"Do you still think so?"

The question lingers, floats in the air like smoke. Undeniably there, leaving its traces. Intangible.

It's one of those cliché moments, the kind where Taehyung always cringes when seeing them in movies and tv shows. Where he mutters a pained "Now you're trying to hard, director-nim" under his breath. It's so silly.

Yet here he is, feeling as if the whole room, scratch that, the whole world goes quiet and everything focuses on Jeongguk, Jeongguk, Jeongguk. It's completely unrealistic and unnecessary. Taehyung wonders what's wrong with him, being so focused on the younger that his mind blurs out everything that's not Jeon Jeongguk and his looming answer. He wants to tell the narrator of his life to cut the crap and get on with it.

Jeongguk leans back against the cushion, lifts a hand to his face and props his chin on it. Gives Taehyung a hard piercing look that doesn't match the slowly intensifying blush on the younger's cheeks.

Taehyung forgets everything about clichés and over dramatic focuses.

The way Jeongguk deliberately rakes his eyes over him, how he takes in everything he can see of Taehyung, makes him shiver. That sheer look as intense as a physical touch.

Jeongguk exhales sharply and closes his eyes. Collects himself.

With the searing eye contact broken, Taehyung finds himself able to breathe again. Albeit being disappointed at the loss of the younger's eyes on him. He briefly wonders if its always been like that and he just - yet again - never noticed. If he always craved Jeongguk's eyes on him.

"I could just say yes now but-" Jeongguk huffs, pokes his tongue in the inside of his cheek. Slowly, he looks at Taehyung. Easily locks eyes with him again, the older silently preening.

"What do you want to hear from me, hyung? Do you want me to make it easy for the both of us? Or do you want me to be honest, with no filter and all the complications that may follow?"

He leans in, Taehyung automatically doing the same until both of their nose tips almost touch and Taehyung thinks he goes cross-eyed. The following words are just a hushed whisper, a secret dropped into Taehyung's ears for only him to know.

"What is it that you want from me?"

And it's not that Taehyung has to think hard about it when he keeps quiet. It's just that he finds himself unable to focus on anything that's not Jeongguk and all of these alluring little things that seem to jump him now. 

Like the subtle floral scent Taehyung only noticed once on the younger before. Or the way Jeongguk's voice feels on his skin. Is that even a thing? It is now. Or the way their respective fringes touch so Taehyung's own hair tickles his forehead. Or the subtle but definitely there press of Jeongguk's foot against his ankle beneath the table, or...

All these things make verbalizing an answer really difficult.

Taehyung manages, eventually. Gulps hard and allows his eyes to slip down to Jeongguk's lips just once before quickly flickering up again. Searching those big dark eyes for he doesn't know what. He thinks, maybe he doesn't have to search, really. Maybe it's all there.

"The truth," he says just as quiet. "I want the truth."

Jeongguk hums. 

Takes a nacho and shoves it in his mouth. Crunches on it obnoxiously, right into Taehyung's face.

Taehyung reels back with a disgusted little noise. 

Gone is all the intimacy, crushed between Jeongguk's grinding teeth.

"Ew, what the dude?"

Jeongguk just shoves another handful into his mouth while looking at Taehyung with his big innocent doe eyes. He shrugs

"What? I'm just enjoying the show. Or you, for that matter."

He points at Taehyung with a cheese-dripping nacho. "I've been throwing at least a hundred hints at you in these past weeks. And only today you notice something is up. Welcome to the big reveal day. Is that it?"

Taehyung crosses his arms and glares. Feels himself played, betrayed. What happened with blushing, stuttering Jeongguk from this morning? And with seductive, bold Jeongguk from literally a minute ago? Where does that cool and indifferent version of him come from and more importantly, what is Taehyung supposed to do with him?

"And your problem is what exactly? Leaving aside the fact that I never said something of the like. Also what happened to you wanting to be honest with me?"

Taehyung is beyond confused. Even worse is that he's growing irritated with every passing moment.

