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2020. kth - 23. jjk - 18.

Jeongguk groaned as he stumbled into the kitchen, head in his hands as he rubbed at his face. The teen plopped into one of the seats, then leaned over to lay his head on the counter. He rested his cheek onto his arm, causing his lips to poke out into a little pout.

Taehyung bit back a smile as he slid over a glass of water and a pill.

"Here, take this." He said, putting the pill into the ravenette's hand. Jeongguk stirs awake, eyes lazily opening and hair flopping over as he peeked up to inspect who had given him the medicine.

"Hyung?" His voice croaked out, sounding rough and groggy. "What are you doing here?" Taehyung raised his brows, seemed like the younger had no recollection of what had happened the day before.

"Take this first. It'll treat your hangover." He urges, Jeongguk lets out a muffled groan as he raised himself upright. The teen popped the pill into his mouth, then downed the water right after. He used his sleeve and wiped it across his lips, getting rid of some of the water that trickled down his chin.

"What are you doing here?" He asks again after swallowing everything down. Taehyung sighs and sits himself down across from the other.

"It was quite the havoc here yesterday. A lot of yelling. I came over to make sure everything was alright." The older explains, cautiously eyeing the other for any sort of reaction. There was none. "You were on drugs. again."

Jeongguk sighed, then dragged a hand through his fluffy raven locks, letting the strands fall to frame his face. 

"Okay? So why're you still here?" He nonchalantly questions, tongue poking at his inner cheek in annoyance from Taehyung's constant nagging about the whole drug thing. "M'not in the mood to get lectured."

Taehyung bit back the remark crawling up his throat, he stood up from his chair and walked over to open the fridge. 

"You have no food." He comments. "What do you usually eat?"

Jeongguk shrugs, fingers playing with his rings as his hands rested on top of the counter. Taehyung closed the fridge and clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"Let's go shopping." He says, crossing his arms over each other. "I'll buy you groceries." This causes the younger to raise his head, brows furrowed.

"I don't need your money, Taehyung." He expresses sternly. "I pay for my own shit." Taehyung rolled his eyes at the younger's behaviour.

"Yeah, whatever. Let's just go." 

Jeongguk grumbled some incoherent words under his breath before shooting the brunette a look. Taehyung raised one of his brows in a challenge, which made Jeongguk sigh and nod.

"Okay." He gives in. "Let's go."

⛓️ ⛓️ ⛓️

The two strolled into the local supermarket, Taehyung leading the way while Jeongguk was pushing the cart, while dragging his feet behind him. 

"What do you want to get?" Taehyung spins around and asks, eyeing the teen who was practically sleeping with his head resting on his arms that were piled on the cart.

"Mhm? Don't care." He murmured. Taehyung rolled his eyes and wacked Jeongguk at the neck, the younger sprung up, hand where he had received the hit with wide-blown eyes. "What was that for?!" 

"For being so goddamn difficult. The quicker you tell me what you want, the quicker we get out of here. Isn't that what you want?" Taehyung questions, raising a brow. Jeongguk huffed but stood straight up.

"I don't know... Ramen? Meat? Maybe some... cereal?" He sounded quite unsure, rubbing the back of his neck while casting his eyes down at the floor. Taehyung tapped his foot on the ground impatiently, trying to figure something out in his mind.

"Okay. Here's what we're gonna do." His hand reaches out and lightly pushes Jeongguk's chin upwards, making the other male face him. "Let's run around, and if there's anything you want, we'll get it, yeah?" 

Jeongguk blinked a few times before he started to give a slow nod, causing a bright smile to blossom on Taehyung lips. 

"Great! Let's go!" Without another warning, the older was already dashing through the aisles. 

"Hyung! Wait!" Jeongguk grasped at the cart and quickly started pushing it after the other, wheels rolling across the floor. 

The two were seen all over the place, Taehyung chucking random foods into the cart and Jeongguk sneaking in some snacks when the other wasn't looking. 

Things slowly started to get more playful after a while.

At the open nut section, Jeongguk yelled out "Deez nuts!" and then ran off, causing other people to give Taehyung weird looks. The older smiled sheepishly before quickly running after the ravenette, cursing him under his breath. When he found him, Jeongguk yelped and grabbed the cart, running away. They spent a good time chasing each other, until Taehyung tricked Jeongguk by coming in from the other direction and appearing right in front of the cart. Jeongguk realised too late and it caused them to crash. 

It all ended with Taehyung somehow ending up in the cart, laughing. And Jeongguk who had landed into bags of rice, laughing as well.

"Hey! You two!" Someone yelled. The two boys snapped their heads to see a worker coming at them with a pretty angry expression.

