Taehyung's pov
I was lying on my bedroom floor in the middle of my counting routine when my cell rang. Reaching up to the bed, I patted the mattress until my hand landed on my phone. Seeing Baek's name flash on the screen.
"Hey. How did your interviews go?" he asked.
"I stopped on the way home and picked up two extra bottles of wine. Take a guess."
"Not good, huh?"
"You could say that."
"Well, you know what we should do about that?"
"Definitely. Get drunk."
He laughed as if I was joking. "I was thinking more along the lines of working out."
"Exercising?"
"Yeah. It helps to get stress out."
"So does wine."
"Yes, but with exercise, you feel great the day after."
"But with wine, I don't remember the day before."
He laughed. (Again, I wasn't joking.) "If you change your mind, I'm on my way to Iron Horse Gym."
"Iron Horse?"
"It's on 72nd street. I'm a member there. I have guest passes you can use."
It had been more than a month since my bizarre encounter with Jeon Jungkook, yet suddenly I found myself rethinking alcohol vs. exercise because the man wore an Iron Horse Gym T-shirt in his Facebook photo.
"You know what? You're right. I should exercise to help me relax. After all, I can get shitfaced later if it doesn't work."
"Now you're talking."
"I'll meet you there. How does an hour sound?"
"See you then."
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Forty minutes on the elliptical, and I was totally regretting my drinking vs.- exercise choice
I should have been happy that a nice guy had invited me to come work out. Instead, I was out of breath, disappointed, and thirsty. Glad I chilled two bottles of wine.
After Baek changed, we walked to the pool area together. I read him an email i got for a job as he opened the door. "It actually says in the qualification requirements, 'Must be sober, sane, and not overly dramatic'. Think they have a moody problem in the company?" Looking down at my phone as I walked, I crashed straight into someone.
"Sorry, I wasn't looking where-"
I froze.
The sight of Jungkook standing there was almost enough to knock me over. I'd secretly hoped to see him, yet never thought I actually would. What are the chances?
I did a double take, sure I was seeing things. But it was him all right, in the flesh. And what flesh it is. Standing there shirtless and wet- wearing nothing but a pair of low-slung swim trunks-he had me stuttering.
Literally.
"Ju...Ju...Ju-" I couldn't get the word out.
Of course, Jungkook didn't miss a beat. He smirked and leaned in. "You do a cute train impression, Bear."
He remembers me.
I cleared my throat and finally spoke. "Jungkook."
I was pretty freaking proud of myself for getting that much out. He had a towel slung around his neck and lifted it to dry off his dripping hair, revealing even more flesh. His pectoral muscles were carved and perfect.
And-oh, my God...is that... Holy shit. It is. His nipples were cold and erect, and one of them was....was...pierced.
"Good to see you, Taehyung. We don't see each other for ten years, and now we've run into each other twice in a month's time."
It took me a minute to realize he was referring to our fake middle school years. His wit snapped me out of my haze.
"Yes. Aren't I lucky?"
"I know you," Beak-hyun said.
I'd completely forgotten he was standing next to me.
"You're Taehyung's cousin. The model."
Shit! Shit! Shit! I wanted to crawl into a hole and die.
However, Jungkook (being Jungkook) went right along with it.
"That's right. I'm cousin Jungkook. Aunt Bea's youngest nephew. And you are?"
Baek extended his hand, and Jungkook clasped it. "Choi Baek-hyun."
Then he turned to me. "I thought your mom's name was Raon? Same as my mom's."
Jungkook cut in smoothly. "It is. But some of us call her Bea. Nickname. She's allergic to bees. Got stung at a family barbecue once. Her face swelled up, and the kids all called her Bea after that."
Seriously, the man has to be a professional liar. He was so damn good at it, and he seemed to be turning me into one, too.
Baek nodded like it all made sense. "Well, nice to meet you. I'll let you two catch up while I get in a few laps."
Just as Baek began to walk away, Jungkook stopped him. "How did you know I was Jungkook? Aunt Bea showing off my pictures again?"
