[2/2]

If it isn’t obvious by now, Park Jimin cares. He cares about the state of the world, the birds migrating to the south for the winter, whether or not the cashiers at the supermarket are working too many shifts a week. He cares about his family, friends, peers, strangers he meets on the street. But when it comes to Taehyung it’s on a whole other level. He Cares™ about Taehyung and nothing would ever change that.

Jimin worries about Taehyung. Whether he’s eating enough, handing his homework in on time, handling his stress properly. They’ve been friends long enough for Jimin to have observed every mannerism and speech pattern Taehyung has, for him to know almost exactly what the other boy is feeling at all times. All it takes is for Taehyung to talk with slightly different intonations and Jimin will know something is off.

It doesn’t take Jimin’s hyper awareness of Taehyung to realise that the boy had been coming home far too happy for someone who had just spent three hours studying though. He’s been acting strange about his studying and Yoongi ever since he first brought it up with Jimin, and a heart to heart about his current state of being has been long overdue ever since Jimin let him get away that last time.

So on the eighth night Taehyung steps through the door after his ‘study session with Yoongi’ Jimin immediately calls him from his spot on the couch. He hears his footsteps and moves his body to the side to make room for the other boy. Once he’s lifted his blanket and their legs are intertwined so that they both fit comfortably on the couch, Jimin lets the buzz of the the tv fill the room for a few seconds before turning to his friend.

“Hey… Tae, how have things been with you recently?” he’s just able to stop the cringe at his own awkward question while Taehyung’s left eyebrow shoots up beyond his fringe.

“Jimin we literally see each other every day you know exactly how things have been,” there’s a pause in which Taehyung looks over at his friend to see if he’s looking faint, “We ing live together Jimin?”

There’s a nervous laugh from Jimin before he stops and starts his next sentence at least twice. Taehyung is admittedly a little amused because it’s not often he gets to see motor-mouth Park Jimin stumble over words with his best friend.

“Yeah I know but like, what’s been, uh, up? With you?” With every phrase he sounds more and more unsure of himself, “Like um… I haven’t really seen you these past few evenings. So uh, what have you been um, doing?” He finishes with a forced grin. Taehyung can see the faux casualty and he knows he has to be careful with what he says. Everything he says or does in these next few moments is going to be micro-analysed by his best friend in an attempt at finding the truth.

“...Studying. You know that Jimin.”

The sigh of frustration his friend releases tells Taehyung that Jimin is out for a very specific answer. When he leans forward to tell Jimin to lighten up, his face is caught by a pair of small but strong hands.

“Taehyung you’ve been coming home from ‘studying’ looking like you’ve had the goddamn time of your life and unless I’ve been doing it wrong these past few years, that is definitely not what studying is. So please tell me what’s so fun about studying.” Their faces are so close that Taehyung feels like he either has to kiss or kill Jimin at this point. Instead he gulps and gives his friend a reply he so desperately has been asking for.

“Yoongi hyung makes it tolerable. He’s just easy to talk to, even though he’s kinda grumpy and only replies in four syllable statements,” Jimin’s hands leave his face, “It’s easier to study when you have someone whose company you enjoy. Maybe the fact that I’m getting my grades up again and having a somewhat nice time is why I look so happy?”

He sighs and leans back against the couch. It’s secondhand and they bought it for like seventy bucks but Taehyung loves the way he can just sink into it, especially in moments like this. He isn’t sure if he should keep going, but when Jimin says nothing back he relaxes into the cushion and keeps talking.

“He’s just nice also. He acts like he doesn’t care about much but offered to get me in contact with one of his other friends if I need help in any other subjects. He makes sure to save me space in the library if I’m running late. He doesn’t get weirded out when I talk about anime or space or wanting to own thirty dogs, at most he’ll humor me and talk about the logistics of owning dogs rather than cats and at the least he’ll just listen and nod and then eventually tell me to keep going with my trig. I dunno it’s just nice…” he trails off and tries to continue watching whatever’s on the tv. He swears it was Breaking Bad just a minute ago but Tim Gunn telling him and the contestants of Project Runway that their designs must incorporate some form of natural raw material proves him otherwise.

