Jungkook lifted his head up and looked at the older like he couldn't hear him at all. It only made Hoseok lose his patience bit by bit.
"Can't you just tell me who he is and what happened between you two? It's very obvious that you clearly don't like seeing him with that guy. What's going on? Tell me."
Jungkook didn't seem even a tad bit fazed as he chuckled at his hyung and shook his head.
"You're really over your head here. I really don't know him nor did anything happen between us. Honest."
The red haired male pinched his nose bridge and sighed.
"Then why did you look like your gut was being cut open when you saw them kissing? That's not how you react to strangers."
Jungkook's jaw clenched visibly even though his grin kept intact.
"I was just amazed at how openly they were expressing themselves. I was stunned by their courage. That's all."
Hoseok felt his blood boil at the stubbornness of the younger.
"I really want to hit you right now. What exactly are you achieving here by shamlessly lying to me like that?"
Jungkook laughed heartily but the older could see through how fake it was. If he hadn't seen the look on Jungkook's face before he would have been easily fooled because the boy was a pretty good actor.
"Don't stress yourself over nothing hyung. Come on let's go."
He gestured for the waiter to bring the bill and waited patiently while ignoring the older's stern gaze on him completely. Once the bill was there he tried to pay it but Hoseok being older and fairly richer than him didn't allow that. He quickly paid for the meal and followed after Jungkook since the younger didn't spend another second in that restaurant after the cash was put down.
The small distance home was covered in attempts of talking about the matter again by Hoseok and constant shut down of those attempts by Jungkook. Once they were at the younger's apartment, the brunette thanked him for the meal and asked if he could do anything for the older in return. Hoseok asked him the same question for the millionth time but it only got him a small laugh followed by a goodbye and shutting of door casually.
Hoseok was very uncomfortable. He couldn't get rid of the contradictory images of Jungkook from his head. Why would the younger do that? What went down? Why didn't the grey haired guy notice him if they both knew each other?
It was those questions and that discomfort that led him back to that restaurant and to his luck that couple was still there. He stayed outside and waited to see them after they would come out. It was almost a twenty minutes wait after which the couple came out holding hands looking as happy as ever.
"Xiuminie, how could you do that to me? That was so embarrassing?"
The red head turned his head at the sound to check if it was the couple and to his relief it was. Just as Jungkook was shocked to find out what Taehyung's voice sounded like, Hoseok was taken aback as well. He recovered from his shock soon and went ahead to confront the two males.
"Excuse me?"
The addressed guys looked at Hoseok's direction and widened their eyes slightly in a questioning way before speaking simultaneously.
"Yes?"
The red haired male cleared his throat before looking at Taehyung and spoke.
"Can I talk to you for a second?"
The couple exchanged confused looks before the guy with dark brown hair spoke up looking defensive of his boyfriend.
"Why? Is there a problem?"
Hoseok shook his head with a small smile and replied.
"Oh no no. There's no problem. It's just that I think that a friend of mine might have met your boyfriend a few days ago and I only wanted to talk about that."
Taehyung looked at the guy next to him giving him a reassuring smile before nodding in agreement. Xiumin stepped aside and let the two be. Once he did that Hoseok took out his phone and opened his gallery to show the picture of Jungkook to Taehyung, getting straight to the point.
"Do you know him by any chance?"
Taehyung looked at the picture and it took him a few seconds to recognize the person in the picture.
"Oh yes yes. I met him around a week ago."
After hearing a thoughtful hum from Hoseok, Taehyung added.
"Why are you asking? Did something happen to him? Was it bad?"
Hoseok shook his head immediately and put his phone back in his pocket before looking up to meet Taehyung's eyes.
"It's just- what did you guys do when you met?"
Taehyung blinked twice trying to understand the question before responding carefully.
"We didn't do anything. We just talked. Actually, we didn't even do that. I don't know why but he suddenly had a panic attack when he saw me in front of him. I don't think I even got his name."
