The next day came and went by without anything special happening. By this point, Jungkook had learned to keep his expectations realistic and take things as they come, without considering anything a final victory. He had also gotten better at the push and get pulled game and, for most of the following days, he managed to secure himself a sleepover. But he still couldn’t get away with everything he wanted and, no matter how he tried, he couldn’t get Taehyung to take a shower together, which randomly or not so randomly became Jungkook’s new short term goal. For that matter, he couldn’t even get Taehyung to discard his habit of falsely declaring he was going to come to the kitchen in a minute from when he was called.

One time, however, Jungkook heard one “In a minute.” too much, so he went over to Taehyung, yanked his desk chair backwards till the startled Taehyung was practically horizontal and Jungkook hovered above him, looking like he was serious about something he hadn’t begun yet doing.

T: “You about to pull a Spider Man?” Taehyung asked to shift the mood.

J: “Would you want me to?”

T: “Nah. It doesn’t feel as cool as it looks.”

J: “Good thing that’s not what I was planning to do then.”

T: “What were you planning to do?”

J: “Tell you that, from now on, starting from when I tell you that the food’s ready, you’ll have exactly one minute to get your in the kitchen. I’ll be counting.”

T: “And what if I don’t get my in the kitchen?”

J: “I’ll get seriously annoyed.”

T: “So?”

Jungkook squinted his eyes, bent down closer to Taehyung’s face and, while it looked like he was going to go for a kiss, Jungkook suddenly bit the tip of Taehyung’s nose hard enough to make him say “Auch!” before Jungkook lifted Taehyung’s chair back into its normal position and started heading back to the kitchen while saying:

J: “So get me annoyed if you really wanna know what’s that’s like. 60… 59… 58…”

When there were less than ten seconds left, Taehyung entered the kitchen still rubbing his nose that had gotten red.

J: “Good boy.”

T: “You know… You’ve changed a lot from when you couldn’t even get Miri to come back when she ran off.”

J: “Well I spend so much time around you things are bound to rub off.”

T: “You don’t have to spend so much time around me if you don’t want to.”

J: “I’m clearly doing it because I clearly want to.”

T: “And that’s another thing that’s changed – Something like that was more evident before than it is now, but it was hard for you to acknowledge and admit it. Now, something like that isn’t that clear for me to see, but you can mention it casually.”

J: “What’s the matter, Taehyung? You scared there’ll come a day when you won’t be able to handle me anymore?”

T: “Yes, the thought of that makes me nervous.” Taehyung admitted, making Jungkook look surprised, before he smirked with a challenging glint in his eyes. “At the same time, I’m looking forward to it.”

Jungkook returned the smirk and the look Taehyung was giving him and thought that he also looked forward to what Taehyung would do whenever such a time came.

However, such a time laid somewhere in the far future because, for the moment, Jungkook couldn’t even handle getting Taehyung to take a shower together no matter how he tried. His brain didn’t really help him in being creative with his attempts, but at least it was already trained to understand how Taehyung worked.

J: “Taehyung.”

T: “Yeah?”

J: “You don’t particularly have anything against taking a shower together, but since that’s what I particularly want right now, you’re just making it difficult for me so that I won’t get complacent or think that I have this game in the bag. Am I right?”

T: “Spot on.”

J: “Cool. Thanks for the honesty.”

T: “Anytime. So?”

J: “So?”

T: “Have a plan yet?”

J: “It’s… in the making.”

T: “Want me to fast forward the process and tell you what you’re gonna end up doing?”

J: “You can’t be serious about knowing that before even I do…”

T: “You have very obvious M.Os.”

J: “You do too… sometimes… I know you’re gonna tell me what I’m gonna do to get me to do something else instead or… wait a minute…”

T: “You having flashbacks from the rock-paper-scissors game?”

Jungkook did have flashbacks and all of a sudden it hit him – both what he was going to end up doing and that he was going to do that regardless if Taehyung would have gotten it right or not.

J: “I wanna make a bet with you.”

T: “In which if you win we take a shower together and if you lose you’ll, probably and partially, give up trying?”

