haunted

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/44631481.

Rating: Explicit
Archive Warning: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Category: M/M
Fandom: 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Relationship: Jeon Jungkook/Kim Taehyung | V
Characters: Kim Taehyung | V, Jeon Jungkook, Jeon Jungkook's Mother, Jeon
Jungkook's Family, Jeon Jungkook's Brother, Jeon Jungkook's Sister
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - After
College/University, Enemies to Lovers, Past Abuse, Family Issues,
Minor Character Death, Minor Violence, Explicit Sexual Content,
Eventual Smut, Angst, Fluff, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Babysitting, Past
Child Abuse, Bullying, Spelling Jeon Jungkook as Jeon Jeongguk, Jeon
Jungkook has twin siblings, Au-pair Kim Taehyung, Babysitter Kim
Taehyung | V, Top Jeon Jungkook, Bottom Kim Taehyung | V, Angst
with a Happy Ending, Flashbacks, Childhood Trauma, Parent Death,
Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Forgiveness,
Redemption
Language: English
Collections: Taekook Enemies to Lovers Fest 2023
Stats: Published: 2023-06-15 Words: 50,565 Chapters: 6/6
 haunted
by wonderaus

Summary

After all, there’s a thin line between love and hate.

And they seem to be specialists in crossing and threading between those.

or: Taehyung finds himself becoming an au-pair for two lovely kids whose older brother
seems to hate him for an unknown reason.

Notes

WARNING !!

This fic deals with some sensitive topics, make sure to read the tags before you start as it
mentions past abuse, childhood trauma, and family issues as well as a parent's death.

That being said, I hope you enjoy this fic!

See the end of the work for more notes

 Chapter 1

Taehyung’s no stranger to nightmares. He’s been suffering through those since he was a kid.

His childhood was never the best, even if he always tried his best to pretend otherwise. Even
if he was always the cool kid everyone wanted to be like at school, the truth was that, as soon
as he got home, all of that came crumbling down because of an absent father and the vague
memory of a mother that was taken too soon from him.

So, as soon as he could, he got out of that place and went to college. He never thought he
would want to keep studying, but there was something that had always been on his mind,
even in his worst times back in that hellhole that he used to call home: he wanted to make
sure no kid ever went through the same things he did. He wanted to be the person he wished
he had through his school years, because maybe if he had someone back then, he wouldn’t
have turned out as fucked up as he did.

But through the years he spent in college, he changed. Matured more quickly than he thought
possible, but he had no other choice. He was now alone in the world for real. Before, there
was always an illusion that maybe his father would care, that he’d give him some pocket
money to buy himself an ice cream when he went out with his friends instead of him having
to beat up some random kid and take his.

Looking back, Taehyung regrets most things he did back then, but he knows that he didn’t
know any better, and although it’s never an excuse, he’s tried to make up for all of it with his
new life.

He studied to become an elementary school teacher and specialized in guidance and helping
kids that need it.

And he was happy for once, happy with how his life was going, with how he was managing
to make it through even when nobody ever thought he was worth it.

But the nightmare he’s having right now must be one of the worst he’s lived because he keeps
trying to wake up, and he can’t.

“I’m sorry, I don’t think I understand,” Taehyung says, staring at his landlord, who can’t even
look him in the eyes.

“I’m sorry, Taehyung, but your lease is up,” he tells him again, and truth is, Taehyung had
heard him the first time, but he just didn’t want to listen. “You need to be out of the apartment
by tomorrow.”

“What do you—How can I be out of the apartment by tomorrow if I have nowhere else to
go?!” He yells because he doesn’t. He thought he had more time. Sure, he finished his studies
already and since he lived on campus, most apartments are reserved for students only, and he
isn’t anymore.
He has nowhere to go, and no time or money to find it in time.

“I’m sorry,” the man says again but Taehyung knows he doesn’t mean it. If he were sorry,
he’d at least give him more time. “But that’s what the contract said.” And Taehyung wants to
laugh, wants to tear the stupid contract in his face and tell him to shove it up his ass, but he
can’t because that’s not who he is anymore. So, he just sighs.

“I’ll be out of here tomorrow,” is what he says instead, and when he closes the door, his
hands clench into fists and he tries very hard not to break anything, because sure, he’s no
longer the owner of this place, but they’d probably still make him pay for any damages if
they found any, and he needs to save every last penny of his to afford a new place by
tomorrow.

Tomorrow .

Taehyung feels like the universe is laughing at him. Just when he was starting to get his life
on track, of course, something bad had to happen.

He stares at the walls that have kept him company for the past five years and he feels like his
soul is crushing inside him.

So, he does what he always does when a problem presents itself and it overwhelms him: he
heads to the fridge and grabs himself a beer.

He learned that from his father.

Taehyung is a bit drunk and looking for places to stay that aren’t too far out of his league. He
also needs to find another job, because he’s not sure if waiting tables will be paying rent
anymore now that his scholarship is also out of the picture.

He groans, head in his hands, and pulls at the roots of his hair, hoping that will somehow
make his brain work faster, but it doesn’t, it just hurts.

He should also pack, but what’s the point of packing if there’s nowhere to go?

And as a passing thought, his brain supplies that he could always go back home, but his
entire body rejects the idea, a wave of nausea washing over him and making him dizzy.

He starts applying for jobs he’s not even sure what they are, just because he hopes at least
one of them will call him back. Just one would be enough, truly.

Maybe he can stay at a motel or something until he finds something better; until he figures
his life out.
He applies for babysitting jobs, teaching positions, and tutoring sessions, too. He thinks he
even applies for a high school coach position even though he knows nothing about sports and
would probably be terrible at it, but if they hire him, he’ll gladly learn the difference between
American football and rugby if it puts some food on his plate and a roof over his head.

The sun has gone down, and he knows he’s running out of time, but he’s also exhausted,
drained, and drunk, which makes him drag himself toward the bathroom to get in the shower.
There’s a passing thought in his brain that mocks him because this might be the last time he
showers properly in days. He doesn’t find it funny, but he still laughs bitterly.

His bed creaks under the weight of his body, and he’s even going to miss the familiarity of it,
the memories he made here, the first time he brought someone over and the first time he cried
himself to sleep.

He falls asleep with his phone in his hand, the site of a real estate agency is open on a page
with an apartment that’s way too expensive for him to even consider.

But maybe he can dream about it and pretend the real world doesn’t exist.

He’s also no stranger to doing that.

He wakes up to the loud noise of his phone and a horrible headache. He drops his phone out
of reflex because he forgot he was holding it in the first place and curses under his breath.

He kicks himself for not putting it on silent as most normal people do, and he doesn’t
remember why exactly he didn’t, since the only times he has the sound on is when he’s
waiting for a call from work or—

“Fuck,” he remembers then, everything that happened last night, so he reaches over and
answers the call. “Hello?” he says, his voice sounds horrible, but he’s only got himself to
blame for that because, well, it was him that drank a few too many bottles of beer last night
as a way to escape from reality.

“Hello! Is this Kim Taehyung?” A voice calls from the other end. It’s a woman, and she
sounds nice, like an elementary school teacher. Taehyung hopes she is and that she’s calling
him to offer him a position that will save his ass from being homeless.

“Yes, this is he,” he says, rustling on the bed to sit upright, even if the person on the other end
can’t see him.

“Oh, I’m sorry, is this a bad time? Did I wake you?” she says, and Taehyung feels
embarrassed that it’s so obvious that he was still asleep.

“No, no, it’s okay, um… who is this, though?” he asks, biting at his lip nervously.
“Ah, right, sorry, I forgot to introduce myself I—Haru, please, stop pulling your s— Hold on
a second,” she says, and Taehyung frowns, not saying anything as he hears some rustling in
the background before he hears her voice again. “Okay, sorry about that, but that comes in
handy,” she chuckles a bit. “My name is Kang Jeongha, you sent me your application last
night responding to the job offering I put up?” She says, and Taehyung closes his eyes
because he’s not sure which one of all of them it was.

“Ah, right, um… could you remind me what the job consisted of?” he asks, and he almost
rambled his entire situation out, but he guesses it’s not very professional of him to admit that
he drunk-sent over thirty applications before he went to bed because he’s about to be kicked
out of his apartment.

“Sure! Yeah, it was an au-pair position,” she says, and he frowns. “Basically, all you need to
do is look after my kids, take them to school, pick them up, and all that.”

“Oh,” he says, still a bit lost and half-asleep. “You mean a babysitter’s position?” he asks.

“That but a bit more. See, you’d be living here with us for as long as you worked for us.”
And Taehyung is fully awake at that. “Look, I have to run, or else the twins will be late for
class, but I’ll text you our address and you can drop by in around an hour or so and we can
discuss it further. If you’re still interested, of course,” she says.

“I—yeah, sure, I’ll be there,” he says a bit on autopilot.

“Great! I’ll see you later, Taehyung-ssi,” she says cheerfully before she hangs up, and
Taehyung’s left to stare at his wall for a few minutes before it sinks in on him that maybe all
his problems just got resolved. Or perhaps he’s still dreaming.

“Ouch,” he says when he pinches himself to test if he is and proves that he’s not.

He gets out of bed after that, aware that there’s still so much he needs to do, five years of
stuff and memories need to be packed up in boxes.

The woman gave him an hour, so he makes the most of it.

He’s halfway through packing the stuff in his bathroom when he gets a text from that same
number with an address, and his eyes open wide because that is a very wealthy side of town.
No wonder they have fancy names for babysitters, too.

Taehyung texts her back letting her know that he’ll head out soon and locks his phone again,
jumping in the shower and unpacking his fanciest clothes because he needs to make a nice
first impression, especially if they’re from Seocho.

It’s a bit far from where he lives, so he has to ride the subway and hope it’s not too crowded,
but thankfully, rush hour seems to have ended already and he manages to find a seat as he
heads there, nervously bouncing his leg and biting the skin off his lips, which he knows he
shouldn’t because he’ll end up drawing blood and his lips will look raw when he gets there,
but he can’t help it.
He was born anxious, probably already aware of the life that was ahead of him.

The voice in the subway calls for his station and he stands up, making his way through
people in tailored suits and expensive handbags, painfully aware of how out of place he
looks, and feels, too.

He gets out of the station and into the streets filled with tall buildings that cast shadows over
him as if they were giants about to step on him. He feels a bit like David against the big
Goliath. But he can’t let that stop him, so he gets his phone out once again and follows the
indications toward the house of this Kang Jeongha lady. He feels his heart beating so fast
because this is his chance, it’s literally like someone wrapped up a gift and left it in his front
door, he can’t fuck this up.

“You’ve arrived at your destination,” the navigator announces, and he looks up at the
building and can’t help but whistle at the sight.

Never in a million years did he think he’d be stepping foot in a place like that, but if all goes
well, he might even get to live there.

He checks again the address given to him and finds the button for her apartment and rings the
doorbell, waiting. He checks his reflection in the glass door, trying to make sure he’s as
spotless as he can.

“Taehyung-ssi?” he hears, and he quickly turns to look at the camera.

“Yeah! Hello,” he tries to smile as much as he can without looking creepy, and the door
opens then.

“You can come up! I already warned the doorman that I’d be having visitors,” she says, and
he almost chuckles. Is this how rich people live? Must be nice.

He goes inside and says hello to the doorman, that looks as old as his father would look if he
took care of himself.

“You’re here to see Miss Kang, right?” he questions, and Taehyung nods, so the man heads
towards the elevator with him and presses the button for the ninth floor for him.

He feels like he’s in a movie, he hopes the genre is a comedy or one of those heart-wrenching
ones about self-improvement or whatever, not horror. “Have a nice day,” the man smiles at
him sweetly.

“You too, Sir,” Taehyung says before the doors close. He turns around once again and looks
at his reflection in the mirror, taking a deep breath and releasing it slowly to calm down his
nerves, but it doesn’t work.

When the elevator chimes, warning that they’ve reached the floor, he turns around quickly
and steps out, walking towards the second door.

And after he knocks, it gets open straight away.

“Shit, sorry,” a guy says, bumping into him as he rushes towards the elevator.

“Did you get some snacks for cl–oh! Taehyung-ssi! Sorry, my son was late for class, come
in,” She smiles opening the door wider for him to walk inside.

“That’s alright,” Taehyung smiles, walking inside, throwing one last glance at the elevator to
see if he catches sight of the boy because he looked to be more or less his age, but the doors
have closed, and the front door follows suit a few seconds after.

“Welcome,” she says, and she looks… well, rich, to begin with. But she also looks like the
kind of person that would donate a billion won to charity every year for her birthday. A nice
kind of rich, Taehyung guesses, if that even is a thing. “Would you like some water, tea…
anything?” she chuckles.

“Oh, no, it’s alright,” he smiles, standing awkwardly next to the couch, looking around and
seeing how unbelievable the views are from here.

“I’m sorry about the mess, I didn’t have time to clean up after dropping the kids off, and
Jeongguk, he—well, I guess you can see why I need you,” she chuckles. “Please, sit,” she
says, signaling at the couch, and he does, gulping nervously. She sits next to him, a smile on
her face but she also looks exhausted.

“Thank you,” he says. “So… what exactly would you like me to do?” he asks, because he
needs to know in order to make a decision. After all, if he decides this isn’t for him, he still
needs to find a place to stay before midnight.

“Okay, so… As I said over the phone, what I need for you is to pretty much take care of my
kids while I’m at work,” she says. “It’s been so hard for me to manage these past few years,
but now I got a promotion and I’m going to be working more hours, and usually whenever I
couldn’t go pick them up, my eldest son would, but he’s in his final year of college and the
last thing he needs is to worry about the kids,” she explains, and he wants to ask how is it that
her children are so many years apart in age, but he guesses that’s not polite, so he doesn’t.

“And you said I’d be living here?” he asks again, confused. “May I ask why?”

“Well, just so it’s more convenient for the kids. If you live here, they’ll get to know you more
and they’ll be more comfortable around you. Besides, since you’ll have to take them to
school every morning, it’s better if you’re already here instead of commuting every day
from… where do you live?” she asks and Taehyung feels ashamed.

“I, uh… I used to live on campus, but I got evicted last night,” he says, and her eyes open
wide when he says that. And he thinks that maybe he should’ve bitten his tongue and not said
it out loud, but it’s too late, it’s out there.

“Oh, my God, that’s awful!” She says it like she actually means it. “I’m so sorry, I honestly
thought maybe we could discuss the full au-pair arrangement if you weren’t comfortable with
living here, but now that I know that I do hope that you accept the job,” she says. “At least,
give it a try, and if you don’t like it, then you’re free to go, and maybe I can help you find a
new place to stay! I have friends that work in real estate.” And somehow Taehyung doesn’t
doubt that.

“I… I don’t know, I would love to accept because I do need a place to stay, but I also have
another job as a waiter most nights, which I guess wouldn’t interfere that much with taking
care of the kids since they’d probably be asleep by then, but… I don’t know, even if I studied
to be an elementary school teacher, I have no actual experience as a nanny.”

“That’s why I offered you give it a try for a few days,” she says, voice understanding. “Look,
all I’m asking is a chance. I’m a little bit desperate, too, because today is my last day before I
go back to work full time and I need someone to take the kids to school tomorrow, so I feel
like we both need this, it’s some kind of blessing,” she smiles, and he felt the same way when
he heard about what the job was, but at the same time, he feels like it’s too good to be true.

“Okay,” he says anyway, and the woman beams at it. Taehyung smiles at the sight because
it’s such a genuine reaction that he also feels relief wash over him at the agreement.

“Oh, that’s wonderful, Taehyung-ssi, thank you!” She says, and he chuckles. As if it wasn’t
him the one that’s gaining more in this exchange. “I will get your room ready for you as soon
as you leave! And feel free to come back whenever you’ve got everything ready. Let me
know where you live, I’ll tell my eldest to go help you bring your stuff as soon as he’s done
with his classes.”

“Oh, no, that’s okay, I can manage on my own, but thank you very much,” he says. “You said
you had twins, right? I mean, the ones I have to look after are the twins?” he asks then.

“Right! Oh, I’m such a mess, forgetting the most important thing,” she sighs and reaches out
for her phone. “Yeah, these are the little rascals you’ll be looking after. I’m not going to lie to
you and say they’re angels because most of the time they’re not, which is exactly why I need
someone to take care of them while I’m at work,” she says as she slides through her pictures.
“This one’s Haru. Older for a few minutes, and this one over here is Haneul. She’s usually
better behaved, so really, it’s him you need to look out for the most, but don’t worry too
much. They’re not bad kids just… have been through a lot.” And Taehyung can relate to that.
He doesn’t ask, though. Doesn’t think he has the right.

“They look lovely,” he smiles. “I can’t wait to meet them,” and then she slides to another
picture of the two of them in the arms of another guy.

“And this over here is my eldest, Jeongguk. The one that ran into you as he headed out.” she
giggles.

And Taehyung also doesn’t feel like he has the right to tell her how good his son looks,
because that’d probably be unprofessional, so he shuts his mouth.

“I don’t think you’ll need to look after him, but he tends to sleep past his alarm, so maybe
you’ll have to drag him out of bed once or twice, so he gets to his classes,” she chuckles and
the thought of it makes Taehyung’s skin heat up for some reason.
“You’ve got a lovely family,” is what he says in the end, and the woman smiles, but there’s
something behind it.

“They surely are lovely, everything else about the family is a bit messy, but no need to get
into that right now, I don’t want to keep you any longer, I’m sure you still have plenty of
things to do,” she says, standing up, and Taehyung can’t help but do the same thing.

“Yeah, I’ll try my best to be here in the early afternoon. Is that okay?” he asks for
confirmation first, and the woman nods.

“Whenever you want! If I happen to be out for any reason, I’ll let Mr. Yoo downstairs know,
so he can let you in,” she smiles. “Again, thank you so much for agreeing to help us. I’m sure
having you around will make things easier for everyone here, so thank you, truly.”

“Thank you for the opportunity, I hope I don’t let you down,” he says, as politely as he can.
“I…I’ll be going now,” and with a final bow, he heads towards the door, still not sure what
just happened and what he agreed to, but all he knows is that he has a job now and a home
and that he doesn’t have to worry about many of the things that kept him up at night
anymore.

So, he’ll take that as a small win.

Turns out it takes longer than Taehyung thought to prepare everything. And he maybe
should’ve thought twice about the offer Miss Kang gave him because he’s not sure if he’s
going to be able to carry everything out on his own.

He’s decided to throw out many things, most of his kitchenware and stuff since he’s not going
to be using them anymore, and although in the future he might regret it because he’ll have to
get new ones, he’ll cross that bridge when he gets there because it’s stupid to pack so many
things if he has no place to put them, so he doesn’t.

In the end, he ends up calling a taxi because it’s not viable for him to go in the subway with
all that stuff and then walk across the second-most-expensive neighborhood in the city
carrying all of it, too. So, he takes everything downstairs, leaving his keys at the entrance,
and gives the place one last look.

He’s going to miss it, even the things he used to hate like the coffee stain in the back of one
of the cushions on the couch that he always made sure to keep hidden, even the slight dent on
the wall next to the TV that always used to irk him, and how the mirror in the bathroom never
seemed to be quite straightened.

But this was his home for so long, that it feels odd to be saying goodbye so suddenly.

He doesn’t have a choice, though, so he closes the door and leaves.

There are no papers he needs to sign or anything, since the lease is up, so he says goodbye to
the entire building, knowing he probably won’t return, and gets in his taxi when it arrives,
loading it and giving it the direction.

“Oh, quite a change of scenery, huh?” The man says, and Taehyung just chuckles, nodding.

When they make it back to the building, the cab driver helps him unload all his stuff, and
Taehyung sees how the doorman also comes out to help.

“It’s alright, I’ve got it,” he reassures him, feeling bad that he had to come all the way there
to help him.

“It’s okay, Sir,” the doorman says, and Taehyung feels weird being addressed so formally. It
makes him sound either old or stuck-up, and he hates both of those things.

“Please, call me Taehyung,” he tells him, and the man seems surprised. “I’m just a kid who
just graduated from college, I don’t deserve that much respect, Sir,” he tells him, and the man
seems touched by his words.

“Then, Taehyung, let me help you.” And this time, he allows it, but only because he knows
he does need the help to carry everything toward the elevator. “Mr. Jeon should be home any
minute now, I believe,” the man tells him and Taehyung frowns.

“I’m sorry, who?” he asks.

“Miss Kang’s eldest son,” he clarifies, and Taehyung goes ‘oh’ . “They didn’t catch you up
with the entire family tree, did they?”

“Didn’t really have the time, no,” he admits, chuckling a bit. “Is she not home right now?”
And the man shakes his head.

“Went out to pick up the little ones. If you need any help, do let me know,” he says as he
loads the last box on the elevator.

“I will, thank you very much,” Taehyung smiles.

“Oh, here,” he gets a key out of his pocket and hands it to him. “Miss Kang gave me this to
give to you, so you could get in.” And he nods. “Welcome to the building, Taehyung.”
Taehyung smiles as the doors close, feeling indeed welcome, which is surprising.

When he gets to the ninth floor again, he heads towards the door and opens it.

He almost feels like he’s trespassing since it’s so dark inside. He puts a stop on the door so he
can come and go from the elevator with all the things and leaves them by the entrance. He’ll
arrange them later.

When he drops the last bag on the floor, he closes the door and sighs, stretching his back
because it’s so sore from all the lifting and carrying.
He looks around the apartment, a bit out of place, not knowing where he’s supposed to go,
and not wanting to intrude too much, but also not wanting to have all his things right there at
the entrance.

It’s when he’s walking around that he sees a note on the table by the door.

‘ Your room is the second one down the hall to the right! ’ it reads, and so, he heads over
there, turning the light on and being amazed by the size of it.

It’s twice as big as his old room, and almost as big as his entire house back when he lived
with his father.

“Fuck,” he mutters in awe, looking around.

It’s most definitely the guest room. He’s got his own desk and chair, a shelf that’s got more
books than Taehyung will probably read in his entire lifespan, and the bed in the middle of it,
so big compared to his own that Taehyung fears he’ll get lost in it.

He’s got two windows with a lovely view of the city, too.

The sun is starting to set and it’s tainting the room a shade of orange that reminds Taehyung
of the autumn leaves in the park back home where he used to hang out with his so-called
friends who really, only hang out with him because they feared him. He doesn’t blame them,
though, never did.

He heads back to the entrance to start bringing in all his stuff so he can unpack, and as he
stares at all the storage room this place has, he figures maybe he could’ve brought all his pots
and pans along and he’d still have some space left for eight more people.

He’s managed to bring all his things to the room, but Taehyung is too exhausted to do
anything else but lay down, so that’s exactly what he does. Even if it’s just for a couple of
seconds.

He literally groans when his back hits the mattress because it’s even more comfortable than it
looked, and it looked like someone took a cloud and pulled it down to the mortal realm.

Taehyung honestly feels like he hit the jackpot with this, even though he still hasn’t even met
the kids he’s supposed to be looking after, but he figures nothing is bad enough to ruin this
for him.

He checks his phone while he rests, seeing that he thankfully doesn’t have to work today,
because he would probably pass out taking someone’s order if he had.

He stands back up then and decides to start unpacking. And it’s not until he’s done with his
first box of clothes that he hears the door.

“Hello?” he hears, a voice coming from the entrance. “Mom, are you still here?” And the
voice is getting closer. For some reason, Taehyung holds his breath as if that way he could
avoid the eldest son of the family from walking into the room when the light is already on,
and he can see it. “I thought you were going to pick up—” he says but shuts up as soon as he
sees Taehyung there.

“You’re not my mother,” is what he says, and Taehyung can’t help but chuckle at it.

“No, I’m… sorry, we kind of met this morning? Or well, saw each other, I guess,” he says.
“I’m Taehyung, I’m going to be the new au-pair for your s–˝

“Wait, what did you say?” he says, frowning and staring at Taehyung in a way that he doesn’t
like at all. “What did you say your name was?”

“Um… Taehyung? Kim Taehy—˝

“Get the fuck out of my house,” the guy says then, and Taehyung’s frown deepens.

“What?” he says. “Your mother just h—˝

“I don’t give a fuck that she hired you, I’m firing you right now, get out,” he says, and
Taehyung is so confused that he doesn’t even stop him when he starts packing up his clothes
again for him.

“But why? What did I even do? I literally just got here!” he says, trying to see if he did
something out of place, but he’s even still wearing his fancy clothes, there’s nothing that he
could’ve done to upset him this much.

“You!” he says, pointing at him with so much rage it scares Taehyung, but he doesn’t say
anything else. “I don’t want you near my siblings, or me.”

“Look, I don’t think you’re being reasonable here,” Taehyung says, finally gaining his voice
as he heads towards him and tries to stop him.

“Reasonable?! Oh, that’s rich,” he laughs, and when Taehyung reaches over, he flinches back.
“Don’t touch me, just get the fuck out.”

“No,” Taehyung says, standing his ground, because sure, he might live here, but his mother is
the one that hired him, so technically, it’s her the one that can fire him. “If when your mother
comes back, she wants me to leave, then I will. But I won’t leave just because her bratty
spoiled son wants me to.” And he holds his gaze and it’s so cold Taehyung feels like he’s
going to freeze to death.

“You know what? Fuck that.” And before Taehyung can do anything about it, the guy reaches
out and starts to pull him from his shirt out of the room.

“What the fuck are you doing?!” Taehyung tries to get him off him, but he’s strong and
doesn’t budge.

“You’re not leaving? Then I’m kicking you out,” he says. And Taehyung feels like maybe he
will also need to babysit the eldest son after all since he’s acting like such a child.
“Let go!” he says, finally slapping his hand off him, and neither of them hears the door open
before the guy punches Taehyung in the face.

“Jeongguk!!” They both hear, turning around. Miss Kang comes in with two small children
that are wide-eyed looking at the scene. “Oh, my God, what are you doing?” she says,
sounding upset. “Kids, to your room, I’ll be there in a second.”

“But mommy—˝ the boy, Haru, Taehyung remembers, starts to argue.

“No buts allowed, to your room right now!” she says, and her voice is final, so both kids rush
down the hall and towards their room, Taehyung guesses.

Jeongguk seems oddly quiet now, and Taehyung can feel the burn from his punch still in his
jaw.

He’s never been more confused in his life, and he’s woken up in someone else’s bed he didn’t
remember after a night out more than once.

“Now, care to explain to me what on Earth is going on here?!” she says, looking at them both.

“I want him gone,” Jeongguk says, and Taehyung just gulps.

“So, you punched him in the face?” she says, and at that, he lowers his head. “Are you
alright, Taehyung? Jeongguk, go get him some ice,” she tells him, and he looks like he’s been
betrayed. “You can tell me why you want him gone after you bring him ice, how about that?”
She says, and with a groan, the boy leaves the room, heading towards the kitchen.

“Oh, god, what a way for you to meet the little ones. I’m so sorry about him,” she says, but
Taehyung just shakes his head. He still doesn’t know what’s happening, but he fears that he
might’ve deserved that.

Maybe Jeongguk was one of the strangers he woke up next to at some point, who knows? He
looks hot enough that Taehyung would consider him on a night out, that’s for sure.

“Here, here’s your fucking ice,” he says, and his mother reprimands him for his language.

“Now, let’s sit down and talk this out, yeah?” she says, and they head towards the couch.
“Alright, Jeongguk, what happened?”

“I’m not telling you in front of him,” he says like a bratty child and Taehyung has to force
himself not to roll his eyes. “All that you need to know is that he has to go and that I don’t
want him anywhere near the twins, and that should be enough of a reason for you to listen to
me.” Taehyung just gulps.

“But did he do something? How can you be so sure if you barely know him?” she asks him,
and he shoots Taehyung a glance that’s so full of poison that if he were to bite his tongue,
Taehyung fears he’d die.

And after that, he stands up and leaves without another word, even if his mother calls out for
him, sighing when she sees it’s pointless.
“I’ll go talk to him, you can head back to your room and continue unpacking if you haven’t
already,” she tells him and Taehyung frowns.

“But what about—˝ he starts, but she shakes her head.

“I’ll get through to him. He’s a bit… reluctant with strangers. Had a hard childhood and it
only got worse after his father cheated on me with his—you know what? Doesn’t matter,” she
says, smiling a bit bitterly. “Point is, I’m sure he didn’t mean what he did, so I apologize on
his behalf. Please, head back to your room. I’ll introduce you to the kids at dinner.” And with
that, she heads down the hall and towards what Taehyung assumes must be Jeongguk’s room.
He hears the door close behind her and only then does he head back toward his room.

He sees the clothes he had so neatly folded now are a mess from where Jeongguk started
throwing them into the boxes again and sighs.

His jaw hurts and it will probably be bruised in the morning, but not even the ice pressed
against it is as cold as Jeongguk’s gaze was earlier.

If only he knew why all of this happened.

Taehyung was hungry, but he didn’t have any food at home when he left in the morning and
his father was nowhere to be seen, so he couldn’t ask for more money, not that he’d give him
any, anyway.

He was walking down the halls when he saw him, alone at his desk with a bag of cookies and
some juice. Taehyung smiled and walked towards him, his friends following him.

“Wait here, I’ll go get my breakfast,” he said, and they all laughed. He hated them all, and
he was sure they hated him, too.

“Hey there,” Taehyung said. He never really knew his name, either. The boy looked up and,
as soon as he saw who it was, he backed out of his chair. “Don’t be scared! I’m not gonna
hurt you. I just saw you were alone and thought I’d keep you some company,” he said, sitting
in the chair in front of his desk.

The poor boy was shaking from fear because it wasn’t the first time this happened. It’d
become a habit. So much that Taehyung unconsciously headed this way every day at recess,
knowing he’d find him here. Because if he wasn’t and they found him somewhere else, he’d
get in trouble.

“I-I’m fine on my own, t-thanks,” the boy stuttered, and Taehyung reached over to snatch the
bag of cookies from him. “Hey!” He said, trying to take it back, but Taehyung was taller
since he was a year older.
“What, are you not going to share your food with a friend? That’s mean,” he smirked, taking
a mouthful. “You shouldn’t be mean, you know Jeongguk-ah?” he said, reading the nametag
on his shirt but forgetting the next second.

