Archive of Our Own

When Taehyung got his law certificate and passed on the bar exam, he didn't think twice before applying to one of the best law firms in Seoul, where one of his professors worked at and he had his internship during his third and fourth year of college. Sure, he was greedy and wanted the best for his career, he knew that he had to start from the bottom to put his name on the market, but, when the opportunity came, he thought that he should try it out.

No, he wasn't actually thinking that he would get the job there and didn't even consider that his magnificent grades and the recommendation letter from his professor could help him out. It was the Jung & Kim Attorneys at Law, and, apparently, they were strict with whom they accept to work there. Taehyung didn't know if he was a lucky son of a bitch or if the odds were on his favor that year, but he got the job and it was the happiest moment of his life, of course, other than when he applied to college and actually got in — he was the first from his family to do so, they were mostly farm workers and his parents only had their high school certificates, he thinks that's because his mom got pregnant on the last months of the school year and he was born later on that same year, but he never actually asked them about it.

So, again, back to his job. It sounded like a dream, the kid that came from a farmer's family, was all alone in a big city and had to get rid of his accent and go thrift shopping so he would get called out being a employee of the best law offices in South Korea — yes, he does exaggerate sometimes. His parents and grandparents cried on the phone when they got the news, and cried more when he went back home to spend a week there before actually starting on his job.

If Taehyung was being honest, he'd say that he also didn't believe that he got the job until one of his bosses handed him his badge, which had his own name and picture on it and he teared up a bit in the restroom. He wasn't usually that much of an emotional person, but that was his dream coming true, so he allowed himself to feel happily emotional during that week.

Of course, his happiness didn’t last much, not when he was practically a junior attorney and did almost everything for everyone and who got the credits for his work were the big guys. As much as he knew how hierarchical systems work and how he was just “the new guy” among professionals that were for decades in the field it was still frustrating to spend the whole day and his free hours at home researching books, reviewing laws civilians and studying cases to, in the end, just be a lawyer who stood in the corner. Of course they would treat him like an intern, Taehyung would be silly to think otherwise having been hired by a company as big as that.

However, it wasn’t as bad as it seemed to be. He was making connections, he met a lot of famous people and everyone in the office knew him, he was having time to analyze all the judges who took civil cases, some police officers from the nearest police station and his salary was incredible for someone who had just started working after graduating from college, he had managed to move to a better apartment, buy more social clothes and Taehyung couldn't ask for more. Well, but he wanted to ask for more. He wanted to be the lead attorney for a case or, maybe, just be second on the case.

His working-life practically changed when the law firm he works for signed a big and restrict contract with a rising idol company. At first, Taehyung was a bit confused on why he was being called to participate in a meeting with the CEO, the board and the members of the group of the said company, but later on the meeting, he realized what was happening: he was sort of getting a promotion and getting a specific member of the group to represent in court.

Taehyung wasn’t much of a person who would sit there and be a fan of singers or anyone else in the field — he did not have the time to do that and just listened casually to everything he finds in the charts or while searching on YouTube. But he remembered the names and the faces of that group, his sister has gone to a few of their concerts and they were rising a lot at worldwide level, they came from a small company and were fighting for the place in the industry, so it triggered the ego of envious people and fans of groups of larger companies, obviously those who were doing badly while a group from small and unprivileged company was taking over the world.

In short, they were receiving a lot of hate from everywhere and it was damaging them; personally and professionally, which lead to their boss having to be the bigger person and take some extreme measures such as suing people who were taking their opinions too far. The owners of the Jung & Kim were old friends of the CEO; Min Yoongi, so he didn’t think of anyone else better than his friends’ law firm to take care of that.

After signing the exclusivity contracts, members were split between seven different lawyers who would work together on the cases and receive the first stacks of evidence against online haters and greedy journalists, Taehyung ran into the bathroom and threw up his entire breakfast because, holy shit, that was officially his first case and it was a big fucking thing.

And, yes, he was being that kind of dramatic again. That wasn't exactly his first case, but it was the first to be that big and important and Taehyung knew that, just by looking at the piles of screenshots and passwords of websites he would have to look at, it would take a long time to get around everything.

That’s what I studied for, that’s what I worked for the past couple of years, that was what he repeated to himself late at night, while he was too tired to keep his eyes open, but still had to read the amount of files he was handed to discuss with the other attorneys their tactics and how they would act. Neither the company nor the members wanted settlement, they wanted people to pay for what they did and not by using money, so it would be hard cases because people always use the easy way out.

Even thought Taehyung knew he was capable of handling all that pressure, he was still wondering why him out of dozens of other lawyers with more experience than him was given one of the cases. He wasn’t complaining, of course, that could definitely mark his career and he could easily become a high class attorney, — working at a high class law firm and being a high class employee are two different things, and it took Taehyung a while to figure that out.

“I’m not going to lie to you, Junghwan-ssi,” Taehyung says during one of his first meetings with the singer he was representing. Despite feeling nervous, his voice comes out confident and his hands resting on the table. “They're fighting for settlement… One of them is richer than most people and is offering a lot of money. We're talking almost a million.”

“I don't care about money, Taehyung-ssi” he takes a deep breath, dark eyes seeming tired. “Neither does my company.”

Taehyung knew that, so he just closes his eyes for a second and stares at the singer again, while remembering all the other cases he read and helped that ended in settlement. Sure, it was easiest path to take and it wasn't the reason why he went to law school.

“Okay, then,” he straightens his back on the chair. “I have a meeting with their lawyers and a judge on Friday and I'll make sure to tell them that we are not walking way from this, and the police has found more suspects, so more people getting sued.”

“Do I need to go?” Junghwan asks, frowning his eyebrows and Taehyung's mouth opens, they had talked about it when they were signing the contracts.

“No… Not really, I'm there to represent you, Junghwan-ssi, you don't have to come unless it's extremely necessary. We talked about this on the meeting with everyone else, don't you remember?” Taehyung touches his pen, eyes fixed on the singer and he notices how he takes another breath, the bags under his eyes are too evident and Taehyung can't help, but feel sorry for him.

“I’m sorry, I'm just… tired. I spent the whole night practicing for the world tour, and I came here right after,” he's ashamed, that's obvious, but Taehyung would never judge someone for working hard.

“Don’t worry, Junghwan-ssi, there's nothing to be sorry for.” Taehyung's voice is calm, he sounds like a big brother calming his worried younger siblings. “I'll handle the law issues and you go get some rest, okay? You should sleep a bit, and if anything happens I'll text you.”

There's nothing much after that. Taehyung practically expels Junghwan from his office so that the singer could rest and leave him alone to deal with all the bureaucratic issues and the papers in the process.

While he’s staring at the copy of all of those hateful comments, he wonders how a human being can be so mean to other people behind a screen and think that nothing will ever come their way, that they’re completely safe behind an anonymous account or that their address is completely hidden. Maybe some are too stupid to think that, other’s now and don’t care — especially because there’s some that were using their personal accounts or fan accounts with a lot of pictures of them and their names through their posts; those weren’t hard to trace down, but others the police and the law firm had to go after someone who knows how to handle codification of websites.

Dealing with other lawyers and with grown-ups dealing with the consequences of their stupid actions on the internet was not so difficult, the bad part was seeing that some people who were identified and taken to the police were teenagers, almost children and who were paying the price were their parents. No, he didn’t feel sorry for them, he just feels angry at that, mostly because it’s teenagers doing a lot of harm to someone they don’t even know personally and they don’t seem to care that they hurt a person’s feelings or reputation, not without a proper punishment.

And when Taehyung walks into the precinct that Friday, the only thing he hopes for is to not have to deal with shady teenagers and their overprotective parents that day. It’s too early for that and he has just woken up, walked out from his apartment and took a cab to met with the Sargent from the cyber unit who was responsible for investigating the case. It was funny because even the two Sargent's at the Gangnam police station were his bosses' acquittances but Taehyung understood that for a long time working on something, you end up getting to know offices here and there.

Even though it was very early that morning, there were several officers hanging around the place, talking and having coffee and that made Taehyung raise an eyebrow as he walked over to the reception desk. The officer had his head down, writing something in a notebook that he wasn’t able to read, which made Taehyung clear his throat quietly to get his attention.

“Hello?” Taehyung calls out, placing one of his hands on the table, the other holding his work bag, the policeman raises his face and his eyes reach the lawyer's face, they are big and dark, expressive and he has a minimal smile on his lips, showing that he has dimples in his cheeks.

“Good morning, how can I help you, sir?” he asks, putting the pen aside and folding his hands in front of him. Taehyung reads Jeon Jeongguk on his name tag attached to the chest next to his blue uniform.

“I would like to speak to Officer Kim, He's waiting for me," he explains and the police officer shakes his head, fiddling with something on the computer next to him. He’s his expression is emotionless, remaining serious all the time, but Taehyung is not surprised by this, but because he is a policeman different from all the other times he went to the station.

“Which one? We have a bunch of officers with that surname and they’re in different units” Jeongguk says, raising an eyebrow waiting for an answer.

“Kim Seokjin, cyber unit,” Taehyung talks back at the same time, making the officer nod again and then type some more.

“May I see your ID?”

Taehyung doesn't respond to that, he just takes his card out of his pocket and hands it to the police officer, who reads his name without his voice coming out and returns it to his hands. He knows that his name and identification are marked in the system as Lee Junghwan's lawyer and it doesn’t take more than a minute before Jeongguk stared at him again.

“Officer Kim is waiting for you on his office, do you know where it is, Kim Taehyung-ssi?” Jeongguk asks, the swivel chair he was sitting on being thrown back a bit as he speaks. Taehyung realizes that his voice is sweet and eloquent, despite wondering where the other police officer is, who usually stays at the reception desk.

