Chapter Text
‘Oof!’
‘What the fuck, Jeon.’
Taehyung, having just collided with whom he can only describe as his mortal enemy, grumbles as they both stoop down to collect the papers that Jungkook has sent tumbling to the floor when he’d collided with Taehyung in the corridor. The collision is, in Taehyung’s mind, entirely Jungkook’s fault as he’d been walking backwards down the corridor making some kind of wisecrack at Seokjin. Taehyung, forced into his path by a passing gaggle of students, could do nothing but watch as the inevitable happened.
Another yelp fills the air as they crack heads on their way down to collect Taehyung’s scattered jotters. Taehyung shoots back up to standing, clutching at his forehead.
‘Jungkook!’ He all but whines, feeling his mouth pulling down into a pout. Jungkook looks up at him from his crouched position, rubbing at the equally red bit on his own forehead.
‘Do you have to be a martyr?’ Jungkook scoffs, which only makes Taehyung frown further.
‘You should look where you’re going,’ Taehyung snips, eyes on Jungkook as he collects the fallen jotters. Taehyung had been on his way back from study hall, had been unfortunate to meet the crowds of students heading for lunch, and thus had found himself pushed into Jungkook’s path.
‘You could have—‘
‘Oi, Oi, sirs, when’s the wedding?’
Taehyung whirls around to glower at the passing mob of boys. He recognises some of them as his year 11’s, two of them grin toothily at him, another has the good grace to duck his head for fear of reprimand.
‘Carry on if you want detention,’ Taehyung calls after them.
‘Sir, yes sir,’ one of them calls and Taehyung does roll his eyes then, turns back to find Jungkook picking up the last of the jotters before straightening up.
‘Thanks for the help,’ Jungkook snarks.
‘It’s the least you could do,’ Taehyung says hotly, moving to take the jotters from Jungkook only to find that the other man switches them over to his other arm just out of Taehyung’s reach. Taehyung frowns at him. Jungkook, the eternal wind-up, merely smirks at him and gestures down the corridor.
‘After you,’ Jungkook says in a far too saccharine voice. ‘I’ll escort you back seeing as you apparently don’t look where you’re going.’
Taehyung can do nothing but splutter for a second, stomping his way down the corridor. He can hear Jungkook clomping behind him, his big dumb combat boots thudding periodically with his wide strides.
It is to Taehyung’s eternal chagrin that Jungkook Jeon seems to always be in orbit. It’s as though fate has decided to play him a cruel hand. From the moment Taehyung had made the career changing decision that he didn’t, in fact, want to be an astrophysicist—much to his father’s disappointment, his dad had been very excited about the prospect of an astronaut in the family but the level of study and long hours of commitment had seemed tedious to Taehyung—and that maybe helping develop young minds and encouraging others to find fun in science was his path, Jungkook had been there step for step along the way.
Taehyung isn’t sure what it is, but for the past seven years, since they first laid eyes on each other in their first year of teaching college, Jungkook has treated everything like it’s a competition. Who gets the better grades, who has the most students scoring A’s…Jungkook had even rubbed it in his face when he’d managed to land a role at their current school before he had.
(As far as Taehyung was concerned, it was Hoseok who had forwarded him the job advert four months later, he would never know that it was Jungkook who had prodded Hoseok into encouraging Taehyung to apply for it.)
So, yes, Taehyung has to live with the fact that it wasn’t enough that he had to suffer Jungkook’s abundant enthusiasm, snark and competitive nature throughout his two years of teaching college, and is now resigned to the fact that his classroom is right across the hall. Much to Jungkook’s apparently never-ending delight.
They come to a stop at Taehyung’s door after a few minutes of walking through the corridors, Taehyung ignoring the wide eyes, whispers and giggles of passing students when they see the two of them.
Because if there’s one thing worse than the fact that he has to spend all of his working hours with his mortal enemy, it’s the fact that all of the students seem to be of the mind that they are cute together. Which, no.
‘I’ll take those now,’ Taehyung says, gesturing towards the pile of jotters in Jungkook’s arms. Jungkook hands them over, reaching up to knuckle at Taehyung’s chin. Taehyung squirms out his way.
‘Later, hubby,’ Jungkook says with a wink. Taehyung is rooted to the spot for a second, watching in horror as Jungkook takes the five steps it takes to get to his own classroom.
‘You wish!’
Jungkook walks backwards into his room, grin filling his whole face. Taehyung scowls at him, feeling his own face heat as he turns heel and enters his own classroom.
‘Fantastic comeback.’
Taehyung startles, looking up from the pile of jotters to see Jimin sitting behind his desk. If anything Taehyung can only feel his face getting redder as he steps closer to the desk and drops the pile of papers on it.
