Strawberries & Dreams | Taekook |

Chapter Four

The first part of their concert tour, the South America part, had ended the day before and Jungkook heaved a sigh of relief. Eleven concerts in six different countries and jet hopping from one hotel to the next with little to no real breaks had already taken a toll on some of the members of the band. Jin had problems with his hip after he had slipped on the stage in Rio during a downpour and Yoongi's shoulder pains had raised its ugly head again. Jimin had caught a nasty bug that made him growl instead of sing his usual falsetto notes. Luckily Joon, Hobi and Jungkook himself had no issues so far but postponed didn't mean there wasn't still a potential for injury in the weeks to come. So they had two glorious days of downtime in some exclusive Brazilian resort before their North American concert tour started in New York City. Aside from sleeping, a dip in the ocean and eating, Jungkook spent his vacation thinking about Taehyung.

One of the highlights of his days was the myriad of little messages from Taehyung. Sometimes they were as short as him wishing Jungkook a good night or a good concert experience, and then on other days, he got texts about new songs Taehyung had discovered or long rants about the low market prices for apples.

On the flight from Brazil, Jungkook had asked for a selca, feeling a bit awkward at first, but he wanted to know how Taehyung was doing. He almost immediately received the most adoringly cute selca he had ever seen. Blonde uneven bangs almost obscured Tae's eyes as he gazed into the camera right in the middle of one of his strawberry hoop houses. Jungkook thought it looked as if Tae had whacked at his own bangs and when he got a confirmation from Tae, he had to smile. He then promptly set the selca as his home screen.

About a week later, after their practise runs in Chicago, Jimin whose voice was almost back to normal picked up Jungkook's phone when he saw a push notification.

"Oh, hot guy," Jimin said and wiggled his eyebrows. "Are you holding out on us, Kookie?"

Jungkook felt a blush rushing into his face. "Give back the phone, Hyung," he said and held out his hand.

"No, no, no, no," Jimin teased and danced out of the younger man's reach, his raspberry red hair bobbing cheerfully. "Everybody, look at this hottie here." He held up the phone and waved. Jin and Namjoon, the eldest, and the leader of the group respectively, strolled over.

"Which bunny of the week do you want to show us this time?" Referring to Jungkook's horde of bunny rabbit photos he usually rotated as home screens, Jin wiped his brow with a towel and captured Jimin's hand.

"Oh!" he wheezed and looked at Jungkook in surprise.

"Indeed. A very special bunny," Jimin grinned and showed the screen to Namjoon, too.

"Jimin ..." Jungkook growled.

"Who is this guy?" Namjoon asked and the youngest member of their band hung his head in frustration. First, he had forgotten how curious and gossipy his band mates were and second, he had never indicated that he might be interested in guys in all the five years since their debut. He knew that Jimin and Yoongi had an on-and-off-again relationship and he was pretty sure Jin and Joonie were fuck buddies which wasn't so unusual within groups in the industry due to the strict no-dating regulations and rules they had. As far as he was concerned Hobi seemed to be the only straight guy in their little merry band of brothers if the use of various hot female model photos as loading screens on his phone and computer were any indication.

"He is a friend," Jungkook said.

"And?" Jin inquired teasingly. "Do we have to have that discussion about the birds and the bees?" To which Jimin added: "Though a hot boy like him can probably explain it so much better in person ..."