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Jeongguk’s pretty sure the guy sitting near the windows got stood up.
He noticed the guy when he first walked into the coffee shop – how could Jeongguk not – saw him look around and then check his phone, watched him order a drink and then settle near the windows. Jeongguk had turned back to the paper he was typing up and ignored him after that.
(Well, kind of. Jeongguk sneaks glances every so often, because the guy sitting at the windows is really, really cute. All tall and thinly-built with silvery-purple hair and expressive doe eyes.)
It’s not that Jeongguk cares or anything. It’s not his business if the guy sitting at the windows was stood up or not. After all, he’d learned his lesson about interfering in relationships if Jimin and Yoongi were anything to go by (and he still has three more months of doing Yoongi’s laundry to make up for it).
The thing is though, the guy looks more and more disheartened as it gets later and later, and eventually Jeongguk abandons his paper to blatantly stare at the guy sitting by the windows; watches him take smaller and smaller sips of his drink as if it’s a timer for giving up on his date showing up, watches him glance at his phone more and more frequently, sees as he lights up when his phone vibrates but then slumps down again when it’s apparently not the person he’s waiting for.
Jeongguk’s packing up his laptop and books before he even realises what he’s doing, and – what the hell, he doesn’t do impulsive things like this, doesn’t like to talk to people he doesn't know, and-
“Is this seat taken?” Jeongguk hears himself asking, and then wants to kick himself because it’s obviously empty, like, could he have asked anything less lame-
“Um, no,” Tall, purple-haired, and cute says, kind of subdued. “No, you can take it.”
Jeongguk nods, drops his backpack and then settles back into the chair, takes in the guy from even closer and hopes he isn’t blushing, because the guy is even cuter than he thought. His hair looks really soft and his ears stick out a little bit and his bottom lip juts out slightly, like maybe he’s trying not to frown and Jeongguk kind of wants to pinch it (he manages to clamp down on the urge though).
“So you got stood up?” Jeongguk asks, and then winces because he’s not the most comforting person, because he apparently doesn’t know how to talk like a normal human being, because Jeongguk doesn’t know how to do nice or gentle or comforting. No, he’s probably more hard and rough and bitingly sarcastic.
(One time Jimin called him rebellious but it’s not like Jeongguk’s trying to be this way, he just kind of – is.)
Except the guy doesn’t look as hurt as Jeongguk had expected. He blinks and then says, “How did you know?” in a surprised tone.
“You looked pretty anxious.” Jeongguk taps his fingers on the table and swirls his own coffee around, and then bursts out a “If someone’s gonna stand you up like that, they’re not worth it.”
The guy’s silent for a minute and then smiles a little, softly, and Jeongguk feels like he’s been punched in the gut, like he’s forgotten how to breathe. “I guess you’re right, um – sorry I don’t know your name.”
“Jeongguk.” He says quickly. “Jeon Jeongguk.”
“Jeonggukie!” The guy exclaims, like he’s allowed to call Jeongguk so familiarly, so endearingly (which Jeongguk supposes he is, because Jeongguk gets another one of those I-don’t-know-how-to-breathe moments). “I’m Kim Taehyung.”
Taehyung ends this with a huge smile, corners lifting up into a rectangle smile with crinkled eyes and Jeongguk's a little guilty for feeling a bit happy that Taehyung got stood up.
The second time Jeongguk sees Taehyung is a week after he ended up talking to Taehyung for so long that they got kicked out of the coffee shop because it was closing time. Jeongguk had walked Taehyung home, which had probably been one of the better decisions of his life because Taehyung tripped no less than four times and almost walked into traffic once, and Jeongguk had redirected and caught and tugged Taehyung almost like it was natural. Taehyung hadn’t stopped talking once, like he expected Jeongguk to make sure he got home in one piece.
Jeongguk ended up having to pull an all-nighter to finish the paper he never got to do at the café, but he doesn’t really regret it.
He’s tried to go to the café between classes but he doesn’t see Taehyung again, not until he’s walking out of his last class of the day and sees someone walking down the hall carrying boxes piled so high that they’re covering the person’s face. Jeongguk moves to the side to make room, and almost walks past him, but then he sees the tie-dye shoes and mismatched socks, and he’s moving without meaning to again, grabs half of the boxes out of Taehyung’s hands.
“Hey!” Taehyung says loudly, like someone might actually steal a box labeled ‘broken test tubes’, and Jeongguk raises an eyebrow. Taehyung’s mouth drops open. “Jeonggukie!” He gives one of those blinding rectangle smiles and Jeongguk rolls his eyes and hopes that his cheeks aren’t bright red.
