It was a few weeks after Jimin had begun working at Big V Enterprises as an intern, and he was hardly complaining about getting paid for fetching coffee for people. Under the supervision of a man named Kim Namjoon, he was currently training in how to properly sort certain files (or really, he was teaching Namjoon because the man kept dropping everything and mixing the papers up). Jimin was a bit disappointed about not being able to spend time with Taehyung at work, but he supposed it was for the best considering he and Jungkook would probably be art each other’s throats all day.

And speaking of a certain PA, Jimin couldn’t help but feel a bit irked at the fact that Jungkook gets to spend all day at work with Taehyung, assisting him and being all helpful. Jimin could be helpful, too damn it. He bit his lip to hold in the imminent growl that would surely escape him if he kept thinking of the young snob and sighed at seeing the sight of his childlike supervisor. Namjoon had completely given up on teaching Jimin anything and had resorted to folding paper planes and littering the small office room with them. Jimin didn’t care who the superior was, he took one of the little planes, crumpled it up and tossed it right at the other’s forehead. Namjoon blinked confusedly when the next thing he was aware of was the slamming door.

Jimin had made himself upset with just the thought of Jungkook and Taehyung, and with the frustration of his supervisor he was surprised his head was still atop his shoulders. He exhaled largely and stepped out of that area of the enterprise center, fully intent on going outside for a breath of fresh air and a bit of a mental break.

“Yah, Park Jimin!” he sighed. Of course a bit of peace was an unimaginable thing. He turned around to be greeted by the little brat behind his headache. He tried to plaster a smile on, but only because Taehyung always told him to play nice with Jungkook. He was trying only for Taehyung’s sake; Jungkook was supposedly his right-hand man anyway, so it’d be better to stay on a not-as- bad side (because let’s face it, there is no good side to this jerk).

“Yes, Jungkook, what can I help you with?” sometimes as an intern, he was enlisted to do odd jobs ranging from aiding the maintenance man with elevator repairs to replacing the water cooler to helping with post in the mailroom. All assignments from Jungkook, by the way simply to make his life miserable as one of his superiors.

“Okay, one, I need you to get that snotty tone out of your voice when you talk to me. I may be younger than you, but I am above you here,” Jimin’s eyes widened. What tone?! This little bi— “And two,” the personal assistant produced a white and orange envelope from his back pocket. The company logo was on the front, and Jimin observed it oddly before looking up to Jungkook with a questioning gaze. The latter just rolled his eyes and huffed dramatically, as if it was laborious talking to Jimin, “It’s an invitation to the company party; it’s celebrating our success since the new management. And of course, as the new manager, Taehyung insisted that you receive an invite,” he continued under his breath so lowly that Jimin hardly heard him, “God only knows why we’d even need an intern there…” Oh now he was really itching Jimin’s nerves.

“Thanks for letting me know,” he said with a tight smile and quickly his heels trying to restrain from just strangling the guy right there. Jimin had never before believed in such things as mortal enemies until now…

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

“Jungkook-ah, please report to my office,” Taehyung voiced over his phone’s intercom, smiling a bit when he heard the responding ‘sure thing’ form the other line. He didn’t really have a reason for requesting the younger’s presence, but he knew he needed to make something up fast. He couldn’t be honest and blatantly say ‘oh I just wanted to see your beautiful face is all,’ he wasn’t ready to confess yet. Suddenly he thought of why he’d sent his PA out a minute ago, right when the PA himself strode into his space.

“Needed me, hyung?” Taehyung smiled. He could never tell whether or not Jungkook was using formalities or simply shortening his name into a nickname. Either way, the affectionate word coming from his mouth and being directed at him made him giddy.

“Ah, did you give that invitation to Jimin like I requested?” he tried to keep his tone as professional as possible, even if he did want to get closer to Jungkook, they were at work after all.

“Yes, I did. Did you need something else?” Taehyung bit his tongue. No, not at all, but just stay here a bit longer so I can stare at you more.

“Uhhhmm yes, I did actually. Have you had your lunch break yet?” At this, Jungkook cocked a brow. Unbeknownst to him, though, his boss didn’t know what he was getting at either.

“I haven’t, why, wanna send me on an early break?” he joked.

