"Jungkook?"

Jungkook sighs softly, trying to find the right words to explain.

    "Vic was just explaining what he meant about part of his letter." He says.

    "Which part of the letter?"

    "The part about loving and allowing yourself to be loved."

    "Oh. What'd he say?"

Jungkook sighs, running his fingers through his hair nervously. "A few days ago, while you were dissociating, you said that you wished it was possible to love me. I figured you were out of your head so I just forgot about it. Vic said that you had feelings that you were too shy to tell me about so I should express my feelings first. But I have to know if you meant what you said, even if you weren't yourself. I have to know."

Taehyung's face flushes, his eyes flickering away. "Jungkook...you have to understand how complicated things are~

    "Did you mean it?" The younger asks. "That's all I want to know. Even if you didn't."

    "Of course I meant it but it's not that simple." The brunette says looking at Jungkook. "It can't happen, Jungkook. It just can't."

    "Why not?" Jungkook asks.

    "Because it just can't. It wouldn't be fair to you or anyone else in the system." Taehyung says. "It just wouldn't be fair."

    "If you feel things for me and I feel things for you why can't we just make an effort to make things work?" The younger asks.

Taehyung presses the palms of his hands to his cheeks to try to calm the blush flushing his face. "I just don't know how that'd work."

    "If you'd let me love you, Taehyung, I promise I'll take care of you and everyone else in the system." Jungkook says, vowing to always keep them safe from harm.

    "Jungkook." The brunette sighs, tears forming in his eyes. "I can't do that to you."

    "You won't be hurting me, Taehyung. I want to be there for you. And I care about you so much." The younger confesses, finally acknowledging his feelings for Taehyung. "If you let me I'll take care of you and everyone else. What happens between us is just between us and my relationship with everyone else will remain completely platonic."

    "I don't want to ruin things between us. Or between you and the others." Taehyung says wiping his eyes. "I know the feelings I have for you are more than what I'd have for a friend or even a best friend but I don't want things to...y'know, go to shit."

Jungkook laughs at his choice of words. "I promise they won't. We're both adults, if things start to not work we'll just go back to being friends."

    "I'm so scared, Jungkook." The brunette sighs. "Not just of this but of everything. I'm scared of the future and what it holds."

    "I understand." The younger says, offering his hand across the table.

Taehyung smiles softly as he takes it, resting his hand in Jungkook's palm.

    "It's okay to be scared but you don't ever have to worry, Tae." He says, giving Taehyung's hand an affirming squeeze. "I'll take care of you."

The brunette nods, squeezing his hand back with a smile. "Thank you."

    "You don't have to thank me." Jungkook chuckles, standing and rounding the table. "Hug me."

Taehyung laughs softly as he stands and embraces Jungkook, wrapping his arms around the younger's neck.

    "Jungkook." He says as he hugs him.

    "Hm?" The younger hums.

    "I just realized that this makes me kinda gay." Taehyung says without pulling away from the hug.

Jungkook laughs, pulling away from the hug just enough to look Taehyung in the eye. "Yeah, it kinda does I guess."

The brunette sighs softly, his eyes dropping down to Jungkook's lips. "That's okay though."

    "Yeah. Lots of people are kinda gay." The younger says, his eyes falling down to Taehyung's lips as well before flicking back up to his eyes.

    "Can I kiss you, Jungkook?" Taehyung asks, even though it feels like they're already being drawn together.

    "You can do whatever you want." Jungkook says, leaning in slowly.

Taehyung closes the space between them, his eyes fluttering shut.

Jungkook's arms tighten around Taehyung's waist as they move their lips together in a perfect rhythm, holding him close.

Taehyung breaks the kiss, pressing his forehead against Jungkook's as they both catch their breath.

    "Was that your first kiss?" Jungkook asks, he new that Jongun probably took the body's real first kiss so he wondered if it was Taehyung's first.

    "No." The brunette says. "But it was the first one that meant something."

Jungkook smiles at his words. "I really do love you, Taehyung."

Taehyung's heart seems to skip a beat at his words, the feeling in his stomach foreign to him.

    "I love you too, Jungkook."

<><><>

Jungkook heaves a sigh of relief as he pushes the completed cubbies into the corner.

    "Finally." He groans. "That took forever."

Hajoon chuckles as he breaks down the boxes the cubbies came in. "It only took a couple hours. I can't believe you and Taehyung couldn't do it."

    "I'm glad it's done. Now we can do something else." Jungkook says standing up. "Should we organize the toys in the cubbies?"

    "No. Chaehyeon might front if we do that now. Let's do the wall decals and the play mats." The older says dropping the boxes by the door.

    "Alright." The younger says getting the wall decals out of the bag. "So I'm gonna warn you before you see the decals. Taehyung was feeling little when we picked them."

Hajoon chuckles, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Just let me see them."

    "Since we had three free walls we got three different themes. The first theme." Jungkook says pulling the decals from the bag. "Rainbows and rainbow stars."

    "Okay." The older nods.

    "Second theme." The younger says dropping the decals and grabbing the others. "Outer space."

    "That's okay." Hajoon nods.

    "And lastly." Jungkook says grabbing the rest. "Outdoorsy theme. This one's my favorite."

    "That's so nice." The older smiles. "Now Taehyung can enjoy the room too right?"

    "Yeah, if he slides." The younger chuckles.

It had been two full weeks since Jungkook's confession and things seemed to be sailing smoothly.

Hajoon finally got around to helping Jungkook with the cubbies and they were finally decorating the room.

    "I saw Chaesal on the log for this morning." Hajoon says as they work in the decals.

    "Yeah. He fronted after Vic this morning." Jungkook says helping him.

    "His logs haven't changed much since he started fronting regularly." The older says. "It still says he's feeling hopeless."

    "I saw." The younger says, sighing softly. "I thought about starting him back on the antidepressants but I know how it'll affect everyone."

    "What'd he do while he was fronting?" Hajoon asks.

    "Nothing. He was on the phone for almost an hour straight laying on the couch." Jungkook says. "He wanted some chips or something so I offered to take him to the store but he didn't want to get up."

    "He's a depressed child, Jungkook. He probably just feels unmotivated to do anything." The older says. "Do you think we should get him on some proper medication?"

    "I don't know. I guess we can consider it." The younger says. "I'll talk to Taehyung about it."

    "Okay, sweetheart." Hajoon says. "How are things between you two?"

Jungkook cracks a small smile as he replies. "Good. We're good."

    "He seems happier. He's probably the happiest he's ever been, Jungkook." The older smiles. "Thank you."

    "Why are you thanking me?" The younger laughs.

    "Because you're taking care of him." Hajoon says. "He's my baby, Jungkook. And you make him so much happier. He loves you so much."

    "I'll take care of him as long as he'll let me, hyung." Jungkook promises. "I love him a lot too."

Hajoon smiles as they finish off one wall. "There we are. Should we move on to the next wall?"

    "Sure." The younger nods.

They finish the wall decals before putting down the play mats, leaving nothing more to do than bring the toys in.

Hajoon decides to avoid the toys so he can prepare their meals for the week before he started dissociating.

Jungkook gets some homework done while he does so. He's changed his field of study to psychology.

It's a shorter degree program and he actually enjoys it so much more than his previous program and having Seokjin as a co-op is way more beneficial now.

He got a call from Namjoon a few days ago, the older was really excited to tell Jungkoo that he and Hoseok are moving in together.

Jungkook and Taehyung are supposed to go help them move in tomorrow.

Things were going great for them, there were bound to be ups and downs but so far...things were looking up.

🔒🔒🔒