teacher's pet | taekook

ThIRTEEN { visitor }

The days are filled with too much lazing around for Taehyung's liking. Besides chores and hikes, everything is tedious and fatally mundane. But there's nothing to be done about that; Taehyung would still pick banal over chaotic any day.

After standing up for the second, maybe third time today — it's two in the afternoon, by the way — Taehyung and Jungkook make their way to the kitchen for a late lunch. They didn't plan anything for today, which is why their original mealtime passed with an oversight.

In the hall, Jungkook's hand outstretched to reach for Taehyung's hair. He flinched.

"Wait a sec'," he said with a smile, likely amused by Taehyung's overreaction. "There's something in your hair."

"Oh." Jungkook plucked whatever speck had been in his hair, then ruffled the hair at the top of his head and fixed how it laid, eliminating — or trying to eliminate — the inevitable fluff of his bedhead. Taehyung stared at him the whole time, quiet, but his gut seemed to flurry with butterflies. Really, butterflies over Jungkook fixing his hair.

"There," he said with a smile. Jungkook met his eyes, and Taehyung realized he had been staring. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

" 'Cause I like you." Taehyung heard it from his own mouth before he even thought of saying it.

Jungkook's head tilted to the side, brow cocked with curiosity and interest. He stepped closer, Taehyung backed up. Jungkook kept going until Taehyung's back thumped against the wall.

"What'd you say?" he asked, smiling devilishly now.

Taehyung pressed his lips into a line as his face bloomed with color, his eyes glancing around the hall. He was cornered, and there was no getting out of this now. Shiiiiiiit. Why did he have to go and be all loose-lipped and stupid? "C'mon. Don't do that."

He pulled his bottom lip between his teeth to bite on, feigning innocence to play dumb. "Don't do what?"

"Tease," Taehyung mumbled. "I know you heard me."

"Sure, I did; and I would love to hear you say it again."

"Why? Don't make me embarrass myself..."

Jungkook reached down to hold Taehyung's hands, tangling their fingers together. "Say it again for me. Please, angel. There's no harm in it."

Taehyung sighed, shoulders slouching. "Do I have to?"

Jungkook hummed in thought, lips tweaking into a grin that turned mischievous. "Yes."

"I... I like you." He had to screw his eyes shut to repeat himself. His voice came out hushed as if he were telling a secret that should never be overheard by the imaginary audience around them. "I don't know why, 'cause you're a jerk most of the time, but I—"

"Do you just like me?" he asked, tone daring to lilt in effrontery.

Taehyung blinked, eyes wide. "What... what do you mean?"

Jungkook leaned in a little too close, but not so close that they were sharing breath. Yet. "Like... I don't just like you; I love you. So, do you just like me? Or...?"

"O-Oh..." Taehyung didn't go on as Jungkook expected; he kept his lips parted, ready to speak but he didn't have any words to share. Did he love Jungkook? The way he felt about him, what he felt for now was something he has never felt for anyone else before; could that be love in a forgein form? Taehyung couldn't think of any other word to describe how Jungkook made him feel, but that didn't mean "love" had to be the word — that also didn't mean that "love" wasn't the word either.