Forty-First
:Chapter Forty-One:

Jeongguk huffed as he got closer to the front door, shaking his head. He just wanted peace and quiet, especially since his dad had left with his little brother to go visit their aunt's house.

But, with Jeongguk's luck, he wasn't getting that peace.

Someone just had to stop by and try to bombard him. He tried to ignore it but damn persistency.

He unlocked the front door and pulled it open, conflicted on whether or not he should be surprised to see Taehyung at his door.

     "What do you want?" Jeongguk wondered, leaning on the doorframe, arms loosely crossed over his chest as he stood there waiting impatiently.

"Why else would I be here?" Questioned Taehyung. "Now move aside so I can come in."

Jeongguk stopped the elder from moving forward. "Jaeyong isn't here, he's out with my dad."

"Even better, I didn't want to hangout with the little rugrat anyways." Taehyung shrugged lamely. "Now come on, let me in."

"Why? Are we even friends? Are we even close enough for you to think you can barge in at any time you want?" Jeongguk was definitely confused, trying to decipher this.

"Sure we are," Taehyung told and then pushed passed Jeongguk, the younger not even trying to stop him since this boy was already giving him a headache.

Taehyung had seen the TV was off and there was no activity going on in the living space of the Jeon residence. He hummed, turning around to see Jeongguk closing the door and locking it.

"Were you just chilling down here?" Wondered the elder, seeing Jeongguk deny with a shake of his head.

"No, I was upstairs doing my homework in peace before you decided to interrupt me oh-so rudely." Jeongguk rolled his eyes, proceeding to take himself up the steps back to where he resides.

Taehyung, being who he is, followed the teenager up. He wasn't going to sit down here by himself, there would be no point in being there then.

Jeongguk heard the extra steps behind him and silently chuckled to himself. He made it to his room, leaving the door open so Taehyung could walk right through.

"What homework assignment were you working on?" Taehyung decided to try for conversation, looking around the boy's room briefly before taking a seat on the edge of Jeongguk's bed.

"Uh, English right now." Jeongguk commented, seating himself in his chair by his desk, slipping his glasses back on.

"Awe, now you have the whole getup! Glasses, homework, you make the perfect nerd!" Taehyung grinned, receiving a small side-glare from Jeongguk who then returned to his homework but not without another remark.

     "So, why aren't you doing your homework? What if you become ineligible to play due to your poor academics?" Jeongguk wondered without looking over, trying to jolt down his homework just to finish quicker so he wouldn't have to do it all night.

"Nonsense, I know how to care for my grades. I do my homework during school hours or when I have a bit of time." Taehyung said, pulling out his phone and checking the time. "I don't want to be like one of you lowlife's and spend my evening doing piles of homework." He added on, swaying a bit in his seat as he spoke.

The younger scoffed, rolling his eyes. He set his pencil down and looked over, a bored look playing his features. "So, what are you going to do while I do my homework?"

"Well, I can help you." Taehyung said simply, not really minding if he lended a helping hand. Jeongguk did when it came to batting, sure Taehyung could help with a few assignments.

"If you want to," Jeongguk hummed and picked up his homework, handing it over to Taehyung who gave it a look over.

"You're just going to translate the sentence into English and then for the next part of it, translate it into Korean." Taehyung explained, looking at the sentences.

     The elder went on to help Jeongguk understand what the homework was asking, the two slowly getting closer until they were directly shoulder-to-shoulder on the younger's bed. They didn't realize the closeness they had between them, their eyes both going over the paper and one assisting the other.

"So the extra letters at the end just mean two words combined? With that symbol too?" Jeongguk wondered, pointing to what he was talking to.

"Yeah, exactly. It's a confusing language, especially since it's a combination of like eight other languages." Taehyung chuckled a bit. "But you got it down for the most part."

Jeongguk hummed, picking his head up and looking at Taehyung, the elder doing the same back to him.

The black-haired teen went to say thank you but it was like his words had no sound, just a silent whisper which never made it out into existence.

