love me (me) [vkook/taegguk]

[part six] chapter twenty two - pretty

"Remind me again how it's fair that you're off happily murdering your liver while I'm stuck here in boring, hour-long meetings with–" Taehyung hears a sharp intake of breath. "Your hair's blond."

His face screws up on its own accord, but the words aren't really registering in his brain at the moment, and neither is the soft voice that they're coming out of.

"Brilliant deduction, Watson," he grumbles, rubbing at his recently assaulted eyes.

He's given a wince then. "Sorry, did I wake you? I know how cranky you can get when someone does that."

He responds with a grunt of agreement, because understatement.

And he gets a laugh this time. A laugh that almost makes him think that maybe being abruptly yanked from his dreams of strawberry flavoured clouds and dance battles against aliens wasn't such a bad thing after all.

Almost.

"Did you really dye your hair without Jin-hyung having to threaten you first though? How much more did you have to drink, hyung?"

And that is what snaps him out of his stupor and snaps his eyes open because whomst the fuck. He's not anyone's– "H-Hyung?"

The person on the other end of the call isn't looking at Taehyung as he's busy shaking his hair out now as he appears to be narrowing his eyes at something in the distance.

"Ugh, it's always so dark in here, and I feel like I'm going to trip on my way to the lights."

Said lights suddenly flicker on, and this time, Taehyung is responsible for the sharp intake of breath that resounds.

"You're Jeongguk."

He doesn't know why he said that like he couldn't already tell.

"Brilliant deduction, Watson." Apparently, neither does his brother's best friend, who's grinning back at him, which makes him feel a bit dizzy, even if he is mocking him. "And so the answer to that question is a lot, clearly." Jeongguk adorably mimes a grimace.

Then, he laughs a bit. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

And it catches Taehyung off guard, because not only does the light sound take him back to the soft clouds that he was just dreaming of for a moment, but he hadn't even realised that he'd leaned in closer to Vantae's phone in the last few seconds.

"Sorry." He shakes his head as he mentally slaps himself and backs away. "I just... I forgot how pretty you are." The words are out in the open before his brain has time to catch up to his mouth, but they're not untrue.

It's been a while since he's last seen a photo of Jeongguk, and unlike Vantae with Jimin, Taehyung's never actually spoken to his twin's best friend before (since he doesn't even know that he exists and all), so this is all sort of surreal, and he's kind of wondering if he's still dreaming right now.

Jeongguk dramatically lets out a groan and covers his eyes with a hand. "Ugh, I regret saying anything to you ever."

The words sort of catch Taehyung by surprise, and so does the light blush that's currently travelling up Jeongguk's neck that he can just barely make out, but he guesses that it's an inside joke or something.

"But I will say this..." Jeongguk takes a deep breath before lowering his hand and mumbling, the tiniest hint of a bunny smile stretching his lips, "Mayhaps you look really pretty with your new hair."

He stutters without meaning to. "I– I do?"

The younger nods easily. "You don't usually go for light colours, so it's different, but it definitely suits you, hyungie."

"... T-Thanks," Taehyung stumbles out once more as the word suddenly reminds him of who he is. Or rather, who he's not. He swallows. "I have to go now."

Jeongguk's eyebrows immediately furrow in confusion at the abruptness. "Wait, what?"

"I need to hang up, but it was nice me– talking to you, Jeongguk," Taehyung rushes out before the other can say anything else. "Okay, love you, bye." He promptly ends the call.