Taehyung’s consciousness swung back to him from his deep sleep. For a moment, he remained caged in a shroud of murkiness, unsure of where he was and what he was clutching in his hug.

But as he blinked a few times to adjust his vision to the dim light of the room, he realized what he was clutching was Jungkook, and everything came surging back. The heartache, their fight in Jungkook’s car, the comfort when they sat in the armchair, the blissfulness Taehyung felt as they stayed intertwined and fell asleep together.

Just like the reminder that Taehyung was only there because he needed protection, and that Jungkook still couldn’t reveal the truth.

The joy of waking up tangled with Jungkook quickly fizzled into a dark melancholy that clawed at Taehyung’s chest. He shifted lightly, wincing as a sharp pang shot through his neck. The unfamiliar position had left his muscles stiff and sore, but it was worth it. Because for a moment, he had shoved down any restraints and he was happy again snuggled up to Jungkook’s form.

Even though now he had to deprive himself of the said happiness.

He looked down at Jungkook, whose head rested heavily on his shoulder, his arm curled around Taehyung’s form in a loose grip. Jungkook’s sleeping face was peaceful, his lips parted in slow, even breaths that felt warm against his neck.

Maybe Taehyung couldn’t allow himself to get swept away by the bliss of waking up next to Jungkook, but he didn’t let that dark melancholy gain more ascendency over him, either.

Taehyung rolled his head, relieving some of the rigidity lodged in his neck, hissing softly. He sensed Jungkook flinch and leveled out his head again, absorbing the restless vigilance swirling in his wide eyes. “Hey,” Taehyung muttered, voice unbelievably hoarse, wanting to ease Jungkook’s alarm. “It’s just me.”

The tension clasping Jungkook’s being slowly dissipated as he took in Taehyung’s face from a dizzying proximity. His gaze softened, the twists of worry fading away from his features. The pounding of his heart persisted, though the reason wasn’t his unease anymore; it was the intoxicating closeness of their bodies and faces. “Hey.”

“You were never this edgy in the past when you woke up,” Taehyung observed, the gruffness of his voice now diminished.

“Well, I’m protecting you now. I can’t relax until all this is over.”

Taehyung had suspected this was the reason, but it still pricked his heart to know how stressed Jungkook had been in the past days. He ventured to smooth his palm up and down Jungkook’s arm in a string of pacifying caresses, offering a little smile, softer than a butterfly’s wings.

“Everything will be over tomorrow,” Taehyung uttered, reassurance coloring his tone. He perceived the flicker of surprise that tinged Jungkook’s features, probably because of his tender actions, and his warm smile grew a couple of inches wider.

Jungkook blinked in a daze, bemused by Taehyung’s touch and soothing words. He swallowed, trying to compose himself, striving not to seem like a shy teenager receiving a chaste caress from his crush. With a clearing of his throat, he concealed his anxiety behind a mild smile. “You’re right.”

Taehyung squeezed his forearm before retracting his hand completely, shifting forward. “My whole body hurts,” he said, stretching his stiff limbs and grimacing at the soreness.

Jungkook snorted softly, the sight of Taehyung’s cute moue melting his insides. “I feel great,” he chirped, even though his own muscles screamed in stiffness and discomfort as he sat straighter. “It was the best sleep I had in years.”

Dropping his arms on his lap after stretching them, Taehyung snapped his head to him, light giggles escaping him in a dulcet wave. “You’re just saying that because we fell asleep together.”

“Exactly,” Jungkook said with an impish grin, reveling in the next set of honeyed giggles that blessed his ears.

“Dork,” Taehyung teased, punching his shoulder with a frail fist. “I’ll go freshen up.”

“Okay.”

Sharing another tender smile, Jungkook watched him as he shuffled out of the room and released a blissful sigh when the door clicked shut. The feel of their bodies pressed together lingered like a pleasant mist around Jungkook’s senses as he changed his clothes and visited the bathroom.

It even remained as a steady palliation throughout their breakfast. Jungkook caught himself smiling faintly every time he recalled the moment of waking up together after five years of torture. He dodged Taehyung’s inquiries about the reason for his smile, telling him he wasn’t thinking about anything in particular. Jungkook was sure he didn’t believe him — after all, Taehyung knew him better than Jungkook knew himself.

They spent their morning with Sung Ryung, chatting blithely like old times, and later with Jiyu when she returned from school. They settled in Jiyu’s room, playing all together with her teddy bears and admiring her drawings as she displayed them enthusiastically to her two oppas.

And as the night shrouded the city with its deep darkness, Jungkook drove Taehyung to his work, still with a comfortable atmosphere surrounding them.

True to his words, Jungkook sat quietly on the tall stool and didn’t glare at anyone, not even to the customers who blatantly hit on Taehyung. As usual, Taehyung turned them down right away, telling them he wasn’t interested, and when they persisted, he used the excuse that he had a boyfriend.

