Metal Heart [ Jikook ]

Chapter 13

Jungkook wasn't the only one who couldn't focus all day long. It was obvious that he was out of it, and Taehyung was focused enough to tell, but all of his focus was set on Jungkook and he didn't get a single word out of the lectures from his professors. He was busy tapping his pencil against his desk and wondering how his best friend was doing. A little bit of his focus, admittedly, steered off to his boyfriend as he wondered how he was doing and how much time they would have to spend together after their classes, but he mostly thought about Jungkook and Jimin and hoped they were both okay.

Jimin's death, if it could be seen in that light, came out of nowhere. Taehyung remembered Seokjin's worried messages, asking Taehyung if anything was noticeably wrong with Jimin when he couldn't go and check on the robot himself. Taehyung's answer was always no; there was nothing wrong with Jimin. He was well-made and he functioned properly. He was the perfect boyfriend. Boyfriend? Taehyung wasn't sure how far Jungkook had gotten with Jimin. How far had they gotten since Christmas? Had they moved at all? Taehyung was so wrapped up in Hoseok-- and he shouldn't worry so much about someone else's relationship anyway.

By the time the day was over, Taehyung's brain was fried. Jungkook hadn't been at lunch, which made things a lot worse for Taehyung's mind, and he didn't answer any of the frantic messages Taehyung sent him while he was sitting there trying to make himself eat through the worry. Hoseok kissed at Taehyung's cheek and jaw the whole time, and he let Taehyung rant, which got a lot off of Taehyung's chest. But he continued to be short on oxygen up until the end of the day, when Jungkook finally sent him an I'm with Jin-hyung message, with a picture of Seokjin sent in the next moment. The picture showed Seokjin eating, with plates visible just in front of Jungkook. Good, Taehyung thought, relieved, Seokjin's got him.

"Is my little worry wart ready for our study date?" Hoseok asked, kind of scaring Taehyung-- the boy hadn't been paying much attention to his surrounding. Taehyung didn't answer right away, turned his phone around instead and said "Jungkook's okay! He's with Jin-hyung."

"Good!" Hoseok said, tapping on Taehyung's screen-- at the picture, "He's eating, too. Thank God-- I thought he was going to skip lunch completely."

"I did, too." Taehyung said. "Speaking of which. Will you take me out to eat, hyung? I just want pastries, but-- I need brain food before we go home."

"'Course. You left your wallet at home, right?" Hoseok asked, to which Taehyung nodded, his expression showing apology. Hoseok chuckled, "Good thing you have a hot, rich boyfriend like me to back you up."

"Good thing I do." Taehyung chuckled. The two of them walked out of the school hand-in-hand, past the gate and down the left path leading away from the building. Hoseok talked to Taehyung on the way there, already grabbing for his wallet. He told a funny story about his last class. Hoseok was always the class clown, but he was the worst in his last class, because he was rowdy and ready to go home and tired of sitting through lectures. He made the class fun-- the teacher didn't even hate him for it.

"You're going to get yourself killed one day. Or arrested. Or something." Taehyung said when Hoseok had finished telling his story. Hoseok had mentioned he really wasn't sure what he was trying to do, but his pencil had ended up halfway across the room and he wasn't sure why he had a water bottle but he almost had to pay for a new laptop. And they all had tests to re-take on Friday.

"I know. My whole class hates me right now, but when I get my professor to flat-out tell everyone the answers to at least three of the hardest questions, they'll love me again." Hoseok said. He opened the door of the cafe and let Taehyung in first, following him after another couple swooped in, and grabbed his hand again. "What would my little pumpkin like?"