"so here we are." taehyung said, "just you and i. i and you."

"shut up." i answered, flipping a page in my notebook. taehyung sighed.

"okay."

i was hoping it wouldn't come to this, but i needed to study. and if taehyung was my last lifeline, then so be it.

i couldn't study alone; it wasn't in my skill set to do it by myself. furthermore, i didn't have it in me to just let him fail. but our videochat session had been dragging on for nearly two hours, going from five friends, to four, to three and then two. i was tired in general, and still highly annoyed with taehyung.

in essence, i wasn't in the mood to sugar coat anything.

too irritated to even look up the page, i rested my head in my palm as i scratched endless numbers and letters between the lines. taehyung didn't say anything. i spoke first.

"let's just keep studying, alright?"

he still wouldn't speak.

i looked up and found the camera positioned right under his nose, like a child trying to find games on your phone. his eyes became narrow from the grin that the camera couldn't catch, an ugly laugh emitted from his throat, and i rolled my eyes.

"so," he bit his lip, finally settling down, "how are you?"

"didn't i just say we're only studying?"

"but i want to know how you've been."

"i've been annoyed and tired."

"oh."

taehyung coughed. i kept flipping between pages.

"this is the part where you say, 'what about you, taehyung?'" he implied, brows coming together in a youthful frown. i looked at the study sheet hoseok and i made earlier then to the screen, deadpanning.

"only people who care say that."

his smile went away.

only for a minute.

"liar," he chuckled.

i ignored him, lifting my notebook to show a handdrawn diagram, "kang said we're gonna need to know what a wave looks like 90 degrees out of phase, so i think we should go over that diagram and the others."

taehyung observed it for awhile until he shook his head and grinned. i rolled my eyes, already anticipating his useless reply.

"yeah, i don't understand that, so you're going to have to explain it to me."

"well neither do i." i muttered, "i thought you knew."

"i don't though."

"clearly not."

he rubbed his eyes and yawned, falling back onto his pillows. seeing him all cuddled up in his bed and pajamas like that made me wonder why i was still sitting up at my desk. my back was hurting and i sat with a slouch, leaning over onto the white wood. when taehyung's eyes moved downward on the screen, i became consciously aware of my boobs, and the way they were spilling out of my top.

and now i was consciously more irritated. i zipped my onesie up all the way to its collar in one swift motion.

he seemed to flush with embarrassment, but with my focus centered on the notebook paper before me, i only caught a glimpse of his wide eyes and his tongue running over his chapped lips.

he cleared his throat.

"aren't you going to call me stupid?"

"why would i do that?" i inquired monotonously, pretending to write something relevant to our study session on the paper. however, judging by the crack in my voice, i'm sure he was able to tell that i was becoming a little more interested in what he was saying to me than the diffraction diagram i was recreating in my notebook.

he shrugged, "for not knowing the answers to your questions, i guess."

i looked up at him a moment, then sighed.

"but you're not stupid. so i won't call you that." i shrugged.

"no need to lie to me, ari."

"you're not stupid. i'm not lying."

he smiled a little. i felt a little less annoyed at him.

just a little though. i was still mad at him and ahsung. oh man i hate that bitch. always yelling and making noise and thinking she's hot shit because her teeth are straight.

what a wild individual.

anywho.

"hey, when it's out of phase, the diagram looks something like this, right?" i put my notebook up for him to see again, resting my chin at the top while he examined my notes.

"yeah. just like that, actually."

" wait— i thought it was supposed to touch the axis at 360, not 270."

i put down my notebook, laying it flat against the desk to scan the diagram over again. with my lip pulled between my teeth, and taehyung awaiting my obvious rebuttal, there was a tense silence filling the space between us.

well, at the very least it was tense for me. my eyes weren't even really reading the notes over anymore; i was just staring at the page. waiting for him to say something. preferably something to take me out of my misery.

and i guess that's why i was still videochatting with him after all this time. it wasn't that i couldn't study alone, i just favored his presence more than i would like to admit. he was a moodmaker for me and for everyone in the group chat. he always put smiles on our faces, even on his bad days.

my ideal type was always a smart boy with high grades and money, preferably 85 years or older, but he took all of that and scrapped it with his big, boxy smile, low physics grades and thirst for yeezy's. i didn't know why, of all people, it had to be him. him, with the borderline failing grade in physics and him, with the bitchy girlfriend.

there are so many other fish in the sea, yet he chose her. there are so many other fish in the sea, and i chose him. not that he's terrible, it's just —

seungcheol. i mean i could have been chilling with the seungcheol fish. it should have been the seungcheol fish. it should have been the damn seung. cheol. fish.

but no, here comes the motherfucking fisherman with his bitch ass fishing rod to come disturb life in the pond. did he even ask me if i wanted to get caught? of course not. he just threw his bum ass line in the pond like "fuck your biomes" with that worm on the end of the hook and my fuckin noodlehead should have hauled my fish ass right the fuck out of there as soon as i saw it but god damn that worm looked so good. so good.

clearly i'm not the only one who found that worm enticing @suzy stay in your lane next time thanks boo.

long story short i should have ran but i hadn't eaten in a minute and you know how bitches get when bitches are hungry haha. shoulda had a snickers. where was i going with this.

"but then if it's wouldn't that make it in phase regardless?"

coming out of my daze, i looked up at taehyung, who was going on about longitudinal waves and their reflections or something like that. my eyes narrowed.

asshole.

just had to put the fucking worm in the pond.

+

taereum in one picture

also i hate writing full chapters that's why this update took a while but sadly — or luckily for you?? — the next two or so are gonna be full length haha kms.