"Where are you?" Taehyung was panting when Jimin answered the phone.
"I'm, uh..." he took a while to answer, "with Jungkook."
"You're what?"
"It's a long story," Jimin sighed, "But I'll tell you when I get home. What about you? Where are you?"
"At the gym," he scoffed, "I was kicked out of my own house."
"What is that supposed to mean?" a small spark of amusement was in his tone, "How can you be kicked out of the building you own?"
"You're right," Taehyung huffed, "Anyway, I'll leave you to be with Jungkook, talk to you later? You better come home tonight."
Both Jimin and Taehyung never really needed to communicate whether or not they were going to go into the office, mostly because neither one ever took days off. But from that, Jimin understood that he wasn't going to be in today.
"Yes, honey," he cooed, and they both laughed, "I'll see you later."
When he had finished talking to his best friend, Jimin laid back down on the bank, staring up at the blue of the sky. He couldn't believe he had stayed out all night with Jungkook.
"Didn't know you had a girlfriend," Jungkook laughed to himself, scrolling through his phone.
"It was Tae," Jimin replied, "He's my girlfriend."
"Ahh, right," Jungkook nodded, putting his phone back down on the grass.
"So," Jimin started, "what are you going to do, are you going to tell her?"
Jungkook pulled the other phone from out of his back pocket, staring at it. It had taken him a while to get used to holding it, touching it. He literally could feel the warmth radiating off it as if Hoseok was still here.
"Of course I'll tell her," he breathed, "But I just don't want to hurt her. Even though I don't understand, she's going to be heartbroken when I tell her."
The night before, after they got talking, Jungkook managed to tell him about finding the phone. It was strange, Jungkook seldom trusted anyone, however, after spending that time with Jimin, it was just so easy.
The pair went to a nearby petrol station and charged the phone before turning it on and checking it. There was nothing unusual, but when Jungkook checked his recent messages, he saw that there was a message that he had tried to send to both Jiah and Jungkook, however, it failed to send.
1984186
He had no idea what that was meant to mean. Jimin suggested a phone number, and they dialled it, but it didn't work.
So they were just stuck with those seven digits.
Jungkook knew that Jiah would be hurt, knowing that Hoseok had tried to tell them something, maybe it would have been able to stop him from being killed, but even that couldn't work out in their favour.
Just a simple text.
Maybe it could have saved his life.
"Hey, can I ask you a question? Since we're here."
"You're making me nervous," Jungkook turned to him.
Jimin smiled, and Jungkook considered himself lucky to see it in the daylight. His skin brightened as if he contained the sun's rays itself, the orange in his eyes solidifying and swirling around, forming the storms of Saturn he had to admit he loved.
"This," he pointed at his own neck to indicate the tattoo on Jungkook's neck, "Is there a meaning behind it? Jiah said you designed it yourself and it's just so... beautiful..."
"Oh," nodding, he turned to the river again, "Yeah."
Jimin continued to look at him, not accepting that as the full answer.
"Since you already know about us," he shrugged, "Back home, my dad's the boss of the neighbouring mafia, so naturally, I'm the heir."
"Right."
"It's a part of me, the crown is a part of who I am, and wherever I go, I need to be reminded of that. Everything I do, all I am, where I came from, it's all the mafia. I was born into it, it's my blood, it's not that I can't ever want anything else, I just can't have anything else."
Jungkook had stated it like it was just a simple fact, but Jimin couldn't take it at surface level like that.
"Isn't that hard?"
"Huh?"
"That must be so hard, having to just accept your life like that. You had no choice."
"Yeah, I had no choice, but I've had over twenty years to get used to it. There's nothing much else to me honestly, that's all I am."
"Don't say that," Jimin's words were like a spell. They rendered him speechless, and he just wanted him to speak more, to keep talking because just somehow he was able to see so much of Jungkook.
He was able to see who he really was when he didn't even know himself.
"You're a person, with feelings, with qualities, with amazing magic that other people don't have. You are not defined by your family, you're so much more than that."
"Thanks," was all Jungkook managed to say. He was really trying not to let Jimin in on his good side, the last person he let do that was Hoseok... and he didn't want anything to end the way that did.
"If I get a tattoo," Jimin whispered, "would you do it for me?"
"You- you want a tattoo?"
"Is that weird? I mean I never wanted one before, but they look so good on you I-"
"It's not weird," Jungkook tried to give him a reassuring smile, "I of all people cannot say that it's weird."
"But what would I even get, all your tattoos are beautiful, and they all mean something... I could never decide on something."
"Saturn," the word spilled from his mouth before he could take it back and Jimin raised an eyebrow, turning to him.
"Saturn? Like the planet?"
"I mean, it's an idea?" he tried to think of an explanation, in case he asked. What else could he think of apart from his eyes?
"But why? I know almost nothing about Saturn... it has rings?"
He knew almost nothing about the planet, yet Jungkook could only think of it when he looked at him.
Jungkook didn't answer, and he raised an eyebrow to that, "And I have a ring?"
"Your eyes," he muttered so quietly that in any other instance, he wouldn't have been heard. But this was Jimin.
"My eyes?"
"You see, Saturn has these bands, it has these lines that run around the whole sphere, all sorts of yellow," Jungkook was almost shy, he really wished the words spurting from his mouth would stop. For some reason, though, he couldn't stop. "They are from the immense storms that happen on the gas planet, and they - uh - your eyes, they - uhm - they look like them."
Jimin blinked. For the first time in forever, he just didn't know what to say.
"But yeah inspirational quotes are also popular," he coughed as if it was going to help him recover from the embarrassment he felt. He hadn't been embarrassed in years.
"I like that," the side of Jimin's mouth pulled up into a soft smile, as he stared back at his new friend. "That's a nice idea."
