Rumor has it | KV

7

"Go Stars!"

The loud shouts of glee caused Taehyung to flinch ever so often, disappearing further into his jacket, trembling slightly in his spot. It was cold for the late afternoon of October, nearing Halloween. The semester had barely started yet autumn had crept its way onto Korea, colors filling the trees and falling onto the streets, creating a magical atmosphere.

Taehyung adored this time of the year, not too cold to freeze his ass off but cooling after the heat of summer. Plus, the colors of autumn always sparked inspiration in him and before the incident, he was always outside drawing in the middle of autumn to catch the beautiful leaves blooming in red, orange and yellow.

Being outside for a longer period of time reminded Taehyung that winter was approaching fast. Winter was his father's favorite season and they always spent a good amount in front of their fireplace, with hot chocolate and watching Gilmore Girls. Taehyung was convinced his dad only chose their house simply because it had a fireplace.

Cheers erupted once more when Jeon Jungkook, the football captain scored another goal, the second of the game and jumped high up in the air while his team members ran towards him to celebrate. They were in the second half already and it stood 4:2 for them now. Jungkook was on a roll, much to the audience's glee.

He lifted his fists high up in the air and over all the cheering people in the audience, his eyes always managed to find Taehyung. He threw the petit blonde a smirk and Taehyung shrunk further into himself. This attention from the jock was scaring him.

It was so scary, because Taehyung didn't want to get his hopes up high. After all, he only saw his flaws. He didn't see what others saw when they looked at him. And maybe that was the reason he couldn't believe Jungkook would truly be interested in him. Maybe this was all a game to him, to make fun of the new guy, maybe he had a bet running with his friends. Oh, how much Taehyung feared that possibility.

And how much he feared himself for his heart was always fluttering in excited anticipation whenever Jungkook decided to spare him a glance.

As Taehyung was a hopeless romantic, he craved this type of love that stole your breath, that made you forget anything else around you, that left you craving more, that made you feel like you found your person, who you never want to be without.

After all this time, after all this terror, Taehyung still believed he could find his person, still believed in love at first sight, still believed that this type of unconditional, explosive love was out there for him, he just didn't know it yet.

Or maybe that was just wishful thinking.

The game was coming to an end, the opposite team growing more and more frustrated and ballsy. A male from the other team held Jimin back by his jersey, causing him to fall to the ground. Boos and protests sounded from the tribunes next to the football field.

Taehyung nearly got out of his seat when he saw Jimin falling, Hoseok next to him springing up as well.

"That was clearly a foul! Do something, ref!" His voice was made to be heard over loud music so it got carried over the field. The referee blew his whistle, indicating a foul as he stepped between the two opponents. Jungkook as the captain rushed over as well as the other team's captain.

"Get your fucking guys under control, Bogum!" Taehyung heard Jungkook shout at the other captain who in return approached Jungkook with fury written on his face. Their team members jumped between them, successfully separating them and preventing a fight.

Jimin was still laying on the ground, huffing because his breath got knocked out of his chest. Above him, Seokjin had curled a fist into the shirt of the one who had pushed Jimin.

Jimin and Seokjin had an... interesting relationship. According to Jimin, they were broken up, but behind the scenes... well that was a different story. When asking Jimin about it, Taehyung was met with the harsh truth of a reality he was surprised of: Jimin was closeted.

His parents, as Taehyung remembered correctly, were extremely conservative and wanted Jimin to find himself a nice girl and settle with her, form a family and have children on his own. But Jimin, poor Jimin wasn't interested in that at all.

Taehyung regretted not being present so he only knew parts of Jimin's complicated relationship with Seokjin. The elder was obviously head over heels for his best friend, utterly in love with Jimin. It was understandable he wanted to shout his love for Jimin out to the world.

But the world wasn't a kind place. And Jimin was scared of his parents' criticism. So he broke up with Seokjin, despite loving him still. They had a huge argument, Seokjin gruesomely accusing Jimin of being a coward while Jimin accused Seokjin of being unsupportive and pushy. It ended in a nasty break-up but clearly, feelings didn't disappear, especially not when they saw each other so frequently.

Now, their relationship was even more complicated: they were hooking up whenever they had the chance but they kept it casual, as per Jimin's request, fear still evident in him about his parents finding out about him. They for sure would disown him and Jimin wasn't ready for that.

Jimin had once confided Taehyung that he was afraid Seokjin wouldn't be worth it. Because coming out to his parents would be a life-time commitment and what was when Seokjin would change his mind about their relationship? Then Jimin would be left with nothing but ashes of his life he had thrown away for Seokjin.

Taehyung's argument that Seokjin loved him enough to keep things casual just so he wouldn't lose Jimin was casted aside by Jimin with a sad smile.

So yes, their relationship was anything but stable and secure.

"The game's continuing, we get a penalty shoot!" Hoseok narrated the happenings on the field to Taehyung and Namjoon, who was once more buried nose deep in a book, only grunting occasionally whenever cheers grew louder. He wasn't a fan of sports, only present so Hoseok would stop pestering him and actually accompanying Taehyung more. The things you do for love.

Taehyung would rather read to but he promised Jimin to pay attention plus the thought of Jungkook scoring goals just for him might also be a little reason for Taehyung to be curious about the game even though he didn't know the rules before watching the game.

"If we score that now, we win! It's the last five minutes, there's no way they can score another goal after that," Hoseok informed Taehyung excitedly, eyes focused on the players getting ready for the penalty shoot. Jungkook was going to do it and Taehyung gnawed on his lip in anticipation.

Surprisingly, the jock looked over to the tribune once more, finding Taehyung's eyes. Taehyung surprised himself by lifting his hands into fists in an encouraging movement. Jungkook nodded once, then started to approach the ball.

He kicked, the ball flew through the air and landed right behind the goalkeeper.

The audience jumped to their feet as they cheered loudly for Jungkook as the referee blew his whistle, indicating that the game was over. Hoseok pulled Taehyung up and clapped loudly, cheering for their team.

"That was amazing! The goalkeeper stood no chance!" He shouted gleefully. "Joonie, did you see that?! Jungkook's awesome!"

Jungkook indeed was awesome, Taehyung thought to himself as a smile stole itself on his face and started clapping himself.

~

These two are so cute I can't

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