Genre: Soulmate AU, fluff, angst
Pairing: Taehyung x Reader (ft. Jungkook)
Summary: Having your soul tied to the person you love for the rest of eternity isn’t a beautiful and magical as most make it out to be. (Based around the Prologue, I Need U, Run MV’s)
A month into the new school year and Jungkook and I had managed to get closer; however, there was still a lot about Jungkook I didn’t know. I thought that we could become closer if we hung out outside of school. So I might have let it slip that I wanted to possibly hang out sometime. It seemed to have worked because a few days later Jungkook invited me out for coffee. So, we arranged to meet up at a coffee place in the weekend but it was still a little strange. The way he asked would have made me consider this a date, if it were not for how uninterested Jungkook seemed in having a relationship from prior conversations we’ve had. Even so, I got all dressed up as if it were like a date. I must have changed at least 10 times before finally deciding on a light sundress with a faded jean jacket. My hair and makeup were equally as time consuming since I couldn’t find a look I liked. I checked my phone one last time to make sure I had the right address before heading out to the coffee shop.
When I arrived at the shop, Jungkook came out to greet me. He was wearing an unbuttoned red, black, and white flannel over a white shirt. His dark jeans cuffed up to show off the timberland boots that he was oh so proud of.
“Hey, Y/N, you look nice.”
“Thanks, Jungkook.” I grinned happily at the compliment. I could have sworn I saw a blush dust across his cheeks, but mentally shrugged it off. “Did I make you wait long?”
“Not really, I did order an Americano for you. Hope you don’t mind.” I shook my head as he led me back to the table and handed me my drink.
“Thank you.” I smiled, taking the cup. “To be honest I was actually surprised you invited me out this weekend.” I laughed before taking a sip of my drink.
“Really?” Jungkook let out a small chuckle, before messing with his hair. “Why? Is it weird that I did?”
“No, no” I shook my head laughing. “I just thought you spent your weekends with your hyungs. I just assumed you were normally busy.”
“Well I do, we normally just hang out later in the day.”
“What do you guys do anyways? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“Just stuff.” Jungkook shrugged. His eyes wavered from me off to the side before widening. “Shit…” he mumbled under his breath and slid down in his chair bringing his hand up to hide his face.
“What is it?” I was turning in the direction Jungkook was looking before he pulled me down to hide. “Jungkook what’s wrong?” I whispered utterly confused. Why is he acting like this?
“It’s nothing. Just keep your head down and they’ll go away. Probably… Man, this sucks I thought they were busy…”
“Who are you talking about?” I tried to peek over to see who Jungkook was talking about. The cafe was rather empty right now so it wasn’t hard to find the two guys he must have been trying to avoid. The two guys were possibly a few years older than we were. They were just ordering some coffee like everyone else, which made Jungkook’s reaction even more peculiar. They were just your average-looking guys; the shorter of the two was looking up at the menu running his hand through short but fluffy orange dyed hair. He wore an army green jacket with the sleeves rolled up over a plain white tee and light ripped jeans. The taller one was smiling and charming the barista while he ordered. His hand reaching into the pocket of his black varsity jacket. Once he finished paying, his eyes scanned the cafe and locked with mine. He smirked and gave me a wink. Quickly, I turned back to facing at Jungkook, a blush of embarrassment spreading across my cheeks from being caught staring.
“Um, so who are those guys?”
“Those are my hyungs…” Jungkook groaned, running his hand through his hair. “Oh god, they’re coming over here.” The two guys slowly made their way over to our table before sitting down with us. The orange headed one sat next to Jungkook as the varsity jacket one sat next to me.
“I hope we’re not crashing your date with Y/N, Kookie.” The one sitting with Jungkook nudged at him with his shoulders, chuckling. Jungkook just rolled his eyes and crossed his arms; Not bothering to hide his disdain about them being here.
“Not to be rude, but how do you know my name?” I spoke up, interrupting the small banter between the two across from me.
“Oh, has Kookie not talked about us?” He faked a pout at Jungkook before turning to me with a smile. “We’re Kookie’s friends. My name is Park Jimin.”
“And I’m Jung Hoseok. Jungkook talks about you a lot to us. All good things, it’s kind of cute.” Jimin and Hoseok laughed.
“Hyung! Don’t tell her things like that.” Jungkook groaned, hiding his face in his hand and I couldn’t help but let out a small giggle. After our laughter died and Jungkook’s embarrassment passed, Jungkook started questioning his friends.
“So why are you guys here anyway. I thought you two were going to be busy this weekend.”
“I’m free right now but later when we normally hang out I’ll be working.” Jimin stated shrugging his shoulders.
