Jungkook showed up at the store thirty minutes before they would be closing, and he made sure to stay out of the way while they were tucking away the camera dummies that were usually in the front display. They were fake cameras - except for one of them, which was an old Sony DSLR that didn't work anymore and that Taehyung couldn't imagine anyone wanting to get - but they looked real enough that someone might be tempted to smash the glass to get them, especially considering how shady the neighborhood was. After removing them, they closed the grates that would stop people from going into the store even if they did smash the glass. They were pretty thin and looked easy to cut with the right tool, so really, Taehyung wasn't sure they would prevent any serious thief from leaving with the thousands of dollars worth of cameras and lenses that were sitting in the glass displays, but whatever made the boss feel that his store was safe. Once they were done with that, and with the day's report and physical cash put safely away, Taehyung grabbed his keys and his bag as Jimin turned the lights off. Jungkook was quieter than Taehyung usually heard him be, but he understood when his other coworker came back from the employees' room. Jungkook was shier than he seemed to be, and it showed when he didn't know someone much. He got much louder and expressive whenever he was with friends though, and Taehyung couldn't help but feel really happy that he saw that side of Jungkook when it was just them. That meant Jungkook was comfortable being around him.

They had to make Jungkook wait outside while they were locking up, but after that Taehyung and Jimin said goodbye to their other coworker, who left towards the parking, while they turned to Jungkook, ready to follow him. Follow him anywhere, Taehyung mentally added. He wasn't sure about Jimin, but in Taehyung's case, he had learned little by little to really trust Jungkook, to believe what he said instead of imagining the worst and the potential lies that could be told. Jungkook was honest, and sweet, and kind, and Taehyung leeched off his confidence with only a bit of guilt remaining. Despite everything, Jungkook had always kept his word, always made sure Taehyung was comfortable, never guilt-tripped him into anything and certainly never left him behind for any reason whatsoever. There was still time for this whole thing to crash, like other apparently okay relationships before had crashed, but this time Jungkook actually already knew about Taehyung's problems and he went right along with them, taking every broken piece of Taehyung into consideration when suggesting something and mending him together bit by bit. Gratefulness was too weak a word for what Taehyung felt towards Jungkook, but he couldn't pinpoint what other word he could use.

"So, where are we heading?" Jimin asked as he hoisted his bag on his shoulders.
"To the metro station. It's just a few stops away. After that it's about a ten-minute walk."

They did exactly that, and soon enough they were in front of a big building with weirdly placed windows. They weren't aligned, like some kind of modern art, and Taehyung raised a brow as they got to the building's door. That place probably had like, hundreds of apartments in it if the windows were any indication.

"This is a big place," he commented.
"268 apartments that can have up to 409 people," Jungkook recited, adding a grin when Taehyung looked at him with a weird face. "I learned that by heart before even moving here. This building belongs to the school. Each apartment comes furnished, and the price includes hot water, electricity, heating, Internet, and the cable for TV as well as local phone calls. We also have a gaming room, a movie room and a gym. There's also a security agent in the building at night, and a regular adult employee during the day, making sure nobody weird gets in."
"Holy crap. How much is the rent?"

Jungkook told him, and Taehyung wanted to go off and shake the living daylights out of his landlord. Jungkook's rent was less than half of Taehyung's - just the rent, not including anything else! Sure, Jungkook lived with a roommate and Taehyung lived on his own, but still! Jungkook had Internet included in there. And furniture. And a freaking security agent. Taehyung had nothing preventing a very determined person from breaking his window or his patio door and stealing everything he owned, especially since he lived in a basement and his window was easy to get to. Sheesh.

Jungkook registered both Taehyung and Jimin at the front desk before going further, and he lived on the fourth floor, as well, and apparently he had an elevator - a really huge one as well, and very fast too - to get there. He sure lived the good life.

"My apartment is terrible compared to what you got here."
"Wait until you see the apartment itself. We've got the services, sure, but the apartment itself is the tiniest thing ever. I'm not quite certain how we're gonna fit everyone tonight."
"... it's that bad?"

Jungkook didn't answer, and instead headed to the correct door. He unlocked it and went in, and they were greeted by a total of four guys, including Namjoon. Taehyung hid a little behind Jungkook, who hid a tiny bit behind Jimin. Apparently Jungkook didn't know Namjoon's friends well enough to feel comfortable with them. And Taehyung couldn't help but notice that the room was... very small. There was some kind of uncomfortable-looking couch and a tiny table with two cheap-looking plastic chairs, and barely further up there was a minuscule stove right next to an even smaller sink. No oven. At least the fridge was normal-sized. Next to the stove was a low counter, where a TV sat, turned off for now. Right next to the table was a door to what Taehyung supposed was a closet-sized bathroom, and right in front of where they currently were, there were two doors, one with the letter A painted on it and the other with B. Taehyung guessed that those were the bedrooms, and he had a hunch that they weren't the biggest thing around either. But overall, it was a nice-looking place, it seemed new and well-maintained. It was also pretty bright, with white lighting that came from a very basic ceiling fixture.