J: “Yes and it will be…”

T: “Related to the work out sessions?”

J: “…”

T: “I mean… that’s obviously when you have the most control.”

J: “... you, Taehyung.”

T: “Maybe. Maybe not. So far you can’t even get me and wet.”

Jungkook mouthed “We’ll see about that…” as Taehyung turned to leave while grinning widely.

At the start of a later work out session, Jungkook had an announcement to make.

J: “So… about that bet we talked about the other day…”

T: “I’m in.”

J: “You haven’t even heard what it’s about yet.”

T: “Doesn’t matter. As long as it’s not too unreasonable, I’m in. I’m already too excited about it to pass it up.”

J: “Oh, wow, you… can sure be honest sometimes.”

T: “So what’s the bet?”

J: “I win when I can do three times what you do in a work out session in the same time or faster than you do it. Stretching exercises not included.”

T: “I knew it was gonna be something I have little control over…”

J: “Hey, it’s not like it’s gonna be an easy win. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m sure it will be at least somewhat challenging to accomplish this. And also…”

T: “Also?”

J: “Until this bet is decided one way or another, we won’t have any contact with each other outside the work out sessions. Well, unless it’s related to Miri. But if nothing exceptional happens with her, we’ll just have a silent hand-off two times a day. We’re also gonna cook for ourselves and only ourselves during this time. How about that?”

T: “Interesting… You think you’ll be okay with that?”

J: “Yes. Because…” Jungkook said as he took out something from his back pocket and showed it to Taehyung alongside a smirk. “I have proof that you can miss me a great deal too.”

T: “Alright…” Taehyung replied while returning the smirk. “Call.”

J: “Cool. We’ll start right now. See you at the park.” Jungkook said, starting a very fast run towards it.

Taehyung also started to run and thought that, since Jungkook had to run to the park, back to their buildings and again to the park during the time Taehyung only had to get to the park, he didn’t have to stress over it too much. However, when Jungkook bolted past Taehyung on his way back to the buildings and Taehyung wasn’t even halfway to the park yet, Taehyung realized he had forgotten who he was messing with and picked up his running pace.

Jungkook got to the park for the second time before Taehyung even arrived near it and he suddenly felt very confident that he could win this bet easily. When Taehyung arrived, they started jumping jacks and, since Taehyung had to do three sets of eight, Jungkook had to do nine sets of eight before Taehyung was done with the last one. That didn’t go so well.

This continued throughout the workout session. Jungkook could do some of the exercises three times faster than Taehyung, but not most of them. And, as the tiredness from the previous exercises accumulated, Jungkook found himself less and less confident in doing what his objective entailed. By the time he finished the third lap in the run before the cooling down stretching, Taehyung had already done all of his stretching.

Jungkook fell on his hands and knees on the grass, breathing heavily as sweat was dropping from his chin. His mind really didn’t work properly when it came to Taehyung. Normally, he would have been able to predict what an intense workout he had set himself up for and how able he was or wasn’t to accomplish his goals, but he didn’t really think things through well enough when it came to this. It was going to be tougher than he had expected.

As Jungkook was thinking about all of this, Taehyung came up and knelt down in front of him asking:

T: “You said we won’t have contact outside the workout sessions, but is any kind of contact allowed during the workout sessions?”

J: “Yeah.” Jungkook barely breathed out, not able to lift his head yet.

T: “Cool.” Taehyung started, placing a hand over Jungkook’s left shoulder and bringing his mouth close to his right ear where he said in a low voice: “I’m so by you right now, I would’ve pulled you into the shower myself if it weren’t for the bet.”

His body was heated up, but Jungkook felt shivers at that and he lifted his head to look at Taehyung right when the latter stood up saying “Do your best!” and turned to leave.

Over the following workout sessions, Jungkook did his best and tried to surpass that, not just because Taehyung told him those things or because he wanted to win a bet and get into the shower with Taehyung so bad, although that was also undeniable. Jungkook did his best and tried to surpass that in order to reach a stated goal because that was just the kind of person he was and that was his attitude towards challenges in general.

