straight // taegyu

nine

the following monday arrived quicker than taehyun hoped — he hadn't gotten more than 15 hours of sleep total that weekend, so he was in a slightly grumpy mood that morning. it didn't help that he was going through a slight depressive state because of the due date for his language essays coming closer, and he was in a deep rut with no ideas on what to write. it caused him to snap at the smallest things, and he actually hated it.

his recent epiphany about his resurfacing feelings for beomgyu just made it all worse.

taehyun sighed as he sat down on the lunch table, hugging his arms around himself as his eyes closed. "it's so cold. and i'm tired. life sucks. this day could not get any worse."

"where do you think jiyeong would be, mate?" beomgyu asked, almost ignoring taehyun's words completely. taehyun glared and remained silent, his mood becoming foul quickly. "i'm going to look for her."

"go ahead, not like i'm here as your best friend," taehyun muttered. beomgyu heard those words and turned to the brunette male.

"taehyun, are you okay?" he asked with a frown.

"no, beomgyu, i'm not okay," taehyun answered in exasperation. "i'm tired, kind of depressed and i wouldn't mind dying right now. so go ahead, tend to your little crush — i'll go to eric."

beomgyu watched as taehyun stood up and grabbed his wrist. "taeh—"

"let me go." taehyun pulled his wrist away. "your crush is important. prom is important. i'm secondary. it's fine."

he adjusted his backpack strap as he walked away. "taehyun! taehyun, where are you— tae!"

taehyun ignored him as he neared the inside of the school building and walked in blindly. his eyes filled with tears and he walked towards the bathroom, but someone grabbed his wrist. he turned around, ready to yell at beomgyu, but it wasn't beomgyu.

"e-eric."

eric pulled him forward, gently holding his wrists. "are you okay?"

taehyun looked for a moment and shook his head. as he did, a tear fell down his cheek. "n-no. i'm not okay."

eric pulled him forward into a tight hug, putting a hand against the back of taehyun's head to get him to bury his head into the crook of his neck. the boy sobbed onto his senior jacket, soft hiccups erupting from his throat. eric placed a gentle, yet wary kiss onto taehyun's forehead as they stood embracing one another.

"do you want to talk about it?" eric asked softly, pulling away to look taehyun in the eye.

"school stress, that's all," taehyun muttered as he wiped his eyes.

"it's deeper than that, isn't it?" eric asked, cupping taehyun's cheeks and wiping his wet cheeks with his thumbs. taehyun looked away guiltily and sighed. "i'm ready when you are, okay? talk when you're ready. i won't force anything out of you."

taehyun looked at eric and sniffled. "a-actually… i think… let's talk about it. let's go somewhere private — somewhere away from beomgyu."

eric raised an eyebrow. "what did beomgyu do…?"