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PART ONE
Taehyung looks up from the half-devoured burger on his hand, a piece of soggy pickle dangling by the corner of his lips. The streak of yellow mustard down his chin should make him look ridiculous but Seokjin thinks his best friend can pull off any look. Maybe he can model for the diner some day and get them both discounts on the specials.
"Repeat, please?"
Hastily, Taehyung gobbles down the bite of food in his mouth. Seokjin sneakily pushes a glass of water towards him—he doesn't want the boy to choke on bulgogi patties and cheap buns.
"I said," Taehyung begins again, his words finally decipherable, "that I'm bisexual. Or I think I am, I dunno." He blinks unsurely at Seokjin and averts his gaze when their eyes meet for a second longer. "You don't think it's...weird, right?"
Seokjin narrows his eyes as he reaches for a piece of fry on Taehyung's burger plate. His plate was already clean and he needed a distraction to bask under the new-found information about his best friend.
"I'm literally gay, Taehyung." He says once he swallows the fry with a sip of Iced-Cola. "I don't know why you'd think that I'd think that this would be weird," he pauses for a second, assessing Taehyung's furrowed brows, "but why are you unsure about it?"
"Because, like it's so sudden?" Taehyung questions himself, eyes lost somewhere on the round table that's separating the two. Seokjin thinks the retro checkboard pattern on the table is somewhat interesting but nothing too intriguing for Taehyung to be staring at it so hard.
"It's like," he finally looks at Seokjin and seems to be determined to hold his gaze this time, "you've always known you're gay and everyone knows you're gay. You're so sure of yourself but I'm not." He sighs, munching on corner of his burger dejectedly.
"Do you like vaginas?" Taehyung sputters at the question for a few seconds before regaining composure. After getting a good look at the seriousness on Seokjin's face, he nods his head. "You know I like pussies."
Seokjin scrunches his nose at the specific term and Taehyung shrugs his shoulder as if saying, you asked for it.
"Do you like dicks?"
Taehyung pauses, sucking his bottom lip inside his mouth and toying with it. Meanwhile Seokjin feels his heart drumming in anticipation and he knows exactly why he feels this way way.
If Taehyung wasn't straight, Seokjin had a chance. A chance at getting his feelings reciprocated, a chance at getting to be with someone he loved ever since he could feel emotions. All the longing looks he'd secretly give Taehyung as kids when they would binge-watch Disney movies in their makeshift tents would not go in vain.
"I do. I did—I mean that night," Taehyung fumbles on his words and Seokjin doesn't interrupt, only listens curiously, "I hooked up with a guy. I was open to the idea and...I liked it. More than I think I would." He exhales deeply, like he'd gotten a huge weight off his chest.
Seokjin smiles tightly and wrings his greasy fingers around Taehyung's slender wrist. "It's great that you're exploring yourself, Tae. Don't think so much," he lightly squeezes his friend's wrist and hopes that it conveys reassurance, "no one needs to box themselves in labels. You're doing just fine, trust me."
Taehyung smiles at Seokjin like he's the sun and Seokjin ducks his head, he doesn't want his emotions to cloud this moment. Taehyung needed his best friend right now and Seokjin was going to be just that for him — a supportive best friend, not someone at the other end of unrequited love.
"Hey, peach?"
There it was. The nickname that left Seokjin's whole body feeling like a puddle of goo. Inhaling sharply, Seokjin snaps his head up. "Yes, Tae?"
Taehyung motions towards the fingers woven tightly around his wrist and Seokjin panics as he immediately lets go of it with a string of apologizes. Taehyung only guffaws at his friend's weird behavior before procuring a neatly-folded piece of paper from the pocket on his blue letterman jacket.
He has a smug smile on his face as he extends the paper to a confused Seokjin. "Open it."
Seokjin hesitates as he unfurls it delicately. Taehyung is sat opposite to him, patiently waiting for Seokjin's reaction with his chin perched on the flat of his palms. Seokjin fleetingly notices how he was wearing a red t-shirt under his varsity—one of Seokjin's gifts to him.
Red always looked especially good on Taehyung.
"I was pretty sure it was this," Seokjin mumbles as he scans the bold letters on top of the paper. The words 'TAEHYUNG'S BANGING BANG LIST' stares back at him mockingly. "I thought you were over this," he makes a sound of disapproval, "it's the last year of highschool after all."
For the past three years, Taehyung had come up with this 'brilliant' idea to make a list of people he wanted to fool around with for the entire year. He had his own stupid set of rules and boundaries which only Seokjin was given the exclusivity to. "Best friend benefits," Taehyung had said when he'd first shown his list to Seokjin as a fifteen year old.
Seokjin still doesn't know if he's exactly thankful for being given this 'benefit'.
"I've made some changes this year, look closely." Taehyung urges and wiggles his brows in excitement. Seokjin almost thinks he looks cute but there was admittedly nothing cute about fucking around with multiple attractive people and simultaneously breaking their hearts in the process.
As he's going through the list ("Where do you even find twenty-five people to sleep with, Tae?"), a certain name catches his attention.
"Park Jimin? A guy, you included a guy in the list?" Taehyung colors at the mention of Park Jimin and Seokjin shifts on the couch uncomfortably. "In celebration to me probably being bisexual. Plus, he's hot."
The popular and openly pansexual soccer player was very attractive indeed and Seokjin had to admit, the two would make a very stunning couple in their school. Seokjin knows Rule No. 1 is Taehyung doesn't fall in love with his hookups and even though he dubs the rules to be stupid, he hopes Taehyung abides by them.
"Also, it's two. I included two guys in the list."
Seokjin perks up at that, eyes furiously going down the list. "We'll have to talk about why you have Jimin's sister on the list too," he pinches his nose at the mention of Park Chaeyoung before resuming his search.
Seokjin's breath catches at his throat when he scans the familiar name again and again at the bottom of the list.
"Peach, I know you probably won't like this but," he holds his hand up which makes Taehyung quiet down. Seokjin gives his best friend a stern look before flinging the list at his face.
"You play with anyone else's emotions, I don't really give a fuck, Tae." He gets up from the booth, slapping a few bucks on the table rather harshly. "But not him. Hoseok's my best friend too, you jerk." Seokjin turns to leave the diner, disregarding Taehyung's cries for him. If his best friend was going to be an insensitive fool again, Seokjin wasn't going to help him this time around.
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seokjin, tae, hoseok and jimin are roughly the same age here! also please ignore the grammatical errors oop
