Jimin stared at Taehyung, confused. Shouldn't this kind of thing be treated seriously? Both of them were "straight guys" you know! What if something goes wrong and they end up turning gay?
......Although, he'd be very happy with that happening, but on the surface, his expression remained grave.
Seeing Jimin's expression, Taehyung wanted to laugh but didn't dare to, but he also became serious.
Jimin lowered his head and wrote the first bullet point:
When one side needs the other to act as his fake boyfriend, actions may include, but are not limited to: holding hands, hugging
After writing "hugging", Jimin immediately wrote a semicolon and went to the next line.
Taehyung distractedly pondered over the meaning of "may include, but are not limited to"......
So other than holding hands and hugging, it seems that Jimin was willing to do more?
Jimin raised his head to look at Taehyung, and seeing no signs of disagreement, asked his next question: "I've never dated before, so I don't know what lovers should act like. Do you have any suggestions?"
Taehyung pulled back the corner of his lips and replied seriously, "I've never dated either, but I think we should start with easy things like for morning and night greetings... As for dates, let's play it by ear."
"Ok." Jimin wrote down this second bullet point and then asked, "Should we let Sung Hoon and KiBum know about this?"
Taehyung swallowed unnaturally: "Let's not. Since we decided to pretend, we should make it as real as possible. Unless absolutely necessary, let's keep this between ourselves. If our secrets is revealed on accident, then all our efforts would be for naught."
"Alright..." Jimin nodded. "But I don't think we should act too obvious in public."
"That's fine, no PDA." After saying that, Taehyung seem to think of something else and added, "Oh right, one more thing...that......"
"......?" Jimin looked at him, puzzled.
"Since we're acting as lovers, then from a certain point of view, we're gay right, so that, those kind of jokes between straight guys, we should pull back a bit......"
Although Taehyung's words were disjointed, Jimin still understood his meaning. Basically, they should should stop acting faux gay towards other straight guys.
To be honest, this request made Jimin sigh in relief. For him to continue to treat all straight guys "equally" would truly be a trial.
Besides, he really was gay, so to act as lovers, he just needed be himself. However, the problem was that he needed to fake-act as a gay guy on the foundation of fake-acting as a straight guy. This act-ception was the real challenge.
But he had no other choice. He dug this hole himself, so he had to continue acting.
Jimin then heard Taehyung say, "If you really end up having to do something self sacrificial, I will give you proper compensation."
"What do you mean by...self sacrificial?" Jimin asked.
"Like, what was mentioned earlier, things like kissing......"
"......" As Jimin wrote that down with knit brows, he thought: How is that a sacrifice, I'd be willing to go even further......hehe.
Immediately, he reigned back his unrestrained thoughts. Thinking from a straight guy's perspective, he threw out, "If I meet someone I like in the future and don't want to continue this pretense, what should we do?"
Hearing this, Taehyung blinked, his eyes flickering: "I will help you explain to the person you like that we were only fake lovers."
Jimin: "Ok, I'll do the same for you." Though, Taehyung will probably never need to do such a thing for him.
With this kind of investigative researcher attitude, the two of them finished writing a "Code of Conduct" that seemed part treaty and part request:
When one side needs the other to act as his fake boyfriend, actions may include, but are not limited to: holding hands, hugging; While suitably progressing as lovers, cultivate tactic understanding; No deliberate PDA; In order to insure the credibility of the act, unless absolutely necessary, revealing the truth to a third party is forbidden; As fake lovers, both sides must abide by the ethics of real lovers and are not allowed to act in suggestive manners towards other straight males; Every time a "fake lovers act" is put on, the beneficiary must repay the benefactor in some way, which may include, but are not limited to: treating a meal, giving gifts; After one side decides to pursue his own love, the other must come forth and make it clear that everything was only an act, and when the time comes, all fake lover interactions will cease; The initial requestor promised the requestee a favor, to help the requestee fulfill single a wish, which remains valid for life; More to be added when necessary.
Initial requestor: Taehyung
Parties involved: Taehyung, Jimin
After signing, Jimin let out a sigh of relief as if having accomplished a matter of great importance.