“Yes, I know, end of the hallway, first door on the left. Thank you, Officer Jeon,” he mumbles under his breath, seeing the way the officer just shakes his head up and down, small smile between his lips.

“No problem, have a good day,” he voices, turning his attention back to his notebook.

That was... different. The other officer was always a little bit rude with his words and didn’t even look at the attorney’s eyes, so he got used to that and avoided talking much to him. That must have been a good change, after all.  Taehyung's hands tightly grip the handle of his bag and he heads to the iron gates that separate the civilians' waiting area and the offices of police and detectives. He shows his identification card to the police officer who is guarding the gate and soon his entrance is released, the gate joints creak and he walks down the long hallway to the door that has “Kim Seokjin, cyber unit's sargent” marked on it.

He knocked for two times before hearing the sound of Seokjin's voice shouting that he could come in, Taehyung fixes his overgrown hair and touches the handle, opening the door slowly. The office is almost empty, there's only Seokjin standing up and searching for something on his working desk.

“Oh, hi, Taehyung-ssi,” Seokjin says and bowls politely to the lawyer as he notices him there, Taehyung does the same with a grin on his face. “I’m glad you managed to come so early, the suspects are already here.”

“It was nothing, Seokjin-ssi, work is work,” he leaves his bag on top of his table, watching the officer looking at it. “But before going there, I need you to look into some more people that our T.I manager has found.”

He opens the bag, showing off a pile of files Taehyung had put together. There was, at least, more than thirty pages of evidence and the profiles of the people they could find.

“Yerin noona is still looking into some more stuff, that was just what we could find this past week,” Taehyung explains and Seokjin nods, taking a deep breath before being handed all of those papers.

Yerin noona was no one more than Jung Yerin — no relations with the Jung who's one of the lawyers that build up the Jung & Kim Attorneys —, their “T.I guy”. She's one of the best on her field, graduated with honors on college, and is trustworthy person, she started working there a few years before Taehyung.

“I’ll put my officers into it,” Seokjin leaves the papers on his desk and notices his phone ringing inside his pocket. “Two other attorneys are already here, we should get going.”

“Sure,” it's all Taehyung says before picking up his bag again and following Seokjin outside the office.

That was what happened one year ago, when Taehyung still thought that his life as an attorney was only starting, got excited watching How To Get Away With Murder — yes, he knows that Annalise Keating is on the criminal field, but everything that has law on it makes him happy — and used to think that his life was going to be one surprise after another.

But, well, the only surprise he faced was living the same day over and over again. No, not exactly the same day, but everything that happened was the same. Reading bad comments, researching, going to the station and noticing the same pattern on people that make hateful posts towards an artist. And then, he comes back to his empty house, has some ramyun and goes to sleep on his double bed.

Some days, he calls his parents and tells them how's he going, what's he has been doing and how much he misses them. He makes sure to tell them that when he gets a week off, he'll go back to Daegu to see them and steal some strawberries from his grandparents farm.

“I think I’m lonely,” Taehyung whines, one of these days, drinking soju in the middle of his living room.

It's Saturday and he has just come off work, and anyone could notice that by the way that his white social short had four to five buttons open and his loose tie. Taehyung's black hair was all over the place and his cheeks were getting red, even though he hadn't finished this first bottle yet.

His best friend, Park Jimin, is sitting on the couch near him and lifts up an eyebrow, knowing that what Taehyung had said wasn't any news to him. His life was a hundred percent work-home and it wasn't an exciting life and probably not what Taehyung pictured when he came to Seoul.

Jimin and Taehyung met on their first day of college, being born on the same year made them roommates. They were a lot different from each other and used to fight a lot, but that was made them so close like they are today.

“I’m gonna adopt a dog,” he says, looking at the blonde haired by his side. “What do you think?”

“That the dog is going to die of loneliness,” Jimin bottles up, putting his glass back on the coffee table. “It's gonna be alone on this apartment all day, Taehyungie, you're at the office from 8am to 8pm. Any animal you bring here will die. If you're feeling lonely, imagine them inside this apartment all alone all  day.”

Taehyung snorts, but he knows that Jimin is right. Leaving a pet inside all day, without anyone to take care of it is wrong, and Taehyung doesn't want to hurt a puppy or a kitten, he isn't that bad of a person to do that, but he doesn't know what to do to change the situation that he's going through.

Of course, he likes his job, he feels happy every time he's able to win a case and when he's working together with the other attorneys when it comes to sue other people in the name of the whole group. Yes, that happens sometimes. And he's always reading the constitution — that's how lawyers remember all of the laws, it's impossible to forget —, past cases and creating arguments to use against the other attorneys.

“What do you want me to do?” Taehyung asks, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

He's tired of the working day and it's not even 11pm already. Taehyung feels like he's failing his teenager self that managed to stay awake during the whole night, watching dramas and reading books, or just studying, and then went to school and was still active during the whole day. Now, he works for half of the day and his back aches and he's sleepy for the other half. He thinks it's just his age showing off.

“Maybe date someone,” Jimin suggests, mouth full of French fries he ordered from McDonald's. “When was the last time you got laid? Or I don't know, made out with someone?”

“You know I don't believe in hook-ups.” Taehyung answers right away, filling his cup with more soju.“And I'm not looking for someone right now.”

“But you could be,” he shakes his shoulders, letting his back touch the headboard of the sofa. “What about that cute police officer you always see when you go to the precinct?”

“What about him?” Taehyung asks while grabbing some of the chips, he would probably get hungry in the middle of the night for not eating dinner properly, but he wasn't caring about that now.

“He could be a nice boyfriend, don't you think? He's nice from what you told me, and I heard somewhere that some people always end up marrying people from the same field as them. You're an attorney, he's a police officer.” Jimin says suggestively, almost singing all the words that came out from his mouth and Taehyung rolls his eyes, obviously annoyed. “Perfect match.”

“Jimin,” he calls him out, voice strong and obviously not understanding his friend's point of view. “We talked two time and both of them were about me going to see Seokjin-ssi. His eyes are nice and he smiles at me, but I have no idea if he's a good person.”

“And what do you have to lose?” Jimin shouts back at the same time, dropping some ketchup on his fries. “All you do is stay here all night long complaining about being lonely, then you go to work and have to read all of those laws that aren't as strong as they should be, and then you call me when my class is over and we cry over sad dramas. The difference is that I have a hot boyfriend waiting for me at home.”

“Ugh, you and Joon hyung are disgustingly cute,” Taehyung complains, drinking the alcohol in one go. “Let me and my sad TV shows alone.”

“Fine,” Jimin pouts, already knowing that his best friend is going to complain about being single on their next boys night on Saturday.

Taehyung rests his head on the sofa and closes his eyes, feeling the soju leaving his tired mind a little dizzy.  The low music that came from the movie they were watching disappeared and he squinted again, noting the way the main couple was kissing and finally being together.

He mutters under his breath, Jimin's words echoing in his mind. He hates the way Jimin manages to be right even on the littlest things and how well he knows him. It is irritating to hear the truth being thrown in his face, especially when he doesn't want to accept it so easily. His job is going well, the apartment was paid off and Taehyung even bought a good car so he wouldn't have to call a cab whenever he had to go from place to place.

In short, his salary increased. A lot. He is really well paid and there is a lot of additions whenever he wins a case. Of course, Taehyung knows he's one lucky motherfucker, if he hadn't gotten the job at Jung & Kim Attorneys he would still be facing a lot of financial problems, so he thinks that he was probably a good person in his past life to deserve all of that.

And it's annoying that he's having a successful career despite still being pretty young, that he works at a good law firm and has clients, and the members of the idol company like him, especially Junghwan, and he's still there, feeling lonely and mad at a ugly kiss on an European movie.

No, not just annoying, but frustrating too. Why do human beings have to be romantic and needy people? It has him wondering when was the last time he dated someone, it was probably back on college, somewhere between the fifth or sixth semester, he doesn't remember much of it.

On Monday, he has  towake up early again. More stuff to do at the precinct, more people to sue and other cases to look into back at the office, so Taehyung already knew that was going to be a busy week and that’s why he took the Sunday off.

His neck is sore and he wishes to go back to bed the moment he walks into the precinct, because it marks how long that week is going to be. The weather is hot, but not enough to make him feel uncomfortable, but even so Taehyung is thankful for the air conditioning being turned on and goes to Jeongguk at the reception desk, tells him what he is going to do and about meeting Seokjin there, just like every other time he’s been there and soon he is behind the glass of the interrogation room, huffling in from the way that it was another case of unsupervised teenagers on the internet making the lives of others hell.

He’s not even sorry to the parents of those kids, they’re left alone with a computer or a cellphone on their hands and those parents think that the internet is going to teach them how to be proper human beings, some of them are raised by strangers on the internet since a young age — he has seen one of his aunts giving his small nephew her phone when he was just trying to get her attention to play with him.

No, he’s not going to feel sorry for anyone. Because, if you’re having a kid and you don’t know how to teach them proper manners and that is not okay to be hating on someone on the internet, behind a random account, maybe you shouldn’t have kids at all. Yes, he knows that some parents don’t have the time to do all of this, but, again, if you don’t have time for your kids, maybe you should just not have kids just for the sake of having kids. Seriously, no one cares if your bloodline ends with you.

The worst thing was that those cases were not a small thing, nobody called anyone who said “look, I don't like this,” or “hey, this sucks”, they were all heavy and reasonable for the person to be sued, and Taehyung even went so far to think that if he was receiving all those comments, reading that or even knowing that they existed, he would have given up on his career long ago.

Giving up is a sad and horrible topic to talk about or even to consider, and it is more than sad to know that many people do it: they quit because they can't take the amount of hatred they get just because they are doing what they like, because they are following their careers and making music.

