[this has been edited!]
ELEVEN MONTHS LATER
taehyung readjusts the strap of his dirtied dungarees on his shoulder, groaning slightly when it slips right off his shoulder seconds later. resigned, taehyung sighs and kneels by the many cardboard boxes stacked against the wall of his new bedroom, reaching for the box closest to him and hauling it onto his lap, paint spattered hands fumbling with the duct tape securing the box closed.
within seconds, the duct tape lies in a heap by his bare feet, the box placed haphazardly on his lap as he rummages through the contents of the cardboard, looking for the set of paintbrushes he purchased recently in order to paint the walls of their new home.
he draws out what feels like the cellophane covering of his paintbrushes and glances down at the item in his hands, a confused frown overcoming his features. "what—" taehyung starts, turning and studying the notebook in his hand with furrowed brows.
is this mine? or jungkook's? taehyung questions himself as he lifts the front cover of the notepad, curious eyes finding inked, neat notations littering the page; notations addressed to jungkook –– notations from taehyung.
surprised, the older blinks at the sight of his little notes created for jungkook when they were separated months ago from each other.
a slight smile overcomes the boy's face as he thumbs through page after page of notes he was meant to give to jungkook but never actually managed to. and rather than feel disheartened that he's forgotten all about this notepad, taehyung grins to himself as he reads words and phrases from his small entries.
miss you so much. medication. dear jungkook. to just go home. felt detached. in your arms. hospital. my heart hurts. ruby red hair. hate this. not with me anymore. i miss you. this—
he's grinning; he's grinning because he's no longer confined within a hospital ward, no longer scrutinised under apprehensive eyes. he's no longer weak, he's no longer stared at with something akin to sympathy in people's eyes, he's no longer suffering from chronic heartbreak. he's no longer alone –– no, taehyung's free, he's free now.
not bothering to properly read through his many notes, taehyung closes the notepad and smiles to himself as he thinks back to the heartache he experienced maybe ten months ago. he thinks back to the misery he was in, the pain he felt, and chuckles to himself, shaking his head slightly in disbelief when he compares his heartache to what he feels now; happiness, joy, love.
jungkook has way too much of an effect on taehyung.
nonetheless, taehyung's glad.
forgetting the paintbrushes he had acquired, taehyung climbs to his feet, notepad in hand and carefully weaves his way in and out of the moving boxes collecting dust in his bedroom. eventually nearing the door that he had closed after himself without realising, the older grins at the bass boosted music playing from jungkook's speakers, the loud laughter and the yells emanating from behind the heavy oakwood door.
pulling the door open, taehyung steps out onto the landing overlooking the supposed living room space below and walks over to the banister, leaning over the barricade with his elbows resting atop the wooden railings, still holding his notepad in his left hand.
smiling at the scene before him, taehyung cups his cheek with his free hand. his chocolate coloured eyes following the movements of his friends down below.
yoongi sits on hoseok's shoulders, laughing at something the latter's said as he swipes a wet paintbrush against the wall, covering the expanse of wall cerulean blue. he's wearing one of taehyung's old dress shirts, (not wanting to stain his own clothes with blue) and the cotton material submerges him whole, making him look so small and sweet.
and his boyfriend, hoseok, grins at the sound of yoongi's laughter, clearly in love with the sound. with eyes full with adoration for the older, hoseok settles his hands atop yoongi's jeans-clad thighs and murmurs something else to the petite boy that has him smiling, glancing down and lovingly running his free hand through the boy's caramel coloured locks.
smilin get, taehyung's gaze veers to the left, noticing two other boys painting another wall with bright blue. seokjin, his brother, sits carefully on one of the ledges of a small stepladder, painting with coral colouring his features as he listens attentively to namjoon who leans against the stepladder, holding the can of paint for him and grinning up at him as he speaks.
his jin hyung–– no, no, kim seokjin, CEO of major electronics company, kim industries, finally inherited their dad's company a few months ago, and taehyung could never be more happier for his brother. he thinks the role suits his hyung perfectly and both taehyung and his father wonder why seokjin wasn't considered top candidate for CEO in the first place. nonetheless, his family and he are proud of seokjin and his capability of single handedly commandeering a large cooperation.
