Jeongguk doesn't talk to Taehyung while he showers. He doesn't talk to Taehyung while they eat breakfast together in the kitchenette near their bedroom. He doesn't talk to Taehyung while he sips his tea - black, with five spoons of sugar - and he certainly doesn't talk to Taehyung while he miserably adds five more spoons of sugar to his cup.

"You're going to get diabetes at this rate," Taehyung warns.

"I don't care," Jeongguk mutters, and then berates himself silently for breaking his vow of ignoring Taehyung.

Taehyung rests his chin against his handcuff-free hand. "I don't get you. Why are you so quiet today?" Taehyung has eaten two blueberry muffins and now is eating half a grapefruit, while Jeongguk has tried to eat a banana-nut muffin and gave up partially halfway.

"I don't know," Jeongguk muses, "Maybe it was because I was on the brink of death." He levels Taehyung with the iciest glare he can manage. "How would you react with the possibility of being strangled by your roommate?"

Taehyung scoffs and raises his eyebrows until they disappear beneath his blue fringe. "Are you serious? You think we're roommates?"

"We share a room. Therefore, we are roommates. Why are we arguing semantics?" Jeongguk vents, frustrated beyond belief. "You tried to kill me."

"I didn't," Taehyung repeats. "Hey, ask yourself this. Did I tighten the chain?"

"What?"

"Did I tighten the chain - did I try to choke you?"

Jeongguk replays the events of this morning. He recalls that Taehyung did tighten the chain slightly, but not to the point where Jeongguk was even remotely uncomfortable. Rather, it still was loose enough around his neck. "No," Jeongguk admits, "I suppose you didn't. But you could have!"

"Yes, I could have," Taehyung says around a mouthful of grapefruit. "But I didn't." He swallows. "That's what I was trying to prove."

Jeongguk frowns. "I must admit, I am still shaken, regardless."

"What? You've never dabbled in BDSM?" Taehyung attempts to joke. When he sees Jeongguk's blank, bewildered face, he sags against his chair. "You don't even know what that is, do you?"

"I will ask Sihyuk to send me a report on it straightaway, as to inform myself," Jeongguk says crisply. "Until then, I will refrain from further conversation with you." He sips his tea and tries not to retch at its over-sweetness.

"Sihyuk, you don't have to do that," Taehyung says to the cameras. Jeongguk rolls his eyes. "And wait, are you seriously gonna ignore me because I threatened to choke you? Come on, man. I have no one else to talk to around here."

Jeongguk stares straight ahead, as if he didn't hear him.

Now it's Taehyung's turn to roll his eyes and sigh. "Fuck, all right. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I threatened to choke you and showed a vulnerability in your little plan to chain yourself to me so we could be BFFs and roomies." He waves a hand in front of Jeongguk's face, chain jingling. "Okay, now can we talk?"

Jeongguk weighs his options. Finally, he puts away his ego, and glares at Taehyung again. "Never do that again," he says, "And I'll never do that to you."

"Okay," Taehyung agrees easily, "Another fine idea." And he goes back to his grapefruit without another word.

There's something else, though, Jeongguk thinks as he sips his oversweet tea. Taehyung was angry when he woke up. He was having a nightmare.

What did you dream about, Taehyung?

What made you want to fight me?

***

Jeongguk is still irritated at himself at the task force meeting at 9 AM. His hair is still wet, because he didn't bother towel drying it properly, and his long black bangs flop in his face. More than anything, he's still irritated at Taehyung, who is sitting next to him, loudly slurping apple juice from a juicebox.

The task force usually works on only four floors of the high-rise building. This floor, floor 44, is their briefing room and work station, set up with high-quality computers and a large panel of screens to monitor other rooms in the building. Floor 45 is Jeongguk and Taehyung's floor; floor 46 is where the rest of the task force live, and 47 is Sihyuk's monitoring station. But of course, Taehyung doesn't know any of this. They've taken precautions, barred the windows and put retina scanners on the elevators, so only members of the task force can operate them and ride them up and down. They've thought of everything.

Everything but the chain, and the incident this morning.

Jeongguk burns with shame, with embarrassment, at his own stupidity, at his own failure. The rest of the task force thinks he's gone insane. Even his mentor and C.O. Sihyuk doubts him.

But he puts aside his feelings, his doubts at himself, and focuses on his team. "Namjoon, you go first," he says softly, "What have you learned?"

Namjoon clears his throat. "I have a friend at the CIA, Kim Seokjin, who's helped me track Park Jimin's whereabouts in the past three weeks." He angles the laser pointer at the image on the screen. It's a map of the city of Houston. "The CIA's facial recognition system found him in this park in Houston, as recent as last week. It is unsure what his business is there."

"Excellent work, Namjoon," Jeongguk says, feeling ten percent happier. "This footage of Park is absolutely critical. Hoseok, Yoongi, I want you both to go down to Houston and stake out near the park. Namjoon and I will trace his movements and direct you accordingly."

"Nah, it'll be useless," Taehyung interjects. "Jimin never stays in one place for too long. You said that the cameras haven't caught him in Houston for a week. Well, I bet he's gone, by now."

"And who asked you, asswipe?" Yoongi asks. "Shut the fuck up."

"No, wait," Jeongguk murmurs. "Go on, Taehyung." As much as he hates to listen to his suspect, he's aware that Taehyung knows Jimin the best.

"There's not much else to say," Taehyung sighs. "I have no idea where he'd go next."

Yoongi kicks the back of Taehyung's chair. "Of course you know," he seethes.

"He might be manipulating us," Hoseok pipes up. "He might be saying that Jimin's not in Houston anymore, just to protect him so we don't look like there. Did you guys think of that? They're lovers, so no wonder they'd want to protect each other."

Lovers. Jeongguk blinks. Right. It seems so odd that Taehyung could even have a lover and still be on the run from the police.

"Ex-lovers," Taehyung bites. Oh. "That bastard sold me out after the Tiffany's raid. He took both of our shares and dipped, while I was stuck when the cops showed up."

And oh. Jeongguk didn't know that. None of them knew that, and it shows on their shocked faces.

And now everything makes sense, because the Tiffany's truck had been empty by the time the cops arrived on the scene. The valuables were never recovered. Jimin took everything, and left Taehyung to the wolves. Something like pity springs up in Jeongguk, and he squashes it down.

"That's a dick move," Yoongi says somberly. "Um. So. You'll help us capture Park?"

Taehyung's mouth stretches into a sickly grin. "It would be my pleasure." He turns to Jeongguk. "Hey, when we capture Jimin, are you gonna chain him to your other wrist?"

"No, that would be absurd," Jeongguk says, even as Hoseok stifles a laugh. 

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