“You’re the mean one!” He said, pushing him away and making him drop the cookies on the
floor.

Taehyung heard his friends from outside gasp and egg him on. He wasn’t about to embarrass
himself in front of his friends because of a younger kid.

“Oh, am I, now?” he said, pushing the boy harder until he fell on the floor, almost hitting his
head with one of the desks, and he pulled from his uniform to get him back up and then
shoved him against one of the lockers, the boy crying. “Am I mean?” he asked again. “If that
was me being mean, wait until you see the real one,” he threatened, and he walked away,
stepping on the bag of cookies as he walked out and drinking the entire juice box, throwing
the remains at him, walking back out to his friends who cheered him and patted him back as
if he’d just saved the world.

Taehyung hated himself a little bit more every time he did that.

There’s a knock on his door about half an hour later, and Taehyung is still unpacking, but he’s
going extra slow because he has the feeling that he is going to be told to go after all, and it’d
be a waste to pack everything out and then back again.

“Yeah?” he says, and when the door opens, it’s Miss Kang.

“Hey, how are you doing?” she asks, still from outside. There’s something in her eyes that
has changed, and it scares Taehyung.

“You know, unpacking,” he says, fiddling with the sleeves of one of his jumpers. “Can I keep
doing it or am I leaving?” he asks, straight to the point because he has no time to waste.

Miss Kang sighs and walks into the room, closing it behind her.

“If you don’t mind, I’d like to ask you a few questions before I decide that,” she tells him.
“Because I fear that we were both so desperate to fix our situations that I skipped past some
important details, and I should’ve given you a proper interview before inviting you into my
home like that.” The formality of her voice is making his skin crawl. What’s going on?

“Yeah, sure, of course,” he nods, taking the chair from the desk and sitting since she’s sitting
on his bed.

“First of all, tell me a bit about yourself. Where you grew up, about your family… all that,”
she says, and Taehyung gulps.
“Oh,” he says. “I, um… okay, well, my name is Kim Taehyung, but you know that already,”
and Miss Kang nods. She seems patient, which makes Taehyung more comfortable, but he’s
still very not comfortable talking about this, even though he does think he at least owes it to
her because she’s literally trusting him with her house and the life of her children. “I was
born in Daegu, and grew up there, too. My family…” And he stops talking then, biting the
inside of his lip. This part is never easy, even after so long. “My mom died a few weeks after
I was born, I don’t remember her at all, just know her from pictures. And my father, he…
well, he wasn’t around much. Blamed me for what happened to mom and pretty much
punished me for it by not being around at all. Left me to fend for myself most days, and…
yeah, as soon as I finished high school I left and came here to Seoul.” And she seems to be
taking it all in. “Anything else you’d like to know?”

“Yeah, you said you also had another job, right?” she asks, and Taehyung is glad that the
topic moves away from his personal life.

“That’s right. I got it when I first moved to the city because I needed money to pay rent
because my scholarship wasn’t enough most of the time, and I’m still working there. It’s a
restaurant around the campus area, and I work there most nights because I had class in the
mornings. My schedule hasn’t changed for years, which is why I think that I’ll be able to do
both,” he explains.

“And if I were to ask you to leave right now, would the money you make there be enough to
get you another place to stay?” she asks, and his heart sinks.

“It wouldn’t, but I’d figure it out and find something else,” he says, trying to pretend that he’s
not hurt or confused because funnily, he’s both.

“Okay, one last question,” she says standing up and he follows her movement. “Were you a
good kid growing up?” And he wants to laugh.

“I wasn’t,” he says, not even wanting to pretend. “I was the worst one in my school, but I’m
not that kid anymore. I grew up and changed for the better. There’s something I learned when
I was young and it’s that you need someone to be there for you as you make mistakes, or else,
you won’t know that you’re doing something wrong. That’s why I wanted to become a
teacher and a guidance counselor; because I needed that guidance and no one gave it to me,
and I don’t want kids these days to go through that, either.”

“Alright, dinner will be ready in ten minutes,” she says and heads toward the door, leaving
Taehyung even more confused.

“Is that it?” he asks.

“Yeah, that’s it. You can finish unpacking.” And she gives him a small smile. “It’s good to
have you here, Taehyung,” and with that, she leaves the room.

Taehyung doesn’t unpack, he doesn’t even move from the chair until he hears they’re being
called for dinner.
He steps out of the room and sees that the one at the end of the hall has the door closed and
the light on, but he heads toward the kitchen anyway.

It smells delicious, but Taehyung still has a knot in his stomach ever since Jeongguk returned
home.

When he walks into the kitchen, he sees that both kids are already sitting at the table and that
there are only four places set.

“Mommy, who’s this boy and why is Jeongguk mad at him?” the little girl, Haneul, asks
pointing at him. You gotta love kids and their lack of filter, sometimes.

It’s then that Miss Kang realizes that he walked into the room.

“Oh, kids, I want to introduce you to Taehyung. He’s going to be with you guys a lot from
now on! Since mommy will have to go back to work, he’ll take you to school and pick you
up and play with you lots!” She smiles and both kids look rather unimpressed.

He guesses it’s true that his first impression was rather… strong.

“If Jeongguk doesn’t like him, I don’t, either,” Haru says, crossing his arms, and his mother
sighs.

“Come on, don’t be rude!” She says. Haneul, on the other hand, seems to be analyzing him.

“Are you sad?” she asks him, and he smiles a bit lopsided.

“I’m okay,” he tells her. “It’s nice to meet you.” And he squats down to be on eye level with
both of them and smiles more genuinely. “I hope we can get along, hm?” And whereas Haru
still seems unimpressed by him, the little girl nods.

“Come on, let’s eat, it’s almost time for bed.” And both kids groan then.

“Why is Jeongguk not eating with us?” Haru asks.

“He wasn’t feeling very well,” Miss Kang says, but Taehyung knows it’s his fault, and he
immediately feels guilty for ruining their family time. “I left some food for him for later,
don’t worry,” she tells him as soon as she picks up on his shift of mood, but the problem isn’t
that, but the fact that he’s the one that should’ve eaten on his own if the other boy is that
uncomfortable by his mere presence.

“The food is really good,” he tells Miss Kang, and she seems pleased. The kids don’t seem to
be liking it very much, by the way they keep stirring it as if they hope that way it’d disappear
faster.

“Come on, the sooner you eat the sooner you’ll go to bed!” Taehyung says, but that seems to
backfire because they both complain, and Taehyung looks terrified, and Miss Kang giggles.

“You’ll get the hang of it, don’t worry,” she says, standing up and heading towards one of the
cupboards and showing something to them.
“Finish and you’ll get a cookie for dessert!” she says. Oh, so bribing works. He makes a
mental note of that.

He sees the cookies and it brings back memories of when he was a kid. He used to love those.

“I finished first!” Haneul says, excitedly, stretching out her tiny hands so she gets the cookie,
but Haru snatches from her and eats it straight away, making the little girl cry.

“Hey! That’s mean, Haru!” Miss Kang says, and it seems to upset the other kid, too, who
jumps down from his chair and rushes out towards the hallway. His mother sighs. “Can you
please deal with Haneul? I’ll be right back,” she says, trailing after him while the little girl
keeps crying.

“Shhh, it’s okay, princess, here. This is for you,” he says, going to get one of the cookies
from the pack. “It’s even bigger than the other one!” He says, heading towards where she is
and handing it to her, watching as she sniffles before she takes it. “Does he do that a lot? Take
your food or your stuff?” he asks, and the little girl nods as she rubs her eyes. “That’s not
nice, is it?” And she shakes her head this time, taking a bite from the cookie.

He hates that he sees himself in Haru and hopes that maybe he can lead him down the right
path before he becomes as bad as he was.

“But it’s okay now, right? You got an even better cookie! It has more chips than his!” And
she looks at it and giggles.

“Thank you,” she says, bowing slightly and he giggles.

“No problem,” he says, and as soon as she finishes, she yawns. “Are you sleepy?” he asks,
and she shakes her head, but her eyes are closing, so she doesn’t sound very convincing at all.
“Come on, let’s put you to bed” and she makes grabby hands as if she wanted him to carry
her.

“Jeongguk always carries me,” she explains, and the mental image of it is endearing, even if
now he only sees red at the thought of Jeongguk. Red from the rage in his eyes and the blood
that he almost drew with his punch.

“Is that so? Then I guess I should, too!” And she giggles, nodding fast. And he’s about to
pick her up when he sees Jeongguk come into the kitchen.

The second their eyes meet; he freezes on the spot.

“Oh, look who’s here,” Taehyung says, stepping away from the little girl as if fearing
Jeongguk would throw himself at him again if he was too close.

“Jeongguk!” The girl says, making grabby hands at him now.

“Hello, little one,” he says, picking her up. “Are you done with dinner?” and she nods. “Good
girl. Where’s mom and—˝
“He stole a cookie from her and then run off, your mother is with him,” Taehyung explains
and Jeongguk’s face is unreadable.

“Ironic,” he says with a chuckle, and Taehyung feels like he missed the joke. “Let’s put you
to bed, hm? It’s getting late,” he says dropping a kiss on the little girl’s cheek and walking
away toward their room.

Taehyung lets out a huff of breath he didn’t know he was holding, grabbing one of the chairs
for stability.

Turns out there was something that could ruin his experience after all.

Taehyung was headed down the same path he went every morning, hungry and with a certain
thirst for trouble. His father came home drunk the night before, staining his uniform and
meaning he had to wear a dirty one and pretend not to. He was angry, and he knew who he
wanted to take it out on.

But, when he arrived at the classroom, it was empty.

“Oh? Where’s the cookie guy?” he asked his friends, and neither of them seemed to know.

“I bet he’s hiding somewhere,” one of his friends told him. “Heard he sometimes locks
himself in the bathroom, so you don’t find him.” And they all laughed. Taehyung felt sick.

“I heard he transferred schools,” another one said and Taehyung turned to look at him.

“Wonder what happened to him,” he had the audacity to say. And they moved on to find
someone else that would share their food with them, whether it was by kindness or by force.
 Chapter 2

Taehyung’s alarm goes off and he feels like he hasn’t slept at all, which is true.

Last night, after Jeongguk put Haneul to bed, he didn’t come back. At least, not until
Taehyung was gone.

He cleared out the table and washed the dishes, and he would’ve put things away if he knew
where they went, but he still didn’t.

He didn’t even know where the bathroom was, to be fair.

It had been quite an eventful night, and he was exhausted both physically and mentally.

Miss Kang had been the first one to return.

“I feel like all I do is apologize to you,” she chuckled as she came into the room. “Thank you
for cleaning up, you didn’t have to—˝

“It’s the least I could do,” Taehyung told her.

After that, she explained to him where everything was, what the kids ate every day for
breakfast, and what snacks they took to school. They prepared that together, and he got their
backpacks ready at the door for them to pick up in the morning.

She also showed him that the door Taehyung had thought led to another wardrobe in his room
was actually a private bathroom, which he was very grateful for.

“If you need anything during the day, please contact me, you have my number and I’ll try my
best to be available at all times, but if not, Jeongguk’s number is also on the fridge,” she told
him before he headed to bed.

“Don’t worry, we’ll be okay,” he told her, not believing a single word. “Hope it goes well at
work tomorrow!” Was the last thing he said before he headed to his room, seeing from the
corner of his eye how Jeongguk came back from the kitchen after having dinner.

And after he got himself in bed, he just couldn’t sleep. Too nervous, too scared that he’d miss
his alarm and fail at doing his job on the first day, and terrified Jeongguk would come into his
room in the middle of the night and stab him or something.

He knew that was a little extreme, but after punching him in the face out of nowhere, he
really wasn’t sure where the line was anymore.

Taehyung turns off the alarm then and gets out of bed quickly, no time to lose. Unfortunately,
he didn’t finish unpacking, and he trips with one of the boxes and almost falls on his face.

“Fuck,” he says, cursing himself right after because he really should control his language
here since he’s going to be around the kids so much.
He opens the door and finds nothing but darkness, the sun still not shining bright enough to
light up the place.

He heard Miss Kang wake up a while ago and leave so it’s fair to assume he’s the only one
awake right now.

He walks toward the twins’ room and opens the door. ‘ Wake them up gently ’ she told him
the night before, so he kneels next to their beds and shakes them awake carefully.

He starts with Haneul who seems to be liking him a bit better than her brother.

“Haneul, time to wake up,” he says, and the little girl whines, hugging her teddy bear tighter.
“Come on, your favorite cereal is waiting for you in the kitchen,” he says and moves towards
Haru. “Haru, wake up, buddy,” he says, but he just turns around, back towards him and he
sighs. “Come on, guys. Be nice to me, hm? Or do you want your mom to be sad because you
didn’t go to school? Don’t you wanna see your friends?” he tries guilt-tripping, to see if that’s
effective on four-year-old kids.

“No sad mommy,” Haneul says, sitting up but with her eyes still half closed.

“That’s right, we don’t want that,” he shakes his head. “Come on, then!” He tends his hand to
her, and she takes it, getting up. “Good, now you, Haru.” And he offers his hand, but the boy
doesn’t seem to be as interested. “Why don’t you go to the bathroom first while I get your
brother up?” he bends down to tell Haneul, and she nods, walking out of the room and
towards the bathroom, hopefully.

“I don’t like you,” the boy says as soon as they’re alone, and Taehyung sighs.

“I can tell,” he says. “But look, I’m just here to help out, okay? So, please, let me help?”

“You upset Jeongguk hyung, you must be very very bad.” And it hurts Taehyung because
he’s right. The thing is, he doesn’t know why he hurt him or how.

“What do you want me to do in return if you get out of bed and head to the kitchen to have
breakfast?” Taehyung asks, too tired to do anything else. It’s his first day and these kids have
already beaten him.

“Say sorry to hyung,” he says and Taehyung blinks twice.

“He’s asleep,” he informs him, just in case the kid didn’t know. “I can’t wake him up now,
it’ll make him very sad.” And the boy seems to consider it.

“Then, do it later,” he says, sitting up and looking at him. It’s cute, how defensive he gets
over his brother that seems to be at least fifteen years older than him. Maybe even more.

“Okay, I will,” he nods.

“Pinky promise?” And he offers his pinky. Taehyung smiles, nodding, and links them.

“Yes, of course,” he says, and the boy seems satisfied with that because he volts out of bed.
“Oh, and give me some extra chocolate cereal!” Haru tells him.

“Too late, you’re out of bed, buddy,” he says, and Haru whines, but it makes Taehyung smile
this time. “Go on, I’ll go check on Haneul,” and he knocks on the door. “You alright in there?
Need any help?” he asks. The door isn’t fully closed, but he doesn’t press to open it, either.

“I’m okay!” She says before she opens the door.

“Very good, let’s go to the kitchen to get breakfast ready. Do you need to go to the toilet,
Haru?” he asks, the little boy shaking his head, so they three head towards the kitchen and the
kids wait patiently until Taehyung serves them their breakfast.

“This is not my spoon,” Haneul notices when Taehyung gives her literally the first spoon that
he found.

“Um… does it matter?” he asks but regrets it straight away when her eyes go glassy. Rich
kids. “Okay, okay! Which one do you want?” he asks and opens the drawer.

“The unicorn one,” she says, and he can’t find it, and then he remembers seeing it in the
dishwasher, so he opens it and finds it there, already washed since he turned it on last night.

“There you go,” he says, and she seems happier now. “All good on your side, buddy?” he
asks Haru, who’s already halfway through his bowl. “Cool,” he says and stares at them eating
thinking maybe he should’ve prepared something for himself, too. But he can eat later when
he gets back from dropping them off.

Miss Kang also told him to take their car because otherwise, it’d be impossible to get both of
them there in time, and it’s been a while since Taehyung drove because obviously he never
had enough money to get a car, so he’s a bit reluctant. If they can, he’ll walk instead.

Their school isn’t that far away, either.

“I’m done,” Haru announces, and Taehyung picks up his bowl and puts it in the sink.

“Good, let’s get you to the bathroom now. Haneul, join us when you’re done, yeah? I’ll get
your bowl later,” he says and the little girl nods, smiling, the corners of her lips stained with
chocolate.

They’re adorable when they both cooperate with him.

He helps Haru brush his teeth and do his business before they head back to the room to get
him dressed. And then, he heads back to brush Haneul’s teeth, too.

“Can you braid my hair?” the little girl asks him, and he feels like a deer caught in headlights.

“Oh, I’m sorry princess, I never learned how to do it,” he says, patting her hair, and she looks
disappointed. “But I’ll learn, okay? Promise,” he says, and she nods, jumping down the little
stool they have to reach the sink better and rushing towards the room.
They’re both wearing a uniform that reminds Taehyung of his own back in the day. It makes
him shiver at the thought.

“Alright, are you ready?” he asks once they’re both dressed and checks the time. He thinks
they can make it in time if they walk. “Great! Let’s go. Each of you, hold one of my hands,”
and they do. Taehyung feels proud of that.

He picks up their backpacks and carries them, checking he’s got the key he got given
yesterday before he closes the door.

“To school, we go!” He says as they head down the elevator.

He hopes it goes well.

He arrives home and he’s exhausted. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to walk to school, because
the kids got tired and wanted him to carry them both, so as soon as he gets home, he
collapses on the bed.

He’s definitely driving tomorrow. He might have to take the car for a spin just to get used to
it before he actually goes to pick the kids up later.

He forgot to close his bedroom door and he gets startled when the one opposite his opens to
show a shirtless Jeongguk with a towel around his waist.

“Oh, you’re back,” he says, clear disgust in his tone. “Any issues at drop-out?” he asks.
Taehyung knows he shouldn’t be staring that much, and yet.

“Um, no, all good, yeah,” he says. “You’re going to class?” he asks.

“None of your fucking business,” he says, walking back to his room without sparing him
another look.

So much for apologizing, he thinks. Taehyung fears he might get punched again if he even
tries.

His stomach decides to growl then, reminding him that he didn’t eat anything before they left
earlier, and he already did the workout of his life by having to carry both kids on his back to
school, so before he falls asleep, he stands back up and heads towards the kitchen.

He sees that Jeongguk’s stuff from breakfast is in the sink and makes a mental note to clear
them up as well later. Maybe little by little, he can start to like Taehyung a bit more. Or at
least, stop hating him so much.

Taehyung wants to ask him, though. But he’s not sure if that’ll make him angrier, so for now,
he just makes himself a tea and takes something to eat from the pantry and sits down, hearing
noise coming from Jeongguk’s room, and then the hair dryer, too. He checks the time and
assumes he’ll have class at ten. Good thing he did wake up today because Taehyung’s not too
sure if he would’ve been able to wake him up without getting killed in the process.

He finishes his breakfast and after the cup of tea he had, he feels even sleepier.

He heads toward the sink and starts to unload the dishwasher to add everything from their
breakfast.

And he’s cleaning the table when Jeongguk walks by, headed towards the door with his
backpack ready.

“Have a nice d—˝ Jeongguk slams the door behind him before Taehyung finishes his
sentence, and he sighs. “Or not, asshole,” he says, this time to himself, leaving the wet cloth
by the sink and heading back to his room, and he ponders: should he take a nap first or finish
unpacking so he’s got his room ready first, or should he shower and take the car for a spin?

He's too tired to decide, so of course, the first-choice wins, and he sets an alarm, so he
doesn’t oversleep too much, and with the quiet of the place, he falls asleep in seconds.

In hindsight, maybe he should’ve chosen to test the car instead of taking his nap before he
went to pick up the kids, because he never learned how to drive automatic cars, and although
it’s easier, it’s still weird, and it takes him longer than it should. At least he left with enough
time that he was not late to pick the kids up, or else, he’d hate himself.

The rest of his morning was quite uneventful. He napped and unpacked and made himself
some instant ramen since he was alone in the house and feared burning it down, somehow.

He was a bit scared that Jeongguk would come back, and they’d be alone in the house again,
but he didn’t, so Taehyung assumed he had afternoon classes as well. That, or he’s avoiding
him, which Taehyung wouldn’t be surprised about.

He’s glad he managed to unpack everything because he does have to go to work at the
restaurant later tonight and he’d probably not have the strength to do it in the morning
tomorrow.

He finds a parking spot near the school and walks there to wait for the kids.

Apparently, Miss Kang had notified the school the day before that he’d be coming to pick up
the kids. In fact, this morning they asked him for his name to make sure it matched.

He almost chuckled remembering how they never used to do that back home, and how most
times he’d go home by himself after school.
But his neighborhood was much safer than this, he supposes. Or rather, no one there would
want to take someone else’s kid home for ransom. They had enough mouths to feed as it was.

“Taehyung!” He hears Haneul’s voice as he approaches. He smiles and waves from the other
side of the door. He tries to look for Haru, too, and when he finds him, he waves at him, too,
but he acts all cool and pretends not to see him.

When they open the doors, they both go towards him holding hands.

“Hi guys, how was school?” he smiles, squatting down to be on eye level.

“Fun!” Haru says. “We played a lot today.”

“Oh, is that so?” he smiles, and the boy nods. He seems to be in a much better mood now.

“We played with play-dough and painted,” Haneul smiles. “I made this for Jeongguk so he
doesn’t feel sad,” she says and shows Taehyung something that he can’t recognize, abstract
art, for sure.

“That’s so nice! I’m sure he’ll love it,” he says, and he looks at Haru, fearing that he might
want to break it, but he doesn’t look like he will. Maybe because it’s for their brother.

“Shall we head home? I brought the car this time,” he chuckles, and they all look so happy
and relieved that he giggles.

“Yes!” Haru says, jumping up and down.

“Alright, hands, please,” he says, and they both hold his as they walk towards the car.

He secures them each in their seats.

“Can we go get ice cream?” Haneul asks, with a voice that Taehyung fears he might have a
hard time saying no to.

“Ice cream, huh? I don’t think your mom said anything about ice cream,” he says, trying to
act tough, and they both pout at him. “You’re taking advantage of me, you know that?” he
says, and they seem to know, but they don’t mind much, because they giggle. “I can’t take
you guys today, but I think we might have some at home, how’s that?” he says from the front
seat, and they sigh. “Next time, I’ll take you.” And that seems to settle it.

He starts driving extra carefully now that the kids are in the car, because especially around
these areas, people tend to drive quite carelessly, and he doesn’t want to put them at risk.

When they get back home, he says hello to Mr. Yoo at the entrance, who gives each of the
kids a lollipop, and they bow politely, thanking him.

“I think that’s enough sugar for both of you today, we’ll have to leave the ice cream for
another day,” he says as they head towards the door. Taehyung opens it and finds Jeongguk
already on the couch.
“Jeongguk!” Both of them say and run toward him to hug him, and his face lights up
instantly.

“Hey there, little monsters,” letting himself be tackled on the couch by both of his siblings.
“Was school fun today?” he asks.

“Haneul made you something!” Haru says, and he looks surprised, smile growing.

“Oh, did you?” Jeongguk asks, looking at her, and she nods shyly. “Can I see?” And she then
turns towards Taehyung, and Jeongguk does, too, suddenly remembering that he’s there.

For a second, Taehyung felt like a fly on the wall, just on the outside looking in at their
exchange, and his heart felt warm, but it’s back to being ice-cold now thanks to the daggers
in Jeongguk’s eyes.

“It’s in my bag,” the little girl says, pointing at it.

“Oh, here,” Taehyung smiles and hands it to her, walking back and starting to head towards
his room, but still going slow, wanting to see the oldest of the siblings’ reaction.

And Jeongguk gasps, Haneul giggling after.

“This is for me, for real?” he asks, and the little girl hums.

“Just so that you don’t feel so sad. It’s a bunny! It reminds me of you,” she says, and
Taehyung turns around in time to catch Jeongguk’s pout before he hugs her tight.

“Thank you so much,” Jeongguk says, and he hugs Haru, too.

“Hey! He didn’t do anything,” the little girl complains, and it makes Jeongguk giggle.

“But I’m his favorite!” Haru says, sticking his tongue out.

“No, you’re not!” Haneul responds, clearly upset.

“Hey, hey, we were having such a lovely moment here,” Jeongguk says, splitting the twins
apart. “Thank you so much for the gift, Hanie, I’m going to keep it next to my bed forever,”
he smiles. “And I hugged Haru as well because I just love you guys so much, you make me
happy.”

Taehyung does leave then because he feels like he shouldn’t be there at all, but his heart is
still warm from it. Even if Jeongguk seems to hate him for some reason and has been nothing
but cold and mean to him ever since they met, he’s so sweet with the kids, and Taehyung
thinks they’re lucky to have him.

He’s finishing putting away all the now empty boxes and bags when there’s a knock on the
door.

“Yeah?” he says, the door opening to find Jeongguk there. “Oh, hey,” he says, suddenly
feeling defensive for some reason.
“My mom told me you worked tonight,” he says, and Taehyung just stays silent until he
continues. “You can go or get ready or whatever. I can look after the kids now.”

“Are you sure? I still have a few h—˝

“I’m sure, they’re my siblings,” he says, and that makes Taehyung shut up.

“Okay, then,” Taehyung says, and Jeongguk nods after that, closing the door without saying
anything else.

And since he can, Taehyung guesses another nap before work won’t hurt anyone, and he
desperately needs it.

So, he gets into bed again and sets his alarm for work, and closes his eyes again.

By the time his shift ends, he’s exhausted. It was an intense day today, even if it’s a regular
weekday, but for some reason, everyone wanted a table today, and unfortunately, he had to
deal with a couple that wasn’t the nicest to one of the other waiters.

Since he’s been working there the longest, whenever there are issues and their boss isn’t
around, the responsibility falls upon him, and most of the time, that sucks.

He sighs, changing his clothes and putting them in his bag so he can wash them because he
got sauce all over his shirt at some point through the night.

Just the thought of having to go all the way back to his new place makes him whine.

Before, he could just walk back home when he was done with work and it took him less than
ten minutes, but now, walking will take him about an hour, and the subway is already closed
at this time, which means he’s going to have to get a cab or bring the car next time, but he
knows he can’t do that because it’s not his, he’s only allowed to use it for drop-offs and pick-
ups.

“Good night, Taehyung,” one of the other waitresses tells him as he finishes up. “Will you
stay behind to lock up?”

“Yeah, don’t worry. Good work today, Minnie,” he smiles, and she heads out after that.
Apparently, his cab is three minutes away, so he heads outside, making sure everything is
locked up properly before the car arrives, and on his way back to the Kang residence, he
almost falls asleep again.

Turns out, his naps weren’t enough to recharge him for the night he had, who would’ve
thought?
It’s late enough that he doesn’t expect anyone to be awake when he gets back, but there’s a
light in the kitchen that shines bright through the darkness of the apartment, so he heads
there, just to check that they didn’t leave the fridge open or anything, and finds Jeongguk
there, and it startles Taehyung.

“Fuck,” he says hand on his chest to slow down his heart which is now beating too fast for
comfort. “What are you doing in the dark?” he asks.

“Didn’t want to turn the light on,” he responds simply, a cup of what looks like coffee in his
hands.

The light Taehyung saw comes from the microwave, but suddenly it turns off, leaving them
in the darkness except for the bit of light that gets through from the outside.

And Taehyung hates the dark, so he traces back his steps toward where he knows that there
are switches and turns the light on, the other boy squinting at him.

“Why are you making coffee at almost one in the morning?” Taehyung asks, knowing full
well he might just get ignored or an answer dripping with poison, instead.

“I have to study,” Jeongguk responds, surprising Taehyung.

“You—You said you could look after the twins earlier! You should’ve told me you had to
study, I could’ve–“

“Look, I told you I wanted to do it, and I did it. We managed well enough before you came
into the picture, and even though my mother thinks that we need you here, we don’t. And I
don’t need you to babysit me, that’s not why you were hired, so spare me, yeah? I don’t have
the time nor the energy for this,” he says, walking past him, a cup of coffee in his hand, and
Taehyung reaches over to stop him, but it’s as if his touch burned him, and he snaps it away
so quick he almost drops the drink on the floor.

“Wait, I–I have to tell you something. I promised Haru I would,” he says and Jeongguk
frowns at that. “I’m sorry.” And the face he makes when he says that makes Taehyung’s chest
ache a little. “Sorry for, um… upsetting you, I guess? I don’t want us to be on bad terms, I
really don’t. Because sure, I might still decide to drop out, but I need this job, and this place,
so I’d rather not have to walk around eggshells all the time thinking you’re going to punch
me again,” he admits, and Jeongguk is quiet, still staring at him as if trying to decipher if he
means it or not. “I’m not asking you to be my friend, because clearly, there’s something that’s
bothering you about me, but just… I don’t know, at least for the sake of the twins,” and his
expression is still unreadable.

“When you figure out what you should be sorry for, then maybe I’ll take your shitty apology
seriously,” he says. “Until then, pretend I don’t exist, because I intend to do the same thing.
For the sake of the twins.” And that’s the last thing he says before he heads back towards his
room.

And Taehyung thinks that the only thing that came out of that exchange was him not getting
punched again.
Taehyung sleeps better the second night, but when his alarm goes off, he’s still tired. Maybe
working both jobs isn’t as feasible as he thought it would be, because if he goes to bed late
and has to wake up early to take the kids to class, he’s never going to be able to rest properly.

But he won’t do anything yet, considering he’s still on probation about the whole au-pair
thing.

Maybe he should start looking for other places to stay. After all, he has an income, even if it’s
not much, he’s also been saving up, so he should be able to find something, right?

Because he’s not sure if living in a fancy apartment and with all expenses paid is worth how
on edge he feels every time he and Jeongguk are in the same room.

Last night, he spent a good half an hour trying to decipher what he meant when he said that
he needed to figure out what he was apologizing for, and he hates that he has no idea.

But he has no time to dwell on that right now because he needs to wake the kids up.

He gets out of bed and heads towards their room, and like the day before, he does so slowly,
but he meets slightly less resistance today, which he’s grateful for.

As he prepares their breakfast, they seem to be bickering in their seats.

“Guys, come on, it’s eight in the morning,” he says, putting both their bowls in front of them.
“Tell me, how was it yesterday? Did you have fun playing with Jeongguk?” he asks, and
today he learned his lesson and is having some breakfast as well.