“Well, I haven’t eaten yet either, wanna go get sub sandwiches or something?” He was shocked by how smooth his voice was coming out and even brought himself to smile suggestively. He was feeling quite daring today.

“Okay, now?”

“Yep, let’s go,” he stood up abruptly, shutting his laptop and practically yanking the younger out by the sleeve of his jacket. Within minutes the two were outside the large building, shuffling through the crowds on the sidewalk; downtown was even busier during lunch hour. Taehyung had never let go of Jungkook’s sleeve, and when the younger noticed he softly pulled it from his grip with a swift jerk of his arm.

“Heh, sorry,” his boss looked to his shoes for a second before sneakily wrapping his fingers around Jungkook’s wrist. The latter squinted in question to the older male who’s already bowed face flushed a little, “Just don’t want you to get lost is all; the streets are pretty crowded today…” Saying nothing, the other nodded in understanding, but after two blocks of Taehyung panicking a little bit every time his wrist accidently slipped from his grasp, he’d had enough. And judging from the persistent blush on his boss’s cheeks, he definitely wouldn’t mind a slight change in ‘not letting himself get lost’.

Smirking, the PA s his hand up in the other’s grip until their palms brushed. Hurriedly, before the executive could flip out again, he laced his fingers though the larger ones, causing Taehyung to jolt a little. Said man looked dubiously over to him, completely contradicting the now cherry hue of his face.

“Is this what you wanted?” Jungkook whispered with the smirk never leaving. Taehyung’s eyes bulged for a split second before he slightly nodded and looked back down with a hardly hidden smile.

They walked the rest of the way to the sub shop with Jungkook swinging their hands between them and practically skipping down the sidewalk, and seriously, Taehyung could not get enough of it, relishing in the joy of the beaming bunny beside him. Jungkook never let their hands go even when they entered the small but renowned restaurant. They approached the smiling girl at the register.

“Hey there, what can I get ya today?” Holy . Okay, so the girl was actually a guy in a wig, Taehyung concluded. Otherwise there would be no logical explanation for the deep voice that just came from that lip gloss-coated mouth.  He couldn’t respond to him because his mouth was too preoccupied with gaping in shock.

“Yah, Ilhoon, what are you doing? I told you to stop crossdressing at work. Look, you’re freaking out the customers!” Another man came from the kitchen door behind the counter and reprimanded ‘Ilhoon’. Taehyung read the new guy’s name tag: Hyunsik, it said. Ilhoon then pouted and disappeared through an ‘employees only’ door.

“Uhhh…” Taehyung was at a loss for words. Why could Ilhoon pass as a girl so easily?!

“Heh, sorry about my employee,” Hyunsik rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment Taehyung was still fishing for more words when Jungkook piped up next to him, chuckling.

“Well, tell him I said he’s very pretty,” he spoke casually. Ilhoon reappeared that moment from the door, and now he had brown hair neatly swept into bangs and a sleeveless shirt. In other words, he looked like a total guy.

“Thanks, cutie,” he winked and walked on to the next register where another customer was impatiently waiting for their order to be taken. Taehyung pretended to not be miffed by the name the stranger had just called his personal assistant. Said man seemed to notice the other’s slight tensing so he squeezed his hand a little tighter in reassurance.

“Alright, so are you two gonna order something or what?” Hyunsik was still waiting. Taehyung just sputtered the name of the first thing he saw on the menu and Jungkook ordered some kind of turkey sandwich. After Taehyung had paid for the both of them, they sat at a table in the far corner of the place and dined silently. Jungkook was feeling a bit uncomfortable so he decided to loosen the atmosphere a bit.

Slyly he crossed his left leg over his right and trailed the toe of his shoe up Taehyung’s pant leg, of course making the latter choke a bit on a piece of lettuce in surprise.

“Yah, what are you doing, Jungkook-ah?” Taehyung shook off the incident and quickly brushed his blush aside before the younger could see. He had only giggled in response while taking a huge bite from his sandwich, stiffing his cheeks to the point where they were swollen like a chipmunk’s, another thing Taehyung had to keep from blushing at.

“Oh, nothing, Hyungie~” the executive’s eyes widened and he openly gawked at his PA.

“W-what?” it came out much louder than he’s expected and he’d drawn more than a couple odd looks from other patrons. Jungkook only shrugged and swallowed the bite of his sandwich.

