Exchange student - one year ᵗᵃᵉᵏᵒᵒᵏ

38

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"Jungkook? Taehyung?"

The two boys were startled when a voice suddenly snapped them out of their togetherness. It was Namjoon, accompanied by Jin and Jimin, who looked at them with a confused expression.
Taehyung hid his face behind his hand and turned away to the side. This day had already been bad enough, with a fight in the morning and an unpleasant encounter with his host parents. Now this interruption on top of that. This day was really getting worse by the minute.

Jungkook, on the other hand, had a completely different reaction. His dark, almond-shaped eyes grew wide and shone with joy when he saw his three friends. He ran up to them as if they had never interrupted anything. "What are you doing here? Another party?" he asked curiously, looking at them in turn.
His gaze lingered on his best friend, who only looked to the side in offense and didn't give him a glance. His pink hair fell into his face and covered his eyes, but Jungkook could feel the sadness and anger in them. Immediately, the younger boy became sad and the argument from the morning came back to his mind.

"The question is rather what you're doing here," Jin now intervened and put on a meaningful grin, accompanied by a wiggle of his eyebrows. His gaze wandered to Taehyung, who was still hiding his face and winking at him dirty. Like a girl in love, Jungkook started to smile and just shrugged his shoulders in response.
He then walked up to Jimin and carefully grabbed his hand. "Can we talk?" he asked softly, looking at him pleadingly. "Please, Jimin, I'm sorry." The pink-haired man, however, tore his hand away from him and turned around.
"Don't touch me again," he hissed angrily and ran in the direction the three of them had originally come from. "Jimin, please," Jungkook pleaded and ran after his best friend, but he didn't seem willing to make up.

The other three who stayed behind stood there for a few more moments, watching their friends slowly disappear and exchanging glances.
It was Namjoon who finally moved first. He turned in Taehyung's direction with a dirty grin that made his full lips look even more seductive. His dark eyes, which normally seemed so calm and thoughtful, sparkled with curiosity and amusement. "So, you and Jungkook, huh?" he asked in a voice that revealed all too well that he actually already knew the answer.

Taehyung, who had been lost in thought and had his eyes fixed on the blond's back, flinched and looked at Namjoon with an unintentional twinge of annoyance in his eyes.
His full lips curled into a thin smile as he replied, "Shut up." He followed the other two with slow, hesitant steps, accompanied by the Kim brothers, who had been watching the situation with an amused smile.

"Are you really a couple now?" asked Jin, the older of the two brothers, with open curiosity in his voice. He looked at Taehyung with his big, alert eyes and waited eagerly for an answer. "There's not only the video going around of you spanking Taemin, but also a picture of you and Jungkook kissing," he added with a slight undertone of admiration. "And after what we've just seen, it's clear anyway, so don't deny it!"

Taehyung stopped for a moment and looked at Jin in surprise. He remembered that Jungkook had already mentioned something like that. But the older man was so caught up in his anger that he hadn't paid any further attention to the picture. "What kind of picture?" he asked.
Jin immediately dug out his cell phone and searched for the picture with deft fingers. When he found it, he held it out to Taehyung with a triumphant smile. There was indeed a picture of them, taken that night when Taehyung was consoling Jungkook. They were seen hugging tightly, their lips pressed together. A shiver ran down Taehyung's spine as he remembered the intensity of that kiss.

Sighing, he shook his head and continued walking. "No, we're not," he finally replied. "Too bad," Jin said with a slight undertone of regret in his voice. "But what you did with Taemin was really great. It was a bit of boyfriend protection," he added with an amused laugh.