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The big fig tree has been their hiding spot during for quite some time now. It isn’t exactly hidden. In fact, it stands right there in the middle of the school yard for everyone to see. Or, at least-- for everyone Taehyung wants to see.
It’s lunchtime and he’s heading there to meet Jungkook, who’s already there as usual. Jeon Jungkook has many flaws but being late was never one of them.
Taehyung’s hand raises in the air to wave a ‘hi’ but drops itself quickly. Jungkook is not looking.
It’s hard to tell by the distance but it becomes clearer as Taehyung approaches that there’s something off with the scene.
Jungkook’s legs and school supplies are spread lazily on the gigantic roots. He has his neck curved and arms flopped alongside his body as if he has just lifted a thousand pounds and is now recovering, exhausted. He's also not wearing his gloves.
Taehyung notices it all, half of his mind processing Jungkook’s state, the other half working on fooling everyone around their spot into thinking the fig tree is full of crawling spiders. That usually keeps people away.
“Hey” He says when he’s close enough.
Jungkook lifts his chin to meet Taehyung’s eyes and smiles faintly at his friend. He looks bizarrely pale and his face is covered with sweat. Taehyung freezes for a second but then he hears it. “Oh” He says out loud, unable to control himself. Oh . Of fucking course. He has seen that look before many times but it took him Jungkook’s thoughts to remind him.
“A penny for your thoughts” Taehyung says, and he is now smiling. He sits besides Jungkook, who gives him a funny look. It is an old joke between them. Jungkook knows Taehyung can’t control the thoughts he listens to. If he gets close enough to anyone he’ll start picking up their minds’ frequency, it is as it is and everyone agrees it’s annoying, Jungkook included. So they made a deal a long time ago. “I need you to ask me”, Jungkook said at that time. “I don’t care if you read my mind, I just want you to listen to the way I want you to hear my words. Words that actually leave my mouth, I mean, and not... incoherent thinking not even I am able to understand sometimes”.
“Ok” Taehyung answered. It made perfectly sense. People’s thoughts are usually confusing anyway and Taehyung often finds himself wishing he could stop hearing them. So he started asking, even if he already knew the answer. It made Jungkook more comfortable.
That day isn’t any different.
“Who did you touch this time?” Taehyung asks. He listens to the hectic thinking of Jungkook’s mind and it almost gives him a headache. It's as if a thousand excited Jungkooks can't stop speaking loudly and their voices overlap one another and Taehyung can pick only a few words in common among them all. The first words being--
“Seokjin-hyung.” Jungkook says. He knows Taehyung knew that already.
“Is he ok?”
“He’ll be fine. In my defense, it was an accident.”
Taehyung can see the scene is his head now.
Jungkook is walking down the school corridor and he’s typing on his phone without his safe gloves. Jin is somewhere near him, minding his own business talking to Namjoon when super-speed powered kid Jung Hoseok almost runs into them. Jungkook loses balance and accidentally brushes his hands on Seokjin’s bare arm while he falls. It was the quickest of the touches. Jin merely loses his balance and complains about being about to pass out, but he doesn’t. Jungkook apologizes about five times before he himself runs out of the scene flushing furiously .
Jungkook describes the accident to Taehyung, carefully leaving out the part in which he blushes. Taehyung is listening anyway and it’s not until Jungkook is finished that he notices the silence.
It’s the weirdest thing in the world, and Taehyung looks around, unable to process what’s happening.
“Hey” Jungkook calls him, and Taehyung meets his eyes, his mouth hanging open in disbelief and amazement. “A penny for your thoughts.” Jungkook says the sentence Taehyung has said to him thousands of times before. He’s smiling the widest of the smiles now, apparently finding Taehyung’s oblivious stare hilarious.
Taehyung can’t help but follow his smile, even though he still has no clue about what the fuck is happening.
“How did you…?” He begins.
“Seokjin-hyung’s power.” says Jungkook. “I touched him, I absorbed it.”
“But doesn’t he, like, generates force-fields?”
“Exactly.” Jungkook gives Taehyung time to think. It takes him a whole minute to finally go “ Oh. ”
Taehyung’s eyes get wide as he repeats, “Oh!!!” ten times more enthusiastically this time. “You’re generating a force field around your own mind!”
“Uh-huh.”
“Clever.” Taehyung smiles.
“I’m not sure even Seokjin-hyung is aware he can do that.”
“Please don’t tell him, I love listening to his jokes beforehand so I can ruin them before he finishes telling them.”
Jungkook laughs. “You are the worst.”
Taehyung laughs too but when their laughter eventually dies they keep silent and it is weird. Jungkook and Taehyung have been friends for quite a long time now and silent has never been a problem between them. But again, Taehyung had never really known true silence. Not until now. Kinda.
He looks around. There are students all around them, though meters away in order to avoid the illusion of the spiders Taehyung projected upon their heads. He can still hear their thoughts but they are too far away for him to make out any coherent thinking. Jungkook, on the other hand, stands a few centimeters away from him. He should be listening to Jungkook’s mind right now and that is just so weird , but maybe the weirdest part is that Taehyung’s genuinely surprised when it hits him that he actually misses it. He misses listening to Jungkook’s thoughts. He doesn’t like this silence.
He looks Jungkook in the eye again, secretly trying to force his way into the force field.
“Are you trying to force your way into the force field?” Jungkook asks.
“No.” Taehyung never lies, so when he feels his face burning he blinks a few times and lets out the breath he didn’t know he was holding. “Yes, I was.” He confesses. “I want to know what you’re thinking.”
“Welcome to the mind of an ordinary person.”
“You’re no ordinary, you’re a freaking mutant.”
“Welcome to the mind of an ordinary non-mind-reading mutant.”
Taehyung frowns a little. “A penny for your thoughts?” He raises both eyebrows tentatively.
Jungkook smiles. “You can always ask me anything.”
“How do I know you’re going to be sincere?”
“Hey!” Jungkook looks offended. “Have I ever not been sincere with you?”
“No, no, I’m sorry.” Taehyung hurries to say. He’s not sure why he said that when he trusts Jungkook fully.
He stares at Jungkook and thinks a little. He thinks a bit more. He thinks until he founds himself coming up with thousands of questions and Jungkook is blushing out of his mind because he doesn’t feel comfortable with people staring at him right in the eye for that long. Or maybe he has other reasons too.
“I can ask you anything, right?”
“Anything.” Jungkook reassures him.
Taehyung asks.