The Cupid Complex

15. Metal Noodle

Jungkook had had a busy morning hauling boxes up the stairs to the new apartment that Taehyung had rented for the two of them. The apartment had only come semi-furnished, so they had to go to the local furniture store to pick up several pieces of furniture. So much so that they had to rent a moving truck to carry it all. Lucky for them, everything they bought was assembled. The only thing that wasn't was the futon.

"Seriously...aissi..." muttered Taehyung under his breath as he unfolded the accordion like directions to the point where it would have put a map of the world to shame.

Jungkook stood off near the kitchen doorway watching Taehyung sit cross legged on the living room floor as he rotated the directions around in his hands. Eventually, Taehyung laid the instructions flat on the ground, smoothing it out with a palm.

"There aren't even words on the page," said Taehyung. "Just pictures. Pictures that I could draw better, and I'm not even an artist."

Sighing, Taehyung looked towards the various bags of bolts to try and find the bag that he would need first.

"They want me to use an allen wrench," said Taehyung as he grabbed an elbow of metal up in his hand, turning to face Jungkook in the doorway. "This is not a wrench. It's a piece of metal. It looks like a bent metal noodle."

"Tae..." said Jungkook with a smirk, running his hand through his newly dyed blackish brown hair. Taehyung had worked wonders and managed to seamlessly combine the two. Taehyung also - having been inspired by what he had done to Jungkook's hair - added some darker coloring to his own.

"I mean seriously! It's a metallic noodle!"

"You haven't even really started yet, and you are already flipping out," commented Jungkook.

Taehyung was already tuning Jungkook out as he started madly typing away on the screen of his phone.

"Look at this. See this is a wrench!"

Jungkook walked closer to Taehyung only to stumble backwards a bit when Taehyung shoved his phone up to show him the search engine result of a basic looking wrench.

"Tae..."

"But it just...why would you...how is this going to..."

By this time Jungkook was kneeling down next to Taehyung, looking at the parts scattered everywhere. He then turned his eyes to the directions, looking to see what the first step was.

"I'll help you," said Jungkook, "before you short circuit."

Taehyung just stared at Jungkook for a moment before chuckling.

"I'm not about to short circuit. You try to translate this."

"It says you need parts A and B for step 1."

"They need to either stick with the alphabet or the numbers..." muttered Taehyung under his breath as he moved to grab the pieces and line them up.

"And you'll need the bolts in bag C2," said Jungkook, "with the allen wrench."

"With the metal noodle. Got it."

Jungkook sighed as he took the directions in his hands. This month was already off to an interesting start.

- - -

Two hours later the two of them had successfully put together the futon. Taehyung was laying on his back with his limbs outstretched like he was a starfish. Jungkook - on the other hand - was standing in the kitchen trying to cook them a package of Ramen noodles for lunch. Taehyung insisted that part of their month off would consist of learning to cook a variety of dishes, but that wasn't going to start today with them both so bone weary.

"Half the day is gone, but it feels like it is half my life," said Taehyung. "Who would have thought that endless rounds of choreo would be less exhausting than moving in?"

"Are you asking that question to me or the ceiling you haven't stopped staring at?" teased Jungkook as he took down two bowls from the cupboard, unwrapping them from the bubble wrap the store had wrapped them in when they purchased them.

"Haha. Do you hear how hard you've gotten me to laugh?"

"I take it I should stick to my day job instead of moonlighting as a comedian," said Jungkook as he moved towards the living room where Taehyung was.

Smelling the food, Taehyung sat up. He held out his hands for a bowl as Jungkook passed it to him. Jungkook took a seat beside Taehyung as he looked about their apartment. All the walls were the same color of hospital white. It shone off the fake walnut planking of the floor.

"I want rugs at some point," said Jungkook as he curled his sock clad toes against the floor.

"We can add it to the list," said Taehyung as he took a bite of his noodles, "But what we should focus on is how to find your mystery woman to see if she really is the girl of your dreams."

"I have no idea where to start with that," said Jungkook as he brought the spoon to his mouth. "So there isn't really anything to focus on."

Taehyung swallowed the next spoonful he had in his mouth before holding his spoon up to his mouth like a microphone.

"Day 1 of 31 on the quest to find love," narrated Taehyung in a dramatic voice. "So far, we have managed to scale the steepest of stairs and put together the world's most complicated futon, but alas! Our young Golden Maknae has already started to lose hope. How can our valiant hero lose hope without even trying? How can..."

"Shut up!" said Jungkook with a chuckle, elbowing Taehyung in the side so that it almost upset the bowl of noodles on his lap.

"You're going to burn me!" shouted Taehyung as he tried to elbow Jungkook back to get him to knock it off, chuckling.

"But I'm serious though," said Jungkook. "Where am I supposed to look? I mean, she may not even live in this area. She might have only been in town for the Valentine's Day concert."

"Stop giving up already. Even if that is the case, we'll still make the most of it," said Taehyung. "But that may not even be the case. Defy the odds like the metal noodle!"

"Tae..."

"I'm not going to let it go, so don't even ask me to," he said with a slight chuckle, taking another bite of the noodle from his bowl.

Jungkook sighed as he rolled his eyes at him before diving back in to his own food. He had a month to make a good honest effort of it all. He supposed he shouldn't overthink it. They crossed paths once. If they were meant to cross paths again, they would.

- - -

Cupid watched the scene unfolding before him, watching his banished son and banished right hand man eat noodles on the futon. His eyes narrowed at the monitor for a moment more before looking over at a frozen monitor next to him. Frozen on the monitor was an image from the concert last night. It was frozen on the instant that Jungkook and Ame had locked eyes again for the first time since that fateful night.

Now that Jungkook was a mortal, Cupid was in control of any sort of relationship he might fall into. He hadn't had that control when Jungkook had his powers and was set to be immortal, so he thought that was what had led to Jungkook's error in judgment. Why was there still a spark there though? Cupid had seen it and quickly extinguished it through the use of a body guard. However, the spark had ignited enough to make Jungkook want to try to see her again.

It bothered Cupid that this was something he couldn't control. He was Cupid. He controlled love. He didn't want to feel as if something were out of his control when it came to love. Love was a science. It wasn't something that just happened. It couldn't.

"I will keep this from happening no matter what I have to do," said Cupid. "No matter what..."