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They were drunk when it happened, and Jeongguk 100%, undoubtedly blames Jung Hoseok.
Jeongguk isn’t a party person. He, more than anyone, knows that he’s a bit awkward, and while his popularity and skill at what he does gets him invited to most parties on campus, he tends not to go, preferring to curl up with some netflix and nachos. But Hoseok, his obnoxiously persistent roommate, had begged, filling his head with words of, “but you never come to my parties” and, “this one time won’t kill you,” and Jeongguk had given in with a sigh and an eyeroll so fierce that it had left him dizzy.
The party was exactly what Jeongguk had thought it would be, all sweaty bodies, too-loud frat boys, and people vomiting in unsuspecting places, and he was just about to leave again when he had caught sight of chestnut hair and a familiar box smile. Unquestionably, all thoughts of leaving had died a sad and merciless death. He was already more than a bit tipsy, having knocked back who knows how many red solo cups of liquid mystery death, and the sudden sight of Kim Taehyung had left him a bit more winded than he would’ve liked.
Taehyung had crossed the room, bumping into people with apologetic smiles on his way, and stopped right in front of Jeongguk to yell a greeting over the insanely loud music. Jeongguk tries not to remember how hard he had stumbled over his words, alcohol heavy in his veins as Taehyung had gotten closer and closer, but he can still remember the thumbs up Hoseok had given him over Taehyung's shoulder, disappearing ever deeper into the crowd moments after.
It's not like Taehyung's a complete stranger. Even if you don't know Taehyung, you still know Taehyung. He's just That Guy. It isn't even like Taehyung is good at sports (he isn't, Jeongguk knows this for a fact), or that he's a part of Greek life. In actuality, he's kinda weird, with a really deep voice, and all the lanky dramatics you would expect from your typical theater major. But more than that, he is friendly. Mind-blowingly friendly. You just meet the guy for the first time and he gives you the last bit of won left in his wallet because you don’t have enough to get a coffee for your 8am. That kind of friendly. And on top of just... well, knowing Taehyung, Jeongguk also knew Taehyung. On a personal level that most students at UOS weren't blessed with. Because Kim Taehyung is the roommate of one Park Jimin, and Park Jimin is Jeongguk's small and giggly best friend. And sure, Jeongguk might not've spoken to Taehyung more than a handful of times in the past few months, but he's still heard about the guy an insane amount, and it's pretty safe to say that Jeongguk's a bit infatuated. More than a bit. A lot a bit.
Which is why, when Taehyung stepped closer, their chests flush together, Jeongguk felt a sudden burst of butterflies in his gut. He can’t really remember what happened after that, the rest of the night a blur of, “hey,” and, “you wanna get out of here?” and, “hell yes,” but Jeongguk swears that once his head stops feeling like it wants to commit, he’s going to capital 'K' Kiss Hoseok for dragging him to his stupid, dumb party.
But the craziest part of it all — because you can't say drunkenly hooking up with your crush of four months at a party you almost skipped isn't crazy — is that when Jeongguk finally urges his eyes to open, Taehyung hasn't moved. In fact, he's Grade A knocked-the-fuck out, with his long legs tangled in between Jeongguk's and everything.
Now, Jeongguk knows, in theory, that this will end poorly for him — there’s no way for it not to. Either Jimin will find out and tease him until the end of his days, Taehyung will write it all off as a mistake, or his embarrassing infatuation will latch onto the previous night and never let him forget the vague notion of, “we boned” ever again, but something is bound to go wrong. He’s not a pessimist, despite what his friends may say, he’s a realist, and there’s nothing realistic in thinking that this is going to end well.
Despite this, he still can’t help but take in the sight of Taehyung sleeping on his pillow. The other boy’s hair is mussed, with some ends sticking straight up as if electrified by pillow static, and Jeongguk feels a familiar fondness flood his chest. Even the bit of drool gathered at the corner of Taehyung's parted pink lips has him unstable, and if that isn't pathetic, Jeongguk doesn't know what is.
It’s then that Jeongguk realises that Taehyung is wearing his t-shirt.
He’s not even sure why Taehyung is wearing it, Jeongguk himself is still shirtless, and he can’t think of any good reason why Taehyung would swap shirts with him during or after sex, but that doesn't stop his head from going fuzzy, anyway. Jeongguk drags what he can remember from last night through his sleep-addled brain, and he can just barely remember Hoseok's shit-eating grin and wink as he and Taehyung had left, Taehyung's arms wrapped around his waist, but then everything goes blank. Nothing but vague memories of tan skin and the ghost of whispered words against the shell of his ear, and Jeongguk wishes more than anything that alcohol didn't want him dead. He guesses that he could always just ask Taehyung, but that would be asking for trouble, and he’s already invited more than enough of that into his life.
