Chapter 60

●●●

The next week was... an emotional rollercoaster, to say the least. For one because Jungkook's crush on Taehyung was acting up badly, especially given the fact that Taehyung had made it a habit to actually sleep right next to him now. Just the way he knew Taehyung did with Jimin. The implications of that might have been just that they were good friends, but it was still messing with Jungkook's poor heart. Especially given it also meant he would wake up to Taehyung curled up right by his side, bodies touching, pretty face likely just centimeters from his own.

Oh, and of course Taehyung was also still sometimes shifting in his sleep and Jungkook was more than relieved that, so far, he hadn't met the same fate as Taehyung's pillows tended to end up with. While he certainly felt Taehyung's claws against his chest, the siren never actually applied pressure even in his sleep. Maybe a reflex he had from cuddling with Jimin. No attacking the living, breathing thing I'm cuddling with. Jungkook certainly hoped that was the case and not just some coincidence.

But Jungkook's very one sided love life was not the only thing that contributed to the mess his emotions had been for the whole week. Since Taehyung had killed that guy from Jungkook's uni, missing person fliers had appeared all over the campus and people kept talking about it. It was one of the main hot topics and of course Jungkook felt like utter shit as everyone shared the stories of what a great guy he had been. This was his fault. Because of Jungkook this guy had lost his life. Even if it meant less people were going to die in the future, Jungkook had taken Taehyung to that party and if he hadn't that student never would have had to die.

His conscience was weighing heavily on him, which was why Jungkook ended up deciding to do exactly what he had been contemplating for a few days now. He was going to take some days off of uni and instead take Taehyung to Seoul. It was a great way to get out of his little town and just forget about what had just happened. Him feeling bad wasn't going to bring that guy back and he really didn't want to go and accuse Taehyung when he was clearly already making an effort to change.

Jungkook still had to share the idea with Taehyung and book some hotel in Seoul, but he was genuinely looking forward to showing him the city. Especially now that things seemed to be going better and better between them. Jungkook genuinely felt like Taehyung had started treating him like a close friend. There really was no more... fear left. Instead Jungkook could actually relax and be honest with Taehyung, and Taehyung actually listened. He felt like any remains of that power imbalance their relationship had started with were gone now.

But when Jungkook entered their shared apartment, excited to share his idea with Taehyung, he was instantly shut up by the faint sound of singing in the apartment. Jungkook had never consciously heard Taehyung's voice before. So far every time he had heard it had been connected to Taehyung showing him something. Every time he was so lost in emotions and memories that it drowned the actual part of Taehyung's singing out. But that wasn't the case now. When Jungkook carefully tiptoed through the hallway to find Taehyung, the siren's voice was echoing softly, filling Jungkook with a certain type of happiness that he couldn't quite analyse. He wasn't sure if it was his own or if it was induced by Taehyung's singing.

Either way he felt giddy as he moved around the corner, glancing into the living room. He was intentionally quiet, he didn't want Taehyung to stop. His voice was beautiful. Soft, breathy and deep in a way that sounded both inhuman as well as painfully human. It wasn't perfect but each imperfection just added to the whole beauty of it.

When Jungkook spotted Taehyung he couldn't stop a smile from creeping onto his face. He was sitting on the couch, his legs crossed and Tuna in his lap, purring softly as he petted her. Apparently they had finally made peace and gotten to know each other again.

The smile on Taehyung's lips gave Jungkook butterflies though. He looked absolutely stunning, sitting like this with his lips slightly parted as he was singing softly, his hands running through Tuna's fur and the corners of his lips stretched ever so slightly into a smile. His gaze was soft in a way Jungkook barely ever got to see. Taehyung clearly had been in a good mood the last couple of days.

