Chapter 70

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"There we are." Jungkook gave a bright smile. The arcade was dimly lit by all the screens and some weak lighting bulbs above their heads. For the most part it was empty, aside from a couple high schoolers who were probably hanging out after school.

Jungkook led Taehyung over to some setups intended for some standard race game. They had previously talked about driving cars too, Taehyung asking whether it was hard, so maybe this would be fun for him.

"Here, sit down there." Jungkook instructed Taehyung, softly placing his hand on Taehyung's shoulder and leading him over to the seat. "This is a driving wheel. You need to place your hands like this... exactly!"

Taehyung had probably watched him driving enough times to at least know the basics. "If you turn it, your car that will show up on screen later will turn whatever direction you turn it." He continued with basic stuff about how to speed up and use breaks as well as the base rules of the game before sitting down himself.

The second the round started and all the cars raced off, Jungkook sped up to follow them... but quickly came to a halt again. Somehow Taehyung had managed to turn his car all the way around within the first hundred meters and was now going backwards on the track. Jungkook couldn't stop himself from snorting before turning his own car around.

"Taehyung."

The siren looked over at him, the car on his screen slowing down.

"You're going the wrong way. I know this map is a mess so it's easy to get lost, but we aren't even there yet." He chuckled, when Taehyung raised an eyebrow, clearly slightly offended.

"Do you see my car on your screen?" He made sure to drive in front of Taehyung. One of the other cars dashed past them, which meant they were most likely bound to reach the goal last, but that didn't matter for now. Who cared if they ended up last.

"Yeah, I see it." Taehyung answered his question from before.

"Good. Follow after me and tell me if you lose sight of me." Jungkook offered, turning his car around again to go the right away. To his relief Taehyung seemed to catch on quickly, following right after him. Games like these were probably quite confusing when you had absolutely no prior experience playing.

But Taehyung was also a scarily fast learner and while he trailed after Jungkook the first three rounds, sometimes taking the wrong turn or ending up disoriented because some of the stuff the game was throwing at them was actually not that easy, by the start of the next game he no longer needed Jungkook to show him around.

By round four Jungkook could feel himself growing competitive because why the hell was Taehyung such a natural talent? Jungkook still came in first during the rounds, but Taehyung was right at his tail... and Jungkook had way more experience in these games. On the other hand, Taehyung did have superhuman reflexes so maybe it was dumb to feel competitive with a siren.

Jungkook didn't care though. He was not about to let Taehyung win. Especially not when Taehyung was clearly getting more competitive too.

When it got dark outside Jungkook was sweaty and still had more wins than losses, but god he couldn't remember when anyone had come this close to beating him at one of these rally games last. Probably when he had been, like, twelve or something.

"We should probably stop." He giggled, pushing his hair out of his face. It felt good doing this. Having a friendly rivalry. Teasing Taehyung and Taehyung grinning right back at him when he shot him off the track. He hadn't really been able to imagine Taehyung enjoying this type of thing, but now that they were doing it Jungkook realized how wrong he had been. He was clearly having just as much of a great time as Jungkook.

His lips stretched into a natural smile. His eyes sparkling with an excitement Jungkook had rarely seen before. Who would have thought that Taehyung would enjoy this type of thing so much?

"It's getting dark outside and my stomach has been growling at me to get food for hours. All we ate was that dry popcorn."

"Oh." Taehyung was disappointed that they had to stop playing. Jungkook had to fight back the strong urge to squish his cheeks. When had Taehyung become this adorable?

"If you want to, we can play this again. I actually have a really similar game at home too. I'd love to do it again sometime. As long as you promise not to actually get better than me at this." Jungkook jokingly winked at Taehyung and the siren rolled his eyes.

"If you don't want that to happen you just have to get better." He grinned teasingly, his fangs blinking in the soft light of the arcade.

"Taehyung, teeth." Jungkook softly warned, pointing at his own canines. Taehyung must have been so focused on the game that his grip on his human form slipped. Why was that even cuter? His eyes seemed a little less human now too. The gray slightly brighter and the pupil just a little too see through to seem normal.

"Sorry." Within seconds Taehyung's fangs disappeared and so did the weird shine to his eyes.

"Don't worry. There was no one around anyways. Honestly, it's adorable you were that focused on the game." Jungkook grinned and Taehyung got up, softly pushing his shoulder.

"Shut up. I wasn't that focused... I just had to show you your pitiful human reaction time is nothing."

