Taehyung was turning his phone around and around, mindlessly, for his heart was heavy with uneasiness. Jimin was perched on the sofa, typing furiously on his laptop. He had been with Taehyung since Jungkook and Hoseok left in the morning for the press conference.
"At what time the press conference is starting?"
Jimin looked up from the laptop. "At 1.30."
Taehyung ran his hand over the edge of the cast on his leg. "So, in about one hour from now?"
"Give or take, yeah. Why?"
Taehyung didn't answer at first. He looked back at the phone, opening it to see whether there were any new messages. When he saw there weren't, he sighed. "I should be there."
"What?"
"I should be there, Jimin! I can't let him do this alone. H-he.." Taehyung shook his head a few times. "I can't let him face this alone."
"Tae.." Jimin sighed. "I understand. Believe me, I do. None of us like what's happening but we don't have a choice."
"Maybe you don't. But I do." Taehyung answered in a determined way, before raising his body to a sitting position on the bed. "I have the choice to let him do this alone or be there with him. And you can bet what I'm gonna choose."
Jimin quickly got up from the sofa, when Taehyung reached for his crutches, and jumped forward to support him. "Woah! What are you doing?"
"I'm gonna go to that press conference. And I'm gonna sit there with him when he reads out the statement."
"No you're not! You can barely walk!"
"I can walk.. enough." Taehyung replied through gritted teeth. "I've been doing my therapies and all."
"Taehyung, this is ridiculous. I can't-"
"Listen, Jimin. You can either help me or step aside. Either way, I'm getting myself to that press conference."
There was silence for a few seconds before Jimin picked up the phone and dialed a number to get a van ready. "I'm so gonna get fired for this."
Taehyung changed into the clothes Jimin got from the closet, while he listened to the latter calling the nurse's station for a wheelchair.
It took them only about half an hour to reach the venue. Jimin tried to call ahead but Hoseok was not answering the phone. Jimin was not sure of how to proceed because he knew that it was unwise to just barge in.
He looked at Taehyung. "Hyung's not answering his phone. I think they are getting ready for the press."
Taehyung gave a nod. "Then let's just go."
"We can't-" Jimin took a deep breath, trying to stop Taehyung from opening the door. "I need to know the situation inside. I need to know whether it's safe for you to-"
"Come on Jimin! It's a bloody press conference, not a fan event. Hobi hyung would have had it closed off already. It will probably be crawling with security, he's not one to take any chances when it comes to Jungkook. Let's just fucking go, or we will be late."
After a few more seconds of staring, Jimin sighed. He then gave Taehyung his cap and mask, and got out of the vehicle. A bodyguard brought forward the wheelchair and Jimin helped Taehyung sit on it. Taehyung can walk a bit and he intends to do so once they are inside the hall, but there was a bit of a distance from the car park to the conference hall and Taehyung didn't want to waste time or effort by trying to be independent. He knows when to push and when to pull back.
Once they were inside, Taehyung removed his mask and cap, knowing that the reporters and cameraman would recognize him. As Jimin pushed his wheelchair forward, Taehyung noticed the look on Jungkook's face.
'Oh shit!' Taehyung felt the air in his lungs leaving, as if he got sucker-punched by a pro boxer.
Jungkook looked like he's barely stopping himself from sobbing. The world might not recognise that look, as Jungkook is good at hiding his emotions, but Taehyung surely can. He knows his baby like the back of his hand. And he knew exactly why Jungkook looked like this.
His baby, his pure, kind hearted baby, absolutely loathed lying. Jungkook had always been a truthful and honest person. Sure, he might have withheld some information occasionally, but he had never blatantly lied to anyone. Not to the people in his life and not his fans. But this… if Taehyung let him go ahead with the press conference, he'd be doing just that.
That's not gonna work with Taehyung.
He grabbed Jimin's hand and pulled him closer. "Jimin, I'm gonna tell the truth."
Taehyung could see the range of emotions passing through Jimin's eyes in rapid succession, before it finally stopped at fear.
"W-what?"
"He doesn't want to do this. I won't make him do this."
"Tae, please-" Jimin was struggling to form a coherent sentence. "You gotta think this through. It might destroy both your careers. I-"
"I'll take full responsibility. Call our PR and give them a heads-up. And Jungkook's too. This ends here, today."