“He played with us so much!” Haneul says excitedly. “We were doctors, like daddy,” she
smiles, and he freezes, not too sure what to say to that, because he hasn’t been told about
their situation, and he doesn’t want to say the wrong thing.

“Would you like to be a doctor when you grow up?” he asks them, and they both shake their
heads at the same time.

“I wanna be an astronaut!” Haru says, and of course, he does. When he was a kid, Taehyung
wanted to be a pirate, so he guesses the possibilities are about the same.

“Oh, wow! That’s so cool,” and the kid seems excited about Taehyung’s reaction. “And you,
Haneul?” he asks, and she bites the inside of her lip.

“I don’t know, but I don’t want to work too much like mommy,” and that breaks his heart.

“Well, sometimes work is hard, but you know that she loves you very much, right? And that
if she works that hard is to make sure you guys are happy and healthy,” he tries to smoothly
make it better.
“Yeah…” she says, still halfway through eating her cereal, and she doesn’t look so happy
anymore.

“Come on, let’s hurry! Remember I’m getting you guys ice cream after school today.” And at
that, they both light up immediately. “But only if you behave properly,” and neither of them
utters a word as they get ready, which makes Taehyung happy.

“We’ve got everything ready?” Taehyung asks and they both nod, heading to hold his hands
before he even tells them to.

Good, all of this is progress.

They head back down to the garage to get in the car and Taehyung prays to God that there’s
not too much traffic, because he doesn’t want to be late. But thankfully, they’re not.

He helps them both out of the car and walks them to their classroom, both of them turning to
wave at him with a smile before they rush inside.

It’s only been two days and he’s already attached to them. This might be bad.

Taehyung decides to stop by a supermarket on his way back to the apartment, because this
morning when he was preparing breakfast, he noticed that they were running out of cereal,
milk, cookies, and coffee. He’s sure that they probably need more stuff, but he has no time to
go back and check, so he just gets what knows the kids will need the most, including
Jeongguk, and heads back home.

He's getting more used to the car now, and far less stiff behind the wheel, which is good.

By the time he makes it back home, Taehyung expects to find Jeongguk awake, but the place
is quiet and empty, so he starts to put everything away, and checks the fridge and the rest of
the cupboards to see if there was something else missing because maybe he could run down
again before lunchtime and get it.

He checks the fridge’s door and finds a note with Miss Kang’s number and Jeongguk’s.

He wonders if he should save it, for emergencies only, of course. He bites his lip and ends up
doing it.

Who knows when he might be needing it?

Today, instead of heading back to his room straight away, he decides to make the kids’ beds
and tidy up a bit.

He starts opening windows to let some air in, and he walks past Jeongguk’s closed door a few
times, wondering if he’s still asleep.
Does he not have class today? Or did he sleep through his alarm like Miss Kang warned
Taehyung that he might?

But he shouldn’t care, he told him to act as if he doesn’t exist, and even though Taehyung
doesn’t really want to do that, he forces himself to.

But it’s by the fifth time he walks past it that he hears the alarm go off and shut off
automatically.

He stays by the door and bites his lip and decides to do something that might end with him
six feet underground, but he opens the door and turns the light on.

“Oh! Fuck, I’m sorry,” Taehyung says, pretending he didn’t expect him to see there at all. “I
thought you’d be—You were already almost gone yesterday by the time I came back.”

“Get the fuck out!” Jeongguk groans, throwing a pillow at him that Taehyung avoids with
ease.

“Don’t you have class?” he says instead, and this time, Jeongguk covers his own head with
the other pillow. He sees his desk is full of papers and books. He also sees the cup of coffee
he brought yesterday. He wonders what time he went to bed.

“Are you fucking deaf?! Leave me alone!” He says, and Taehyung sighs.

“Come on, get out of bed and get ready, I’ll drive you to class,” he says, and that makes
Jeongguk come out from under the pillow.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he says. “Over my dead body,” Taehyung rolls his eyes at
that. Not even the kids are this childish.

“Look, you’re late, and I kinda owe you for taking care of the kids yesterday instead of
studying, which resulted in you s—˝

“You don’t owe me anything, and I don’t want anything from you, either. The only thing I
want is for you to get out, turn the light off and let me sleep.” And, as if to prove Taehyung’s
point, his alarm goes off again, making him groan.

“Look, I have to go out anyway, there are some things I need to do around campus, so,” he
lies, but he feels guilty for more reasons than one, even if he still hasn’t put a name to them.
“If you want to stay in bed and miss your classes, that’s on you. But my offer still stands,” he
says before he closes the door behind him, leaving the light on on purpose, and hearing him
groan from inside.

Taehyung finishes tidying up his own room when he hears the door from Jeongguk’s room
open and sees him walk into the bathroom without saying a word.

Taehyung hopes he changed his mind, even if he technically didn’t have to leave the house at
all, but maybe he can get the rest of the things that needed to be bought from the grocery
store while he’s out.
He’s adding the last pillow on his bed when he turns around and sees Jeongguk standing by
his door.

“Well? Are you taking me, or what?” he says with the kind of attitude Taehyung is starting to
get accustomed to.

“Yeah, let’s go,” he says, and walks towards the door, taking the list he made and picking up
the keys again.

“What’s that?” he asks, pointing at the list.

“Groceries,” he responds as they wait for the elevator, and the silence is so awkward
Taehyung is starting to regret suggesting this. “When does your class start?” Taehyung asks
this time.

“Ten,” Jeongguk responds, and when Taehyung checks his clock, he sees they’re probably
going to be late anyway. But at least he’ll make it before the class ends.

And Taehyung wants to ask, there are so many questions on the tip of his tongue, dying to be
asked, but he doesn’t. He bites his tongue and lets the silence be prolonged all the way to the
car, where it’s replaced by the low hum of the radio.

“Where to?” he asks before they leave the parking lot. “I mean, which building?”

“Finance,” he says, and Taehyung isn’t one to judge, but he thinks it doesn’t fit Jeongguk
much at all. It does fit his lifestyle, though.

“Alright, let’s go.” And he sets the route up to make sure he doesn’t get lost because it’s not
on the side of campus he used to go to.

And the ride is quiet, filled with a tension that’s nearly choking Taehyung, so he turns the
volume up on the radio just so he can pretend that Jeongguk isn’t there.

He tries to go as fast as he can without going over the speed limit or making it dangerous, and
by the time they arrive, he’s only fifteen minutes late.

He jumps off the car and Taehyung thinks he’s going to leave without acknowledging him,
but he doesn’t.

“Don’t think this makes us friends,” he says before he closes the door hard enough to shake
the entire vehicle.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he replies, even if he doesn’t hear him.

And although he knows that they’re most definitely not friends, it feels like a step in the right
direction.

Or at least, not five steps on the wrong one.

Taehyung considers himself to be a man of his word, which is why when he picks up the
kids, he’s already researched the nearest ice cream place to their school so he can take them
after.

The weather seems to be clouding up a little, so he hopes it doesn’t rain because he didn’t
bring any umbrellas with him.

The kids seem extra excited to see him today, and he knows it has nothing to do with him
personally but rather his ability to get them the ice cream that they want, so truly, he doesn’t
take it to heart.

“How was school today?” Taehyung asks them as they walk there. He parked not too far from
the school, but the place he found is close enough that they don’t need to drive. Besides,
Taehyung knows that they’re going to need to wind down the sugar later and a walk might
help, otherwise they’ll be too hyper in the afternoon.

“Haru got in trouble,” Haneul sings, his brother whining in complaint and Taehyung frowns.

“What? Why? What happened?” he says, stopping his walk to look at him. He doesn’t look
very pleased.

“He pushed a kid because he was playing with the toys that he wanted,” Haneul says again,
and her tone only makes his brother madder.

“Shut up!” He says, and Taehyung is fast enough to stop him before he charges against her,
Haneul hiding behind him.

“Hey, hey, none of that,” he says. “Is that true?” he asks him. “And let him speak, Haneul,”
he turns to look at the little girl that seems ashamed of her actions, or at least regretful
enough to look down and avoid his gaze.

“He was playing with it for too long! It was my turn, and he wouldn’t give it to me, so I
pushed him,” the boy admits, and Taehyung sighs. “Am I not going to get ice cream now?”
and he sounds so sad Taehyung’s heart breaks a little.

He squats down to look at him, even though he’s averting his gaze, too.

“You know that was wrong, right?” he says, and the little boy tries to argue. “I’m not saying
he was right either because he should’ve shared the toy with you, but you shouldn’t have
pushed him,” he tries to tell him gently. “Because I bet you ended up not playing with the toy
either way, right?” and he nods, then. “So, really, what did you gain from doing that?” And
Haru stays quiet. “You will still get ice cream, but you have to promise that you won’t do it
again, okay?” And he’s surprised when the boy wraps his arms around Taehyung’s neck and
hugs him.
“Okay,” he says, and Taehyung hugs him back with one arm, while Haneul is still wrapped
around the other one. “I’m sorry, Taehyung,” he says, and he giggles.

“Did you apologize to him, too?” And he nods, still in his arms, and then sniffles. When he
puts him down, he rubs his eyes with the ends of his jumper. “Good. And you, miss,” he turns
around towards Haneul now. “You shouldn’t tell on other people like that, alright? It’s okay
to tell the truth, but you didn’t even give him the time to explain, and that’s not nice,” he tells
her. “You guys should look out for each other rather than always trying to tear each other
apart! You’re lucky, I never had siblings, so I was by myself growing up,” he says, smile
turning a bit sad.

“You have us now!” Haneul says, also hugging him in the middle of the street. Taehyung’s
glad he pulled them a bit on the side or else they’d be clogging the sidewalk.

“Come on, little devils, let’s get you some ice cream and head home before it starts to rain,”
he says, both of them holding his hand as they walk towards the ice cream shop.

And because they’re good kids, they decide to split one instead of getting two because they
know they did something bad.

They sit down in the shop as they eat it, and he takes a picture of them and sends it to Miss
Kang to update her in case she gets home and doesn’t see them there, but he figures she’ll be
back late.

He almost sends it to Jeongguk, too, but decides against it.

“Is it yummy?” he asks them, he didn’t get any himself, but watching them is enough. Both
of them nod, the side of their lips stained with strawberry-flavored ice cream, so he reaches
over and cleans them both.

“Thank you,” they say, too, and Taehyung smiles. “Can we go to the park later?” Haneul
asks, and he stares through the window, seeing how dark it’s getting.

“I’m afraid not today, princess. It’s going to rain, we should get home soon,” he tells her, and
to his surprise, she just nods, not questioning it.

When they finish their ice cream, they start to head back to the car, but unfortunately, the rain
catches up with them, so they must run, and they still get wet.

“It’s cold,” Haru says when they arrive at the car, shivering.

“I’ll turn the heat on in a second, buddy, hold on,” Taehyung tells him as he makes sure both
their seatbelts are on, even though he’s still getting wet himself.

And, of course, when there’s rain, everything else is chaos. Even though they’re quite close
to home, traffic’s so bad that it takes them about half an hour to arrive.

“I’ll run you both a hot bath when we get home, yeah?” he says as they ride the elevator up,
feeling horrible, even though they must’ve warmed up in the car.
And when they arrive home, the lights are on and Miss Kang is there, which only makes
Taehyung panic, and when he sees the time, he realizes that he has to leave again soon and
he’s not even ready.

“Mommy!” they say, rushing towards her, that seems to be on the phone with someone.

“One second—Hey babies! How are y—oh! You’re wet,” and she looks up at Taehyung.

“Sorry, we got caught up in the rain. I’ll start running them a bath,” he says, rushing towards
the bathroom, and he hears their distant voices from the living room.

He turns the faucet to make sure it’s hot, but not too hot that it’ll burn them, and starts filling
the tub, heading back to the living room to collect the kids.

“That’d be great, thank you,” Miss Kang says on the phone. “Okay, I gotta go, yeah, bye,”
and with that, she hangs up.

“The bath is ready guys, come on,” he says.

“Oh, Taehyung, don’t you work tonight?” she asks, taking off the children’s uniform jackets
so they can dry.

“Yeah, I should be there in an hour,” he tells her, trying not to sound too on edge. “But it’s
my fault that they got wet so—˝

“That’s alright, I’ll bathe them, you go get ready to go,” she tells him. “I want to hear all
about your ice cream date with Taehyung, okay guys?” she says as she picks up Haneul, and
Haru trails after them, heading to the bathroom.

And to be fair, he’s not going to say no to that, even though he still feels bad because,
technically, that’s what they hired him to do, but he guesses that since she’s home now,
there’s no need for him to do it, so instead, he heads to his own bathroom and gets in the
shower, making it quick because if there was traffic earlier, the subway is probably also going
to be crowded.

He also forgot to wash his clothes yesterday, but thankfully he’s got another uniform to wear
today.

He packs everything up and makes sure to get an umbrella before he rushes out, not getting to
say goodbye because they’re still in the bath.

It seems like the rain has gotten worse, so Taehyung clutches his bag close to his chest to
make sure it’s protected by the umbrella on his way to the subway station.

And, once there, he wonders what kind of day it’ll be at work because on rainy days they
either get a lot of people trying to shelter themselves from it or none because nobody feels
like going out.

Selfishly, he hopes it’s the latter, but knowing his luck, he knows it probably won’t be.
The rain gets so bad that it started to seep through and flood their kitchen, which meant they
had to close the restaurant a bit earlier, but they, of course, all stay behind to try and stop the
leak and to clean everything up, which takes even longer than usual.

It happens often when it rains a lot, especially during the typhoon season in summer, because
there’s a leak in the ceiling that they never get fixed. Every time it happens, their boss tells
them that he’ll get it fixed but he never does.

Taehyung knows it’ll probably stay like that until the damage is too bad that he has no other
choice.

“It sounds like it stopped a bit,” one of the waiters says, they all look exhausted.

“Yeah, I guess it’s time for you to go,” he says, checking the clock and seeing it’s almost two
in the morning.

He’s going to be so exhausted tomorrow.

“Aren’t you coming?” someone asks him, but he shakes his head.

“I need to take pictures of the damage and send them to the boss, just in case something
happens through the night,” he says. “It won’t take long, so don’t worry and get home safe,
yeah?” he addresses them all, and they gladly leave, as tired as Taehyung is, who collapses in
one of the chairs, seeing the mess of the kitchen, with all the towels on the floor to stop the
water from coming in and to make sure the floor was dry. What a nightmare.

He takes his phone out of his pocket for the first time since he arrived and to his surprise, he
sees that he’s got a few missed calls from Miss Kang and some texts, too.

His heart sinks instantly, worried that something might’ve happened.

But he doesn’t get enough time to open the chats and check them because he’s got an
upcoming call and he frowns when he sees who it is.

“Hello?” Taehyung says, standing up from his chair.

“Finally,” he hears Jeongguk’s voice on the other side of the line. “Where the fuck are you?”

“Uh, work?” he says. “Why? Is something wrong? Are the twins alright?” he asks, on edge.
What if they got sick because of him?

“Work? It’s two in the morning,” he says.

“Yeah, well, I got caught up, why do you care? Weren’t you going to pretend I don’t exist?”
Taehyung says, and he knows he shouldn’t be this defensive or bitter, but he’s tired, and he
doesn’t understand what’s happening.

“I don’t give a fuck, but you’re gonna have to wake up in five hours, and according to my
mother, you didn’t even take the car to work and it’s pouring outside,” he says, and dumbly,
all Taehyung can respond is that it’s not raining as much anymore. Jeongguk sighs,
exasperated. “Send me your location.”

“What?” Taehyung frowns.

“Send me your fucking location before I change my mind and wait there.” And Taehyung
stays quiet for a few seconds, but he notices when he responds with a timid okay that
Jeongguk had hung up already.

And so, he opens Jeongguk’s chat and sends his location. And just in case it’s not precise, he
writes down the name of the restaurant as well.

He sees the ‘read’ note added to his message, but he never gets anything in response.

While he waits, he does what he said he was going to do, take pictures of everything that’s
been mildly damaged by the water and sends them to his boss. He hopes the rain doesn’t get
worse through the night or else the people that have morning shifts are going to have a field
day with it.

He tries to leave everything as tidied up as he can, and he heads outside to wait for Jeongguk,
locking the door and waiting under the shelter of the sign of the restaurant, because although
it’s true that it’s not pouring as much as it was earlier, it’s still raining.

The streets are quiet, only the pitter-patter of the rain can be heard, and the humidity is
disgusting, the chill breeze getting through until even his bones are cold.

It’s then that a car stops by the door and the window gets lowered.

“Get in,” Jeongguk says, and it takes Taehyung a few seconds to react because he doesn’t
recognize the car. How many cars do these people have? He was convinced that the one that
he kept driving around must’ve been Jeongguk’s. “Hey!” He calls his attention again, and
Taehyung rushes, getting inside and feeling the warmth, very much welcome.

“Hi, um, thanks for coming,” he tells him, but Jeongguk’s just driving, eyes on the road,
hands tight on the wheel. “Were you up studying still?” but he gets no response. “Okay…”
his voice is smaller this time, almost to himself.

“It was dumb of you not to take the car,” Jeongguk says after a while of silence, starting
Taehyung who was almost falling asleep from how warm he felt.

“I… I didn’t think I was supposed to, or allowed to, really,” he tells him, and he does look at
him this time.

“You literally drove me to school this morning,” he tells him.

“Well, yeah, and I also drive the kids, but that’s different,” Taehyung tries to justify it. “That’s
my job, this is… a personal thing.”

“Oh, so what, you’re going to drive me to school every day now, too? I doubt that’s what the
job you applied for consisted in,” Jeongguk says.

“Well, Miss Kang hired me to look after her kids, drive them to school and back and make
sure they were okay while she was at work, and last time I checked, she’s your mother, so, I
guess it kinda is.” And Jeongguk stays quiet for a few seconds after that.

“I don’t want you to drive me to school, I’m not a kid,” he says, very much sounding like
one.

“Then don’t sleep past your alarm and I won’t,” Taehyung shrugs. “Besides, how was I
supposed to know that I could take the car? What if you would’ve needed it for something?”
he says, switching topics back.

“We have two.” And Taehyung knows that now, but he didn’t before. “If I ever need my car
at night, I’ll let you know.”

“Oh, so this is not your car?” he asks.

“No, this is mom’s car,” and Taehyung frowns.

“Then why didn’t you drive your own? I’m pretty sure I left the keys by the entrance earlier,”
he asks, and Jeongguk holds the steering wheel tighter as if it pained him to say what he was
about to say.

“It has heated seats, I figured you’d be cold,” he says, and it surprises Taehyung, whose
mouth opens in an ‘o’ shape. “Mom said you guys already got wet coming home from
school, it wouldn’t be good for you to get sick,” he tries to explain himself, but Taehyung is
still feeling warm, and he doesn’t think it has anything to do with the seats.

“Well, thanks,” he says. “I still feel bad, though, I could’ve called a cab, I made you come all
this way at two in the morning.”

“I was awake anyway,” he says nonchalantly. “Now, please, shut up, your voice irks me.”
And Taehyung has to fight the urge to laugh because it’s such a surreal scenario, but he just
nods and zips up his lips, throwing away the key.

By the time they get home, the clock’s hands are closer to the three than the two. He’s going
to be so beat tomorrow.

They walk in silence towards their room, but before Jeongguk gets in his, Taehyung calls
him.

“Hey, thanks again,” he tells him. “I guess I owe you once more.”

“I told you this morning, I don’t want anything from you,” Jeongguk whispers back, opening
the door to his room. “I didn’t do this for you, either. I did it for the kids. You don’t deserve
it.” And with that, he closes the door.

‘ For the kids ’ is starting to become a habit. Taehyung thinks he can live with that.
 Chapter 3

The second Taehyung’s alarm goes off, he feels like he’s dying. His throat feels like it’s on
fire and he thinks he might even have a fever. He groans, turning it off, but when he tries to
get up, he gets dizzy and knocks over something on his bedside table when trying to keep
himself up. That’s fun .

To his surprise, there’s a knock on his door, then.

“Are you up?” Jeongguk’s voice comes from the door, surprising him even more.

“Unfortunately,” Taehyung says, breaking into a coughing fit straight away. Maybe it wasn’t
the smartest idea to get wet yesterday after all.

“Shit, you sound like you’re dying,” Jeongguk says, and Taehyung wonders why the eldest of
the siblings is awake this early if he went to bed as late as Taehyung did.

“Wouldn’t you like that?” He feels the need to add a bit of comedy to the situation because he
feels bad enough. The least he can do is laugh about it.

“Go back to bed, I’ll take care of the twins this morning.”

“No, no, I can—“ Taehyung tries to say, but even in the darkness of the room, still barely lit
by the sun rising outside the window, he can feel Jeongguk’s icy glare on him.

“Get. In. Bed.” Jeongguk says, and although Taehyung would love to not do what the
younger tells him, he does feel shitty enough that he just sighs and nods, getting under the
covers again and starting to shiver.

Jeongguk leaves without another word, closing the door after him and Taehyung hears his
footsteps get further from his door and toward the twins’ bedroom.

His eyes feel heavy and every muscle in his body seems to be complaining, so he’s not sure
how he’s going to manage to function today in the slightest.

He just hopes that the kids didn’t get sick like he did, otherwise he’ll probably get fired and
hate himself for it.

There’s another light knock on the door, to which Taehyung doesn’t even feel strong enough
to respond to, but the door opens anyway to show little Haneul with something in her hands.

“Jeongguk said you’re sick,” the girl says, walking in Taehyung’s direction. “So we made
you something warm so you can feel better. He says he will bring you some medicine later,”
the little girl announces before she leaves the steaming cup by his bedside table. “Is it our
fault?” She asks in a whisper, and that wakes Taehyung up.
“No, no, I’m alright, don’t worry. You guys will get to go to school with Jeongguk today,
isn’t that fun?” He smiles, trying not to cough while the girl is there.

“Yeah, I guess…” she sighs. Taehyung hears the girl’s older brother call her name from the
kitchen.

“Go have breakfast, Haneul. Thank you for bringing this to me,” he smiles a bit.

“Jeongguk made it, but he didn’t want you to know that he did so he sent me,” the little girl
whispers to him, and for some reason, it’s endearing to him to see her side with Taehyung in
this silly dispute that the adults seem to be having. Although Taehyung kind of guessed it was
Jeongguk who prepared breakfast. He’d be shocked if the kids made it themselves.

“Well, I won’t say you told me,” he whispers back and she giggles, nodding. When Jeongguk
calls her again, she responds with a ‘ yes! I’m coming!’ before she heads out of Taehyung’s
room, closing the door behind her.

Taehyung still feels hot all over from the possible fever he’s got, but the warmth that spreads
across his chest now seems to be a bit different.

He tries sitting upright in bed to drink what they prepared for him before it gets cold, and he’s
surprised when he sees it’s the same tea that he has every morning. Considering the wide
variety of teas that Miss Kang has in her cupboard, Taehyung is surprised that they guessed
right. That Jeongguk guessed right. Or even noticed.

It’s warm and sweet, the slight taste of honey helping soothe his throat a little bit. He keeps
holding the cup to keep his hands warm and closes his eyes, shivering at the contrast of
temperature.

He’s halfway through the drink when the door opens again without a warning. Or maybe he
didn’t hear the knocking, he’s not sure if he fell asleep sitting up.

“Here, take this,” Jeongguk says, leaving some medicine on the table. “You’re even less of
use to us if you’re sick. I can pick up some more medicine on the way back if you need it.”

“Why?” Taehyung feels the need to ask. For all he knows, he still hates his guts, even if he
came to pick him up from work last night and they decided to have some sort of truce for the
kids . As expected, though, Jeongguk doesn’t grant him a response.

“Try to rest, yeah? I’ll pick the twins up after my class today.” And after that, he heads to the
door.

“Hey, Jeongguk?” Taehyung calls for him, making him stop, but he doesn’t turn around to
look at him. “Thanks.”

“Whatever,” is the only thing the boy says before he closes the door after him. Taehyung
turns the lamp next to his bed on and sees the medicine he brought: cough syrup, some
paracetamol to help with the fever, and a thermometer.
He takes the thermometer first and puts it under his armpit and waits until it goes off, but the
sound it makes about a minute later lets him know that he does in fact have a fever. 38.3ºC.

He groans and finishes his breakfast, taking the medicine and switching the light off, getting
fully in bed again, and hoping he will sweat the fever off soon.

He hates being sick, and not being home makes it worse because he feels like a burden to
those around him.

He’s close to falling asleep when the door opens again, but he can’t even open his eyes to see
who is it this time.

“Haru, come on, let Taehyung rest, he’s sick,” he hears Jeongguk call.

“I just wanted to say goodbye to him,” the boy sounds like he’s pouting. “Is he okay?”

“He’ll be fine. Come on, let’s go. Haneul, hurry up,” Jeongguk says before he closes the door
again, carefully when he sees that the light is off and Taehyung is back in bed.

“Can’t we stay and look after him?” Haneul asks, loud enough for Taehyung to hear. It makes
him smile a bit.

“No, we can’t. You have to go to school,” Jeongguk says, walking away from Taehyung’s
door.

“Then, will you?” His brother asks him, but Taehyung doesn’t get to hear the elder brother’s
response. He assumes he didn’t give any because he’s probably not going to.

Maybe all of that was a fever dream, he wouldn’t be surprised, because the exhaustion drags
him down until the darkness surrounds him completely.

He’s not sure how long he’s slept or what time it is, but what he does know is that he’s
drenched from head to toe and feels disgusting. At least the heaviness he felt a few hours ago
seems to have lifted a little bit.

Turns out modern medicine isn’t a scam, after all.

The place is quiet, so Taehyung assumes he’s alone. Jeongguk did say that he would pick the
twins up after class, which means he probably went to college straight from drop-off.

Taehyung decides to get up, then. He opens the window so that his room can ventilate. He
also decides to change the sheets because they’re also wet from his sweat and decides to take
a shower. The thermometer has gone down to 36.5ºC now, which is good enough. He hopes it
stays like that because he still needs to go to work tonight. Unlike here where Jeongguk could
cover for him, he doubts someone can cover him at the restaurant, unfortunately.
The pressure of the water against his skin is just right, relaxing and massaging the numbness
from his muscles away, helping the fog be lifted from his mind, too.

He gets changed into something comfy and picks up his ruined pajamas off the floor, heading
back to the room to get the sheets as well before he heads to the kitchen to put the load in the
washing machine. He makes sure to check every room to see if there’s something else he can
add to the load before he turns the machine on, and once it’s full, he presses start and spends
the rest of the morning tidying around the house as a thank you to Jeongguk for taking the
kids to school when he didn’t have to.

He makes the twins’ beds and also Miss Kang’s, who usually doesn’t have the time to do it
before she leaves to work in the morning. Last but not least, he heads to Jeongguk’s room and
his heart does a funny flip when he sees the drawing Haneul brought him the other day sitting
next to his bed like he promised it would.

Taehyung remembers her saying that it was a bunny because it reminded her of Jeongguk,
and for some reason, he can see it. It’s not like he’s seen the eldest of the siblings smile at
him, but whenever he’s around the little ones, his front teeth peek out when he smiles, and his
nose scrunches in a way that very much resembles the fluffy friend the little girl tried to
draw.

Taehyung makes Jeongguk’s bed and tidies up his room as well, seeing how there are still
books and papers sprawled all over his desk as well as empty cups of coffee from his late-
night studies.

And, although he knows he shouldn’t, he reads through Jeongguk’s notes, seeing how there’s
a stain in the corner of the page and he can practically imagine Jeongguk scratching over the
same spot last night in anger as they spoke on the phone.

Taehyung hates that Jeongguk was still awake studying at that time, and wonders just how
hard his degree is for him to constantly be pulling all-nighters.

Before he can invade more of the boy’s privacy and get him to hate him even more,
Taehyung picks up the empty cups and takes them to the kitchen to wash, also washing the
rest of their breakfast leftovers.

It’s after he’s put the laundry into the dryer that he starts to feel heavy again, so he decides
he’s done enough and crawls back into bed, now with fresh new sheets that he remembered
seeing in one of the drawers the day he unpacked.

He closes the window and lowers the blinds again so that he’s in the dark and can go back to
sleep if needed, trying to warm himself up under the covers, shivering.
It’s a noise that awakens Taehyung this time. He forgot to close his bedroom door, so when
the front door slams shut, it startles him awake.

He assumes it must be either Jeongguk or Miss Kang coming back for lunch, but the stomp of
heavy boots announces that it’s the first choice.

“You’re still in bed?” Taehyung hears. Part of him curses him off because what if he’d been
asleep? But assumes that Jeongguk doesn’t particularly care much about that.

“I thought you had class all day,” Taehyung says instead, hoping that the younger boy
understands him through his slurred words. His limbs still feel heavy, which means it might
be time for another paracetamol.

“Yeah, my afternoon class got canceled,” is all he says, walking into the room and pulling the
blinds open again to let the sun in. Looks like it’s not raining anymore. Taehyung whines and
covers his face with the duvet, instead. “How are you feeling? When did you change your
sheets?” And Jeongguk sounds confused as if he hadn’t left the house around six hours ago.

“Yeah, I woke up drenched and decided to wash them. Felt food for about an hour or so and
then I started to feel feverish again so I got back into bed,” Taehyung explains, coming out of
his hiding spot to see Jeongguk at the feet of the bed, arms crossed. “What?”

“Nothing, I’m just biting my tongue not to tell you again how stupid you were yesterday for
getting caught in the rain and not taking the car.” And Taehyung rolls his eyes. Looks like he
didn’t need to bite his tongue that much since he said it anyway.

“Yeah, well, your I told you so ’s aren’t going to cure whatever the fuck I caught, so you
might as well keep them,” Taehyung snaps, coughing right after.

“Well, I’m gonna make us some lunch so you can take your medicine again. I texted Joohyun
and he told me you should take them every six-to-eight hours depending on how bad you
feel,” Jeongguk says, and Taehyung frowns.

“You texted who?” And that seems to surprise Jeongguk.

