Chapter Text
The first time Jungkook sees Kim Seokjin is on his birthday. He doesn’t know yet that it’s a Kim Seokjin, but even just witnessing this angelic-looking guy exist sure feels like the perfect present.
Jungkook has just finished his double PE Education class and he’s heading to his favorite café on campus to recharge before a double basketball practice - the second-year students' schedule in the Department of sports & leisure studies is that wild. When he turns the corner on his way outside of the building, right at that moment his eyes fall on a side profile of a man studying a poster on the wall that advertises the local swimming team to non-sports majors.
The thing is, the picture that the swimming instructor used is one of all the sports majors in their athletic practically naked glory.
The thing is, Jungkook is in the very center of the group in the picture.
He continues to walk for a couple of steps until he stops completely upon realizing what kind of a man he’s looking at. A perfect kind, to be exact.
He’s dressed in a really soft-looking beige turtleneck sweater and a pair of light blue jeans, and it’s all so close-fitting that Jungkook can admire his slim body easily. The man’s hair is light brown with a hint of red and he is wearing glasses that seem huge on his face but still don’t hide his gorgeous profile. He appears to be deep in his thoughts, kind of distracted as he stares at the picture. His mouth – full, plump lips, oh wow – is slightly open, and his pointer finger is curved in touching the lower lip. Something tells Jungkook this man is not a student here, and it’s not even an age thing because there are people of various ages that go to his college.
Jungkook is aware that it’s probably not entirely appropriate to be standing so close to him while ogling him so openly, but the thing is, the thing is.
He’s not breathing. It’s like his world narrowed to this one guy by the poster on the wall, and in the noisy school hall, all he can hear is his own racing heart.
And that’s when the man seems to snap out of his frozen state because he starts minutely – if Jungkook wasn’t such a creep he wouldn’t be able to notice – and then looks around, first to the left and after that to his right. Makes sense, but Jungkook is on the man’s right, and so before he can prepare if that was possible at all, he’s looking right at the stranger’s face. Or more like, the stranger is looking at his face, and his fucking finger is still touching his plump lip absent-mindedly. Jungkook can swear he can’t remember how and when he got this close, literally two steps away from the man now. Did he approach him without realizing it?
“Sorry,” he hears himself say in a robotic voice.
The stranger has the best face he’s ever seen. Well. One of the best, but definitely the softest and friendliest among all the model faces he’s seen in his life. He’s definitely older than Jungkook, and probably by a lot, but he looks incredibly young at the same time. His dark eyes are focusing as he stares at Jungkook while slowly lowering his hand from his mouth. That’s still open.
“Sorry,” he echoes with a slight lilt to his voice, and then a tiny smile blooms on his lips – that are glistening with some sort of lip balm or maybe even chapstick, and Jungkook suddenly feels that his head is too heavy for him to hold upright.
“Hey, aren’t you the hulky kid in the picture?” the stranger asks then, pointing at Jungkook instead of the photo for some reason. And just as Jungkook, weightless, almost floaty, searches his mind for at least something to say but comes up empty, not a coherent thought in his head except for this vague and almost forgotten one from long ago when he was a child and his mom used to tell him that-
“Ah, sorry-sorry, it’s rude to point, isn’t it?”
The stranger smiles wider but it’s still contained, a little round and a little childish. He squeezes his eyes shut for a second with a shake of his head that screams self-deprecating and cute, and Jungkook wants to pinch himself or something.
“Um, that’s me, yeah. I’m a fitness major so- So yeah,” he finishes lamely, shaking his head slightly too, and the stranger is giving him a quick glance over before nodding at him knowingly.
“You, sir, are definitely fit, so it makes perfect sense.” He’s blinking rapidly several times and then he’s back to staring at Jungkook with his now slightly red-rimmed eyes. It’s like this guy’s eyes are peering deep into his soul and Jungkook can’t even find the strength to cringe at himself for thinking something like that. He’s beginning to accept that he’s absolutely not okay judging by his reaction to this, yes, extremely handsome, but overall just a regular person. Man. Who just complimented his fit body and seems to now be waiting for his reaction to his joke.
Jungkook has an itch to rub his own eyes, but he just smiles. It’s not really funny but it’s probably not supposed to be. It’s cute and it makes Jungkook’s eyes roll a bit at the cheesiness of it. The smile is definitely genuine.
“I was in a swimming team as well, you see, back in my time. No abs like that or anything, but dare I say I looked pretty decent in a swimsuit.”
“Swimsuit?” Jungkook echoes. Nice, there he is speaking without thinking first again.
He flinches at the sound of his voice, but the man chuckles at that, presenting Jungkook with two deep creases forming at the corners of his eyes, delicate and pretty like everything about this man.
“Okay, okay, swimming trunks, Jesus, don’t give me that look! You’re imagining one of those retro bathing suits with stripes and a dick pocket now, aren’t you? Well, stop! I’m not that old, thank you very much.”
“I wasn’t but-“
Jungkook is suddenly overcome with an urge to laugh out loud, not at anything in particular that the stranger’s said. He just feels really happy all of a sudden, an excitement that is also a calmness and comfort, like everything is great in the world. He finds it so easy then to chuckle back at the guy and squint as he asks
“You went here?”
The man’s been using the most formal speech but his intonations are playful, even could be seen as borderline mocking if it wasn’t so painfully obvious how friendly he is, so Jungkook can't help picking up this same playful manner.
“Yup, Department of Culinary Arts graduate.”
“Wow, I actually don’t know anyone from that department, I wasn’t even sure it’s real.” Or something that Jungkook says instead of making a dumb sleazy comment slash pickup line about how he thought the man was in the Modelling Department or an actor at least.
“It might not be! I mean I may think that’s what my alma-mater is, but really who’s to say I’m not asleep in a container with, like, twenty wires stuck into my brain?”
The guy is so handsome even when he's making dumb faces that Jungkook realizes he’s been staring at him without blinking for too long and he squints again. His action is interpreted as something different than what it actually is and so the stranger continues.
“Yes, in case you’re wondering, I am that old that the Matrix was unironically popular when I watched it, not like you kids who consumed it as a prepackaged meme. And answering the question you’re probably too polite to ask, I did graduate in this century, but that’s all I can tell you.”
Jungkook registers an ache in his mouth area and he realizes that it’s because he’s been smiling really wide for a really long time. He’s so not used to this, oh god.
“Of course, chef-nim,” he says trying to contain his laughter.
