Taekook Smuts and Drabbles

My Ride Or Die pt 1

The pair of seeing eyes finds him, and seems to pierce right into him, even through the small gap between the curtain and the wall that he almost jumps, quickly averting his eyes and walking away.

Quickly, he changes out of his performance outfit, the changing room quiet without the other singer. Yoongi said he couldn't come because of some personal matters. Tae thinks it's because he's fighting with Hoseok. He heard the arguments a few nights ago during closing, behind the curtains, trying not to shake at the volume.

It was just an ordinary argument between two lovers, but it really affected Tae more than he had ever wanted it to, as he had wondered how Yoongi could raise his voice at Hoseok without fearing consequences and how Hoseok let him.

It's strange.

He stays in the waiting room, wondering if he should take off his makeup now, or do it once he's home. And he dreads the journey home. He doesn't really like the city at night.

Despite the people, sometimes it gets too quiet. Sometimes it's too loud.

He can't seem to decide as he just mindlessly goes through the news on his phone. Some scandals. Some athlete winning something. A singer who has been missing for quite some time found to have committed suicide and people are saying that's impossible. The family asks for investigation, said the death was staged. Evidences say otherwise.

He could wait for Hoseok until he finishes his shift, but he doesn't think it's a good idea to keep asking for company when he's done so too many times. Besides, his now empty place saved for himself is safe enough, he convinces himself.

So he walks out through the backdoor, huddled in his coat. He leans against the wall in the darkness of the alley, the sky lightly drizzling and takes out a cigarette and his lighter.

It's cold, he finds as he's blowing smoke, finding Hoseok's car parked nearby. The manager's car is also parked behind it.

And it's also quiet late at night like this. It's where he finds the rare peace in the silence, watching the smoke floating under the small light above the bar's door.

He finishes, and pushes both hands into his coat as he starts walking, thinking that a walk at night like this might calm him down of all the irrational thoughts.

And it's a few blocks after that he thinks he hears footsteps behind him.

He immediately tenses. Steps almost faltering. Takes an unnecessary turn on instinct just to hear it follow him.

Somehow there's a shudder that creeps up his spine, as a million thought races his mind and one of them is that he doesn't dare to look back and he doesn't dare to run. Because if he runs he's getting caught.

He should have waited for Hoseok. He should have stayed there at the bar until closing.

The footsteps are heavy and he feels tears filling his eyes, while his heart just pounds and pounds against his chest like two fists against a locked, crumbling door that he would try to hide behind. He picks up the pace of his walking at a thunderous speed because he's already shaking, it won't be long before he's rendered immobile just from fear alone and he's fumbling with his phone that he struggles to take out of his coat.

Praying for himself to remain calm, he goes for Hoseok's number, fingers brittle like they would break when there's suddenly a loud thud behind him.

He immediately freezes.

The phone is still in his hand. He's barely breathing and he has to remind himself that he needs the oxygen.

It has turned eerily silent. Even his heart quietens down to favour his hearing and Taehyung cranes his neck slowly, eyelashes wet and he finds a tall figure looming in the darkness over something.

A body on the ground.

"Do you realize this man has been following you?" The figure asks, just a silhouette in the darkness of the alley.

He doesn't know what to say. He recognizes the hand fixing the leather glove on the other.

"Do you know him?" The voice is soft, yet cold.

Tae finally, properly looks at the big, unconscious man on the ground. Dares to take a step forward. Another one. He's not surprised to see the face. But still terrified to see it all the same. The face he'd always see in the dark.

"Yes," he whispers, taking a deep, shaky breath. He stares at the closed eyes, that had always been filled with fire when they looked at Tae . "I know him."

"He was trying to get to you, so I-" The person in front of him abruptly stops.

Tae has to tear his eyes off the man on the ground, and look up at the silhouette.

"Are you okay?" The person asks softly, and Tae thinks he whimpers, because the man takes a step forward into the light of the alley and he finally sees the person's face. Large eyes so brilliantly clear and sharp even in the night, that aren't so intrigued, but aren't so bored either. Just still eyes. There's an undecipherable expression on the man's face, tall rounded nose and blankness upon plump lips. No smile, no frown either.

"I am," Tae nods quickly, trying to blink his tears away. Trying not to shake. "Th-thank you."

The gloved hand reaches for him, and Tae flinches when it grips on his stiff arm.

"I'll call you a cab."

Tae couldn't find it in himself to say anything, or do anything, except follow the man's lead out of the alley, into the streets. He's lost control on everything, just physically moving yet unable to think, to process things at the moment. Does the fear inside him show, he wonders. Because the man stays with him, calling a cab.

And he just stares at the asphalt. Stiff, tense. Unmoving.

When he gets into the cab, somehow it feels like he's forgotten how he ended up there, including how the man pays for the ride with cash in a gloved hand.

"Where to, young man?" The driver asks, annoyed and Tae thinks he's been asking the same question for a while now, and he's only hearing it now.

He tells the man in the driver's seat where to go, and looks out the car window.

The tall man, in the long coat and gloved hands had vanished.

And Tae comes home hollow, locks every lock in the house, the extra ones Hoseok helped him install too, and then hides himself under his blankets, peering through the gaps at the empty dog house in the corner.

Do not think you're unreachable or untouchable, when you're bathed in the lights on stage.