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it had been, for all purposes, a meet cute.
it was practically right out of a drama, only missing background music and special effects as they looked at each other. yeontan had run up to a strange dog - a huge dog, one taehyung thought would be nearly as tall as himself if it stood on its hind legs, so much bigger than his tiny little pom - and wrapped his leash around his giraffe legs.
the huge dog had stood there, perplexed about the speck of fluff running under him. he had leaned down, sniffed yeontan curiously, then licked his cheek, giving him a dramatic little cowlick.
“bam,” his owner said, rolling his eyes.
“it’s okay,” taehyung reassured. “no harm done.” he paused, pretty sure there had to be some other nicety he was missing. “he’s very well-behaved.”
the stranger (now that taehyung was looking, really looking, he could say with absolutely confidence that he was a very handsome stranger. he’d go so far as to say he was one of the handsomest strangers he had ever met in his life) laughed (and, taehyung could say, it was a very handsome laugh. well, really, it was a very cute laugh, given the way his nose scrunched up, his eyes twinkled, his teeth shined).
“i hope so,” he said. “i mean—so is yeontan. he just got excited.”
taehyung felt a little out-of-body, out-of-place, panicked at handsome-cute-stranger with the huge-cute-dog knowing yeontan’s name without being told. “what?”
the stranger kneeled and offered his hand to tan, grinning when he licked it immediately, shoving his face at him for pets the way taehyung had only seen him do with himself and jimin. “it’s nice to see you, too.”
“what?” he repeated.
the stranger looked up, smiling his cute, cute smile again. “you’re tan’s dad, i guess? i’m bam’s. obviously. jeon jungkook.”
“how the fuck do you know my son?”
jeon jungkook blinked. “they go to the same training class.”
the same training class. the class taehyung dropped yeontan off at two days a week and promptly left for drinks with jiminie because he was told he didn’t have to be there. this handsome stranger knew yeontan from training class and taehyung could have met this handsome stranger even earlier than he had now if he had gone to training class and also maybe yeontan would listen to him when he said to stop barking at the next door neighbor’s cat when it was on the balcony the first time instead of the thirty-third.
“oh,” he said. eloquent.
jeon jungkook smiled, all wrinkle-nosed and cute. “we have to run but it’s really nice to meet you, yeontan’s dad-ssi.”
taehyung nodded, shook jeon jungkook’s offered hand, and watched as he gave yeontan a last pat and ran off (actually ran, they were running together, it was hot).
fuck. he was going to have to reschedule on jimin.
jeon jungkook might be worth suffering the consequences.
❄️ ❄️ ❄️
jeon jungkook was the worst person taehyung had ever fucking met in his life.
he was fucking - perfect , the teacher’s pet (ha ha.), the best dad to his best dog (besides yeontan). he was praised for giving bam commands just right, whatever that meant. he was asked to demonstrate to the other people what they should be doing. he helped people around him - including taehyung, especially taehyung - when their tone wasn’t quite right.
for training class intents and purposes, he was taehyung’s polar opposite.
he could see the judgemental glances the other dog parents shot him for being an absent father, not even bothering to hide their looks til he turned around; tannie kept trying to trot up to the teacher he usually worked with instead of staying with taehyung; he went all the way across the room once to snuggle up to bam and jungkook until jungkook gently but sternly told him to go back to his daddy.
jeon jungkook was the worst. the absolute fucking worst.
“bye, taehyung-ssi, tannie,” jungkook said as he and bam left, leaving taehyung to get a partially-involuntary supplemental lesson on how to get yeontan to actually listen to him.
“jeon,” taehyung replied, lifting his chin a little. cold, intimidating, exactly how he wanted to be.
jungkook just raised his brows and smirked. the fucking audacity. taehyung huffed and tried to pay attention, but yeontan must have sensed his distraction and acted out in front of the teacher the entire time until she dismissed him with a sigh and a maybe next time. brat.
