[Jimin and Taehyung private chat]

Taetae:
im stopping by 2day
just got outta class five minutes ago im gonna head over to the studio now
just a heads up

He didn't receive a reply, even after waiting a few seconds - that was how long it typically took for his friend to reply to his text messages - so he figured Jimin was too busy practicing to pick up his phone. Which was fine. Jimin could be diligent when he wanted to be, and Taehyung knew that, so he said and thought no more on the manner and simply made his way over to the building where he could find the dance studio. He had passed by it once or twice, though never when an entire class was inside practicing, but he at least knew where it was so that he didn't have to ask for directions. Nevertheless, Taehyung found himself poking along as though uncertain as to where he was going. In reality, however, he was only stalling.

Why was he so nervous to meet Jungkook? The two were friends by now, right? It was just as Jimin said, there was no reason for him to be shy. Not a single one. Taehyung should have been able to stride confidently up to the windows of that dance studio and watch with a casual demeanor as his friends carried out their dance lessons and practices - other people did it. From a distance, Tae could spot a small handful of college students hovering around the studio, gazing intently through transparent glass at the people inside. Mostly girls, but there were several guys who appeared quite intrigued or perhaps impressed by what was going on in the room.

Luckily it wasn't such a large crowd that Taehyung couldn't get a good view. In fact, as he happened to take a step closer to the studio, five people made once glance inside the room, turned to each other, then began giggling and chattering as they went on their way. There was an easy opening now. One large window, no one standing beside it. Taehyung drew a deep breath.

Confident gay, confident gay, confident gay.

He strode up to the window and stopped in front of it. Then, as slowly and subtly as possible and with tentative eyes, Tae peered into the dance studio and - subconsciously, of course - searched for a familiar boy with dark brown hair and naturally attractive facial features. There was a decent sized class inside so it wasn't an easy task at first. Fortunately, however, Hoseok's bright red hair was quite easy to pick out even in a crowd, and who should be standing right beside Hoseok but the boy Taehyung was looking for.

"Oh, I was right...he does look hot..."

Such sharp and natural movements, from the rotation of his body to the slightest curve of his hands - there was sweat on his face, matted fringe sticking to his forehead. Tae struggled to resist the urge to bite his lip as Jungkook combed a hand through that hair, peeling it off the forehead and causing it to stick up slightly at the top but not enough so that it got in the way. He just looked...so concentrated. And it was insanely attractive. Enough to distract Tae to the point that he didn't realize when the class had ended. Or when Jimin had caught sight of him, and winked at him. Eyes fixed solely on Jungkook's every move, it only struck him that it was time to get a hold of himself when Jungkook's gaze accidentally found its way to his own through the windows on the side of the room opposite to where he stood. Before Taehyung was able to turn away to hide his face, though, it was too late. Jungkook had recognized him quickly. He tapped Jimin's shoulder and pointed towards the window, and Jimin just smiled and Taehyung could see the boy mouth the words 'I know'.

Next thing he knew both boys were walking across the studio floor, towards him, and he had approximately five and a half seconds to brace himself to lower and hopefully fully prevent the risk of blubbering like an absolute fool in front of the most visually pleasing human being he had ever seen.

Confident gay, confident gay, confident g-

"Hey, Taehyung."

"H-hey."

Screwed it up.

There was the slightest smile on Jungkook's face, suggesting that he hadn't expected this meeting, but wasn't displeased by it, either. And Tae couldn't help but stare at that smile, too. Small, but adorable.

"You okay, Taehyung?"

"W-...u-uh, yeah. Yeah, I'm good."

Noticing the blush having crept up onto his cheeks, Taehyung covered his mouth with his hand and cleared his throat, and while his embarrassment was so obvious to Jimin, Jungkook was oblivious.

"Sorry, Tae, I didn't get your message," the black-haired boy apologized, unable to stop smiling. My friend is too cute like this. "I was in the middle of a lesson."

"It's fine, I figured you'd be," Tae assured him. "I didn't get here that long ago." He paused. "Well, at least I don't think I did. I think I lost track of time. That's embarrassing."

"Your voice is deeper than I expected it to be."

He looked over to Jungkook again. The boy's lips were now slightly pursed and bent inward, eyebrows thrown up, just a tad, but clearly in an expression of genuine surprise. Taehyung forced a nervous laugh.

"Is it now?"

"Yeah."

"D'you expect him to have a voice like mine?" Jimin joined, stifling a laugh of his own. Jungkook nudged him.

"Never said that. It just doesn't match his face, that's all. Not that that's a bad thing, of course. I'm just making observations. And again..." He stopped for a moment, and Tae could feel his cheeks reddening again as Jungkook eyed him from head to toe, then smiled. "Your wardrobe is incredible. I should really ask to borrow your stuff some time." After uttering this, a soft chuckle spilled out of Jungkook's mouth, signifying he was at least somewhat joking in regards to the statement, but Taehyung took him seriously and just nearly replied, "oh, you're welcome to anytime." Scarcely, though, he did manage to keep his words to himself.

"Oh, by the way," Jungkook added just as Tae had begun to slip into another daze - and it was so difficult for Jimin to refrain from grinning because wow, Tae was so incredibly smitten already - "just thought I'd ask since you made the comment before, how did I look back there, huh? Cool, at all?"

"You looked so sexy."

