Chapter Text
Jeon Jungkook was your typical above average high school graduate; he was relatively popular, got good grades, and excelled at any extra-curricular activity that he tried. Outside school as well as in, he was known to be the perfect boy with a pretty face, “The Golden Kid”, as his friends and strangers alike called him. All of his classmates and peers would repeatedly tell him things like how jealous they were of his skills or how he had the world in the palm of his hand. Jungkook, on the other hand, felt the exact opposite of what everyone else was thinking. Life was, to put it simply, quite boring. He had no dreams, no aspirations, no vision of a future for himself, all he really wanted was to have some excitement in his life. He just wanted to let loose, to not give a damn about any rule or expectation that people put on him, to experience his youth to the fullest extent. Needless to say, living irresponsibly wasn’t so simple, so Jungkook was stuck between what he desired to do, and what he was required to do.
The closest he ever felt to being free was when he screwed around with his friends at their secluded hangout on the edge of town. There, he could practically do anything that came to his mind with little or no consequence, the feeling of having no responsibilities setting into his entire being, always leaving him craving for more.
It was this place that he was currently walking to, with nothing around but the distant sounds of people and the rhythmic thud of his feet on the pavement. The sun was setting low in the sky, casting a beautiful array of colors into the sky, a sight that if Jungkook didn’t see every time he walked down this path, he might have found it to be quite spectacular. He sighed to himself as he continued walking down the quiet, abandoned street; it seemed that just about everything he looked at somehow reminded him of his unquenchable boredom of the life he was currently living.
What would have been a peaceful walk to the hideout was ruined by a force crashing into him from behind, causing him to yelp in surprise.
“Jung-Kook-ie!” a voice cheered playfully as Jungkook stumbled a few feet, still trying to catch his breath from being startled.
“God damnit Jimin,” he huffed as he straightened up, glaring daggers into the smaller boy in front of him. Park Jimin was one of Jungkook’s longtime friends; they had practically grown up together. That closeness didn’t make him any less of a nuisance unfortunately. Jimin seemed to only have two sides to him: impish and playful, or just downright affectionate and clingy, both of which could get onto Jungkook’s nerves within minutes. Nevertheless, he still considered him one of his best friends despite his annoying habits; after all, he had been a very good friend to him growing up.
Jungkook eyed his friend for a second time and finally noticed the fluffy, bubblegum pink hair that was on top of his head, “Please tell me that’s just a shitty wig, and not your actual hair…” He groaned, slapping his hand over his face dramatically.
Jimin laughed, his voice tinkling in the quiet air around them, “Come on, of course it’s my actual hair! I told you I was gonna dye it pink someday, did you not believe me?”
Rolling his eyes, Jungkook replied, “I guess I never expected you to get the money to dye your hair such an outrageous color. You’re always complaining about how broke you are.”
He dodged a playful swing that Jimin sent his way, smirking. If there was one thing he loved to do, it was to irritate Jimin. Sure, it was hypocritical of him, but damn if he didn’t do it anyway.
The pink haired boy pouted as they began their walk to their hangout, “You’re one to talk about fashion choices, Kookie. Half the time you look like you grabbed clothes out of a dumpster!”
“My fashion choice can’t be too awful if every girl at school wanted to date me,” Jungkook replied cockily, giving Jimin a shit eating grin. He never was one to brag about his looks, but that certainly didn’t mean that Jungkook didn’t find a way to use them to his advantage.
Jimin groaned, face palming to try and contain how much he wanted to cringe, “Oh my god, you’re turning into Jin more and more each day…”
Jungkook let out a ringing laugh as he and Jimin reached the hideout that they shared with the other boys. It was a dump in every sense of the word. The hangout was basically just a dingy underpass of an old highway that was rarely ever traveled. It was easy to tell that the place was frequented by delinquents due to the immense amount of graffiti that covered the walls; old trash blew in and out with the wind that made the hangout appear even more disheveled. Despite the subpar conditions, the boys didn’t consider it any less of a home. They even drug in a couple of old abandoned couches that looked like some kind of animal got a hold of them and tore them to shreds to make the place cozier.
The two young men made their way into the underpass, approaching the two older figures who were sitting on the couch, “Jin, Joonie, is there ever a time when you two are apart?” Jungkook teased as he plopped down on the musty couch next to them, “You guys might as well go ahead and get married already.”