❄️ ❄️ ❄️
taehyung really appreciated the aesthetic difference of vante’s and tiger lily.
his tattoo parlor stood out on the otherwise innocuous street - vante’s exterior was all matte black with jewel-toned accents and dark windows, a beautiful representation of the way his country historically viewed tattoos, playing into the taboo with irreverence.
tiger lily, the flower shop next door, was its paradox. with painted white brick, yellow trimmings and shutters, and a green door with painted vines and bold flowers, it made vante’s look even darker, just as vante’s made tiger lily look even brighter. the window display was always beautiful, varying from intricate wedding bouquets to simple seasonal flowers in pots with notes that said they were easy to care for and perfect gifts. they got business, too. tiger lily seemed to have an endless stream of customers, the vast majority of whom walked out the door with flowers in hand and a smile on their face.
there was just one issue.
every single day, at 6:37 on the dot, a motorcycle revved loudly - loud enough to be heard over the low music of vante’s speakers and the tattoo gun in taehyung’s hand - and it made taehyung want to murder. he knew it was tiger lily’s owner; he had come to the shop early one morning, just in time to see the motorcyclist park in the alley and unlock the flower shop. taehyung hadn’t seen his face, just the back of the head as he took his helmet off. that had been months ago now - taehyung wished he had been annoyed enough to tell him off then and there. maybe if he had, he wouldn’t feel so murderous now.
it had become a reflex to pause his work at 6:36 and spend a solid 1.5 minutes feeling like he could spit venom before resuming.
but today, he didn’t have a client in his chair. he was doing paperwork, fingers hovering over the keyboard at 6:36 as he waited for the worst part of his day. he couldn’t leave a client. but he could leave a computer.
as soon as he had the thought, he sprang up, ignoring his receptionist’s questioning look as he stormed out the door.
sure enough, the owner of tiger lily was locking the door, helmet tucked under his arm.
“hey!” taehyung yelled. every single thought he had about exactly what he wanted to tell the insensitive, apathetic, loud son of a bitch disappeared as he turned around.
“taehyung-ssi?” jeon jungkook asked.
taehyung gaped at him in disbelief, glancing between tiger lily’s, the keys in jungkook’s hand, the helmet under his arm, the bike parked nearby, the internal clock that told him it was now 6:37.
“taehyung-ssi?” he repeated, furrowing his brows. “what’s the matter?”
it took him a moment to regain the consciousness he seemed to have lost, but every single argument he had prepared over the months had disappeared into the ether.
“stop revving your engine,” he bit out.
he stormed back into vante’s even more quickly than he had stormed out, ignoring jungkook’s called-out sorry! he ignored the receptionist’s confused-bemused glance as he sat back at his computer with a huff. he pretended to not notice how little he got done, focusing instead on getting over his shock enough to give his next client exceptional service, as he always did.
jeon jungkook did not need to be on his mind.
(he really wished his mind would get the memo.)
❄️ ❄️ ❄️
“i just wish you would consider it, taehyung-ah,” his mother said with a loud sigh, displeasure evident over the phone.
no, taehyung thought. not displeasure. disappointment.
“i have considered it, eomma,” he said, trying to not let it get to him as he stirred his fried rice. “it’s not like i’m not paid well, and i like what i do—”
“you could be a doctor,” she sighed again. “a doctor, taehyung-ah, representing our family well.”
“eomma—” taehyung caught himself before he said something incendiary like not caring about how well he represented their family, regardless of how little that was. “eomma, i enjoy what i do.”
he could tell before she even said a word that she was shifting to her second favorite conversation topic - broad-stroke comparisons with the sole intent of making him feel like shit. “your brother is taking a strong interest in the business, you know. he has a good head for it.”
“mm, is that right?” he barely paid attention as he continued to cook. it was practically a script at this point. brother this, cousin that, neighbor there - all managed to be much more impressive, much more wealthy, much more upstanding than her tattoo artist son.
“and your cousin jihyun—”
“mhm.”
“ah! such a good boy, bought his mother flowers with his first promotion, isn’t that kind?”
“very kind, eomma.”