With that, he got up from the wheelchair, let Jimin help him up the stage, before walking forward to where his baby was sitting with a shocked face.
_______________________________
Jungkook held his breath as the world paused, and then it exploded. Overlapping voice, yelling, and flashes… he couldn't hear or see anything. Maybe he could, but his brain was just not processing it..
He raised a shaking hand, and wrapped his fingers around Taehyung's forearm. Jungkook felt like he's being hurled through space and he needed something to ground him.
And he found it. He found it in the warm touch of Taehyung's palm, which covered his shaking hand and stopped its tremors. Jungkook raised his fingers slightly, and Taehyung intertwined them with his own. Warm and comforting.
"Guys, guys!" Taehyung had to talk loudly to be heard over all the blurred questions. "You can all ask your questions, after you let me speak. How about that?"
Almost immediately, the voices died out. Few flashes went here and there, and then those stopped too.
Taehyung gave a soft smile to the reporters, before turning towards Jungkook. "You okay, baby?"
Jungkook looked at the other for a few seconds, before giving a nod. He knew Taehyung was asking a different question with his eyes, a request for permission, and he also knew that Taehyung understood. The nod was for that unasked question too.
Taehyung looked at the reporters again, who were patiently waiting.
"Okay, I'll start from the beginning. Jungkook and I have been dating for over 9 years now. We met in high-school actually, and had been together ever since. As you all know, both him and I like to keep our private life private, and we didn't think our love life was a public matter. He had been supporting my career, even from before it started, as I have been doing for him. Yes, I'm the mystery man behind all of those noises you heard in his lives. We have two units in the same apartment building but for all intent and purposes, you could say we live together. Hmmm… what else? Oh- yes, we are engaged. A few months back, I asked this beautiful man to be mine forever and he said yes."
Taehyung then turned to Jungkook. "Did I miss anything, baby?"
Jungkook was trying so hard to stop the smile from blooming on his face. "Uhh.. you didn't say you love me."
"Ahh, yes. My bad." Taehyung chuckled a bit and turned back towards the reporters. "And I love him very much. Any questions?"
A rain of questions descended on them, most of them were not worth answering but Taehyung managed to catch one that was important.
"Does your agencies know about this?"
Taehyung raised a hand to quiet the reporters before answering. "Yes, both our agencies were made aware of our relationship a few months back. They didn't know before that. Like I already said, we like to keep our private life away from the spotlight. Our agencies were very supportive, and accepted that it's our decision to disclose our relationship publicly, if and when we wanted to."
"Now, in case any of you missed the crutches or the cast on my leg, I recently had an accident, and all the details you have read earlier about it are true. It's also true that my fiance has been with me the whole time but like the public speculated, he wasn't cheating on his long term partner, which is me, and I wasn't breaking up his fairytale love story. I assure you, our love story is as magical as the first day I saw him."
There was a chorus of chuckles and Taehyung joined them too. Jungkook spoke a few times too, but mostly it waa Taehyung who handled things, for which, Jungkook was extremely grateful. A few more questions and answers later, Taehyung finished the press conference.
When they were getting ready to leave, one of the reporters, a young girl, spoke up in a loud voice.
"Mr Kim! Mr Jeon! Can we get a photo of you two kissing? Your fans would love it."
Taehyung stared at her for a second before shrugging his shoulders. "I don't mind, you have to ask him though."
Jungkook's ear tips got to a deep red color when all the other reporters started to ask for the same thing. He had nowhere to hide, because Taehyung was looking at him with a teasing gaze too.
"Tae." Jungkook hissed. "What are you doing?"
"Nothing. Like she said, the fans would love it. And I think they deserve something after being confused with all these rumors."
"Tae.."
Taehyung leaned on to the table and pulled Jungkook by his hand. He raised his other hand, and gently held Jungkook's chin. They held eye contact for a few seconds, before Jungkook broke it and looked at Taehyung lips. And the latter knew it to be his way of consenting.
Taehyung pulled Jungkook's face by his chin, tilted it to the side a bit, and captured those rosy lips in a loving kiss. Good thing they had their eyes closed, because the flashes were absolutely blinding..