“As for me, I have a blind date.” Hoseok took a sip of his drink; his eyes gravitated over to me catching me staring once again.
“Are you taking Y/N with you to meet the other guys?” Jimin grinned, glancing between Jungkook and me while he ate the small cake he got with his drink. I gave Jungkook a questioning look since I had no idea what today’s plans were. He avoided my gaze, favoring the view out the window instead.
“No, that’s why I asked her out before we normally hang out. I don’t need you guys bothering us.” I watched him as he spoke and the more talked the rosier his cheeks were getting. Is he embarrassed about being out with me? I shook my head dismissing the thought. This is Jungkook were talking about. I had one-sided conversations for almost an entire year just to get him to even think of being friends with me. If he were actually embarrassed of me, there would be no way he would have invited me out. It’s probably just the teasing from his friends.
“Oh, so you don’t deny that you’re on a date with Y/N?” Hoseok leaned onto the table smirking at Jungkook.
“Do you want to get out of here?” Jungkook’s jaw clenched as he stared at me, ignoring Hoseok’s question. It was easy to see that he was more on edge the longer we sat with his friends, even though I couldn’t understand why that was the case. I glanced at Jimin and Hoseok then back at Jungkook, giving him a small nod. Jungkook abruptly stood up, grabbing my wrist and lightly dragging me out of the cafe in a matter of seconds. The action startled me, but his hyungs just laughed, bidding us a goodbye.
It was a sort of difficult to keep up with Jungkook’s large strides as he led me down the street. Perhaps realizing this, Jungkook slowed down before eventually stopping. His head drooped, his eyes glued to the ground while his warm grip on my wrist loosened but never let go of me.
“Are you okay?” I asked slightly out of breath. For whatever reason, what Jimin and Hoseok said had upset him and I didn’t want that to ruin our time together.
“I’m sorry about them.” Jungkook tightened his grip on my wrist and furrowed his brows with a frown. He opened his mouth to say something else but quickly shut it shaking his head.
“It’s okay. Friends can be a pain sometimes.” I chuckle lightly placing my hand on the one that was closed around my wrist. “They tease you because they care and whatnot.” His gaze traveled from the ground to my face and I gave him a small smile. He seemed to relax a bit with a sigh.
“I regret telling them anything sometimes.” Jungkook let out a weak laugh and ran his hand through his hair. “I should have just figured out how to ask you out myself. I bet the only reason Jimin and Hoseok showed up at the cafe was because they were the ones who suggested I take you there.” My body stiffened upon hearing this. Did he actually want this to be a date? Oh god. What do I do now? Jungkook must have noticed because immediately he let go of my wrist and stepped back from me.
“Shit, sorry, I mean, sorry, just ignore what-” He floundered around, trying to explain himself.
“Did you want this to be a date?” I cut him off. He paused, rubbing the back of his neck, and avoiding my gaze.
“Yes? No? I don’t know. Isn’t it supposed to be a date? I mean, I asked you out. That makes this a date right?”
“Jungkook, no one said it had to be one. This can just be two friends hanging out on a weekend.”
“So you weren’t expecting this to be a date?” He finally looked at me; a mixture between surprised and confused washed over his face.
“No, not really.” Jungkook stared at me for at least a solid minute before throwing his head back in laughter. Hearing him laugh so hard, causing my heart to race a little as I stared at him with awe. His laughter died out and he let out a sigh of relief before turning to me, giving me a cute lopsided smile.
“Jimin and Hoseok convinced me that this was definitely supposed to be a date… This whole time I was panicking over what I was supposed to do on a date for nothing. God, I feel stupid. Well, since this isn’t a date… want to go to an arcade?”
“Yeah!” I nodded excitedly; it had been awhile since I had been to an arcade.
“Cool, let’s go then. There should be one down this way.” He laughed and motioned off to his right, starting to walk in that direction. As we walked, a silence fell over the two of us. It wasn’t an awkward silence but there was a gnawing feeling, advising me to try and create some sort of conversation.
“You know, even if this was a date we still could have gone to the arcade.” I spoke up, staring straight while I walked beside him. I felt his gaze on me before it went back to the path ahead of us.
“Well, I thought that dates were supposed to be romantic. Arcades don’t particularly give off that vibe.”
“Romance is nice on a date, but so is fun. You haven’t been on many dates have you?” I snuck a glance up at his face to see him wince at my question. I was about to apologize and tell to ignore me when started speaking.
“Contrary to what you may believe, people don’t think of me as the luckiest guy to hang with.” There was a pause. Even though he was still looking forward, I could see pain swirling around in his dark brown irises. He looked over at me and gave me a smile before continuing.