“Yah!” the man huffs breaking his ultra-formal persona for a moment, and this moment makes Jungkook smile even wider.
“Hey, that reminds me,” the stranger’s eyes light up, whatever he just remembered so clearly expressed on his face that seeing him emote is like watching a one-actor stage play happen in real life. “I was actually about to ask somebody to help me out and escort me to the basketball, um, facility. And how entirely lucky I was to stumble upon you, right?”
Jungkook’s heart rate picks up a tiny bit at that. There’s nothing particularly strange about it, but the sheer coincidence of this unicorn of a man looking to get to the basketball court which happens to not only be the place Jungkook is currently headed to but one that he’s at more than anywhere else on campus - it's exciting.
“You definitely are lucky, I was actually going there now. Well, I was gonna have some lunch first, but I’ll just take you there-”
“Yah, don’t say another word!” the guy literally exclaims, like an epitome of a children's book character.
“What kind of a chef would I be if I stood in the way of children getting fed? Don’t say another word and lead me to that eatery you had in mind. No, wait, before you stop saying words, tell me your name? We’re not being civil, practically best buddies already, and we still don’t know each other’s names.”
“Um, Jeon Jungkook. My name. Nice to meet you! Aren’t you in a hurry though, because it's just across the street here, and I-”
“Uh-huh, Jungkook-shhi, nice to meet you too, now you can stop speaking! I’m not in a hurry at all, pinky swear. Kim Seokjin.” A pause. “In fact, would you mind if we dropped the formalities? I’m exhausted, I’ve already had my share of ‘imnida’ for life, and given how old I am I'm only going to get more. Call me hyung?”
Jungkook’s brain doesn't know what part of their conversation to focus on, so it’s going crazy about everything at once. So, now he’s apparently going to have lunch with this gorgeous person who will then go with him to the basketball court, and his name is Seokjin which is really pretty and Jungkook can call him hyung which is really insane-
“Hyung,” he blurts out the one thing he’s able to catch hold of and then falls silent in embarrassment. He likes how calling Seokjin his hyung makes him feel.
“Yeah, Jungkookah, that’s exactly what I meant. You seem smart! Okay, shall we go then?”
“Yes, yeah, um, it’s right, it’s about ten minutes from here, let’s go.” And he barely has the self-control to stop his hand a second before it reached out to grab Seokjin's on its own accord. “This way!”
*
Standing in the line to order his favorite tuna kimbap, Jungkook learns that Seokjin is the brother of their basketball coach Kim Seokjung, and they haven't seen each other for over three years now. While Jungkook can’t blame himself for not picking up on the last name (which Seokjin makes a joke about), he can actually see some resemblance in his mimic and in the shape of his eyes and lips now. Coach Kim’s face is much rounder though, and he’s not nearly as slim as Seokjin, so Jungkook didn’t even think to draw any parallels between them.
As they are arranging their food on the last empty table before somebody else takes it, Jungkook finds out Seokjin’s only recently moved back to Seoul after getting a job as a sous-chef in Jungsik*. He’s so modest about it too, mentioning the name of the restaurant in passing, and then looking sheepish like it slipped his tongue accidentally and he’d rather never have said it in the first place, that Jungkook finds himself smiling in endearment before gasping at the sheer lever of cool.
“It has a Michelin star, hyung, oh my god!” His voice comes out too loud, too excited like he was just told that it's him who was hired to work under a real legendary chef and not Seokjin.
“Not to be that kind of person, but it has two, Jungkookah. And yet, and yet, no matter how cool it is, it’s exhausting work! I barely have time for things now, I barely have time for Jinsoonie, and I barely get enough beauty sleep. This face requires maintenance, you know? Can’t believe I only sleep seven hours now, I need at least nine to stay young forever.”
Jungkook doesn’t miss the mention of a woman’s name, some ‘Jinsoonie’, and he fights his every instinct to ask Seokjin who she is. It’s brought up briefly, it’s not Seokjin’s point, and Jungkook would seem even creepier than before, when he was staring at Seokjin unceremoniously for a whole minute before he was stopped. Well, he wasn’t actually, he’s still looking at Seokjin. At this precise moment, for example, Seokjin is stuffing his mouth with the third roll of kimbap in a row. Jungkook squints his eyes just in case they were going to widen, to nip it in the bud, so to speak.
“This face here gets three hours of sleep at best, hyung,” Jungkook points at his face and wiggles his finger for a good measure. He smiles just a tad wider at Seokjin’s pointed ‘rude’ and continues. “I mean, I can’t really compare, mine is just a plain regular face, but still.”
“Your face is great, Jungkookah, very cute in all its plain regular-ity. Those three hours are doing you wonders, but I would still maybe triple them for the best effect. Just a thought!”
He’s not blushing at this beautiful man calling him cute, nope. After all, just because he said so doesn’t mean he really genuinely thinks so, right? And he said it through three large pieces of food in his mouth which is- impressive, but also makes it a smaller deal. Like, with each slice of the kimbap roll the deal gets divided by two.
“It’s a good one, hyung, maybe in five years when I’m done with both my Bachelor’s and my Master’s.”
He doesn’t really have plans for so far ahead, but the remark is made to avoid making a less appropriate one, like saying more compliments to Seokjin’s face and other parts of his body or actually asking him if he really-really thinks Jungkook is cute. Now that would be pathetic.
But this opens another topic for them to discuss, and Jungkook gets lost in sharing his vague ideas about the future with Seokjin. He looks so genuinely invested, asks questions, and makes jokes every other sentence, so Jungkook speaks without being scared to sound dumb or say too much. Seokjin simultaneously brings up a playful side in him, making him want to come up with stupid puns and references that make no sense, and he also commands respect – both the literal fact that he’s so accomplished and successful and the subtler things: the way he’s looking at Jungkook with that veil of experience and maybe even the beginnings of wisdom, the calm aura he exudes even when he’s being silly – which is basically 80% of the time – the measured and collected way in which he moves, still clearly not completely comfortable in his own body, but making others, Jungkook for that matter, feel more secure in their own, more grounded in a way.
They’re so engaged in the conversation that Jungkook doesn’t notice how the time has come for him to be at practice. He’s late already when he catches the numbers on Seokjin’s wristwatch and startles from his chair with an ‘oh, shit!’
It’s Seokjin tries to apologize for keeping him now, and it’s Jungkook who has to shut him up – politely but not so politely that he doesn’t deserve a surprised but also kind of proud ‘brat’ Seokjin sends his way as then they’re fumbling with placing the plates on the tray. As they walk quickly towards the sports center, they go on chatting even though they’re a little breathless from doing both.