Jungkook had met the two older boys, Seokjin and Namjoon, about the time he entered high school. Seokjin was lined up to become a doctor someday, already working his way through med school, while Namjoon was an aspiring musician who currently tutored kids at Jungkook’s school to make ends meet. He remembered meeting them for the first time and feeling a sense of not only respect but also a little intimidation towards them, but that feeling pretty much disappeared once they revealed themselves to be complete goofballs. The pair had apparently been inseparable childhood friends, much like Jungkook and Jimin, except Jungkook sometimes had this nagging feeling in the back of his mind that maybe their relationship wasn’t entirely platonic. He never had any proof or reason to think that way though, so he never brought up the matter with anyone. Whether they were actually boning each other behind the scenes or not, Jungkook didn’t really care all that much; they were good people and even better friends, so he didn’t have any complaints.
Namjoon shot Jungkook a glare for his previous comment while Jin let out his squeaky little laugh, “The same could be said about you and Jimin too, punk.” Jungkook just put up his hands in response, knowing better than to get on his older friend’s bad side.
Jimin let out a small moan as he stretched, turning to the older boys and asking, “So where is everyone else? Usually at least Hobi gets here before us.”
The two eldest shrugged, “We don’t know either, but my guess is that Hobi got distracted street dancing and Yoongi most likely overslept. It’s strange that Tae isn’t here though, he’s usually pretty good about being here on time…” Jin added, biting his lip in thought.
“I don’t always oversleep you ass,” A voice echoed loudly, making the boys turn their head towards the entrance of the hangout. There stood Yoongi, a dark haired man of a small stature, but with a temper that nothing could put out once inflamed.
“Yoongi!” Jungkook called out as Yoongi approached the group of boys, his usual stoic expression on his face, “What took you so long to get here?”
He smirked as he sat down on one of the free couches, setting down the cases of alcohol he had brought with him, “I was…preoccupied with things. But I probably shouldn’t mention with what, they’re children present.” As if on cue the boys immediately started laughing and jeering, impressed at Yoongi’s suave attitude.
All of them besides Namjoon that is, he just scoffed and said, “That’s a damn lie, you were sleeping up until now, I guarantee it!”
Yoongi’s eyes narrowed in defiance, “No, I wasn’t sleeping,” but after a few seconds of staring Namjoon down he sulked, “Fine, maybe I was…”
They all laughed as they settled down to wait for the remaining two boys. Jungkook remained relatively silent, just observing his friends as they interacted with each other. God, he had missed times like this. Up until he graduated, Jungkook hadn’t had the time to just hang out so carefree like this in way too long. That was the best thing about his friends; no matter how long they spent apart, they could meet up and talk like they had just seen each other yesterday. Despite how happy he was, the little voice in the back of his head silently screamed for something more, that there was something huge missing out of Jungkook’s life and that he needed to go searching for it. It was constantly scratching at the insides of his skull, relentlessly reminding him of how mundane his life was, which was a feeling he couldn’t stand but he had no idea of how to alleviate it.
‘Stop it Jungkook,’ He scolded himself, ‘Nothing’s going change with you internally moping all the damn time. Just shut up and enjoy yourself.’ Jungkook snapped out of his thoughts when Yoongi silently passed him a beer bottle, handing more out to the other boys as well. He gratefully took the bottle from him, murmuring a quiet thank you before twisting the top off and taking a big swig of the bitter liquid. He scrunched his face a little at the taste, but continued to drink from the bottle as he conversed with his friends. He figured that he’d never get used to the taste, but he knew that he definitely liked the buzz that he would get from it later, or if he was lucky, the feeling of just being entirely shitfaced.
Footsteps echoed throughout the hangout, signaling that someone was approaching. Jungkook turned his head to see Hoseok walking down the tunnel towards them, his face as bright and cheerful as ever. Everyone greeted him warmly, yet Jungkook couldn’t help but feel a small twinge of disappointment that Taehyung wasn’t following immediately behind him.
Kim Taehyung was interesting. He had only came into town about a year and a half ago with a cheerful personality and a cheerier, box like smile that made even the most stoic person smile softly back. Despite his sunshine appearance, Jungkook had a feeling there was something deeper that the man seemed to put a lot of effort to conceal. They were little signs, such as a certain look in Taehyung’s eyes or a certain way he would word his sentences, but Jungkook was observant enough to pick up on these seemingly trivial things. He had tried asking the other boy’s their opinions, but they all seemed to think that he was just reading way too deeply into things.
