Jeongguk stands at the side-lines of the court, heart rattling his chest loudly. He feels sick.

I knew I shouldn’t have eaten ice-cream for breakfast. He thinks regretfully to himself. The match is due to start in a few minutes; most of the crowd is seated and the cameras are up and running, broadcasting live. The only people they’re waiting for his Taehyung and his opponent, some random 30-year-old pro that Jeongguk has never heard of in his entire life. Though, he seems to be very successful with the way that the crowd is already screaming his name and holding up banners in support of him.

Jeongguk fiddles with the brooch on his shirt.

He sees Taehyung walk onto the court from the opposite end, and he smiles to himself, waiting to catch his eye and wave. Taehyung seems different today – he seems more on edge than usual, like he’s just had an argument or perhaps preparing for a fight. Jeongguk supposes it’s the stress of the match; it’s an important one after all.

He never bothers to keep up with all the important tennis lore and technical jargon; he just shows up at whatever address they give him and collects the balls whenever they tell him to. All in all, it’s truly not a bad job, and he’s a little thankful towards Namjoon for setting him up with it.

Taehyung walks up to him and dumps his bag down next to him.

“Taehyung!” Jeongguk smiles, “H-Hey!”

Taehyung looks up at him sharply and startled, like he hadn’t even noticed that Jeongguk was there. He nods at him once, lips pulled into a tight, forced smile as he turns around and walks away without greeting Jeongguk back or surprisingly without insulting him at all.

Jeongguk stares in confusion as he watches Taehyung get ready on the other side of the court.

What was that? He thinks to himself. Did I do something wrong? He already feels sick from the nerves of the game and the scary amount of chocolate ice cream he’d wolfed down this morning in place of a balanced breakfast, so Taehyung airing him is totally not helping him feel any better. Again, he chalks it down to pre-game nerves.

This is an important match for him, so he’s probably really tense and in his own head. He'll speak to me after the match is done. Guk tries to rationalise to himself.

Taehyung bounces the ball on the ground a few times as he gets ready to start the match; he has the starting serve thankfully. The ball bounces once, twice, three times, as Taehyung takes a deep breath and closes his eyes, before throwing it up in the air and sending it flying through the sky with a powerful hit from his racket.

The fate of Jeongguk’s love life rests on this game.

●

The match is a success.

Taehyung is winning, albeit not in straight sets, and if he keeps it up, it means he can advance on into the thing and do other things at different places with different people – Jeongguk's not really sure, but he knows it’s good!

His heart is in his throat, knowing that he’s going to have to confess to Taehyung soon and keep up his end of the deal with Namjoon. Jeongguk unfortunately, is a man of his word, and is sincerely starting to regret not planning out what he’s going to say to Tae in a matter of minutes.

Should he be cool? Sexy? Mysterious? Confident? Truly he has no idea, and the worry is starting to eat at him ever so slightly.

Taehyung hasn’t so much as spared him a glance throughout the whole game.

Usually, they catch each other’s eyes and smile, or Jeongguk will give him a thumbs up as he’s serving and Taehyung will roll his eyes. Even sometimes, during one of the breaks, Taehyung will share part of his banana with Jeongguk (and make him hold the peel afterwards) and indulge him in a singular game of rock-paper-scissors if he’s feeling charitable. But today, Taehyung isn’t focused on anything other than his ball and racket, and his dethatched mood is seriously confusing Jeongguk.

He fiddles with the brooch on his shirt.

Miraculously, Taehyung is able to hold on until the very end, and manages to emerge victorious. Jeongguk’s beaming by the time the match is over, happy to share in Taehyung’s joy at this hard-earned victory, but Taehyung doesn’t stick around for long after getting his trophy. Some people in the crowd are booing, clearly displeased at the fact that Taehyung had won, so Jeongguk carefully flips them off when he’s sure the cameras aren’t watching him.

Jeongguk watches him walk briskly off the court and out of sight, even away from his security guards, and it makes him frown deeply.

What the fuck? He thinks to himself, brows furrowing in confusion. He’s not aware of it, but his feet begin moving in the same direction, chasing after Taehyung to find out what the hell is going on. He follows him silently for a while, knowing that Taehyung is unaware of his presence.

Taehyung is aiming to exit the club entirely, probably heading to his car, when all of a sudden, he’s stopped by a group of teenagers, maybe a few years younger than him.Jeongguk can’t quite make out what’s being said, but he does hear Taehyung say “Leave me alone.” very loudly and clearly.