"Ah, I'm aging disgustingly fast, so middle-aged it hurts to think about it,” Seokjin complains, clearly more out of breath than Jungkook but still going strong. “My fourth decade is right behind the corner now, it's peeking out."
"Like grandmas like to say? Then I'm on also my thirtieth now, which means I'm almost forty too."
"You're a baby, Jungkookah, what are you talking, uh, babbling about?"
That reminds him of Sunsoo-noona calling him a baby. And he understands now that it was fine for her to see him as a baby. He does not want Seokjin to see him like that. Well, maybe in a sexy way. Possibly. Wow, okay.
“I mean, I’ve seen your abs, so you’re clearly not a child, but you’re so young it hurts to look at you. Are you sure you’re twenty yet?”
“I'm twenty-one! Well," Jungkook suddenly gets shy about only turning twenty-one today. He has an urge to say so, thinks that Seokjin could get all excited for it being Jengkook's birthday. But something makes him bite his tongue.
“Practically an infant is what you're saying,” Seokjin berates with a chuckle that is 90% breath - they’ve been going uphill for too long.
"A legal adult is what I'm saying!”
There's a silence after that. Well, it would have probably been better to mention it's his birthday than do that.
"I could race you to the top, hyung, but I won't because you don't look like you'll keep up!" Jungkook teases then and gathers all his strength to run several meters ahead of Seokjin. He’s learning that he loves teasing him, even though they’ve only known each other for a little over an hour.
“Hey, what are you then, hyung, thirty?" Jungkook makes scary eyes at him as he’s turning to walk backward. Seokjin is panting, his wet fringe all messy on his forehead, dry lips parted. Face red but still smiling as he replies
"Well, I'm thirty-two, if you must know, but it's pretty much all the same after twenty-nine anyway."
Jungkook is kind of surprised – even though it’s not unbelievable, he would never guess that that was Seokjin’s age. He’s not sure though what age he would’ve assigned to him because Seokjin honestly looks like he just doesn’t have it, no age at all.
*
He doesn’t prepare for the parting with Seokjin so it happens abruptly to Jungkook's disappointment.
They enter the sports building engaged in a conversation about a certain philosophy professor whose class they found out they both attended, and at first, they don’t even see coach Kim standing in the middle of the hall giving what seems like a scolding to Jungkook’s teammate. When he turns their way, the moment is truly cinematic. Well, if Seokjin laughing out loud and shouting ‘brother!’ in a silly voice across the hall, can be called such.
What follows is probably a warm reunion scene that Jungkook doesn’t get to watch a lot of. After the greetings, a little grumpy on the coach’s side and a lot dramatic on Seokjin’s, the coach complains about Seokjin ‘popping by’ (quoting him of course) too early as he still has three hours of practice after which and only then he’d love to catch up.
“Ah, but I thought we’d drop by the preschool on our way to mine because you know-” says Seokjin, and then stops. Because coach Kim notices Jungkook just standing there awkwardly listening in on their conversation. He turns his full body towards him and raises his eyebrows.
“Jeon, do you need a special invitation or something? The boys’ been on it for twenty minutes, what the hell, go change, now!”
And with that, he turns back to Seokjin with a shake of his head and a look that says something like ‘these kids, am I right?’
“I-,” Jungkook starts searching Seokjin’s face for a second but then realizes he can’t really say anything to stay for longer – and he is pretty late. Which is uncharacteristic of him, and he can’t really decide if it makes his situation better or worse.
“Yeah, we’re going,” he hears somebody stutter out and on his right, he sees that guy the coach was scolding, Jaehee, already on his way to the lockers.
“Yeah,” he echoes, suddenly aware of the fact that the brothers are probably waiting for them to leave before continuing the conversation. Saying a familiar bye, hyung would be inappropriate, so he doesn't.
The last thing he sees before the door closes in front of his face is Seokjin’s cheeky smile and a wink that makes his heart flutter.
Seokjin would be the kind to date, Jungkook’s brain supplies unhelpfully as he’s tugging his jeans off his legs. He wouldn’t just fuck and leave, he seems too good for something like that. Again, not that being ‘like that’ is wrong per se – Jungkook seems to be like that to anyone who doesn’t know him well, that is, to everyone except for Eunha. And she’s totally like that like that, with her whole one-night-standy heart, even though she’s probably the coolest person Jungkook knows.
But then he sees Kim Taehyung’s smug face as he enters the locker room, very late and very clearly not giving a shit, and he suddenly remembers exactly why a hookup lover is a synonym to an asshole in his book.
*** *** ***
The first time Jungkook saw Taehyung, he was fourteen. It was lunchtime, and the cafeteria was a dangerous place to be. He didn't really belong there, a middle school freshman sitting at a table with a couple of 9th graders, so, naturally, he was more than a little overwhelmed.
It must have been some sort of miracle or something because who else could be lucky enough to fall over in the corridor on his first day and get laughed at by mean older boys just to look up and see a pair of kind eyes and an endeared smile of an angel-like girl stretching her delicate hand towards him.
Jungkook had known Sunsoo-noona for less than a couple of hours and yet he was already pretty sure he was in love. And even though he wasn't a fan of how she kept calling him cute and petting his hair, neither his brother nor his friends from 6th grade went there, meaning that nobody was going to mock him for being babied, so he could roll with it for now. She reminded him of his mom, but she was also mad pretty, so it was probably fine. Better that way actually.
And if she caught him after his class to lead him to have lunch with her friends, even though they were all girls, Jungkook was okay with that too. Girls or not, they were older and they seemed to be pretty cool around here. So nobody would bully him if he was hanging out with them, right?
The initial shock passed after around twenty minutes.
The dining hall was getting less crowded, the first and second waves of students came and went like a bigger and smaller tornado. So then there was barely a breeze, the remaining students ate unhurriedly, spoke to each other softly, walked around slowly and relaxedly.
“-week Kyujinie has been pining for. She’s never gotten a C before in her life, never thought she would! Her mom didn’t let me come to her’s after school yesterday as punishment!”
This girl with big plump lips pointed her finger at something behind Jungkook’s back. Someone, he realized. He was not about to comment that pointing is rude because it’s what his mom’s always said, but these girls must have known better anyway. Maybe girls were allowed to point, cause that their fingers are were pretty all the time.
