Run into Sin | Jikook

⋆Part 8⋆

Jeongguk's sitting in the university common room, surrounded by a group of friends from his class as they play snooker together and eat the cafeteria food. Taehyung's up against him and he's proving himself to be a good player, continuously winning against Jeongguk.
"You bastard." Jeongguk's realigning the balls back into position, holding onto the cue white ball.

Taehyung smirks as he stretches his arms above his head, holding onto his cue tightly.

"I can never be defeated."

Jeongguk hands the game over to someone else, a girl within their group, as he resigns and takes a seat on the adjacent couch. He picks up his lunch that he neglected to attempt to defeat Taehyung, sipping on the straw slowly as he swallows down the apple juice.

For once, he has nothing to look forward to. Normally after his lessons finish, he has to head to dance practice with Hoseok and remain within the studios until the sky has darkened and slumber creeps upon him.

But Hoseok had cancelled today after he claimed he wanted to rest and take some time off with his sister who's visiting him in Seoul. It's not often that he gives them a day off but Jeongguk accepted it gratefully.

"Yeah, yeah," Jeongguk drawls. "Watch, she'll smash you at the game."

The girl definitely doesn't win against Taehyung. The older man looks smug as he retreats away from the pool table, fist pumping the air insistently and claiming he has to tell Yoongi about his skills and see whether or not he can win against his boyfriend. Jeongguk rolls his eyes and pushes down the surge of fondness he feels towards his friends, diverting his gaze elsewhere.

They spend a little while longer in the common room, challenging each other to snooker games as the atmosphere between them becomes more tense as the competition increases.

Eventually, when Jeongguk finally wins against a boy in his class - he looks up to see Jimin walking their way.

It's not often Jimin will make an appearance in the common room, if ever. He doesn't like to interact with people he isn't friends with and presumably, finds that the common room drains him of his energy. But he strides towards Jeongguk with boldness painted over his expression, clutching onto his backpack tightly.

Jeongguk takes a step back from the snooker table, raising a brow at Jimin questioningly.

Taehyung halts too, his expression brightening upon seeing Jimin.

"Hey, buddy!" He greets, putting down the snooker cue and walking over to Jimin. Taehyung pulls him into an one-armed hug, smiling. "What's up, what brings you to the common room?"

Jimin pulls back with a hesitant smile, doubt entering over his features now that he's stood before a group of people he's not familiar with. He shifts uncomfortably on his feet, nodding to the abundance of students sitting around the snooker table and glancing between them all, before fixing his eyes on Taehyung.

"Not much. I wanted to talk to Jeongguk, actually."

Jeongguk looks up at that. "Me?"

It's only been a few days since he had suggested the homemade porn contest but he's steadily realising his mistake in doing so. After they had baked the carrot cake and ate it together silently, they've been avoiding each other since. Jimin had slipped out of the apartment quietly in the morning, not sparing a single word to him.

Jimin makes direct eye contact with him as the sides of his mouth twitch upwards slightly.

"Yeah, you. Want to walk home together?" He pauses, filtering around the room again and shaking his head. "If you don't... I, uh—you're busy, never mind."