the only downside to seokjin's inheritance is his lack of time these days; he can't offer taehyung more than three minutes of attention during the week and although it saddens taehyung, the boy's just happy to have seokjin come down to busan to see him when, perhaps once in a blue moon, his schedule is free.
today's moon must be a cobalt one since seokjin actually has free time, time that he originally intended to use by taking jungkook and taehyung out for dinner (and most likely grill jungkook) but now spends it sitting on a rickety stepladder jungkook borrowed off someone, painting and also wearing one of taehyung's old shirt's in order to prevent paint spattering on his soft cashmere sweater.
taehyung thinks he can safely say that seokjin doesn't seem to be too dismayed that his plans for dinner were cancelled –– no, his hyung seems to be pretty happy talking (read: stumbling over his words) with kim namjoon.
this is, perhaps, the third time the two boys have hung out (the first time being at a get together taehyung orchestrated in the summer and then at jungkook's surprise birthday party a few weeks ago) and it was already evident that the two liked each other quite a lot –– judging from his hyung's weekly flustered phone calls describing what namjoon's sent to his office in large quantities (three days ago, it was an entire crate of sweet, white lilies: lilies that taehyung had unintentionally informed namjoon was seokjin's favourite).
just like he has, taehyung really wants seokjin to have someone to love closely, and taehyung's more than happy for that someone to be namjoon.
the boy giggles to himself now at the sight of coral deepening on seokjin's cheeks when namjoon offers him his hand in order to help him down the stepladder. taehyung tilts his head slightly to see namjoon's dimple appear as seokjin takes his palm gingerly, walking down the stepladder whilst smiling a little at the dimpled boy.
namjoon hyung, in taehyung's perspective, is cute — unexpectedly cute. when he first met the guy at jungkook's surprise birthday party, he was more than just surprised to understand that the guy who accidentally knocked jungkook's iron man cake over and was close to tears with how distraught he was, was the same guy who ran south korea's largest underground drug trafficking ring.
later, when jungkook had introduced the two to each other, taehyung couldn't stop laughing –– he had thought namjoon would be a tattooed, pierced, part drug addict, hulk of a man who'd try to kidnap taehyung the very second the two were alone but nope; namjoon was nothing but a gentleman. (though taehyung got the pierced part correct: namjoon did have a nose piercing, a delicate looking, silver ring that glints slightly in the artificial light)
anyway, namjoon had shaken hands with taehyung, complimented him on his arrangements for jungkook's surprise birthday party and apologised profusely for trying to extort his family for over a million dollars.
now, taehyung couldn't possibly be afraid of namjoon, not with the way he fumbled with his awkwardly big hands when he was nervous, not when he smiled and that cute lil dimple made an appearance and certainly not when he complimented his half-assed decorating with such sincerity.
kim namjoon had left taehyung wondering how the he was south korea's supposed drug lord. (later, when taehyung had voiced his question to jungkook, the latter had laughed, saying he wondered the same too)
taehyung casts his gaze towards another pair of boys, jimin and jae, and immediately sighs at the sight of the two.
ah, jimin and jae.
"i fucking dare you to call me shortcake again, i fucking double dare—"
"short. cake."
". . . right. im gonna give you a minute to reflect on your words and if you feel like apologising for them, then please do so—"
"and if i don't wanna apologise?"
"apologise otherwise im gonna—"
"you're gonna what? stomp on my toes with you lil sneakers?"
"that's it; im done with you—"
"im done with you too, brat—"
"brat?? im older than you—"
"then maybe you should act like it—"
"oh, fuck off—"
"no, you fuck off –– this is my best friend's home—"
"no, this is my best friend's—"
when taehyung had planned a small, summer get-together a couple of months ago, he had high hopes that by subtly pairing jaehwa and jimin, the smaller would be able to soften the boy's apprehension towards the whole my-best-friend-is-dating-his-captor ordeal.
but if jimin managed to do anything; it only fuelled jae's bitter apprehension.
