【playing..】
TXT - The Dream Chapter: Magic
9 and Three Quarters (Run Away)
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Jeongguk felt his heart pound to his throat, his best friend's arms still tightly wrapped around his body.
He didn't even know why all of the sudden he was feeling this way -- he had kept all of it pretty much locked in safely over the past years, even forgetting the feelings that might exist from time to time.
"Ready for our ice cream date?" He felt Taehyung's grip loosen and release as the question left his lips in that awfully soothing deep voice.
Gguk swallowed. The word 'date' was something they would jokingly use occasionally, he knew this. But he couldn't help the slight blush creeping up his neck and cheeks.
"Yeah, if you pay." He tried his best to laugh it off, distract from everything happening with his body's reactions, still a slight nauseousness creeping throughout his throat.
"I mean sure, i'll pay." Gguk was met with a sweet eyesmile and a chuckle as Tae crouched down to pick up his bag, indicating that he was all ready to go.
Just as Jeongguk wanted to intervene, wanting to make sure that Tae got that it was just a joke and that he would obviously pay for himself, the changing room door opened with a loud creak, revealing one of Taehyung's many friends.
"Oh, hi Jeongguk." Hoseok stepped closer upon spotting the two, his hair dripping with water still, wearing a simple black t-shirt and shorts, smiling eye to eye.
Hoseok was one of the more popular people of the seniors, known to be a great swimmer and also dancer. Apparently he has a talent for rapping too but Gguk only heard about it through some kind of senseless rumour. He wasn't really friends with anyone on the swim team besides Taehyung, obviously.
And that only made it stranger that the, what he would call, aquantaince greeted him, and him only.
"Hey Hoseok." Jeongguk smiled back at him, not being able to hide the confusion swirling in his eyes, looking back and forth between Taehyung's orbs and Hoseok's.
Taehyung didn't seem to know either as from the few glances he could steal he looked equally as confused.
"How you doing? Picking up Tae?" He asked, one of his hands burying in his pocket, smile not leaving his features.
"Uhm, good. Yeah, in fact i am." Gguk tried to keep his smile as well but the awkward air surrounding him making his throat almost close up, keeping his answers short.
"Well, i gotta go, maybe you could pick me up next time and we can go somewhere together!" Hoseok slightly tilted his head, sunshine smile reaching from eye to eye still, eyes dissapearing behind his lids, tone weirdly -- flirty?
It took a second to settle in but Jeongguk went from confused smiling to wide eyes and almost mouth dropping open, trying his best to stutter out an answer.
"Uh-i-" He coughed out, eyes searching to find Taehyung's in a panic about what to even say. "i- uh yeah?"
"Great, just get my number from Tae! See you soon hopefully." And before he could even blink, Hoseok walked off, body disappearing around a corner in the matter of seconds.
Jeongguk's expression blanked out as he stared off into space, his sleepy head combined with the overwhelming load of things that happened in the last ten minutes making his thoughts bang against his skull.
To him this just seemed -- kind of like a weird lucid dream.
"Well, damn. Got an admirer i see." He turned to see a tiny smirk across Tae's lips, but to him it felt like the older was hiding something behind his expression. It just felt so not genuine to him.
But he quickly pushed it off to his delirious self speaking, not being able to interpret it correctly with his cloudy mind and busy rushing thoughts.
"Shut up, i don't." Jeongguk crossed his arms infront of his body, eyes shyly wandering to the ground.
Why would Hoseok ever like him in that way in the first place? They pretty much never exchanged for than two words, only seeing eachother very briefly, not even having one class together. It would be odd for him to like Jeongguk, wouldn't it?
Maybe he just wants to get to know Tae's friends better or something or is just genuinely interested in gaining some more people as more than aquantainces. That just had to be it.
"Anyways, let's finally go for ice cream." He was pulled out of his string of thoughts trying to make sense of what just happened with Tae placing his hand on his shoulder, smile much different than before. The genuine smile he was talking about and got to know over the years.
Gguk nodded, gripping his guitar case tightly as the both of them began walking through the halls, chatting about anything and everything and suddenly it all felt -- like nothing soulcrushing, breaking ever happened, it all felt normal for him again.
The weird fuzzy waves of whatever it was when he saw Taehyung with Yongsoo erased from his body, the bubbly feeling pushed back to it's place in his subconscious, the sadness having a shadow thrown over it in the back of his mind -- it all was gone for the moment.
It just felt good, comforting to spend time with Taehyung by themselves like there was not a single worry in the world just like when they were little kids, spending all their free minutes together.
They quickly dropped off their bags in the trunk of Tae's black painted car, jumping in the drivers and passenger seats and racing off to their favourite little ice cream shop in the downtown area of Busan.
Gguk can still remember the summer they discovered that little nook in the wall place cramped in a small street a little bit off the main shopping area, paying with the money that they had saved up and getting seriously the best ice cream he's ever had.
Back then was the first time Taehyung and him went to the city all by themselves at nine years old and he can still remember the laughs shared over some sugary ice cream smeared across their lips and cheeks and the worried voices of their parents when they came home two hours late.
They arrived pretty much in a pinch, the drive also not too far from their school which was also one of the reasons they love this place, parking in a cheap parking lot pretty much only locals would know and making their way to their destination.
The weather was still buzzing with warmth as it was only the end of august, sun shining down on their exposed skin and mirroring right in Jeongguk's eyes, making him scrunch his face.
"Anyways, no idea how i'll survive that class in the end." Taehyung laughed off his pain, having had a pretty long talk about his advanced math class he had chosen to do for his final year.
