With every day that Taehyung kept Jungkook's secret, Jungkook continued to reward Taehyung. Recently, he'd been allowing Taehyung to hang out with him and his friends at his house, obviously without Jimin's knowledge. Jungkook's friends didn't have any reason to oppose this; they just knew that Jungkook was their friend, and they basically had a duty to keep his secrets secret. As a whole, they settled on the assumption that Jungkook had real feelings for Taehyung so wanted to keep him around, and he obviously didn't want Jimin to find out and be upset. 

Namjoon, however, was still curious about the whole thing, and what exactly was going on in Jungkook's mind. He first raised his concern at an evening of drinking games the night after Jimin was at the hospital, when Jungkook's friends were all slumped on the floor of Jungkook's basement around a table covered in playing cards and beer cans. Jungkook's phone vibrated, and Seokjin asked if it was his boyfriend. Namjoon interjected with a teasing remark of "Which boyfriend?", which Jungkook didn't appreciate. He took Namjoon aside later, when the others were too drunk to make any consistent efforts to eavesdrop. 

"Look, if you have something to say about Taehyung being here, I'm all ears-"

"You only got back together with Jimin to win the bet, I get that much." Namjoon interupted with a calm but firm edge to his voice. "And it's clear you still have feelings for Taehyung and it wasn't just you wanted him for, since you're keeping him around, so why not just dump Jimin at this point?" 

Namjoon was surprised at the laugh Jungkook gave in reply. "It's not like that with Taehyung, hyung. He's just doing me a favour. This is me repaying him, by letting him hang out with me and drink with us. And as for Jimin, it's not just the bet. When I cheated on him, I lost him, you see? And I don't like losing."

"So you stay with him to... what?" Namjoon shrugged weakly, a lost and confused look in his eyes. "To prove a point? To show that you can keep him without messing up again? I don't exactly care for him, but to play around with his and Taehyung's obvious feelings for you at the same time-"

Jungkook'd facial expression jumped into a sudden smirk, like he'd just realised something, then he took one step forward. Namjoon felt Jungkook's hand rest on his shoulder, and he scowled at his friend. 

"Aw, Joonie-hyung." He spoke with a faint but annoyingly  patronisinglilt. "If you cared so much for sweet Taehyungie, you only had to say..."

Namjoon shoved Jungkook's hand from his shoulder, and stepped back, turning his body slightly to begin to walk back towards the others. "I'm just trying to be a good friend to you, Kook, by telling you when you're gonna get into trouble." 

It was the day after that that Namjoon felt his concerns rising again. He'd walked into the toilets at school, to see Taehyung leaning over one of the sinks. The heel of one of his hands was digging into the edge of the basin, and his other hand was scrubbing a sodden crumple of wet tissues into his neck. Namjoon could hear the desperate-sounding grunts from Taehyung as he wiped at his skin, like he was disgusted at it. When Taehyung saw Namjoon enter and stare at him in confusion and intrigue, he froze with the tissues held away from his neck. 

It was then that Namjoon saw the hickey, right on the side of his neck and in full view.. He sighed and scratched the back of his neck, before approaching with caution. 

"You know tissues don't work on those... you need makeup?" 

Taehyung gulped, his eyes and mouth wide like he was bursting with nerves, but he nodded, giving Namjoon permission to continue approaching. Namjoon brought a hand to the inside pocket of his blazer, and pulled out a small tube of liquid foundation. 

"May I?" Namjoon asked casually with a raise of his eyebrows as he squirted some of it onto his index finger, not trusting Taehyung to apply it perfectly enough but not wanting him to get scared off by the prospect of Namjoon doing it himself. Again, Taehyung gave a wordless nod and, after clearing his throat, hesitantly leant his head to the side so that Namjoon could reach the offending part of his neck easier. Namjoon tapped a cold finger to the spot, dabbing the liquid onto the hickey. 

"I've never really..." Taehyung paused to clear his throat. "Had one of these before. So... I didn't know how to-" His breath hitched once Namjoon took his finger away to squirt more foundation onto it. 

"Jungkook put that hickey there, right?" Namjoon asked, making every attempt not to sound judgemental or too nosey. 

Taehyung didn't say anything for a moment; he just stared at Namjoon. His eyes looked sad, Namjoon noted, but he still wanted to press him further, so he raised his eyebrows, letting him know that he still expected an answer. Taehyung closed his eyes and worried his trembling bottom lip between his teeth, but obliged. 

"He said I was a good boy... for the... favour I'm doing him." He said with an unsteady tremor in his voice. "And good boys get rewarded. But... it's a secret reward. No-one can see it. It's just for me. For - for us."

