Taehyung’s sullen eyes waltzed around his empty store, lips hanging tamely. It had been about an hour since he opened his business for the day, and not a single customer paid his store a visit.

He had to find a way to attract more customers, but no worth-keeping ideas came to him. At times like this, he truly questioned his choice of opening an art business and his ability to operate it.

A ding rang in his ears, and his wandering eyes leaped at the door. He smiled at the presence of a young-looking man, but his muscles tightened as he noticed two more men trailing behind him, all of them dressed in black.

“Good morning. My name is Shin Joon.”

All confusion drained away at his introduction. “Um, good morning.”

Shin Joon examined the drawings on the walls with a swift browse. “Are all paintings and items for sale?”

“Yes. But I can’t sell everything to you.”

“Why?”

Mild displeasure hardened his eyes. “We agreed. With Jungkook.”

Shin Joon cracked a smile as he nodded. “Mr. Jeon said one more try to convince you wouldn’t hurt. But anyway. Boys, grab all of those”—he pointed with a sweep of his hand at the paintings on the wall behind him and to his left—“and two of the stands with these shirts.”

Taehyung watched as the other two men slid two paintings off the wall each and headed out. His vision focused on Shin Joon when he placed a black bag on his desk.

“This is the amount I was instructed to give you.”

“But I have—I have to check it first.”

Shin Joon grimaced, shaking his head. “You don’t have to. It’s more than enough.”

“Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m afraid of.” He extended his hand to take hold of the bag, but Shin Joon yanked it out of his reach.

“Don’t worry. It’s a fairly small amount. He didn’t want to piss you off, he said.”

Although doubtful, Taehyung released a nasal, raspy sigh. “How many zeros?”

The corner of his lips tipped up. “Six.”

Another breath poured from Taehyung. “This is illegal, right?”

“Well, you want to give me a receipt? Think about your taxes.”

“Fine.”

“I’ll go help them because it’ll take too long. Enjoy.” He pushed the bag towards him and bundled off.

Taehyung held the bag with both hands, staring at it unmoving. Just thinking of having a bag full of cash in his store where people would come and go — even the few customers he usually had — made him anxious.

He waited until two of the walls ended up empty and two stands disappeared from his store and decided to quickly go home to leave the bag. Then, he could return and continue his shift normally, with an eased mind, and with a much lighter heart.

🥀

Sitting in his bed after eight hours of work, Taehyung finally unzipped the bag. He didn’t dare check the amount earlier, no matter how curious he was.

He peeked inside, hesitant. There were many stacks of fifty thousand won, and his heart pranced in anxiety and a glimpse of thrill. He never had that much money in his possession.

A stack was one million won, he realized with a quick counting. He fished out one stack at a time, and his eyes grew into two big circles of disbelief when he saw how many they actually were. “Seven... Seven million. I can’t believe he gave me seven million. He’s fucking insane.”

Taehyung jumped off his bed in search of his phone, but his steps soon slowed to stillness. Jungkook wanted to give him an astronomical amount, but he settled for a much smaller just for him. He shouldn’t scold him again. Jungkook reassured him many times he didn’t do it only for him.

“It’s okay,” he murmured to himself. “I just have to work even harder to help him clear his name.” The forgotten conversation he had with his father yesterday seeped into his blustering thoughts, capturing his full attention.

He resumed his way to the living room to grab his phone from the table and tapped on his contacts. He called Jungkook as he hurried back to his room to hide the money.

“Hey, baby.”

“Hey. Are you okay?” Taehyung shoved all seven stacks into the bag and set it in his closet behind his hanging shirts.

“Yes, everything is the same. I just miss you so much more today.”

A smile overtook Taehyung’s traits as he sank down into his bed. “I miss you too, Kookie. Can I come see you?”

“Of course. I’ll tell Yoongi to come get you now.” Jungkook, staring at Yoongi who was sitting in the armchair, flapped his hand repeatedly at him, silently urging him to leave now. He received a moue in return and mouthed, “Thank you,” when Yoongi stood up.

“I didn’t see that car follow me today, though.”

“It doesn’t matter. I want to make sure you’ll come here safely.”

“Okay. I’ll take a shower and get ready. I can’t wait to see you.”

“Me too, angel.”

