anathema. ✓

one

[ may 4, 20 ; present ]

taehyung grunted softly as he stretched out his cramped legs, the scent of food burning wafted into the small bedroom seeming to be what disturbed him from his almost peaceful sleep. the spot where his boyfriend, jeongguk, usually lay was cold and empty. a cold mattress usually meant that taehyung had slept in late yet again, and the smell of what seemed to burning hotteok only hinted to jeongguk's failure at making breakfast.

he jolted up from his spot, his hands pushing him off of the stiff mattress and into a standing position. he squeezed between his wall and the bed in order to make it to the already ajar and creaky old door. a hallway with chipped paint lead taehyung into the poorly carpeted living room that was conjoined with an even smaller kitchen that had an ugly yellow wallpaper and a wobbly wooden table.

the familiar behind view of what could only be jeongguk caused a smile to tug at the corner of taehyung's lips. when the younger reached up to wave at the smoke alarm that had begun going off, his shirt slid up, directing taehyung's attention to the honey-colored skin of his petite waist.

unable to keep his hands to himself, the tired male placed the fingertips of his left hand on the smaller's hip, tapping the pads against the skin almost teasingly as he reached up to pull the battery out of the smoke alarm.

jeongguk let out a frustrated groan, turning himself around and brushing the tip of his nose against taehyung's collarbone. "did i wake you up? 'm sorry, taehyungie. i really didn't mean to..." the small boy lifted his head, gesturing to the burnt pancakes that were placed too neatly on a paper plate next to the stove. "i just wanted to make breakfast for you, since you've been so busy lately with trying to keep up with rent, but i don't know why i've been so bad at cooking lately."

"it's okay, baby," taehyung muttered in reply, placing a lingering kiss to the flustered boy's temple, his lips pressed together in a thin line as he hummed. he lifted up one of the burnt cakes and gave it a tiny sniff before quickly wrinkling his nose up. "toss these aside. i'll help you make a new batch, okay?"

jeongguk nodded slowly, stepping out of taehyung's way and picking up the plate of discarded hotteok before dumping it in the trash. he brushed his hands off on his fluffy iron man pajama pants before bounding back over to taehyung and helping the taller gather any ingredients that he had put away before ruining their original breakfast. "thank goodness for paper plates. it means less dishes we have to wash."

taehyung frowned as he mixed together the necessary ingredients, intently staring down at the contents of the mixing bowl. "less dishes? did we run out of hot water again?"

the youngest replied with a simple nod of his head. the couple would have to shower at taehyung's parents again, and they'd be lectured yet again about how their childish dreams of being a songwriter and a streamer with a popular gaming channel were completely unable to be achieved, and that they should grow up. become real adults. make real money. anything but suffering from poverty at such young ages.

this clearly was enough to bother and upset both of the boys that were hardly in their twenties, but it especially upset taehyung. he knew just how much jeongguk's future meant to the smaller boy. how much both of them being happy meant to jeongguk. taehyung knew how much it brought jeongguk down to hear that he was incapable of doing what he wanted to do most in the world.

the raven-haired boy had dropped out of college, quit his part-time job to get a full-time one, and disregarded both his mental and physical health so that he could focus on writing and producing songs. taehyung spent each night for a good year begging jeongguk to go to sleep, only to end up helplessly watching the smaller sob each time another label rejected him.

and it still managed to break taehyung's heart each and every time.

he wished that there was something more he could do, something more to comfort jeongguk whenever auditions went south or to help jeongguk improve his already perfected speech or talent before stepping into a new company for an interview. taehyung wished he could have been more selfless, but he couldn't deny that the both of them were struggling with their careers.

taehyung's streams on twitch and jeongguk's full time job were gaining only just enough money to pay the rent each month and to buy enough groceries so that they wouldn't starve. sometimes, taehyung would get lucky and receive a pity donation of fifty dollars that would provide the pair with enough money to make a special meal, or buy each other gifts on birthdays or holidays. today, the fifty dollars was used to buy ingredients to make a special breakfast of jeongguk's decision. it turned out that they had just the right amount to be able to make three meals worth of hotteok, though jeongguk had ended up burning the first one which lead the pair to only being able to have two meals worth.

the brunette didn't mind, though. it didn't bother him a single bit that jeongguk messed up. he thought it was cute, in fact, and he understood that jeongguk had really tried his best keeping in mind that it would hopefully make taehyung happy when he woke up to a nice and delicious breakfast.

it was little, simple things such as these that kept the couple going. or that was what taehyung had hoped, at the least.

taking a glance at jeongguk, who had his tongue poked into his cheek in concentration as he set one of taehyung's completed pancakes onto a new paper plate, taehyung decided that what he had hoped would surely come true.

taehyung wasn't sure what had done it, but ever since this time last year, jeongguk seemed to be happier than ever.

❧

[a/n:] 1,024 words

this is perhaps the one story i'm most proud of. i've spent a long time working on it and perfecting it, and i think the concept behind it is the most well thought-out one i've had so far. i hope you enjoy it as much as i'm enjoying writing it.