16th February

"Joonie, really? You want to get Hoseok drunk or what?"

Jin was chopping up some spring onions, while his husband set the rice in the rice cooker on the counter behind him.

"No!" Namjoon laughed a little as he shut the cooker's lid. "That's not wha-"

"You do know how he gets when he's drunk, right?"

Namjoon smiled helplessly at Jin and hugged him from the back, resting his chin on his shoulder.

"Yeah, I know, Jin." he nuzzled his head against Jin's neck. "We'll just have a small drinking party. We'll make sure we don't get strong alcohol."

Jin stopped chopping, put his knife down and glanced at Namjoon form the corner of his eyes.

"What?" Namjoon smiled and looked at Jin. "You and I both know he actually enjoys drinking parties, if  he doesn't drink too much." he let his lips touch Jin's neck. "And, you and I can bake a cake for him."

Jin chuckled. "You?"

"Yeah, what's wrong with that?"

"Hoseok's gonna end up getting a misshapen, under-cooked mop of batter, like how I got one last year!" Jin laughed. "And the year before that!"

"Oh, come on! I tried okay?" he turned Jin to face him and placed his hands on his hips. "But this time, I'll be baking with you. So, you don't need to worry."

"Oh, like I am the best baker in the world!" Jin's arms wrapped around his husband's nape.

"You're the best at everything for me."

Jin laughed a bit. "Oh, am I?"

Jin's hands pushed through the other's hair and he pulled him in. Their lips touched with a glint of haste yet gentleness. As their mouths moved in and out, up and down, Jin's hands were restlessly playing with Namjoon's hair.

Just then, Namjoon's phone rang. But Namjoon didn't bother, his lips were travelling to Jin's neck.

"Namjoon, pick up your phone."

"It can wait." he murmured as he moved up to Jin's face.

Jin blocked his kiss with his finger.

"Why would you do that?" Namjoon pouted. "I just wanna kiss you!"

"Your lips aren't touching these luscious cheeks of mine until to take that call."

Namjoon pouted more, but then gave up and answered the phone.

"Hello?" Namjoon put the phone to his ear.

"Hey."

"Yoongi, what made you call? This is the first time you've bothered to call me first."

"I didn't call to hear all this."

"Okay..?"

"I called to ask about the new drama series that R&B is planning to do."

"Oh yeah... the drama, what about it?"

"We usually do movies, don't we?"

"The director for the drama has a really great plot up his sleeve."

"You'll be holding auditions, right?"

"About sometime next month, yeah. Why?"

"There's a friend of Jimin's. He said that he's worth a shot. So, I called to get some details."

"Oh, Jimin?"

There was an annoyed silence at the other end. Then, Yoongi sighed.

"Just send me the details for the auditions."

"Okay."

Then, he hung up.

"What did Yoongi say?"

"Oh, nothing. He was just asking about the new drama we'll be working on."

Jin nodded and hummed.

Namjoon hugged Jin once more and kissed his cheeks. "I can kiss these luscious cheeks now, right?"

"You already are!" Jin snickered as he stir the broth in the pot.

Namjoon's lips traced his skin with affection and softness, it didn't display any desire for intimacy at the moment, but it felt just as soothing. His gentle kisses were swift yet supple. Jin always found them very pleasing.

He reached Jin's peeking nape and rested there.

"It smells so good." he whispered.

"What does? The food, or me?"

Namjoon groaned from the bottom of his throat and pressed his lips to his bare nape and kissed him twice.

"Both."

18th February

Jimin had taken an off from tonight's cafe/bar duties, to join Hoseok's birthday celebration.

It had been a while since he had attended a birthday party with such a lively bunch of people. Jin, Namjoon, Jungkook, Hoseok and Yoongi- they all had taken him in so naturally, it felt like he'd been their friend for years now. There wasn't any sense of awkwardness, they were all one big happy family, with Jimin as a new member and Taehyung who'd be meeting them for the first time, today.

But Taehyung hadn't turned up yet.

They sat in the secluded reserved part of the cafe, snacking on light appetizers and having a pleasant chit-chat every now and then. Taehyung was taking longer than expected, so they proceeded to give their gifts to Hoseok.