. . .

With no unpleasant surprises during the ride to the hideout, Yoongi parked outside. Taehyung had perceived his gloomy state in the whole hour they spent together in the car, and although he tried to question him about it, Yoongi only dismissed him.

He stood still once he got out and regarded him with a close-lip smile. “Jimin is a busy man, Yoon. Don’t be mad at him because he couldn’t come with us. You don’t know how much he wanted to see you too.”

Yoongi’s shoulders drooped a tad more when his head fell. He realized there was no point dodging the matter anymore, since it didn’t seem like Taehyung would drop it. “He told you about the scene I caused, huh?”

“We tell each other everything.” Taehyung darted his eyes at the door, which was yanked open by none other than Jungkook. He spread his arms as Jungkook rushed to him, and a little puff of air escaped him when he clasped him. “Hey, baby,” he giggled, holding onto him just as tightly.

“Hey. Why aren’t you coming inside?” Jungkook peppered fond kisses on his neck that drifted to his lips.

“I was talking to Yoongi.”

“You had an hour to talk.”

Taehyung snorted, then pecked his lips. “I know, but he didn’t let me talk about his sulky mood.” He withdrew from the hug and directed his gaze at Yoongi, who still stood beside the car. “Don’t ignore him, Yoongi. I know he was silently crying when we talked on the phone about two hours ago.”

“I know I screwed up,” he sighed. “I just... I really wanted to see him and I got mad that he couldn’t leave his work for a few hours.”

“Yah, you literally had one hour to talk about this,” Jungkook grumbled. “Why are you stealing my time with him?”

“Tsk, you’re an asshole,” Yoongi murmured and lunged forward, storming into the house.

Taehyung exhaled deeply as his eyes grew a fraction harsher with disapproval. “That wasn’t nice, Jungkook. Maybe he wasn’t ready to talk about it before.”

A pout framed Jungkook’s mouth at once as he angled his head away. “Sorry,” he mumbled. “You’re right.”

Taehyung snatched his adorable face and punched a kiss on his lips. “You’re the cutest when you’re pouting. But you should apologize to him.”

Jungkook nodded and stole one more kiss before he led the way inside. He trudged towards the living room where his three hyungs were sitting and halted close to Yoongi. “Hyung. Sorry. You can talk to Taehyung for as long as you want.”

The grimness in Yoongi’s face abated as his eyes passed over him. “It’s okay. I’ll go call Jimin now, anyway.”

Jungkook turned around to locate Taehyung, and he found him gazing at the wall where he had hung a few of his paintings. He smiled softly as he approached him and draped his arms around his belly, hugging him from behind. “I love your drawings, angel. Been staring at them all day and smiling like an idiot.” He drew a loving kiss on the side of his neck. “I have the rest of them in my room.”

“I wanna see.”

“Of course.” Jungkook interlocked his fingers and ushered him towards the room.

A gleeful light shove over Taehyung’s features the moment they stepped into the room, taking in his paintings attached to the walls in well-calculated spots.

“I hung one in the bathroom as well.”

Taehyung chuckled — a content sound that lingered in the room. “You’re amazing. Do you really like them?”

“I’m in love with them, like I am with you.” He gently guided him to the edge of the bed to sit and slithered an arm around his waist.

“Thank you for this,” Taehyung uttered. “Although the money was a lot more than I expected. Thank you.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t scold me.”

“I wanted to at first,” he admitted. “But then I thought at least you didn’t exceed the six zeros.”

A quiet huff leaked from his throat. “I was this~ close. But I knew you’ll be furious.”

“Hmm, you already know me so well.” Taehyung pecked his lips multiple times, smiling nonstop. He shed his shoes and flopped down into the bed, dragging Jungkook with him. Honeyed laughs sounded from both as they united their bodies, latching onto each other.

Their mouths connected sweetly in a tender kiss that embodied gentle caresses of tongues and blissful hums. The grip around the other was secure and possessive, and the mild rubbing of their bodies had no lustful notion underlying it — they just craved to feel one another so they could make up for lost time they spent apart.

Jungkook smoothed his hair back in a stroke of adoration as they broke the kiss. “How was work, angel?”

“Hmm, the same. I received two orders online and sold a few souvenirs and a painting. I have to attract more customers.”

