"It'll be a few minutes, my brother just wants me to take this to him and then we'll be out."

"But its Killer's," Bree whined, "It's going to be full of seniors."

"And my brother," she said flatly, "Okay, you can just wait in the car if you want."

"Yeah, sounds good," she said and Minah pulled up at the diner, "Actually," when she saw the few people walking around outside, she undid her seatbelt, "I'll come in with you."

"Why do I even bother," she shook her head at her friend while they walked to the entrance.

"So what did you need to give your brother?"

"He asked me to bring him this bag of clothes, God I hope he's not drunk aga-" when Minah opened the door, the first thing they saw was in fact, her brother's face planted to the table. "He's drunk again."

She strode up to him, while Bree followed, laughing a little.

"Op-" she stopped when her eyes rested on the person sitting across from him. "Is that your chemistry professor?"

Bree's eyes widened as she followed her gaze, "No way, what's he doing here?"

"And they're both drunk, great," Minah rolled her eyes and crouched down next to her brother.

"Oppa," she poked his side, which, even Bree knew was a certain way of waking him up.

"W-Wha- Oh, my little sister~" he sang, wrapping an arm around Minah.

"How much did you drink?" she slapped his back.

"Ow!"

"Now I have to spend the rest of the night trying to get you home, can't you be responsible?"

"V-hyung?" Jungkook called, pushing Minah aside.

Taehyung lifted his head slowly, his dishevelled hair and lazy eyes startling Bree. She was only ever used to seeing him with styled hair, as well as full on energy in class time.

"Oh?" he let out when he saw Bree, "Miss Anderson."

"Bree, you know V hyung?"

"V...?"

"Uh, Taehyung, you know him?" Jungkook asked, surprised and Bree nodded.

"Yeah, you can say that."

"What a small world," he smiled, reaching for another bottle, but Minah stopped him.

"Funny you think you're drinking more, we're getting you home."

"But V hyung-"

"Bree's going to take him home," she pulled out her keys, "Take my car."

"Min-"

Minah winked at Bree and dragged her brother out.

She sat down where Jungkook was once sitting, watching as Taehyung snuggled a little more into his folded arms. He looked so innocent, so sweet.

"S-Sir," she half-whispered, half-croaked.

He lifted his head again, in the same slow manner he did before and Bree felt her stomach turn.

"Bree?"

"We should get you home," she told him, walking around and helping him up, stabilising him with her hand around his waist. They hobbled to the car and she opened the door for him.

"So, uh, where do you live?" Bree asked, turning her GPS on.

After he told her his address and she keyed it in, she found herself pulling up to some penthouse apartments. It wasn't like she was expecting something small but she was definitely not thinking of an apartment of this size.

He hopped out of his seat, wobbling onto the footpath, causing Bree to run around and wind an arm around him again.

"Thanks Bree," he breathed, "For bringing me home, you can go now."

She shook her head, "You think I'm leaving you alone in this state? You obviously don't know me," they reached the elevator and Taehyung pressed the top floor.

When they got to his floor, he led her to his door, pressing his thumb against the scanner for his fingerprint and the door was unlocked.

As they continued to limp to his bedroom, Bree gaped at the vastness of the penthouse. They trudged past numerous rooms, a few with their doors closed and others with the doors open wide so she could see his study, library and TV room. She imagined his life, walking through the place, grading papers in his study, reading science books in the library and watching documentaries on the TV.

"Why did you drink so much?"

It was a harmless, rhetorical question, Bree had asked, innocently as she lugged him onto his bed.

And when he fell, he slipped into unconsciousness, instinctively hugging his pillow.

Bree smiled, loving the way he seemed like such a kid outside the cla-

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

Taehyung's lazy eyes lifted to the ceiling, he didn't remember how he got to his bed. The last thing he remembered was listening to Jungkook whine about his baseball team and th-

Bang.

His head whipped to his bedroom door, jumping out of bed so fast he felt a shot of pain ring through to his head. When he burst through his door, he was met with a startled girl, standing at the stove, staring back at him wide-eyed, before she shifted her gaze down to the stove.

"I-I'm sorry, I dropped the lid a-"

"Bree?"

"Yeah – Hi, I-'

"What are you doing here?"

"You were really drunk last night so I thought I should just prepare something for your hangover before I left."

"Oh," he said slowly, his hand going up to scratch his head, looking down. And that was when he realised why Bree had looked so flustered and turned away when she saw him.

He had ripped his shirt off when he was sleeping.

Before saying another word, he slipped back into his bedroom, running to his wardrobe and pulling a sweater over his head.

Good job Tae, good job.

He came back into the living room after brushing his teeth and making sure his hair wasn't all over the place like it was before.

"You really didn't have to," he said, walking over to stand on the other side of the kitchen bench.

"I know, should I just take it home, Professor?" she joked, putting the pot on the table.

"You don't have to call me that, we're outside class time."

"Sir?"

"Please tell me you're kidding."

"What should I call you then?"

"Taehyung," he shrugged, "That is my name."

Bree didn't know how to just start calling him that all of a sudden. So she avoided it.

