Surprisingly enough, Taehyung survives hell week.

Yes, it feels like he has been sent to hell and back but he's alive nonetheless. Jimin barely made it either but he looks like he's in much worse condition than Taehyung is, and that is really saying a lot.

"Kill me. Please, do me a favor and kill me," Jimin whines as soon as he enters their apartment.

Taehyung looks up at Jimin from where he's lying down on their living room floor and rolls his eyes at his roommate's dramatics.

"Jimin, you're done with exams. Killing you now would be pointless. You should've asked before the exams," Taehyung replies before he goes back to staring at the ceiling as he let his stress from his entire body melt away.

Jimin joins Taehyung on the floor and also looks up at the ceiling. Jimin chuckles.

"Well, it's nice to know that you're willing to kill me."

Taehyung chuckles as well at that before they both fell into silence.

"Any plans for the holidays?" Taehyung eventually asks. Jimin does not answer right away as he contemplates his answer, humming a made-up tune at the same time.

"Going home to Busan this weekend," Jimin starts to say. "Probably would just stay home. I don't think my family is planning to go anywhere." Jimin suddenly turns to look at Taehyung. "How about you? You said you're staying here, right?"

Taehyung nods his head in response. "My parents were not very happy about me staying here to work but my boss asked me if I could stay and I only really agreed because I can really use some extra money right now."

Jimin nods solemnly at that as silence overtook once again.

Even though Taehyung wants nothing but the comfort of his own bed and his mother's homemade cooking, Taehyung has no choice but to stay and work even though their holiday break is supposed to be a time for him to relax and spend time with his family.

His latest projects for his course have been very financially consuming and his allowance was not enough to sustain his personal and school needs. Jimin knows this very well that is why he has been paying more than his share to their apartment so that Taehyung would have extra money, no matter how little, that he could spend for himself.

Taehyung has been very opposed by it but Jimin was stubborn, incredibly so, that at the end, Taehyung begrudgingly agreed. But he can't let it happen any longer than it already has that's why he decided to use his holiday break to work his ass off.

Taehyung's train of thought was suddenly interrupted when he sees Jimin sit up from his position.

"Don't push yourself too hard, Taehyungie. I know you're staying to work but try to get some rest," Jimin mutters softly, caressing Taehyung's nape with a gentle smile. Jimin moves to stand up but before he leaves to go to his room, he bends down and drops a light kiss on the crown of Taehyung's head. Taehyung smiles.

"Thanks, Jiminie."

Jimin has started packing and getting ready to go back to Busan that's why Taehyung goes to the gym alone on Friday afternoon.

Taehyung really wants to spend some time with Jimin before he leaves but he has to leave in the morning tomorrow so Jimin really has to finish packing today.

Taehyung arrives at the gym in a solemn mood and Namjoon spots him right away.

"I thought you would be in a better mood because you're done with exams but you don't look too happy," Namjoon says as a greeting. "Did you and Jeongguk fight again?"

Taehyung can't help but chuckle at that, making Namjoon smile as well.

"Oh, no, no, it's not that," Taehyung starts to say. "It's just that I have to stay here to work and won't be able to go home."

Namjoon nods in understanding.

"Oh yeah, that always sucks doesn't it?" Namjoon says with a sympathetic smile.

They both chat more after that as Namjoon talks about his plans for the holidays as well. Soon after, Taehyung finally began his workout and almost immediately, he began to feel better.

While in the middle of lifting some weights, Taehyung suddenly remembers a certain someone.

The last time Taehyung has seen Jeongguk was back at the Grand Cafe, right before their final exams started. Ever since then, Taehyung hasn't really seen Jeongguk anywhere even here at the gym, despite him usually coming to the gym as often as Taehyung does. Taehyung briefly wonders how Jeongguk is doing, sue him.

Taehyung pauses for a while, putting down the weights on the ground as he fishes out his phone from his pocket.

To: Jiminie 🐶
hey have u seen jeon lately

Taehyung locks his phone after the message has been sent and he was about to take the weights from the ground when he feels his phone vibrate, indicating that he received a text. He takes his phone out once again and he sees Jimin's quick reply.

