Elevator

7 Hours

This... was incredibly frustrating.

All Taehyung wanted was to get to work and survive another day of suffering.

Suffering? Yes, suffering. As in, surviving through a painful crush that tore him to the bone. His eyes cut to Yoongi, his hyung and bandmate, who stood a little too close to Namjoon, and they narrowed at the sight.

Of course, he knew about them dating, even if the other bandmates were too oblivious to catch onto it. They were pretty good at hiding it, but Taehyung'd been watching Yoongi for years. It was easy to pick up on their behaviour and the different way the elder held himself around Namjoon.

Taehyung set his sights on the floor. Ever since he was debuted was when he began liking the eldest rapper, but now the ship SugaMon has been set canon for two years, and Taehyung couldn't do anything about it.

Namjoon suddenly blew out a gust of air, his lips flapping in resistance. "Looks like we'll be trapped here for a while..."

"How long is a while?" Yoongi asked.

"How should I know?" Namjoon demanded.

"Shouldn't you know everything?" Yoongi accused.

"Shut it, you."

Silence passed, and Taehyung was growing more frustrated by the second. He squeezed his hands into fists, not being able to stand being so close physically, but so far emotionally. He glanced at the two again and saw them staring at each other intimately, having a deep conversation with just their eyes. Taehyung bared his teeth and turned sharply towards the buttons on the elevator. He pressed the one that signalled for help multiple times until a lady answered.

"Sir, we're aware of the problem," she said, a strain in her voice. She sounded worn out. "We've called to have someone come over and fix the issue promptly. Please be patient."

"Tae, are you alright?" Yoongi asked.

Taehyung kept his back to the two and nodded his head. Luckily he was recovering from a cold and was able to hide his face behind a surgical mask given to him in a pack from his doctor.

"You just seem on edge," Namjoon added.

Taehyung slipped his hands into his pocket so they didn't see that they were squeezed so tightly into balls. "I'm not a fan of being suspended nearly a hundred feet in the air longer than I need to be."

"Fair enough," Namjoon said jokingly, but Taehyung decided to be bitter and shrug, making things awkward, and making the silence return.

* * *

"Is it me or is it getting warm in here?" Yoongi asked out of nowhere.

Taehyung exhaled in relief. Something about the breaking of the quietness was enough to keep him from going insane. They'd only been in there for half an hour, but the tension set over the three made it feel like hours were passing. The three of them were facing each other on the floor, Namjoon and Yoongi being at two corners, and Taehyung sitting opposite of them.

"It's not just you," Taehyung answered. He pulled the mask from his face, his breath from inside of it just making himself more heated than he already was. "The power's out, so the AC won't be able to keep us from heating up in the confined box."

"You really have something against elevators, don't you?" Namjoon asked.

Taehyung shrugged. "I've seen enough movies involving unique but gruesome ways to die, and elevators have never been at the top of my to-use list since."

"Ah, well, that was something I didn't know," Namjoon said.

"Hey, that's a good idea," Yoongi said, smiling a bit. "Let's play a game. We'll go around the room and tell something the others don't know."

Taehyung frowned. "Why?"

"Because then the three of us will be inseparable once we get out of here!" Namjoon was all about the idea.

Taehyung rolled his eyes and grumbled something about them already being that way, but sat up nonetheless to pay attention. "Who'll go first?"

"Well, since you just went, I'll go," Yoongi said. "We can go in a circle."

And that's what started the game they called Round Up. It started off light and friendly in the first ten minutes, with one of the boys saying something the others already knew by mistake, but as time progressed each round got steadily deeper, each boy revealing something from their past or family problems or tragic mistakes they'd made that had changed their life drastically.

It was nearing the first hour of their time in the confined box when Namjoon stuttered out, "Yoongi and I are actually dating."

Taehyung sighed, and for his turn, he admitted that he already figured as such. For Yoongi's turn, he looked at the floor and said with a shy smile that he and Namjoon had been experimenting for the past couple of months.

Taehyung swallowed his jealousy as he felt his chest flood with an angry heat. He didn't even listen to Namjoon's next confession and muttered out for his turn that he'd actually never kissed anyone before.

Yoongi exhaled sharply through his pressed lips and brought his knees close to his chest, resting his elbows on them. "Well, since we're getting all romantic and personal, and Taehyung's starting to be stiff, I'll just come out and say it." 

Taehyung looked up at the sound of his name, his eyes clouded over as he tried to mask his emotion, wondering what the eldest had to say. Yoongi looked Tae straight in the eye and blurted out his admission.

I've seen the way you look at me when you think I don't notice.

Eh?

Had Taehyung heard that correctly? He shook his head to try and clear out any troubles with his ears, but nothing had changed with the sounds around him. Namjoon was glancing in surprise back and forth between the two. Taehyung tried to ignore the both of them as he realised what Yoongi meant, and his cheeks flushed over in red and his face prickled with sweat as he began to panic.

"Wait, what?" Namjoon asked after a moment. "Tae... you like Yoongi hyung?"

Taehyung hunched over and grabbed the sides of his head as tears built in his eyes. He was overcome with embarrassment, and unlike when Yoongi had confronted him once before many, many years ago, Tae had nowhere to run. He was stuck in a small box with the man he loved and his lover, and his phone was on the floor where he worked, so it's not like he could suddenly act like he received a call, and the other boys knew of his insomnia so it's not like he could pretend he fell asleep. He couldn't escape!

This cannot be happening!!