➵ 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐉𝐄𝐂𝐓: 𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐒 [𝐊.𝐓𝐇]

"He is NOT in the mafia!"

Turned out, Aurem was not at her house. Neither was Hana, who, aside from being her best friend (after you of course, hehe), was also her flatmate, nor was Soobin, her idiot brother and unofficial couch-crashing resident.

(Really, someone needed to tell that boy he had his own perfectly fine flat with Yeonjun and there was no need for him to come along with his debauchery and mess up the sparks that had been flying between your two best friends while they were living together— but you know what, you could cut him some slack, since that blue-haired menace otherwise known as Choi Yeonjun was notorious from bringing girls home and them being awfully loud.)

Anyway, none of your best friends were at their apartment.

So you were pretty lucky to have found all of them where you never thought they'd be lurking, considering their usual pastimes.

"I think I have to make it clear that you're beginning to make my head hurt, b*tch."

"You and me both," Soobin sighed, nodding Hana in a rare moment of agreement. You sighed and rubbed your knuckles to your temple, feeling a migraine coming on yourself.

"Same here, but I'll forgive you for the food," Aurem mumbled around a mouthful of fried rice, shoring you a grin.

"You'd sell your soul for food."

"That's fair, actually, but Y/N! My head still hurts because of you!"

"It's not that hard to understand!" you protested, feeling a flush decorate your cheeks as you glanced at where Taehyung was sprawled on a bench on your campus, eyes glittering as he watched you. You'd considered leaving him in the car after what had happened in your apartment, with the way you'd felt so weak and helpless under his soft words and hopeful stare... but well, the thing was, Kim Taehyung seemed to be remarkably adept at completely and utterly dissolving any awkwardness, any tension. A single mischievous joke or box-shaped smile could send the whole situation whirling back into comfortable, familiar territory, no strings attached, no awkward silences required. He was very good at playing things off, pretending things never happened.

And so were you, really. That was how you lived, how you got through life without dying of embarrassment as people usually did at 3 AM while remembering that one time in middle school. It never happened.

And anyway, Taehyung was ridiculously adamant about not leaving you alone. Because clearly, that was what Namjoon had meant by asking him to keep you safe.

Clearly.

In any case, you were secretly glad that Taehyung had decided to tag along. The energy between you two had changed, even you could feel it— before, it had been nothing but a back and forth banter, him teasing and you snapping with no real affection between you. The protectiveness had been for self-interest, the flirting had been a way to both tick you off and because Taehyung was just naturally privy to it.