honey | taekook

three

a mover had brought in jungkook's pride and joy.

his baby grand.

with a sleek white outer shell, keys that were cold to the touch, and the most beautiful ability to twist any note into dripping diamonds, it truly was his favorite purchase to date. 

with the suggestion from his friend-turned manager he decided to avoid alcohol, at least for the morning.  maybe then he could get some writing done. crank out his next single. let the creative juices flow.

he really felt he could do that. easily. in fact, he had done it a thousand times over so why was this time different?

maybe it was the way his hand shook, riddled with tremors each time he dared to stare or maybe it was the turning in his brain, the one that was only fixated on a single thing.  hint: it wasn't his next album.  or maybe, it was all of it combined.

each time he pressed down on a note, a memory circled around him, a hologram of what had been.  at his wedding he had played the same keys, after the birth of his daughter, at his school graduation, the first time he hit the stage professionally- a beautiful past and a bleak future.

he felt his teeth grind down onto one another, shifting about, his cheeks puffed as he thought how much more sophisticated he would look with a glass of wine in front of him.  each time he did something well, he could take a sip.  it would be like a reward. or better yet a distraction.

instead of thinking of everything that had been, he could think of that sweet smoky aftertaste of a merlot. the way it danced on his tongue and never criticized. the way it just gave and gave and gave, never took.

knocking the bench over in the process, jungkook went on the hunt. he knew that namjoon wasn't dumb- surely, he had hid every last drop somewhere because the wine fridge was empty. and the main fridge. and even the cabinets above. 

he checked the trash, the linen closet, beneath his unmade bed- nothing.

most would give up, would move on, try to settle their restless mind another way but, jungkook physically could not. his entire body willed him to look everywhere, leave no stone unturned.  his hands ripped at unopened boxes, pooling contents onto the floor of shit that in this moment didn't matter, and he felt a line of hot tears pool the inner corner of his eyes as he got to the last one.

he was so fucking desperate; he needed something and he needed it now.

the front door cracking open didn't even register with him, too fixated and obsessed with the task he had given himself. past the point of shame, past the point of embarrassment; this was rock bottom and he was content living there for the moment. he needed to live there to find solace.

"what are you doing?" namjoon was at the edge of the hallway, eyes peering at the mound of items that had been thrown messily about, a toddler in the midst of a tantrum.  he noted the way jungkook's face was red with anger and frustration- he didn't want to assume but it was obvious.  he was craving the one thing that the older had taken away, "jungkook?"

his voice finally seemed to register inside of the younger who stopped gripping at busted cardboard just long enough to grumble out something barely coherent, "where did you put it?"

"what do you mean?" the man with purple hair wasn't an idiot. he knew damn well what jungkook wanted yet it was detrimental that he avoided it. not just for business purposes but personal as well. 

"you know exactly what the fuck i'm talking about!" at this point any recognizable gleam in jungkook's eyes had dissipated, replaced with full blown rage, even an ounce of hatred for the words being exchanged. his hands clenched into a fist ready to fight if he had too, "tell me where you put it. now!"