SPACE ;; TAEGGUK

;;

the second week of
arts and crafts club was a little...
quieter
than jeongguk had expected.

usually, mr kim had a bright, jovial
smile on his face and
he'd be wandering
around, observing everyone's
progress, doing his
oh-so-important teacherly duties.

disappointment settled in the teen's
gut when the man sat himself
down at his desk and made everyone
carry on with their work after explaining
the instructions. jeongguk didn't want him
to spend every second of the day
staring at him, he just wanted
to hold his attention for a little
while, just a tiny bit longer.

apparently that was too much
to ask.

so, he absently
continued to roll the thin pieces
of paper between his nimble
fingers, trying his level best
to ignore the nagging feeling
in his chest. every so often,
his gaze would flicker up for
a few brief seconds just to see
whether mr kim would bother
noticing him; nothing.
he was too preoccupied with
something else.

his hopes were up in the
clouds somewhere, floating
about in the heavens with his
celestial thoughts, taehyung was
an angel, untouchable, so
far away and out of reach;
jeongguk was stranded on earth.
alone.

"why'd you keep
staring at mr kim?" max
quietly whispered in jeongguk's
ear, his disheveled brown locks
tickling the teen's earlobe and
the boy realised then that he didn't
particularly know how to answer
that question without the truth.

the truth was frightening.

"what- m'not staring."
he mumbled, quickly averting
his gaze back to the vibrant
pieces of card at his fingertips,
anywhere, anywhere but at taehyung.

"yea you were." max said this
as a matter of fact and indeed,
he was right. he really had
to snap out of it or this wouldn't
end well. "you're always starin'"

"shhh," the older boy put a finger
to his lips, silently beckoning the
year seven to shut his mouth
before mr kim heard something
embarrassing about him.
"keep it down.. please?" he was
practically begging, he couldn't
believe himself, how absurd.

max simply shrugged his
shoulders and reached for the
sticky white pva glue to dab
some onto his bright orange card.

jeongguk wouldn't flatter with
him with his own opinion
on the choice of his colours because
the kid looked like he was having
far too much fun, the teen wished
he could have the same fun, just to
relax his head a little bit or something,
something to concentrate on
other than things that shouldn't have
mattered to him.

once the session had ended,
jeongguk made sure to pack away
as slowly as he could, made sure to
wander around every single table
to pick up the rubbish, made sure
to bend over multiple times, okay,
yes, perhaps a little bit of harmless
attention seeking here and there
but none of that
really seemed to matter because
mr kim didn't bat an eyelash in
his direction at all.