"No way! That's so fucking sweet, I'm gonna cry!"

A brunette boy giggled excitedly.
"I never expected this, he completely took me by surprise," he sighed, looking at the display of his phone, his two best friends' faces displayed on it.

A loud squeal could be heard from the other line.
"Oh my god! What did you say? If you rejected him, Kim Taehyung, I'm killing you in your sleep. Your lover boy is one of a kind, he really loves you!"

"I accepted his confession but I asked him to wait for me. And he said he would, he's such a gentleman," the brunette spoke endearingly. Another squeal could be heard from Hoseok's line. He had not been this excited ever since the last Red Velvet comeback, and that had been a whole while ago.

"I'm happy for you, Tae. I really am. Just promise me not to rush yourself for... him," Jimin said, sounding awfully sincere, however, feeling his heart painfully sting once again.
Taehyung nodded.

"Of course. Don't worry, Jiminie. Oh-- wait." He stopped abruptly as he heard the doorbell ring shrilly.
"I need to get this, my sister has baseball practise and my mom is at work. Bye guys, talk to you later!"

"Bye-bye, TaeTae! Don't forget to show me the whole letter, I wanna know how many cheesy, sweet things he said to you!," Hoseok demanded, smiling widely and basically representing an overly ballistic sun.

"No! It's private," the youngest declined.
"Bye, Tae," Jimin said, waving him goodbye with a small smile.

"Bye, Minnie! And bye Hobi-Hyung, don't even thinking of searching for the letter anywhere, I'll be stashing it somewhere where you will not find it," Taehyung spoke sweetly, blowing a kiss at the two of them and then ending the video call.

Then, hoping the unexpected visitor would still be there, he ran downstairs and opened the front door, expecting to see the mailman or the delivery guy.

He let out a loud gasp as he saw Jeon Jungkook stand outside his front door with a small smile.

"Oh-Oh my-- What are you doing here?!," he stammered, his hands still gripping the door handle tightly as he felt excitement and giddiness spread throughout his whole chest.

"U-Uh, actually... I wanted to ask you something," the ravenette answered shyly, Taehyung smiling at that slightly.
"And you couldn't have texted me?"

The younger shook his head.
"No... it kinda has to do something with... r-right now."
The brunette felt his smile grow even wider at that, tilting his head in confusion.
"Well, what is it?"

"Uh, so... My mom is having an engagement party soon. And she asked me to bring someone along," Jungkook started carefully.
"And I wanted to ask you if you-- theoretically-- wanted to come with me? As a f-friend, if you want!," he proposed, a blush covering his cheeks.

"Awh, I'm glad your mom found someone! And I'd love to meet her, well, as a f-friend at first," Taehyung spoke, feeling his cheeks heat up aswell.
His heart started thumping as he saw the younger boy show his adorable bunny smile for a moment.

"Great! I was just gonna go to the mall to buy a suit for the party. In case you don't have one, I thought maybe you could come with me? Only if you want to, of course!," he asked shyly, the brunette immediately nodding at that.

"Of course I'll come with you! Just give me ten minutes to get ready, I look like shit right now." He looked down on himself- his hair messy and some fluffy pyjamas being the only thing he currently wore.
"You do not. You look beautiful," Jungkook objected, both of them getting super shy at that.

°○●○●○°

Exactly eleven minutes later, Taehyung came back downstairs to join Jungkook on his shopping trip, sacrificing a great amount of pocket money and wearing some casual, baggy pants with a cute sweater.

As they started walking towards the bus stop in order to get to the shopping mall, the tension was filled with pure awkwardness. The ravenette couldn't stop staring at the other's pretty hand that just hung loosely by his side, just waiting to be held..
He really had to repress the urge to hold it as he was too scared to ask.

Great job, Jungkook. You have officially turned into a wimp. The fuck is wrong with you? It's just a boy!

"You know, if you wanna hold my hand you can just ask," Taehyung remarked, the younger widening his eyes and flushing.
"Okay, um... May I hold your hand? Please?," he then asked, grinning sheepishly.

"You may," the brunette responded just as timidly, holding out his hand for the other to take.

And as Jungkook hesitantly intertwined his fingers with Taehyung's, they felt their stomachs make all sorts of backflips and their hearts beat loudly in their chests.
Smiling sweetly and locking eyes, they waited for the bus.

The awkwardness was so unbearable by now, it was painful.

And as soon as the awaited, pretty empty bus arrived and they entered, their hands now separated, they took a seat far in the back, the ravenette offering Taehyung the place by the window.

"Thanks. D-Do you wanna listen?," the brunette asked, holding out his earbud and looking at the boy next to him questioningly.
He slightly smiled when Jungkook took the earbud and inserted it in his ear, their hands briefly brushing each other and sending sparks over both their bodies.

Through the speakers of the earbud, a very familiar song could be heard.
'Never Not' by Lauv.