"Oh shit." Jeongguk mumbled. The next thing Taehyung knew, the younger raised him out of the cart and grabbed onto his hand, then pulled him along as he broke into a sprint.

The two of them ran out of the supermarket, hearing the shouts of the employees behind them. They didn't slow down until they got into the centre of town, where they mixed in with the rest of the crowd. The two males collapsed onto a bench, both breathing heavily, slightly exhausted from all that running.

As both their chests heaved up and down, the two locked eyes, lazy smiles spreading on their cheeks with small giggles escaping their mouths. 

It was the first time Taehyung had seen this Jeon Jeongguk smile.

Even his smile had changed. His bottom lip had become fuller and the corners of his mouth curled up more. The small dimple at the side of his cheek was gone, and his lip piercing was also a new asset.

Taehyung's grin slowly faded as he watched the other. 

The small lanky Kookie he knew was cute, adorable even. But Jeongguk... he was something else. Something that made Taehyung's heart beat a little faster.

Taehyung hadn't even realised that Jeongguk had also stopped smiling, their gazes just locked with each other as they stared in silence. The ambience of their surroundings filled the emptiness of the lack of words.

"Tae?" Another voice spoke out, causing the older to snap out of his daze and turn his head to where it was coming from. 

It was Seokjin, he stood in front of the bench with furrowed brows, watching the two.

"What are you two... doing?" The oldest asks, alarmed eyes zeroing down at the brunette. Taehyung gulped, remembering how Seokjin had warned him about hanging out with Jeongguk.

The ravenette sighed, he stood up from the bench and tucked his hands into his pockets.

"Don't worry. I'm leaving." He started to walk away but Taehyung sprung on his feet and stopped him.

"Where are you going? We didn't—" Taehyung had one hand wrapped around Jeongguk's arm, keeping him in place.

"Don't worry Hyung, I'll just be over there." Jeongguk pointed at the fountain in the centre. Taehyung let go of his arm and nodded, the younger giving a small smile before walking away.

"What are you doing, Taehyung?! I thought I told you to stay away from him!" Seokjin snarled when the other seemed out of earshot. Taehyung turned to face the older, a frown displayed on his lips.

"He's not that bad, Hyung. I've known him since I was—"

"I know, Tae! But things have changed! He threatened me, with a gun!" Seokjin flailed his arms around, expression looking distressed. "You have no idea what kind of person he is—"

"Oh, and you do?!" Taehyung pulled Seokjin's grip off of him. His patience had run out from everyone trying to tell him what to do. "I can't listen to this anymore." Taehyung raised his hands in surrender before taking a few steps back and then turning around to head towards the fountain.

He heard Seokjin call out behind him, but he ignored it.

He took quick steps towards Jeongguk's figure, who had a cigarette perched between his lips. There were a few other guys standing around him.

"So you'll hook me up with a few grams, eh J?" One of them asked while hitting Jeongguk playfully on the shoulder. The younger smirked before inhaling the tobacco and nicotine. 

"Yeah, I'll have it for you tomorrow." Taehyung nervously cleared his throat, causing everyone to turn and face him. Jeongguk's eyes widened at the sight of the brunette.

"Jeon—" The older started, but was immediately cut off.

"You know this guy, J?" One of the men asked, eyes examining the brunette by scanning him up and down. Taehyung was about to open his mouth but Jeongguk beat him to it. 

"Nah, just another kid nagging for a deal." He shrugs. 

"Oh?" One guy raised his brow, then handed Taehyung the joint he had been smoking on. "Want some, kid?" His smile was grimy and there was some other intention glistening behind his eyes. 

Taehyung scrunched up his nose, but before he could refuse Jeongguk had already grabbed his arm and was dragging him away from there. 

"He's good, man." Jeongguk told the guy before walking away with the brunette. Taehyung let himself be pulled away since he didn't really want to stay there anyway.

"Kid? I'm five years older than you." He mutters, poking the other in his side with his elbow. "Why did you say that?"

"Those aren't good guys, stay away from them." Jeongguk says sternly, still guiding the other away. His grip around his arm was not tight enough to hurt, but there was something in the way Jeongguk clung onto him.

"Then why do you hang out with them?" Taehyung questions, they finally stopped moving, but Jeongguk's grip was still around his wrist. 

"All lowlives hang out together because we have no one else to be with." The younger muttered lowly under his breath, eyes avoiding contact with the older.

Taehyung stepped up closer to the ravenette, then cupped his cheeks in his big hands.

"You can be with me." The older softly spoke, his voice careful as he fragilely held the other. "We didn't get the groceries. Have dinner with me, with us. Just like we used to."

Jeongguk's stale eyes stared into Taehyung's chocolate ones, watching them sparkle when he gave the older a small, hesitant, nod.