A COUPLE OF MONTHS AGO; [jae focus]
jaehwa narrows his eyes at taehyung and jungkook seated a few metres away, holding hands and conversing animatedly with seokjin and namjoon. they look the epitome of joy, and jae's happy for his childhood best friend, he really is, don't get him wrong. he's happy knowing taehyung's finally living his life to the fullest; something he wasn't able to do for quite some time now.
but still, something residing in the back of his mind has jae warily looking over at the two more times than he'd like to within a minute. he thinks it's just his natural instinct as taehyung's personal bodyguard to know that the younger's okay.
yeah, he just wants to know if the younger's okay –– it's certainly not because he's trying to find fault in jungkook's perfect exterior.
yeah, definitely not.
momentarily taking note that in the corner of his eye, he notices someone coming to stand by his side, jae calmly sips at his cherryade whilst the someone besides him hums along to the pop song streaming from the cafe's loudspeakers as he sips at his own drink.
"jaehwa, is it?"
jae gives no reply.
"hey, i promise you our jungkookie's not gonna skin taehyung alive with his butter knife," the boy speaks up, chuckling a little, "you don't have to keep an eye on them every second of the hour."
frowning slightly, jae glances to his left to see a petite boy standing close by his side, arms folded over his chest and smiling up at him. he wears white shorts and a similarly plain white tee under an oversized blue plaid shirt, black flip-flops accompanying the overall look. the boy (jimin, was it?) shakes his soft hair out of his eyes, waiting patiently for jae's response.
the latter simply returns his gaze to taehyung with a displeased grunt escaping from his mouth.
curious, jimin tilts his head upwards a little to peer up at him through the rounded spectacles he wears on the bridge of his nose, his warm brown eyes studying jae's side profile, "really; you've got nothing to be worried about—"
"my best friend's dating his kidnapper; what do you mean ive got nothing to be worried about?" jae grunts, looking away from jimin, "and while we're on the topic; listen up, shortcake, here's a little warning for your dear 'jungkookie': if he tries anything funny with taehyung that he doesn't like, im not gonna hesitate firing a bullet through his forehead, okay?"
jimin, brows furrowing slightly, looks down at the tiled floor, processing jae's indirect threat before retraining his gaze on the boy's side profile again, a frown on his face.
"i could say the same to you too." he replies slowly, as if testing the waters he's about to delve into, "jungkook's been through a lot since he was a kid so he doesn't need taehyungie possibly hurting him and adding to his pain –– so i too won't hesitate to punch tae in the face, no matter how much i love the kid."
jae swivels his head round to glare at jimin, "excuse me? are we talking about the same person? kim taehyung? taehyung wouldn't hurt a godamn fly and you know that. your boy, on the other hand, kills for a fucking living. plus, he hurt taehyung for months purely because he couldn't fucking grow a pair of balls." jae hisses, towering over jimin and using his 184cm to his full advantage; he knows he's being a little mean right now but really, all he wants is for this guy to just leave him alone and let him continue his surveillance of the so–called taekook.
"hey!" jimin lifts a (smol) hand to jae's broad chest, prodding him hard as he speaks; "jungkook had a lot," prod, "going on at that time so leave," prod, "him," prod, "alone," prod, "he's keeping taehyung happy now," prod, "and that's all the matters, okay?"
frowning, he gives one last prod to punctuate his words.
prod.
"will you quit with the poking?" jae growls in reply, swatting jimin's (smol) hand away, "'cause, shortcake, you've got an awful lot of force for someone as small—"
"don't call me that." jimin scowls.
"don't call you what?"
"shortcake." jimin enunciates with his teeth gritting together, (smol) hands balling into angered little fists.
jae's gaze fall to jimin's hands. hm.
"you want me to quit calling you shortcake, shortcake?" jae queries, stepping forwards nonchalantly.
"yes." defiant, jimin steps forwards too.
