On the fifth day Taehyung gets to the front of the line to buy his ticket, something like recognition flashes in the cinema employee’s eyes.

“You know, you can reserve and buy tickets on the internet, that way you can be sure you’ll have a good seat,” the words are spoken slowly and Taehyung smiles at him to show he understands. The other boy squints at him and Taehyung wants to coo at how cute the shorter looks. If he’s entirely honest though, he would have been extremely intimidated by his gaze had this happened on the first or second night Taehyung had come here. But at this point, he knew that although the employee looked like he would tear your ticket in two if you so much as breathed in a way that irritated him, in actuality Taehyung had caught him abusing his shift as usher to watch Inside Out for free two nights in a row.

“Yoongi,” he whines, “just because I don’t use something doesn’t mean I’m not aware of it, you treat me like such a kid.” He ends his statement with a pout that he knows is counterintuitive.

The other boy clicks his tongue and looks away from him to type something. His bright red uniform vest is two sizes too big for him and when he bends down slightly it slips down a fair bit making his yellow shirt underneath stick out more and Taehyung giggle. The side of Yoongi’s mouth curls downwards into something of a half frown and Taehyung wonders if he’s done something wrong.

“Sorry kid, but we only have tickets left for the dub of Evangelion.”

Taehyung does not try in the slightest to hide the distress appearing on his face.

“What! You didn’t save a ticket for me? Yoongi I thought we had something special,” he tries to send him a pleading look, but the older boy just rolls his eyes. He swears he can see something like a small smile playing on the other’s lips though. He frowns because obviously Yoongi doesn’t seem to see how large of a problem this is. The English dub always ing , if Taehyung were honest he’d even prefer to watch the Korean dub, no matter how many awkward sentence phrasings he’d have to suffer through. He seriously considers flying to Korea for a good few moments, but why would he watch it in Korean when he had learned the Japanese version of the opening so he could mouth along to the words.

“Usually, people call in themselves to reserve tickets,” Yoongi offers, “and they leave a name, which you by the way haven’t. So how exactly am I supposed to hold a ticket for someone if I don’t know their name or whether or not they’re actually going to show up?”

Taehyung misses a beat in their conversation to process this, it had never occurred to him that while he knew Yoongi’s name since it was on his nametag, he had never introduced himself even though they’d seen each other consecutively for the past few nights. Yoongi might not even know he’s Korean too. He wonders if Yoongi knows him as just another guy or has some nickname from him. Maybe Evangelion-Kid since that was his reason for coming here. He scrunches his nose up slightly, he sure hopes that isn’t what Yoongi has been calling him, he was so much more than Evangelion. Actually he wasn’t, that franchise is amazing and Taehyung was nothing compared to it. What he meant was that there was more to his personality than his love for the anime (though his friends would beg to differ). Where was he going with this?

“It’s Taehyung, Kim Taehyung” he his lips before continuing, “and obviously I’d be coming tonight! I came four nights in a row! Why would I stop at that? I’d come at least one more time so I could end on a fuller number than four, five makes way more sense!” He can see the gears in Yoongi’s head turning as he tries to make sense of Taehyung’s logic. This, Taehyung decides, is the perfect time to try a different tactic.

“Can you please try and get me in,” he pauses for a slight moment before adding, “hyung?”

At that, something seems to snap in Yoongi and after a moment of dazed silence, a scowl sets on his face.

“Yah, why are you assuming I’m older than you,” he reaches over to flick Taehyung’s shoulder, “And don’t call me that, we’re not nearly close enough.” His hands return to his keyboard as he starts typing.

And Taehyung, being the way that he is and not having a filter between his brain and mouth, doesn’t miss a beat before adding on a, “Yet,” to Yoongi’s statement with a smile.

