The Magician's Assistant || Vkook & Yoonmin

Chapter 6

"Just a little bit" In one quick motion he pushes himself out of the confined space and out onto the stage.

"Wait what?!" Jungkook shouts before Taehyung begins pushing the plunger end of the box, pressing it in so that the wall is on its way to crushing Jungkook.

"Wait wait stop is it really going to hurt? Taehyung talk to me?!"

The two audience members laugh at the situation at hand, remembering Soon Deok the first time she practiced this trick. Taehyung never tells them that the end of the wall attached to the "plunger" is elastic and will only slightly press against their face and not hurt them at all. The elastic is painted silver and resembles a metal sheet so even the most observant person won't realize that it's flexible.

"Taehyung!" Jungkook shouts as he braces himself to have his face crushed. When he feels the soft elastic mold over the profile of his head, he stops shouting.

"Oh" Jungkook vocalizes, moving his head to prove to himself that he really does have plenty of room. The echo of his voice in the silent auditorium carries to the ears of the three fellow boys and they fall to the ground in fits of laughter. Taehyung forgets to pull the false wall away and Jungkook is stuck in his current position, forced to listen to the laughter and mocking from his peers.

"Haha very funny now can you get me out of here?" Jungkook voices loudly but the boys can't hear him over their incessant chuckles and hearty laughs.

"Kim Taehyung I swear if you don't get me out of here I'll call Soon Deok and tell her I'm sick!" Taehyung gets off the floor, wiping the tears from his eyes and pulling on the large stick to release the boy. Jungkook shimmies out of the enclosed space and covers it, getting back into position to finish off the trick.

"Happy? I can do it, no problem. Now when are we going to take a break? I'm getting claustrophobic all of a sudden." Taehyung observes Jungkook's sickly pale face and frowns. Concern washes over him as he grabs Jungkook's hand and carefully leads him out of the box.

"Hoseok, wet this" Taehyung takes off his tank top and tosses it to the grinning boy. Jungkook's eyes widen as he suddenly realizes that his mentor is standing before him shirtless, his golden skin and cut abs just inches away from his hand. The urge to run his hands along his chest drives him mad. He swallows hard as guilt washes over him.

"Here" Hoseok hands Taehyung his shirt back, soaked with ice cold water from his water bottle. Taehyung places it gently on Jungkook's forehead and the nauseous feeling dissipates. Jungkook still can't peel his eyes from the perfection before him but Taehyung takes Hoseok's hoodie from the chair he was sitting on and quickly covers the gift God gave him. Blinking twice and shaking his head Jungkook is free from his trace and plops down into the nearest seat, grateful that the temptation was no longer infiltrating his thoughts. He instead, floods his thoughts with images of the wonderful man waiting for him at home.

"Good Morning everyone! Glad you guys came out to practice so early. We need to incorporate one more trick into the act, we had to take out the tiger trick from last night because Shie needs to rest." Namjoon says as he enters the auditorium, his voice booming across the stage to us.

"Why does the tiger need to rest? I mean we need to rest too but we can't" Taehyung complains.

"Would you rather Jungkook get eaten?" Namjoon challenges. Taehyung grins.

"Not by the tiger no"

Jungkook spits out his water and begins violently coughing. Jin tenderly slaps his back to try and help him but to no avail. The boy tries to speak in his own defense, to diffuse the awkward moment but he can hardly breath.