"It's better than I thought it would be," he commented in a low voice as he took his boots off and put them in the pile of boots that were already there.
"It's tiny. Comfy and inexpensive, but tiny."
"Hey Kook," Namjoon greeted him officially. "Wanna introduce your friends?"
"Sure. This here is Taehyung, and this is Jimin. Guys, this is Namjoon, my roommate. The others..."
Namjoon pointed at the three other guys. "Oh, this is Yoongi, and Seokjin, and Hoseok. I'm not supposed to have more than two guests with me but whatever, it's the New Year, they made an exception tonight only."

Taehyung and Jimin went to sit on the couch, Jungkook joining them a few seconds later with a scowl when he noticed that Namjoon had brought both his own office chair and Jungkook's so that his guests could have somewhere to sit.

"You could have asked before taking my chair."
"I figured you wouldn't mind that much? It's not like you'd be using it to game in front of your computer."
"I might have used it if I still had it, but whatever. I'll stay on the couch with my people."
"Sheesh, you're grumpy tonight."

Taehyung couldn't help a grin when he heard Jungkook grumble. He did seem a little upset, but Taehyung knew Jungkook, and he could guess that the youngest was probably mostly annoyed that his own guests didn't get the good chairs and were instead stuck with him on the couch. Then again, the couch seemed better than the plastic chairs.

"I have a bottle of champagne in my bag for later," he decided to say, wanting to lighten the mood. "Do you guys have champagne flutes?"
"Nope! We'll have to go for normal glasses," Namjoon chuckled. "It'll have to do. Hey, maybe we can pull the couch over here? That way you guys can participate in the conversation too."

It took some coaxing, but eventually they managed to convince Jungkook to stop pouting and to get up so that they could bring the couch closer to the table. They flopped back into it the moment they could, Taehyung feeling a little uneasy. It wasn't too bad, but as he listened to what Namjoon and his friends were talking about, he didn't feel comfortable reaching in and giving his opinion in the middle of the conversation. Apparently Jungkook didn't feel comfortable either, and so he kept quiet too while Jimin chimed in now and then, interested.

There wasn't really anywhere else to be, considering that the apartment was pretty much a kitchen, a tiny bathroom and two bedrooms, so all they could really do was to stay there and at least listen to what was happening. At some point, they started hearing a very loud bass going off somewhere, loud enough that it made the furniture vibrate and they could guess what song it was, and Jungkook groaned as he went for the phone that was sitting nearby. He dialed a number as everyone got quiet in the apartment.

"Hello? Yes, this is Jungkook from the 404. My furniture's vibrating, someone is being incredibly loud with their music. Yes. No, I know, it's not late or anything, and it's New Year's Eve, but I don't think I'm supposed to be hearing someone else's music in here. I have guests and- Okay, thank you."

He hung up and Namjoon smirked smugly. "In a few minutes, we should have peace again. Those walls are actually pretty well insulated, hearing the neighbors indicates that someone is being super rude."
"That kind of stuff happens often?" Jimin asked, very curious.
"Not really," Jungkook sighed. "But when it's not that, it's cigarette smell or, worse, smell. I can't stand those."
"And the culprit could get expelled for smoking indoors. It's in the rules," Namjoon added. "We don't feel bad about warning the personnel when that happens. It's obnoxious."
"Luckily for us, having guests makes them much more willing to investigate," Jungkook huffed as he sat back with Taehyung and Jimin. "They wouldn't want guests badmouthing this place and saying that parties are thrown all the time when it claims to be wonderful for students to focus on their studies."

Taehyung smiled and patted Jungkook's arm. He could understand that. His own neighbors had apparently bought a subwoofer on Black Friday and they had been blasting terribly loud boom-booms through his wall every evening since. Sure, he wasn't a student, but his wall vibrating wasn't exactly his idea of a relaxing evening.

It took a few minutes before the apartment suddenly fell silent, the ambient noise stopping entirely. Jungkook practically jumped out of his spot to get to the door, his ear pressed against it. He was grinning smugly.

