Brighter Days || Taekook

Part 27

Taehyung's body aches. All seven boys are lying on the ground, panting and sore. Sweat is covering Taehyung's skin and soaking his clothes.

"That was really good."

The praise of their dance teacher makes some of the boys cheer – only softly though, because they're so out of breath – and others just groan.

Hoseok's the first to get up again, because he's a dancer and has a better stamina than the rest of them. It's probably partly due to their diet that they're that out of breath. It would be a lie to say that they aren't a bit malnourished right now. Anyway, Hoseok's the first to get up, but even then he has to bend over and rest his hands on his knees, too tired to stand up straight.

"Is it debut stage worthy?" Hoseok asks what the others think but don't dare to voice.

All eyes shift to the dance teacher, who looks contemplative. Taehyung's stomach drops, because really they've done everything they could. They've exhausted themselves down to the bones. If they're not debut stage-worthy yet, then they'll never be.

The contemplative look gets replaced with a smile, and Taehyung lets out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding when the teacher assures them that it was debut stage-worthy.

"But don't think that you can slack off now," he tells them half-jokingly, half-threateningly, before sending them on a break for fifteen minutes.

Taehyung stays on the floor as the other members scramble up. He's staring up at the ceiling, and his heart is beating fast from overexertion. His arms are sprawled out because the floor is cooling his overheated skin.

He can hear Donghyuk complain to Yoongi that this is more dancing than he had signed up for; a claim that he reminds everyone of whenever he can. Donghyuk seems to hate dancing even more than Namjoon does, and that is quite impressive. He's waiting to hear Yoongi's response when he jumps slightly as a weight settles down on his left arm.

"Didn't want to scare you," Jungkook whispers, his head resting near Taehyung's shoulder. Taehyung wants to shake him off, to tell him to fuck off because they're both sweaty and it's quite gross for their sweaty skins to stick together, but he keeps quiet when he sees Jungkook close his eyes and sigh contently.

"Are you tired?" Taehyung inquires. It's almost Midnight and it's been a long day. He lifts his other arm off the floor and goes to brush some hair out of Jungkook's face, but stops himself the last second.

No.

He's not going to do that. So he rests his arm on his stomach and diverts his eyes back to the ceiling.

"Mhm," Jungkook hums, and Taehyung suspects that Jungkook might actually fall asleep on his arm any second.

Things between them have been strained lately. Or maybe they haven't, but Taehyung makes them that way. He's not doing it on purpose. He doesn't want to push Jungkook away, but ever since they went out with Soonshim...

Taehyung can't seem to shake the thought that Jungkook's cute. He looks at him giggle and scrunch up his nose and his heart flutters, and when he sees the younger teen exhausted he wants to wrap him up in a blanket and take care of him until he feels well-rested again. He's had these thoughts before, but somewhat they are different now and that freaks him out.

What the fuck is wrong with him? He can't like a boy two years younger than him. It's wrong for so many different reasons. Jungkook's still more child than anything else. It's so not okay for Taehyung to consider him anything more than a friend. He can't – he's not a predator. He's not like those disgusting men that picked him up from street corners. He doesn't like them young. What is he saying? He doesn't like boys at all. The thought of becoming intimate with Jungkook-