Tae pov
Bang woke us up the next morning, telling us that training was to start. Almost everyone was outside, the only one missing being Jungkook, all complaining of the time, the weather, and everything else they could've possibly thought of. I tried to tune them out, not wanting to hear them at this early in the morning. None of them were bothering to try to talk to me, the incident from yesterday still fresh in everyone's minds. They were all thinking the same thing, that it was better when I was gone. It was better when I wasn't taking up empty space, sitting in silence, until one of them tried to make a joke or start a fight, and I'd either lose my temper or storm out, providing a bit of entertainment at most. At worst, what happened with Yoongi.
I didn't like thinking about that day, the fact that I let my temper take over. I hated thinking of the feeling of bone crunching under my fist as I swung, and the fact that I loved it, reveled in it. Yoongi's nose was bruised, swollen, and off center.They didn't set it in the right place, and it would heal crooked, which would serve as nothing more than a reminder of when i lost control. Jimin was doting on him, connected to his hip like a puppy following its owner, constantly asking if he was okay.
I shivered, the cold of the early morning air chilling me. It was a bit after five in the morning, everyone was tired and jungkook still wasn't outside. Bang sighed, a cloud forming in front of him as he spoke.
"Where is that kid? He was supposed to meet us out here five minutes ago. Jimin, go find him please." Jimin nodded, and walked off. The others continued talking, wondering why Bang would wake us up this early for training. I stood next to the car, watching the sun rise over the trees, pinks and oranges spreading across the sky, darkening into lavender and blue. Someone spoke, taking me out of my head.
"There he is! Welcome to the real world, Sleeping Beauty" Namjoon walked up to Jungkook, clapping his back and making the boy pout. He muttered out something about us being too loud before walking over to where we were all standing.
He was wrapped in a sweater, hair a mess and eyes half shut. He leaned down to Jimin's shoulder, small snores leaving his lips almost as soon as his head was resting on it. Jimin giggled, and swatted his hand away, the younger pouting once again. I laughed, he didn't know how he looked, pouting about not being able to sleep standing up.
'Good morning, sunshine. Sleep well?' He blushed and stumbled over to me. He opened his mouth to talk, a yawn escaped instead. His eyes watered slightly, and he wiped them before laying a hand on my shoulder and leaning into my ear.
"Tae," he whispered "Please shut the fuck up." He patted my shoulder and walked back over to Jimin and the others, all of them giving him looks as if they wanted to ask what happened.
Bang clapped his hands and opened the doors of the car, "Alright, now that you're all here, we can get on with this. Now, before you all sit next to your roommates, I did make a seating arrangement to avoid any unnecessary conflict." Everyone groaned, asking why they couldn't just choose their own seats, Yoongi pointing out that he wouldn't sit next to me if his life depended on it.
"Enough!" Bang slammed his fist against the side of the car, stunning everyone into silence, "You will all sit where you're assigned and I don't want to hear any more on this matter. Got it?" They all nodded, too afraid to speak any further.
"Good. Now, Jimin and Yoongi will be in the front row, Namjoon and Jin in the second, and Taehyung, Hoseok and Jungkook in the third. Everyone pile in, there's a hell of a drive ahead of us." Everyone nodded, and started towards their respective seats.
Hoseok ran past me, yelling about having a window seat and dragging Jungkook along with him. I walked up to them as he pushed Jungkook into the car. He turned around and patted me on the shoulder.
"Tae, you've got the bitch seat. I get carsick and Jungkook's in too much of a mood to be in the middle. And frankly, I'm just scared to sit next to him." I nodded and climbed in, Hoseok muttering about luck behind me. Jungkook was sat with his hood up and staring out the window. He looked at me as I got in, but snapped his eyes away as soon as we made eye contact.
'Are you okay? I'm a bit worried about you, Jungkook.' He sighed, his eyes dropping to the floor of he car.
'I'm fine. Just tired' Jungkook sat down beside me with his head turned towards the window.
"Stop staring at me. Its impolite" He said. I sighed and nodded, looking away.
"Okay, everyone! What you're about to experience might seem ridiculous and pointless," Bang yelled from the drivers seat. "They're not. They're high quality survival and defense exercises specifically chosen for each of your abilities,"
--
"Burn it down," Bang said, looking at Yoongi, who looked at the building in front of us in terror.
"What? I can't do that Bang!" Yoongi protested.
"It wasn't a question. Burn it down," Bang demanded. Before Yoongi could say anything more, he continued. "Its an old mental hospital from 1958, its useless for everyone that isn't a drug addict or in a cult. Also, doing this would be doing the town a favor,"
Yoongi looked at Bang then back at the building. 'This is so fucked up'. Suddenly there was a burnt smell and smoke coming from the front door. Seconds later, a loud crash came from inside the hospital, the windows splintered, letting the flame catch onto the dry grass outside of the building.
"So, what now?" Hoseok asked beside me. I shrug.