The teenagers say something back to him, and a few of the bigger boys start trying to intimidate Taehyung, pushing his shoulder aggressively and obviously trying to get him to retaliate. Guk supposes they’re fans of Taehyung’s opponent, and they aren’t too pleased at the fact that Taehyung beat him.

Why did you leave your bodyguards behind, you fucking idiot? Jeongguk thinks to himself, irritated at Taehyung’s lack of critical thinking and brainpower. He’s definitely going to tease him for this after its done.

Jeongguk watches as the people try to rile Taehyung up more. They snatch his car keys from his hand and push him over til he lands on the floor. Jeongguk can clearly tell that Taehyung is too tired to fight back after having played a full match against someone nearly twice his age, and there’s no way a private school dandelion like Taehyung could ever be able to hold his own against them anyway. He decides he’s seen enough and discreetly calls Mr Jung on his phone, letting him know what’s going on and telling him to be quick.

One of the teens looks like they’re about to try and seriously injure Taehyung, and Jeongguk sighs as he knows he’s going to have to step in and probably get himself beat up.

This is not the way he thought his day would go.

He stands up and begins to walk over, puffing out his chest to try and make himself look bigger.

“Oi!” he yells, gaining their attention. “What in fucks name do you think you’re doing?”

The teenagers all look at him, giving him a once-over to assess how much of a threat Jeongguk poses to them. None of them run away, and Jeongguk desperately tries to not let it hurt his pride.

“What do you want?” The oldest says aggressively. “Move along if you don’t wanna be next.”

“What did he even do to you? Can't you just accept that he won and go home like a normal fucking person?” Jeongguk asks. Taehyung looks up from the ground at Jeongguk, like he both expected and didn’t expect Jeongguk to show up. There's an indescribable look in his eyes that Jeongguk doesn’t know how to interpret.

He fiddles with the brooch on his shirt.

The teens glare at him.

“He cost us a lot of fucking money by winning that match, so we’re not leaving til he pays it all back.” He spits, hands tightening their grip in Tae’s shirt.

“Nobody asked you guys to bet on the match. Let him go, it’s not his fault. That's not fair. ” Jeongguk defends.

“I want my fucking money back; I don’t care if it ain’t fair.” The guy growls. “Now get lost before I fuck you up too.”

Jeongguk sighs; the last time he was in a fight was year 10. He knows he’s going to be rusty and taking on 4 people isn’t going to make it any easier, not to mention doing it all in front of his fucking crush.

God must be laughing at him somewhere up above.

He steps forwards and decks the first one in the face. It's a girl, maybe around 16 years old. Normally Jeongguk doesn’t fight women but she’s holding a baseball bat so he thinks it’s fair game. After that, it’s all pretty much a blur; someone runs up to him knocks him round the head with something, but he manages to sweep someone else’s feet out from under them and knock them to the ground. The bruise on his face isn’t properly healed yet, and someone punches him right over the sore spot, making him reel in pain and double over.

He mindlessly throws some more kicks and punches, trying to defend himself. The main guy has let Taehyung go and is focusing his attention on Jeongguk, which makes him both happy and petrified. He looks around briefly and can’t see where Taehyung is, which makes him panic, but his train of thought is disrupted as the people come back for more.

I can’t die without finishing Spy X Family He thinks bitterly to himself as he begins to tire and lose.

Finally, Finally, Mr Jung and the rest of Taehyung’s body guards show up, and rather abruptly, the teens are apprehended and the fight dissolves. Mr Kim is there too, yelling at people and looking for Taehyung, who it turns out, had been hiding behind a car calling the police.

Jeongguk lays there on the floor, completely boneless and throbbing all over. He's facing the sky, chest heaving unevenly. Fortunately, he’s not seriously injured, but he thinks about how stupid it was to just get himself involved without so much as a plan.

At least Taehyung’s okay he thinks, relieved.

Mr Kim walks over to him and says a couple things that Jeongguk doesn’t quite hear – his heartbeat is thrumming loudly in his ears. He lipreads as best he can, and makes out a few thank yous and talks about a bonus, then Mr Kim is shaking his hand and walking away again.

The bodyguards take away the teenagers and soon it’s only Jeongguk left in the car park, tired and bruised and rather embarrassed.