Their eyes were locked with each other, neither one of them breaking the eye contact they were holding.

Their faces were just about seven to eight inches apart from each other, the silence being the loudest thing surrounding them, filling their ears.

     There was so much tension, thick and clear as day. The two both could feel it between them but it wasn't awkward — no, it was more than that.

     "Thank you," Jeongguk's voice found its way out into the open, pulling them both apart from each other. Neither one of them sure what the weird pause between them was.

     Taehyung gulped and looked away, shaking his head to himself. "Uh, yeah, no problem." He uttered.

Jeongguk pushed to his feet and went back over to his desk, setting the paper down and trying to get back to doing his work.

The elder watched closely, seeing the tint of red on Jeongguk's cheeks. They clearly both were embarrassed and would be swallowed by the the ground whole right now if they could.

"I, um, I'm actually going to just get going." Taehyung spoke up, slowly standing up, hand finding its way on the back of his neck.

"So soon? You got here, like, ten minutes ago." Jeongguk checked the time on his phone. "You don't got to go."

"I know but I think I should go," Taehyung said, shaking his head.

"Why?" Jeongguk questioned. "Because of a little tension? We ignore everything else." He commented, looking down at his paper and plugging in some answers he was given by Taehyung.

The sentence made Taehyung stand a bit silently, making him frown. "What else do we ignore?" He questioned, brow arched.

Jeongguk sighed and set his pencil down. "Everything, Taehyung."

"Use your words, be specific." Taehyung rolled his eyes, arms dangling by his side loosely.

The younger took a moment and shrugged. "So, this is the first time you've felt and been bothered by the tension? Things just get awkward."

"First time? There's been other times?" Taehyung sounded bewildered.

"You know what, yeah, maybe you should leave, Kim." Jeongguk tried to dismiss but Taehyung had his interest tickled.

"No, no, you can't just try to pull a fast one like that." The blond-haired teen took a seat back on the edge of the bed, leaning a bit on his thighs.

The other sat back down, turning in his chair and facing Taehyung, looking at him with a bored look. "You just can't play dumb."

"I'm not playing dumb."

"You so are. I know you know what I'm talking about, you just want me to say it for your own benefit; so you win."

"Win? We're playing a game?" Taehyung may have acted naïve before but he definitely was getting more confused with the more Jeongguk spoke.

     Jeongguk groaned and rolled his head back, hands dragging through his black locks. He took a moment to himself before directing the attention back at the boy. "You're so fucking difficult, Kim."

"Just explain it and I wouldn't be so difficult." Taehyung said, brows pulled in. He was completely in the dark, annoyed by how ridiculous this was.

Jeongguk definitely took a moment to let the words linger in his head; to figure out what was best to say in this situation. If Taehyung was confused, Jeongguk wasn't going to be the one to bring it up.

He sighed. "Just our friendship." He replied, shaking his head. "Anytime we get 'close' you turn into some little bitch and find a way to ruin it." Jeongguk admitted half of what he meant.

"No I don't, now you're just making shit up." Taehyung crossed his arms over his chest.

The younger shook his head, leaning back on his seat with his arms lazily resting on the armrests. "Why would I make it up?" He questioned. "You're so uptight about keeping this a secret that you're willing to go out of your way to degrade me."

Jeongguk had yet to lie. He wasn't saying the full extent of what he was talking about but he definitely was saying some of it.

     Taehyung frowned. "I'm not trying to degrade you, I'm trying to make it realistic," The elder said but he didn't expect Jeongguk to say exactly what he said at the end too, both saying it at the same time.

     "I get it, Kim." Jeongguk replied, shaking his head but more to himself. "Maybe you should go, go enjoy time with Hoseok hyung or your mini-you." He referred to Taehyung's girlfriend at the end for anyone who missed the reference.

Taehyung sat there silently for a moment before he decided it was probably best. Plus, he figured after a bit, the two would forget this ever happened.