Yoongi’s hands stop moving and his face contorts into a grimace, “Sorry, but we don’t have any tickets for the Japanese version of Evangelion 3.0+1.0, if you’re not going to buy a ticket for anything else sir, you’ll need to move aside so that I can help the other customers.” Taehyung knows by the false politeness in his tone that he hasn’t gone too far, but he’s close. He decides he wasn’t going to push his luck with Yoongi because he really did want to see the movie. And also because he swears he hears Yoongi mutter under his breath about spoiled brats who don’t even tell him they’re Korean.

“Okay one ticket for the dub of Evangelion,” he tries to keep the distaste out of his tone, “towards the back of the theatre if possible.” He waits the few moments it takes for Yoongi to process his purchase and print out his ticket before handing over what he owes. As soon as he’s smiled a goodbye at Yoongi, he leaves to go catch the movie because the dub starts 20 minutes earlier than the Japanese version and he wasn’t going to miss even the first note of the opening.

He misses Yoongi’s fond smile, too busy flapping his hands to try to convey his urgency to see the film to the ticket inspector.

 

-

 

He’s still impressed by the film. No matter how many times he watches it, he’s still amazed at the sheer brilliance put into a seemingly stereotypical mech anime film. And admittedly, maybe watching the dub at least once wasn’t such a bad idea, he’d missed out some smaller plot points the last few times (Kaworu’s final speech to Shinji had particularly moved him and he may have missed Misato’s status report on some of the other characters because he was too busy wiping at his eyes to read the translations, watching the dub meant that he got to hear these facts while crying).

Stretching out his arms as he walks through the hallway leading to the exit, he notices a flash of blond hair in the corner of his eye.

“Yoongi!” he jogs over to greet him. Yoongi stops locking up the snacks at Taehyung’s voice. When he turns around to face Taehyung, his lips quirk at the other boy’s red-rimmed eyes.

“Enjoy your film then?” Taehyung smiles at him and nods in response, too tired and emotionally exhausted to say anything, “So I’m guessing you’ll be coming tomorrow as well.”

“Yeah,” he tries to stifle his yawn into his sleeve, “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow Yoongi.” He can feel his eyelids drooping and honestly he really needs to get back to his dorm before he passes out on Yoongi. He doubts that would go well, they’re standing right next to a staircase and while he might be small, Taehyung doesn’t want to underestimate Yoongi’s strength.

“I guess so,” Yoongi’s gaze moves up to meet his eyes, “get some sleep kid.” He ends his goodbye with a hair ruffle which Taehyung finds kind of funny since he has to reach up quite a bit but he doesn’t laugh because he’d rather not get punched by the older boy as well.

He smiles again before turning around to go back home.

 

-

 

When he gets home his roommate and best friend Park Jimin is already asleep. He tries to be as quiet as possible as he gets ready for bed but it’s hard to do so when neither of the two people living there are particularly bothered to keep things organized and tidy (Taehyung makes most of the mess, but Jimin can’t be bothered to clean it up). It takes him knocking over two cans of hairspray and slipping on a shirt before he feels he’s made enough noise to wake his roommate up.

He peeks out the bathroom door to see Jimin rubbing at his eyes.

“Sorry, I tried to be quiet, I promise,” he says with a sheepish smile. Jimin smiles back at him and lets his head flop back to hit his pillow.

“It’s okay Tae, besides, I was trying to stay up until you came back anyway,” and Taehyung is a little thrown off by how nice Jimin is being to him. Not that Jimin isn’t a nice person, it’s just that their friendship entailed a lot of teasing and harsh words spoken with warm tones and the occasional cuddling session.

He goes back to getting ready for bed. He can hear Jimin moving around in his bed and imagines his friend tossing and turning in bed, something he knows he only does when he’s nervous, “Jimin, stop rustling your bed sheets and tell me what’s up.” He says around his toothbrush, trying to keep his saliva and toothpaste in his mouth.