So for Jungkook, Taehyung had become almost an obsession, a handsome enigma to carefully unwrap and solve. Jungkook didn’t know whether he wanted to know just for the sake of knowing or whether he felt emotionally obligated to devote his life to the guy, but all he knew was that the mystery at least kept him relatively entertained. Admittedly, Taehyung was certainly a sight to see, so it was only natural that Jungkook seemed to always find his eyes gravitating towards him, right?
Jungkook mentally shrugged off his thoughts, downing more of the booze in his head in an effort to mute his internal ramblings. About an hour passed like that, with Jungkook switching from goofing off with his friends to practically chugging alcohol to stop himself from thinking too much. He had burst into a fit of giggles at something Hoseok had said when he heard light footsteps entering the hangout.
To his delight, it was the man he had secretly been waiting for all along, Kim Taehyung. Jungkook immediately got up and half stumbled his way towards his friend, feeling a little tipsy from the three beers he had already consumed, “Hey, it’s about time you decided to show up, Tae. What took you so long?”
Taehyung gave his usual cheery smile and scratching at his brown hair, simply replying, “Oh, I had some family things that I got caught up in, sorry for being late.”
Jungkook squinted at his face, trying to read his expression. Sure enough, on the surface he looked as happy as his smile, but upon closer inspection, Jungkook could see the tenseness behind his smile. He opened his mouth to ask if he was okay, but just closed his mouth and ushered Taehyung to sit in the spot next to him. ‘Fuck, I should have said something…,’ Jungkook mulled to himself as he sat down next to Taehyung, ‘But I’m not entirely sure if I’m seeing things correctly, or just seeing what I want to see. Plus, being tipsy doesn’t exactly make me have confidence in my observational skills.’
“Finally! Now we can get this party started,” Namjoon whooped, handing Taehyung a beer and cracking one open for himself. “So…what was it that we planned to do again?”
Everyone looked at each other to see who knew the answer, but obviously no one remembered why they had even gathered in the first place. “Do we ever really have a plan when we hang out, Joonie?” Jin laughed, smacking Namjoon’s arm playfully, “We don’t have to do anything to have a good time, you know.”
Jimin groaned, rolling his eyes at the pair on the couch, “Well, maybe for you two lovebirds, but I’ll go crazy if we just sit here drinking beer and doing nothing.” Jimin ducked at the bottle that Namjoon had thrown his way, snickering mischievously.
Hoseok jumped up in excitement, spilling a little bit of his beer in the process, “Hey, why don’t we play truth or dare?”
Taehyung chuckled, eyes sparkling in amusement, “Isn’t that something school girls play? We’re way too old for that kind of shit.”
“Awww come on, it’ll be fun!” Hoseok pouted, looking at everyone else for back up, “Any time someone declines a truth or dare, they have to chug two whole beers, and we all take a shot for any sexual questions. ‘Cause we all know there are going to be some pretty sexual questions going around.”
Jungkook shrugged his shoulders, “Hey, it passes the time and gives us the chance to get shitfaced, count me in.” Jungkook playfully nudged Jimin’s shoulder, “You’re so dead when it’s my turn to ask a truth or dare.”
Yoongi crossed his arms over his chest, “Are there any rules? Like what’s of limits to ask, no targeting one person…” When Hoseok shook his head, he broke out into a devilish grin, “I’m in.”
“Now, we have to be careful about alcohol consumption,” Seokjin chided, “We can’t have anyone passing out, or worse, ending up in the emergency room. If someone’s at their limit, we can’t let them drink anymore.”
“Yes, Mother, you’re caring as always,” Hoseok giggled as he settled back down in his spot, “You’re the med student after all, I’m sure you know what’s best. So is no one opposed to playing?”
Jungkook looked at Taehyung and made a ridiculously pouty face, silently urging him to play. After rolling his eyes and pushing Jungkook’s face away, Taehyung replied, “Fine, count me in I guess.”
Everyone cheered and toasted their drinks excited to begin their game. The game was slow to start, with everyone unsure of what questions to ask. They all soon found out it was way more fun to just dare everyone to do the most ridiculous tasks, such as Yoongi having to give Hoseok a lap dance, Jimin having to lick the bottom of Taehyung’s foot, and making Jin and Namjoon go streaking. Each dare was wilder than the next, everyone getting drunker with each dare that was passed up. Soon enough, everyone was completely and utterly shitfaced, yet still determined to embarrass the shit out of each other.