“He’s so sweet though! We have English and Lit together, and he’s so smart too, Mae-ya!"
That was Sunsoo-noona, and Jungkook was instantly paying attention - now that he wasn't as overwhelmed as before. He was a little sad they’re not talking about him anymore like they were in the beginning. But he guessed whatever Sunsoo-noona had to say was cool.
“Well, maybe! But Kyujinie wouldn’t lie, right? She didn’t tell him it was her first kiss, but still. And she told him afterwards, and he was mean to her anyway.”
Mae’s eyebrows furrowed but she kept looking over shyly to the boy in question. She had small eyes but her huge eyelashes made them look sharper, really expressive and, honestly, a little scary.
“Did he say mean things to her?” Sundoo-noona looked shocked, and Jungkook couldn't help but feel curious about whoever it is they were discussing.
“Well, no-” Mae frowned a little more and looked that way again, but then her head jerked back down so suddenly that Jungkook felt his heart do a jump as well. The boy must have seen her look, and now she was biting those plump lips and blushing.
“He didn’t say anything that mean, I guess,” she whispered, although it was more like scream-whispering which was probably a little louder than her normal voice. “Well, he said he liked it! And then, when she asked if he liked her, he laughed! Said he just wanted to kiss a pretty girl like her and then he asked if she could show him her Math notes cause he hadn’t taken any.”
“Did she?”
“Did she what?”
“Show him the notes?”
That was the third girl, whose name Jungkook wasn't sure he'd caught when they'd introduced themselves. He knew she was a little older, and she agreed he was cute but didn’t try to pinch his cheeks like Sunsoo and Mae suggested because it’s so soft unnie isn’t he so adorable. Sunsoo-noona stared at her reproachfully, but the girl just shrugged, face blank.
“She didn’t!” An audible squeak almost broke through Mae’s whispering that was getting vaguely hysterical. “She asked if they were going to go out then, and he said ‘Nah’. ‘Nah’! And then he asked her what kind of lip balm she used because it tasted sweet. Can you believe that?”
“The audacity,” the older girl said just as blankly, such a stark contrast with Mae who was still blushing furiously.
“Poor Kyujin,” Sunsoo-noona sighed, looking over again, and Jungkook couldn’t resist turning over his shoulder to look too.
He was pretty sure he got the right person - given that there was only one boy standing at the food stall, chatting with a young woman behind the counter. Jungkook could only see one side of his face, but it was obvious that the boy was smiling at her, and that smile must have been really big from the front. It was big enough already from the side.
And then the boy laughed and waved at her before turning and walking right in the direction of their table.
It was sudden enough that Jungkook didn't have time to spin back around, and he knew it’d be weird to do that when the stranger had already seen him. So he stayed. He let his eyes wander over the stalls and the staff members flipping the leftover food over with spatulas and ladles. But it was hard to focus on anything else because the boy was still grinning, and he was looking at Jungkook, actually looking at him as he approached.
His eyes were big, but not childish-round like Jungkook’s - rather they were a pretty shape. He had big ears as well, really big, and it would be funny, how much they stood out, but the giant smile on his otherwise extremely proportionate face was square and charming and it made Jungkook want to smile and laugh with him instead of smiling and laughing at him.
And it’s exactly what he did.
He couldn’t control the way his lips stretched outwards and he caught himself staring at the boy openly now and smiling like an idiot.
Jungkook jumped at the way the boy patted him on the head as he reached the table, the square shape never leaving his mouth.
“Ah guiyowoe!*” he cooed - cooed - at Jungkook while he was at it. He passed them but then turned around and continued walking backwards toward the exit to the hall.
“Hey Mae-ya,” he shouted, and Mae was spinning so fast to face him that very second. “Cute kid you got there with you, mamas."
Mae blushed once again and nodded her head really hard.
“Late, Park Sunsoo-sshi,” he looked at Sunsoo-noona then, and Jungkook was surprised to find her face redden as well. “It’s old Seo Jeongju day, did you forget? Your favorite.”
And with that, he was gone.
“Aish, he’s such a-” Mae shook her head in frustration, briefly touched her own cheek with the back of her palm. “Kim Taehyung, all smug when my poor Kyujinie- Sunsoo-yah!”
Sunsoo-noona looked up dazedly and lifted her eyebrows. Mae reached her hand across the table, put the same one on Sunsoo’s cheek, then another, and let out a heavy sigh shaking head in what looked like disappointment.
Sunsoo smiled stiffly, and Jungkook repeated the name ‘Kim Taehyung’ in his head.
“Let’s move, Jungkookah, noona has to go to class. I’ll take you to the library, okay?”
Jungkook nodded and followed Sunsoo out of the dining hall. He couldn’t stop his lips from opening slightly around that name, ‘Kim Taehyung’, as if tasting it, on his way out.
*
From that first interaction, whenever Jungkook saw Kim Taehyung in the corridor or in the school backyard, he couldn’t help but gawk at him silently and lose all focus. There was something about this pretty and smiley upperclassman that he was drawn to so very much.
At the beginning of his second week in middle school, Jungkook had his first PE class.
When he left the locker room and got to the closed stadium, the first things he saw was Kim Taehyung flying. He was practically under the ceiling, jumping so high to get the ball into the basket that at the landing his basketball shorts rode up high to show his not-so-skinny thighs. Jungkook just registered that neutral fact for no reason and the next moment he heard loud cheers from all of the boys surrounding Taehyung. A dozen 9th graders closed in on him and shouted excitedly. ‘Tenth in a row’ was one thing he heard clearly but there wasn't much else.
Jungkook stumbled and fell awkwardly onto his knees while running laps as a warm-up exercise because he kept turning his head towards wherever Taehyung was. He just looked so cool, and he was smiling all the time whenever he had the ball, which was really often, and Jungkook wished he had the same confidence to smile so openly – he’d been teased constantly for having bunny teeth up until he graduated from elementary school, and so he’d learned not to open his mouth much when smiling.
After the class he approached his teacher to ask about the basketball team, and he was nervous, but the teacher looked him up and down, nodded to himself and then Jungkook suddenly had the time and place to go after class. His very first basketball practice.
