Bond Made in Hell || A TAEJIN STORY || Arranged Marriage

37

Taehyung

'Why are you doing this?'

'Doing what?' I say, brightly.

Jin raises an eyebrow, looking at me suspiciously from his end of the table opposite mine at the very far, cool and shady corner of the ice-cream shop we're sitting in. We're apparently attracting a lot of attention (two hot men sitting together, makes sense?) and it's driving me more than just a little nuts to see so many people have their eyes trained on Jin. They obviously know I'm his husband, our marriage was all over the news, after all, but they still can't lay off him, horny asses. I hold myself back with difficulty. Today isn't about me, it's about Jin and Jin alone. Which is the reason why I brought him here. To the best deli in town, Epiphany, under the pretext of enjoying an ice-cream or two. The ice-creams are no doubt delicious, but what I really came here for is because I felt we were in severe need of some bonding time.

I cannot believe I just said that, but yeah.

'Can't I bring my husband out for some ice-cream?'

'Well, you certainly can,' Jin says, a little grudgingly. 'But you've never done it before, and I don't get the point of coming all the way here when we could have just ordered ice cream.'

'Yeah, but what's the fun in that?' I lean forward, trying to induce some sort of excitement in him. 'Come on, Jin. It's fun to get out of the house sometimes and eat at actual places like these.'

'I didn't want to come.' Jin puts his ice cream down and his lips curve into a pout. I don't understand how a grown-up man can look so pretty when he sulks. As I stare at the doe eyes and the plump, kissable pink lips I feel a sudden, strong, yearning desire to lean forward and capture them in my own. But I don't.

'Why are so many people staring at us?' Jin says, a little self-consciously, as he glances around the cafe.

I get to my feet. 'You feeling uncomfortable? Should we leave? We could easily go to another shop.'

'Oh, no, no,' Jin's cheeks flush red as he puts out a hand and pulls me down by my sleeve. 'Sit down and don't make a fuss. I don't like people to pay too much attention to me, that's all.'

'Indeed you don't,' I say. 'Your ears are as red as tomatoes.'

Jin blushes even more crimson. 'That's not true!' He whisper-yells.

'Yes it is,' I snicker. 'If you doubt it so much, why don't you go look in a mirror?'

Jin huffs and throws himself back into his seat, eyes closing. 'Why are you doing this, Taehyung?'

'I don't understand,' I say, innocently. 'Why do you keep saying that? What am I doing?'

Jin makes an exasperated noise. 'This. Treating me like I'm your best friend. Being all over me. Acting like I'm the only person in the world for you. Look, I understand you want to make amends for your past treatment of me, and it's okay, you're forgiven, I can understand why you acted the way you did. Now can we please move on and behave like normal people?'

'Normal people? How do you call two people who live together in a single house barely talking to each other and spending time in isolation normal?'

'I think it's perfectly normal,' Jin says, in a cold voice, 'for two people stuck in a useless arranged marriage.'

I can sense the mood going dark, and panic. This isn't supposed to happen. Not right now.

'Look, Jin,' I lean forward and take his hands unconsciously into mine (he pulls away at once with a jerk), 'I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that, it was purely involuntary- look, could we just not focus on our marriage for once and talk to each other as two friendly acquaintances?'