—
Taehyung took a deep breath before knocking on the door, it opened almost a second after.
He was hesitant to open the door himself, not knowing how the ambience of the house would be despite Jiah texting him to tell him they had finished talking.
"You forget the passcode to your own house?" Ji Young was the one who answered, and Taehyung looked at his smile questioningly.
"You two talked?"
Honestly, he was surprised that the atmosphere was this... light. He didn't know what he was expecting, but it was surely not a smiling face.
"Yeah," Ji Young answered. "I can't believe you know, and you're still with her. When I found out, I hated her."
"But it's Jiah," Taehyung shrugged, "You can never hate her too long. It just doesn't last."
"You're an idiot," he replied.
And Taehyung grinned, "I know."
When they walked into the house, the aroma of soft batter, maple syrup and blueberries overwhelmed him.
"Were you guys cooking pancakes?" Taehyung cheered when he saw the stack on the bench.
"Noona doesn't cook," Ji Young scoffed, "This was all me."
That was when the door opened, and Jiah walked in, wearing another pair of Taehyung's boxers and just a dress shirt she found in his closet.
He quickly tore his eyes away from her, knowing that if he stared any longer, he wouldn't have been able to keep his hands to himself.
Her brother is here.
"Ji Young, do you think you can get to school from here?"
Taehyung's eyes grew wide when Jiah asked this.
"Wait. You're going to let him go to school like this? He's hurt!"
Ji Young snorted, "This is literally nothing on Kim Youmin from grade nine, that was hurt." Turning to Taehyung, he shrugged, "I'm fine. I'll be fine."
"But-," he turned to Jiah as if to say 'you're really going to let him go?'.
"I have basketball practice, I can't miss it."
"Will you even be able to play? You're-"
"I'm fine, really."
"Well if you insist," Taehyung slumped into a seat at the bench, "We must play together one day."
"Yes! We have to!"
"Also, speaking of school, I can drop you off if you would like."
"I think today I'll catch the bus. But thank you anyway..." he was thinking of what to call him and Taehyung could see the cogs turning in his brain.
"You can call me hyung," he offered, and when Ji Young didn't answer, he promptly added, "I mean, Taehyung is fine."
"I'll catch the bus," he turned to Jiah, "I'll see you at home tonight, noona?"
"See you Ji Young, text me if you need anything, okay?"
He nodded, turning to Taehyung, "Thank you for letting us stay over. Hopefully, I'll see you soon... hyung."
And as quickly as he had said it, he picked up his bag and was out the door, leaving both Jiah and Taehyung to stare at the back of it, the ghost of what was just him.
"Did he just..."
"Seems so," the grin was evident in her voice, and he turned to look at her.
"I think he might like me."
"I definitely think so."
He sighed, looking her up and down, taking in her appearance properly for the first time in a while. He could never forget how gorgeous she looked in the morning, with her hair flawlessly falling, sienna over her shoulders, sticking out in places that made her seem almost divine. Her lips, of syrup and camellia, sat in a slight smile as she looked back at him. The light playing with the whiskey in her eyes, a whiskey that he adored, a whiskey that he wanted to drink every last drop of.
He wondered if all love stories in the world were like this; finding the other so intoxicatingly beautiful that they could get drunk by just looking.
Reaching his hand out, he pulled her into him, wrapping his arms around her waist. His world in his grasp.
And she fell against him, feeling her own self crumble into the person who was her everything.
"Please," he begged, "wear my clothes more often."
All she did in response was lay her elbows on his shoulders, encasing his neck with her arms and pulled his lips onto hers.
A smile bloomed across his mouth, finding firecrackers erupt in his brain, and like dominoes, travel down his spine, spreading to his heart.
Every time they kissed was like the first time. And like the first time, he realised over and over again how deeply in love he was with her.
"I lose myself in you," she whispered, speaking his thoughts into existence, "I find myself in you," and he panted against her lips helplessly.
His mind was shooting in different places while he was trying to focus on where he was at that moment. He wondered how she was able to just make him feel so special.
How was she able to take his hand in hers and make him see the galaxies in his own veins?
How was she able to trace her index finger down his neck and further, his spine, making him feel sparks of magic following it?
How was she able to claim his lips like she did, making him feel wanted, making him feel like he added to the visions the earth held?
Taehyung never understood the beauty in life, and he was starting to realise it was because life never understood the beauty in him.
But now he understood.
Life is beautiful.
Bit by bit, they became undone. With their lips never leaving the other's, Jiah's fingers fiddled with Taehyung's shirt buttons, quickly threading each one through and tossing it over her shoulder.
While she was doing so, Taehyung did the same with the shirt she was wearing, pulling it around her and dropping it to the floor.
"Shouldn't we be going to work?" she asked quietly, the smile breaking out on her face when he hopped off the chair and led her into the bedroom.
"Sh, sh," he grinned too, kissing her again, "don't ruin it."
--
They lay in bed, Taehyung's back against the frame and Jiah leaning into his chest.
Her fingers were playing with his, tracing the outline of each one. It was as if she never wanted to forget what they were like.
And he watched her do so, every so often placing a quick kiss in her hair, on her ear, against her neck.
He wanted every part of her imprinted with every part of him.
It felt like they were just any other couple, skipping work with the irresponsibilities of making love and finding magic in each other.
When he was with her, he forgot their reality.
"Love is scary. This feeling of falling terrifies me. The only way it ends is with hitting the ground," she interrupted the silence by saying.
"Not if I catch you," his voice muffled with her neck, the scent of his cologne had rubbed off on her that she smelt so much like he did. He doted on the idea that he found his forever in such an amazing person.
"You can't catch me if you're falling with me."
"Sweetheart, I started falling long before you did."