Taehyung stomps out of the room, his ears hot and reddened by the amount of anger he spent listening to other lawyers' bullshit. He says goodbye to Seokjin briefly and goes to the gallon of water on that same hallway, before the iron gates, takes a plastic cup and is ready to fill it when a voice suddenly turns his face.

“Hey, is everything okay?” Jeongguk asks in his sweet voice and Taehyung almost drops the glass because of the way he was surprised. “Oops, my bad, I didn't mean to scare you.”

“Don't worry, it's okay,” he mumbles back, lowering himself to fill his glass of water.

“Stressful morning?”

His body is propped against the side wall, so all Taehyung needs to do is raise his head again and is staring at the cop's handsome face. Jimin's voice echoes in his mind again and Taehyung wants to tell his best friend to go fuck himself, maybe he'll do it as soon as he enters in his car parked across the street.

Taehyung can’t help, but notice the way that Jeongguk’s uniform looks good on his body, the outline of his arms is visible and there’s his name tag and badge right on top of the right side of his chest. His wavy black hair is beautifully arranged on his head, so Taehyung can see part of his forehead, but not everything and... shit, Jeongguk is more handsome than Taehyung remembered of.

“Stressful year,” Taehyung sighs, taking the glass to his mouth and drinking it all at once, feeling the liquid reach his almost empty stomach. “I can't deal with stupid teenagers and their parents who think money solves everything anymore. Most of them are children of rich people who are too bored and spend the whole day doing nothing on the Internet.”

Jeongguk opens his mouth, but nothing comes out more than a surprised sigh. Taehyung throws the plastic cup on the trash and holds onto the handle of his bag.

“Wanna have some coffee with me right now and be stressed and caffeinated?”, the officer offers and Taehyung lifts na eyebrow, questioning himself whether he should or not say yes. “I have chocolate muffins.”

And then Taehyung accepted his defeat, he was always sold for chocolate muffins. So, all he does is open a big smile and relax his shoulders, already imagining the sweet taste of chocolate on his tongue.

“Hell yeah," he says and it’s awkward to hear a suited up guy saying that, but Jeongguk smiles back at him, pointing to a small door that had written “staff only”.

It is a small room, probably the police break room, but there is a gray sofa against the wall, on the other side there are lockers and a microwave right next to the refrigerator, a table in the middle of the room with five seats. In one of the cabinets, there is a bottle of coffee, one of tea and a few glasses, tea cups and plastic cups, as well as packs of snacks and bread.

“I hope you like it, the coffee has just been made,” Jeongguk murmurs, handing Taehyung a full cup. “Be careful, it's a little hot.”

Taehyung nods and holds the glass carefully, leaving it on the wooden table beside him. He pulls out one of the chairs and sits in front of where his coffee is, hoping that Jeongguk — or any other officer who might show up there — is not offended that he has made himself comfortable.

The lawyer's eyes go to Jeongguk, who is taking the muffins out of the fridge and placing them next to his coffee cup. Taehyung is quick to notice that he also brought himself a cup of coffee and sits on the chair opposite to him, Taehyung rests his bag on the floor, next to his legs and takes a small sip of his coffee, feeling the sweet and bitter taste of the liquid on his tongue and he can hardly believe he needed it to calm his nerves. He was never a big fan of coffee, but as the years passed by he couldn’t survive without it.

“You know, you’re always here that I end up seeing more of you than some other “good cops” around the station,” Jeongguk implies while picking up one of the muffins, Taehyung looks at him in surprise and frowns his eyebrows. “No, not like that. It’s just... funny how you’re always here.”

“To me, that’s kind of frustrating,” Taehyung scrunches his nose and almost moans noticing how the muffins are filled with chocolate cream and that the muffin has more cocoa than sugar, leaving an incredible taste on his tongue. He licks his lips and looks at the officer again. “It's just that it means more people to sue. It's a long and tiring process. I like my job, but it's frustrating to know that I need to do it because people fail to be proper human beings. And, oh, they forget that the human rights exist and that not every opinion is just an opinion.”

“Ah, yes, right, you’re the lawyer of that K-pop singer. The other lawyers also come here to meet Seokjin hyung every now and then, but you are the one who comes the most.” Jeongguk glares at him and Taehyung blinks seeing how his lips are covered in chocolate, he wants to curse at himself for imagining the most cliché scene of cliché romances in which one of the main characters wipes the mouth of his romantic partner.

No, he won’t do that. Jeongguk is not his romantic partner (yet). Jeongguk is just a police office he knows because he’s practically working at the precinct right now, nothing more than that.

“I got the worst of the case. The guy gets bad comments just for breathing,” Taehyung whines lowly, supporting his chin on his hand. “Also, I’m sorry for venting about my job with you.”

Jeongguk smiles, licking the chocolate off his lips and Taehyung blinks heavily, his eyes fixed on the way that the officer lips are peach colored, how the top one is thinner than the bottom one, and that he has a small mole just bellow his lips and how there’s a scar on the right side of his face, just right by the apple of his cheek.

His lips are moving and he’s saying something that Taehyung believes that lies between “don’t worry” and “I know how’s like to have a bad day in the job”, but he’s too busy staring at the pouty way the officer talks that he doesn’t pay full attention to that. Which is, obviously, wrong.

“Why are you on desk duty? I mean, you look pretty young, why aren’t you on the field?” Taehyung asks, out of nowhere, and slaps his own mouth when he realizes, by the change on Jeongguk’s expression, that he has just talked shit. “Oh, no, I’m so, so, sorry I shouldn’t ha-”

A chuckle comes out from Jeongguk’s lips and he places his cup back on the table, his shoulder’s are relaxed and he doesn’t look mad at Taehyung. At least on the outside, Taehyung reminds himself, he could be good at pretending.

“You’re not the first to ask,” Jeongguk mumbles, his voice remains the same, so Taehyung is less worried about crossing boundaries. “I was a field cop until two years ago, but in an operation I was shot twice in my left arm, one next to my wrist, the other a little bit higher, and it affected my movements. The bullets hit the nerves in my hand and one hit one other nerve that is connected to my shoulder or something like, I stayed for several months with my arm bandaged up and undergoing treatment so that the ligament wouldn’t break completely. My arm got better, just a few scars, but the movements didn’t come back completely, look…”

He raises his left arm, takes a muffin from the plate slowly, much more slowly than he would if it were with his right hand. He passes the food from one hand to the other and tries to close the injured hand, it is in the same pace, too slow, and Taehyung notices the frustration look on Jeongguk's face.

“Here is after a year of physiotherapy treatment, I couldn't even close my hand completely,” he continues, staring at his own closed fist. “The doctors allowed me to come back to work and to the gym, but not to go back to the field, much less to hold a gun. So, I’m stuck behind a desk.”

That situation was obviously unpleasant. Taehyung couldn't even imagine the frustration that Jeongguk must have felt when he got injured. He imagines that the dream of every young cop is to be in the field, and Jeongguk doesn't look older than Taehyung, he's most probably a little bit younger than him, two or three years, so he can't even imagine being stuck in a chair when that's not what you wanted to do.

“Oh, I’m sorry that happened to you,” Taehyung says, his brown eyes turning soft because of the officer in front of him.

Jeongguk smiles at Taehyung, putting down his arm and biting the muffin after saying that he was okay with that now.

“At first it was hard, and I was mad at myself for getting injured, but I knew what I was putting myself into, I just didn’t think I’d get shot so soon in the job,” he's calm and his words come out easily, making Taehyung follow his trace of thought. “Now it's just a bit frustrating, I still think that I should've been more careful, but there's nothing I can do to change what happened.”

 “You might get better sooner than you think,” it's all Taehyung says in return, which brings a soft smile to Jeongguk's lips, the corner of his mouth is curved and his teeth are slightly showing, so it's adorable.

He gets to the office almost late for a meeting and practically run through the hallways to get there on time. He blames Jeon Jeongguk and his smile for that, and also the yummy muffins and coffee they were having.

His day is just as busy as he thought it would be, and his neck is still sore so he spends half of it touching his skin, trying to smooth the muscle there and he thinks that he should buy a new pillow while he's having lunch at 2pm. There's a few files to read in front of him, but he takes out his phone.

Taehyungie [2:07pm]:

Fuck you

Park Jiminie [2:08pm]:

What did I do to deserve such thing

Taehyungie [2:09pm]:

Your voice didn't leave my head for a moment today

It's annoying

Park Jiminie [2:10pm]

Awww Tae

 I know I'm lovely and really lovable

But I'm a monogamous guy

And I have my Joonie

Taehyungie [2:11pm]

Not like that, you idiot

The thing you said to me about me dating someone

It got stuck into my brain

And I couldn't stop thinking about it all day

Park Jiminie [2:13pm]:

That makes more sense

But what's wrong with that

Are you finally coming to your senses?

Taehyungie [2:13pm]:

What senses?

Park Jiminie [2:14pm]:

That you're a hopeless romantic that was focusing too much into your career and forgetting about your heart

And, Tae, there's nooothing wrong with accepting that you need some love sometimes

Or that you want someone to be waiting for you when you arrive home

Or to be the person that waits for the one that you love

Taehyungie [2:15pm]:

I think you're going too far ahead

Park Jiminie [2:16pm]:

I'm not, you'll see when you ask out Mr. cutie officer

Taehyungie [2:17pm]:

Who mentioned him

Park Jiminie [2:18pm]:

I just did

And I have to go know

The kids are coming back from snack time

Good luck with the pretty officer

Taehyung rolls his eyes and locks his phone again, letting it on top of his desk again. He doesn't know if Jimin's right about him asking out the officer, but he knows that the part where he said that there was nothing wrong with needing some love was right.

