It's a Promise (TaeKook Fanfic)

Chapter 2. Can't break two promises in a day

"You didn't show up yesterday, Jungkook. You promised me you would come." Taehyung scolded softly. He was, after all, having his final match with his team against 9th grade. He quickly pecked the cheek of the girl he had been talking to in form of goodbye and turned to his friend. Jungkook immediately recognized her and smiled brightly in salute, while she scrunched her face playfully and went back to the conversation she was having with the other girls by her side.

They were all in the school's soccer field, celebrating the end of one of the most important matches of the year round. At the end of each year starting 8th grade, the previous grade always had a match against the older one, as in a way of "graduation" and passing the ball to the next team. Everyone always attended that match, it was very important and Taehyung, as the team captain, had asked for his friend to be there supporting him. Since it wouldn't be until next year that he would participate, at least he wanted him to look at how he played. At least he wanted his support. But Jungkook didn't show up.

"Sorry, Tae. My dad had me up all night showing me some cases he's been working on and I overslept." He said apologetically. "I know you still won." He half smiled. He actually wanted to be there for his friend but he had overslept, it was the truth.

"Are cops allowed to show their cases to their twelve year old sons?" Taehyung mocked still a little bit hurt. Jungkook smiled brightly, ready to pour every ounce of pride in the answer he was going to give.

"When your son is going to be the next greatest detective in the whole of Seoul, you can." His friend rolled his eyes, clearly already aware of the next part of the sentence. "And besides, my dad is practically the boss of every cop out there-

"Yeah, yeah, 'cause he's not a cop, he's an agent and he's got the major on his side. I get it." The taller brunet interrupted quickly.

His friend just responded with an 'exactly' and a promise to take him out to eat ramen for not being able to attend the match. At the mention of food all traces of anger were erased and a boxy smile appeared in the face of the older one, making Jungkook scrunch his nose and smile widely in response. The change was so quick it would have thrown him off if he wasn't so used to it.

Taehyung opened his mouth in a gesture of surprise when they entered the ramen shop, almost as if he hadn't really expected to be there. They had left school as soon as the bell rang, and the younger friend insisted to take his senior to eat in compensation for having failed him earlier.

"Wow, you actually took me to Jo Joon's." He said, feigning shock. His friend smirked playfully as he greeted the shop's assistant, a petite young woman with short red hair and big brown eyes that they were both starting to get pretty familiar with.

"Well of course, Tae. I can't break two promises in one day." The older one briefly looked at the woman and brought up two fingers in form of salute. He then turned to the brunet and nudged him in the arm, in a silent gesture of 'I know you wouldn't'.

It wasn't until Jungkook got a call from his mother a couple of hours later that they became remotely aware of how much time they had spent together. They had finished the cups of ramen a little less than two hours ago, but they had gotten so caught up in conversation that they didn't notice the passage of time.

As always, they had talked about everything and nothing, things that worried them, family, and trivial stuff. They had talked about the match, about their best friend Lisa (whom Jungkook started to notice Taehyung was getting ever closer to than he already was), about their future as cops and everything in between.

Taehyung observed his friend as he talked on the phone, understanding his desperate attempt to calm down his mother as a signal that they'd have to say goodbye really soon. At the thirty second mark he started losing track of what Jungkook was saying and resorted to simply stare at him while he spoke.

He didn't know why, but he had this habit of staring at people when he was out of focus, and more often than not he got scolded because of that. Jungkook was the only one who didn't seem to care, so Taehyung very much liked the peace of staring at his face without being reprimanded. It gave him a sense of security.

"Well, you heard my mom, Tae. Even if she wasn't on speaker." He was quickly snapped out of his trance when the boy in front of him suddenly started talking.

"Yeah, I did." He lied smiling. He only really heard her ask where he was and then rant so fast about how he should have called her earlier that Taehyung didn't understand a single word. He quickly thought of anything he could say that would remotely make it look like he was paying attention. "I get it though, you left your mom alone to care for your brother. I mean, that's gotta be tough." Now if there was one thing Taehyung was not good at was coming with last minute excuses, so he wasn't really sure that Jungkook would buy that one.

He didn't.

"Tae, if you were staring you can tell me." Jungkook said with an amused tone as he stood up. "I mean, it's not like I'm not used to it." The brunet then turned around and started to walk towards the register.

The older boy blushed for a second but hid his embarrassment quickly. He did always stare, so there was no need of being ashamed.

Just as Jungkook started walking down the street and disappeared from his view, Taehyung said goodbye to the cashier after making sure the younger paid, feeling a little sad that they had to stop their time together so soon.

He had already started his way home when he received a text. He opened it to the see the name of his best friend pop up and a new promise of never missing out on anything important to Taehyung again. That sole action was enough to make the boy smile the entire way home; not even when he almost accidentally stepped on a stray cat's tail and it hissed scaring the crap out of him, his happiness disappeared.

Fumbling to find his house keys hidden deep down in his bag, Taehyung thought about how nice it was knowing that he had someone who genuinely cared for him. It seemed a little strange since he wasn't used to it and because of that it had taken a lot of time to get comfortable with the feeling back when they first started to be conscious about their friendship. Jungkook truly cared. And he cared about Jungkook too.

With that in mind, he quickly opened the front door and went inside, the big boxy trademark smile of his never leaving his face.