Both of them started reminiscing over the dance at Hyejin's party, the slowly coming to terms with each other, making a fresh start, not to mention the jumper Jungkook had given to him beforehand...
They both smiled in awe.

Taehyung turned on his screen and hesitantly looped the song so that they could listen to it for the whole bus ride, the ravenette nodding in agreement and leaning his head back while enjoying how the music made him feel.

It made him think of the boy sitting next to him, every single beat, word or melody.

And same went for the brunette.
You could say they were... quite in love.

As the bus arrived at the mall, the pair took out the earbuds and climbed out of it nervously, their hands automatically holding each other once again.
Though they were internally freaking out about it, it looked, and in some way, felt completely natural.

"Shouldn't we be going to a tailor instead? I doubt they will sell suits at the shopping mall," Taehyung questioned, the other shaking his head calmly.

"Actually, we don't even have to wear suits. Just something that looks remotely... fancy, I guess. Seokjin-Hyung wants me to wear a suit, so does my dad. But I don't want to, they suck, so I wanted to come here to buy another outfit. I found that a bit hard to explain, so I didn't tell you before." He showed a sheepish grin, the brunette smiling and nodding at that.

"Let's go in, then."

The first store they entered, they immediately got blocked by a beaming female staff member.
"Welcome, gentlemen! We have a couples' discount, twelve percent off if you'd like to buy these absolutely adorable couple tees," she offered cheerfully, making them both blush in embarrassment.

"W-We're not a couple!," Jungkook explained.
Yet, he added in thought.

"Oh! I'm sorry for misunderstanding, it's just, you looked like you were a couple," she apologized with her head lowered and her face pink out of embarrassment.
The two of them looked down at their hands and came to realize that they were still intertwined, the fact that they looked quite intimate could not be denied.

Of course she thought they had been a couple.

After assuring her it's fine and excusing themselves, they split up and strolled around the clothing store to find some appropriate clothes for the engagement party, deciding to meet up at the entrance exactly half an hour later.

What do you even wear for an engagement party? And why are there so many clothes here, this store's like a fashion maze!, Taehyung thought to himself.

He wasn't wrong. The clothing store had all various kinds of clothes, from tank tops, colourful t-shirts, cute, fluffy sweaters to fancy button-up shirts and carnival costumes. He did not know where to look!

Eventually, he started looking for some light, flowy shirts and high-waisted pants, finding a big collection on the third floor and grinning in content.

He felt strangely giddy.
Why did it feel like he was shopping for his own engagement party?

My own engagement party... with Jungk-- Snap out of it, Taehyung! You're supposed to find something nice to wear.

Taehyung was highly determined to create the prettiest outfit in existence and that was totally not because he wanted to impress Jungkook (and maybe his mother). Totally not.

When is the engagement anyways? Are we still going to be just friends by then? I'll ask him later... Oh, Jungkook...

With his mind filled with only one certain person, he rummaged through the stands and grabbed some things that fit his taste quite well, concentrating more than he actually thought he would.

And when he left the store a while after, just in time he felt satisfied with his choice and smiled at his shopping bags sweetly.

He saw the ravenette already waiting at the exit, grinning and about to stalk towards him when he suddenly felt his phone vibrate in his pocket.

Internally groaning at how bad the timing was, he placed the shopping bags on the floor carefully and unlocked it, revealing the text message.

He almost dropped his phone.

+82 2948284881
Tomorrow.
I hoped you missed me too, Taehyung.
Sent 4:32 PM

How?

Just a meaningless threat. Just a stupid, meaningless threat. Nothing serious, he just wants to scare you. Everything's gonna be fine, Taehyung tried to calm himself by taking deep breaths.

But he couldn't shake off the feeling of fear settling itself everywhere inside of him, every inch of his body, and weighing him down.

No. He shouldn't worry. He had Jungkook, he should keep thinking about Jungkook and how good he made him feel.
Shaking his head quickly, Taehyung picked up his shopping bags again and walked towards the ravenette, trying to act as normal as possible.

The whole ride back home, the brunette was awfully tense and kept looking out of the window as if there was something there that could suddenly jump and attack him. And every time he held Jungkook's hand, he gripped it much tighter than he normally would, he gripped it as if his life depended on it. Because it made him feel sort of secure.

When Jungkook asked him if he was okay before bidding him goodbye, Taehyung assured him he was just a bit hungry with a nervous smile, to which the ravenette decided to just drop it.
He was extremely worried.

But he wasn't dumb; He knew something was going on again.

And he was going to find out what is was.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

(A/N: five more days until BE drops, i'm so excited it's going to be amazing and i have all my tissues prepared because ya girl is an emotional ass girl 😔✊🏼
i have some school stuff going on rn so i'm kinda preoccupied but i will still stream the shit out of it uwu

also,,,, taekook my little awkward beans hsjdksks they're so adorable and yes the awkwardness is on purpose because they're both shy babies, uwu i love them

prepare for next chapter😳
but yeah, as always thank you for reading and have the bestest day/night i love you💜💜)