"By no-one... you mean Jimin, right?" Namjoon dabbed around the surrounding area of the hickey, expertly allowing it to blend with the rest of Taehyung's honey-toned skin. Thank goodness they had similar enough skin tones for Namjoon's foundation to work. From his close proximity to Taehyung's face, he could see the tremble in his body, so he readjusted his hand holding the foundation tube so that it was balanced between his thumb and index finger and he could use his 3 spare fingers to gently lay on Taehyung's hand still gripping the sink basin. He didn't pay any mind to how Taehyung predictably flinched at the added contact. "I'm not judging. I just... Jungkook's my friend, yeah, but he's getting cocky. Playing with someone's feelings, saying snide words we don't mean about our classmates and teachers... that's all well and good. But he's taking this a few steps too far, playing this long game with you and Jimin. What's it all about, anyway, and when will it end? It's too much of a volatile situation, and it'll reflect badly on all of us if Jimin finds out, and I don't like how he's not telling us-"

Taehyung pushed Namjoon's arm away, and backed into the wall of the bathroom. The same wall Jungkook had shoved him against after kissing him. 

"If Jungkook's not telling you, you should assume that it's none of your business." Taehyung said coldly, staring at Namjoon through his sharp bangs. "Just leave us alone, okay?"

Namjoon leant forward, but not so much that he was in Taehyung's face. Just enough to show that he still had one last thing to say. "Whatever you think you have with Jungkook, he's playing you. The sooner you stand up to him, the sooner he can stop playing with fire."

Taehyung’s jaw twitched and he scowled, his eyes looking Namjoon up and down as if trying to figure out how to stand up for himself in a way that would hut Namjoon up and get him to just leave him alone. In an instant, something changed behind his eyes, like a flash of realisation, and the corner of his mouth curled up into a half-smirk.

“Jungkook-ah told me this might happen.” Taehyung said, leaning forward slightly with his hands still behind his back and pressed against the wall. “He said you would try to break us up, something about you having feelings for me? Doesn’t this prove that he was right?” He asked in an exaggerated inquisitive voice, before curling his lips back up into a smile, running his tongue over his top lip and returning to lean his head back against the wall. 

Namjoon scoffed, and stepped away. He felt taken aback at Taehyung’s words, but not because of embarrassment. He knew an act to feign confidence when he saw one. He saw the traces of uncertainty in Taehyung’s eyes, even now. He was just utterly confused as to why Jungkook had gone behind his back and told Taehyung about his suspicions about Namjoon’s feelings. What kind of game was he playing to go that far, to keep Taehyung on such a tight leash, with all of this “Don’t let Namjoon break us up” nonsense? 

“What kind of favour do you owe him, Taehyung?” Namjoon asked with a long stare. Whatever nerve he hit, it wiped the smirk off of Taehyung’s face. “Whatever.” Namjoon finished, before tucking his hands into his trouser pockets and turning on his heel to the door. 

A part of Namjoon wanted to take a moment to examine whether what Jungkook had said was true: whether he was so curious about Jungkook’s intentions with Taehyung because he was worried about Jungkook being reckless and making his friends look bad, or because he just didn’t want to see Taehyung get hurt. He’d known Taehyung a while, the two of them being top students who regularly competed in debate club, maths competitions, etc. Taehyung was just always there, like a part of the furniture in Namjoon’s house that he would mourn if it ever broke or went missing. It just felt weird, that Taehyung was someone he knew everyday and definitely had some sort of intellectual respect for, but was now reduced to being manipulated and used in a way that Namjoon, frustratingly, hadn’t figured out yet. If there was one thing that made Namjoon anxious, it was something he hadn’t figured out yet. 

Of course, a larger part of Namjoon knew that he did not have the time to have an internal debate in his own head about why he felt so invested in this situation. The what, i.e. what kind of favour did Jungkook owe Taehyung, was far more of a pressing and difficult-to-answer question right now. 

The arcade was full of the beeping and zapping sounds emitting from the machines that lined all the walls of the large room, and the cheers from the mouths of the students that had visited after class to beat their friends at racing games. 

But there was only one sound that Yoongi was focussing on. 

Jimin's melodic laugh, so high it occasionally turned into literal squeaks, reverberated through Yoongi's ear as Jimin stood behind Yoongi with his hand on his shoulder. Yoongi flickered his eyelids, trying not to get too entranced in Jimin's presence, in his scent, in his touch. He curled his fingers tighter around the steering wheel. 

"Yoongi! You got hit by another item! This kid is slaying you!" Jimin cackled and leant forward, so his nose was buried in Yoongi's hair. If Yoongi wasn't too focussed on winning the game and making sure that Jimin didn't think that he , he would have seen the kid on the seat next to him smirk incredibly smugly. 

The bold, red letters spelling GAME OVER: PLAYER 2 LOSES slid onto Yoongi's screen, and he sighed and released his feet from the pedals before he shrugged at the kid, offering a hand. The kid, who only looked about 12, nodded proudly and shook Yoongi's hand. 

Yoongi stood up with a quietly defeated sigh and walked away from the game to allow the next 2 children to play, and Jimin passed him his cup of coke. Yoongi downed it, and crumpled the plasticy material in his long fingers. 

