TAEKOOK | HOPE

• 4 let's be with each other

No AN's hmfff
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When Jeongguk wakes up the next morning, Taehyung's face is planted in his armpit, his hair tufting up at all sorts of odd angles and one arm slung across Jeongguk's chest. It's far from the first time he's waking up with Taehyung wrapped around him, but butterflies explode in his stomach all the same as memories of last night come rushing back to him.

His head hurts a little from all the tequila, his mouth dry because he'd forgotten to drink enough water before passing out (he'd been a little distracted, okay?). He lifts a hand to his mouth and touches it curiously, like some cliche character out of chick flick, as if that will somehow help confirm that everything that had happened between him and Taehyung last night is, in fact, real.

This is around when the panic sets in, his mind spinning into overdrive as he wonders anxiously whether Taehyung will consider this all a drunken mistake, if he'll wake up and want to pretend like nothing had even happened. It had seemed like he meant it last night, but that could have been the tequila talking, for all Jeongguk knows. A part of him doesn't even want Taehyung to wake up, for fear of what they'll have to confront when he does.

He's so caught up in his own little panic spiral that he doesn't even realize Taehyung is, in fact, awake until he interrupts his train of thought with a bright "Hi!" Jeongguk startles and looks down to find Taehyung propped up on his elbows, smiling at him sleepily, one piece of his bangs sticking out at a complete right angle from his head.

"Hi," Jeongguk replies nervously, reaching out to pat down the rogue hair.

"Lot on your mind?" Taehyung asks, because he always knows. "I was staring at you for like, a full minute."

"Sorry," Jeongguk mumbles. He suddenly doesn't know what to do with his hands. "Just, umm. Yeah, I guess."

Taehyung nods knowingly. "Last night?"

Jeongguk swallows. "Yeah."

"Do you regret it?" Taehyung asks, and he's trying to keep his tone straightforward, even, but Jeongguk thinks he hears a trace of nerves there.

"No," he says forcefully, willing himself to maintain eye contact. "Do you?"

Taehyung gives him a small smile, shaking his head. "No." Jeongguk feels a rush of relief. "So I guess that's a good place to start."

Jeongguk nods, then decides to give voice to one of the many questions that's crashing around in his head. "Where do we go from here?"

"Honestly, I have no idea," Taehyung admits, and it makes Jeongguk feel a little better to know that Taehyung is just as lost as he is. "It's not like we can just like, be a normal couple all of a sudden."

He sighs, and Jeongguk's heart sinks a little, even though he knows Taehyung is right. Setting aside the complexities of their own personal relationship - they're best friends who live and work together - there's the other members to consider, the band, their careers. Even if the nature of their work did allow them to have some semblance of a regular courtship, there's no way they could date each other publicly. Not that Jeongguk would want to share that part of his life with the world, anyway, but he knows keeping a secret like that wouldn't be easy.