And the part where he was just focusing on his career and forgetting about everything else. He was probably in pain because it has been a while since he had a proper night of sleep, even on the Sunday that he said he was going to rest, he spend some hours reading old cases and reviewing what he wrote on his reports.

That definitely could not be healthy, so Taehyung decides something: he'll pay more attention to himself. Yes, being successful and having a nice job is important, but it won't be worth nothing if you don't take care of yourself too. And maybe he got used to working too much after being treated like an assistant for a long time, but he got past that and didn't need to be working his ass off all the time.

He'll pay more attention to himself, lower his working hours and maybe apply to the gym — or take some walks when the sun isn't high up in the sky anymore, because there's not a chance that he will wake up before 7AM just to take a walk —, he really wanted to adopt a dog, but that is off the table since he lives alone and he doesn't want to bother his neighbor to take care of his pet.

He takes a deep breath and notices that he had already eaten all of his jajangmyun and was feeling too full. Before going back to work properly, he throws out everything in the trash and washes his hands on the restroom inside his office. That was nice, having his own office, it was small compared to his bosses' ones, but he liked that.

There's a knock on his door and he's quick to tell them that it's open as he sits back on his chair, his eyes go up and he sees Yerin there, which brings him back to the present.

“So, Taehyung, we have more stuff to look into,” she voices while walking into his office, holding her pink colored laptop on her hands. “It was his company itself that sent us this. Apparently Junghwan's fans sent them a bunch of emails about it.”

Taehyung sighs and gives Yerin space to let her laptop on top is his desk, he grabs his glasses and places them on his nose while licking his lips.

“Have their P.R. team put out a disclaimer about it yet? Talking about it?” Taehyung asks after reading the message that one of the staff members from Junghwan's company send them.

“Not yet,” Yerin answers, her hands touching her waist as Taehyung clicks on the link with the evidence. “They’re waiting for you to take a look at it. This is just…”

“A crime, noona. This is just… too much,” Taehyung hisses under his breath, looking at the pictures. “They’re threatening to kill him.”

“Yeah, I saw it,” Yerin whispers, her voice so low that it's almost not audible. “And it's an anonymous account, probably posted on one of those cyber cafés.”

The lawyer bites is own lips and he wants to pull his hair. He reads again everything that's written and the few comments that someone had taken a screenshot and sent to the company. He opens Naver and searches the name of the stadium the group is hosting a concert that night.

“Okay, they have a concert tonight and they can't cancel it,” Taehyung says, moving his eyes from the screen to Yerin by his side. “Can you try to track it down as soon as possible? You can use my office and my computer if you need to. I'm gonna call their manager and the police.”

“And where you're going?”, she asks staring at Taehyung, who's getting up after pressing a button on her laptop.

“I’m gonna go after the other lawyers, the other members and their fans are in danger if that's true. And we need to postpone this concert two or three hours, because we have to increase security there,” he explains while picking up the papers from the printer, his phone hanging on his shoulder and his glasses are almost falling out from his nose. “I’ll be right back.”

He doesn't hear when Yerin murmurs a “sure” and turns to her laptop to try to do her thing. He runs to the secretary and asks her if it's possible to call an emergency meeting because there's no way he's repeating himself six times, not when that day has just gotten bigger.

It was way past midnight when Taehyung steps inside his apartment and he feels more tired than ever. He had spent the whole day inside a meeting room, talking with Min Yoongi, the police and the managers of the group. Then, Yerin and him headed to the company building so that their T.I team could help them out with tracking who had made those treats, plus the police was already looking into everyone who has a gun at home — cops or not.

They were able to postpone the concert for just one hour and a half after spending an hour on the phone with the person responsible for the stadium, but it was time enough to let the security guards and the police there, so they could feel a little bit safer there. A disclaimer was posted on the company's SNS account an hour before the opening of the gates, so anyone who wanted to go back home because they weren't feeling safe there could go and the tickets could be refunded if they wanted to.

The members were, of course, a mess since they knew everything that was going on, but they were able to finish the concert without any worries. But then, seven of them had to rush to the police station to deal with the situation alongside their lawyers, their cyber team and the police's team.

In short, it was a mess.

They didn't know much about the person who posted those, the account had gone missing and it was encrypted, so it was harder to get in. They ended up having to cancel their three next concerts that were happening two weeks from now, it was sad, but it's better safe than sorry and neither one of the members wanted to put their fans, their staff in harm. The worst part was that they recorded a video apologizing for what happened, just because they wanted to and they they were feeling like they were the ones to blame for that. Taehyung didn't think it was that much of a good idea, after all, that was exactly what the person wanted: attention. But their fans were worried and with their feelings all over the place.

The members had to be separated, each one in a different hotel, so that they weren't able to track them down, and the check-in was made in the names of their staff, so no one but the employees of the hotels knew that were they there.

So, when Taehyung takes out his shoes by the entrance of his apartment, lets his bag on the floor right after closing the door using its password. He lets his head touch the wall and feels himself as the main character from a movie in a cliché scene, because he lets his body drop on the floor, bent knees and everything, the only difference is that he's not crying, just tired. His eyes are closed but he knows that's almost 2AM without checking his phone. He’s hungry and he just remembers that the last time he ate was when he was texting Jimin, minutes before Yerin went to talk to him.

Since he was tired of coming home and eating reheated ramyun, Taehyung remembers that the delivery service in Seoul works 24/7, so he could order something and have it delivered to the doorman and wait while taking a warm shower to relax his body after working more than twelve hours straight. And that's exactly what he does, Taehyung takes his phone out of his pants pocket, sees that he has just a little bit over twenty percent battery and looks for something good and with fast-delivery on the delivery app, and all of those photos make his stomach growl loudly and he decides to order dak-galbi with plenty of rice and vegetables, mango juice and he is sure there are some sweets in his cabinets from the last time he went out to buy grocery. It's a heavy meal, but Taehyung knows that he won't be able to sleep that easy that night and probably won’t show up at the office the next day.

He stands up carefully, listening to the sound of his bones cracking inside his body from the tiredness — sitting and going up and down stairs and hallways isn’t that easy. He turns the lights on and notices that his apartment is untouched and there’s even some traces of dust on his furniture, which makes him wonder how much time has passed since he last cleaned his place. Probably when his mom came to stay with him for a week, two months ago, because of a doctor’s appointment.

Despite the spring weather, the ground was cold and he put on his slippers as soon as he was standing up. He sends a text to the office secretary, letting her know that if someone needs him, he'll be working from home that day. He has all the files on his laptop and access to the Jung & Kim Attorneys system just with his e-mail and password, so missing a day at the office won't be a problem. And if it was, it’s been so long since he took a day off that no one would care.

While looking for his charger, he checks in the app that his order will be delivered in about forty-five minutes and he knows that that number could go up to one hour, so he puts his phone to charge in the living room and walks to his bedroom taking off his tie and shirt.

That day was nothing less than a tragedy that no one could have expected happening. Taehyung had already seen bad things, but nothing at all to the point of someone posting pictures of firearms, saying that they will shoot at the artist during the concert, and now he knows that he should be ready to face other things that may come off as unexpected. Obviously that the company would increase its security and put more effort in protecting both the artists and their fans.

And Taehyung groans in the shower, he can’t stop thinking about work even when he’s at home. Maybe he has become a workaholic and didn’t even notice that happening. He lives and breathes for his job and he hates that he just noticed that now. He adds to his mental note that he should find himself a new hobby. Taehyung remembers that when he was in college, he liked to watch north american TV shows, draw and to paint, also, taking pictures and walking with his friends’ dogs and then, it pops up into his head that the only friend that stick with him from college was Jimin and he didn’t even remember the name of his classmates.

The lack of sleep is surely getting to his brain, Taehyung thinks while washing his hair with his favorite shampoo. He needs to stop for a moment and think about who he is and what he wants, spending the whole night working isn’t going to bring justice quicker when the problem isn’t in him, but in the justice system that is unfair to those who need it. With that shower, he lets himself relax and ends up putting comfortable clothes that are nothing more than a pair of black sweatpants and a white t-shirt.

He checks his phone and notices that the restaurant has just updated his order and it says that it will arrive in twenty-five minutes. He's hungrier than before and all of his sleepiness has vanished away with the shower, so Taehyung just takes a deep breath and stares at his turned off TV before heading to the kitchen. He opens all of the cabinets and finds a package of jellybeans and there's some kimchi on the fridge, he opens the jellybeans and bites one, feeling the taste of sugar on his tongue.

There's half a bottle of hot sauce and Taehyung heats the kimchi with it, and it tastes delicious to his empty stomach. It's been only ten minutes when Taehyung goes back to the living room, he decides to turn on the TV and watch  a drama on Netflix until he's able to fall asleep. He's sitting near the plug where his phone is charging, so he could quickly when it mentions that his order has arrived.

As soon as he decides on something to watch, a notification pops up on his screen and the intercom rings, his stomach growls again and he takes another bite of the kimchi before answering the phone hanging on the wall, in which is the doorman calling to tell him that his order was there.

Taehyung had paid with his credit card, so all he did was drop the intercom, pick up his phone, put on his slippers and leave the apartment while walking towards the elevator. He lives on the third floor, so he was quick to get downstairs and pick up his food from with the night doorman of the building. He thanked the man for taking his order and returned to the apartment in less haste, but already sensing the smell of fried chicken coming from the paper bag.

 He looks at himself in the elevator mirror and raises an eyebrow, there are dark circles under his eyes and his lips are dry, he looks thinner than a few years ago and his hair is tousled because he hasn't combed it after getting out of the shower, just used a towel and the dryer in a hurry.

Yeah, he definitely needed an improvement in his life, but for now, Taehyung ended his night watching a Joseon-based drama with zombies and bad governments.

