PERSONA ✓

29.

Yoongi jogged down the street, eyes scanning the house numbers until he reached the right one.

Taehyung had given Yoongi his address when Yoongi requested it, because Yoongi had mentioned he wanted to drop by after his stupid family gathering (during which he'd hovering by the snack table, stuffing his face with food and waving at relatives he didn't even know he had).

Namjoon, Jungkook, and Hoseok were still gathering intel from that Daehyun dude. Yoongi was hoping to make a quick trip to see Taehyung before going back to HQ.

If Yoongi was being honest, he didn't know why he was checking on Taehyung, anyways. Maybe it was because of his fight with Hoseok yesterday, but he had Seokjin for comfort and stuff.

He rang the doorbell and bounced on his heels, scolding himself mentally for feeling like he needed a reason to go see Taehyung.

They... they were friends, weren't they? Technically?

Damn, Yoongi was not good at this stuff when it came to Taehyung.

His train of thought was interrupted when Seokjin opened the door. Yoongi caught the end of a sentence that someone from the inside of the house had been yelling: "—overprotective of Taehyung!"

Seokjin huffed. "Mom!" he called. "Someone's at the door! Lecture me later!"

Rolling his eyes in annoyance, Seokjin leaned against the doorway and offered a weak smile at Yoongi. "Hey, Yoongi. Tae told me you wanted to come over?"

Yoongi shuffled his feet, feeling embarrassed that he'd walked in while Seokjin and his mom were fighting. "I—yeah. Sorry, is now a bad time? I can come back later."

Seokjin bit his lip. "No, it's cool. I'm going over to Namjoon's in a second to see what they found out about Daehyun. You and Tae gonna come along later?"

"Yeah," Yoongi said. "I mean, if that's cool with you."

"Come on in." Seokjin opened the door wider. "Tae's room is first one on the left."

-

He found Taehyung sitting on his bed, his attention fixed on a large book in front of him.

"...What're you reading?" Yoongi asked.

Taehyung shrugged. "Physics textbook."

That seemed like a waste of time to Yoongi, but he didn't have the opportunity to voice his thoughts when he heard Seokjin's voice raise. The words were muffled and Yoongi couldn't make them out, but Taehyung grimaced.

"Ah..." Yoongi frowned. "What's going on?"

"Hyung and Mom have been fighting over how much hyung needs to involve himself in my life. She thinks I'm old enough to make my own decisions and that Seokjin shouldn't interfere at all."

"...And what do you think?"

"I think that having hyung's guidance is not a bad thing."

The door shut downstairs. Yoongi assumed that was Seokjin leaving for Namjoon's house.

"Why did you come?" Taehyung asked, not taking his eyes away from his textbook.

Oh, great, the million dollar question.

"I dunno, kid. I guess I just wanted to see how you're doing... that thing with Hoseok yesterday seemed a little intense—"

"Let's not discuss that," Taehyung said flatly.

"Right."

In his head, Yoongi berated himself for being stupid and bringing up what was still a freshly sensitive topic, when Taehyung said, "You have something to say, don't you?"