Although Taehyung had tears in his eyes as the younger left him there, feeling like shit, he pushed through and managed to cook dinner.

Jeongguk didn't return to the kitchen, and he didn't venture to go look for him. Instead, he went to his room, took a quick shower, and lay down in his bed, clutching his pillow.

For hours, he couldn't sleep. He just stayed there with his eyes closed, thinking about how he managed to ruin the one thing that made him genuinely happy after a long, long time. Although deep down he hoped Jeongguk would come to his room, he never did, and he didn't know how he was supposed to face him, so he didn't dare to go find him.

He had set an alarm for the next day since he had to go to the hospital, bank, and then meet that manager. He got out of bed with a sigh, freshened up, and slouched towards the kitchen.

He opened the fridge and took a look at the food he cooked yesterday. It was untouched, which meant that Jeongguk didn't come out of his room to eat. He slammed his eyes closed in frustration as he heaved another long sigh.

 
He arrived at the hospital, and his doctor checked his ankle and informed him that he could take off the splint, but he had to follow a training program in order to regain the strength his leg had lost from the injury.

Next stop was the bank, and he was utterly excited about it, despite yesterday's events with Jeongguk. He entered with a smile and greeted the boy who was helping him by giving him as much extra time as he could. He was quite surprised to hear that Taehyung was about to pay off all of his debt, but he was happy for him too.

Once everything was settled, Taehyung thanked the boy warmly for everything he had done for him and then walked out of there, finally being and feeling free.

Soon enough, he arrived outside of Seoul Ace Models agency and found himself gulping hard before he pattered inside. "Um, good morning, I'm here to meet Mr. Jung Jihoon?" he said awkwardly to the lady behind the counter.

"Your name?"

"Kim Taehyung." He saw the lady type something on the computer and then look at him with a smile.

"Third floor, second door to the right."

"Thank you." Taehyung bowed and headed to the elevator. He drew in a deep breath to calm his anxious nerves and knocked on the door. He heard a sonorous 'come in' from inside and opened the door hesitantly.

"Hello, sir, I'm Kim Taehyung."

"We finally meet, I'm Jung Jihoon," the man said as he gestured him to take a seat. "You're truly beautiful."

"Thank you, sir," Taehyung said, bashful, as he sat on a chair in front of his desk.

"How old are you, Taehyung?"

"Twenty-four."

"And you have never modeled before except for JK Auto Company, correct?"

"Yes, that's correct."

"Will you be interested in becoming a model?"

"Yes, but I want to keep my other job too. I hope the schedules won't conflict."

"I'm sure we can make this work somehow. Here's the contract." He handed him a small pack of papers that made his jaw drop open.

"This will take forever to read."

"You can check it with your lawyer of course. You can call them now and we can talk about the job some more until they come here."

Taehyung panicked the moment he heard that since he didn't have one. Then, a thought crossed his mind, and he sprang up from his seat. "I'll go outside for a moment to call him." He exited the office with long strides.

He fumbled to get his phone out of his pocket and made a call. Please pick up, please pick up, please—

"Hey, Tae, what's up?"

"Hey, no time to explain. Can you tell the company's lawyer to come to Seoul Ace Model agency?"

"Wait, what? Why?"

"I'm about to sign a contract, and I have no idea what I'm doing. Please, help me?"

"Don't sign anything before he gets there. He's here, so he'll be on his way in a bit."

"Thank you."

"What was that all about?" Jeongguk asked with knitted brows.

"Tae is at Kai's agency ready to sign a contract and he needs a lawyer," Hoseok explained, still confused by his sudden call. Too lazy to look around for Mark, the company's lawyer, he texted him with a small explanation of what he had to do and told him to hurry.

"A contract?"

"That's what he said. He didn't have time to explain."

Jeongguk was left dumbfounded as he didn't even know that Taehyung was going to meet with someone for a potential job.

Back at the agency, Taehyung waited anxiously for the lawyer to arrive, and he sighed in relief once he saw him scuttle towards him.

"Tell me you didn't sign anything."

"No, let's go," Taehyung whispered, and they stepped into the office.

