When Taehyung heard a knock at his door, the last person he expected to peek inside was Jungkook. Taehyung had been hoping that the prince wouldn't bother to visit, seeing as how Tae wasn't in the most sociable mood.

"Hey," the prince says awkwardly, head still poking through the door. "Um, can I come in?"

Taehyung shrugs. Jungkook's head disappears before he's pushing at the door with his back, a tray of food in hand.

"So, your friend spoke to Yoongi-hyung," Jungkook says casually, as he set the food on the nightstand next to Tae's bed. "Unfortunately there's no way to exempt you from the whole 'bring your family to the party' rule."

Tae answers with a hum. He had received a quick briefing before from Hoseok about the dinner party. Honestly at this point, he didn't really care if he got sent home or not. He was never interested in winning, never really interested in participating to begin with. 

His eyes dart to the tray. "Why are you bringing me this?"

A blush slowly appears on the younger's cheeks, he lifts a hand to scratch the back of his neck. "I, uh, heard you haven't been eating and knowing the reason why I thought that maybe it would help if I made something?"

"You cook?" the blond asks, not buying it.

"I make really good ramyeon."

Taehyung actually snorts at that. "Ramyeon."

Jungkook smiles a bit. "Yeah, but that's not what I made for you." He takes the lid off the tray, there a bowl of steaming Japchae underneath, plus some side dishes.

Eyeing it, Taehyung raises a brow at the prince. It was his favorite dish and Tae guesses that Jungkook must've somehow figured that out. His eyes go to the boy's hands, noticing the band-aids and how some parts of his skin were red. 

He frowns. "Just because you made my favorite dish, doesn't mean I can eat it."

"I know," Jungkook says. "I also know that you only ate what your brother cooked, so I asked Yoongi-hyung to let me see the footage from the security cameras in the kitchen and I, um, followed what he did to make the dish."

He's embarrassed, Taehyung notes. He's embarrassed because its not really usual for someone to go that far for another person.

"I decided to do Japchae because it's the dish your brother fed to me the first time he used the kitchen, so I somewhat remember the flavor. I've been remaking it for days now and," he points to the bowl, "that's the closest I got."

Hesitant, Tae glances at the bowl of potato noodles. From where he lay, the smell that came his way seemed somewhat familiar. Not exactly the same but it was close.

Jungkook seems to notice his hesitation and takes a step back. "I'll leave you to it," he says nervously. "If it's not to your liking then you can leave it, I'll try again tomorrow."

 Taehyung shifts uncomfortably on the bed. "Tomorrow?" he asks.

"Yup." The prince's smile is shy but his eyes show profound determination. "I'll retry everyday till it's finally the same as your Hyung's."

The blonde narrows his eyes at the prince's hands once more, Jungkook selfconsciously hides them behind his back.

"It's because my hyung is worried about your health," Jungkook explains suddenly. "He wants to take good care of you. Make sure you get healthy again." Taehyung doesn't remember asking, but it did seem like Jungkook didn't want him to get the wrong idea.

Or the right idea and make Tae feel uncomfortable with his advances. He guesses it's actually the latter.

"I see," Tae responds.

"Yeah." Jungkook starts fidgeting again and there's just a few moments of silence before his feet start moving towards the door. "So, yeah, if you don't like it just tell one of the maids. I'll have a new batch tomorrow, a maid will bring it in."

Tae nods and watches him head for the door, closing it behind him. He sits up, stares at the bowl for a few minutes before deciding to give it a try.

His hand wobbles a bit with the chopsticks. He struggles a bit grabbing the noodles, a side effect of having Hoseok 'feed him' almost everyday. 

Still, he managed to get a decent amount and brings it to his mouth, slurping them in.

The taste is...similar. There's something lacking, but its similar.

There was no fooling his body though. He tried, he really did, but it was only a few minutes when the food came back up again. Taehyung silently thanking Hoseok for leaving the trashcan nearby.