"hm," jae pretends to contemplate as he steps forward again, now fully towering over jimin scornfully. the latter stumbles back slightly, eyes widening momentarily at the close proximity between them. still, jae doesn't let up; he leans down, murmuring against the curve of jimin's ear; "yeah, no. shortcake is really fitting for you."
anger, once again, overcomes the boy as he reaches forwards, fingers grasping jae's shirt and tugging it harshly so the boy's face would be level with his. startled, jae's eyes widen the slightest bit at the surprising force jimin uses to pull jae to his height.
"seriously, quit it." jimin hisses, pulling jae close.
"sorry, what was that, shortcake?" jae grits out, trying to wrench his now crumpled shirt from jimin's grasp, "couldn't hear you from all the way down there—"
"you piece of––"
"the fuck––! did you just seriously headbutt me??"
PRESENT
we won't delve deeper into the flashback as it only pains taehyung (who remembers trying to break the two up but only became the filling of a very uncomfortable jimin-jae sandwich as the two tried to have at each other). taehyung winces at the memory.
still, taehyung has hope for the two's relationship because is it his wishful thinking or does jimin seriously blush a little at "shortcake"?
hm.
taehyung's attention is recaptured by the two once more when jimin shrieks suddenly, loudly. furrowing his brows, taehyung, and the others too, cast their gaze towards jimin and immediately stifles chuckles at the sight of bright blue connecting jimin's brow, creating an unsightly monobrow.
unsurprisingly, jae stands before jimin, looking very pleased with himself and holding a paintbrush with blue daubed on the bristles.
oh god, this is not gonna end well, taehyung thinks –– nevertheless, he's amused when jimin grabs his own paintbrush and surges forwards with a displeased growl. and understanding the boy's movements at once, jae quickly sidesteps to the left, laughing when jimin stumbles forwards, missing him.
knowing that he'll probably have to soon retain the two from each other by once again becoming the filling to their aggressive sandwiching, taehyung sighs, about to push himself off the banister of the landing when the front door to his new home opens, a boy nudging the door open as his paint spattered hands are too occupied with upholding boxes of pizza.
taehyung smiles to himself at the sight of the love of his life walking into their home, already laughing at jimin's painted monobrow as he sets the boxes of pizza onto a coffee table.
the boy looks good — he always does, but today, in taehyung's opinion, he looks extremely good. (but then again, taehyung's biased when it comes to jungkook).
nonetheless, jungkook does look insanely attractive these days what with his left arm now tattooed with a chinese dragon that entwines itself round his arm, rising to his shoulder before halting there. in addition, his jet black hair has grown, grown long enough for his hair to be tied off his forehead in a half-assed manner with an elastic band with just a single coal coloured strand slipping its way past and falling over the boy's forehead again.
but other than the fact that he's got another tattoo and his hair has grown slightly longer, jungkook's still the same, still taehyung's, and taehyung finds himself in awe that he gets to call such a beautiful boy as jungkook as his.
all mine. and im all his.
taehyung glances at his left hand where a silver band, similar to a wedding ring, encircles his finger, the piece of jewellery meaning so much more than being just a mere accessory.
"it's a promise ring, not a wedding ring –– but you can wear it on your ring finger if you want! ugh, shit, why am i so nervous?? uhm, basically, hoseok hyung told me that his sister's husband brought her a promise ring, uh, promising to one day marry her, and uh, i thought it was pretty cute, you know promising to someone like that so, uh, this ring is a promise that i won't let you be alone anymore, tae. let's–let's uh, stick together–– oh god, im being so awkward. stop laughing, tae!"
smiling, taehyung looks down at the notepad and instantaneously thinks of his resolution for the letters in his hand; rather than give these to jungkook to read or read them himself, taehyung will simply discard these letters. yeah, why would he reminisce the painful past when he has so much in the present and so much more in the future? there's so many positives in his life right now and he doesn't want to counteract them with the negatives just yet. so until the negative aspects do make an appearance, taehyung promises to make the most of the good things in his life now. and he thinks he'll start with eating pizza whilst surrounded by the loud laughter of his friends.
taehyung pushes himself off the banister and walks towards the staircase, about to walk down when his mobile phone vibrates in the pocket of his dungarees. pulling his phone out and reading the notifications appearing on his lockscreen, taehyung slowly walks down the set of stairs.
