VMINKOOK / THE ART OF BEEKEEPING

63

— PART SIXTY-THREE.

They make an ugly couple. Taehyung thinks Juri, despite her obvious foibles, is much too beautiful to be stood beside a man so atrocious. In a way, he seems to make her seem uglier. It's strange to think he's at all related to Jimin — beautiful, starlit Park Jimin, who skims his feet across reservoirs of pastel colourants, and bends his body to dance before the cold world. Hanbit is nothing short of hideous by comparison. They have a similar face shape and that's about it — Hanbit is taller than his brother and stockier, bigger, and all the features of his face seem thin, as if he'd been deflated somehow.

Even his cruel smile is nothing like Jimin's. He narrows his face, and his lips are pursed together in a glorious depiction of smugness. "I've been wanting to meet you." He says to the blonde boy, after the minute of shocked silence that followed his interruption of their conversation.

"Have you?" Taehyung asks him, weary and a little frightened. He tries to reach out for Juri in his mind, but the woman doesn't look back. Her jaw is set and her head is held up high, forcing her expression to set at something waxy with pretend cheer.

"Mm, well, want is a strong word, I suppose." His back teeth press together, making his face seem larger. "You see, when I heard you'd be coming with not just my brother, but Jeon Jeongguk as well, I thought I must meet the boy who managed to capture the hearts of both of the boys who hated each other so. I thought, I must meet the boy who took those hearts and tangled them together, knotting them at the veins. The boy who managed to swindle them into caring for him."

"Swindle?" Taehyung repeats, and the word lurches out of him in a slew of amusement and irritation.

Hanbit moves his head in a way that makes it easier to look down at the boy, and his fingers look so dirty as they come to brush across Juri's shoulder. She doesn't flinch, doesn't move, but her eyes allow themselves to look back at Taehyung, who's glaring at those very fingers. "Mm." The man hums, and his shrug is taxing to see. He continues, "well, I'm a little disappointed to be honest. I mean, you're not quite what I expected."

Taehyung supposes that was meant to offend him, but actually he's quite happy he doesn't meet whatever despicable expectations Park Hanbit had for him. "Well, I'm sorry you think that." He says plainly, his discomfort in the situation being outweighed by the searing anger he feels looking into the man's face.

"Of course you are," His fingers drift down the woman's arm. "You're awfully polite considering what you just said about me." He comments, nips his words, letting them hit across Taehyung like a salvo of bullets.

"I'm not sure how you want me to be." Taehyung says, and he watches as the man's face lights up evermore with this deranged manner of amusement.

"I want you to be yourself, Taehyung, so I can try and see what exactly it is I'm not getting."

"Han." Juri speaks then, and her tone flutters with this thrumming stream of warning, or, perhaps, it's more like begging — pleading for mercy from a man who can see no such thing.

"What's that meant to mean?" Taehyung snaps back, not liking the man's tone.

"It means," His hand squeezes roughly at Juri's bicep, and her face clenches subtly, as he releases her. The younger boy observes that hand as it moves toward him, and he grabs the lapels of Taehyung's blazer, pulling at him as if he had every right. It's played off in a way that makes him a little intimidating, and Taehyung hates himself for the way he gulps. Hanbit chuckles, and he's so close to the blonde, as he breathes into his face, his breath like peppermint and seaweed, as he says, "I don't get what's supposed to make you so damn special."