Hide & Seek ➤ Taekook/Vkook

Chapter 1

𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒃𝒂𝒕, 𝑰'𝒎 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒚 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒃𝒂𝒕
𝑰 𝒔𝒂𝒚 𝑰 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒇 𝑰 𝒅𝒐?
'𝑪𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒄𝒓𝒖𝒆𝒍𝒕𝒚 𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒔
𝑰'𝒗𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒕 𝒂 𝒉𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒏-𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒔 𝑰 𝒂𝒍𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖

*****

"Yah, Jeon Jungkook!"

Jimin's squeaky voice came from behind, edged with irritation.

"You did that on purpose, didn't you?"

Jungkook didn't even bother pretending he didn't know what he was being accused of; he knew they both knew he knew exactly what he just did. He rather pressed the tape harder against the wall for good measure, so that Jimin wouldn't have any doubt that it had indeed been on purpose and that he didn't feel guilty at all.

"You wanted help." He shrugged after climbing down from the stool. "I helped."

"That's not helping." Jimin glared at him and then back at the lopsided 'Welcome Home' banner, one edge taped noticeably higher than the other– impossible to ignore. "That's sabotage!"

"Glad it's obvious." Jungkook flatly said before heading back to the couch and dropping onto it with a tiny, nearly-unconscious pout on his lips, phone back in his hands.

"You're being an ass!"

He didn't look up, only put up a lazy, nonchalant V-sign with his free hand, "I learned from the best."

He heard Jimin let out an aggravated grunt at that, clearly understanding who he meant. The stool screeched against the floor as the guy himself climbed on it now to quickly fix the banner, struggling with it for a second, arms stretched and balance wobbly, but he stubbornly fought the disadvantage of his height for the sake of his best friend's homecoming party.

Candy Crush resumed on Jungkook's screen, bright, cheerful sounds floating between the chaos of the living room— Hoseok bickering with Namjoon over the colour combination of the balloons, Yoongi making up some bullshit theory about 'balloons absorbing sound differently depending on colour' while tweaking with the sound system, earning pretty giggles from Lisa as she draped the fairy lights over the curtains.

None of them, except Namjoon, had ever even met Taehyung in person, but still they were here, caring enough to invest so much time and effort on welcoming someone they only knew through secondhand stories and the FaceTime screens of Seokjin and Jimin, on someone who hadn't earned any of this, didn't deserve it.

Although nothing about this chaos and celebration felt new to Jungkook.

Even the first time his parents had brought Taehyung to Seoul, into this house, there had been a celebration. He had been too small to remember much of it; only that it had felt wrong. Really, what had been there to celebrate? His playroom had stopped being solely his, his shelves rearranged and pushed aside to accommodate new shelves full of new toys that didn't belong to him. His mother had bought a bunch of new stuff, but for the first time she had told him, "Those are not for you, honey," albeit gently and apologetically. The larger room across his bedroom—the space four year old Jungkook used to associate with the warmth and familiarity of his parents—had suddenly become off-limits, because they had moved to a room downstairs to renovate it for some kid yet to come.

Jungkook's peaceful home had started changing, filled with chaos, even before Taehyung had ever stepped inside it.

All because Taehyung's own home in Daegu had been too volatile back then for him to grow up peacefully at, his parents drowning in losses after multiple failed business deals, too busy salvaging whatever had been left to be parents all the time.