“I’ll think of something to help you, since you don’t let me buy your whole store.”

Taehyung chuckled. “You already helped me so much. And I want to help you too.”

The joyous serenity on Jungkook’s face segued into gravity, tinging it with gloom. “Don’t, Taehyung. If something happens to you—”

“Nothing will happen to me. I promise. I’ll be super careful, hmm?” He claimed his lips, not wanting to hear his answer, if he had any. “But I want to ask you something...”

Jungkook drew his head back a bit to have a clear view of his eyes. They seemed to swim in hesitation as he struggled to get the words across. “What is it?”

Taehyung couldn’t maintain eye contact. He gulped away the sudden nervousness in his throat that obstructed him from speaking and glimpsed at him. “Are you looking for Kang Soo just to clear your name or... is there another reason?”

The unexpected inquiry narrowed Jungkook’s eyes in two little crescents of bemusement. “Why are you asking me this so suddenly?”

“Just tell me. Do you really want to kill him?”

“Who said that?” he asked rapidly, voice sharper than he wanted.

Taehyung tucked his bottom lip between his teeth as his gaze flickered in unease. “I talked to my father.”

Jungkook’s torso melted a smidgen more into the mattress with the sigh that rolled off him. “Okay. Yes, I wanted to kill him. To avenge him.”

The confession sliced through his heart, quickening his breath in dread. “Please don’t. Don’t become a murderer, Jungkookie. Hmm? Please.”

Jungkook carried on carding his fingers through his hair in an unhurried, constant movement. “I wanted to kill him so bad. I’ve dreamed about it countless times. But these thoughts calmed a bit when I met you. I still had that goal, but the thought of taking revenge this way didn’t seem right anymore. And now... I can’t imagine myself killing someone. Because I know I’ll lose you.”

Relief swiftly streamed through Taehyung’s core, tempering his wild heartbeat. “Fuck, thank you. I don’t want to lose you, baby.”

“I know. Me neither,” he whispered. “What else did you talk about with your father?”

“I think... I think he knows more than we thought.”

“What does this mean?”

“He told me Kang Soo didn’t do this, and he knows that for sure because they were together that night. But he can’t prove it. So I told him he could be lying to save his ass.”

“Yeah, since he’s his friend.”

“Exactly. But then... he seemed so sure Kang Soo didn’t do this. Like, I could feel the affront he experienced when I told him he could be lying. And something came to me. He seemed so sure because he knew who did this to you.”

A spasm crossed Jungkook’s traits that struck his forehead with hard lines. “Did you ask him?”

“Yes. He didn’t answer. He said not to say anything stupid to you because he knows nothing about it and threw me out of his office.”

Jungkook collapsed into cogitation, doing his utmost to conceive any reasonable way Mi Sung could know something about this. “I really have no idea how he can know something.”

“Same. But I’m almost sure he does. Also, I forgot to tell you with everything. When I went to his office the second time, the other phone rang. I took a picture of the number.”

A spark lit up in Jungkook’s eyes. “Let’s go to Namjoon. Take your phone.”

Taehyung, with his phone already in his pocket, followed Jungkook to the living room. They found all three there, curiously viewing them.

“What happened?” Namjoon asked.

“I need you to find information about a phone number.”

As Jungkook and Taehyung sat on the large couch next to him, Namjoon reached for his laptop from the table and settled it on his lap. He glanced at the phone’s screen that was presented to him by Taehyung, and he typed the number into the search bar. “It’s an unregistered number. A burner phone or prepaid, probably.”

Jungkook sighed his discouragement. “Thought so...”

“What if we call them?” Taehyung proposed.

“It’s dangerous,” Jungkook said. “Maybe they use this number only to contact your father. If we call them, they’ll know we found the number from him.”

“What if we call and don’t say anything? Make them think we’re my father and just call them from another number?”

“Still dangerous.” Jungkook shook his head at Taehyung’s additional plan. “They’ll talk about it with each other at some point, and your father will know you broke into his office.”

Taehyung grimaced, producing a tsk sound. “Why are you crushing all of my genius ideas?”

Jungkook snorted softly. “Sorry, baby. They’re more dangerous than genius.”