"Pitiful human reaction time huh? Rich coming from someone who just lost to those."

"That's just because I don't know all the rules yet." Taehyung tried, but Jungkook only started grinning wider.

"You seemed to get the rules just fine. Come on, just admit that I'm better than you at something."

"Never." Taehyung grinned, a little teasing too, and god why did Jungkook have the strongest urge to reach out and kiss him. He blinked... why shouldn't he? They did say they were just going to see what felt right... and kissing Taehyung certainly did.

Before Jungkook could do anything though Taehyung turned around, and with that the chance was gone. Taehyung had been right. Pitiful human reaction times. Jungkook sighed, taking a step forward and reaching out to slip his fingers between Taehyung's. It was weird how natural it felt to just do this. There was nothing awkward about the action.

Taehyung's hand instantly wrapped around his like it was the most normal thing in the world to have Jungkook right there. He could feel blush rising to his cheeks, so he decided to focus on anything else but the fact that he had a big fucking crush on Taehyung and felt like a fucking twelve year old boy holding a girl's hand for the first time. This should have been normal to do by now. So why was it affecting him this much?

They got some street food from a place Jungkook had found on the internet and decided to walk along Han river. Jungkook could feel the plastic ducks he'd insisted on buying in his pockets. When Taehyung had asked what they were going to do with them Jungkook had been all secretive, but it really wasn't that interesting.

But still something fun Jungkook had heard about but never tried himself.

"Let's do a duck race." Jungkook suggested once they had finished eating their food. It was getting a little cold out, and while Jungkook really enjoyed the calming atmosphere of the river and the lights playing on its surface, he could tell that his fingers were starting to get a little cold, and he was craving the warmth of their hotel room. It was times like these that he really envied Taehyung's complete resistance to the cold.

"What's that?" Taehyung asked curiously.

"We go over there." He pointed a couple of meters down towards the edge of the river bed. "Then we throw these two ducks out onto the water, each of us gets one representative duck, and then we watch which of our ducks reaches the bridge first. And then you get them out with those water powers of yours because we don't need more pollution in the ocean." Jungkook grinned. "Gotta protect the fishies... your brothers and sisters."

"Will you stop with that?" Taehyung laughed, punching Jungkook's shoulder. It was interesting to see how much more regular appearing Taehyung had become over the last few months. Jungkook wondered whether that was just because Taehyung hadn't really opened up to him back then or if Taehyung was also adjusting to living like a human.

It was probably a bit of both.

"Okay okay. Taehyung. Not a fish. Not a mermaid. Only flesh eating siren. Damn, you sure have a hand for dramatics."

Taehyung threatened to punch Jungkook's shoulder again, but he quickly escaped towards the water. Running away from a siren to the water sure was a fun situation to be in.

Taehyung ended up choosing the yellow duck for himself while Jungkook got the pink duck. Not that he'd complain. The pink duck was adorable.

"So let's both throw these, like, at least four meters out because we don't want them to get caught up on the riverbank. Then we run along the side as they go down the river. Whoever has their duck reach the bridge first has won and gets to decide what movie we watch when we get home."

They both did exactly as planned and Jungkook was relieved when his duck actually went as far out onto the river as he'd wanted it to go. Taehyung's landed pretty close to his.

He genuinely had no idea if this was even going to work because he had never done it before, but whatever happened, he was sure it was going to be fun.

After a few seconds his duck seemed to pick up speed while Taehyung's stayed behind. Who knew. Was he going to keep up his winning streak against Taehyung this evening?

He grinned as his duck continued to advance and leave Taehyung's duck behind... but that movement...

"Taehyung..." Jungkook turned over to look at Taehyung, who looked almost startled at Jungkook's growly voice. "Are you intentionally letting me win?"

That caught face. Taehyung was totally sabotaging this game. How dare he.

"Hey, look at me." When he did, Jungkook's duck actually slowed down a little. That adorable asshole.

"You got so competitive earlier... you seemed like you had fun winning." Taehyung trailed off and this time it was Jungkook who punched Taehyung's shoulder. Big mistake. Fucking rock. He shook his hand.

"I don't have fun winning. I have fun competing and giving it my all. There's a huge difference. Wait, did you intentionally let me win earlier too?" To Jungkook's relief Taehyung shook his head. He would have actually been a little disappointed if he had.

Jungkook sighed, turning back around to the ducks, who were still swimming their little route a couple of meters apart. "What are we going to do now? My duck is about to win and it's not a fair win." Jungkook frowned a little.

