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eighteen

The living room was filled with laughter, bowls of snacks littering the coffee table as Jin called out the next round of charades. Namjoon was scrolling through his phone, probably googling strategy tips, while Hoseok was laying across the couch, still boasting over his last win.

Taehyung sat cross-legged on the floor, tossing popcorn into his mouth. Jungkook leaned against the armchair, sipping his soda and pretending not to notice how unfairly pretty the boy looked in his oversized hoodie.

"You're terrible at this game," Jungkook said, breaking the fragile peace.

Taehyung's head whipped around, his brow furrowing. "Excuse me? Who won three rounds ago?"

"Pure luck," Jungkook shot back with a smirk.

Taehyung narrowed his eyes. "Says the guy who can't even mime 'swimming.'"

"It's not my fault Hoseok thought I was miming drowning," Jungkook said, crossing his arms.

"Could've fooled me," Taehyung muttered under his breath, just loud enough for Jungkook to hear.

Jimin, perched on the couch armrest, smirked. "Oh, this is gonna be good."

Namjoon looked up from his phone, glancing between the two. "Can you two stop flirting for five minutes? Some of us are trying to play a game here."

"We're not flirting!" Taehyung and Jungkook said at the same time.

Hoseok burst out laughing, nearly choking on his chips. "You totally are. This is like one of those rom-coms where they fight until they-"

"Finish that sentence, and you're next in line for charades," Taehyung warned, glaring daggers at Hoseok.

"Oh, scary," Hoseok teased, raising his hands in mock surrender.

Jungkook leaned down slightly, his voice dropping just enough for Taehyung to catch the teasing. "You know, if you put half this energy into the game, you might actually win."

Taehyung's jaw clenched. "And if you spent less time running your mouth, maybe you wouldn't suck at literally everything."

"Everything?" Jungkook raised an eyebrow, the corner of his mouth tugging into a dangerous smirk. "Pretty sure I'm better than you at plenty of things, tae."

There it was again-that infuriating smirk, that mocking tone that made Taehyung want to either punch him or... no, definitely just punch him.

"Oh, please. You're-"

"Alright!" Jin cut in, clapping his hands loudly. "If you two are going to keep this up, take it outside or-better idea-save it for when we're not here to witness your slow descent into enemies-to-lovers chaos."

"I'm not-" Taehyung started, but Yoongi finally looked up from his spot in the corner and drawled, "You are. And it's exhausting."

The room erupted into laughter, and for once, Taehyung was too flustered to snap back and so was Jungkook.

The boys kept on playing different sorts of games. All of them were gathered at Jin's house after school and were planning on a sleepover because his parents weren't home and tomorrow is weekend.

Taehyung was seated on the floor, absentmindedly flipping through the cards, his lips pursed in concentration. Jungkook shot him a look.

"You've been staring at that card for five minutes. You good, or do you need a tutorial?"

Taehyung didn't even glance up. "I'm fine. But thanks for your concern, golden boy."

Jungkook snorted. "Golden boy? That's new. What's next, you gonna call me perfect?"