Jeon Jeongguk was a year young for his grade, but he was such a brilliant academic that he absolutely had to be placed in the year above the one he should have been in.

 

 

 

He was a straight A student, neat and organised and he had a quiet personality but had a sarcastic relaxed side that almost no one saw.

 

 

 

He also happened to be walking home, as usual, on a Friday afternoon, staring at the pavement and imagining complex equations appear there and solving them. He knew the way home so well that he needn't look up at all; he recognised all the stains and cracks in and on the concrete paving.

 

 

 

Jeongguk frowned as a pair of shoes fell into step beside him. Jeongguk looked up and discovered that the white all-stars were attached to a pair of feet that belonged to Kim Taehyung, in the same year at school as himself.
Jeongguk's frown deepened.
What did Taehyung want? Taehyung never talked to him. Jeongguk carried on walking, not knowing what to think.

 

 

 

                        ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

 

 

 

Taehyung himself said nothing, walking with his hands in his hands in his pockets and humming a tune that had no continuous rhythm.
The two walked along the side of the road until Taehyung became uncomfortably aware that Jeongguk was staring at him expectantly.

 

 

 

Taehyung guesses that he has no right to be uncomfortable when he was the one who decided to join Jeon Jeongguk walking, and he couldn't blame Jeongguk for staring at him because obviously Taehyung wanted something because this wasn't normal - they weren't friends or anything. And it wasn't like Taehyung wanted to be friends, did he? Did he?

 

 

 

"Is there anything in particular that you want?" Jeongguk ask, voice not cold exactly but there was a sort of slightly indifferent... expectancy. Taehyung looks at Jeongguk and opens his mouth to reply but then Taehyung realises that he doesn't exactly have an answer to that. He stares at Jeongguk with his mouth open and watches as Jeongguk's look of indifference turn to confusion and a little concern.

 

 

 

'He probably thinks I'm crazy,' Taehyung thinks, inwardly cursing.

 

 

 

"Are you okay?" Jeongguk asks, looking slightly worried as if wondering if he should phone for help. Taehyung realises belatedly that this was the first time he had spoken to Jeongguk all year, even though it was already November.

 

 

 

                        ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

 

 

 

"Um," Taehyung murmers so softly that he was almost inaudible. But Jeongguk heard; the street is empty and Taehyung is nearby.

 

 

 

There's a silence. A car flies down the street passed them and Jeongguk realises for the first time that they've stopped walking.

 

 

 

Taehyung looks at the floor mumbling to himself and Jeongguk stares at his bent purple head. He realises that Taehyung looks cutely vulnerable- like he needed to be protected from the world. Which was strange because Taehyung was older than Jeongguk himself, but looked like he was in his own world whispering to himself.

 

 

 

 

"Taehyung?" Jeongguk says questioningly, genuinely wondering if he really was... Okay

 

 

 

 

Then Taehyung lifts his head and smiles, a cute childish grin in a rectangular box shape. Its so innocent and suddenly joyful that Jeongguk's own mouth falls open in something less than shock and more like surprise.

 

 

 

Taehyung speaks.
"Jeon-Jeongguk-I-want-to-be-your-friend-cause-you-seem-nice-so-yeah," Taehyung splutters in one breath.

 

 

 

Then Taehyung frowns at himself as if mentally reprimanding himself and all of a sudden Jeongguk wants to reach up and smooth away the wrinkles formed in Taehyung's forehead and Jeongguk finds himself not liking when Taehyung was not smiling. He wants to try his hardest to get that smile again, he almost aches.

 

 

 

 

He almost does lift his arm to smooth the frown away where it disgraced Taehyung's beautiful face. But he stops himself midway and instead reaches to scratch his neck so that he doesn't look suspicious. Taehyung doesn't miss the sudden action and stares curiously at Jeongguk.

 

 

 

Jeongguk looks away but still feels Taehyung's scorching gaze and Jeongguk himself frowns, more confused at himself than angry at Taehyung. Which is ridiculous; Jeongguk doubts they've ever spoken at all.

 

 

 

They walk.

 

 

---

---

 

 

 

 

As their shoes make repeated contact with the cement floor, they say nothing. Jeongguk is in a battle with himself. He wants to be Taehyung's friend too but at the same time he thinks he shouldn't because... Taehyung has already made him feel ridiculous things.