"Get in the car now! This place is gonna blow the fuck up," Yoongi yelled running towards the car with Jimin right behind him. The rest of us quickly followed suit.
We had only gotten into the car and started driving when we heard the roof crash. Hoseok and I looked through the rear window with huge eyes.
"Woah," We said in unison. I gained an exaggerated disgusted glare from Hoseok and rolled my eyes.
"You're horrible at hating others, aren't you?" I asked. Hoseok rolled his eyes and turned around in his seat. I sighed and turned around myself.
I heard soft snores beside me and looked to the side where Jungkook sat, seeing him woth his eyes closed and his head leaning against the window. I smiled, tipping his head down on my shoulder. His eyes opened slightly, looking up at me.
'Why?'
I shrug. 'The window doesn't look that comfortable to me'
Before nuzzling into me and closing his eyes again.
'Thank you'
I smiled.
--
Bang brought us to a forest next. Jungkook was still asleep on my shoulder, mouth parted and small snores leaving his lips every now and again. He whined when I shook him awake, muttering about being tired and tucking his face into my shoulder. I smiled again, he didn't know how cute he was, he had no idea.
"Jungkook, come on. We need to do another training exercise for one of the others, you need to be there." He whined again before sitting up and muttering out a small 'fine'.
'You bastard I was having a good dream'
'I'm sure you were, now lets go, the others are waiting.'
We started making or way to the others, Jungkook still pouting about not being able to sleep longer, his bottom lip jutting out. The air was awkward, to say the least, hung heavy with unspoken words from the both of us. The guilt of what happened in the living room yesterday still lingered, but it wasn't the right time to bring it up, not while he was in this mood.
"Hey, stop pouting. We're gonna get back and they're all gonna think I hurt you or some shit." He glared at me, almost saying something before shutting his mouth and walking faster. I sighed, not knowing why I tried to get some sort of reaction from him when he clearly didn't want anything to do with me.
When we made it to the others, they were standing in a clearing in the woods, seeming to be waiting for us. Bang looked up as we made our way to him, and began to speak.
"Alright, so now that everyone's here, we can move onto Jin's first test. The six of you are going to either partner up and go off into the woods, Jin will, hopefully, find all of you and get you back safely." The others glanced at each other, giving each other sideways glances until Yoongi spoke up.
"Bang, we're not little kids. We aren't playing hide and go seek in the middle of the woods." He sat on a log nearby, dragging Jimin down with him. Jimin's eyes lit up as a small smile spread across his face. He shot up and darted into the woods, dragging Yoongi by his wrist.
"Catch us if you can, Jin hyung!" His laugh carried on the wind as he ran, everyone staring at where he disappeared in stunned silence.
"Well," Bang spoke up, "what are the rest of you waiting for? Get on with it, Namjoon and Hoseok, you're one group, Tae and Jungkook, you're another. Now go, we have until noon."
Jungkook huffed as he started walking into the woods, hands in his pockets and eyes cast towards the ground. I made my way in the same direction, trying to decide if making conversation with him or staying in awkward silence until the deadline arrived.
After about ten minutes or so, he stopped and looked at me, eyes still glazed over with fatigue. His hair was sticking up on one side, pushed up from sleeping on it, my hand itched to smooth it out. He sighed and sat down on a rock, pulling his legs up to his chest as he tried to talk.
"Alright, so how are we going to do this?" I decided to speak first, to save him the tension of making the first move. His eyes flitted for a second, and then lit up like he had an idea.
"When you were gone Jin hyung couldn't find you cause you were running. Maybe we can try to get out of his sights by running or moving?" He looked back up at me, hopeful and almost child like. He stood back up, looking at me with a smile on his face, eyes sparkling.
I nodded at him, letting out a small smile when he shouted out "yes!" and bounced where he was standing. We met eyes, and I gestured to my back, a silent way of asking if he wanted to hop on. He cocked his head to the side, not understanding what I meant
"You should get on my back" I said, looking anywhere but his face, "It'd be faster, cause you know, I have some heightened abilities and stuff, but um, it's completely up to you." He nodded, and walked behind me, placing his hands on my shoulders and jumping, pulling himself up onto my back. His legs came to wrap around my waist, my hands coming to rest where his knees bent.
"Ready?" I gripped his legs a bit tighter as I heard a small hum behind me, and took off. Trees started to blur into one another, wind chilling our faces and pushing back our hair, Jungkook's hood being blown off his head.
"Jesus Christ Tae!" His legs tightened around my midsection, his face hiding in the junction of my neck and shoulder. I chuckled and slowed down a bit, Jungkook lifting his head out of my shoulder and laughing. I looked back at him, his face lit up with adrenaline. His eyes met mine and he looked away, a light pink dusting over his cheekbones.
"Tae, watch where you're going! What if you trip, one of us could get hurt!" His hand came off from where it rested near my neck and he grabbed my chin, turning it in front of me, just in time to see a root jutting up from the ground.
