Taehyung doodled on his notebook as he waited for his favorite class to start. His hip-hop class was by far the most interesting he’d ever taken, covering the origins of rap music to the present day and its effects on society. The teacher, Mr. Blackman, always told them to keep an open when listening to music, and people, that you never know the depth of a book if you couldn’t get past the cover. Also, littering was a cardinal sin in his book and at the beginning of the school year he made all his students take a pledge to never litter.

Everyone loved Mr. Blackman and girls would swoon over him each day in class, including Namjoon, who tried hard to conceal his thirst for his teacher.

“Hey V,” Taehyung heard someone say. He turned around to see his friend Hoseok twirling his pencil around his finger. "You still on for tonight or what?"

Taehyung was supposed to be going to a party at his friend, Yoongi’s, house. His parents were away for the weekend and, according to him, it would be one of the best parties of the century. Taehyung had a hard time believing him though. At the last one he threw, all they did was play Monopoly for three hours and had to divide a single tortilla into sevenths to eat.

“Yeah, are you still picking me up?”

“Yep, you guys can see my hot new ride,” Hoseok said.

“You're mom's station wagon doesn't qualify as 'hot new ride,'” Yoongi interjected.

Hoseok glared at him. “Don't kill my vibe, man.”

“Hush you little future hip-hop enthusiasts!” Mr. Blackman yelled over the hubbub of the classroom. Everyone quickly quieted and turned their attention to the charismatic instructor.

“I hope you all had a great week and wrote your dissertation on a rap album of your choice, and I'll pick those up at the end of class, but first, we need to talk about something important.”

He stopped to take a sip of his coffee. The class became nervous; it might have been about last week when the substitute yelled at them because they were too loud. Substitutes were always trippin’ like that.

“The injustice in our society,” he continued.

For the next twenty minutes, he discussed how integrity and righteousness were some of the most important traits a person could have.

Taehyung eventually lost track of what Mr. Blackman was talking about and looked over in Hoseok’s direction. He was doodling on his notebook, possessing a very passionate expression on his face. Hoseok tore his eyes away from his notebook and saw Taehyung staring at him. He playfully winked at his orange haired friend who grunted and looked away.

For as long as Taehyung could remember, he’d always been friends with Hoseok. They met at age four when Hoseok stole Taehyung’s toy car away from him at preschool. Taehyung punched him, ultimately leading to a schoolyard fight. Their teacher dragged them inside and forced them to stay in the room and discuss why fighting was wrong. Eventually the two boys bonded over their shared infatuation with cartoons and became friends, having sleepovers nearly every weekend and demanding their parents to drive to each other’s houses.

Somewhere along the line, Taehyung began to develop feelings for Hoseok, ones that weren’t frustration over his friend stealing his video games. He couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment when he knew he felt something deep for him. He only noticed one day that Hoseok’s light touches and quick glances brought surges of warmth to Taehyung he’d never felt with another person. Hoseok seemed much too perfect for him, for this life, honestly, but those thoughts never seemed to dismiss Taehyung’s affection towards him. He wasn’t sure what romantic love felt like, but the deep yearning inside his belly, pulling and tugging for his attention sure seemed like it.

“I know this isn’t in your textbook, but it’s still something important to learn,” Mr. Blackman finished.

“This is the best class ever,” Namjoon whispered to himself.

Namjoon had a look of pure admiration in eyes. Taehyung handed him a bottle of water.  Namjoon seemed confused at first, but quickly realized what it meant and threw the bottle back at him.

The school bell rang, ending the school day and beginning the weekend.

Taehyung waited in the kitchen for Hoseok to come while Baekhyun fussed with his son’s hair. He knew he should’ve lied to his parents, told them he was just going to Yoongi’s house to hang out, but he stupidly told them it was a party, and instead of them refusing him to go as he thought they would, they were elated. Daehyun and Baekhyun saw this as pivotal point in their son’s maturation, a defining moment that distinguished him from a boy and a man.

Baekhyun turned his boy’s head to admire his work. He smiled and kissed his son’s forehead. Taehyung hissed.

The doorbell rang; Taehyung jumped up from the table and opened the door. Hoseok stood there, smiling cheerily as usual. He pointed at Taehyung’s hair who only glared in return.

“Please, let’s just go,” Taehyung begged, trying to walk out the door.

“Wait!” They heard Baekhyun yell and run towards them. He pulled both the boys back inside, then hugged Hoseok.

“Oh Hobi, I haven’t seen you in such a long time,” Baekhyun turned around. “Daehyun, get the camera!” He looked back at Hoseok. “Look at how tall you’ve grown! How are your parents?”

“They’re fine,” Hoseok responded.

Taehyung wanted to die. Never had his parents been so embarrassing.  

Daehyun came rushing back with the camera. Baekhyun pushed the boys together for a picture which Hoseok posed happily for while Taehyung snarled.

Baekhyun finally let the two go, waving ecstatically from the doorway. When Taehyung got into Hoseok’s car, he leaned his head on the dashboard while Hoseok started the car. The car sputtered for a solid five minutes before the engine finally began.

“I don’t see why you’re so ashamed of your dads. They’re fun,” Hoseok said while backing out of the driveway.

“Just drive,” Taehyung muttered.