Jungkook’s eyes often rested on Taehyung instead, with a fondness only he could trigger. He marveled at Taehyung’s focused expression as he arranged the customers’ outerwear neatly, appreciated his luminous smile, even though it wasn’t directed at him, melted like a candle at his adorable doe eyes as he clicked away on his laptop.

He was often caught staring by Taehyung, of course, but Jungkook only grinned at him playfully, bathing in the timidity he detected on his face every time. He was truly the hottest and cutest man Jungkook had ever met, and his poor heart kept fluttering at anything Taehyung did. It was insane. They knew each other since birth, they were together for seven years, yet Jungkook still felt raging butterflies in his belly just by gazing at him.

Jungkook was so, so in love his heart physically couldn’t handle it, feeling as if it would burst from adoration.

Jungkook’s dreamy eyes turned dour for the first time when a customer stumbled in, swaying slightly as he approached the counter to retrieve his coat. His clearly drunken state alarmed Jungkook, his squared shoulders stiffening as he assumed a vigilant stance. He stared as the customer rummaged through his pockets, muttering incoherently while searching for his numbered card.

With a sigh, the unnamed man gave up and slumped against the counter, his glassy eyes fixed on Taehyung. “Pretty, I can’t find my card. Help me?”

Taehyung’s affable smile hardened on his face, though he tried to dissemble his unease. “Sure. Please wait a minute.”

“I knew you would save me,” the customer slurred, a sloppy smile adorning his lips.

As Taehyung shifted his attention to the laptop beside him, he felt the customer’s hand on his cheek and instantly flinched away from the invasive touch. Agitation swirled in his gaze as he stepped back with a hurried movement, discomfort whooshing through his body. “Please don’t do that, sir. It’s making me uncomfortable.”

“Oh, come on, pretty,” he snickered, reaching out again.

Jungkook spectated at the scene with a lethal scowl on his face, overwhelming fury coloring his vision red. The moment he noticed Taehyung’s eyes searching for him with an anxious glint, he leaped from his seat like a dart. In a split second, he was beside the asshole, grasping his neck and dragging him towards the wall until he slammed him against it.

“What did you not understand?” Jungkook growled lowly, tightening his grip as the customer attempted to free himself. “You’re making him uncomfortable.”

“Get off, fucker,” he snarled, his arms flailing in his efforts to push him away, but it was futile.

Jungkook scoffed at his squirming. “Hey, bouncer,” he called out, drawing the attention of the guy standing at the end of the long hallway to his right, who was barely visible. “Where is your security?”

Upon discerning the scene, the man spoke into his earpiece, scuttling closer. He restrained the drunk customer just as Jungkook released him and snapped his gaze to the door when two security guards burst into the cloakroom.

“Kick him out,” the bouncer said as he shoved the customer into their grip. He twisted around and approached Taehyung, who stood behind the counter with his round eyes unmoving. “Did he hurt you?”

Taehyung’s gaze regained its focus and darted all around the floor. “Um, no.”

“Good. We’ll blacklist him, so don’t worry.”

“Thank you, Sijoon-ssi. Um, his outerwear...” Taehyung searched the digital records on his laptop, his hands trembling lightly. As he found the needed information, he retrieved the customer’s jacket and passed it to Sijoon.

Jungkook shuffled closer to Taehyung when they were left alone, studying him through gentle eyes tinted with a dose of worry. “Are you okay?”

“Yes,” Taehyung breathed out, lowering his view to the counter.

“Then why is your voice shaking?”

Taehyung chewed on his bottom lip in a moment’s hesitation. “I just... I was worried. About how you’ll react,” he confessed in a muted tone, venturing to lay his eyes on him. “I thought your new job would make you more aggressive. But you didn’t hit him. You restrained him and called for the security.”

Any fragment of worry drained away at Taehyung’s explanation. “My new job only made me smarter, Tae. It made me act calmly and quickly under pressure.”

Taehyung nodded, the tips of his mouth slanting upwards by a notch. Knowing — witnessing — that Jungkook’s new job hadn’t changed him for the worst stirred a wavelet of relief in Taehyung’s gut that flowed through every inch of him. “I’m glad then. And thank you for stepping in. I don’t like getting aggressive with customers.”

Jungkook’s response to his gratitude was a warm smile. He returned to his seat, his soft eyes remaining at a standstill on Taehyung. “Has this ever happened before?”

“Yes. Twice. The first time, the guy grabbed my wrist and my fighting skills kicked in. I pulled him closer by his neck and shoved him down onto the counter. Sijoon heard the bang and my curses,” he chuckled, then continued, “and came here right away.”

Jungkook huffed a mild laugh, a sense of proud for his strong baby coiling around his chest. “What about the second time?”