"Yes, they got them!" he said, staying there for a while still. He then came back and took his spot again, sinking into the couch with a smirk. "Apparently those guys are so loud that they didn't even hear the staff knock at their door the first time. They got a very, VERY stern warning that if they get a complaint about them again tonight, they're going to be in big trouble."
"Staff saying 'you'll be in trouble' without making any concrete threat never works," Namjoon complained.
"Anyone saying 'you'll be in trouble' in any sort of way, actually," Yoongi laughed, voice dry and deep. "Just look at all those government ads about drunk driving. 'You risk getting caught by the police' because yeah, totally, that's the problem with doing that. Not, you know, killing someone."
"Or killing themselves," Seokjin added.
"They can right off a cliff for all I care. If they're dumb enough to drink and drive, it's no big loss for humanity as long as they don't get someone else involved. You know, someone who wasn't stupid enough to make such a terrible decision. The drunk drivers themselves can kindly remove themselves from the gene pool and make humanity less at risk of creating other es."
"Yoongi has officially no pity and no patience for idiots," Hoseok giggled.

Taehyung kept quiet when Yoongi started storming his way into an argument about dumb people, Hoseok trying to calm him down and saying that all human lives were equal, but if Taehyung had to be honest with himself he kind of agreed with the former. Maybe not to the point of wishing for them to die, but he couldn't manage to summon pity if someone did something stupid and died in the process. Tourists falling off cliffs trying to get the most epic selfie in dangerous places elicited the same kind of reaction from him: indifference, and maybe some kind of disdain? He was probably a terrible person for thinking that way. What if the others knew? They'd hate him for sure. That was probably why he couldn't keep friends around.

He felt someone poke his arm and he turned, seeing Jungkook look straight at him. Taehyung smiled a little, but his heart wasn't in it. He was a bad person.

"Come with me," Jungkook suddenly said as he got up and pulled Taehyung with him. Taehyung only followed with wide eyes. Where the heck would they even go?
"What about me?" Jimin asked with a pout.
"You can come with me later but for now I gotta talk to Tae."

They went into B room, which was apparently Jungkook's bedroom, and Jungkook closed and locked the door behind them. The sounds from the kitchen stopped pretty abruptly, and Taehyung looked at the door with surprise. It was very well insulated, just like Namjoon had said.

"Sit," Jungkook said, and patted next to him on the bed, where he was sitting. It was a very high bed frame, with enough room to store a lot of things underneath it, and Taehyung had to jump in order to climb on. "Now, let me know what's going on in your head. You look sad all of a sudden."

It wasn't exactly an order, and Taehyung could have refused. Jungkook was speaking in a low voice, no doubt not wanting anyone else to hear this conversation. He had noticed that Taehyung felt down, as usual. And he was willing to listen. But would Jungkook hate him if he knew his thoughts? If he knew about his indifference when he read online that people had died from trying to take selfies in dangerous places while ignoring danger signs and fences meant to keep them safe.

"I'm not sure I can talk about this. You might hate me if I do," he ended up sighing.
"I don't think I will. Is it linked to what Yoongi was talking about?"
"Yeah."
"What's your opinion on the matter?"
"..."
"You can tell me, Tae. I'm not gonna hate you for it."
"... I... don't really feel pity for people like that. I don't think I feel a lot of pity for people in general. I'm a terrible person. I'll cry if I read that an animal was hurt, but not if I read that a human died, especially if it was because of their own stupidity. I'm sorry. I'm a horrible human being."
Jungkook looked thoughtful for a moment, but he ended up shaking his head. "No, I get it, I think. I don't share the exact same opinion as you, but I do understand your point of view."
"... you do?"
"Well, yeah. Someone else told me this before. Animals are innocent, unable to actually do evil voluntarily, unable to understand. If they get hurt, it's generally because they did something out of instinct. But if a human gets hurt because they did something stupid, then it's their own fault, you can't blame instinct for it, they knew things could get dangerous but they ignored that. So yeah, I get your idea. As I said, it's not an opinion I share, but I get it."
"... what's your point of view?"
"I think it's sad when anyone or anything gets hurt. Especially if it wasn't their fault. I think 'dumb people' as Yoongi calls them can be brought to reason, and it's sad that nobody managed to do it before they would die."
"... wow," Taehyung could only breathe out because wow, Jungkook had a lot more faith in humanity than he did. Jungkook was such a wonderful person. No wonder he was giving Taehyung a chance. Heck, Taehyung himself didn't give himself a chance.
Jungkook had a grin, a little amused light in his eyes as he patted Taehyung's arm. "Don't worry though, just because I personally think that doesn't mean you can't have your opinion. And you're not heartless, not like some people would think. Now, Yoongi, on the other hand..."