"How about this?" Taehyung offered right behind him and Jungkook watched as the distance between the ducks got smaller and smaller. Jungkook thought Taehyung was just going to clear the ducks of the unfair advantage, but he didn't. Instead, Taehyung's duck joined Jungkook's, sticking right to its side. They were body to body now, like they were leaning on each other.

"Like this both ducks win once they cross the bridge."

Jungkook rolled his eyes but he couldn't stop himself from smiling. "That's so far off from the whole point of the game." He trailed off. "Although I do kind of like it. But we still have to do this properly sometime."

"We will." Taehyung promised and Jungkook turned back around to watch both of their ducks reach the bridge, still leaning against one another. It was kind of cute, he had to admit.

"I'm fucking cold." Jungkook finally declared as they stood on the stone pier, enjoying one last look at the reflecting surface before they would go back to their hotel room. It was probably going to be a while until Jungkook was going to come back here again. They intended to leave tomorrow morning, and while Jungkook really wanted to stay he had promised his parents that they were only going to have to take care of tuna until then so it wasn't much of an option.

"My fingers are cold as ice and I'm pretty sure my cheeks are as red as a Disney princess's."

Taehyung chuckled but reached his own hands out, wrapping them around Jungkook's. He was like a furnace now. His body temperature seemingly always perfectly regulating itself. Even though he did envy it, Jungkook really appreciated Taehyung sharing his body heat with him.

"Your cheeks are a little red, but it's cute." Taehyung chuckled, reaching his hand out to brush Jungkook's cheek while the other wrapped around both his hands at once. Why the hell was that hot?

Jungkook couldn't do anything but stare at Taehyung's eyes. At his lips. The little mole on his nose. That little imperfection on his perfect face that somehow made it even more perfect.

He felt completely at ease. His heart was beating with happiness and just the comforting feeling that a day you'd really enjoyed brought with itself. And Taehyung was the main reason Jungkook felt that way. Taehyung was the reason Jungkook had made a memory that was probably going to stay with him a long time.

A basically perfect day.

Jungkook barely registered it when he leaned forward with the intent to kiss Taehyung, but sadly his legs didn't seem like they'd gotten the memo either. Somehow in the process of stepping forward, trying to kiss Taehyung, Jungkook tripped over his own feet.

And Taehyung, who usually would have been able to easily catch him given his strength, clearly wasn't expecting Jungkook to trip either because seconds later they were both falling backwards. And of course, they had to be standing close enough to the water that what caught their fall wasn't stable ground either. Instead, both of them disappeared under the surface of the Han. Fully clothed, in their winter jackets, the rally ducks still in Jungkook's pocket. At least those two were in their natural habitat.

"I'm a fucking idiot." Jungkook declared the second his head broke through the surface again. He could feel Taehyung's presence right next to him even with closed eyes. When he opened them he found just what he had expected. Taehyung, just as drenched as him, probably for the first time in his life startled at the fact that he was in the water.

At least this time he also didn't seem too happy with the fact that he was swimming. Probably because of the wet clothes weighing his movement down.

"Yeah, you are." Taehyung snorted, lifting his arm out of the water with a disgusted look on his face as the clothing clung to his body the second it was no longer floating.

After a few seconds of staring at each other Jungkook burst out laughing. He was fucking cold, and this was ridiculous, and he had no idea how they were supposed to get home, but he was in a good mood and even this couldn't ruin his evening. It was even a bit funny.

"Fuck trying to be romantic and shit. I always fail at it anyways." Jungkook declared, moving his legs to get closer to Taehyung. The drag of his clothes was fucking awful but he couldn't have cared less.

The water dripping into his eyes from his wet hair. The clothing. The coldness. His tiredness. Nothing was going to get between them this time. Taehyung looked confused for just a second before Jungkook placed both of his hands on his cheeks, then realization seemed to dawn on him.

And then Jungkook leaned in to kiss him. Probably the most uncomfortable position to be in for a kiss, but he didn't care. At least it would be memorable... and it felt special. That was all that mattered.

And feeling Taehyung's warm arms wrap around him in the cold as they kissed in the dark made the freezing temperatures almost bearable.

"Oh fuck, my phone!" Jungkook yelped and just seconds later he could hear Taehyung laugh as he scrambled to get out of the water. Who cared about romance if their phone was about to die.

A/N

I felt so soft while writing this chapter ngl... how are you guys feeling?

With that the Seoul chapters end... and good stuff follows I would say👀