“Well, my dad found out and told me to refrain from getting physical with customers and instead call for the security. As I said, I don’t like getting aggressive with customers, anyway. I just acted on instinct. And when another drunk guy reached over to touch me again, I called the security, since Sijoon wasn’t here at the moment.”

Jungkook hummed, soaking in Taehyung’s words attentively. He enjoyed learning about Taehyung’s life during their time apart, even though the incidents he recounted were unpleasant. Enraging, more accurately.

Their easygoing banter was disturbed by a set of customers that entered the building, and Taehyung reluctantly turned around to welcome them with his signature courteous smile.

The next few hours of Taehyung’s work flowed by peacefully, with the two sharing delicate glances and conversing when Taehyung wasn’t busy.

Jungkook soon led the way to his car, that was parked right outside. As they settled into the comfortable seats, Jungkook maneuvered the car out of his parking spot and drove away. “How about,” he uttered with a notion of vacillation, his eyes passing over Taehyung’s form in a fleeting glance, “we order jjajangmyeon tonight?”

Taehyung stared at him, mute with surprise at the unexpected proposal. He hadn’t eaten jjajangmyeon in the past five years — he felt sick only at the thought since it was Jungkook’s favorite food. But now, the idea of having a serving of jjajangmyeon didn’t sound nearly as revolting. Instead, he craved to taste it again, even reminisce some more about their time together.

Everything was still a mess, secrets lurked nearby, and there were countless things to discuss, to solve. But Taehyung’s heart didn’t care about the suffering it had gone through at that moment. It only cared about Jungkook and yearned for another moment of relaxation and peace with him.

“You know,” Taehyung drawled, his eyes shying away from him, “I haven’t had jjajangmyeon since you left.”

The revelation didn’t stagger Jungkook; he maintained his structured countenance, though a dot of melancholy seeped into it. “You know,” Jungkook said with the same gentleness Taehyung had spoken with, “I hadn’t had jjajangmyeon since I left, either.”

Taehyung’s gaze flicked over to him, his mouth slack in muted disbelief. “Really?”

“Hmm. I couldn’t even stand the smell when my friends ordered it.”

A frail, bitter snort slipped through Taehyung as he dragged his head down. “Same.”

Something somber crept into the surrounding atmosphere, a sullen type of tension that Jungkook despised. He wore a faint smile as he cast him a glance. “So let’s break the damn spell,” he said with a lilt of teasing, hoping to ease the grim darkness. “Let’s have jjajangmyeon tonight. If it’s okay with you.”

Taehyung copied his smile automatically, his body sinking further into his seat as he sensed the warm shift in the air. “Okay.”

The car ride resumed in comfortable silence for a few minutes, the radio playing lowly in the background. Jungkook’s mind wandered back to the days when they drove around aimlessly, the silence between them always soothing, never needing to be cluttered with words.

The streets were quieter as Jungkook drove off the highway. He stopped at a red light, his fingers drumming lightly on the steering wheel. He caught Taehyung’s gaze and smiled, his eyes glimmering when Taehyung returned it with the same fondness. “I keep thinking about the times we drove around with no destination,” Jungkook said, a thread of wistfulness spiraling around his voice. “This is nice.”

Taehyung’s smile deepened at the memory as he held their delicate stare. “It really is.”

As the light turned green, Jungkook eased back into motion, the car moving smoothly down the empty street. “We should order some beers as well.”

“Don’t tell me you didn’t drink a single beer for the past five years,” Taehyung scoffed, as if it was impossible.

“I did,” Jungkook said with a subdued chuckle. “But I always thought about you when I drank beers. But to be honest, I thought about you every damn minute.”

Just as the magical sound of Taehyung’s chuckle touched Jungkook’s senses, everything was swept away by horror. A car sped into their path from the opposite side of the road out of nowhere, headlights glaring right at them. In instant reaction, Jungkook veered to the left, his foot slamming on the brakes, his grip on the steering wheel brutal. The tires screeched as the car skidded wildly in a circular motion. Taehyung’s right side banged against the door, his heart galloping as the world spun around them.

The force of the swerve sent the car tipping over, the right side crashing hard against the ground. Metal crunched and glass shattered, the violent sounds blending with their shocked gasps and groans. The car roughly ground over the road for a few terrifying seconds before it came to a jerky stop, resting on its side in eery silence.

Jungkook grunted, lost in disorientation for a moment, adrenaline pumping through him. He forced his mind to focus and at once felt his seatbelt dig achingly into his skin. Wincing, he shot his attention to Taehyung, harried eyes assessing his state. “Tae. Talk to me.”

Taehyung’s ears rang, his vision swimming in haziness. He braced himself on the smashed door and reached up to the side of his head, that was throbbing in excruciating pain. He lowered his hand, inspecting the blood smeared on it through a dizzying fog.