The entire ride to Yoongi’s house was the most perilous one Taehyung had ever experienced. The car seemed to be against braking and preferred rolling through stop signs and red lights, and if Hoseok was able to stop the car, the engine might shut off. It was a dangerous time, but being with Hoseok made barreling through stop signs bearable. Eventually, the boys made it to Yoongi's house in one piece.

Taehyung tried to open his door, but it was stuck shut, refusing to budge.

"The passenger door only opens from the outside," Hoseok told him. He got out the car and opened the door for him, smiling as usual.

"I should've taken the bus," Taehyung mumbled.

The two friends walked to the porch and entered the house. Music blasted from the surround speakers all the boys had helped Yoongi put up one Saturday. Yoongi shocked himself twice. It was fun.

Apparently the entire school attended the party, something Taehyung considered an achievement for Yoongi. The host sat on the couch trying to sweet talk some girl from school. She got up and walked away from him while Yoongi continued to sit, looking quite dumbfounded at her departure. He looked over to see his friends standing in the entrance and rose to talk them.

“Didn’t I tell you this party was going to be great?” Yoongi yelled over the loud music. He guided them to the kitchen where Jin and a couple other people from school were sitting at the island. “See? We got the chips, the dip, the deviled eggs Jin felt the need to make.”

Jin held out the plate of eggs for the boys to take. Taehyung popped one into his mouth. It was quite delicious.

“But most importantly,” Yoongi began, bringing out a six pack from under the counter. “We got the beer.”

Yoongi popped off the beers for the boys and grabbed some scissors from a drawer. He then began cutting the plastic rings from the six pack.

“Yoongi, what are you doing?” Hoseok asked, taking a sip from his beer.

“I’m cutting the rings so aquatic animals don’t get caught up in them.”

“I thought you were supposed to be such a bad boy,” Jin commented.

Yoongi pointed the scissors at him. “Real thugs care about the environment.”

Taehyung opened his beer and took a sip. It was the worst thing he’d ever tasted, and all of the alcohol he tasted that night was terrible. It was too strong, too overpowering for his taste. He was shuffled to the living room, where he was persuaded to taste rum, but only drank half a shot of Hennessy. He preferred the parties when all they had was Monopoly and a tortilla.

He lost track of Hoseok, losing him amongst the partygoers. He figured he went out to the porch with Namjoon and Jungkook. Taehyung went back into the kitchen, and watched Jin make lemonade out of the five lemons Yoongi had in his fridge while discussing the key to good lemonade was boiling the sugar and water down before adding it to the lemon juice. Jin poured a glass for Taehyung and watched him drink. It was absolutely wonderful; no sip was too sweet or too tart.

Taehyung and Jin sat in the kitchen for a while, discussing how to get the flakiest pie crust until Jin left the party, citing he had work tomorrow and needed sleep. The younger sat for a time, finishing his lemonade, until he too left to go upstairs and listen to Yoongi’s rap albums. He collected early albums from the seventies and eighties, all on vinyl that needed gentle, loving care.

When Taehyung opened the door to Yoongi’s room, he saw Hoseok had already beaten him to it, dropping the needle on the record. The cowbell began playing, beginning Sugar Hill Gang’s famous beat.

Hoseok glanced at Taehyung, and then looked back down at the records. “Are you running away from the party too?”

“Basically,” Taehyung agreed, sitting down next to him. “Yoongi’s threatening to destroy all of Jimin’s Taeyang posters for some reason.”

Hoseok scoffed, “Idiots.”

The two sat in silence for a long time, listening to the song, bobbing their heads to the music. Hoseok rested his head on Taehyung's shoulder, looking at the stars Yoongi's father painted on the ceiling when he was five.

"Do you know what would happen if the Earth stopped spinning for one second?" Hoseok asked him.

"Um, I don't know," Taehyung stuttered a bit. Being this close to Hoseok was too intense, too much for a guy who'd never loved anyone other than his parents this much. He wanted to shake Hoseok off, move away from him a bit, but he also wanted to feel the weight of him, feel the fluttering of desire for him.

"We'd basically all die. We'd just fly around the Earth at 800 miles per hour or something, I don't ing know I wasn't paying much attention to the show."

Taehyung grunted, "I guess every second counts."

"It's why every second I spend with you counts," Hoseok stated. Taehyung looked down at Hoseok who coyly smiled at him.

Yoongi busted into the room, holding a game board and a beer. “Who wants to play some ing Monopoly?” he slurred, obviously drunk.

Hoseok sat up and agreed to go play with Yoongi and the others. Taehyung watched him walk out the door, while he sat on the floor, still processing what he said. What he said sure did seem romantic, something a protagonist would say in a movie. Those words made Taehyung’s stomach jump, his heart palpitate, his blood pressure increase, and maybe he was just being dramatic about the whole thing, maybe Hoseok was just being dumb and didn’t mean anything by it.

Hoseok came back into the room and stood at the doorway. “Are you coming? Jungkook’s threatening to steal your racecar playing piece.”

Taehyung nodded his head and followed Hoseok downstairs, who told him other facts about the importance of Earth’s rotation. And everything was fine between the two, nothing out of place, because Hoseok didn’t mean anything by it, but deep down, Taehyung wanted those words to have meaning. He wanted to know if Hoseok loved him too.