Jungkook pushed the cork inside the wine bottle with his car key, poured the wine into the water glasses their rooms provided and they wordlessly toasted before they just sat on the terrace without saying anything for a couple of minutes.

T: “Weren’t you scared today?” Taehyung asked after a while.

J: “Of course I was. I’m not incapable of feeling fear. I just don’t focus on it.”

T: “You’re really cool, Jungkook.” Taehyung admitted after letting out a short breathy laugh. “You stay calm and find solutions no matter the situation… Even if you’re in pain or mortal danger…”

J: “I guess it’s usually like that, but today was pretty rough. If something happens to me because of something reckless I did, it’s fine ‘cause I bear most of the consequences. But another person besides me was involved in the situation from earlier and, you didn’t notice this ‘cause you were very worked up, but my mind went blank for several minutes from relief after we sat on that rock.”

T: “I… really didn’t notice a thing. Sorry…”

J: “No… Actually, thank you for cooperating so well and trusting me.”

T: “Thanks for getting us out of that mess.” Taehyung said as they toasted, but only he drank because Jungkook was stuck staring at Taehyung.

J: “I… still can’t believe you didn’t blame me even once for getting us into that mess.”

Taehyung was taken aback by that statement and thought a bit about it.

T: “Jin took care of that in spades.” he joked, making Jungkook also laugh as they remembered the verbal attack on Jungkook that Seokjin started after they left the mine. “And I guess I would too… if it were any other me with any other person other than you.”

J: “What does that mean?”

T: “There’s no use blaming the rain for falling when the clouds decide on it, there’s no use blaming birds for singing early in the morning if that’s what they wanna do and there’s no use blaming Jungkook for being a bit reckless. It’s a law of nature and I’ve just come to accept it.”

J: “That’s the fastest I’ve ever been accepted for this side of me in all of my life.”

T: “Speaking of life, I’m kinda envious about how you live yours. You don’t think that much about what could go wrong and, even if things go wrong, you can stay in control and calm enough to handle it. And so, you’re more open to trying and doing all sorts of things, which I’m assuming makes you feel like life is fun. And I think your life feels fun because I see you finding joy in such unexpected, little things, like finding a big bug, exploring an abandoned hut, playing a game of who can sit still longer… Honestly, I’m envious of you and I admire you even against my own will. And sometimes I wonder if I get the urge to stop you from doing something because of that envy. Because people who are limited feel the need to limit others as well so they won’t feel alone and won’t have to face the idea that there’s another possible right way other than their own…”

J: “Taehyung, you… amaze me. Really.”

T: “Huh?”

J: “All my life, people have been telling me to not do this and stop that and so on. At some point I realized that some people do it because of reasons like what you mentioned. But no one I confronted about this admitted to it. Much less admit it without being prompted. You admitted it even though I don’t think that’s the reason for your urge to stop me from doing stuff.”

T: “It isn’t?”

J: “No. I can tell it’s just ‘cause you don’t want bad things to happen. And I already told you I noticed you’re a caring person.”

T: “Yeah, I don’t know about that… Maybe what comes off as caring is just me being an anxious, overcompensating busy-body.”

J: “What makes you say that?”

T: “That’s a long and complicated issue that’s not really important right now.”

J: “Are you re-evaluating the relationships you have with your family members?” Jungkook asked, making Taehyung look at him with shock because he had guessed right, which made Jungkook explain: “I’m paying a lot of attention to you too, you know…”

Taehyung took a sharp breath, then cleared his throat and took a sip of wine. That almost made Jungkook snort because it was so obvious that Taehyung wanted to get up, come to Jungkook and kiss him, but controlled himself in time.

T: “Well… I see how I occasionally try to stop and control you who was a complete stranger a week ago. I see how much you don’t like it. I couldn’t help wondering if I had this kind of behavior towards other people in my life and ended up alienating them through it.”

J: “Maybe you did, maybe you didn’t. Even if it’s the first case, you can still change your attitude a bit. Don’t always initiate the conversations and ask how everyone is doing if they don’t ask you first. Don’t constantly remind your little sisters to eat properly and study. Pull back a little and see what happens. If you’re not constantly pulling and wondering if you’re expectations are gonna be met, you might get what you want easier because it will come naturally. And, even if they don’t, even if you’ve alienated people or you find out you were never as close to them as you thought you were, it’s still fine.”

T: “How is that fine?”

J: “Because you’ll make it be fine. You should find a way to be happy with just yourself. That’s the person you should be the most caring towards. That’s the person you should make happy regardless of your relationships with other people. If someone doesn’t meet your needs and expectations and you wanna leave them or if someone leaves you behind, you’ll still have yourself and, if you can make yourself happy, you’ll be fine regardless of what happens.”

T: “Wow… I didn’t expect you to be wise on top of everything else.”

J: “I’m not wise. Just trained in looking for solutions and I was trying to find a good solution for you.”

