TAEKOOK / TIGER LILY

o5.

Taehyung isn't given nearly enough time to ponder over Seokjin's reaction to him knowing Jungkook, as, by the time he's finally granted a minute alone, it's nighttime, and he can hear his window creaking open.

As if worried Jungkook would come to him and coax him away, Seokjin had spent the remainder of the afternoon glued to Taehyung, helping him cut down the last of the kindling, and then pretending to need help in the kitchen, preparing the dinner they ate on the patio beneath the slew of jazz-music and the breathing of the sunset, inhaling pink and exhaling yellow.

He supposes Namjoon will probably be told about Taehyung having interacted with Jungkook, as even the boy himself had agreed that he knew Taehyung's uncle. Still, the subject wasn't brought up again, and it was stored away in the cabinet of subjects not to touch on.

Now, Taehyung sits up in his chair, having been sat at the vanity, still in his dungarees, as Jungkook had come earlier than usual. The sky is still not as dark as it could be, just a pale sense of grey, with the moon hanging from the pretty fingers of the stars, casting sopping shadows along their land. It was almost as if Jungkook was restless, like he wanted to get there as fast as possible, and it doesn't give the brunette enough time to consider the immense change in his demeanour as soon as Seokjin had appeared.

"Hey." He almost startles himself, as he gets through the window and doesn't immediately see Taehyung, as he's not sat in his bed as he expects. Before the brunette can reply, Jungkook is pacing toward him, with his big, earnest eyes that ripple with star shine, like they soak up all the intergalactic twists of space, like they themselves are clusters of the heavens. "I'm sorry about earlier." He says, as he comes to stand directly in front of Taehyung, who turns in his seat as soon as the footsteps creak toward him.

He looks up at the boy, and he sees how messy he looks, with his smear of charcoal eyeliner across his eyelids, and the stamp of gold glitter adhered to one of his cheeks. He's wearing hooped earrings, and they shake as he dangles his head downward. Forcing himself to keep to the subject at hand, Taehyung frowns, and he demands, "do you want to explain what exactly happened earlier?"

Jungkook, as if taken aback by the fact the other didn't just blindly forgive him, widens those doe-eyes, covered in the silvery ink of liner. "Nothing, I just— your uncles don't like me very much." He says, and his mouth tries to smile, but it's awkward and phoney and it makes him look strangely guilty.

Taehyung's brow cocks, and he purposefully tilts his head to the side, frowns. Jungkook's eyes skim across the openness of his neck, glistening slightly, pink with sunburn that shall bleed into a tan. "Why not?"

Jungkook's tongue pokes the inside of his cheek, and he looks like a child being scolded. Arms coming to cross over his chest, he tries not to seem so grouchy. It doesn't work and he looks painfully bothered by the question. He doesn't answer it. A silence stretches before them.

The brunette huffs and he turns away.

Seeming to mistake Taehyung's mild aggravation for wanting to ignore him, Jungkook immediately grasps at his bare shoulder, and forces him to face him again. In expedition, he unleashes a response, a form of explanation, "They caught me in here once." He says, "me and my friends came in here one time and... they found us." The boy's frantic-ness in this moment must be the reason for how easily he misreads Taehyung's facial expression as something of disapproval. So, quickly, he adds, "No one was staying here. They'd had this place done up for a while, and no one was here, so we just..."

"Thought you could break in?"

Jungkook nods, lamely. His shoulders sag and he sighs, his own hand still cupping Taehyung's bones. "I'm really fucking this up, aren't I?"