"Ahh, you're so mad that kid beat you!" Jimin giggled into his own cup, and fell against Yoongi's shoulder. 

"Look, games are hard." Yoongi pouted. "And I swear you lose gaming skills when you get older. This kid is still being brought up with the latest games."

Yoongi's protests only made Jimin giggle more, and Yoongi flinched when he felt Jimin curl his free arm around Yoongi's elbow. He could feel the muscles of Jimin's bicep even as it lazily leant against his arm, holding his drink just under the lid. 

"What game next, hmm?" Yoongi asked after nervously clearing his throat. 

"Not sure. Let's walk around a little." Jimin said as he lightly tugged on Yoongi's arm, and walked into the very centre of the casino. "Hey, uh... Jungkook-ah and I are having a little party at Jungkook's house this weekend."

"Oh, really?" Yoongi instinctively feigned his interested voice. 

"Yeah." Jimin's arm curled tighter around Yoongi's. "It's just to celebrate the last day of term before the break. And... I know you don't like Jungkook's friends, or Jungkook himself, but..."

"You're asking me to come?" Yoongi asked, to which Jimin responded with a grateful nod. 

"It'll if you're not there." Jimin said, so quietly Yoongi wouldn't have been able to hear his words over the chaos of the arcade if he wasn't so used to Jimin's voice. Jimin leant his head closer to Yoongi's neck, and gave it a quick nudge before pulling away again, looking into Yoongi's eyes until Yoongi relented with a grin and a nod. 

"Of course I'll be there."

"Yay!" Jimin gave a slight skip, and his eyes widened when one of the coin machines seemed to catch his eye. "Look! A bear keyring!"

Yoongi's boots dragged along the carpet as Jimin hauled him across the room to a specific coin machine, lit up with blue and pink neon signs beckoning them closer. However, it seemed to be one of the prizes lying on the sliding silver bed of coins that Jimin was most enchanted by: a small, bright yellow bear attached to a short silver chain and keyring. 

Yoongi peered through the glass at the bear, which lay on its tummy on the bed of coins. Judging by Jimin's reaction to it from afar, and how much he knew Jimin got excited by small and cute things, he could already imagine how much Jimin's face would light up if he managed to work hard and win it for him. He knew that he just had to get that for Jimin. Without another word, he fished out his mini purse of coins from a little side pocket of his shoulder bag, and placed in on the little shelf above the game. One veiny hand rested impatiently against the side of the machine while the other slotted coins into the three holes, one at a time. 

The first coin made a dint, falling from the sliding bed to the main body of coins, which was all then pushed forward by the slider, making the yellow bear nudge a fraction of a fraction of an inch closer to Yoongi. Yoongi felt his heart skip an embarrassing beat when Jimin's arm s around his waist. 

"You can do it!" Jimin said in a whisper-cheer, and swayed against Yoongi's side. 

The next few coins budged the coins in the machine forward a little more, but only a little. Yoongi felt Jimin's hold around his waist slack ever so slightly, and his cheeks burned red before he stubbornly pushed 2 coins into the consecutive slots at the same time, releasing an avalanche of coins down from the sliding platform - 

- and with a clatter, Jimin's yellow bear appeared in the tray below. He threw up his hands with a palpable glee and darted forward to grab the toy bear by its stump of a hand. 

"Yoongi, thank you!" He cheered as he leant his body back into Yoongi's, bumping his head affectionately against Yoongi's shoulder. Yoongi felt his heart jump up to his throat, but he shook his head and, with a small chuckle, stepped away, leaving Jimin looking at him with a happy yet slightly confused look on his face. 

"You always get excited over small, weird things." Yoongi said with a half-smirk. 

Jimin just nodded in response, a small smile on his face as he clutched the little bear to his chest, holding it with two hands despite its modest size. "Thank you, Yoongi." He repeated. 

The knuckles of Jimin's and Yoongi's hands brushed against each other as they strolled under the grey, darkening sky back to Jimin's house. They lived in a safe neighbourhood, but Jimin still hated walking alone in the dark, so they did their usual routine of Yoongi walking Jimin home before walking to his own house. 

At the gate leading to Jimin's house, Yoongi felt an emptiness approach him knowing that he would have to say goodbye to Jimin and walk alone, even if it'd only be for 10 minutes. That was when Jimin turned, and pursed his lips to signal that he was thinking about something he wanted to say. 

"Well, thanks for walking me home again, Yoongi." Jimin said with a sweet nod, before bringing his hand up to scratch at the back of his neck. "So... you know Jungkook's party? Honestly, I want you there anyway, but the main reason I asked you was... You know how my new meds don't allow me to drink? No offence to my boyfriend, but I trust you much more to keep me in check and not let me drink at the party. Sorry - I don't mean to ask you to look out for me-"

The thought of Jimin actually wanting Yoongi to keep an eye on him, actually asking him to do so... It was so relieving for Yoongi. 

"Of course. No need to apologise, Min." Yoongi said with sincerity. "I'll look after you for sure."