Red Revenge ✓ tk

And I Left You Behind

Jeongguk stumbled into the kitchen at around seven pm. He hadn't meant to be this late and he wanted to get home from Hoseok's before it got dark but that had seemed quite impossible. "Sorry, I'm late." He told Taehyung the moment he caught sight of the man standing at the stove.

Taehyung merely smiled at him and Jeongguk noticed how he had his phone pressed against his ear. The boy tiptoed over to him and pressed a chaste kiss to the man's lips before dropping his stuff by the desk in the bedroom.

He had made all of his homework and even managed to study some English with Hoseok for his test next week. Seems like maybe he was getting his life in order.

"I don't really care." He could hear Taehyung chuckle. "Really, you can choose."

Jeongguk frowned, wondering who was on the other side of the line. Taehyung didn't often get phone calls and if he did it would be either his mother - and it would be a wonder if Taehyung got any words between her rambling – or his childhood friend Jimin who was working overseas.

"Alright, sounds good to me," Taehyung replied to the person on the phone. "I'll be sure to leave that spot open."

Jeongguk wandered back into the kitchen, curiously eyeing his boyfriend who was a bit too smiley for it to be his mother. When Taehyung finally ended the call and slid the phone into his pocket he turned to the boy. "Welcome home darling."

"Hi." Jeongguk piped up, joining the man's side, watching the pot of pasta boil. "Who was that on the phone?"

He felt Taehyung's arm snake around his waist as his other hand stirred the sauce in another pot. "Ah, I haven't actually told you about him yet. That was Kim Seokjin, a new friend I made two weeks ago."

"A new friend?" Jeongguk questioned. He looked up at the man, watching the smile on his boyfriend's lips widen.

"It's kind of embarrassing really. I met him during a particularly tough night." Taehyung chuckled, though it sounded dry. "I went to a bar and drank some beers and after a while, he joined me at the bar. We chatted for a few hours and we exchanged numbers."

He could feel Jeongguk tense under his touch. Taehyung's eyebrows furrowed when he looked down, wondering why the other was reacting like that. When he noticed the other's troubled look, something clicked.

"Oh no, it's nothing like that." He quickly assured the younger. Jeongguk was often hard to read but throughout the years Taehyung could see through the cracks. The boy was obviously a bit upset at his story. "We're friends."

"You went drinking?" Jeongguk's voice was small. "You didn't take it too far right? You didn't have a hangover right?" The smaller boy reached out his hands and placed them onto Taehyung's face, squishing his cheeks. "Were you alright?"

"I'm alright now darling." Taehyung smiled, grabbing onto one of the boy's hands. "And I kept it slow. I didn't drink too much."

But, Taehyung thought to himself, if it hadn't been for Seokjin's intervention he might have moved onto shots and gotten wasted.

It had been exactly one week after Jeongguk had left and the loneliness had crept up on Taehyung as he sat on the couch in his silent apartment. The clock ticked loudly and the cars passing by the window remembered him of a time where he and Jeongguk would drive to McDonald's and cuddle with full tummies.

The silence had become unbearable and with an impulsive thought, he had fled the apartment and found shelter in a bar a few streets away.

He didn't go to bars often to drink his worries away but he thought that if there was a moment he could let himself go for a night, it would be this moment. After taking a seat by the counter and getting the attention of the bartender he started schugging a few beers until that didn't satisfy anymore.