He traces patterns with feather light touches of his fingertips onto Jimin’s thigh, hoping that they’ve moved on from the subject of his evening schedule. When he avoids Jimin’s gaze in favour of watching some forty-something-year-old contestant about clashing colours even though he hates reality shows with intense competition between the contestants, Jimin’s legs shift between his.

“Oh.”

Taehyung slowly turns to look at his friend in bewilderment. ‘Oh’? What was that supposed to mean?

“I see how it is.” Jimin grins at him and Taehyung wants to scream because how can Jimin see how it is? There is nothing to see because Taehyung had just lied to him!

Jimin seems to pick up on his distress and his grin pulls into a more genuine smile.

“Taehyung I’m your best friend, why the didn’t you tell me you had a crush on Yoongi you little .” All sorts of alarms and red flags are going off in Taehyung’s head telling him that he needs to correct the situation before something that he would regret happens.

“If it’s because you think it happened too soon after Hoseok and I’m his friend, don’t worry. I’m glad you’ve been able to move on,” he waggles his eyebrows and pinches the inside of Taehyung’s thigh, “Yoongi is pretty cute. I mean, if short with feline features and the posture of a sixty year old man is your type,” he teases.

When Taehyung remains silent as he tries to figure out what the best answer he could give is, Jimin worries that may have gone too far.

“No but actually, Yoongi seems really nice from what you said. And he isn’t hard on the eyes either. I can see why you like him.”

Jimin has practically set up plausible reasoning for him. Taehyung has made his choice.

“Sure.”

Jimin gives him a blank stare in return, “Sure what?”

“I like Yoongi.”

There’s a moment where Jimin looks like he’s ready to leave before a smile settles on his face. He gives a Taehyung’s shoulder a solid punch and leans back into the couch.

“Yeah asshat I just said that.”

Taehyung rubs at his shoulder and scowls at Jimin, “Who are you calling short by the way Mr. 175cm, I bet Yoongi’s taller than you.”

“Shut the up, Preston’s about to get told corns are not suitable beads for a silk dress.”

It’s the night after his talk with Jimin where they concluded he had feelings for the older boy. Taehyung still has decided to opt out of socialising with his normal group of friends in favour of seeing Evangelion (and seeing Yoongi). Taehyung’s made some dumb cinema pun and Yoongi’s telling him to shut up while bringing a hand to his face as he laughs.

“I’m sorry, I guess my bad sense of humor is just a special effect to my otherwise unflawed personality.”

“Oh my god, Taehyung,” Yoongi looks up at him with the biggest smile on his face. Taehyung can hear the lady in line behind him sigh dramatically but can’t bring himself to care when he’s faced with Yoongi’s adorable small teeth and his gums peeking out from the corners of his mouth. His eye smile is at a Jimin level of endearing and Taehyung’s heart clenches. He’s disappointed when Yoongi brings up not just one but both of his hands to hide his face, at least he gets to see slim fingers and milky skin. He hears the older boy giggle and he can’t stop the smile forming on his face and- .

Goddamn Jimin and his ing sixth sense for crushes. Goddamn Yoongi and his ing pretty face and amazing personality. Goddamn his ing goddamn self for not seeing what he was walking into.

“You know you said that outloud right?”

There’s a slight moment where he panics that he’s said everything he’s just thought, but Yoongi seems to not be too affected by whatever he’s just said. He tries to get away with it with a simple, “Ahahaha, of course hyung!” Hoping that Yoongi won’t question him in favour of correcting his use of the Korean hierarchy.

But when Yoongi just sighs and says, “Whatever kid, just try not to offend anymore of my customers,” Taehyung can’t help but scream internally that of course now, right when Taehyung realises that his fake crush on Yoongi might not be so fake after all, the other boy finally lets him call him hyung.

There’s a heavy silence hanging in the air between the three friends. Jimin is sick after spending the previous night helping one of the girls (whom he hadn’t even met before) at the dorms find her wallet she lost in the park nearby. It had started raining and the girl had hugged him with soaked hair and clothes and offered him her number but he couldn’t bring himself to accept it because the only words he associates with her are ‘moist’ and ‘unnecessarily panicked’. She was still pretty and Taehyung definitely considered Jimin’s helping her a waste of time and health if wasn’t getting a date out of it. Why did his best friend have to be literally the most selfless person on the planet?

