Chapter 62

●●●

"Okay, so I talked to Jimin." Jungkook readjusted his t-shirt as he stepped out of the bathroom, turning to look at Taehyung, who had made himself comfortable on the king size bed in the middle of the hotel room. Just like Jungkook had recommended, he had changed into some different clothes. His blouse had the same bright grey color as his eyes, which made him look even more surreal. Jungkook sure had picked the right things... although he did regret it a little now. Why did he have to turn Taehyung into even more of a thirst trap? He was already struggling enough with his little crush.

Seemingly curious about what Jimin had said Taehyung turned his head to look at Jungkook and sat up a little straighter. Taking that as a sign to keep going, Jungkook moved over to sit on the bed next to Taehyung and continued. "Apparently what we got earlier isn't going to be enough for both of us to get drunk. So I came up with a different idea. I was thinking we could get some more alcohol from the convenience store and sit by the Han river for a bit. Then we'll see how well you and alcohol go together and if you seem fine, we'll go to a bar. How does that sound?"

Almost unconsciously Jungkook reached out to fix Taehyung's hair a little. They looked absolutely beautiful, as usual, but because of the blouse, it felt like they needed to be a bit more... styled. At least if pushing them out of his face could be called styled. Jungkook could feel Taehyung watch his hands curiously, but he didn't stop him.

"Here, that's better. So what do you think? Do you want to go to the Han river? We could also just stay here though. Just drink what we have and watch some TV together. Honestly, I'm up for either." Jungkook quickly reassured. He didn't want to pressure Taehyung into anything he didn't want to do. Taehyung had felt really panicked at that house party. Jungkook didn't want to make him feel like that ever again.

"Han river sounds good." Taehyung eventually answered, his eyes following Jungkook's hands as he dropped them in his lap. After a couple of seconds, he leaned towards Jungkook like Jungkook had done a couple of seconds before and started fixing his hair. Well, rather messing it up, but Jungkook had half expected Taehyung to do that later when he had pushed them back in the bathroom before. Taehyung was carefully destroying his craft again and only seemed content with his art work when Jungkook had most of his hair in his view again.

Jungkook simply had to accept that he was never again going to wear his hair other than his regular messy style. Not that he minded though if Taehyung liked it.

"Good! We could do a little picnic with some snacks too." Jungkook suggested while getting up. He closed their suitcase up again, just to keep his later drunk self from tripping over it and dying because he hit his head on the edge of the bed right after taking a year to befriend the deadly siren living in his apartment. Nope, he wasn't going to have any of that.

They left the bottle of cheap vodka he had bought earlier in the apartment, since he didn't know if taking it into the store would lead to him having to buy it again. Instead, Jungkook got a bottle of whisky, which he was going to give Taehyung (he just seemed like he had to like whisky if anything), and some soju and beer for himself. He also let Taehyung pick some snacks and Jungkook discovered that Taehyung had a hand for making him laugh. Especially when he picked out some fish-shaped pastry and muttered "Seems trustworthy" with a straight face as he handed it to Jungkook. It took Jungkook a whole five seconds to comprehend that Taehyung had just made a joke. When it hit him, it only made him laugh harder though. His reaction got a small smile out of Taehyung before he continued searching the snack aisle. He ended up taking some honey butter chips as well, thanks to Jungkook's recommendation, and some pockys.

As they waited in line Jungkook decided to tell Taehyung about the horrifying things people used pockys for. "There's a kissing game with these."

Taehyung looked at him in clear confusion as Jungkook placed their items down on the counter. "Kissing game? What is that?"

Jungkook waited for the cashier to finish ringing his items up and then paid before answering Taehyung. "Basically people like to use these as an excuse to kiss... or to make other people kiss one another." The cashier wished them a good night and he smiled back before walking outside the store with Taehyung.

The air outside was perfect for what they had planned. Warm but not too hot. Maybe a little too humid for Jungkook's taste, but it wasn't bad.

"Why would they want that?" Taehyung seemed genuinely confused as they walked down the street, holding onto Jungkook's arm. Jungkook barely noticed when he held onto him like that anymore. It had become so normal over the last couple of days, especially when they moved around in public. He assumed it was a little like the thing he did with Jimin. When Jimin had been around Taehyung had also been constantly holding onto him.

