Hide & Seek ➤ Taekook/Vkook

Chapter 31

𝑊ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢
𝑊ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝐼'𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑏𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑡 ℎ𝑖𝑚 𝑡𝑜
𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡'𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑚𝑦 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑡?
𝐻𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑚𝑦 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑟𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑡.

*****

[⚠️T/W : The following part of this chapter contains mentions of child abuse, mostly psychological maltreatment, and it can be triggering for some readers. They can scroll to the part where I put ︎☔︎☔︎☔︎ sign to skip. I'll put a quick harmless summary there, so you don't miss anything. Happy reading <3]

Taehyung was slightly unsteady on his feet as he walked out of the elevator — which had finally been repaired last week after the residents had sent in nearly hundreds of complaints — tottering through the dim hallway to the door of his apartment and fumbling inside his pockets for the key with a frown of exhaustion on his face.

He shouldn't have gotten carried away and let Seojoon make him chug so much soju.

Well, what else could he have done anyway? The guy had been upset, reasonably so, after finding out that Taehyung was resigning. "I finally found a friend in this goddamn place and you're fucking leaving?!" — had huffed the bartender, pressing his lips in a thin line to cause a dimple to flash, and as a compensation, Taehyung had to sit down with him for a long round of cheap soju after their shifts had been over and gossip about the guy's annoying neighbours and new roommate who was 'a wholeass daddy~'.

With droopy eyelids, Taehyung inserted the key in the hole with a yawn, not that sleepy yet, just tired.

But his eyes went wide open when he twisted the key and didn't feel anything click. He repeated the action with much more attention to it this time, but still nothing.

How the hell was his apartment unlocked? He was certain he had locked it properly before leaving. What the fuck was going-

Before he would take out the bottle opener from his bag (a ridiculous choice of weapon for self-defence) and prowl inside, the door opened on its own. Well, not actually on its own, Taehyung was welcomed with his brother standing on the other side, eyes immediately filling with relief at the sight of his younger brother.

"Oh god, here you are!" Seokjin breathed out, broad shoulders slouching, "Taehyung-ah, why haven't you been picking up my-"

"Jesus fucking Chriiist..." Taehyung drawled tiredly, eyeing the older with a look full of derision. Really though, how did he forget that Seokjin had a spare key to his apartment? "Are you for real, hyung? It's literally two in the morning. Woooow."

Brushing past Seokjin on the way, he dragged himself inside and nonchalantly made a beeline for the washroom after throwing his bag on the couch.

He couldn't believe his brother. He couldn't believe that he had no sense of privacy whatsoever, in his own goddamn apartment. He couldn't believe that instead of relaxing on his bed and cherishing all the unimaginably good things that had happened to him in the past twenty-four hours, he would have to deal with this now in the middle of the night.