"Hey."

"Hi."

"..."

As the two young lovers were seated across each other, the next day at SoekJin's cafe, neither of them knew where to start from.

Jungkook licked his lips, nervously peering up at his older boyfriend who looked slightly different today.

Dressed in full length black joggers and a grey t shirt, hair supported up by a red bandana contrasted to his usual colorful self, Taehyung looked hot and gave a slight vibe of intimidation.

"Y-you look so good today, tae." Jungkook complimented softly, a small smile slipping on his lips.

"Hmm?" Taehyung seemed distracted, a far off look in his eyes as he kept watching the bustling street outside the cafe.

Jungkook cleared his throat and tried again.

"You look good today, different but good."

Taehyung turned his distant eyes and placed them on his boyfriend.

"Don't I look good everyday, kook?"

Jungkook quickly shook his head mumbling out a you know what I meant! making the other smirk. The ravenette quickly looked down, cheeks burning slightly.

"So... Kook?"

"Yeah?"

"You told me you went to see Mingyu last night? "

...

"I did. "

Taehyung raised a brow at the small moment his boyfriend took to answer that question, suspicions raising up the meter.

"What kinda emergency did he have again?" He asked casually, crossing his arms over the table and eyeing his boyfriend with blank scrutinizing eyes.

Jungkook gulped a little, mind whirring in thought to come up with what he hoped was a believable excuse.

"Ah... Mingyu right? H-his mother was sick or something and he need-needed someone to look after his siblings while he was at the hospital. Yeah."

"Oh?" Taehyung raised a thick brow, lips pressing in contemplation, " And what happened to aunty? I'm sure when Mingyu returned from the hospital he told you about it, didn't he?" He pressed on with his interrogation, just to see how far he would go.

Jungkook let out an exasperated sigh and clutched the table on both sides.

"Look Taehyung I know you're mad at me for leaving your dad's party like that and I'm seriously and honestly sorry about it. I really am, alright? Can we just forget about it move on already?"

"Move on?" The older scoffed disdainfuly, " MOVE ON? you serious about that kook? You seriously think I could move on when all you're doing is feeding me lies upon lies?"

Taehyung rose to his feet, banging his hands on the table and glared at a surprised Jungkook.

"Tell me," he seethed, "tell me how you could go to Mingyu's place after receiving a text from him when he was at our party all the while? Even after you were gone?"

Now Jungkook looked winded. He looked around as pure horror began to settle in his throat. He realised he was caught. And bad.

And there was no way to get out of this.

Except...

... The truth.

No. Jungkook couldn't tell him the truth about why he ran out when he got that message last night. If he did, he would have to lose this boy forever. He couldn't let that happen.

"Cat got your tongue, Jeon?" Taehyung berated, looking even more worked up at the other's silence, "care to tell me the truth now? What are you up to? Is it something bad? Something stupid-- why are you hiding things from me kookie?" His deep voice softened by the end of his sentence as he leaned forward, trying to catch Jungkook's gaze, which the latter never met.

A few moments passed and the older spoke again, prodding.

"Say something? Say something kook, anything! You know you can trust me right? It doesn't have to be a big deal if you could just tell me. It must be something major for you to lie like that?"

Jungkook sighed loudly, in what looked like frustration. He lifted his gaze to meet Taehyung's and look pretty pissed himself when he blurted--

"Well you got me. I lied. I had to be somewhere and you should know that if I'm not telling you I might have a reason, right? I have a private life of my own Taehyung, you can't expect me to spout it all to you, do you?"

Taehyung was tongue tied. He hadn't expected his boyfriend to lie to him and then defend himself like that. He felt a slight pang when Jungkook said he didn't have to tell him everything. Ofcourse. That's right. He had his own life. He didn't owe anyone any explanation on what he did. But why did he feel so hurt by his words?

Jungkook seemed to have realised only now, after watching the older's expression contort in slight hurt, that he had successfully fucked up. Yet again.

He quickly rose to his feet and reached for his boyfriend,
"No..no no! Taehyung I didn't... I didn't mean it like that!"

The blonde flinched at his touch and stepped back, dragging his chair with him.

"Oh no it's okay, " he said nodding his head slowly, "you have a private life and I shouldn't have... I shouldn't have tried to force you."

Jungkook shook his head, eyes beginning to burn slightly. Oh this is more fucked up than he was trying to avoid.

"Tae--"

"Jungkook, I have work. My shift starts now so you should leave."

" But tae--"

" Just go, Jungkook. We'll talk later..." The older dismissed him, turning on heals and walking away into the cafe.

Jungkook held his head, muttering a few curses and then dashed out of the cafe, swinging the door with a loud Bing.

Meanwhile...

A blonde mop of hair peeked out from behind the cafe's kitchen wall, a satisfactory smile playing on his plump cherry lips.

He had seen and heard everything that went on between his son and his boyfriend and was at  the moment really content that their plan had worked just as expected.

Soekjin looked back at the screen of his smartphone and found a certain raven headed dad look back at him with a matching smirk.

The older raised his hand for high five, which the other returned from the other side of the screen, just as enthusiastically.

"God you should've been here, " Soekjin whispered, cackling slightly as he peered closer into his phone, the video call clearly capturing the younger dad sprawled over his sofa, bare chested and a towel hanging around his neck.

"Yeah, but I had this silly meeting with a potential client..."

"You always have meetings." The blonde pointed out, a tinge of complaint in his voice.

Namjoon simply chuckled, ruffling his wet hair with a shrug. Soekjin found himself staring too long, transfixed at the other's youthful face that surfaced from under layers of age his life had thrusted on him. 

"I wish I could've been there too..." He saw the ravenette think out aloud, "it's always fun."

" What? To watch our children fight because of a plan we made?"

" No!"

Both broke out into silent laughter, hiding their grins behind their palms like some schoolgirls.

"I meant with you. It's always fun with you." Namjoon completed pressing his lips together.

Soekjin watched him for a full moment before a small smile broke out into his lips as well.

"It's always fun with you too Joon-ah. Always."

Namjoon suddenly blushed, at the new nickname and at the way his voice sounded slightly different. He thought if he was imagining things because the older was back at grinning foolishly and he smiled back, flashing a pair of dimples in the wake.

"I better get going, Taehyung's gonna be looking for me now." Soekjin said lowly, looking around with caution.

"Yeah... Jungkook would be on his way I'm guessing," Namjoon agreed looking over at the closed door of his apartment.

They shot each other a lingering look before the older winked out of habit. Namjoon blushed for the umpteenth time before they hung up and the young dad fell back on his couch with a loud sigh.  

"Who were you talking to?" Namjoon jumped from his resting position, snapping his head at the door which was now open and there stood his son with a quizzical expression on his face.

"A- ahem- a friend." His dad replied gulping a little as he averted his gaze from the younger.

Jungkook shrugged and lugged back to his room at a slow sad pace.

Time to implement step 2.

Namjoon smirked looking at Jungkook's retreating back.

_________________________________

This is roughly how they look in this fic 💜