“Oh, did my mother not—Well, he’s the twins’ father. He’s a doctor,” Jeongguk says. He did
know that their dad was a doctor because Haneul told him a few days ago, but he didn’t know
what the situation was with them. The fact that Jeongguk didn’t refer to him as ‘ dad’ or at
least ‘ step-dad’ gives him enough of an idea, though.

“Right. And you texted him to ask about how to take care of me while I’m sick? That’s nice,”
Taehyung says but the glare Jeongguk gives him is enough to erase the smile from his face.

“Don’t be mistaken, I don’t really care how you’re feeling, but if you’re going to be here with
the kids I might as well make sure you don’t get any worse or any of us catch it as well.”
That is much more like the Jeongguk Taehyung is starting to get to know. “But anyway, yeah,
I’ll let you know when lunch’s ready, in case you want to eat in the kitchen.”
“With you?” Taehyung can’t stop his lips from asking, but as expected, he gets no reply.
Jeongguk just walks out of the room leaving the blinds lifted and the door open, probably to
avoid him falling asleep again.

Taehyung still stays in bed, though, taking his phone and checking the group chat from work,
seeing how apparently, the rain didn’t cause any more issues, which is good. He almost sends
a text asking if anyone can cover him today because he’s sick, but he ends up deleting it, not
wanting to give anyone more work. He knows most of his co-workers —like himself at the
time— are also college students. He’s the only one that doesn’t have due projects or exams to
get ready for, so it’d be selfish of him to ask them to take over his shift just because he has a
bit of a cold.

“Lunch’s ready,” he hears from the kitchen, and he makes his way out of the cocoon of his
bed. He pulls a throw over his shoulders, though, still feeling a bit cold, and drags his feet to
the kitchen.

Surprisingly, Jeongguk is there and has set the table for two.

“Are you sure you want to eat with me? What if you catch this?” Taehyung says, sitting in
front of him and the steaming bowl of noodles that Jeongguk seems to have prepared.

“Guess I’ll risk it. Just don’t cough on me and we’ll be good,” Jeongguk says, starting to eat
himself.

Taehyung notices now that there’s a bit more light in the room how tired Jeongguk looks as
well. He’s probably exhausted from all that studying.

“I can go get the twins later, you should get some rest, too,” Taehyung says, and it makes
Jeongguk look up from the food.

“I told you I would, so I will,” Jeongguk says.

“You said you’d get them on your way back from class, but you’re already here,” Taehyung
points out. “And I feel better, I can drive and—”

“Stop,” Jeongguk says. “I don’t need you to worry about me, I’m fine. I’ll get them and you
rest so that you’re better tomorrow after staying in bed all day.”

“I’m going to work tonight,” he announces, and Jeongguk drops his chopsticks, looking back
at him.

“You’re kidding me,” but Taehyung shakes his head. “Damn you are just as stupid,” he
mutters under his breath, probably not wanting Taehyung to hear, but he still does. “Look,
you can do whatever the fuck you want, but I don’t think you should go today. And not only
because I’ve been doing your work for you all day, but because I doubt you’ll be the best
waiter with a fever.”

“Be careful, I might think you don’t hate me as much as you claim,” Taehyung says. “I can’t
make someone cover up for me, so I’m going. I know it’s not the smartest idea, but it’s the
only choice I have,” Taehyung shrugs and keeps eating. “But thanks for taking the twins
today. I know you’re going to say that t—”

“They’re my siblings,” he says, right on cue, and Taehyung just points at him as if to prove
his point.

“But it’s my job, so thanks. I tidied your room to repay you.” And, for some reason, that
seems to make Jeongguk mad.

“You went into my room!?” He asks.

“I… I went into your room yesterday as well to wake you up,” Taehyung frowns, trying to
see what the problem is.

“But you went into my room while I wasn’t here!” And Taehyung needs to take a deep breath
not to snap at him.

“I just made your bed and took the empty coffee cups off your desk, that’s all. I didn’t snoop
through your stuff or anything, I have no reason to do that,” Taehyung says, which is partly
true. He could have done that, to see if he found something that would help him understand
why the boy hates him this much, but he didn’t.

“Well, I can make my own bed from now on.” Is what he says before he stands up and takes
his bowl. Taehyung’s not sure the boy finished eating, but he doesn’t stop him when he
leaves.

He’s such a weird kid.

Taehyung finishes his food on his own and cleans up, going back to his room to take the
medicine and put them back where they belong.

He sees Jeongguk’s bedroom door is closed and sighs.

Whatever. He feels too sick to care right now.

The kids come back from school and run to Taehyung’s room to check on him right away,
which might or might not make him feel a bit better.

Taehyung hears Jeongguk telling them to take their shoes off first, but he knows from the few
days' experience he’s had so far that it’s useless to try and get them to do anything after they
get back from school, too hyper to listen to anything they say.

“Taehyung!” Haneul is the first one to arrive, barefoot already, but something tells Taehyung
that she dropped off her shoes halfway to his room. Her sibling arrives a few steps after her.
“Hey, you two! How was school today?” He asks, smiling at them and sitting up in bed. He’s
feeling a bit better again, and he hopes this time it lasts more than it did this morning because
he needs to be leaving in around an hour.

“We thought you’d be coming to pick us up,” Haru says. “How are you?” And he puts his
palm on Taehyung’s forehead. He can’t help but chuckle when the boy frowns, trying to
guess if he has a fever or not.

“Is it warm?” his sister asks him, but he shakes his head.

“I’m feeling better,” he lets them know, and they both seem happy to hear that. “But I bet it
was nice to have Jeongguk pick you up today!” And as if he’d summoned the boy, Jeongguk
appears through the door, arms crossed looking at his siblings as if making sure that
Taehyung didn’t do anything bad to them.

“Yeah, but he didn’t want to buy us ice-creams…” Haneul says.

“That’s because you shouldn’t spoil your appetite before dinner!” Jeongguk says from the
door. “And Taehyung shouldn’t get you ice creams, either!”

“It was just once, and I promised I would if they behaved in the morning, right, guys?”
Taehyung asks.

“Oh, of course, you’d think blackmail is the way to do things,” Jeongguk says, and the kids
frown.

“What is blackmail, hyung?” Haru asks and Taehyung looks at him panicked.

“Nothing, buddy. Come on, let’s go get you guys out of the uniforms.” Jeongguk says, clearly
dying to get the kids as away from him as possible.

“But—” Haneul tries to argue, but Taehyung smiles at her.

“It’s alright, you guys get changed. Best to stay away from me until I’m better. I don’t want
you guys to get sick, too,” he says and both kids seem to understand his reasoning. They head
out towards Jeongguk, dragging their feet.

“Are you actually going to work, then?” Jeongguk asks.

“Yeah, I’m gonna go shower again, ” he tells him. Jeongguk just sighs and walks away.

Taehyung gets in the shower and gets into his uniform. He doesn’t look or feel that bad, so
he’ll be fine.

Once he’s got everything ready, he follows the sound of the kids’ voices and finds the
devastating sight that is them playing on the floor of Jeongguk’s room while he tries to study,
probably unsuccessfully.

“I’m heading out,” Taehyung informs him. “Please, tell your mom when she comes back that
I’m sorry about today.”
“Where are you going?” Haneul asks.

“I’m going to work,” Taehyung smiles at her. “But I’ll see you guys in the morning, okay? I
promise,” and he ruffles their hair.

“Bye, Taehyungie hyung!” Haru says, warming his heart, and when he turns to look at
Jeongguk, it’s as if he was sticking knives at his back.

“Can I take the car?” Taehyung asks him, and Jeongguk gets the keys from his pocket and
throws them at him.

“At least you’re doing something smart today,” he says. Taehyung just nods.

“Right, good night, Jeongguk.” And, after that, he walks away and heads down to the lobby,
and runs into Mr. Yoo.

“Oh, Taehyung!” He says, Taehyung smiling at him right away.

“Hey, Sir. How are you?” He asks.

“I’m good. I thought you were sick,” the man says, and Taehyung frowns. “Mr. Jeon asked
me to get some medicine this morning for you.” And that does surprise Taehyung.

“I—Yeah, I got a bit of a cold, but I have to go to my second job,” Taehyung smiles at him. “I
better get going. Have a good night!”

“You too, and take care!” The man says before Taehyung heads to the door that takes him to
the garage since he doesn’t have the keys that access it from the elevator.

He gets in the car and turns the heating on straight away, even before he starts driving. When
he turns the radio on, the album Jeongguk was probably listening to before starts playing, and
Taehyung lets it play, keeping him company on his way to work as if like that he could start
to get to know Jeongguk better or at least understand him.

He spends the entire ride wondering what’s Jeongguk’s deal. He acts as if he hates Taehyung
but he also worries about him. Of course, it might just be that he’s a decent human being and
that’s why he went to pick him up yesterday from work at two in the morning and why he
sent his doorman on a medicine hunt at eight this morning as well. But Taehyung wonders if
he would’ve done that same thing for someone that he can’t stand, and doubts it.

He also can’t help wondering what it is that he did for Jeongguk to hate him this much
because Taehyung doesn’t think he would’ve forgotten someone like him if they’d met in
other circumstances. He’s certain that, if they somehow hooked up at a college party that he
forgot about, Taehyung at least would remember him . Hell, he probably wouldn’t have let
him go in the first place.

But he’ll have to stay curious for now, because he knows asking him directly will not end up
well, and his jaw still hurts from where Jeongguk punched him the other day.
He finds a parking spot not too far from the restaurant and for a second, he worries that
someone might break into the car and steal it. It looks too fancy for the area where they’re
located because not many college students that live in dorms like these own luxurious cars as
Jeongguk does.

He just prays he can bring the car back in one piece in a few hours when they finish.

As Taehyung gets ready to open the night shift, he starts to feel under the weather again, but
he pushes through. The last thing he wants is to be a burden to someone else today.

Taehyung ends up going home early. He really must look horrible because it’s one of the
newer coworkers that suggests covering for him today. And he only agrees because it seems
like it’s going to be a slow day and they will probably manage without him.

That and the fact that his lower back pain is getting worse and that means that his temperature
is also rising.

He apologizes again to everyone at the restaurant but they all seem as concerned about him,
so they send him off gladly.

Taehyung manages to find his way back to the car (thankfully unharmed) and starts driving
back to the apartment.

He knows he technically shouldn’t have taken the car in this state, because it’s not like he’s
the most stable right now, so he should’ve probably taken the subway or a cab, but Jeongguk
gave him enough shit yesterday that just to avoid hearing him ramble on about that, he
decided to drive today.

He makes it back safely, staying in the car for a few minutes before gaining the strength to
step down, feeling like his body weighs double than usual.

He hates to admit it, but he should’ve listened to Jeongguk and should’ve stayed home today
after all. Even if he was feeling better when he left, he thinks he feels even worse now than
he did this morning.

The elevator takes him back up to their apartment and when he opens the door, he doesn’t see
anyone straight away, but he does hear voices.

“H—” Taehyung is about to greet them on his way in when he hears something else.
Someone else.

“I’m telling you, mom. It’s not because I don’t want him here. You can ask their teacher who
brought them and who picked them up in the morning today. It was me. I even had to skip my
afternoon class to go get them! He was in bed all day, clearly tired from working so late last
night, and he’s back to work now! It’s clear that he prioritizes that other job to this.” It’s
Jeongguk’s voice. He’s lying to his mother. He’s trying to make Taehyung look bad. Oh, hell
no.

“Jeongguk—”

“I know you said you wanted to give him a chance, and I respected that, despite everything
else. But I just don’t think he’s taking this seriously, mom. What if I hadn’t woken up this
morning? The kids wouldn’t have gone to school at all! Or what if the teacher hadn’t called
me to go pick them up?”

“They had to call you?” Miss Kang’s voice sounds horrified, and that’s all Taehyung’s going
to take.

“I cannot believe you’re doing this to me,” he says, having made his way through the living
area to the hallway where they are. Jeongguk looks horrified at the sight of him, clearly not
expecting him to be back so early.

“Taehyung!” Miss Kang says. “What are you talking about?” But Taehyung’s eyes are fixed
on Jeongguk, who clearly is avoiding his gaze.

“I can’t believe you’re lying to her to kick me out of here. You—” And he laughs. Doesn’t
really want to call him a lying piece of shit in front of his mother, so he bites his tongue. “So,
what? You were offering to take the kids to school and pick them up and get me medicine and
cook me lunch today just so I’d let my guard down and you could tell your mother that I
don’t take this seriously? Is that it? I’ve been in bed all day with a temperature above 38º, and
I still would’ve taken the kids if you hadn’t offered. Fuck, I even told you I could get them
this afternoon because you came home early because you said your class was canceled. Was
that also a lie?” He’s aware he’s raising his voice, now. He’s aware that this might not be the
safest way to handle this, but he’s tired, he’s sick, and he’s done with pretending to be nice to
someone who legit just tried to spread lies about him to kick him out on the street.

“Jeongguk?” His mother turns to look at her son, and he now looks just like he did before he
punched Taehyung in the face. “Is that true? Was he sick?”

“I still am! That’s why I’m back already. They had to force me to leave the restaurant because
I was shivering so much that I almost dropped two orders. I can’t believe you’d do this. I
know you hate me, even if I have no idea why, but this ? This is low. I have nowhere to go,
Jeongguk.”

“I don’t give a fuck!” Jeongguk snaps, then. “You don’t get to do this, you won’t make me
feel pity for you. Not after what you’ve done.”

“But what have I done!?” Taehyung says.

“Alright, boys, you need to tone it down, you’ll wake the kids,” Miss Kang says, and
Taehyung is aware, but he can’t stop himself, not anymore.

“You know, I’m not surprised you don’t remember.” Maybe it’s the calm in Jeongguk’s voice
as he says that what scares him the most. “It’s funny how your life could be ruined by
someone who will never spare a thought your way; while their name, their face, and their
actions are constantly replaying in your mind like a horror movie.”

“Jeongguk, honey—” his mother reaches out, but he shakes her off.

“Go, mom, he’s right. He was sick all day, and I just wanted him out of here. I know it was
wrong, but I’m not sorry I did it.” The look on Jeongguk’s mother as he looks at her son
makes Taehyung look away. He wouldn’t like to be at the receiving end of those eyes.

“Then maybe you’ve become what you always claim you hated, son,” is the last thing she
says to him before she gets in her room.

Jeongguk sighs and looks back at Taehyung.

“I don’t understand what’s happening,” Taehyung says, then. “Can you please tell me?”

“Why say anything? I’d rather have you remember it on your own, Taehyung. ” It’s the way
he says his name, like poison dropped from every syllable. He holds his gaze for a few
seconds before he walks past him to the kitchen. Taehyung just follows him with his gaze as
he opens the cupboards and takes a pack of the cookies that his siblings love out.

Is it really the time to have a snack? Taehyung wonders, almost getting even madder.

“You’re not being fair,” Taehyung says, walking his way, and Jeongguk has the audacity to
laugh.

“I don’t need to be, you never were,” he shrugs and takes a bite from the cookie, holding
Taehyung’s gaze as he does. Why is he talking like he knows him?

“Stop that and tell me what you mean!” Taehyung says, taking the cookie from his hand, and
it’s the smile on Jeongguk’s face that worries him.

“There you are, Kim Taehyung, ” he says, still sitting down. Taehyung’s towering over him
with what used to be his snack in his hands. And it hits him like a tidal wave, then. The name,
the big eyes, the hatred. “I guess it might be easier to remember me if I was stuffed in a
locker or in a bathroom stall, huh?” He stands then, and all Taehyung can do is watch. Watch
as he takes the cookie from him again and finishes it in one bite. “Too bad I’m not that kid
who you could push around anymore.”

“And I’m not the kid who pushed you, either,” Taehyung tries to say, but Jeongguk just
laughs bitterly.

“Tell that to someone who actually gives a fuck, because I don’t. I don’t care if you get the
Nobel Peace Prize for being the best human being on Earth, you’ll always be a bully to me.
That is why I want you gone and nowhere near my siblings. I don’t want them to become
nothing like you.”

And the worst part about this is that Taehyung can’t blame him. Not after all he did to him
because he remembers now. He always remembered the things he did, he just never knew
who the people were.
However, even if Taehyung had something to say, Jeongguk wouldn’t be there to listen,
because he turns and heads to his room without sparing another glance his way.

Taehyung looks at the empty wrapper for the cookies and crushes it in his fist, closing his
eyes and holding onto the counter, wanting to punch the wall.

Of course, his past actions would come back to bite him in the ass, no matter how hard he
tried to repent from them, no matter how much he learned from his mistakes. He could never
outrun the hurt he inflicted on other people.

His headache is getting worse, and Taehyung doesn’t know if it’s the flu or everything else,
but at this point, he’s pretty sure he deserves it.

He heads to his bedroom and locks the door, taking back out his boxes and suitcases and
starting to pack his bags.

There’s no point trying to delay the inevitable. It’s obvious that, after that, he’s not going to
be able to stay here. Miss Kang offered him a few days to try it out and, although he did love
spending time with the kids, there’s no doubt that her eldest son would rather pluck his eyes
out with a fork than have him around, and Taehyung understands, so he starts packing.

He would leave straight away but he suddenly remembers that he promised the kids that he
would see them in the morning to take them to school.

And sure, Taehyung might’ve not been the best person growing up, but he’s trying to be now,
and he won’t break a promise he made to two kids.

He can leave after he drops them off in the morning. It will be easier to find a place for him
to stay then, too.

So, after all of his things are put away, he gets in bed and prepares for his last night
surrounded by luxury.

Back to his roots, it is.

Winters were always the worst. Not only because it was the season he was born and the
season he lost his mother, but because it was so cold. Taehyung only had himself to keep
warm and a handful of blankets that were never enough, so being sick was the norm. Every
year, for most of the winter, he would be sick.

“Stop that nonsense, boy, I can’t sleep,” his father would complain every time Taehyung
would stay up all night coughing his lungs out. As if it wasn’t his fault that Taehyung got sick
in the first place.
His fault for not paying for them to have enough gas to light the furnace, or for them to have
hot water or warm meals. It was his fault, but Taehyung couldn’t tell him, couldn’t do
anything about it.

Sometimes, he’d stay longer at school just to be warm, just to not be in that hell that used to
be his house.

He never wanted people to see him when he stayed longer hours. So he hid in the bathrooms,
where the radiators were the warmest because the room would heat up easily.

It was one of those times as he hid there, trying his best not to cough too much to be
discovered that he heard the sound of a kid crying.

Taehyung hadn’t even heard anyone come in since he was there, so the kid probably was
already there when Taehyung arrived.

“Hey, are you okay?” Taehyung asked. He didn’t know who it was, but he hoped that they
wouldn’t know recognize his voice. Caring about someone else wouldn’t sit well with his
reputation, not that he cared much about that.

He received no response, and Taehyung almost considered asking again, but he heard
another set of footsteps approach before a door got open.

“Come on, let’s go. Let’s go.” it was the voice of a woman. Taehyung assumed it was a
teacher, so he braced himself, even more, to not be spotted, but they both left, and no one
walked into Taehyung as he stayed there.

On his way home, he wondered who that kid could’ve been, and what happened to them. Was
his life as difficult as Taehyung’s was? What made him so unhappy?

He got back home to find his father passed out on the couch with an empty bottle on the floor
next to him, drool staining the couch and making it smell even worse than it already did.

And maybe the house wouldn’t have felt so cold if at least there were some remains of love in
it, but even that had been long gone.

“I’m back,” Taehyung announced for nobody to acknowledge, heading to his room to get in
bed straight away, trying to seek warmth, trying to shelter himself away from the cold, dark,
life that he’d been cursed with.

He used to dream about what would be like to live in a fancy house, sleep in a proper bed
instead of the stack of mats that he had, have proper meals, and not have to fend for himself
at nine years old.

But, sometimes, he’d have dreams where all he’d like would be to be happy, to come back
home to someone that actually missed him while he was gone and would be glad to see him.

Both of those seem as unattainable to him at the time.

Back then, nobody cared about him, and Taehyung knew that he only had himself in the
world. His so-called friends would sell him out the first chance they got, his father would
probably trade him off for a bottle of expensive booze if the time came to it. So, winter after
winter, Taehyung got sick and pushed through it.

Winter after winter, Taehyung got himself presents for his birthday and for Christmas and
visited his mother’s grave alone.

Winter after winter, Taehyung passed his classes and proved to the world and to himself that
the circumstances in which you grow up don’t have to define you.

And, winter after winter, Taehyung would long for winters where he would be far away from
that place, in a house where he could look through the window as it snowed outside and he
would be warm. Winters when, if he got sick, someone would bring him some medicine or
warm food to make it better. Winters when someone would smile and welcome him home in a
warm embrace.

He still longs for those winters.

 Chapter 4

Guilt hunts Taehyung even in his dreams at night, causing him to spend another night with
not enough sleep. However, since he spent the day before mostly dozing on and off naps
because of the fever when his alarm goes off, he doesn’t feel that tired.

Just guilty and sad at the thought of leaving this place and the kids.

It’s for the best, though, he knows it. If he were to put himself in Jeongguk’s shoes, he
wouldn’t want to be anywhere near someone who hurt him so much as a kid. Even if
Taehyung isn’t that kid anymore and he would never do anything like that again, the issue is
that he did it, and there’s no way he can change the past. Just keep trying to become a better
person in the future to make up for it somehow.

And the only way he feels like he can make it up to Jeongguk is by leaving this place.

He gets out of bed and his nose is still a bit stuffed, his throat icky from the cough, but
overall, he thinks he feels good enough to drop the kids off at school.

He finds his way to the twin’s bedroom and kneels by the feet of their beds and carefully
shakes them awake.

“Hyung! Are you feeling better?” Haru asks, rubbing the sleep of his eyes. Taehyung smiles
at how the little boy seems to not hate him as much as he did that first day. Too bad their
progress won’t be needed anymore.

Taehyung just hopes that whoever they find to take care of the kids treats them well.

“I am, yeah, good morning,” he reaches over to smooth his hand over the little boy’s hair,
that’s sticking out in all directions from how much he must’ve moved through the night.

“You kept your promise!” Haneul says, sitting up and hugging her teddy bear, smiling.

“Of course, I did,” Taehyung smiles. “Come on, let’s go have breakfast, yeah?” And is
pleasantly surprised when both kids get up without putting up much of a fight.

He opens their bedroom window so it can ventilate while they have breakfast and walks them
to the bathroom first thing, them taking turns and Taehyung helps them wash their hands
after.

Taehyung prepares their breakfast and notices that there’s a note stuck on the fridge as he
goes to put back the milk he used for the kid’s drinks.

‘Taehyung, today I can go pick the kids up myself because I get off work earlier, so you can
stay home and rest. I hope you feel better from the cold and I am sorry about what happened
yesterday.

Also, if you can’t find Haru’s vest it’s in the laundry room; he spilled something on it last
night and I had to wash it.

Have a good day! –Kang Jeongha.’

He almost smiles at how convenient is that she can go pick the kids up today since he won’t
be there anyway. Of course, Taehyung would’ve made sure to let either her or Jeongguk
know so that someone would’ve gone pick them up, but he’s relieved to know that he won’t
have to say goodbye to them like that.

He’d rather send them off to school and them not knowing. It’s for the best.

Besides, he’s only been in their lives for a few days, they’re sure to forget about him soon.

He gives both of them their bowls and cereal and puts the kettle on for his tea, fetching the
medicines Jeongguk bought for him yesterday to make sure he keeps taking them since once
he leaves he won’t be able to.

“Taehyung,” Haneul asks at one point, making him look at her.

“What is it, princess?” he asks her, a bit scared of what the little girl might ask him. Kids are
scary like that.

“Is Jeongguk being good to you?” her words do surprise him. “We told him yesterday to be
nice.”

“Did you?” Taehyung can’t help but chuckle. “I bet he didn’t like that.”

“I told him that you said you’d apologize to him, and he said that you did, so I don’t know
why he’s still mad at you,” Haru pouts around his spoon. Of course, it’s much more
complicated to explain.

“Well… there are some things that a simple apology cannot fix, it’s complicated. But it’s
okay, you won’t have to worry about that anymore,” Taehyung smiles. “But thank you, guys,
for trying. Now, come on, finish your food or we’ll be late!” Taehyung tells them, leaving his
empty cup on the sink and gathering their bowls once they’re done.

Before he leaves the kitchen, he takes the note Miss Kang wrote and takes it back with him.

He goes to get Haru’s vest from the laundry room and finds that Haneul’s socks were also
there, so he takes both back to their room and helps them get dressed.

“Okay, do you have everything?” He asks as he makes sure to zip up their jackets before they
leave the apartment. He takes the car keys that he left by the door last night before all hell
broke loose and they head down, each of them holding one of their hands as they make their
way to the car.
He puts their seat belts on before he starts driving them to class for the last time.

He feels weirdly emotional for some reason. He can’t believe he got attached to these kids so
easily. He really should start trying to find jobs in his field so he could work with kids every
day.

Still, something tells him that none of them will be as special as the twins became in the few
days he’s known them.

When he arrives at the school, he parks as near as he can and helps them down.

“Guys, hands, come on,” he says, holding both of theirs while they lift the other hand as they
cross the road. He smiles at the warmth that spreads through his chest at the sight. “Very
good,” he tells them once they’ve made it to the other side and walks them to the door.

Their teacher is already waiting at the door to receive them and smiles when she sees
Taehyung.

“Oh! Are you feeling better today?” And Taehyung wonders just how many people knew that
he was sick yesterday.

“I am, yeah, thanks,” he chuckles.

“They wouldn’t stop worrying about you yesterday,” she chuckles. “Are you happy that
Taehyung came today?”

“Yeah!” They say at the same time.

“Alright, you two, time to go inside,” he smiles, scooting down to smile at them. “Can I get a
hug?” he asks, knowing full well it might be the last one. They both run to him and hug him
tightly. He closes his eyes and fights back the tears. “Be good today, yeah?” He smiles letting
them go.

“Yes!” They say, smiling as they run inside to meet the rest of their friends. Taehyung’s chest
feels heavy as he watches them go, but he knows they’ll be okay.

“Will I be seeing you again later?” Their teacher asks, and Taehyung shakes his head.

“No, their mom will pick them up later,” he smiles. “It was my last drop-off, I’m afraid. But
don’t tell them.”

“Oh,” the woman says, looking a bit sad. “Well, I’ll be expecting sad faces on Monday, then.
They seem to have grown fond of you, Taehyung-ssi.”

“Yeah, me too,” he smiles. “Anyway, I’ll get going now.” And with one last wave to the
twins who’ve turned around to see if he was still there, he walks away and back to the car.

If he lets his tears run on the way back to the apartment then that’s no one else’s business.
He can’t help but think bitterly about how different their lives are from the one he had. He
had to take himself to school every morning. Granted, their neighborhood wasn’t as big and
the walk back and forth wasn’t that long, but still, no one ever really cared if he made it there
and back alright. When he was younger, it was his neighbor who would make sure Taehyung
went to school. Otherwise, he thinks he might’ve remained uneducated until he was old
enough to learn himself.

The lack of love he received as a kid was what shaped him, but it’s also what drives him to
not want to make those same mistakes himself.

And although he knows that these kids have grown up in a house full of love, he also knows
that it must’ve been hard for them to see that their mother is always working and their parents
seem to be separated, too.

Each person has their own struggles, but Taehyung just wishes kids could somehow be
sheltered from all of that.

He makes it back to the apartment and parks the car, leaving the keys at the entrance when he
gets back up.

He hopes that, since it took him a while to get back, Jeongguk is already gone. He doesn’t
really want to run into him again, now that he knows the truth.

However, he hears the shower running, so he sighs and starts tidying up the house, making
time for Jeongguk to leave so that Taehyung can peacefully sneak out, like the coward he is.

He doesn’t go into Jeongguk’s room this time, since he asked him not to, but makes sure to
leave the rest of the rooms tidy. He also removes his own sheets again and makes sure that he
packed everything last night.

The bathroom door opens, and Jeongguk comes out fully dressed and ready to go.

“Hey,” Jeongguk says as he walks past his room, not even looking at Taehyung’s way. “Any
issues at drop-off?”

“No, all good,” Taehyung responds. “Your mom said she’ll pick them up later.”

Jeongguk walks past again, this time carrying his bag, and does look at Taehyung. And at the
boxes on the floor. He has de audacity to frown.

“What’s all this?” He points.

“What do you think?” Taehyung chuckles. “You got your wish, I’m leaving.”

“Does my mother know?” He asks, and Taehyung shakes his head.

“Didn’t get the chance to tell her, but I’m sure you’ll be able to. You can even make
something up, you like doing that, don’t you?” He asks, still upset about what he did last
night. Because, sure, he has every right to hate Taehyung, but that was still wrong. Jeongguk
looks down, then, a bit embarrassed.
“I thought you didn’t have a place to go,” he says.

“And I don’t, but I’ll figure something out.” Taehyung shrugs, standing up. “Did you want
anything?” And it looks as if the boy has a million things at the tip of his tongue, but ends up
not saying any of them.

“Do you have the car keys?” he asks in the end.

“They’re at the entrance,” Taehyung says, and Jeongguk nods.

“Cool, well, uh, bye, I guess,” Jeongguk bites the inside of his lip.

“Tell the kids that I’m sorry,” Taehyung says before the younger boy leaves. “And… for what
is worth, I’m sorry to you, too.”

“I’m sure you know it’s not worth much. Too little, too late.” And Taehyung understands.

“I hope that me leaving can show you how sorry I am. I know I don’t deserve your
forgiveness, hell, I wouldn’t forgive myself either for what I put you through. But I just—I
guess I want you to know that the boy who did that to you stayed in Daegu and that I’ve been
trying to become a better man to make sure not only that I don’t do any of that again, but that
kids don’t go through the same thing we did. But yeah, I understand that they’re all empty
words at this point, but I just wanted you to know that. I’m sorry I made your life a living hell
for years but I’m glad to see you’ve grown to become a—”

“Spare me,” Jeongguk cuts him. “I don’t need your approval. Although it doesn’t look like it,
I’ve moved on from what happened all those years ago, and I didn’t need you coming back as
a reminder. So, yeah, go be a better man all you want, but just don’t do it here.” He says, and
all Taehyung can do is nod.

