Chapter Text
⋆˚𝜗𝜚˚⋆˚˖𓍢ִ໋❀˚ ༘ ೀ⋆｡˚⋆˚𝜗𝜚˚⋆˚˖𓍢ִ໋❀˚ ༘ ೀ⋆｡˚
The first thing Taehyung learned after falling in love with Jeon Jungkook was that the world never truly belonged to them.
It belonged to cameras.
To managers with tight schedules and sharper eyes.
To fans waiting outside buildings at midnight.
To articles dissecting smiles and glances and breathing patterns as if love itself could be exposed beneath fluorescent lights.
So they became experts at existing in fragments.
A hand brushing briefly beneath restaurant tables.
Late-night phone calls whispered into pillows.
Masks pulled high over their noses while walking side by side along the quietest streets they could find.
And somehow—
despite all of that,
Jungkook still flirted like his life depended on it.
“You’re staring again.”
Taehyung didn’t look up from the bouquet in his hands. “I’m literally working.”
“Mhm.”
The voice came warm through his earbuds. Lazy. Smiling.
Taehyung could practically hear the grin.
Inside the tiny flower café, soft jazz floated through hidden speakers while sunlight spilled across rows of hydrangeas and tulips.
The shop smelled like eucalyptus and roses and freshly cut stems.
It was small, cozy, tucked between a bookstore and a bakery on a quiet street where nobody looked twice at ordinary people.
Which was exactly why Taehyung loved it.
He adjusted the pale wrapping paper around the bouquet carefully, fingers gentle as he tied the ribbon.
“You called me just to bother me, didn’t you?”
“Obviously.”
Taehyung bit back a smile.
Outside, rain tapped softly against the windows, blurring the city into watercolor smudges.
It was late afternoon, the kind of gray spring day that made people crave warmth.
Unfortunately for Taehyung, warmth often came packaged as one dangerously pretty idol with too much free time between rehearsals.
“You miss me,” Jungkook said confidently.
“You saw me yesterday.”
“And?”
“And you survived.”
“Barely.”
Taehyung finally laughed quietly under his breath, lowering his head so the older woman browsing lilies nearby wouldn’t notice the blush creeping onto his cheeks.
He hated how easy Jungkook made it.
Hated it even more because he secretly loved it.
“You’re dramatic.”
“And you’re cute when you pretend you don’t like me.”
“I do like you.”
A pause.
Then, softer:
“I know.”
Something in Taehyung’s chest melted instantly.
That was another thing about Jungkook.
People thought he was all sharp edges onstage. Tattoos, confidence, burning charisma that swallowed entire arenas whole. But privately, with Taehyung, he became unbearably gentle.
Like he held Taehyung’s heart in both hands all the time.
“You ate today?” Taehyung asked quietly.
“Mhm.”
“You’re lying.”
“I had coffee.”
“That’s not food.”
“There was cream in it.”
Taehyung sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose while moving toward the register.
“Jungkook.”
“What?”
“You can’t survive on caffeine and bad decisions.”
“I survived meeting you.”
“That doesn’t even make sense.”
“It made you smile though.”
It did.
Annoyingly.
Taehyung scanned a customer’s flowers while listening to Jungkook hum softly through the phone. There was noise in the background on his end. Staff members talking, distant music, movement.
Rehearsal building.
Probably another exhausting schedule.
Taehyung’s expression softened automatically.
“Are you resting at all?”
“Nope.”
“Kook.”
“I’m resting now.”
“You’re literally at work.”
“I’m talking to my boyfriend. That counts.”
Boyfriend.
Even after almost a year together, the word still startled Taehyung sometimes.
Not because he disliked it.
Because Jeon Jungkook, the Jeon Jungkook, said it like he was proud.
Like Taehyung was something precious.
The bell above the café door chimed softly.
Taehyung glanced up automatically.
And froze.
A familiar figure entered wearing all black despite the weather: hoodie, cap, mask.
Suspiciously broad shoulders.
Suspiciously familiar eyes.
Taehyung nearly dropped the bouquet.
“…You absolute menace.”
The figure lifted one tattooed hand in a tiny wave.
Through the earbuds, Jungkook said innocently,
“What?”
“You’re here.”
“No I’m not.”
“You literally just walked into my store.”
The customer near the tulips glanced up briefly.
Taehyung lowered his voice immediately, pulse jumping.
Jungkook pulled his mask down just enough for Taehyung to see the devastating grin underneath.
“You sounded like you missed me.”
“You said you were at rehearsal.”
“I lied.”
“You’re impossible.”
“And yet you’re still dating me.”
Jungkook wandered toward the counter with deliberate slowness, hands tucked into his hoodie pocket like he didn’t have the power to accidentally destroy Taehyung’s nervous system by simply existing.
God.
Even dressed down, he looked unfair.
His dark hair curled softly beneath the cap, slightly damp from the rain. Silver rings gleamed on his fingers when he leaned against the counter.
Taehyung’s heart performed its usual humiliating routine.
