" />Chapter Text
one year later
Jeongguk’s in the groceries store, currently having an existential crisis, and he finds the strawberry looking vaguely familiar.
As a matter of fact, it feels like the red, juicy fruit is staring right back at him, so maybe he’s not just having an existential crisis; maybe he’s straight-up going batshit crazy now.
The thing is, Jeongguk has been in a funk for days, or weeks or months now, even. He hasn’t slept properly for God knows how long, and on top of that, he’s getting all these calls from Hoseok almost always at the most inopportune time because he’s just started seeing this girl and he never shuts up about her, so it’s all you have got to meet her, Guk, I think I’m in love! and that’s usually received with Jesus Christ, Hobi, I’m taking a fucking dump, will you give it a fucking rest?
There’s also Seokjin who’s no better because he keeps on calling Jeongguk in the middle of the goddamn night, wailing about how much he misses him, the road and the band, and for God’s sake hyung, it’s three in the fucking morning!
The band took an indefinite hiatus in October.
They didn’t make an official statement or anything at first because they just finished a whole intercontinental tour, but fans were curious about the new songs in the setlist and they all wanted to know when and where the next tour was gonna be.
Everyone in the band was mum about it, but then just two months after the North American tour, a fan video circulated on the internet, and even though it was blurry and the one holding the camera was very visibly shaking, it was clear as light as day that it was a drunk Yoongi gleefully screaming, not for another nine months at least! with a frantic-looking Jeongguk and Jimin pulling him down from the top of the table and a thoroughly unamused Hoseok in the background.
As it turned out, Jiwoo, Hoseok’s sister and Jimin and Yoongi’s surrogate, was already two months pregnant that October. It was a surprise to everybody, because they never mentioned anything about wanting to have a baby, nor having Hoseok’s sister as the surrogate. It turns out that they’ve been secretly planning for the past year, and Jiwoo was happy enough to offer.
The crappy video trended for a whole day, and it earned a still very hangover Yoongi a rightful thump in the head from Seokjin and Jimin, then followed by the tightest hug, and suddenly all five of them are hugging and jumping and laughing-crying from pure elation because that may not be how they wanted it to be announced to the world, but the cat’s finally out of the bag. It’s finally sinking in to everybody that Jiwoo’s fucking pregnant. They’re going to have a baby. Jimin and Yoongi, the fucking idiots, are going to be fathers.
Hoseok was catatonic for the whole day after learning the news, deeply torn between feeling utter disgust or pure elation. The latter wins, of course, but since then, he was a pain in Yoongi and Jimin’s asses about it, with all his the baby has a part of my genes, you should at the very least name it on my behalf to which all his friends, most especially Jeongguk, protested.
“No way. Genes doesn’t matter-”
“-I’m literally the child’s uncle, idiot. My blood runs through her veins-”
“-Her?”
“-and what even is the name Hoseok, really? They wouldn’t want their baby’s name to sound like they suck-”
“Yah, brat!” (That was Seokjin.)
“-Yoongs, Chim, listen guys, hear me out. Name the baby after me. He’ll be thankful one day that he’s named after a legend-”
“-Fuck off, no one wants to have a dick name-”
“-what the fuck?-”
“-yeah, fuck off, Jeon-cock!” (That was Seokjin again.)
The next few months were quite a roller coaster of a ride. Jeongguk feels silly now when he had thought that they’d have some sense of peace and quiet since the tour just ended, because boy was he wrong. Rumors started spreading about somebody being pregnant in the group (which was the most ridiculous thing, considering that ¾ of the members are gay with the capital G and all of them literally have penises with the capital P) (the theory that Jimin was the one pregnant was amusing only for the first few weeks) (Jeongguk and Hoseok and even Yoongi is still amused, to be honest, but they never joked about it lest they face the wrath of one tiny but very scary Park Jimin), and people started following them everywhere. It’s quite scary to learn the veracity of their fans’ capabilities to stalk just to confirm or deny the suspicions. Jeongguk still gets shivers whenever he thinks about it, particularly when it got to the point where people started following him back to the house, so much so that he had to hire extra security for a month.