He hears Jimin get up and the soft pat of his feet as he walks towards him. Jimin’s beside him now and he turns to face him, “You know, you shouldn’t be too hard on yourself, don’t throw yourself into your studies just because of the break-up,” and ah, that’s why Jimin was being so nice. In his sleepy state, Taehyung has to take a moment to process what he’d said and remembers telling Jimin on his first night to the cinema that he couldn’t hang out with him, Hoseok and Jin because he wanted to go to the library to study. In all honesty he had been intending to do so but once he saw a poster for his favourite franchise’s newest film installment, well, he had just been through a break-up and he decided to treat himself. And for some reason he decided to continue doing so, whether it was to get over his break-up or just to see the film again he didn’t really know.

He feels a twinge of guilt in his stomach and looks away from his friend. It’s hard to avoid Jimin though because the boy just cares too damn much, so when he tries to look at him through the mirror he’s immediately met with a concerned pair of eyes. He sighs around his toothbrush and lets his hand drop.

“I’m fine Jimin, I just really need to pass my classes,” he stops to think of a better excuse because he definitely wasn’t failing them before, “Everything’s started to get harder this year, I don’t think I’ll be able to just drift my way through them anymore.” He tries to add on a smile to his lie which he hopes comes across as reassuring.

It seems to convince Jimin, if the way his eyes soften is anything to go by, “Okay, but if you’re really having trouble maybe you should get like a tutor or something Tae,” he pauses to yawn, ”like I said, don’t work yourself too hard, your friends want to hang out with you too. If you want I can talk to some of Jin hyung’s friends to see if they’ll tutor you.”

And the guilt Taehyung feels instantly turns to panic because he knows Jimin will do it even if he says no unless Taehyung gives him a good reason not to. If he gets a tutor they’ll know straight away that he doesn’t really need help and tell Jin and Jimin. Plus he’ll miss Evangelion if he’s studying for real.

“Actually, I met someone at the library today, he saw me struggling with differentiation and gave me some pointers. He offered to help me out later if I needed him as well.” He chews his bottom lip which Jimin doesn’t miss.

“Oh yeah? Is he older then? Must be if he’s able to help you out, or really smart.”
“Yeah he’s older,” he debates on whether or not to say anything else, but apparently his mouth has already made that decision for him, “actually he’s a hyung too. His name’s Yoongi and honestly I was kind of scared of him at first when he started talking to me. I thought I had like done something to annoy him and that he was gonna kick my .” The amount of detail to his anecdote seems to win Jimin over, whose look of suspicion turns into something softer.

“Yoongi huh, sounds familiar-”

“Well I guess, I mean he goes to the university too,” Taehyung really hopes Jimin isn’t going to fact check him on this because in all honesty he wasn’t sure if Yoongi even went to uni. He starts to feel guilty again because he realizes how ridiculous it is that he’s made up such an elaborate lie to avoid hanging out with his best friend and two other close friends.

But then he remembers why he’s doing it and, oh yeah. It just so happens that one of the other two people Jimin is hanging out with is his ex boyfriend Hoseok. Really it isn’t strange that he and Jimin are still socializing considering they were all friends (Taehyung and Jin included) since before Hoseok and him started dating. And yeah sure, Taehyung told Jimin he was on good terms with Hoseok (a lie) and that they were friends still (not really a lie) and that nothing was awkward (obviously a lie). So maybe he should’ve told his best friend the truth about how he was still hurting and wanted to spend some time away from Hoseok; but if Jimin was such a good friend, shouldn’t he have been able to see through Taehyung’s lie? And honestly, who hangs out with their best friend’s ex the day after they break up?

He goes back to brushing his teeth, with a little bit more vigor this time, and tries to send Jimin a sharp look. However, it must end up coming across to Jimin as if he’s tired and doesn’t feel like talking anymore, which he doesn’t, so the boy sends him a tired smile before saying good night and retreating to his bed. He’s reminded that Jimin tried to stay up just to make sure Taehyung got home safely and that he’s feeling alright and any antagonistic thoughts directed towards his friend disappear immediately.

Yeah, Taehyung definitely feels guilty.

 

-

 

Apparently though, he didn’t feel guilty enough to start hanging out with his friends again.

