Chivalry Is Dead | Taekook

Chapter 31

"Thanks."

Taehyung nodded in acknowledgment at the lunch lady who stood on the other side of the counter as he lifted his tray—which, by the way, was very light, having just a hamburger and a coke on top of it—and stepped out of the growing line of hungry students, making his way over to his friends.

Now, the redhead knew that his choice of food was not what would be deemed appropriate for lunch by many.

(He was sure that Seokjin was going to fire shots at him for it, maybe Jimin would slip in a word or two, too).

But he really couldn't bring himself to think about what to eat or not when a major part of his mind—cough, 99.99%—was taken up by his younger, brunet fuckbuddy.

His irises flitting to his phone every other second were enough proof of that.

His eyes had been doing that for three days now, with him keeping his chat window with Jungkook open almost throughout the day, and staring at it for minutes on end, not wanting to miss the moment the brunet would reply to his simple 'hey's, or 'good morning's—even his 'goodnight' texts.

Taehyung knew it was cringeworthy and totally unlike him to send such worthless messages to anyone, but his brain had come up with a reason that he had deemed logical enough to do so.

The redhead only wanted to let Jungkook know that, regarding their previous argument, he hadn't taken anything to heart, and if Jungkook wanted, then they could pretend that whatever had happened between them the last time they had met didn't happen at all—that they were still good and cool with each other, and that Taehyung, in particular, was up for fucking anytime.

Jungkook just had to give him a time and a place, and Taehyung would run to him.

But—in the past three days—none of his messages had gotten a reply to, causing Taehyung to get all the more anxious, his thoughts turning pessimistic about the entire thing.

Maybe now Taehyung knew that he shouldn't have kissed Jungkook when he had specifically asked him not to. He shouldn't have crossed that line with him when Jungkook had followed all his conditions and had kept his side of the deal.

He just didn't know what had come over him that day.

Ugh, Taehyung hated himself for it, and that was something he didn't feel often.

Nothing really made him feel like shit, but, somehow, Jungkook—of all people—had this special, magical ability to make Taehyung feel guilty for everything that he did wrong.

The younger just had that much power over him; a fact that Jungkook himself didn't realise, and Taehyung couldn't come to terms with, because, how come Jungkook had penetrated through all his walls without him knowing?

That would be unbelievable and outrageous. Taehyung didn't let just anyone slide through his tough, exterior shell.

Maybe it was because they had been friends at sometime, but Taehyung had made sure to get rid of all his feelings for the brunet when they had parted ways.

Taehyung just couldn't handle the fact that something that had taken years for Jungkook—and all their friends—to do the first time around, the brunet had managed to perform once again in a matter of just a few months.

That would have to mean that Taehyung had, somewhere, failed when he had broken all ties with Jungkook; that somewhere, in the deepest and most well-hidden parts of his heart, some odds and ends of his fondness for the younger was still present—that some undesirable residue of his nightmarish, appalling, and unresolved feelings for Jungkook had remained.