Hide & Seek ➤ Taekook/Vkook

Chapter 1

"Jungkook!"

Jimin shouted at the younger boy playing games on his phone while everybody else was busy running around the living room to give the finishing touches to the decorations.

Taehyung was coming back to Seoul today and his friends wouldn't go without throwing him a homecoming party, although Jungkook thought Taehyung, the shittiest dickhead, didn't deserve that. That's why he was quietly sitting on the couch, minding his own business while he let the others do as they pleased.

"I told you to put this banner up on the wall like half an hour ago." Jimin walked up to stand in front of him, angrily crossing his arms over his chest. Jungkook lazily looked up at him, knowing that no matter how much the older pretended, he could never convince Jungkook that he was actually angry with him.

"Do I really have to participate? I thought my presence was enough." Jungkook frowned, looking back down at his phone to carry on playing piano tiles.

"No, it's not." Jimin snatched his phone away from his hands, pouting as he said, "Tae's coming back. You should help make his homecoming party special."

"When it's technically not even his home." Jungkook murmured, almost scoffing, but he knew it well that according to his parents, it was Taehyung's home just as much as Jungkook's.

It all had started with his mother being to-die-for best friends with Taehyung's mom since their high school days in Gwangju. They had gone to the same university in Seoul, fallen in love with their now-husbands there and some years after their graduation, they had gotten married in the same year.

While Mr. & Mrs. Jeon had decided to take their time in properly settling down before anything else, Mr. & Mrs. Kim had their first child, Seokjin, and then four years later, their second child, Taehyung. On the other hand, after five years of their happy marriage, the Jeon's had brought their first and only child, Jungkook, to the world.

Jungkook had his mother nostalgically repeat the story so many times that the boy could clearly narrate it without fumbling. How after years of endless hard work, when Jungkook's dad's business had been thriving, Taehyung's dad had been having a hard time due to multiple failed business deals, facing major loss; how both Mr. & Mrs. Kim had had to get engaged in getting the business back to stable, leading them to not being able to take care of their two sons, especially Taehyung because he was five and needed proper looking after.

And how the then nine year old Seokjin had stayed with his parents while Jeon Chan-mi, being Kim Yoona's 'best friend', had brought Taehyung to Seoul with her and almost adopted him, the woman being like Taehyung's second mother since then and Jungkook's home, his home.

"Kookie, you can't be serious!" Jimin squeaked, looking dumbfounded. He sat down beside the younger and said, "He was fifteen when you two last met. It's been so long. Don't hold grudges."

"I don't understand why you guys are suddenly expecting me to be okay with him." Jungkook scrunched his eyebrows, tilting his head, "You might easily forgive and forget what your dear old best friend did but that's not how I am. Sorry to disappoint you but I can't pretend that I'm happy he is coming back." He didn't try to hide his annoyance from the older guy.

It always made Jungkook wonder how the sweetest and the nicest guy like Park Jimin could be best friends with an asshole like Taehyung. Maybe it was the fact that they were of the same age and went to the same school and both liked SNSD, but Jungkook would never understand why Jimin was almost blind to Taehyung's wrongdoings.

He still remembered when he was thirteen (Taehyung being fourteen at that time), Namjoon had stolen his father's soju and brought it over to Jimin's home to know what it tasted like. Whereas, Jungkook had been the only one to not even touch it, Taehyung had gotten 'tipsy' as he couldn't handle it. Jungkook had expected Jimin to be mad but what he'd rather done was call Mrs. Jeon and lie that he wanted Taehyung to stay over at his house for a movie-night. Jimin had managed the situation in such a way that neither his nor Jungkook's parents got to know what Taehyung had done.