"Funyuns. Seriously."

Rows and rows of shitty food, shitty because of the effects it has on your body, not because of the taste. It all tastes fine, something Jeongguk indulges in when he feels he has the right to indulge. As though he's earned it. Shitty gas station food.

A yellow package is thrown into a small basket, one that Jeongguk is carrying by his hip, hand gripped around the handle while the other hand admires all of the options, fingers running along the plastic.

"What would you suggest I buy?" He asks, meeting Taehyung's judgmental stare, although is it really all that judgmental? Because Taehyung's smile is wide and his eyes are crinkled up, and their only ride is an old rickety bicycle that Jeongguk's supposed to be keeping a constant eye out for. Right. He should really invest in a bike lock.

"Dunno," he gives a half assed shrug, walks a little bit closer and grabs the funyuns from their place, throws them back onto the shelf with mock aggression, "but definitely not funyuns."

Jeongguk gasps, no longer paying attention to the food items, but if he's totally honest, he never was in the first place, "do you have a personal vendetta against funyuns or something?" And Taehyung's smile was teasing, but it drops into an oval and it's him who's gasping now.

"Are you trying to tell me you don't remember?" He looks incredulous, and Jeongguk's confused, just staring back with raised eyebrows.

"Remember what?"

Now Taehyung puts a hand over his heart, doing his best to look genuinely offended, but it just makes Jeongguk reel with laughter, almost dropping the basket, choking out another, "What, why do you look like I just," he pauses, thinking of an analogy, "told you your shoes are ugly or something?"

"Well you see Jeongguk," the comment seems to register late, and his eyes splay open, "wait, are you calling my shoes ugly?"

Jeongguk shakes his head slowly, but then he looks down at the shoes, and well. They're red and green, which would look good if it were Christmas time, but it's not, so Taehyung kind of just looks like an idiot.

Taehyung follows his gaze and inspects the shoes himself, before letting out a forced exhale. "Wow. Low blow."

"Was that a shoe pun?"

"Shut the fuck up," this makes them both start laughing, but Taehyung talks through the laughter, determined, "you're making me get sidetracked."

"From?" Jeongguk tilts his head, and now he's leaning, elbow braced on one of the shelves, knocking into a bag of doritos, but he doesn't care about the doritos, because Taehyung. Taehyung's three feet away from him, smile unwavering, and he was right earlier, because he can still see the stars even if they're not physically there.

He sees them now.

"From the point." In his teeth, in the way he looks up a bit at that before his eyes land back on Jeongguk again, and more teeth show.

"And what may that be?" Theres a thought process behind what Jeongguk's saying, it's careful, calculated. It comes naturally but it also doesn't because Jeongguk's going for anything that'll garner the biggest reaction possible from Taehyung. His attention.

"That, you," he puts emphasis on the word, reaching over and flicking Jeongguk's chin lightly, which Taehyung has done a million times before, but this time it makes Jeongguk's stomach swarm, "forgot a key memory in our friendship archive."

Jeongguk raises an eyebrow again, and maybe they'll get stuck like that, halfway up his forehead, and he watches Taehyung say the words as he leans backwards. Away from Jeongguk. So Jeongguk can breathe properly, but he's not all that sure he wants to.

Taehyung catches his confusion, "allow me to rephrase," he taps his own chin, and then gives Jeongguk this look that screams, listen carefully, and that's all Jeongguk wants to do, "Mrs. Smith. Second grade. Snack time."

And Jeongguk only has to think about it for a moment before remembers, and the laugh that pours out of his mouth is instantaneous. It bubbles in his stomach along with this happy feeling that rises up in his chest, expanding it, expanding it further than he ever knew it could.

He's remembering a lot of things tonight.

"Holy shit dude, wait-"

"See, now you remember, don't you?"

Jeongguk genuinely feels ashamed of himself for forgetting something so happy, so engraved in his brain, a memory that brought Taehyung torment at the time but all it brings now is serotonin, uncontrollable laughs and nostalgia.

"I do, I do, I'm sorry, I'm not even sure how-"

"How you could've possibly forgotten?" He pauses, like he's actually going to let Jeongguk talk, but then when he opens his mouth he cuts him off, "Yeah I'm wondering too, because thats number eleven in the Taehyung and Jeongguk hall of fame. A high ranking," the look in his eyes would be convincing, that he's genuinely disappointed, if the smile on his lips didn't betray them, "You better get up to date on your friendship trivia or we're over."

