just one eternal moment

𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚛𝚝𝚢 𝚎𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝 | Seduce and Destroy - Part 1

-PREMIERE NIGHT-
(BEFORE THE SHOW)

Jimin closes his eyes as if he wants to engrave in his mind the feeling of strength and safeness given by the arms wrapped around his waist and shoulder he is leaning on.

He was overwhelmed by people who fake compliments to each other, use art only for show, see themselves higher than everyone else, plus, flashing lights.

After he needed a moment in the arms of the man he had been watching from afar all night, he pulled the two of them to one of the remote corridors inside the art center and hugged him tightly without waiting.

After staying like this for a while, he steps back from Taehyung's arms, as if he wants to accept the end that he cannot escape. He looks his lover's glowing eyes and can see the worry hidden behind them. 

"Are you sure about this? It's still not too late for us to get out of here."

Jimin smiles bitterly because of Taehyung's soft tone of voice, he nods, "I have to make them remember whose son I am."

Taehyung smiles too, but his is sincere, comforting, "You're just- you, baby, and I'm sure no one has and will ever forget who the glamorous Park Jimin is."

Jimin responds with a bright smile this time but then he suddenly frowns in concern, "You're going to be there when show starts, right? You should be there."

Taehyung tilts his head as if to show that he shouldn't worry, Jimin nods too, then glances at Yoongi, who is keeping watch as they talk. Then he walks towards Yoongi and takes his arm as he leaves his loved one there with the feeling of the little kiss he left on his cheek.

Taehyung still couldn't quite make sense of the thought that he was at the premiere of that bastard's show as he met Jimin's checking gaze while he walking away.

He was just standing in the hallway and wishing that everything he was going through was a joke. After months or even years, he really cares about someone, something, he feels an emotion that he is afraid to even say its name down to his smallest cell, but he had to fight even to continue to have them. Just like he's been doing all his life.

When Jungkook walks into the quiet, wide hallway with two champagne glasses in hand, he lingers his eyes around.

"Did they go back?"

Taehyung nods dejectedly, "Why are you here and not with them?"

"All the snobbish people I've run away from all my life are gathered in one building right now, what should I have done walking around? They just make me sick to my stomach."

Taehyung involuntarily smiles, "Sometimes I forget you're one of them too, Chaebol Jeon Jungkook."

Jungkook rolls his eyes as he hands one of the glasses to his friend, "As you should because I'm not."

While Taehyung continues to smile, he takes the glass and brings it to his lips to take a sip, but realizing that it will not be enough, he drinks it all in one gulp. When he lowers the glass without even making a gesture, he unbuttons a few buttons of his shirt that covers his neck, as if all the weight in his heart is gathered in those few buttons and is wrapped around his throat.

"Shall we go back too?"

Jungkook reluctantly purses his lips, "I hate this place."

"So do I," Taehyung mutters as he wanders his eyes through the magnificent columns of the art center that he used to admire but knows will only bring back bad memories now, "I've lost my passion for this place, like I've for everything I love."

Although Jungkook feels momentary remorse for what he said, he pulls himself together and hugs him from behind, resting his chin on his shoulder, "If only I was seeing paintings of you here, it would be my favorite place on earth EVER and- I think it would be the same for Jimin too."

Taehyung takes a deep breath when he hears the name of the man he loves, "He's probably going crazy with stress right now."

"Even though he avoids expressing it because his need for him to be there outweighs, Jimin is still mad at Yoongi for wanting to oppose him doing it, he really cares about being with you, Tae."

Taehyung thinks about what he heard for a while, then comes out of his friend's arms and turns towards him.

"Kook?"

"Yes, love?"

"Why couldn't we have anything we wanted without fighting for it? I just.." Taehyung says, not even sure if he's using the right words, "I feel so, so tired, Kook, and I can say Jimin feels it a lot more than I do. It's just- why?"

"My baby," Jungkook presses his lips together not knowing what he has to say, not even sure if he has an answer to say, "You know I can't give you an exact answer but you just need to know that you're not alone like in the battles you used to fight, you have the love of the person you love and now it's your greatest strength, always remember that, okay?"

"He loves me." Taehyung mutters to himself as if trying to remind himself, leaning back on this fact.

Jungkook tries to hold back the tears that come with the strange feeling of seeing his best friend's lost feelings in his words, eyes again, "Let's go, I don't want to miss your dream boy turning into everyone's nightmare."

While the two of them are walking side by side, Taehyung is still repeating the same sentence in his mind, and when he comes to the end of the corridor and steps into the grand entrance, these three words are erased from his mind as if they were dust.

Jimin is standing so strong with a tight arm wrapped around his waist and a bunch of reporters piled in front of him trying to take pictures.

Taehyung freezes, can't believe how Jimin stood upright while he was so distracted by what he saw.

While the artist's throat was choking, Jimin stood without flinching against the flashing lights in his face, posing with the man he was trying to erase from his life.

Taehyung wouldn't really be able to recognize this mask Jimin wore if he hadn't seen the hard times he's been through, his tears, the broken pieces that he's hiding from everyone.

The way he felt that he had to look so strong somehow hurts Taehyung so undescribably much.

Taehyung feels his stomach straining when he looks at the brazen smiling face of the blonde man next to the dancer. He wanted to pull the hand touching him from his waist and break it, break it then make that fucker beg until he wants to die. To take Jimin out of this place by his hand and hide him forever where no one can find.

He clenches his fist, not knowing what to do to keep himself from losing his temper, but he doesn't even realize it until Jungkook wraps his hand around his fist and whispers to stay calm. But his best friend's voice reached him with nothing but a hum.

Suddenly, the gaze that found his eyes through the flashes seemed to stretch out their hands for him to return to the moment.

Jimin seemed to touch him with his eyes, reminding him that he needed to regain control. It is as if he's saying that 'only you can see the man behind these eyes, who is both cowardly and full of strength, both offended and resilient.'

Taehyung understood this even without hearing anything. And, those few seconds of contact were eternally etched in Taehyung's weary mind.

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