chapter nine ;; car ride
taehyung's perspective
°☆.。.:*・°☆

My eyes flutter open, adjusting to the extremely bright and unfamiliar room. A weight residing comfortably on my chest, instantly calming down in something reassuring. The sunlight from Jeongguk's blind-covered window covers the both of his in a striped pattern as I look down at Jeongguk who was now completely clutching onto me like his life depended on it.

His black fringe partially covers his closed eyes, a soft snore emitting from his rosy lips that are ever so slightly parted. His arm wraps around my waist as I find myself holding onto his body as a whole. I've never slept with a boy like this. I've never held a boy so intimately, yet I was enjoying how peaceful it was.

Jeongguk mumbles something hoarse, and I pull him closer to me once again. He quickly fights against grip, thrashing around in a way, and I immediately let go, terrified and scrambling off of his bed to find myself falling into the floor. His body flings upwards and he sits there for a moment, eyes widened and heavily breathing. Jeongguk's lips have fully pulled apart, and I take this moment of serenity to observe his profile, although it doesn't last once Jeongguk looks down at me from the bed.

"V?" He whispers in disbelief, crawling to the edge of the bed in order to meet my gaze. I'm currently situated on the carpeted ground, arms up on his bed in a crossed fashion, needing to look up at him.

Jeongguk's face is extremely close to mine, gulping, "Yeah?" I softly ask the younger boy who's currently on his hands and knees.

"Wh-Why are you here?" His head tilts to the side, and I mimic his action, a feeling of nostalgia taking over.

"Because you asked me to be here." I tell him, tilting my head up to look at his confused gaze better, subconsciously running my index finger on the back of his hand. Jeongguk doesn't seem to take much notice to it either.

"I did?"

"You did." I beam up at him, finding this scene that's unfolding to be unbelievably too cute for his own good "Do you not remember calling me?"

"No, n-not...not really." Jeongguk stutters, looking down at my finger running across the back of his hand. He does nothing to protest the action, easily accepting it and putting me at some sort of ease.

"You called me up last night while crying." I tenderly explain, not wanting to embarrass him, although he shies away still. I can't help but laugh.

"God, that's so embarrassing." Jeongguk mumbles and puts his head down, having his forehead rest on my arm.

"It really wasn't." I quickly reassure, "I enjoyed helping you."

His head instantly lifts up, eyes meeting mine, "R-Really?"

"Well, yeah," I pause for a moment, thinking of what to say that would work, "it was oddly gratifying." The corners of Jeongguk's lips twitch upwards.

"Thanks."

"Don't thank me." I sadly say, "Now...get dressed, we're still going to school."

Jeongguk's looks up at me with an unamused face before shouting a sound of annoyance for going to school. What a child. I stand up from the floor and make my way to the door, not missing the terrified look that takes over Jeongguk's face once he thinks I'm not looking. I never asked why Jeongguk awoke the way he did, but I didn't wish to start the day on a dark note.

----

"But what are you going to wear?" Jeongguk asks and follows me around the kitchen like a child who's too scared to leave their mother's side.

"I can just stop by my house and grab clothes." I nonchalantly respond while taking out a pan from the cabinet.

"But that'll take too long." He pouts at me.

"I'm pretty sure that none of your clothes fit me." My eyes glance over at him before going back to making pancakes.

I go over to the fridge and take out all I need with Jeongguk still close to me. It's like he's become an extra limb. It's somewhat confusing to see such a drastic change. Or maybe it really isn't, "I wear baggy clothes, I'm sure that I could find something."

I look down at the shorter again, taking notice to how his pajamas (boy shorts and shirt) drape over his bony frame, "Alright then." I reluctantly agree and slowly begin to mix the pancake batter as Jeongguk quickly goes back upstairs to the third floor. It must be awful, living in a townhouse, but they were cheap and it seemed like Jeongguk lived on his own with no one else to help him. At least he seemed pretty good with living on his own, knowing when to go grocery shopping and how to keep the place clean.

The occurrences of last night continued to play through and through, warming my heart in an unexplainable way. I felt good- accomplished? -that I was able to calm Jeongguk down easily. Who would've known that I'd be the one to do such a thing? Last week I was sneaking around with a cheerleader, and now it's like I'm looking after a boy who doesn't really need to be looked after for anything except for emotional trauma.

"V," Jeongguk sings out, desperately trying to get my attention. His head perks up when I finally turn around to look down at him, "here's your clothes." I carefully take the small stack of clothes out of his dainty hands, "I couldn't find a pair of jeans for you, so you'll have to just keep those ones on." He says, pointing to my black skinny jeans.

"That's fine. Thank you." I smile into the words, and I smile at Jeongguk, becoming shyer under his soft yet sharp stare. It amazes me how he's a hybrid of two, being two opposite things at once to create the perfect oxymoron in a sense.

Jeongguk lightly nods and cranes his neck to stare up at me while I crane my neck to look down. Four full inches, that was the height difference between the two of us. We wouldn't have to make our necks so uncomfortable if we didn't stand so close together, but it was nice to stand the way we currently were. Jeongguk's 5'6 self looks down first, making a smile of aw to show on my face, quickly hiding it from him. My 5'10 self finally leaves the kitchen, having Jeongguk finish the pancakes.

----

I open up the door with him at my side, and my hand almost moves over to hold onto his, but I quickly stop myself. What am I doing? You can tell that he still dislikes me, just by the way Jeongguk's looked at me in past weeks. I can't just...do these things, "We're- uh -taking my car to school." I tell Jeongguk, looking down at him while he just looks forward, staring out into the chilly morning.

He wore an oversized grey hoodie today and still decided to wear shorts with it. The sight made me chuckle, questioning why this boy's arms were cold but apparently his legs weren't favored, "Okay." Jeongguk tiredly says, rubbing one of his eyes with his right sleeve-covered hand and walking out of the house.

I follow, watching him open up my car door before sliding inside and closing it shut, "Hey, Guk?" I throw out and start the car. He doesn't speak but instead looks over at me from his gaze out of the window to signify that he's listening, "Do you wanna sit with the boys and me today at lunch?"

Jeongguk's eyes become cloudy, contemplating. It's easy to tell when the boy's caught up in his thoughts. His face kind of screws up and his eyes seem to turn darker, if even possible, "Will...Seokjin be there?" Hands subconsciously tighten on the steering wheel, turning my knuckles a shade lighter.

"Y-Yeah." Why is this boy so infatuated with Seokjin?

"Okay."

"You don't like talking, do you?" I ask Jeongguk as a blanket of awkwardness begins to fall over us in the stifling, quiet atmosphere.

"No..." I let out a light chuckle at his short answer, taking a shy glance over towards him as he looks out of the window once again. Jeongguk draws his knees up to his chest, placing his chin onto them and appearing smaller than he already is.

"I respect that." He removes his chin from his knees and looks up at me, meeting me for a gaze that wasn't able to last due to the hazy traffic.

"You don't find it weird?"

"Of course not."

"I'm surprised by that."

"Why?"

"Because."

"Because why?"

"I don't know."

"O...kay."

----

i have mixed emotions abt this chapter idk it's rly short nd not important bt if i put anything else it'll be tooo longg

also i wanna say ty to all of u who read this nd a bigg ty to the ones who always comment and vote bc i love when people show their opinions on how i write. it's a hugee motivation nd this story is growing rly fast nd it's just like ahh!! tytyty. (ok that's enough soppiness for now bYe)