“So, you spent three hours trying to convince the judge that an user ilovepopcorn_123 was throwing hate at one of your clients?” Jeongguk says, two weeks later, when Taehyung isn't working like the zombies of the drama he binge watched — what's working anyways, he finished the drama in two days.

“Yes!” Taehyung answers, laughing with his eyes half closed, there's a cup of coffee on his hands. “And the owner of the account was there! It was a twenty-eight year old guy with long hair, imagine his face looking at me, wearing a black suit, serious face, showing off screenshots of him making awful comments about my client. His lawyer looked like he wanted to cut off his head, seriously.”

“I would never keep my straight face at these moments, hyung, I don't know how you do it,” he says after a good giggle about that subject, he sips a bit on his coffee and goes back to look at the lawyer. “Sometimes I have to do security on the interrogation room, you know? ‘Cause I’m a tall and muscled guy…”

Oh, yeah. Taehyung definitely did not notice that. Sure, he didn't even see the way that his uniform is fixed on his skin right on the biceps when he holds onto something. No. Nope. No, he didn't notice that at all.

“... so I can scare some people away, and a few of them have bad stories and I need to hold back to not laugh when the detective is asking questions, but I don't think I'd read a username saying ‘I love popcorn’ and not even giggle a bit,” he continues and Taehyung smiles, he's used to that, there's a bunch of bad usernames on his files. “Do you like being a lawyer?”

They're at the precinct, not on a date, Taehyung makes sure to remember that, but just because he hasn't had the guts to call Jeongguk out yet. And he feels embarrassed at himself for being able to go against rich people and their privileges in front of a judge, but can't ask the pretty police officer out.

Thankfully, that visit to the precinct wasn't to give more evidence to Sargent Kim or to watch people being interrogated, he was just there to see how the investigation was going and to make a restraining order against a few fansites that were going overboard with the artist.

“It was my dream since I was a kid,” Taehyung mumbles, moving his hands from the cup to the muffins on top of the table, they were chocolate and strawberry flavored this time. “I guess I used to watch too much TV shows about law and stuff, and then I started seeing the bad parts of the law system and I wanted to change it from inside out, but that's just a far away dream because it's harder than the 11 year old Kim Taehyung thought it would be. What about you?”

There's that thing about Jeongguk when he's thinking — not that Taehyung noticed or day dreamed about it while he's on his car after spending some time with Jeongguk, after his meetings with Seokjin —, he scrunches his nose and his big eyes move a bit, his mouth pouts and it's cute. It's way cuter than a cop should be like and Taehyung can't help, but smile at it.

“It’s just… When I was younger, I got lost from my parents during a trip on the beach. I'm from Busan, but I used to life a little bit far away from the beach and we only went there when my parents had days off. So, I got lost and I wasn't scared or anything, I just wanted my parents, and as the little explorer the five year old me was, I just started walking on the streets looking for my mom. Then an officer found me,” he licks the strawberry cream from the muffins from his lips and Taehyung tries not to follow his tongue with his eyes. “My mom was so scared and my older brother started saying that the officer was a hero and I loved superheroes, so I decided that I wanted to get into the police. But as time passed by, I noticed that the officer wasn't doing anything else other than his job and that there's some awful things about the police.”

Taehyung is a goner for strong men with a cute background, there's no way he can deny that. Not when his elbow touch the wooden of the table and he rests his chin on the palm of his hands and looks into Jeongguk's eyes. And he’s been doing that for weeks — two weeks to be exact —, because despite the cute eyes and broad shoulders, Jeongguk’s sounds like an awesome person.

He likes hot choco and the hot summery breeze of the sea, they both watched Kingdom and spend one of those days where they see each other at the precinct talking about what could happen in the next season — and mostly gushing over at how awesome it was the amount of plot the writer of the show was able to pull off in only one episode. He watches those overhyped superheroes movies and likes pets — even though Taehyung doesn’t have one, he’s soft for pets. Taehyung is still learning about him, but he’s sure that there’s more of him to like.

And those small coffee dates were there’s more things to add to his list of “How Jeon Jeongguk would be a good boyfriend”, always end with Taehyung feeling discontented at himself. Because… how the hell hasn’t Taehyung asked him out yet? And then, Taehyung feels sorry for himself, hits his head on his work desk and listens to some sort of rock-pop-indie music he finds on his playlist and goes on with his day.

In that particular afternoon where Jeongguk’s dimples looked softer and the muffins tasted sweeter, Taehyung’s ritual was broken by Yerin entering through the door of his officer right when he was ready to start hitting his head on the desk. It felt silly and he wanted to cuss at his noona for not knocking before opening the door.

“Why are you mumbling with your face on the table?”, she asks, walking into the office with her hands into her pockets.

“Noona!” Taehyung groans, resting his back on the chair. “Why didn't you knock first?”

“Didn’t feel like it,” Yerin ties her pink hair in a ponytail at the top on her head and sits in the chair in front of Taehyung's desk. “Now tell me what's happening. I know a person is having heart problems when I see one. Tell noona what's happening.”

“How do you know?”, he sounds surprised and one of his eyebrows is up.

“Taehyungie, baby, not everyone can be this aromatic and pretty as me,” she says with a small grin on her lips, which makes Taehyung rolls his eyes.

He sighs loudly, it echoes through the room and Yerin's light brown eyes are fixed on him. Taehyung's not sure whether he should or not mention about Jeongguk to her, of course, he could always count on Jimin to vent about his coffee dates and how beautifully perfect Jeongguk was, but he already knows where Jimin stands on this matter.

“There's this guy,” Taehyung starts and Yerin hums, almost as if she already knew where he was going, not that he hides his sexuality, he just doesn't thinkt that's a important matter at work. “He’s amazing and… we're talking for three weeks now, we have some coffee meetings, we talk about what we have been doing and what we like, the thing is I think I kind of like him, but I haven't asked him out on a date yet.”

“Wait,” she fixes her posture, her eyes open as she touches the wooden of the desk with the tip of her fingers. “Lemme see if I'm getting his straight. You guys have coffee meetings and you haven't asked him out on a date yet? Taehyungie, sweetie, I feel like I need to tell you something…”

“But that's not the point, noona! I feel like I don't even know how to date anymore, it's been so long… I don't even remember the last time I asked someone out!” Taehyung complains, biting his lower lip out of nervousness.

“Look, Tae, I'm gonna be honest with you: there's no way you can't get this wrong. You were focusing on your job, that's all, and there's nothing wrong with that, or not wanting any romance at all. I don't want romance into my life. But if you want to, you should go for it, and you can just be honest with him and say that's he's your first shot at dating after a long time, if he's that nice how you say he is, I'm sure he'll understand it…”, Yerin finishes moving her shoulders up and Taehyung glares at her for a second, his eyes half open. “And there's not the the right romance formula. Romance isn't maths or physics, you won't get it wrong, even if you make a small mistake, don't worry. You're just a little bit nervous because it's been a while.”

“H—how…” Taehyung chokes on his words, frowning his eyebrows. “How are you so good at this? If you liked romance and my best friend wasn't practically engaged to his boyfriend, you two would be perfect for each other.”

“It’s not that I—,” Yerin shakes her head, taking a deep breath. “You know what? Never mind, just… Go after him, okay? If you think you have a chance and you like him, you won't know if it's meant to fail if you don't try.”

Taehyung huffs in defeat, it's not that Yerin is saying something that he didn't know already, but it's different to acknowledge something and to accept that. He wonders if he really takes the next step, if he'll have time to spend with someone else, when the last week's were so chaotic — but he's trying to give himself more time, he swears he is.

“Good luck, okay? I'll be rooting for you, you deserve some happiness into your heart after going against angsty teenagers and their bad comments on the internet,” Taehyung laughs at her sentence and Yerin smiles. “Also, I came here to tell you that the upgrade on the system is done, Hoseok and I spend the whole night working on it so I think we're more secure than ever.”

“Okay, thanks, noona. We can't have those people hacking into our system,” Taehyung changes his expression and pulls his chair up-front, feeling his belly touching the desk. “Don't Mr. Jung feels weird to see is son working into something that's not law related?”

“Oh, Mr. Jung…” Yerin chuckles, crossing her arms in front of her chest, Taehyung frowns at the expression on her face. “He completely hates it, especially because Hoseok is really good at what he does. You weren't here yet, but I worked here as an intern since my first year of college and Hoseok was finishing high school, and Mr. Jung was always furious at him because he wanted Hoseok to follow his steps… I don't know how he managed to make his dad accept that his dream wasn't to be in front of a judge.”

“I don't know what I'd do if my parents weren't supportive of my dream job,” Taehyung confesses, staring at the blank screen of his computer and then to Yerin. “I’d not be in Seoul, I think. If it weren't for them saving some money and helping me on the first months…”

“... but they supported you and that's all that matters. You see, it's not every parent that you'd let their kid travel to a big city, away from them, you're lucky,” Yerin states and Taehyung nods, half a smile on is face. “Well, now I'm gonna go home and sleep for twelve hours. Go bother Hoseok if anything goes wrong.”

Taehyung laughs and watches as she gets up from the chair, “wait, what were you going to tell me? Back when I started mentioning the guy I…?”

“Oh, right, the two are practically going on daily dates, I don't know what you're so afraid of. Bye!”

The door is closed and Taehyung is left alone with his own thoughts, he takes a deep breath and checks the time on his phone. It's not even 12pm yet, he bites his lower lip and decides if he should or shouldn't text Jeongguk about them having a date on the weekends — yes, he does have his number now, he got it on the second muffin date. It's been just an hour and a half since he left the precinct and Taehyung worries that the officer may think that he's pushing too far.

He ends up putting his phone away, groaning for being an overthinker person and decides to go to work, he wasn't being paid to do nothing while on the office.