When Taehyung’s eyebrows furrow and his legs start to move, Jeongguk claps back to the real word with a squeeze to his lungs. What do you even say after hooking up with your best friend's roommate? "Hey, thanks for last night! I hope you don't hate me. Also, you look really good in my clothes and we should get dinner sometime," is probably a bit much for a guy who's only ever heard you stutter out the occasional hello. Unfortunately, there's only so many things one can say at a time like this, and Jeongguk really doesn't think he's socially adept enough to know any of them.
Taehyung’s eyes are heavy with sleep as he blinks at Jeongguk, and Jeongguk feels heat creep up the side of his neck. "Oh, hello."
“Uhm, hello,” Jeongguk replies.
And Jeongguk is pretty sure nothing could've prepared him for the sleepy rasp that coats Taehyung's voice, the natural, warm smile that curls the other's lips, but he can’t find it in himself to care when the easy motions kill his worries and melts the ache between his temples. (Especially when they melt the ache between his temples. Jeongguk's pretty sure he gave the rest of his ibuprofen to Hoseok last weekend, and he's too broke to go out and buy some more.)
A couple seconds go by, nothing at all happening, and Jeongguk is so close to pulling a, "So... heard the weather's gonna be nice today," that it's scary, but then Taehyung arches his back in a stretch and Jeongguk’s words die before they're even born. It takes a few seconds for Jeongguk to remind himself that staring is not only rude, but also 100% more likely to make him even more obvious than he already is, but the way the blanket falls to pool at Taehyung's waist as the boy sits up, is well. Out to kill him.
Taehyung looks really good in his t-shirt.
Jeongguk never even thought of clothes being a big Thing™ for him, but the way his shirt falls on Taehyung’s shoulders, the neck wide enough to show off an entire hoard of hickies and the rest loose enough to enhance the comfortable atmosphere of the room, has Jeongguk thinking maybe he’s overlooked something major.
Their eyes catch, and before that dreaded awkwardness can even begin to descend down upon them, Jeongguk asks, “Hey, you want some breakfast?”
And Taehyung’s smile grows as he replies, “Who would I be to turn down free food?”
♡
The shower shuts off from somewhere deeper in the apartment, and Jeongguk tells himself he’s not disappointed. He has an easy pan of cheesy eggs cooking on the stove, a plate of bacon already set off to the side, and two glasses filled with orange juice sitting on the kitchen’s island. It's been at least 30 minutes since he first noticed, but he can't get the image of Taehyung out of his head no matter how hard he tries. The backs of his eyelids are painted with the image of a tan face slack with sleep and a broad chest rising and falling underneath his white shirt, and he didn't think it was possible to die via blinking, but he guesses there's a first for everything.
He shuts off the stove, dumping the eggs from the skillet and onto two plates, when Taehyung comes bouncing into the room.
“Good morning, Jeonggukie!”
The loudness of the greeting is too harsh against the early morning air, but Jeongguk can't help but to smile anyway. “Morning, hyung.”
Taehyung comes to stop next to him, and their arms brush as Taehyung helps him move the bacon onto their plates and sticks two slices of bread into the toaster. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Jeongguk knows that the entire thing feels a bit too domestic for the morning after a drunken hook-up with your barely-acquaintance, but he chooses to ignore it in favor of sneaking side glances at Taehyung whenever the other isn't looking.
Jeongguk racks his brain for something to say, someway to bring up last night without actually bringing up last night, but then he turns his head and sees wet, dripping hair and a familiar white t-shirt and, “you’re still wearing my clothes” comes stumbling out instead.
Taehyung immediately looks down at himself, as if he somehow forgot what he was wearing in the span of five minutes, and he laughs as he says, “Yeah, I was hoping you wouldn’t mind. It’s really comfortable.”
“I don’t,” Jeongguk says, and he knows that it comes out too fast, “you look good.”
But if Taehyung finds that weird he doesn’t say anything, instead nodding with a smile still on his lips.
They sit at the island as they eat, picking conversations out of the air, and they talk about anything and everything. The spectrum ranges from the weather all the way to "if you were reincarnated as a whale, what would your name be?", and before long they eventually reach the topic of their mutual best friend, Jimin.
“Are you going to, uh, tell him?” Jeongguk asks, breaking off a piece of his toast with his front teeth.
Taehyung makes a contemplative noise in the back of his throat, and he looks over at Jeongguk as he chews on his bacon, “Well, I don’t have to.”
Earlier during the conversation, Taehyung had admitted that he was more of a coffee person rather than an OJ person, but that he didn’t mind drinking OJ that morning if it meant they could get coffee some other time. Jeongguk had taken one look at Taehyung’s collarbones still peeking out from Jeongguk’s white t-shirt, the hollows filled with marks, and said of course.
