Rumor has it | KV

2

Taehyung's first weeks have been both exciting and frightening at the same time. He had met lots of new people, which was always a stressful situation for him but he was proud to conquer it. Like Jimin had suggested, Taehyung enrolled himself in the school's book club, shyly entering their assigned room and he came face to face with the only two members: Kim Namjoon and a shy, raven-haired girl named Mina.

Namjoon had sensed a new member right away, bombarding Taehyung with questions about his favorite books, excited to finally have someone to talk about Jane Austen and Edgar Allen Poe, talk about their favorite genres and discovering that they both held love for ancient myths and classic literature.

Taehyung felt himself welcomed and when Jimin picked him up for lunch, he was gleefully telling him all about the new acquaintances he had made.

"Namjoon's kind of a genius around here and he's really adamant about the book club's exclusivity, I'm glad he let you join," Jimin told Taehyung in secrecy, skillfully distracting the anxious blonde about entering the noisy cafeteria. But Taehyung of course noticed what Jimin tried to accomplish, freezing in the entrance.

Because everyone was staring at him.

Taehyung dug his head, intimidated and shied away from any curious glances thrown towards him, clutching fearfully onto Jimin's sleeve because all these eyes were on him and they felt like malicious daggers wishing the worse for him. While in reality, everyone was simple curious.

Most of the girls couldn't stop cooing over the new boy's adorable, cute looks, how pretty and angelic he looked. Word already got around how much prettier he was from up close, how smart he was from being in the same classes with him. Yet he was timid, avoiding anyone's eyes and rushing out of the room before someone got the chance to go talk to him.

The only one he allowed close was Park Jimin, part of the football team and now talking intensely with the blonde who stared into space with wide eyes. Jimin seemed to ask him a question and Taehyung slowly nodded his head before tugging onto Jimin's arm, reaching for his hand as if asking for support. The dark-haired granted him the wish, swiftly leading the blonde towards the food distribution.

Jungkook watched the interaction with jealousy radiating from his hunched over form, poking at his fries, obviously in a bad mood.

"You jealous that Park got to the cutie first?" Kim Seokjin, Jungkook's very own best friend asked, also staring into the direction of Jimin and the newbie sitting down at the furthest table, in a corner nearby the floor-long windows.

"You jealous Park might have a new boy by his side?" Cha Eunwoo retorted, causing Jin to grumble annoyed, sitting back in his chair and crossing bulky arms over his chest, immediately averting his eyes away from his ex-boyfriend and his friend.

"No, of course not. Why would I? He can do whatever the fuck he wants," Seokjin sniffed but they all know he was a sore loser who couldn't stand that Jimin had dropped him. Worse, they still had to interact together at practice, making Seokjin insufferable. Despite his cool appearance, he took the break-up badly and continued sulking whenever someone spoke of Jimin.

Jungkook didn't pay attention to the frenzy Seokjin's comment caused, now glancing back at the blonde boy, Taehyung. God, how long has it been? Five years? More? Since Taehyung had left after middle school, Jungkook hadn't seen the boy.
Rumor had it, he had moved out of town, even left South Korea to study abroad.

Jimin wouldn't tell him anything, only that Taehyung's parents have broken up and decided it was better for Taehyung to start fresh. They weren't close per se, so Jungkook had never dared to investigate further. After all, he had been a nobody in middle school, too shy and awkward to talk to his crush.

He thought he got over it by getting into a relationship but they split and Jungkook, well... he finally accepted the fact that he was very much gay after he took Taehyung's leave so badly. He had been down for weeks and wouldn't answer his mother's curious questions until one Friday night after school, he just broke and drank for the first time ever. That had been at the end of ninth grade, with Jungkook being a month away from turning sixteen.

His mother found him holding a bottle and sobbing his eyes out about Taehyung leaving. Mrs. Jeon had first been furious her son had been drinking but upon hearing his reason, she was more concerned about the fact her son's crush was a male instead of a female. Still, she had been supportive while Jungkook's father didn't care at all, as long as Jungkook was to never drink underage again and cause a potential scandal. Priorities, huh.

Now that Taehyung had returned, Jungkook was reminded of all the reasons why he had liked Taehyung in the first place: he was so smart, so kind and sweet and he had seemed to have gotten even more beautiful over the years. His pretty features have turned angelic and his golden locks curled so prettily around his face, large brown eyes hidden beneath the fringes.
Yet something seemed different about the blonde. There was fear laying beneath his shy behavior, raw fear that was concerning to Jungkook.

"-kook. Jungkook!" The call of his name caused Jungkook to flinch and swing his food tray from the table. It crashed loudly to the floor, causing everyone around to turn their heads surprised. Jungkook turned red, quickly getting up to pick up his tray while the flush traveled down to his neck. He focused all of his attention painfully hard onto the task of picking up his garbage, thanking his friend Yugyeom quietly for helping as he ignored his fluttering stomach because Taehyung had looked curiously into his direction.

"So. Care to explain what's wrong with you today?" Yugyeom asked into the upcoming awkward silence after they sat back down at their table. Jungkook groaned, burying his head in his hands.

"It's the newbie, right? I've seen our Blueberry looking over all the time," Eunwoo grinned. The nickname referred to Jungkook's blue hair, a statement to set him apart from the rest of the football team which had caused his friends to tease him relentlessly about it and quickly found a new nickname to tease him with.

"Oh! Finally, some tea!" Mingyu exclaimed excitedly, clapping his hands, "I've heard pretty boy got our Blueberry flustered since morning!"

Immediately, theories were thrown across the table. The only ones not participating were Jungkook and Seokjin. Seokjin who threw a long, calculative look over to the new boy before his frown straightened and recognition lit up his eyes.

"Taehyung... as in Kim Taehyung, the one you had a crush on in middle school?" He asked Jungkook silently, unfortunately not silent enough because the comment caused their table to explode, their friends even standing up with multiple "No way!" "Fuck, that's Kim Taehyung?!"

"Sit the fuck down, you're embarrassing," Jungkook finally seethed and grabbed Yugyeom and Eunwoo to force them back down on their asses so they wouldn't cause a scene.

"Yes, I believe that's him," he replied to Jin's previous comment through gritted teeth, hearing his friends cooing and trying to sneak subtle glances back to Jimin's table.

Seokjin's grin was the one of a Cheshire.

~

I already love their dynamics so much and Taehyung is so so smoochable ugh

Elaboratae