“flowers from—” she huffed, a deviance from the script. “you don’t want to be like the jeon corp boy, do you?”
taehyung dropped his spatula into the pot and hurried to pick it up. he immediately knew - knew - what she had to be talking about. “jonghyun?”
“no, no, the younger, ah—”
taehyung could have fainted. “jungkook,” he said faintly.
“yes! jungkook, that’s it. he’s—like you,” she said. her tone was hardly respectful but taehyung couldn’t care. he could only half-hear through the ocean waves in his ears.
“like me.”
“mm, he has—unique interests. a florist, can you believe?”
“a florist.”
“the things he could achieve, belonging to that family. the things you could achieve even moreso, belonging to ours—”
“eomma, i have to go,” taehyung interrupted. “i’ll talk to you soon, goodbye.”
he would pay for hanging up on her with a scolding later, but he couldn’t keep pretending to listen. the jeon boy. fucking - of course. of course.
he and his siblings had been pitted against the jeon children since birth. their fathers’ businesses were direct competitors, the social-financial ranking of who was on top shifting any given fiscal quarter. he had never even met the jeon boys he was competing against - but every exam score, every university acceptance, probably every mediocre recital was compared to theirs.
and here a jeon boy was. in his dog’s training class. next door to his shop. on a loud motorcycle.
he flicked off the stove with no small hint of annoyance, rubbing his face with both hands. he looked at his rice with disdain - he wasn’t even hungry now. he’d rather throw it off the rooftop than eat it.
(he didn’t throw it off the rooftop and he did eat it - but he would never admit in his life that every bite was spent thinking of jeon fucking jungkook.)
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after that, he began to see jungkook everywhere. not only in training class - where he would never, never admit that his advice had really helped in getting tan to listen to him - but walking bam in the nearby park, riding his bike to tiger lily (not revving it, thank god, that had stopped. for the most part.), at taehyung’s favorite friday-treat fried chicken place.
it seemed that the only place he could escape even thinking about jeon jungkook was his home.
he had been blessed by his horrible downstairs neighbors moving out the month before - there was no more odd ceiling banging in the dead of night, or loud horror movies played in the early morning, just blissful silence. he was even able to play his own music louder - the walls between apartments were much more soundproof than the ceiling and floor. with an upstairs neighbor who was always on a business trip and a downstairs apartment that was empty, he was free to play old jazz on his refurbished victrola as loud as he liked.
apparently it was loud enough that he could barely hear the knocking on his front door.
“excuse me?” they called out. “i live downstairs and—”
fuck.
taehyung opened the door, fully ready to apologize.
taehyung nearly closed the door, fully not ready to see jeon jungkook.
they gaped at each other with wide, shocked eyes.
“uh?” jungkook said. yeontan yapped, coming out to run around their visitor’s legs.
“you live downstairs?” taehyung asked. his chest felt so strangely hollow and full at the same time.
“uh—” jungkook cleared his throat. “yeah. yeah, i just moved in. uh—”
“sorry,” he jumped in. “i’ll turn the music down, i didn’t know.”
“no—no, it’s okay—”
taehyung raised his brows. if it was okay then why did he come all the way upstairs?
jungkook must have sensed the skepticism and gave him a guilty smile. “i mean, i was trying to take a nap and it is kind of loud, but. you know. it’s okay if it’s you.”
taehyung just stared. what else could he do? that made no sense - it made less than no sense, somehow, it fell into a pit of senselessness that taehyung could dive into and never reach the end of. what did it mean? ‘if it’s you’? if it’s him?
he must have stared at him a little longer than appropriate because jungkook’s cheeks quickly turned red. “i’ll—yeah, that’s all. it’s, uh. funny that we’re neighbors now, huh? i feel like i see you everywhere.”
“uh-huh,” taehyung managed to get out.
jungkook reached down to give yeontan a fond scritch behind the ears. “we’ll have to have a puppy play date sometime, don’t you think? bam would be over the moon.”
“puppy play date,” he repeated. “yeah.”
jungkook grinned, all squish-nosed and bunny-teethed. “i really do need to take a nap, though. i’ll leave you alone.”
