#I realize i used the same repeated dialogue thing i did in the yoonseok fic LOL

[man2saeipromiseyou]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY 🎉🎂🍾🎉

TO @jhopeg MY FRIEND MY ROOMMATE (UNFORTUNATELY) MY FELLOW TRASH

I was gonna type ur name and expose u to the whole wide world but then i realized that was probably not the best idea. But yeah, I keep saying it’s the thought that counts not the cost so here is my gift of thought :))))

I finally finished that fan fic you requested like 80 years ago and i thought i was never going to actually finish. During camp nanowrimo too so feel blessed and happy that you were worth the headache and losing sleep over.

ALSO this was kinda written in a rush so maybe it sucks but i did my best. I hope you like it and HAPPY 20s UR OLD NOW

        “…see him? Yeah, Taehyung…”

    Jungkook’s ears perked up at those words. Usually he wasn’t one to keep up with the gossip around the school, but it was a new school year and even he had been hearing that name a little too much.

    So he peered over the corner the girls had just turned, curious about the man behind all this fuss.

    It wasn’t difficult to tell who the girls had been whispering about. The boy had a natural confidence that set him apart from the crowd immediately. On top of that, there was a circle of people around him, many of them famous enough around the school that even Jungkook recognized them. He wasn’t that good-looking, as far as Jungkook could tell. Soft brown hair with bangs that fell just shy of his eyes, which turned into crescents as he laughed; a curved jawline, all the angles of his face curated into something a little smoother, softer; simple clothes that fit his body so well they still managed to look stylish… Judging from the way he rose above the crowd of girls around him, he was probably as tall as Jungkook.

    Okay, maybe he was a little cute, Jungkook thought as he studied the boy.

    But then the boy started gesturing and doing a weird dance with one of the other boys there, making an ugly face as everyone else cheered and laughed, their voices booming across the halls, louder than anyone else. Jungkook clicked his tongue. He’d judged too soon.

    He was about to turn away when the boy called Taehyung looked up and caught his eye. There was a brief moment as their eyes met when Taehyung stopped what he was doing and smiled shyly, half-embarrassed, half inviting Jungkook to join them. There was an even briefer moment when Jungkook considered it.

    But they were not his type of people. So he turned and walked away without a second glance, thoughts about the boy already being wiped away by his plans for the day. What he needed to do for his classes; the homework and responsibilities that were already starting to pile up; how much he was looking forward to leading the math team this year, now that the seniors had left the position open… He was determined that this would be a good year.

     ***

    Jungkook hadn’t been expecting to see the boy again. Not so soon, not in this context.

    But there Taehyung was, sitting at the front of the classroom for the first math club meeting, a pair of black-rimmed glasses on, a pencil in his hands and scratch paper laid out in front of him.  He glanced over as Jungkook entered the room and grinned widely. “Hi!”

    For half a second Jungkook couldn’t quite speak. Taehyung looked so eager to be here that it stirred up something bright and enthusiastic within him as well. He’d been a little nervous coming here, wondering if he would get chosen as the leader this year, but now he was excited.

    “Hi!” He replied, hearing Taehyung’s eagerness mirrored back in his own voice, and slightly embarrassed by it. “I’m Jungkook.”

    “Taehyung! I saw you this morning, but you looked busy, so I asked around and they told me I would find you here.”

    Jungkook’s heart jumped all the way up to his throat, blocking his airway. He couldn’t speak.

    Until the boy smiled, tilting his head up as his nose scrunched together cutely. “Heh heh. Just kidding. I love math, and I’m pretty good at it. You were just a pleasant surprise.”

    Okay, so the popular kid wasn’t following him around school. That was a relief. But Jungkook still wasn’t sure what to say, so he just smiled and ducked his head politely before taking a seat two rows down. He could feel Taehyung’s gaze on him as he sat down, and he did his best to avoid eye contact.

    God, he was so damn awkward.

    But all thoughts of his awkwardness dissipated when the teacher entered the classroom. “Okay, guys, today is the big day. We’re choosing our team leader for this year. I trust you’ve all been gearing up for this moment?” He glanced up at them through his glasses, looking anything but geared up.

    Jungkook, on the other hand, was coursing with adrenaline. He’d been eyeing the position since the day he joined, and he was sure he would get it this time. It wasn’t really a big deal to anyone else, but this was the one thing he was good at. And now was the time to prove it.

    The 3 pages of problems were passed down. And…start!

    Jungkook’s eyes flew across the page, the solution already half-formed in his head before he finished reading the first question. He felt the usual sense of satisfaction as the numbers and equations blossomed under his pencil, neat and balanced and beautiful.

    He finished all the questions with 10 minutes to spare, and he spent all of that time checking back on every detail, re-verifying every question. They were all correct; he was sure of it.