They both snickered at that, and Taehyung felt a lot more light-hearted after that talk. He heard the others talk a bit louder on the other side, and Jungkook got up, letting him know that they should head back. They joined the others again and sat in the middle of a heated discussion about whether cats or dogs were better pets. Once again, Taehyung stayed quiet. He preferred rats as pets if only because they didn't take a lot of space and he wasn't allergic to them, but he liked both cats and dogs in general. He liked animals in general actually. More than he liked most humans, and working retail definitely wasn't helping tilt the scale the other way. But he wouldn't say that. Jungkook may understand him, but he didn't want to discover if the others would or not. Ruining the evening wasn't his idea of a great time at Jungkook's place.

He only started really reacting to the conversation a few hours later, when Seokjin started talking about this hot guy he was seeing. Hoseok chimed in with the story of the last time he had dated anyone, and Yoongi told them about his current girlfriend. He even showed them a picture of her, taken with a phone, which had Jungkook, Jimin and Taehyung cringe. The girl was pretty, sure, but the photo itself was terrible. Namjoon laughed at them, knowing their disdain for phone pictures, and suggested that Jungkook should try practicing his portrait skills with Yoongi and his girlfriend.

"And have them eat each other's face and grabbing each other's right in front of me when I'm trying to get good pictures? no," Jungkook flat-out refused, looking very disgusted.
"What, too mature for you?" Yoongi teased.
" off. I'm just not interested in seeing that kind of things, even less in having to capture some of it."
"What about you, Jimin? Would you be game to take photos of us?"
"No thanks, I'm really not... well, I don't mind portrait photography, but if you're going to be like Jungkook thinks you'll be, no thanks. If you keep it cute, eh, why not."
"Fine, whatever. Taehyung, are you better than those two? Would you do it? Maybe my girlfriend would accept giving you something special in return ~"

Taehyung couldn't help looking like someone was trying to convince him to go get tortured to death. He shook his head vigorously.

"Oh no, not doing that."
"What, you too? But-"
"I'm not even into girls."
"... oh."

Seokjin and Hoseok both shouted happily and Yoongi reluctantly handed them five dollars each, which Taehyung eyed suspiciously. He had been the topic of a bet?

Hoseok was beaming. "Told you we'd have another gay buddy!"
"Fine, fine," Yoongi grumbled. "I lost, you guys won, I . Let's never talk about this again."
"Oh no we're totally going to talk about it again," Seokjin said with a smug grin. "Especially about how you tried to bribe a gay dude with your girlfriend's s."
"She's good at it! And we're an open couple!"
"I did not need to know that," Namjoon groaned. "Keep your bedroom stuff into the bedroom."
"Fine, you guys are terrible. Wait until you all get someone, you'll be like that too."

Hoseok, who was the closest to the couch, leaned to the side in order to hook an arm around Jungkook's shoulders, pulling him almost obscenely closer before he could react. "Hmm what about you, cutie? Got someone in your sights?"
Jungkook turned pink-cheeked, but didn't move from there. "Even if I did, I wouldn't tell you."
"Oh, he's blushing!"
"He totally has a crush on someone."
"Look at him!"
"He's really cute when he's like that."
"Kiss his cheek, Hoseok!"

Taehyung watched the entire scene happen like it was in slow motion. He couldn't make heads or tails of who was talking, only seeing Hoseok's lips get closer to Jungkook's cheek, and he got up brutally before he could see that, stopping the entire thing. The room fell silent.

"I don't feel well," he mumbled, and went to the bathroom, accidentally slamming the door behind him.

Unfortunately, the bathroom door was right next to the table where the guys were, so he could hear every bit of whispered conversation they were having about him. He clenched the edge of the sink, jaw tight and eyes stinging. He had no idea why he was reacting that way. He felt... he didn't feel well indeed. It was mostly in his head, but it was almost physical as well. He took a few deep breaths and got some water on his face before he walked back out there, avoiding everyone's eyes as he went to the door. So much for not ruining the evening.

"I'll go home," he muttered, putting his boots on.

He ignored everyone's concern, only looking at Jungkook, who had gotten up to join him, once he was fully covered in winter clothes. "Sorry for ruining the party. Oh, here." He handed him the champagne he had in his bag. "You guys keep that. Drink one for me."
"Tae, are you okay?"
"No. I'll go rest. Sorry. See you," he just said in a weak voice before he headed out.

He made it to the metro, somehow, and then home, and then he spent the entire evening with his rats, shaking and feeling like crying. Why had he snapped like that? That wasn't like him. But somehow, for some reason... seeing Hoseok being so close to Jungkook, he hadn't been able to stay calm and watch. He knew he wasn't a homophobe because , he was homoual himself, but this...

He rolled into a ball and took a deep breath. His phone had been vibrating ever since he had left. He had looked at exactly none of the messages. He wasn't in the mood for that.

He wasn't in the mood for anything except hating himself for apparently being too much of a socially unfit idiot to stay somewhere with six other very nice people.