TEENAGE DIRTBAG | VKOOK

:: 03 ::

A pen falls off of the edge of the locker and rolls onto the floor, moving back and forth twice in a last ditch effort to attract its owner's attention before it stops moving completely.

It lays there completely still, and then it gets kicked off diagonally; and that marks the beginning of the relentless force it is subjected to by the incoming horde of students which becomes the primary cause of its separation from its owner.

Well, the grief is exclusively one-sided because Kim Taehyung, who's the owner of the unlucky pen, doesn't even know that he has lost something.

Currently, he seems to be in the mechanical process of putting his stuff inside his locker and grabbing select books out of it. He even shuts the locker without accounting for all his possessions—something he's known for doing—and if people around him knew him, they'd be worried about his behavior.

Fortunately for his family and the one friend he has—none of whom are present here at the moment—not a lot of things phase him, so it is easy to guess what's—or more specifically, who's—gotten him so distracted.

The incident, if it can even be called that, in the cafeteria from a week ago still resonates within his head—actually keeps him up at nights, occupies his every alternate waking thought; the works, you know.

As much as Taehyung tries to stop himself from getting fixated over some eye contact with some boy, he can't not do that because it's his first eye contact with the boy of his dreams. A person does not just get over that, especially when they've been pining for them since elementary.

No, my man—or woman—it just does not happen.

At first, he couldn't understand why his interactions with Jimin had increased so much, but then the thing with Jeongguk happened, and he's really starting to question what this year will hold for him.

It's just that he's been looking at one singular boy for so many years, and now when it's their last year together, the same boy has seen him for the first time. It makes him giddy, and very gay — the happy one though; the other kind, he already is.

That was also reinstated the few seconds he had held Jeongguk's gaze before the other's attention had been demanded by someone else at his table.

Nonetheless, it was enough to get Taehyung's blood really pumping through his veins. And he just loved the rush he got from that. It also dawned on him that he had given Jeongguk a lot of power over himself.

If the boy could make Taehyung feel like his entire soul was buzzing just from one look, well, then it frightened him to think what he could do if they were ever to talk or touch.

Taehyung likes to think it'd be a kind of a magical experience that'd consume him whole, and when he'd emerge from that, he'd be a different person and would be even more in love with Jeongguk.

While he's been thinking about the incident and the possibilities (which are very improbable, by the way), there's also this gnawing sensation at the back of his head that tells him to be alert; that warns him that something is off here.

Taehyung had tried indulging it over the weekend as he had sat in his room and pondered the reasons behind him having a pessimistic view of something so monumental.

All he got by the time he was done contemplating was that maybe his expectations of Jeongguk had gotten in between.

To elaborate a bit, he has been building over a lot of stuff in his head throughout the years, so, don't take this the wrong way because Taehyung had truly loved every second he had spent staring directly at the other's face, maybe he had been expecting a kinder or maybe a. . . gentler look from him, but the one he had been recipient to seemed unstable.