welcome to the family

january 2012

Jungkook sighed heavily, rubbing his forehead as he tried to stay focused on the task at hand. He lightly slapped his cheek to wake himself up, and then continued to pore over the company's accounts.

It wasn't long before his eyelids were drooping again and he was barely conscious. The sound of a door opening somewhere and faint whistling effectively startled him fully awake. A tremor of fear ran through him as the sound grew closer, and Jungkook now sat 90 degrees straight, gripping onto his table and praying to all the gods above.

"Oh? You're still here?"

Jungkook almost cried in relief when he saw that it was just Taehyung. He cleared his throat and took his glasses off, "Yeah. Why are you here, hyung?" he asked, trying to conceal the drowsiness in his voice.

"I forgot my phone," Taehyung answered, walking towards the coffee table. He retrieved his phone from in between the sofa cushions before he made his way to Jungkook's desk, sitting opposite him, "Jungkook, it's almost midnight, you should go home," he said, putting his hand over Jungkook's to stop him from turning over to the next page.

Jungkook stared at Taehyung's hand over his, trying to hide the surprise he felt at the bold gesture. He paused for a few seconds, regaining his composure and making sure his voice was steady and didn't betray him, "I still have a few files to look through," he stated, looking up with a small almost unnoticeable pout, and god, it was so unintentionally cute and Taehyung had no idea what had gotten into him recently but Jungkook kept on getting cuter and cuter as every day passed; and he knew the feeling in his chest wasn't right, which was why he always tried his best to ignore it.

"I'm sure that can be done tomorrow, you should really rest," the older boy said, closing the file with his other hand and sliding it into the pile. Taehyung looked at Jungkook and slipped a brief glance at their hands, and he mentally grinned; he didn't know where the courage had come from but he was glad and thankful and relieved that the black haired boy wasn't pulling away from the contact.

"I'm fine," Jungkook said, the words flowing out seamlessly like an autopilot manoeuvre; they had been imprinted onto his tongue since he was a child. He was raised to never complain, never show weakness but at times like these, it was so hard. All he really wanted to do was wrap himself in warm blankets and lie snug in bed, but the title of 'heir' loomed over him like a burden every single second of every single day and it was so suffocating; but there was nothing he could do about it.

And the Taehyung had learnt that the younger boy could raise hell but he'd never let anyone know he was hurting, "You've been working non-stop for the past thirteen hours, Jungkook," he said softly, a frown tugging at his lips and Jungkook's heart melted a little at the overwhelming concern in the orange haired boy's eyes (and the way Taehyung was fondly his hand mig