“uh-huh,” taehyung said, swallowing thickly. “yeah. i’ll turn it down. bye.”
he quickly shut the door.
he quickly opened it, grabbing a clearly offended yeontan and ignoring a confused jungkook.
he quickly shut the door again.
“tannie,” he said, holding him up to his face, not bothering to keep him from licking his nose. “what the fuck.”
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as much as taehyung would have liked to have been petty enough to turn his music up, to stomp around a little, maybe play fetch with a bowling ball, he couldn’t bring himself to do so. as annoying as jungkook was - as annoying as his unexpected presence was, really, what was he doing there out of all the apartments in the city - he hadn’t done anything to actually justify it. jungkook couldn’t have known where he lived, it was a pure, unfortunate coincidence.
so he turned his music down, except during early mornings when he knew tiger lily was open. he kept his steps light, minus his tendency to waltz around with tannie after one too many drinks with jimin. he generously allowed yeontan to greet bam when they happened across each other, giving jungkook a stern “jeon” and ignoring the amused tone of the “kim” he got in return.
they settled into a more-or-less peaceful coexistence - as classmates, as neighbors, as same-street-business owners. even though taehyung felt like glaring every time he caught sight of him, it was fine.
normal.
almost boring.
almost boring enough to the point where he missed being annoyed.
it was the night before christmas - seoul was all snowy, the cityscape looked bleak and gray, the wind bit at taehyung’s nose after only a few moments of standing at his open door. taehyung already had his patio door half-closed when he heard a quiet sniffle from below. it wasn’t a great time to be alone, maybe an even worse time to be outside, and taehyung could only think of one person who that sniffle might belong to.
“jungkook-ssi?” he asked after a moment.
he was met with the clattering of a knocked-over planter and a hissed curse as it was quickly righted. “ah, taehyung-ssi? is—what—uh?”
“are you okay?” he asked, with no reply. “jungkook?”
jungkook’s long silence was answer enough.
“you can come up for a drink if you want,” he offered. jungkook didn’t respond, but taehyung heard a sniffle that surely meant he had heard him. he closed the door and, true to his word, put on the kettle in preparation for serving his mortal enemy some cinnamon tea.
he wasn’t sure what to expect - there would either be a lonely boy at his door or not, and both options seemed equally likely. still, the quiet knock at the door a few moments later made him jump.
taehyung quickly unlocked the door, shushing yeontan’s yapping as he did so. he didn’t actually stop, the disobedient little thing, but they did turn decidedly more excited as he realized it was jungkook at the door.
jungkook looked - well.
“you look like shit,” taehyung told him.
jungkook snorted, rubbing his reddened nose. red from the cold or from crying? taehyung wasn’t sure. “thanks.” he cleared his throat, giving taehyung a smile that was watery and small but clearly genuine. “thanks, i mean—really. for—inviting me.”
taehyung shrugged, not totally sure what to make of him. “yeah. sure. uh—tan’s gonna be all over you.”
“i don’t mind,” jungkook said - and sure enough, as soon as taehyung set yeontan on the floor he had managed to convince jungkook to scoop him up not even a moment. taehyung very thoroughly ignored how his feelings at seeing that shifted from betrayed to - endeared? endeared?
“sit, please. i’ll turn the heat up, you look like an icicle.”
jungkook glanced at his reflection in the hall mirror, shifting tan to one arm and rubbing his cheek self-consciously. “i look a little more red than an icicle, don’t you think?”
“what, want me to call you rudolph? sit.”
jungkook bowed his head in thanks before taking a seat on the sofa. as pitiful as he looked coming in, he began to look more and more like an alive person under yeontan’s careful attention. taehyung listened to him mumble nonsense compliments as he poured the tea - carefully not choosing the nice cups his mother forced him to buy for guests. jungkook wasn’t a guest. he was - an annoying neighbor who sounded too sad for taehyung to leave alone. that was all.