Which is why Taehyung finds himself outside the cinema for the sixth night in a row, pulling his thin jumper on tighter and cursing the October weather. He rushes to get inside because he really doesn’t want to catch a cold.

Inside he sees Yoongi behind his regular counter, but he’s faced away from Taehyung and talking to another much taller (and also Asian, was that a requirement for working here? Because Taehyung really needed a job) employee. Taehyung’s eyes follow his slow hand movements as he recounts what seems to be a funny story, if the way the other boy has to bring a hand up to his face to muffle his laughter is anything to go by.

As Taehyung gets closer, Yoongi’s friend, he assumes they’re friends if Yoongi is talking to him willingly, catches sight of him and a small smirk plays on his lips. Yoongi seems to notice this and angles his head to see what he’s looking at. When he sees Taehyung the other employee’s smirk widens into a grin and Yoongi elbows him for it. Taehyung’s a little confused.

“Hey Yoongi hyung,” he says nonetheless. This seems to be the wrong move though because Yoongi’s friend stop nursing his injury the stifle a chuckle which gains him a glare from his attacker.

“I told you not to call me that,” he says, eyes still trained on his co-worker but turned to face Taehyung.

“I know,” Taehyung decides to test his luck considering Yoongi seemed more annoyed at the other boy than him. Yoongi looks at him and lifts an eyebrow.

“That’ll be eight dollars,” he gets out, tone laced with exasperation.

“I didn’t even tell you what I wanted to see yet. Or choose where I wanted to sit!” Taehyung says, he tries to sound whiny but his mouth betrays him and pulls up into a grin. Yoongi thinks Taehyung smiles too much.

“Okay well I guess this Evangelion ticket at the back centre of the theatre is for someone else then,” panic flashes in Taehyung’s eyes and he reaches into his pocket and plants a ten dollar bill on the counter with more speed than necessary.

“Thanks hyung! Keep the change,” Taehyung’s not entirely sure if tipping is a thing that happens at cinemas but he really wants that ticket. He takes it from Yoongi’s hands and flashes him his biggest, most sincere box smile. Yoongi looks away slightly and his friend’s mouth twitches.

As soon as the exchange is over though, Taehyung has to leave or he’ll miss the movie. Yoongi gives him a half-hearted wave and Taehyung returns it with one of his own and tilts his head at his hyung’s companion. While he’s walking to the theatre, he isn’t sure if it’s Yoongi’s friend he hears snickering, but when he hears a yelp of pain he figures it must be him and Yoongi had hit him. He’s still confused by their dynamic. Then again, Yoongi would probably be confused by his dynamic with Jimin so he figures it’s nothing of significance.

(Before the movie starts and the ads and previews are playing, Taehyung smiles to himself because Yoongi had saved him the ticket. It hadn’t really sunk in until then. It makes him feel like maybe they could be friends, maybe one day Yoongi won’t look slightly annoyed when he calls him hyung.

When he comes out from the movie he tries not to feel disappointed when he sees just Yoongi’s friend by the counter. He sends the boy a wave before he leaves anyway.)

 

-

 

The next night that same boy is by the counter. Yoongi is nowhere to be seen.

Taehyung decides to wait around for the older boy, figuring that if he bought his ticket from Yoongi he’d be guaranteed a good seat since it’d been ‘reserved’ for him. And as nice as the other boy may seem, he kind of did want to talk to his grumpy hyung. He was the only person he was speaking to on a daily basis that didn’t know about his situation with Hoseok and honestly his snark was far more comforting than the way his friends were tip toeing around him. It made him feel more normal. Like he wasn’t being treated like porcelain, ready to crack just like his relationship had.

It takes around eight minutes (not that Taehyung was counting and cursing his hyung for not coming faster because the movie starts in seven) of him pretending to look at candy before he hears someone’s deep voice call for him. He shouldn’t be surprised when he looks up to see Yoongi’s friend waving at him, so he walks over to greet him.

“Hey,” he pauses as if contemplating something, “You’re Taehyung right?”

