The wind blew through the streets swiftly as a result from the cold rain that poured down earlier today. There were some weak drizzling left but it was rather a sign of defeat and a promise that there won't be anymore showers from the sky tonight.

Inside a buzzing bar, Jeongguk and Taehyung occupied a side booth as usual. Yoongi and Jimin were yet to join them in their weekly get-togethers. Though since it was just the two of them there at the moment, the couple took the opportunity to embrace the solitude they had for now before they were in the presence of their friends.

Things were going well for a moment which consisted of the casual caressing of Jeongguk's hand at Taehyung's side with his arm draped over his boyfriend's back, the gentle whispering underneath the dimly lit lights wrapped up nicely with the occasional pecks of affectionate kisses. 

It was all great until the topic of work surfaced.

"What do you mean you still have to see that asshole?" Jeongguk asked rather harshly.

Taehyung internally sighed, wondering if he should've not mentioned Jil-su when Jeongguk asked about work earlier. Well, he just didn't want to lie and there's really nothing for him to hide anyway. The past two interviews he had with the swimmer were okay as they conducted it in his workplace and to be honest, Taehyung did find his opinion of Jil-su slowly changing.

Seriously what reason did he have left to hate Jil-su. The man apologized and ever since then he hasn't tried to do anything bad in reference to that day at the hotel pool. Should Taehyung have continued to hold a hatred towards him just because of how he acted in the beginning?

Well Jeongguk seemed to think so.

"Gguk, it's nothing. Mr Han just wants me to go to his next swim meet. There'll be other reporters there too."

It was a surprise to Taehyung too when his boss had told him to get his camera ready to represent their tiny newscasting company at the famous swimmer's upcoming swim meet. And Taehyung had actually asked why he had to go and Mr Han replied with a long exaggerated explanation of how they were gonna create a webpage for Jil-su and post his life story and achievements there, saying it'll grant their company some recognition. He also mentioned how Taehyung was the only journalist here who knew Jil-su well so it should be him to go.

At that moment, Taehyung really felt conflicted and he was torn between what to do. He'd thought he wouldn't have to see Jil-su ever again after their last interview but it looked like fate had other plans for him. 

Another part of him actually looked forward to this because he's never really been trusted to handle a job this big before. It certainly beat all of his previous assignments to cover ridiculous stories of some equally ridiculous people. Maybe he'd gain some experience from this and really be looked at as a serious journalist.

With all that going on, he blindly agreed to it completely forgetting to consider how Jeongguk would react to this. And clearly, he was paying for it now. Ugh...

"I just don't understand," Jeongguk shook his head, moving to sit up straighter and face the other. "I thought you hated him. Why do you keep going back to see him?"

"Look I don't hate him- I mean yeah, we got off to a bad start but he's apologized like a billion times and it's not like I'm going to go hang out with him or anything." Taehyung desperately explained. "It's a swim meet, I'm just going there to take a few pictures for the company's website."

This time Jeongguk didn't answer back right away and Taehyung could see the deciphering look on the other's face filling him with apprehension. He then sighed, directing his attention to the tall glass of iced cola that he had ordered, watching each condensation droplets sliding down the surface of the glass. 

Without facing Jeongguk, he quietly spoke out. "It's my job. What do you want me to do? Quit? Just so that I wouldn't have to meet him?"

"Maybe talk to your boss or something?" Jeongguk suggested which made Taehyung turn to face him with his eyebrows knitted together.

"Are you seriously telling me to do that? This is the first time that I'm gonna be doing actual serious journalism." He pressed. "I'm finally getting to do something that actually matters and you want me to give it up just because you hate the guy?"

"Did you forget what he did to you?" 

"He apologized." Taehyung reasoned back.

Jeongguk groaned. "I don't care if he apologized. I don't-" He had a fist tightly balled. "I don't like him being near you all the time."

Taehyung didn't want this to turn into a fight. He really didn't so he tried to understand why the other was having a hard time letting him go to the swim meet. He couldn't blame Jeongguk so he offered him a warm smile, also placing a hand over his clenched fist. To be honest, there was also another reason as to why Taehyung didn't want there to be any conflict between Jeongguk and him. 

Yeah, that dream he had was the reason for it. He didn't tell Jeongguk about it and just wanted to forget it. Although trying to forget it was impossible because his stupid brain only seemed to be replaying it in his head every chance it gets to. Taehyung was so scared that any little fight they had would trigger something from his subconscious to become a reality. 

If he wasn't careful with his words to Jeongguk before this, he was now...

"Hey..." He called softly. "I'm telling you, it's nothing. I won't even have to talk to him. I'm going there to only take pictures."

Jeongguk stared at him, looking to be conflicted. But eventually, he sighed and released his fist to take Taehyung's hand in his. He nodded and just before he had the chance to open his mouth, a voice beat him to it.

"What's with this movie scene?" Jimin suddenly sounded, making both of them look up to the side of the table. "Did you guys get into a fight? What's with the hand-holding? Are you two making up now?" The tiny man went on in another one of his infamous rants. "Just a heads up, I'm not spending the night being your relationship counselor-"

 "Jimin don't." Yoongi mumbled quietly, signaling for his boyfriend to read the scene properly.

Taehyung straight away waved his hands in an attempt to salvage their night. "No no, it's fine. We weren't fighting." He turned to Jeongguk with another smile. "Right?"

The said man passed a quick look to his boyfriend before turning to Yoongi and Jimin, also plastering on a smile.

"Right no, we weren't fighting."

