Roses You Left For Me

5

It takes at least a few minutes to regain his strength before he's able to balance on both feet as he shakily leaves the room and retraces his steps back out the door and towards the bar. Hoseok smiles at a customer before he turns to replace a clean glass, catching sight of Jeongguk.

"Told you that you should talk to him," Hoseok says smugly.

Jeongguk realizes that he must look like a total fucked out mess, but he's so in awe of it all that he hardly cares.

"So," Hoseok says with a knowing smile. "You staying?"

Jeongguk just shakes his head as he looks around. He knows he's looking for Taehyung, Hoseok knows it too. But neither of them mention it. Jeongguk brings his gaze back to the bartender, just looking at him for a moment before the elder breaks the silence.

"You look like you've just been to another dimension,"

"Feel like it too," Jeongguk murmurs as a headache begins to make itself to the front of his head, the loud, booming music not helping too much.

Hoseok snorts. "Go home and rest, looks like you need it,"

The younger only nods and gives a shy wave to Hoseok before he retreats, eyes still searching around the club, but with no Taehyung to be found.

He walks out of the building, barely giving the bouncers a second glance as he turns into the alley beside the club and leans against the wall to support himself, trying to regain his breath. He's not sure what to feel. Confused, exhilarated, and somewhat guilty that he didn't pay for anything. He wasn't sure how to. But is that an excuse to come back?

With a sigh, Jeongguk takes out his phone and contemplates calling Jimin for a ride. He wants to decide against it, but with only a five dollar bill in his wallet and not much else, he hasn't got much of a choice. So he puts the phone to his ear and waits for his friend to pick up.

"Well, it's not my fault that you can't work a fucking oven is it?!" Is the first thing he hears when Jimin picks up. "What ?" Jimin suddenly demands through the phone.

"Chim," Jeongguk says quietly as he listens to lots of noises and a yell that is most likely Yoongi in the background.

"Kook! Shit, hi. Are you okay? Need a ride?"

"Please," the younger echoes.

"Fucking thing!" Jeongguk can hear Yoongi swear. A very obvious sigh from Jimin has the younger smiling in amusement.

"I'll be there in a bit. Where are you?" Jimin asks.

"Outside the club," Jeongguk says as he walks out of the alley to lean against the outside of the building instead, swinging his leg to scuff his shoe on the ground.

"Stay there, doll, I'll be there in a click,"

Jeongguk nods to himself and pockets the phone, letting out a heavy sigh as he looks up, head leaning on the bricks behind him. The sky is a deep black, much darker than when he first arrived a few hours ago. The city is alive and he's convinced the building is vibrating from the music. Yet with every distraction around him, he can't stop himself from thinking about Taehyung. For once, his ex is off his mind and he's now consumed with the dancer. Forget or regret was the question.

Will I regret being with you?

Jeongguk sighs heavily, letting his head fall forward with a little shake. He puts it down to a broken heart, as there isn't any other reason to be so consumed with someone. All they did was fuck, that's it. It's a no strings attached arrangement, yet Jeongguk insists on putting the strings in place, making himself a puppet to the hurt that's bound to come running at him full force, even though he won't admit it to himself.

As he tilts his head back again to lean against the vibrating brick of the club, he sees Jimin's car headlights pulling up outside. It takes a moment for his aching body to move, watching as Jimin smiles brightly and leans over the passenger seat to open Jeongguk's door for him. The younger utters a soft "thank you," and slides in, his tired body immediately sinking into the warmth of the seat, eyes heavy as they force themselves closed. Too tired to close his own door, he feels Jimin leaning over to pull it shut. The car jostles with movement as Jimin pulls away from the sidewalk, edging back out onto the road. The radio plays music that Jeongguk's not really paying attention to and it's close to lolling him to sleep.

"You look like you've just got out of a threesome," Jimin comments.

"Not so much a threesome," Jeongguk admits quietly, and immediately regrets it when Jimin makes a noise of curiosity.

"So who fucked the soul out of you? Must have been good, you can barely talk,"

"A dancer," Jeongguk says, almost dreamily. "The bartender said I should talk to him,"

"And did you?" Jimin presses.

Jeongguk takes a deep breath as if it takes too much energy just to muster up a bundle of words to string into a sentence. He keeps his eyes closed whilst he talks, remembering how the scenario played out.

"No," the younger answers after a moment of silence. "Well, not at first. I was sitting on my own and he came up to me. Said in a place like that they either make you forget or regret. Ended up taking me somewhere and fucked my brains out,"

Jimin whistles. "I'm jealous," he says as Jeongguk turns his head to look at him. Jimin glances back at him with a smirk before the elder looks back, waiting for the red light to turn green. The street lights shine on Jimin's face, making him look prettier than he already is. "Don't get me wrong," Jimin says as the light turns green. "Yoongi's amazing. He loves me a lot. But- sometimes it'd be nice to come home to him waiting for me, y'know? Like- tonight I was the one to start dinner. As per usual. He's been in that fucking studio all day and I had to drag his ass out. The fucking moron insisted he do it instead and not only burned dinner but dropped it and broke my mother's dish that she gave to us. Fucking idiot can't even get our oven to work," he says with a tut and a shake of his head.

Jeongguk lets him continue, thankful for the change in conversation as it's not like he has the energy to talk much anyway. And hearing about their domestic relationship never fails to amuse him.

"I'll give it to him though when he does fuck me, he goes for it, y'know? Makes me forget my name sometimes," Jimin laughs as they pull up outside Jeongguk's apartment block. Jeongguk hums to let the elder know he's listening, but Jimin has already dropped his domestic chat as he turns to look at Jeongguk with his knowing look. "Don't think this gets you out of spilling. I wanna know everything. I'll treat you to brunch next week, yeah?"

Jeongguk just nods tiredly and waves his hand in response as he clambers out of the car, dragging his feet along the ground and into his apartment building. Jimin waits in the car until Jeongguk is inside, and the younger can hear him drive away as he presses the button for the elevator.

As soon as he's back in his apartment, he's crashing out on his bed, sleep welcoming him with open arms.