"Shit!" We both cursed as my foot got tangled in it and we fell in a tumbling heap of limbs, his head ending up on my chest and his legs on either side of me. He shot up, hands coming to the back of my head, running his fingers through my hair looking for any signs of cuts or trauma.
"Are you alright? Do you know where you are? Can you count to ten?" Worry laced his voice, panic filling his eyes. I grabbed one of his hands and guided it off of my head, laughing at his reaction. His mouth snapped shut as he realized how we were sitting, face turning pink and darkening into red, and he looked away from my face
'Holy shit how did this happen why are we sitting like this why is he staring at me. Please stop before one of us gets uncomfortable, oh god he's still looking. '
My eyes scanned over his face. From the dark hairline, over the thick brows and his deep brown eyes, to his button nose, plushy contours and slightly parted, pink lips. I ran my tongue over my bottom lip.
He looked at me again, eyes scanning over my face as well. That mole under his lip is cute. I wanna kiss it. No! I need to get off of him before I embarrass myself more.'
He went to get off me, face burning and avoiding eye contact. I smiled at him, and flipped us over so he was the one on the ground, a small squeak coming out of his mouth as his back came into contact with the ground. He blushed darker, reaching down to his neck and turning his face a dark red, almost purple color. I smiled down at him, grabbing his chin and turning his head so he would look at me. He swallowed, Adam's apple bobbing under my hand. I leaned down to his ear, hearing him gulp again, a small laugh leaving my lips at his shyness.
"You know, Jungkook, if you wanted to kiss me, you could've just asked." I could feel his breath on my jaw, tickling me when he exhaled. I leaned back up, taking in his features again. His face was still burning red, his eyes looking everywhere but mine.
He was too cute, and I decided fuck it, and leaned down to press our lips together. His eyes widened before slipping closed as he melted into the kiss. It was short, sweet, and nothing short of exactly what we both wanted. His lips tasted like mint toothpaste and cherry chapstick, a weird combination, but so perfectly Jungkook. He let out a small laugh when I pulled away, almost a giggle, and pulled my head down by my neck so our foreheads were pressed against each other's. We stayed like that for a while, my hands resting on his waist, his playing with the hairs on the nape of my neck. We didn't talk, just shared breaths, occasional small kisses and smiles.
I heard the footsteps before he did, but didn't think anything of it. I was too happy to care if anyone saw us, too wrapped up in him. We forgot where we were for those few minutes, just knowing soft smiles and gentle pecks.
We got slammed back to reality when we heard voices.
It was Jimin and Yoongi, talking about the tests that we were going through. Jungkook looked up at me, panic on his features as their voices got closer. He started to talk, saying that we need to get up, clean ourselves off before they see. I did the first thing I could think of to keep him quiet, and kissed him again. The footsteps and voices stopped.
"What the fuck!" Jimin screamed, rushing forward and ripping us apart. Jungkook was blushing darker than he ever had been before. Jimin turned to me, something in his eyes that I hadn't seen in the smaller since we got to the house.
"The fuck is wrong with you?" He started to bore into me, yelling insults and telling me to leave, Jungkook behind him looking between us, trying to choose whose side he should be on. We locked eyes, and he tapped Jimin's shoulder, the shorter whipping around to look at him.
"Hyung, calm down. Tae didn't force me into anything I didn't want to do. You should know that I wouldn't let someone take advantage of me like that. Please, stop yelling." He smiled weakly at Jimin, eyes pleading him not to carry out this scene any longer. Jimin huffed and turned to Yoongi, who just shrugged. He huffed again and grabbed Jungkook's hand, shooting me a pointed glare as he dragged the taller boy away. Yoongi chuckled next to me, the first time I'd heard anything other than a grunt, curse, or insult from him. I looked at him, a smile on his face as he watched Jimin's shape get smaller, still dragging Jungkook by his wrist. He looked over at me, clapping a hand on my shoulder, smile still on his face.
"Congratulations Taehyung, you finally got some action from him." I laughed and nodded.
"Yeah, I guess I did. You don't want me to tell the others about this, don't you?" He chuckled, shaking his head.
"Not in the slightest. I still don't like you, I'm just glad you two stopped pining and one made a damn move." I nodded, and pulled a pack of cigarettes out of my pocket, placing one between my lips. I patted my pockets for a lighter, groaning when I realized that the only one I had was laying in an alleyway, completely dead. Yoongi laughed next to me and raised his eyebrows.
"Need a light?" He snapped, a small flame shooting up from between his fingers. I muttered a thanks and lit the cigarette, taking a drag and sighing when the smoke filled my lungs. I offered the box to Yoongi, putting it away after he took one of his own and lit it.
"Remember" He said, exhaling smoke through his nose, "I still don't like you." I nodded, taking a drag of my own cigarette.
"The feeling's mutual. By the way, your nose is gonna heal crooked if it's not set right."
"What!"