loser. ✓

EIGHTㅡBICKER

"that'll be twenty dollarsㅡfood included. thanks for coming!" a tall girl with a forced smile looked down on jeongguk as he slowly slid the money toward her.

"trust me, we both know that you don't want to be here and honestly, i don't think i blame you," jeongguk stated, shoving a hand into his pocket. the party(slash dance) was a casual affair, so he had no problem wearing his usual outfit of timbs, skinny jeans, and a white shirt. the only people dressed up were the 'servants' as seokjin called them. "so there's no need to fake that positive attitude around me."

the girl's smile immediately fell into a grimace as she turned to put jeongguk's cash away. "i hate every single person at this school."

he chuckled in response. that was more like it.

an arm snaked it's way around his shoulders, catching him off guard. "jeongguk, man, i'm sure glad you came."

"get off of me, namjoon!" he gently shoved namjoon's chest. his eyes shifted to the boy awkwardly standing behind his older friend. jeongguk lifted his eyebrows until the realization hit him that this was seokjin, who was namjoon's personal chef and more for the night. the last time he had seen seokjin in person, even though they're in the same high school, was when the poor boy was covered in boiling honey and feathers.

"hi, you probably don't recognize me," jeongguk stated, holding out his hand for jin to shake. "but i'm jeon-"

"i know."

an awkward silence flooded between the two, and jeongguk realized that seokjin wasn't going to shake his hand. he let his hand fall to the side. namjoon rolled his eyes. "shake his hand, seokjin."

"it's hyung to you, for one. and for two, i don't want to shake his hand, ever." crossing his arms in defiance, the brunet shook his head. "nice to officially meet you in person, though, jeongguk." seokjin spit out his name as if it were venom.

but as he went to walk away, namjoon grabbed onto seokjin's elbow, almost a bit too harshly. he quickly let go when he realized what he had done. "jin, you're my secretary tonight and i've barely given you anything to do, so you can at least do this one small task for me."

seokjin scoffed, shaking jeongguk's hand. "barely given me anything my ass," the brunet whispered, glaring at the ground and clenching his fists at his sides. he stayed by namjoon's side, even though he looked like he was ready to dart at any given moment. 

"is taehyung here?" jeongguk had directed the question to namjoon, but seokjin's head snapped up at the sound of his friend's name.

"why do you want to-" seokjin froze, as if he had remembered something, and began to fix his tucked-in button down shirt. he kept his eyes fixated on the ground. "never mind. i'm going to stop talking, i guess. and he's here. though i don't know why i'm telling you that."

namjoon's eyes narrowed at the brunet. "you confuse me more than anyone else i know, do you know that? you're also really annoying. i wish i didn't pick you as my personal chef," namjoon said, crossing his arms over his chest in a childlike manner. seokjin lifted his head from the ground, eyebrows raising at the slightly younger. 

"namjoon, that's a bit dramatic," jeongguk said, placing a hand on the older's chest. "so i'm just going to stop you from saying anything else stupid before jin here starts clawing at your throat, okay? you went a bit far there. besides, you can't blame him for being in a pissy mood tonight." 

frustrated, namjoon stomped away, beckoning for jin to follow. the brunet hesitated for a second and looked at the boy who had just defended him. "i-look, i don't fully understand why you did that, because i'm pretty sure you hate my guts after everything we said to each other in that group chat, but thank you for stopping him." seokjin paused, nervously running a hand through his hair. "i was getting a bit frustrated with him because he tries to argue about everything, so i guess i owe you one for at least preventing that argument." 

"uh, i'm- thank- sorry?" jeongguk hadn't been expecting a thanks of any sort from seokjin, so he was a bit flustered by it, but it really made his heart soft. "i mean, you're welcome. yeah. you're welcome."

seokjin nodded before running after namjoon. jeongguk let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding before heading to the bathroom (when someone's gotta pee, they gotta pee!).

he whistled while walking through the halls, making his way to the closest. as he was opening the door, however, somebody forcefully pushed it open, causing the door to slam into jeongguk's nose. he instinctively raised one hand to his nose, the other to stop the person in front of him.

"please don't hurt me! i'm so sorry.." the voice sounded strained. when he looked up, he immediately recognized the blond hair of the boy standing before him.

"oh," jeongguk said, slowly taking in the formal attire taehyung was wearing (which was quite strange, seeing most everyone wore casual clothing). he decided that if he wanted to prove anything to namjoon, now was the time to do it. "it's you."

"jeongguk, look, now's not really the time and-"

"oh, and what are you so dressed up for? get invited to some loser party?" he sneered as best he could. as forced as it was, jeongguk was proud of how realistically angry and snarky it sounded.

"please, i already know where this is going," taehyung mumbled, finally looking up from the ground, "and i really don't need to hear it right now."

he noticed taehyung's eyes were puffy and red from crying, as were his cheeks, and he almost felt guiltyㅡhe knew it wasn't his fault taehyung had been crying...right? "what do you mean? aren't you going to say some stupid shit back to me? that's- taehyung, that's our thing!"

"we don't have a thing, jeongguk, and that's exactly-" taehyung cut himself off, shaking his head. "whatever. i don't have time for this. please, go away."

"can't, i have to use the bathroom." jeongguk laughed, awkwardly fiddling with the hem of his shirt. "do you, uh, maybe want to talk about what's wrong with you?"

"you're what's wrong with me, you idiot!" taehyung stated, crossing his arms and shifting his gaze to the floor again. "why do you want to know so badly, though? it's not like you care or anything."

jeongguk scoffed. "what does it matter to you if i care or not? i'm just trying to be a good person, no need to freak out on me when i don't even know what i did wrong."

"that's exactly it," taehyung whispered. "that's exactly it, but you just don't get it, do you? you don't get it."

"why do you keep saying everything twice?"

"because you're a moron, times two. now, if you could please move out of my way, i have a seokjin to support. both physically and mentally."

jeongguk felt as if he was frozen in place, staring at the bottom of the bathroom door as taehyung stormed off down the hall.

what the hell do i keep doing wrong?

ㅡ

stupid question, gguk, but we'll let u get away with it

i feel like it's been forever since i last updated but it hasn't actually been THAT long ?? u know?

bUt we're finally gettin to the taegguk ((; how exciting oOoo it might take a lot longer for them to actually do the date n stuff