tell me the way home | taekook

t h r e e

Jungkook's phone vibrates, and he smiles as soon as he sees the message Namjoon sent. Attached to it is a photo of Yeonjun eating chocolate while sitting on Yoongi's lap and staring attentively into the screen where Yoongi's unfinished song seems to be playing. 'Yeonie will be a musician someday like his cool uncles,' the message says. Jungkook chuckles and sends Namjoon laughing emojis and reminds him not to let Yeonjun eat too much chocolate.

Jungkook then closes the messaging app, only for his eyes to land on the date today. It's May 11. As if fate is playing a prank on him, it's coincidentally the day of his supposed thirteenth anniversary with Taehyung if they were still dating. But that ended a long time ago. The counting stopped. They were only able to celebrate for seven years, and then Jungkook left. There was nothing more to celebrate for.

♦

"Thanks for dropping me off, hyung. Drive safely." Jungkook gives Seokjin a smile, and Seokjin smiles back at him before he drives away, on his way to the clinic to busy himself with his appointments. Jungkook runs inside the studio, eager to start working. The artist seems like a pretty big deal because he has never seen his colleagues so excited before.

Jungkook, out of curiosity, decided to take a peek inside the dressing room to find out who the artist is. The other guys are too busy preparing for the photoshoot to even hold a proper conversation. Jungkook grins when he sees the small gap on the door, making it possible for him to see what's going on inside.

And so he looks on both sides of the hallway to see if anyone is seeing him before he deems it safe enough to take a look inside the room. He gently pulls at the door to widen the gap, only for the door to swing open quite harshly, sending him down to the floor due to the impact.

Jungkook winces as he feels a sharp pain in his palm. He lifts his hand up to see a scrape right there on his palm, most definitely cause by him falling down on the floor.

"Shit, I'm sorry. Are you okay?" a person asks, probably the one responsible for the door being thrown open, and Jungkook lifts his gaze up to finally take a look at who this person is.

And then he freezes.

This was not in his plans for today at all.

"Jungkook?" Taehyung asks, looking at him with wide eyes full of surprise and ever what seems like longing and pain in them. Taehyung's eyes have always been expressive – that didn't change even after all these years.

Jungkook gulps, licking his lower lip nervously and tearing his gaze away. "Sorry. Y-you must have mistaken me for someone else," he mutters as he pulls himself up to his feet and turns away from Taehyung - just like what he did all those years ago. And it's been years, but it still hurts the same. Every time he sees Taehyung's face somewhere, it still hurts to turn away from him. Because years ago, he was able to face Taehyung confidently. He was able to hold Taehyung in his arms and kiss him as much as he wants, and love Taehyung as much as love allows.

Things are different now.

He can't get involved with Taehyung again. He doesn't belong in Taehyung's world. And Yeonjun – Yeonjun doesn't belong there too.

But he wasn't able to run away fast enough because Taehyung suddenly grabs him by the arm and pulls him inside the room. He locks the door behind them and holds Jungkook close to his chest, engulfed in a tight embrace. "Don't lie to me." Taehyung is breathing heavily as if this is such a hard thing for him to do. "I know you, Jungkook. Don't lie to me." If Jungkook didn't know any better, he would've assumed that Taehyung was crying with how shaky his voice is.