Midas Touch ➸ Taekook

- Forty-fourth -

Taehyung pushed open the door to his hotel suite, looking tired but focused. The room's subdued lighting bathed the space in a calm, almost deceptive atmosphere. Logan, sitting nonchalantly on the sofa, was the first to raise his head. Yoongi was leaning against the table, absent-mindedly leafing through a book he'd found on one of the shelves, while Hoseok and Jimin were chatting quietly by the window. As soon as Taehyung entered, all eyes converged on him.

"So?" Logan asked immediately, breaking the silence with a low, measured voice.

Taehyung placed his coat on the back of a chair before sitting down heavily. He ran a hand over his shoulder, the descent from the roof not having gone as well for his body as the ascent.

"We've got a date." He finally said, his words echoing like thunder through the room.

Jimin stopped talking immediately, and Hoseok turned to face Taehyung, a gleam of worried curiosity in his eyes. Even Yoongi, usually stoic, straightened his head, his attention completely riveted.

"The succession ceremony will take place at the next full moon." Taehyung continued, his dark gaze sweeping the room.

"So that gives us a week." Yoongi observed.

Taehyung nodded, not bothering to ask him how he knew that. He also kept to himself that he and Jungkook had had to look it up on the internet to get a precise date.

"A week..." Logan repeated, his voice calm but tinged with a certain gravity.

He straightened up and crossed his arms against his chest, taking one of those deep breaths that made his nostrils flare.

"It's not much, but I've had worse."

Jimin mumbled an "I've been to war" in Logan's dramatic voice, which made Hoseok laugh. But as soon as the man in question turned to them with an arched eyebrow, they instantly fell silent, swallowing hard. Yoongi couldn't hold back a mocking laugh.

Seeing that he'd scared the two boys enough, Logan turned his attention back to Taehyung.

"Do you know how many people will be there?" he asked, still direct and pragmatic. "If we're going to fight, we need to be prepared."

"I'd say about fifty. Maybe more. Jungkook doesn't know exactly how many there are, so we'll have to improvise a bit."

After that, there was silence. Now that everything was settled (at least for the moment), there was one question on everyone's lips, but no one dared ask it: how did things go between Taehyung and Jungkook?

Because last time they checked, the two of them were perfectly incapable of being in the same room without Taehyung yelling at him (or crying). So the fact that the two of them had managed to carry out a mission together inevitably raised questions.

Jimin, always the most sensitive to things left unsaid, glanced furtively at Yoongi, as if he hoped the latter would break the ice. But Yoongi remained impassive, his eyes staring at an invisible point beyond the table. This time, it would be without him.

Hoseok, for his part, looked like he was about to speak, but changed his mind at the last moment. It wasn't his place to ask that kind of question. Even Logan, who wasn't one to mince his words, preferred to look away.

Taehyung noticed their hesitation, and he suspected what was behind it. He knew they were all worried about him, but even now he didn't have an answer for them. How did it go with Jungkook? It went well. Not so well. He had the impression that they had made progress, and on the other hand not at all. Three steps forward, then three back.

So for the time being, he preferred to stay focused on the mission.

"Well, if that's all, I'll go and take a shower." he said as he stood up. "I've been in mould and dirt all evening, so I really need soap and hot water now."