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    "I leave him alone for ten minutes~"

    "It's his first night, he can't go to dinner without looking his best,"

Jeongguk rolls his eyes as he walks into the main room of the spacecraft, raking a hand through his damp hair as he sits down on the ground with Kira.

    "I thought you said all that matters is that I feel my best," Taehyung says, his eyes closed as he flinches every time Lisa runs the comb through his tangled hair.

    "...Right, that too," She says. "But you look amazing, once I finish your hair you'll look a thousand times better. Don't you think so, Gguk?"

    "I think he looks amazing regardless," Jeongguk says without looking up from the puzzle he was helping Kira with. "I told you to leave him alone."

    "We're bonding," Lisa says. "Aren't we, Tae?"

    "I don't know, it kinda just feels like you're pulling my hair out," Taehyung says, trying to ignore the way his face heats up at Jeongguk's comment.

    "You're going to feel so much better after these tangles are gone," Lisa promises. "Gguk, you and Kira should go ahead of us so you can help set up."

    "I never help set up," Jeongguk says with a frown.

Taehyung opens his eyes, squinting against the pain of the comb getting caught in his hair.

His stomach flutters in that annoyingly familiar way when he sees Jeongguk sitting with Kira putting the puzzle together. He isn't sure why the feeling is returning, Jeongguk wasn't smiling.

But nonetheless his stomach did a little cartwheel at the domestic nature of his interactions with the girl.

    "Exactly, go," Lisa says. "You're interrupting our conversation."

    "How so?"

    "We can't talk shit about you if you're right there,"

Jeongguk rolls his eyes but stands to leave regardless. "Come on, Kira, get your coat."

    "Keep your hood on, baby, I don't want you to get sick," Lisa says to Kira. "I'll be there in a little bit."

    "Are you okay walking with Lisa, Tae?" Jeongguk asks as he shrugs on his own coat.

"I'm not gonna let anything happen to him, now go," Lisa urges, fanning her hand to shoo him away. "Make sure Kira doesn't get too close to the fire."

"I hope you know that I won't let you push her off on me forever," Jeongguk says, but it's obvious by his tone and the way he scoops Kira up that he doesn't mind taking her. "Don't be late."

"We won't be," Lisa promises, waving as they leave.

"Why'd you make them leave?" Taehyung asks after a few silent moments.

"I wanted to talk," Lisa says. "Free of any interruptions and without Jeongguk overhearing."

"Talk about what?"

Lisa doesn't answer as she moves to grab a pair of scissors off the small table in the center of the living room.

"Honestly, I just want to know what your relationship with Jeongguk is," She says stepping behind him as she starts to trim his overgrown hair.

"Oh," Taehyung answers, hesitating before responding. "I don't really know I guess."

"He's told me a lot about you," Lisa says, her tone preoccupied as she focuses on his hair. "He's very fond of you, he didn't shut up about you the first few years I knew him."

"Really?" Taehyung mutters. He couldn't even form the mental image of Jeongguk talking about him nonstop, that's how out of character it seemed for him.

"You can ask anyone, more than likely they've heard about you from him," Lisa chuckles. "It just seems like you don't feel the same way about him."

"What do you mean?" Taehyung asks, his eyebrows drawing together. "I've barely known you for an hour, how would you know how I felt about him?"

"I'm not saying I know, that's why I wanted to talk," Lisa says running her fingers through his hair. "Do you feel the same?"

Taehyung isn't sure if his skin is starting to crawl or if it's just the hair falling down his back at Lisa cuts it. But he feels uneasy and caught off guard by the question. "It's complicated."

"How so?" Lisa asks.

"I care about him," Taehyung states plainly, he couldn't deny that. "But I don't think I know him anymore."

"Did you come here hoping that you could get to know him?"

"Yeah, I guess I sort of did,"

Lisa hums but she doesn't say anything, the only sound in the room the mind numbing hum of the spacecraft engine and the metallic slicing sound of the scissors in her hand.

"When I knew him..." Taehyung starts, trailing off as he tries to choose his words carefully. "He was selfish and entitled. He thought the world owed him something and that the only people worthy of his time were those that served him in some way. I don't think he ever saw me as anything other than something that belonged to him."

"I can promise you that he's nothing like that now," Lisa says. "I can't even imagine him behaving like that, or treating anyone like he owned them. If he was that way before, Taehyung, he truly has changed. Sure he's an asshole sometimes, but I've rarely seen him upset or lose his temper at all."

"See, I can't imagine him like that," Taehyung sighs. "I don't understand how someone can just change like that. It's like he's two different people."

"Maybe the accident changed him," Lisa offers, clipping his hair from a few more angles before running the comb through it again. "Some people get really depressed after having a near death experience, some people go the other way."

"What's the other way?"

"They gain a new appreciation for life, and the people in their life."

Taehyung thinks about her words as she styles his freshly cut hair away from his face. The grey locks actually appearing healthier now that the tangles and dead ends were gone.

Taehyung has been looking at the change that he sees in Jeongguk as a bad thing, as something he should be afraid of. As something that would ultimately turn out to be some kind of facade, but Lisa's words start to put things into perspective for him.

Jeongguk almost died. Even though the shock of him being alive was still a lot, Taehyung had to acknowledge the fact that the hole in his chest that formed as a result of losing Jeongguk could potentially be filled again.

Because he wasn't dead...he was alive.

"He loves you," Lisa says shaking him from his thoughts. "If you don't feel the same, please tell him sooner than later. For his sake, okay?"

Taehyung nods wordlessly, standing from the chair he was sitting in and shaking the hair from his shirt.

"I'll clean this up and we can go show off your new hair cut to everyone," Lisa chuckles as she saunters off to a separate room of the craft.

Taehyung walks back to Jeongguk's room, finding a coat splayed across the bed with a scarp of paper lying on top of it.

Wear this. ~Jk

The silverette sighs tensely, the emotions he was feeling due to Lisa's words starting to bubble in his chest.

The longer he stood there staring off the more the feelings threatened to bubble over.

He knew he had misunderstood Jeongguk and that he had reacted to his return based off of old hurt feelings that he was never able to heal or get closure from.

But what did that mean for the future?

"Ready?" Lisa called, again saving him from his thoughts before they could even really get started.

"Yeah," He mutters, barely audible to himself as he tries his best to shake the rest of the hair from his shirt before pulling on the coat.

The sun has gone down completely by the time they reach the place where everyone has gathered.

The feeling of community is strong as everyone sits around a large fire holding bowls of food, blankets wrapped around some while the children throw rocks at the fire.

Taehyung picks Jeongguk out in the crowd of people, standing with a few other guys as they man the fire, shooing the kids when they get too close.

He watches the ravenette from a distance as he approaches with Lisa, watching him laugh with the other guys and duck out of the way when a rock comes barreling towards him. He looks carefree, open and comfortable with the people around him.

He was at home and this was his family.