There's another month after that.

A entire month. Exactly thirty days. And Taehyung has an audience on that morning with one of the defendants of Junghwan's case, their lawyer and a judge to meddle things. He was used to that, he had his arguments and pieces of evidence, but even so, those days seemed to be too long.

Waiting for a judge to make their decision was awful, and Taehyung knows that his client and his company were waiting for a response about some cases. Well, even the fans of the group. And the thing that Taehyung wanted the most was to prove to those people that, sometimes, the justice system works.

(Yes, he knows that's mostly for those who have money and can pay for good lawyers like him, but we need to start somewhere, right? Being someone who came from the lower classes, he can clearly see how things work on this world full of capitalism).

While Taehyung is outside the audience room, waiting for the judge, he sees everyone on their phones. He licks his own lips and takes a seat, picking up his phone from his pocket, not that he has something special to do there, he just doesn't want to be bored. He lets his bag resting by his side and he unlocks his decide using his fingerprint, the first thing he sees is a notification from his message app from Jeongguk, he smiles silly to the screen without even noticing it.

Taehyung is fast to click on it, opening the text and he waits until the picture load. It's Jeongguk's smiley face, he's on the break room of the police station, there's a muffin on his hand and a cup of coffee resting on the table, the next message says “We missed you today” and Taehyung feels his heart missing a beat.

He's not in love with Jeongguk (yet), he knows how in love feels like, but he knows that the police officer makes him feel something. Something like a fresh breath of a windy breeze after a run, or the smile of seeing the face someone you like. And coffee with muffins, sweet, but still a little bit bitter, because he doesn't know every single thing about him, and it's good because it keeps the mystery.

They're just friends for now, friends who always talk when they see each other at the precinct and text sometimes about the most trivial things.

Taehyungie [10:37am]:

I'd rather be eating muffins with you than in this audience here

hot officer [10:38am]:

boring judge?

Taehyungie [10:39am]:

No, this judge is quite nice

But the defendant is giving me the stinky eye

It reminds me of my younger brother when I didn't give him the last cookie of the jar

And he's like older than me

So it's weird

hot officer [10:40am]:

older than you???

you always give me the last muffin, hyung

should I feel happy about it?

Taehyungie [10:41am]:

As you see, some people have nothing else better to do

And yes, you should, my brother is annoying

you're not :)

hot officer [10:42am]:

 okay, now I'm flattered

use these phrases and the judge will fall for you and give you a win in all of your cases

Taehyungie [10:43am]

You're making fun of me

hot officer [10:44am]:

nah, you're cute, hyung

i would never to that

also, good luck with your case

you'll rock it

Taehyungie [10:45am]:

I'll pretend I believe you,

and thank you

He takes his eyes away from his phone's screen for a moment and stares at the wall. He bites his inner cheek and takes a small breath before looking at his text messages again, with Jeongguk saying that next time Taehyung's there, he'll order something salty and not sweet, just because he's being mean and Taehyung almost can't believe what he answers.

Taehyungie [10:47am]:

Jeonggukie, would you like to go out with me sometime? Like, on a date.

Shit, shit, shit, shit. He feels his body overheating when he presses send. Shit shit shit. Ok, he's asked him out. Now all he needs to do is wait for an answer and—

“Mr. Kim and Mrs. Yang? The judge has made off with a decision,” says the assistant of the judge and Taehyung's jaw dropped.

Good timing, Taehyung, as he's obligated to get up and hide his phone on his pocket. And he regrets sending that message in the same moment his phone screen gets dark. Taehyung picks up his bag and feels the sweat running on his back, he didn't want to leave Jeongguk talking to himself, but he has no choice but to do so, and he knows he shouldn't be feeling that hot when autumn was just around the corner.

The nervousness is making his body overheat even more, and he feels like a teenager boy asking out his crush for the first time. And he may have just turned in to one these past feel days; Jeongguk's the one to blame, because he never leaves his head. There's a big hallway keeping him away from the room where the audience was happening and he's glad that he's behind the other lawyer and defendant, because Taehyung's sure that he would be tripping over his own foot, picturing what Jeongguk had answered, or if he had answered at all. The words that he might have used, if he got caught up with work like himself, if there was a big no on his message box or if Jeongguk was half as excited as Taehyung was.

He waits all the time it takes until the judge says their verdict, he waits until he's finally free and can run to his car and act as if he's not a serious lawyer, but a guy on his late twenties who's kind of falling in love with someone, but denies it. Taehyung closes the door of his car, his fingers are sweaty and he wipes them on his suit, using them to unlock the screen once again.

hot officer [10:50am]

I thought you'd never ask :)

I'd love to go out with you,

just tell me when, okay?

hot officer [10:53am]:

good luck with the case! :)

Taehyung's phone falls on the floor of the car, he cusses at himself with a smile hanging on his lips while searching for the device. He's a big time idiot and everyone on that parking lot didn't need to know that, but at least it wasn't that hot inside the car because of the air conditioning, so his sweat went away while he was trying to find his phone below his seat.

When he finally managed to touch the device, he swallowed a breath and almost hit his head on the wheel. Winning that case and getting a yes from Jeongguk had, apparently, been his only part of luck that day. Because, Taehyung was sure of that, he wasn't usually that much of a mess.

Taehyung [12:57pm]:

Great! :)

I'll text you later

Ugh. That was awful and extremely awkward. Taehyung regrets it, but he knows that there wasn't anything better to say and he takes off his jacket and leaves it on the backseat, before sending another text to Jeongguk, saying that he had won the case and was heading to his office.

It wasn’t as hard as he thought it would be and Jeongguk accepting that felt great, now he just needed to figure out where to take him and when. He didn’t want to be the cliché guy who takes the person they like to an Italian restaurant or out for coffee — that choice would be pretty much just ignorant, since they’re always having a nice cup of coffee at the police station. So, he just needed to find out what Jeongguk likes to eat and which places he likes to frequent.

While he’s driving, Taehyung remembers his dad telling him about his first date with his mom, back when they were high school sweethearts, it was something simple, just a new diner at the town that was being the subject of the moment at the halls of their school. It had foreigner food, a jukebox and they served a really good strawberry milkshake; the place still exists up to today and they went there with their family a few times.

And then, there was Jimin, who took Namjoon, his boyfriend, to an art gallery because the latter was a fan of staring at beautiful paintings and photography. And then he took him to a Japanese restaurant, which didn't work out because Namjoon hates seafood and the restaurant was a specialist in salmon and other types of fried and raw fish. Jimin was confused as to why Namjoon had only eaten appetizers, rice and dessert, because the eldest was ashamed to say that he didn’t like to eat fish. In the end of the night, they laughed in Jimin's car when Namjoon was finally sincere and told the truth, because he was still starving and his nose was itchy after spending almost two hours smelling fish being fried, and they went to a McDonald's drive-thru, Namjoon paid for two sets of hamburgers and shared his fries with Jimin. And today, three years later, they are still together.

Taehyung didn’t want to do something big, he wanted something simple, but memorable and definitely not like Namjoon and Jimin, because he knows that Jeongguk prefers to eat pasta and doesn’t like little seasoned food, loves chocolate, kimchi and chicken. And, with that thought when he’s parking his car in the building of the law firm he works for, he has an idea of where to take Jeongguk.

He walks into the building giggling and murmuring a song he heard on the radio, which makes the people waiting to their meetings with the lawyers stare at him weirdly, the secretary raises an eyebrow when he asks her about ordering lunch and wishes her a good afternoon before heading to his office.

Back he checked his schedule for the day, right when he was having breakfast and he knew that he was booked all day. So, he just decided to search for Mexican restaurants later on that day.

One thing about Taehyung is that he can't keep secrets and that, sometimes, screw things over for him because he gets over excited and goes off telling everyone what he's up to. So, now he decided that he would keep his lips closed and won't tell anyone about the date.

Well, that wasn't easy at all. Especially because he needed to find a good place to go, make reservations and such, but then, internet was a good place to start since all sites had reviews about the food and the location. Taehyung didn't want to choose a place too far away from their neighborhood, or with all the tables booked.

There's three days in-between Taehyung asking Jeongguk out and then texting him to confirm a date, ironically, he didn't show up at the precinct during those days and the figured that the officer might have been thinking that he was standing him up — mostly because of his excited answer about a Friday night dinner at one of the restaurants he could find about online. It's not that much of a fancy place, so Taehyung tells him to dress casually and Jeongguk texts him back with his address.

Taehyung smiles at his phone and almost hits his face on the wall of the office, making Yerin stare at him while nodding negatively. He's a joke, he's sure he is. But he has a date with a handsome police officer, who seems to like him and he's managing to keep his hours short, always leaving the office before 7pm. His cases are doing great, it's been a while since he had to sue someone in Junghwan's name and the judges are being fair when it comes to punishing the culprits for those comments and false information being spread.

So, it's good. His life is doing well. But he still thinks about adopting that dog.

And when Friday come and their date is right around the corner, Taehyung feels his hands sweating and he's feeling a little bit nervous. He's thankful that he doesn't have any clients that day, and that he doesn't have to go see a judge, because he just knows that he'll end up messing everything up — he's not actually that much of a clumsy person, he's just over-excited about a date and he probably shouldn't be; he's not on the age to be that much overwhelmed about something, but it's almost as if it's his first time going out with someone again and he wants it to work out.

His work day ends a little bit earlier than the usual, at 5pm, and he's already in the traffic five minutes later. It's right on the rush hour of a Friday, so he figures he'll spend some minutes there. Taehyung turns on the radio and sighs, looking at the amount of cars in front of him, he figures it's not just some minutes that he'll spend on the traffic. He just hopes that his date won't be ruined by that.

