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Jeongguk was running late. Too late, in fact, it wasn’t like him at all. Since he usually has to be on everyone’s ass for being even a minute late to work, it’s definitely not expected of him. Jeongguk groans and bumps his head on his steering wheel which causes his car to honk loudly and he gets a few curses thrown at his way. He glares at them till he feels a gentle tug on the hem of his suit blazer. He looks down to see the big sparkly eyes and pouty lips of adorable little daughter, Jeon Yerin (the light of his 26 year old life). That instantly calms him down a little.
“Are you mad at me, daddy?”, she asks in a small voice.
Jeongguk mentally kicks himself. “No baby, not you. Daddy’s mad at himself since he made both of us late, okay?”
The pout is replaced with an understanding nod, Jeongguk notices her smile again and sighs with relief. Now he can go back to cussing himself out. Only a complete moron, an absolute fucking idiot— Jeongguk rants to himself — would oversleep on the day for the meeting with Kim Taehyung, the motherfucking CEO Of Kim Corporations which means he’s a man with his schedule booked and busy, no matter how close they are as friends and not to mention his giant heart boner for the man— CAN THIS TRAFFIC MOVE ALREADY— this time he blows the horn on purpose, trying to get a hold of his road rage. He doesn’t want his daughter learning to say fuck at the mere age of 5. The traffic finally (thank god) moves and he grits his teeth as starts the ignition. He’s not going to be more late. No, he absolutely refuses.
And so it was, he pulls up in front of his office in record time and jumps out of the car. Picking Yerin up, he hands the keys to get the car parked and tries to maintain his dignity as the CEO of Jeon Industries while he almost walk-runs with a little girl in his arms. Taehyung might be his good friend and a nice man but he’a also very busy and Jeongguk has already kept him waiting for more than 20 minutes.
He steps into the elevator and gets greeted by multiple people. He nods in acknowledgment, slightly panting and presses the button to his office floor.
Jeongguk walks in to find that Taehyung is already seated in his office, flipping through the pages of a folder and glancing at his watch now and then. He looks beautiful like he always does, his lips pursed slightly. He puts Yerin down (there was no time and nobody that Jeongguk could entrust her with) and kneels down to look at her. “Sweetheart, be good for daddy today, okay?”, he tells her as he fixes the wrinkles in her clothes. Her face so closely resembling his own looks back at him, and she hugs her plushie closer. “Yes daddy!!”, she says with determination. Jeongguk can’t hold his smile in at that and hugs her close, breathing in her soft baby smell, “Good girl, Rinnie.” He then stands straight again, takes her hand in his and straightens his tie with the other.
Opening the door, he calls out a soft “Taehyung hyung.” Taehyung looks up at him. “You’re late.”
Jeongguk grimaces, scratching his his head awkwardly, “I know I’m so sorry."
Taehyung nods, his face relaxing. Jeongguk takes that as an okay and he walks in with his daughter in a tow. Taehyung’s eyes widen as he sees the little girl dressed in overalls and a pink bow on her hair walk in, hugging a bunny plushie.
Yerin bows to Taehyung and says, “Hello, I am Jeon Yerin and is nice to meet you.” Taehyung melts inside at her shy, cute voice and smiles at her brightly. He’s only heard stories of Jeongguk’s little daughter, both of them a little too busy to arrange to meet but this is the first time he sees her in person and hell if she isn’t the cutest thing he’s ever seen. “Hello Yerin, I am Kim Taehyung and you can call me ahjussi if you want.”, Taehyung says gently.
She nods. Jeongguk bites his cheeks to hide a fond smile at the interaction and says, “Angel, can you go sit on the sofa and play quietly? Daddy has to work.”
“Okay Daddy.”, she gives him a kiss as he bends down for her and goes over to the cream coloured sofa.
“She’s very polite.”, Taehyung says as Jeongguk takes his seat opposite him. Jeongguk smiles proudly, “Yes.”
“Let’s start the meeting now, shall we?”
He nods and they open their files to discuss the details of the next possible collaboration between their companies. Three cups of coffee each later, they have just about decided the contents and Jeongguk is just about to confirm the details of the profit sharing when he senses movement from the side and feels a small pair of hands reach out and touch his face, squishing it to make it vaguely resemble a duck, he knows he looks silly especially in front of Taehyung but he can’t bring himself to be mad at his daughter. She’d been an angel for the whole three hours of the meeting.
“Mpfff-“ Jeongguk looks down at his daughter who probably just woke up from her nap. He hears Taehyung laughing and his neck nearly snaps with how fast he looked up at him, to see the man smiling so brightly and stifling little giggles (which sound like heaven’s music, now one of his most favourite sounds, second only to Yerin’s voice). He gently removes Yerin’s hands from his face and pulls her into his lap. “What happened, sweetheart?”
Yerin looks down, “I’m sorry Daddy but RinRin is hungry." And for the second time that morning, Jeongguk kicks himself mentally. Harder than before. How could he forget about that?
Taehyung can see Jeongguk’s face fall, he feels bad for the man. Jeongguk definitely looks tired, if the dark circles underneath his eyes are anything to go by and now has a big frown because he forgot to feed his daughter. Taehyung stands up, “Let’s go eat together, we can have the meeting later.”