Jeongguk gives him a lazy smirk.

"Oh, I'm planning on honesty, don't you worry. However." And with that one word he turns completely serious. His focus razor-sharp as he watches Taehyung's every minute reaction.

"Before I start telling you about truth and honesty and the like, you have to do the same. It's only fair. So tell me," his gaze turns menacing as he places his hands on the table's edges and all but hovers above Taehyung, "have the past weeks and all of my advances and hints that you ignored, my blatantly obvious feelings, just been a game for you? Or are you really that oblivious, hyung?"

The words are by no means spoken loudly. Yet they are as hurtful as a slap in Taehyung's face. He flinches, eyes going wide at the accusation.

"What even- what?!"

Jeongguk has the nerve to roll his eyes.

"Oh come on, my question is not that hard. All I want to know is whether you just pretended to not get any single one of the hints I've thrown at you for whatever agenda of yours, maybe to make a fool of me or if I'll know. Or if you actually didn't get it until now. Which one is it, hm?"

All these words gnaw at Taehyung until there is nothing good and beautiful left anymore, just these ugly emotions leering their heads in his guts. His eyebrows are furrowed together, mouth squeezed to a thin line. He's getting really pissed now.

"Jeon Jeongguk." His voice is quiet, cold as ice. He's this close to snap. "Are you the one accusing me of playing now? Is that what you're trying to do? Watching you like that and listening to your words I should be the one making the accusation."

"What do you mean?"

Taehyung snorts. "Oh, please. Look at you, being all unfazed and chill now after not being able to end a single sentence around me all day. Am I really to believe it was genuine, the way you dropped your keys four times today, just because I came to work in a suit for once when now you're acting all high and mighty, as if nothing could ever ruffle your feathers, least of all me? Aren't you being a bit much? At least one of the sides you showed me today is fake."

The small smile tugging at Jeongguk's lips is gone as fast as it came. It does nothing to ease Taehyung's nerves.

"Touché," the younger mumbles. "So, what do you think is my fake persona?"

Taehyung gnaws on his lip. He's not sure of anything anymore. The way Jeongguk's acting is throwing him off, making him second-guess everything. Just when he thought he was getting better at figuring out Jeongguk. It's beyond frustrating.

"I don't know," he admits. "Obviously I would like to think the current you is the fake one. But, I mean you just accused me of acting up my own self for weeks and months so you must be convinced it's possible to hold up an act for that long. Making me think maybe you know out of experience. And why would your current side be just show? What would you gain from acting like that now?"

Jeongguk's shoulders sag and he lets his head hang. Whole form slouching from where he sunk back in his seat.

That lone figure reminds Taehyung of the night where it all got too much for Jeongguk and he was whispering broken little confessions to Taehyung from where he was sitting in his Pikachu onesie.That can't have been played too, right? That vulnerable Jeongguk who makes Taehyung want nothing more than to comfort him and promise him everything will be okay.

At least this must've been real. Right?

These doubts, the second-guessing of Jeongguk's sincerity, something Taehyung never dreamed of having to doubt - it's eating him alive. Taehyung wonders what will be left of him once he's all chewed up and gets spit out.

The only comfort he can find in this situation is that they are both feeling unsure, Jeongguk fiddling with his fingers, leg bouncing under the table and kicking against Taehyung's.

It doesn't make anything better though.

Why are they even in that situation? What the just went wrong?

All bravado has left Jeongguk's voice in his following admission.

"If I pretend I don't care, then it will hurt less.When you tell me you toyed with me all this time out of curiosity to see how far I would go, and how long."

Taehyung is too stunned to even react.

He just blinks at the younger, mouth hanging open as the words slowly start to make sense and pierce through him.

As they rip him the apart.

"You really..." 

There is a sting behind his eyes. Taehyung furiously squints his eyes shut until it disappears. 

"You really think me capable of something cruel like that?"

Jeongguk's head shoots up at the way Taehyung's voice cracks around the last word. His expression morphing into one of hurt, mirroring Taehyung.

