EDIFICE | tk (✓)

TWENTY-FOUR | token of gratitude

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The next morning dawned cloudy and dull, much like Jungkook's own mood when he awoke.

The other side of his bed was cold, where Taehyung had slept last night. In fact, there seemed to be such a lack of evidence for the boy having been there at all that Jungkook himself wondered whether he had imagined the whole thing. Maybe he had.

Shaking his head, Jungkook ran a hand through his hair, ruffling it slightly as he got out of bed. He'd check on the boy later. After all, it was still only eight in the morning. It was safe to assume that Taehyung would be exhausted, especially after yesterday's events.

Around half-an-hour later, Jungkook was showered and clad in a little more clothing than before. Retying the front of his sweatpants, he ventured out of his bedroom, into the confines of his apartment, still under the impression that Taehyung was asleep.

Yet the last thing he expected was to see a plate of slightly distorted-looking pancakes, complete with various facial expressions (most of them were just variations of angry though) drawn in syrup, sitting on top of the kitchen counter. Guess that meant Taehyung was awake.

The gesture was touching and Jungkook felt another bout of guilt forming in the pit of his stomach. This was proof enough that last night wasn't just a figment of his imagination. Taehyung had slept next to him in fear of the storm.

With a soft sigh, Jungkook settled himself into one of the chairs to eat what he guessed was his breakfast. Or maybe it wasn't. But either way, he was hungry and Taehyung had made something and he was willing to be a taster. However, it only took one bite to realise that maybe the pancakes had been made specially for him after all.

See, the pancakes were pretty blobby and had weird faces but that simply gave character to the dish. If this wasn't Tarhyung's style, Jungkook didn't know what was. But the issue came down to the taste.

At first, they tasted normal, a perfectly good pancake rendition. But it was a different story by the end of it. The flavour of sea-salt overpowered Jungkook's taste-buds, leaving an unpleasant after-taste.

Sea-salt. Jungkook knew for a fact that even Taehyung wasn't dumb enough to have done it accidentally. This was a deliberate move.

"Oh, god," Jungkook winced, wanting nothing more than to scrape his tongue. "You've got to be kidding me."
Yet Taehyung must have worked on this, put in effort and time. He must have thought it out, substituted salt for sugar at some point.

So, with that in mind, Jungkook forced himself to eat the plate. He did, however, drench the pancakes in syrup in a mildly successful attempt to get rid of the clogging taste of sea-salt. It wasn't everyday that the guy you hurt makes breakfast for you, as salty as it might be.