Jeongguk laughs hard, saving the hall of fame comment in his head for later because right now he's thinking about something specific, about nine year old Taehyung, "Who knew funyuns could expire?"

At that Taehyung picks up one of the packages from behind Jeongguk, and Jeongguk ignores the way it makes his stomach drop, totally, "Not me, apparently, but look."

He flips the funyuns package around and shows Jeongguk a clear written expiration date, that also happens to have been a week ago. Expired.

"Dude, you just like," he pauses for dramatic effect, making sure to grab the funyuns out of Taehyung's hand to show him, "virtually saved my life."

Taehyung grabs the bag back and throws it lazily to it's rightful place, wiggling his eyebrows, "I know, would've been three long days of vomit and suffering-"

"Three days? It was that long?"

Taehyung nods, "yup," popping the p, and then gets distracted by something further down the isle, grabbing a bag of life savers gummies with a satisfied smile and handing them to Jeongguk to throw in the basket.

"Damn. No wonder."

Taehyung hums in agreement, eyesight trained back on Jeongguk, and it feels so good to laugh with him like this, but he still feels something, something different than before, like something's off, but in a good way, "Now you understand the validity of my hatred for funyuns."

Jeongguk mimicks the hum in response, and swivels on his heels without warning, grabbing a pack of cheetos, turning over his shoulder with his facial expression nuetral. "Are cheetos acceptable?"

"Yes. But you probably shouldn't get them. You just threw up, self care, come on Jeongguk," he says this with emphasis on certain words, breaths cutting between sentences and he's laughing, this dumb smile plastered across his face that's been there for the past thirty minutes, been there since the moment Jeongguk stopped crying.

"Right, of course, self care. I guess my brain is especially forgetful tonight."

Taehyung shakes his head, smile fading for a second. "No."

"No?"

Another head shake, and now Taehyung's bottom lip is between his teeth, and Jeongguk's just frozen. He couldn't look away if he tried, but he doesn't try, because he likes what he sees. "If you ask me, you're in your prime tonight."

Words, Jeongguk, words. He nearly forgets what they are, nearly swallows his own tongue, suddenly heavy in his mouth, nearly drops the basket again, trips over his own feet and knocks over a shelf with funyuns and more on it.

His mouth hangs open for a second before he closes it, and Jeongguk realizes Taehyung is staring at his mouth too. He realizes he's not alone in this, and Taehyung's also scared, but things are scary, and sometimes you just gotta get through them.

Because being with Taehyung was already beautiful, but being with him now, here, like this, open in the want, open in the way they look at each other, open in the things Jeongguk has been telling himself for the past month he'd never allow himself to be open in.

Ever since Taehyung brushed a piece of hair away from his forehead while they were playing some shitty video game, then of all times, was when Jeongguk's skin ignited and his stomach burned along with it, was when Jeongguk noticed, wow. A month ago. Maybe less.

A seemingly random date. But now that Jeongguk's thinking back, now that he's remembering, remembering Taehyung, he knows when he felt it. The fear that came afterwards. The confusion.

The clarity now. The smiles. The beauty of it all.

And now is when Jeongguk notices, his stomach has been on fire all along.

Because being with Kim Taehyung like this, open, unafraid, stripped bare while still being fully clothed, this. This is exquisite.

He thinks it's for lack of a better word, but in all honesty, it's the perfect word, it describes the way he feels in his heart and his chest and his stomach, and even the tip of his nose feels exquisite because that's what Taehyung and Jeongguk are. Exquisite.

"I could say the same to you."

Not sure where the confidence comes from, just that it's there, there just as much as Taehyung and Jeongguk are, looking at each other, bitten lips and shy smiles.

"Maybe we're just in our prime tonight."

Exquisite.

"Maybe."

And maybe they are.

There's a silence, and Jeongguk just looks, and Taehyung looks back, and then Jeongguk thinks.

"Hey, you mentioned a Jeongguk and Taehyung hall of fame?"

Taehyung chuckles, shoves his hands in his pockets and beckons for Jeongguk to follow him by jerking his head, "actually, I think my words were Taehyung and Jeongguk hall of fame."

Jeongguk scoffs while they leave the isle, catching a glimpse of a tired clerk, someone who looks about their age with her head in her hands, "does the order of our names really matter?"

Now Taehyung scoffs, and they're in an isle filled with drinks, monster energys, sprites, sodas, sodas that smell nothing like Jeongguk's chapstick because the imitation is nowhere near the real thing, falls flat.