Meanwhile Jungkook looked entirely too pleased about it.
“You’re blushing,” he whispered.
“You came here!”
“And?”
“What if someone recognizes you?”
Jungkook glanced around the nearly empty café.
“No one’s paying attention.”
“That’s because normal people don’t expect international celebrities to appear next to the carnations.”
“You called me international. Cute.”
Taehyung glared weakly.
Jungkook only grinned wider.
It was always like this.
The teasing.
The relentless affection.
The way Jungkook looked at him like the rest of the world barely existed.
Sometimes Taehyung genuinely wondered how this relationship had survived so long without collapsing beneath Jungkook’s inability to behave normally.
Then again—
maybe it survived precisely because of that.
Because after endless schedules and cameras and pressure, Jungkook stepped into this tiny flower café and became just a boy hopelessly in love.
“You should leave,” Taehyung whispered.
“You want me to leave?”
“No.”
The answer came too fast.
Jungkook’s eyes softened instantly.
Taehyung looked away first.
Dangerous.
That look was dangerous.
The soft one.
The unbearably fond one.
The one that made Taehyung forget entire sentences.
Jungkook reached across the counter slowly, carefully, hidden by the arrangement buckets between them.
His fingers brushed Taehyung’s wrist once.
Tiny.
Secret.
Enough to send warmth up Taehyung’s arm anyway.
“You look tired,” Jungkook murmured.
“I worked since seven.”
“Come over tonight.”
Taehyung hesitated automatically.
Not because he didn’t want to.
Because going to Jungkook’s apartment always carried risk.
Paparazzi sometimes lingered near the building.
Fans watched entrances.
Managers noticed patterns.
Their relationship existed inside careful calculations.
Jungkook noticed the hesitation immediately.
His thumb rubbed softly against Taehyung’s wrist.
“I miss you,” he said quietly this time.
And that—
that was unfair.
Taehyung melted on contact every single time.
“You saw me yesterday,” he mumbled.
“Still missed you.”
“How are you real?”
“Very real. Wanna hold my hand and check?”
Taehyung choked on air.
Jungkook looked delighted with himself.
“Stop flirting with me at my workplace.”
“Never.”
“You’re unbelievable.”
“You love me.”
Unfortunately, that was true too.
A customer approached the register and Taehyung quickly pulled away, trying desperately to ignore Jungkook staring at him with open amusement.
The older woman purchasing peonies smiled warmly.
“Your boyfriend?”
Taehyung nearly died.
Jungkook nearly ascended spiritually.
While Taehyung’s face burned crimson. “N-no—”
“Yes,” Jungkook answered immediately.
The woman laughed softly. “You’re very cute together.”
Taehyung wanted the floor to swallow him whole.
Jungkook, meanwhile, looked moments away from proposing marriage on the spot.
“Thank you,” he said politely.
Taehyung stared at him in horror after the customer left.
“You can’t just say yes!”
“She already thought I was your boyfriend.”
“You still said it!”
“I am your boyfriend.”
“You know what I mean!”
Jungkook leaned closer over the counter.
“No,” he whispered mischievously, “I think you just like hearing it.”
Taehyung genuinely considered throwing a rose at his face.
Instead, he turned away to hide his smile.
Hopeless.
He was completely hopeless.
An hour later, Jungkook still hadn’t left.
Technically, he sat quietly in the corner pretending to scroll through his phone while hidden beneath his cap and hoodie.
In reality, he spent most of the time staring at Taehyung with lovesick intensity.
Taehyung could feel it constantly.
Every time he looked up, Jungkook was already watching him.
Softly.
Adoringly.
Like this was his favorite place in the world.
Eventually Taehyung walked over carrying a small wrapped bundle.
Jungkook looked up instantly.
“For me?”
“No, for the ghost behind you.”
“Cute. Sarcastic today.”
Taehyung handed him the bundle. A tiny bouquet of white daisies wrapped in brown paper.
Jungkook blinked.
“You made this?”
“Mhm.”
“For me?”
“You’re asking a lot of obvious questions today.”
Jungkook stared at the flowers for a second too long.
And suddenly the teasing expression faded into something softer.
Realer.
“Oh,” he said quietly.
Taehyung’s chest tightened immediately.
Because beneath all the flirting and confidence, Jungkook was strangely easy to love.
He reacted to affection like someone still surprised to receive it.
Jungkook touched one of the petals gently.
“These are my favorite.”
“I know.”
Dark eyes lifted slowly.
And there it was again.
That look.
The one that made Taehyung feel like the only person alive.
“You remember everything,” Jungkook murmured.
Taehyung smiled shyly. “Someone has to.”
Jungkook exhaled softly through his nose, clearly trying, and failing, not to look overwhelmed.
Then, naturally, he ruined the moment.
“I’m kissing you later.”
Taehyung groaned immediately.
“There he is.”
“What? I got emotional. It was scary.”
“You’re impossible.”
“You like impossible.”
Unfortunately—
unfortunately,
Taehyung really, really did.