As the night progressed forward, by nine o'clock Jeongguk and Taehyung had completed their shared responsibility in delivering part of the cookies. 

They were currently in the Mini, driving back from the last house they'd delivered the cookies to. They had two options at the moment: either head home or join their friends at a bar for drinks (courtesy of Hoseok of course). Though right then, it was predictably the telepathy-thing Jeongguk and Taehyung had with one another because a single look from the other and they both knew one thing.

Both options didn't seem appealing.

Jeongguk smiled, passing glances from the road ahead and back to Taehyung, in the driver's seat of his car. "Do you maybe wanna go for a drive instead?" Not a second went by before-

"Yes."

The night was beautiful. No stars in the sky probably due to it raining earlier but the chill breeze that fanned against Taehyung's palm out the window made up for it. In relation to the absent stars, the moon looked lonely up there in the sky. Its dazzling light reflected itself off Taehyung's shiny orbs as he admired it back. With his long hair blowing back from the wind, displaying a clear side-profile of his handsome face; from the slope of his nose down to his pink lips parted in awe... he failed to notice a heated gaze burning against him.

When Taehyung eventually turned to face the man next to him, he did catch Jeongguk looking at him with a deciphering expression. He smiled at first, expecting the other to smile back but Jeongguk continued to stare at him like there was something on his mind.

At the same time, little flurries of memories from earlier snowed down over Taehyung- the way he felt about this whole day. He got to hang out with his friends and boyfriend, also learning a bunch of new stuff about Jeongguk. Like what was with that 'look' Jin and Namjoon were going on about? He had honestly never seen Jeongguk do that thing with the tongue poking his cheek.

But wait, Jin said something about how Jeongguk gives that look to anyone who got close to him. Did that mean that he got jealous a lot? Taehyung mentally cursed himself. I'm such an idiot. The truth was right there all along and he did the stupid thing of telling Mina the wrong thing. Gosh, why was he so oblivious all the time?

As all this clouded around in Taehyung's head, he could feel his smile falter in that realization. In fact he had zoned out, not aware that Jeongguk had said something to him. He quickly broke out of his trance, moving closer to the other with a brief apology.

"Sorry. What did you say?"

"I asked if you wanted to drive." 

Taehyung dismissed his previous thoughts quickly to comprehend what was being asked of him right now. He blinked a couple of times. "You're kidding right?" His face was serious, hoping Jeongguk would admit that he was joking. 

Only he didn't.

"I'm serious." Jeongguk stated. "Come on, the road's empty. It's the perfect opportunity for you to get over your fear." 

Oh gosh, this was all so sudden. Taehyung was the type of person that needed a heads up for things like this. Maybe a week's notice- no a month. Oh who was he kidding, even with an abundant amount of time to mentally prepare himself, he'd still end up freaking out. 

"Jeongguk..." He called, sounding very unsure.

He watched the said man pass him a reassuring smile. "I'll be here right next to you. You have nothing to worry about." 

And that's when the thought occurred to Taehyung. Maybe this was what he needed. A spontaneous thing such as this to finally give him the confidence to drive. No doubt, it was frightening but how long was he going to keep this fear inside him? So many things he'd avoided all his life just because he was too scared- too much of a baby... he wondered, how great would it be for him to drive Jeongguk around for a change.

That sounded nice.

Taehyung let out a shaky breath, slowly turning to face Jeongguk once again. "You promise nothing's gonna happen."

Jeongguk chuckled lightly at his boyfriend's cuteness. "I promise, Sweetheart."

So a few minutes later, that's how Taehyung ended up in the driver's seat of Jeongguk's Mini. They were parked on the shoulder of the road with the emergency flickers on. It wasn't a problem really because the road was almost empty anyway. A complete contrast to Taehyung's head as he was buzzing with paranoia. Was there another seatbelt that he could strap over himself 'cause suddenly one didn't feel enough...

"You got this alright." Jeongguk calmly soothed with a pat on the other's thigh.

Upon intensely chewing his bottom lip, Taehyung nodded feeling his heart accelerate. He turned his head to the side, finding it extremely weird to see Jeongguk sitting on the passenger's seat. With a strained gulp he went, "Before we start, I just wanna say that you're the one who made me do this and incase something bad happens tonight and I die, I will come back and haunt you as a ghost." He briefed in all seriousness despite his utterly silly words.

Lastly. "Oh yeah, and I love you."

Jeongguk was left with an almost horrified expression, the skin between his dark brows scrunching up. He sighed. "Okay, first of all in the off-chance that something bad does happen we both might die, though I highly doubt that will happen and also it's great to see where your level of confidence is at."

They shared a short laugh for a moment before the time finally came. Jeongguk craned his neck to see if his boyfriend's feet were on the right pedals. He didn't need to look much 'cause Taehyung's feet were tucked towards the inner part of his seat, far away from any of the pedals. This was off to a great start...

"Okay, so this is a manual car meaning there's three pedals." Jeongguk started. "The one on the farthest right is the gas. The one in the middle is the brakes and the last one on the farthest left is the clutch. Can you remember that?"

