Gales of laughter reverberated through the walls of the dining area as Kim Taehyung and Bae Joohyun chattered on and on about inconsequential matters, over dinner. Now that they were no longer climbing on each other's nerves on purpose and were arguing lesser than they used to, living together in the rented terrace has never felt so great. They no longer head to bed holding a grudge on each other and they no longer wake up cranky with a bad mood to start their day with.

Surprisingly, it took the both of them only a week to get over the phase of awkward pauses in stilted conversations as they attempt to follow through with their agreement of 'getting along' with each other maturely. Small talks over breakfast and light-hearted conversations over dinner were the two things that had eventually become a routine they couldn't miss out doing before they end their day. 

"....and Jungkook was asleep, right? So we all thought it was a great idea to carry him together and throw him into the pool." -Taehyung laughed, clapping his hands like a seal as he chattered with his housemate who has been giggling for the past hour listening to him storytelling about the time he and his friends attended a pool party. "Jungkook was so pissed, he got out of the water almost immediately and made sure all of us gets dunked too. He didn't speak to us for the rest of the day, afterwards until I promised him that I'd buy him as many banana milk as he wants, for a whole week."

"Banana milk?? Like...why even? Of all the things you could get him..."

"'Cause it's his favourite. I don't know why but he has a weird obsession with it."

"Okay. I guess it makes sense that you guys are friends then since you're just as weird as he is. Anyway, what you guys did was really mean, Taehyung." -Joohyun shook her head as she lets out a soft, shy chuckle. "Seriously, what did that kid ever do to you?"

"He's just a pushover." -Taehyung replied, pushing his dinner plate aside so he could lean his arm against the table surface, "Besides, he's the youngest among us. He's the easiest to mess with. It's almost like he willingly lets us do these things to him. But of course, we'll have to pay the price, afterwards." 

"Well, it's an opposite case for me and my friends." -Joohyun rested her chin against her hand as she speaks, "The youngest among us is the most aggressive. We've absolutely no chances at pulling her leg or mess with her."

"The youngest, hmm that's...Kim Yerim, right?" 

"Oh, you remembered?" -Joohyun's eyes widened at Taehyung's accurate guess.

"How can I not remember? Jungkook keeps mentioning her name ever since the night we partied together at Club Shooky."

"Really?" 

"That kid is swooned, I'm telling you. Also, I kinda might've found out that they've been texting each other, lately. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to tell you this, though." 

"No way!" -Joohyun gasped, moving her chair a little closer towards Taehyung. "Are you for real? Yeri never told me anything about this."

"Jungkook never told me anything, either. I only happened to know about it...about a week ago while he was taking a dump and left his phone on his desk. I saw her name popped out on the screen of his phone. He even had her name saved with a heart on the side." - Taehyung chuckled, shaking his head as he speaks. "Seems pretty serious." 

"Oh my gosh!" -Joohyun gasped again, this time she had her hand gripping onto Taehyung's wrist. "You're not messing with me, are you? You mean to say that your Jungkook and my Yerimmie are having a thing going on, between them??" -she asked, refusing to believe that whatever he was saying was true. 

"Possibly. They're probably already dating behind our backs, for all we know." -Taehyung replied her with an insouciant shrug, "What about you, Miss Bae? Are you...dating anyone?" -he effortlessly turns the topic around and made it about Joohyun.

For the past hour, Taehyung had been trying to get Joohyun to share a little something about herself knowing how she doesn't seem to be the type to easily open up to anyone. Getting to know Bae Joohyun better truly takes him a lot of effort and patience. Although they've shared a lot of conversations lately, their chatters have been made up of mostly the general matters of life like work and weather. For some reason, their topic of conversation would always have a way to fall back to stories about their friends no matter the many attempts Taehyung had tried to turn it around and make it about her. Although he knew that it might be a little too early to get personal, he also knows that Joohyun was only trying to play things safe between them. 

Unfortunately, Kim Taehyung doesn't do "safe". 

He noticed how Joohyun's cheeks slowly blushed into a rosy pink hue as if the words he said were flames of fire lighting up against her skin. From the way her smile froze and her shoulders stiffened, he could already guess that she was caught off-guard by his question and was a little too shy to answer.

"W-Was my question a little too overboard?" -Taehyung consciously asked, not really wanting to make her uncomfortable. "I'm sorry. You don't have to answer that if -"

"Uh...No." -she cuts him off almost immediately, "No, you're not going overboard and No...I'm not seeing anyone at the moment." -she said, quickly averting her eyes to her plate as she began to play with her spoon.

"Oh..." -A smile instantly lifted up on Taehyung's face as he kept his eyes glued on her despite noticing how hard she was struggling to avoid his gaze. "Thought so."

Joohyun's eyebrows suddenly scrunched upon hearing his remark as if what he said had somewhat offended her. Immediately shifting her gaze back at him, Joohyun gave him a light smack on the arms, then asked, "What's that supposed to mean?" 

"What's what supposed to mean?" -Taehyung questions her back cluelessly.

"Uh...'Thought so' ???" -Joohyun mimicked his words. "Am I really that transparent? Do you see me as the type of girl who...don't get asked on dates?"-she nervously asked.

"Ah! No, No, No." -Taehyung immediately denied, running his palms to his face "Ah~ Joohyun. I honestly didn't mean it that way."

"What was the 'Thought so' for, then?" - Joohyun asked, narrowing her eyes at him as she anticipates a snarky reply.

"Well..." -Taehyung said, moving his chair a little closer towards her, "I am, in no way, trying to make a joke out of you just because you're...uh...single. It's just that...I can tell that you're not seeing anyone. I mean, if it's not obvious enough already, you spend almost all of your time at home, if not at work. You're always home early on weekdays and...even on weekends, you spend the whole day in bed, catching up on drama shows or whatever it is that you always play on your laptop. With that being said, you're certainly, most definitely not seeing anybody. If you're seeing anyone at all, it's probably...your bed."

Joohyun was just about to argue on his point before she abruptly paused and bit her lower lips when she realised that Taehyung's explanation actually made sense.

"Well, you're not entirely wrong. I guess I really am that transparent." - She muttered softly, pouting in defeat, "...but so what if I'm not going out with anyone? Why were you smiling when you said that? 'Thought so'. Do you have a problem with me, not seeing anybody?"

"No." -Taehyung immediately replied, still smiling from ear to ear, "Not at all. I'm fine with you being the single and lonely person that you are, right now. In fact, please keep it this way. Don't go out with anybody." 

"Why?" -Joohyun's brow furrowed, giving Taehyung an expression of suspicion. 

A pause of silence enfolded the room as Taehyung quickly tries to mentally construct a reason that wouldn't make him sound too 'transparent'.

"U