The second time Taehyung drove through the city outskirts, it wasn't as long and meandering as before, and the bumps on the road not as jarring. An inexplicable sense of familiarity overtook him as his hands guided the steering wheel.

Ever since his last trip, Taehyung couldn't stop thinking of the man who fainted at the sight of him, looking like an angel falling from heaven. If Taehyung never believed in angels or heaven, now he did. Although hell might be waiting for him if this visit counted as a betrayal.

Taehyung deemed that he had no choice but to see Jeon Jung-kook, citing his family's silence concerning the man, and his nagging suspicion that there's something more than meets the eye.

The moment he found himself on the front steps of the Jeon household, Taehyung momentarily lost his bearing. What was once a great idea, no longer seemed like one. A house-keeper passing by the window saw his hesitation.

"Master! Master!" Sae-ron called as she ran up the staircase.

Hearing the frantic call, Jung-kook peeked out his room. "Where's the fire?"

"He's back! He's back!"

Sae-ron didn't need to say it twice because there's only one man he's been waiting for his whole life.

When he walked the remaining steps towards the entrance, Jung-kook took a deep breath and pushed the doors open.

The unexpected movement caught Taehyung off-guard and he would have rolled over backwards if it weren't for a pair of sturdy arms catching his fall.

After what seemed like centuries, Jung-kook finally had the chance to study Taehyung up close: the perfectly trimmed brows framing two distinctly shaped eyes. Was it just now he noticed the double-lid on one side and a monolid on the other? His lover still looked handsome despite the lines on his forehead, even with the faint scars that marked his face, despite the years that passed. But Jung-kook reminded himself that Taehyung wasn't his lover any longer.

"Thanks for rescuing this disabled man in distress," Taehyung jested, breaking the awkward tension in the air.

Jung-kook feigned a smile, disappointed that the proximity between their faces was not close enough or as long as he would have liked.

"No problem. Just doing what anyone would do," Jung-kook remarked. "I'm sorry I didn't have time to talk to you before. It wasn't very gracious of me to leave you hanging."

"Don't worry about that," Taehyung dismissed with a wave of his hand. "It's not like you planned it. But it is an ingenious way though to avoid having a conversation with somebody you barely know."