"No, that's not what I-"

"Do you really know me that little, Jeongguk?"

He swallows down the little hiccup, doesn't want to be that guy who bursts into tears and makes a scene in a public place. But seriously? That's not how Taehyung pictured tonight to go. He didn't expect to get hurt like that.

Jeongguk is staring at him wide-eyed now, unable to string a sentence together, to explain himself.

With shaking hands clasped together in his lap, Taehyung prays for a little miracle. Something to put him out of this misery, the narrator of his life yelling CUT and Jeongguk throwing him one of those adorable grins of his. Anything, really.

But.

Now here is a little wisdom for you to know:

Help can have many forms and often comes in the most unexpected ways.

So while Taehyung is still not over Jeongguk's words and stuck in his head, their waitress approaches, unnoticed by both men.

She makes her appearance known with emptying an entire bucket of crushed ice over Jeongguk's head, the younger bolting up with a loud shriek, jerking legs rattling the table enough to flip over the nacho bowl. Taehyung is up in an instant, all previous thoughts flying right out of the window as he tries to lunge across the little table, grapples at Jeongguk's shirt in an attempt to help in whatever way.

Ultimately he decides the table is too much of an obstacle and hurries around until he's all in Jeongguk's space, helping him loosen the soaked shirt from his skin and holding it open so the ice can fall out. Jeongguk is still jumping up and down and stringing curses together. They both pay the other customers no mind who are blatantly staring, too busy with the situation at hand.

The waitress stands next to them with blank expression and an empty bucket in one hand.

Eventually Taehyung remembers her existence and whirls around.

"What do you think you're doing," he all but yells at her. Is barely holding onto any scrap of self-control, because what if she seriously hurt Jeongguk? 

It takes him a second to realize what he did and already dread is settling in his stomach, Taehyung flinching back and about to open his mouth to start a lengthy apology. He never yelled at a girl or woman before. What the hell.

But the waitress looks completely at ease. As if she's watching a wildlife documentary unfolding before her very eyes.

"Fight fire with fire," she just says, shrugs. And then adds, "I gave you a shock that's easier to manage than whatever you've just been going through. You're welcome." With that, she breezes off. Taehyung gapes.

"This stuff is even in my shoes, what the !"

His head snaps back to Jeongguk.

"ing ice in my ing shoes, and my ing shirt and pants and hair, ing everywhere that , what the ing even..."

And so it goes.

Taehyung urges down the chuckle, the younger is just too adorable even when he's angry. Instead he silently grabs Jeongguk's arm and leads him to where he hopes the bathroom is.

Spoiler alert: he's wrong.

They almost end up in the kitchen but a kind staff member - who is not their waitress - points them the right direction. In the meanwhile Jeongguk's teeth started clacking loudly and the scowl on his face is deep enough Taehyung bets he could stick a piece of paper in the crease and it would not fall off.

But. Wait. Focus. Help Jeongguk.

They find the bathroom section at second try. Mercifully the one for men is empty so they have it all for themselves. 

As soon as the door falls shut behind them, Taehyung starts tugging at Jeongguk's clothes and grappling for paper towels, toilet paper, anything that could be helpful. He can't decide what to do first and ends up half-assing everything, pulling Jeongguk's shirt taunt as he reaches for the paper towels without letting go and shoving them down the neckline just to tuck at the shirt even more so the paper towels fall out in a lump without having been of much help.

Jeongguk seems to finally have calmed down as he stands there and lets Taehyung fret for a little more before snorting and saying,

"Okay, I think I got it from here."

But Taehyung shakes his head. "No no no, I need to help you-"

"Alright, first of all-" Jeongguk takes a hold of Taehyung's flittering hands, his grip strong and steady around the wrists- "you don't need to do anything. Nobody is forcing you to anything. And secondly, I'm a grown man. I can handle myself."

With that, he grabs at the hem of his shirt and pulls it over his head.

