Thirty-Third
:Chapter Thirty-Three:

The two had agreed not to bring up their little encounter to Namjoon, Hoseok, or to anyone. That included Jihyun, Taehyung's lovely girlfriend.

Instead, they pretended they never 'hung' out at all. Which they totally didn't, no, Taehyung was just at Jeongguk's house to play with the aforementioned's little brother.

They also acted how they would if neither one of them pitied the other.

Ruthless.

"You call that a pitch? I'm willing to risk another concussion if that's what it takes to have your ass sit out." Jeongguk scoffed from the dugout, making Cap roll his eyes.

"I'll gladly give you a concussion, how severe do you want it?" Taehyung tossed the ball in his left palm, eyes glaring holes into Jeongguk's.

"With your weak ass throws? I'll have a bruise at the most." Jeongguk smirked, insulting the other.

For some odd reason, the insulting didn't seem to get on either of their nerves.

Well, not Jeongguk's anyways. Taehyung was still getting annoyed by Jeongguk's voice playing around in his eardrum but that was just him.

"Okay, lovebirds, cut the shit and stick to yourselves." Hoseok remarked. He had been feeling a bit better which was always nice.

Taehyung faked gagged, holding a single digit out while his head was slightly turned. "Oh, please, you're making me ill." He replied.

"Did you see your reflection somewhere, Kim? Hate to tell you how sick you make everyone feel, we all try to just bite out tongues and look away." Jeongguk called out, making Taehyung shake his head.

He decided against saying anything more since it would only be back and forth from there. Jeongguk was just too witty and cleaver.

Hoseok chuckled, shaking his head. "I'm telling you, your guys relationship is finna bloom into something full of sexual and romantic attraction."

Taehyung and Jeongguk looked at Hoseok in silence, both showing equal amount of disgust.

"Seok, for the sake of literally everyone, never say 'finna' ever again. That's American bullshit, don't bring that here. We live peacefully, let's just not." Taehyung said, a scowl over his lips.

"'Seok', you can say whatever you want. Don't listen to him, he's just in a pissy mood. He hates when I'm right." Jeongguk called out to Hoseok, fingers looping through the fence holes.

Hoseok frowned and looked between Taehyung and Jeongguk, lips opening and closing, something on his mind but he couldn't quite pin point it.

"What did I miss?" He wondered, cocking a brow.

"Nothing? You've been here the same amount of time I've been here." Taehyung said, looking back to the catcher and pitching the ball back. It was a bit better but Jeongguk still thought it was garbage, or so that's what he was trying to convince himself of.

"No," Said Hoseok. "You guys. I'm getting a soul read and it doesn't feel . . . Violent."

Taehyung caught the baseball thrown back to him and looked over, meeting Jeongguk's eyes for a split second. "The fuck are you talking about?" Taehyung questioned. "Dude still is a piece of shit, still thinks he's funny, and nose is still way too big for his face."

Jeongguk's lips parted, brows pulling in. "Oh, suck a dick, Kim. Don't act like you're any better. And my nose fits my face, you have nothing else to pick on me about. I heard you found me hot when I first came here."

"In your dreams, Newbie! You wish you had my validation for your horrid looks." Taehyung rolled his eyes, scoffing. He turned away and pitched again.

"Validation? As if I needed that from someone who looks like that." Jeongguk spat, huffing.

"I take it back," Hoseok said. "Just both of you, shut up, I don't want to deal with it." He added on, walking away and heading out to outfield so they could practice correctly. He left the two boys alone with each other.

"That was close." Jeongguk commented pretty quietly, making Taehyung frown.

"What was close?" He asked, not quite understanding what Newbie was on about. He continued to practice his pitch, listening to whatever the younger had to say.

"Hyung,"

"What about him?" Taehyung caught the ball, sparing a quick look to his left to see Jeongguk standing there. "You must've hit your head hard, you're not making sense."

"Forget it, Kim. Shame on me for thinking shit." Jeongguk rolled his eyes and let go of the fence, turning away, back broadly facing the elder.