Hence, Jeongguk knows that Jimin is going to find out no matter what they say or don’t say. Jimin has known about Jeongguk’s crush on Taehyung for months now, and while he’s loyally kept it a secret from the brunette, he never fails to tease Jeongguk about it when they’re alone. There’s no way the pink haired man will miss the bruises on Taehyung’s neck, miss the way Jeongguk feels like not even his satanic 9pm Calculus class can bring him down, and his chances of finding out will only increase if Taehyung and Jeongguk suddenly start hanging out. But then again, Taehyung looks really good in white, and Jeongguk doesn’t think he minds.
“You can. If you want to, I mean. Tell him.”
Jeongguk knows that his face is turning pink, his awkwardness falling around him like a shroud, but Taehyung just steals the last piece of bacon off his plate and beams.
“Okay!"
♡
After their plates are cleared away Jeongguk half-expects Taehyung to switch back into his own clothes, wave bye, and walk right back out of Jeongguk’s apartment just as easily as he had come crashing in. Even if the thought of Jeongguk taking his shirt back, the pale fabric stained with Taehyung’s scent, is almost enough to kill the disappointing thought of Taehyung no longer wearing it in the first place, almost has never been quite enough. However, Taehyung walks deeper into the apartment, instead, stopping in the living room to sprawl across the loveseat as if he was born to lay there. He even goes as far as to dangle one of his legs dramatically over the side.
Jeongguk blinks. “Uh.”
Taehyung looks over at him and his eyes are far too bright to be in a room lit only by the early morning sun. “Your breakfast was really good, Jeongguk-ah! Almost as good as Seokjin hyung’s.”
Jeongguk had only met Seokjin a couple of times, he was Taehyung’s older brother in the school-sense, and Jeongguk could only count on one hand the number of times he’s seen the pretty man around campus without somebody else by his side. He knew through the grapevine — Jimin — that Seokjin’s cooking was something of a blessing for all of the man’s friends.
Snorting, Jeongguk shrugs and joins Taehyung in the room, flopping onto a bean bag angled towards the couch. “Breakfast is about all I can do. I’m shit at everything else.”
“Still,” Taehyung insists, “it’s more than I can do. Jin hyung doesn’t let me use the stove anymore since I nearly caught a towel on fire the last time.”
The laugh that comes from Jeongguk takes him by surprise, and for the second time that morning, Jeongguk finds any hint of hesitancy fading away.
“How did you almost do that?”
Taehyung sighs heavily, head falling back with the air of an exasperated maiden. “It’s a long story, Jeonggukkie. But the moral of said story is to never toss a rag over your shoulder for the aesthetic, and then forget to look where it falls.”
Jeongguk shakes his head, amusement lining every one of his pores, and he sits up when a sudden idea pops into his head.
“Hey, do you want to play Mario?”
Taehyung looks like he thought Jeongguk would never ask.
♡
Without Jeongguk really noticing, the entire morning goes by like that. At some point Jeongguk moves to lean his back against the couch, and Taehyung slides down next to him to meet him on the floor. Their shoulders brush as they toss bananas at each other, trying to sabotage each other’s chances, and Jeongguk is sure that he'll get a noise complaint due to all their taunts and laughter. By the time the sun is rising high in the sky, finished with painting the clouds in oranges and pinks, Jeongguk feels like he’s known Taehyung a lot longer than one morning after.
Unfortunately, it’s Monday, and while that’s sad enough on its own, it also means Jeongguk has a class at 12:15pm. Turning off the wii after their last race, Jeongguk looks at Taehyung, already missing the way Taehyung’s laughter filled the room whenever Jeongguk’s Yoshi tripped over a shell. “So, uh. I have class in 30 minutes.”
Jeongguk doesn’t think he imagines the slight drop to Taehyung’s shoulders.
“Ah… That's okay, Jeongukkie.” Taehyung hands Jeongguk back his remote, and runs a hand through his still messy hair. The movement has Jeongguk’s shirt rising higher on Taehyung’s torso, causing a sliver of tan skin to peek out from underneath. He smiles wide, the familiar boxy shape taking over his face. “I had a really fun morning.”
Jeongguk has forgotten how to breathe, but he still manages to return the smile with a, “Me too, hyung.”
♡
When Jeongguk sees Taehyung out of his apartment a few minutes later, trading smiles and waves at his front door, he doesn’t think to ask the other for his t-shirt back. It isn't until later that evening, after a grueling day of classes and avoiding Jimin's knowing eyes, that he sees Taehyung's own clothes still scattered across his bedroom floor. (Despite his clean freak tendencies, Jeongguk can't help but to think that they look good there.) He debates texting Jimin for Taehyung's number, possibly asking for his shirt back, but he shrugs the thought away before it can really take hold. Taehyung probably looks better in it, anyway.