"Are you busy today?" Bree asked, absentmindedly. She was just thinking about how he should probably not engage in anything serious as his hangover was pretty severe but it was too late when she realised her question was more suggestive than she expected.

"Why?" he teased, wiggling his eyebrows as he twirled his spoon around in his bowl.

"U-Uh, because you've only got half a day left," she let out quickly.

"Oh, okay," he smiled, pretending to believe her, "Well, I only had grading planned for the day so..."

She nodded.

"Do you want to stay?"

"Huh?"

"Well, my roommate left the place in such a mess," he looked around, "and I'm such a neatfreak-"

"Yeah, I can tell," she cut in, grinning.

"Anyway," he glared at her, to which her smile only widened, "Are you... are you busy now? Because I could really use some help..."

"Are you literally asking me to stay back to help you clean?"

"Okay I'll take that as a no-"

"I never said that," she stopped him and he looked up from his bowl, biting back a grin.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

"So have you always been a science geek?" Bree asked as she stacked a pile of papers onto the desk she was standing at.

"I prefer genius. And yes, I've always liked science, if that's what you were asking. My dad was a rocket engineer and I grew up loving rockets, and so I loved science from the beginning."

"Geek," she snorted, causing him to look over his shoulder at her.

"Well, what about you?" he asked, moving books from Jimin's desk to their bookshelf. "When did your love for chemistry come about?"

"How do you know I don't just take chemistry as a filler subject?" she tested, narrowing her eyes at him as he continued to pick books up and file them in the shelves.

"Because I've seen your behaviour in my lectures," he shrugged, not turning around to look at her, "I can tell you love it."

She sighed. She couldn't argue with that.

"My high school chemistry teacher," she joined him when her paper stacking was done, "she made chemistry sound so much easier than I ever thought it was and all of a sudden I was loving it."

"Teachers really do make a lot of difference."

Ironic because you're the reason our class is overflowing now.

"Are we almost done?" she asked when she put the last book on the shelf, turning to head to the door.

But she accidentally bumped into the bookcase, causing a couple of books from the highest shelf to fall. Taehyung, however, moved fast and jumped right in front of her, reaching his hands up high to stop the hard covers from falling on her head.

After a few seconds, Bree slowly pulled her hands away from her face, gasping at the sight. The pastel blue of Taehyung's sweater was all she could see.

He let out an awkward cough, tiptoeing slightly and pushing the books back in.

"Yes, we're almost done."

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

"Class, as you leave I'll be handing out some practice questions for your exams, if you use them or not, that's your choice. But I'll let you give them in to me to mark before Friday, if you'd like that option."

Taehyung said, standing at the door as the students started standing and making their way down the steps.

"Also, Miss Bree Anderson? Can I please see you real quick afterwards?"

Bree looked up from her notebook, down at her professor. But he was too busy talking and distributing the papers.

When the class was fully outside, she slowly walked down the stairs.

"Why did you want to see me, sir?"

"Taehyung," he tilted his head, putting his hands in his pockets as he swayed toward her while she walked to him.

"Huh?"

"I told you to call me Taehyung."

"But that was-"

"It can apply for when we're alone, too," he looked around, "When it's just us two."

"O-Oh okay," she bobbed her head, beginning to get flustered under the intense gaze he put her under. "So why did you want to see me?"

"Did you get home safely on Saturday?" he asked.

"Huh?" Is that why you called me up?

"After dinner did you get back okay?"

"Yeah, I did," she nodded slowly, "Did your roommate like how we cleaned up?"

Taehyung nodded too, realising how his attempt at talking to her was turning into lame small talk.

Bree found her eyes drifting from Taehyung to the front row of seats, specifically the seat in with Nakyung normally sat.

"I wonder how she's doing," she mumbled.

"Huh? Nakyung? I think she's a lot better now, she's getting discharged from the hospital tonight," he told her and she had to refrain herself from asking him how he knew that.

"I wonder how she comes up with all those pickup lines," Bree asked herself, oblivious to Taehyung and he smirked.

"Are you made of copper tellurium, because you are CuTe," he peeked over at Bree to see her reaction and she just spun around to face him with tired eyes.

"Okay everyone knows that one," she deadpanned, "Are you Zeff? Because you're one force of attraction."

He raised an eyebrow, taking a step forward with his hands still in his pockets – and for some reason Bree found this incredibly charming. "If I had a choice between DNA and RNA, I'd choose RNA because it has U in it."

She burst out laughing at that one. "Are you a charged atom? Because I got my ion you," her step closer to him was steady, and maybe that was why it was so big. Or was it because she just wanted to get closer to him?

"I must go into beta decay around you, because I let go of so much negativity," he took a bigger step towards her too.

"I wish I was adenine so I could get paired with-" before she could finish her line, he pulled his hands out of his pockets, cupping her jaw and tilting it upward, his lips overcoming hers next.

Bree's eyes widened, not knowing what she should do, she was not expecting this.

But soon enough her arms encircled his waist, and she found herself kissing back.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't let you finish that horrib-"

This time, she grinned and tiptoed, surprising even herself when she pecked his lips again.

His shocked expression turning into a smile as he leaned down and kissed her, "And I guess you don't mind."