“Isn’t this the second time I’m coming to your rescue?” Jeongguk says, shifting the boxes in his hand a little. “Where are these going anyway? Don’t you know that you shouldn’t take on more than you can handle?”
“Wow, Jeonggukie that’s so wise!” Taehyung says cheerfully. “But I promised the prof I would handle this for him and my lab partner would’ve been here but he had some stuff to do, so I told him I would take care of it. So it’s not me just taking things on by myself.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s still you taking things on by yourself.” Jeongguk deadpans.
“Anyways,” Taehyung doesn’t seem too bothered. “You came to my rescue again, so who’s the real winner here?”
“Not you.” Jeongguk says, ducts his head and smiles a little when Taehyung exclaims a how mean!
He tries to stay with Taehyung as long as he can, but Taehyung really does need to get back to the lab, and when Jeongguk offers to come with him, Taehyung lets out an amused, “Do you even know how to do dialysis?” and Jeongguk’s forced to say no.
The third time he meets Taehyung is when Jimin convinces him to go out a few days later because they’ve gotten through the midterms for their tougher courses, and Jimin wants to go see Yoongi perform at one of the bars. Jimin’s the biggest leech for attention, so Jeongguk’s forced to go with him, partly because Jimin’s the type of person to take one shot and end up dancing on the tables and partly because Jimin can still say “but Jeongguuuuuuk, remember how you hurt me and Yoongi?” to make Jeongguk do what he wants.
He’s standing in one of the less crowded parts of the bar because Jeongguk really, really hates crowds, trying to make sure Jimin doesn’t do anything too embarrassing, but Yoongi’s onstage, so he doesn’t have to worry too much. When Yoongi’s onstage Jimin usually spends half his time watching Yoongi in awe and the other half of the time saying things like, “he’s great, isn’t he so great? I love him so much!!” every five seconds.
He’s not really paying attention, so it takes him a few seconds to recognize that he’s got his eyes trained on Taehyung across the bar. Taehyung who showed up to a bar in a slightly oversized sweater, thick-framed glasses, and shoes that look like he walked out of a bowling alley without taking his bowling shoes off. Taehyung who doesn’t actually drink coffee because it’s not sweet enough and because it makes him bounce off the walls so much that his roommate banned him from drinking it. Taehyung who still has the plush lion from when he was a kid (it was something Taehyung had mentioned in passing and Jeongguk had thought was the cutest fucking thing he’d ever heard).
Taehyung who's currently backed up into a corner by some guy a little bigger and a lot thicker than him.
This time when Jeongguk’s moving without realizing it, he’s glad, because he’s across the bar and slinging an arm around Taehyung’s shoulder in seconds.
“Hey babe,” he says, pulling Taehyung close to him. Taehyung’s cheeks suddenly flush pink, and so do the tips of his ears, and Jeongguk blinks a little at that.
“Can I help you?” Jeongguk asks the guy in front of Taehyung, tries to sound cold as possible because he doesn’t think he could actually win any kind of fight against this guy, but Jimin once told him that he could sound as mean as a guy who just killed 10 puppies, so he tries that voice.
The guy blinks, and backs up a little. “Er, shit, didn’t realise.”
“Guess not.” Jeongguk says shortly, stares the guy down because Jimin also told him that his glare actually shook up Yoongi once, and if it's enough for Yoongi, then it'll work on this guy (and apparently Jeongguk’s trusting Jimin now).
“Whatever." The guy says shortly. "You should keep him on a leash instead of letting him wander around,” the guy scoffs, and Jeongguk sees red.
Except, it's like Taehyung can read him, because he feels Taehyung’s arm snake around his waist and Taehyung shakes his head a little, like he’s trying to say he’s not worth it and Jeongguk doesn’t know whether to sigh or to feel a little giddy, so he settles on irritation.
“Apologize.” He tries really, really hard not to snarl, but he doesn’t think he succeeds.
“What?” the guy turns back around, and Jeongguk feels Taehyung tug on his shirt, hears Taehyung’s soft “Jeonggukie, leave it.”
He ignores Taehyung, says, “You heard me, apologize to him and then you can leave.”
Jeongguk thinks the guy really might hit him, and apparently Taehyung thinks so too because he has to tighten his arm around Taehyung when he feels Taehyung try to move in front of him.
There’s a long silence and then, “whatever, I’m sorry,” the guy finally says, probably thinks the two of them aren’t worth it.
After he leaves, Jeongguk turns to Taehyung, flicks him on the forehead.