"The order is the most important part."

"You're deflecting. Tell me about it."

Taehyung sighs, shakes his head, but the smile is still there and Jeongguk hopes it never goes away. Doesn't think it will at this rate. He shouldn't notice it as much as he does because it's been on display all night, a constant factor.

But.

Kim Taehyung's smile is exquisite.

Fucking everything is at this point, if he's being honest, and his brain is probably overusing the word, but he doesn't care. It works.

"I have the memory of an elephant," Taehyung starts, grabbing a blue gatorade from one of the refrigerators. Blue gatorade and life saver gummies, all sugar.

"So you've demonstrated."

"Right." Taehyung nods, and then leans back, cracking open the gatorade and taking a sip before paying. It's a convenience store, and it's approaching 2:00am. What are they gonna do. "So whenever something happens that I find noteworthy, I jot it down and save it for later."

Jeongguk hums, and his eyes are on the drinks in front of him but he's not really paying attention to them, not thinking about which would go down his throat the smoothest, which one would completely erase the feeling of vomit, because he can hardly think.

"So, would now classify as later?"

Taehyung pauses. "That's a weird way to phrase it. But sure."

"Sure?"

"Yeah, com'on Jeongguk," he takes another sip, and his lips are slowly turning blue, "wanna take a trip down memory lane? Reminisce a little?"

"In a gas station? Fuck yeah I do." Jeongguk decides on a ginger ale. Easy on the stomach. He's heard it helps with nausea and cramps but that could be misinformation.

"You ready for this?"

"Lay it on me Kim."

Jeongguk starts walking past Taehyung, heading in the direction of the checkout cashier, but a hand curls around his wrist and pulls him backwards, and then there's another one on his waist and he drops the basket.

Those hands.

And they're close now, so close, because the basket with the food is on the floor, probably crushed chips and a ginger ale ready to explode sitting inside. Because Taehyung has one hand on Jeongguk's waist, and the other is still on his wrist, but then it lets go and he brings it upwards.

The hand lingers in front of Jeongguk's face for a moment, and then he's brushing a piece of hair out of his eyes, like that day one month ago when Jeongguk felt it, and Jeongguk feels it now.

Warm.

"Picture this," Taehyung whispers, and Jeongguk can feel the words on his face as they're spoken, can feel the hand leave his hair and make some exaggerated motion in the air as if inviting Jeongguk, inviting him to really picture it.

But he can't. How could he, how can he when he feels Taehyung's hand on his skin, even if there's a thin layer of fabric in the way it's there. It's there and Taehyung's touching him in a way he never has before, looking at him in the same way, and they're in the middle of a gas station but Jeongguk is in the clouds.

"Freshman year. You had braces, and I had this god awful perm-"

"I actually liked the perm," the words come out without air as Jeongguk says them, a small dazed smile on his face while he stares into Taehyung's eyes, breathing the same air, shitty gas station air.

"Well that makes one of you," he says back, voice just as soft, and the hand tightens its grip while Jeongguk just stands there like an idiot, hands pressed firmly to his sides but it's okay. He's a happy idiot, and he doesn't feel idiotic, just feels stunned, and his own hands keep Taehyung's hand in place so it's really okay. More than okay.

"I think I know where you're going with this."

"So you actually remember this one?"

Taehyung's teasing but Jeongguk groans and knocks his head back, "It was second grade, you can't expect me to remember that, it was nearly nine years ago," but when his head is level again, Taehyung isn't smiling anymore.

His eyes are staring at Jeongguk's neck, at his adams apple, at the place where his jaw meets smooth skin, wanting, because when Jeongguk leaned back, it was all Taehyung could see. Because when something like that is that close to you, how could you not. Stare.

And his mouth is open, pupils dilated and Jeongguk knows. When he stares at Taehyung's hands, when he feels need, want, but they're in the middle of a gas station, so Jeongguk just says, "Taehyung?"

Taehyung blinks, once, twice, and then looks back up at Jeongguk's face, still dangerously close. He gapes, realizing, and then he looks down to his shoes and loosens the grip on Jeongguk's hip, but keeps his hand there nonetheless.

"Sorry, you just," he trails off, looks back up, and then he looks dazed again, like he's not thinking properly, and he reaches a hand forward and ever so lightly touches Jeongguk's collar bone with a finger, skimming it up to touch along his neck, leaving embers in it's path.

