loser. ✓

ACT TWO ;; CHAPTER SIXTEEN

taehyung, jimin, and seokjin all lay scattered across seokjin's bed. the trio were playing mario kart, and yelling at one another about not 'red-shelling' each other, only to turn around and use a red shell on one of the other players two seconds later.

seokjin was laying on his side, a strange position to be laying in whilst playing a video game with friends, his phone resting on his side. occasionally, yoongi's giggle would sound through the speaker along with hoseok's voice teasing seokjin for sucking at the game after hours of bragging to his boyfriends' about how amazing he was at it.

"seok, shut the fuck up, i'm practically on taehyung's ass and about to be in first place! it's not my fault that i'm not used to the slower speeds anymore."

"you're only in second place because i was too nice to use any thing on you after you used like ten different kinds of things on me! i'll make namjoon kick your ass, dude-"

taehyung rolled his eyes playfully at his friends bickering. though they were childish, and likely being serious when using insults against each other, it was all in all an enjoyable experience. these moments were some of the ones that reminded taehyung of high school. those moments were some of his favorites. he knew he would miss these moments the most, too, when they all graduated and had to fully grow up.

not long from now, four of his friends would be graduating from college and moving on with life. seokjin would become an animator for some sort of film studio - taehyung was sure of it. hoseok would make an amazing dance teacher. namjoon would likely move on to become some sort of philosopher and inventor, and practically rule the world alongside elon musk. and yoongi - well, yoongi didn't need explaining. he was just yoongi. and being that was enough to make him successful.

as much as taehyung wanted to be sad at the thought, and also wanted to stress about his own future, he couldn't help but to remember that those moments were far from now.

all he needed right now were his friends. his friends who took good care of him, and his-

"what's up, fuckers?"

jimin, who was practically already losing anyway, dropped his controller and bounded to the doorway to wrap his arms around his boyfriend, namjoon. a visibly disgusted jeongguk stood behind namjoon.

"ew, pda." he pushed past namjoon and jimin and plopped down in his spot - taehyung's lap. "when seokjin was a child, kissing wasn't even invented yet."

"i would tell you to shut up, but i'm benefiting strongly from you distracting taehyung," seokjin spoke up, earning laughter from one of his boyfriends - taehyung wasn't sure which one. "taehyung's in third place now, and i'm in first. also, jimin, you're in last place. like very last. i've lapped around your immobile vehicle at least twice now. get on my level, nerds."

"you're the nerd," taehyung argued, using his elbow to shove jeongguk off of his lap. "sorry, gguk. i need to set my priorities straight. mario kart and then you."

"oh, boo hoo, you're losing one round. cry me a river." jeongguk prodded taehyung's side, a small frown forming on his lips. "if you guys don't at least let me join, i'll-"

"no, oh god, fucking no-"

"why not?" taehyung asked seokjin. he groaned once he realized seokjin had already won first place by a mere second, and he set his controller down beside him. "you just won, so that proves something, right? why not just one game against jeongguk?"

"that demon child you call your boyfriend will purposely get the lowest spot he can just to blue shell the shit out of me, and i'm not going to have that in this dorm room, kim taehyung." seokjin crossed his arms over his chest defiantly. he glared at jeongguk, who stuck his tongue out in response.

"you know, i'm sure he wouldn't have thought of that until you brought it up," namjoon cut in. he was smiling widely, jimin clinging tightly onto him as if he hadn't seen the other in ten years. "so you really just gave him ideas, seokjin."

"oh, fuckin' fantastic!" seokjin dropped his controller onto jeongguk's lap, letting out a breathy exhale as he repositioned himself to get comfortable once more. "if you want to play in my place against taehyung and jimin, go for it."

"i'm not playing anymore rounds. namjoon and i are heading out, remember? taehyung can go against jeongguk on his own." jimin finally relaxed his grip on namjoon, returning to the group to fetch his shoes from the floor. "good luck, seokjin. have fun babysitting."

"you owe me for ditching me like this, park jimin."

-

"taehyungie, what time is it?"

taehyung glanced over at the small digital clock settled on the bedside table. one thirty two, it read. the older wrinkled his nose up before turning to the younger. "one thirty in the morning, and we have class in a few hours."

"and i have a huge test thing in my humanities class. lucky grandpa over here managed to fall asleep early despite us screaming at each other every two seconds." jeongguk huffed before smacking his controller against seokjin's thigh. "i don't want to go to class tomorrow. i want to keep playing mario kart until i'm nothing more than a shell of a human."

taehyung smirked and nodded his head in jeongguk's direction. "game on, then. don't think i won't beat you this time!"

"trust me, taehyung, you're dead meat. you're a complete and total loser. out of all of the cups we've done so far, you've only got first place in one race and that was because you and seokjin conspired against me. i still can't believe you made seokjin bite my damn kneecaps," jeongguk argued, rolling his eyes playfully at taehyung.

"if you win this round, i'll buy you a new game. and if i win, you'll- i don't know. you'll do something that benefits me. deal?" taehyung stated. he held his hand out to jeongguk, willing to shake on it.

jeongguk took taehyung's hand in his own, but smiled deviously as he did so. "your ass is about to get kicked."

taehyung rolled his eyes at the younger's cockiness. "i hate you, jeon jeongguk."

"that's a lie, kim taehyung."

and suddenly, it all started to make sense.

the end.