Taehyung peeked down to the said pedals, repeating the order in his head. He'd learn all this in driver's ed. but of course like most things that didn't interest him, he'd forgotten it all. "Alright." He nodded.

"Now this is the gear stick." Jeongguk placed his hand over the knob of the stick. He glanced to Taehyung with wary eyes before bringing his gaze back to the said stick. "Right now the gear is in neutral when it's in the middle like this. When you're pulling out of a stationary spot, you have to put it in the first gear which is the farthest upper left shaft. The second gear is in the shaft right below that and the third gear is back up again next to the first one and so on." 

For a moment Taehyung just stared at the gear stick, taking his time to soak in all of Jeongguk's golden instructions. He was a little confused but Jeongguk sensed that, fortunately.

"The label of the gear positions are on the knob here so you won't forget alright." 

Well, that made things better.

"Okay." Taehyung nodded.

Jeongguk continued, "So this is important. You can only move the gearstick when you're fully stepping on the clutch pedal. So put your left foot on the clutch now."

It was starting. Oh he was about to drive now! With his heartbeat thundering in his ears, Taehyung did as he was told. His foot may or may have not been shaking but it was too late to back out- he was determined to get this over with.

"Now see you can move the gear stick freely." Jeongguk demonstrated briefly before putting it back in its original position. "Okay hyung, put it in the first gear."

"Straight away?"

"Yes."

Taehyung placed his hand over the knob, guiding the stick into the first shaft easily. This little achievement thrilled him more than it should've as he turned to his boyfriend with a happy grin. "I did it." He beamed.

Jeongguk couldn't control his own smile, every little cute move from Taehyung affecting him severely. But he had to focus now despite 'some unrelated thoughts' crowding his mind ever so slightly. "Good job, now push the handbrake down and make sure your right foot is on the brakes 'cause the car might move backwards when you release the clutch after this."

After doing as he was told again, Taehyung nodded. 

"So now very slowly ease your foot off the clutch- you'll feel the engine roaring up a bit and that's when you have to add a little gas."

"Wait what? How do I do that?" The timing to balance the clutch and the gas was what worried him the most. Suddenly a horrible memory of his driving instructor yelling at him came flashing back unattractively. He was starting to remember why he hated driving manual cars in the first place.

Although, his instructor wasn't here right now. No he had Jeongguk, who hadn't yell at him once since they started. That helped him settle down a little. 

"Sweetheart, relax alright. You'll get the balance right in no time but you have to try it first." His boyfriend's warm tone wrapped him up in calmness. "You can do this. I believe in you."

With one look to Jeongguk, Taehyung sighed. Okay, right. He needed to try it first. So Taehyung lifted his foot off the clutch ever so lightly, feeling the engine underneath roaring up a bit just as the other had said. 

"Good, now add some gas."

Taehyung stepped on the gas pedal though he'd missed the timing and the car started moving backwards causing him to freak out. Almost right away, Jeongguk pulled the handbrake up and the car abruptly stopped. 

"Oh..." Taehyung breathed heavily. That was exhilarating. "Gguk, I can't do this." He made a worried face.

"No you can. You were so close." Jeongguk offered. "No one gets in on the first try anyway. Come on, try again. Please."

It was weird. Normally by now he'd have given up so easily but as Taehyung was currently looking at Jeongguk, there was a part of him that wanted to get this right. Therefore he turned to the front, repeating the previous procedures until he found himself in the same position again. This time without Jeongguk's cue to start, he released the clutch slowly on his own.

Taehyung's eyes shut momentarily, feeling the engine vibration very clearly moving to step on the gas pedal lightly. The car engine revved with the added acceleration for a moment and just when he thought he'd fail again the car ACTUALLY rolled forward.

"Jeongguk..." He called in disbelief.

"You're doing it!" Jeongguk cheered, hyping up in his seat. "Now add more gas and let go of the clutch completely." 

He did exactly that and the car sped up as he controlled the alignments of the contraption with the steering wheel. Taehyung smiled all the way before the car was starting to stutter a little but once again, his incredible 'driving instructor' got the signal and guided him with ease.

"Okay so when you feel that stutter, it means that the car is going too fast for it to be in the first gear. You have to change it into the second one." Jeongguk explained, looking at Taehyung with eagerness. "And do you remember what I said about changing the gears?"

Taehyung nodded, keeping his eyes on the road. "I have to step on the clutch."

"Correct! Now do that and remember to ease off the clutch slowly again."

In another build up with slight nerves, Taehyung got ready with a hand on the gear stick. As the car was moving, he abruptly stepped on the clutch smoothly shifting the gear into the second shaft. Almost right away, the Mini picked up its pace on the road by that flawless transition.

"Oh that was so good hyung!" Jeongguk praised. "So when you want to go faster you change into a higher gear, the opposite if you want to slow down."

Those were Jeongguk's last words as he didn't need to guide the other again after that. With a smile on his face, Taehyung was driving! He was finally doing it without a worry in the world. Oh god, he couldn't describe the feeling bubbling inside him at the moment. It was delightful as adrenaline pumped through his veins. His heart was thumping hard- in a good way. He- he was feeling brave, happy, contented and it was...

It was all thanks to Jeongguk.