“Right,” he says. “Well, have a nice life, Jeongguk.”

“I’d say you, too, but I don’t think I mean it,” he opens the apartment’s door. “I do hope you
find a place to stay, though.” And he’s about to close the front door, but he stops. “Also, lock
the door when you leave and leave the keys with Mr. Yoo. I’ll pick them up later.” He doesn’t
even wait for Taehyung to reply before he closes the door.

So, I guess that’s the only goodbye he’s getting.

Before he starts taking all his things down to the lobby, Taehyung decides to write a note for
Miss Kang and another one for the kids just so that they don’t feel too sad about him leaving.

The one to their mother is much more formal, apologizing again for all the trouble he has
caused with Jeongguk and for what he did in the past, understanding why she asked those
questions to him the first day he stayed there. He also thanks her for the opportunity and for
the trust bestowed upon him and hopes that they find someone to replace him soon.

The letter to the kids brings tears to Taehyung’s eyes again. He writes it like a fairytale,
hoping that they would read it as such.

The little tiger had to go, leaving the bunny and the little bunnies in the care of someone who
would take care of them better, because the big bunny was always afraid that, at any given
moment, the tiger would eat them. Eventually, a bear came to protect and take care of them
while their parents were away.

Taehyung hopes that they find their bear soon.

He leaves both notes by the counter and starts pushing the bags and boxes out and into the
elevator, the same way he did a few days ago when he arrived.

He’s going to go to the restaurant for the time being, he knows he can crash in the staff room
until he finds a place to stay, even if it won’t be the most comfortable place in the world. He’s
had worse, he’ll be fine.

When he gets to the lobby, Mr. Yoo seems surprised.

“Oh, Taehyung? Are you leaving?” The man asks, hurrying to help him.

“I’m okay! Don’t worry,” the boy chuckles. “I got this.”

“What happened?” the man asks, clearly confused.

“Nothing, it’s just—It’s best if I go. Could you please call a taxi for me?”

“Yeah, sure, but… Are you sure you’re alright?”

“I’ll be fine, really,” Taehyung smiles at him, trying to ease his mind. The man sighs and
heads back to his desk to call a taxi for Taehyung.

“Where to?” he asks him, and that’s the billion-won question, isn’t it?

“I, uh— I’m gonna go to the restaurant I work at for the time being, so it’s on—” but Mr. Yoo
hangs up the phone.

“Boy, do you have somewhere to go?” he asks, and he chuckles.

“I don’t, no. Not yet, anyway. I was gonna find a motel or something until I could go
apartment hunting, but I at least need somewhere to leave all this stuff until I find one.”

“Why don’t you stay with me instead?” And Taehyung’s surprised to hear that. “My sons are
long gone and I have a spare bedroom.”

“Oh, no, you don’t n—”

“Taehyung,” the man says. “Please. At least until you find a place of your own.”

“But why are you doing this, Sir? You don’t even know me,” Taehyung tells him, chest
feeling warm at the sight of someone worrying about him.

“I don’t need to. You showed me kindness on your first day here, and I was raised in a
household where, if we could do something to help someone else, we would. It’s my turn to
be kind to you.”

And maybe it’s because kindness is a concept that Taehyung has lacked for most of his life,
and a concept he hardly ever knew or implemented on others, either, but his words make
Taehyung choked up.

“Thank you, Sir,” Taehyung says. “I promise I’ll find a place quickly so I’m not a burden to
you.”

“Oh, nonsense. You wouldn’t be. Besides, I doubt Miss Kang or the kids would forgive me if
they knew I let you leave like that.” But Taehyung knows at least one of the kids would.
“Alright, let me call you that taxi now, okay? You can make yourself at home once you get
there.” And, as Taehyung waits for the cab to arrive, he tells Mr. Yoo briefly what happened
so that he understands his situation a bit better. Of course, he doesn’t tell him the whole
Jeongguk feud thing, he feels like that’s a private thing.

“So, you have to work this afternoon again?” And Taehyung nods. “Well, here you have my
number. Anything you want, you can reach out to me. And if you need to find me, you know
I’ll be here,” the man says once he’s helped him load all the boxes into the cab.

“Thank you so much, really,” Taehyung says again, feeling like no words will be enough to
do it justice.

The man just smiles and gives his shoulder a squeeze.

“You’ve been through so much, boy.”

And truly, Taehyung has.

The taxi starts driving away from the fancy area, going into a more old-looking
neighborhood, with more houses than tall buildings. The streets are narrow and it reminds
Taehyung of the ones back home, with lamposts that didn’t work at night but no one bothered
to change and the smell of piss and alcohol mixed in the air.

It’s quite the contrast from the fancy lives of the people to whom Mr. Yoo opens the door
every day. Makes you think.

“We’re here,” the driver lets Taehyung know, and this time, he’s the only one getting the
boxes and bags down.
Mr. Yoo gave him his keys and told him that, if he needed to leave and he still wasn’t back,
he could leave them in the mailbox and he’d get them later.
The house is big, and it looks so well-loved. Like it’s been lived on by generations. Taehyung
smiles looking at the pictures he sees of Mr. Yoo and who he guesses are the sons he spoke
about.

This time, Taehyung doesn’t bother unpacking, knowing he’ll probably be gone sooner than
later when he finds a place for himself and another job.

However, he’s exhausted from having slept so badly and from the emotional stress, so he lets
himself take a nap.

He can worry about his future later.

Taehyung has found a few very shoe-box-sized apartments available by the time he has to go
to the restaurant. He hasn’t made an offer on any of them because he doesn’t like to make
decisions lightly. The only decision he made like that was when Miss Kang offered him the
job and look how well that turned out.

Mr. Yoo is still not back by the time Taehyung has to leave, so he does as he was told and
slides the keys into the mailbox before he leaves. He saw that this area is closer to work so he
decides to walk and get to know the neighborhood a little bit. It’s easy to get lost, but he left
with enough time to spare that it doesn’t really matter.

He ends up having to take his phone out and use the maps, though, just to make sure he
doesn’t end up on the other side of the city.

It’s then that he sees he has a text from Miss Kang and his heart drops to his stomach.

He hopes she’s not mad at him, although he knows it was extremely unprofessional for him
to leave without a warning and leave them without a replacement out of the blue.

He opens the text, biting down at his lower lip nervously as if somehow a bomb was gonna
go off when he did, but it doesn’t.

Kang Jeongha:

Taehyung, I am sorry that you had to leave us as you did. I know why you felt like you had to,
but it saddens me to know that Jeongguk and you couldn’t work out your past differences.
Just know that, as I promised, I can help you find a new apartment if you wish to. I hope
everything goes well and thank you for the brief time you lent me and the kids.

Best of luck.
Taehyung feels even worse now, but he knows that they will be alright, that it will all be
forgotten in a few days and they’ll all move on with their lives.

He closes the text and opens the maps to guide him to the restaurant, thinking about what the
twins might be doing right now with a heavy heart.

He wonders if Jeongguk came back already and if they’re sad Taehyung is gone.

He knows for sure that Jeongguk isn’t.

It’s fair to say that Taehyung is a bit out of it that day at the restaurant. So much so that his
co-workers ask him if he’s still feeling feverish. He’s not, he’s just got his mind elsewhere.
He could even give the exact address.

At least, since it’s a Friday, the restaurant seems to be more crowded which means he at least
has a bit of a distraction, even if he almost messes up in a few orders.

“Thank you so much for coming!” He smiles as he sends off their last clients for today. He
sighs, relieved once the whole place is empty.

It takes almost another hour for them to finish cleaning up and are able to close. Taehyung is
partly relieved that he won’t have to wake up early in the morning tomorrow to take the kids
to school.

Although, since it’s the weekend, he probably wouldn’t need to, anyway.

He wonders how the weekends would be at their residency. With a bitter smile, he imagines
the kids getting to wake up their mother and brother by jumping on their bed instead of the
other way around, of them running around the house playing all day. And, in the afternoon,
maybe the whole family would go out to a nearby park.

Of course, he has no way of knowing if that is even remotely close to the truth, but it feels
nice to think about. Not that he should. But imagining Jeongguk pushing his siblings on the
swings and laughing along with them is a sight Taehyung regrets to have missed.

“Are you sure you’re okay, Tae?” One of the girls that have worked with him for longer asks
him.

“Yeah, yeah, just tired. Didn’t sleep too much last night with the cold, you know,” he says,
and the girl just nods. “Have a nice weekend, though! See you on Monday!”

“You too!” And Taehyung is once again left alone to close, taking out his phone again to find
his way back to Mr. Yoo’s house in the darkness of the night and makes it back around half
an hour later, the light still on when he gets there, and he knocks.
“Hey,” the man says when he opens the door, allowing Taehyung inside.

“Were you waiting for me?” Taehyung asks, feeling guilty. At least it’s not as late as other
times.

“No, no, I was finishing some paperwork from the building,” he smiles, tired eyes hiding
behind his glasses. “But I’m glad I did, otherwise you would’ve had to break in,” he
chuckles.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Taehyung smiles. “I—I’ll head to bed if that’s okay.”

“Of course, Taehyung. By the way, I don’t know if you want to hear about this or not, but the
Lee twins were very sad when you weren’t home.” And Taehyung’s smile is sad. He thinks
he would’ve rather not known.

He can’t seem to keep up with their last names, either, but he guesses that their complicated
family situation is to blame for the three different last names in the household.

“If you can, give them some candy tomorrow from me. But don’t say it’s from me,” the old
man nods.

“You got it, kid. Good night, Taehyung.”

“Good night, Mr. Yoo. And thanks, again,” Taehyung smiles before he heads back to the
bedroom where he’s staying at.

He gets under the covers and wonders what kind of day awaits him tomorrow. At this point,
every day is a surprise for him.

It’s been a week since Taehyung left the Kang/Jeon/Lee residence and he still hasn’t left Mr.
Yoo’s house. He’s been working double shifts at the restaurant now that he doesn’t have
anything else to do and needs the money more than ever, but he still uses his free time to keep
trying to find apartments. He already applied to two, is considering a third, and is waiting to
get a response.

They’re all around the campus area but, unlike his old flat, aren’t exclusive for students.
They’re also smaller than his previous one, but as long as they have a bed, a bathroom, and a
kitchen, he’s sorted.

He’s exhausted, though, because it’s been a hard week both physically and mentally. And
even if working does prove to be a nice distraction, it ended up being a constant worry
because it’s the only thing he does all day besides sleeping, and he doesn’t get much of that
either because he gets home late after closing up and is up early to open back again.
At least he’s saving more money in hopes of being able to afford an apartment as soon as
possible.

He also misses the kids. He knows that it might be stupid, considering he didn’t know them
for that long, but one thing about Taehyung is that he gets attached easily. When he was in
college and they had to do a two-month residence at a local school to experience first-hand
how it is to teach kids, Taehyung found it so hard to say goodbye to those kids once the time
was over.

The first day after his first class, he’d already gone home with a few drawings that he hang on
his fridge as if his own kids had done them. He still has them stored in one of the boxes that
still sit unpacked in the bedroom he’s staying at.

So, it’s not a surprise to him that he got so attached to the Lee kids in a few days, especially
after they worried about him when he was sick and he saw them grow fond of him as well,
even after the rocky start they had.

He also wonders how Jeongguk will be doing. He hopes that he feels more at ease now that
Taehyung is gone, and that they’ve found someone to take over. He strangely wonders if
Jeongguk’s pride will keep him from asking for help and he’d be the one taking the kids to
and back from school in between his classes. Taehyung wouldn’t put it past him, but it was
just not his problem anymore, so he tries not to think about it too much.

It’s the start of the night shift on a Saturday, and since Taehyung’s been on kitchen duty for
the morning shift, it’s his turn to wait tables.

“Taehyung, there’s someone at the door asking for you,” someone says in his in-ear.

“For me?” Taehyung asks back, coming out from the kitchen to look at the door, and is
surprised when he sees the entire family there.

“Taehyung!” Haneul says, jumping at the entrance, and waving. Her mother has to hold her
back, otherwise, she’d go running to him. His heart cannot take in the sight without melting.
It might sound silly, but Taehyung thinks the kids grew a few inches since the last time he
saw them.

“Hold on, I’ll be right there,” Taehyung tells his co-worker, who trades places with him when
he gets to the door.

“Uh, hi! Welcome, do you have a reservation?” Taehyung asks, trying to be professional. He
knows it’s dumb to act as if he didn’t know them, but this is his workplace so he can’t exactly
do whatever he likes.

“No, but we wanted a table for four,” Jeongguk says. Taehyung can’t believe they’re here.
That he is here.

After all, he’s the only one who knew where he worked.
“Sure, yeah,” he says, biting his lip and unable to stop himself from asking. “What are you
doing here?”

“Having dinner,” Jeongguk says and he starts walking ahead of them. Taehyung hears the
boy’s mother sigh.

“It’s good to see you, Taehyung. The kids were missing you so Jeongguk thought it would be
nice to bring us here for dinner, I hope you don’t mind,” the woman says as if it was
Taehyung who was uncomfortable around them and not the other way around.

“Of course, not! I… I’m sorry that I left like I did.”

“No need to apologize, I understand,” she smiles.

“Tae! Tae!” Haru says from next to him, wanting him to pick him up. Haneul is also smiling
happily at the sight.

“You guys…” he sighs. “Come on, let me take you to your table, yeah?” he says, turning
around to see that Jeongguk has already found an empty table and is sitting there. “Over
there, where Jeonggukie is, yeah?” he signals.

“Aren’t you eating with us?” Haneul asks pouting, not liking the idea of letting Taehyung go
again now that she’s got him.

“I can’t, sweetheart, I have to work,” he chuckles. “But I’ll go over there in a second to take
your orders, alright?”

“Yeah, come on, guys, let’s sit,” their mother says, taking them away. Taehyung turns to see
Jeongguk looking at him again and he wonders what his deal is.

“Who were they?” the girl that was at the door and called for him asks.

“My old roommate and his family,” Taehyung tells her.

“Well, he’s hot,” she chuckles. “Isn’t she a bit too old for him, though?”

“That’s his mother, Jaein.” And the girl almost chokes.

“Wait, does that mean he’s single, then?” And Taehyung couldn’t give less of a fuck, so he
ignores her in favor of going to take other orders.

It’s eventually their table’s time and Taehyung puts on a smile as he walks their way.

“Alright, sorry for the wait, are you ready to order?” He asks, smiling at how Miss Kang is
ordering for all her kids, including Jeongguk who refuses to talk to Taehyung at all, as
expected. “Anything else?”

“A beer for me, please,” Jeongguk says, then. Taehyung writes it down along with everything
else. The kids order some soft drinks that their mother tells Taehyung not to bring, which
results in sulking faces and crossed arms.
“I’ll bring you guys some crayons to draw while you wait for the food, how’s that?”
Taehyung tries to cheer them up, and it seems to work, so he heads to the drawer where they
keep their kid entertainment and gives each of them a coloring menu and a box of crayons.

“Thank you,” Miss Kang tells him and Taehyung just shakes his head.

“I’ll be right back with the drinks.” With that, he turns around and leaves, feeling the piercing
look from Jeongguk on the back of his neck, still.

He serves him the beer, making sure it’s perfect so that the boy has nothing to complain about
but knowing there’s a high chance that he still will, just to spite him.

He returns with the drinks and gives them to the family.

“If you’d like another beer after that one, let me know. The refills are free,” Taehyung tells
Jeongguk and he seems surprised.

“Are they? I didn’t see any of that on the menu,” he says. And, in reality, they’re not.
Taehyung just wants to keep making it up to him, somehow.

“It’s a special weekend offer,” he lies. “There you go,” he smiles, giving the kids their bottles
of water and Miss Kang her iced tea.

“Say thank you , kids,” their mother says and they look up from their masterpieces to smile at
him.

“Thank you!” They say at the same time, and they might be the most adorable kids
Taehyung’s ever seen.

“You’re very welcome,” he smiles before he heads back to work. And even as he takes food
to other tables and takes their orders, he keeps glancing at them, making sure everything’s
alright.

And it would be a lie to say that he doesn’t catch Jeongguk looking at him every time he
does.

When their food is ready, he takes it to their table, adding some extra ketchup packs for the
chips, since he knows how much the kids (and Jeongguk, apparently) like it.

“Enjoy your food,” Taehyung smiles at them.

“Wait, Taehyung,” Miss Kang calls, making him stop.

“Yeah? What do you need?” And she looks around the restaurant.

“Would you mind… sitting with us for a minute?” And he blinks twice in shock. “I know
you’re working, but I— we would like to talk to you,” she says, shooting a glance at her
eldest son. Taehyung unavoidably looks his way as well.
“Um, sure, let me check that everything is taken care of and I’ll be right back,” Taehyung
says, heading back to the kitchen and panicking slightly.

“Guys, I’m gonna take a five,” he announces. Obviously, everyone says okay since
Taehyung’s been here literally all week.

He considers taking off his uniform completely so that people don’t think he’s slacking off,
but it’d be too much of a hustle to put it back on later, so he heads there just as he was.

“Okay, I’m back,” he smiles and gulps, seeing that the only available seat is in front of
Jeongguk, whose eyes resemble daggers rather than eyeballs. “W–What did you want to talk
about?”

“Jeongguk wants to say that he’s sorry!” Haneul says, covering her mouth with her hands
straight away. “Sorry! You said I shouldn’t do that,” the little girl tells Taehyung, and he can’t
help but chuckle at that.

“I did say that,” and he turns to look at Jeongguk and almost says you also shouldn’t lie
because there’s no way.

“We came here to ask if you’d reconsider your decision,” Miss Kang says. “If you decide that
you don’t want to come back, then we won’t press again, because it’s your choice and, as I
said, you could give it a try and decide yourself, but I feel like you leaving was for the wrong
reasons.”

“I don’t think it was wrong,” Taehyung admits. “I mean, it’s true that it wasn’t because I
didn’t like the job, but I still think it’s the right thing to do. The last thing I want is to make
someone uncomfortable, and it’s totally understandable that he is,” he shrugs. He wonders
how much of that the kids are going to understand or how much they’ve been told, but it
seems like they’ve lost their interest and are back to drawing.

“Before you say anything else, mom, do you mind if we speak about it in private?” Jeongguk
says, and Taehyung thinks he’s talking to him, but it turns out he’s addressing his mother.

“Yes, of course, honey.” Jeongguk stands up then, looking at Taehyung.

“Is there anywhere we can talk without being disturbed?” And Taehyung, almost on
autopilot, nods.

“Yeah, this way,” he says, standing up. The kids look at them go and they both shoot
Taehyung a thumbs up, which is comical when he feels as if Jeongguk is on his way to
murdering him just so he stops popping into his life.

Taehyung takes them to one of the staff-only rooms and closes the door. The only thing that
fills the room then is silence.

“Did you actually want to talk or was it a lie as well to pretend that you tried and failed?”
Taehyung asks.
“Do you ever stop talking?” Jeongguk sighs, eyes closed, gathering strength. “I… Haneul
was right. I did want to apologize.” That is a surprise.

“For what?” Taehyung asks, not because the boy has nothing to apologize for, but rather to
see which of all the things he means.

“For becoming what I always swore I hated,” Jeongguk says. “I treated you exactly the way
you treated me when we were kids, and I thought that would make me feel better, but it
didn’t. Of course, it didn’t fix the past and the only thing it did was to put you out on the
street when you had nowhere to go and not enough income to get another place. I… I guess I
was blinded by the past trauma that I thought every possible thing I could do to get you to
leave was fair, but I shouldn’t have lied, I shouldn’t have—” he sighs. “That’s not the
example I want to set for the kids. I was so worried about them not turning into you that I
think it was I who did.”

“It’s okay, Jeongguk, you had every right to be—”

“But that’s not who I am! It’s like—you brought out something in me I never even know was
there. And maybe it’s because I had so much pent-up anger from all those years ago, I don’t
know, but I don’t… I don’t want to live like that. You don’t know how ashamed I was when
the kids came crying to me asking where you were and I couldn’t tell them that it was my
fault that you left. They…” he sighs. “They’ve lost so many people already, which is why my
mother never wanted to hire one-time nannies because she knew that it would be very
difficult for them to say goodbye.”

It breaks Taehyung’s heart to hear that because he can imagine the kids being sad that he left,
at them being so used to people leaving that they’ll never really allow anyone in when they
grow up.

“I’ve had a week to think things through, to… really consider what’s best here and I am
willing to put my personal grudge aside because I know you being there is the best thing for
them. Even if I hate to admit it, we do need you. Mom works so many hours and, with exams
coming up, there’s no way I can take care of them. This week I’ve been juggling both things
because we couldn’t find anyone that we liked enough to replace you. They need someone to
be there for them, and I think you were doing a pretty good job so far.”

It’s safe to say that Taehyung is at a loss for words, for sure. He wasn’t even expecting an
apology from the younger, let alone this.

“The same way you did, I promised Haru that I’d apologize to you. Haneul told me to bring
the bear back, which I think has something to do with the story you wrote for them?”
Taehyung’s heart rips a little at that.

“I—I was supposed to be the tiger, not the bear,” Taehyung admits.

“I think you’re both, to them.” And, for the first time, Taehyung sees something else in
Jeongguk’s eyes that isn’t hatred or fear. “So? Will you?”
“You haven’t apologized yet, though,” Taehyung says, just because he feels like pushing it a
little bit more. Jeongguk lets out a loud exhale through his nose.

“ I’m sorry. There, happy?” he says.

“No, I’m not, actually,” Taehyung admits. “Because I need to move my things again. Do you
know how much those boxes weigh? If I’m agreeing to this, you better not change your mind
again, otherwise, the only way I’m leaving that apartment is in a body bag.”

“Do not tempt me, Taehyung,” he says, and for some unknown reason, Taehyung wants to
smile.

“You can call me hyung, you know? I’m older than you, anyway,” he says, but Jeongguk
doesn’t say anything else. “Thank you for apologizing. I hope you know I don’t hold it
against you, though, because I know what I did to you was also wrong. It did hurt that you
went and lied to your mother behind my back, though.”

“Yeah, I… I also apologize for that,” Jeongguk says, looking down and Taehyung almost
feels like he’s Haru and Taehyung is telling him off for lying. The resemblance amongst all
siblings had never been as evident to him as it is right now.

“I accept your apology, and I appreciate your honesty,” Taehyung says. “Can I be honest,
now?” And Jeongguk looks up at him with a slight frown and nods. “I don’t want you to
force yourself to be around me. I… I know that no matter how many times I apologize, it
won’t be enough. I also know that, even if I tell you that I didn’t have any fun doing what I
did to you and the reason why I did those things as a kid was that I didn’t know any better, it
won’t fix it, either. The fact that I pretty much raised myself is still not an excuse for what I
did to you, and for that, I’m sorry. And if I have to spend the rest of my life proving to you
that I’ve changed, then I will.”

“The rest of your life is a bit much, don’t you think? I’m pretty sure after this year you’ll be
free to go,” Jeongguk says then, but Taehyung glares at him as if he missed the entire point.
“My mom told me about your parents… I didn’t know, I’m sorry.” Taehyung remembers then
that he did tell Miss Kang that first day when she asked about his family. He’s not mad at her
that he told Jeongguk because it’s no secret.

“Yeah, back then I hid all of that behind my fists. No one knew, not even the teachers,” he
shrugs. “But yeah, that’s—it doesn’t matter anymore. That’s not me. Or rather, it was me but
I am making sure it never will be, again.”

“What do you say, then? Will you… come back?” Jeongguk asks, and Taehyung smiles
slightly.

“Is this also for the kids? ” Taehyung asks, pleased when he sees he manages to make
Jeongguk chuckle slightly.

“Yeah, for the kids and for my mom as well. I need her to have peace of mind, I need her to
know that we’re being taken care of while she works her ass off to make sure the kids have
everything they need.” Taehyung’s heart melts at that, at this side of Jeongguk that he hasn’t
seen yet, at least not when speaking to him.

“Are you sure?” Taehyung asks, emphasizing. “If you want, we can work something out
where I’m not… living there but I still take the kids to school and back?”

“No, no, I… I’m sure, yeah,” Jeongguk nods. “I want to leave all that behind, start fresh.
Living stuck in the past only brings misery. What’s done is done, there’s no way either of us
can undo it. The only thing we can do is make sure we make better choices from now on.
Shall we, then? Start fresh?” Jeongguk asks and Taehyung smiles, turning around to open the
door and leave, closing it after and leaving Jeongguk inside for a second before he opens it
again.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know there was someone here. I’m Taehyung, I’m your sibling’s new
au-pair,” he smiles, offering his hand for Jeongguk to shake. He doesn’t blame him when he
winces slightly. After all, the only touches he got from Taehyung as kids were rough.

“Yeah, they’ve told me about you. I’m Jeongguk,” and he shakes his hand, both of them
bursting into laughter right after at how ridiculous this is.

“You’ve got it, Jeongguk. Should we go back to the table? I’m pretty sure your dinner must
be cold and my boss must be fuming.”

“Sure, yeah, let’s go.” This time, when he opens the door, both of them step out and back into
the restaurant.

“You tell them about my decision, I’m gonna go back to work,” Taehyung tells him as they
head back, seeing how his family is looking at them.

“Okay, hyung,” Taehyung turns around to look at him then and finds a small smile.

Baby steps.

Taehyung’s closing up when he sees a familiar figure leaning against the glass window.

“Are you always the last one to leave the restaurant?” Jeongguk asks, putting his phone
down.

“What are you doing here? You guys left hours ago,” Taehyung asks, locking the gate.

“Pick you up. What does it look like I’m doing?” And for some reason, his heart skips a beat
when he says that. “I assumed—You are coming back tonight, aren’t you?”

“I mean, I guessed you guys would be asleep,” he chuckles. “I was going to head there first
thing in the morning with Mr. Yoo.”
“With Mr. Yoo?” Jeongguk frowns.

“Yeah, I was staying with him,” Taehyung explains. “But we can go to his place and get the
things now if you want. Since you came all the way here. After all, I bet you’ll be much more
helpful carrying boxes than he and I put together.” And it’s not that Taehyung has been
looking, but it’d be dumb of him to deny how good Jeongguk looks and how strong he
probably is.

“Alright, then, let’s go.” And he starts walking to where Taehyung assumes he parked the car,
and Taehyung indicates the way as he drives them through the city.

It feels so much better to be around him without the looming cloud over their heads, even
though he can feel that Jeongguk is still a bit tense around him, and he doesn’t blame him. It
will take them both a bit to get used to this blank slate, but a work in progress is better than
nothing.

When they make it to Mr. Yoo’s house, Taehyung opens the door and sees that the man is
watching TV.

“Sir! It’s late, you should go to bed!” He chuckles.

“Ah, I know, Taehyung-ah, but you know Sunday is my only day off and I like watching this
drama on Sat—oh! Mr. Jeon,” the man stands up at the sight of Jeongguk.

“Please, don’t—You can sit down,” Jeongguk rushes to say.

“What are you doing here?” He asks, looking back at Taehyung.

“I… I’m going back to work for his family, after all,” he admits, feeling silly about the whole
thing. “I was planning to go tomorrow morning, but Jeongguk came to help me get my
things.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful news! I’m sure the little ones will be over the moon about it,” the man
smiles, and Taehyung can’t help but look at Jeongguk and see how he nods. “Well, let me
help you with them as well, then.”

“No, no, there’s no need, you finish your drama,” Taehyung chuckles, sitting the man back
down. “We’ve got this. Come on, Guk,” he says, the nickname slipping past without him
noticing.

He walks them down the corridor until they get to what has been Taehyung’s room for the
past week, where all his stuff is still neatly packed.

“You didn’t even bother unpacking?” Jeongguk chuckles.

“Why? It was a hustle and I knew I’d be leaving as soon as any of the apartments I reached
out about accepted me,” Taehyung shrugs, zipping the only bag that was open where he kept
his uniform.

“You found an apartment?” The younger boy asks, and Taehyung nods.
“Yeah, still haven’t heard back from any of them, but if I do, I might still go check them just
in case… y’know,” and there’s no need to say it, they both know.

After that, Jeongguk picks up one of Taehyung’s boxes and starts walking back outside. He
can see the expanse of his back as he makes his way out and has to gulp at the sight.

He picks up some of the lighter bags himself and follows him, leaving them on the floor
while Jeongguk tries to arrange everything in his car as if he was playing Tetris.

Taehyung keeps going in and out with stuff until everything is already on the sidewalk.

“Thank you so much again for having me, Sir. I will see you in the building,” Taehyung
smiles, almost wishing he could hug the old man.

“Anytime, boy. Good night, and good night to you, too, Sir,” he tells Jeongguk.

“Good night, Mr. Yoo,” Jeongguk smiles at him before they head back outside to the car.

The drive back to the family’s apartment is quiet, and Taehyung almost falls asleep. He
manages not to, though.

Once they make it, he sighs.

“You know what, we can leave the stuff here and come get it tomorrow. I’m too tired to bring
it all upstairs and unpack. Besides, I bet it’ll be noisy and I don’t want to wake your mom or
the kids,” Taehyung says, trying to convince him.

“But you have no clothes upstairs anymore,” Jeongguk says, and Taehyung almost suggests
sleeping naked, but firstly, that would be unprofessional for more reasons than one, and also,
he gets cold easily, which means it probably wouldn’t be a good idea anyway.

“I can sleep in this,” Taehyung shrugs, looking at his uniform. Granted, it’s not the most
comfortable thing, but it’s fine.

“I’ll lend you some clothes. You look like you might have a similar size to me,” Jeongguk
says, then, opens the door and gets out as if the mental image of himself in Jeongguk’s
clothes didn’t send him into overdrive.

Taehyung steps out of the car as well and they make their way back up in the elevator.

“Here, you get these back. Plus, the elevator key for the garage. The kids said you made them
walk down the stairs and they weren’t pleased about that.” Taehyung can’t help but laugh at
that as he takes the keys.

“Thanks,” Taehyung says. “For… for giving me a second chance.” Jeongguk just nods before
the elevator doors open.

