Jungkook was purposefully avoiding him over the next few days, Taehyung could tell.

Frankly, Taehyung felt like it was he who should be doing the avoiding since it was he who instigated what happened between them.

The thing was, Taehyung really didn’t want to avoid Jungkook...

He’d waited in the staff room that day to hopefully confront Jungkook, and maybe apologise for the things he said, (and for the mortifying almost-kiss and vomit incident)...

Except he fell asleep, and then the new almost-kiss incident happened and all he wanted to do was talk to Jungkook about everything.

If only Jungkook would stop being like a bloody deer in headlights every time he so much as heard Taehyung’s name.

Taehyung decided that he needed some motherly romantic words of wisdom, which of course meant talking to Seokjin about it.

‘-and then Hoseok gave me this ‘all knowing’ look before leaving and I was just left feeling, I dunno, empty...’ Taehyung had just finished telling his friend everything that had happened whilst they sat in their corner of the library (Jimin had dance practise, although had been all too willing to skip it when he heard Taehyung had gossip to tell).

‘You just gotta corner him... make it so he can’t escape!’ Seokjin said thoughtfully.

‘What if he has me arrested for harassment though?! I’m too pretty to go to prison’ Taehyung pouts dramatically, picking at the whole in his jumper absentmindedly. ‘Besides, if he really doesn’t wanna see me, doesn’t that mean he regrets what happened?’

‘Not necessarily... I think he’s just not as in tune with his emotions perhaps? It’s probably a rich person thing... I bet he has daddy issues, maybe wasn’t shown enough affection as a kid you know’ Seokjin nodded seriously, a hand on his chin.

‘Alright there Freud, I suppose you could be right... I just...’ Taehyung sighed, feeling his cheeks turn pink. ‘I just really like him... And for a moment I really thought he felt the same...’

Seokjin smiled sympathetically at his friend, reaching out to rub his shoulder affectionately.

‘I know, Tae...’ 

Taehyung left soon after, he’d been procrastinating a lot recently and the due assignments had built up.

(It had absolutely nothing to do with avoiding his friends’ probing questions about confronting Jungkook.)

He was 2 hours and 600 words into what was probably the most boring essay in existence when his doorbell rang.

Which was an odd occurrence for several reasons.

One thing was that he hadn’t ordered any takeaway (he was trying to kid himself that buying copious bags of crisps and popcorn was ok and healthy as long as he avoided takeaways... but hell, he never claimed his logic wasn’t a bit flawed sometimes). 

Another was that Seokjin and Jimin both knew he had work to do, and even Jimin could take a hint that ‘he really needed to work otherwise I might fail no matter how many times you bat your eyelashes at me, Park Jimin’.

So with no parcels, takeaways or friends due at that time, Taehyung really was at a loss for who it could be.

A part of him thought it might just be a prank, perhaps kids were bringing back the ‘ring their doorbell and run away’ gag? 

So Taehyung ignored the first ring.

And also the second, because these kids were resilient and he was not going to be made a fool of.

The ringing stopped for a moment, before a further three insistent rings followed by several taps on the door made him think it may be more urgent than a kids prank.

Sighing, Taehyung begrudgingly got up to answer the door.

He pulled the door open and audibly gasped.

There stood a flustered, frowning, and slightly sweaty Jeon Jungkook.

Taehyung was so surprised that his exclamation of ‘Jungkook’ came out more as ‘Jungger?!’. 

‘Took your time! I was standing here for like 5 minutes don’t you-‘ Jungkook began sulkily, only to catch himself and clear his throat. ‘I mean... I just I’m... that is I-‘

‘How did you know where I lived?’ Taehyung interjected incredulously. Because as attractive Jungkook was, no one really wanted to date a stalker.

‘Er, well Jimin told me...’ Jungkook replied sheepishly. ‘He also told me  not to tell you he told me so... oops?’

Taehyung merely nodded, fully prepared to have strong words with the shorter man very soon.

‘The thing is Taehyung I... I came here to... to ask you something..’ Jungkook stuttered, refusing to meet Taehyung’s eyes. ‘But I’m really bad with saying things, especially to you it seems so...’

Taehyung found a piece of paper ed into his face.

He gingerly accepted it as Jungkook nervously watched as Taehyung unfolded it.

The note had 3 words scribbled on it, followed by a question mark, which caused Taehyung to snort.

‘I like you?’ was what the note said in Jungkook’s messy handwriting.

Taehyung looked up at Jungkook, who was looking back tentatively.

‘What’s with the question mark?’ Taehyung asked eventually, glad his voice didn’t give away the thousands of butterflies currently swimming around in his stomach.

‘I suppose... because I’m a wimp? Who doesn’t know how to tell someone they like them without questioning themselves?’ Jungkook replied softly, suddenly fascinated with his nails.

‘I suppose, then, maybe I... like you too? Maybe?’ Taehyung smiled at Jungkook as he added the purposeful questioning tone to his voice. 

He stepped forward slowly, crumpling the note in one hand and reaching out to grab Jungkook’s hand with the other.

And for the 3rd time he moved forward to capture Jungkook’s lips with his own.

Except Jungkook moved back, placing a hand on Taehyung’s shoulder.

The gesture hurt and Taehyung was half tempted to pull away completely and run inside to escape from the possible rejection that might happen (which, after Jungkook’s note wouldn’t make a lot of sense...)

‘Ok but first I... I wanna apologise for how I treated you when we met...’ Jungkook said as an explanation, still gripping Taehyung’s shoulder and hand. ‘I was really... stupid and I shouldn’t have been so rude to you...’

‘Jungkook it’s really-‘ Taehyung protested before being interrupted by Jungkook.

‘No it wasn’t ok, and it’s eaten away at me for ages because I felt like you hated me...’ Jungkook shuffled his feet before continuing. ‘You see, I’ve never been very good at... making friends... Hoseok is just so goddamn likeable, there probably isn’t a person alive who wouldn’t want to be friends with him... And Yoongi was someone I met online where I couldn’t make a fool of myself like I do in face to face confrontation... Anyone else I meet just sees me as Mr Jeon, business extraordinaire and very wealthy... So I always sabotage any attempts to make friends with anyone, in fear of getting hurt or let down or... I just... I don’t know what I’m getting at sorry...’

Jungkook pulled his hands away from Taehyung and shakily pushed his hair out of his eyes.

‘No I get you...’ Taehyung said in a gentle voice, pulling Jungkook’s hand back into his. ‘To be honest, even though I’m outgoing, I find it difficult to make friends with people who don’t just dismiss me as weird or crazy, so I’m always so defensive and stubborn with new people... And don’t even get me started on relationships! It’s near impossible to to find a decent guy or girl, and when I do they either get scared away by me or only want a fling or... well, you get the picture...’

Jungkook nodded in reply, not moving his hand away again which Taehyung saw as a good sign.

‘Look, I know we don’t really know each other that well, and we’ve definitely had far too many rocky patches to constitute not even being in a relationship, but I really wanna try and make this work?’ Taehyung said with an air of confidence that he didn’t really feel.

The silence following his statement was torture, and he was half tempted to pretend he didn’t mean to be so sappy.

Jungkook eventually extracted his hand from Taehyung’s, only to bring it up to his cheek instead.

Their third almost-kiss between them was by far Taehyung’s favourite.

Perhaps because there was no ‘perhaps’ about it...