Revealing miles of unblemished skin, those glorious abs Taehyung only got a small hint off before on full display, together with a strong and defined chest, collarbones, erect s ohmygod and muscular arms and-

Taehyung doesn't know where to look, mouth gone completely dry.

"uh. Yeah, I-I can. I can see that..."

Holy .

Holy ing .

Is that how Hayley Atwell felt when she saw half- post-experiment Chris Evans and her automatic reaction was to touch his abs just to feel them for once, to see if they're real or whatever?

Taehyung can relate, man.

He can relate so ing hard.

Belatedly he remembers the scrunched paper towels in his hand.

He stretches out a tentative hand and starts pressing the towels against Jeongguk's moist skin. Doesn't have the nerves to look him in the face.

They continue in silence and at some point Taehyung runs back to their seats, then his car, to collect his suit jacket and a pair of spare trousers he always keeps in the trunk. It's the only spare cloth he has though. Meaning Jeongguk has to go commando. Taehyung tries not to think about that little fact at all.

By the time he comes back, Jeongguk got himself completely undressed and is just chilling against the sink in all his glory. Taehyung bolts out of the bathroom at the sight. This is just too much. It's not that he's a prude, but a completely Jeon Jeongguk is too much for him to handle right now. Or probably ever.

The dude has thighs!

And wow okay, he only got the shortest ever glimpse but from what he saw, Jeongguk is truly gifted downwards.

Holy ing hell indeed.

Taehyung only opens the door to throw in his clothes before pulling it shut again, shouting something about going back to their table and then making a run for it. Least he opens the door again and does something really stupid.

Not that much later, Jeongguk finds Taehyung sitting in their booth and aggressively fanning air to himself.

With a raised eyebrow he plops down onto his place, clad in Taehyung's buttoned-up bright red suit jacket, some checkered pajama trousers and nothing else. His wet clothes are stuffed in a plastic bag he probably got from a staff member and his shoes now rest next to their booth. He is blunt in the way he stretches out his legs and rests his feet atop Taehyung's shoes so they don't touch the tiled ground.

The mess they made at their table is all cleaned up and a new nacho bowl rests in the center, together with some drinks and a printed note that says 'We apologize for the inconvenience'.

The whole setting is almost the same as before everything happened.

Except everything is different now. The whole atmosphere changed. Jeongguk seems to be at ease with himself, and not in the strained way he pretended to be earlier. And Taehyung, well. Taehyung is trying his best to not pop a , not now, not ever. Not before they talked about much more relevant things first.

"So."

It's Jeongguk who picks up the thread.

"How about we clear up some things?"

Taehyung can only nod, doesn't get out a word yet. He takes a sip of his new drink with no idea what it is. It doesn't taste bitter so everything is good.

"Yeah, how about you start explaining to me why exactly you think I'm toying with you?"

Jeongguk doesn't deny it, nor does he get angry or hurt, doesn't lash out. The only sign he is not exactly comfortable is the slight blush creeping from his cheeks down his neck. But he stays calm, civil. The both of them acting like the grown-up men they are at least.

"I guess I just don't know how to react to you," he admits, voice a little hushed but steady. Honest. "I mean I just. I really tried to make it obvious that I'm interested in you but you never reacted the way I anticipated. Like. When I started holding open the door for you I didn't expect you to make a sprint competition out of it. I just wanted to be a gentleman, you know?"

Taehyung stares. Has the vague sense his mouth is hanging open. He blinks.

"...Oh."

It makes Jeongguk chuckle. "You really didn't get it, did you?"

Taehyung is still malfunctioning, needs a minute to process and answer.

"Wait. Wait, hold up." He raises a hand, takes a staggering breath. "So you were not trying to out-nice me? To throw me off in a new way, by confusing me with your behavior? Isn't that what we've been doing?"

It's Jeongguk's turn to look confused.

"I, errr... no?"

"Oh." Taehyung's ears are flaming hot now. "Well, that's embarrassing."

Across from him Jeongguk looks mildly bothered. 

