Once Again

77

Taehyung seethed as he recalled the harsh words that he just exchanged with his former best friend. How dare Jungkook even suggest using Jin as bait like that? This was a human life they were talking about. His husband's life. AND his unborn child's life. Was Jungkook so obsessed that he'd lost all of his humanity?

Well, Taehyung was not going to let Jungkook get away with it. Jin has spent more than enough time in Seoul, and achieved what he set out to do — regained his lost memories — so it was time for him to come home to his family and get on with the rest of his life.

Taehyung picked up his phone from the counter where he had tossed it in frustration after he hung up on Jungkook. He was about to press 1 to speed dial his husband when he remembered that Jungkook had told him that Jin was sleeping. He sighed and dropped his phone back on the counter.

"Is everything alright, Taehyung-sama?"

Taehyung turned to the man behind him. It was Haein.

"Again with the honorifics, Haein-san? I thought we talked about this?"

The man laughed as he lobbed a kitchen towel at Taehyung, who swatted it away like a tennis ball, sending it across the room to land on another man's head and covering it completely.

"Hey! Who turned off the lights?!"

Both Taehyung and Haein laughed as the second man bumped into a chair as he tried to pull the towel off.

"Sorry, Hoseok. That was my bad," Taehyung apologised.

Ever since his husband left Tokyo in search of his lost memories in Seoul, Taehyung had been coming to his ramen restaurant regularly. He came daily, and he often stayed until closing time while his son slept in the little office at the back next to the kitchen.

Taehyung was lonely, and he missed Jin dreadfully. So one late afternoon, after he got off work and picked Minjoon up from the crèche on the ground floor of his office building, Taehyung had found himself outside of his husband's ramen shop.

He had debated whether he should go in because he had never had the kind of close relationship that Jin enjoyed with his employees. Furthermore, he was still a bit salty about how the cousins had welcomed Jungkook so enthusiastically that they made him a member of the Jung Cooks within an hour of meeting him.

But then Hoseok had appeared before him, and swept him inside the warm dining area before taking Minjoon off to Jin's office to have a snack. Haein had then come out of the kitchen and immediately put Taehyung to work taking dinner orders.

Unknown to Taehyung, the cousins had noticed the air of melancholy around their employer's husband and decided to step in to dispel it. Before Jin left, neither of them had felt the urge to get to know Taehyung. They felt they were out of Taehyung's league because he was a renown photographer who travelled all over the world to take pictures of famous people in fabulous places.

But then Taehyung had opened up to them that first night as he helped them close and clean up the restaurant in preparation for business the next day. And the Jung cousins discovered that though Jin's husband always looked serious and sometimes constipated, he was actually quite chatty and had a wicked sense of humour.

Taehyung, in turn, found out that Haein had been a Special Forces member when he was doing his military service, whereas Hoseok who was going to be doing his military service in a couple of years, hoped he would be able to get into the Special Forces like his older cousin.

"So is everything alright, Tae?" Haein asked.

Taehyung frowned as he was again reminded of the argument he'd had with Jungkook.

"No," he replied. "I miss my husband."

"We miss him too, Tae," Hoseok commiserated as he patted Taehyung's shoulder gently.

"When will he be back?" Haein asked.

"Soon," Taehyung decided grimly. "I'm calling him tonight to tell him it's time to come home."

And once I have Jin with me, I will make sure Jungkook never sees him again.