him | taekook

chapter 5

SEVEN YEARS AGO

Taehyung was sixteen years old when he first saw Jeon Jungkook. He was holding onto his Chemistry books with a frown etched on his forehead because he was unable to find his locker and he absolutely hated high school. The awful teachers who spent more time teaching things they would never need rather than important stuff they'd use in the future, and the immature students with their illogical crave for attention were reason enough to transform high school from a nice experience to a bad memory. He already knew this year was going to suck just as much (if not more) as the previous one. The only highlight was he got to see Jimin, his best and closest friend and the only person who understood Taehyung, even when it came to feeling sexually frustrated and confused. Being a teenager was hard. Sixteen was an awkward age on itself, when your body changes and your voice becomes an odd sound to your ears. He didn't even know who he was, let alone had enthusiasm enough to study for his exams.

So there he was, lost, upset and about to give up on ever finding his new locker, internally cursing every single person in the world, when the most beautiful one he'd ever seen was leaning against the opposite wall with a cigarette on his hand. There was no one else around, the bell had rung a moment ago and everyone was already inside their respective classrooms, or heading there.
He should've known that guy was bad news; no one smoked at such a young age (at least no one he knew), let alone at school, and no one could seem that perfect while doing so. He couldn't look away, he was enthralled by the guy's facial features and blank expression. He was wondering how he'd never seen him before, when he was so utterly mesmerizing and pretty hard to go unnoticed.

"Anything I can help you with?" The student asked after about a minute went by with Taehyung practically eating him alive with his eyes.

"You---I----my locker..." he stuttered pathetically, his heart was beating too loud and too fast for him to understand his own words.

"Can you talk?" The guy almost chuckled as he took another deep drag from his cigarette, grey smoke leaving his red lips quickly afterwards in a thick cloud that covered his jaw. Taehyung was hypnotized, completely and literally unable to look anywhere but in the direction of the guy's mouth; those meaty lips kept calling him from afar. But his stalking didn't stop there, oh no, he scanned his hand's movements, so swift and exquisite, the shape of his mouth, the dark bangs on his forehead, even the blink of his eyes seemed mysterious and oddly unique.

"I think so," he replied after a while, his dry throat almost cracking his voice.

"I'm Jeon Jungkook," the other presented himself throwing the cigarette on the floor in a careless manner that surprised Tae considering how gently he'd been holding it between his slender fingers moments ago. He then proceeded to step on it with the heel of his black leather shoe, pushing it against the white clean floor until the bright orange flame went completely off.

"Kim Taehyung," he managed to say back, his books long forgotten on his weak, shaking arms.

And right at that moment he should've run the opposite way. He would repeat that to himself in the future with his hands full of a shattered broken heart. But instead he did something really stupid and let himself go. He ended up talking to Jungkook for two straight hours. He couldn't quite help himself, he had a magnetic aura that attracted every living creature towards him. It wasn't just his ethereal beauty but also the sound of his laughter, his bonny smile and sparkling eyes. The way he communicated with others, his expressive eyebrows and soft smiles. He was everything Taehyung only ever hoped to be. Easy to talk to, easy to confide in. Taehyung said after around an hour that he needed to head to class but when Jungkook said "then go", he simply stay put.
Both of their backs were comfortably resting against the library's most hidden wall, having realized that they could get caught in the middle of the hallway by a teacher or the principal himself. Jungkook hadn't seemed like he minded it that much but Tae had, so off they went. The library was practically deserted at that early hour and the secretary was too busy playing a game on her phone to bother looking up from it. In those one hundred and twenty minutes, Tae had learnt that Jungkook was a new student (hence the fact he'd never seen him before), he was a year younger and had a bit of a secret passion for singing. Taehyung in exchange told him about his best friend Jimin, his hatred for school and how he most times sometimes wished things were different. That, amongst other silly, personal things were shared in hushed whispers and nervous glances.