His chest heaves when he's done emptying his stomach. He wants to cry, hating this part of himself. Hating that dependence that he had of his brother that doesn't let him live normally now that he's gone.

A small sob escapes him. He just curls into a ball and closes his eyes.

Outside Jungkook has his ear pressed to the door, trying his best to hear any movement on Tae's part. 

It had taken him some hard convincing to let Yoongi show him the footage, mostly because it contained scene of Namjoon's horrible flirting with Jin. Luckily, Yoongi was the only one with access to the footage, King's orders.

He had spent hours reviewing the steps, writing and rewriting the ingredients, making sure he had everything to make it.

There had been a few minor cuts, some burns as he fried the vegetables and boy did he sympathize with cooks now. Making ramyeon was never as hard as making an actual meal.

After being unable to hear anything no matter how much he tried, Jungkook sighs and steps away from the door. There were other things he could occupy himself with while he waited for a response.

The palace was roaring with life as staff decorated the halls and carried supplies to the main room. Jungkook watches them as he passes by. The decorations are nice, sparkly, brings life to the usual old fashioned dullness of the place.

He spots Yoongi ahead at Gwanghwamun, the main gate of the Gyeongbokgung Palace. The general and Captain Song are both standing guard, out of their usual military uniforms and wearing traditional hanboks, the theme of today's dinner party.

Jungkook smiles widely as he takes in the general's look in his olive green and dark brown hanbok. It certainly made him look smaller.

"You look cute, Hyung," Jungkook teases as he approaches the general.

Yoongi doesn't look pleased with the comment. "Shut up," he snaps. He goes back to typing away on the laptop in front of him.

The prince peaks over his shoulder. "What are you doing?"

"Waiting for the guests to arrive. As soon as they come I have to validate their identity and also check them for any weapons or things like that."

Jungkook frowns. "Isn't that a little too much? They're the candidates' family members."

"They can also be rebels," Yoongi points out. "Not taking any chances this time around." He scrunches his nose as he eyes the monitor. "Did you give the kid the food?" he asks suddenly.

It takes Jungkook a while to realize he means Tae and nods. "Yeah, we'll see how it goes."

"I think you're trying too hard," Yoongi states as a car pulls in front of the main gate. "The guy is going to have to get over his condition eventually."

"I want to help him though," Jungkook says, lowering his head to stare at his feet. "I'll work hard till he recovers."

"Your puppy crush is cute and all," the general comments, "but keep it away from me. I had enough watching your brother with Kim Seokjin when he was around." He drastically shoos at him with his hand. "Now get going, your stylists are probably searching for you everywhere to get you dressed."

Jungkook huffs but he obeys. Yoongi goes back to work.

Some soldiers bring in another batch of people, Captain Song and Yoongi glance at each other, telling the other to get ready.

Yoongi leans towards his computer, readying to input the info. He hears a solder mutter a "over there" and then hears the click clack of heels stop next to him.

"Name, candidate name and relationship to the candidate, please," he says, eyes focused on the monitor.

"Jung Da-won, Jung Hoseok's sister."

Yoongi stops typing for a moment and glances up, sees the female version of Jung Hoseok and almost freezes on the spot.

The girl's eyes also fly up. "Oh!" she exclaims, pointing at him. "You're the guy who came for Hoseokie the day of the letter, right?" 

Their encounter had been brief, so Yoongi's surprised she remembers him at all. "Yeah," he says curtly. "ID please?"

She hands it to him. Yoongi compares the photo to the person before him, then types away the info on the system.

"Has he been well?" Da-won asks. 

"You'll find out soon enough," the general responds, handing the ID back to her. He signals to two pillars behind him. Metal detectors. "Please place your belongings on the box next to it then step through the metals detectors."

She does just that, she's just very chatty while she does it. "I'm not really worried. Hoseokie's always been very social and bright. I'm sure he hasn't changed, right?"

A little smirk threatens to make its way up Yoongi's lips. "He hasn't," he responds briefly.

