NICOTINE ||TAEKOOK||✔️

🅃🄴🄽⚠️

"Lads, the party's this Saturday," Yoongi said enthusiastically as he patted Jimin's shoulder on his way past them. "Excited to see you there!" he shouted, smiling even as he turned down the hallway. Taehyung groaned.

He already had Jungkookon his back over this stupid thing, and he didn't need Yoongi on him, too. Then he'd find more reason to go than stay at home and it'd throw off the balance of the universe. Seriously.

"Why can't he be mean?" Taehyung asked, sighing as his pace slowed. "Or at least have terrible social skills. He's making it hard to keep the social hierarchy."

"Social hierarchy doesn't exist for him," Jimin answered, smiling despite. "It's good they hang around such an ace guy, though. Maybe some of it will rub off on them."

Taehyung ignored his thoughts about rubbing off on one of them—instead, he grumbled almost robotically, "Yeah. Rude dicks."

"Makes me feel even worse about not going," Jimin continued. "It feels wrong to lead him on when I know it's not going to happen, you know?"

Taehyung coughed, muttering a soft, "Yeah." He swore Jimin had some way to hack into his mind and know exactly what to say to either confuse Taehyung or make him feel like shit over doing something wrong. Jimin could just stop, honestly.

"Where's the chatty Taehyung gone?" Jimin joked, as he always did when he wanted Taehyung to talk but knew that seriousness got him nowhere. "Something up, mate?"

Taehyung shook his head, staring straight ahead. "No. Nothing," he said, giving Jimin a quick smile. Jimin returned it, and the subject was dropped. All Taehyung could think was that he needed to see Jungkook. And soon.

~~~

He shouldn't have been so surprised when Jungkook's motorcycle slid into his driveway that afternoon.

"Fuck," he swore under his breath—he'd been merely placating Jungkookwhen he said he'd think about it. He wasn't going to a party and this curly-haired idiot wasn't going to change his mind.

But that was before his talk with Jimin, before Jimin said what he said and Taehyung had the reassurance that Jimin wouldn't be there.

"Jungkook!" Jae greeted, opening the door and hugging Jungkook like he was a long lost son—which, no, ew, he and Taehyung would be brothers and they'd orally swapped come before. "Taehyung, Jungkook is he —"

"I know, Mum, I've been here the whole time," Taehyung said, rolling his eyes because his Mum seemed to forget things temporarily when Jungkook showed up. Like her own son.

"Right, sorry," she said, giving Taehyung a smile. She turned her attention back to Jungkook, who was grinning devilishly at Taehyung and oh no. "Dinner should be ready soon. You're lucky I'm used to large portions."

"Actually, Jae," Jungkook interrupted, and Taehyung was waiting for the bombshell. "I was hoping I could take Taehyung somewhere."

"Oh," Jae replied, and she didn't sound nearly as upset as she seemed to want them to think. It was obvious what she was thinking when she gave Taehyung that look; Like a date. "That'd be fine. Leftovers are always eaten anyway."

"Are you sure?" Jungkook asked. "If you've already gone to the trouble of cooking, I'd hate for it to go to waste."

"Nonsense," Jae responded, giving Jungkooka grin. "Taehyung needs to get out more. You're doing me a favor."

Taehyung couldn't believe what he was hearing—wait, yeah, he could. Because his mum thought she was doing a good thing, letting Taehyung go on a date with an admittedly attractive boy, and he'd have been thanking her if it was anyone but Jungkook. But it was Jungkook and he wanted to scream.