There were a couple of boys his age on the team, but it mostly consisted of 8th and 9th graders, most of whom were much taller than Jungkook. Jungkook met Kihyun, a little chubby and a lot nerdy boy who seemed shy too but started a conversation with Jungkook because apparently Jungkook looked even shyer. Kihyun told him that he wanted to play basketball like his hyung who was in college, and Jungkook was only a tiny bit envious of how his eyes lighted up when he talked about his brother. His own hyung was never somebody Jungkook wanted to look up to. They weren’t close, Junghyun was never around, and he was as far from any kind of sport as possible anyway. But then he saw Kim Taehyung in the locker room after practice, and Kim Taehyung smiled at him briefly – still so wide – and Jungkook was no longer bitter.
Jungkook was content with what he got – a few smiles a week from Kim Taehyung without having him occupy the bathroom when he needed to go, and eat his sweets, and not let him play games on his computer.
And from Sunsoo-noona he got more than a few smiles a week. She’d been so kind to him letting him sit with her friends again and again when they had matching schedules, and she was pretty, and Jungkook was definitely in love.
He heard her talk to Mae about Taehyung, and then his tongue slipped and he mentioned that he was now a basketball player because of Taehyung.
“He’s so good, noona,” he said to defend himself against her cold look following his confession. “I wanna be like that too.”
”You don’t wanna be like Taehyung, trust me.” He remembered his mom saying something similar about his dad.
”But why don’t you like him, noona?
“I just like you much more, Jungkookah. And you’ll be better than him, I’m sure of it.”
She patted him on the head and he didn’t ask any more questions. It was strange to him that she didn’t think he should aspire to be like someone as cool, but he was also glad.
The thing is, with each boy she didn’t like, Jungkook’s chances grew. Sunsoo clearly saw him as a child, but he hoped that she’d stop someday, and by that time he would be worthy of her attention.
That’s how his whole first year in middle school went by.
*
He had his first big basketball match at the end of June, and to say he was excited when his team won was a great understatement. He was practically jumping all over the locker room, with Kihyun laughing at him and asking him to ‘calm down you weirdo’. But Jungkook was just too happy to be able to calm down. And then he saw Kim Taehyung enter the room.
And Jungkook was still high from the game, energized because he just won, and it was summer, and he was in love with a beautiful girl who cheered for him when he scored at the very end of the match. Taehyung was smiling as he always did, chatting with his friends while fumbling with his sports bag on the bench. And Jungkook couldn’t hide his smile as he always did, so he flashed his whole 32 teeth at Taehyung, not really caring that he was staring openly.
“What’s got you so excited, kid?” Taehyung said to him then, and Jungkook was over the moon.
“I, um, we just won a game, I just won my first game.” He ended his sentence maybe much too formally, and Taehyung turned away to nod at something his friend was saying, but then was back and he looked at Jungkook again.
“Oh yeah?” he asked in a bland voice but Jungkook only knew that Kim Taehyung was talking to him, so wow.
“Yeah! It was my very first match too, it’s so cool, I think I did well too, because when there was just a minute left-”
“Congrats, man,” Taehyung mumbled, just an afterthought said out loud as he was already turning away once again to smile some more at his friend. Then he was saying something else, and Jungkook realized it wasn’t to him anymore. He also realized that Kim Taehyung’s smile was always for his friend, never for him, not for Jungkook.
He felt someone tapping his shoulder just then. Kihyun.
“Kook, you coming?”
He looked confused, and also like it wasn’t the first time he’d asked. They were supposed to go to his place because his mom cooked too much jjajangmyeon, Jungkook remembered now. They were supposed to celebrate.
He looked over to Taehyung again, straight at his pretty face, from so up close. But Taehyung was emerged in a conversation with his friends, laughing with them about something, and Jungkook wasn’t a part of it. He felt seen for a moment but it was just an illusion, he knew that now.
And so, his fascination with Kim Taehyung began to slowly fade from that point on.
A couple of days later there was a seniors’ match between their school and a private one from an elite neighborhood in Gangnam. He cheered so loud that his voice was gone by the end of it. And then, when he saw Taehyung in the corridor, sweaty from the game, small but victorious grin on his reddened face, Jungkook couldn’t not smile at him again. Hopefully, maybe.
Taehyung’s gaze grazed over him briefly like he was part of the environment as he just walked by, no recognition on his face, eyes blank.
And then middle school ended for Taehyung, and Jungkook didn’t see him around anymore.
*
Jungkook met with Sunsoo on occasion; when it was warm, she had ice cream with him at an open café near his school building, and on his 14th and 15th birthdays she gave him cool sci-fi novels as a gift. Now a high school student, she had the new cool uniform, and Jungkook was extremely proud to be seen with her in public.
She was becoming prettier every time he saw her, more grown-up. She was wearing more makeup and her hair was tamer, more like Jungkook’s mom’s than before. They talked about all sorts of things, how he was into basketball more and more, and about her joining an after-school glee club. He loved listening to stories about her teachers that were going to be his teachers soon, and he tried to take in as much as he was able.
Kim Taehyung’s name was brought up a couple of times over the lightening-fast two years of their friendship.
It was always brief and always in relation to him winning a game, barely passing a test, or vice versa scoring higher than the rest of the parallel. And if the first time Jungkook heard her talk about him, he was alert, after remembering that blank look in his eyes, he got less interested each time, until the name stopped sounding all that different from any other name of any other student Sunsoo mentioned.
*
Jungkook was really happy about his very first day in high school.
Of course, it was overall so great to not be a middle schooler at last, and it was the beginning of the last step on his way to becoming an adult (right?). He was excited about the 'grown-up' basketball he'd get to play, and for a more modern building to have classes in. He was not as hyped for the new disciplines he'd have to study for and for more workload, but he wasn’t scared of it all either – studying had always come easy for him, in fact, most things had.
But this spring day was especially special for Jungkook. Because it was the day – the day of his love confession to Sunsoo-noona.
He'd been cultivating his feelings for her for three years. He’s been more than patient. He'd enjoyed being her friend, had always been eager to listen to whatever she had to say, given her smooth compliments (called her pretty each time he saw her basically). And at the same time, he'd been working on perfecting himself for her.
He was away at his grandparents’ house in Busan for the spring break before 10th grade, and he was making the most of his time there – like, he hit the gym with his uncle whenever possible, and he was working out every single day at home as well. He was playing basketball with local kids for hours. He was playing computer games less to have an extra hour to read some of the books Sunsoo recommended to him before the start of the break. He was growing hair – it almost reached his shoulders by the end of August. It was just that he heard Sunsoo-noona discuss some really popular actor with Mae, and when he googled him later, the guy turned out to have this huge mop of hair. His was bleached, too, but Jungkook wasn’t about to take such extreme steps quite yet.