JEON NO.2: tae tae tae tae tae tae tae tae
JEON NO.2: guess who's a free man
JEON NO.2: ya boy !!!!
JEON NO.2: haneul finally left yesterday
JEON NO.2: well
JEON NO.2: i say "left" when rlly i mean "i threw all her shit out of the window and into the swimming pool and locked her out"
JEON NO.2: she screamed at me a bit and tried to set lily on my ass
JEON NO.2: but
JEON NO.2: i was prepared
JEON NO.2: 😎😎
JEON NO.2: i barricaded the dog flap
JEON NO.2: 😎😎😎😎
JEON NO.2: haneul screamed a bit more, saying she's had enough of my immaturity
JEON NO.2: and then she got a taxi and fucked right off
JEON NO.2: blondie, your plan of continuously pissing her adamant ass off has worked and now
JEON NO.2: im single
JEON NO.2: and ready to mingle
JEON NO.2: ;)))))
JEON NO.2: man we gotta celebrate
JEON NO.2: lets get some fancy ass wine and some of those lil canapés thingies
happiness for junghoon surges through the entirety of taehyung's body –– the boy's glad to know that the younger has finally washed his hands clean of such toxicity also known as choi haneul.
JEON NO.2: oh n i think ill tell jiminie and kook hyung the thing i told you about
JEON NO.2: it's sorta useless to say it after so long but eh i guess i just wanna get it off my chest already
JEON NO.2: can you help me arrange a date and time for us to all meet up?
JEON NO.2: but don't tell jiminie hyung we're meeting up tho cause he won't come if he knows im gonna be there
JEON NO.2: gotta go — i was waiting for my mcdonalds and she's here now :')
JEON NO.2: yooOo the cashier's hella cute
laughing at junghoon's messages, taehyung steps off the last step of the staircase and pockets his phone. a grin on his face as he walks into the living room area, heading over to his friends after he dumps his letters in the bin.
"hey, where's you been?" jungkook asks him when taehyung comes to stand by his side, subtly slipping his palm into his. taehyung, smiling, tilts his head slightly so he could rest his head on jungkook's shoulder and hums out a "oh, nowhere. i was just reminiscing a little upstairs."
curious, jungkook quirks a dark eyebrow, "and what were you reminiscing?"
"hm? oh, nothing much –– just remembered that time when you seemed to have become an octopus overnight and hugged the fuck out of me—"
"hey!! we promised not to speak of that!"
taehyung laughs in reply.
DEAR JUNGKOOK–AH,
i lie besides you now and i think back to how afraid i was. i think back to how afraid i was to acknowledge the erratic beating of my heart was for you. i think back to how afraid i was of losing myself within those eyes that glinted a dangerous gold in the summer sunlight. i think back to how afraid i was when we kissed for the first time and how my mind was utterly contaminated with wanting to kiss you again.
(you might not have felt it but i definitely felt the jolt of red electricity coursing through my veins, travelling straight for my weak heart that had nervously cowered then behind my ribcage)
i lie besides you now and i think how happy i am now. i think how happy i am to know that if i were to place my palm upon your broad chest, i would feel your heart beat strongly for mine in similar manner. i think how happy i am to be able to cast myself into your obsidian eyes and lose all sense of rationality within me, whilst understanding that im in safe hands (despite that dangerous glint in your eyes). i think how happy i am to know that you too feel that hot rush of energy within your body.
i lie besides you now and smile slightly at your peacefully sleeping form, wondering how ive managed to claim you as mine and how you've managed to claim me as yours despite our one hundred differences.
im glad we've gotten past them and ended up where we are now, baby.
—love, your bun.
[THE END]
ONE: THANK YOU
tbh, i love road trip so much. i think it reigns supreme over the sleeping series; only because ive invested a whole year into this book. don't get me wrong though: i love my twin babies (sleeping arrangements + partners) but road trip just displays how ive become confident with my words and grown as a writer and :') im just super happy with the outcome of this book.
i hope you've had just as much fun reading this as ive had writing this.
thank you.