The touch burns Jeongguk's skin, but it's a good burn, and by the time his finger is grazing Jeongguk's adams apple, he can't function properly, his mouth salivating, his eyes are watering but he can't blink or swallow because Taehyung extends another finger and it touches his jawline.

"Just," he urges Taehyung to continue, practically begging because right now Taehyung's tracing the veins in his neck and slowly moving upwards like it's nothing, but Jeongguk's on fire, and his knees are going to buckle at any moment.

Taehyung opens his mouth like he's going to say something, closes it again, and then looks up from where his vision is trained on Jeongguk's skin to stare into his eyes. He retracts his fingers and smiles, a slight redness painting his face, and holy fuck Taehyung is blushing.

"Nothing, I," He breathes, and then he's slowly dropping his hand from Jeongguk's waist, and taking a small step backwards, distance, "nothing."

Jeongguk's confused, and he wants Taehyung back where he was, but he's also thankful for the space, thankful for the breathing room that comes with it. He's about to say something, a question, but then Taehyung just smiles and points at the basket, sitting lonely on the ground.

"Let's check out, hm?"

Jeongguk inhales.

And chokes on his own spit.

He's choking, and his lungs are constricting, and Taehyung's looking at him with this amused expression on his face, while Jeongguk hacks up a lung.

"You good?" He asks, standing there patiently while Jeongguk holds up a finger, saying give me a moment, you just made me inhale my own saliva by proximity alone, and I'm not good but thanks for asking, without actually saying it, but it's what Jeongguk thinks and he hopes Taehyung picks up on it. Knows he probably does.

Taehyung walks closer and puts a hand on Jeongguk's back, hitting it lightly, like that's going to help, and then picks up the basket on his own. "Come on. I'm paying."

Jeongguk slowly regains his breath, ragged, but it already was unsteady before so it's bearable. Now he has something to blame it on, something other than Taehyung rendering him breathless, a direct attack to his lungs.

"Hey, what," a cough, "about freshman year," he breathes, and turns around to follow Taehyung, only to see him standing still, already looking.

"The night is young Jeongguk. We can have flashbacks to freshman year after we buy shitty snacks," he waves a hand, beckoning Jeongguk, and Jeongguk immediately follows, "now come."

He was right.

The girl at the checkout counter is clearly around their age, and when Taehyung places the basket on the counter she jumps back, and Jeongguk jumps back afterwards, startled.

Taehyung has to surpress his laughter, and Jeongguk's about to laugh, when she speaks, and her voice is harsh, shrill, "Jesus, you could've given me a fucking warning!"

Taehyung's face pales and he immediately stops laughing, Jeongguk too, because she looks exhausted, and like she's not in the mood to put up with anyone's shit. Taehyung mumbles a, "sorry," and she just rolls her eyes and begins scanning the items.

The store is silent, dead silent, other than the faint sound of a song that Jeongguk can't make out, and Jeongguk has never felt more awkward in his life. The occasional beeping of a scanner rings in his ears, and he just shuffles on his feet back and forth awkwardly, trying to look anywhere but at the girl in front of him.

He doesn't look at Taehyung either, but he can tell Taehyung is doing the same, awkwardly fiddling with his fingers, his long fingers, and even now, he occupies Jeongguk's head fully, no room for anything else. Except for maybe a rude gas station cashier.

She picks up the lifesavers and inspects them, holding them up to a light like there's something interesting about them, and Jeongguk takes this moment to finally look at her but it's a huge mistake.

Bags under her eyes, which are bright blue, piercing, hollowed cheekbones and blonde hair that's stringy, probably bleached, she looks permanently mad. Perhaps resting bitch face. Or maybe she's just is mad.

They make eye contact, "Life savers, seriously?" Her voice is cold, and Jeongguk almost chokes again. She's staring at him, and he didn't even pick the life saver's out but he still feels obligated to answer. "Yeah, I mean," he scratches the back of his head, floundering, "they're actually-"

"What are you, twelve?" She asks before scanning them, and god she's mean and Jeongguk has never been more unsure of what to say to someone in his entire life.

From beside him, Taehyung is unable to contain a snort. A mistake.

Her eyes flip over to him, and Jeongguk can sense the exact moment Taehyung first makes eye contact with her, because he automatically goes rigid. She doesn't say anything, just stares at him, judgmentally, and Taehyung lets out a small, "sorry," despite apologizing for absolutely nothing, and now Jeongguk feels like laughing.

He takes one look at her and decides against it. She's scary.