From: Jiminie 🐶
miss him? lol
haven't really seen him except at the studio. kid looks like he's about to drop dead
wouldn't be surprised tho if he decided that he wont leave his house unless its necessary
business majors...

After reading Jimin's text, Taehyung pockets his phone and resumed his workout. Taehyung ignores the way he feels his mood slightly drops at the thought of probably not seeing Jeongguk for a while especially that it's the break and Jeongguk would probably go back to his hometown. Even if he won't, Taehyung would be stuck working during the whole break anyway.

Taehyung still gets annoyed by seeing Jeongguk's unfairly attractive face but damn him, Taehyung is a weak man.

The rest of Taehyung's workout goes smoothly and by the time he finished up, he's feeling considerably better.

"Any other plans for the rest of the day?" Namjoon asks after Taehyung finished changing out of his workout clothes. Taehyung chugs down his water before replying to Namjoon.

"Nah, I'm just gonna head straight home. Wanna spend the night with Jimin before he leaves early tomorrow."

"Ah, Jimin, your cute little friend," Namjoon says with a dimpled smile and Taehyung can't help but laugh at that. "Haven't seen him around. Tell him I said hi."

Taehyung nods his head, still smiling.

"I'll tell him you said he's little and I promise you, you won't ever see him again," Taehyung says teasingly and they both laugh once again.

"At least don't forget the part when I said he's also cute," Namjoon says as he waves goodbye at Taehyung. Taehyung gives Namjoon a thumbs up.

"Yes, sir. See you around!"

A few days have already passed since Jimin left for Busan and ever since then, Taehyung has been nothing but miserable and just overall bored out of his mind.

Although, Taehyung's long hour shifts at the corner store has been keeping him quite busy. The day after Jimin left, Taehyung started working right away. He requested for more hours and his boss was more than happy to give it to him, due to the lack of staff, and Taehyung doesn't know if he should be happy because it means he's getting paid more or hate himself for putting himself through something so tedious and equally annoying due to the different kinds of customers Taehyung has to deal with every single day. To make everything worse, Taehyung gets home and finds himself all alone with the absence of his roommate. Jimin has only been away for a few days but Taehyung already misses him. Thankfully though, Jimin makes sure that he gives Taehyung a call every day until he comes back to Seoul.

As if Taehyung's situation is not already bad enough, he seems to be having the worst shift today.

It started with him sleeping through his alarm and arriving late to his work. Since he was responsible for opening the store, due to his late arrival, he also opened the store for about an hour later than it was supposed to be open. Taehyung was not surprised that his boss found out right away and he gave Taehyung hell for it, adding more to Taehyung's already existing headache. To add to this, about three drunk men had already stumbled into the store within the first hour since he opened the store. They have caused such a mess and Taehyung has to clean up after them, not wanting to suffer from more scolding from his boss.

Somehow, someway, Taehyung made it through the whole day. It's almost the closing hours now and Taehyung was thankful that his evening shift was much quieter compared in the morning and afternoon. The store was only visited by very few customers and Taehyung mostly spent the night of his shift playing games on his phone while munching on whatever food his hand touches in the store.

Taehyung started receiving fewer customers as the hour gets later and by the time it was past ten o'clock, Taehyung was ready to doze off.

However, just as Taehyung was about to fall into dreamland, he hears the bell ring, a signal that a customer came in, and he was immediately jolted awake on his spot. From where he is sitting, Taehyung couldn't see where the customer is so he concludes that the customer can't see him either so Taehyung decided to close his eyes and catch a wink of sleep before the customer comes to the cash register.

Almost immediately, Taehyung hears a light tap, which jolts him awake, opening his eyes and looking at his surroundings feeling confused until he finally remembers that he's still at work.

Taehyung notices that there's a person standing in front of the counter, the reason he was woken up in the first place, and briefly remembers the customer that entered earlier. He's amazed at how quick the customer was because Taehyung swears he was only able to 'sleep' for a few seconds, a minute max.

"Sorry about tha–" Taehyung starts to say, but his apology was cut short when he finally looks up. Of course, it has to be Jeongguk.