The whole pregnancy had taken quite a toll on everybody, but on Yoongi, especially. Ever since they learned that Jiwoo is carrying, the three agreed to stay in one house, and she and Jimin instantly became attached to the hip, so much so that whatever Jiwoo was craving, for some bizarre reason, Jimin did, too, and whatever mood Jiwoo was in, Jimin perfectly reflected it. It was the most ridiculous thing, Yoongi had claimed once, and for a while he was convinced that Jimin was only doing that to fuck with him, but that thought flew out of the window when he once woke up in the middle of the night and found both Jiwoo and Jimin sitting on the kitchen floor in their matching pajamas, happily dipping canned pickles in a fucking Nutella jar. Yoongi swore he fell a little bit out of love for Jimin right then and there.
The point is Jiwoo and Jimin basically became one and the same person, and it didn’t help the fact that a not pregnant Jiwoo is already a force to be reckoned with, but a pregnant Jiwoo is just a pure nightmare.
Almost all the times they hung out the month after they all knew of the pregnancy was spent with Yoongi complaining (while Jimin’s in the bathroom, of course) (he doesn’t want to die before his first child is born) because Jiwoo was having all these very peculiar late night cravings, asking for goddamn pickled mangoes and marshmallows in the middle of the night, and of course Jimin was all for it, pushing Yoongi out of the house to get them. Those three Jimin-free minutes were all I know they’re just doing it to fuck with me guys, cravings happen at least at the end of the first trimester! and then Hoseok would snort and say, “How do you even know that?”, and Yoongi, with a haughty look on his face, retorted, “Because I read, Hoseok, you should try it sometime,” and Hoseok would be quick to say, “Oh yeah? Then why are you still a fucking idiot?” and then they’d roughhouse in the middle of the fucking living room until Jimin came back.
Jeongguk had figured that Yoongi was only grumpy (well, more so than the usual, anyway) because he was not allowed to smoke anymore - not when Jiwoo and Jimin (note: literally attached to the hip 24/7) are within the vicinity, at least, so on the fourth month of the pregnancy, he started calling them up instigating for an exclusive boys’ night out, and he thought he was so slick about it for the first three meetings, even arrogantly saying that Jimin thinks I’m visiting my cousin with three kids - Kwang Soo, you know him - to feel the environment, whatever the fuck that means. Well I am feeling something now, and it’s not a bad environment, not a bad environment at all, and then Jackson would high five him, but then on the fourth one, Jimin called and on loud speaker, he spoke with the gravest voice Jeongguk has ever heard, saying that if you don’t get your shit right soon, Min Yoongi, I swear to anything holy this baby will grow up with a single fucking father.
That sobered Yoongi right up. The short-lived exclusive boys’ night out ended soon after and never happened nor spoken of again.
Everyone was so involved in the pregnancy Jeongguk felt like he’s just stepped into the world of Three Men and a Baby without the actual baby. There were times when he had to step in for Yoongi and Jimin for monthly check-ups when the bastards were sick (for some reason, their ‘couple thing’ is getting sick almost always at the same time) but he’d rather be there doing that than when Hoseok had to step in for a Lamaze class. He wasn’t informed that it was a yoga day session, so he had to wear a borrowed spandex from one of the dads that was a bit tight on the crotch. Jiwoo never, even for once, forgot to remind her brother of that since then.
The actual giving birth was another story.
In hindsight, it was all Hoseok’s fault, because of course it was. He was the one who insisted on driving to Ulsan because he managed to get a contact from an infamous local bar which apparently manufactures the best craft beers in all South Korea peninsula, and it’s just perfect for Children’s Day, guys, come on! Jeongguk pointed out the obvious flaw of his logic, but he learned that a persuasive Hoseok is a powerful, powerful Hoseok.
It was him who managed to persuade Jeongguk into driving him, who in turn managed to pull Yoongi and Jimin into it, and of course Jiwoo who was then only a week before her due date refused to be left behind so she tagged along.
It was a fun road trip, albeit a long one, and they only had to pull over approximately twenty times for Jiwoo’s bathroom breaks. Everything was good, the sun was shining so bright in mid-May, they were all feeling refreshed, and the baby was still happily staying in Jiwoo’s stomach -
Until it wasn’t.