TWO: NAMJOON'S REACTION
one more thing! i forgot to include namjoon's reaction to taekook and i honestly cannot be fucked to type it all out in legible sentences as it's likes 3am over here, so imma just summarise what i think would've happened;
namjoon's a good hyung, he understands that love is something inevitable and it's not jungkook's fault for falling; he can't punish him for it. and he can't really fire jungkook for disobeying him because the boy's made the decision of letting taehyung go — a difficult decision he didn't have to make but did so for taehyung and namjoon both.
namjoon just doesn't have the heart to tell him to forget about taehyung so he comforts the younger, sighing as he tells him to take it easy for a few months and hopefully come back with his mind free of kim taehyung.
THREE: SMUT
i did say a while ago that i will probably include a smut chapter at the end as an extra but lol, sorry, im not gonna to create one since my smut skills suck. i did try tho!! look, here's a lil something i drafted;
taehyung holds his breath when he feels the younger gently nudge his thighs apart, indicating taehyung to spread his legs a little more and make himself utterly vulnerable to jungkook's dark gaze. biting his lip, taehyung follows the boy's soundless instructions and settles his kneecaps a small bit further away than they were before.
a tremor runs down taehyung's spinal cord when he feels warm palms press themselves against his hips, fingertips digging into honey coloured skin and blunt nails creating crescent shaped marks. taehyung gasps, fingers trembling and heart beating fast with anticipation, when he feels the younger's tongue languidly mouth at the cotton of his calvin klein panties, directly above his perineum. cotton abrasive against his sensitive skin, taehyung's thighs threaten to give out then and there when jungkook draws away, chuckling quietly against his skin when taehyung whimpers.
the boy's hands slip from their placement on taehyung's hips to his ass, one hand playfully squeezing the flesh as his other hand concentrates on pushing the fabric aside and revealing where taehyung's feeling most vulnerable at the moment.
"c'mon, bun," the name which jungkook normally uses as term of endearment now sounds downright filthy on his tongue, "i thought you wanted to taste my cock?" jungkook murmurs condescendingly soft against his skin as his fingertips graze dangerously close to taehyung's hole.
biting down on his lip, taehyung leans forwards, folding himself over jungkook's toned torso until his mouth was directly parallel to the younger's cock, breathing hard as his fingers skitter about nervously, unsure on how to pleasure the younger, 'cause no matter how many times they do it, it still feels like the first for taehyung each time.
understanding the inexperienced boy's apprehension, jungkook hums a quiet "it's okay, babe. you do what feels comfortable, yeah?"
"o–okay."
swallowing his uncertainty, taehyung curls his palm gently round the boy's erection, tentatively dragging his hand upwards and downwards before leaning down further, opening his mouth and licking a slow strip up from the base of his boyfriend's cock to the tip. his umber coloured eyes lid slightly at jungkook groaning quietly against his skin, encouraging his ministrations by mumbling a "fuck, tae" and hurriedly tugging taehyung's panties over the curve of his ass, eliciting a breathy whine from the older.
;)
lmao
[edited]
FOUR: JUNGHOON X JIMIN ???
i'm surprised by how many questions i get regarding not making junghoon and jimin at the end of road trip and ??? isn't it obvious? in my opinion i don't think they'd work out. why? because of this:
1. junghoon just left haneul and i think he's the sort of person who'd want to figure himself out, take time to think about what he's done and hasn't done.
2. in the year they broke up, a lot of things have happened to them, changing them. for example, junghoon was into sexual activity and jimin wasn't as will not be into it, what with him being asexual.
i hope that clears up any confusion. even though it's fiction, i'd like it if you could look at my works realistically, and what isn't realistic is making junghoon and jimin a thing. it's up to you to think about what happens to junghoon; does he fall in love with somebody or not? i've actually hinted that he does have a love interest (; it's a certain mcdonalds cashier named bomi.
forever thankful, sharmila <3
p.s remember to love yourself!