Jungkook ended up giving him a small photo album of the very first shoot they did together.

"Ahhhh!" Hoseok cringed at the photographs. "Oh, these remind me of bad memories."

"They aren't bad memories!" Jungkook laughed. "Just look at how amazing this is!"

Hoseok smiled preposterously at a picture of him wearing gold chains and a retro black outfit. "No, Jungkook, these are not." he shook his head slowly. "But thanks, they hold very deep meanings in our hearts."

Jin and Namjoon's combined gift, was the cake they had baked, which they had somehow manged to pull off, and clothes.

"I'm scared to eat the cake." Hoseok looked at the cake suspiciously. "It looks a bit too normal to me."

"What did you want it to look like, a mess?" Jin asked sarcastically.

"Well, no."

Everyone laughed.

The atmosphere was getting soft and comfortable. The topics of conversation were getting deep, yet casually stupid under the influence of the alcohol for some of them. Food came in and empty plates went back, but Taehyung still wasn't here.

"Jimin-" Jungkook rested his chin on his palm and looked at the man sitting across from him. "-when is your friend coming?"

Jimin checked his phone. "He said he'd be here in five minutes. He texted that ten minutes ago."

"You're impatient." Hoseok looked at Jungkook.

"What makes you say that?"

"I don't think he needs to specify that, Jungkook." Namjoon answered, raising an eyebrow at him. "You've asked about him four times now."

"Wha-"

But before Jungkook could come up with an excuse, a deep voice had entered the scene from behind him.

"I am so sorry!" the voice was slightly huffy, like it was nervous.

"Tae!" Jimin called out his name and pointed him to a seat. "Guys, this is Kim Taehyung."

Taehyung had a small paper bag in his hand, he sat down with a thump and drank some water. He bowed his head in greeting. "I am extremely sorry for being late-"

"You don't need to apologize!" Hoseok said quickly and extended his hand to greet him. "My name is Jung Hoseok, pleasure to meet you."

One by one, Taehyung was introduced to everyone. Being it his first time meeting Yoongi, he took advantage of the situation to observe him and paid nearly no direct attention to anyone else. He was still concerned about what type of a person Yoongi was. He didn't want Jimin to go in a wrong direction.

"What's in the bag?" Jimin's voice asked him softly.

Taehyung looked down at the small paper bag in his hands and clicked his tongue at how forgetful he could get.

"I got strawberries." he sighed and then looked at Hoseok. "Hoseok-"

The elder looked at him.

"I almost forgot. Happy birthday to you!" Taehyung extended his bag to him.

"Why, you didn't have to!" he accepted the package and peeped in. "What is it?"

"I didn't want to come here empty handed, so I picked some strawberries from my uncle's greenhouse. That was why I got late."

"Really?" Hoseok got out a small transparent box of big, juicy, red strawberries.

"Wow! Amazing!" he took one out and held it up for the adults to stare at the magnificent masterpiece. "These are fresh! I can still smell the earthiness on them."

"They're huge aren't they?" Yoongi's mouth was left open by the sight of the fruits. "And their colour really pops."

Taehyung smiled a bit. "My uncle has been doing this for years. He's textbook perfect about them."

"Does your family run a farm?"

"Greenhouses." he corrected Yoongi. "But what's stuck by, for over the years as our family business, is our winery."

"A winery? Your family owns a winery?" Yoongi asked keenly, he had always been a secret enthusiast for wine.

Jungkook didn't know much about alcohol besides beer or vodka, he wasn't much of a drinker, but now he wished he'd done more research.

"Yeah-" he said proudly. "It's been running in our family for generations."

"Then what made you interested in acting?" Namjoon piped up.

Taehyung hesitated a bit. "I was in the drama club in school, everyone complimented my acting." his voice trailed off with a certain uncomfortable hint of uncertainty.

"Well, now that he's here and that introductions are done-" Jimin looked the rest and placed a reassuring touch on Taehyung's thigh under the table. "-shall we cut the cake?"

As the others started to hype up for the cake-cutting. Taehyung glanced at Jimin. "Thanks." he said to him dimly.