The reservation was scheduled for eight o'clock at night, but as the restaurant was located in a place little bit further away from where he and Jeongguk lived, nearing the Han River, he wanted to pick him up around seven o'clock so that he could drive nicely and enjoy every minute of the date.  Taehyung was even thinking of going to an ice cream shop later, which served frozen yogurt and had several flavors available — he researched it before. Taehyung wanted everything to work that night, so he was cursing the traffic for all the minutes he was there.

It was past 6pm when he managed to get to his apartment, which made him immediately take off his clothes, shoes and leave his bag on top of the sofa before heading to the bathroom to take a shower. He had a few minutes to get ready and drive to Jeongguk's house so that they wouldn't be late. Taehyung washes his hair and uses his favorite soap, he also brushes his teeth and wears the clothes he separated for the date.

Different from his working hours, Taehyung is wearing a white social shirt with a painting from Van Gogh printed on the back, his pants are black and tight perfectly around his waist, hips and legs, and searches for a nice shoe to match the outfit. There’s a black jacket lying on his bed, just in case it’s colder when they come back, and he chooses a pair of brown shoes that have the same shade as in the painting on his back. It’s nearly 7pm when he finishes dressing himself, he’s relieved that Jeongguk’s house isn’t too far away from his building, otherwise he would be in trouble.

Before heading out of his apartment, he puts on some perfume and picks up his jacket, wallet and phone, he breathes in and out and gets inside the elevator, complimenting the elderly couple that was already there. He texts Jeongguk, saying that he was already on his way to pick him up and walks to his car. There’s a short answer from Jeongguk after that, telling him that he was already waiting for him to show up and Taehyung smiles to his phone before putting it away and turning the key after typing Jeongguk’s address on the GPS.

The night was calm and the traffic was controlled by now, so it wasn't more than ten minutes until Taehyung stopped in front of a white house with medium gates, it was the number that Jeongguk had sent him, so Taehyung was sure that he was on the right place. He picks up his phone and sends him a message, telling Jeongguk that he's already outside, waiting for him.

Five minutes later, Jeongguk's leaving the house with a smile between his rosy lips. He's wearing blue jeans with black shirt that's tucked inside his belt, making it look like it's more oversized than it already is, a jeans jacket and a black pair of All Stars. Casual, just like Taehyung said, but still pretty. His wavy hair looks a little bit shorter than the last time Taehyung has seen it, but it's still falling on his forehead.

“Hi,” Taehyung says as soon as he walks to him, who's outside his car, just waiting for Jeongguk. “You look beautiful today.”

Jeongguk's smile grows bigger and he throws his hair back, staring at Taehyung's eyes while murmuring a hi back, “You too, hyung. You always look nice.”

Taehyung's nose scrunches when he giggles softly, letting himself stand properly. “You ready?”

“Of course,” he answers, nodding. “And hungry.”

While opening the car's door, Taehyung notices the citric smell of Jeongguk's perfume, somewhere between oranges and the early morning earth after a night of rain. He wonders why he never noticed that, but then, Taehyung remembers that everything in a precinct smells like... Well, coffee and old papers.

He closes the door carefully and them walks to his side of the car, getting in quickly and licking his lips out of excitement. The fact that he got himself a date with Jeongguk was becoming more real, and he was happy about it.

“Hyung,” Jeongguk calls him out and Taehyung moves his eyes from the road and looks at him. “Can I kiss you? I've been dy...”

There was no need for Jeongguk to say anything else, Taehyung turned his body, one leg on the seat and his left feet touching the floor of the car, his face on Jeongguk's direction and he touched his cheeks, smacking their lips together before the sentence was over. The officer sighs in-between the kiss, letting his hands touch Taehyung's waist as he pulled him closer. It's short and sweet, and their noses are pressed against each other when it ends.

Taehyung would be lying if he said he wasn't expecting to kiss him for a long time now, he was always caught staring at Jeongguk's lips and noticing how pretty they were. Now he knows that they're even more softer than he thought they were, and he's sure that the taste of his cherry lip balm isn't going to leave his dream so soon. And Jeongguk kisses him again, bringing one of his hands to Taehyung's neck as he opens his mouth, giving himself in to the kiss.

The breeze of the night coming through the half closed window makes Taehyung shiver at the same time he feels the taste of the toothpaste Jeongguk used on his tongue, Taehyung closes his eyes strongly, noticing the way that the younger was pulling his hair softly and caressing his neck at the same time. There's sparkles on his stomach and he moves his mouth, taking his hands down to Jeongguk's thighs so he can support himself as the kiss deepens.

 Taehyung didn't even pay attention to the time that was passing by, he didn't want to leave where he was and much less stop kissing Jeongguk and the police officer seemed to feel the same, because, every time everything got slower, as if Taehyung was going to part away their lips, his  his right hand grip on Taehyung's waist becomes stronger, he ends up hitting Taehyung's nose with his own and kisses him even harder, more willingly. And the lawyer didn't even know that he was still capable of feeling those things with just the touch of lips.

But, well, they end up finishing the kiss when Taehyung's stomach growls and both of them laugh, realizing that they're hungry and the restaurant was further away from them. Their lips are a mess, reddish and swollen when they walk into the restaurant. It's obvious that they were making out inside the car, but neither one of them seem to care.

One of the waiters walks them to their table, hands them their menu and offers a bottle of white wine to drink while they're deciding what to order. Taehyung feels that he is more relaxed than before after taking a few sips on the light wine, Jeongguk is sitting in the chair opposite him, sending him a few glares from time to time, while commenting on some of the dishes.

The restaurant had a decor that seemed to mix Mexican and Korean culture, their flags were even attached to the wall next to the cashier and the color of the walls remembered the two countries. It was not expensive place, there were families and other couples around, bringing a certain comfortable mood to the place. The background music that was being played was a new one from a well-known international singer.

“You haven't been going to the precinct a lot lately, hyung” Jeongguk comments after the waiter takes their orders. “Did something happen?”

“Not really,” Taehyung murmurs, moving his eyes from the bottle of wine to Jeongguk's face. “There hasn't been any new evidence to bring to Seokjin-ssi, and I was a bit busy with a few audiences. Did you miss me?”

Jeongguk's face gets a little bit red and he takes another sip, “I did. You know, I've been waiting for sometime for you to realize that I was into you. Even thought about asking you out myself.”

Wait. What?

Taehyung almost chokes on his saliva, one of Jeongguk's eyebrows is raised when he gulps. There's a second there, before Taehyung could truly understand what was going on.

“So, all of those small little coffee dates weren't you just being nice to me?” Taehyung asks, the tone of his voice sounding a little suspicious and Jeongguk laughs, leaving the glass on the table again.

“No, hyung,” he licks his lips. “I wanted to spend some time with you, but both of us were a lot busy. You with your cases, I could even notice the dark bags under your eyes a few weeks ago, and I had a lot of physical therapy to do when I was off work, swimming, the gym… So, I thought we could use a few minutes when you were at the precinct, I have coffee and lunch breaks, so it wasn't a problem to sneak out from the front desk, I was kind of worried about you, since I read in your card that you work at Jung & Kim Attorneys, but you never said no… So I just kept asking you to have coffee with me.”

Taehyung smiles, noticing how cutely Jeongguk said that. It was funny to realize that both of them were on the same page, crushing each other, but a little bit afraid of taking the next step.

“I wanted to ask you out since I saw you for the first time,” Taehyung confesses out of nowhere, he doesn't even realize until he has voiced the words. “You were really cute behind that desk, big eyes and everything… But I chickened out because it has been some time since I last dated someone and I was afraid of doing something wrong. My friend said that I was just being dumb.”

“Mmmmh, you probably were,” Jeongguk says playfully while shaking his shoulders, letting his hands touching his thighs. “I'd say yes, anyways. Let's say that I have a thing for men in ties.”

“Good thing that I have a bunch of them.”

Jeongguk stares at him and Taehyung freezes, not believing that he said that out loud. His eyes are almost wide open and Jeongguk breaks down laughing, which makes Taehyung follow him on that, so much that his cheeks start to hurt. And it’s awkward, so awakward that he doesn’t know where to hide his face, at least it wasn’t bad-awkward, but funny, because the smile on Jeongguk’s face makes it a little bit better.

“I really do have lots of them,” Taehyung murmurs when he’s able to stop laughing at himself, he touches his cheeks and takes another sip on the wine. “And, ugh, I’m sorry if this is just too awkward. I have no idea what to say when… this happens.”

“You’re cute, hyung,” he confesses, he smile still on his lips. “And I also don’t know, I don’t actually go a lot on dates, especially not after the accident. Should we just skip the part where we care about bad stories from our childhood and talk something interesting?”

“Considering that we already talked about our bad childhood stories. Don’t think that I’ve forgotten about you stealing your sister’s lipstick because you thought your lips were too pale and then your mom asked if you…”

“No, no,” Jeongguk stops him, laughing mid-way. “Why did I tell you this. And, in my excuse, I had watched a zombie movie with my dad and thought that I was becoming a zombie.”

“See? We already know each other’s bad stories,” Taehyung says, jokingly.

And then it hits him. Yerin’s voice pops up on his head and he remembers how she said that they’ve been going on dates for sometime now, it was just not labeled like that. It was so casual that maybe even Jeongguk didn't realize it happened, they were familiar with each other already and Taehyung, well, he was always the type to do questionable things in front of people he likes and the fact that Jeongguk was the first person who caught his attention after so many years of not being interested in anyone makes his silly side appear more easily.

It takes just a minute until two waiters appear with their food and drinks, both of them had ordered dishes that they hadn’t tasted yet, so they could try it out together, which at first Taehyung thought it could be a bad idea — because, what it both of the were unpleasant? But later, he found himself enjoying it and confessing that it could turn out to be fun.

