bully | JAEYONG

26 | RETURN

new year's day. the two boys who had gone to visit taeyong's mom were now packing up their things to get ready to leave, and as the two were gathering up their things, the amount of eye contact they shared within an hour was too much to count. every time the eyes of the two boys would meet, both of the boys' cheeks turned red as they turned away from each other. it was impossible to get anything done.

but, even through all the eye contact, the two still managed to get things done and were ready to leave by 13:00. taeyong's mom took her son and his friend to the bus stop and waited there with them until their bus arrived. after the two got on, the woman waved bye from outside at the two boys inside.

sitting by each other once again, the two couldn't help but have red faces as they avoided the other's gaze, taeyong looking out the window while jaehyun found the ceiling very interesting all of a sudden. the kiss from last night popped into the mind of the two high school boys, causing them to blush more. the feeling of each other's lips still lingering there.

"so..."

"so..."

both boys began to speak in unison when they turned to each other, making the situation awkward for the first time between them. taeyong looked at the floor while jaehyun looked back up to the ceiling, refusing to look at each other.

"are we going to talk about it?" both boys asked in unison, once again. taeyong's face turned a deeper shade of red than his face while jaehyun turned into a tomato, realizing that they were both thinking the same thing.

silence swallowed them again as the two looked somewhere else rather than each other. a few minutes passed before taeyong began to speak to the brown haired boy.

"uh... um... i... i... liked it...?" taeyong questioned, confused as to if that's what they're supposed to talk about. jaehyun let out a small snicker, seeing the red haired boy's face flush redder than it already is, if possible.

"not the kiss. i mean... about your feelings..." jaehyun's voice died down while saying that. he wasn't sure if taeyong wanted to talk about it, and he didn't want the shorter to feel uncomfortable about the situation.

taeyong heard what jaehyun said, but remained silent for a few minutes, trying to get his thoughts in order. most of them consisted of his feelings, and whether he actually liked jaehyun or not in more than a friend way, and others consisted of mostly food.

"i... i know that i like you, definitely more than a friend... but there's still a lot of grey area. like how much do i actually like you? in what way? is it enough for us to get in a relationship, or is it just... just myself thinking i like you?

"i hate to say it, and i'm really sorry, jaehyun, but i still don't have a set answer for you..." taeyong explained to the brown haired boy, who nodded along to show that he was listening.

"well... one thing for sure is that... our friendship ended with the kiss. it can only either go uphill or downhill from here..." jaehyun said.

"yeah..." taeyong agreed.

the two were put in silence again, only being able to hear the sound of the bus's wheels on the road. the two boys were more towards the back of the bus, and the only other people who were on the bus were a few people in the very back and some in the front two rows. so the two boys were left alone in the middle of the bus. the chatter through the air was drowned out by the high school students, only trying to focus on their own conversation.

"but anyway..." taeyong broke the silence once again. "let's talk about this later. what are you doing when you get back?"

jaehyun blinked out of his mind after hearing taeyong's voice, and answered his question. "i'm just gonna go back to my dorm room and unpack my things. nothing planned for the rest of the day, but i have to pick up johnny from the airport since he's coming back from america tomorrow, and yuta is coming back from japan, so i'm going to be picking him up as well."

the red haired boy next to jaehyun nodded his head after hearing his plan for the next couple days.

"you?"

honestly, taeyong didn't have anything planned, and he was hoping to get to hang out with jaehyun more during the break, but those plans were ruined. though the boy had nothing to do, he pretended to be busy to not make himself seem lonely and bored to jaehyun.

"i continue one of my jobs the day after tomorrow, and i believe jisung wanted me to take a look at one of the dances he made and see if it's good. i'm not sure when that will be, but he said he will call me."

jaehyun nodded after hearing the shorter's plan and approved of it, but got reminded of something after hearing him talk.

"that reminds me... i still don't have your number..." jaehyun said, taking out his phone and handing it to taeyong. the smaller just looked at his phone before his cheeks turned a light shade of pink and slowly took the phone out of the brown haired boy's hand.

typing in his number to the now unlocked phone, the red haired boy returned the device to its rightful owner, which is the boy sitting next to him. just in time as well, the bus arrived back to the seoul travel bus station. the two got off, realizing it was their stop, and walked around a bit, trying to find taeyong's roommate who was waiting for the two boys.

seeing a hand wave at them, taeyong and jaehyun found out who the hand belonged to after seeing the face be revealed to them. guanheng took ahold of taeyong's bag as soon as the two came into view and gave his friend a hug.

"hey! how was your vacation?" the chinese asked the two korean boys. they just looked at each other and blushed and tried to hide it from the third party, but the chinese saw it clearly and became nosy. "what happened between you two?"

"that's for us to know... and for you to never find out," taeyong said, using the line that guanheng pulled on him a while ago. the chinese boy just shook his head as he led the way back to their dorms.