In short, he’d been more than ready.
She was away as well, last spring and the spring before that. Jungkook texted her nice things every evening, but she didn’t reply often. Her extended family was both huge and strict, and they had these weird rituals for spending time together so she barely got to use her phone at all.
Jungkook was not suffering too much though. He made sure to look at Sunsoo’s picture every other day before he went to sleep, wishing her goodnight in his thoughts, and he even picked up a notebook to write some poetry about her. That latter was hard, but he figured that since he was in love, it was a given that he must have things to write poems about. And he did – although they were always either too literal and therefore cringy, or too abstract so that he couldn’t reread them and pay attention for more than one stanza because it just didn’t make any sense.
One thing was for certain – he was set on making his move. They’d been pretty close these years, and even though he hadn’t actually felt any attention from her that would suggest that kind of attraction, she still ruffled his hair and called him cute all the time and didn’t filter the girl talk in his presence, and there must come a time when it’s no longer okay to do it with a boy whom a girl doesn’t like like that.
Looking in the enormous wall mirror at his grandma’s right before leaving for the station on the last day before school, Jungkook confirmed that he definitely looked grown-up enough to be seen as a- guy. Not a boy, not just a friend, but a boyfriend. Maybe. Hopefully.
He was tall – he’d been as tall as Sunsoo-noona in 9th grade already, but he was sure he’d grown taller yet since then, and become broader in the shoulder area. His cheeks were not as soft anymore, and even if they were, well, his nose didn’t look as large on his face now that his jaw got wider and sharper. Only his eyes were still huge as when he was a child, which he wasn’t thrilled about, but he guessed there still had to be something cute about him.
He’d grown in other areas as well. Not much but he’d never thought to be concerned about that. It was embarrassing to think about, but just in case Sunsoo-noona cared about these things, he wouldn’t have to be ashamed for having... feet and hands the same size as they were when he was thirteen.
Back then he already had to deal with the same things that meddled with his otherwise productive and personal development-focused life at seventeen. He hadn’t watched porn much though, because it weirded him out the first time he’d seen it, and all it had done was make him really uncomfortable. He didn’t have friends who’d be enthusiasts about that either, his still pretty much only friend that mattered, Kihyun, was an even bigger nerd than Jungkook, and where Jungkook had his love for Sunsoo and all the activities related to that, Kihyun just had more video games and comic books.
What made this all the more embarrassing was that Jungkook hated the mere idea of linking Sunsoo to his occasional jerk-off episodes. Thinking of her in those moments he felt horrible. It just just plain wrong, the same shame as if he’d been thinking of his mom. Because, well, mom was the best, she was the modern non-religious person’s version of a sacred person, and therefore so was his crush Sunsoo. He wanted to kiss her of course, so it was nothing like mom, and he wanted to hug her for longer than he got to as a friend, but going further in his imagination was entirely too much.
He was sure this uncanny feeling at the prospect of disrespecting Sunsoo-noona by thinking about her sexually would pass as soon as she reciprocated his feelings. Or maybe a little later than that. Until then though, the images of Irelia and Taliyah swaying in front of him in pretty underwear and scraping his skin with their pretty nails were enough for him. And if some nights his brain supplied him with vague silhouettes of Sett and Rakan, he was fine with it. Because pointed ears were hot regardless of gender, come on.**
On the first day of classes, Jungkook was late to school.
He arrived ten minutes after the bell had rung, and then he was as disoriented for the remainder of the school day. Kihyun had to guide him in the corridors even though they were new to both of them because Jungkook would simply bump into people and things otherwise.
Sunsoo didn’t have classes until much later into the day, and Jungkook was waiting impatiently for their agreed-upon meeting outside the gym at 2 pm. She was going to accompany him to the first basketball practice of his high school career, and he couldn’t be happier.
But right before his trigonometry class, the last one before the x hour, a tough-looking guy in a tracksuit walked in. He was the basketball coach Jungkook was going to be meeting later, and he requested the teacher to ‘borrow’ a couple of strong guys to move some equipment for athletes to be able to practice. Can’t get my hands on any seniors in the beginning of the school year, he said, and then looked at Jungkook. Jungkook, who was already standing up from his seat. He knew he was the strongest there, even though it may not have looked that way, and besides, he wasn’t a fan of trigonometry. The coach nodded and then pointed his finger at another boy and left the classroom.
There was not nearly as much work as Jungkook could have imagined, just relocating a couple dozen mats and removing a stack of weights from the corners of the indoor court.
The other guy seemed to be really keen on finishing the task fast, so they were done with everything in less than thirty minutes. The boy split as soon as the coach confirmed he could, and then he himself left as well, staring at the screen of his phone as he did. Jungkook looked around for a little longer, the sight of a huge space – much bigger than his old basketball court in middle school – impressive enough for him to space out for a while.
A muffled squeak from somewhere behind him brought him back. He was not sure it even came from this room at all, but the sound repeated again, and then Jungkook got suspicious. The first thought he had was naturally that someone was hurt, so he followed the sound. It wasn’t far – one look to the space behind the bleachers, and then he saw them.
A guy and a girl, making out loudly.
Jungkook didn’t mean to be a perv, but he was at first surprised and then entranced by the scene playing out before his eyes.
He’d seen a couple kiss in a corner at school once, his classmates thought they were sneaky. But it had been nothing like this. The guy had the girl pressed into the wall, and he was like, all over her, so that Jungkook could only see the side of the girl’s tall-ish frame. Their kissing sounded kind of damp, and Jungkook couldn’t explain the feelings it evoke in him. They were not just kissing though, they were moving with their whole bodies. Well, at least, the guy was. He was rocking his body into hers, probably coming on too strong with the way his hips pushed forward again and again, but she didn’t seem to mind.
And then a couple of things happened at the same time.
The guy let out the loudest grunt yet as he shifted their bodies a little, and Jungkook saw that he’d got his hand under her skirt. He was also bending his head down abruptly, breaking away from the girl’s face that he had been (arguably?) kissing with a nasty pop, and lashing onto her throat that turned out to be exposed with the way her shirt was unbuttoned all the way to her navel.
For a few seconds, all Jungkook could see was a cleavage. And then the girl moaned closed-mouthed and turned her head to face Jungkook. It was his noona’s face.
