Somebody Does Love

SDL

They say that there's no such thing as love at first sight; maybe it's true, maybe it's not. But Jungkook knew that there was something that sparked on that first meeting of eyes, the moment they saw each other. He felt a swell in his chest, an excitement, a thrill, something that was so eager.

But then it shattered like a blow to his gut, knocking the air out of his lungs. His elder brother appeared and wrapped a hand around the man's waist and planted a kiss on his cheek, all the while smiling broadly.

"You've met!" Junghyun exclaimed. "Kook, this is Taehyung - my boyfriend."

Jungkook was stunned into a nauseating silence. This was the boyfriend his brother had been banging on about for months, the one he'd been begging Jungkook to hurry up and come home to meet so he could propose - the love of his life.

They spent the weekend together, Taehyung with the whole family. Jungkook tried, he tried not to let himself fall further into that spark, those feelings that had ignited. But it was impossible when he spent more time with Taehyung, getting to know him. So he smiled through the irrational and unwanted pain while his brother proposed at the end of the weekend, and Taehyung accepted.

It was good practice for the wedding, a few months later, when Jungkook flew back in and spent a few more days getting to know Taehyung again. He spent his trying to ignore that part of him that was so eager for his attention, that wanted to flirt and show how interested he was. He plastered a smile on his face with rehearsed lines about how happy he was for his brother, while he stood next to them as they got married. He watched the person he felt was the one for him look insanely radiant and happy while they married someone else.

It was the sincerity of Taehyung's happiness that kept his resentment and bitterness at bay. Jungkook had a feeling he was a bit pathetic for just being happy that Taehyung was happy. For feeling so much for someone he'd barely met. For being a hopeless romantic, a fool in love.

*

Junghyun was Taehyung's first love, and the man he knew he was going to love forever. He was the kind of man Taehyung had always wanted to fall in love with, and he was in love, and so happy for it.

There was just one thing. A little niggle, like a worm in the back of his mind that he couldn't quite get out of his head, no matter how hard he tried. Junghyun's brother, Jungkook. That first time they met, he couldn't forget that feeling - but it was pointless to dwell on it. He was happy, and he was in love, and he had never felt more overjoyed when Junghyun proposed, or incandescent than the day they married.

That tiny spark Jungkook had ignited in him that day became this tiny annoying doubt that never flared to life - not until he and his husband started to fight a few years into married life. It was just life, he justified, a phase. Things changed as they got older; new jobs, different kinds of stress, some financial issues that were fixed pretty easily.

But the doubt lingered, and started to grow, and he hated it.

Jungkook left the country again, and Taehyung had to bite his lips to stop from asking him to stay. Because why? He didn't even know why the thought had even come up. There was no reason for him to ask that. They were hardly even friends.

It would be good, Taehyung thought. The distance would help him to get rid of the stupid doubt that had come from - what, exactly? A single meeting where it was just, one of those things? Nothing had happened, and nothing ever would. There were thousands, millions, of couples who went through similar situations but they chose love, and chose to be happy with their chosen person. It was a conscious choice. Love wasn't hard work with his husband, it wasn't forced. It was his choice, and it still felt as natural to him as breathing.