“Yeah,” for a moment Taehyung wonders why he has to ask him. Does Yoongi have a lot of other friends he made at the cinema because they were watching Evangelion every night? He supposes he should ask him when he sees him again.

“Do you know where Yoongi is?” Taehyung asks the boy, he’s only got five minutes before the film starts and he wants to buy a small, he can’t really afford more, bag of popcorn for once because he’d skipped lunch trying to avoid Jin’s motherly interrogation. He curses Yoongi internally for being so inconsiderate of his schedule.

“So you were waiting for him,” the boy stifles a snicker into his sleeve.

Taehyung huffs, “Well yeah, he’s the one who reserves my ticket for me!”

The boy flashes him a grin and holds out his hand revealing a ticket, “I’m Namjoon by the way, Yoongi hyung told me to get this to you. He doesn’t work this shift on Thursdays.”

“He lets you call him hyung!? I can’t even joke around with him!” Taehyung exclaims pitifully while handing Namjoon money in exchange for the ticket. An exaggerated frown forms on his face and the boy laughs.

“Don’t worry, you must be going in the right direction if he’s making me hold tickets for you.”

Namjoon’s right, Yoongi can’t be too annoyed by him if he’s going this far to get him his ticket. He’s grateful Namjoon pointed this out to him. He tells him so.

Namjoon just chuckles and waves him off with a, “Go, you don’t want to miss your film, Yoongi’ll kill you if you do.”

Taehyung sees his point and rushes to the theatre.

 

-

 

After the film Taehyung stays back to talk to Namjoon and exchange phone numbers with him. It seems Yoongi has good taste in the company he keeps.

 

-

 

Talking to Namjoon may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but it had made him forget about his hunger which came back to attack him halfway to his dorm. He clutches his stomach and falls to the pavement in despair as a wave of hunger ripples through his entire being. He could hear Jin’s voice in his head telling him to get up before someone called an ambulance and sighed before standing up again.

The first convenience store he comes across is small and far too brightly lit but Taehyung just lets out an excited squeal and almost runs into the automatic door trying to enter the store. The girl behind the counter eyes him nervously and he can’t help but smile to try and put her at ease. He heads towards the snack shelf and bumps into someone on the way. Honestly, the store is too small for Taehyung and his gangly limbs-

“Yoongi hyung?” his suspicions are confirmed when the blond boy looks up at him and lets out a sigh.

“And here I thought I could go one day without having to see you,” his grin betraying his words.

The shock of seeing him out of a cinema setting is apparently too much for Taehyung and he stumbles through forming coherent words let alone a sentence. Yoongi is wearing a denim jacket and a hoodie underneath with a beanie and since Taehyung’s never seen him out of his uniform, seeing him look this warm and soft throws him off. Although, the denim jacket was probably supposed to make him look tough.

Taehyung doesn’t know why but he asks, “Hyung, where in Korea are you from?”

“Daegu.”

“Really?” Taehyung gasps, “Me too!”

Yoongi seems to light up slightly at that too. Sadly, Taehyung doesn’t notice and ruins the moment by saying, “At least I think so? I’m not entirely sure but Daegu sounds very familiar, I think that’s where my family’s from.”

He hears Yoongi laugh before feeling a light smack upside his head.

“Ow.”

“What the ? How can you not know where you’re from, oh my god Taehyung.” Yoongi bends over to laugh more and Taehyung feels happy to know he’s the cause of it, even if it was at his expense. He lets out a giggle and Yoongi looks up at him, suddenly serious and eyes accusatory.

“You’re not some kind of weird stalker are you? I mean I knew you were kinda weird from the start but still pretty cool, although you’ll be considerably less cool if I find out you did follow me.” Taehyung is shocked. He would never! (He probably would if he was given a good enough reason.) He sputters in disbelief.