As he improved bit by bit, his awareness suddenly engulfed the fact that Taehyung was doing things faster than he usually did them and, after noticing that, Jungkook had to ask:

J: “Have you been half-assing it until now?”

T: “No. I did everything you told me to do in the way you told me, didn’t I? I just didn’t really have a reason to step up my game.”

J: “Are you saying that I was half-assing it?”

T: “No. For the goal of fitness and good health, you made me do everything needed. It’s just that my goal has changed in the meantime.”

J: “And what’s your goal now?”

T: “Make you sweat more. Literally and figuratively.” Taehyung said smirking.

J: “So you have a sweat kink?”

T: “No, I don’t.”

J: “Admit it.”

T: “I really don’t. But… I will admit it looks hot on you along with heavy breathing and a mix of despair and determination.”

J: “I see… Sorry to inform you the despair’s starting to fade. I’m getting better.”

T: “I know. But it’s only upping the hot factor.”

Taehyung definitely knew how to play a hot and cold game. Enticing Jungkook like that, both through words and by doing his exercises faster to raise the level of difficulty for Jungkook, giving encouragements at the end of the workout sessions or sometimes saying things like he did at the end of the first one since starting the bet, yet perfectly pretending like Jungkook was no more than a random dog delivery guy during the rest of the time was making Jungkook seriously wish he hadn’t mentioned the second part of their current bet.

However, especially with the extra time he had gained from not cooking or eating together, Jungkook could train more and he felt reinvigorated having to fight in a way he was used to fighting in and having such a clear goal to fight for. He craved for Taehyung but it put his mind at ease knowing well what needed to be done to get him and knowing that he was doing it the best he could.

Still, sometimes the goal seemed very far from his reach and, in those times, thoughts of giving up, frustration, despair and a feeling of longing would creep back up and become fairly hard to deal with.

On one such occasion, Jungkook placed his hand on the wall separating him from Taehyung’s room, thinking that he wanted to be closer to Taehyung. So he got closer to the wall until he let his forehead drop and bump loudly on the wall. The next second he was confused, thinking that he had heard two bumping noises near the wall, but he was sure he had only been the source for one. He then slammed his hand against the wall, in an unreliable attempt at verifying what had just happened, and again there were two noises of the same kind, produced half a second away from each other.

J: “No way…”

Jungkook’s mind formed a theory, but he couldn’t believe it. In another unreliable attempt to verify that theory, he went out on the balcony and bent over the railing, looking in the direction of Taehyung’s apartment. He somehow expected his actions to be mirrored and felt disappointed when he confirmed they haven’t been. But then he heard the door to Taehyung’s balcony open, the surprise making him jump back a little before he approached the railing again and bent over it at the same time Taehyung did. They looked at each other in utter disbelief for a few seconds, then simultaneously bolted back into their apartments, out their front doors and out of their buildings, heading towards each other till they came face to face and stopped without saying a word.

It was as clear as daylight that they were both struggling to keep silent and keep from touching the other while also being on the watch for signs that the other would cave in first. With clenched fists and tensed jaws they both ended up smiling to each other, now aware that neither was going to cave in, and they went on their way like they had been just two strangers that happened to block each other’s pathway. This incident resulted in a nervous breakdown which included a laughing fit that both of them could also hear on the other side of the wall.

Eventually, Jungkook managed to do three sets of Taehyung’s exercises in the amount of time it took Taehyung to do one and he managed to do that for all of the exercises in one workout session. But Jungkook was so tired at the end of that session, his consciousness was beginning to fade and he didn’t even realize he had reached his goal until Taehyung suddenly said between his own heavy breaths:

T: “So… my place or yours?”

J: “Huh?”

Jungkook looked at Taehyung who was looking at him in a certain way and then it hit him. And from a state of being on the verge of fainting, Jungkook jumped to a state in which he felt all of his senses catch fire and bring him back to life stronger than ever.

J: “Yours.”

