League

4

In seventh grade, Jungkook had his first crush ever. It was a girl one year older than him.

She wore thin glass spectacles with a golden frame. With her daily long skirts of a variety of colors that would awkwardly end beneath her knees. Her dark brown sweater that would always go along all those skirts and her loud personality that gained her many friends.

Jungkook never understood what it was before he changed to VY highschool. And by then it was too late, or maybe not. There wasn't a high chance she liked him back anyway.

The feeling of butterflies creating a mess in the pit of his stomach. The feeling of not being able to peel his eyes away from her. Some of his friends called her ugly when she smiled because of her crooked teeth, but at the time, Jungkook hadn't seen anything more beautiful than that sight.

So when those feelings returned, he wasn't as lost as he was back then.

It started when he'd sometimes catch the male sitting in the cafeteria. And by the time he'd look away, he'd realise just how long he had been staring for.

And when he saw Taehyung on his way back home, catching the guy sitting on the rooftop of the school's office building and talking with a female group that he recognised from the hip hop department.

Especially when they would accidentally pass by each other in the corridors randomly. Many people had blonde hair in the school, yet that specific and newly dyed one would stand out the most. And jungkook would feel his breath hitch when they would pass by, pretending like he wasn't the person Jungkook had been looking for since morning.

"I swear to God if this isn't the same pizza we were given yesterday." Jin grumbles, angrily stabbing his fork on the frozen slice of pizza. "Namjoon, give me your slice too. I'll cut it for you before you stab someone else—"

"Taehyung's so popular." Hoseok spoke randomly after he traced Jungkook's line of sight that landed on Hoseok's fellow classmate (in only one subject) who was, yet again, surrounded by a large crowd.

"Don't tell me you're jealous."

"I'm not." Hoseok scoffs at Yoongi's comment. "I'm just wondering how people like him so much? No offense, but he looks really full of himself to me."

"Really?" Jungkook asks, not turning his face away as he drank his banana milk. Nobody makes any comment over Hoseok's judgement, knowing that if not for sure, that's still what they all felt about Taehyung. An overconfident guy.

All except one.

Soon the bell rings and they all part ways, leaving Jungkook alone who decided to utilize his free period to buy a granola bar and revise his chemistry notes.

The cafeteria is mainly empty now, leaving Taehyung and his group aside. When the bar drops into the takeaway slot of the vending machine, Jungkook hears a collective sound of laughing as he goes to pick up the bar.

He couldn't hear that familiar laugh in there though.

"Hey, Jeon!" That's when a voice calls him out, and he turns around to look at the source. It was Yugyeom, a classmate of his that he was on talking terms with. "House part at my place this weekend, you up?"

Jungkook never liked attention. And that's all he got right now. Eyes bore into his face in anticipation of his reply and he goes still, trying his hardest to think of a nice answer. Perhaps he should deny the offer, the practicals were round the corner after all—

"It's not gonna be many people," Taehyung spoke in between, reclining back on his arms. "just some selective ones."

"I'll be there, thanks."

"Aight, cool. Oh and you can invite your group too." Yugyeom nods with a casual smile while the others return back to talking amongst themselves.

"Alright, I'll ask them."

"Woah woah woah." Hoseok says, hands up in a surrendering position when Jungkook almost bumps into him with how fast he was leaving the cafeteria. "I only came back to get my charger— why are you so red?"

"U-uh, t-temperature. Hot. Uh, see you later."

With weird eyes, Hoseok stares at Jungkook's retreating figure. Once he was gone, He entered the cafeteria to get his long awaited item when he spots Taehyung staring at the exit with a plain expression while his so called friends joked around him.

For a while, Hoseok observes him. 'Were they the only ones here before Jungkook left?' He wonders about it as he picks up the charger. 'Did they say something to Jungkook?' But when he tried to join two and two together, he frowns.

Did Taehyung bully Jungkook to be that embarrassed?