“Hey, Jeonggukie,” Taehyung starts, almost an hour and a half later, when they’re walking to the ice cream shop across the street after dinner. The waiters offered dessert at the restaurant, but Taehyung had made such a good advertisement about that place he found, that Jeongguk ended up dying to give it a try “What did you mean by after the accident you didn’t date a lot?”

“It’s- It’s kind of stupid,” he sighs, putting his hands into his pockets.

“I don’t think that anything that comes from you is stupid, Jeonggukie,” he makes sure that he knows that, the officer may not trust a hundred percent on him, but Taehyung has been trying his best.

“I was always a shy and introverted person,” Jeongguk breathes him, his shoulders going up and Taehyung’s eyes focus on him. “So, I thought I could, I don’t know, call everyone’s else attention by my looks or anything like that, and I held onto that for a long time in my life, and then, I was shot and couldn’t move my arm at all for a few months, it was almost as my life had ended there. It took me a while and a lot of therapy for me to get that I wasn’t just… my body. And I was kind of insecure when I first walked to you and asked if you wanted to have coffee with me, after you went to work, I had to change my uniform because I was soaked in sweat… And I just realized that that wasn’t sexy at all.”

Taehyung chuckles, and he reaches out to take Jeongguk’s hand, holding it softly and they take two more steps, staying there where the lighting from the lamp pole didn’t catch them. He glances at the street and realizes that no one was paying attention to them.

“I’m not gonna lie that you have a beautiful body, Jeonggukie, and I noticed that, but you’re so much more than just your muscles or your injured hand. Do you know what has caught my attention at first?” Taehyung questions him and Jeongguk shakes his head, the older man gives a brief smile and continues, "your smile. And the way that your whole face lights up when you’re smiling. There’s this other smile, where you scrunch your nose and your front teeth shows up, it’s cute. And I stayed-  I asked you out, because you made me smile, because your awful jokes didn’t leave my head just for a second.”

Even with no light on them, Taehyung could still see the way Jeongguk's eyes lit up when he heard those words, maybe he just needed some assurance of what they were doing in there. He tightens his grip on the officer's right hand, bringing it close to his chest and gives a chaste kiss on his lips.

“Just in case you were wondering my intentions, you know,” Taehyung raises his eyebrows playfully, and kisses Jeongguk's lips once more, it's just a peck and the officer giggles at that.

“Yeah, I know,” he whispers, licking his lips. “But I still want my ice cream.”

Taehyung pouts, pretending to be offended by what Jeongguk had just said, but the youngest just pushes him lightly with his shoulder and Taehyung smiles, saying that they were only a few minutes from the ice cream shop.

Since the season had just changed, it was still warm despite being past 9pm, the breeze of the Han River was chilling and Taehyung decides to wear his jacket while eating his ice cream. He found out that Jeongguk was a mint chocolate lover and stole some of his just to try it out.

“This doesn't feel like a first date,” Jeongguk says staring at the reflection of the moon on the water, they were sitting on a bench near the river, next to where Taehyung's car was parked. “It's kind of…”

“A casual date?” Taehyung completes and Jeongguk nods, taking another bite of his ice cream. “I feel the same. Maybe it's because of our coffee dates at the precinct. We talked a lot.”

“You know what's the best part of that?”, the lawyer shakes his head, glancing at Jeongguk while at that. “I came here already knowing that I'd enjoy this date, just because I already knew that I like you.”

Taehyung smiles, touching Jeongguk's hand, who intertwines their fingers and lets his head rest on the older's shoulder. He closes his eyes and feels the soft wind blowing on his face, “I like you too, Jeonggukie.”

There's a quiet sigh that comes from Jeongguk's throat after that, Taehyung feels happy and asks himself why he was so afraid of going on a date with Jeongguk for the past few months. The officer had gotten into him already, with that bunny smile and loud laugh. He remembers the words his mother said to him when he was younger, about how everything happens when it has to happen and that, perhaps, this was the right time for him and Jeongguk.

 What if he had asked the police officer out right after the first time he saw him and watch it all go wrong because their timing wasn't right? It took Taehyung a while to find out what Jeongguk liked, if he had taken him to a steakhouse, he would probably have lost some affinity points with him, since Jeongguk was more of a pasta guy.

In a way, it was good to wait and do things their own way; Jimin takes everything way too fast and Yerin has no romantic feelings for anyone, she just gives her sincere opinion based on what she had seen, not that this is a problem, her opinion is just as valid as anyone else's of course, but everyone is different from each other and maybe the right moment for Jeongguk and Taehyung was like this, slowly, having picked up a certain friendship before falling headlong into a proper date and not something improvised in the  police station break room.

If Taehyung was going to put everything into account, one year and a half ago, when he signed the contract with the Min company, he didn't think he would be falling for a police officer. But Jeongguk just had to be there, working on the same precinct of the neighborhood where his law firm is set. He wasn't even thinking about love when he moved out from Daegu to Seoul, or when he applied to that job at Jung & Kim Attorneys,  Taehyung was kind of happy about that, because the sensation of finding something good without even looking for it was way better than when you're actually looking for it.

Their date ends in a blink of an eye, neither one of them was paying attention to how time was passing by quickly, and it's almost 12 am when Taehyung stops his car in front of Jeongguk's house.

“So,” the younger starts, taking off his safety belt, “thank you for today. I had fun. And I’ll definitely go back to that ice cream shop.”

Taehyung’s cheeks go up into a smile without showing his teeth, “Then, I get a second date?”, his voice is playful and Jeongguk closes his eyes in a grin.

“How many more you want to, actually,” he moves his eyebrows and leans in to Taehyung, who touches his chin and kisses him, feeling the mint taste still present on his lips.

Jeongguk feels his body shivering a little from Taehyung’s cold touch on his skin, but he opens his mouth and lets the kiss deepen, as if he doesn’t want to let go and get inside his house. He wants that date to last a little bit more, and the low R&B tone of the singer in the background makes him want to listen to Taehyung’s whole playlist.

Then, it gets slow, Taehyung's fingers make their way to the back of his head, pulling softly Jeongguk's locks as the kiss ends, but their mouths are still pressed one against the other and the lawyer knows that Jeongguk's smile throughout all of that, and pecks him again and again, and again until the song is over and their foreheads touch.

“Text me when you get home?” Jeongguk whispers into his lips and Taehyung nods, kissing him one more time. “Okay.”

Both of them open their eyes and they have the most soft and caring look on their faces, it’s almost as if they’re feeling the same. Jeongguk’s the first to lean back and touch the handle of the car.

“Have a good night, hyung,” he murmurs, both of them hearing the click of the door opening itself. “Take care.”

Taehyung licks his lips, still feeling the taste of Jeongguk’s mouth on him, and mumbles a soft you too while he watches the younger getting out of the car and waving at him as he walks to the gate of his house. Taehyung doesn’t drive away until Jeongguk closes the door of the house, and he sees the living room lights on.

That is not the only date they went to. Since it was a restart for both of them, they decided to enjoy everything as if it was their first time when Taehyung shows up at the precinct on the following week of their Mexican restaurant date. There’s coffee and chocolate muffins waiting for him there as always, — no, not that Taehyung texted Jeongguk telling him that he would come over, no, he would never do that.

They go to the Lotte World Aquarium, other restaurants and even on a  cliché amusement park date, where Jeongguk ends up going home with two plushies Taehyung own for him, and they go to the movie theater, to watch bad American movies and spend all the time talking with each other. In short, they were having fun, while getting to know each other better, which, for the time being, was making both of them happy.

With the end of the year getting nearer, Taehyung was wondering himself how to ask Jeongguk to be his boyfriend — neither one of them had labeled that yet, even though most of the people already knew that they were together. He wanted to do something nice for both of them. The main point was: they were kind of comfortable where they were, but Taehyung wanted something more and he was sure that Jeongguk wanted the same, he just needed to find the right timing and place to do it.

Of course, Taehyung continued going sporadically to the precinct, because the more famous the group was getting, more hate the member he represented was facing; the only difference was that now Taehyung knew how to deal better with these situations and working along with the other lawyers had become easier. Jeongguk and Taehyung's coffee dates still happen every once in a while, but they'd rather spend time outside the walls of a police station.

During late November, in a day where both of them had the weekend off, they decided to spend it together on Taehyung's apartment — since Jeongguk shared his house with his sister and, following his words, he wanted privacy and she has a loud boyfriend. So, they were there, waiting for the popcorn to be ready while tucked in a warm blanket in the living room.

Jeongguk’s lying on Taehyung's shoulder, eyes focused on the Netflix show on the television, trying to understand how the previous episode ended in one scene and the other started in another one. There was a frown between his eyebrows and Taehyung smiles, noticing how cute the police officer is with that small pout between his lips and the confused look on his eyes.

It's snowing outside, just a little bit and he's sure that on the following day it's just going to look like it was raining during the whole night, but he remembers the saying from Goblin that says that couples who kiss during the first snow of the year are meant to be. It's not even the first now, it has been snowing during the night for the past two weeks, but it's something that's stuck into his head.

Taehyung feels his heart lose a beat and just gives up into finding the perfect moment and words, “Jeonggukie?”

“Hm?”, he moves his attention from the screen to the lawyer by his side, he feels Taehyung hands holding his own and blinks

 “Are we dating yet? Like… Can I call you my boyfriend?”, he asks, gulping and the corner of Jeongguk's lips move into a smile.

“Of course you can, baby,” he closes his eyes and kisses Taehyung softly, squeezing his way knuckles. “Now tell me why did Fengmin think it was a good idea to leave two teenagers taking care of the Pier while…”

Taehyung just laughs, hearing the sound of the microwave beeping. Maybe they didn't need the perfect moment, after all.