Bored Brains - Taegi/Vmon

3$

"What is this?" he asked, gesturing to the six magic cubes of different sizes and forms that were aligned on the white surface of the small table.

"I'd like you to solve the cubes."

"Is this a test?"

"Kind of."

"What for?"

"You'll see when you pass."

Taehyung grinned and took the first cube, the one he had solved yesterday. It took him a few seconds to memorize it, and then he started to twirl it. He looked up to see Namjoon take a sip from the coffee he had bought. With a confused expression, the programmer placed the cup back on the table.

"What is this?"

"This is iced americano with peppermint syrup. The barista of my favorite café invented it for me when I told him I was bored of the normal stuff. He calls it poffee."

"Interesting," was everything the crimson got for an answer, and Namjoon resumed sucking on his straw. Temptingly sucking on his straw. At least it looked like that for Taehyung, who could not take his eyes off the plump, tanned lips.

"You are staring."

"Sorry, I just imagined something." He grabbed the next cube to distract himself from the black-haired.

"Please don't tell me. Use your brain for something better."

"I'd love to, but this task does not need my full attention." The soft rattle of the cube sounded through the room, filling the gaps between their words. Taehyung recalled the first time he had held a magic cube. It had been a simple 3x3 cube, the one you could buy everywhere. His grandmother had gifted him the toy on his fourth birthday, and he had solved it within the day. It had taken him some time to understand the mechanism, but after this he had sat on the big couch in his parents' living room all day, even denied eating, until he had the cube solved. His parents had been shocked, but his grandmother had just sat next to him with a generous smile, her gentle hand on his head. She apparently had known he was different. With the thought of her also came the agony, reminding him of her death. It had been the worst day in his life, he had lost the most important person, the one who understood.

"I knew I'd see you again. Your program's a mess," the taller got him out of his thoughts.

"Well, fuck you, too!" Taehyung spat at him, "I'm mathematician, not computer scientist. Give me a multidimensional space and I'll make an elephant jump through the eye of a needle. I just don't have enough sources for my research!" Putting the solved cube on the table a little too harsh, he grabbed the next one, a pyramid shape. His opponent chuckled.

"Keep it cool, I'll give you the information you need, but now shut up and do the cubes!"

After two more minutes, all cubes lied on the table, solved. Namjoon gave them an approving nod.

"Come over!" He gestured the smaller to follow him to the screen-wall, opening some pictures of rooms and hallways. "Can you match them for me and draw a ground plan?"

This was a strange request. But why should he care? He wanted to know what this test was for, so he would have to do it first.

"Give me some paper."

The black-haired reached over to his printer and took out some sheets. After a few seconds, he also found a pencil in the slim drawer of his desk, which Taehyung had not noticed before. He watched the pictures attentively and started drawing. What was the programmer's intention?

After ten minutes, he was done with doing a rough sketch. Namjoon pulled out a ruler and measured some of his ground plan's lines.

"Okay," the programmer put away the material and looked up at him, "Show me your program."

"What about the test?"

"Later. First, explain to me what you wanted your program to do."

His curiosity was eating at him, but, sighing, Taehyung gave him the stick and started explaining. He drew everything on another sheet of paper, showing his intentions meticulously. When he was done, he looked up to the programmer, who was scanning the code intensely. The black-haired seemed to have a habit of touching his lips with his right hand while thinking, something that made it quite hard to not stare at the tempting, plump shape, and when he started to talk the hand began to gesture wildly.

"I thought you were good with multidimensional structures? Why did you write a one-dimensional structure, when you wanted to have a two-dimensional?" the taller asked, raising an eyebrow and letting his fingers play with his lips again.

Taehyung's mouth fell open. Had he really been that dumb. He even had it in one of the earlier versions. Why did he change it? Oh, yeah, because of the book... He slapped his forehead and groaned.

"I'm so stupid," he whispered.

"Let's find the right version, ay?" the black-haired suggested and ran his fingers over the keyboard. Taehyung could not understand how he had overlooked such a simple thing. Embarrassing.

"Don't torture yourself," the programmer said in what could have been a soothing manner, if his voice had a warmer touch, "Even professionals get blind for their code after some time." He petted the smaller man's shoulder and copied the right code into the program.

"You should be able to fix the rest by yourself."

"Thanks," the crimson whispered and took back his flash drive, "What do you want for payment?"

"Help me rob a bank."

Taehyungs mouth fell open.

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