She finishes ringing up their items, and Jeongguk almost feels bad despite also feeling like he may piss his pants. Working in a gas station at 2:00am can't be fun. "Your total is $6.37."

Taehyung grabs the bag from her with a hesitant smile, and throws a ten on the counter. "Keep the change," he turns to walk and Jeongguk starts to follow, but he doesn't miss the way she scrambles to take it, eyes slightly widened.

They're almost out of the store when he can hear her voice again, and she says, "Hey."

"Yeah?" Taehyung turns around a bit, one hand on the door handle while the other contains a bag full of sugar. Just sugar.

She inhales, and she looks less scary now, "you guys are a cute couple."

Everything comes to a stop. The music keeps playing, but it also stops, because Jeongguk can't hear it over the sound of his own heartbeat, he can't hear it over the sound of the deep breath he takes, because it feels like there's no air in his lungs, no air anywhere, and he's about to correct her because-

"Thanks." Taehyung looks at her, then at Jeongguk, and then back at her again, and everything's in motion now, almost too fast for him to catch up. "Have a good night."

"You too," She calls, and then the door is opening, and cold air is hitting his face, waking him up, because he currently feels like he's in a dream.

He follows Taehyung out of the store, eyes wide, trying to comprehend what just happened, which wasn't even that big of a deal because all Taehyung did was not correct her, but still. The implications.

They make his heart race as it's suddenly dead silent, as Taehyung's small chuckles fill the air, as he walks over to the left side of the gas station, where a brick wall sits with a bike propped up against it, Jeongguk's bike.

He musters up the willpower to speak, "What's funny?"

Taehyung doesn't make a move for the bike, instead leans against the wall and carefully sets the bag on the ground, grabs life savers and a half empty gatorade.

Taehyung pauses to take a sip of his drink, and Jeongguk watches his adams apple move, and then he pops off the bottle with a sigh, and screws the cap back on. He looks so good like this, in this lighting, in minimalistic clothing, effortlessly breathtaking.

His eyes are big and they stare at Jeongguk, and his lashes touch his cheekbones each time he blinks. They're brown but they look black in this lighting, like an abyss, an abyss Jeongguk has swam in before and feels like he's swimming in right now. Is swimming in right now. Was earlier too.

"I felt like I was gonna shit myself."

Jeongguk releases the breath he hadn't really been holding, but he feels relieved and it shows in the way his shoulders rest and a small laugh leaves his mouth. "Me too. She was scary."

Taehyung nods, "Amen," sets his gatorade down on the ground. "You know what's ironic?"

Jeongguk cautiously approaches, not sure why he's hesitant about it. The road in front of them is deserted, and it's nice. Jeongguk feels nice.

"What?" he questions, and Taehyung's looking at the road too, sparing glances occasionally to Jeongguk, because he can't help but look, because when something that beautiful is so close to you it's almost a crime not to look at it.

"The song that was playing, I'm not sure if you could hear it."

"I couldn't."

Taehyung laughs, and then looks directly at Jeongguk, "Mr. Blue Sky by Electric Light Orchestra."

And Jeongguk gets it, the irony, of a song about happiness, about coming home after being gone for a long time, about the sun and the clouds, playing while someone has never felt more pissed off, working a listless job late into the hours of the night.

Jeongguk gets it. He would be mad too if he had to listen to Mr. Blue Sky while feeling like the human equivalent of a cumulonimbus cloud.

"Wow." Is all he says, and next to him Taehyung passes him the ginger ale, and prepares to open his life savers.

"Wait," Jeongguk stops him, and his voice is ringing, loud, echoes across the concrete, "weren't we going somewhere else?"

Taehyung just nods, opens the life savers despite. "Right. Food, drink," as he says this he points to the gummies, to the gatorade, to the ginger ale, to the sugar, "pleasantries, then surprise location."

Jeongguk takes the ginger ale and shakes his head. The words from earlier still repeat in his mind, one word in specific, couple, but he doesn't mind it. It gets easier to ignore, because talking to Taehyung is thought consuming, but then again, why would he want to ignore it? It's his current favorite word, makes him smile, blush.

"Would life savers even count as food, logistically speaking?"

Taehyung gasps again, and Jeongguk's heart is so full, of all the laughs, of all the looks, the touches, the proximity, and tonight has been exquisite.

