As far as Taehyung knew, “suspension bridge effect” was a non-scientific term for when you mistakenly think you’re attracted to somebody you see during an anxiety-inducing situation because the physical symptoms of arousal and those of anxiety and fear can be so similar they might even overlap.

So Taehyung was telling himself that whatever he had started feeling for Jungkook definitely fell within the “suspension bridge effect” because Taehyung had dealt with a lot of anxiety during the not even 24 hours he had known Jungkook for.

Since Taehyung’s family consisted of so many females, he sometimes joked that, if he found a guy who would stir his interest strongly enough in a good way, he’d stick with him and start dating just to add variety to his life. And Taehyung had never thought it’d be unlikely for him to start having that kind of interest in another guy, but the right guy for that never crossed his path. Jungkook did. Jungkook appeared on Taehyung’s path like a heavy tree trunk suddenly landing on the road with a loud thud and it was very far away from pleasant. So Taehyung was incessantly telling himself that the alterations to his breathing and heart rate from the night before were all due to the “suspension bridge effect”.

He was thinking about all of this at an early hour of that Monday morning as he was leaning with his back against the door to his rented room, holding 2 cups of freshly bought coffee in his hands, with 2 plastic bags with pastries hanging from his wrists, and keeping his eyes shut. When Jungkook got out of his own rented room and saw him like that, he asked:

J: “Are you sleeping?”

T: “Yes.” Taehyung said after opening his eyes, as he handed 1 coffee and 1 plastic bag to Jungkook. “Here’s coffee and a quick breakfast. If you drink your coffee with milk or sugar, they’re in the bag.”

J: “Thanks.”

Jungkook had finished his coffee before he even put his seatbelt on. He then threw the paper cup in the plastic bag, took a bite out of the pastry product, put the bag on the board and started the engine. As they were driving, the bag kept falling off of the board as Jungkook occasionally took another bite and put it back, so Taehyung got annoyed enough to hold it in his hand and bring it to Jungkook’s mouth whenever he wanted a bite. At least, like that, Jungkook would be using his hands only for driving.

J: “Is there any more water back there?”

T: “I don’t see any. But I have a bottle of juice with me.”

When Jungkook gave the open bottle back to Taehyung, it had just occurred to the latter that he had basically fed Jungkook. Then his eyes landed on the dashboard, on the speed meter to be exact, and the shock made him hold his head in his hand because he realized he had been so focused on Jungkook that he didn’t even notice they were in an anxiety-inducing situation again.

T: “Why must you always drive so fast?”

J: “I’m not driving that fast. Look – I’m within the speed limit.”

T: “Barely…”

J: “Listen – if you’re that scared or if you’re gonna nag at me, then I can just take you back or drop you off here and go by myself.”

T: “This is not about me right now. You put yourself and all the other traffic participants in danger whenever you’re speeding.”

J: “How? It’s a good, straight and nearly empty road, there’s daylight and good weather and, again, I’m within the damn speed limit.”

T: “Even so, a bunch of unexpected things can happen. There might be an unmarked hole in the asphalt, an animal or a person on a bicycle can suddenly appear in front of you, in these places some people still travel by horse-pulled carriages... Even if you can react really fast to sudden and unexpected things, this big and heavy car can’t.”

J: “Those kinds of things don’t just suddenly appear out of thin air. I can see them as we’re approaching them with more than enough time to make the car react.”

T: “What if they suddenly appear after a really tight turn, huh? You can’t see them in time then.”

J: “I don’t know if you noticed this, but I DO reduce the speed when taking a turn.”

T: “I don’t know if you noticed this, but NO, you don’t!”

J: “Just tell me if you want me to take you back or drop you off somewhere, but stop ing nagging at me! I’ve been driving like this for years without ever having an accident and I don’t need a noob driver giving me lessons on what can happen on the road.” Jungkook huffed, lighting himself a cigarette.

T: “You’ve never had an accident? Seriously?”