“Hyung, I can’t believe you would think that. Just because I watch Evangelion every night, which is a beautifully scripted, animated-”

“I’m kidding Taehyung. This is the first time we’ve seen each other today, how could you have followed me?” Yoongi squeezes his shoulder and smiles, softer than before. Taehyung can feel himself blushing and forces out a laugh, trying to sound casual.

“Oh, of course,” he looks at Yoongi’s hand still on his shoulder and swallows, “Well, it was nice seeing you but I have to get going hyung!”

After Taehyung has managed to twist himself out of Yoongi’s grip and walk out of the store, he waves at him and hears Yoongi yell, “We’re still not close enough !” He’s shaking his head and ignorant to the way the girl behind the counter is glaring at his obscenity. Taehyung stumbles on the pavement as he heads home and the “Okay see you later hyung!” almost gets caught in his throat. Almost.

He’s still hungry when he gets back.

 

-

 

If there’s one thing Taehyung has never been good at, it’s being discreet. Which is why when he sees Yoongi in the science building the next day he lets out a shriek and nearly smacks Jimin in the face with his arm trying to turn them around and away from his fake tutor. If he really didn’t want Jimin to suspect anything, he could have done almost anything other than that to divert his attention but sadly his on the spot problem solving skills aren’t too amazing. Especially not at nine in the morning after a particularly strenuous bio lecture.

“Taehyung what,” Jimin says, grabbing onto Taehyung’s jacket in an attempt to keep them both upright. Luckily Jimin has dancer thighs and this contributes greatly in them not falling to the ground.

“It’s nothing I just-” and for the nth time this past week he is cut off by Yoongi. This time maybe not verbally but eye contact with the older boy even from across the hall is enough to make Taehyung shut up.

“Taehyung, what are you looking at?”

“Uhh, nothing,” is his intelligent reply. Jimin looks unconvinced but willing to let it go and just when he thinks he’s about to get away he hears Yoongi shout for him.

“Taehyung-ah! If you’re going to stare at me from across the hall uncomfortably, the least you can do is greet me as well!” There is no way out for Taehyung now. Unless he dies right then and there. That doesn’t sound too bad.

When he makes no effort to move, Jimin takes the matter into his own hands and uses his grip on Taehyung’s jacket to drag him over to Yoongi. Belatedly, Taehyung tries to dig his heels into the ground, but when he sees Yoongi’s expectant look (or as expectant as a guy who can only portray the three emotions of exasperation, half-amused, and disgusted on face can get) and a taller boy beside him looking between them confused, he smiles and damns himself for being so eager to please.

“Hey,” he manages to get out once he’s closer. Yoongi’s companion seems to be trying to analyse the situation while Yoongi himself tips his head up in a greeting. He can feel Jimin trying to figure out who they’re talking to, it’s hard not to when Jimin’s eyes are staring right through his face.

“Uh, so this is my roommate Jimin.” Jimin takes his eyes off of Taehyung to smile politely at Yoongi and his friend. Yoongi grunts out a hello from behind the thick scarf wrapped around his mouth and the other boy raises a tentative hand as a greeting. It’s quiet for a few moments, Jimin has directed his intense gaze at Yoongi who realises nothing will happen unless he says something.

“I’m Yoongi by the way, since Taehyung didn’t seem to want to introduce me.” And it’s at this point Taehyung knows that if he doesn’t act soon everything will go to for him. And by go to all that would really happen is him needing to tell Jimin about his feelings which he sure as wasn’t going to do.

“Ah! Of course, you’re in my music comp class right? That’s why your name sounded so familiar when Taehyung told me about you,” Taehyung blushes, “I didn’t know you were good at math,” Taehyung is ed.

The boy Yoongi is with snickers, “Yoongi hyung? Good at math?” Taehyung can only hope Jimin can’t sense the sarcasm in his words. He doesn’t dare to look Yoongi in the face while he waits for his reaction. He didn’t even take into consideration before this that his two worlds of school with Jimin and cinema with Yoongi would collide. Especially not so soon.

“What.”

