Wheels Have Each Other

3. Final decision

After pulling his shit together, Taehyung ran his fingers through his hair to set them down, and then walked out of the cubicle, only to come face to face with a bewildered Jeongguk.

"Are you...." Jeongguk cleared his throat, "are you alright?" he asked. 

Taehyung blinked once, twice, struggling once again to pull himself together. Did Jeongguk hear him scream all the way back in their room?

"W-What are you doing here?" he asked, and his voice sounded hoarse from all the screaming. 

"I..." Jeongguk gestured towards the washbasins awkwardly, "...came to wash my hands, but you were...screami-"

"HAHAHA," Taehyung cut him off in a high-pitched voice, sounding more frantic than entertained, "my foot got stuck in the bucket and I was trying to get it out, hahahaha, how funny," he clapped his hands once, "let's go and have dinner, I'm feeling sleepy already, hahaha, you are so funny," his voice refused to reduce its pitch. 

He bolted from the washroom, leaving an even more bewildered Jeongguk back in it. He ran to their room and once he got in, he facepalmed himself really hard. 

"I probably sounded like a girl!! I already hate him, why the fuck did I have to even embarrass myself in front of him?!?!" he scolded himself internally. 

Jeongguk opened the door just then and Taehyung scrambled to his chair to look as normal and collected as possible, but it was too late. Jeongguk had already seen him scrambling and had even chuckled slightly when he was sure Taehyung wasn't paying attention. 

The dinner was an extremely silent event and Taehyung absolutely hated every single passing second. He tried making many small talks, but he got a curt silence every single time he did and the answers always preceded upcoming silence. 

At some point, he gave up trying. He hated his soon-to-be-husband anyway. So why should he try? 

If anything, Jeongguk was the older out of the two of them. He was the one who was supposed to try and make Taehyung feel nice at the dinner. And if Jeongguk was putting zero effort into it, why should Taehyung bother?

After eating, Jeongguk looked up at Taehyung. "How was the food?" he asked. "It was great!" Taehyung exclaimed, feeling his hopes wake up slightly. They were going to talk now, right? 

"Great," Jeongguk said and pulled his wallet out, pressing a button simultaneously to call the waiter. Taehyung frowned. Were they paying the bill already? No dessert? No talking? No getting-to-know-each-other shit? 

"Bill," Jeongguk called out when the waiter opened their door and remained silent until the waiter arrived with it. 

Taehyung felt like he was sitting on thorns. What was with the silence? Would it hurt his throat to talk a little? 

"I'll....umm...I'll pay for my food," he said. It didn't feel like a date for him to let Jeongguk pay for everything. 

Jeongguk, however, eyed him once before looking back down at the bill. "Nonsense," he said. 

Taehyung waited for more, but it never came. Jeongguk simply placed the money in the booklet and leaned back, his hand going up to stroke his hairy chin. 

After a few seconds, he looked up at Taehyung and nodded, moving his head from side to side. "We'll leave, then?" he asked, and Taehyung plastered a fake smile on his face once again. "Sure," he said and got up. Wordlessly, he left with Jeongguk walking behind him. 

Jeongguk didn't even greet him a good night. When they got into their own cars, he just gave him a nod and that was it. Taehyung gave his fake smile back and drove away, seething from inside out.