"It's alright. Don't thank me."

The cake was cut, set aside, more appetizers and beer glasses were ordered, and the talking continued.

"Hoseok, don't drink too much." Jin placed his hand on the glass that Hoseok was about to drink from. "You know you're a lightweight."

Hoseok stared at the glass hopelessly, with a dull face. His eyes were focused on the tiny air bubbles floating to the top of the liquid. "Yeah, you're right."

Among the others, who were talking to each other all too enthusiastically, Jungkook was in his own world.

To his right, was Namjoon and across him, was Jimin, beside whom, was Taehyung.

He didn't stare, but tried to catch small glances at Taehyung while purposely talking to the people on his end.

The glances, the heat surrounding his face, the biting of his lips-Jungkook was a jittery mess.

'But how can a man look so effortlessly handsome? He's not even doing anything!' the heel of his foot was bouncing up and down quite anxiously. He was bothered by the amount of attention he had diverted from the rest of the group to that one man. 'You need to calm the fuck down, Jungkook. You're behaving like a a kid meeting their celebrity crush. Keep it together!'

Taehyung knew someone's eyes were on him, he could sense it. In fact, it was driving him crazy. Every time he tried to glance back at him from the corner of his eye, the other would pretend like nothing happened.
Little did he know that poor Jungkook wasn't trying to be a creepy starer. The photographer just wanted to stare at Taehyung for a solid sixty or so minutes to observe all his intricate features, not so creepy at all.

Taehyung sipped some water and finally caught Jungkook's eyes right at him. Their eyes met for a complete second.

One. Whole. Second.

'Shit.' Jungkook panicked. He averted his eyes clumsily and then awkwardly stared at his beer. His heart was hammering against his clenched chest, very uncomfortably.

Taehyung pressed his lips in, in embarrassment, trying to suppress his laugh. He found it funny that his 'photographer-to-be' got all red and flustered at a small eye contact. Not only that, he was now gawkily staring at his glass of beer, with such a serious expression, it was hard for Taehyung to keep himself from smiling.

The party was soon over at around midnight. Everyone huddled out in the cold and said their goodbyes for the night.

Namjoon, Jin and Hoseok had left together, while the others were still arranging for their transport.

"Hey, Jimin!" Taehyung called out to Jimin, who was standing with Yoongi a couple of feet away on the footpath. "Aren't you coming with?"

"Yoongi's giving me a ride." he smiled back.

Taehyung looked at Yoongi beside him. He didn't want to leave Jimin alone with him.

"Don't worry." Yoongi caught his eye. "I didn't drink."

Taehyung still wasn't quite convinced, but Jimin just nodded his head in an assuring manner.

"Okay. Good night both of you." saying that, Taehyung turned to leave, when his eyes fell on Jungkook, casually leaning against the cafe's glass windows and looking at his phone.

Taehyung walked up to him. "Are you waiting for someone?"

Jungkook's head bobbed up. "Huh?"

"Are you waiting for someone?" Taehyung repeated.

"Uh- no." he shook his head. "I'm just calling for a taxi."

Taehyung huffed, white mist swayed in front of his mouth. "You aren't going to get a single taxi in this area at this time. And even if you do, it'll take a good hour or so."

Jungkook clenched his phone tighter, his hands were slightly shaking from the cold.

"I'll drive you." Taehyung offered.

"No, it's alright!" Jungkook insisted. "My house is pretty far from here-"

"So is mine."

"It's to the east of the city-"

"So is mine."

There was awkward silence.

Taehyung pushed his hands into his coat pockets. "We didn't get to talk much at the party. And I wanted to talk about the audition a bit. After all, you'll be my photographer."

"Your photographer?" Jungkook's eyebrows raised up.

"I'll be your model, right?" his voice was stoic.

Jungkook smirked meekly. "Well, that would be decided when we judge your walk."

"My walk?"

"Yeah- as in, the runway walk that you'd do at the audition, amongst other things?"

"Oh, right. Of course."

There was silence for a while again, this was indeed a very awkward conversation. Jungkook looked at his phone once again, there wasn't a single taxi around him.