‘Why are you here?’ Taehyung demands, resisting the urge to roll his best friend (and colleague)’s smile.
‘We’re working together for the year 10 project?’ Jimin reminds him, his smile is a sly thing like he knows Taehyung’s annoyance isn’t truly aimed at him, the quirked eyebrow however is entirely teasing.
‘Right,’ Taehyung says, flustered.
‘Thought we’d grab some lunch first?’ Jimin suggests.
‘I was going to—‘
‘Start on the marking,’ Jimin finishes for him, Taehyung looks up at him and finds that Jimin is wagging a small bento box at him. ‘I figured so I brought lunch to us.’
‘Jiminie,’ Taehyung says thankfully, pulling over a chair next to Jimin.
‘Yeah, yeah,’ Jimin says, smiling warmly in the way that makes his eyes close. He pokes his chopsticks in the direction of the pile of jotters. ’Pass me some of the papers.’
* * *
‘No way.’
‘What?’
Taehyung really shouldn’t have checked his phone. It had been morbid curiosity on his part, lying across his couch on what had been, up until that point, a quiet and lazy Sunday afternoon. Jimin is ensconced in the corner, nursing what is probably their fourth cup of tea of the day, Taehyung had already left his lying on their coffee table some time ago.
‘School trip list dropped.’
‘Oh?’ Jimin pulls himself out of the corner, taking the blankets with him as he curls closer to Taehyung to peer at his phone. There’s a burst of laughter a moment later.
‘Shut up.’
‘Sorry,’ Jimin says, not looking at all sorry as he covers his mouth with his hand, sinking back into his corner of the couch.
‘Why is it always me?’ Taehyung whines.
‘Is it really so bad?’ Jimin asks innocently. Taehyung shoots him a level stare.
‘Jimin.’
‘Mortal enemies, blah blah,’ Jimin says, waving his hand at him. ‘You’ve managed to avoid being paired up with him this long, what’s the worst that could happen?’
‘What’s happened?’ Hoseok asks, coming back through from where he had disappeared off to the bathroom five minutes ago, he drops himself down onto the couch between them squashing Taehyung into the couch cushions and sticking his feet in Jimin’s face.
‘Oi!’
Hoseok laughs at him, bright and happy.
‘I don’t know why I like you,’ Jimin says, pouting even as Hoseok moves his feet to tangle with Jimin’s legs instead.
‘You love me,’ Hoseok says, moving off Taehyung and cuddling up to Jimin properly, peppering his face with kisses until Jimin squirms. Taehyung can do nothing but watch as he once again third-wheels his best friends. Their giggles are nauseating.
‘Stooop,’ Taehyung whines. ‘My innocent eyes!’
‘Yah, innocent when,’ Hoseok says, ‘I saw you ogling a certain someone’s arse on Friday.’
‘What?’ Jimin asks in delight.
‘I was not,’ Taehyung squeaks. Hoseok raises an eyebrow at him.
‘Yeah?’ Hoseok goes on. ‘I’m pretty sure it was you I saw staring at our Jungkookie’s behind when he was getting the beakers out the storage cupb–’
‘Hobi!’ Taehyung slaps his hand out, trying to cover Hoseok’s guffawing mouth. ‘I was just making sure he didn’t drop anything!’
‘Sure,’ Hoseok says derisively. ‘I know what you are.’
‘Rumbled,’ Jimin cackles.
Taehyung pouts, crossing his arms across his chest.
‘What were you even doing in the science department anyways?’
‘Well, some of us do have a boyfriend in that department,’ Hoseok says cheekily, pausing to smooch Jimin on the cheek. Taehyung tuts at them. ‘So could you if you played your cards right.’
*
Admittedly, Taehyung isn’t really sure how he’s managed to avoid being paired up with Jungkook for school trips until this point given the universe’s penchant for chucking them together. He should be thankful, really, that it’s taken five years for their department head to realise that they haven’t paired them up previously for such an endeavour.
To add insult to injury, the trip is to the Science Museum, one of Taehyung’s absolute favourites. Though he hasn’t been in some time, he has fond memories of going there with Jimin in their own teens, exploring all the exhibits. It had been after a trip there in primary school that Taehyung had started his love affair with science, and in particular astrophysics, after a gallery on the night sky had shown him a universe filled with colour and so many never-to-be-answered questions.
By the time the day comes around, Taehyung is filled with equal amounts of dread and excitement. Their year nines, as a part of their World of Work remit and their imminent choices for their GCSE years, were heading to an Engineer Your Future exhibition which should be interesting if nothing else, but a whole day with Jungkook is not something Taehyung has really had to do in all his years of teaching thus far.
