ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴏʏ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴘᴜʀᴘʟᴇ ʙʟᴏᴏᴅ || ᴋ.ᴛʜ + ᴊ.ᴊᴋ ✔️

six: blue

The following day Taehyung walked into class, early and as on edge as he had the day after his secret had been discovered. He knew this would be a constant. This feeling, this unease, because it wasn't something new, he'd been through this in high school after all. But it was as he told himself before; he couldn't run forever. He couldn't keep moving, changing schools, getting farther from Yoongi. He had to prove his own endurance. To himself more than anyone.

"Hey, Taehyung."

No more than three minutes after he sat down, Taehyung was greeted by the gentle, yet cheerful voice of Jungkook, who offered a soft smile at the brief meeting of their gazes. He claimed the seat beside Taehyung.

"You sleep alright last night?"

"...I guess," Tae replied almost inaudibly, somewhat puzzled by the question. "Why do you ask?"

"Just 'cus," Jungkook said. He leaned back in his chair to stretch out his legs in front of him as he gripped the edges of his desk. "I slept okay, too. Except some time around three in the morning. That's when I started hearing the alley cats performing their nightly summoning ritual. You know how it is."

Turning his head slightly, Taehyung stared back at the other boy with the oddest expression, one that came as close as it could to making Jungkook burst out laughing.

"You know," he added, biting back a grin. "Like, meowing, and stuff. But like, really...loud, and it sounds like they're in pain, and-...T-...Taehyung, it was a joke..."

Taehyung knew this, and yet he maintained his furrowed brow and pouted lips, hoping he would make the other feel awkward enough to shut him up - on the contrary, this act of his only amused the boy more and edged him on to more conversation starters.

Taehyung saw himself as the freak but Jungkook was definitely the weird one.

"So since I was awake I decided to make an omelet. But then I realized I was out of everything except eggs. So I put a cooked egg inside the omelet. It was an egg omelet. You know?"

"Are you sure you even slept?"

"I can't remember."

Truly, an exasperating thing to talk to Jungkook. And Taehyung wasn't entirely sure why he didn't simply ignore him. Perhaps, he knew deep down that would only be more exhausting, and the boy could only handle so much at this point.

***

"Hey, Jungkook, can I talk to you for a second?"

It wasn't common for Jungkook to be called out to by people on campus, so needless to say it took him aback a bit to hear this request from one of his fellow students from his music classes. Then again, he considered even before they spoke again that it concerned that subject. He couldn't imagine why else a near stranger would have reason to talk to him.

"Hey, Eunshik." Jungkook forced a polite, somewhat shy smile as he greeted the boy now standing in front of him. "What's up?"

A look of genuine curiosity blended with urgency stained Eunshik's expression as he glanced away, seemingly to find his words, or maybe to select them properly. Still unaware, Jungkook waited patiently.

"Are you..." Eunshik dragged out the word, his lips extended, brow furrowed. "...are you friends with Taehyung?"

"Taehyung? Of course."

It came as an instinctive response, almost as a reflex, Jungkook's gaze unmoving from the other boy's own. He didn't plan on taking it back. Or even thinking about it. What concerned him was why Eunshik felt the urge to ask in the first place.