SAFE HAVEN, yoonkook

seven.

After receiving his end of the deal, Jungkook seemed to revert back to his previous ways. Yoongi discovered this when he returned home on Monday to find the boy sitting in the centre of a pile of cushions, clothes and blankets. The younger was watching more dramas intently and didn't even acknowledge the older until he was pulled out of his seat. He screamed, kicking back at his assailer.

"Stop it, Kookie." Yoongi snapped, his leg dropping underneath him from the impact. He struggled to keep his annoyance with the boy in check and stay calm. "You need to clean up your mess."

"It's not a mess, it's a chair." Jungkook responded, breaking from the scientist's grasp. He plonked himself back down on the pile, curling up and staring at the television again. "And I'm not cleaning it up. It's better than your chair."

"Well of course it is, you destroyed my chair." The brunette pointed out as he stared at his couch. The cushions had been pulled from it, leaving the naked framework exposed. He sighed. "I thought you were going to behave."

"I'm not misbehaving. I haven't left the house all day and I didn't wreck anything."

"My chair."

"I improved it." Yoongi walked over and grabbed the remote from where it lay on the floor. Much to the younger's annoyance, he turned the television off. Jungkook spun around angrily, glaring at the older male. "Why did you turn it off?"

"No TV until you clean all this up."

"I won't clean it up 'til you give me the TV back." The boy retorted, crossing his arms over his chest. The older mimicked him, pulling an equally stubborn pose. They remained there for several minutes, neither wishing to be the one who caved.

"C'mon, Kook. This can all be over quite quickly and then you can go back to your TV show."

"It's too late; it'd be over now." Jungkook smirked, seeming to think he was going to win this now that Yoongi had lost his leverage. But the older male wasn't going to let this stop him and he simply sighed.

"If you don't clean it up, I'll take the remote to work with me tomorrow." This didn't sit well the younger and his glare reappeared. He frowned as he stared up at the older male, inhaling deeply before letting out an angry sigh. For a brief moment, Yoongi thought he had him. Triumph flared inside of him, before it was quickly extinguished by the departure of the younger. He watched as Jungkook stormed off, disappearing into the bedroom with the slam of the door echoing behind him. The brunette stared at the door for a few seconds, a soft frown appearing on his brow. When he realised the boy wasn't going to emerge again, he slowly began cleaning up the pile of blankets and cushions himself.

Every now and then, he'd glance at the door in the hope Jungkook would reappear. But Yoongi didn't seem the boy again until he entered the room himself to go to bed that night ー and even then the boy ignored the older when he entered, hiding under the blankets until the lights were turned off. This behaviour confused the older a lot.

ー

"I don't know what happened: one day we seem to be friends, the next he's glaring at me and refusing to acknowledge me." Yoongi said to Hoseok over lunch, barely touching his food as he confided with his friend. The younger watched intently, idly picking at his food as he tried to concentrate on the older. "And I don't know what I did wrong. All I did was told him to clean up his mess..."

"Maybe he's just entered that phase." Hoseok suggested. "You know, when they're all rebellious and moody ー how old is Jungkook?"

"Eighteen." The younger's eyes widened at this answer.

"Really? I thought he was younger!" Yoongi shook his head. "Is he like... you know..."

"I don't know." After a few minutes, silence fell over the pair and Yoongi turned his attention to the food he'd been neglecting. He sighed softly as he picked the burger up. "How's your life been going?"

"Pretty good. They reckon I'm up for a promotion soon." The younger said rather proudly. He smiled at his friend. "Soon I won't be sitting out the front, waiting for you."

"Ah, well that's a shame." While he didn't sound like he meant it, Yoongi really was being sincere when he said that. He liked having Hoseok there waiting for him, the large ever-present smile on his lips and something interesting to tell him. It always improved his mood, even if it was only by a small fraction. "Where are going?"

"I'm becoming head admin ― you know how Ms Im quit, right? I'm replacing her, so I get to go into the big office." Yoongi's small smile grew as he watched the younger. "I thought I was dreaming when they told me; but I pinched myself and it hurt. A lot."

"I'm happy for you, Hoseok, but I'm going to miss having you sitting there."

"We can still have lunch together, and I'll drive you home every evening so we can have our usual chats. I mean, if we don't get the morning chats then we're going to need to make up for it elsewhere." Hoseok's voice quickened as his excitement increased, and it was now his lunch's turn to lay forgotten. "I don't care if Jungkook comes, but we'll need to hang out more outside of work― oh! Do you think they'd let me be your personal secretary?"

"I think that'd be more of a demotion than promotion..."

"I don't care; I'll talk to them about it."

"I don't think you should. It's better if you take the job you've been offered, you'll earn more money that you can save up for that trip you've always wanted to go on." Hoseok sighed at this and he nodded.

"True, I guess. Anyway, you should eat your burger, we'll have to go back to work soon."

ー
I have three things to say:

1. I'm sorry for taking so long to write this chapter (wasn't worth the wait, sorry).

2. Shout out (is that the right thing?) to chocoyoongi for saving this story (or at least giving it a storyline I can follow, I'll do my best not to give up on it).

3. Thank you everyone for 1K reads and for all your comments and general support for this story.