“Ow!” Taehyung covers his forehead. “You can’t hit your hyung!”
Jeongguk ignores this. “What were you thinking, coming here alone?”
“I’m not alone!” Taehyung exclaims, and then there’s a “Taehyungie, oh my god, are you okay?” and a guy who looks like a model is wiggling out from the crowd. Jeongguk feels his stomach drop to somewhere around his feet.
“I’m fine,” Taehyung says cheerfully, and Jeongguk feels a little ticked off at this.
“What part of this is fine?” Jeongguk’s voice is a little colder than usual but he can’t make himself sound any gentler. The model-guy turns in surprise and Jeongguk feels like he’s eleven years old again because he’s so obviously jealous. “You should be looking out for Taehyung more, every time I see him someone new is trying to take advantage of him! He needs someone to fight in his corner.”
Because – he should have known. He should have known that Taehyung wasn’t being stood up on his first date, but by a long-time boyfriend who calls him Taehyungie and looks like a model. He should have known that while he had feelings that were slowly sliding from ‘crush’ to ‘in love’ for Taehyung, Taehyung was just being a friend.
The model-boyfriend looks a little shocked, and then he glances between the two of them and says, “You must be Jeongguk” with this smile on his face like he knows something Jeongguk doesn’t.
“Yeah.” Jeongguk dares to say, but then tacks on the “hyung” because he’s not really that much of a rebel.
“Oh.” Model-boyfriend says slowly, and Jeongguk can feel Taehyung fidget a little next to him. He belated realises he still has his arm slung over Taehyung’s shoulder but he doesn’t really want to move. “I’m Kim Seokjin, Taehyung’s roommate.”
Oh. Oh.
Jeongguk feels like an idiot, can feel himself turning five different shades of red.
“Well!” Seokjin says loudly, “I’m going to go say hi to Namjoon, so, uh, text me if you’re not coming home tonight, Taehyungie.”
“Okay!” Taehyung says cheerfully, and Jeongguk thinks he’s blushing enough for the both of them, because he doesn’t think Taehyung really understands what Seokjin’s implying. Taehyung probably thinks ‘not coming home’ means staying up all night re-enacting his favourite scenes from his favourite dramas.
(And, if that’s something Taehyung wanted to do, Jeongguk would do it, because, really, if it meant seeing Taehyung’s dumb rectangular smile again and again, Jeongguk might do anything.)
“Let me know if you finally manage to hook up with Namjoon!” Taehyung calls out after Seokjin’s back, and Seokjin trips a little, before ignoring him and disappearing into the crowd.
“You know Namjoon?” Jeongguk asks a little absently, feels giddy because Taehyung is still pressed up close against him.
“Yeah, well, mostly through Seokjin hyung.” Taehyung explains, and Jeongguk thinks they must have the worst mutual friends in the world if it took them this long to meet. “Seokjin hyung met him when Namjoon hyung picked up his phone and broke it before returning it. And then he broke like five other things that belonged to Seokjin hyung but somehow Seokjin hyung finds that really endearing.”
“Huh,” Jeongguk says.
“So, um,” Taehyung continues, a little rushed. “Did you think Seokjin hyung was my boyfriend or something?”
“Ah,” Jeongguk mumbles, glances away.
“Cause, usually I don’t get these things, but I think I caught on this time!” Taehyung says, way too excitedly.
“You don’t need to say everything,” Jeongguk mumbles, but he’s not too embarrassed because Taehyung’s too cute to stop.
“You were jealous!” Taehyung chirps, laughs a little. “You were jealous, right?”
“Maybe,” Jeongguk concedes, only to see the bright rectangular smile on Taehyung’s face once more.
“Wow,” Taehyung says, taps a finger on his chin. “I don’t think anyone’s ever gotten jealous over me.”
“That’s fine,” Jeongguk says mildly, because he really, really likes being the only person to see all these things about Taehyung.
“Yeah, it is!” Taehyung laughs again, and this time, Jeongguk really can’t help it, leans forward to press a kiss to Taehyung’s lips.
Taehyung kisses like he does everything else in life, boldly, excitedly, a little messily and his technique’s not the best, but it still leaves Jeongguk breathless and he thinks it’s probably the best kiss he’s ever had. Kissing Taehyung is like kissing the sun itself, burning hot and searing itself into Jeongguk.
He breaks the kiss and leans his forehead against Taehyung’s. “Is that okay?” He asks, reaches his free hand up to caress Taehyung’s cheek.
“Yes, you dummy, it’s okay.” Taehyung laughs.