"A lot of times humans are kinda touch starved, I guess, and just feel like kissing someone, even if they might not be interested in pursuing anything with that person." Jungkook tried to put the concept into words. "Sometimes they might be interested but don't have the courage to say it outright, so they use it as an excuse. And of course, some people just do it for the fun of the game."

Taehyung didn't look like Jungkook's explanation had made it any easier to understand. "So... you just kiss strangers?"

For a second Jungkook hesitated. "Some people do. Sometimes it's friends. Honestly, there is no base rule or a certain way it goes."

"How does the game work?" Taehyung seemed to have given up on trying to understand the reason and instead focused on the more logical part of the whole thing. If it could be called that at least.

"Pretty easy. You put a pocky in your mouth..." Jungkook rummaged through the plastic bag and pulled the pockys out. He opened the pack and placed one of them in his mouth, just holding the tip between his lips. "Like this."

Taehyung watched him with attentive eyes and just for a second Jungkook let his thoughts wander to playing the game with Taehyung. It was hard not to when Taehyung looked so fucking pretty staring at him and Jungkook was still crushing on him badly.

"Anyways, the other person will take the other end of the pocky into their mouth. Then both players start inching closer to the middle of the pocky. Theoretically the goal of the game is to be the last to hold onto the pocky but yeah... usually it ends in a kiss." Taehyung stared at the pocky in Jungkook's mouth and suddenly Jungkook was a lot more self-conscious than he had been a few seconds before. He tried eating the pocky as casually as he could without showing his nervousness.

"That's a really weird game."

Jungkook chuckled, glad that his existential crisis wasn't showing up in his voice. "I think we have established that humans have very weird hobbies."

Taehyung nodded, grimacing a little.

"They really do."

"...and then she just ran off. No warning or anything. She just broke up like our relationship meant nothing to her."

Jungkook was drunk. Horribly so. Since Taehyung could take so much alcohol Jungkook had overestimated the amount he was allowed to drink without getting so drunk it would be hard to keep an eye on Taehyung. Well, he had fucked that part up, but luckily Taehyung seemed like a pretty calm drunk. Maybe a little more touchy than usual and he messed up his speaking a lot more, which was fucking adorable. Every time he did he quickly apologized and Jungkook reassured him every single time that it was nothing to apologize for.

"I swear to god, I thought our relationship meant something to her. But apparently I was the only one getting invested. And now that bit..." Jungkook bit his lips. "...that woman is acting like everything is fine between us. Like it could ever be fine."

Taehyung patted his leg reassuringly. "You don't have to be nice to her. Just be rude."

Jungkook chuckled. That certainly would be nice. Just telling her that he wanted absolutely nothing to do with her. "I can't... I don't want to be the asshole. Minji still meant a lot to me in the past. I'm trying to honor that, even if she is really getting on my nerves."

Taehyung took a big sip from his plastic cup. "That's dumb."

That was new. Jungkook was used to getting judged by Taehyung. But never something this straightforward. And it was certainly the first time Taehyung had called his decisions dumb.

"What? Why?"

Taehyung shrugged his shoulders. "She doesn't deserve it. She didn't honor your partner-" He stumbled over his words. "...relationship, so why should you?"

Jungkook hesitated, trying to find a way to articulate his thoughts before giving up. "She was fucking shitty, but I still miss her... Honestly, that's probably it. I honor the relationship because I'm hung up on it." Wow; he had only just realized that. Sure; he had really gone through it when Taehyung had been gone, but he had thought that that feeling had been resolved now that Taehyung was back. But it seemed some of it was still there, hiding behind a wall of denial and distraction.

"I just miss being in a relationship. Having someone that cares about me and someone to care for." Jungkook gulped down his beer before realizing that maybe drinking more wasn't the best idea. When he placed his hand back down he almost startled when Taehyung placed his own hand on top.

"You have me... I care for you, don't I? And you care for me?" Taehyung told him with those intense eyes staring right into Jungkook's soul. He had the urge to tell Taehyung that even if he meant well, that wasn't what he had been talking about. But he decided not to be nitpicky. He still felt warm at Taehyung's sweet gesture.