"So, you coming?" Taehyung asked.

Jungkook looked up at him and then at his phone. Agitated, he shove the phone in his coat pocket. "Yeah, sure."

The ride was silent for a while, but Taehyung soon started asking questions, taking advantage of having a face to face conversation with one of the people who would be judging him.

"Wait, so there isn't any pay at first?"

"Not at the beginning." Jungkook answered subtly. "Once you're selected, we won't be putting you on magazine covers or something right away." Jungkook tried to keep his eyes from Taehyung and gazed out of the window. "There are a lot of 'in-between' matters. Because we're looking for new faces, it's safe to say that we'd have a lot of beginners and it would be our responsibility to give our models the right exposure and training before we display their pictures. After a few days of that, modelling will come by like a breeze. This may be different to what other agencies do, but R-B fashion line started out quite recently and we'd like for our own modelling agency to handle things from scratch."

Taehyung nodded his head. "What about the requirements for the model's body shape and size? The last time I did all this, the woman in-charge told me about all the specifications. Apparently I wasn't skinny enough to walk for her runway." he chuckled, bitterly.

'That woman sure had no idea who she let go of.' Jungkook thought.

"It's true that this industry prefers to keep up a particular 'skinny' figure." Jungkook explained. "But where's the diversity in the same fixed body size or shape requirements? I don't want to focus on that. I'll look for anybody who's willing and determined. It doesn't matter if they don't fit the standard requirements. Besides, many are looking at it the other way, many are changing their perspectives- the society just needs more appreciation for natural beauty."

Jungkook felt like he was blubbering too much, but he subconsciously blamed it on the alcohol.

Taehyung glanced at Jungkook. He looked back. Jungkook caught a light glimpse of hesitance on the man's face.

"Don't worry, you'll make it." he said.

"What makes you say that?" he raised an eyebrow and glanced at Jungkook narrowly.

"I'm your photographer, aren't I?" Jungkook's head leaned slightly towards the driver's seat. "I just know that you'll make it." his tone was way too flirtatious than it should have been.

Taehyung let out a breathy smirk. "That's assuring." he sounded as if a small spark of motivation had been ignited in him. Though at the same time, he sounded sarcastic.

Jungkook's cheeks went hot as his eyes lingered on Taehyung's small smirk. He turned to look out of the window again. 'It's just the alcohol, Jungkook. Nothing else. You don't find him cute one bit.'

"But then again-" Taehyung started. "-it depends on how you'll judge me."

They stopped at a red light. Taehyung's fingers were fiddling on the steering wheel. He wasn't too much of an interactive guy, but something made him want to initiate conversation with Jungkook. He seemed like a decent guy. Maybe, he wouldn't mind working with him.

Jungkook on the other hand, was trying all well not to start a conversation with Taehyung. Well, he did want to, but he decided that he mustn't, at least not with alcohol flowing in his system. He'd already said enough, he didn't want to end up saying something that would make the already damp atmosphere, worse. Something that would make him regret it later.

"By the way-" Taehyung spoke, as the vehicle started again. "-your pictures, I like the way you capture them."

"You saw my photographs?"

"Yeah. They're actually pretty amazing."

A small smile curved on Jungkook's face. "Thanks."

"How long have you been doing this for?"

"Professionally? About three years now."

"That's great."

"What about you? Besides aspiring to become an actor, what do you do for a living?" Jungkook had a feeling that the flow of his words was a bit awkward.

"I took courses on foreign languages back in college. I currently work from home as a proofreader and sometimes translate things. I don't earn much, but I am surviving somehow."

"And did you major in acting? When did you graduate?"

"Uh- I-" his voice was stiff. His mind was recollecting unpleasant memories of his past. "About two years ago."

The car stopped. They had reached the gates of Jungkook's apartment.

Before Jungkook could ask anything more, Taehyung spoke up.

"This is your place, right?"

It felt like Taehyung was pushing the topic aside on purpose. Jungkook decided not to go poking at it, he had a feeling that he shouldn't. Instead, he gave a silent confirmation and bid him goodnight.

Taehyung drove off a bit hastily. 'Ah - I shouldn't have remembered that.'