    When he finally looked up from the paper, Jungkook was unnerved to find a languid pair of eyes staring straight into his. Taehyung.

    Jungkook glanced quickly away, scowling. Taehyung’s paper was flung carelessly to the side, as if he hadn’t even bothered to look at it. Perhaps he’d had a little too much faith in the boy’s claim that he loved math. Of course it wasn’t true. How could someone like him care about something as academic as this? He was just here to make a show of himself, as if that would impress anyone.

    Even if his gaze made Jungkook feel like part of him had just fell down Alice’s rabbit hole.

    Time was up. The teacher collected their papers.

    He laid them out side by side, eyes flitting across the table as he marked each answer with a circle or a cross. Then he looked up. Smiled.

    “As expected.” He sighed, seeming almost disappointed at the lack of surprise. Jungkook closed his hands into fists to stop them from shaking. He was so close. The teacher knew he was the best in the club. It had never been a question. He just had to hear his name—

    “The team leader this year will be Kim Taehyung!”

    Jungkook didn’t hear any of the students’ clapping or Taehyung’s ridiculous cheers. He didn’t see him jump to the front and do a little victory dance as everyone else laughed and shouted back in excitement. He didn’t remember what happened during the rest of that meeting before it all ended and everyone stood up to leave, and then somehow he and Taehyung were the only ones left in the room.

    He just remembered the smirk on Taehyung’s face and his low chuckle—the way his eyes narrowed into half moons as he broke into a smile—right before Jungkook pushed him up against the wall.

    Taehyung’s eyes widened in shock, but his protest was surprisingly weak. There wasn’t much resolve in the way he grasped on to Jungkook’s arm, and he all but melted against the wall. “What’s wrong?”

    There was a pause, in which Jungkook registered, only in retrospect, what he had done. Every muscle in Jungkook’s body stiffened as he realized how close they were. He’d expected more resistance. But he didn’t know why he had done it. He didn’t know what he wanted to say.

    “How did…how did you get team leader?”

    That wasn’t the right question. In fact, it was a really stupid question. Taehyung got team leader because he’d earned it, and Jungkook didn’t. Was Jungkook just doing this because he was jealous?

    “I’m a scholarship student from SM.” Taehyung said, eyes wide and unguarded. “I think everyone pretty much expected me to take the role when I got here.”

    SM was one of the most academically selective high schools there was in the state. No wonder Taehyung had looked so bored during the test. The questions were probably way too easy for him. But if he was so good at studying, then why had he transferred here? Jungkook knew he should back down at this point, but some innate pride compelled him onwards.

    “I will take the position from you.” He stated as if it were fact instead of fantasy. “I don’t know why you came here or how you were blessed with both brains and looks and a winning personality, but trust me, if there is one thing I always win at, it’s stubbornness. And competitiveness. And you’ve triggered it at the worst time.”

    He hadn’t expected Taehyung to smile, and was so caught off guard when he did that he stumbled back, letting go of his hold on Taehyung. But Taehyung stayed where he was, leaning against the wall leisurely with a pleased expression on his face.

    “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think you just complimented me on all the most defining qualities of a human being. Does this mean you would be willing to go out with me?”

    Jungkook blinked and flushed bright red at this outrageous turn of events. A high-pitched “What?!” was all he managed to splutter out in his alarm.

    Taehyung nodded with satisfaction. “Looks like that’s a yes.” And then he pushed himself off the wall, collecting his things with a small wave at Jungkook before he left the room. “I’ll text you.” He said, without looking back to see Jungkook slowly sit himself down on one of the chairs and nearly miss it by a whole inch. Fortunately, Jungkook caught himself before he fell flat on the floor. “I already got your number from the teacher. He was pretty excited to see the two top students hitting it off right away.”

***

Unknown number:

-HI ITS TAEHYUNG

-WE SHOULD HAVE DINNER TMR

-I CAN TUTOR U IN MATH

Jungkook:

-…no

Guy I Need to Beat:

-WHY NOT

Jungkook:

-I don’t need you to tutor me in math.

Guy I Need to Beat:

-WHY NOT

Jungkook:

-Because I don’t want your help.

Guy I Need to Beat:

-WHY NOT

Jungkook:

-Omg stop asking that

-Also please stop typing in caps.

Guy I Need to Beat:

-okay let’s just eat dinner then :D

-how do u feel about pizza and chicken

-i’ve been craving pizza and chicken

-ever since i ate it last night

-okay it’s a date

-cya in school tmr!

-meet me at the front gate at 5

-✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* \(◕ヮ◕✿)/ *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Jungkook:

-Wait, I have work to do tomorrow.

-Can we do this some other time?

Jungkook:

-Taehyung?