Across from him Hoseok takes a bite out of his sandwich and Jin coughs into his hand. They were sitting inside at one of the tables of the dining hall for once, the tables outside still too wet for them to use. Usually they would be the loudest table and therefore were often exiled to sit outside, but today Taehyung can’t find it in him to try to initiate either of them in a conversation. He may be over Hoseok, but he hasn’t really been speaking to him for more than a week and the conversation just doesn’t seem to want to flow (or even start). Hoseok seems to sense his reluctance and is keeping quiet, either that or he too can’t find anything to say. Jin had talked about his new lab partner for a good two minutes before starting to sip on his overly expensive vegetable juice.

Taehyung can see people looking over at their table with confused or shocked expressions, probably because they can’t believe the table with the low but loud voiced manboy, the dancer who never stops screaming, and their all too nice hyung is silent. Jin eats his salad quietly while Hoseok avoids eye contact with Taehyung.

They needed Jimin there. Jimin who knew about everyone’s current emotional states and was therefore able to joke around and keep the atmosphere light without making things awkward. Jimin who is literally a ray of sunshine and could befriend almost anyone within fifteen minutes. Sure they were all friends, but the two of them present who did the most of the talking aren’t exactly on speaking terms. Taehyung is 80 percent sure Jin is aware of the tension between them, but would rather act like a mother of two who she believes need to learn how to work things out by themselves for once.

“How’s Jimin?” Hoseok gets out, Taehyung just shrugs.

His attention is drawn to the sound of a tray hitting the ground with a loud bang and two boys laughing. He peeks over his shoulder to see his two cinema employee friends hunched over laughing as a familiar and tall boy stands between them looking dejectedly at an empty tray on the floor. The boy’s cheeks seem to be flushed as well and Taehyung recognises him as the boy Yoongi was with when he ran into him in the bio building.

He sits up straighter and shoots a hand into the air waving frantically to gain their attention.

“Yoongi hyung!” said boy straightens up and looks over to where Taehyung is sitting. His two companions notice Taehyung as well and he smiles at the trio. Now it’s apparently floor tray boy’s turn to laugh and Yoongi smacks him on the back for it. Does Yoongi hit all his friends? Jin already does that in his group of friends so Taehyung’s sure he could get used to it for Yoongi. (He’s so far gone.)

Namjoon nudges him and Yoongi goes from glaring at the boy to waving at Taehyung.

“Sit with me hyung!” he all but shouts even though they’re only a few meters apart. Hopefully the addition of a few more people to their table would liven things up.

Yoongi has no choice in the matter apparently, because he’s being pushed towards Taehyung’s table by Namjoon. At least he doesn’t seem to not want to go over, he’s complaining rather loudly in Korean but not about Taehyung but rather how his two dongsaengs don’t show him the respect he deserves. Taehyung turns away to shift up the bench to make room for the other three and Jin and Hoseok openly stare at him.

“Hyung?” Jin questions him. Before he has a chance to answer the three have arrived and Yoongi has already sat down beside Taehyung and put an arm around him. He leans his weight on the younger boy and makes a point to not look at his other two friends. The boy Taehyung still doesn’t know the name of rolls his eyes and Namjoon chuckles as he takes a seat. Jin moves over so that the other boy can sit down.

“At least Taehyung respects me, he’s my only real friend, you guys .” Yoongi rests his head on Taehyung’s shoulder and closes his eyes, there’s a blush on Taehyung’s face but he manages a giggle as well. When no one says anything else Yoongi opens one eye to see Jin and Hoseok watching him. He notices that Hoseok’s gaze flickers to Taehyung before looking away. Interesting.

“Sorry how rude of me, I’m Min Yoongi, Taehyung’s tutor,” he says while sitting up. Taehyung nearly leans towards him to keep the contact but is able to stop himself. Yoongi points to his two friends, “This is Namjoon and Jungkook, I’m sorry that you have to meet them.”

Jin giggles and Taehyung is happy to finally know the name of the third boy. Taehyung introduces Jin and Hoseok to the other boys and they start to eat. Jungkook gets up saying that he was actually halfway through purchasing his lunch when Taehyung called them over. He’s happy that Yoongi and Namjoon are able to include everyone in their conversations about music, Namjoon’s most recent existential crisis, and how over priced candles are at Bath and Bodyworks. It definitely makes up for how achingly awkward everything was before they had arrived.