“That and I don’t think anyone could handle all this sexiness.” Jungkook joked, tilting his head back while running his hand through his hair. I laughed at his antics, but what he said before and the look in his eyes lingered in the back of my mind. While we walked, we continued to talk about little things, like school projects, club activities, and things we normally do on the weekends.
Arriving at the arcade I was taken back, there were a lot more people here than I expected. Jungkook laughed, ushering me over to the counter to get our game cards. Jungkook quickly talked to the man at the register giving him money for the cards.
“Here.” Jungkook stopped me and handed me a card.
“Thank you but I have money you know. I could have bought my own.” He only shrugged at me with a smug smile. I rolled my eyes but smiled back at him. “Alright, let’s go. Pick the first game.” He gave me a mischievous grin and weaved through the sea of people. Jungkook finally stopped at a first person zombie shooter, picking up one of the guns to cockily pose with it.
“You up for a zombie killing spree?”
“You bet your sweet ass I am!” I laughed, grabbing the other gun and scanned my card to start the game. Jungkook just stared at me with his brow raised.
“You bet your sweet ass?”
“What? It’s an expression.” I shrugged nonchalantly.
“Sure it is.” He practically purred.
“Just play the game!” I shoved his shoulder, rolling my eyes smiling as he laughed.
We were entering the final level; the characters in the game were faced with a herd of hundreds of zombies before they could finally reach their destination. I shot Jungkook a side glance checking if he was ready. He smirked at me before pulling the cocky pose from earlier, point the gun at the screen.
“This will be like the second coming of Christ, but with death. ‘Cause you’ll be dead for the second time.” All eyes were on us in a matter of seconds as I erupted into uncontrollable laughter dropping the gun to hold my sides. Jungkook’s laughter accompanied mine causing more wandering eyes to stare at the two teens losing their shit in front of the zombie game. Wiping the tears from my eyes, I sigh finally managing to get my breathing back to normal, but the huge smile never left my face.
“Sweet Jesus, Jungkook. How did you even come up with something like that?” He just grinned and shrugged as if it was nothing.
“Aw come on.” Jungkook groaned looking at the game. Taking up the screen was the words ‘GAME OVER’ in a bloody font. Amidst our laughing fit the game started and with our minds elsewhere we lost the game.
“We could play again?” I suggested feeling a tad guilty we lost the game.
“Nah, it’s fine. Let’s go to a racing game or something.” I nodded and Jungkook put his gun do before leading me to a new part of the arcade. When we got there, there was only one more seat available.
“Let’s go to something else.”
“No it’s okay, I’ll just watch. I’m not good at these kinds of games.” I smiled.
“Are you sure?” He asked raising a brow.
“Yeah, I’ll be like, your personal cheerleader.” Laughing, I lightly pushed him towards the game. He greeted guy that was sitting there before they started racing. Jungkook was fully immersed in the game, so much so that he didn’t even notice me tell him I was going to the restroom. When I came back, Jungkook was leaning against the chair of the game looking down at his phone.
“How was the game?” I asked standing across from him. Jungkook put his phone away and shrugged.
“It was close, but I won. You ready to lose at air hockey?” He held up his card between his fingers with a smirk.
“Oh hell no! You better prepare yourself for the bitter taste of defeat, my friend.” I laughed, pushing up my sleeves only getting a chuckle out of him as he scanned his card starting the game.
After three games, one point him and one point me, I grasped the victory from the jaws of defeat. Jungkook was a bit of a sore loser, but he got me back in the rhythm and the basketball games. We played a few more random games, laughing and enjoying our time.
“So is there anything else you want to do?” Jungkook asked, staring at the claw machine trying to get an Eevee push.
“Hmm, I don’t know we’ve done about everything right?” I spoke just watching him struggle. Jungkook shouted at the machine when the plush dropped before it got to the end. He tried two more times before he finally got the plush out of the machine, holding it triumphantly. I smiled at the beaming grin he had; he was somewhat cute with a smile like that.
Scanning over the arcade once more to see if there was anything else that we could enjoy together, my eyes lit up when they fell upon a photo booth. Excitedly, I reached out, grabbing Jungkook’s hand lightly tugging him while point at the booth.
“Jungkook we have to get some pictures before we go!” I smiled up at him and as we took a step toward the booth, Jungkook wrenched his hand out of mine. A dark look settled over his face as he frowned at me with the same look of pain for before. I stood there stunned with the sudden shift in the atmosphere. Was it the fact I grabbed his hand? Or maybe the thought of being in the photo booth? Whatever it was, I obviously was the one that upset him.