J: “Never. I even managed to avoid accidents that wouldn’t have been my fault. You can ask Jin if you don’t believe me. If I had so much as hit a single cat in all these years, he’d say I had an accident.”

T: “But how?”

J: “Cause I’m more in control than you think I am and I’m driving less recklessly than it may seem to someone who’s scared of speed and whose mind exaggerates the potential for danger.”

T: “That’s… actually a good point. It looks like you’re preparing for lift-off to me, but you really are within the speed limit… Fine! I take it back and I’m sorry for nagging at you. Everything I said is still valid, but I may have given you unnecessary crap about something that might not be a genuine problem.”

J: “Okay, that was unexpected…”

T: “What do you mean?”

J: “I’ve had this conversation with half of the people who ever sat on my right while I was driving, but barely anyone has ever admitted that they might not be the ones who know best. Most people just label me as reckless and automatically think they know better than me what I should or shouldn’t be doing.”

T: “I see. So one of the reasons you hate people nagging or ordering you around is because they doubt your intelligence and your decisions.”

J: “Exactly!”

T: “Then I’m gonna apologize in advance.”

J: “For all the future nagging?”

T: “I have 2 little sisters who were lazy about school work and house chores. I’ve been trained to nag.”

J: “We’re a bad match-up.”

T: “I couldn’t agree more.”

In the E.R.’s waiting room, Jungkook was bouncing his legs, then rocking his body sideways, then asked:

J: “Why is it taking so long for them to see me?”

T: “Because the medical triage puts your kind of injury low on the priority list.”

J: “I’m bored!”

Taehyung wanted to say “so do something about it” to Jungkook, but didn’t want to find out what that suggestion could lead to, so instead he proposed:

T: “Wanna play a game?”

J: “What game?”

T: “Who can sit completely still the longest.”

J: “Can we breathe and blink?”

T: “Uhm, sure.”

J: “What are the stakes?”

T: “I’ll… buy you ice-cream?” Taehyung offered, since he felt like he was dealing with a child.

J: “Deal.”

Taehyung would’ve stayed still as if he were frozen even without joining in on the game. He couldn’t believe Jungkook was taking this so seriously and not moving at all for over 5 minutes. Then Taehyung’s phone signaled a received message and he dug it out of his pocket, not caring about the game anymore, and Jungkook went:

J: “Ha! You lose!”

T: “I’ll buy you ice cream. Jin just texted me a shopping list to take care of since the stores here have more stuff. I was thinking of paying for everything on this list to thank them for constantly feeding me.”

Not long after that, Jungkook was called into the medical office, but he didn’t even spend 10 minutes in there. When he came out, Taehyung approached him and asked if all was good, to which Jungkook faked weakness, leaned against the wall with his eyes closed and a hand over his face and said:

J: “Yeah, but I’m so drowsy now that you’ll have to carry me to the car and drive us back.”

Jungkook spread the fingers of the hand he had over his face to look at Taehyung but…

J: “Not buying it, huh?”

T: “With THAT level of acting?”

As they did the shopping, loaded the bags in the car and started on their way back, Jungkook kept fooling around and joking, so Taehyung noted:

T: “You’re in a really good mood this morning…”

J: “I’m excited! Namjoon’s gonna tear down the roof of the abandoned hut today and I can finally see what’s inside. I hope I find something really freaky to take home with me.”

T: “I guess one man’s abandoned hut is another man-child’s treasure chest.”

J: “Hey, I get the issues you have with my driving, but don’t go picking on my pirate king fantasies.”

T: “I mean you did come close to needing a wooden leg…”

J: “Arr, matey!”

T: “Well this is a big contrast from yesterday morning when you were so grouchy. Did me accidentally calling you a rat annoy you that much?”

J: “No. It’s just that I’m still sour about a recent event and it affects my mood occasionally.”

T: “Jin said it was a breakup. Wanna talk about it?”

J: “Not sure. It’s somewhat complicated and very ty. Plus, talking about it isn’t gonna help with anything. But, I guess, since my mind already went there, I can answer you if you’re curious about this.”