Taehyung can see that Jeongguk is still a little apprehensive so he smiles reassuringly and bends down to Yerin’s level. He extends his hand to her, “Wanna walk with me and Daddy to go eat?” Yerin visibly brightens at that, she looks up at her dad for permission who nods at her and put her tiny hand in Taehyung’s outstretched one.
Twenty minutes later, they find themselves in the cafeteria with Yerin happily munching on a chocolate doughnut and sipping on chocolate milk (she loves chocolate and Jeongguk is a weak, weak man who can’t say no to her big eyes). By now, Taehyung and Yerin are completely enamoured with each other and Yerin has already declared that Tete ahjussi is her best friend now. No, Taehyung’s eyes aren’t shining because he teared up. Nope, he just has allergies.
“Daddy, I’m gonna throw wrappers away.”, Yerin announces with a chocolate moustache on her upper lip. Taehyung takes a tissue and gently wipes it away as Yerin sits obediently, almost going crosseyed with her eyes following the action of his hands.
“Thank you, Tete.”, she gives him a bright smile and she gets up to throw the wrappers away.
Taehyung catches Jeongguk staring at him as he looks back from gazing fondly at Yerin picking up a wrapper from the ground on her way to the bin with his hand supporting his face. “What?”, he asks.
Something about this moment feels right, almost like his heart is whispering to him that he needs to be brave and take this chance lest it slips away. As if in a trance, Jeongguk feels himself reach out to run this thumb against Taehyung’s lips and wipe something. “You had chocolate there too.”, Jeongguk whispers with his hand resting on Taehyung’s cheek.
Taehyung’s breath hitches a little as he looks into Jeongguk’s eyes. They’ve been dancing around each other for a year now, too scared to make the first move. However, there’s a promise of something new, something permanent there now as he looks. His eyes drop to Jeongguk’s lips as he leans in close and when he asks, “Can I kiss you, hyung?”, Taehyung lets go of all his reservations.
Responding with a whispered ‘yes’, he feels Jeongguk’s lips on his own, soft and promising, tasting like the strawberry shake he had with his burger earlier. He pulls back after a peck and lets his hand wrap around Jeongguk’s nape and pull him in for something a little more heated, his lips parting to let their tongues meet, both a little shy but not lacking in experience. Jeongguk’s hand goes down to wrap around Taehyung’s waist as he pulls away, not being able to look away from him just yet. Taehyung’s hand resting on his chest, the intimacy already feeling so comfortable to them.
Taehyung fiddles a little with Jeongguk’s tie, eyes cast downwards as he says, “I like you, Jeongguk.”
Jeongguk’s face lights up as his eyes crinkle and he gets the familiar bunny shaped smile on his face. So that’s where Yerin got her smile from, thinks Taehyung again, a little dazedly. “I like you too, hyung. Have liked you for the past year now.”
Taehyung’s heart soars at that. “Yeah?”
Jeongguk presses their foreheads together and breathes out, “Yeah.” Taehyung kisses Jeongguk’s cheek and Jeongguk takes his hand and nuzzles his face in it. “Can I take you out on a date, hyung?”
Taehyung’s eyes are sparkling as he says, “Only if you let me take you out on one too”. Their lips meet in a small peck, just for assurance and comfort and they pull apart as they hear the sound of little feet approaching.
“RinRin finished.”, Yerin says as she tries to slide into her seat. Jeongguk helps her up and pets her hair. “Good girl.”, both Jeongguk and Taehyung say at the same time and blush as their eyes meet. Yerin looks up at Taehyung, “Tete, will you play with me today?”
Jeongguk goes to refuse on Taehyung’s behalf but then Taehyung grins and says, “Of course Yerin-ah, what do you want to do?”
Yerin beams at him and says, “WE WILL WATCH ELSA!!!” Jeongguk sighs because oh god not again he could recite it word to word in his sleep by now but corrects her anyway, “Frozen, sweetheart not Elsa.”
And when Yerin doesn’t even falter as she keeps grinning brightly at Taehyung with the same smile she got from her dad, “What Daddy said.” Taehyung knew he was already a goner.
Later as Taehyung buckles his seatbelt, Jeongguk looks over from the steering wheel a little worryingly, “You didn’t have to hyung, I know you have wor-“
Taehyung shushes him. “I want to. Besides, Yerin said she would tell me secrets if I play with her and I am a hooked man." Jeongguk turns around to face his baby girl, “What kind of secrets, Rin-ah?”
Yerin looks around cautiously and leans in to dramatically whisper, “That you like Tete, Daddy.”
Taehyung bursts out laughing as Jeongguk turns red. Jeongguk regrets letting her listen in to his and Jimin’s conversations, she was way too smart for her own good. Yerin too starts giggling along with Taehyung and Jeongguk starts the car. “Just wait, Yerin, today you won’t escape Daddy’s tickles, just you wait." Yerin lets out a high pitched laugh and squeals, “Nooooo Daddy no tickles!!!”
Taehyung sobers up and promises, “Don’t worry Rin-ah, if Daddy wants to tickle you he will have to go through me first." Jeongguk, trying to hold in his own smile, just pokes him on his side and Taehyung yelps, both bursting out laughing. catches Jeongguk’s eye as they both turn from watching Yerin laugh. The day was almost ending but there was a trace of new beginnings in this moment. As they smiled at each other, caught up in their little bubble, something in Taehyung’s eyes tells Jeongguk that he’s here to stay.