“Jungkookie, I have the perfect dare for youuuu” Jimin half sang, half laughed, mischievousness lighting his dark eyes.
Jungkook scoffed at him, waving his hand in the air for him to continue, “Bring it on, mochi boy, I can take whatever you dish out.”
Jimin glared at Jungkook for a moment, unamused by the nickname he gave him before continuing, “I dare you to kiss Taehyung. No! I dare you to full on make out with him, no copping out!” Everyone hollered and jeered, dying to see if Jungkook would actually go through with the ridiculous dare.
If his face didn’t look a little sick, Jungkook sure felt like it. ‘Why the hell would Jimin request that of all fucking things?’ He thought angrily to himself, but Jungkook knew there was no changing Jimin’s mind once he was set on something. ‘If I decline, I’ll have to drink two more beers, and I can already feel my liver wanting to quit on me…’
Jungkook looked at Taehyung to gauge his reaction. Taehyung looked back at him with a flushed face and half lidded eyes, a sight that sent an unwelcomed jolt to Jungkook’s groin. He scooted closer to Jungkook, cupping the sides of his face with his large hands, “I don’ care, let’s fuckin’ do it.” Taehyung slurred, his hot breath on his face sending a shiver down Jungkook’s spine.
Before Jungkook had any time to react, he felt Taehyung’s lips crashing onto his own. Jungkook froze for a moment, trying to wrap his drunk brain around what was happening. His friend, Kim Taehyung, was kissing him, and actually putting effort into kissing him. And damn if it didn’t feel like the best feeling in the world, unparalleled to any kiss Jungkook had before with his previous girlfriends.
Any other time, Jungkook would have questioned himself, asked himself why he was enjoying a kiss from a friend way more than he should, but the intoxicated part of him couldn’t give two shits as to why he was liking the feeling of Taehyung’s plump lips on his own. Almost instinctually, Jungkook’s eyes fluttered closed as he began to kiss back, grabbing the edges of Taehyung’s jacket to pull him even closer. Jungkook’s body was like fire, and Taehyung was the gasoline fueling him to burn more. There was so much going on: Taehyung’s hands running through his hair, being pushed down on his back, and feeling Taehyung’s tongue slip into his mouth, and Jungkook didn’t have the time or the patience to register it all. He was too lost in how good it all was making him feel that he just let go and let his body take over, almost like functioning on autopilot.
It wasn’t until Taehyung broke for air that Jungkook could hear the other boys going crazy with shouts of “Oh my god they actually did it”, “They seriously just gave it their all”, and “Wait, are they dating? You don’t kiss like that and not be dating”.
Taehyung smirked down at Jungkook, biting his lip before sitting up off of him and acting like he didn’t just practically suck Jungkook’s face off. Breathless and dazed, Jungkook slowly sat up and stared off into space as he registered what had just happened.
‘Oh my god, I just fucking made out with Taehyung,’ Jungkook stared at him, seeing him drunkenly interacting with the other boys casually as though he didn’t have a care in the world, ‘How the fuck is he so calm about this? Did that kiss not feel the same for him as it did me?’ That thought sent a wave of pain to his heart, the thought made Jungkook sad but he wasn’t quite sure why.
Or so he wanted to tell himself, but Jungkook knew the feeling, and he knew it well. It was loneliness, desire, and fear, all rolled into one. This unstable feeling that was welling in his chest was love, even though his conscious brain was fighting with every fiber of it’s being against the idea, deep down he knew it was true. He had this feeling before with a previous girlfriend, but nowhere near this magnitude. Jungkook had fallen in love with his pretty puzzle, he had fallen in love with Kim Taehyung. Somehow, in some way, he had managed to let these feelings fester in secret, bubbling to the surface from what should have been just a stupid little dare.
Jungkook sat there, tuning out the shenanigans of the other boys, trying to figure out what the hell he was going to do about being in love with one of his friends. Part of him wanted to be too drunk to remember this in the morning, but part of him never wanted to forget that kiss, the taste of Taehyung, the way he looked so breathtakingly beautiful with his disheveled hair and dark eyes looking down into his own. Jungkook sighed and leaned his head back into the couch, staring at the ceiling through drooping eyes.
He was so fucked.