"Hope you didn't think we were suddenly cool with each other. Don't forget we're suppose to be hating one another, not buddy-buddy all of a sudden." Taehyung made clear, shaking his head. He rolled the ball back, telling the catcher he wanted to go grab himself a quick drink before continuing.

Jeongguk didn't know what he thought but he knew whatever it was, he was wrong. It was almost embarrassing he believed what he did. He just wanted to sit down and pretend it never happened but those chances were slim to none.

     The captain walked into the dugout, Jeongguk sitting on the end of the bench with his phone in hand, not interacting with the elder.

"I'm seriously curious, the fuck did you think?" Taehyung wondered, pulling up his bag and grabbing his water bottle.

Jeongguk shook his head. "Forget it, ugly."

"So clever, thank you for letting me know how my looks are." Taehyung said clearly sarcastically. "Did you think we were going to start holding hands now? Because your brother likes my company?"

"No, shit face, I didn't think that." Jeongguk switched his phone off, looking over at Taehyung with a glare that could kill. "I just thought you would be a bit more mature about things, not a little whiny bitch. I bought you food and offered to help try to take your mind off the shit you were dealing with. Call me crazy for thinking we could at least be bystanders." He pushed to his feet, ready to leave before he stopped and looked back at Taehyung. "We're not friends because you can't let go of something that happened a handful of years ago. Young kids who were competitive and didn't know any better. I'm surprised Hoseok hyung stayed this long with the way you act." And he walked away, leaving Taehyung speechless where he stood.

Taehyung stood there, dumbfounded with the sudden burst of anger towards him but he knew he probably deserved it.

He just didn't understand why Jeongguk thought all would be solved and well, the two barely hung out. And even when they did 'hangout', they sat in mostly silence, devouring fatty foods.

The new pitcher let out a huff and shook his head to himself, lifting his water bottle and taking some down his throat.

***

     Practice had ended after some time later, the baseball players cleaning up the field. They had a game on Monday and it was the first game for playoffs.

That meant that the team needed to win or they would be left without anymore games.

It was a huge game against a big team, one to definitely be anticipated.

The first game of the playoffs were always frightening and nerve-racking, always. It was just so scary to think one loss to throw it all away.

     It was called a single-game elimination. There was also something called a 'best two-out-of-three series' which was in the name itself, just win two of the three games played. High school baseball had the option to do it with single-game elimination or the two-out-of-three series. Just had to meet on mutual ground.

The Panthers were going to do single-game eliminations which was pretty obvious, the author just wanted to help everyone understand what was going on.

     Taehyung helped clean up, taking the bucket of practice baseballs down to the storage room. He then walked back up with Hoseok, both boys talking about something rather random and irrelevant.

Jeongguk was waiting outside with Jimin by his side, also talking about something irrelevant to the readers.

     "Hey! You guys waited!" Hoseok was first to speak, grinning. "Hey, you sexy nugget. I've missed you, feels like it's been forever since I've seen you." Hoseok was obviously talking to Jimin, it was clear with the way he addressed the aforementioned.

Jimin chuckled, opening his arms and pulling Hoseok into a hug once the elder came closer to him. "I know you missed my lovin', can't get lovin' this good from anyone else." He smiled.

Taehyung rolled his eyes, shaking his head just a bit. "Where's Jihyun?" He asked, knowing she was in track with Jimin.

"Oh, she left practice early. She said she wasn't feeling too good. She told me to tell you not to worry about her, she's just been ill." Jimin answered, pulling away from Hoseok who rested his arm on the shorter's shoulder.

"I should probably go see her." Taehyung said more to himself, kicking a rock that sat at the tip of his shoe. "I'll see you later, Seok. Bye, Jimin!" He waved to them, not bothering to say anything to Newbie who stood silently.

Hoseok and Jimin appeared to be very involved in each other, sharing their goodbyes with Taehyung.