“thanks. i really—” jungkook took a shaky breath, taking the well-loved mug he was handed. “i really—appreciate it, taehyung-ssi, really—”
“aish, call me hyung.”
jungkook’s surprised face looked very much like taehyung’s surprise at himself.
“uh—” jungkook cleared his throat. “thank you. hyung.”
taehyung shrugged, flicking on the television just so they had something to look at that wasn’t each other. “sure. you sounded—uh. like you needed—someone. a friend. or something.”
tv or not, jungkook stared at the side of taehyung’s face. “i did. i do.”
taehyung nodded and took a long sip, then another, trying to suss out if there was anything awkward about this. there should have been, he thought - the brat from class slash downstairs slash across the street sitting on his couch drinking tea on a holiday? but there wasn’t anything there. nothing - unpleasant, at least.
instead, there was something soft, something curious, something that told him they were more alike than he thought. “want to talk about it?”
jungkook finally looked away. “there’s nothing to talk about, really. just—alone on christmas. it’s—we just don’t—my family isn’t big into it, but it just feels—bad this year. lonely.”
taehyung hummed. “my family’s on a cruise. they said i couldn’t bring tannie, so.”
jungkook sniffled again, smoothing the soft fur on tan’s tiny head. “i wouldn’t want to leave bam either. do you—do you mind being alone?”
“not really, for the most part. it’s—” taehyung sighed, taking a sip and deciding that vulnerability probably needed more than tea, and was thankfully within arms reach on the side table. “soju? it’s plum.”
“please,” jungkook said in a rush, holding his mug out with both hands and letting him pour a generous shot.
“it’s the loneliness more than being alone,” taehyung said after a contemplative sip. “i don’t get lonely often, i have tan and friends and my family and i do talk some, but—mm.”
“i know what you mean,” jungkook sighed. “i hate—why are there so many ads, hyung?”
taehyung huffed a confused laugh. “ads?”
“yeah, like—commercials and billboards and posters in the subway. they all have happy families and trees and there’s always snow that never looks like the snow here. have you ever built a snowman, hyung? i haven’t but it looks so—it’s all picturesque and perfect. even if it’s not really real, it’s still—hard to think about, you know? it’s hard to—not have something that looks a little bit like what it—what it should.”
taehyung was quiet for a long moment, swirling his more-soju-than-tea. “yeah. it is.”
there probably should have been more conversation, more soulful understanding, more melancholy chatter, more people vaguely acquainted with one another trying to stifle awkward tension - but there was no tension to cut through. they sat in silence for the most part, watching reruns of a drama and glancing at the grey snow outside, refilling their glasses before they ran empty. it was odd, but nice, and certainly not lonely.
“i should go,” jungkook said, breaking the quiet peace that had settled over the room. “bam will need dinner soon.”
yeontan’s ears perked up and taehyung grinned, squeezing one of his paws. “ah, you said the d-word.”
jungkook grinned and reached over, clearly intending to give yeontan a pat, but he and taehyung both froze as their hands brushed, hovering over tan’s fuzzy head.
their eyes went wide as they caught each other’s gaze - taehyung thought that maybe, if he tried hard enough, he could feel jungkook’s pulse where their fingers met. it wasn’t so cliche as the world stilling around them, or time becoming nothing more than a conceptual afterthought, or angels singing, bells ringing, birds chirping, whatever soulmates heard when their eyes met.
taehyung would have scoffed at himself if he wasn’t still staring at jungkook with his heart pounding in his chest. they weren’t soulmates. obviously. obviously they weren’t soulmates. they were - rivals. enemies. unique annoyances designed just for each other. jungkook was beautiful, sure, but taehyung would die before saying his soulmate was an annoying motorcyclist florist who was buffer than his massive dog and had bright eyes and a bunny smile and a chocolate chip kiss on his upper lip and - oh.
jungkook cleared his throat, face going red. taehyung was sure his was doing the same.
“i should—go, i—” he coughed. even his ears were red, hidden only a little by his piercings.
why the fuck did taehyung frown with jealousy when he thought about someone else piercing him, he hardly ever even did piercings, what? “yeah. uh—yeah, there’s—bam? right?”
