The Buddy Program

02 | i'm e.t. in my freetime

Jeongguk tried to lay low, not wanting to talk to anyone because everyone already seemed familiar with another. He kept his hood on, trying to melt in the background. There were four others, three boys and one girl— all that looked like friends.

Jeongguk hated this, hated meeting new people with a passion. He was basically incapable of weaseling his way into established friend groups without getting punctured in the jugular by anxiety, or well, and also the lack of a social battery to get him through any interaction.

He wasn't a person people wanted to be friends with. There wasn't anything special about him to want to know. Hell, he didn't even know shit about himself.

Besides that, nobody seemed to acknowledge him, which was good. Jeongguk was fine observing, and maybe there was a chance he could get out of here without speaking to—

"Twix boy! It's you!" His eyes scrunched shut when he heard the familiar deep voice call him out. It was at thay moment, Jeongguk wanted to castrate Kim Taehyung because now everybody was looking at him, and god this guy was going to fucking die.

When he whipped around to face him (begrudgingly mind you), he noticed Kim Taehyung still looked douchey. Pretty douchey. It was probably the gray sweatshirt, black sweatpants, and the pair of shades that sat above his messy hair. He took them off, tucking them into his pocket as he greeted him with a smile fit for a pompous asshole.

"You came," Taehyung beamed, gesturing at him. "Awh, look, we're twinning Gguk."

"No we're not. Shut up," He said flatly, now regretting wearing the inverse of the guy's outfit. He probably should have tried harder, because now this assface was going to bother him. Fun.

"Alright, alright," Taehyung chuckled softly. "Well, jokes aside, I'm glad you're here. Everyone wanted to meet you."

"Oh sure," Jeongguk rolled his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest, letting his fingers dig into the sides of his nonexistent biceps.

"Come on, lighten up, Jeon."

"I'm pretty pale already," Jeongguk rolled up his sleeve to show his awfully paper-white forearm, "Look you can see my veins."

"That's weird."

"I know, I was trying to scare you off."

"Well it didn't work."

"I can show you my translucent ribcage if that'll scare you away. Y'know I'm ET in my free time?"

"Well, uh, good beans. Just come on, you'll love them my guy. Jimin really wanted to meet you, you know?" Taehyung was tugging his arm despite the nasty glare Jeongguk gave him.

"I don't think I should," Jeongguk tried to not budge in place, but it was a bit hard when his strength was the equivalent to a singular string of uncooked pasta.

"Why not? Let the impulsive, mommy-issue-having, non-committing kitkat lover introduce you to his friends!" Oh god, this guy was a fucking menace.

Unable to create some creative comeback to that monstrosity of a sentence, Jeongguk let himself be dragged to the center of the group and shoved right into the direct spotlight of other people he honestly didn't want to talk to.

But Kim Taehyung was insistent, and honestly, this guy would probably throw him as piranha bait if he was given the chance. Jeongguk already disliked him, their relationship bar teetering on hate, and before he could snarkily reply, someone gasped.