washable markers ➝ taekook

twenty-nine

~그게 할 수 있을 때까지.. 대답은 아니야.

   Taehyung was at a loss. It had been a week since the incident with Sorah, and a week since he'd walked home with a dejected, wordlesss Jeongguk since they'd missed the bus.

    He hadn't been able to get a single word out of Jeongguk about what happened. He didn't want to push too much, but he was worried. With every passing day, Jeongguk seemed to be slipping deeper into his thoughts and faking more smiles. He hadn't said another actual word to Taehyung until yesterday, when they carried on a short conversation, in which Taehyung asked several times, in different ways, how Jeongguk was doing, and the boy deflected each question, instead, almost sneakily and skillfully making each question about Taehyung, instead of himself. Taehyung got the sense that that was a practiced skill. It was very difficult to combat.

     He was missing Jeongguk's warmth, figuratively and literally. He found himself thinking about the boy's comforting touch more and more the longer the week went on. That, paired with the fact that Sorah was still avoiding him (though no longer doing so angrily), was getting to be a lot for his overloaded mind to handle.

  To distract himself, he'd turned to Jimin, his "guard puppy".

   As much as his mind had been consumed with thoughts about Jeongguk and Sorah (including his worries about their likely status as ex-boyfriend and girlfriend), he'd been missing Jimin's company. They hadn't been hanging out very much the past several days.

    A gloomy Taehyung had returned to Jimin, who was both relieved to have his best friend return and ready to comfort him and share in his woes.

    And then it was Tuesday once again, and going just as bad as the last one, until Jeongguk finally approached him, looking a bit more like himself again. At least he'd finally looked Taehyung in the eyes and smiled a little.

   "Taehyung? Do you wanna.. go out again tonight? I want to ask you something."

    "Sure," he answered, finally feeling a bit of relief. He hoped Jeongguk planned to talk to him about what happened. The entire week, from the moment Jeongguk had refused to tell him what exactly happened between him and Sorah, he'd been worrying that Jeongguk didn't see him as trustworthy, which was made worse by the fact that he'd been distancing himself until now.

    But, he'd approached him and asked for his company. That had to mean he wasn't done with him. 

Then again... what if he's just playing with me?

   Immediately, he tried to put away the thought, making himself recall that this was sweet, gentle Jeongguk he was talking about.

But sweet, gentle Jeongguk hurt Sorah somehow, didn't he? What if that's just a facade?

   He wanted to tell himself that that was illogical, idiotic, and terrible to think. Maybe it was terrible to think, but Taehyung was afraid. He was falling for Jeongguk- he knew that, as much as he'd have liked to say he didn't- and it was the first time he'd felt this way. As much as that was a terrible thought, Taehyung was terrified. 

Please, please don't be playing with my feelings.

   "Where do you wanna go?"

    "It'd be a surprise- if that's okay. I could come pick you up a little while after school and take you there."

    "Mhm, that's okay."

    "You live on Lark, right?"

    "Yeah, two houses down on the left side."