***

    Jungkook arrived at school the next day with a headache. What was he going to do about Taehyung? He didn’t know what to say to him or how to get himself out of this situation. The entire day he kept seeing Taehyung in the hallways, always surrounded by people, always at the center of everyone’s attention. He couldn’t comprehend why someone like Taehyung would be interested in someone like him. It just didn’t make any sense.

    But the layers of people around Taehyung didn’t help Jungkook with his dilemma. There was no opportunity to talk to Taehyung before the school day ended. Jungkook considered texting him, but thought better of it. Texting was how he’d got himself into this mess in the first place.

    He wasn’t even supposed to be wasting so much effort on something as ridiculous as this. There were so many more important things he still wanted to do. The science fair was coming up. The first school debate. He had orchestra practice tomorrow and he hadn’t touched his violin in ages. It was also his junior year, and he had college to think about. This wasn’t the time to get himself involved in something as time-consuming as a relationship.

    Incidentally, despite all his worrying, it never occurred to Jungkook to protest Taehyung himself. There was no issue of whether or not he wanted to go, only whether or not he should.

    And then it was 5, and Jungkook had no way to get out of the dinner date. So he waited quietly by the gate as students began to file out, excited that they had gotten through another day of school. Again, it never occurred to him to simply ignore Taehyung’s proposal and leave.

    When Taehyung appeared, he was blessedly—finally—alone. His face lit up when he saw Jungkook, and he did a little hop as he waved.

    “I haven’t seen you all day,” was the first thing he said when they were close enough to talk. There was a flush of red along his cheekbones, as if this were slightly embarrassing to admit. “I kept looking for you but you weren’t there.”

    Obviously, that was a lie. Jungkook thought to himself, he’d been loitering around Taehyung and his crowd all day, trying to find a break to tell him…what was it again?

    “I never agreed to this dinner.” But even this objection didn’t sound very confident. What was he doing?

    Taehyung swung an arm over Jungkook’s shoulders, chuckling in the shameless way that he did. “You didn’t say no either. Besides, I already prepared a bunch of math questions for us to do.”

    “Math questions?! I thought I told you I didn’t want you to tutor me!”

    “I won’t tutor you! We’ll just do math together. You know, it’ll be fun.”

    Jungkook was surprised to find that he had no words to disagree. So he kept quiet.

    And that was about how it went for the rest of the night. Taehyung bright and happy with his non-stop chattering, Jungkook shy and reserved but also, somehow, happy. The chicken and pizza were delicious, and Jungkook actually learned a lot just going through the problems with Taehyung. 

    And it was fun. Endlessly amusing when Taehyung kept forgetting the same given condition in the question itself, when one of them miscalculated or did something equally as stupid, when they got through a question at twice their usual speed because their ideas matched and built on each other like puzzle pieces, and it was so much easier to see the whole picture when they put their heads together.

    Jungkook had never even imagined that such a solitary quest as a math problem could be a shared experience between to people. It was so easy to work with Taehyung because he could understand what Jungkook was saying before he even worked out how to say it himself. It was like sparks of electricity flowing between them, so powerful that he didn’t even notice how close they had been sitting until he turned his head and found himself nose to nose with Taehyung. Who was smirking. Who had one hand resting on his knee and the other grabbing his shoulder, holding him there. Whose breath smelled like the same chicken Jungkook had been eating when he spoke.

    “Can we do this again? It’s a lot more fun than I expected. I actually just invited you over because you’re cute and I kind of enjoy messing with you. But…of course, if you’re busy…” Taehyung trailed off, biting his lip in uncertainty.

    It was that moment, the first time Taehyung had shown hesitation in front of him, probably even in front of anyone at their school, that drove every single strain of conscious thought out of  Jungkook’s mind. He leaned in closer—found the space between them smaller than he had anticipated—and felt one pair of lips press against the other.

    They were definitely going to do this again.

 ***

Guy I Need to Beat:

-i’m picking you up for school tmr!

-don’t leave ur house until i get there

-i’m serious

-STAY IN UR ROOM UNTIL I CAN BURST IN AND SWEEP YOU OFF THE BED

Jungkook:

-Omg please do not

-Why are you picking me up for school?

-My house is in the opposite direction.

-It’s completely unnecessary.

Taehyung ♡:

-I JUST WANT TO SEE UR ROOM

-ACTUALLY NVM I’LL JUST GO OVER NOW

Jungkook:

-no

-wait actually?

-TAEHYUNG NO

-IT’S 1AM    

-omg ur not replying

-Please don’t tell me that’s you knocking on the door.

    Jungkook ran down the stairs in horror to find his very confused and very sleepy father opening the door to the grinning idiot who actually did come knocking at his door in the middle of the night. After their first date. After they just met.

    But Jungkook couldn’t help the smile climbing onto his face. He’d been right. This was going to be a great year.