T: “Well, what happened?”

J: “I was sort of dating this guy who was staying at my place, but he did some things he really shouldn’t have done and it got me more pissed off than I’ve been all year.”

T: “Hold on… Guy?”

J: “Yeah. I swing both ways.”

T: “Oh… Did he cheat on you?”

J: “Pff, come on… Who doesn’t cheat?”

Taehyung was taken aback, both by Jungkook’s preference in romantic partners and by his view on cheating, but he had been taken aback by those revelations in very different ways.

T: “As far as I know, and I think I’m right about this, Namjoon and Jin never cheated on each other.”

J: “Ah, they’re a special case. I think it’s possible that they might actually be in love with each other.”

T: “Why are you talking about love like you’re questioning the legitimacy of a Chupacabra sighting?”

J: “What do you mean?”

T: “Do you think love is a rare and possibly unreal phenomenon?”

J: “I mean many people claim to feel it, so maybe it’s out there and real somewhere. But the same could be said about ghosts. Just ‘cause many claim they’ve seen ghosts, does it make you believe they exist?”

The realization that Jungkook saw cheating as a common thing and love as a questionable possibility at most made Taehyung feel a lot of anxiety for some reason.

T: “Were you always this cynical or did getting cheated on make you think like this?”

J: “I think I always thought like this and it’s not like we swore fidelity or impose monogamy on each other, so cheating didn’t even faze me. I took part in that too. However, if you’re gonna use my contact information to create a bank account behind my back for shady transactions and risk leaving me in a huge- debt with a messed up underground organization… THAT will definitely piss me off.”

T: “Jesus! Was this what Jin was talking about when he said your organs could’ve been up for sale?”

J: “Yeah, but more realistically I would’ve gotten beaten half to death and then made to work like a slave for that organization for the rest of my life.”

T: “Holy… So what did you do?”

J: “I saved my ex some future expenses on toothpaste by ridding him of half of his teeth… Then I hinted at other things I could do to him if he didn’t clean the mess he had put me in, so we went and transferred that account and everything about it under his name. Now it’s his problem to deal with.”

T: “Couldn’t you have gone to the police and reported it?”

J: “If I had gotten the police involved, it could’ve made me a target for that messed up organization. I may be reckless, but I’m not stupid. You don’t go to the police for problems with the underworld unless you’re ignorant of how things work or willing to move to another country.”

T: “…”

J: “Are you scared of me now?”

T: “Haha! I was scared of you from the first time your foot hit a gas pedal.” Taehyung said, making Jungkook laugh along with him. “Besides, I’m glad that now I have even more proof that it’s just the suspension bridge effect and not something else.”

J: “Oh… I didn’t get this kinda vibe from you before, but… if you want a hookup with me, I’m down for it.”

T: “What?! NO! Hell no! I… didn’t mean to turn it down so drastically, but still no!”

J: “Did I misunderstand about you having the hots for me through that thing about the suspension bridge effect?”

T: “No, you didn’t misunderstand, but I’m still declining the offer.”

J: “Why?”

T: “Let’s just say I’m not a risk-taker.”

Jungkook was utterly confused about that last part of their conversation and Taehyung had crossed his arms and turned to look outside the window on the right. Falling for a guy was one thing. Falling for a person who viewed cheating as a normal thing, who didn’t believe in love most likely because they never felt it and who was so reckless on top of everything else was a clear road to heartache, insecurity, abandonment and all kind of other unpleasant things. And Taehyung absolutely refused to let himself fall anymore and go down that unpleasant road. Whatever momentary happiness falling for Jungkook could provide, it sure as hell wasn’t worth all the ways in which that could make Taehyung fall apart.

Neither of them said anything for quite a while after that, until Taehyung pulled out his phone and remarked:

T: “We forgot to buy tomatoes…”

A.N. This chapter has 0 elements from my real experience and, thus, I have no photo related to it.

But I still want to post a photo at the end of each chapter, so here's one of mushrooms that look like a certain body part :))