Once they greeted each other and introduced themselves, the lawyer started examining the contract in depth.

"I know you worked with JK Auto Company and no one is paying as good as Mr. Jeon, but we try to do our best for our models too," Jihoon said with a cordial smile as he noticed that Taehyung stared at the amount of money he would get with a surprised expression. With €700 for a photoshoot, he was beyond satisfied.

"No, the money is good."

"Mr. Kim, in the contract it's mentioned that you have to do a photoshoot in underwear if you're asked to. Are you okay with that?" Mark asked.

"Underwear?" Taehyung questioned in a whisper, disquiet spreading on his features as he glanced at Jihoon.

"But of course, you'll get paid more. If you continue reading you'll see it."

Mark did as he was told, and it indeed said that he will get €400 more if he's asked to do this kind of photoshoot.

Taehyung bit his bottom lip as he mused over it. Although he hated the idea of exposing his body, and especially because he was rather skinny, he found himself nodding at the end.

The lawyer finished reading after a while and explained a few more things to Taehyung.

"So, will you sign?" Jihoon asked as he looked at the boy.

"Yes," Taehyung said with another nod as he reached for the contract.

"Great!"

When everything was set, Taehyung stood up with the lawyer. "Oh, when do I start?"

"I'll give you a call tomorrow. I have to arrange everything for your photoshoot and talk about it with my team."

"So I'm waiting for your call. Goodbye, Mr. Jung."

"Goodbye."

The two boys trod out of the office then. "Thank you so much for your help, Mr. Lee."

"Please, call me Mark. And you're welcome, Taehyung. Where are you heading now?"

"I start work in an hour. I should go to the cafe."

"You have a car?"

"No, I'll take the bus."

"I can drive you. You're working at Jjang's cafe, right?"

"Um, yeah, but you don't have to."

"It's on my way, anyway. I'm heading back to the company. Let's go." Mark smiled as he led him to his car.

The drive was mostly quiet as it was kind of awkward between the two. They still managed to make some small talk as Mark asked a few questions, and Taehyung answered bashfully since he didn't know the other well.

Once they arrived outside of the cafe, Taehyung was about to get out when Mark's voice stopped him. "Um, I don't know how to say it so I'll just do it. I want to take you out for dinner."

Taehyung's eyes popped at his request, his whole body stiffening. "Um, I'm really grateful that you helped me, and you're a really nice guy, but I'm kind of, um, seeing someone?"

"You don't have to lie, Taehyung, you can just say no."

"No, I'm not lying," Taehyung mumbled as he glanced away. "I'm with Jeongguk."

A thick silence spread through the car as Mark gaped at him with a startled expression. But then he tilted his head back as a heap of chuckles flew off his mouth. "That's funny."

"Why is it so funny? It's true."

"Jeongguk is not the type to have a boyfriend, Taehyung."

"Well, he has me."

"Are you sure you're not imagining things? Because if you're serious and I just made a move on his boyfriend, I'm losing my job." Every fragment of amusement fell from his face as he stared at the boy, waiting for an answer.

"I'm serious."

"I'll be damned," Mark uttered as he rubbed his face in disbelief. "Please don't tell him, I didn't know!"

"I can't keep this a secret, but I won't let him fire you, don't worry."

"Okay, fair enough. Sorry, though, I really didn't know."

"I know, you couldn't possibly know. Thank you for helping me and for driving me. Bye."

"Bye, Taehyung."

Three hours into his shift, and he felt his phone buzz in his pocket. A small smile surfaced on his lips as he saw Jeongguk's name on it, but it dropped just as fast when he read his message.

Jeongguk: I'm going home early. Hanae will wait for you.

He sighed heavily as he ran a hand through his hair. He didn't want Hanae to drive him home, not because he had a problem with him, but because he was annoyed by Jeongguk and didn't want him to have it his way. Although Taehyung was at fault here, his stubborn ass wasn't going to back down.

Taehyung: Tell him not to come. I'll stay here for a while after my shift.

He wouldn't do that. He was actually gonna take a bus to go there.

Jeongguk: I'll tell him to come after ten then?

Taehyung: No. I'll take the bus.