Taehyung breaks. Before Jimin has the chance to elaborate, Taehyung has almost tripped grabbing his arm and under the watchful eyes of Yoongi and the other boy, he pulls them towards the end of the hall. Trying to quiet Jimin by shoving his hand in his face, Taehyung throws a, “Sorry but we really have to be going!” over his shoulder before walking straight into the door of the building’s exit. His forehead aches and he can hear students giggling and Jimin complaining about not being able to see but manages to push through the doors.

He catches the beginnings of a conversation between Yoongi and his friend before the chatter of the people outside reaches his ears.

“Hyung who was that and why do they think you’re good at math?”

“It’s hard to explain, and who says I’m not good at math?”

Taehyung is thankful his parents insisted on teaching him basic Korean but once again is displeased that here is yet another person (or rather kid, even if his height is deceiving) that gets to call Yoongi hyung.

“If you’re going to cover my eyes at least keep yours open next time so we don’t walk into a wall,” Jimin says as he tugs his arm out of Taehyung’s slightly too tight grip. Taehyung sends him a sheepish grin and they head towards the dorms. There is a slight haste in their steps as the cold breeze bites at their cheeks and both boys shove their hands into whatever pockets their clothing has.

After a few minutes of Taehyung quietly scheming on how to finally get Yoongi to willingly be his hyung and Jimin observing him, Jimin pulls him closer by wrapping an arm around his shoulders. Taehyung splutters and bats at his friend’s arm lightly, trying to keep Jimin’s fluffy brown hair out of his mouth.

“So are you just not going to explain anything today then? I don’t really have anywhere to be and as far as I’m concerned I could say the same about you.”

Taehyung just shrugs his shoulders and honestly if the roles had been switched there’s no way he would have let Jimin get away with that crap an answer. Luckily Jimin lets him because he is an angel and accommodating and understanding by nature, but Taehyung knows all he’s doing is postponing Jimin trying to counsel him, an event that will definitely occur once they reach their dorm. He tries to enjoy the few moments he has left before he’s bombarded with careful questions and understanding looks.

It being cared for.

(It doesn’t, Taehyung thrives off of people caring for him.)

 

-

 

Taehyung is lucky that Hoseok calls Jimin up two minutes after they arrive back at their dorm. Apparently it was something to do with the choreography for their dance club’s younger members’ performance next week, someone sprained an ankle or something and they needed to rethink the whole routine but Taehyung is just glad he doesn’t have to face Jimin. Which okay is pretty bad since he was happy about someone probably being in hospital and a group of young dancers panicking over how they were ever going to get the routine down by next week.

He sends Jimin a text which he hopes to be encouraging and sets a reminder on his phone about the performance. He figures he has enough money on him to treat them all to ice cream after the performance, after all they deserve it for working so hard (and getting him out of his Jimin situation). He’ll just have to walk everywhere for a few weeks.

It does cross his mind that he could stop going to the cinema every night, but he’s enjoying himself far too much to do that.

He gets to the theatre far earlier than he has been the past couple of days because he’s bored being home alone and at least at the theatre he has Yoongi or Namjoon. He’s greeted by new posters today, one for some new kid’s cartoon with a big purple character smiling as wide as he could, and another one next to it for some action flick starring Tom Cruise. Taehyung is probably going to end up seeing both.

He waves at Namjoon and rushes up to the counter. He takes a moment to look around and Namjoon chuckles.

“He’s here don’t worry, he’s just on a break. It’ll be over in ten minutes, so if you don’t want to settle for me you can wait around a bit so you buy your ticket from him.”

Taehyung doesn’t understand why Namjoon is grinning at him like that. He shakes his head and leans his upper body on the counter. Aiming a pout at Namjoon he opens his mouth to speak.

“Why do you question my love for you Namjoon, I know we’ve only known each other a fifth of the time I’ve known Yoongi but I would still buy a ticket from you,” he wipes non existent tears from his eyes and Namjoon tries to hold back from laughing again. Tries being the key word here.