Jungkook didn’t really care where, but since Miri was at his place he thought it might be better going to Taehyung’s place. And also he enjoyed having Taehyung grab his hand and pull him up the stairs of his building with haste, frantically unlock the front door and pull him inside before slamming him against it once it was closed.

They kissed messily, desperately trying to satisfy the built up need and gulp each other down. Taehyung’s hand went up Jungkook’s abdomen and chest, lifting his wet t-shirt in the process.

J: “Wait, I’m… covered in sweat.”

Taehyung slowly from the base of Jungkook’s neck to his earlobe before he whispered:

T: “And hot as hell.”

Jungkook felt his legs giving in and his hand sought support on the doorknob, making the door start to open and making himself almost fall out in the hallway, but Taehyung grabbed the doorknob and closed the door just in time before he grabbed Jungkook by the waist, spun him around and stuck his back to the floor of the inside of the apartment, his mouth not leaving Jungkook’s skin even once until his t-shirt was pushed all the way up and Taehyung could go the sweat gathered up in the dents between the firm muscles. Jungkook’s mind couldn’t keep up with what was happening. He just felt hot, wet and close to blacking out as if he had been doing a thousand squats inside a sauna. Then, all of a sudden, a part of him came into contact with cold air before it was abruptly engulfed by sizzling flesh.

J: “Holy… Ah!... Taeh… !...”

Coherence eluded Jungkook as was by Taehyung and instantly called all the blood in the body to it, growing bigger each time it pulsated against Taehyung’s tongue. Jungkook grabbed onto the sweaty strands of Taehyung’s hair as the abundant wetness covering his growing slid down to the base of it and reached his sack.

J: “Tae-Taehyung, stop… I can’t… breathe.”

Taehyung instantly stopped and Jungkook instantly regretted it.

J: “No, no, no! Don’t stop! Keep going. I don’t know what I’m saying.”

T: “You sure have a hard time figuring out what you want sometimes...” Taehyung teased, both through the tone and by continuing to only kiss and nibble around Jungkook’s needy member.

J: “Ah, don’t do this. Please keep going.”

T: “Keep going with what?”

J: “Make me with your mouth.”

T: “Got it.” Taehyung said after linking from the base to the tip and before swallowing Jungkook whole and hard enough to almost make him scream.

As Taehyung bobbed his head up and down, twisted his tongue and threw in surprise suction attacks, Jungkook even wondered if his reduced capacity of taking in oxygen might kill him before he got a happy ending. He did, however, get his happy ending, into Taehyung’s mouth with several spasms accompanying the relief his whole body felt.

J: “You know, Taehyung… according to 1-0-1… this is not supposed to feel like a near death experience…”

Taehyung silently came to bring his face in Jungkook’s view and stuck his tongue out at him while it was still covered in the whiteness of Jungkook’s .

J: “How dirty…” Jungkook joked.

T: “Speaking of dirty…” Taehyung started before swallowing, kissing Jungkook briefly and liking his lips. “Shower?”

J: “Yes! Definitely!” Jungkook said after he shot up in sitting position.

T: “I have one rule though.”

J: “Seriously?”

T: “You can’t touch me from this point on.” Taehyung said, getting up and off of Jungkook.

J: “What makes you think I’m gonna obey that rule?” Jungkook asked, eyeing Taehyung as he took his sweaty t-shirt off and threw it on the ground on his way to the bathroom.

T: “It’s 9:13 right now. You have to do anything I tell you to do till 10:13. That was the offer you made and I accepted. Remember?”

J: “You’re not very familiar with the notion of mercy, are you?”

T: “Mercy? Is that something you eat?”

Jungkook let out a short laugh as he got up and started taking his clothes off while saying:

J: “Well, anyway, you ed yourself more with this one, since you’re hard and I’m…” Jungkook started as he entered the bathroom and saw a completely Taehyung turning on the shower, with his hair already wet and messy, his standing up and a smirk spread across his face.

T: “We’ll see about that… Come here.”

Jungkook gulped before he went towards Taehyung and stopped at an arm’s length in front of him.

T: “Closer.”