Taehyung realises he’s going to have a long day on his hands from the moment they meet at the bus, their year nines wide eyed and giggly when they realise they have both Taehyung and Jungkook alongside them on their trip. There are also another two of their peers along with them, but Jungkook and Taehyung are seen as the highlight.
‘Sirs, is this your honeymoon?’ asks a girl with bright red hair and wide green-framed glasses. ‘Kaiden said Mr. Jeon proposed in the hall the other week.’
‘Get out of your imagination, please,’ Taehyung says dryly, ignoring the smile he can see tugging at Jungkook’s lips. ‘And onto the bus.’
There’s another swathe of giggling as the last of their forty charges make their way onto the bus. There’s a chorus of yelling as one group attempts to fight another for the back seats, which is quickly broken up by Jungkook (‘Alright, rock paper scissors whoever wins sits here on the way there, the other the way back, got it?’) before Jungkook joins Taehyung at the front of the bus where the teachers have been relegated to.
‘I can think of worse places to spend a honeymoon,’ Jungkook says as he sits down, wrestling himself out of his jacket without hitting Taehyung in the process and tucking it into his bag. Taehyung is treated to the sight of an armful of tattoos, quickly drags his eyes away from it and up to Jungkook’s face.
‘Your idea of romance has something to be desired if forty kids are involved,’ Taehyung says flatly, watching as a small tick of a smile pulls at Jungkook’s mouth.
‘Well sure that part leaves little to be desired,’ he concedes. ‘But seeing you nerd out about shit you love is cute.’
‘Jungkook!’
‘They can’t hear me,’ Jungkook rolls his eyes.
‘Mr. Jeon just said shit!’
Taehyung looks at him stonily.
‘Whoops?’
(He does, however, get up and apologise to them and asks them not to repeat that or he’s going to have to make a swear jar and the rector really isn’t a fan of that.)
*
Their first session, whilst something Taehyung has teaching knowledge of, is not really his passion. It’s nonetheless entertaining to watch their groups of students design robots and pitch against one another. It’s Jungkook, of course, who leads the battle cry of his group versus Taehyung’s, and Taehyung doesn’t find he minds when his group gets feisty about it, leading him to victory in the end. They get far too competitive over a game called Futureville while they are at it as well, only conceding when two of the boys complain loudly that they’re hogging the system.
Taehyung thinks they probably do have a few budding engineers on their hands by the end of it, some of them fascinated by the different technologies they could potentially have a hand in developing in the future, and that’s enough for Taehyung to feel like some of his job is done.
Lunch is a surprisingly quiet affair in Taehyung’s opinion. They’re given access to one of the picnic areas, the atmosphere relatively relaxed as the children eat and chat about their busy morning. Taehyung can’t help the way his eyes keep trailing back to where Jungkook is entertaining his group of ten children, their laughter ringing out over the picnic area as one of the boys re-enacts how he mucked up the coding of their robot and sent it tumbling down a mock ravine.
After lunch they head towards the Body Works, an interactive exhibition that allows people to test their strength and endurance as well as do a geographical study based on traits such as hair colour and eye colour. The year nines are delighted, immediately heading for all of the interactive exhibits.
Taehyung finds himself being dragged over to the wall that digitally records everyone’s heights, a few of Jungkook’s boys bickering over who is marginally taller. It’s the girls whose eyes light up when Taehyung approaches with his own group.
’Mr. Kim!’ cries one of the girls. ‘You and Mr Jeon should see who’s taller!’
Taehyung knows there’s not much in it, sees Jungkook eyeing him up with a smirk that lights a fire in Taehyung’s belly.
’You’re on Jeon.’
’As you wish, Kim.’
Taehyung eyes Jungkook up and down, settling on the chunky Doc Martens he’s wearing.
’Shoes off, Jeon,’ Taehyung says. ‘That’s cheating’
’Why, you scared?’ Jungkook challenges, he’s standing in front of the measuring bit. It blinks down at them 6 foot, 0 inches.
’There’s no way you’re six foot,’ Taehyung challenges. ‘Your shoes have a platform, you’re cheating!’
’I’m only taking mine off if you take yours off.’
’Fine,’ Taehyung huffs, rolling his eyes at Jungkook’s childishness. He kicks his own loafers off, pushing Jungkook out of the way to measure himself while Jungkook fights with the laces of his boots.
It turns out Taehyung is an inch and a half taller, grinning when his ten kids crow with delight while Jungkook’s groan in despair. He catches Jungkook’s eye as the man is re-lacing his boots, rolls his eyes when Jungkook winks at him.
Taehyung lets himself be dragged away by his group of ten as they want to try out different exhibits, everything becoming a competition as they do. He takes pictures and some videos, posts one to twitter as he’d been instructed to do.
