Quid Pro Quo. TaeKook AU

Still hiring?

"Thank you everyone for coming out today!" The crowd of people cheered "help yourself to any of the free samples, my older brother Jin is at the register waiting to give away free pizza and drinks! We have my best friend Hoseok painting faces by the front window, and the rest of my staff is waiting to meet all of you wonderful people!" I smiled as I spoke through the megaphone, I posed for pictures for the local newspaper, and felt like I could breathe for the first time in months. 

It was all coming together. 

I made my rounds, mingling with people, asking them about the food, about the shop, what they felt like needed improvement, everything to get their input. 

"Kookie!" 

"Kathy!" I jogged over to her and wrapped her in an extra tight hug "I missed you"

"I missed you too!" She smiled wide as we pulled away from each other "this is awesome kook! I'm so proud of you!"

"Thank you" I smiled wide "I'm just happy that it's finally here. I feel like I can breathe again" 

"You deserve it honey" she smiled softly "oh, this is for you" she handed me a big canvas, it was a painting of a cat that looked identical to Scabbers, napping on a table in a restaurant and the flowers on the table behind him were the exact same purple flowers I had sent to Tae. My heart started pounding in my chest 

"I- um.."

"Do you like it?"

"I do" I nodded as my eyes watered "h-how is he?"

"He's..okay" she nodded "he's doing better" 

I nodded and swallowed a lump in my throat "Good" my voice came out strained and I wiped my eyes before a tear could slip out "help yourself to everything okay?" I turned around and walked away before she could respond. I slipped past everyone and went straight to my office with the painting. I knew that Tae had painted it. There's no way that it was anyone else. It was too perfect of a match, like someone else would coincidentally paint a cat identical to Scabbers? That someone could accidentally paint him with the very same flowers? 

No. This was Tae. 

Part of me felt soft and warm and the other part of me wanted to break it to pieces and tell him to fuck hhimself. It isn't fair that after four fucking months he just sends me a fucking painting. I sat in my chair, with the canvas in my hands and went over every single detail, running my fingers over the intricate lines, admiring the colors, the little mistakes that made it all the more perfect. I didn't realize that I was crying as I traced one of the painted petals with my fingers. 

Just when I think everything's going to be okay, I feel like I got bitch slapped in my heart. 

"Kook?" Jin called me as he walked into my office 

"Hey" I shuffled and wiped my tears away as I sat the canvas down 

"You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay" I nodded and cleared my throat "do we still have nails and the hammer?"

"In the closet, why?"

"I have to hang something up" 

At the end of the night, after the cleaning was done, and the shop looked calmer than it had all day, we all sat down and had a few beers to celebrate before locking up. Yoongi followed me out to my car and smiled 

"You did really good today Jungkook, I'm proud of you" 

"Thank you" I smiled 

"For our date..I'll pick you up at six tomorrow?"