“yeah—yeah. i—” he cleared his throat again, carefully avoiding taehyung’s gaze but still going more red by the second. “thank you for inviting me, hyung. i really—appreciate it. a lot. you’ve—”
taehyung was taken aback when jungkook did meet his eyes, sudden and determined.
“you’ve made this a good christmas, hyung, thank you.”
taehyung didn’t often find himself at a loss for words, but - well. “i—you’re—welcome.”
jungkook nodded once, satisfied. “i’ll see you around? maybe—maybe later on i can repay the favor, i have a stocked bar downstairs.”
that was bold, enough so that it took his breath away. “that sounds—nice. thank you.”
jungkook nodded again. “good night, taehyung-ssi, i hope you sleep well.”
just like that, he was gone, the door snicking closed behind him.
❄️ ❄️ ❄️
taehyung tried, he really tried, to go back to the good old days of hating jeon jungkook with vitriol that burned in his stomach and flowed through his veins like poison, but he couldn’t quite manage. even when he saw him get on his stupid motorcycle after tiger lily closed, even when he corrected taehyung’s tone in training class, even when he had to exchange mail with him after their boxes were mixed up. he still felt - something, though. some amount of annoyance, maybe, some amount of aggravation, but the levels were just not there anymore.
he found himself grateful for the lack when he stood shivering outside of jungkook’s door a few days later, yeontan tucked under his arm.
“oh!” jungkook said when he opened it. to his credit, he didn’t even look like he considered slamming it shut.
“my heating went out,” taehyung sighed miserably.
“come in,” jungkook said immediately, like it was nothing, like there was nothing to think about, like he didn’t also have a history of hating taehyung. “please. my heat's fine."
it was late, nearly midnight, and there weren’t many awkward formalities that they had to run through. jungkook quickly put sheets on his sofa and pulled out an abundance of spare blankets from a closet, spreading them out like a motherly host. “i hope this will be alright, hyung.”
“it’s fine, jungkookie,” taehyung assured him quietly. jungkook’s ears went all pink, but taehyung was too sleepy and cold to really analyze why. “i’m thankful for your hospitality at all, a comfortable sleep would just be a bonus.”
jungkook smiled, ducking his head. “still. let me know if you need anything, yeah? uh—i think our apartment layout is pretty much the same, so you know where everything is.”
taehyung nodded, glancing at the dogs in the corner. tan had made himself at home, finding bam’s kennel as soon as he was set down and allowing him to lick his ears through the bars, bam’s happy tail beating out a loud rhythm against the floor. “will tan be a bother?”
“ah, bammie can have a little excitement, that’s okay.” jungkook smiled, sleepy and charming. “are you alright out here?”
“yeah, jungkookie, of course.” taehyung smiled back, just as sleepy, probably not as charming. “go to bed.”
jungkook retreated to his room, but taehyung couldn’t quite fall asleep, his mind floating as he listened to tan’s soft breaths and bam’s louder half-snores. he knew jungkook wasn’t feeling the same restlessness - his snores were much louder than bam’s, though they were muffled by the door between them. it was nicer than taehyung thought it would be, really. sleeping on his mortal enemy’s sofa, listening to him snore like an absolute monster down the hall, the falling snow making the room much brighter than it would have been otherwise. it was peaceful, even if he didn’t manage to drift off.
all ambient noises abruptly stopped at the sound of something clearly going wrong in the walls. taehyung had become intimately familiar with that sound only a few hours before. it was one of the coldest days of the year, of course it was, and it took no time at all for the apartment to grow chilly, the heat vacating through the not-quite-insulated-enough windows.
“hyung?” jungkook called out.
taehyung sighed heavily. “yup.” a confirmation.
jungkook - shirtless jungkook - rubbed his eyes as he opened the door. “i have a space heater but—it won’t work well outside my room.”
taehyung was very thoroughly not sure if that was an invitation. “oh.”