"Nah. Haven't met any of Taehyung's family yet. Saw your picture on his laptop."
"My picture?"
"It's Taehyung's background on his MacBook."
I stood completely still and counted to thirty with my eyes tightly shut. When my time was up, I opened one eye, peeking to see if Jungkook had disappeared.
"Still here." He smirked.
I covered my face with my hands. "I'm so embarrassed."
"Don't be. We're not blood cousins, so it's not too weird for you to be dreaming about me at night."
"I was not dreaming about you at night!"
"So it's only during the day while you stare at my picture on your laptop, then?"
"It was an accident. I didn't mean to set it as my background."
He folded his arms over his chest. "Okay. I'll buy that."
"Good, because it's true."
"So who's this new dope you're with?"
"Dope? You don't even know him."
"Left me standing here with his boy. Dope."
"He thinks we're cousins!"
"I told you, we're not blood-related."
"Yes, but-" I laughed. "You're bizarre, you know that?"
"Not any more bizarre than a man who somehow took a photo of a perfect stranger and has it on his MacBook for his boyfriend to see."
"He's not my boyfriend." I had no idea why I said that. It was sort of true, but sort of not. "Well, we've gone out twice."
"Ah...so you haven't slept with him yet."
I hadn't, but how would he know that? "What makes you say that?"
"Because you're not the type of boy who sleeps with guys on the first or second date."
"How would you know?"
"I just do."
When he asked again about his pic on my laptop's background I told the truth. Well, mostly and surprisingly, Jungkook nodded. I hadn't expected him to let me off the hook that easily. "Is this your regular gym? I haven't seen you here before."
"No. It's Baek's gym. He invited me. I had a bad day and planned to wine away my stresses.
"Told ya. Dope. Definitely not what I would have suggested to alleviate stress if I was Brick-hyun."
"Baek-hyun."
"Whatever."
"So what would you have suggested?"
"Nothing." He changed subjects. "So why was your day so bad, anyway?"
"Two job interviews. The first one I blew before I even walked into the office, and the second one blew me off just as I pulled up to their building."
"What do you do?"
"Marketing. I was the director of marketing for Fresh Blow Cosmetics."
"Small world. I'm friendly with Eun Sang-hun, the president of Fresh Blow. We play golf together sometimes."
"Eight and a half million people in our little city, and my fake middle school boyfriend slash non-blood-related cousin golfs with the head of my company? That is bizarre."
Jungkook laughed. "Sang-hun's retiring next year, right?"
"Yep. Moving to France and all. He has two sons who will probably take over." Ugh. Do-yun. I wished he was moving to France. Or Siberia.
After another minute, Jungkook friend banged he waved his hand to Jungkook as if to say, what the hell is taking you so long?
Jungkook nodded. "I gotta run. We have a dinner meeting in a half hour, and I need to shower."
I tried to hide my disappointment. "Well, it was nice running into you, cuz."
Our eyes locked for a minute. Just like the end of the night at the restaurant, Jungkook looked like he wanted to say something. But instead, he glanced back over his shoulder to where Baek was swimming, and then pulled me in for a hug,
His eyes lingered on my lips before he kissed my forehead. "Later, cuz."
He took a few steps toward the locker room door before stopping and turning back. "I have a friend who's a headhunter. Why don't I put you in touch with her? Maybe she can help find you something?"
"Sure, I'd love that. I'm not having much luck by myself. Thank you."
I handed him my cell, and he programmed in his number then sent a text to his own phone so we'd have each other's contact information. Then he was gone. Immediately, I felt longing. The odds of running into him a second time in this tremendous city were probably as long as being struck by lightning.
It would be less than a week before I found out sometimes lightning strikes twice.
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To be continued.....
Their second meeting and it's a bizarre....How's gonna be the scenario in future???.
Author's note-
Any name besides bts member is just random one which i chose not related to any other kpop idol...
A little hint ...next chapter will link to Jungkook's past in this story.