“I didn’t know you were tutoring Taehyung Yoongi, I didn’t even know you were good enough at any non-music related subject to be able to,” he turns to Yoongi, “I thought you guys just knew each other from the cinema-” he’s cut off by Yoongi’s elbow to his stomach.

Taehyung sighs in relief and sends Yoongi a grateful look. However he’s too preoccupied by Namjoon cursing him out to notice.

“The do you mean I’m not good enough, first Jungkook and now you? What did I ever do to get acquainted with s like you.” And just like that they’ve moved on to the next topic. Jin asks Namjoon what he’s majoring in and Jungkook returns to the table with two energy drinks, two ham sandwiches and a bag of chips saying something about sodium and protein. Taehyung wonders if that is a healthy diet and Yoongi calls him a workout freak before offering him the rest of his own sandwich. Taehyung decides Jungkook is the cutest kid he’s seen in a while as he coos over the kid’s bunny toothed smile.

Hardly any of them finishes eating with how much they’ve been talking by the time they have to get to classes, except Jungkook who says about six words and spends the rest of the time shoving bread and ham down his throat. Taehyung is the first to leave and as he stands up to go Yoongi taps his hip as a good bye and he almost stumbles over his feet. When he turns around to wave goodbye to the rest of them his face is flushed and they’re all getting ready to leave too. He realises he wouldn’t mind letting his two worlds collide more often.

(After his class he gets a text from Namjoon:

yoongi wants to know if thats “the guy”

i dont rlly know what he means by that but i guess you do?

heres his # btw

He quickly adds the number to his contacts and sends a text to Yoongi that yeah Hoseok’s his ex. He gets a text back ten minutes later from Yoongi saying that he can’t understand why Hoseok’s looking at him with so much jealousy if he’s the one who broke things off. Taehyung thinks Yoongi must be seeing things.)

There’s a knock on the door. Jimin is too busy dying from a fever to answer. Taehyung sighs and gets up from playing Pokemon on his 3DS, shiny hunting was taking too much time anyway. He doesn’t understand how Jin can have the patience for it.

He walks past the kitchen making a mental note to put away the groceries he bought, later though. When he reaches the door he doesn’t bother checking who it is and just opens it. Jung Hoseok stands on the other side, hands in the pockets of his hoodie and eyes on Taehyung.

“Oh Hoseok hyung, hi,” Taehyung tries not to feel awkward and smiles at his ex. Hoseok smiles back and looks down before speaking, “Hey, um can we talk?”

“Sure but let’s do it out here, I don’t want to disturb Jimin,” he says while stepping out and closing the door behind him. He feels a little apprehensive but Hoseok’s his friend so it wouldn’t make sense for him to say no. They stand there for a while, Taehyung with his back propped up against the door and opposite him is Hoseok avoiding his gaze. The atmosphere is almost unbearable and Taehyung silently hopes someone will walk out of their dorm just so it’s not so quiet.

“Listen,” Hoseok starts, he brings a hand up to card his fingers through his hair. Taehyung has no idea what it is the other boy came here to talk to him about, “I’m really sorry about how things ended, I was a . Who breaks up with someone in front of another one of their mutual friends right?” Taehyung has been trying really hard to suppress that memory. Jimin may not have been actively a part of their conversation but he had been standing only a few metres away from the two when Hoseok had told him that he didn’t think things were working out between them. In fairness he had thought Jimin had already gone off to his class, but still. The only reason Jimin had come over and beat the out of him was because Taehyung had laughed it off and said he felt the same, even though he could feel his throat closing up. That’s when they had agreed on staying friends, Taehyung definitely could’ve handled the situation better.

He gulps and nods, hoping Hoseok will just get on with it.

“The thing is…” Hoseok laughs awkwardly and looks at him with an unreadable expression, “I realised I still have feelings for you, I know I really ed things up and I really tried to just stay friends but,” he looks away again, “I don’t think I want to.”

Taehyung doesn’t think he’s felt this angry in a long time.

“Yeah well you should’ve ing figured that out before dumping me,” he can see the way Hoseok tenses at his harsh words, “You can’t expect me to just want to pick up where we left off Hoseok.”