 

 

 

Jeongguk realises that he must seem spectacularly rude to Taehyung, still beside him somehow, though there was no conversation. Jeongguk turns his head to look at him and again finds Taehyung muttering to himself and frowning. Jeongguk ignores his impulse to lean in and kiss the frownlines flat.

 

 

 

 

'Jeongguk you are all kinds of disgusting,' he tells himself.

 

 

 

"Listen Taehyung," Jeongguk starts. Taehyung looks up and there's a stupid hopeful look on his face that makes him look even more vulnerable than before, unbelievably. This expression makes it increasingly difficult for Jeongguk to say what he was going to say so he just stares at Taehyung and Taehyung's cuteness does not do anything to help.

 

 

 

Now Taehyung looks confused and concerned. He leans forward into Jeongguk's space and asks, "You okay?"

 

 

 

Jeongguk jumps and then looks at Taehyung as if just realising he is there. But of course he did. He's been staring at him this whole time, has he not?
'Oh, Kook, what did you get yourself into?' he asks himself. And gets no answer.

 

 

 

Jeongguk sighs and attempts to speak again.

"Taehyung, I don't... I'm not sure- us- we-I..." he falters at the disappointed sad expression that's leaked onto Taehyungs pretty face.

 

 

 

Taehyung begins to turn away, as if already knowing what Jeongguk was going to say.

 

 

 

Jeongguk grabs the fabric around Taehyung's forearm and holds. Taehyung turns back, eyes heavy, coldly expectant. He looks beautiful in a totally different way to when he was smiling boxily. He looks like a sad model. Jeongguk finds himself staring for the hundredth in the space of five minutes.

 

 

 

Taehyung repeatedly looks from Jeongguk's face and where Jeongguk's hand holds him. He looks like he's about to rip his arm away when Jeongguk suddenly pulls Taehyung back, closer than before but not too close.

 

 

'Never close enough to Taehyung,' the thought flits across Jungkook's mind. Then immediately regrets it as a pink blush creeps up his neck to his cheeks.

 

 

 

He doesn't know what to say to Taehyung.

 

 

 

                   ☆☆☆☆☆☆

 

 

 

 

Taehyung stares at Jeongguk, hardly believing what had just happened. Jeongguk had pulled him back? Taehyung watches as Jeongguk bows his head and fumbles with his words and turns pink before his very eyes.

 

 

 

Taehyung's cold front melts away; Jeongguk is so gorgeous in an innocent boyish way.

'But he's also nervous,' Taehyung notices.

He feels sorry for him. Jeongguk is, after all, a quiet academic who generally kept to himself and they had never really spoken before. Taehyung decides to help.

 

 

 

                     ☆☆☆☆☆☆

 

 

 

"I don't bite," Taehyung says, leaning in, then pauses.

Then, "Well, sometimes I do but I'm not going to bite you, Gukkie. Unless you bite me first, in which case I WILL bite you back. But you don't seem to want to so what I said first still applies."

 

 

 

Jeongguk glances up at the nickname Taehyung had so lightly given him.

 

 

 

~Gukkie~.

 

 

 

Jeongguk hates to admit it but he already loves the name. He listens as Taehyung rambles on about biting and nearly laughs. He was suddenly relaxed and didn't even mind that Taehyung was well inside his personal space, which was seriously weird because Jeongguk usually hates the invasion of his space.

 

 

 

"So what was it you were going to say? 'Cause I assume you were going to say something," Taehyung says, smiling brightly, that same hope still flashing in his pretty eyes.

 

 

 

'That  smile,'  Jeongguk thinks. Its back and Jeongguk will do anything for it to stay, so he talks fast before he can freeze again and just end up staring at Taehyung.

 

 

 

"Yes. Lets be friends Tae," he says, almost shocked at how effortless it is. Taehyung is easy to be around.

 

 

 

Taehyung smiles at the nickname and laughs in triumph at the rest of what Jeongguk said. Taehyung does a weird dance down the pavement front of Jeongguk and he realises they've stopped again. Is he ever getting home?

 

 

 

He's about to ask Taehyung this, jokingly, when Taehyung, grinning ear to ear launches himself at Jeongguk and wraps him in a tight hug, nuzzling his face into Jeongguk's shoulder.

 

 

 

 

Jeongguk's eyes widen and his heart skips a beat.