Jeongguk: He will be there at eight and drive you home no matter what time you'll leave.

Taehyung groaned, frustrated, as he shoved his phone in his pocket, not bothering to answer him.

For the rest of his shift, he was rather moody, and although Inguk asked him what was wrong, he didn't tell him anything.

Soon enough, it was time for him to leave, and when he said goodbye to his hyung, he walked outside, only to be greeted by the smiling chauffeur.

"No offense, but please leave," Taehyung said with a sigh as he continued walking past him.

Hanae was quick enough to get in front of him and stop him. "You know how it goes, Taehyung."

"I don't want you to drive me."

"Why?"

Taehyung glanced around with a deep pout as he crossed his arms. "I don't want Jeongguk to have it his way."

"Okay that's, um, yeah." Hanae really didn't know what to say to that. "Why don't you think about it like you're helping me do my job right, hmm?"

And Taehyung did think about it. His stubborn ass shouldn't get others in trouble. He knew that much. "Fine, only because of you."

"Thank you, Taehyung." Hanae gave him a bright smile and got into the car with the black-haired boy doing the same after a moment.

 
Upon reaching their destination, Hanae fixed his gaze on him. "I don't know what's wrong, but don't be so harsh on him. He's new to this, and although he would never admit it, he's probably scared." Despite that Hanae didn't know what happened between the two, he was sure they weren't just friends anymore.

Taehyung's only reply was a heavy sigh. "Thank you for driving me," he murmured as he exited the car.

He didn't have to cook since they had food from yesterday and went straight to his room. He took a quick shower and then sat in his bed, restless. He had to talk to him, and he knew it, but he couldn't found the courage to do so. I can just check on him. He trudged towards his room, biting his bottom lip along the way.

He knocked thrice but didn't get a response, and he walked inside, only to find his room empty. He remembered seeing his car, so Jeongguk was definitely home. He glanced towards the bathroom and saw the door open, so he wasn't in there either.

He searched around the enormous house for a while until he found a room he hadn't seen before. He didn't even know that Jeongguk had a whole gym in his house, but apparently, he did. He opened the door and peeked inside, only to see Jeongguk there, doing push-ups without a shirt on.

He gaped at him and gulped at the tantalizing sight; sweat was covering his whole body, the veins in his arms were throbbing, his muscles flexing with every push-up. It took him a moment to realize that Jeongguk had stopped his movements and was now looking at him with a deadpan expression.

He rushed inside and dropped his head. Jeongguk continued doing push-ups after a few seconds, ignoring him completely. "I thought you were tired."

"I am," he breathed out as he took a small break. He sat with his knees on the floor and wiped his face with a towel.

"Then how can you be working out?"

"I'm not physically tired," Jeongguk uttered as he got into position for push-ups again.

Taehyung stayed silent as he gazed at him, a gloomy expression cloaking his entire face. He inched closer with hesitant steps kneeled in front of him. "Kook, can we talk?"

"Did you think about it?"

"No, because I didn't have anything to think about."

Jeongguk ceased his exercise and sat on his knees again as he observed the boy's legs. "You're not wearing your splint."

"Yeah, I went to the doctor today." Taehyung searched for his eyes desperately, but he didn't meet his gaze.

"Good for you," Jeongguk whispered as he heaved himself to his feet out of the blue, startling him.

"Kook." He grabbed his hand to stop him. He took hold of the towel and dabbed it at his face, wiping his sweat.

"You even signed a contract, and I had no idea," Jeongguk stated as he finally locked his eyes on him.

"With everything that happened yesterday, I didn't have a chance to talk to you about it," he mumbled with an apologetic expression as he dragged the towel over his neck and collarbones.

But Jeongguk seized his hand. "What else happened that I don't know about?" he asked in a cold tone as he pushed his hand down.

Taehyung pouted even harder at his frosty behavior. But he knew it was his fault since he didn't answer him yesterday and let it go too far. "A lot, so can we sit down and talk?"

"I'll take a shower first."

"You want to use the jacuzzi?"

"You already took a shower."

"I don't mind." He received a nod from him a few seconds later, and they headed to the bedroom in complete silence.

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