“Taehyung,” Jungkook called again, his quivery tone more anxious and urgent this time, as he discerned his bloody hand.

The distant call of his name reached Taehyung’s lucidity, luring it back. He twisted slightly in his seat, straining against the seatbelt to look up at Jungkook. “I think I’m okay.”

“Is it just a cut?” Jungkook asked, suppressed panic still vibrating in his voice.

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Okay.” Jungkook’s ragged breaths filled the confined, wrecked space for a beat as he collected himself. He crammed a hand into his pocket and took out his phone with a jerk. He texted the group chat he had with his friends with just his location, knowing it would be enough for them to come and find him.

Shoving his phone back into his pocket, Jungkook directed his eyes to Taehyung. “Don’t leave the car. I’ll be right back.”

“Why?” Taehyung asked, his heavy panting escalating in fear so much he felt he couldn’t draw air into his lungs anymore.

“Hey, hey,” Jungkook uttered, his hand stretching down to settle on Taehyung’s shoulder in a gentle touch. “It’s okay, Tae. We’ll be okay. I just want to check if anyone is outside. I’ll be right back. I promise.”

Every loving caress soothed a fraction more of Taehyung’s panic, and Jungkook’s words, drenched in reassurance and delicacy, dissolved it enough for his breathing to stabilize slowly. “Okay,” Taehyung whispered. “Be careful.”

Jungkook gave one more squeeze on his shoulder and any trace of softness in his gaze switched to grave determination as he glanced up at the door. He reached for the handle and pushed it, but the door slammed back shut as the force wasn’t enough to open it wide. Jungkook tried again, gritting his teeth as he used more strength. The door dangled dangerously, threatening to swing down again, but it didn’t.

He fumbled for his seatbelt next, the only thing that obstructed him from tumbling over Taehyung. He braced his feet against the steering wheel and held onto the edge of the open door as the seatbelt retracted with a sharp snap, feeling the sudden drop of gravity pull him downwards. Instantly, he heaved himself up, numb to any pain in his body, and swung his legs outside of the door.

He landed on his feet with a groan and rolled over onto his back to lessen the pressure of his jump. In his crouched stance, he spotted two guys standing close by as he expected, both holding their double-edged knives in front of them, as if ready to attack.

Jungkook sneaked his folding knife out of the inner pocket of his jacket and flicked it open as he stood up, bringing his right foot to the front. “Park Jihan sent you?”

The only reaction he received was the decrease of their distance as they edged closer with menacing, calculated steps. The man to Jungkook’s right spurted, flashing his knife forward, and slashed it to the left, where Jungkook swiftly slid at. Jungkook lurched back, the blade missing his stomach by inches.

A stormy scowl dropped onto Jungkook’s features as the other man lunged at him at once instead of aiming for the car. Jungkook dodged his quick jabs, twisting his body, sidestepping, backing away, until he found an opening to claw at the attacker’s wrist. He struck his knife into the man’s side and kicked him with full force, sending him flying back.

“You’re not here to kill Taehyung,” Jungkook  released through crude breaths as the other man circled him. He leaped to the side when the attacker launched forward, his hawk-like eyes tracking his every move, trying to read his body language.

As the man’s arm lifted, Jungkook immediately ducked under the ferocious swing of the knife and sliced a long cut to his thigh. He seized upon his distracted state and knocked the weapon out of his hold with a ferocious kick, the metal rattling as it hit the floor. He transferred his knife to his left hand with a smooth toss and drove his fist into the attacker’s face.

Unmerciful, Jungkook clutched at his nape and smacked the back of the man’s left knee with his foot, forcing him to kneel. “Who sent you?” He switched his grip, now grasping his hair with a brutal hand as he brought his knife to the man’s neck. His savage eyes pierced through him crueler than his knife could ever do, blazing in pure wrath, because he realized.

As the man growled in response, Jungkook pressed the blade harder against his skin. “Kim Woosung? Was it him?” he snarled with a viciousness that could freeze anyone’s blood in seconds, his whole body vibrating by his knotted nerves.

The man whimpered as the blade slit his skin, the harsh grip on his hair stinging his skull. “Ye—Yes.”

An animal sound roared out of Jungkook as he kneed him in the face, knocking him down. He paced around, sunk into a torturing turbulence that frenzied every conscious thought. Woosung had lied. He had played him.

But the fact that he risked his son’s life to kill him was what maddened Jungkook the most, scorched his insides with such fury his body couldn’t handle it, leaving it shaking uncontrollably in the mayhem of his wrath.

───⭒───༺🖤༻───⭒───
Woosung lied! I know some of you had guessed it, but is there anyone who didn't expect it?💜

I hope this chapter was thrilling/interesting to read!! It has another part, so double update in a bit!