The explanation made Hoseok just stare at the stranger blankly. If it was such a small thing then why was Jungkook hiding it from him like he had a map of an ancient hidden treasure?
"Is that all? Did something else happen before or after the meeting?"
Taehyung shook his head in denial slowly and had gotten slightly worried now, that too for a completely random person whose face he had almost forgotten.
"Can you tell me what happened to him?"
Hoseok bit his lip wondering if he should tell the stranger the truth or not. A silent internal debate lasted for a while as they maintained eye contact before the red head sighed in defeat, dropping his head slighlty and then looked up with a somewhat apologetic look.
"I'm sorry if this makes you uncomfortable in any way but I assure you that Jungkook is a very sweet guy who never means any harm to anyone."
Taehyung nodded unsurely urging the other to continue.
"I don't know if you noticed us or not but I came here with him just a while ago for lunch."
Taehyung oh-ed and Hoseok continued.
"After a while I noticed him looking over at your direction and uncontrollably staring. Before I could ask him anything he said he had to go to the bathroom and he walked past you. I suppose you didn't notice him then as well."
Taehyung shook his head confirming the supposition with a sad look.
"A little while later he came out after, Xiumin was it?"
Taehyung nodded.
"Yeah, after he came out Jungkook followed after and saw you guys share a kiss. That was when I saw him break visibly. I couldn't understand it at all because I had never seen you before nor had he ever mentioned being interested in anyone."
Hoseok took a break to sigh sadly while Taehyung looked at him in utter shock.
"Even though I saw it myself he still lied straight to my face that he has no idea of who you are and said that he was fine. It was fake, obviously. Now I'm really worried about him so please, please tell me if something else happened that day."
Taehyung shook his head again slowly, now feeling bad for not recognizing the poor guy and breaking his heart unknowingly. His boyfriend, Xiumin, although was standing at a distance he still heard it all and felt a bit possessive, but not in a rude way. All he was wondering was why Taehyung was getting worked up over someone he didn't even know? Taehyung saw him pouting and sent a kiss towards him which made the pout grow making the dark brown haired male look like an extremely cute puppy.
"I'm really sorry but I have no idea what could have happened. I told you everything I knew and saw."
Hoseok bowed his head in defeat and sighed for the nth time before thanking him for the time. Taehyung told him the cliche "it's okay" when he knew close to nothing about what it was and if it could be possible for it to be okay in the first place.
Hoseok turned to look away letting the couple reunite and leave. He could hear the small initial part of their conversation since they were still in his range as they were leaving.
"What did he say?"
"I met a guy a few days back by accident and he wanted to ask about him?"
"Did something happen to him?"
"No, apparently not. I think there might have been a misunderstanding between them or something. I don't really know."
"Well, as long as my baby is not getting in trouble I'm fine with everything."
"Don't call me baby. I'm a fully grown man."
"But you're still my baby."
"I'm not talking to you if you call me baby again."
A few seconds later he turned again to see when he couldn't hear the voices anymore as the couple walked away hand in hand being all touchy and flirty without any worries in the world.
"I'm not surprised you fell for him, Kook. He is like a walking angel. Too bad he is taken by yet another angel."
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Almost three weeks- and around a month since he met Taehyung- passed and Jungkook went back to his old self. He was able to suppress his feelings of loneliness enough to look like he didn't care, once again. Although his little short lived secret was out to one of his friends due to his slip up, it didn't bother him since he was never going to accept it with his own mouth so it didn't matter what anyone said or thought about him.
It was around seven in the evening when he was walking back from the convenience store that he spotted a familiar tuft of grey hair resting on the bike across the road.
Thinking that it must be his hallucination, Jungkook shook his head to ignore it and kept his eyes on the path as he walked his way.