He hadn’t managed to speak to Taehyung at all today.

There's a shuffling sound coming from somewhere near him, and he closes his eyes, assuming it’s a squirrel or something equally as irrelevant. He wills himself to merge with the concrete floor and lies there for a while, head completely empty.

Something taps his head.

“Jeongguk?”

He opens his eyes and is met with Taehyung’s own, looking at him upside-down with tears in his eyes. Something wet drips on his face.

Jeongguk sits up abruptly, then clutches his head because of the sharp pain.

“Taehyung?”

“I’m sorry you got h-hurt because of me.” Taehyung says, and it’s obvious he’s about to start crying. A few stray tears have made their way down his face, and he wipes at them half-heartedly. “They h-harassed me before the match and I d-didn’t know they’d c-come back af-fter and d-d-o it aga-again.” He hiccups.

“Hey, it’s okay Tae. I’m fine.” Jeongguk reassures, but it’s obviously not convincing. Taehyung leans forward and hugs Jeongguk tightly, crying freely on his shoulder as he takes in everything that just transpired. He cries for a while and Jeongguk lets him, wiping the few tears that threaten to fall from his own eyes.

“Thanks for saving me.” Taehyung mumbles after a while, breathing still choppy and unstable. He sits back and smiles weakly. “I appreciate it.”

“No worries, Tae. I'm just glad you’re okay.”

“Y-Your face is all cut up and br-bruised.” He gasps, and his lips wobble like he’s going to start crying again.

“Hey, you crybaby, I told you it’s okay.” Jeongguk smiles weakly. “It could’ve been a lot worse.”

“I thought I was going to die.” Taehyung whispers so quietly as though saying it louder would make it more real. It’s so quiet that Jeongguk almost doesn’t hear it.

“I’m not gonna let you die without me being the one to kill you, Gucci boy.” Jeongguk snorts light-heartedly, and it earns him a real, genuine smile from Taehyung.

Fuck it. He thinks to himself, boldly reaching his hand out forward and cupping Taehyung’ cheek in it. He leans forwards before he can stop himself or talk himself out of it, and he presses his lips against Taehyung’s soft pillowy ones like he’s wanted to do for a while but never admitted to himself.

Taehyung kisses him back almost instantly, and the worry melts away from Jeongguk’s shoulders. Taehyung kisses like a fucking dream, and Jeongguk hates him for it because it makes him lose his mind within a matter of seconds. They don’t kiss for very long – Jeongguk’s mouth is still bruised afterall, but the fact that it actually happened is more than enough for Jeongguk for today.

They pull away and Taehyung beams at him, teary-eyed and clearly frazzled at everything that’s happened within the last hour, but happy nonetheless.

He leans forward and kisses Taehyung on the forehead, unable to stop himself, and it fills him with warmth as Taehyung hugs him and relaxes into his embrace. They sit like that for ages, silent and contemplative, but Jeongguk wouldn’t have it any other way. He leans in to kiss Taehyung again, but Taehyung backs away abruptly and pulls a face.

“What?”

“Have you been drinking that nasty orange sports drink again?” Taehyung accuses.

Jeongguk pouts.

“Yeah, so what?”

“I can tell – it tastes like shit. There's not even any real orange in it.”

Jeongguk rolls his eyes.

“Don’t ruin the moment, douchebag.”

“You’re the douchebag.”

“Just shut up and kiss me.”

“No.”

“No?”

“No. Not until you brush your teeth.” Taehyung says.

“Where in fucks name am I going to brush my teeth here?” Jeongguk complains.

“There’s a spare toothbrush in my locker; go back inside and get it.”

“No.”

“No?”

“No, it’s way too far away.”

“Well then, I guess you’ll just have to wait until tomorrow to kiss me.” Taehyung says, standing up from the ground and dusting himself off. “I’ll give you a ride if you hurry up.” He says.

“God, you’re such a dick.” Jeongguk huffs, standing up too. “I save your life and this is how you repay me?”

But Taehyung pays him no attention as he picks up his keys and walks over to his car. “You need to take off your shoes before you get in, by the way!” he calls over his shoulder without so much as a glance, “You stepped in bird poo when you were fighting.”

Jeongguk looks down at his trainers and sees a giant grey stain on his white shoes.

“Son of a bitch.” He says, both to Taehyung, and to his shoe, but he's still smiling anyway.

●●●