It was Jimin and Yoongi who woke Jeongguk up early the next day asking him to pick up the alcohol with them from the bar which was apparently still one town away from their hotel, and then out of nowhere, while they were still loading the crates of beer in the trunk, they received a call from a very frantic Hoseok to get your asses back here right fucking now there’s a baby coming out of Jiwoo holy shit holy shit holy motherfucking shit -
Hoseok was forced to bring his sister alone to the nearest hospital all by himself, and for some reason, the nurses could not understand a thing of what he was saying; apparently, they just assumed that he was the father, and he was trying so hard to remove himself from the delivery room but they were adamant that he stay and be there for moral support. Hoseok witnessed the whole thing, and when a frazzled Jimin, Yoongi and Jeongguk finally came to the hospital, the scene that welcomed them was a passed out Hoseok in the corner and a tiny human cradled in Jiwoo’s arms.
Safe to say that Hoseok was traumatized to the core, and thinking about all their shenanigans, Jeongguk decides to take it back. The pregnancy definitely took a toll on Hoseok the most.
And that was that.
Fast forward a couple of months and Hoseok is declaring that he has found himself the ‘future mother of his children’ Jimin is a father, and Yoongi who wears the most ridiculous statement t-shirts still wears the same shirts, only now with a baby sling carrier to cover it, and everything’s good and well with everyone, and then there’s Jeongguk who’s having an existential crisis while having a staring contest with a fucking strawberry of all things, and what has his life become, really?
Just then, Jeongguk vividly remembers that one particular time when Yoongi called him up at two in the morning asking where he could find sauerkraut and after the ‘why the fuck are you asking me?’ ‘because you’re the only freak I know who puts that shit on pizza’ banter and Yoongi still haven’t found the damn food anywhere after an hour, Jeongguk had finally revealed that his sauerkraut is homemade and then told Yoongi to just stop by his place and take his jar, and the rest of the phone call was Yoongi cursing him while on his way.
Opening his door with the jar of sauerkraut in his hand, Jeongguk was greeted by a sobbing Yoongi, and the night was spent consoling his hyung because I’m just so fucking tired, Guk-ah and Jeongguk would rub his back while saying, well, hyung, you should’ve cloaked the joker before you poked her, and he’d receive the deadliest glare with a that’s not how surrogacy works you dumb fuck, and also, never say that again because ew, but it’s okay because after that, he was sending a semi-calm Yoongi on his merry way.
That happened a couple more times with different cravings each, whether it be a durian or surstromming or fucking chicken’s feet, and every single time Yoongi will have a crying session for at least thirty minutes in Jeongguk’s living room, asking him why the fuck do I feel so drained when the baby’s not even here yet and I’m not even the one carrying, and Jeongguk had no answer at all, but thinking about it now, he wonders if what he’s been feeling at the moment is what Yoongi had been feeling then, and then he thinks that’s completely absurd because he doesn’t have a surrogate nor a seemingly pregnant boyfriend, but then again he has a Taehyung and Taehyung in a mood could definitely rival a pregnant Jiwoo (or Jimin) in a mood.
It would be a funny comparison and he’d laugh if he has the energy for it.
Jeongguk’s just tired, see, so fucking exhausted, and that’s saying something considering that he’s capable of doing a full two-hour back-to-back shows and still fuck Taehyung until he passes out in between. He feels so fucking delirious as he stands in the frozen aisle of the groceries store, and he’s staring at the last pack of strawberry in the counter for ten minutes? Ten years? Jeongguk has no idea and he honestly cannot give a fuck anymore.
All he can feel is the pain in his back similar to that he had felt on mornings when he used to spend the night sleeping on floors, the pounding of his head which has not relented for days now, and the seeping deliriousness for all the sleep he had lost because aside from Seokjin’s midnight shenanigans, there’s this tap tap tap from the bedroom ceiling which Jeongguk cannot for the life of him figure out the cause.
And, to make matters worse, he just argued with Taehyung over the phone again, and it feels like everything’s just going downhill, and has been for quite a while now.
Jeongguk cannot believe that it has come to this - just petty arguments over petty arguments. Right now, albeit the guilty feeling seeping through his bones, Jeongguk thinks that he made the right choice leaving him.
