rivals | taejin

VII

1/2

Seokjin sighed as he stood in front of the large wooden door. Unlike his and Hoseok's shared room, this one was a lot bigger. 'Perks of being Athena's son, eh?' , Seokjin thought to himself. He shook his head and knocked on the door.

He waited a few minutes, but there was no response. He knocked again. Still, no response. He sighed and took out his phone.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Hobi!"

"Hey Seokjinnie, need something?"

"Do you by chance know Kim Taehyung's number?"

"Why would you need my number?"

Seokjin turned when the deep voice freaked him out. "I've been here for twenty minutes and without a response." he replied.

Taehyung looked at him before unlocking the door and entering. Seokjin sighed, "Nevermind Hobi, he's here. I'll see you in a bit!"

Taehyung set down the big brown paper bag onto the counter, looking as Seokjin walked in shyly.

"I went to get us some food and guess I lost track of time." he explained, taking the foods out.

"Oh! Then it's fine, thank you."

"We should exchange numbers." Taehyung said, taking his phone out and sliding it over the counter to Seokjin.

"O-Okay." he stuttered and put his phone number into Taehyung's contact list.

"Tell me if it's correct, I still need to work on my electronic skills." Seokjin said, taking out his own phone.

Taehyung looked down at his phone, wanting to smile at the cute "Seokjinnie ❤️" typed on the male's contact. "No, it's fine. Let me put mine into yours."

"Sure."

As Taehyung put his number into Seokjin's phone, there was a knock on the door.

"Oh! That must be Jungkook, i'll get it." Seokjin said and walked to open the door.

Jungkook stood outside with a bunny smile on his face. "Hello Seokjinnie." he said and stepped in.

Seokjin's ears turned red as he murmured a greeting back. Jungkook set his backpack down on a chair and sat on the counter.

"This isn't your dorm, get off." Taehyung said, only to be ignored.

"So, are we starting this thing or what?" Jungkook asked.

"Yup."

Seokjin got his computer out and opened it up. He sat inbetween the other males, who were looking at the bright screen.

"Turn the brightness down, it's too bright." Jungkook said squinting his eyes dramatically.

"I don't know how to—"

Taehyung reached over and turned the brightness down so it wasn't burning their eyes.

"Thanks." he said shyly and typed slowly on the keyboard. Their project was based upon architecture. That being the founders, early architecture and more modern ones. Seokjin, who had barely learned just to read and write from his small group of friends where he was raised, was learning as they researched. Unlike Jungkook and Taehyung, who had grown up surrounded by aforementioned architecture styles and knew how it had changed over time.

"Really, we don't need much research. Since we were younger, we learned of it. I think this is more for you than for us." Taehyung said, opening up his journal.

Seokjin sighed, "There's never a limit to what you can learn. Therefore, I think even if you've been taught this for a long time, there's new things you might not know of." he explained, looking at the words on the screen, "Here, write this down."

"We know that."

"Did I stutter? Just write it." Seokjin said, starting to get annoyed.

Taehyung rolled his eyes and wrote while Jungkook snickered.

"There is five orders of classical architecture; Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan, and Composite..." As Seokjin read off the research, Taehyung wrote what he said word by word. Jungkook in his mind made up images he'd use. That's how they spent almost two hours.

"I think that should be enough, right?" Jungkook asked, eyeing the bag of food. He was hungry.

"Good enough." Seokjin nodded, Taehyung sighing in relief for his sore hand. Jungkook got up and went to the food. "I'm starving."

Taehyung clicked his tongue and grabbed the bag from him. "I brought gimbap, tteokbokki, some ramen, fish cakes, and some different drinks. What do you guys want?"

"I want it all!" Jungkook said, eyeing the food with wide eyes.

"I've never had any of these..." Seokjin whispered, looking at the food with wonder and curiosity.

Taehyung and Jungkook froze at that, looking back at him slowly. Seokjin shrugged, not knowing why they were so shocked.

"Huh?" Jungkook said, looking at him with surprised eyes.

"How have you never had this? This is literally all we eat here." Taehyung questioned.

Seokjin looked back and forth between them, walking closer, looking at the food more up close. "Well, since we lived next to a body of water, we mostly ate sea food only. I don't know what any of these are." he said.

"So you've never had rice?!" Jungkook exclaimed, horrified.

"Oh, i've had rice. We had a whole rice field. But not this. We mostly ate rice and some kind of fish." Seokjin explained.

"Try this before us, I want to see your reaction." Taehyung said, pushing all the containers of food towards him.

Seokjin looked between them. "This looks like rice, right?"

"Yeah it's rice with other ingredients in it. It's really good." Jungkook said, explaining the gimbap.

Seokjin nodded and grabbed a piece. He put it in his mouth and nodded. "Mmm, it's good!" he said, his eyes twinkling. Taehyung and Jungkook wanted to coo at his puffy cheeks.

"I'll get some boiling water for the noodles." Taehyung said, getting up and bringing the pot. He opened the bowls up and poured the water in, covering it back up. "Meanwhile, taste some of the tteokbokki. I didn't order it spicy since I, personally, don't like spicy food that much." Taehyung said, picking up a rice cake with his chopsticks and guiding it to Seokjin's mouth.

Seokjin opened his mouth and chewed. He nodded as he tasted the foreign food. "Mmm, this one is good too! It's chewy and I like the red sauce on it." he smiled. "Can I have another one?" he asked. Taehyung nodded immediately and handed him a pair of chopsticks. Seokjin took another bite and smiled.

"What do you have to drink?" Jungkook asked, his mouth full of food.

Taehyung made a face at him but brought out the drinks, "Soda, banana milk—"

Jungkook grabbed the banana milk and opened it, chugging it down until there was a bit left. "Here, drink it all." he said to Seokjin. Seokjin took it and drank it. "Mmm, this is also good! Everything is so good!" he smiled.

Meanwhile, Taehyung felt his heart racing at seeing Seokjin's happy face. But he frowned, he shouldn't feel those kinds of things for him. So instead, he watched with envious eyes as Jungkook fed Seokjin, wishing he could too.

•••

i hope you are enjoying the story so far! thank you for your support 💜💜