"Do you mean to tell me you only did all those things for me because you wanted to win in a non-existent competition against me? Is that it?!"

"What, no! Yes? Well not only. Maybe at first, but it was all genuine, I swear," Taehyung helplessly flaps his hands.

"...Tha doesn't make much sense to me."

And Taehyung can't help it, it's such a golden opportunity. So he adds after Jeongguk with a deep voice, "But then again, you are very small." 

Jeongguk throws a nacho at him.

", I'm trying to have a serious conversation here, stop quoting Tolkien," the younger chuckles.

Taehyung grins, a hundred percent unapologetic. "Sorry."

"No, you're not."

He nods. "No I'm not."

"Idiot."

"Yah!" He flicks a dollop of molten cheese at Jeongguk. These are all his clothes anyway, he can get them as dirty as he wants.

"As I was saying," Jeongguk makes a show of wiping off the cheese with exaggerated movements, "I wasn't sure if you really didn't catch on at all. But I guess this answers my question. Which leads me to the next one. Kim Taehyung-" he leans over the table and holds an invisible microphone in front of Taehyung- "when did you finally notice all my failed advances?"

"Uhhh..." Taehyung scratches his head, looks everywhere but Jeongguk. "So maybe like... yesterday?"

"Is that a question or an answer?"

"I, uh, well... an answer probably," Taehyung shyly admits.

"Ohmygod."

Jeongguk has the audacity to laugh out loud. Rude!

His eyes are literally sparkling when he faces Taehyung again, mirth dancing in them. "Really?"

"Y-yah, I'll have you know, it's quite an accomplishment itself to not notice for such a long time," Taehyung defends. "With everybody around me dictating me that we have the biggest crushes at each other and me blatantly calling them liars. Not everyone can do that for such a long time, okay?"

"Uhum, you keep telling yourself that." Jeongguk smirks. Then his grin widens into that adorable bunny smile. Whole expression shifting into one of giddiness "Wait, did you just say you have a crush on me?!"

"Uhm. ."

Very eloquent, Kim Taehyung. Good job well done.

He tries again.

"Well."

No use denying it anymore at this point, is there? Still, the next word comes out as something barely above a whisper.

"Yes?"

Jeongguk huffs. "What is it with you going all shy and nervous now after prancing around in that stunning suit all day?"

"Well, excuse you, it's not everyday I'm confessing my feelings to someone and in such a lame way at that," the older snaps.

The younger grins. "There is the Taehyung I know."

"I feel like there is a 'hyung' missing somewhere in there."

Jeongguk shrugs. "Maybe, but you are not Jack Sparrow which means you have no right on any kind of honorifics or titles whatsoever so there is that."

"What the ing-"

"Anyway! Now as that's cleared up and we both know we are interested in each other, what happens next? I'm not exactly experienced if it comes to that kind of stuff."

Jeongguk looks down at his fiddling fingers at the admission. Taehyung wants to coo and pinch his cheek. And ruffle his hair. And hug him. So fricken adorable!

If nothing else, it helps him getting back his cool. Seeing the younger acting a little shy and insecure seems to never fail in kick-starting Taehyung's urge to take the lead.

"Well, I mean I don't know about you. But I was going to finish up here, get you back home so you can change into actual clothes and feel like a human being again. And then you can tell me how you would like we proceed from here on."

There is an incredibly soft look on the younger's face, full of gratitude and much more.

"Sounds like a plan."

Chapter bullet point: "And Taehyung dresses up, and they go to a bar, and they kiss"

Me after proof-reading everything: Okay so this happened...

Hiiii guys~

*waves*

Sorry for taking so long! The whole moving thing took me forever (I'm almost finished now!) but now I have my own internet here and things start to fall into place which. Nice.

Writing this chapter was actually super fun although I didn't get to write any of the things I wanted to write yet and didn't plan on that whole arguing/accusing thing. Ever. But that's just how writing works, right? The story unfolds on its own and all I can do is watch haha

Anyway hope you are all doing well. Everybody Fighting!