He hadn't walked much when he felt a tap on his shoulder which made him turn only to widen his eyes at the sight of the person standing so close to him. However, he recomposed himself quickly to prevent the occurrence of the mistake from last time and smiled softly before speaking.
"Yes, Taehyung?"
Taehyung smiled back when he heard his name coming out of the other's mouth which amazed him that the brunette remembered it even though it had been nearly a month since they met and that too was very brief meet up.
"It's unfair that I never got your name but you knew mine."
Jungkook's face didn't go through any change in emotions as he replied.
"I'm Jungkook. And I think I did tell you my name."
Although Taehyung had been told the name some time back when Hoseok confronted him and by Jungkook as well as he had claimed but it had been misplaced from his mind because of what he went through in the past few days.
"That's a nice name. Would you like to have a drink with me, Jungkook?"
The question raised the said male's eyebrows since he couldn't understand why would Taehyung suddenly appear in front of him and offer him a drink? It didn't make any sense to him.
"Sorry to say this but why me? Don't you have a boyfriend?"
Taehyung chuckled dryly and Jungkook could feel how pitiful it was. Clearly the grey haired male wasn't asking it in a flirteous way. He was having a bad day and wanted a partner to get wasted with.
"I don't think I can talk about that right now. "
The way Taehyung's eyes darkened made Jungkook's heart drop. It didn't matter that he had seen him weeks ago. The male still had the same affect on him as he did the first time they met. It was the case of love at first sight after all- however, Jungkook's love was directed at Taehyung's hair at first and then drifted to the owner of the hair later.
"I just bought some beer. If you would like to come over my apartment it's just up ahead. We can drink there if that's okay with you?"
Taehyung smiled gently and nodded at the question before excusing himself to get his motorcycle which he had parked on the other side of the road. He kicked the support off of the road and walked it towards Jungkook after which they both went to the brunette's abode on foot. The only conversation they had during this walk was the question from Jungkook about whether or not Taehyung approached him purposely to which the other had answered that he was just driving by on his bike and saw the brunette enter into the store which made him decide to stay and wait for him. Jungkook had hummed in understanding and they didn't say a single word after that.
"It's not much but it's comfy and warm."
Jungkook declared as he approached the main door of his apartment and fished out the keys from his pocket after Taehyung had parked the motorcycle nearby. They went in and surely it had a warm welcoming feel to it that made Taehyung smile widely as if he had been embraced by his mother.
"Make yourself comfortable. I'll just put these things in place and join you."
Taehyung gave a small hum and Jungkook walked towards the kitchen to put the cheese and bread in the refrigerator before taking the cans of beer out with him to the living room where Taehyung was seated comfortably on the couch. If it hadn't been for the sad look on the other's face Jungkook would have awed at the perfect body proportions of the male sitting in front of him.
"Here."
Jungkook said which made the other guy look at him as he came out of his thoughts.
"Thanks."
The brunette sat next to him at a little distance and waited for the other to start talking on his own but when neither of the two talked for a while, Jungkook peeked to his side and saw the other blinking rapidly to stop his eyes from watering. He looked away immediately trying to act like he didn't just saw that as if it was some sort of moral support to the other. When he couldn't take the still prolonging silence, the brunette cleared his throat looking at his feet as he wiggled his toes and spoke.
"So, is everything okay?"
Taehyung smiled, which the brunette didn't see since he wasn't looking at the other, and took a big swig before sighing.
"No. It's not."
Jungkook took a small sip from his own can and pressed his lips waiting for the other to continue which didn't happen so he looked to his side only to find the other fumbling with his phone. Before the brunette could even think about what Taehyung was doing he was shown the screen which displayed a conversation. A conversation with someone named Mr. Kim.
"Should I.. read it?"
Jungkook asked hesitantly and received a nod after which he took the device from the other's hand and went through it. The messages were exchanged with the father of the guy whom Taehyung was seen with some time ago at the restaurant. After reading the entire thing his eyes went wide as he gasped out.
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