LOVE YOU TO DEATH | TAEKOOK

46. Video

NYT: It was truly a blockbuster event last night at the Academy Awards with Shot in the Dark sweeping in every category it was nominated in, and with a very special, albeit unconventional announcement by author JJK that the rumors were true—he and Kim Taehyung are an item. The real question: Why weren't they together at the afterparty?

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Taehyung could hardly think straight. He soared through the afterparty, feeling like his feet weren't touching the ground. It was like being suspended in mid-air as the myriad well-wishers, colleagues, and friends fawned over him.

Time passed in the blink of an eye, the carousel of everything he'd ever dreamed rotating in his mind again and again.

When the sun began to rise and the throng of partygoers thinned, Taehyung was left standing.

Mina and Soomin had joined in for a while, drinking and dancing with celebrities half their ages until one in the morning when they engulfed him in a four-armed hug and went back to their hotel.

It didn't occur to Taehyung until later on that they should have been staying with Jungkook.

Jimin skipped out early, leaving with somebody Taehyung didn't recognize but who was very attractive and they looked close.

Yoongi and Hobi didn't show up at all, the joy of Hobi's first Academy Award eclipsed by their panicked realization that the only thing distracting them from the arrival of their baby was now over.

Jaehyun dutifully materialized immediately after the awards wrapped up to be Lili's sidekick for the evening, dancing the night away like Rogers and Astaire, flying around perfectly in sync.

As the sky turned from black to a deep purplish blue and Taehyung went home, he knew it would be a superhuman feat to come close to sleep, or even rest.

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TAEHYUNG: Hi

TAEHYUNG: Are you sleeping?

TAEHYUNG: Can I see you?

TAEHYUNG: I need to see you

TAEHYUNG: I'm coming over, okay?

TAEHYUNG: Love you

TAEHYUNG: I just cannot calm
down after tonight. Jungkookie
this is all too much

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Jungkook's house was dark when he arrived, though the gate was open. Taehyung took it as an invitation and walked right in, opening the front door and tiptoeing through the dark house.

It was quiet and still in a way that he had grown accustomed to. The whole house had a serene, hushed energy, like the embodiment of a whisper.

He poked his head into Jungkook's office, lit only by an effervescent, undulating screensaver from the open laptop. Taehyung thought he must have been writing and was tempted to wake the MacBook up to peruse but decided against it, reluctantly.

Taehyung turned his attention to the door to Jungkook's room, sitting ajar at the end of the hallway.

He pushed open the door, not knowing whether to laugh, cry, or punch a wall, frustrated that the younger wouldn't stop pulling these theatrics, slipping through his fingers at just the right or wrong moments.

Taehyung thoroughly looked in every corner of every room in the house, finding nothing. No one was home.

It took him a few minutes to decide what to do. He was tempted to stay and tuck himself into Jungkook's bed, but he didn't want to be here when the younger might be looking for him elsewhere.