That was all it took for the atmosphere between them four to lighten up once again. Just like sweeping dust under a rug, Taehyung and Jeongguk acted on to pretend there wasn't an unfinished conversation that they had to attend to. Although this thought weighed down onto Taehyung's endless list of worries because it was like delaying the inevitable. Sooner or later they would have to talk it out again.

But that was for later, right now as the night had progressed forward, the topic of conversation between the two couples somehow drifted into the category of cars; something Taehyung had never really been interested in. Before he met Jeongguk he didn't even know what a Mini Cooper was- though at one point he thought it might've been one of the names of Ben Ten's alien forms. 

"Oh man, did you see that RX7 curve into that corner?! I was so close I could practically hear the fucking turbo whistling on it!" Jimin jumped up and down in his seat, the table between them shook a little bit.

Jeongguk and Yoongi simply chuckled. "It was good but the MKIV was the star for me," The oldest of the four commented. "Come on, a 2JZ beats the rotary any day."

"That's true but you've gotta admit, a rotary engine definitely sets itself apart from all the inline ones." Jeongguk added.

By now Taehyung's head was foggy. He didn't know what the heck any of that even meant. RX7? MKIV? Were these even names of cars? And what the hell was a 2JZ engine?! It were times like these that made him regret not taking interest in cars in the first place and also, since when did Jimin know more about cars than him? For as long as he'd known his best friend, Jimin never once talked about those contraptions.

"Ah I would do anything to go back to that street race. It was fucking amazing!" Jimin suddenly exclaimed and this certainly caught Taehyung's attention.

Street race?

When did they go to a street race... without him?

"What street race?" Taehyung voiced his thoughts out without even knowing it.

At once, the others stopped talking and turned to him with a caught-in-the-act expression on each of their faces. And then it became clear that they didn't intend for him to find out about it. What the hell? Did they seriously went to a race without him?! Taehyung had a pout on now.

Jeongguk was the first to speak. "It's really nothing, we didn't plan to go to it. Sorta happened by accident."

"How do you accidentally go to a street race?" The still pouty man asked back.

"Tae, it was one night last month. Yoongi and Jeongguk were out drinking, I finished my rehearsals early so I met up with them and on our way back..." He dragged on, thinking hard. "We uh- ran into someone and he invited us to watch a race. That's all."

Taehyung took a long time to just stare at Jimin, processing those words. Somehow this explanation didn't make him feel any better. Maybe in the past he wouldn't care that much to be left out or excluded for certain events. He really didn't care when all his classmates in his senior year held a party but didn't invite him to it.

But this was now and he felt a little hurt that his close friends and boyfriend went to this event without him. 

He then felt a hand on his shoulder followed by a voice. "Hey, we're sorry. It just happened so suddenly." Jeongguk spoke softly. "I'm sorry." He lastly added, grazing his thumb over the other's shoulder in an effort to offer him some apologetic comfort.

"Okay." Taehyung nodded turning his pout into a boxy grin, aimed at the three other people there. "So let's go again. I wanna see the race this time."

As soon as he said those words, he received three very different reactions.

"Hell yeah!" Jimin cheered.

Yoongi was silent, giving Taehyung a worried look.

"Absolutely not." Jeongguk firmly said.

Taehyung whipped his head to the side, his grin dropping.

"Why not?"

"Be-Because-" Jeongguk stuttered, not expecting Taehyung to ask for a reason so suddenly. "It was a one time thing. There won't be another race anytime soon." He ran a hand through his silky black hair, looking to Yoongi for help before facing Taehyung again. "Not to mention that those races are illegal."

"Actually they have one every week." Jimin chipped in, dived in his own thoughts not realizing how Jeongguk was trying to not get Taehyung all excited about the races.

"Hyung! You're not helping." Jeongguk exasperated.

"Oh come on, please?" Taehyung scooted closer to the other, putting his puppy-dog-eyes on display. He once got Jeongguk to watch the first Twilight movie with this class-act despite the younger man practically groaning every two seconds wishing an asteroid would crash through the ceiling and smash the TV into pieces.

Yeah... that was a long night for the both of them- 

But anyways, back to the current situation. So Taehyung figured if he got Jeongguk to do something he wanted with his famous puppy-dog look before, there was no reason it wouldn't work now.

"Uh... fuck, please don't-" Jeongguk mumbled lowly and had a shy look on, turning away from Taehyung who was pushing his adorable expression closer to the other's face. It was actually a cute sight to see Jeongguk all rattled up like this.

"Please~" 

After that, Jeongguk faced him with a light blush on his face. Over on the other side of the booth, Yoongi and Jimin had lazy smiles over their faces enjoying 'flustered-Jeongguk' and the show Taehyung was putting on.

"The cops showed up at the race the last time. Sweetheart, please it's dangerous. We were lucky that we even made it out of there in time." 

By now, Taehyung knew that his act had failed so he slumped back in his seat, the pout reappearing over his face. He felt Jeongguk's hand on his thigh as the man mouthed him another apology.

"Y'know what? Jeongguk's right." Jimin added. "It's dangerous and sorry Tae, but you're kind of a wimp in front of the police."

"What? I'm not." Taehyung argued back and Jeongguk and Yoongi were shaking their heads at the start of another petty argument between the two best friends.

Jimin leaned forward over the table. "Did you forget that one time a policeman wanted to check your ID and you thought that he was gonna shoot you so you raised your arms up."

"He reached to his side where his gun was at okay! It could've gone either way!"

His friend passed him an incredulous look. "He was just reaching for a pen."

By now the others were innocently laughing at Taehyung's past misinterpretation so he pouted for the hundredth time, leaning back into his seat again with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Shut up..."