“Oh my god, I am so sorry Jungkook. I didn’t, I mean, I shouldn’t have done that. I wasn’t thinking. That’s not an excuse, I’m sorry. I should have asked. I-” Frantically I turned to face him fully and bowed keeping my head down as I apologized. Jungkook shifted his weight from one foot to the other before clearing his throat.
“It’s okay. I was just shocked.” He chuckled awkwardly, causing me to look up at him doubtingly. He doesn’t sound too sure about that.
“Seriously, I just was just surprised you grabbed my hand.” Jungkook gave a weak chuckle looking off to the side rubbing his neck as he spoke. I was still skeptical but asking further into the matter didn’t seem wise. So I just stood up brushing the unwanted hair out of my face.
“Well, I’d still like to make it up to you for what I did… How about lunch and ice cream?” I offered once I noticed his eyes back on me.
“No, its fine, you don’t have to go that far.”
“Oh come on, I’m sure you’re hungry by now and I also want to pay you back for the coffee and paying for my card today. It’s the least I can do.” I sighed, rolling my eyes. I wasn’t really planning on taking no as an answer. He paid for everything as of right now and if he paid when we go to lunch, I’ll feel more as if I’m a burden than being a friend.
“Y/N, honestly not that hu-” a grumble from his stomach cut him off, “gry…” A grin spread across my face, and I couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
“Alright, you little liar. We’re going for lunch.” Subconsciously I started to reach for his hand to lead him again and I stopped myself. Should I grab his hand now? I mean he won’t be shocked but… I shook my head. Best not to accidentally do something again. Without making it to obvious that I was reaching for him, I gripped the strap of my bag. I gave him one last glance before walking out of the arcade, hoping that he was following me.
We walked in silence for the most part. I asked him where he wanted to go and he said he didn’t care so I chose a small barbecue placed not that far from the arcade. After being ushered to a table, we sat down and I let Jungkook take the menu.
“It’s your choice. You can have as much as you want.” I spoke up before staring out the window, reflecting on how unusual this day was going for us. It wasn’t necessarily bad, but it hadn’t been the best either. I’m just glad that we are spending time together… We wouldn’t be having these awkward moments if he weren’t at least letting me in, right. At school, we didn’t talk all that much and it’s mostly about trivial stuff. Even with texts, we talk about things we find funny or a song that’s interesting; normal friend stuff. We never really get into anything deep. Not a lot has changed over the past year, he opened up slightly and we talk a bit more than before. Giving a mental sigh, I snuck a glance over at him only to find his dark brown eyes staring back into mine. His eyes were soft and his lips were turned upward in a small but warming smile. W-why is he looking at me like that? Quickly, I turned back to look outside warmth rising to my cheeks as I try to slow my heartbeat. A few seconds later Jungkook cleared his throat gaining my attention. He held out the menu so I could see as he pointed at it.
“How about we get this beef and this seafood stew?” He asked me then looked at me to check if I was okay with that and I just nodded. Jungkook called over a waiter and placed our order. A few minutes later the waiter brought our meat out and offered to cook it for us but Jungkook turned them down to do it himself. I quietly sat back listening to the sizzling of the beef as Jungkook took over. I started thinking to myself. What if this was an actual date? Would things be like this? Jungkook is nice and all and I’d love to get to know more about him but we have soulmates. I don’t think we’re soulmates, I mean, there should have been something that clicked earlier if we were right? It feels a bit wrong being out with him like this… I’m sure my soulmate isn’t doing something like this. Going out with someone who they might be mildly interested in. Do they even think of me? I haven’t felt anything from the connection in a while… Maybe they’re somewhere better… I wonder if they’re happy…
As my thoughts trailed off, a voice called me out of my daze.
“Y/N are you going to eat?” Jungkook gave me a concerned look.
“Yeah.” I shook the rest of my lingering thoughts off grabbing my chopsticks.
“Alright then, let’s eat!” He gave me a wide smile before stuffing his cheeks with food.
Lunch went by rather quickly. I honestly didn’t expect it to be as enjoyable either, but once we started eating, Jungkook started cracking jokes and talking about some stuff he did with his hyungs, which eased the weird atmosphere from earlier. From what Jungkook told me there was a pretty large age variety between himself and the others, but they seemed to be able to make their group work. The two Jungkook hung out with the most were either Min Yoongi or Kim Taehyung. Kim Taehyung. The more Jungkook talked about him, the more butterflies started to pool in my stomach. He was two years older than we were but according to Jungkook, he didn’t act his age. Part of me wanted to ask Jungkook more questions about him, but I had a more pressing question to ask.