"Of course I care about you. More than is probably good for me." He chuckled and squeezed Taehyung's hand back. "And I'm really glad you're here with me. Even if the road was a little rocky and we just figured out last week that maybe killing humans isn't all cool."

Taehyung smiled a little sheepishly at that and Jungkook appreciated the very human reaction. He actually felt safe with Taehyung now... before he had felt somewhat safe but there had been that gnawing feeling in the back of his head that had reminded him of what Taehyung had done.

"Are things going to stay like this?" Taehyung asked, an emotion mixed into his voice that Jungkook had a hard time identifying. He also wasn't sure what exactly the question referred to.

"Like, us being together?" Jungkook asked and Taehyung nodded.

"Of course." He smiled. "I love having you around me... I really enjoy your company. I haven't been so comfortable around anyone in a long time." He patted the spot right next to him, gesturing Taehyung to sit next to him. Taehyung did, moving the empty honey butter chips bag to the side before sitting down right next to Jungkook.

Jungkook could feel Taehyung's body weight against his shoulder.

"Me neither." Taehyung finally admitted into silence. "I love Jimin, but he can be a bit much at times." He chuckled a little, leaning his head against Jungkook's shoulder, and suddenly everything in Jungkook short circuited. Why did this feel like flirting? He was pretty sure it wasn't from Taehyung's side, but Jungkook sure hoped that Taehyung hadn't picked up on the fact that Jungkook was unconsciously flirting with him. He sure prayed those kdramas hadn't stuck to Taehyung's memory.

"Yeah, Jimin seems pretty high energy... What was it like to see him as a child? You're the older brother, right?" Jungkook almost patted himself on the back for de-escalating the situation. If things had continued like this, he might have accidentally confessed his love to Taehyung. And he certainly had no intention of doing that.

"He was really cute... he was always interested in shapeshifting, so when he was smaller he always tried to shapeshift into me. He sucked though, so it looked really weird." He chuckled and Jungkook could feel the vibrations against his shoulder. It felt intimate, listening to Taehyung talk about his past like this.

"He also discovered his interest in humans very quickly... I never understood, but I think I get it now." Taehyung continued and Jungkook just closed his eyes and listened to his beautiful deep voice. Jungkook loved hearing Taehyung speak. Hearing him talk about whatever he was willing to share with Jungkook. "You should listen to Jimin sing sometime... I've never sung a lot because I spent most of my time hunting in conventional ways, but Jimin is absolutely amazing."

"Amazingly deadly?" Jungkook asked with an raised eyebrow even though he knew Taehyung couldn't see his face.

Taehyung laughed softly. "No. Just... he's amazing in using his voice to communicate emotions and memories. Mine can't compare."

"Well, I can tell you that I have no clue about siren magic and all that, but the emotions and memories you communicate are very real and lifelike and I think I will pass on Jimin's. Honestly, more real sounds surreal... as little sense as that makes." Jungkook chuckled, taking a pocky between his lips as he stared at the water.

For a while it was completely quiet as Jungkook absentmindedly played with the pocky in his mouth, thinking about how beautiful the moon was reflecting on the water. When he looked back over at Taehyung he found the siren staring at him. Or to be more precise, the pocky between his lips.

He wondered whether Taehyung was thinking about the game Jungkook had told him about.

"Jungko-" Taehyung started the exact moment Jungkook pulled the pocky from his mouth and said. "Wanna go to the bar now?"

He quickly stopped himself from continuing, not wanting to block off Taehyung, but he had stopped as well.

"What did you want to say?" Jungkook asked curiously.

To his surprise Taehyung actually took a few seconds before he answered. "Uh... nothing. You want to go?" Taehyung was already getting up and Jungkook found himself watching Taehyung in confusion. It made absolutely no sense for Taehyung not to just say what he had wanted to say... Jungkook wanted to know now! This wasn't like Tae.

"Uhm yeah... since you seem pretty calm even though you have a little lisp from the alcohol I thought it might be okay to go to a bar?"

Taehyung blinked at him. "Lisp?"

Jungkook grinned. "Yeah, you get an adorable lisp when you're drunk."

Taehyung didn't say a single word the whole way to the bar.

A/N

Hehehehehehehehe

How are ya'll feeling?👀

Anyone noticing anything? What do you think is happening?

Also chapter 1 out of 2... how did you like this one?😖