He pushes past the other boy, intentionally slamming his side into him.

“Tae that’s not- wait-”

“And don’t you dare follow me Jung Hoseok,” he all but shouts as he storms out of the dormitory building.

The only thing keeping him warm is his vibrating phone in his jeans’ pocket. Then again, there was no need for a jacket when he was practically fuming as he walks the few blocks from his dorm to the cinema. He’s sure it’s Hoseok and Jimin blowing up his phones with messages and calls so he yanks it out of his pocket and swipes so hard to turn his phone off he may have made a scratch mark on the screen.

He reaches the cinema and yanks the door to the entrance open, ready to glare at anyone who’s in his way. He stalks over to the counters to see the lack of a line and Namjoon checking his phone. Of course, it’s ing Thursday. Yoongi’s not here.

Namjoon is his friend but right now Taehyung really needed someone to talk to. Someone who already knows about his situation so he doesn’t have to explain himself again. Someone who he knows won’t judge him for acting like this. Someone whose company by itself will calm him down. Yoongi, he wants to talk to Yoongi.

He wants to tell him how he’s angry at Hoseok, but how he doesn’t want to be. How he can’t believe he had come back to him, but how he also still wants to be his friend. Hoseok has been his friend for two years now, he’s great and he doesn’t want to lose him. It isn’t even that he doesn’t want to break their group of friends apart, but that he genuinely cares for Hoseok still.

“Taehyung-ah!” Namjoon calls him over and Taehyung stands there for a while before making his way over.

Namjoon must see that he’s not in his normal friendly mood as his grin pulls into a more neutral expression when Taehyung gets to him. Taehyung tries to look less pissed off but ends up crossing his arms while trying to look casual. There’s something that tells Taehyung that his patience with anyone was going to be very thin today. Namjoon clears his throat and begins talking after waiting a while for a greeting from Taehyung that he doesn’t receive.

“So um, Yoongi got this ticket for-” and Taehyung doesn’t even have it in him to pretend to be polite and groans out a, “I’m sorry I don’t really want to talk to anyone right now, I’ll probably just end up shouting at you and you really don’t deserve that. I’ll go use one of the machines or something.”

He walks off and Namjoon’s, “No you see Yoongi- hey Taehyung come back!” is out of his hearing range by the time he reaches the ticket machine. He looks back to see Namjoon watching him but not being able to leave his counter because a customer had walked up to him.

The screen of the machine is slightly sticky and Taehyung has to stab at the poster for Eva three times before it lets him select it. When he confirms his choice he groans loudly because the only tickets available are for a showing at eleven at night. Since when was Evangelion so goddamn popular in the US? He should just go back and get his ticket off Namjoon but his stubbornness prevents him from doing so.

He scrolls through the rest of the options and decides he’d rather see some sappy romcom than the millionth installment of the Fast and Furious franchise. He doesn’t even bother checking the name of the film before buying a ticket at the very back left corner of the theatre, hopefully as far away from other movie goers as possible. He nearly tears the ticket in half trying to take it from the machine after it print it out.

When he gets to the employee that inspects the ticket, one of her eyebrows shoots up. Probably from recognising Taehyung as the boy who came by every night to watch Evangelion and being confused that he was going to see a romcom of all things. She points him in the opposite direction of the theatre that shows Evangelion and he heads off with a low thanks.

(What Taehyung doesn’t know is outside the cinema Yoongi, leaned up against the wall much like he had been the night Taehyung had told him about Hoseok, waits for him to come out after Namjoon gives him his ticket. For free. Because Yoongi, broke college student that he is, paid for it.

It was a lazy date idea if he was honest with himself, even if he knew the boy would have a good time watching the film. Lazy because he works there for god’s sake. Which is why he decides that this isn’t going to be a date. No, this was Yoongi’s attempt at making Taehyung feel better, to become better friends with him. And maybe also an excuse for him to spend more time with the other boy, the blush on his face is from the cold he swears, turns out seeing him at uni as well wasn’t enough for Yoongi, especially not when they weren’t alone during those encounters. He’s already decided as well that he was going to ask Taehyung out on a real date after the movie.

But he can’t do that if Taehyung doesn’t show up.