Much like everything else.

"I'll come over another time, probably, if you would want me to." Taehyung said as he stood up for the nth time.

"Sure, if it makes you feel any better." Jeongguk muttered, returning to his homework on his desk, glasses back on his face so he could continue the rest of his assignments.

Taehyung hummed and turned away, walking over to the door and exiting but not without another thing to add.

The elder turned back and peaked back in. "Um, so it's not unannounced anymore, can we just . . . Exchange numbers?"

Jeongguk sat there for a moment before slowly looking up. "We don't have each other's numbers?"

"No, there was never a need to." Taehyung answered. "It wasn't like we were going to text each other and ask how we were."

That statement made Jeongguk crack a smile, shaking his head. "I guess, let me put it in your phone."

The elder didn't say anything more and walk forth, handing over his phone after unlocking it.

***

     Jeongguk sighed, feeling restless as he laid back on his bed. He didn't know the time, just that it was late and everyone was pretty much asleep.

He was just awake, no feel to sleep just yet. Jeongguk wasn't stressed or anything, he just didn't feel to sleep, he wasn't tired.

He pushed himself into a seating position, letting out a huff of pure annoyance. He hated nights like this; nights where his body had too much energy to spare.

Jeongguk pulled his phone from the plug, switching it on. Some TikTok wouldn't kill him, right? Something to pass the time up until he could go to sleep.

As he opened his phone, his eyes caught sight of something else. Something that pulled his attention away from the endless about of a minute or less videos he could bore himself with.

It was his messages. Nothing exciting but he recalled the situation that occurred earlier in the day, right before Kim left.

The number exchange.

Jeongguk held his breath for a mere moment, thinking of the possibility of Taehyung even being awake at this very moment.

They didn't text one another yet, no actual messages being sent from either end and Jeongguk was actually considering sending out the very first official message. There was a text from Taehyung to way earlier but it was just him saying it was him so Jeongguk could lock in his number.

     What would he even say? 'Hey' is way outdated and asking 'how are you' is just too bland. Plus, it was roughly two in the morning. Hypothetically, if Taehyung was awake, a good ole 'how are you' is one of the dumbest things to ask at this hour.

Jeongguk sighed, seriously debating with himself if he should even text the boy. It would be a nice way of wasting time. Kim got annoyed pretty easily so it's not like they would go all night texting one another.

The raven-haired teen hummed and made up his mind, going straight to his contacts and clicking the 'message' icon under Kim's contact name.

Which so happened to be, 'Little Blond Bitch' for anyone who wondered.

He still didn't know what the message should be but he quickly composed of something, throwing together a few words in hopes it made sense.

Jeongguk:
U get home safely ?

Yeah, perfect. He was pretending he gave a shit about the boy and his well-being. And, to add, it wasn't the cliché first message-types. At least Jeongguk seemed to think so.

Jeongguk didn't know what he was expecting, however. He sent the message but he was surprised when his phone dinged only two minutes later.

Little Blond Bitch:
Huh? Why are u asking like 7
hrs later? Make it make sense 🤨

Jeongguk found himself smiling just a bit, shaking his head to himself.

Jeongguk:
Can't I just ask ? Ungrateful whore 🤧

Little Blond Bitch:
The hostility really popped out of
nowhere. I'm still looking for who u
were talking 2 cuz it ain't me lol

Jeongguk:
Most certainly was u. But why r u
up rn ?

Little Blond Bitch:
Cuz I can be duh 🙄

Jeongguk rolled his eyes, already sick of Taehyung's antics but what more did he expect?

Jeongguk:
Cmon seriously

Little Blond Bitch:
U ask so many questions. U nosy.
But nah I just couldn't sleep, hbu

The fact that Taehyung returned the question was enough to have Jeongguk know they were going to be texting more than he originally intended for them to.

_______
A/N:

I had to rewrite this chapter. I hope it still turned out good! They're definitely progressing and there will be romance soon, just trust the process, please!