The phone call was half an hour ago, and Jeongguk is still stewing in his anger because Taehyung’s throwing it in his face again, with the usual well, if you’d just come back, you’d know - and Jeongguk is just so done with the conversation he hung up right then and there.
Jeongguk knows his husband like the back of his hand; he knows what makes him laugh, what makes his toes curl, and what irks him the most. In fact, he takes pride of being the ultimate expert to the fine specimen that is Jeon Taehyung, so he knows that there’d be a hell to pay for hanging up the phone when Taehyung was still talking, but he figures he’d deal with the aftermath later, right after he’s done figuring out why this particular strawberry seems to exist solely for the purpose of taunting him, bringing him back to that one fateful afternoon in sunny LA, when there were laughters and sticky kisses and old, bitter people complaining about this vulgar couple who’s just straight up licking each other on aisle eight and for a split second, Jeongguk feels slightly better as he goes down the memory lane.
That seems like lightyears away when it’s really only been a year, and God has it only been a year? Really?
Jeongguk swears he can still feel Taehyung’s tongue lapping over his whole face, and he can still remember the sweet, sweet smell permeating the air they shared. Even if a year has passed, he can still vividly hear the boom of their laughter mixed together inside the almost empty supermarket, and that was one hell of a day, really. Just how can he ever forget how risqué Taehyung was when he swallowed him whole in the bathroom of that restopub, an unsubtle act of conveying mine mine mine!, and how glorious and liberated he felt when he held hands with him while playing tourist in the City of Angels, and fucking hell - the onslaught of the memories is just killing him.
The point is, Jeongguk misses his husband so much and he cannot believe he’s on the verge of breaking down in the middle of the goddamn groceries store.
He can feel the tears starting to form in his eyes, and he just feels downright pathetic now, but then out of nowhere his train of thoughts and feelings is interrupted by this douchebag whose hand is now reaching over the pack of strawberries Jeongguk believes he’s just started to have an emotional and spiritual connection with and just no, no , no -
“No, no, no, that’s mine,” he prompts, highly agitated because how dare he take the pack, can’t he see Jeongguk’s having a moment with it?
“I don’t think so.”
And no, this is not happening, not this time, so Jeongguk blurts, “But that’s already spoken for!”
The douche doesn’t seem to like Jeongguk’s tone, so they started squabbling in aisle five of the groceries store, and it's a series of ‘I held it first!’, but ‘I’ve literally been putting it on my cart!’, and ‘No, you were literally just staring at it for fifteen minutes’, and Jeongguk seriously has had enough, so with all the urgency and a tinge bit of desperation that he could muster, he says, “Okay, dude, I need this, come on, man, please-” but then - “-I need this more, man, you don’t understand-” and Jeongguk just does not have time for this at all.
Jeongguk left the shop strawberry-less.
The store was only a nine-minute away from home by foot, and he refuses to go back with this kind of mood, so despite how he’s just dying to bury himself in the comfort of his duvet and sleep for years maybe, probably, definitely, Jeongguk decides right then and there to round the neighborhood, all the while contemplating his recent life decisions -
If he should’ve insisted more on the name Jungkook for Jimin and Yoongi’s new baby.
If he should’ve gotten more mad at the mattress place because I gave you the exact address - how in the world did you manage to get it to Cairo?
If it was a good decision that he’d worn a parka today - obviously not since he’s feeling overheated now.
If he fought more, if he should’ve fought more, if he did enough, if he was enough, if he should’ve pushed further for the ownership of the damn strawberries because it was obviously fucking spoken for already.
If it was the right decision to leave Taehyung and go back to Seoul alone . . .
Jeongguk stops from his walk so abruptly that he gets bumped and subsequently cursed by the harried-looking lady walking behind him in the process.
Such thought disappears in the back of his mind just as fast as it came, and Jeongguk finds himself releasing his first laugh of the day because of how extremely absurd that line of thinking was.
Of course it wasn’t a bad decision. It wasn’t a bad decision at all. In fact, it was one of the best decisions of Jeongguk’s life.
See, the thought of leaving Seoul felt like a pipe dream. Jeon Jeongguk is certifiably born and bred in South Korea. It’s where he lived all his life, where his whole family is, where he met all his friends, and it’s where he built his career from the ground. Jeongguk loves the climate so much, the beautiful mountains, the kind, comfortable vibe he gets from his fellow countrymen, and just the wholesome sense of tranquility of it all.
