Waiting for u to love me - Taekook

4. The Next Step

I've known Jungkook for a good couple of years now. We grew up together. We've met each others parents. We even been trapped in the same bathroom together for 2 hours, don't ask. It's always been a flex of mine to show off how strong our friendship is going through all these years. However the past few weeks are making me want to take back every compliment and flattering remark I've said about him.
Ever since that conversation we had back in September, he would have days in a row where he would be extremely clingy to me. We've always been glued together but it's a different type of clingy that's only used in couples. I try to ignore it but anyone would get red in a scenario where a hot guy would ask to sleep in the same bed or hold your hand. But he would also use any excuse to be next to me, and todays no different.

"How much of my hair do you think is going to fall out after this comeback?" I ask Jimin and Jungkook. We finally finished another interview for our new album Love Yourself: Her with our track DNA. It's been doing so much better than our previous albums and we've been hearing of going overseas to America for the AMAs.
But for now I'm slumped onto the black couch of the green room while I wait for the two to finally finish getting un-ready. I stare through my phone camera screen to touch up my hair.
"I don't know," Jimin responds as he brushes his platinum blonde hair.
Jungkook walks over and sits right next to me and pulls out his phone too. Most likely to also check his reflection.
"You don't have to wait, just be bald in the next comeback." He smiles at his own joke and I punch him in the arm.
"Shut up, your hair's unoriginal." I counter.
"Anyways, do you guys wanna go eat dinner somewhere?" I ask, putting my phone away into my pocket.
"Sure I'm down," Jungkook says. I look over to Jimin who seems more hesitant.
"Sorry, I can't, I uh promised Jin I'd join his EatJin." He says, "you guys can go though."
I didn't really feel like just having the two of us go. I was more in the mood for a larger group but Jungkook chimed in before I could refuse.
"Yeah Tae, let's go. I really want to go to that tofu house, you know? The one really close to our dorms but we rarely go?" He grabs my arm in excitement.
"Uh okay sure," I reply.
***

The food really hits the spot after a long day of surviving only by breakfast and a lot of water. We both still continue to portion our meal since our comeback wasn't too long ago.
"Mm, this soup is really good." I say to Jungkook. He's taken a break from his food to text someone on his phone. He asks me to repeat myself.
"It's good, you want some?" I point to the bowl with my spoon as he nods.
I grab a nearby side dish plate that is empty and start scooping some of the tofu into it.
"By the way," Jungkook says, "thank you."
"For what?"
"For not changing how you act toward me after I confessed to you." I break my concentration from the scooping and look up at him.
He doesn't meet my gaze and instead he's focused on scooping the right amount of rice with his soup.
"Of course," I say and hand him the bowl "if I acted differently, the members would notice and that would bring chaos to the group."
He suddenly glares at me rolls his eyes.
"What?" I ask offended.
"Nothing." He sighs and takes a bite. "Anyways, next week Saturday night, we're all free right?"
"Uh yeah I think so. Why?"
Jungkook picks up his phone again and starts typing. "Okay I sent it in the group chat. So apparently Eunwoo is having a party and is inviting a bunch of other idols. The other 97 liners are going so do you think the other members wanna come? Oh this soup is good."
I hum lowly in thought. "What do we have to do that day before the party?" I ask out loud even though I go to check my schedule on my own phone. That day we have another interview but when I looked into it, it was relatively small and probably would finish very quickly.
I agree to going to the party and we finish up our dinner. I'm forced to pay this time since Jungkook somehow remembered that he paid for the chicken last time.
"It's pretty cold out here huh?" I say and zip up my jacket.
Jungkook ignores my statement as he joins me outside. "Should we just walk back from here? It doesn't seem far." His phone is out with directions to the dorms. It's a 10 minute walk.
"Sure."
We start walking in silence as I'm checking my schedule on my phone. With my left hand in pocket, its hard to type "Eunwoo Party at ???" but I'd rather have one hand freeze than both.
"Tae, do you think that performance at the AMAs is really going to happen?" Jungkook asks out of the blue.
"I hope so," I say while I spam backspace. "It'll be really cool if we can expand to America. We're doing pretty good in Korea." It's a conversation that leads nowhere and we both fall silent again.
Suddenly, I feel something or someone grab the hand in my pocket. It's Jungkook.
"What do you want?" I ask and finally put my phone away into my other pocket. I can feel his cold hand cupping mine. "Your hands so cold, don't touch me." I lightly flick his hand away and out of my cozy pocket.
He then goes for my arm and hooks his arm through.
It'a not uncommon for us or for any of the other members to friendly PDA but it feels different when Jungkook hugs my arm close to his body.
It also doesn't help that the only sound there is is our jackets rubbing against each other and our shoes dragging across the ground.
The walk is silent and I really hope it didn't feel awkward for him because it definitely did for me. It felt the closer and closer we got to the dorms, the more Jungkook held onto me like I was his lifeline.
I could feel his heartbeat with my arm pressed to his chest. For some reason though, my body got warm very quickly and I was basically sweating by the time we got back. It's probably because we walked all the way here though.
I threw my jacket on the ground, next to the bed where Jimin and Jhope lay sleeping.
I hope they got the message about the party before they slept.
It'd probably be a good idea to check the location and the definitive times. I open up KaKaoTalk and tap my newest messages.

Party at Cha Eunwoo House at 6:30pm~??
Address: xxxxxxx
Dispatch might be there

Half the members have seen it but the rest can when morning comes. I sit on the edge of my bed because if I were to lay down I would fall asleep immediately and washing my face is always a priority number one.
Just out of curiosity, I tap on Jungkook's profile picture, realizing I've never put much thought into it.
He's constantly changing it and it's hard to keep up. Last time it was the picture of Yoongi crying when we won a Daesang which I thought was hilarious.
At first I didn't understand why he chose just a generic red heart as his profile, however it turned out to be his SoulMark.
I smiled as if I was a conspirator in choosing this as his profile. I'm reminded of his face when he grabbed my arm.
I see him everyday, actually I have been seeing him everyday for almost 5 years. However, it felt like tonight was the first time I've seen Jungkook's eyes glimmer like that.
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