Chapter 4

So maybe he's been a little too harsh. Not that he was purposely trying to, but just happens sometimes. Hoseok deserves a gold medal or something for successfully guilt tripping him into actually having pity for Taehyung. Smart guy. But maybe he's just suddenly feeling guilty because unlike Taehyung, Hoseok is so nice and nothing but nice. He's always smiling, cheering people up and donating money to dubious charitable organisations. ( Jungkook still remembers Hoseok asking him so earnestly if he wanted to donate to the Society of Life Rejects. Obviously, he rejected.) He's secretly convinced that people so nice must be either scheming devils or members of the mafia, but Hoseok (amazingly) seems to be neither. Someone up there has balanced his kindness with severe loss of common sense and a terrible choice in friends. (Taehyung, anybody?) not that Jungkook doesn't make terrible life decisions anyway, just look at the four idiots he calls his friends.

"V wanted to call in sick you know? That guy was whining to my throughout lunch."

Jungkook nods.

"Then after he stained your uniform he begged me to help him buy full body armour because he heard you learnt martial arts."

Jungkook nods. What martial arts though, was he listening to stupid Suga and Jimin or something?

"He's so terrified of pissing you off that he wanted to leave his stuffed lion at home but of course I forced him to bring it we can't have him breaking down in tears in the hallways."

Jungkook nods- wait. Did he say crying in hallways without that dumb stuffed lion?

"And of course you don't care but that stuffed lion is like his best friend or some and like I don't even compare so do whatever just don't do anything to the stuffed lion I don't want to deal with a crying V."

"...okay."

Jungkook nods.

Really, does everybody think he's completely unreasonable or something? Sure, he's a little (or a lot) OCD and he does get upset at the smallest thing, but doesn't make him completely lack compassion. What do people think of him, really? Even the too nice Hoseok thinks he's a terrible human being. Maybe he should take Jimin’s suggestion to commit ritual suicide for general jerk behavior seriously. So terrible, really.

"Glad you understand!"

And when he sees that stupid smile packed full of teeth and gum he reconsiders his decision. Really, it is Not Right for somebody to be angrily ranting about something before suddenly going all Mr Nice Guy. Definitely unnatural. Jungkook is now convinced that Hoseok is minimally bipolar. Minimally. He’s convinved there must be possessed by a devil when he was ranting on and on about poor dear darling V. Speaking of which, he had better make amends to. He did not want all the girls in the campus to suddenly think of him as the world’s biggest jerkhat. (Although come to think of it, did he ever care about what the girls thought about him?)

----

He arrives to Geography early, given that only Jin shares the same lunch block with him today and he's in one of his Moods. Meaning that the phone case he really really wanted ran out of stock in the colour pink and now he has to wait two weeks for the pink colour to come out again. Can you believe it? Two. Whole. Weeks.

Jungkook makes a mental note to ask Namjoon to take him out on a date or something. Or put his high IQ to good use and get his hands on that pink case somehow. He has learnt not to doubt Namjoon’s supernatural abilities when it came to his darling boyfriend. Or how if you needed Suga to shut up you just asked Jimin assuming he wasn’t in on the prank. Love makes people stupid.

He sees Taehyung sort of flinch when he enters. He hurriedly sweeps the sweet wrappers off his table, removing the mess of worksheets from under his desk. God that guy is messy. He can feel his blood pressure shoot up, but remembers what he's here for. Suga is going to laugh at him for forever if he ever realizes how soft he is going nowadays. What happened to the bow-down-to-me-you-mortals mentality he had in middle school?

"You can leave the lion there." He says, readjusting the lion to the original position. The fur is really soft, and it smells like baby powder. Like how he's totally a baby despite his stupid playboy behavior in school if Hoseok isn't joking about his affection to the lion.

“Really?”

His eyes widen, and he looks ridiculously cute. Which is not a descriptor one should use on eighteen-year-old boys, but damn is Taehyung an exception. He'll never tell, but Jin deserves his school cutie pie title revoked if Taehyung looked like that 24/7. Pity that face had to reside on a .

“Yeah.”

This is making him sort of regret being so mean about the lion ( although it still gets on his nerves), because it sorts of makes him feel like he’s stolen the favourite toy of the baby or something even though Taehyung is a grown- man and older than him, for crying out loud.

"Lili says thank you!"

"Lili?"

"Yep, that's what my lion is called!"

Jungkook bites back a that's dumb what kind of terrible naming convention do you have are you six years old do you have any self respect in exchange for a simple "That's nice." Don't judge, Jungkook, don't judge. Jin likes pink and Suga abuses the word swag like there's no tomorrow. They're still your friends.

"...."

Taehyung is looking up at him now, glancing above his long eyelashes( wow they are long does he use mascara or something they're like a girls) with this stupid look on his face that Jungkook wants to slap him (self-defense) and hug him (too cute). What on earth happened to him, as he retracts his palm and pulls it to his cheek. He's thinking his mortal enemy and everything he can't stand all in one is cute.

"Are you tired? Don't hit yourself to keep awake, I'll just take notes for you."

Now Taehyung is clinging at his wrist and oh god oh god what is this his heart cannot take all this physical contact and Taehyung giving him that cute smile and cute upward glance all at once. No, I was just trying to knock myself up so I won’t have to deal with you or the world. He bites that back in favour of heat rushing up to his cheeks ( and at this very moment he is sincerely grateful none of his so-called friends are in this Geography class. They would never let him live that down.)  

What is the world coming to. 

Jeon Jungkook just let something furry and 90% germ-infested sit at the corner of his table. His head is starting to spin. He’s going crazy.

“Are you sick? Don’t push yourself too hard!”

Taehyung’s hand brushes against his forehead ( and musses up his neatly arranged bangs). His face just heats up faster and why is his entire body betraying him, why can’t he put on that scowl and push the hand away and snap back with a snarky reply. There’s no edge of his tongue, and he concentrates on messed-up pencil cases and germ-infested stuffed toys to distract himself. It’s really difficult, when Taehyung is staring up at him with that face that makes him want to pinch at his cheeks, to coo and never let go. His concern is so nice and he looks so sweet andhe kind of wants to kiss those puffy lips-stop.

“I’m fine.” He says bluntly, grateful for the Geography teacher finally coming into class.  The heat of his cheeks doesn’t go away any time soon, as Taehyung keeps bouncing and smiling throughout the lesson and it’s distracting. But a good kind of distracting.

What are you saying Jeon Jungkook. There is no good kind of distracting.

He groans to himself. He is so screwed.