Taehyung's exhaustion seems to suddenly vanish, his heart beating fast as if it's threatening to break loose from his chest.

"Hey," Jeongguk says when Taehyung just stares at him. Jeongguk looks just as shocked to see Taehyung there.

Taehyung wants to speak, just say anything, but it seems that his words are trapped in his throat because, holy fuck, why does Jeongguk look like that?

Jeongguk is sweating like he just finished some kind of a workout, his white muscle shirt sticking to his body and if Taehyung looks closer, he swears he would be able to see the outline of Jeongguk's torso. His hair is also plastered on his forehead, damped with sweat and he's heaving a little. In his hand is bottled water, which is what he's here for in the first place. Taehyung snaps out his daze.

"Um, hey. Sorry, I spaced out," Taehyung says, and was thankful that he didn't stumble over his words. "What are you doing out so late?"

Jeongguk finally catches his breath, his breathing slowing down.

"No need to apologize," Jeongguk says with a small, reassuring smile. Taehyung thinks he might shed a tear. "And I was just out for some night jogging."

Taehyung briefly remembers when the receptionist from where Jeongguk lives said something about Jeongguk going on night runs quite frequently.

"You look tired as hell, though. Shouldn't you be home resting for the break?" Jeongguk asks when Taehyung didn't say anything, handing the bottled water to Taehyung.

Taehyung takes the bottle from Jeongguk and quickly scans it. Jeongguk taps his card on the machine to pay for it.

Taehyung nods and lets out a sigh. "Yeah, I know. But I'm staying here in Seoul to work for extra money."

Taehyung thinks that him and Jeongguk are really not close enough yet for him to share some personal information about him. And Taehyung admits that he is a bit reluctant to tell the other because after all, it's a money issue and he feels weird telling it to Jeongguk who probably rarely experiences financial problems if he even experiences it at all. Taehyung does end up telling him anyway, knowing that Jeongguk would not be the type to judge him for it.

Jeongguk nods in understanding as he takes his water and chugs it down in one go. Taehyung can only stare.

"Is that so? Sorry to hear that," Jeongguk says, looking genuinely sympathetic. Taehyung just shrugs and smiles sadly.

"How about you? Shouldn't you be home too?" Taehyung suddenly asks, not wanting to end the conversation with Jeongguk just yet.

"I've been living in Seoul since I was a kid. I still go back to Busan once in a while but I basically live here, no family to really go home to in Busan," Jeongguk explains. Taehyung notices that Jeongguk's answer was a little personal and he's happy that Jeongguk seems to be comfortable sharing personal things to Taehyung as well.

"Sorry, I just assumed you don't live here," Taehyung says with an apologetic smile.

"It's fine, a lot of people assume that since my accent never really went away. And can you stop apologizing, I'm not used to it and you don't have anything to apologize for," Jeongguk says as he leans his hip on the counter, making himself comfortable. Jeongguk seems like he's not going anywhere anytime soon and Taehyung hates how much that makes him happy. Since when did he become so soft for that fool?

"Okay, okay, fine," Taehyung says with a chuckle and Jeongguk nods his head in approval.

"By the way, you can come to my place anytime you want. I know Jimin hyung went back to Busan," Jeongguk suddenly offers, catching Taehyung off guard and he can't help but flush at that.

"Um, wouldn't your family be home?"

"No, I own the penthouse... I live separately from them," Jeongguk replies, rubbing his nape, bashful. Taehyung can say that he basically knew that already but he still can't help but gawk at the confirmation. Just how fucking rich is he?

Taehyung whistles. "Nice."

"Thanks," Jeongguk says with a light chuckle. "So, I'll see you around, Kim?"

Taehyung nods, although he's still unsure if he's really strong enough to hang out with Jeongguk alone in his own house. Even just the thought of it gives him shivers.

"Yes, I'll see you around, Jeon," Taehyung finally says, making Jeongguk smile once again.

Jeongguk pushes himself off of the counter as he turns to leave. When he reaches the door, he turns back around. Taehyung's heart skips a beat.

"Well, it was fancy to see you again, Kim," Jeongguk says with a grin and a salute before he finally exits the store, leaving Taehyng as red as a fucking beet.