Jungkook was a destructive person.

His skin always felt like its burning and boiling from the inside out and he was just desperate to release it all before he exploded.

Jungkook lived life with careless abandon. He wasn’t strange for him to find himself in a meaningless brawl. If anyone got in his way or tried to tell him otherwise, he would tell them off with his fists.

Why? It was not anger or rage, which fuelled him. No, it was something more dangerous.

He just loved the rush of adrenaline. It was the thrill of danger he craved. It made him feel alive.

A ticking time bomb was probably an appropriate nickname for Jeon Jungkook.

He knew it was a matter of time; he would push himself over the edge. But still, he couldn’t help himself. It made chasing the thrill more exhilarating, not knowing when it would be all over.

But then he turned up in his life.

Taehyung, was a boy from Daegu, a boy who knew nothing of fighting, who was a lot softer around the edges than Jungkook could ever be.

He ignored Jungkook’s harsh words, his selfishness, his recklessness and whatever else Jungkook could throw at him.

Jungkook was a destructive person and anyone within his reach should be running for cover as quick as they can.

And yet this Taehyung kept smiling softly, standing by Jungkook’s side without a single word. And Jungkook didn’t know if it was comforting or suffocating him.

×××

Jungkook did not go to college like most of his classmates in high school, but he couldn’t stay at home either. It was too toxic and tiring to hear his parents whine about how useless he was. So one day, he ran from his hometown of Busan and settled into Seoul. But Seoul was a monster in itself. The way that people spoke was unfamiliar and cold. Everything was expensive. He had to scrap a bare living by working part time to have enough cash to survive.

He had met Taehyung while searching online for a housemate since he couldn’t afford to live by himself. It so happened that Taehyung had a spare room he needed to rent out so Jungkook had gone to meet him at his apartment.

Taehyung’s title for his housemate ad on the rental website was “Oh happy days, let’s all live together happily!!!” It was actually a turn off for Jungkook and although he was worried that the person who placed the ad might be a weirdo, because Taehyung’s rental price was so cheap, Jungkook needed to check it out.

He definitely was not expecting an awfully handsome chiselled model-like face to greet him at the door, his chestnut coloured hair a mess and a sleepy look on his tanned face. He looked perfectly (model) normal. He was gorgeous. And that wasn’t a word Jungkook would normally use to describe a guy.

Jungkook had a feeling, someone as good-looking as Taehyung would have a deadly smile. And he didn’t have to wait long to find out. But still Jungkook was unprepared.

“Hi I’m Taehyung. When do you want to move in?”

Taehyung smiled brightly as he looked to Jungkook, his arm outstretched to shake Jungkook’s hand. His smile was too vibrant, too generous. Jungkook thought that maybe Taehyung had lived a good life to be able to smile so carefree like that. And his first thought was how could he steal some of that aura.

“Don’t you need to interview me first or something?” Jungkook had managed to ask, not understanding Taehyung’s direction of thinking, because people would normally check to see if the other person were not a creep or a weirdo first.

“You look pretty normal to me. Plus you have nice brown eyes,” Taehyung studied him with a look up and down.

And Jungkook would slowly learn that he should never try to follow Taehyung’s train of thought. And that it would never make sense and always would change at a spur of a moment. It was his charm and weak point.

×××

A few days after moving in, Taehyung had convinced him to go bicycle riding with him along the Han River. In his words, it was their “getting to know each other” time. Jungkook at the time thought Taehyung was just an annoying busybody.

But the bicycle ride turned out to be more of Jungkook trying to follow after a very excited Taehyung and not much talking was done. But it was not like Jungkook was that interested in making small talk with Taehyung at that time.

It was a time when Jungkook had slowly memorised the way Taehyung’s excitement always involving a lot of bouncing around and tapping of his fingers along the side of a fence or wall or anything he could get his hands on.

“Jungkook, look!”

Taehyung had seen something and stopped pedalling to turn around to tell Jungkook about his discovery. He was pointing towards the tree by the side of the pathway along the river.

Taehyung then told Jungkook with a proud look on his face that he had previously seen a baby bird fall out of the tree and he had climbed the tree to put the baby bird back in its rightful place in the nest.

Jungkook looked towards the baby bird that was now perching stably on the high branch of the tree, without any fear.

“It’s pretty amazing isn’t it?” Taehyung took out his phone to take a quick shot.

“Amazing?” Jungkook wondered, not too sure why this was so fascinating to Taehyung but then again a lot of things attracted his attention.

“If I was a tiny bird and fell from such a height. I don’t think I would have the courage to sit back on the high branch of a tree again. I’d hide away forever in the safe nest.”