He checks his phone for the time, the movie should be starting in fifteen minutes. He sends off a quick text to Namjoon asking if he’d seen Taehyung yet. And if he had, that he has also remembered to tell Taehyung to meet Yoongi outside.

Yoongi lets his head fall back against the wall he’s leaning on as he waits.)

Halfway through the movie Taehyung still hasn’t caught the name of the lead boy, but he’s fairly sure that the girl is called Johanna. She is very pretty, with medium length brown hair and blue eyes that are always lined. The boy is good looking too, far too foreign and blonde to look anything like Hoseok. But neither of these two facts can make Taehyung ignore how similar their story was to his life, which really is quite pathetic. They had started out as friends, introduced to each other by Johanna’s best friend at some college party and there had been a series of scenes where they had got to know each other and grown fond. The boy asks Johanna out in the least romantic manner, Hoseok had asked Taehyung out when the two of them had been on the floor scrubbing minced meat off it, having been forced to clean up the kitchen as punishment after spilling food Jin had taken two hours to prepare.

But things didn’t go too well for them, they lacked intimacy and were just treating each other like friends still, so the boy broke things off. Johanna coped with the break up in a much cooler way Taehyung had coped with his own, she got ing wasted at some club each night.

She’s grinding up against some stranger after downing two acid green cocktails when Taehyung starts crying. He doesn’t know why, but he can’t stop either. A group of teenage girls sitting two rows in front of him peer back and one of them giggles.

Taehyung is one of those ugly criers. His mouth falls open as he wails and his eyes scrunch up as tears flow out. There’s also a high possibility he has snot dripping down his cupid’s bow. And he’s loud. Loud enough even the slightly older couple in the second row wince at his every sob.

He doesn’t stop, he has no idea what’s happening on screen and he can’t bring himself to care. He knows he’s probably making the other people there uncomfortable so he brings up a hand to muffle his cries. It’s definitely a good thing he chose to sit so far away from the others.

He continues like this for the rest of the movie, occasionally looking down from the screen to sob into the sleeve of his now very damp hoodie.

Johanna ends up getting back together with the boy (Christian?), of course. He’s bitter that it’s 2015 and Hollywood still can’t come up with a realistic story. There’s no way they would work in his unbiased opinion. The tears that track down his face are hot and he only sniffles every so often when the credits start rolling. The rest of the movie goers leave.

When he’s all alone, Taehyung curls up in his seat and cries into the armrest. He feels pathetic. He doesn’t even want to be with Hoseok and he’s crying over him. He cries until there are no sounds or tears coming from him and all he has to show to prove he’s awake is the erratic shake of his shoulders.

But then there’s a warm weight on his shoulders and he sits up to apologise to the usher but when he turns to face them he’s met with the concerned face of Min Yoongi. His breath catches in his throat for a moment, Yoongi is hunched over holding Taehyung’s shoulder and looking at him with something soft in his eyes. It doesn’t take long for his face to scrunch up and his eyes to squeeze out a few more tears he didn’t know he had left in him.

Yoongi sits in the seat next to him and brings the other boy into a hug. Taehyung takes a hold of the front his shirt and sobs into Yoongi’s shoulder. There’s a steady hand on his waist and another rubbing circles into his back. He shifts his face slightly so that it’s in the junction between Yoongi’s shoulder and throat and tries to stop crying.

It takes a while but eventually Taehyung pulls back. He doesn’t want Yoongi to let go of him but he knows he owes the other boy an explanation. Yoongi beats him to speaking though.

“Hey,” he says with a soft smile on his face. Taehyung sniffs in response and Yoongi brings up a hand to wipe a tear that trails down Taehyung’s face. The younger boy hangs his head and feels Yoongi’s slim fingers card their way through his hair.

“Hoseok came to see me today,” he can’t bring himself to say much more. Yoongi has to hide the hurt on his face when Taehyung looks up at him.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.” Taehyung offers Yoongi a watery eyed smile.

Yoongi takes Taehyung’s right hand into his own and threads their fingers together, “You’ll be okay,” Taehyung’s heart flutters.

“Thank you hyung.”

He gets home to Jimin telling him he had shouted at Hoseok. He hugs his friend before being pushed away, Jimin not wanting him to get sick too. They still end up snuggling on the couch until they fall asleep to reruns of Danny Phantom on Nickelodeon.

