Tell Me Without Telling Me || Sope

Chapter Eighteen

Two weeks later, while they're walking into town to get lunch, Taehyung announces that they're making kimchi tomorrow.

"We need to save money," he says when they all begin to protest—even Yoongi.

"Tae, do you know how much work I have to do?" he says. "Five assignments by the beginning of next week. I've got four tutoring sessions in three days. It takes all day to make kimchi. I need my weekend."

"Hyung," Taehyung says seriously, "we need to save money. This will save us money. Meaning less work. So more free time. Do you know how much we spend on kimchi between us?"

"We don't all need to help make it," Yoongi says. "Get Namjoon-ah or 'Seok to help."

"Why not Jiminie?" Hoseok chuckles, hitching the strap of his bag higher on his shoulder.

"Because I have the same amount of assignments as Yoongi-hyung and I get bored easily," Jimin says, grinning. His hair ruffles in the wind.

"I'd help, but there's this really long paper I'm supposed to write about plants and roots and saving the planet and stuff," Namjoon says.

"Plants and roots?" Yoongi snorts, raising his eyebrows at Namjoon judgementally. "And saving the planet and stuff? Sounds real to me."

Namjoon's dimples pop out. "I just dumbed down the wording for you. It's real. Sorry, Taehyungie."

Taehyung folds his arms and scowls at the floor, but there's something genuinely crestfallen behind his eyes that the others don't seem to notice that makes Hoseok duck out of line to walk beside him.

"I can help," he offers.

Taehyung shakes his head. "It's probably not worth it anyway. I only roughly worked out how much we'd save." He speaks with a tiny pout, absently, like half his attention is on consciously thinking the words as he says them. "I just thought... we're low on money... so I tried to do some maths stuff."

"No, no, it's good," Hoseok says. "It takes a lot to manage money, but you're going in the right direction. I used to help Seokjin-hyung with the bills at our old apartment. Um, we never kept track of food that much because our parents sent us a lot of stuff to eat, but..." He has to pause to catch his breath. It's been awhile since he talked this much about his life with Seokjin and Jungkook. The jitters aren't so bad, though. He almost enjoys them today, like they're a signal his feelings for Seokjin and Jungkook haven't faded despite the steadily widening gap between them. "If we keep receipts, we can go over them and try to cut out things that cost too much. We can find ways to save money if we all sit down and discuss it."

The money conversation is something he hasn't heard much of in the house yet, although he'd anticipated it would come what with most, if not all, of them having never rented a place before unless you counted paying for a dorm room. He'd learned the hard way that everything somehow always ends up being more expensive than you first anticipated when you move into your own place and start buying food and god knows what else. The three of them—Jungkook, him and Seokjin—had had a major freakout about five months in and all almost moved back home. They'd only not done it because Seokjin said he'd rather be homeless than admit to his parents he was in his mid-twenties and not only not going to university yet, but also incapable of living independently. That, and, Jungkook had burst into tears at the idea of them not living together.

They'd pulled through by all picking up extra hours at work and only spending money on necessities. It had been a narrow escape and there had been a lot of nights where Hoseok and Seokjin sat with Jungkook while almost he cried himself into panic attacks, but ultimately, they'd been okay.

* * * 

"We'll be okay," he tells Taehyung later that day once classes are over.