“It probably has a short term memory. Forgets all the bad things.” Jungkook said without a thought, wondering when he was able to go home.

If there were someone who personified “sunshine”, that would have been Taehyung. He saw everything with so much wonder and optimism; Jungkook couldn’t believe such a person existed.

And it made Jungkook want to test Taehyung. Jungkook knew there must be some bad blood in Taehyung. And he was going to find it, expose it and cultivate it.

Why?

It was because sounded like fun, why else?

×××

Jungkook started small. First, he just wanted to see an angry and irritated Taehyung. He played the “sloppy housemate” by leaving his dirty dishes in the sink, littering the whole house with his clothing, smelly socks and rubbish all other the place.

Then he played a bit bigger, leaving left over food everywhere to rot away and then he didn’t aim so well at the toilet. Yes, he was excited to see how angry Taehyung would be.

He was sure that Taehyung would even kick him off of the place.

But he didn’t.

He would comment on his sloppiness and dirtiness but nothing more. And no he didn’t even play the perfect housemate back at him. He did something that Jungkook was not expecting, he did the opposite and it became a competition.

It became a competition to see who could up the other person and leave the grossest dishes unwashed, the most litter lying around, and there was even someone’s rotten apple in midst the growing pile of clothes on the couch.

It was only when Taehyung introduced Jungkook to Taehyung’s best friend, Jimin who so happened to take a visit Taehyung’s place that the overwhelming mess finally stopped.

Taehyung was excited for Jimin to see the level of dirtiness, which had transpired within the apartment. Jungkook just wanted to bash his head into the wall because he didn’t understand why Taehyung was having so much fun. This had somehow become a torture for Jungkook.

“Taehyung… this place is disgusting. How…Why are you living like this?” Jimin exclaimed, his eyes judging at Taehyung and then back at the mess of crap everywhere. And Jimin didn’t even have a chance to greet Jungkook yet. This was the first time Jungkook saw Jimin, with his silky silver coloured hair, his fair skin and long monolid eyes. His features were sharp and his eyes were seemingly cold, a complete contrast to the warm sun-kissed Taehyung.

Jungkook was just relieved that someone found the place strange and it was not just him (even though he triggered all this mess).

When Jimin finally calmed down and stopped nagging at Taehyung, Jimin introduced himself to Jungkook, a shy smile on his face, “Hi, I’m Jimin, Tae’s friend.”

To which, Taehyung wrapped his arms over Jimin from behind and corrected him, “Best friend by the way, whether he likes it or not.”

And a strange spike of anger ran into Jungkook’s gut. He swallowed the strange feeling and concentrated on Jimin’s words instead. It had to be all the mould accumulating in their apartment making him go crazy.

But all Jimin replied to Taehyung was, “Did you shower? Doesn’t matter, just get off of me anyways.”

And then to Jungkook, Jimin apologised, “Sorry about Tae. He’s a bit of handful, I know. But he’s a good guy, please believe me. Only he told me you guys were having a competition on who could be the dirtiest and I had to come to intervene. It didn’t realise it had already gotten so bad…”

It turned out that Taehyung had explained the whole thing or what he had thought of Jungkook’s prank to Jimin and Jimin had thought that Taehyung had dragged Jungkook into something he wasn’t expecting. All of this was Jungkook’s doing of course, but that didn’t matter because Jimin had already rolled up his sleeves and said, “We are cleaning up. No, no video games Tae. Cleaning. Now.”

Through the cleaning session, Jungkook learnt that Jimin actually came from Busan like him, his familiar accent slipping through his words sometimes. They had gone to different schools though, thankfully. His housemate and the best friend didn’t need to know how unkempt and rough he was, yet.

And when Taehyung had been distracted, Jimin had pulled Jungkook closer and whispered, “He’s gone through a few roommates already. I know he can be a bit weird but he never has any bad intentions. Can you keep that in mind?”

Jungkook wasn’t too sure what he was in for but he nodded anyway since he had nothing else better to say to Jimin. All he figured out was Jimin and Taehyung were really good friends.

And unlike his initial impression, Jimin was all smiles similar to Taehyung. Not as bright as Taehyung but still dazzling and he could see how they were best friends. He had come down to Seoul to study dance and he had met Taehyung through mutual friends and clicked straight away. But his college was on the southern end of town so he stayed close by there instead of rooming with Taehyung who studied on the northern end of town. They spent most of spare time playing video or computer games at the cyber café that was halfway between their places.

Jungkook could easily see that they were both good people.