It’s also where he met Taehyung.
So see, Seoul has always been his home. It is home, but Jeongguk has come to learn, albeit late, that it isn’t.
And California isn’t, either.
The thing is, Jeongguk never came back to California, because that’s not where his home is.
His home is currently sitting on one of the barstools of the kitchen island in their new Chicago apartment with an apologetic look all over his face -
- and a very familiar pack of strawberries right in front of him.
Jeongguk and Taehyung hold each other’s gazes for a second, and then -
“I really needed it more,” Taehyung speaks first, and it was quiet, and years of being with this man makes it easier for Jeongguk to convey it as an apology, an I’m sorry for forgetting to buy the strawberries but you knew the store owner gives me the creeps, love.
It’s also an I’m sorry for shouting at you over the phone but if you had just let me finish speaking then, you’d know that if you’d just come back here, you would know that we don’t really need strawberries at all because apparently, there’s a whole pack of it in the freezer.
“I know, babe,” Jeongguk responds, and he knows Taehyung hears it as an I forgive you, baby, the store owner really is creepy, and I know we have extra strawberries; I just realized on the way back here that I bought a whole pack last week.
It is also an I’m sorry for walking out and leaving you earlier, love, but we really need the strawberries if you want to make a strawberry daiquiri and an I’m most especially sorry for hanging up on you; I know it’s one of your countless pet peeves, and lastly, a tiny plea of please don’t take the sex off the table again.
Jeongguk takes a good look at his husband then, his beautiful, lovely Taehyung, and he realizes that he looks just as exhausted as Jeongguk feels. That’s probably because Seo-joon has constantly been at his throat for weeks because his papers for the LLM program has not yet been finalized and the academic year starts on the first week of October, and on top of that, they have moved into their new apartment for a month now and they have only unpacked almost one-third of the boxes, corners of the flat still stacked high with random boxes containing miscellaneous items.
They have been sleeping on the lumpy, old mattress that the past owner of the house left because the delivery of the mattress they ordered was late since it’s in fucking Cairo, Illinois and how they managed to interchange that from Chicago, Illinois is beyond him.
They’ve been living off of takeouts like freaking college students because they cannot figure out how the stove works, and Taehyung is too apprehensive to let Jeongguk near it because it might explode and don’t give me that look, Jeon Jeongguk, you never know with these American appliances, okay? I’m not ready to be a widower - fucking stop laughing!
Jeongguk’s meeting new people left and right everyday for the past two weeks because he’s thinking of engaging in some sort of business and make himself useful while Taehyung takes his masters, and they’ve both been so busy it feels like he hasn’t seen his husband even if they fall in the same bed (lumpy mattress) every night, and it’s so ridiculous just how much he misses him right now when Taehyung’s here right in front of him, his pretty mouth already covered in sticky strawberry juice.
Jeongguk dares to think that this longing feeling he’s having at the moment could probably rival those many lonely nights way back in September when he just came back to Seoul without Taehyung.
Right after Jeongguk left America, Taehyung accepted the offered position, not because it’s more important than their marriage - of fucking course not - but because he’d be stupid not to. That’s what Jeongguk told himself and Taehyung when he came up with the decision back in New York that fateful night in September.
Jeongguk had chosen to respect Taehyung’s decision about not coming back to South Korea, and Taehyung had chosen to remain married to Jeongguk no matter what, but also I need to do this, Jeongguk, just to prove something for myself. I hope you understand, baby. I know you do.
And Jeongguk understands. Of course he does.
It was a tough pill to swallow, of course - finally realizing that while Jeongguk’s world swimmingly revolves around Taehyung, not everything is about Jeongguk in Taehyung’s.
And truly, he admires his husband for it; how ambitious of a person he is, and a fucking smart one at that, too. He’s so proud that Taehyung’s finally come to learn at the very least to like his profession, so much so that he’s willing to study again and earn a masteral degree a year later.
Jeongguk loves how Taehyung stood his ground and fought for what he wanted - because he knows what he wants now, and at the same time took a stand and adamantly refused to let his drive hinder his relationship with Jeongguk. In turn, Jeongguk adamantly refused to let fucking distance ruin his marriage.