"Oh, you will. You get through everything with A's and you know it." Gguk scoffed, telling him what he had thought all through out his monologue about him regretting picking advanced math. Taehyung is pretty much a genius in his mind, effortlessly getting A's without even studying that much.
"I don't know, Jungoo. This year's just gonna be so stressful you know. With all these classes, swimming, trying to keep my grades as high as possible. Like- what if they drop me?" Sudden look of distress masking his best friend's usual happy expression, making the other's heart swell in pain.
"What? Who?" He asked not quite understanding what exactly Taehyung referred to, still walking straight through the mostly empty, quiet street, their eyes connecting.
"You know, the university in NYC. What if they end up taking back my scholarship if my grades sink?" And that's when it hit Jeongguk again.
Right. Taehyung will leave, totally fine and he was one hundered percent only happy for him. That was all that flew through his mind right now, trying his best to convince himself that he was okay, not trying to make any signs of sadness or tears appear on his features.
Jeongguk turned his head back to look straight ahead, not being able to sustain eye contact, sighing as he thought of what to say.
He ended up taking a deep breath, deciding to just speak his thoughts as they come, genuine and authentic to what he really thinks. "They won't, Tae. You are so incredibly talented and you should be more confident in yourself. They reached out to you, didn't they? They don't only care about grades that are on a paper on the end of the year. They care about so much more in between." He felt a thin layer of tears coat his orbs, trying his best not to blink as he knew some would escape and roll down.
It was exactly what he thought in that moment, his thought pretty much unfiltered. Taehyung is an incredibly talented human being that any university would love to have -- even if thinking about it somehow hurt deep inside.
"Yeah but what if they suddenly change their mind? What if my grade were the final factor that got me in? What if those were the factor that decided? And if they sink, is it even worth keeping me? And also i haven't told Yongsoo about all this either and i don't know how to. What if she dumps me and they dump me too. It's all stressing me out." Gguk tried to surpress his tears even more, hearing the struggles Tae was facing as well. The constant pressure of having to stay on top of his grades, the fear to be picked out of that dream opportunity and the heartbreak of having to tell Yongsoo about all of it.
A quick silence broke between them, only the sound of their footsteps pushing through their ear drums.
"I know you will be fine. No matter how stressed out you are right now, i know for a fact that you push through. You wont have one problem in any class. And even if you will --" He took a break, breathing in more air as he tried his all to not get too emotional again like he had been pretty much the last 48 hours. "i know you will also push through that. I'm always here to support you, Taehyung. No matter what. With any worries, you can come to me. And Yongsoo is an angel, that's why you like her. She likes you so much, she will understand." His heart stung a bit at the last two sentences, the word 'love' not being able to pass through his lips in connection with his best friend and his girlfriend. No matter how hard he convinced himself to be happy for them -- there were little things he couldn't do.
"Jungoo-" He felt his heart pound up towards his throat again when he felt Taehyung stop in his steps, his hand wrapping around Gguk's wrist, pulling him to be face to face. "Look at me."
Jeongguk however couldn't bring himself to look his best friend in the eyes again, too much a mix of nervousness and a lot of other emotions flying around in him.
But his wish or need to have his eyes connected to the floor beneath them wasn't granted as he felt a finger slide underneath his chin, pulling his head up to meet Tae's orbs just inches away from him and least to say -- it caused a wave of fuzziness inside of him.
"You don't know how much what you just said meant to me. I have no idea where i would be without you." His wrist was still entrapped by the others hand, heart continuing to pound faster in his chest. "I love you, you are the best friend i could have ever asked for." The first part of the words had Gguk's heart perk up with joy, the second stinging him just a tiny bit. They were best friends. And will never be more -- and he was okay with that, of course.
"Love you too." Jeongguk had to contain the overjoyous eye to eye smile daring to creep onto his features, only allowing a small shy one instead as he saw Tae come closer and embracing him into a hug.
Honestly to Jeongguk, all about this moment felt like magic. The words spoken, the actions intertwined with them and lastly the graze of Taehyung's soft lips against his cheek that he could swear was purposely.
But that moment that he wanted to last for forever only lasted a second, the two quickly pulling apart.
"Let's get our ice cream now. I'll pay." Taehyung smiled, pulling on Gguk's wrist towards the brightly colored ice cream shop, pushing out a chuckle from both their throats.
And that's how they ended up just like when they were little, walking around the lesser busy streets, ice cream in their hand, laughing and smiling at eachother when their eyes met but -- their eyes were portraying different stories, Tae's one of pure platonic affection, Gguk doesn't even know what his own are telling to the world but he was sure it was something more than that.
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Dear Taehyung,
today felt like more of a dream than reality to be honest. I didn't sleep a lot last night that's probably why. Anyways i picked you up from swim practice and we went for some ice cream. We talked a lot about deeper things and i just want you to know i'll always love you and be there for you.
-Jungoo
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hello :) thoughts? opinions? criticism? let me know <3
i'm sorry for not being able to be on wattpad a lot lately, answering comments and dms ): But i hope you guys understand that i'm kind of an adult with a lot of life going on atm with work from 8am to 4pm, occasional driving school and more :)
Nevertheless i apologise for not being as active as i probably could be
Anyways a lot happened this week!! like txt snapped with their comeback and i'm pretty sure i lied to myself all along and i'm not actually Yeonjun biased but Soobin biased lmao djsjdjsjs
Also this happened ))):and that actually is what inspired me to have tae pull Gguk behind him to the ice cream store!!
actual babies i love them with all my heart, just like you all :) ♡
have a wonderful day!