THIS BELONGS TO @mindheist ON AO3
The first time Taehyung sees Jeongguk, he falls on his ass.
In his defense, though, he's walking backwards immediately before he does. It's an art form perfected through practice, like most art is, and if Taehyung ever needed to learn how to moonwalk he can say he has a head start in mastering it without even needing to look over his shoulder. Such is the life of a university campus tour guide.
No, it's not professional, not in the least. Taehyung gestures a lot as he talks like an enthused peacock, so he assumes it does not look graceful or coordinate, either.
"For our first stop, we're passing by the University Center to your left," he says, voice booming over the bustle of students getting to class. "You'll find a lot of student services in there, a computer lab, the bookstore, and study halls. In the beginning of each semester there are plenty of organizations stationed there go recruit as many—"
And, really, someone who drives a red Hummer H3 is just begging for attention so it's not his fault that he looks. It roars into the parking lot beside the walkway, tires screeching when it pulls into a parking space. Taehyung is about to look back at his tour group when the driver's side door opens and a boy steps out. Then the world moves in slow motion and Taehyung is disappointed he does not have dramatic backtracks to his life, and swears he's going to upload appropriate theme music into his phone so he can blast it whenever he so needs. No one can ever go wrong with Careless Whisper - Saxophone Instrumental.
The boy steps down like a king descending from his fucking throne. Keys jangle in his hand as he does, and he slings his backpack over his shoulder in one fluid motion. The car door slams behind him, and he glances down at his keys before he aims the car remote behind him. Beep beep, chirps the sacrilegious monstrosity of a passenger vehicle, and then he is gone.
And then Taehyung is on his ass, on the ground, palms planted on the cement.
"Are you okay?" One of the fathers has his hand extended. "You took a pretty big fall there."
"I'm great! Sorry, even with practice, we tour guides are not always creatures of agility," Taehyung says cheerfully, letting himself be helped up. "Right! Where were we?"
Taehyung has given tours with high fever forced down with an overdose of Dayquil, he's given tours hungover, he's even given tours sore in the ass from one night stands and the route is over a mile long—but for the rest of the walkthrough he can hardly keep his mind from wandering back to that boy with the dark hair that drives an Iggy Azalea of a car.
"I heard you had a little accident today, Taehyung."
"Oh, uh. Yeah, about that."
"You make it sound like he peed himself in kindergarten," Jimin remarks. He has his head in Seokjin's lap, feet propped up against Taehyung's shoulder. They smell like neglected laundry and death, but Taehyung has gotten used to Jimin. "Which I, if I didn't know better, will wager would be less embarrassing than what actually happened."
"I heard you fell. Were you okay?"
"I was okay," Taehyung says quickly.
Seokjin narrows his eyes. The problem with being friends before mentees with Seokjin is that, yes, Seokjin can see through anything and everything that Taehyung tries to pull. This is especially inconvenient considering Seokjin is the head of the tour guide department of the admissions office and has real power to remove Taehyung from his job if he so pleased.
