jungkook was always a silent kid. he stayed away from trouble (mostly), and went along with the flow the adults set before him. his parents were proud of him, he did well in school (as well as you could as a six year old learning to add with fingers), and he made good friends like jimin, seokjin, yoongi and namjoonie hyungs that would play pirates and seagulls with him. 

as much as he wishes to stay out of trouble, it's always inevitable when it comes crashing his way.

it's why he's sitting in the school's infirmary, feeling guilt eating him up as he watches jimin sob his eyes out of existence, his hand cradling the bleeding arm. he's bleeding a lot, and the forming purple bruise scattered on his arm and legs aren't very nice to look at. he didn't mean to hurt jimin. as a seagull, it is his duty to get the pirates away from his nest (a pile of sticks on top of the lunch table). he had no option but to head jimin off the table.

it wasn't a good idea.

jungkook knows all his friends would be mad at him. he knows his parents will be mad too, and so will jimin's parents. his teachers would be disappointed, and jimin would ignore him forever and ever, and he's scared– who else will save him his favorite cookies except jiminnie hyung? seokjin hyung sure wouldn't. he's the one that eats them all.

he watches the school nurse patch jimin up and wipe away his tears. jimin is given a lollipop and a pat on his head when his sobbing ceases, but he pointedly ignores jungkook. jungkook frowns, kicking his legs back and forth. he was good at everything; all except apologizing first.

they sit in silence with jungkook burning holes into the side of jimin's head until the nurse is alerted and she leads jimin away, most likely to be taken back home to his parents after such a nasty fall. jimin gives him the stink eye when he's being led away, the first bit of attention he gives him for what feels like hours. jungkook presumes that this is jimin's way of forgiving him and he grins back, waving goodbye as jimin waves back with his elbow and leaves. 

jungkook sits back against his seat in the infirmary, consumed by silence again. he eyes the clock for a few minutes (big hand is hour, small hand is seconds... right?), before his gaze settles on the digital clock on a table. it's one in the afternoon, and he's pretty sure his class is doing popcorn reading right now. he debates if it would matter if he stayed for an extra few minutes before he goes back, or if he should play safe and go back to his classroom immediately, now that he has no excuse of accompanying jimin anymore. 

he's spared from the trouble when a boy with fluffy hair and big, brown eyes strolls into the room. he's pinching a spot on his arm above his elbow, and his eyes dart around the silent room, as if searching for something. jungkook furrows his eyebrows, trying to see if there was anything injured with this boy. jungkook vaguely remembers him as jimin's desk partner, from the few times he's stopped by his class.

the boy's eyes finally lands on jungkook, and he breaks out into a wide, boxy grin. jungkook blinks a few times, before he bows his head and mutters a "hello."

"hello!" the boy says, voice loud but shy. "um, did jiminnie leave?"

jungkook nods, his face blank. 

"ah," the boy lets go of his arm, and only then does jungkook notice the hall pass dangling from his hand. he must've been sent to look for jimin.

jungkook nods again, his smile just as awkward as he feels. the boy pinches his arm again. 

"what are you doing?" jungkook asks, pointing at the boy's arm. 

the boy's lips pulls into a frown before he glances down at where jungkook is pointing. the frown is quick to be replaced by the same boxy grin from before. jungkook finds it to be very cute.

"it's an elephant! look!" the boy approaches jungkook, shoving his arm into jungkook's face. jungkook scrunches up his face and leans back.

"i don't like elephants," jungkook says. he doesn't miss the gasp of disbelief the older boy lets out in front of him.

"but taetae elephant is cute!" he pouts, and jungkook eyes the boy's arm again. the two moles on his arm serve as eyes as the pinched skin below it displays an elephant's nose. admittedly, it does look kind of cute, but jungkook is a Manly Man and nothing is cute to him. he opts to shrug in response. 

the boy frowns again, his eyes downcast as he releases his arm again. he twirls the lanyard of the hall pass between his fingertips for a while before he lifts his hand in a half-hearted wave and turns to leave.

a wave of guilt hits jungkook again, and he feels like he really wants to see that smile again.

"w-wait! i... i like your elephant...?" jungkook trails off, and he feels his face burning red. the boy stops walking and turns back around, and the grin returns.

"really?" he almost yells, bounding back to jungkook and grinning in his face. jungkook unconsciously leans back again. he's really big on personal space. 

the boy seems to notice and leans back, his demeanor suddenly turning shy again as he meekly says, "i'm taehyung."