Inevitably, though, as the universe is wont to do, he finds himself lured back into Jungkook’s orbit. The cause of which is a riotous cacophony of squealing and laughter. Taehyung finds himself wandering over to what looks like a giant mirrored hamster wheel.
It is a giant hamster wheel for all that Taehyung can tell. One in which Jungkook is attempting to run in. He knocks himself onto all fours, another gasp emitting from the crowd that has gathered. Taehyung looks around, finding that some of the group are already filming.
Jungkook suddenly catches Taehyung’s eye, pauses in his stride just enough that the wheel falters underneath him. There’s a horrifying moment where Taehyung’s stomach is in his throat as Jungkook spins with the wheel–Taehyung might be irritated by the man’s presence but he doesn’t want him to die for goodness sake– causing a loud scream to escape the group of girls currently gathered around. Taehyung shushes them gently, reminding them they’re sharing the space. But still, his own heart is thudding hard in his chest as he watches Jungkookg slide up the side as the wheel starts slowing to a stop, going up alarmingly far before he skids back down to the bottom, his feet catching on the metal once more to slow it to a stop.
He steps off the wheel, wobbles to his feet, grinning at Taehyung who holds his hands out as though Jungkook is about to totter into him.
’Having a go?’ Jungkook asks, he’s still breathing heavily, a light sheen of sweat on his brow. It’s far more attractive than it has any right being.
’Absolutely not,’ Taehyung scoffs.
’Chicken?’ Jungkook quirks an eyebrow at him, tongue pushing at the inside of his cheek. Taehyung narrows his eyes at him.
’No, I’m just not as fit as you.’
’You think I’m fit?’ Jungkook asks, tilting his head. He has the biggest shit-eating grin on his face. Taehyung looks at him flatly.
Jungkook, ever the cocky bastard that he is, merely puffs out his chest, running his hands over his front as he pushes his pecs forward like a kangaroo. Taehyung shakes his head, can’t help the way his eyes follow the movement, taking in the impressive muscles.
‘Stop that,’ Taehyung hisses, batting a hand out at Jungkook, his fingers brushing against the firm muscle of his pec (he is not going to think about that…). Jungkook curls back in on himself, chuckling softly as his hand comes up to rest where Taehyung had just slapped him. Something warm and unnamable unfurls in Taehyung’s gut, his breath catching slightly.
‘Like what you see?’ Jungkook says with a wink.
’No.’
*
They spend a good hour in the Body Works exhibition before they have a perfunctory peruse around the gift shop. Some of the students buy pens and miniature robots, and Taehyung finds a particularly garish magnet that he’s going to give Hoseok to add to their fridge collection.
The journey back to school is a more subdued one, with half of their students taking the opportunity for a quick kip and the other half singing the usual terrible bus songs. Jungkook, of course, ends up being their choir master and Taehyung finds himself also dozing off against the window.
It’s an hour later when they pull up to the school gates, some parents already waiting for them as they do. Taehyung and Jungkook stay behind to make sure the students all get away safely, either making their own way home or if parents eventually collect them.
After the last student is gone, it’s just the two of them alone in the car park, a slightly awkward silence having descended upon them. They walk across the lot, finding that their cars are parked beside each other. Taehyung watches as Jungkook clicks his car open with the push of a button, opens his boot to throw in his rucksack.
‘You know, today wasn’t so bad,’ Taehyung says after a moment, Jungkook turning to look at him as he pulls the boot lid shut. ‘I had fun.’
‘Same,’ Jungkook says, biting at his bottom lip before a smile breaks free. Taehyung notes the teasing lilt before he adds, ‘You’re fun when you loosen that stick up your butt a little.’
‘I take it back,’ Taehyung sighs, the moment spoiled, his attempt to be nice backhanded. He turns to step away.
‘Tae…’ Jungkook reaches out, fingers grazing Taehyung’s arm, making him pause. His hand ends up circling Taehyung’s wrist, making his breath catch. Taehyung momentarily wonders if Jungkook can feel his pulse thrumming away under his skin.
’I’m sorry…I was kidding…’ Jungkook says quietly, with enough sincerity that Taehyung really feels like he means it. ‘It was nice to see you laughing though…it’s like you’ve forgotten how sometimes.’
Taehyung tilts his head. Not realising he comes across that way. He’s always been the type to separate his professional self from his home self, the kind who keeps his cool and smooth exterior in place at work. Sometimes he forgets that only his friends get to see his duality, that Jungkook sees the Taehyung that’s ready to fight. He looks down at their hands then back up at Jungkook’s face.
’You’re not so bad, Jeon,’ Taehyung says quietly.
Not so bad at all.