It slipped out. He failed in his mission, his simple mission of staying focused on not voicing his thoughts, and alas, these four words escaped and triggered a deep shade of red to surface in Jungkook's cheeks, and once again, in Tae's. Both pairs of eyes widened, Taehyung's jaw dropping the second he registered what he'd said. He slapped both hands over his mouth.

"Uh, t-thanks." Jungkook blinked several times, scratching his cheek as he glanced away, evidently feeling overwhelmed by a sudden shyness that took form as a result of Taehyung's comment, along with the tone of voice that comment had been spoken in - low, and sounding as though the boy had been deep in thought. He took it as nothing more than a compliment - albeit a strong one - but nevertheless it caught him by surprise and he couldn't camouflage that fact even if he wanted to.

"That's all you got, Jungkook? 'Thanks'?"

Out of his peripheral vision he could see Jimin looking at him, smirk on his full lips. It wasn't malicious, though, because Jimin just wasn't that type of person, and in a matter of seconds the shorter boy started to laugh at the whole situation, slapping a hand on Taehyung's shoulder to seize his attention.

"What about me, huh, Taetae?" He beamed. "Was I sexy, too?"

Tae dropped his hands to his sides, relieved knowing that his friend was doing this to lessen the spotlight on him. "So sexy."

Pleased with the response, Jimin didn't bother to repress his giggles as he threw an arm around his friends' shoulders - one around Tae, the other around Jungkook. He glanced at both of them, expression still bright as ever, and let out a deep breath, opening his mouth to speak but being abruptly cut off by a certain redhead who entered the scene without warning.

"Tae!"

With a loud voice and open arms Hoseok stole Taehyung from Jimin and captured the boy in a tight hug. Incredibly affectionate in person, as always, Jimin and Tae both thought, while Jungkook simply stood back and wondered if he were meant to stay out of the conversation.

"You didn't tell us you were stopping by!"

"I told Jimin."

"Well, Jimin didn't tell me." The redhead narrowed his eyes accusingly at his friend, then broke out into a big smile as Jimin did the same. "Well, no matter. You look amazing today, by the way."

"And you look sweaty."

"Yeah," Hoseok sighed. He tugged at the low collar of his loose white shirt, thus revealing even more of his collarbone than was already showing. "It's one of the downsides, but not enough to put a damper on the fun, ya know?"

"Nothing could put a damper on your fun, Hobi," Jimin added. Hoseok turned to him with hands on his hips.

"Not true," he huffed. "There's this one guy in our class - I don't know his name, he's really tall, not Junhong, he's not as tall as Junhong, I mean the other one-"

"Yugyeom?"

The redhead clapped his hands once and pointed at Jungkook. "Yes! That's the one. He annoys me..."

Now this surprised all three of the boy's listeners. "He annoys you?" Taehyung asked. Jimin gazed at him with equally questioning eyes.

"The only person you've ever claimed to annoy you is Jin," he pointed out, "and that was just jokingly."

"Why does Yugyeom annoy you?"

"Like I said, he's really tall, for starters, which intimidates me," Hoseok began, immediately making both Jimin and Tae have to hold back a laugh, and even Jungkook cracked a smile, "and I'm not even short! He's gotta be at least 6'0", or something, if not taller. It's crazy, what does his mother feed him?"

"What else annoys you about him?"

"Well, he's cute." Hoseok placed a thoughtful hand on his chin. "Being tall and cute is an annoying combination. Oh! And he's an incredibly good dancer. And if I'm not imagining things he keeps looking over at me during class, probably judging me or something, I'll bet..."

Jimin's face went blank for a second, and he leaned partially to the side to peer into the dance studio to look for a tall boy. Surely enough, his eyes caught sight of someone with orange hair looking in Hoseok's general direction, though as soon as he was caught, he hastily turned himself around and went to join someone who Jimin could only assume was the boy's friend.

"Judging you, huh?" He repeated in disbelief. "Somehow I don't think that's it."

"Yeah, Yugyeom's a nice guy."

The three others faced Jungkook as soon as he had spoken this, both surprised he had responded at all, and also curious as to what he would say next.

"You know him?"

"He's, uh..." The boy paused to get his thoughts together. "He's...a friend of...Moonbin's. And of mine, to some extent. We haven't talked much since high school but he's really easy to get along with. I don't think he's judging you, Hoseok," he said reassuringly, glancing at the redhead. "He wouldn't without a good reason. And if you don't know each other well, then he doesn't have a reason at all."

"Huh." He wasn't 100% convinced, but, taking Jungkook's words into consideration, Hoseok decided he would let the subject go for now. He smiled again. "I suppose so. Well, this has been great and all, but I gotta blast. So I'll talk to you guys later. Bye!"

"Bye, Hobi!"

"Bye, Hoseok."

And just like that, he was gone. Sped off with high energy as though his exhaustion from dancing had dissipated almost instantaneously. And while both Jimin and Jungkook watched the redhead until he had disappeared from their view, Taehyung was just a tad distracted by Jungkook's mentioning of a certain name.

Moonbin.

He glanced into the studio where a scatter of college students were still standing about, some talking amongst themselves, others briefly reviewing what they had just learned in class that day. He scanned the faces, regardless of knowing he had no idea who Moonbin was or what he looked like. It was simply a subconscious action triggered by the hint of sadness and hesitation in Jungkook's voice as he had spoken that name. Truly, all Taehyung knew about him was that he was the boy who Jungkook had loved. Or perhaps still loved.

Don't worry, Jungkook. It'll be okay. I'll just have to make you fall in love with me instead.