When he sees Hoseok again two days later, the other boy apologises more than necessary. He tells him he understands if he wants space or doesn’t want to be friends anymore. Taehyung calls him crazy before pulling him into a hug and telling him he’d regret not being friends with him for the rest of life if he did that.

The three of them and Jin hang out for the first time in almost a month that night at Jin’s place. They play Call of Duty and eat pizza and complain about uni. It’s nice. It’s comfortable and familiar.

Taehyung hasn’t been back to the cinema since the night he cried. That was unfortunately the last night Evangelion had been showing and he didn’t have any reason to go there other than to see Yoongi. He thinks he would probably be more of a nuisance to Yoongi than anything else, so he doesn’t go the next night either.

He sees Yoongi at uni a few times in passing though. He can never find it in him to send more than a quick wave in the direction of the other boy. Embarrassed that Yoongi had seen him like that partly, but mostly nervous about having to confront the feelings he felt when he was around him.

Jimin thinks he’s being unreasonable. He’s long since told his best friend about the true nature of his evening disappearances and how he met Yoongi. (Jimin responds with a, “So that’s why his friends didn’t think he could be your tutor. I knew he wasn’t good at math!”) Jimin insists that Yoongi must at least care about him more than a normal friend would to some extent. He had listened to all of Taehyung’s problems even when he was crying, pretended to be his tutor to give his story and alibi, and most importantly, saved him Evangelion tickets every night.

But Yoongi doesn’t try to approach Taehyung at uni either. Just nodding his head to show he acknowledges him. Namjoon and Jin had really hit it off and sits with the four of them during lunch every once in a while when his schedule doesn’t line up with Yoongi or Jungkook’s. Jungkook even joined them once and had offered them some of the cookies he had won in his organic chemistry lecture (how Taehyung isn’t entirely sure, but who is he to question free food?). But never Yoongi.

The boy’s been acting strangely distant with Taehyung and he chalks it up to him having other things he cares about more than Taehyung.

(When Yoongi sees Taehyung at uni the first time, he has every intention to walk over to the boy and strike up a conversation. Sure the boy was probably still in love with his ex with the way he had cried into Yoongi’s shoulder the other night (he needs to remember to thank Namjoon for telling him where Taehyung ended up going), but Yoongi could still be his friend. Maybe even work his way to asking him on a date after a while, when he’s ready that is. But after Taehyung waves at him, he sees Hoseok walk up to him and in the second it takes Taehyung to respond to the boy Yoongi concludes they’ve probably started dating again. He can’t help but feel bitter and turns away as Taehyung looks at him again.

And every time he sees Taehyung after that he feels kind of rejected and really can’t find it in him to go up to him. He needs some space and time to get over his feelings for Taehyung before speaking to him again.)

Surprisingly, it isn’t Jimin’s nagging that makes Taehyung finally try to see Yoongi again. He’s lying in his bed going through his texts to see what to delete to make space on his phone when he sees the last thing Yoongi had texted him.

snk > fma

He had been scandalised and ran over to the theatre with every intention to shout Yoongi’s ear off until the other boy confessed he had seen neither anime. Which didn’t make matters much better because what was Yoongi doing with his life? He promised right then that he was going to make sure Yoongi would one day have the privilege to experience Fullmetal Alchemist.

He smiled at his phone before sighing heavily and deciding he needed to talk to Yoongi again. Maybe even tell him how he felt. Even though that thought almost made him want to throw up, Taehyung got up and put on his jacket before heading out. But not before checking the time; it was Thursday (which meant a whole week had already passed and Taehyung gets even more nervous) and Yoongi’s shift ended at four. His phone shines the numbers 2:28 at his face before he pockets it.

The walk to the cinema seems much shorter than it used to be. Taehyung’s legs shake slightly from the cold and his nerves before he pushes open the door to the cinema. He takes a deep breath before daring to look at the counter Yoongi usually manned. Instead of blonde though, he’s met with mint green hair, Yoongi leans on the counter looking as bored as ever. The low lighting of the cinema makes it look later than it actually is and Taehyung feels like now is the only time he has left to back out to go take a nap in his bed at home. But he doesn’t.