With his eyes trying to focus solely on Taehyung’s face, Jungkook went closer, till he could feel the falling hot water droplets coming from the shower head and fingers coming up to softly trail up over his biceps, across his collarbones and down over his chest, stopping right under his bellybutton.

T: “Your body’s basically art. And the kind I like nonetheless.”

J: “Sculptures?” Jungkook joked in an effort to ease the tension in the air and his nerves.

T: “Representative of the artist’s nature, vision, will and hard work.”

J: “You know…” Jungkook started, still trying to not let himself be visibly affected by the situation. “People usually have deep thoughts under the shower, not deep conversations. If there are at least two people in here, something else goes deep.”

T: “You’re hereby prohibited from lecturing me on during this hour.”

J: “Fair enough. I’ll say something else instead – You look… well, enticing as a forbidden fruit should look… but, besides that, you look in a way that makes me feel proud.”

T: “Toned?”

J: “Healthy and like you have a good personal trainer – was what I was going to say.”

T: “Sure… Cause my health is really what you’re thinking about right now.”

J: “Well I’m trying not to focus too much on your raised gun.”

T: “I wouldn’t mind if you did. In fact…” Taehyung started, leaning with his back against the wall. “I’m gonna give it some attention myself.”

To Jungkook’s dismay, Taehyung started touching himself and not being shy about letting his face show how good it felt. When he even let out an audible breath, Jungkook stepped forward and Taehyung had to stop him by pushing a hand against his chest and saying:

T: “You’re not allowed to touch me, remember? You also can’t move from your spot. Be a good boy and behave.”

Taehyung didn’t intend to say that last part, but Jungkook looked so much like a hungry and hypnotized animal that it just slipped out. Jungkook did stop moving, apart from his chest Taehyung still kept his palm over as it went back and forth with the shaky breaths Jungkook was taking, but he didn’t back away and the intensity around him even made Taehyung a bit intimidated. But that only served to turn him on even more and one hand started pumping harder while the other went up over Jungkook’s neck to caress the side of his face as the thumb rubbed his lips, then down over the shoulder and arm to lock Jungkook’s hand within it.

Throughout this process, Jungkook let himself be touched without moving, breathed heavily and fixated Taehyung with a gaze that felt like it was going to pierce his bones. So Taehyung turned his eyes downwards, got even more excited at how hard Jungkook was and said:

T: “You can touch yourself if you want.”

To Taehyung surprise, Jungkook didn’t start mirroring what he was doing. Instead, Jungkook’s free hand went to cover his mouth while he closed his eyes in a desperate attempt to keep himself contained. The whole thing just brought Taehyung on the edge.

T: “Ah!” he let out, catching Jungkook’s attention and making him open his eyes in time to see Taehyung ing.

Taehyung shot his head back, then let it fall in front with his eyes closed. In that state, he didn’t realize one of his hands had become vacant until two hands slammed against the wall on both sides of his head and startled him into opening his eyes. Jungkook was closer and, with his head dropped and a thicker voice than ever, he was saying:

J: “Please let me touch you.”

T: “No.”

J: “Please!”

T: “Are you gonna beg?”

J: “I’ll beg.”

T: “Still no. Don’t come any closer than that. And I want you to look at me.”

Jungkook did and, thus, Taehyung could see his expression change when he grabbed his and started moving his hand over it, alternating between types of hold, speeds and amount of pressure applied and watching Jungkook react to all the changes. When Jungkook involuntarily groaned, Taehyung settled for regular fast pumping until Jungkook ed and some of the hit Taehyung’s abdomen, sending shivers throughout his body.

T: “Good boy.”

J: “You know…” Jungkook started in between heavy breaths. “It’s customary to give a reward along with that kinda praise.”

T: “Fair point. You can touch me.”

J: “Really?”

T: “Really.”

J: “Good to know.” Jungkook said, backing away with his hands in the air and a smirk on his face. “However, I won’t.”

T: “Is that so?”

J: “Yup. Not unless you order me to do it.”

T: “I won’t order you to do it.”

