the bet | dojae

twenty two

taeyong wasn't built for running. in the 21 years he had been alive, he had never really been much of an athletic person. he could run fast if he wanted to, but he never had a reason to— plus, running just kind of sucked.

he also wasn't exactly the quickest thinker. sure, if he had to, he could think on his feet, but he usually didn't, so he preferred to think things out before he ended up acting irrationally.

he also had a tendency to freeze up.

spinning the bottle, it landed on yuta, and he mentally cursed, only releasing a sigh when the boy smirked at him. "truth or dare?"

"truth." fuck. it was easier to come up with dares. he struggled to think as his eyes only focused on yuta's fingers going down one at a time until he hit zero. "time's up."

"i have a truth!" they both looked at mark, who was sitting next to yuta. taeyong had seen him around before, and he was about as unpredictable as yuta and johnny combined. literally anything could come out of his mouth.

"taeyong, is it true that you have a crush on yuta?"

anything but that.

he heard yuta say "dude!" and the rest of the group burst out into laughter, but it was all drowned out by his own thoughts. 'fuck' repeated over and over in his head, and the room started to spin as doyoung looked over at him with concern. "taeyong?"

"i, uh— i'm sorry." forcing himself up off the floor, he stumbled a little, and his body went into autopilot as his legs carried him to the door and out of the room. he ran down the hall, eventually slowing to a stop as he sank to the floor.

fuck.

burying his face into his hands, he groaned, the image of yuta's face burned into his mind. he looked shocked and concerned at taeyong's reaction, and taeyong didn't think he could ever face him again.

footsteps approached from behind, and then doyoung was kneeling next to him, rubbing his back. tears pricked at his eyes, and he pressed his palms into them, trying to stop himself from crying. he had cried enough in front of doyoung. the pair were silent, and then doyoung finally spoke up. "how come you avoided the question?"

taeyong started bawling.

quiet at first, and then increasing in volume as he slumped against the wall, his entire body shaking as his sobbed. doyoung sat next to him and continued to comfort him, letting taeyong use his sleeve as a tissue to wipe away his tears. he sniffled, and when he looked over at doyoung, the boy looked like he had had an epiphany. "doyoung?"

"oh my god," he said quietly.

"w-what?"

"oh my god."

"what? what is it?"

"oh my fucking god, we all thought it was johnny."

"you what?" taeyong jumped up, his sadness dissipating and being replaced with anger. "you thought i had a fucking crush on johnny?"

"maybe?"

"why?" he wailed.

now it was doyoung's turn to get up. "i don't know, he was the only option that made sense! we knew it wasn't me or jaehyun— well, that could have been a possibility, but the chances were low- and we didn't think it was yuta because— i don't know why we even eliminated him! but johnny was the only option left, so for, like, 2 weeks, we all thought you liked him."

"so you didn't even consider yuta ... ?"

"no! that's why johnny's been flirting with you nonstop, why he kept taking you on those fake dates and acting like it was to prepare you! but then in the process, he ended up actually liking you, and—"