They walk into the apartment together and it’s as quiet as Taehyung expected it would be at
this hour.
“Do you want to shower or something?” Jeongguk whispers as they make their way inside.
“To know if I need to lend you some boxers as well.” And Taehyung is glad that the younger
boy can’t see him then, because the shock on his face is laughable.

“Oh, no, no it’s fine, I’ll shower tomorrow morning. Just—just something to sleep in will be
enough, thanks.” He hopes he doesn’t sound as flustered as he feels, though.

“Alright, wait in your room, then, I’ll be right back.” And Jeongguk keeps making his way
down the corridor to his room while Taehyung gets inside his. He sits on the bed and sighs,
relieved to be back, after all.

“Will this do?” Jeongguk walks back in with what seems to be a modern hanbok.

“Yeah, yeah, that’s lovely, thank you,” Taehyung stands up to go get it and their hands brush
when he reaches over, sending a shock all across his body.

The tension between them is still high enough to electrocute someone if they were to get too
close.

“I’ll—” Jeongguk starts, signaling at the door.

“Yeah, yeah, good night, Jeongguk,” Taehyung clutches the clothes against his chest as if
they were some sort of shield.

“Good night, hyung,” he says before he closes the door after himself.

Taehyung stays still, staring at the door for a few seconds wondering what the hell was that.

He gets into the clothes Jeongguk gave him and can’t help but smile at the soft smell in them.
He wonders if that’s how Jeongguk would smell if he ever were that close.

Wonders if he’ll ever be able to confirm it.

 Chapter 5

The good thing about Sundays is that Taehyung gets to sleep as much as he wants. It’s true
that he still has to go to work in a few hours, but not having to wake up to the annoying
sound of his alarm is always a blessing.

Besides, sleeping back on this bed is like sleeping on a cloud, all fluffy and warm.

However, he’s not sure if waking up by the loud giggles and two children jumping on his bed
is the nicest way to wake up, either.

“You’re here!” Haneul says, excitedly jumping on the bed.

“You’re back!” Her sibling says, shaking Taehyung awake.

He’s not sure what time it is, but he assumes it must be late since he feels pretty rested and
they did end up arriving quite late after going to pick up his things.

“Mhm,” Taehyung groans, trying to shield himself from the kids but it’s pointless, they’re
relentless and keep trying to wake him up.

“Kids! That’s not nice! Let Taehyung sleep, it’s his day off,” he eventually hears Miss Kang
say, coming back to collect the little monsters who just giggle and run away. “Sorry about
that,” she whispers.

“It’s alright,” Taehyung smiles, eyes still barely open, wrapped around the duvet like a
cocoon.

“I’ll let you rest some more,” the woman says before she closes the door again, and Taehyung
appreciates it, but he knows there’s a high chance that he won’t be falling asleep again at all.

It’s when he turns around in bed and his shirt gets lifted up by the movement that he
remembers that he’s not wearing his clothes. He’s wearing Jeongguk’s.

For some reason, it brings the color back to his cheeks to think about it, hiding under the
covers to see them.

They’re a bit big on him, due to the fact that even if they’re the same height, Jeongguk’s
build is insane. He wonders how he has time to work out in between all his classes. And if he
doesn’t, Taehyung hates him for just having been born with that constitution.

He thinks back to him when he was a kid, wide-eyed and with a nose too big for his face. He
always looked like a deer caught in headlights whenever Taehyung would approach him, but
he doesn’t blame him. He didn’t blame him back then, either. If the roles had been reversed,
Taehyung also would have been terrified to see him approach him every day.
He ends up getting up in the end, checking his phone, and seeing that it is in fact late, which
is good.

He’d been pissed if the kids woke him up like that and it was nine in the morning. Taehyung
heads to the bathroom first and can’t help but smile when he sees his reflection with
Jeongguk’s modern hanbok on. The color contrasts well against his skin, he likes it.

When he eventually comes out of the room, he sees that the twins are playing together in the
living room, Miss Kang sat by the kitchen aisle on her laptop.

“Good morning,” Taehyung says, smiling at them. He hopes that no one mentions the clothes
because he can’t make sure he wouldn’t blush if they did.

“Good morning!” The woman says, looking up from her laptop with a smile. “Did you sleep
well?”

“I did, yeah,” Taehyung chuckles. “That bed is… heavenly.”

“Ah, I’m glad to hear that. And I’m also glad you reconsidered your decision and chose to
come back,” she says so earnestly that Taehyung’s heart swells a little.

“Yeah, me too. Thank you for giving me a second chance as well,” Taehyung smiles. “And
for… uh… well, not kicking me out that first day after you found out what I did to Jeongguk
when we were kids.”

“We’ve all made mistakes in our past, Taehyung,” she smiles a bit. “It wouldn’t be fair for me
to judge who you are now based on who you were when you were a kid. I wanted to give you
a chance to prove yourself to us, and you did.”

“Thank you,” Taehyung smiles. The woman offers him a warm smile before she focuses back
on her laptop, so Taehyung takes that as his cue to head to the kitchen to make himself some
breakfast.

“Hyung, hyung,” Haru says at one point, running to the kitchen to pull from the leg of his
pants.

“What is it, buddy?” Taehyung smiles, adding some milk to his tea.

“Will you play with us today?” He asks, giving him puppy eyes as if Taehyung wasn’t going
to say yes anyway.

“Yeah, sure!” And the little boy is so happy that he immediately runs to tell his sister the
good news, which makes Taehyung chuckle as he has his breakfast.

“Do you work today as well?” The twins’ mother asks, and Taehyung nods.

“Yeah, but only tonight. My boss rented the restaurant for lunch to someone I think so we all
have it off,” he chuckles. “Although, now that I’m back here, I should call to let them know
that I don’t need to double shift.”
“You’ve been doing that?” a voice comes from the hallway.

“Jeongguk!” The kids run to him, and he picks both of them up in his arms and hugs them.

“Good morning,” he chuckles, giving both of them a kiss on the cheek. It’s adorable.
Taehyung has to look away for his sake. Jeongguk puts them back down and walks to the
kitchen to kiss his mother’s cheek as well. “Good morning, mom,” he says.

“Good morning, sweetheart,” the woman smiles. “Did you guys come home late last night?”

“A bit,” Jeongguk chuckles, heading into the kitchen to make himself a coffee. “We had to go
get his things.”

“We should go bring them up now, though,” Taehyung chuckles, remembering that all of his
belongings are still in Jeongguk’s car.

“Can I have my coffee first, though?” The elder of the siblings asks, and there’s a hint of
teasing in his voice that Taehyung appreciates.

“Yeah, sure,” he nods, finishing his own breakfast. “And to answer your question, yeah, I’ve
been doing double shifts every day to make some extra money so I could afford an
apartment.”

“Well, there won’t be any need for that now. At least, not for the time being,” Miss Kang
says, and Taehyung knows. He’s still going to keep his eye out in case he finds one that he
likes. “They should give you the entire week off to make up for the extra work you did last
week.”

“Yeah… they won’t,” Taehyung chuckles putting the things he used away. “But it’s alright,
I’ll be fine,” he nods and starts walking back away. The smell of coffee starts filling the room
as Jeongguk prepares it. “You finish your breakfast, don’t worry. I’m gonna go start getting
my things,” Taehyung announces as he heads to the door, finding the car keys there.

“Are you sure? If you wait for like five minutes I can help you out,” Jeongguk asks, taking a
sip from his drink. By the look on his face, it looks like it’s still a bit too hot.

“Yeah, yeah, don’t worry. I’ll leave the heavier stuff for you to carry,” Taehyung smiles and is
pleased when the younger boy chuckles.

“Can we help?” The little girl asks.

“You can help me later, if you want, yeah?” he smiles.

“Okay!” She smiles excitedly. He’s always surprised by how kids find everything to be a
game, even chores.

“Alright, I’ll be right back,” Taehyung says as he heads out, leaving the door ajar knowing
that since they’re all around the living area, the kids are safe. And, that way, if he’s carrying
something and can’t open the door, he can push it open with his foot easily.
He starts with the lighter things as he said he would, not because he actually wants to leave
Jeongguk to do all the heavy lifting, but because they’re the first things he sees. The good
thing about the lighter bags is that he can take many at once and save himself some journeys
back and forth.

When he makes it back to the apartment, Jeongguk is already done with his breakfast and
ready to go help him, so they make their way down this time together.

It only takes a few more trips back and forth to bring all the things back up to Taehyung’s
room, and now it’s the fun part. To unpack and organize his things again.

“Alright, guys, do you want to help me unpack?” Taehyung asks the kids who were trying to
do a puzzle together.

“Yes!” They both say, getting up and following Taehyung to his room. Taehyung doesn’t miss
the way Jeongguk smiles at the sight and his heart skips a beat.

The kids start getting the clothes out of the boxes for Taehyung to fold and put in the different
drawers.

They even wear some of them from time to time, making Taehyung laugh at the sight.

“Look, Taehyung, I’m a grown-up!” Haneul says wearing one of Taehyung’s blazers. It
touches the floor and it’s so big that it looks more like a potato sack than anything else on her,
but she looks adorable.

“Go show your brother,” Taehyung chuckles, and Haru finds another one and a hat and wears
them as well, not wanting to miss out on the dress-up fun.

Taehyung hears Jeongguk’s loud laughter from the room and smiles at the sound of it as he
continues folding and putting away clothes.

The kids come back eventually and they finish with the clothes, now all that’s left are the few
bits and pieces that Taehyung had around the place that he decided to keep, some pictures or
books and things he collected over the years, and that he’d feel bad to part from.

“Who’s this?” Haru asks at one point, giving Taehyung one of the picture frames he’s always
taken everywhere with him.

His heart melts a bit when he looks at it, at the person in the picture. He smiles sadly.

“That’s my mommy,” Taehyung explains, putting the frame down on one of the shelves.

“She’s very pretty,” Haneul says, smiling, and Taehyung’s heart breaks a little as he nods,
looking at it.

“Yeah, yeah, she… she is,” he looks back at them and it’s as if they somehow had a radar to
notice that Taehyung is suddenly sad because they both go and hug him.
“Do you miss your mommy? Do you want to go back home with her?” And if only it were
that easy. If only he could go back to her, somehow, even if it wouldn’t be home. Back there
is no home anymore.

“I do miss her,” Taehyung admits. “But it’s okay! You guys keep me company, now.” he pats
their heads before they pull away from the hug. “Alright! I think we’re done here,” he sighs,
once all the boxes and bags have been emptied. He puts them all away under the bed and
almost wants to take a nap. It’s too early for it, though. “Do you guys wanna play something
else now?” He asks, and both kids nod, grabbing Taehyung’s hands and pulling from him
until they’re back in the living room.

“What should we play?” Taehyung asks once they sit him down on the floor.

“We’re going to be your doctors!” Haneul announces, picking up some toy briefcase that he
assumes is filled with medical equipment. Taehyung wonders if their father gave that to them
as birthday or Christmas presents hoping they’d become doctors like him.

“Alright! Am I your patient, then?” Taehyung asks, and they both nod. Haru makes him lie
down on the floor before he presses his ear against Taehyung’s chest.

“Doctor, I think he has a fast heart,” the boy says, and Taehyung has to press his lips into a
thin line, not wanting to laugh. From the corner of his eye, Taehyung spots Jeongguk, leaning
against the living room door and just watching them.

“Wait, let me check,” Haneul says, pulling out a stethoscope and pressing it against his head
first, and then down his body until his ribcage, on the opposite side of where the heart
actually is.

“You’re right! I think he might have a broken heart.” The girl says, turning around. “You!
Nurse, come here,” she turns to point at Jeongguk, who seems surprised.

“Sure, Doctor, what do you need?” he ends up playing along as well, walking to them and
kneeling next to Taehyung.

“Check if he’s breathing,” the little girl says, and Taehyung chuckles.

“I—I’m pretty sure he is,” Jeongguk chuckles as well, but he still takes his fingers to
Taehyung’s pulse point on his wrist to check. “Yes, all good,” and he lets go. But the brief
brush of his fingers against his skin made Taehyung shiver.

“Alright, let’s see,” she says, taking something else from her briefcase. This time, it looks to
be a hammer and a syringe. “Here, you do this,” and she gives Haru the syringe as she starts
to hammer Taehyung’s forehead.

“Careful, you might break it,” Jeongguk chuckles. “Although there’s not much up there, is
there?” Taehyung just glares at him and Jeongguk laughs.

“Doctor, I think your nurse is being mean to me,” Taehyung says, but Haneul just hammers
his forehead again instead, making Jeongguk chuckle louder as Haru gives him the fake shot.
“There! You’re all good to go, Sir!” The little boy says.

“Is my heart all healed?” Taehyung asks, sitting up, and they both nod. “Wow, thank you so
much!” he says. “I think I broke my leg now, though,” he says, and both kids gasp.

“We’re gonna need many bandaids for that! Quick, Nurse, bring them from the bathroom,”
and Taehyung just cannot deal with how cute they are, and how Jeongguk is just doing
everything they tell him. He must be more than used to this, and Taehyung’s pretty sure
Jeongguk’s been in Taehyung’s position more than once as well, playing as the patient.

When it’s eventually lunchtime, Taehyung’s leg is covered in animal-themed bandaids to, as
the kids said, hold his leg together so it doesn’t break again.

He loves these kids.

Taehyung gets back from work a few minutes past midnight thanks to the fact that his co-
workers let him go a bit early since he’d been working so hard the past week. It wasn’t a very
busy day either, because since they were closed for lunch, most people assumed dinner would
also not be available.

When he makes it back to the apartment, it’s as pitch-black as usual. But as he heads to his
room, he sees a bit of light coming from under Jeongguk’s room.

Taehyung wonders if he’s allowed to go, now. If he’s allowed to check on him, to care.
Although there have been improvements and he doesn’t seem to be that closed off in front of
the kids, when they’re on their own, Taehyung can see a bit of a wall built around the boy.
Again, he understands, but he doesn’t want to push him too far.

Still, he thinks he can mask the knocking on his door as him letting him know that he’s back
already.

So, that’s what he does. He heads to the closed door and knocks slightly. He thinks he hears a
hum from the other side, so he considers it as his cue to open the door.

“Hey,” he says, popping his head inside. He finds him by his desk, his head in his hands and
papers filling every single bit of the surface under his elbows. “I’m back.”

“What time is it?” Jeongguk asks, rubbing his eyes. Since Taehyung usually gets home later
than that, he probably thinks he lost track of time.

“It’s midnight,” he tells Jeongguk, who seems to relax a bit at that. “You alright?”

“Yeah, I—I have a test tomorrow, and I still have a few hours to go through this,” the boy
explains, even though he looks like he should be taking an eighteen-hour nap.
“You should go to bed soon, though. It’s best to get a good night's sleep before a test,”
Taehyung advises him, but Jeongguk only nods. “Well, I’ll see you in the morning. If you’re
not up by the time I’m done dressing the kids, I’m coming in to get you.”

“Alright, hyung,” Jeongguk says with a sleepy smile. “Good night.”

“Good night, Jeonggukie.” He closes the door again, hoping that the light will be off soon,
and heads back to the kitchen to have a glass of water.

When he makes it back to his room, the entire hallway is dark.

Taehyung smiles as he heads into his room.

Taehyung wasn’t expecting to actually have to go inside Jeongguk’s room in the morning to
wake him up, but when he finishes dressing the kids, their elder brother still hasn’t woken up.

“Hey, guys, can you do me a favor?” He asks, squatting down to look at them. “Can you go
and do what you did yesterday to me to Jeongguk?” And the look on their face is a bit scary
as if he just permitted them to be naughty.

So, without giving him a reply, they rush to jump on Jeongguk’s bed. Taehyung watches from
the door, holding back his laugh as the boy whines and tries to stop them.

“Okay, okay, got it!” Jeongguk says, eventually managing to hold both of them down, but
they keep chuckling in their brother’s arms.

“Thought you’d appreciate them waking you up more than me,” Taehyung says, Jeongguk
sitting up enough to look at him.

He’s shirtless.

And Taehyung can’t look away.

“I feel like you might’ve been a bit gentler, though,” Jeongguk says, and although that is true,
it’s not so bad to be woken up by your beloved siblings. Right?

“Alright guys, come on, give Jeongguk a good luck kiss and let’s go,” Taehyung chuckles
and both kids do, kissing their brother’s kiss loudly, making him giggle.

“Thanks, guys,” Jeongguk says. “There’s no way I fail now.”

“Good luck, Guk,” Taehyung says once the kids have run out of his room.

“Thank you, hyung,” he sighs. “You’re taking the car?”

“Unless you want it,” Taehyung says. “I can take you if you want when I come back.”

“Nah, it’s fine. You take it. It’s not irreparably late,” Jeongguk stretches.

“As you wish. I’ll get going, then,” and he switches his light on, just in case he decides to
stay in bed.

“Oh, fuck you,” Jeongguk says, covering his eyes with the pillow.

“Can’t have you being too comfortable, buddy, sorry,” he chuckles and starts walking away,
leaving the door open. “Come on, guys, let’s go to school,” Taehyung says, making sure to
pick up their backpacks.

Taehyung knows that he doesn’t need to, but he decides to go pick Jeongguk up after his test.
He told him that he finished like thirty minutes before the kids are off school, so he decides to
go pick him up first so they can both go get the kids before Taehyung goes to work later.

Taehyung waits for him outside his building and texts him to let him know that he’s there,
which ends with the younger boy sending him a string of question marks in response.

“What are you doing here?” Jeongguk asks once he gets to the car, and gets in.

“Oh, you know, I’m on the school run,” Taehyung says chuckling. “Picking up the kids, and
all that.”

“Right, of course,” Jeongguk nods. “Well, thanks.”

“No problem. How did it go?” Taehyung asks as he starts the car, heading to the kids’
school.

“Okay, I guess? I don’t know. It’s done now, that’s what matters. I’m so tired,” Jeongguk
sinks down on the seat.

“I bet you did well.” Taehyung smiles at the younger.

“Thanks, hyung,” Jeongguk closes his eyes. “Do you work later?”

“Yep,” Taehyung says. “Every day this week as well.”

“You really should ask for a few days off, to make up for the extra you worked last week.”
Jeongguk turns to look at him.

“Yeah, I probably should, but I probably won’t,” Taehyung chuckles.

There’s a bit of traffic, and Taehyung’s pretty sure Jeongguk falls asleep on the passenger's
seat, so when they arrive at the school, he leaves him there, carefully closing the door to go
get the kids.

He sees that their teacher is already outside waiting for him, but the closer he gets to them,
the more uneasy he feels, because Haneul is crying, and Haru seems mad.

“Oh, he’s here, thanks,” the teacher says, hanging up the phone when she spots Taehyung.

“Taehyung,” Haneul says, running to him crying. He picks her up with worry all over his face
and looks at the teacher.

“Hey, princes, what happened?” He asks, the little girl hugging him.

“Hi, Taehyung,” the teacher says. “We had a bit of a… situation today,” she says, holding
Haru by the shoulders, but he looks upset as well.

“What happened?” Taehyung asks again, putting Haneul down who goes and hugs his
brother.

That surprises him because he feared that the issue had been between the siblings, but it
doesn’t look like it is.

“Haru hit one of the other kids,” Taehyung’s eyes open widely at the words. “He says that the
kid was bothering Haneul, and when he told him to stop, the kid didn’t.”

“That’s what happened!” The little girl says, trying to defend his brother, and it’s sweet.
However, when Taehyung looks at the little boy, he looks away, not meeting his eyes.

So, Taehyung squats down in front of him to be at eye level.

“Is that true, Haru?” Taehyung says, the boy just bites his lower lip, stopping himself from
crying as he nods. “Did you hit him?”

“He was lifting Haneul’s skirt! Mommy said that’s not a nice thing to do to a lady, and she
was not happy! I told him to stop, but he didn’t, and he pushed her and she almost fell!” The
boy says, defending himself.

“I see,” Taehyung says, looking at Haneul who looks just as guilty, knowing that his brother
might get in trouble for defending her. “Well, although it was noble of you to do that to
protect Haneul, you should know that violence is never the answer,” Taehyung tells him. “I
know you were mad, and I’m not saying that what he did wasn’t wrong, but you shouldn’t
have hit him, either, buddy,” Taehyung says, and the little boy starts crying.

“I–I didn’t—I just wanted to protect Haneul,” he sniffles, whipping his nose with the sleeve
of his uniform.

“Were you not in the room when it happened?” Taehyung asks the teacher, and she shakes her
head.
“No, I had left for the bathroom, and when I came back, the other boy was crying, so I didn’t
see what happened.” And that just makes it harder to know what the truth is.

“Right, well, I’ll make sure that this won’t happen again. Thank you,” Taehyung says,
reaching to hold both of the kids’ hands, and when he turns around, he sees that Jeongguk is
there, looking at them.

“Hyung!” Haru runs to him, crying, and so does Haneul. Jeongguk looks as panicked as
Taehyung was when he first arrived.

“Wh—What’s going on?” Jeongguk asks.

“I’ll tell you on the way, let’s go,” Taehyung says, not wanting the kids to be there anymore.

The eldest of the siblings carries them both in his arms as they walk back to the car.

“You were taking too long, I—” Jeongguk tells Taehyung. “Are they alright?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Taehyung reassures him as the kids still hug him. When they make it to the car,
Taehyung helps Haneul with her seatbelt as Jeongguk does Haru’s.

“Can you tell hyung what happened?” Taehyung tells the kids, looking at Jeongguk who
seems about to jump off a cliff if someone doesn’t tell him why his siblings are crying.

“I… I punched a kid,” Haru admits, looking down. Taehyung sees Jeongguk’s reaction from
the corner of his eye, the shock, the… fear. “He was being naughty… He was lifting Haneul’s
skirt and laughing. I told him to stop because she was crying, and he wouldn’t… so I punched
him…”

“He saved me,” Haneul adds, reaching out to hold his sibling’s hand. “I know that fighting is
wrong, but… he really was being naughty!”

“That doesn’t… it doesn’t really justify it, though,” Jeongguk sighs. “Violence is—”

“Never the answer, yeah, Taehyung hyung said it,” Haru says, and Jeongguk turns around to
look at Taehyung. “But you hit Taehyung when you got mad and now you’re friends, so I
thought maybe it wasn’t that bad…” And Jeongguk is still looking at Taehyung when Haru
says that and he sees the horror on his face at the little boy’s words.

Jeongguk said so himself, the last thing he wanted was to become a bad example for the kids,
for them to become like Taehyung when they were younger, or like Jeongguk those first few
days Taehyung was with them.

“That was different, Haru,” Taehyung jumps in. “Your brother and I are adults, and what he
did was also wrong. I might’ve deserved it, just like that kid did, but it still shouldn’t have
happened.” Taehyung smiles a bit, squeezing the little boy’s knee. “You won’t do it again,
right? Next time something like that happens, you wait and tell your teacher so that she can
do something about it without you two getting in trouble, alright?”

“But it’s not fair! He didn’t do anything wrong,” Haneul jumps in, upset.
“He did, princess. I know it was for a good reason, but it’s still wrong,” Taehyung smiles at
her now. “Now, how about we head home, yeah? Come on,” he says and closes the door to
head to the driver’s seat.

Jeongguk is quiet next to him, and Taehyung almost wants to reach out and tell him that it’s
okay, but he feels like he might snap if he touches him right now.

They make it back to the apartment and Haru heads straight to the twins’ room, followed by
his sister, leaving both Jeongguk and Taehyung alone in the living room.

“It’s not your fault. You know that, right?” Taehyung asks as he heads to the kitchen to
prepare the kids some snacks. Jeongguk’s mind seems to still be elsewhere.

“He saw me… He thought it would be fine because he saw me punch you,” Jeongguk says,
slumping on the couch.

“You still shouldn’t blame yourself, though,” Taehyung walks his way and offers him some
snacks as well. “His heart was in the right place, and he knows now that it was wrong. I know
it hurts to see but sometimes making mistakes is part of growing up,” Taehyung offers him a
small smile and reaches out to squeeze his knee, hoping the younger boy doesn’t flinch. “So,
don’t be so hard on yourself, alright? They’re great kids, and they take after you on that.”

He gets up from the couch after that, on his way to get them the snacks.

“Wait, h-hyung,” Jeongguk says. “Do you mind if I take them the snacks? I… I wanna have a
little talk with them.”

“Yeah, of course,” Taehyung nods. “I have to head to work in a bit anyway,” he hands him
the food. “Will you be alright?”

“I will, yeah, don’t worry,” Jeongguk nods. “And, um… Thanks,” he gulps, almost as if
getting the words out had been a challenge.

“For what?” Taehyung asks.

“For… for not being that guy anymore.” And he walks away after that, into the kid’s room,
and closes the door after himself.

Taehyung feels his chest light up with something akin to hope.

Hope that they can move on from their past for real.

Taehyung comes home late again but he doesn’t mind because he comes with great news.
He’s having a few days off this week! That’s something to be celebrated!
It wasn’t even him who suggested it, but his boss saw that he’d been working extra hours the
past week and decided to give him a few days off. Of course, Taehyung knew it was so he
wouldn’t have to pay him Too much extra, but he doesn’t mind. He’s exhausted and could do
with a few days to rest.

The lights are off when he gets to the apartment, even Jeongguk seems to be sleeping, so
Taehyung is careful as he treads through the hall and back into his room.

He closes the door before he turns the light on and is surprised when he finds a piece of paper
on top of his bed.

He picks it up and reads it, his frown melting into an endeared smile as he goes on.

I don’t know why I’m writing this down as if it was a letter, but I guessed I didn’t really want
to text you so here it is…

Haru grounded himself today. He said he didn’t want to play because he’d been bad, and that
he knew that we weren’t going to ground him, so he did it himself. You’re right, he’s a good
kid.

Haneul was very sad playing on her own, though, but it looks like they both learned their
lesson after today.

I hope you didn’t get home too late and that you had a good day at work.

I was gonna wait up to tell you this in person but I’m exhausted and it’s the first night I can
afford not to pull an all-nighter to study, so…

Yeah, good night.

PS: Look at the back.

And when he turns the page around, his eyes almost well up when he sees that they’ve drawn
a bear with stripes as if it were a tiger.

“ You’re both to them, I think,” Jeongguk had told him that one day. Some scratched words
along the page read ‘ he’s a bear!! no! a tiger!’, so it’s safe to assume that it started being a
bear and someone drew the stripes later.

Taehyung thinks it’s adorable and is going to keep it forever.

The fact that there’s a handwritten letter from Jeongguk in the back is just a bonus.
It’s the first time since Taehyung’s been here that they’ve been able to have a meal together,
and it’s chaotic, to say the least.

The kids are very happy about their mother’s choice for dinner, and Taehyung and Jeongguk
are just trying very hard not to laugh at the things they do so that they don’t think they can do
them whenever they want.

It’s a challenge.

It’s Taehyung’s first day off of the week, and although he still has to work the next two days,
he’s glad he can have tonight, go to bed at a decent hour and not be a zombie in the morning
as he takes the kids to school.

“Oh, by the way, Jeongguk, this weekend is Mrs. Lee’s birthday,” his mother says. “We’ll be
going for the weekend to celebrate it there. They asked me if you’d be coming as well.”

“I—I’m sorry, mom, I can’t. I have to study,” he says. Taehyung wonders if maybe it’s the
kid’s father’s new wife or—

“Are we going to see Grandma?” Haneul asks, excitedly.

“Yes, darling, it’s her birthday on Saturday!” Miss Kang smiles. “We’re gonna go like every
year and you’ll see your cousins and—”

“And dad?” Haru asks. Taehyung looks at Jeongguk next to him.

“Yes, and dad. He’ll come to pick us up Saturday morning.” The woman says. Taehyung tries
to detect a hint of hostility in her voice the way she spoke about Jeongguk’s father that first
day he stayed here, but there was none.

He wonders what the story is about that.

The kids seem to be even more excited now that they know they’re going to see their father
and family.

“Wish her a happy birthday for me, yeah? And say sorry that I couldn’t make it.”

“I hate that you’re gonna be here alone, though. Are you sure you don’t want to come? You
can bring your things and study there,” his mother suggests, but he shakes his head.

“Besides, Taehyung will be here,” Jeongguk points out.

“Didn’t you say that you had the weekend off as well?” Miss Kang asks Taehyung, and he
nods. “And aren’t you gonna go anywhere? Since the kids are gone, maybe you could take a
trip somewhere!”
“Oh, no, I’ll stay here,” Taehyung chuckles, knowing that he can’t exactly afford a trip
anywhere at the moment. Not that he wants to go, either. “I’ll keep an eye on him and make
sure he still eats in between study sessions,” he turns to look at Jeongguk with a smile, and
surprisingly, he offers one back.

“As you wish, then. But I’m sure they’ll miss you,” the woman says.

“It’s not really… my side of the family, so it’s alright,” Jeongguk shrugs, finishing his dinner.

Taehyung, as someone who barely had a family himself, wonders how having such a big
family would work. It’s hard to even imagine.

They finish having dinner and Taehyung helps out cleaning up while Miss Kang puts the
twins to bed.

“So, I guess it’ll be you and I here this weekend,” Jeongguk says as he passes him another
plate.

“Yeah, I guess so.”

Miss Kang and the kids left in the morning, and although Taehyung didn’t get the chance to
see their father, the kids had spent pretty much all day yesterday talking about how excited
they were about seeing him again.

Taehyung assumed it had been a while since they last saw their father, but he just wondered
why that was.

Since Taehyung’s not working today, he decided to go out for a bit, and try and get some new
clothes since it’s been a while and most of his clothes are a bit overworn.

Jeongguk is still asleep by the time he leaves, but Taehyung doesn’t wake him up, knowing
that the younger is probably tired anyway.

He’s wondering what the weekend is going to be like with the two of them alone, he’s half
excited, half scared.

He managed to get a few new clothes that ware on sale, and he’s excited to have the chance
to wear them. He might even go out tonight since it’s the first time in a long time that he has
a free weekend.

The sun is starting to set and Taehyung hasn’t seen Jeongguk all day, so he decides to go to
his room, knocking before he walks inside.

