•Family Man• {TK}

3.

Making his way back to town, after his unsuccessful visit to NYC, Taehyung struggled with the map he found in the glovebox, trying to find his "house" again. He sees a man throwing his garbage away and decides to ask him for directions. Parking to the side, he rolls his window down and shouts over the clinking and shaking of the van.

"Excuse me! Do you know where Harrison Street is?!"

The man looks at Taehyung with relieved face before shouting towards the house behind him.

"Hobi! Yoongi! I found Taehyung!"

The guy coerced Taehyung out of his vehicle who staggered confused with the man who dragged him into the house. Inside, two man that are drinking in the kitchen smile and wave at him as they both continue to a room in the back of the house.

"Where you been, Taehyung? You look terrible. Truth is I expected you," says the guy from the garbage cans who steps aside and watches Taehyung with a worried smile. "Jungkook called and asked if I knew where you were, so..." he huffed before showing off his room behind to cut the awkward silence.

"I put the Barcalounger in the center of the room. It's throwing everybody off. What do you think?"

"It's a great room. Great room," Taehyungs answers stiffly and vaguely.

The guy laughs awkwardly. "You and me buddy, we know how to live, huh? Come on," he attempts to grab Taehyungs arm who steps away from him.

"Come on, Taehyung," he tries again but almost gets hit in the face because Taehyung put his fists up at him in warning.

"Come on, buddy. Take your seat," the guy smiles with his hands up and walks behind the bar as Taehyung slowly walks to the bar stool and sits down.

"Are you okay?", he asks worriedly. "I mean you take off Christmas morning and you don't tell anyone where you're going."

"We're friends?", Taehyungs asks.

"Talk to me," the guy plead softly while getting them both a drink.

"I'm kinda having a bad day," Taehyung says chugging the drink back.

"You know, I read somewhere that the suicide rate doubles during the holiday. What am I saying that for? You don't wanna hear that. Come on. Is it...Is it trouble at work?"

"I...I don't think so."

"Well, it's not Jungkook, is it?", the guy asks suspiciously. When Taehyung looks up slowly, debilitated, he takes that as a "yes" for conformation. "You see, huh? It's like we're inside each other's heads."

"Jungkooks my husband," Taehyung says incredulously. He rubs his face before folding his fingers along his nose and stares at the man. Feeling like he's falling in an endless black hole, tumbling towards the unknown.

"Just keep saying it over and over again, Taehyung, like a mantra. Keep saying it."

Hobi, Yoongi, and the guy from outside who turned out be Jimin, lead Taehyung through the backyard to his house across the street.

"Look, you know, you fit the profile exactly in your house, kids, financial responsibilities. You start thinking this isn't the life I dreamt about. Where's the romance you know? Where's the joie de vivre? Suddenly every lingerie ad in the Newark Star Ledger represents a life that you can't have," Jimin says as Hobi and Yoongi nod along.

"There's just two kids right?", Taehyungs asks Yoongi, skeptical.

"Ahh, sometimes it feels like you gave up the whole world. We know that," Yoongi says before Hobi pushes them to continue. "But look what you got. Look at that; four bedrooms, two and a half baths, a partially furnished basement, and good kids."