3. Gobsmacked

Taehyung was rushing past the groups of girls and a few boys eavesdropping on their gossiping. He wished to shut his ears with his hands but it was not possible to do so when he had to wade through the crowd, which was proving to be a tough task as he neared the canteen. 

It had been a few weeks since Noeul rejected the coffee date. After that fateful day, he had taken to staring at Noeul during classes and also trying to get her to talk if not on a coffee date. Though she kept her answers short, she had given in when he kept bugging her whilst in a nice way which was why Noeul couldn't stay unresponsive for long.

Taehyung made sure to welcome her every day with a note addressed to her. And Noeul always returned them, on rare occasions with a smiley written down beside his neatly written note. This had been going on for almost a month now. Taehyung even dared call himself her friend, even though they rarely talked. He was happy with the little smileys she drew as a reply to his greetings and he considered them as an improvement in their building friendship.

Whilst Taehyung tried his best to befriend her, there were girls who were extremely jealous of Noeul, who made it a point to voice out their disapproval. The fact that Taehyung was paying attention to a bookworm and a socially dormant girl hurt their ego. Eventually, rumors started spreading around about Noeul. As much as Taehyung tried to shut them off, the rumors seemed to increase in number with each passing minute, so much that he couldn't ignore them any longer. When Taehyung had first taken note of this, everything had only been quiet whispers of distaste and it was easy for him to ignore them. But not anymore.

Taehyung sped across the crowded order counter, heading straight to his and Jungkook's usual spot in the canteen. On reaching their usual table facing the large window that overlooked the college garden, he plopped down in front of Jungkook and dropped his head on the table with a loud thump and a hissed sigh escaping his lips. Jungkook slightly flinched at the sound of Taehyung's head hitting the table and looked at him with a reprimanding look which went unnoticed by a sulking Taehyung. 

"Uh! Tae?" Jungkook called out, his voice a bit unsure and wary of Taehyung's reaction. 

Taehyung, who was grumbling to himself, only hummed as a reply to Jungkook's call out and continued to grumble with little sighs escaping here and there.

"Tae! What's wrong?" Jungkook tried again to which Taehyung frowned unhappily and got up from his chair to shift into a chair by Jungkook's side, dropping his head again, instead, this time on Jungkook's shoulder.

"What are you doing?" Jungkook asked skeptically.

Taehyung shuffled to shift a bit closer to Jungkook to make it easier for himself to lean on his shoulder and mumbled with a tired voice, "I'm trying to get the echoes of voices in my head to shut up and..." Taehyung trailed off, holding himself from saying something that was the actual cause of his distress.

Jungkook frowned at Taehyung while trying to get Taehyung's head off his shoulder, uncomfortable with the amount of attention they were attracting. When Taehyung refused to budge, Jungkook bit his lower lip and started pushing him away with his two hands knowing very well that his friend won't move just because he is leaning away.

"Taehyung~ everybody’s looking at us weirdly. Move!" Jungkook seethed, trying very hard to keep his voice from growing loud and embarrassing himself more.

"Stop pushing me, Kookie~ I'm trying to de-stress here!" An annoyed Taehyung bit back, not bothered by the looks they received, holding Jungkook tightly and successfully pissing him off.

Jungkook couldn't take it anymore and pushed Taehyung off with all his might, resulting in Taehyung falling off the chair onto the floor, hitting his head on the edge of the table in the process.

"Ow! What kind of a friend are you, Kookie? My head hurts. Oh my..." Taehyung was muttering things under his breath while getting up from the floor and rubbing his temple to soothe the pain.

Jungkook only glared at him and threw a balled tissue paper in his direction. Taehyung was hit in the face and he whined as a response to Jungkook's harsh treatment. Jungkook only smirked and resumed eating his lunch.

After a while, Jungkook dropped a plate filled with food in front of a sulking Taehyung, who had been pouting to himself while silently cursing whoever was the reason to his distressed mind; Jungkook included - since he had pushed him off instead of consoling him. Taehyung mumbled a small 'No' and pushed the plate away, acting like a defiant child asking for his favorite candy instead.

"What? Tae, stop sulking." Jungkook said while pushing the plate in front of Taehyung again. When Taehyung only huffed with no reply, he relented and said,

"Okay, okay! I'm sorry. I'm extremely sorry, Tae~ now eat, please." Taehyung narrowed his eyes and looked at Jungkook, a silent message to Jungkook that he wasn't forgiven yet. Jungkook scowled and prepared himself to be embarrassed in front of the whole canteen. Taehyung was still glaring at him, so he decided if he needed to be forgiven, he had to do it. So he stood up, bowed down ninety degrees and apologized which made Taehyung give in and started eating. 

"What is stressing you so much anyway?" Jungkook asked when Taehyung was still looking a bit upset and a lot more confused.

Taehyung thought for a minute before replying with a question instead of an answer. 

"Jungkookie, do you know everything about Noeul?"

Jungkook scowled irritably and hissed. Taehyung only repeated his question instead of giving up.

"Oh my god, Taehyung! For once, stop thinking about it okay? I told you she doesn't like hanging out. Why do you worry so mu-" Taehyung cut him off mid-sentence.

"That's not..." He trailed off. "That's - that's not what I was worried about. It's something else." 

Jungkook's frown deepened and he leaned in a bit to meet Taehyung's lowered eyes. 

"I don't know what she has done this time around, but I swear, it's not because of you, Tae. It really is not! You should know that by now. You guys are friends. Um, kind of. She even replies to your ridiculous good morning notes!" 

Taehyung sighs and pushes the plate to a side, food barely eaten. 

"Again, that's not what I'm talking about." Taehyung sends a brief glance in Jungkook's direction before averting his eyes away and looking out the window. 

"It's about the rumors, Jungkook. Every one of our classmates is talking about this and I - I don't know..." He trails off. After a few seconds of silence, he continues again, "I don't know. I don't really know what to think of all of this! What's going on Jungkook? You are an amazing person. Noeul's your best friend and thus I believe her to be just as wonderful. But, these people? What are they saying? I - I don't get it. They are..." He trailed off.

Jungkook let out a small breath and closed his eyes, anger taking over the slight irritation he had felt a few minutes ago. Taking long a