He realized all this that same night he sang Taehyung that song back in New York. It was an abrupt decision, but Jeongguk knew for a long time then that it was the right thing to do, and at that crucial time in their relationship, to do the right thing is the only way for them to move forward.
Jeongguk has then decided that New York was more of beginnings than endings.
He will never forget how badly he was shaking right after the last show ended, but one touch from Taehyung calmed him right down. That night, they decided to skip the after party and went straight to Petrille’s, the dingy dive bar where it all started. There they finally talked, and it was probably the most serious and the most pivotal one they ever had. It was them who closed the place at two in the morning, and even after having what seemed to be the longest night of Jeongguk’s life, they chose to remain outside until sunrise.
At one moment, as they found themselves seated side by side on the grassy grounds of Central Park and it felt like Jeongguk’s chest had finally settled for once, he noticed Taehyung giving him a look he couldn’t decipher, and that was so unusual in itself that he had to ask, “What?”
Taehyung sighed heavily, pausing for a moment as if to brace himself, and with an absolutely blundered French accent, he delivered in English, “It’s just . . . it’s depressing, no? Now, the only thing we’re gonna think of is when we’re going to say goodbye tomorrow.”
And Jeongguk had to turn his face away from Taehyung just to contain what seemed to be the biggest smile that was trying to break out of his face. For a moment, he had to look up, clear his mind and just breathe. It was so bizarre thinking about the series of emotions that he went through that night, how heartbroken he was just a few hours ago because of this man, but it was also because of this very same man sitting beside him that Jeongguk’s heart felt like jumping out of his chest as he recited an excerpt of Before Sunrise.
Really, what a wonder one Jeon Taehyung could do to one Jeon Jeongguk.
Finally composing himself, Jeongguk dutifully recited back, “We can say goodbye now. Then we won’t worry about it in the morning.”
To act out the particular scene more faithfully, Jeongguk then grabbed Taehyung’s hands and stroked it the same way Jesse held Celine’s hands in the film.
“Now?”
“Say goodbye,” he urged.
“Bye!”
“Goodbye!”
“Au revoir!”
The way Taehyung had absolutely botched the French word pushed the release of the loudest laughs in their bellies which Jeongguk thinks could have easily awoken the whole Central Park at three in the morning.
When Taehyung proceeded to lie on the ground and said in a faux-dreamy voice, “This is a great morning,” Jeongguk easily agreed and quoted the same response in the film, “Do you think we’ll have others like this?”
And while they were both aware that they were still playing, it felt incredible how the sentiment served with a double meaning.
Jeongguk’s smile was so wide it was already painful when Taehyung derived away from the script and he said, “Of course.”
“Do you know what I want?” Taehyung asked a while later.
“What?”
“To be kissed.”
“Well, I can do that.”
And Jeongguk kissed Taehyung just as passionately as Jesse kissed Celine, maybe even more.
Taehyung pushed him off gently then, and Jeongguk knew right then and there what he was about to say, because they were already at the scene where Celine was trying to tell Jesse that they shouldn’t sleep together. So when Taehyung opened his mouth and said, “I have to say something stu-”
“Fuck, no.”
Then he pounced.
In the end, they didn’t get to reenact the scene. Turns out, Central Park is never ever empty, even at three in the morning, and while Jeongguk has a lawyer for a husband, he’s not keen on being charged with a crime in a foreign land and have ‘public lewdness’ attached to his semi-clean record.
It just so happened that that was not their last night together in America. Jeongguk had decided to stay back and spend a few more days in the city with Taehyung, and it was hands down one of the best days of his life.
When Jeongguk finally had to leave for South Korea, it was with a heavy heart, but a lighter one than when he first arrived in America for the tour.
They made their choices that night in New York, and it’s as simple as this: Jeongguk chose Taehyung, and Taehyung chose Jeongguk.
And when it came to it, he realized that he could do it after all - the long distance thing. They had already done it for a year, and they sure as hell could do it again, and this time, they’d do it right, too. So with the help of his friends, some LDR-related blogs on the internet, and an abundant Chicken Soup for the Soul books, Jeongguk managed to lessen the longing he felt as days went by. He took it minute per minute, because that was exactly what Taehyung told him as they parted in JFK Airport.