He lagged. Her cheeks were red and glistening in the dim light from the outside, and Jungkook couldn’t blink or move. He wanted to leave without making a sound, thought it’d probably be better and nobler if he hid that he saw anything at all, and he was planning ahead on how to manage his broken-heartedness that was beginning to claw at his chest but keep his pride as well. But that was in his head. In reality, he made a sound – a rather pathetic one at that, he’d say in retrospect. But it was whatever because it got the couple’s attention.
Then it was simultaneously a blur and the most lucid Jungkook’d been in his life up until that moment.
Kim Taehyung turning on his heels and swearing but starting to laugh right away, Sunsoo shrieking a little in surprise, first just an ‘ah’ and then Jungkook’s name, both of them buttoning their shirts with the bonus of Taehyung wiping his hand hastily on his trousers and Sunsoo tugging her skirt back down in a rush.
“I’m sorry, kid,” Taehyung exclaimed looking at Jungkook, and he sounded like he had a cold. He was still laughing.
“Ok, mama, I’ll see you ‘round.”
This last one – to Sunsoo, and then he was off. He walked across the court and disappeared behind a door that said ‘boys lockers’.
“Kookah,” Sunsoo called in a high voice, and then she led Jungkook out as well.
Taehyung was gone of course, and the class was still not over, so they were the only people in the hall at the moment.
“I’m sorry, Kookah,” she used the same words as Kim Taehyung, and smiled embarrassedly, rolling her eyes a little. “It’s not good that you see your noona in such an inappropriate situation first thing on your first school day!”
“Noona-” Jungkook started but trailed off.
He was battling with himself, trying to decide what to say to her.
“I promise you not all of us high schoolers are such heathens. Oh god, that’s really embarrassing, isn’t it?”
“Kim Taehyung is your boyfriend, noona?” he asked, cringing at the way his voice broke at the end. It came to him randomly, but the question was right.
“No, Kookah, come on, you’d know if I had a boyfriend.”
She looked like she was calming down, and Jungkook wasn’t sure he liked it. He was not about to point out that what Kim Taehyung and she were doing looked exactly like something a boyfriend and girlfriend got up to, to his understanding. He was aware that it didn’t have to be serious like that, and he was chill about the idea of people who are not dating having sex. But he didn’t relate to this idea whatsoever and even more so when the person in question was his noona, his Sunsoo-noona, and then also when the other person in question was Kim Taehyung- It was frustrating beyond belief.
“But I thought you didn’t like him,” he said weakly. “You said you didn’t, and I-”
Kim Taehyung broke a girl’s heart. He was mean to Sunsoo’s friend, and Mae-noona said he laughed a lot. And the girl was sad. Sunsoo felt sorry for her too.
“I like you though,” his voice was getting quieter.
“Aww, Kookah, thank you for saying that, noona made a fool of herself, didn’t she?”
No, not like that.
“I like like you though, noona, and I wanted to tell you, and it’s okay I think, since he’s not your boyfriend and all, but I just, I like you, do you, um, do you maybe, like me? Maybe?”
There was a long pause, and Jungkook still didn’t breathe in even once. It was maybe a whole ten unbearable seconds of silence.
“Kookah, I mean, it’s all-“ She seemed to lose her thought but picked it up in no time. “I love you, but come on, you’re my younger brother more like, how can I-”
“It’s okay!” It was not. It was beginning to hurt, Jungkook thought that’s what that feeling was.
“Hey, wait, first I gotta congratulate you on becoming a high school boy, okay? Shit, I didn’t even have a chance to do that first. Kookah, I’m so sorry for ruining that for you! Oh, god.”
She drew her thin eyebrows together, shifted the schoolbag on her shoulder.
“Noona, I- I get it, I think. But it’s just that I thought that you might. Like, maybe not right now? But I’ve been- Nevermind. But I was thinking maybe even just in theory and like as a possibility for later-“
“Ah, Kookah, I’m so sorry baby, I mean you’re my baby doengsaeng, I feel like I raised you, you know? You’ve got so big, I see it, I see you, Kook, you’re practically a man now, but just.”
There was finality in her tone, even if there wasn’t one in her grammar. She was so gentle about it, too. It also didn’t look like she was apologizing too much – Jungkook knew she didn’t actually have to be sorry for anything because she didn’t owe him a thing whereas he owed her a lot. And that was probably why he said
“He’s an asshole though, noona.”
“Kookah!”
Suddenly he felt like he’d been splashed with a bucket of ice. She was outraged at him saying ‘asshole’ at seventeen like she was his mother. She literally sounded like his mom.
“No, but really, I remember that he was an ass- okay, a dick to your friend, remember? And, and he was laughing like one too.”
“It’s not like that, it’s history now. He’s my friend, Kookah, and he’s a good guy, I swear.”
But Jungkook couldn’t wrap his head around it, because while he was chill about people having casual sex – is that what it’s called? – he was not okay with them being so smug about it. And like, why would you have sex with your friend of all people? He would never imagine doing anything like that with Kihyun- Okay, shit, he was thinking about it now. Although it wasn’t a valid analogy because Kihyun was a guy too. But what about Sunsoo-noona herself then? She was his friend, and he couldn’t even think- shit, okay, that led him nowhere.
“He’s just very progressive about these things, you know? Me too, but you weren’t supposed to know that… Gosh, I’m not about to teach you all this, but I’m pretty sure you know as much as I do, right? Cause you’re, wow, seventeen, Kookah, you were still shorter than me when I saw you lost in that corridor three years ago. Ah, noona’s getting old.”
They looked at each other in silence for a few moments.
“Have I completely ruined your day now?” she asked self-consciously, and Jungkook couldn’t be mean to her.
“No! Really, you didn’t. I’m, um, sad a little bit, but what can you do?”
“I’m really sorry, Kook.”
“You haven’t done anything wrong though. Well, I guess making out or whatever is not right when you’re at school, but-”
“Hey!” She laughed, still looking at him a little cautiously, but clearly relieved he wasn’t about to cry or get angsty or something. And he wasn’t. She was not at fault here.
“Hey!” he parroted, letting a small smile spread on his lips as well.
It hurt, but he’d manage.
“We still gotta-“ he began but stopped.
A memory was unlocked suddenly, and it felt weird like he was in a game. He looked at Sunsoo the high school senior, but all he could see was the face of Sunsoo the kind noona who just picked him up from a crowded corridor when he was about to get trampled over by hoards of students so accustomed to those grounds, and took him under her wing before taking him to the dining hall and making him sit with her friends as a true angel she was.