Maybe he could also tell that he and Jungkook finally seemed to have come to a solution they were both happy with. Jungkook no longer had to worry when he took Taehyung down to the beach and Taehyung in exchange had been getting a lot more proper food than he had before. If Jungkook was going to take Taehyung's way of feeding himself away he was going to learn how to properly keep Taehyung fed himself. He knew Taehyung was still capable enough to capture fish himself, but he really just wanted to help out. Figuring out Taehyung's dish size was a task that mainly consisted of adding more and more food to his plate, but Jungkook had no problem with that. Especially because Tae wasn't a picky eater but even then he still really appreciated the things Jungkook made for him.

Taehyung's head shot up, his eyes flashing dangerously when he heard the croaking of the boards beneath Jungkook's feet. Of course he also closed his mouth, the singing abruptly coming to an end.

"No no, keep going." Jungkook quickly brought his hands up in reassurance, to show it was just him. At least he hoped that that was reassuring. "I'd love to hear you sing more."

For a second Taehyung just stared at him, maybe even a little cautious as Jungkook moved through the room. Was Taehyung feeling self conscious about his singing? Jungkook could barely imagine it but it certainly came off that way.

Jungkook sat down next to him, also reaching out to pat Tuna. She was clearly having the time of her life in Taehyung's lap, completely relaxed, her little feet stretched out above her small head as she exposed her stomach to both of them. Jungkook took the chance to scratch the fluffy fur of her tummy. She was purring loudly.

After a couple of long seconds Taehyung started singing again. His gaze still focused on Tuna as he played with her little toe beans. Jungkook wished he could do that too. Tuna had a habit of scratching whoever touched her paws seemingly at random, so only Taehyung could do it without any risk. Jungkook decided to simply focus on his soft singing instead. There was something quite attention grabbing about Taehyung's voice. The way it was deep and breathy at the same time. Jungkook certainly understood all the myths about the sirens' song now. They made sense when he listened to Taehyung's voice. Even though he knew he wasn't adding any intentional siren magic to it, Jungkook just wanted to get lost in his singing.

Jungkook had wanted to tell Taehyung about his idea, that they could go to Seoul. Instead he ended up just sitting there, listening to Taehyung's breathy voice for what felt like only a few minutes, but when Jungkook looked out the window he found that the sky was a dark blue to purple now. The sun was already going down. He couldn't help wondering what it would feel like for those Taehyung intentionally pulled in. Distracted so he could feed on them. Would it be similar to this or even stronger?

The memory of the night the two of them had met resurfaced. Back then Jungkook had not been able to make sense of what had happened, but now, in hindsight, he was pretty sure that the pull he had felt towards the water had been Taehyung's doing. Maybe it was just like that. An inviting death.

Taehyung barely seemed tired from singing for so long. His voice still as clear as it had been from the start, his eyes seemingly deep in thought while staring at the white wall as he ran his fingers over the fur on Tuna's back, who seemed to have rolled over and fallen asleep at some point. Jungkook really had no idea when. He felt like he had completely zoned out over the last three hours.

Hesitantly he stretched his body and true enough, his back was aching a little from sitting still for such a long time. "Tae?"

Taehyung's eyes had their familiar all-over grey that almost felt familiar now as he turned his head to look at Jungkook. It was weird just how used he had gotten to seeing Taehyung in his natural form. How little he questioned it at this point. He just knew he sometimes slipped into that form when he either wasn't paying attention or simply wanted to relax.

"Mhh?" Taehyung hummed questioningly, and his soft song came to an abrupt, almost painful end. Jungkook had the urge to quickly tell him to continue, but he knew he would be sitting here the rest of the night if he did. Or at least until Taehyung decided to stop.

"I-" He hesitated. "Uhm, first off that was really beautiful... is there a certain reason you're singing?" Jimin had never explained if there was any kind of siren culture around singing, so all Jungkook could do was ask Taehyung directly.

Taehyung shook his head, scooping Tuna up in his arms, leaning down to poke his nose against hers. Jungkook had to press his lips together to stop himself from cooing out loud. Tae and Tuna certainly had come far from Tae trying to eat her. "Just felt like it."