“Minute per minute, love,” Taehyung whispered in his ears.
“Minute per minute,” Jeongguk had whispered right back.
Jeongguk also realized that the first time was only painfully hard because he made it painfully hard, and he takes full blame for it even though Taehyung never threw it back to his face. Just another reason why he’s so obsessed with the man.
Then again, Jeongguk can’t give himself too much credit. Taehyung only held the position for three months, after all.
Because while it was Taehyung and Jeongguk who made their own choices, it was Seo-joon who ultimately sealed their fate.
It happened one rainy November night when Taehyung was knocking on his door for the fourth consecutive time that week. When Seo-joon finally opened, Taehyung was greeted with, “You’re fired. Go home, Taehyung.”
“What - I don’t want-”
“You know what I mean. I already talked to Woo-shik and it’s all good. Listen to hyung. You’re fired. Go. Home.” Then he slammed the door right on his face.
And that was that.
Or - that’s how Taehyung told the story, at least.
Jeongguk believed him then, because it’s Seo-joon and that was such a Seo-joon thing to do, but he also knew that what came after was much more complicated than that - he was just fired from his job, after all. Even still, as Taehyung continued to rehash what happened over the phone, all that was running on Jeongguk’s mind was God bless you, Park Seo-joon, you absolute angel you.
By December, Taehyung was back in Seoul after more than a year abroad.
And just like before, Taehyung has always been in the picture since then, except for that fateful road trip because Seokjin had already booked his and Namjoon’s help for the upcoming Children’s Day.
He was so upset with Hoseok because it’s so unfair that you got to witness the miracle when me and Jimin were the only person that pregnant Jiwoo can tolerate, and Hoseok was so appalled when he responded back, ‘trust me, Tae, if we could just turn back time, I’d happily volunteer myself and suffer Jin hyung’s wrath than to be there’ and ‘do you even have any idea what a whole head looks like coming out of your own sister’s hoo-ha -' ‘-fucking stop calling vagina that, Hobi, for fuck’s sake!’
Taehyung was the one who suggested that Jimin and Yoongi host their annual Christmas celebration, the latter adamantly against it, even making Jiwoo as an excuse for being too tired and busy to plan. The whole gang had to make a poll for it, and it turns out their collective pleas combined could withstand Yoongi’s infamous unrelenting glare, and that was a Christmas miracle in itself.
It was Taehyung’s cherry-tasting mouth that was attached to Jeongguk’s as they welcomed the new year together a few days later, because of course it is.
It was also Jeongguk and Taehyung’s last winter holiday celebration with their friends because as it happened, that December was Taehyung’s last December in Seoul, too.
A month after Jiwoo gave birth and everything has seemingly calmed down - or as calm as it could be considering that there’s a new addition to their family, a tiny human who could scream the whole house down at three in the morning, earning Jimin and Yoongi matching perpetual eyebags - was when Jeongguk and Taehyung finally announced that they were moving.
As expected, their friends went berserk. Seokjin started bawling, and Hoseok started threatening them with a you know what, I’m not going to talk to you idiots until you realize that that’s the stupidest thing you’ll ever do, starting now!, but surprisingly, it was Jimin who showed the most indignance -
“You absolutely cannot move! I can’t have Hoseok as the baby’s godparent; he almost always drops it!”
“Hey! I’m literally her uncle! And may I remind you that it wasn’t you nor Yoongi who saw that baby come out of my sister’s hoo-ha -”
“-Hoseok, I swear to God-”
“-she, our baby is a she, Jimin -”
- then Seokjin’s bawl went louder.
Finally, Namjoon - because he’s the most normal person in their group - spoke, and he was the one who said, “That’s great news, guys! And Chicago’s perfect, because I remember you looked really happy there-”
“-will you stop fucking encouraging them!-”
“-it’s so far-”
“I myself think it’s great,” Yoongi says, bouncing a sleeping Sarang in his chest. “We all saw how happy these doofuses were in Chicago. You were even with them when you got that drumstick tatt. Come on, where’s your sense of romance, babe-”
“-It’s going to be up your ass if you don’t shut the fuck up, Min Yoongi!”