“You don’t like it? I could go back to calling you “boss” if you wan—”

“NO! DON’T EVER DO THAT!” Taehyung jumped up from his seat and leaned closer to Jungkook over the table, causing the latter to retreat slightly in surprise when his boss started waving his hands in front of his face. Taehyung finally caught on to how insane he must look and cleared his throat, bowing a little in apology to the others in the building before taking his seat again. Jungkook looked at him skeptically, so he loosened his collar with one finger as he made up for himself, “I mean, uh, you can keep calling me that; I don’t mind.”

Yeah, I bet you don’t, Jungkook thought slyly to himself, “Hey, Hyungie,” Taehyung, still unused to the address, flushed ever so slightly when he looked up to meet Jungkook’s eyes once again.

“Hmm?” he didn’t trust his voice not to waver anymore. He nearly did a backflip out of his chair when Jungkook reached a hand up to the corner of his lips, retracting it with a small white glob on the tip of it. He chuckled at the older man.

“Hyungie, you should eat more neatly, you had gotten a bit of mayo on your face,” he explained. Just then, someone walked over to their table, Ilhoon.

“Hey, you two done? He said gesturing to the empty plates on the tables. When had they even finished? As far as Taehyung knew, Jungkook was too busy openly flirting with him for either of them to finish their meal. Nevertheless, there was none left.

“Uh, yeah, Ilhoon-ssi, thanks,” the executive said, handing his to the waiter. The worker collected their dishes and the bill and soon enough Jungkook and Taehyung were walking out the door. Once again, though, the pretty man reappeared, halting Jungkook while Taehyung had stepped all the way outside already.

“Hey, cutie, feel free to come back any time to see me, okay?” he was speaking with his voice slightly softened and with an unnecessarily sweet orientation. Jungkook didn’t get a chance to respond because Taehyung had marched back inside and snatched the boy out by his hand.

“C’mon, Jungkook, our lunch break’s up,” he growled, eyes narrowed at Ilhoon. The latter only shrugged, though and skipped back into the restaurant, approaching one of his coworkers.

“Hey, Sungjae, have you seen my mascara?”

“Ah, you left it by the cash register next to your compact mirror, hyung,” the kid pointed them out.

“Thanks, Sungie!”

As Taehyung and Jungkook exited they faintly recognized Hyunsik standing not too far away shaking his head and pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Taehyung was excited about the upcoming party, and he was also excited about seeing Jimin’s reaction. He was hyped up and ready to tell Jimin why he was so ecstatic (partly because he’d held Jungkook’s hand all the way back to work after his lunch) while they drove home, however, that dream was crushed when the shorter climbed into the passenger seat frowning with furrowed eyebrows. What could be wrong? He had figured that asking Jungkook to give him the invitation would give them a chance to maybe talk things over and land on a positive note with each other, but apparently it had done the opposite. He shifted the car into drive and pulled out of the parking space before attempting conversation. Very cautiously. No one likes a cranky Jimin.

“So… did you get the invitation?”

“Yeah.” Uh-oh, Jimin using short responses; the first sure sign he was close to getting fed up.

“Did uh, did Jungkook give it to you?”

“Yeah, he did,” from the corner of his eye, the executive noticed Jimin’s eye twitch. Sign two…

“Well it’s in a month, so that gives us an awful lot of time to pick out our outfits, right? Haha…” Jimin showed no reaction. Not even a nod. Usually, he’d be chuckling at Taehyung’s light joking. Well, that’s sign three. Taehyung knew by now Jimin’s angry routine, and the next step involved yelling. The one after that, throwing things. The orange-haired man stopped talking then before putting himself at risk of being thrown out the window of a moving vehicle.

When they arrived home, Jimin barged in and flopped face-down onto the sofa, not even bothering to remove his coat. Taehyung sighed, what could be so wring with his cute little friend? He made his way over to a grumbling Jimin and bent down over the figure, placing his hands on the sleeves of the garment and gently sliding the coat off, folding it neatly over the back of the sofa. Jimin still didn’t budge, except to shift his arms a bit, so Taehyung, in a bold attempt to comfort his friend, lifted the shorter man’s head up and sat down on the couch, replacing Jimin’s head on his lap. Finally there was the slightest ghost of a smile on those innocent features.

