VMINKOOK / THE ART OF BEEKEEPING

10

― PART TEN.

Taehyung was convinced that the PJ honey company was one founded through black magic, as he couldn't contrive any other way the families would be able to pull off such fateful coincidences. It was more than odd that on the specific day Taehyung hadn't brought his bike in, he was invited back to the Jeon's house. It was all too perfectly carved into the works; as if someone had weaved and wrangled their lives into a story wherein every single action perfectly aligned and created a flawless work of fiction.

Regardless of whether they were secretly families of witches and this invite into their lair would become the cause of Taehyung's death, he still decided to do it, because Taehyung was a journalist, he was curious about everything and always found something to uncover in every opportunity. He was attracted to mystery and allure and the Jeon and Park families had mysterious scribbled across their foreheads.

He waits in the car park for Jeongguk to show up, not in the way of anyone, but not quite tucked in the shadows, somehow his being going unnoticed by everybody — he was always very good at hiding in plain sight.

But, the simulation is sliced apart, as he is noticed by someone, one of two people who seemed to be able to tear away this imaginary seal between Taehyung and humanity. Park Jimin's voice is innocent, in a genuine way, as he appears in front of the brunette, his bright orange hair making him impossible to miss, "hey, Taehyung, you waiting for someone?"

"Oh, hi, Jimin." Taehyung finds himself smiling, somehow not as frozen as he tended to be around Jimin. Perhaps it was the foreign yet solacing glint in the elder's eyes that evoked images of sincerity, rather than the usual glaze of corruption, "yeah, I'm waiting for Jeongguk."

"Jeongguk? Why?" He furrows his brows, though his eyes remain soft.

"Um, he said I should come back to his, so we can finish our project." Taehyung desperately wants to pat himself on the back for barely stuttering, but this feeling washes away as he properly looks at Jimin.

The ginger seems to still at his comment, his eyes not angry but certainly surprised. Taehyung understands why, of course he does: Jimin's confused as to why on Earth Taehyung was invited to the Jeon residence. No one outside their circle of business affiliations and family members were ever invited into the house, let alone some straggly kid who despised the honey they sell.

Despite Taehyung's decisive inference, in actuality, Jimin wouldn't say he was particularly surprised, despite what his facial expression would convey, he was just a little...disheartened. He wasn't entirely sure why: he couldn't decide whether he was upset that Jeongguk had invited an outsider into his house when he forced Jimin to stay as far away as possible, or whether it was because he'd invited Jimin's outsider.

"Oh." He clears his throat, smiling benignly, as if Taehyung is ignorant to the bloodthirsty tremor of dissonance that cavorts amongst the sea-foam of his eye, "well, Jeongguk's crappy van is out of work, so guess you're both hitching a ride with me, eh?"

"Ah, is that.. is that alright? I don't want―"

"'Course it's alright, sweetheart." Jimin hushes him, not quite smiling, but not frowning either, his face just simply expressing emotion; a display of generic feeling now inundating his stature, a whisper of humanity clambering along the agonies of his miscellaneous features. It was as if he himself was a mask, which shielded a grim reaper smile, "come on―"

"Taehyung." Comes Jeongguk's voice, which, unlike Jimin's countenance, is a grand articulation of calamitous vehemence: teenage aggression, fruit punch authority and misshapen equanimity. Taehyung wonders how these boys manage to intertwine such great ranges of emotion into a singular word. He can feel Jeongguk behind him (can feel his cataclysmic skin, which burns with his own selfish martyrdom) and, though he's not that much taller than Taehyung (only a few inches), he still seems to tower over him, a scorching and abrasive hand landing at Taehyung's shoulder, "thought we were meeting by the gates."