He was the bad apple and he almost wanted to say that they shouldn’t be so nice to him. He didn’t deserve it. He had a tendency to ruin the people around him. Even if he knew they were good people, he couldn’t stop it.

×××

If he were asked whether he was happy back then, Jungkook probably wouldn't know. But now, when he looked back the days living in the apartment together, it seemed obvious that Jungkook was happy.

But he was too self-centred and selfish to see Taehyung’s kindness then. They were housemates and “kind of but not really” friends.

After the prank, Jungkook decided he would need to think through a bit more carefully on how he was going to rile Taehyung up. And decided in order to do it properly, he needed to get closer to Taehyung and learn his habits better.

And he gradually settled into living peacefully with the child-like Taehyung. Taehyung was a ceramics major, doing mostly pottery work and sculpturing work. Jungkook could see how it fitted Taehyung who was a hands-on person and artsy since he always seemed to think outside the box. His room was filled with odd pieces of ceramic pots and figures that he had either obtained at a flea market or personally made himself.

Taehyung’s college routine consisted of him missing most of classes due to sleeping in but when he had project nearing the due date, he would disappear on days on end before coming back to the apartment, looking like an empty soul, all energy exhausted.

While on the other hand, Jungkook had his own little routine. He would work his shift at the café in the afternoons and then he would go to the club or bar every night to get wasted and lose the ability to think.

So the most that Jungkook saw of Taehyung was during the mornings and early afternoons. And it seemed they shared a similar habit, which was collapsing on the couch when they reached the house, exhausted from their own lives.

Jungkook usually landed on the faded cotton blue couch first, his face planting into the seat of the couch due to his lack of coordination while being half drunk. And the first time, when he realised that there was another body that had landed half on top of him, half on the couch, he almost thought he had accidentally brought someone home from the club. The warm body was wrapped around his back, limbs relaxed and heavy.

But as Jungkook tried to break away and tried to re-assess the situation, the face of the body nuzzled against his back and mumbled in Taehyung’s familiar deep voice while he wrapped an arm around Jungkook’s waist, “Stop moving, Jungkook. I can’t sleep.”

Jungkook was so shocked that very first time that he froze in place, wondering what Taehyung was trying to do, his heartbeat bouncing like crazy. He laid awake until Taehyung decided to get up and muttered, “You stink of alcohol.”

Normal people who had just met do not normally platonically share a couch in this manner with any regard for personal space. But then again, Taehyung was not normal.

Was Taehyung attracted to guys? It was hard to tell because from Jungkook could gather there were no ual intentions when Taehyung wanted to cuddle up.

Over time and probably because due to his laziness, he gave up on pushing Taehyung out of the couch every time when he tried to cuddle him to sleep. Because Taehyung was persistent and also insisted that half the couch was still his to use.

And so Jungkook slowly relented and let Taehyung overtake him while he napped on the couch in the early mornings. He convinced himself to liken Taehyung to a needy pet. Taehyung was someone who didn’t understand what personal boundaries were. He did his best to ignore him in his half-asleep state.

And he started to understand what Jimin was warning him about.

The living room had always been spacious and bright, with the natural light coming in from the large windows on the side of the spacious room. But even the light as it reached the afternoon did not wake Jungkook, when it usually would.

Jungkook blamed it on Taehyung. It was that thing that Taehyung always did. He always patting Jungkook’s head and running his hands through his hair in a rhythmic manner while he napped either beside or half-on top of him. It was like he was calming Jungkook’s soul. And it was strangely comforting, like he was able to put out the restlessness in his soul for a bit and it always lulled Jungkook into a deeper sleep.

They didn’t talk much during these naps, but Jungkook learnt many things about Taehyung anyway.

He liked smelling people, example 1 would be the nape of Jungkook’s neck or example 2 would be Jungkook’s back.

He didn’t always wash his hands properly after being in the art studio. Jungkook would notice that his hair or t-shirt would have residue of clay dust in odd places that originated from Taehyung’s grubby hands.

He was a light sleeper; any slight movement of Jungkook’s would wake Taehyung up.

And this would slowly happen regularly, because Taehyung liked to hug too tight onto the Jungkook’s bruises. And Jungkook would sometimes flinch awake.

×××

“Why do you have so many bruises?” Taehyung asked one day after Jungkook stepped out of the shower dressed ready for work, he had washed away the blood and dirt off until his skin was red and raw.

“None of your business,” Jungkook said, as he grabbed his keys and slipped into his old converse sneakers.

“But it worries me.”

And those puppy eyes would stare back into Jungkook’s plain brown eyes. Taehyung and Jungkook had re