“Yeah, but,” Namjoon said, capturing their attention, “what if they use this number to contact others as well? The chances are fifty-fifty. The question is, do you want to risk it?”

“Yes.”

“No.”

Taehyung and Jungkook locked eyes with a jerk of their heads.

“Taehyung, no.”

“Jungkook, yes,” he flung back, voice teetering on the edge of derision. “Don’t worry about me. He has already caught me following him twice. So what if he finds out I snooped around his office?”

“What if you get in trouble again?”

“Who cares? It’s not like he’ll kill me,” he scoffed, but the carpet of tentative stiffness that dropped over Jungkook’s expression extinguished his slight smile. “Okay, I get my father isn’t who I thought he was, but he’s not a murderer. He won’t kill his own son.”

Jungkook met his gaze, still doubtful. “I hope so.”

“Let’s just call,” Yoongi said.

Namjoon reached for his bag and took out the first prepaid phone he found. He dialed the number and gave a once-over to Jungkook before he pressed the call button. He put it on speaker and held the phone towards them as they all leaned closer. It beeped and beeped for so long, and each one of their heartbeats got fiercer in anticipation.

Then, a male gruff voice sounded.

“Who?”

Their features crumpled as they exchanged bewildered looks. The voice had an inkling of familiarity, but they couldn’t identify it with the single word it released.

As the silence stretched, Taehyung wetted his lips and swallowed. “Hello?”

Jungkook grasped his shoulder and pinned him to the couch, reprimanding, owlish eyes drilling into him.

“Who’s this?”

Jungkook’s hold on him withered as recognition finally washed over him like a flood of ice cold water, glaciating his blood. The other three shared his appalled condition as they gaped back at him dumbly.

Taehyung’s gaze ping-ponged around all of them. He caught Namjoon mouthing something, and his jaw fell slack when his brain interpreted it. He looked down at the phone, his lips trembling as he unfolded them. “Jeon Hyun Joon?”

“Yes. And you are?”

Namjoon ended the call right away. “What the fuck? What the fuck, Jungkook?”

“I don’t know,” he breathed out, still in a maze. “Why... How does your father know mine?”

The phone in Namjoon’s hand started ringing, causing all of them to flinch. “Fuck, that’s not good.”

“Since he asked ‘who’ when he picked up, it means he’s using this number with others as well,” Yoongi pointed out. “Don’t pick up. In fact, turn the phone off.”

And Namjoon did. He tossed the phone onto the table, feeling his heart still thump against his chest.

“Jungkook, that was your father,” Seokjin stated, more for himself to digest. “Are they doing business together?”

“Probably,” Jungkook let out in a murmur.

“But... I don’t understand,” Taehyung, in a similar trance of shock and bafflement as all of them, said. “My father made sure to delete every call they made, while he didn’t bother to do the same with Kang Soo. He wants their relationship to stay hidden. Why?”

“I have to ask him.”

“He’ll get suspicious after the call we made,” Yoongi said.

“I’ll ask my father.”

“Tae, no,” Jungkook groaned. “Stop getting involved in your father’s business.”

“Shush.” He pressed a kiss to his cheek in hopes of wiping that damn solemnity off his stunning face. “I’m already involved.”

Jungkook hooked his arm over his lower back and glued him to his side with a subtle pull. “Just be careful. And always call me right away if something happens.”

“Don’t worry.”

“Why don’t you call him now?” Seokjin questioned.

“He’s probably on his way home now. And it’s better to talk to him in person.”

“But guys... isn’t it weird?” Yoongi released in a hushed tone, as if sharing his thoughts absently. “We told Hyun Joon about Taehyung and his father. We mentioned his father’s name. And Hyun Joon didn’t seem to know him.”

“Or he pretended he didn’t know him,” Namjoon commented with a lift of his brows.

Everything started getting more and more muddled in Jungkook’s head, like a maze with secrets and lies and traps in every corner. He didn’t know what to believe anymore, who to trust, what he was supposed to do. And it oppressed his chest more than he could handle.

But no matter how dark, scary, or tortuous everything seemed to be, Taehyung was like a beam of light that always showed him the way to blissful tranquility with just his presence.

───⭒───༺🎭༻───⭒───

The revelations are coming soon!

Six chapters left⏳