"Not you too. I swear, you and that store clerk both hate life savers for no reason-"

"Hey," a laugh inbetween, "Don't group me in with her, I never said I hated-"

He decides mid sentence to open the ginger ale, forgetting, and it explodes in his grasp, fizzy liquid covering his hands, getting on Taehyung's shirt, on Jeongguk's pants, a surprised sound leaving Jeongguk's mouth while he rushes to drink some of the bubbles, in turn it spilling all over his chin and his neck and his everywhere.

"Oh my god I knew that was gonna happen and I still didn't stop you I'm so going to hell," Taehyung says all in one breath, watching Jeongguk struggle while the ginger ale spills.

A second or two later, the ginger ale's done, and Jeongguk's giving Taehyung this glare, and it's hard to take him seriously with ginger ale coating his body, but if Taehyung's honest, he looks kind of sexy, and-

Jeongguk's pouring ginger ale on him. There's ginger ale on his shirt, because Jeongguk lunged forward and sloshed some onto it, stoic, enraged expression curling upwards into a blinding smile, because Jeongguk's smile is beautiful too. It's breathtaking.

"Woah, holy shit," Taehyung backs away, a mixture of anger and laughter, "you're really just gonna waste it like that?"

Jeongguk stops his assault, tilts the can up and effectively downs the remainder of it, placing it carefully in the plastic bag to throw away later, while he still laughs, "My mouth no longer tastes like throw up, so it's effectively served it's purpose."

Taehyung touches his shirt faintly, inspects the wet splotch before his smile fades slightly, laughter dies down. He watches Jeongguk slide slowly down the brick wall, sitting on the ground.

Taehyung knows Jeongguk.

"Hey." He starts, walks a bit forward and leans against the wall himself, looking down at Jeongguk, who stares up at him with those big eyes, soft eyes, and they aren't crinkled at the sides, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." Jeongguk answers quickly, not thinking much of it. He looks away from Taehyung, at the road, at the bike, and then he looks down, at the ginger ale, and he smiles.

"You're sober, right?"

Jeongguk knows why he asks the question, but he still almost asks. Why?

The answer is obvious.

"I've never felt sober-er." He laughs a bit, and Taehyung does too, and there's quiet for a moment, until he looks back at Taehyung and says, "Thank you."

"Are you sure?" Taehyung slowly slides down the brick wall, sitting on the ground next to Jeongguk.

"I'm sure," Jeongguk answers quickly, not thinking about it much. He stares at Taehyung, "Tonight's been great. You've been great."

Taehyung's heart swells, and so does Jeongguk's, and they spend this dumb couple of seconds, a momentary lapse in time just looking at each other, these dumber smiles on their faces.

"You're great." Taehyung says, and Jeongguk feels this feeling in his stomach, something he never wants to stop feeling, something he hasn't stopped feeling all night. He wants to say something. To ask what's going on, how they got here, how two hours ago Jeongguk was silently pining after his best friend and now here they are.

Staring at each other. Staring in a non-friendly way. In a more than friendly way.

Jeongguk's about to open his mouth, about to ask what this all means, about to go for it, when Taehyung cuts him off.

"So. Freshman year. Perm and braces."

Jeongguk just keeps looking for a second, debating retracing his steps, saying, no, Taehyung, we need to clear the air, need to talk about it, but Taehyung's smiling at the memory and if Jeongguk thinks hard enough he smiles too.

So he just thinks. Of perms and braces.

He's about to say something again when Taehyung springs up onto his feet, life savers in hand. "Wait!"

"What-"

"I should take you to our final destination for an optimal trip down memory lane."

He extends a hand, and theres those veins, those fingers, and Jeongguk wants to hold them. He does, and he's lifted onto his feet, ignoring the way his lungs empty when he ends up closer to Taehyung than he would've thought.

His hands are warm.

"You remember that movie?"

His lungs fill again.

"You mean final destination?"

"I do."

He groans, but it's hard to be upset when Taehyung's still holding onto his hand, grip tight but also gentle as he turns slowly and pulls him towards the bike. The bike that's still just sitting there, a couple feet in front of them. Unstolen.

"Taehyung, that movie gave me nightmares for a year."

Taehyung looks over his shoulder and grins, lets go of Jeongguk's hand before straightening the bike up and swinging a leg over, placing one on either side, "I know."

He extends his hand once again, and Jeongguk takes it, just letting himself look at Taehyung and the smile, the smile he can't stop thinking about, the mouth that goes with it.

"That's number nine on the list."

Jeongguk smiles too. Gets on the bike.

And everything's exquisite.

-