.

Taehyun was happy. He felt proud because he was not the lonely, sad-looking kid that had to rely on Mino all the time.

But he still craved for the other boy's company. And Taehyun felt himself being too selfish.

He started to feel a subtle pang in his chest whenever the boy would flash his stupid grin on other people. He feels something ugly creeping into his subconscious whenever he sees Mino talking to girls. Taehyun didn't like those feelings at all. 

He would occasionally throw glances at the other boy whenever they were in different groups and there was this one time (Taehyun's not sure whether he was just dreaming about it or not) when he caught Mino unsubtly observing him from afar.

Taehyun looks away and he felt the heat rising up to his cheeks. No, he wasn't sick at all.

They say it was called love.

"I like you." A girl with beautiful brown hair tells him one afternoon.

Taehyun was surprised. It was his first time receiving a confession. He thought these things only happened in romance movies (which he just recently started watching out of curiousity).

The girl's face looked like a tomato and Taehyun tried his best to suppress his laugh. That would be really rude.

"I'm sorry, if this is all too sudden." The girl says as she avoids Taehyun's gaze, head in a bow. 

Taehyun thinks about Mino- he thinks about how stupid the other boy was because he couldn't even understand simple algebra, he thinks about the other boy's loud voice and how it came barging into the silence of his life, he thinks about the older kid's face and the myriad of expressions that it makes.

He thinks about Mino, and he smiles. What would his reaction be if Taehyun starts dating? Would he be happy, sad, indifferent?

Taehyun was curious. Would Mino be jealous? 

He laughs at himself for thinking of such stupid things. Why would Mino be jealous? Why would Mino care in the first place?

But he was still hopeful. Taehyun has been pretty optimistic these days.

"Do you want to date?" 

The girl squeals in delight. 

Taehyun felt guilty. He was using the girl. He was using her to take some reaction out of Mino. But he couldn't help it.

Love makes you do crazy (even bad) things, says a book he was reading the other day. But he was really curious. Does Mino like him back?

Mino came in, barging into his doors, knocking over every aspect of Taehyun's life. Taehyun wanted to know, he wanted to understand- if that meant something. If he meant something.

"A girl confessed to me a while ago." He begins as he tries to mask out the apprehension in his voice.

Mino flashes him a grin. Taehyun's heart sinks.

"Really!?!?!? So what did you say?" Mino exclaimed, in an overly excited and exaggerated way that made Taehyun's chest hurt even more. 

What was he thinking? Taehyun never felt so stupid. And to think that he kept calling Mino an idiot.

I said yes, was Taehyun's hasty reply. The other boy looked at him and he had the usual stupid grin on his face.

Taehyun feels dizzy. There were these small voices in his head, mocking him and telling him how pathetic he was. 

He feels a nudge coming from the other kid. "I can't believe it! You're younger than me but you got a girlfriend already! I'm hurt!"

Idiot. "Well what can I say, I was curious." Taehyun answers back.

All he wanted to know was if Mino felt something for him, even just a little. But the boy in front of him was all smiles, and he looked so ecstatic and happy that it made Taehyun feel so helpless.

He laughs- it was a sour and bitter one caused by his own foolishness. He feels the tears slowly welling up to his eyes. He needed to get away, fast.

"Sorry, I need to go early today. I have a date." Taehyun hastily gets up and starts fixing his things. The other boy stays silent.

"See you then." Taehyun says and for a moment, he just stands there. And waits.

But this wasn’t some sappy drama where the guy stops the girl from leaving and pulls her into an embrace. Heck, he wasn’t even a girl to begin with.

Mino does nothing to stop him. See you, he says.

Taehyun walks out of the room- his feet were unsteady, knees weak and his head felt light but his heart felt heavy. Taehyun wishes that he was just sick.

But they say it wasn’t just a fever.

They say it has something to do with your feelings.

They say it has something to do with your heart.

They say it was something you can't do anything about.

They say it wasn't wrong.

They say it makes you feel weird- happy, sad, happy, sad, happy.

They say it was called love.

A/N: Again, remember that I love all my fellow Namsong shippers. I am sorry for all this angst- it was needed. And yeah, I was reading my fic the other day (ewww, I don't normally do it but I had to) and I realized how sad I made Namsong be and I'm so sorry Mino, Taehyun, I love you babies! (I added a little Jinyoon in this chapter because I love that ship too)

Btw, I didn't proofread this one because I wanted to post it ASAP so sorry for the minor errors. I'll get back to them later!

Thank you everyone for all the wonderul comments and for appreciating this small little fic of mine. It's my first time writing a namsong fanfic and I promise to do better in the future!

Tell me what you think about this chapter because I love hearing from you <3

-Arielle