“Hey,” Taehyung says once the younger boy has told him to come in. “Studying?”
“Yeah,” Jeongguk stretches a bit. “What time is it?”

“Like almost seven,” Taehyung says. “Why don’t you take a break? You’ve been at this for
hours.”

“What do you suggest?” Jeongguk asks, rolling around in his chair.

“How about you and I go out for a drink? I wanted to go out anyway and I think it might do
you good to go out for a bit.”

“Go out? Together?” Jeongguk asks.

“Why not? Aren’t we starting over? What better way to get to know each other that over a
few drinks?” Taehyung chuckles. He’s pretty sure Jeongguk is gonna tell him to go to hell,
but where’s the harm in trying?

“Alright, fine,” Jeongguk says, and Taehyung can’t help but open his eyes wide. “What? You
thought I was gonna refuse?”

“Honestly? Yeah,” Taehyung chuckles. “Okay, great! I’m gonna go get ready. I bought some
new clothes today, so I might wear some of those,” he smiles, closing the door again as he
leaves.

Taehyung rushes back to his room to get ready, his heart skipping a beat as if he was going
out on a date or something.

He ends up wearing one of the new outfits he bought: a cream jumper that contrasts with his
camel-colored pants. He looks at his reflection in the mirror and smiles, pleased.

There’s a knock on his door as he makes sure that his phone is charged enough.

“Are you ready?” Jeongguk asks, opening the door and Taehyung sees the way his eyes travel
up and down his body.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

They’re on their third beer when Taehyung finally asks the question that he’s had in his mind
ever since his mother said they were leaving for the weekend.

“So, did you actually have to study all weekend, or did you just say that to get away with not
going with your family?” He asks, taking another sip from the drink. Jeongguk chuckles,
feeling much more at ease now that he’s had a few drinks in his system.

“Honestly? A bit of both,” he shrugs. “I mean, it’s not that I didn’t want to go, but I just… I
guess I thought I had better things to do than celebrating a birthday from someone that’s
technically not my family, you know?”

“What’s the deal with your family, anyway? You all having different surnames is a bit of a
hard thing to keep up with,” Taehyung chuckles. To be fair, he’d been wanting to ask that
ever since he started working for the family.

“Well, it’s not really that complicated. I have my father’s surname, even if I hate it. The twins
have their father’s last name and my mother got her maiden name back when she divorced
the twins’ father a few years ago,” Jeongguk takes another sip.

“I mean, I did assume that, but I guess I just wanted to make sure,” Taehyung chuckles. “At
least they seem to get along, right? Divorce is hard enough as it is, especially for kids that
young…”

“Yeah, yeah, they’re… Joohyun’s a good guy.”

“Tell me more about you and your family, and later I can tell you about mine, if you want,”
Taehyung offers. He’s never really been a big fan of talking about his family because there’s
just not much to say, but he thinks it’s only fair for him to also bring something to the table if
Jeongguk agrees.

“Well…. My parents split up when I was a kid. My dad cheated on my mom and she found
out, so… we had to move away. We moved back to Busan where my mom was from and
lived with my grandparents for a while. When I started high school, my mom met Joohyun.
He’s a well-known surgeon now, but at the time he was just a doctor. I don’t really know how
they met, but they got along quite easily and, before I knew it, we were moving to Seoul.
They got married and the twins were born when I was in my senior year… It was a bit of a
hustle to have to get ready for my college entrance exams while changing diapers because my
mother struggled a lot and Joohyun had already gained fame and was barely home. He was
always traveling, which is why they ended up getting a divorce. He still visits whenever he
can, and the kids love him. He just… wasn’t around much, is all.”

“So that’s why you moved away when we were kids,” Taehyung says, and Jeongguk finds his
eyes. “People said that you moved because of me.”

“I mean, don’t get me wrong, getting away from you was a big part of it,” Jeongguk chuckles
bitterly. “But no, it wasn’t because of you. It was my dick of a father’s fault. I barely had time
to say goodbye, because my mom just… up and left, basically. I didn’t understand it at the
time, but once I was old enough, she told me. I’m glad that he never even reached out, I’m
happier not knowing what he’s up to, really.”

“That’s… wow, you really have been through a lot, too. Is that why you said that the kids had
a hard time saying goodbye to people? Because they were always saying goodbye to their
father?”

“Yeah,” he sighs, taking another long sip as if the taste on his tongue was bitter. “It was
always me who had to cuddle them at night when they were younger so they’d stop crying
because they missed him so much. Mom missed him as well, but she hid it better. She’s done
an amazing job raising them.”
“She really has, and she’s done a great job with you , too. She must’ve been so young when
she had you… so I bet it wasn’t easy,” Taehyung smiles, looking at him and trying not to get
sad that he never had that.

“My mom said… that you lost your mother when you were little?” Jeongguk asks then, and
Taehyung assumes it’s his time to talk, now.

“Yeah… I don’t even remember her,” he admits, bitterly. “I was born in winter, and we didn’t
have much, so mom had to have a home birth. There were complications that no one warned
them about and a few weeks after giving birth to me, she died. All I know about her is what
I’ve been told and the pictures I’ve seen, but it’s not much, because my father always blamed
me for what happened, and barely spoke about her… Well, our relationship wasn’t great,
anyway, so it’s not like we spoke much about anything at all. At first, my mom’s side of the
family took care of me while dad mourned… which basically meant getting drunk and
forgetting that there was a baby in the house at all. But, years went by and they decided that I
was old enough and that dad had enough time to recover… but he never did. Never gave a
fuck about me, and if we had food at the table every night was a miracle, because he always
spent all the money he had on booze. Most of the time, I had to take other people’s food or
allowances to make sure that I ate something at all. I… I guess that’s why I did that to you. It
wasn’t the best childhood, but I made it, and that’s what matters.”

“Do you still talk to your father?” Jeongguk asks, almost cautiously.

“I haven’t seen or talked to him in years. For all I know, he could’ve passed out in his own
vomit one night and no one would know,” Taehyung says and silence follows. Maybe such a
heavy topic shouldn’t have been approached that lightly, but at least he’s glad he’s talked
about it. He’s glad Jeongguk knows.

“I’m sorry, hyung,” Jeongguk says eventually. “I bet your mother would be proud of the man
you’ve became despite the cards you were dealt.” And, for some reason, that hits him harder
than it should.

He’s always thought there was no one in the world that he had to please anymore. No one
that he had to make proud or anything, only himself. He raised himself and wanted to prove
the world wrong, but Jeongguk is right. He hopes that his mother is proud of him even if no
one else is.

“Thank you, Guk, that means a lot,” Taehyung says, and he means every word. They keep
drinking and, thankfully, the topic changes to something lighter, but the truth is that
Taehyung’s heart remains warm from Jeongguk’s words even after they order another round.

“So, tell me, how is it having two young siblings and living with your mother affect your
dating life?” Taehyung feels bold enough to ask after their fifth beer. His vision is starting to
blur, which is never a good sign.

Good thing they decided to go to a bar close to their apartment so they don’t have to drive.

“Well, as you can imagine, it fucking sucks,” Jeongguk laughs loudly. Taehyung likes his
laugh, it makes him glow. “Not that I have much time for it either, but if I ever do, I go to
their place instead.”

“Uh… their, huh?” Taehyung asks, interested. “Very inclusive of you.”

“Well, I’m bi, so,” Jeongguk chuckles, and something flutters in Taehyung’s stomach.

“Cheers to that, then,” he clicks the necks of their bottles before he takes it to his lips, and for
some reason, his eyes stare at Jeongguk’s own and he watches the way he swallows his beer.

“Should we head back? I feel like you can’t hold your alcohol and I wouldn’t really want to
clean up your mess if you throw up,” Jeongguk suggests.

“Hey! Just because my dad was a drunkard doesn’t mean I am! I can hold my beers just
fine!” Taehyung defends himself, chuckling. “But yeah, I’m a bit tipsy already, so we can go,
if you want. This was fun, though! Are you glad I convinced you to go out and leave your
studies for a bit?”

“You didn’t really need much to convince me, though,” Jeongguk points out, and Taehyung
knows it’s true. “But yeah, I had fun. I… I guess starting fresh wasn’t so bad, after all.”
Taehyung can’t help but smile at the younger’s words, feeling like they’re going in the right
direction now.

“Alright, let me pick up the tab. My treat,” Taehyung says as he heads to pay.

“Oh, hyung, you don’t have to—“

“Let me. Come on, I worked my ass off last week to get some extra money, plus, your mom
paid me, too, so,” he shrugs.

“Fine… thanks,” Jeongguk says, and he almost sounds shy as he says it.

Taehyung picks up the tab and they start heading outside, but Jeongguk was right, and
Taehyung cannot really hold himself straight.

“Come here before you trip and fall on your face, hyung,” Jeongguk chuckles, allowing him
to get on his back.

Taehyung tells him that there’s no need, that he can most definitely walk, but as soon as he
wraps his body around Jeongguk’s he shuts up. He’s fine here, actually. He likes this much
better.

They laugh all the way back, and Taehyung’s pretty sure that they must be bothering the rich
people that live around the area, but oh, well. Karma.

“Alright, we made it,” Jeongguk says, finally putting him down once they make it to the
building, but Taehyung still stumbles when he gets down, holding Jeongguk’s shirt to keep
himself straight and pulling him toward him until they’re pressed together so much that
Taehyung feels the youngest breath against his lips.
“S—Sorry,” Taehyung gulps, letting go of him and taking a step back, licking his lips,
suddenly dry for some reason.

“No problem,” Jeongguk says, clearing his throat. “Come on, it’s late.” And they both start
walking to the elevator. It’s so late that Mr. Yoo isn’t there anymore, and Taehyung smiles at
the thought of the old man catching up on his drama. He wonders if the main couple
confessed already or if they’re still pining.

Jeongguk presses the button to their floor and the doors close, leaving them alone, standing
so close to each other. Taehyung leans against the glass on the back, hands on the rail there,
and it’s involuntarily that his fingers find Jeongguk’s. Their heads turn at the same time, and
Taehyung wants to pull back his hand, but he doesn’t.

He doesn’t because the electricity running through them with one mere touch and a look that
Taehyung doesn’t dare pull back from this.

Whatever this is.

The elevator chimes, announcing that they’ve made it to their floor.

But, when the doors open, they don’t move, still staring at each other.

And Taehyung isn’t sure who moves first, who turns to face the other first, and who brings
the other closer first, but what he knows is that the rest of the world vanishes from sight as
soon as their lips collide.

The elevator chimes again, signaling that it’s about to close, but they both stretch their arms
to stop the doors from closing, stumbling outside and trying to get to the apartment.

“What are we—“ Taehyung starts saying.

“Shut up,” Jeongguk says, kissing him shut again as he opens the door, pulling them both
inside.

And if that’s how Jeongguk is going to shut him up, then Taehyung doesn’t mind much.

Taehyung’s fingers comb through Jeongguk’s long strands, pulling slightly to pull back and
take his lips down his neck, thrilling in the way the youngest hums.

“Come here,” Jeongguk says, hooking his arms under Taehyung’s thighs and making him
jump until the older boy wraps his legs around Jeongguk’s waist.

“Fuck,” Taehyung whispers when he feels Jeongguk pressed against him.

Jeongguk starts walking then, making their way through the hallway, and walks into
Taehyung’s room.

“My bed?” Taehyung asks, and Jeongguk nods, finding his lips again, allowing his tongue to
push past Taehyung’s lips until it wraps around his.
Taehyung feels his defenses crumble if there were any left at all.

“This room is closer,” the younger one explains before he drops Taehyung in bed, climbing
on top of him and turning him around, kissing his neck and pressing his crotch against
Taehyung’s ass.

“It’s so unfair, hyung. It was so hard to hate you when you look like a dream. You’re literally
the devil.”

“Well, that’s mean,” Taehyung chuckles, turning around enough to look at him. “But that’s
good to know,” and Taehyung lifts his hips from the bed, pushing harder against Jeongguk
and smiling at the moan the youngest lets out. “Should we make the most of the empty
apartment, Guk? Because I want you so bad it’s fucking crazy,” Taehyung admits, the alcohol
loosening his tongue.

Jeongguk growls in response, diving down to capture his lips again as he starts to sneak his
hands under Taehyung’s body to find the zip of his pants to start pushing them lower.

“We probably shouldn’t, right?” Jeongguk asks, removing his own shirt. Taehyung tries his
best not to drool on his sheets.

“Probably. I kinda don’t give a fuck right now, though,” Taehyung shrugs. It’s true. Whatever
this is might haunt them in the morning, might be the biggest mistake they both have ever
made, but as Jeongguk pulls down his briefs, he doesn’t care.

As Jeongguk buries his nose in Taehyung’s ass, tongue peaking through his barrier, he
doesn’t care.

When Taehyung’s fists hurt from how hard they’re grabbing the sheets as Jeongguk opens
him up, he doesn’t care.

“I’ll be right back,” Jeongguk says, then, leaving Taehyung naked and alone on his bed, and
for a second, Taehyung thinks this might be the worst torture ever. Is he getting back at him
for everything he did to him as kids? “Okay, sorry, I forgot where I had these,” he shakes the
condoms and drops them on the bed, climbing back on top of him and pressing him back
against the bed.

“Like this?” Taehyung asks, turning enough to look at him. “Hands and knees?”

“Hands and knees,” Jeongguk nods, removing his own briefs, and Taehyung salivates at the
sight of his leaking cock. So bothered just by eating Taehyung out.

Taehyung wishes he could suck him off.

Maybe later.

They have all night, after all.

Taehyung barely has time to register what’s happening before Jeongguk thrusts hard into him,
his arms giving in on him and making him fall on his face, back arched.
“Fuck, Guk,” he moans, biting his lip, trying to hold himself back up. He feels Jeongguk’s
strong hands on his hips, hard enough that maybe he’ll even have bruises in the morning.

“So… tight, shit,” Jeongguk mumbles, scooting a bit closer and pulling out before he thrusts
back in. Hard.

And Taehyung thought that maybe he wouldn’t be into hate-sex like this, even if they don’t
really hate each other anymore. But he can feel all the pent-up feelings in every thrust
Jeongguk gives, and he keeps moaning every time.

Taehyung’s entire body has given up, he can’t hold himself up from how good it feels, how
fast and rough Jeongguk’s fucking into him.

“What, are you taking out all your anger on me now, Gukie?” Taehyung asks, and maybe
being a brat will bite him in the ass, or maybe it will make Jeongguk fuck him harder, and he
kind of wouldn’t mind that.

“Shut the fuck up,” Jeongguk says, pushing him harder against the bed and mercilessly
fucking into him, hitting that sweet spot that has Taehyung seeing stars as he reaches his
limit, screaming loud enough that he’s sure the entire city is wide awake now because of
him.

Jeongguk keeps fucking into him as Taehyung spills on his sheets, his cock pressed in
between his body and the mattress, untouched.

“Fuck, I’m close,” Jeongguk announces, but although Taehyung’s enjoying the rough thrusts,
he’s a bit oversensitive, so he slaps Jeongguk’s hands away from his waist to pull him out.
“Wh—“

“Fuck my throat instead,” Taehyung says, turning around and removing the condom,
throwing it on the floor before he wraps his lips around Jeongguk’s cock instead, without a
warning.

The warmth of his mouth makes Jeongguk’s legs shake as Taehyung slowly sinks in until the
head of Jeongguk’s cock hits the back of his throat.

“Are you sure?” Jeongguk asks this time as if he was scared of hurting him now as if he
wasn’t pounding into him as if he was a toy. Taehyung just nods and closes his eyes as
Jeongguk’s hands hold Taehyung’s face still as he starts to snap his hips forward.

It doesn’t take much for Jeongguk to spill down Taehyung’s throat, and the older boy thinks
that the fact that he didn’t pull away when Jeongguk warned him that he was about to come is
what drove him over the edge.

Taehyung swallows every bit of it, pulling away slowly and jerking him off to get the last
drops off him, and Jeongguk collapses on the bed next to him, completely spent.

Taehyung isn’t much better, and he barely registers when Jeongguk moves them both to lay
in bed properly, covering Taehyung’s body with the duvet.
He’s not sure if the younger boy stays or not.

He has no strength to stop him.

 Chapter 6

Taehyung wakes up feeling sore all over. He groans as he shifts in bed, trying to find a more
comfortable position, but laying on his back is not a vibe, and his front is…

His eyes shoot open when he realizes that he’s naked, and it all starts coming back to him,
then.

What happened last night.

“Shit,” he says, turning around and his eyes opening even wider when he sees Jeongguk
asleep and still naked next to him. “Shit, shit, shit,” he whispers, covering his body more with
the duvet as if that somehow could turn back time and fix what happened last night.

Jeongguk looks so peaceful, though. His hair falls around his face as he lies on his stomach,
his bare back wide enough that Taehyung wants to leave some kisses along his skin.

They really had sex last night.

And Taehyung’s never really been one to regret his one-night stands before, especially when
they felt as good as they did last night, but even he can admit that what they did was a
mistake. It could overcomplicate things right when they were going well so far.

God, but it was so good .

Taehyung bites his lip as he continues to watch Jeongguk sleep, feeling a bit like a creep for
doing that, but it also makes him feel slightly warm to know that the younger boy stayed
when he didn’t have to. After all, his room was a few steps away.

Taehyung is about to get up when he suddenly hears the door and panics.

“Fuck,” he says, turning to look at Jeongguk as he hears the sound of the kids.

He wasn’t expecting them to be back this soon. He thought they were going to arrive in the
afternoon. “Jeongguk, get up,” he says, pretty much pushing him out of the bed, startling him
awake.

“What the fuck—?” Jeongguk says, but Taehyung shushes him.

“Your family’s back,” and he sees the panic on Jeongguk’s face as everything dawns on him.

“Shit,” Jeongguk mutters as he gets up as fast as he can and picks up his clothes from the
floor, rushing outside of Taehyung’s room and probably heading to his before they see him.

Taehyung feels a bit silly at the whole situation, but he’s still naked in his bed, and he decides
it’s best to wear some clothes just in case the kids decide to stumble into his room the way
they did last week because that would not be fun.
In fact, he heads to the bathroom to have a shower while he lets the room ventilate.

He should also change the sheets, though.

What were they even thinking?

If Taehyung thought things were going to be awkward with Jeongguk after what happened,
he didn’t even imagine how right he would be.

It’s weird because the younger boy pretty much avoids him all day. They’ve only seen each
other at meal times, and although Jeongguk claims that it’s because he’s studying, Taehyung
knows that’s bullshit.

“So, what did you guys do yesterday?” Jeongguk’s mother asks and Taehyung chokes on the
food. “Oh, dear, be careful!” She says, worried.

“Sorry, wrong pipe,” Taehyung says, looking at Jeongguk.

“We, uh— I studied, hyung went shopping, and then we went out for dinner,” Jeongguk says.
Taehyung almost thought he was gonna omit the last part altogether.

“That’s lovely! It’s nice to see you guys getting along better now,” she smiles. If only she
knew…

“How was the birthday?” Jeongguk asks this time, swiftly changing topics.

“It was alright. The kids had a lot of fun with their cousins, as you know,” she chuckles.
Jeongguk showed Taehyung a few pictures that his mother sent him last night, and they
seemed to be having the time of their lives. “They asked about you a lot, though.”

“I bet they did,” Jeongguk chuckles. “I thought you guys would arrive later today, though.
Didn’t expect you to be here when I woke up this morning.”

“Yeah, the plan was to come after lunch, but Joohyun got a call last night and he had to be in
the city first thing in the morning, so it was either he dropped us back early or we ordered a
taxi all the way back, so…” Jeongguk nods as if that’s something he’s used to.

“I’m glad it went well, though. You deserved a break as well,” Taehyungs adds, making the
woman smile.

The kids went to bed a few hours ago, probably exhausted from the entire weekend and from
waking up early this morning, so it’s just the three of them.

“I’m gonna head to bed now, boys,” she says standing up, and taking her plate to the kitchen.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, alright?” She heads to drop a kiss on top of her son’s head and smiles
at Taehyung from there. “Good night.”

“Good night,” they both say at the same time, and it’s not until the door closes behind her that
Jeongguk stands up.

“Are you going to ignore me forever now?” Taehyung asks as he follows him with his eyes.

“Can we… not do this right now?” Jeongguk whispers. Taehyung knows there’s no way that
his mother can hear them, so he rolls his eyes.

“When do you want to do it, then? Because you’ve been avoiding me all day,” Taehyung
stands up.

“I’ve been studying!” He defends himself.

“Bullshit,” Taehyung chuckles. “I know that it was a mistake, alright? We were both aware of
it last night, but we don’t have to make it weird, now! Yes, it happened. Yes, it probably
shouldn’t have, but… I don’t wanna let that come between what we were building,”
Taehyung says, but it’s hard to mean it when Jeongguk is looking at him like that.

“It can’t happen again,” Jeongguk says, but it feels as if they’re somehow gravitating closer
to each other.

“I know,” Taehyung says, whispering almost against his lips now. “It can’t, it would be a
mistake.”

“Yeah,” Jeongguk nods and brushes his nose against Taehyung.

There’s a sound of a door being open down the hallway that makes them pull away so fast
that Taehyung almost knocks down a chair.

Seems like one of the kids went to the bathroom, and Taehyung lets out a sigh, grabbing the
edge of the table to keep himself steady.

He sees Jeongguk from the corner of his eye head to the kitchen to finish cleaning up dinner,
and he follows. Being away from the hallway means that they’re shielded from any prying
eyes that might see them. So, when Jeongguk is by the sink, Taehyung presses his entire body
against him.

“Hyung… stop, we’re playing a dangerous game, here,” Jeongguk mutters.

“Do you actually want me to stop?” Taehyung asks in the youngest’s ear, his tongue playing
with the hoops that adorn it.

Jeongguk doesn’t grace him with a reply, though. Instead, he turns around and captures his
lips with his own in a kiss that’s more desperate than anything else.

And it riles Taehyung up so much that he has to physically pull himself back from him before
he does something inappropriate like getting on his knees in the kitchen.
“That’s what I thought,” Taehyung says as he licks his lips and walks back.

“We’re playing with fire, hyung.”

“Wouldn’t mind getting burned with you, Jeongguk,” is the last thing Taehyung says before
he turns on his heels and starts heading to his room.

He’s smiling like a fool as he tries to get his half-boner to disappear.

It’s Monday again, and the kids seem to be very much against going to school. Maybe it’s
because it seems to be a bit colder, or maybe it’s because they’ve had a very exciting
weekend, but Taehyung has to get them out of bed and drag them to the kitchen to have
breakfast.

“Come on, guys,” Taehyung sighs as he gives them their cereal. “Help me out a bit, yeah?”

“I think I’m sick,” Haneul says, and Taehyung just sighs.

“You’re not sick, princess,” but, just in case, he goes to check if she has a fever. She
obviously doesn’t. “You guys can go to sleep early today if you’re tired, alright? But now you
need to have breakfast and go to school.”

“But why do we have to go to school?” Haru asks. They’re ganging up against him.

“Because you need to learn new things!“ Taehyung smiles, trying to excite them, even though
he knows it’s useless.

“But you said you’re a teacher like Miss Park, why don’t you teach us here?” Haneul asks.

“Yeah! We don’t have to go to school,” Haru joins in, and Taehyung just sighs.

“I can’t teach you, guys. Besides, that’s not up to me, either. Come on. I’m gonna go get
changed and I hope you’re done with your breakfast when I come back, otherwise, we’ll be
late and we’ll all get in trouble.” After having dealt with the kids for a while, he knows that
getting in trouble is their worst nightmare, so as soon as he says that, they both start eating
their cereal quickly.

“Don’t eat too fast or your tummy will hurt,” Taehyung says before he heads back to his
room to get dressed.

He can’t help but bite his lip to hold back a smile when he sees the ghost of a bruise on his
hip where Jeongguk grabbed him the other night.

Thank God no one’s going to see that, and even if someone did, he could play it off as if he
hit himself with the edge of a table or something.
Wouldn’t be a first.

Once he gets dressed, he heads back to the kitchen and sees that they’ve both finished.

“Good boy and girl,” Taehyung smiles, messing their hair a little bit before he gathers their
bowls and leaves them on the sink. “Come on, let’s get you ready.”

Taehyung remembered that Haneul once asked him if he could braid her hair and he told her
that he didn’t know how to do it. He remembered while he was away, and for some reason, he
looked up tutorials on how to do it. He’s not very confident about how it’s going to look, but
he thinks that might make the little girl more excited to go to school after all.

“Should I braid your hair, princess?” Taehyung asks her once he’s helped her into her
uniform. She gasps, turns excitedly, and nods. Taehyung just giggles. “Alright, come here,
let’s see what I can do.” And the little girl sits on the floor in front of him.

Taehyung gets a hairbrush and starts to brush her hair, parting it in two sections and starting
to braid it carefully.

He fails a few times but, eventually, he’s satisfied with the outcome. They’re obviously not
the best-done braids in the world, but they will do. And the smile on Haneul before she hugs
Taehyung.

“Thank you!” She says, jumping out of the bathroom to show her brother.

“Can you do my hair too, hyung?” Haru asks, coming into the bathroom.

“Of course, buddy, come here,” Taehyung chuckles and starts to brush his hair as well.
There’s not much to work on with him, but he’d never want to make the boy feel left out.
“There you go. You like that?” He asks, and he nods.

“I look like Jeonggukie hyung!” He giggles and Taehyung notices that he does, with his hair
slightly off his face.

“Alright, enough with the beauty salon, we’re gonna be late, come on!” Taehyung says,
gathering both kids and heading outside to drop them off at school.

The smiles on their faces as they wave goodbye to Taehyung, showing their hairstyles off to
their friends makes the whole ride back home warm and fuzzy.

However, when Taehyung makes it home, the quietness of the apartment is inviting. He
knows Jeongguk is still there. He knows the younger boy probably should be up by now to go
to class, but by the way the whole place is exactly the same way Taehyung left it when he left
half an hour ago, he assumes the eldest of the siblings still hasn’t woken up.

Taehyung gives him a bit more time to get up on his own as he cleans up breakfast, but when
he checks the clock and sees it’s nearing half-past nine, he heads to the younger boy’s room.

And it’s so tempting to get in his bed as he sees he’s peacefully asleep on his stomach again.
“Guk, wake up,” he says instead, walking until he’s by his side, shaking him a little.

“Mhm,” the boy says, turning the other way. It makes Taehyung smile a little because he’s
acting the same way his siblings were this morning.

“Don’t you have class at ten on Mondays?” He asks, having gotten used to his schedule
already against his will. “It’s almost nine-thirty, come on.”

“Five more minutes,” he complains, covering his entire body with the duvet, and Taehyung
sighs.

“Sorry, no can do,” Taeheyng says before he starts pulling the covers off him, but, of course,
the younger boy is stronger, so it’s a bit of a challenge. “Come on—“ Taehyung’s starting to
say when suddenly, a hand grabs his arm and pulls from him until he’s on top of Jeongguk
now, the duvet still in between their bodies, but their faces are inches away.

Neither of them says anything, and they don’t move either, just stare at each other, eyes
darting down to their lips.

“This is your fault,” Jeeongguk says, making Taehyung arch his eyebrow.

“What is?” The elder boy asks, still not moving, still feeling how Jeongguk’s chest rises and
falls with every breath he takes.

“I’m gonna be late,” Jeongguk points out as if Taehyung wasn’t trying to avoid that
happening by waking him up.

“I literally woke you up so you wouldn—“ but the words die on his tongue when Jeongguk
presses their lips together again.

Taehyung gasps but quickly melts into it, allowing his lips to part when Jeongguk’s tongue
brushes against his lower lip.

He can tell the younger boy is still half asleep by how languid his movements are, but
Taehyung doesn’t mind. A lazy kiss is still hot when it’s from Jeongguk’s lips.

“I thought you said we shouldn’t do this,” Taehyung whispers against his lips before he
presses another kiss, trying his best to lift himself up enough not to crush Jeongguk under his
weight.

“Yeah, well, I’m not really awake enough to make responsible choices,” Jeongguk says,
turning them around and kissing him again, tangling both of them in between the duvet.

“You better don’t go around blaming me or ignoring me later, this is on you as much as it is
on me,” Taehyung says, finding a more comfortable position under him, running his fingers
through the younger boy’s hair and pulling slightly.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” he dives down again, his hands roaming around Taehyung’s body,
making him shiver under his touch. “We can talk about it later.” But Taehyung knows they
won’t.
They won’t talk about it.

Jeongguk eventually leaves for class and Taehyung knows he’s not making it to the first class
of the day, but as he lies on the younger’s bed, the taste of his lips still lingering on his
tongue, he can’t bring himself to feel too guilty.

It’s Taehyung’s first day back to work after his weekend off and things seem to be all over the
place. This is why he hardly ever takes a day off because it’s so obvious that they need him to
make sure everything is alright that it scares him to ever step back. He knows one day he’s
going to have to, though, once he finally gets a job as a teacher, but he can only hope that by
then he’ll have found someone to step into his shoes and make sure it doesn’t all go to hell as
soon as he walks out the door.

Even his boss told him that he missed Taehyung over the weekend, and those are big words.
He definitely should ask for a raise, but he’d rather not put himself in danger.

Surprisingly, it was in one of his breaks that he checks his phone and sees that one of the
people he reached out to when he was checking out apartments wrote back to him to let him
know that the place is still available if he’d like to go check it out. Of course, Taehyung
knows that they probably don’t mean it right away because it’s past ten at night when he sees
it, but he feels equally excited and sad about it.

He told Jeongguk that he was still going to be trying to find a place to stay just in case,
because, as they all know, Taehyung’s position in their family is temporary, and once
Jeongguk graduates, they most likely won’t be needing Taehyung anymore, so he’ll have to
move out.

The thought of saying goodbye to the family permanently hurts a little bit, but he just hopes
that now that he’s… friends with Jeongguk, he can at least go visit them from time to time.

The whole deal with Jeongguk is still a big question mark, though. Taehyung’s not sure
where they stand. What he does know is that any chance he gets, he might kiss the boy, just
because.