J: “Then I won’t.”

T: “How about if I beg?”

J: “You’re gonna beg with that huge- grin on your face?”

Taehyung went up close to Jungkook, wrapped his arms around his neck and brought his huge- grin next to his ear before he whispered:

T: “Please touch me, Jungkook. I beg you.”

Jungkook let out a short laugh and, not even a second later, Taehyung was slammed into the wall and kissed with enough force to potentially crush his bones and teeth. Jungkook touched every part of him that he wanted and however he wanted. As his mouth made a mess of Taehyung’s, his hands hungrily moved over Taehyung’s body, groping hard enough to leave bruises Taehyung would be delighted to discover the following day. At one point, he grabbed Taehyung’s legs, lifted them and wrapped them around his waist as he continued to kiss Taehyung and ram their pelvises into each other.

But even Jungkook had limits and, this time, they manifested as his leg suddenly cramping up, making the both of them fall on the floor.

J: “Argh! I’m sorry! Are you okay?”

T: “Yeah. Did your leg cramp up?”

J: “Yeah…”

T: “I guess you did go overboard today… Well, let’s finish doing what you’re normally supposed to do under a shower and call it a night.”

J: “Aww, man…”

T: “That’s what I’ll be saying when I see my water bill this month.”

Taehyung was apparently in a joking mood so the washing up turned playful, with them washing each other, getting foam in their mouth from kissing the other and getting foam in their eyes because the other was either careless or a bit of a jerk.

In the end they almost ended up sleeping together , but Jungkook suddenly jumped from the bed remembering that he had left Miri alone and announced that he had to go back to his apartment.

T: “Why don’t you grab her and bring her here?”

J: “Really?”

T: “Yeah.”

J: “Are you… gonna open the door when I come?”

T: “Yes.”

J: “Are you… still gonna be when I come back?”

T: “Maybe. Maybe not. Get going already.”

J: “Alright.”

However, just as Jungkook was about to step out the door, he still needed more confirmation.

J: “You promise you’re gonna open the door when I come back?”

Taehyung didn’t feel like having to make that kind of promise and especially having to make that kind of promise repeatedly in the future, so he just took his spare key and put it in Jungkook’s hand.

T: “Here. Just come whenever you want.”

Jungkook stood still, staring wide-eyed at the object in his hand and processing its meaning, before he slammed himself against Taehyung again, hugging him tightly and silently for over a minute till Taehyung pushed him away saying:

T: “Go get Miri. The sooner you go, the sooner you’ll come back.”

J: “Right. I’m going. But I’ll be back and, just so you know, I may never leave again.”

Jungkook ran down the stairs and Taehyung closed the door mouthing to himself:

T: “I’m not exactly opposed to that idea, you know…”

When Jungkook got back, he felt very happy discovering the door unlocked, but very bitter discovering that Taehyung had put clothes back on.

J: “Aww… you’re not anymore…”

T: “It was getting cold and kinda ridiculous, so…”

J: “Want me to make you feel hot again?”

T: “No. We’re going to bed now.”

J: “Okay. I’m down for ing.”

T: “Jungkook. Do you want to spend the night here or do you not?”

J: “I want to.” Jungkook said, pulling Taehyung towards the bed and getting under the cover with him before he took a risk and touched the subject one last time: “Hey, what will I have to do next time to get under the shower with you again?”

T: “Hm… Probably ask.”

J: “Really? It’s gonna be that simple?”

T: “Yeah. It’ll work for the most part.”

J: “Will you ever ask me for something like that?”

T: “Maybe. Maybe not. Stick around for next week’s episode and you might find out.”

J: “Don’t mind if I do.”

They kissed, postponing going to sleep again until the tiredness really kicked in.

Taehyung did ask. Not the following week, but after Jungkook had lost all faith in the idea. When it happened, Jungkook couldn’t decide between giving Taehyung a hard time about it and pulling him into the shower with him. Seeing Jungkook’s indecisiveness, Taehyung said “Well, then, never mind.” and it was all it took for Jungkook to basically teleport them into the bathroom.