Jeongguk saw a small opening, watching Cap walk away from the remaining trio. He then looked at Jimin and Hoseok.

"I should also get going, my brother is, uh, upset." Jeongguk commented, shrugging lamely. He went to leave but was stopped by Hoseok.

     "What's he upset about? Something happen?" The elder inquired.

Jeongguk internally threw a tantrum, knowing Kim was getting away. "He lost his favorite rabbit, that's literally his lifeline." He said, turning away again but things weren't that easy, was it?

Jimin frowned. "Aw, I remember seeing it with him at the hospital. Poor kid."

"Yeah, yeah, really." Jeongguk nodded and quickly walked away before he could be stopped any further.

He saw how far Kim was, phone pressed to his ear and talking away with someone, assumably his girlfriend.

Jeongguk groaned and began to do a little jog, wanting to hurriedly catch up before the boy got away. He didn't even know why it was such a big deal but here he was, running to catch up to Blondie.

     "How about I come over?" Taehyung said into the phone. "You baby me, let me baby you and take care of you." He smiled subconsciously.

Jeongguk felt like he was going to be sick. He eventually was close enough, standing right beside Taehyung.

The aforementioned picked his head up and looked to his left, stunned to see Jeongguk.

Before he could question it, Jeongguk snatched away his cellular device. "Hi, Jihyun, your boy-toy has to go now, he said bye-bye, loves you lots." And then he hung up the phone.

"What the actual fuck is wrong with you?" Taehyung yanked his phone back, seeing her contact was far gone.

"I didn't want to hear how you want to tickle her insides." Jeongguk said lamely. "Anyways, fuck face, I love my brother so much and I know exactly what he's going to ask me for when I get home. Your dumbass."

"So? Tell him no." Taehyung shook his head and looked away, continuing his walk home. He was pretty annoyed at the younger for hanging up on his girlfriend.

"Do you have siblings?" Jeongguk asked, catching Taehyung a bit off guard. "No," he responded.

"Okay, so you don't know that telling a four-year-old 'no' isn't that easy. What do I look like breaking his heart? Not my fault he likes you." The younger answered. "Just spend time with him for like ten minutes or something, I don't know."

"No because then you get upset when I don't want to be your friend." Taehyung retorted.

Jeongguk was silenced but not for long. "What? Kim, trust and believe I'm nowhere near upset that I'm not your friend. You really blow your own ego sometimes."

"I'm not the one who threw a fit and stomped away." Commented the elder, releasing a sigh. "If you hung up on my girlfriend to sit here and bitch to me, congrats. I shall carry on with my day." He said, wanting to end whatever was happening.

"Does it kill you to spend time with a four-year-old?"

"Why are you so persistent? We literally don't have to do this, go bother Namjoon or something."

"Namjoon wasn't here today, he had a doctor's appointment." Jeongguk said. "You don't know what it's like to hear a child's heart get broken, all because you're afraid of not going at each other's throats. You can be a bit more mature about shit, ya know? Doesn't hurt."

Taehyung groaned and threw his head back, trying not to get too annoyed. "Fine, Newbie, I'll fucking visit the rascal."

"Aw, look at you making a kid happy, must be hard for you and your rotten soul." Jeongguk sarcastically said, pushing out his bottom lip to look sad for the elder. "When are you stopping by so it's no surprise?"

"Not today, I'm seeing my girlfriend."

"Surprised you even have one with the way you are."

"Suck a dick, 'kay? Tomorrow I'll come over, since you seem so desperate to have me over." Taehyung said, attitude more than clear, walking a bit faster to get away from the younger.

Jeongguk chuckled lowly, shaking his head. He then stopped where he stood and made a certain turn to get to his house quicker.

The black-hair teen sighed silently to himself, looking straight ahead. Jaeyong would be quite ecstatic to know his bestie would be stopping over tomorrow.

The things Jeongguk did for his baby brother. Or perhaps it was the things Jaeyong was doing for Jeongguk and Taehyung.

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