He feels like he’s in one of those novels where star-crossed lovers meet at the dead end of
night when their families aren’t aware so they can be together. Except that their families
would probably not care that they’re together in the first place, it’s just them that are too
scared to admit it.

Too scared of making things complicated.

Taehyung knew it was a bad idea from the start, but he still went with it. The words Jeongguk
told him that one night haunt him still, about how the kids have said goodbye to too many
people, and Taehyung doesn’t want to break their hearts. He knows maybe he’s getting a bit
ahead of himself thinking there’s something more going on between him and Jeongguk, but
for some reason, he doesn’t hate that thought at all.

“Good night, hyung!” One of the chefs from the restaurant says as he heads out. Taehyung, as
usual, is the last one out.

Tonight he technically could have left a few minutes ago, but he’s a bit caught up in his own
mind, trying to figure out how to deal with this situation. They really should talk about it. At
least to make sure that they’re on the same page regarding whatever this is.

“Good night,” Taehyung says back, gathering his stuff and getting ready to go back home. He
didn’t get to take the car today since, when he left, Jeongguk still wasn’t back from class,
which was weird. Maybe he got caught up or he had a project to do or something.

Miss Kang was there, though, but he didn’t want to ask for her car, so he just walked.

It’s a bit cold, but the chill breeze is nice against his skin. Taehyung closes his eyes, letting
the wind carry him back home. Or well, his temporary home, he supposes.

He doesn’t know what time it is when he gets home, but he knows waking up tomorrow
morning is gonna be a pain in the ass.

He makes his way through the hallway quietly and in the dark, already familiar with the place
enough not to need the light.

“You’re back,” he hears a voice that makes him jump and almost drop his bag on the floor.

“Fuck, what are you doing!?” Taehyung whispers, turning the light of his room on to see
Jeongguk leaning against the wall opposite his door.

“Waiting for you,” the younger says, pushing himself off the wall and walking to Taehyung,
holding his face between his hands and kissing him hard as he walks into the elder’s room
and closes the door behind him with his foot. “Couldn’t stop thinking about you all day,
fuck,” he whispers against Taehyung’s lips before he bites Taehyung’s lower lip into his
mouth.

“So you stayed up until ass o’clock?” Taehyung asks, pulling back enough.

“ Ass o’clock seems to be the only safe time where I can do this.” And he dives in again,
hands traveling down until they’re on Taehyung’s ass, pushing him closer until they’re
pressed together.

“Fuck, Guk, your mom is asleep in the room next to this one,” Taehyung tries to get through
to him.

“Then we’ll have to be really quiet, hyung,” he whispers against his lips again before he
kisses him deeply, their tongues brushing against each other, making Taehyung go weak in
the knees.
And once again, he’s aware that they shouldn’t be doing this, but Jeongguk’s lips on his feel
heavenly, and his touch as he gets his hand into Taehyung’s pants is tempting enough to
thrust his hips against it.

“And you said I was the devil,” Taehyung says, forehead pressed against Jeongguk’s shoulder
as the younger jerks him off. Taehyung has to bite his lip first and Jeongguk’s bare shoulder
second to keep himself from moaning out loud when he picks up the pace.

“Looks like I did turn out like you, after all,” Jeongguk smirks when Taehyung looks at him
and it’s the elder boy who pulls from the other this time for a kiss, pushing him down on the
bed and climbing on top of him to kiss him better, pulling his pants down and grinding
against the bulge in his briefs.

“Can you come like this, Jeonggukie?” Taehyung asks as he keeps pegging him, the friction
good but certainly not enough.

A bit of torture might do both of them some good for doing this.

“I’d rather do it in you, though,” he says, and it makes Taehyung reach over to cover his
mouth with his hand, which ends up being kissed and bitten by Jeongguk.

“Not tonight,” Taehyung shakes his head. He doesn’t want to risk it. He’s already having a
hard time holding back his moans just with this, he doesn’t think he can take much more.

“You’re mean,” Jeongguk says, pressing Taehyung’s body closer to him to amplify the
friction, and they both close their eyes at the same time, letting the pleasure run through
them.

“You’re the one that ambushed me at three in the morning because you were horny, it’s not
my fault,” Taehyung chuckles a bit, circling his hips and reaching in between their bodies to
get his hands into Jeongguk’s pants and releasing his cock as well, wrapping his fingers
around both their lengths and starting to plump them at the same time.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, hyung,” Jeongguk says, taking a pillow and covering his face to muffle his
noises against it, but Taehyung removes it in favor of kissing him instead. Taehyung’s hand
picks up the pace as they both quiet each other’s moans before they’re both spilling on
Jeongguk’s bare chest.

Taehyung ducks down and licks it off him before Jeongguk pulls him back down to kiss him
again, tasting both of them on his tongue.

“We really shouldn’t keep doing this,” Jeongguk sighs, forehead pressed against Taehyung’s
as he ducks his cock back in his briefs.

“Yeah, we really shouldn’t,” Taehyung says, climbing off him and finding his clothes again to
get dressed. “You also shouldn’t sleep here tonight,” Taehyung points out as he gets in bed
and shuffles closer to where Jeongguk is.

“Mhm, I probably shouldn’t,” Jeongguk says, making no effort to move at all.

Taehyung falls asleep before he can check if the younger left or not, but the warmth that he
feels through the night makes him guess that maybe what they should and should not be
doing isn’t that clear to them, after all.

It goes on like that for a while: Taehyung takes the kids to school and wakes up Jeongguk just
to end up under him, Jeongguk picks Taehyung up from work and they make out in the car,
Taehyung comes home from work to find Jeongguk in his room waiting for him, quick kisses
in the kitchen as Miss Kang puts the kids to sleep…

But they don’t talk about it. They don’t talk about the risks or where their head is at, they just
keep going.

Jeongguk comes to him whenever he’s sick of studying or frustrated, Taehyung ends up in his
room if one night he returns and the boy is still awake… It’s just become a habit, just as
hiding around has.

And Taehyung thinks that they’ve been so good at hiding it until he’s driving home one day
with the kids in the back and—

“Hyung?” Haru asks. Taehyung looks at him from the review mirror.

“Yeah? What is it, buddy?”

“Do you know where Jeongguk hyung was last night?” And Taehyung tries the panic not to
show on his face.

He knows where he was.

In his bed.

“What? Why?” Taehyung asks, trying to act cool even though he’s the farthest from it right
now, his whole entire body on fire at the thought that maybe they got caught doing something
they shouldn’t.

“I… I went to his room because I had a nightmare and he always lets me sleep with him
whenever I do… but he wasn’t there,” the little boy says. “I waited for a bit, but eventually
went to mommy’s room instead.”

Taehyung’s heart breaks at the thought of that, at how he selfishly kept Jeongguk in his bed
after their shenanigans and, due to that, Haru couldn’t get his nightmare knight to help him
sleep.

“I see. Maybe you just missed him, buddy. You know he’s really busy studying, so maybe he
went out for a walk or something to clear his head,” Taehyung says, hating that he’s lying.
But what else is he supposed to say?
“Yeah… maybe,” the boy says.

“He’s been really happy lately. Do you think he’s in love?” Haneul adds after a bit, and
Taehyung almost crashes the car at the words.

“Maybe! Should we ask him?” Haru asks his sister and Taehyung just wants to crawl into a
hole and disappear.

“Do you know anything, Taehyung?” Haneul asks him, excitedly.

“I—Um, it’s none of my business, really,” he nervously chuckles, trying to focus back on the
road as he makes it home. He needs this conversation to end before he combusts.

“I hope he is. He deserves someone to love him,” Haneul says and Taehyung catches the
smile on the little girl’s face as her twin brother nods.

The conversation seems to end there and Taehyung takes the opportunity to raise the volume
of the radio so that the kids can sing along and stop talking about Jeongguk and how
apparently he’s been happier lately and possibly in love.

The butterflies in Taehyung’s stomach at the thought are getting harder to control.

Taehyung spots Jeongguk’s car straight away even before he gets out of the restaurant after
his shift, the smile that spreads across his face too familiar to try and hide it.

Jeongguk is on his phone when Taehyung taps at the window so he unlocks the doors.

“Hey,” Taehyung smiles, getting in, and Jeongguk puts the phone down to look at him. “Have
you been waiting for long?”

“Not long. I’m already used to you staying after hours to do whatever the fuck it is that you
do in there,” Jeongguk chuckles as he leans forward, holding his face, and presses his lips
against Taehyung so sweetly that the elder boy almost melts. “How was it today?”

“Intense. Someone got sick and it was a bit of a mess,” Taehyung sighs. “It’s fine, though. At
least they tipped me for the trouble, so I got something extra from that,” he chuckles.

“Oh, wow, that… sucks,” Jeongguk says. “Not the tip part, of course. Just the part where you
had to clean someone else’s vomit to get it.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not my first and I doubt it’ll be my last,” Taehyung chuckles. “Let’s go? I’m
exhausted. Thanks for coming, though.”

“It was on my way anyway,” Jeongguk lies, but Taehyung just plays along.
“Right, I forgot you were in class at midnight, silly me,” Jeongguk laughs as he starts the car.

“Exactly,” he says. Taehyung just shakes his head and turns around to look at him.

He looks so cozy, wearing a white sweatshirt and some jeans, his reading glasses on making
him look… like a boyfriend , his mind supplies.

“Haru said something funny today,” Taehyung tells Jeongguk as he drives. “Well, not really
funny, but looks like we almost got caught.”

“What?!” Jeongguk almost hits the brakes to turn and look at him. Good thing there aren’t
many cars around at this hour.

“He… Apparently, he went into your room last night because he had a nightmare and you
weren’t there. He asked me if I knew where you’d gone,” the panic in Jeongguk’s eyes hurts
Taehyung just a little bit.

“And what did you say?” Jeongguk asks, and he sounds scared.

“What was I supposed to say? That you were naked in my bed? I told him I didn’t know, that
you probably went out on a walk to clear your head or something,” Jeongguk sighs relieved,
starting to drive again once the light turns green.

The silence grows heavy between them while Jeongguk keeps driving them back home.
Taehyung feels a weight on his chest as they get closer to home as if he’d rather Jeongguk
drive them around in circles just so they never got home.

But they do.

“We should be more careful,” Jeongguk says once he parks the car.

“Or maybe we should just stop,” Taehyung says instead, Jeongguk’s eyes darting upward to
find his.

“What?”

“I… I don’t know, it’s too risky to keep doing this. We still haven’t talked about what this
means and—“

“There’s no need to talk when we’re both on the same page! We clearly want the same
thing!” Jeongguk says.

“Do we, though?” Taehyung asks. “Because I wouldn’t mind kissing you in front of
everyone, except I know that’s not what you want. Except I know that would be
unprofessional and I don’t want to hurt the kids with it.”

“What, are you a mind-reader, now?” Jeongguk laughs. “How can you know what I want?”

“Because you always come to find me whenever the lights are off, whenever there’s no one
else around, whenever nobody can see us. You even make sure none of my coworkers see
you, Jeongguk. It hurts a little bit.”

“I— You do the same thing, hyung! Coming into my room after you’ve dropped the kids,
slipping into my bed to wait as I finish studying at night… We’re both trying to keep this
secret.”

Taehyung doesn’t really have a response to that, because it’s true. They’re both doing this the
same way, but the thing is that Taehyung doesn't really want to keep doing it.

“You know what else the kids said today? They said that you looked happier lately. They said
that maybe you were in love and asked me if I knew something about it,” Jeongguk’s eyes are
unreadable then. “They said that you deserved someone that loved you.” For some reason,
Taehyung feels his eyes well up a little bit, but he bites his tongue.

“And what did you say?” Jeongguk asks, but Taehyung just chuckles.

“I’m going up,” Taehyung announces before he opens the door, not waiting for Jeongguk as
he heads to the elevator, not waiting for him when he gets on it or when he gets home.

He goes straight to his bed and closes the door, hoping the younger boy doesn’t walk in as he
lets his silent cry fill the room.

He hears the front door close and Jeongguk’s steps as he walks to his room, halting there as if
he was trying to decide whether to get in or not, but eventually doesn’t.

Taehyung wonders if he deserves someone to love him, as well.

He doesn’t need to wonder if Jeongguk deserves it, because he knows the answer. He also
knows that he already has someone that does.

He stares right back at Taehyung every time he looks in the mirror.

Taehyung wakes up feeling sad. His eyes feel heavy and he knows they must be swollen from
having cried himself to sleep the night before, but he hopes that it’s not noticeable enough
that someone will say something about it.

He’s not even sure what happened last night, doesn’t know why he and Jeongguk even
argued, but he feels shitty.

At least he’s working a double shift today which means he’ll barely be home and will give
himself a bit of time to think things through before he sees him again.

The kids are easy to deal with this morning, which Taehyung is glad about. He feels like one
inconvenience away from losing it, so if either of them decided not to wake up at all,
Taehyung might’ve started crying again.
“Are you alright?” Haneul asks Taehyung as they have breakfast. “You look… sad.” Looks
like it does show, then.

“I’m okay, just didn’t sleep too well,” Taehyung smiles at her, trying to not worry her.

“Did you have a nightmare as well?” Haru asks, and Taehyung just nods. That is much easier
for them to believe instead of he could feel how his heart was shattering inside his ribcage at
the thought of ruining something he never even had in the first place. “You should’ve gone to
Jeonggukie hyung! He’s the best at fighting off nightmares.”

Alas, that is the last thing Taehyung needed last night.

“Oh, don’t worry. I’m old enough now,” he chuckles as he finishes his tea in one gulp, even if
it scorches his way down his throat. “I’ll get your clothes ready, okay?” And he starts
walking to the twins’ bedroom as they finish their breakfast.

It’s as he walks past Jeongguk’s room that he’s surprised to see the door is open. Taehyung
frowns and almost pushes it open further, just to make sure he’s alright, but he doesn’t.

The kids eventually join him and he gets them dressed and ready.

“Can we say goodbye to hyung?” Haru asks as they make their way down the hallway.

“Hyung’s asleep, Haru, let him—“

“I’m not,” Jeongguk’s voice comes from the kitchen, startling Taehyung before he even sees
him.

Jeongguk in the morning is a sight for sure. A sight Taehyung’s grown incredibly fond of and
is starting to accept that is irresistible.

“Oh, um—Good morning,” Taehyung says, not even looking at him as the kids run to hug
their brother.

“I’ll go pick you guys up today, okay? Mom told me you have a dentist appointment,” both
kids groan and Taehyung is just now hearing about this.

“I can—“

“You work a double shift today, I got them,” Jeongguk points out and Taehyung is surprised
that he remembered. Neither of them dares to look at the other, but Taehyung’s eyes find
Haneul who looks at them with a frown.

“You two are being weird,” she points out.

“Come on, guys, we gotta go or we’ll be late,” Taehyung says, ignoring the little girl’s
worries and walking to the door.

He looks at Jeongguk then as the kids walk Taehyung’s way and he wishes he hadn’t.
He also looks like he hasn’t slept at all.

“Say bye, guys,” Taehyung says and they both wave at Jeongguk.

“Have a nice day and be good, alright?” Jeongguk tells the kids. “You too, hyung.”

“Yeah, thanks. Have a good day as well,” Taehyung says before they leave. His heart feels
like it’s stuck in his throat how hard he feels his pulse running there.

If, when he drops the kids off, Taehyung makes a few rounds around the block to make time
for Jeongguk to go to class so that they don’t run into each other again, no one needs to
know.

He feels like they’re back on square one, except the feelings are the opposite.

After all, there’s a thin line between love and hate.

And they seem to be specialists in crossing and threading between those.

Even though Taehyung knew he could’ve gone home in between his shifts to rest a bit, he
doesn’t. He decides to go visit the apartment that he got offered a while ago after confirming
that it was still available. Just in case. Because, after last night, Taehyung feels like now more
than ever he should be looking for a plan B just in case from one minute to the next, he finds
himself out on the street again.

The place is close enough to the restaurant to make it convenient, but also close enough to
college that Taehyung’s pretty sure all his neighbors will be college students, which isn’t bad
if you’re not someone that needs to wake up early to work.

The place is also… very small, but Taehyung is aware that he can’t really look for much more
than this with the amount of money he has and the rent he selected.

And, deep down, Taehyung knows he wouldn’t mind as much if he wasn’t comparing it to the
life he’s gotten used to even since he started working with the family, because this place isn’t
much smaller than his old apartment was.

“So, what do you say?” The guy who contacted Taehyung asks. “Are you interested?” And
Taehyung knows that he should say ‘yes’ , just to have a safety net, but that’s not what he
says.

“I’ll let you know,” Taehyung smiles. “Thank you so much for allowing me to come,
though!”

“Of course, no problem. You have my number, but I must warn you that if you take too long,
maybe it won’t be available anymore,” the guy warns him, and Taehyung is aware of this, but
it still doesn’t make him say yes.

“I know. Can you please inform me if it gets taken off the market before I get back to you?”
Taehyung asks, and the guy nods. “Perfect, thank you.”

Taehyung has to go down four flights of stairs because apparently the elevator is broken,
which is already a con on the mental list Taehyung made since he came here. There are many
cons and not that many pros, which might be the reason why he said no.

Another reason has a bunny smile and bright eyes, but he’s trying not to think about it.

Taehyung heads back to the restaurant and checks his phone, seeing he has a text from
Jeongguk and his heart skips a beat when he sees it.

Why is he texting him out of nowhere? Did something happen?

When he opens the text, he sees that it’s a picture of Haneul and Haru with their mouths open
wide, showing him their teeth.

He remembers then that they had a dentist appointment and he smiles at the sight of the kids,
texting back:

Taehyung:

Hope it goes well!!

Unfortunately, he starts scrolling through their chat, and, even though they don’t really text
much, they somehow developed a secret code, and he remembers what each of those texts led
to, and his heart hurts a little, so he puts back his phone and decides to focus on work again.

It’s safer that way.

The last thing Taehyung needs when he gets home is to find Jeongguk in the kitchen having a
snack.

He almost leaves again before the younger one notices that he’s back, but that would be
stupid.

This whole situation is dumb, and Taehyung knows that he should just forget about it
altogether, even if the ghost of his lips still haunts him.
“Hey,” Jeongguk says, so Taehyung doesn’t really get the chance to run away.

“Hi,” Taehyung says back, biting his lip. “What are you doing up?”

“What do you think?” Jeongguk asks, and Taehyung chuckles.

“Studying?”

“Think again,” but Taehyung doesn’t say anything. “I was waiting for you.”

“Well, here I am,” he says, taking a few steps forward, still keeping the distance. The silence
drags between them for a few seconds before Jeongguk breaks it.

“I’m sorry,” Jeongguk says, surprising Taehyung.

“For what? Both of us are to blame for this. Both of us decided to just… ignore all the
warnings until it blew up in our faces, even if we’ve been lucky enough that it hasn’t,”
Taehyung says.

“Not… not because of that.” And that makes Taehyung frown. “Because I made you think I
didn’t want you.”

“W—What?”

“You know, it’s funny. Never in a million years did I think that I’d be doing this, especially
not to you at two in the morning, but I guess I don’t have a choice.” Jeongguk stands up then
and starts walking to Taehyung, who almost wants to walk back and away, but is frozen in the
spot. “I know you’ve had a hard life, and I know maybe you don’t really know what love is. I
guess if you were more familiar with it, you would’ve noticed before that everything I did
was because I—“ Jeongguk gulps. “The kids were right, devilishly smart as usual. I am in
love. With you. And the only reason why I kept hiding around and making sure we weren’t
caught wasn’t because I was—ashamed or whatever, and I’m sorry if it felt like that at any
point. I just didn’t want you to be uncomfortable here, and I didn’t want to get the kids’ hopes
up because I know they adore you, and if something were to happen, it would shatter them. I
was scared, fuck, I am scared. I just… I want to keep doing what we were doing, pick you up
when you finish work late, have you wrapped around my back as I finish studying, playing
nurses with the kids…” he’s face to face with Taehyung right now. “Fucking you until the sun
rises and my name is the only thing falling from your lips,” he whispers against Taehyung’s
lips. “And making love to you until the moon returns.”

Taehyung closes his eyes and lets Jeongguk’s words linger on his tongue. “I want to hold
your hand, I want you to wake up by my side every day without worrying that someone
might come in and find out. I want all of that, too, hyung. I’m sorry you thought I didn’t.”

“Do you mean that?” Taehyung asks, too scared. Not believing that he deserves all of that.
“Do you mean that after everything I’ve done to you? After—“ Taehyung gulps, looking
down, but Jeongguk lifts his chin to meet his eyes.
“I do,” he nods. “You said it yourself, mistakes make us grow, and you’ve grown up to be… a
great man, hyung. You were right. Now, can I please kiss you?” Jeongguk asks, making
Taehyung's knees shake a little bit.

“What about the kids? And your mom? What if they d—“

“They already know,” and Taehyung’s eyes open wide. “I told them how I felt, I asked my
mother if she… if she thought it wasn’t a good idea to tell the kids, but she just said she was
happy for me. I—I didn’t tell them everything, though. Just how I felt. The ball’s in your
court now, hyung. Your choice.”

Taehyung looks at him, then, at the boy that’s been brightening up his days and his nights for
the past few weeks, at the boy who, a few months ago, hated him so much that he punched
him at first sight, at the boy who he terrorized as kids because he brought to school his
favorite snacks. The boy who, despite all that, decided that Taehyung was worth loving.

And maybe in the past Taehyung had made sure to not rely on anyone, knowing full well that
most of the time people disappoint you, but something about Jeongguk feels different. He’s
right, Taehyung’s never really known what love is or even feels like. But maybe the warm
feeling in his chest and the way the world seems a bit brighter every time Jeongguk smiles is
close to it.

“Hyung—“ Jeongguk is about to beg again, but Taehyung doesn’t give him the chance. He
holds his face with both hands and kisses his lips shut. Jeongguk seems to relax, then, as if all
his tension evaporated with just one kiss.

The younger boy’s hands find Taehyung’s waist and hold him there as their lips part to allow
their tongues to reunite.

Eventually, Taehyung pulls back, resting his forehead against Jeongguk’s, taking a deep
breath and smiling when he licks his lips and tastes Jeongguk’s strawberry lip balm that he
bought because he knew Taehyung liked it.

“Will you show me what love is, then?” Taehyung asks in a whisper.

“If you let me,” Jeongguk replies, and Taehyung’s smile grows when he nods. “Will you love
me, too?” Jeongguk asks.

“Oh, baby, I already do.”

When they kiss this time, it feels different. Jeongguk’s touch is gentle against his skin, and
Taehyung’s fingers run through his hair smoothly, guiding his head so he has better access.
They make their way to Taehyung’s room, closing and locking the door behind them before
they fall on the bed, their kisses and the quiet that wraps around them like a blanket are the
only thing that can be heard in the dead of night.

And as they hold each other’s hands, and Jeongguk buried deep in Taehyung as they whisper
each other’s names right against their lips, love paints the world in starlight.
They should have known that telling the kids would not be as easy as they thought. Mostly
because they don’t get the chance to.

“Are you two in love?” Haneul asks as they have breakfast the next day because, of course,
Jeongguk woke up when Taehyung did. Looks like he can sleep through his alarm but he
won’t sleep through Taehyung’s kisses. Good to know.

Jeongguk chokes on his coffee, and Taehyung almost drops the kids’ cereal.

“What?” Jeongguk asks after he’s finished coughing.

“Mommy says that boys can love boys and girls can love girls, too,” Haru says, and
Taehyung almost laughs at how cute they are.

“That’s right,” Taehyung says. “We, um—“ he turns to look at Jeongguk for support.

“Remember what I told you guys yesterday?” The older one of the siblings asks, and both
kids nod. “Well, it looks like Taehyung feels that way, too.” Haneul gasps and she stands on
her high chair.

“I knew it!” She says. “You guys are always looking at each other the way the Disney princes
and princesses do,” Taehyung can’t help but blush at that revelation.

“Could’ve warned me, love,” Taehyung chuckles.

“Does that mean that Taehyung is going to stay with us forever?” Haru asks, smiling widely,
and Taehyung fears that. He’s scared that he can’t promise that he will.

“Unless your brother changes his mind,” he smiles and turns to look at Jeongguk.

“You better not, hyung!” Haru points at him, making them both laugh.

“Alright, enough of that, you guys will be late for class, come on,” Jeongguk says, pushing
the box of cereal closer to them so they start eating.

Taehyung finds himself gravitating toward Jeongguk and holding his hand under the table.
They don’t need to hide anything anymore, but he likes this. He got used to doing it, it’s hard
to break a habit.

“I’m gonna go get their uniforms ready,” Taehyung informs him, and Jeongguk hums, turning
around to smile at him. “What?”

“Nothing, I just hope that you stay with us forever, too,” he admits, and Taehyung can’t fight
the urge to kiss him.
“Ewwww!” Haru says at the same time that his sister says awwwww . Taehyung breaks the
kiss with a smile looking at them both.

“Sorry, sorry,” and he’s about to leave but Jeongguk grabs his hand and pulls from him again
into his lap to kiss him again, making the little girl clap and the little boy covers his eyes.

It’s funny, they’re funny.

Taehyung also wishes he could stay here forever.

He hopes he can.

[EPILOGUE]

It’s a sunny summer day in Busan, the sound of the beach mixing with the screams of kids
playing around in the sand.

Taehyung smiles, looking around.

“Taehyung! Come on,” Haneul whines impatiently as she sits before him.

“Sorry, sorry, princess,” he chuckles, taking his hands back to her hair and starting to braid
it.

After months of practice, he’s now an expert on the matter. He even knows how to do
different kinds of braids and has the honor of being Haneul’s favorite hairdresser. He’s very
proud of that achievement.

“I’m gonna fall asleep if you keep doing that,” Jeongguk says from where he’s sitting, before
Haneul as the little girl plays with his now longer hair. It’s long enough that she’s got fond of
putting it in pigtails. Taehyung thinks it’s adorable and always encourages her to do it.

“Don’t fall asleep, hyung! What about me, then?” Haru asks from Jeongguk’s legs.

They’re all basically doing a hair-dressing train. The only hair that’s not being messed with is
Taehyung’s. At least for now.

“It’s true, sorry, buddy,” Jeongguk chuckles, trying to get Haru’s hair to stick up as if he had
devil horns.

“What are you doing?” A voice comes from their left followed by a burst of laughter.

“Mommy! We’re doing each other’s hair!” Haneul says excitedly as Miss Kang walks their
way with a towel.
They’ve come to visit Jeongguk’s grandparents for the summer, and although Taehyung
didn’t think he was going to get invited, none of the kids wanted to part from him, especially
the eldest one.

It’s been a good year for them. Jeongguk finally graduated from college with amazing results,
meaning all his all-nighters paid off, Miss Kang got another promotion that allowed her to
spend more time with the kids and, although it meant that technically they didn’t need
Taehyung anymore, he was still there pretty much every day.

They helped him find a better apartment than the ones he’d been eyeing and now lives in a
better spot. Plus, now he and Jeongguk have a place where they can get a bit of intimacy,
finally .

He also applied as a teacher to some schools and might start in the next school year, which is
exciting.

Things seem to finally be working for him.

“There you go, all done!” Taehyung says, smiling at the result. He made one big French
plaid, tying it at the end with Haneul’s favorite hair tie: one with a bunny in it.

“Thank you so much!” She says, hugging him tightly.

“Let’s go make a sand castle!” Haru proposes, then, getting the utensils necessary.

“You guys go ahead,” Jeongguk says, moving back until his head is resting on Taehyung’s
lap.

“Come on!” Haneul pouts.

“I’ll go with you guys,” Miss Kang takes pity on both of them, who have been keeping the
kids entertained for most of the morning while she went to the shops with their grandmother.

They seem happy that their mother is playing with them, and Jeongguk and Taehyung finally
get a moment alone.

“Are you gonna fall asleep on me now?” Taehyung asks, shielding Jeongguk from the sun.

“I mean, whose fault is it that I’m this tired?” Jeongguk asks, popping one eye open to glare
at Taehyung.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. It wasn’t me that walked into your shower,”
Taehyung shrugs.

“No, but it was you who showed me your pretty underwear and the fact that you’d been
wearing a plug the entire night when we were out for dinner.”

“Did I? Oops,” Taehyung chuckles, making his boyfriend turn around.

“You’re a menace,” Jeongguk says, but he still turns around and leaves a kiss on the inside of
Taehyung’s thigh.

“Yeah, you still love me, though,” Taehyung says, playing with one of his pigtails.

“Well, that depends on the day, really,” Taehyung gasps at that, making Jeongguk laugh, and
when he moves away so that Jeongguk’s head falls on the sand, he complains. “Nooo, come
back, I’m kidding,” Jeongguk says, sitting up.

“Right, of course, you were,” Taehyung shakes his head.

“I do love you, I love you so much,” Jeongguk says as if they were the easiest words to say.
They must be; if the amount of times they’ve told each other has anything to do with it.

Jeongguk decides to attack him, then, pushing him down until Taehyung’s the one on the
sand as Jeeongguk kisses him as he whispers I love you all over his skin.

And it’s true that Taehyung had never been loved before, that he’d never had a place to call
home where he felt safe and could go back to whenever he needed something, but as he looks
around now, with Jeongguk in his arms, with the sound of the kids laughing at the fact that
they’ve buried their mother in the sand, with the feeling that spreads across his chest when
Jeongguk finds his hand and kisses every single knuckle, Taehyung thinks this must be it.

He now understands why people say that home is where the heart is, and that sometimes our
real family is the one that we choose.

He’s never felt more at home than he did in the arms of his chosen family. In the arms of the
man that taught him what love was and that showed him what being loved felt like.

And oh , how he hopes that this feeling lasts forever.

How he hopes that he can watch the kids grow by his side, walk by these shores when they’re
older, and reminisce about the good old days.

If home is where the heart is, then his home will always be Jeongguk, because Taehyung
gave up his heart to him long before he admitted it.

He never regretted it, and never will.

End Notes

Thank you so, so, so much for reading! I truly hope you liked this. It was such a lovely
experience to write these characters and I just hope that you liked it as much. If you did,
please don't forget to leave kudos and let me know in the comments!!

Please drop by the Archive and comment to let the creator know if you enjoyed their work!