"jungkook." jungkook replies, and he finds himself smiling back widely at taehyung's contagious grin.

the next day at lunch, jungkook nervously walks onto the playground. being in the younger class, his class is always let out later than his hyung's classes. he feels impending doom consuming him as he searches for his group of friends. jimin may have forgiven him, but namjoon may have not. seokjin hyung might've not either, and god forbid yoongi hyung attacking him for hurting precious jiminnie.

he spots the group sitting in the sandbox. jungkook guesses they're building a cake, if seokjin pulling twigs and sticking them onto the circular lump of sand is anything to go by. 

he walks to the edge of the sandbox, and before anyone even has time to notice that he's there, he feels something crashing into him from behind. the next thing he knows, he's on top of the second, now destroyed, sand cake. there's also someone breathing on top of him, and he turns to see taehyung's familiar smile blinding him.

yoongi screams at them for destroying his carefully rock-decorated cake, but after that, the accident from yesterday is forgotten and taehyung is easily accepted into their group. he fits in as easily as jungkook fits into his favorite winter sweater. jungkook especially enjoys the undivided attention he receives from taehyung more often than not, personal boundaries be damned. seeing taehyung's smile whenever jungkook races with him, when yoongi offers him the ball, when namjoon dances with him, and all the moments in between, he really doesn't mind it when taehyung clings to his arm all the time and shows off his arm elephant named taetae.

he really really likes taehyung's smile.

so much that he doesn't get mad at taehyung a few days later when he makes fun of jungkook almost crying in fear at the pictures of real life elephants.

not even when taehyung pinches his thigh hard when they're playing cars in jungkook's living room, proclaiming that jungkook also has an elephant.

---

they're seven and nine when jungkook decides they're boyfriends.

"hyung, do you wanna be my boyfriend?" jungkook asks during an episode of pokemon.

taehyung turns to look at jungkook, his head tilted. "boyfriend? like, kissing? ew."

"no! my hyung said," jungkook pauses and looks around the room for any potential eavesdroppers before he pulls taehyung close and whispers in his ear, "my hyung said that you become boyfriends and girlfriends when you like each other a lot!"

taehyung gasps loudly, leaning back in shock before he leans back to whisper to jungkook.

"do we like each other?"

"i think so!" 

taehyung nods in determination then.

"yes, we are boyfriends and i will kiss you!"

taehyung squishes both sides of jungkook's face and closes the distance between them, messily pressing his lips against the side of jungkook's mouth.

it wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. jungkook pushes taehyung away after a second. they wipe at their mouths and silently agree they will never do it again.

they tell the others that they've become boyfriends, and the others all hoot and cheer and talk about if having a boyfriend or a girlfriend meant they could act out the cheesy dramas they see on tv.

after a week of being boyfriends, they both decide it's boring. 

it's forgotten anyways, in favor of teasing jungkook when he reveals that he thinks he likes that pretty girl in seokjin hyung's class.

---

they're nineteen and twenty-one and jungkook is so "two thousand and late", as said by jung hoseok, jungkook's roommate, a few months into his first year of college. 

ever since they met, jungkook and taehyung had been attached by the hip. it was only natural for them to (somehow) end up going to the same college, the rest of their group either going to the same or nearby colleges with regular meet ups.

so really, it was difficult to tell when jungkook's heart suddenly decided taehyung belonged in it.

it was more difficult to finally confess to taehyung. 

("you're so two thousand and late, jungkook," hoseok tells him again when jungkook relayed the events of the Big Confession to him, "taehyung has been sending love signals with his radars ever since i first met you two.")

getting taehyung out wasn't the hard part. they always went out together alone more often than not. 

the hard part was dragging taehyung away from the bears. 

"hyung, please." jungkook groans, tugging at taehyung's hand again. taehyung holds a finger up at jungkook, his eyes never leaving the bear as he untangles his fingers from jungkook's and tries to get the bear to follow the motion of his hand.

it takes forever until taehyung says a tearful goodbye to the bear, promising to return to it before they leave the zoo, and jungkook rolls his eyes before dragging taehyung to move on to the other animals.

taehyung spends a ridiculous amount of time ogling at each animal. jungkook is strangely reminded of taehyung's eight year old self each time the older turns around to grin that same grin at jungkook. 

it takes a while longer until they finally get to where jungkook wanted to go to the most.

the elephants. those goddamned, gigantic, terrifying creatures.

jungkook swallows hard when he sees the monsters far below where they're standing, but he manages a smile when taehyung cries out happily and runs to try to get a closer look at the elephants. 

"it's us!" taehyung hisses into jungkook's ear as he points to the elephants and pulls him close. taehyung holds up his arm and pinches that spot again, his eyes disappearing into slits as he smiles so widely jungkook finds his heart bursting and himself grinning back. he reaches down to pull up his shorts higher to show his thigh, and pinches the skin below the two moles too. he'd forget his stupid fear of elephants if it means seeing taehyung as happy as this again.

"it's us." jungkook says. taehyung's smile is contagious, and he already feels his cheeks hurting from smiling so much. nothing's changed from when they were little, he thinks. he still loves taehyung's smile and his heart still beats faster whenever he sees the other boy.

taehyung's eyes soften when he finally tears his gaze away from the elephants and turns to jungkook instead. the blinding smile he wears all the time also turns into something more gentle, but still so taehyung, and jungkook is happy that he's the only one who gets to see this smile.

taehyung's hands reach up to cup jungkook's cheeks, and they lean closer to each other. jungkook brushes taehyung's fringe away from his eyes before his arms encircle taehyung's waist and pulls him close. they're so close, he can feel taehyung's breath on his lips and his heartbeat beating as fast as jungkook's is.

this time, it's jungkook that leans in to close the distance between their lips.

unlike before, jungkook decides that this is good. this is really good, and he likes this, and he really really really likes taehyung too.