in spite of what happened after the taehyung and bogum incident a couple of days ago, neither taehyung or jungkook could find the courage to confess their true feelings to each other and ask the other person out.

basically, they still have not gotten together yet, albeit taehyung indirectly confessed to jungkook in his office that day.

in the older's case, despite him not exactly worrying about his father and bogum as much anymore, they were still like a lingering plague in the back of his head. he needed to put a proper end to his relationship with bogum first before he tried officially advancing on jungkook.

and regarding his father, well, whatever.

on the other hand, for jungkook, it was more about self-doubt than anything else. although everything in his gut pointed at taehyung definitely having feelings for him to a certain degree, he just couldn't be entirely sure. hesitation always came with his doubtful thoughts and he needed to hear taehyung say that he liked him out of his own mouth before he could be confident in saying it back.

after all, jungkook himself has never been in an actual legitimate relationship before; the closest being those one-week-long flings he had with girls and guys he couldn't even remember the names or faces of.

he knew taehyung was the person he was willing to devote his time to in order for a serious relationship to blossom between them, but first, he needed confirmation of the blond wanting the same.

━━━━━━━━━━

jungkook

taehyunggg

good morning!

sent 7:41AM
✔ seen 7:45AM

arrogant ceo

good morning, kook. :)

did you sleep well?

sent 7:46AM
✔ seen 7:47AM

jungkook let out a soft chuckle at the name he chose to save taehyung's number as in his contacts.

he's going to have to change the 'arrogant ceo' into something else soon, or else taehyung definitely wouldn't be happy if he found out that the ravenet had saved his number under a name like that.

they chatted about everything and nothing for a while before jungkook decided to get down to business after a moment of extreme consideration and finally confront the little dilemma he had.

he needed to make sure this thing they had wasn't just one-sided.

jungkook

are you free later by any chance?

if not then it's fine lol

it's not really that important anyways

sent 8:09AM

tae?

are you still there? :(

sent 8:12AM

well, who am i kidding?

you must be busy like hell right now

just remember to not overwork yourself...

sent  8:49AM

i hope you're not purposely ignoring me haha

sent 10:37AM

okay seriously

taehyung i'm starting to get worried

why aren't you answering any of my calls?

sent 12:22PM

taehyung

i swear to fucking god

answer me

sent 2:00PM

you're not even reading any of these messages

i'm getting really concerned over here

sent 4:17PM

please just pick up your phone

sent 6:33PM

━━━━━━━━━━

jungkook groaned in frustration, brows knitted together in concern as he stared at the dozens of unseen and unanswered text messages displayed on the bright screen of his phone. he was getting progressively anxious with each minute that passed while his brain proceeded to naturally conjure up the worst case scenarios of what could've possibly happened to taehyung.

so, he did the only thing he thought there was left for him to do.

"hey, yugyeom," jungkook spoke as soon as the call was picked up by the addressed male, his voice evidently thick with distress. "sorry to disturb you, but uh, is taehyung in his office right now, by any chance?"

"good evening, jungkook," yugyeom greeted back through the speaker. "nope, sorry. taehyungie-hyung is not here."

jungkook felt his heart sink all the way down to his stomach in an instant. "would you happen to know where taehyung is? did he fall ill? i'm not trying to be intrusive or anything, it's just— he hasn't been answering any of my messages since this morning," he explained, leaning against the wall behind him when his knees began to buckle.

"it's fine— wait, y-you haven't heard?" yugyeom paused to take an audible deep inhale. "taehyungie-hyung's father got rushed to the hospital under critical condition this morning."

"what?!" the tattooist nearly exclaimed in disbelief, clutching his smartphone so tightly to the point that it actually might shatter in his hold. namjoon, who's been sitting on the side with a sketchbook in hand, jumped in his seat at the younger's sudden shout. "oh. oh my god. is... is his father okay? is taehyung okay?"

"i'm not sure myself. i haven't talked to hyung since this morning. i assume he should still be in the hospital right now if he's not answering any of your texts," replied yugyeom.

"d-do you think it'll be a good idea if i go there to check up on him?" jungkook hesitantly questioned, his hands beginning to sweat.

"i don't know, jungkook. his father is clearly not that fond of you, and you know that. and taehyungie-hyung... i'm not sure if he wants to see you right now," yugyeom answered, then halted at the realization of how harsh he made his statement sound. "hold on, i don't mean that in a bad way! i'm sorry. it's just— i don't know how hyung's coping with the whole situation. in fact, i'm not sure if he even wants to see anyone right now. his relationship with his father was never the best, but at the end of the day, daehyun-ssi is still his family and taehyung must be hurting on the inside to some extent."

"yeah, don't worry, i get it," jungkook said. "you're right."

"it's alright, jungkook. i know you're worried about him, but taehyungie will definitely come back around soon, that much i'm sure of," the other man assured. jungkook could probably hear the gentle smile behind his words if he tried hard enough. "it's just a rough time for him now."

jungkook sighed. "of course. i understand, really. thank you, yugyeom."

the two gave their short farewells before simultaneously ending the call.

the ravenet let his arm fall down to his side, letting out a shaky exhale. he was unable to shake the thoughts of how taehyung could be faring with his father's condition right now out of his mind, and it was driving him to absolute madness.

"everything alright, jungkook?" namjoon asked as soon as the tattoo parlor fell dead silent once more, placing his sketchbook down with a frown etched onto the bottom half of his face.

"yeah, everything's peachy," jungkook responded halfheartedly.

all the gears in his head were going totally haywire, spinning in different directions and completely out of synchronization. maybe i should just go to the hospital to make sure he's okay. but what if he doesn't want to see me? i doubt he would want me there since—

however, as if it was on cue, his phone abruptly started ringing, its repetitive ringtone echoing within the parlor whilst the vibration of the device in between his fingers successfully brought him out of his momentary daze.

he immediately felt his throat go dry as his gaze landed on the incoming caller's name.

answering the call without thinking twice, he quickly pressed the phone against his ear, placing his free hand atop his chest which was contorted in a combination of relief and nervousness.

"hello? taehyung?"

the line remained so utterly quiet for a couple of seconds that jungkook almost came to the conclusion that taehyung must've dialed his number by accident.

"i know you're currently at work, but i need you to come to the seoul national university hospital right now. please," taehyung murmured. "and hurry. please."

his voice sounded so dull, so devoid of emotion, so monotonous; even through the phone, it managed to send chills down jungkook's spine.

the black-haired male gulped, parting his lips to reply but unfortunately for him, the elder suddenly ended the call before he could get a single word out.

VERY IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ:

MAY 27 A/N: the next chapter, chapter thirty-two, might show up on your screen as a jumbled mess and if that occurs, that is not on purpose. i have just received reports from multiple people claiming that the next chapter has sentences randomly cut off and words repeated twice throughout it. if you also come across this issue when heading onto the next chapter, please notify me as soon as possible so i can try to find out the cause of that problem! many thanks.