Instead, he walks over to Yoongi, nervous smile in place and hands clutching at the sleeves of his hood. Yoongi notices him and quirks the corners of his mouth into a smile, it makes Taehyung relax a little bit and his smile is almost comfortable when he reached the other boy.

“Hey,” Yoongi starts, “You know Eva’s finished right?” Taehyung nods.

“Okay, so what do you wanna see instead then?” And there’s something very impersonal about Yoongi’s choice of words. Like he wants Taehyung to just choose his movie, pay for it and leave. He takes a moment to pretend looking over his choices on the screen above.

“Date me,” he says. He winces at his forwardness, “If you would like to?” He quickly amends.

“What,” Yoongi looks genuinely shocked, like he had no idea about Taehyung’s feelings for him.

“I want to take you out on a date,” his stomach flips and his brain sighs at how cliché this all is.

“But… I, what?” Yoongi is so cute when he’s flustered Taehyung realises. His cheeks are dusted a rosy pink and keeps his lower lip into his mouth. “I thought you still liked Hoseok.”

And now it’s Taehyung’s turn to be confused, “Huh, why would you think that?” Hadn’t Taehyung been painfully obvious? He thinks it over and realises his behaviour could have been categorised as platonic, maybe quite touchy but still platonic.

“Well you were kind of crying over him in the cinema the other night when I found you.” Yoongi has a point. Taehyung’s mouth hangs a little open before he shuts it abruptly and blushes deeply. He hears Yoongi giggle and is just about to pout when he feels warm lips against his own cold ones. His eyes flutter closed and he hums into the kiss, it’s just a gentle press of lips until Yoongi lightly at his bottom lip and Taehyung gasps, breaking the kiss.

He opens his eyes and sees how much Yoongi had to lean over the counter in order to kiss him.

“Wait so you like me too?”

Yoongi stands back in a more comfortable position and laughs, “You dense .”

Taehyung blushes because why would Yoongi kiss him if he didn’t like him. He’s also feeling really giddy though, and so glad he decided to come by.

“So can I take you out then? We can go see a movie here after your shift’s done,” Taehyung doesn’t expect Yoongi to groan in what seems to be despair at the question.

“God no, you do not know how badly that worked out last time.”

Taehyung blinks, “Last time?”

“Last week when you ended up not watching Eva, well I bought you a ticket, like with my own money, so we could watch it, together.” Yoongi stutters and turns a bright shade of red and Taehyung’s heart skips a beat, “I was gonna ask you out properly afterwards but that all went wrong so please, not here. Besides I see you here all the time let’s do something different.”

Taehyung nods quickly, he’d take Yoongi anywhere he wanted to go. Said boy however is avoiding his gaze and talking a mile a minute about how he was fretting that Taehyung and Hoseok had gotten together again and that he’d missed his chance, blush still prominent. It’s brought to an abrupt end though when Taehyung presses a soft kiss to his cheek. Taehyung marvels how smooth this gorgeous boy’s skin is. He can’t believe Yoongi’s going on a date with him.

“So hyung, where do you want to go?”

“You’ll have to wait until my shift’s over kid.”

Taehyung pouts. He’s wasted so much time (and money, does Yoongi have an employee discount? He sure hopes so, so that the money he spent on the Eva tickets would be slightly less than what Taehyung thinks it is) and he honestly doesn’t want to wait to get to hold Yoongi’s hand and be lame and tell him he’s pretty.

There’s a fond look in Yoongi’s eyes when he reaches over to push at Taehyung’s shoulder, telling him that he can go sit in the break room if he wants.

Taehyung shakes his head no and says he’d rather stay out here so he could at least still be able to see Yoongi.

Yoongi blushes even harder than before.

happy late birthday to taehyung !!!!
this was all quite sloppily written with no beta but i had fun doing it !
i also realised that the 'dorm' i described for vmin was suspiciously spacious so whoops
i wrote most of this after hearing the news about taegi in japan and im really sad about it and i hope theyre feeling better. i hope this fic gave you at least something small to smile about. thank u for reading !!!
next i have an x files taegi au and a yoonkook with transgirl!yoongi planned so if any of those sound good to you !!!!!! look out for those
also, me: *uses film instead of movie in a fic set in the us* whoops