“so, uh,” he cleared his throat, glanced at the dogs so he wouldn’t glance at taehyung. “if you don’t mind sharing, i think—i think we’d both be more comfortable.”
“body heat,” taehyung offered with an awkward laugh. jungkook’s might have been even more awkward, but he was sure both of them were very equally berry red. “i don’t mind if you don’t.”
he let bam out of his kennel, giving him an apologetic scritch when he whined up at him, confused. “lots going on tonight, huh, big guy? want to sleep in daddy’s room?”
taehyung staunchly ignored the way his stomach flipped at jungkook referring to himself as daddy . it wasn’t even a thing for him, it was just maddeningly sweet. “tan likes to steal pillows, so—watch out.”
jungkook grinned, scooping tan into his arms. “ah, he can try. but don’t think i’d mind sharing at any rate.”
of course daddy jungkook wouldn’t mind sharing, taehyung thought, imagining jungkook’s pretty face snoring into yeontan’s tummy. asshole.
“here,” jungkook said, touching his elbow and leading him into the bedroom. it was much cleaner than taehyung expected it to be - still absolutely the bedroom of a young bachelor, but he at least had sheets on the bed and framed pictures on the wall. taehyung had been in the bedrooms of many a young bachelor and he knew a win when he saw one. “do you mind taking the left side?”
“no, that’s, uh. that’s perfect. i usually—yeah.”
jungkook looked pleased. taehyung wanted to say it was odd, but he thought he maybe, maybe could guess his thoughts. it was nice that it worked out that way, wasn’t it? such a suspicious puzzle that fit so nicely together. “i’ll set the heater up. get comfortable.”
taehyung slid under the blankets, still warm from jungkook’s recent departure.
just as he had seen the bedroom of many a young bachelor, he had smelled them too, and jungkook - god, taehyung would be furious if it wasn’t some expensive aftershave or something, it would be so unfair for the world to give him all he had plus smelling so naturally nice. he gave yeontan a grumpy pout as he helped him onto the bed, pout deepening when he licked his nose unremorsefully.
“okay,” jungkook said triumphantly, the space heater quietly whirring to life. “it’s not much but it should be better than nothing, right?”
“course it will be. hey, do you wear cologne or anything?”
jungkook blinked at him. “no?”
taehyung sighed, tucking tan close to his chest. “makes sense. get in, kook, it’s cold and your tits are out.”
jungkook’s loud, surprised cough made any amount of crassness worth it. he slid under the covers obediently, reaching to give tan’s chin a scritch - putting him close enough that taehyung could feel the heat radiating off of him. “thanks for staying over, hyung.”
“what?” taehyung snorted a little. “i invited myself over, there’s nothing to thank me for.”
“i like that you’re here,” he said, wide-eyed and honest. there was such a quiet openness to his voice, to his face, and it made taehyung’s stomach swoop dramatically just to look at him. “i think everything’s better around you.”
taehyung was at a loss for words for a few solid moments, but he managed to catch his words before jungkook’s face could fall into worry. “i—i know what you mean,” he said, and found that he did. “it’s—good. better. less cold.”
he knew jungkook meant more than just then right in that instant, that it was more than just being less cold for the night, and taehyung knew he felt the same. but that was a lot to admit, after months hating the very ground jeon jungkook walked on. what was even more impossible to admit was knowing that he didn’t, really. he didn’t hate jungkook or the ground he walked on or his dog or shop or piercings or whatever. he was just holding onto a pointless something that made him feel like - like? what did it even make him feel like, what was it all if not - nothing?
“hyung?”
taehyung cleared his throat, hoping the darkness hid his burning cheeks. “just tired, jungkookie.”
“oh, yeah, sorry,” jungkook grinned sheepishly. “we can talk in the morning.”
taehyung hummed, barely stopping himself from tucking jungkook’s hair behind his ear. “i’ll make breakfast. and jungkookie?”
“uh-huh?”