Taehyung also relaxed his stretched taut nerves. In these 2 months, he discovered that Jimin was someone who did things seriously and carefully, but it wasn't until today that he truly realized just how formidable Jimin's meticulousness was.
But because of this, Taehyung felt incredibly reassured; as long as Jimin decided to do something, then he would carry out that task strictly according to the rules and treat it with utmost seriousness.
Due to not needing to act too obviously about "dating" in their daily lives, in the following days, there wasn't much change between them. However, Taehyung's "play it by ear" lovers' behavior imperceptibly began to influence their lives.
For example, Taehyung persisted in paying for Jimin's breakfast, claiming that this was basic compensation for Jimin pretending to be his boyfriend. In addition, the two of them would occasionally go out to window shop, or eat together......
After a while, those who were attentive slowly discovered these details, and bit by bit, began to post them down on the campus forum:
[Who else discovered that the Campus Idol would buy breakfast every day for that guy called Jimin?]
The contents of that post were as the title stated, and the image attached was that of Taehyung swiping his card to buy 2 portions of flat egg pancakes.
1st comment: Looks like it wasn't just me who noticed that......
3rd comment: Not necessarily. After all, they didn't publicly admit to anything......
4th comment: Stop calling him "that guy" ok, Jimin is our journalism department's Department Idol! One of our campus's idols!
5th comment: That's right, recently I've seen them at the school quite a few times. At first I didn't think anything of Jimin, but the more I look, the more I realize he's quite top-notch. I've already changed from being Taehyung's fan to Jimin's.
7th comment: Last night, my best friend and I saw them taking a walk at Lovebirds Lake while holding hands...... ˊ_>ˋ
8th comment: Person above, please post pics ahhhhh! Pics or it didn't happen!
11th comment: #10 I can tell you're excited, but calm down...... -_-#
......
The shippers were excited but couldn't raise any waves. Those casually browsing didn't take this seriously, so even though some people discovered things weren't quite right, nothing really came of it.
As for that girl infatuated with Taehyung, Jisoo, it seemed that she now truly believed the "candid confession" of the person she was secretly in love with and never appeared before him again.
In a flash, it was the end of November and the semester was almost over.
The News Interviews class gave a hands-on homework assignment requiring the students to form groups, conduct a team interview, and then write an interview manuscript as their end-of-semester project.
Some immediately began to form groups to get an early start.
The so-called "it's more fun to work in mix gender groups" meant that even the closest 4-unit roommates ended up splitting up to join the groups with girls, including room 412.
Of course, Taehyung and Jimin were naturally many people's first picks.
In order to "fairly distribute the natural resources", some girls even suggested that Taehyung and Jimin should be in different groups.
To this, Taehyung firmly vetoed: "No, Jimin and I have to be in the same group."
One of the female classmates: "Why?"
Sung Hoon: "Because Taehyung is still weaning."
Everyone howled with laughter. Jimin realized they were being teased but he remained silent.
In the end, they drew straws to decide who the lucky group would be and the two of them joined the class secretary Seo Mi-ri group of room 207 girls.
The lucky girls were incredibly thrilled with this golden opportunity as all of them schemed over how to spend more time and interact with these two hot guys.
After all, other than attending major-specific classes, everyone did their own thing. So even though they were classmates, these girls didn't have a lot of opportunity to come in contact with Taehyung or Jimin. Moreover, in order to evade their suitors, the two of them pretty much run off as soon as classes end, and one could barely catch a sight of them elsewhere.
After discussing it among themselves, this group of crafty girls decided on the interview topic of "The Mentality of Young, Budget Travelers". This meant that not only did they have to find time to experience budget traveling off campus, but they had to stay out for at least one night.
Majority rules, so Taehyung and the Jimin had no choice but to comply with the girls' decision.
—
[A small interlude]
On a certain day when Taehyung and Jimin were walking near Loverbirds Lake.
Taking advantage of the moonless night and silent cover of darkness, Taehyung stealthily held Jimin's hand and even pompously justified with: "For practice."
Jimin: "......"
Taehyung's hand was warm and a bit bigger than his own, immersing Jimin in this romantic atmosphere, his heartbeat growing faster......
However... Holding hands and all is fine, but do you have to interlock our fingers like that? Such intimate contact is honestly way too embarrassing! (/////)