RUSE || Taekook

TWELVE || J5O3A5F2O2A5

Taehyung grabs the little note with the code Suga sent earlier in the morning and walks straight to Jungkook's room, in large strides, not wasting a moment by engaging in conversation.

He catches the worried whispers of all the people around him and his frown intensifies.

These are his people.

He refuses to let them down.

Walking into Jungkook's area, Taehyung makes the younger's three other roommates cower in fear and rush to their respective rooms.

Taehyung barges into Jungkook's room, making the latter turn from his seat at the desk where he's writing his notes.

Yeonjun peacefully interrogated Jungkook earlier and apparently Jungkook's reasons for knowing it was English were justified. The FBI once interrogated a member of August who directly translated a code before Suga blew his head up in front of the authorities.

"Vante?" Jungkook asks, standing up as soon as Taehyung enters.

"Did you make sense of anything?" Taehyung asks, closing the door behind him.

"No," Jungkook looks back at his notebook. "Not yet. Sorry."

Taehyung slams the paper onto Jungkook's desk. "I lost twenty-eight of my people in the last half hour. Some of them, my most trusted men and women."

"Oh," Jungkook chokes out, gently dragging the paper on the table into his vision.

"I need you to find out what Suga wrote here and why they reacted to it the way they did."

Jungkook nods and lifts the paper, "I'm working on it."

Taehyung looks away and clenches his jaw. "I don't have time for this, Mr. Lee."

Jungkook looks up at Taehyung and sucks his lips in, nodding, "Yeah, yeah, I know."

At that moment, with Jungkook pouting his lips as he raises his eyebrows, his red hair framing his forehead, Taehyung sees something else.

It's Jungkook, but he's... younger.

He's smiling at Taehyung as he shows off a portrait he drew of Yoongi. Taehyung can't see the picture, just a blur, but Jungkook's face. Oh, Jungkook's beautiful face is as clear as day.

A memory. A buried memory, like all the other flashes Taehyung has been seeing lately.

He shakes his head.

Taehyung slams his hand on the table again and leans closer to Jungkook's face, making the younger lean back. "I want instant results."

Jungkook's breath shortens and he nods, a faraway look in his eyes.

Taehyung glances down, relieved Jungkook didn't get another erection.

Taehyung searches Jungkook's face before biting his lip. He can't leave Jungkook to figure it all out alone.

How can Jungkook accomplish in three hours what he himself couldn't in three years?

Taehyung walks around Jungkook and pulls his black coat off, revealing his white shirt below it.

"We'll work on it together."

————————

Jungkook keeps his eyes on the notebook as Taehyung brings in a chair from the next room and rests it perpendicular to Jungkook, taking his seat.

"Let's start with you telling me how you got this far," Taehyung places a closed fist over his mouth as his elbow rests on the table, his back leaning forward.