“Wanna tell me what’s wrong now?” he asked carefully, carding his fingers through the black locks. The boy only groaned a bit in satisfaction at the touch but didn’t say anything, instead choosing to press his face into Taehyung’s stomach. The man giggled a bit. Cute, he thought, like a kitten.

“Taehyung…” said man’s heart flipped; Jimin was using his sugary sweet voice again making his name sound like pure magic. Unthinkingly, Taehyung grinned and moved his hand to gently caress Jimin’s cheek for a moment, both of them loving the contact with their soft skin.

“What is it, Jiminnie?” The younger didn’t know why he’d added the affectionate sound at the end, but he figured it didn’t matter. Actually, he’d figured he’d be doing it much more often when he heard the soft giggle elicited from Jimin’s throat because of it.

“I wanna tell you something; it’s about Jungkook—” Taehyung’s ears perked up and he quickly interrupted, having been reminded about something he wanted to say about said PA himself.

“Ah, I wanted to tell you something about him, too…” the older figured he could wait and hold in his spiel of hatred for the guy.

“You can go first,” Jimin grumbled a little but softly enough so that the other didn’t hear. Closing his eyes, he put on a façade of being completely content while talking about that little—

“I really, really like him, and I want your help with getting him to date me,” Jimin’s eyes snapped open and he sat up so quickly from Taehyung’s lap that he almost head-butted the man.

“What did you just say?” the question came out lowly, as if in warning, but the dense Taehyung didn’t catch it. He only saw an opportunity to gush about his crush with a close confidant. So he did just that.

“I think he’s totally amazing in every way and form; he’s a diligent worker on top of that, too. He just has the most endearing smile and is built handsomely, and—”

“Alright, alright!!” Jimin’s sudden outburst startled Taehyung into shutting up. He swore, he would get sick if the other babbled any longer. Plus, there was one more thing he had factored in to why his ears were practically bleeding.

It hurt to hear Taehyung talk about Jungkook in such a way

Because Jimin liked Taehyung.

That’s right. He hadn’t lived with the other for much longer than a month but already a strong attachment and dependency had blossomed for the other man. Jimin loved the feeling he got whenever Taehyung would spend those rare afternoons he got free from work experimenting with him in the kitchen or sitting with him on the couch all too close together for the elongated piece of furniture while they watched cheesy dramas. He especially loved it when the orange-haired male would come into his bedroom sometimes at night and just have light conversation with him, despite both of them having to wake early for work in the morning. Jimin had dumbly assumed Taehyung had felt the same way during those moments and that perhaps he had a shot: he’d even planned on confessing soon, but now all that was lost.

Because the man he’d so quickly fallen for had fallen for someone else, his greatest enemy to boot.

Jimin thought life couldn’t get any more unfair, but then it er-punched him when he remembered the next part of Taehyung’s statement.

He wanted his help in setting the two of them up.

Jimin could have cried at the burning in his chest.

“min… Jimin!” he was shaken back into the reality with Taehyung harshly gripping his shoulders.

“What?” Taehyung was baffled.

“Did… did you hear what I said? I want you to help me—” Jimin held a hand up.

“Yeah. I got it.”

“So… will you?”

Jimin didn’t think he had a choice. Despite the pain he felt doing it, he genuinely cared for the man, and he couldn’t go against his heart even if his mind was telling him very blatantly, no. He wanted Taehyung to be happy with him by his side, but he guessed only having part of that was okay, too. If Jungkook was who he wanted to make him smile, then that’s what Jimin would get for him.

“Of course.”

Taehyung beamed and stood up in a flash from the couch, taking Jimin with him. He effortlessly lifted the older up with two arms around his waist and spun him in a circle, laughing so loudly that he couldn’t hear Jimin’s startled squawking. He placed the black-haired man back on the floor and looked down into the surprised eyes that greeted him.

“Thanks so much Jiminnie; you have no idea how much this means to me!”

You have no idea how much this hurts me, he internally responded. Jimin smiled up at his friend who somehow didn’t catch the tears pooling in his eyes. 

A/N: First off, I want to thank all of you who are rereading this fic in its entirety just waiting for the epilogue; you all are real saints. I had barely even noticed it'd been a week already, geez where is the time going?

Okay, thanks to all my lovely subbies and beautiful commenters, y'all are bae.