❝ but pretty isn't everything right? ❞



                                                       unedited.

                                                      newly finished. 

***

ii.

Turns out Taehyung was quite wrong about Jennie. She stuck around like a persistent fly buzzing around in your house. Not only this, but she began to make friends outside of his own circle.

The idea irked him more than he would like to admit.

"Are you attending the game tomorrow?" Yoongi commented while they were walking towards the art room where all of them were gathered around to eat due to Miss Seungwan's newest infatuation with some sort of student painter that regularly hangs out there around lunch time.

"Of course, why would I miss your first basketball game of the season?" Taehyung spoke, slightly taken-back. He doesn't recall ever missing a game before. It was an ideal sitting for him to indulge in the art of socialization while still showing his spirit to everyone in the school. 

Not to mention, it was a typical gathering that he was expected to attend.

School spirit definitely was not a subject to be taken lightly around here. Not when some fellow students went out of their ways to paint their bodies in the school's colours. It was a disaster sometimes. Especially when they lost their games, it would be walking into a room full of time bombs, waiting for just one person to difuse and a chain reaction to occur.

Definitely not an enjoyable sight to witness. The team members typically released their steam and anger regarding failed games on the people who dared to utter a word in their promixity against their plays.

It was an odd social norm if he must admit, but it was the way of life and how the system worked. He'd never argue against that.

However, sometimes, it seemed that a hint of change would be coming soon. Taehyung didn't like that feeling one bit.

Not when he could see the gazes in his friends' eyes beginning to spin into different emotions out of the norm. When there were lingers of something else resting beneath some irises. 

A hesitancy of who will be there courses through some trusts.  Some dynamics was slowly fading into newer ones. Taehyung just hoped that he would be able to catch up.

"Let's go meet them before their patience begins to run," he offered to the shorter boy before quickly heading down the halls, greeting the people who waved to him with a simple nod.

Just a year more to go.

***

"Mom," he calls out in a quiet voice, placing his shoes neatly on the white rack before him. His steps are careful and almost inaudible like it has always been around the house.

It's a prison in here.

Detachment from who he is, but Taehyung can hardly complain since he did do this to himself.

"Come in," a bright voice cheerfully calls out on the other side of the hall. Rooms and more rooms to separate them all. When Taehyung was younger, he liked to refer to his house as a maze full of mirrors. It was easy to get lost in the images and scenes that regularly surfaced around here.

"Ready for round whatever," he mutters quietly underneath his breath before making his way down to the kitchen. (the sound seemed to be emitting from that area anyways) "I'll be heading for a school basketball game later." "

"Are you sure? I thought we might be hanging out today." His mother comes into view, a priceless diamond necklace hanging across her slim neck, and a warm expression flickering in her eyes. Her long black hair tied up in an elaborate bun.

"I'm busy, since I know the people on the team."

"Ah. I recall you saying that before." A tight smile appears on her face as his mother fingers the silver pendant around her neck gently. There was a slight tremble in her actions. Taehyung could visibly detect a look of disappointment. It was one of the easiest emotions to see.

"Yeah," he blandly offers as he maneuvers around her to pick up a glass sitting in the middle of the sink. A questioning look appearing in his gaze as he narrowed his eyes on the liquid inside it. Just as he figured.

"Taehyung. . . you know I love you right?" his mother softly exclaimed, a fragile tone embracing her voice.

He only stiffly nodded, refusing to meet her gaze.

No, you don't.

***

The game whirls into a whole hour and half of strategic shots and forceful plays. There was nothing particularly interesting that often happened on the court.

Once you began to watch a few of them, you have a gist of how each strategy and game plan. Although, sometimes, there were times where one side might be a bit sloppy with passes or defenses.

However, they could always count on their point guard to make the shots when times got desperate.

"Taehyung! Come sit here with us," Seulgi calls out to him from the middle of the centre bleachers. A bright, golden balloon in one hand, and a large camera hanging loosely around her neck. She was sporting Yoongi's sky blue, gold, and white letter jacket. 

It was probably Yoongi's idea. However, he severely doubted that Seulgi was complaining anyways.

Taehyung grins back in an upbeat manner before making his way leisurely up the steps. It isn't until he reaches a mere few feet from the destination when he realizes, Jennie's there.

She's dressed in a plain white tee paired with a dark blue hoodie. Her gaze is nowhere near him, instead, it focuses on a specific spot in the centre of the currently active gym.

The ignorant fly that kept buzzing around. He nearly scoffs, but Taehyung clearly remembers that there's company around them.

He never messed up. A polite person never exhibits their disinterest in public, nor does a person with a repuation to uphold in front of society.

Social norms were a never ending train of exhaustion.

"Hi, did you guys just arrive here?" He simply takes a seat at the edge of the bleachers, beside Seungwan, far away from Jennie as possible.

"Yeah," Seungwan sulks, a sullen expression embracing her face. Taehyung observantly narrows his eyes, before noticing a delicate flushed colour embracing her chigh heek bones.

"Alright, what happened to the art boy?" he slings an arm around her shoulders, and inquisitvely staring at her. "Do we have to go defend your honour?"

There's a mixture of sighs and giggles that emit from the other students sitting near them. People were honestly too easy sometimes, too prone to being affected by simplistic or flowery words. A smirk made it's way up from the edges of his mouth silently.

However, Seungwan visibly blanched for a split second, before releasing a muffled sigh.

"He has a girlfriend," Seungwan exclaimed pitfully, before proceeding to hide her face in the palms of her unclenched hands, "and he let me fancy him all this time? Who does that?"

"Well . . . at least you found out now and not later," Seulgi offered with a small, comforting smile, rubbing the other girl's back gently.

"I feel like a fool."

Then maybe you shouldn't have put yourself in that position in the first place, Taehyung thought logically to himself. The truth was indeed hard to face at times. Society was oddly weak.

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