Lifetime

Something More

I was sure my inebrity would make for especially vivid, intense dreaming but I slept like a log, any dreams forgotten by the time I woke the following afternoon. There was a dull ache in my head and my body just felt heavy. I could hear Taehyung and Jungkook, their voices a whisper from down the hallway and their words too muffled to make out. I laid in bed for another hour, willing myself through the hangover and into whatever waited for me outside the door.

I washed my face and brushed my teeth, the sudden silence when my door creaked open letting me know that they'd halted their conversation. Still in my night shirt and with hair that was a bundled mess on my head, I made my way to the living room worried and with an odd hint of excitement.

Taehyung sat on the couch, his legs crossed and packed into a blanket so that only his face showed. "Introducing the top kisser in all of Italy! I had so much fun last night." He beamed, taking on the tone of an announcer.

Jungkook shook his head from where he sat on one of the barstools, laughing under his breath. "I told you not to say that."

I wanted to crawl back to my room, but something about his comment felt like he was trying to break the ice after kissing a friend, like a scenario where we could move on and get back to that.

"Maybe I'll make you duel for the claim to my best kisser in Italy." I joked back. I had to live with them, and walking on eggshells wouldn't help so I leaned on Taehyung's flirtatious nature.

Taehyung chuckled but Jungkook was back to his typical serious persona, a hand curled over his mouth and eyes intense on me.

"So did you think about our talk, about the best case?" He wasted little time getting to the point.

I took the seat next to Taehyung where I knew I'd feel calmer, tucking my legs under me and pulling my shirt over my knees. "I can't choose between you." I clarified, looking back and forth between them.

Taehyung scooched closer to me. "What if you don't have to? What if you could choose both?" He held a hand out with the proposition.

The laugh that fell from my lips was an automatic response. In the multiple scenarios I'd been working through since the night, the thought hadn't crossed my mind. Sure, I occasionally ventured into imagining risque moments with the both of them, but it remained a fantasy in my head. "I might need another drink for this." My heart was suddenly racing at the idea.

I kept my eyes forward, immediately unable to look at them with the crowd of questions in my head. Jungkook made a sound of dissatisfaction at my initial response. "You can just say no."

"You told me to think about saying yes so let me think." I countered, his impatience rubbing me the wrong way. "How would it work?" I asked, familiar with the idea of non-monogamy but never having been this close to it.

"Jungkook and I would both be in a relationship with you." Taehyung kept his answer simple, my follow-up question prompt.

"And you two?" I wondered, the smack of Jungkook's lips making me turn my attention fully to Taehyung.

"We would only be with you." He replied.

I was tempted to say yes right then, but Jungkook's attitude wasn't helping and I needed to feel confident that the situation wouldn't become complicated. "Have you ever done anything like this before?" I questioned.

Taehyung cleared his throat. "We tried it once before, but it didn't work out."

"Elaborate." I requested, needing this response to be more detailed than the rest.

"A girl who was interested in both of us suggested it a few years ago but it didn't last long. It was new for all of us and we didn't really talk through it before we jumped in so it got messy." He acknowledged, looking over my shoulder to Jungkook.

I shook my head. "See, that's what I want to avoid. I don't want to get into something that's going to damage your friendship with each other."

"Our friendship will never be a problem." Jungkook interjected.

"She was jealous of our friendship. That was the problem." Taehyung finished explaining.

I turned so that I could split my focus between them, looking at Jungkook with my next question. "And neither of you will get jealous of the other with me?" I raised my eyebrows, Junkook looking back at me like I'd just accused him of something.

"No, we don't." He returned, crossing his arms.

As irritable as he was, Taehyung was just the opposite, balancing his harshness with softness. "Sometimes at night, we sit up and talk about how much we like you. There's no jealousy and even though we're just sharing this with you, we've already been talking about it for a couple of weeks."

When I glanced back at Jungkook he appeared shy, looking down from me as he blushed at Taehyung's easy confession. I was flushed too, wondering what I would have heard if I was a fly on the wall in their bedroom. "It's hard to picture being with two people at once when things have been hard before being with just one person." I admitted. Part of me felt like being with them should have been an easy decision, I'd get double the love and affection, but I'd also have to accept the flaws of two people and well, Jungkook was already bullheaded enough for two.

On cue his chair screeched against the hardwood as he stood. "Like I said, you can just say no. I'm going to paint." He rolled his eyes, the door to the apartment closing with a slam behind him.

"And he calls me dramatic." Taehyung chuckled, sitting back comfortably on the couch. I tried to stand but he grabbed onto my wrist to stop me from following after Jungkook. "Give him a little time to cool off."

"I don't get him. He's acting the exact opposite of how he was with me last night." I huffed.

The blanket that covered Taehyung had fallen so that it pooled around his hips, an understanding smirk on his lips as he explained. "I don't think he slept last night and he's probably mad that you're unsure. He never makes a move without being sure about it and he's been very sure about you since you moved in. He's already basically with you in his head. He's got an entire list of things he wants us to show you in the country, food to make, trips to ta–"

I cut him off with a hand over his mouth, feeling giddy at his disclosure. "Okay, as much as I want to hear all of that I know he's probably mad at you too just for telling me that you talk about me before bed." I giggled.

He kept my hand in his as he pulled it from his mouth. "What's holding you back?" He asked, his thumb rubbing the back of my knuckles and look in his eyes letting me know that my doubt wasn't easy for him either.

"That it's something new, something I've never done before." I revealed.

His brow pulled together and eyes squinted in thought. "You're good at doing new things, Seline. You moved to Chicago, went to graduate school, and you moved to Italy where you knew nothing or no one."

I nodded. "Can I ask you one more thing?"

"Anything." He leaned forward.

"You and Jungkook, I know you're not together romantically but you also seem like something more than best friends. Am I just reading it wrong?" I followed. I felt a little embarrassed asking, but they'd been so coy and jokey every time it came up.

Taehyung had a response at the ready, like he'd spent a lot of time contemplating their connection. "What do you think about when I say intimacy?"

"How's that relevant?" I replied, worried that he was about to give me a half answer again.

"Most people have a limited view of intimacy that doesn't go beyond the physical. Jungkook and I have the stuff people don't think about automatically, emotional, mental, spiritual. I know I'll spend the rest of my life with Jungkook." He described. "We're just missing that physical part and you fill that for both of us."

My mouth pulled into a frown. "So I'm here for physical intimacy?"

"Yes, but it's more than that with you too." His bottom lip tucked under his teeth.

"Okay," I tugged at his chin, my lips light against his as we moved toward each other, "this is me saying yes by the way."

His mouth fluttered to my cheek, rubbing against my skin softly as he spoke. "Good, you should tell Jungkook. I'll make lunch."