“Okay, I’m sorry, I never should’ve doubted you,” he says while printing out Taehyung’s ticket, “But if you do want to talk to Yoongi he’s out back.”

Taehyung furrows his eyebrows and reaches for his wallet, “Don’t you guys have like a break room or something?” Namjoon hands him the ticket, Taehyung pays for it.

“We do but Yoongi’s way too intimidated by our female co workers to spend twenty minutes with them by himself,” he leans over the counter to whisper conspiratorially in Taehyung’s ear, “Don’t tell him I told you that though, or any of the girls who work here. First off he would castrate me and second he still has them convinced that his quietness and constipatedly stoic facial expressions are all part of his mysterious persona.”

He tries to pull back but Taehyung catches him by his sleeve and looks into his eyes, “You can count on me, I won’t tell a soul.”

They remain like that until Namjoon places a hand on his shoulder and solemnly replies, “Thank you Taehyung, we need more people like you in this world.” Taehyung giggles and Namjoon sends him a playful look before he’s waving goodbye so that he can go look for Yoongi.

He reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out the gloves he bought the other day at the thrift store. They’re an awful mustard yellow with two moss green stripes and don’t have fingers but they came in a set and he would never pass on a couple’s item with Jimin. Plus they’re actually really warm and he can still use his phone when he has them on.

He’s halfway through the doors and putting on his second glove when he hears a gravelly voice call out for him. Yoongi is leaning against the wall to his right with a small smile on his face and his phone in his hand. He goes over to him and props himself against the wall as well.

After a few moments of silence, Taehyung sees Yoongi turn to him in his peripheral vision.

“So why’d your friend think I’m good at math,” Taehyung lets out a sigh, he’d forgotten that Yoongi was there even though he was at the centre of Taehyung’s lie. While he’s trying to figure out how to explain himself, Yoongi continues, “Because if you need a tutor, Namjoon well… he’s kinda an idiot and breaks stuff all the time, but he’s really good at math.”

There’s a certain warmth in Taehyung’s chest at Yoongi’s suggestion because although it was disguised as a dig at his close friend it also showed he cared about Taehyung. Still, he shakes his head no and looks over at Yoongi.

“I don’t need help, I told Jimin I do so I wouldn’t have to explain why I haven’t been hanging out with him and our friends these past few evenings.” Yoongi seems to look even more concerned which confuses Taehyung.

“Why haven’t you been hanging out with your friends? Where have you been going each night?” Taehyung shoots him a look and it takes a few moments to realise what he meant, “Oh yeah, you’ve been coming here.”

Taehyung watches the streetlamp across from them flicker for a while and then hangs his head. Yoongi’s breath comes out in misty wisps as he thinks about what to say next.

“Why are you avoiding them then? What aren’t you telling me Taehyung,” when he looks over Yoongi is wearing a careful smile that makes him want to tell him the truth. It would be nice, he thinks, to have someone who’s not a part of it know how he’s feeling. The streetlamp stops flickering and the warm glow that illuminates Yoongi’s face as a result makes him give in. He doesn’t quite know when the two of them became comfortable enough to talk like this, but Yoongi seems supportive and like he wants to help.

“One of our friends and I used to date, but he broke up with me like a week ago,” Yoongi nods at him to keep going, “I don’t want to make it seem like I’m uncomfortable being around him because that’ll with the dynamic of our whole group and I don’t want my problems to get in the way.”

Yoongi doesn’t say anything for a while, just lets out a sigh that makes Taehyung feel like he understands.

“That kid.”

Taehyung lifts his head to pout at Yoongi who chuckles and puts an arm around him.

“I get it, you just want some time to figure stuff out and get over him on your own right,” Taehyung grunts out an affirmative sound, “I hope your cartoon’s been helping you then.”

“Evangelion’s been helping me more than anything else thank you very much. That anime masterpiece is the best cure for my broken heart.” Taehyung says. Yoongi lets out another laugh and Taehyung can’t help but feel that maybe Evangelion’s not the only thing that’s been making him feel better.