"I certainly don't mind." Jungkook chuckled. "It's calming." He wasn't lying. He was oddly at peace now. He had felt quite on edge after spending all day at uni, always guilty as shit. But now his stress seemed to have been washed off.

Maybe Jungkook was just imagining things, but when Taehyung smiled it felt almost a little sheepish. But any signs of the emotion were gone so quickly that Jungkook was almost certain he had imagined it. When Taehyung leaned against his arm, his face just centimeters from his own as he was looking right into his eyes, he felt his own breath hitch. "What's second?"

For a couple of seconds Jungkook was at a loss, not sure what Taehyung had meant before he remembered he had started this off by saying something along the lines of 'firstly'. He leant back a little to calm his beating heart and get some distance between Taehyung's lips and his own. Maybe to Taehyung this was something normal between friends, but Jungkook was already sprouting a little crush and this was not within his comfort zone.

"I had an idea today and it might be a little spontaneous, but wanna go to Seoul with me? Like, tomorrow morning?"

Taehyung seemed to get Jungkook's subtle scooting away and also backed off a little. His hand was still on Jungkook's thigh though and so he was left even more conscious of every little movement of his fingers. "Seoul?"

"Yeah." Jungkook nodded. "It's Korea's capital city, so basically it's big with a lot of things we could do. To be honest I just wanna leave this town for a little... get away for a little while." Jungkook hadn't planned to elaborate any further, but when Taehyung raised his eyebrow he sighed. "You know... because of that guy you killed. It's putting me on edge that they are looking for him. I feel like shit."

Jungkook looked down at his crossed feet in his lap, so he didn't see it coming when Taehyung placed his hand on his shoulder and squeezed reassuringly. "Sorry."

Shaking his head Jungkook placed his hand on Taehyung's. "It's not really your fault... I shouldn't have left you alone there. I know you were really trying not to hurt anyone. We just gotta avoid anything like that in the future and I will have to learn to deal with the fact that that guy died because of me."

He managed to make that sound calm even when he felt the urge to start crying the second he thought too hard about it. Whenever he was left alone for too long he started feeling absolutely plagued with guilt. He knew the guy's name now. Sunghoon.

Before his thoughts could start spiraling again though, Taehyung spoke again. "Seoul sounds great. What about Tuna?"

Wow. Taehyung was more capable of taking care of the cat than Jungkook was. He had entirely forgotten about her to be frank. But luckily the answer was simple either way. "I'll ask my parents to take care of her. They like animals and Tuna is pretty easy, so I don't think there should be any problem with it."

"So, Seoul?" Taehyung was once again way too close but Jungkook just decided not to comment on it. Instead he nodded, holding Taehyung's gaze. With how normal Taehyung usually seemed it still continued to surprise Jungkook whenever he showed clear signs of not quite knowing how to act completely human. For example when he seemed entirely unbothered holding eye contact with Jungkook like this, at such close proximity.

"Yeah." Jungkook's voice came out unintentionally breathy. "I'm thinking we could pack our things today and then drive to Seoul tomorrow morning. We could also search for an appealing hotel."

Taehyung nodded slowly, seemingly a little lost. He probably had no idea how holidays even worked and Jungkook actually found himself looking forward to showing Taehyung. For once he was actually just looking forward to doing something with him. Almost all of his worries from before were gone now and all that was left were normal concerns like whether his favorite pants were still clean or if they had to go into the laundry.

"Come on, let's pack some stuff." He grabbed Taehyung's hand, Tuna meowing in protest as she was forced to jump off Taehyung's lap, before pulling him out of the room. Taehyung followed obediently right behind him, a little startled at Jungkook's enthusiasm but nevertheless going along with it.

Seoul was certain to be fun. Jungkook was sure of it.

A/N

How are you all doing? Has school/uni started for you all already?