She’d looked sad at Mae’s mention of Taehyung. She’d been so nervous when he had called her name, and she’d blushed so hard. They all had because Taehyung was already handsome, Jungkook just didn’t focus on that as much yet. Not that he focused now. But Sunsoo had been acting like a confident, cool girl with him, and her friends had been very clearly cool girls. She’d been so collected and bright then already, she’d felt sensible, kind of more self-aware than most people under the age of twenty or something. And yet, she’d got flustered by the mere idea of Kim Taehyung back then. Probably that was what non-romantics look like in love.
And then he made out with her. No, they clearly were doing something really sexual under those bleachers. And then he laughed, and she pretended to be chill about casually hooking up with him just to- why? Not to scare him away maybe, because she didn’t want him to laugh at her like he laughed at her friend back in 9th grade, like he was making fun of her having feelings, because what he’d rather do was just-
Jungkook didn’t think about what he was saying to her as he backed away in the direction of the gym, but then the bell rang and they got separated by waves of students popping out of the classrooms like champagne bubbles.
Kim Taehyung was still there in the locker room, sitting on a bench with his legs spread wide. He wore his basketball clothes, the same ones Jungkook was going to be wearing soon, scrolling on his phone. Shorts revealing his thighs, thick round kneecaps, such hairy legs, wow.
“Kid, you need something?” he asked without taking his eyes away from the screen at all.
“Ya,” Jungkook started because he wanted to pick a fight, and that was one way to do it, as far as he knew.
“You’re, um, you’re a dick.”
Taehyung took a second to block his phone before he raised his head. There was a smile playing on his lips, as fucking always, and Jungkook couldn’t remember how it had felt to like the look of it on his face – now he kinda wanted to punch it. Him. And that was a new one.
“Ya to you as well,” he said with a chuckle. “What was your name again?”
“My- doesn’t matter. But you should be so much less of a dick to Sunsoo-noona.” He stopped, unable to continue.
“If I know what’s good for me?” Taehyung suggested, and Jungkook loaded for a few seconds before realizing he was being mocked – again.
“Yes. And you know what, my name is Jeon Jungkook, and I’m telling you to stop acting like- you know, I said it a lot, and I know what you’re like, okay? It’s not cool, and you seem like you think it is cool, but, well, it’s not. Noona though, she’s-“
He trailed off again, not sure exactly how he got here but certain that he was about to tell Taehyung that Sunsoo-noona is in love with him. Which he didn’t know for a fact, and even if he did – he did! – it wasn’t his secret to share. Shit, he was just about to give him a reason to mock his noona, what a dumbass.
“Noona’s too good for you, Kim Taehyung, so you should piss off.” He bit the ‘okay?’ that was going to slip off his tongue and that would sound like he was negotiating. When all he was doing was putting his foot down. He really hoped that was what he was doing.
“Listen here, Jeon Jungkook,” Taehyung started rising up from his seat, and Jungkook thought, probably not. “It’s hyung to you, by the way. Don’t thank me. Now, what are you, fifteen?”
“Seventeen-“ he argued, even though Taehyung was absolutely right about his actual international age. He was interrupted before he could finish the phrase though.
“And I’m certain you know all about the birds and the bees already? So it’s like that. Now, your noona and me, we’re good friends. Good grown-up friends who sometimes fuck to pass the time. It’s boring here man! You’re about to find out, but anyway, so, now, I see your adorable crush on her, it’s really cute. I actually wouldn’t call a fifteen-year-old’s crush cute normally, but you’re cute with these deer eyes of yours, so I am. Calling it cute. It’s cute, but like, maybe you should be more chill. Doesn’t concern you, this adult stuff. So kindly piss off.”
He lifted his arms and ran his fingers through his hair, brushing the fringe back. He had several pointy pink pimples on his forehead, and it seemed like there was some eyeliner in the corners of his eyes. Jungkook realized suddenly that they had almost exactly the same hair, his being just a centimeter or two longer than Taehuyung’s. The laughingly big ears Jungkook remembered Taehyung had were now hidden completely by his fluffy wavy bangs.
“Waa, man, I’m so sweaty already, it’s like sauna in here.” And his hairline really was a bit wet by the look of it. “Ah, so it’s like this, okay?”
Jungkook opened his mouth to reply, but so did the door behind his back, and he turned around to see a couple of guys walk in with heavy sports bags.
“I’ve got practice, so off you go now, Jungkookah,’ Taehyung said after greeting the guys. The last vowel turned into the beginning of a yawn, and then he was back on the bench, phone clutched in his large hand.
More guys entered the locker room now, and Jungkook didn’t come up with anything to say until it was too late – somebody was blocking his way to Kim Taehyung. The room began to smell of sweat and bitter deodorant and boy and there were more than a couple of naked torsos already in Jungkook’s field of view.
He left the gym with the intention of not returning in 1.5 hours for the freshman team’s practice. But then, sitting on a bench in an emptied garden right outside the gym window, he thought of Taehyung’s cocky demeanor, his lazy tone and body language – treating him like Jungkook was a child, a fucking preschooler. Not to be taken seriously because he’s too naïve and dumb.
Jungkook glanced to the side – there he was, Kim Taehyung behind the thick glass, chasing a ball with that grin on his face.
Jungkook wanted to take the ball away from him. He was sure he could, he’d practiced a lot, and he was quick. They were probably the same height, and he’d got big hands now as well. Maybe not quite as big as Taehyung’s, but more than capable of the same things.
The image of Taehyung taking his hand from underneath Sunsoo’s skirt and wiping it shamelessly all over his thigh – which, Jungkook had seen now, was not musclier than his own – popped up in his head for a second. And then he knew what this year was going to be all about.
He had to be better than him. He could so therefore he had to.
Jungkook told himself that this desire to be taken seriously was the same thing that’d just caught up with him after Sunsoo rejected his confession. It was probably, no, it was definitely him wanting to prove himself to her because she seemed to be in love with this asshole, and because he was jealous. He could still feel the hurt from her saying he was like a younger brother to her. And it wasn’t like he couldn’t understand that, in fact, it made spectacular sense, but it was about the principle.
And maybe, a little bit, about the way Kim Taehyung said his name. With a chuckle, like even Jungkook’s name was somehow funny.
He realized then that for some reason he wanted to hear Taehyung say his name again, in another way. He couldn’t make him show respect to a younger boy, of course, but he was certain he could do something to make his name sound differently from Taehyung’s lips, make it sound like Jungkook was not a joke or a child.
And that was exactly how his freshman year of high school went by.