By the looks of it, a tired Jimin is just as nightmarish as a pregnant Jiwoo.
Yoongi and Jimin started bickering like an old married couple then, and Hoseok stopped sulking and instead started watching them in merriment, and Namjoon’s tiredly rubbing his temple because Seokjin is still fucking bawling, all the while an amused Jeongguk who was sat on the loveseat with an equally amused Taehyung on his lap watched as the whole thing happen, and then they looked at each other and just shared a smile.
How are we going to leave these idiots? Taehyung communicated with his eyes.
I have no idea, Jeongguk replied.
The next month, they bid goodbye to Seoul.
June fades to July, and now a month has passed and it’s August again, and they’re now living in Chicago. They have come full circle, and what a year it has been. Jeongguk spent the first half alone, lonely, and bearing a silent grudge on his husband for leaving, and over the course of that time there were happy tears and sad tears, and there was an unimaginable amount of sex when they were finally reunited again, and how could Jeongguk ever forget that one threat of divorce in Sacramento?
The rest of the year was finally spent with Taehyung, and there were still tears, but it’s more happy and less sad now. There’s still an unimaginable amount of sex because duh, and since then there’s at least a dozen threats of divorce, but it’s only mostly triggered whenever Taehyung hears August on the radio.
At the end of the day, despite how unsettled they are at the moment, at least they’re unsettled together and that’s all that matters.
Jeongguk and Taehyung started talking about moving a month before Jiwoo’s due date, because they always, always talk about serious stuff now, and for quite a time they were at a loss. Taehyung was still insistent that while he’s back in Seoul, he’s not planning on spending the rest of his life there, and Jeongguk harbors too much vendetta towards California that moving there was not even an option. That left them in a pickle and everything felt unresolved again for days.
Despite that, they did know that they share one common sentiment in mind: they are beyond ready to start anew and begin another chapter in their life. The only question was where, and it plagued both of them for days, but then one April night on the way back from Jackson’s flat, Chicago came on the radio, and Taehyung started teasing Jeongguk about it like he always does whenever their songs started playing on the radio, but when he caught his husband’s eyes and a knowing smile was slowly spreading on his face, they just knew.
And well, here they are.
The first two weeks in Chicago were probably the most gruesome weeks of their lives, and that’s counting the days when Taehyung was about to take his finals, because that was another level of gruesome on its own (Taehyung was about ready to murder Jeongguk when he tried to pull Taehyung away from his books simply by hiding them). Taehyung didn’t, thankfully - or not thankfully, because instead, he swore off sex for a whole week and somehow that felt worse, really.
The first time they moved in together was a park compared to this; granted they just moved to a different continent and they basically upheaved their entire life away from what they have been used to. It’s just that, the whole place stinks of unfamiliarity. Jeongguk and Taehyung’s families are so out of reach it’s kind of depressing just thinking about it. The physical absence of their friends is heartachingly palpable (and the times they manifested their existence through phone calls are highly unappreciated). It seems like the refreshing some-to-none recognition from people is just a fleck of consolation. Jeongguk is still impartial about the climate of Chicago, the lack of mountains is definitely tangible, and he has yet to master the English language and polish his American accent.
Still and all, Taehyung survived his finals way back then, and Jeongguk is a hundred and ten percent sure that they’ll survive this, too. In fact, he just had his third session with Finn, his hired American English tutor yesterday, and Jeongguk has come to learn that apparently, ‘gastropub’ is actually a british slang.
Take that, Hoseok.
The bottom line is despite all that, Jeongguk is more than ready to call Chicago his home.
He’s with his husband now, after all.
And speaking of -
“I’m sticky now, baby,” Taehyung groans, but there’s this glint in his eyes, and since they still haven’t unpacked the boxes labeled ‘DRAPES AND SHIT’, the sun rays filter right through their clear kitchen glass windows, hitting Taehyung’s face just right, and Jeongguk can distinctly capture how his honey brown eyes sparkle with a mixture of innocence and mischief, and it’s so familiar and so warm and so perfect.
So, so perfect.
Jeongguk sighs heavenward, and surrounded by the still unpacked boxes in the middle of their new Chicago apartment, Jeongguk walks up to his husband and licks.