road trip.

[28] bite sized clouds

just a teensy teensy reminder;

tae is PANSEXUAL.
kook is BISEXUAL.
so both of them can like girls if they want, guys.
if a female character comes up and they interact with either tae or kook, pls do not go "SHUT UP TAE, YOURE GAY" or "FGS, YOURE GAY FOR TAEHYUNG ONLY."
i repeat, kook is bi and tae is pan.

anyway, enjoy readingggggg
________________

taehyung focus
"you're claustrophobic?"

taehyung sits sideways on the motorcycle with his legs dangling, eating into a bag of sour gummies when jungkook asks him the aforementioned question. sprinkles of white sugar are littered all around his mouth, decorating his pink lips so taehyung swipes at the sugar with the back of his hand.
"yeah." he swallows hard.

jungkook stands besides the motorcycle, smoking a cigarette whilst looking away from taehyung, staring meaninglessly at a spot in the distance. "ill keep that in mind." he murmurs. taehyung, unsure about what to say, pushes his damp fringe to one side and reaches down for the bottle of water sitting in the grocery bag. he uncaps the water and takes a careful sip.

gulping down the water, taehyung thinks back to the state he was in just fifteen minutes ago; hyperventilating almost inhumanely, nauseous and dizzy, crying and sobbing, crouching by an unhygienic hand dryer in a very unhygienic public toilet whilst people stared at him, confused as to why a random boy was heavily breathing in the corner of the men's bathroom.

taehyung cringes but there's nothing much he can do to change what's in the past, he'll just have to get over what happened at the gas station. his fear of crowded and confined spaces is pretty irrational, yes, but it's something that truly freaks out taehyung, so he doesn't wallow in self–hate and internally die of embarrassment at what had happened, he just accepts it.

this isn't the first time anyway — it's happened many times before; at press conferences when the journalists would get a little too close for taehyung's liking, or when he was studying abroad and the lunch bell would ring; triggering a stampede of students to run towards the canteen and taehyung'd be caught up in the frenzied hubbub, hyperventilating and sweating until someone noticed and dragged him to the nurse's office.

so taehyung's not really embarrassed. it's a just thing he can't help but do.

he does heat up though (cheeks flaming a bright shade of red and turning so hot, you could fry burger patties over them) but not because he's awkward/embarrassed/shy, but because of the way jungkook had controlled the situation — he'd been so nice, he'd taken the time to comfort and make taehyung calm and hadn't been his usual rude dismissive self surprisingly. he did all the right things; the breathing 'exercises', the reassuring comments, staying there with him and making sure taehyung was in an open space, the eye contact. . .

he was so close though, taehyung thinks, heating up, i could smell cigarettes and mint on his breath and it shouldn't have calmed me down but . . . it did. weirdly. and his mouth was inches away from mine; any closer and he would've been able to. . . oh my—

oh my god, what the fuck are you thinking about, kim taehyung??

despite taehyung's weird thoughts, jungkook's actions and niceness does make taehyung's heart unwillingly warm up to the boy standing on his left. but taehyung quickly dismisses the strange warm feeling as gratitude: he was just thankful, that's all.