“you can hold hyung if you want.” taehyung didn’t face him long enough to see his reaction, choosing instead to hastily turn onto his other side. jungkook was still just long enough that taehyung thought he had misjudged, that he was out of luck, and would not be getting held by a beautiful boy that night. but jungkook put a hesitant hand on his waist just a few moments later, splaying it over taehyung’s soft tummy when he decided he wouldn’t be chastised for it. taehyung let out a content sigh before pressing his back against jungkook’s broad chest.
“night, hyung,” jungkook whispered, warm breath ghosting over the nape of his neck.
❄️ ❄️ ❄️
taehyung looked incredible. he knew he did. it was new years’ eve, jimin was throwing a party, he looked like he was the main character as he bewitched in black and gold. he had everywhere to be, had so many people to see, all of whom needed to witness him at his most glorious, beautiful self.
and jungkook - when the elevator stopped just one floor below taehyung’s and the doors opened to reveal jungkook, also captivating in black and gold, his hair tied up in a half-bun, eyes a little smoky, more than a little sexy, taehyung could have passed out.
he thought maybe jungkook was feeling the same type of way - he stood stock-still until the doors started to slide shut, quickly waving his arm between to open them.
“hey,” he said, a little flustered.
“hey,” taehyung replied, much less flustered. but he wasn’t the one who had to sprint into an elevator at the last second. “you look—are you going somewhere? i mean, obviously you’re going somewhere, you’re going—downstairs at the very least, i was just—you look—uh.”
"ha, yeah. i’m going somewhere.” jungkook grinned, bumping elbows with him. “you look like you’re going somewhere much more fun than the lobby, hyung.”
“my best friend’s throwing a party,” he smiled. “it doubles as my birthday party, too, so—”
jungkook frowned and taehyung wanted to pinch his cheeks. “hyung! i didn’t know it was your birthday!”
“it was yesterday, it’s not a big deal.” he shrugged. “where are you going, then?”
jungkook opened his mouth to answer before snapping it shut again, eyes narrowing. “my best friend’s boyfriend is throwing a party.”
taehyung felt a very familiar suspicion sneak into his veins. “is that so?”
“it’s doubling as his boyfriend’s best friend’s birthday party.”
“ha,” taehyung said hollowly. “what a coincidence. so strange that someone is doing the same thing as jiminie and hoseok-hyung—”
“ah, i was going to say the same thing about hoseokie and jimin hyungs—”
they stared at each other - dolled up, handsome, shocked but somehow not surprised. though their expressions became much more dismayed, they were no less shocked-not-surprised when the elevator creaked to a halt between floors, the error light on the panel flashing red.
they were silent for a long moment before taehyung sighed. “it’s always us, isn’t it?”
jungkook laughed - it was loud in the tiny elevator but no less charming than it would have been in an empty plateau. “it really is. i can’t tell if the building is cursed or if we’re just lucky?”
“lucky?” taehyung snorted. “our mailboxes get mixed up, our heating breaks, our elevator stops working—”
“well yeah,” jungkook shrugged. “but it’s ours. me and you.”
that made taehyung’s heart skip a beat before fluttering into a frenzy. “what?”
“misfortune turns into luck when it deals with you, hyung.”
taehyung stared at him, trying to formulate something to say. how was he real? how was jeon jungkook a real, living, human boy who churned out sweet thoughts like they were nothing, who had evolved from a bothersome gnat into a beautiful butterfly in taehyung’s thoughts, who taehyung now saw was the perfect vision of how happiness could look as a person?
jungkook bit his lip hard enough to leave a little indent. taehyung didn’t resist the urge to brush his thumb over it, to usher it away from his teeth. “i hope i’m not reading this wrong.”
“you’re not,” taehyung assured quietly. his hand was still brushing against jungkook’s chin. he didn’t move it. couldn’t bring himself to.
“you know—the new year tradition, right, hyung?” there was no mistaking what he meant, but jungkook went on anyways. “a midnight kiss?”
“it’s only ten, you know? they’ll get us out by midnight.”
“well, yeah,” he said, pouting just a little, just enough to add a kick of persuasion to his words. “but just in case?”
taehyung didn’t need more convincing than that.