When Kim Taehyung's fictional romance with his costar Jeon Jeongguk starts to feel more genuine than anything he accomplished in his entire acting career, he believes it shouldn't be a problem: after all, it's just acting.
But isn't it wrong to be...
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The hardest part about leaving Seattle was leaving Jeongguk behind.
When Taehyung woke up the next morning, stirring in the soft afterglow of intimacy and after-sex, the first thing he opened his eyes to was Jeongguk. It was a strange feeling, the one that blossomed in his chest as his weary limbs stretched at his sides.
In the past, he had woken up to many others in his bed, but something about Jeongguk trapped a chuckle in his throat and made his heart falter.
It was a funny sight. Jeongguk's hair was mussed over his forehead, tangled and overly handled, which was mostly Taehyung's fault. He crushed a pillow close to his bare chest, face buried against it. There was no denying he was vulnerable, somehow more exposed than he was last night. In fact, it was like time had stopped to capture this rare moment of peace in a life as chaotic as theirs.
Taehyung almost reached out to touch his face, to trace the soft, relaxed lines of his cheek bones and the gentle slope of his nose to make sure he was real. Even though they were entangled in one another last night in more ways than one, he still couldn't believe someone as perfectly imperfect as Jeongguk existed.
How could someone with edges so rough and waters so gentle exist? If Taehyung was a disastrous storm, Jeongguk was a passing rain shower— one that was warm and humid but when it clashed against your cheeks, it was like a delicate caress before drying out and leaving a prism of colors in its wake.
But there was another issue at hand. Taehyung realized the time on his phone.
Shit. Taehyung couldn't stay for too long: there was a flight he needed to catch.
So, Taehyung pulled his hand back albeit reluctantly. His fingers curled at his sides while the bed creeked beneath him. Hesitation nipped his lips and he bit back at it. Taehyung didn't want to leave, but if he didn't now, he would definitely be late, and enduring Hoseok's endless nagging for the next eleven hours sounded worse than the cramps spasming in his legs.
Somewhere deep inside of him, he wanted to stay regardless. He wanted to stay and make Jeongguk breakfast. Make him the hot chocolate Jeongguk drank instead of coffee in the mornings and just talk to him, feel his sleepy voice tickle against his jaw and maybe even one of his candid laughs.
But he couldn't. As much as he wanted to, he knew there was somewhere he needed to be, and it wasn't like he was in the position to do so. Dreams only lasted for so long; the reality was waiting for him.
With that, he opted to fix his side of the bed and left him to sleep; Jeongguk needed it.
Before he left, however, Taehyung made sure to let the dogs in. Watching them waddle in and hop on the bed to curl against their owner made him feel a bit more at ease, endeared even to see how normal this must have been for them. They still didn't really like him, but he didn't blame them.