Da-won nods as if agreeing with something in her head. Yoongi waits until her stuff gets checked out. While he waits, the girl is still chatting away and the general wonders if that's just a common family trait.

To be completely honest, at first Yoongi didn't know what the hell to think about Jung Hoseok. The guy had been all smiles, loud, so fucking positive while being challenging at the same time.

By now, Yoongi can recognize his particular laugh when passing the candidates' lobby. Jung Hoseok is always talking with others, laughing with other and shining so fucking brightly that it's disturbing.

Annoying.

Yoongi isn't sure how to deal with the smiling. It's the most annoying thing of all. By now, Hoseok approaches him as if they were buddies, starts up conversations with him and Yoongi doesn't know how to tell him they need to keep their distance.

Or maybe he just doesn't want to keep his distance. 

There was also the issue that after seeing him dance, the only word that pops into Yoongi's head is handsome and he need to stop associating that word with Jung Hoseok cause it can cause trouble.

Yoongi's decided to avoid him till he's out of the competition.

At least, that was his plan till he found that Namjoon will keep him around because he doesn't want to eliminate anyone who was close to Kim Seokjin in hopes that they'll still be here when Seokjin 'comes back'. Yoongi finds it pointless, just jump to those who you're attracted to and go on from there.

Namjoon wasn't attracted to anyone else as of yet.

The beeping of his machine signals the end of the scan, Yoongi hands her stuff back to her. A female soldier steps forward. 

"This soldier will escort you inside," Yoongi tells Jung Da-won. "I'll inform those standing guard inside to let Hoseok know you've arrived."

She smiles at him, its bright, too bright. Did the whole family smile like that? There should be some kind of rule of nature against that.

Jung Da-won is escorted away, the soldier guiding the way with an umbrella in hand. It was a pretty long walk to the Gyeonghoeru Pavillon (the hall used to hold important/special state banquets), so each soldier had to make sure the guests arrived well.

Yoongi grabs at his walkie talkie. "This is General Min. Please inform Candidate Jung Hoseok...that his sister has arrived." He gets an "okay" from someone inside and resumes his work, muttering to himself how it was so ridiculous that he was in charge of so much in the palace and how he was still too young to be overworked like this.

He was going to have to long talk with Namjoon over this when he was done.

The one to give him his job as the palace general was none other than the Royal Queen Dowager herself. After Ex-General Han's retirement, the position was empty and The Queen appointed Yoongi himself as the next general. 

Naturally, there was protests from the advisers. Even news outlets expressed the opinion of the people and most were against someone so young taking over such a huge role that involved the protection of the Royal family.

It just made Yoongi want to prove them all wrong. This year has been the hardest, he's even been criticized for the death of Kim Seokjin, but that wasn't surprising. The public would always blame officials for the lacking in any area.

The thought of the citizens themselves, rebels or not, being part of the issue never occurs to them.

"Step right over there sir," Yoongi hears one of the soldiers say. He straights in his chair.

One thing at a time, Yoongi tells himself. "Name, candidate name and relationship to the candidate, please," he says again.

"Park Sung-woong," a guy says, "father of Park Jimin."

Yoongi looks up, feels the need to punch the guy as soon as he sees him. He all but narrows his eyes. "ID please."

The guy hands it over. Yoongi curses internally. He had been hoping that the guy was just trying to sneak into the party, but the list of guests clearly showed that the guy had been invited as Park Jimin's family member for the competition.

Did the kid not have any other family members? Yoongi is still pissed off at how he found the kid when he had gone to pick him up on day one.

After finishing entering all data into the computer, Yoongi gives the bastard his ID back, makes him go through checking. The general was hoping the guy would have something illegal on him so he could just arrest him, but he was clean.

Yoongi watches as a soldier escorts him inside, he has half a mind to tell the soldier to just let the guy burn in the sun, but he knows better.

He sighs and reaches for his walkie talkie. 

"This is General Min. Please inform Candidate Park Jimin...that his father has arrived."