T: “Well thank you very much.”

J: “Sure.” Jungkook said and they toasted again.

They talked a bit more, then gathered their stuff and went to their rooms. After taking a shower, Taehyung was conflicted but, in the end, he went up to knock on Jungkook’s door.

T: “Hey, w… Jesus!”

Taehyung started saying something as Jungkook opened the door, then suddenly realized Jungkook had just come out of the shower with only a towel around his waist, the sight making Taehyung flustered enough to let out what he said and turn his gaze to the side.

J: “Wrong name. It’s Jungkook. And I’m all about carnal desires and about you sinning in that sense.”

T: “Then I guess that’s pretty much a negative answer to what I came here to ask.”

J: “What did you come here to ask?”

T: “If it’d be alright with you if we spent the night just sleeping next to each other.”

Jungkook just stared at Taehyung for a moment, but the latter couldn’t look at him, so he didn’t know what kind of expression Jungkook had.

J: “Is that what you want?”

T: “Well, I… Yes.”

J: “Okay then. As the saying goes – Ask and ye shall receive. I’ll just put some clothes on first. Unless… you want me to come like this?” Jungkook joked, making Taehyung let out a laugh as he turned to head back towards his room.

Before Jungkook came, Taehyung was nervous and conflicted again, but then he remembered he almost died that day, he remembered Jungkook telling him he should be making himself happy and remembered that he, lately, had been feeling like he could trust himself to handle stuff potentially or actually going wrong. So he shouldn’t be so afraid of things going wrong.

Jungkook came and knocked, Taehyung opened the door and the latter nonchalantly walked in.

J: “Ha! I knew it’d look just like my room only mirrored… So. I brought poker cards. Do you wanna go straight to sleep or do you wanna play something?”

What Taehyung wanted was neither of those options and the urge hit him like a tsunami. He marched up to Jungkook, circled his arms around his neck and kissed him. Jungkook dropped the pack of cards from the surprise, but reciprocated without hesitation. As the kiss and touching were getting heated, Taehyung moved to kiss the side of Jungkook’s neck while the latter’s hands slid under Taehyung’s blouse with light movements to see how Taehyung would react. By the way he was breathing right under Jungkook’s ear where he was and nibbling on the skin, Taehyung seemed to be very welcoming of the action, so Jungkook’s hands touched and rubbed with more firmness and over a wider range on Taehyung’s back.

Then Taehyung pulled away to take off his blouse and Jungkook did the same. In the brief moment Jungkook’s vision had been blocked through that action, Taehyung had changed his expression to one so new to Jungkook that his mind went blank for a couple of seconds. But he snapped out of it when Taehyung took his hand and pulled him towards the bed, Taehyung laid on his back and Jungkook went over him before they started kissing again with their hands going, rubbing, groping and feeling up all over the other’s torso.

Jungkook’s breath hitched when one of Taehyung’s hands went between his legs and touched over the jeans, finding something swelling inside. He lifted himself up to look at Taehyung while the latter slowly undid the only button and pulled down the zipper, then hesitated for a second before he went inside the boxers to really feel that the person he was in bed with was a man. If it had been any other man, Taehyung wasn’t sure how he’d react. But, since it was Jungkook, a sudden wave of arousal washed over him, even making his eyes lose focus for a brief moment.

Seeing that kind of positive reaction, a wave of arousal washed over Jungkook as well and he went back to kissing Taehyung with a lot of tongue action. Taehyung’s hand was still slowly exploring the shape within it, but it took Jungkook under 3 seconds to one-handedly Taehyung’s jeans, pull down the zipper and firmly grab the swelling inside the boxers.

Throughout the overwhelming sensations caused by Jungkook’s teeth on Taehyung’s neck and by his hand on the that was by now out of the boxers, Taehyung somehow managed to make his mind work enough for him to figure out how he should hold a that wasn’t his own and how to rub it in a way that wasn’t too hard or too light. It was clear when he found the right way because Jungkook let out a sound that sent shivers all through Taehyung’s body and then went back to connecting their mouths.

Kissing, touching and rubbing, they brought each other to a and then they kissed and touched some more while hugging tightly. The kissing and touching also eventually stopped and now they were just hugging and catching their breaths, till Taehyung joked:

T: “I can hear that “Yay, progress!” going around in your head.”

J: “What?! Really?” Jungkook asked, suddenly lifting himself up to look at Taehyung.

T: “Wait, seriously?!”

J: “Well… it’s fine having a sense of victory over this, isn’t it? Even if later you might say it was just the wine talking.”

T: “It wasn’t the wine talking.” Taehyung said seriously, cupping Jungkook’s face and lifting himself up to kiss Jungkook on the forehead, then he joked again: “Maybe it’s the near-death experience talking.”

J: “I’m willing to listen to anything it has to say.”

T: “Well…” Taehyung started in a playful tone, then his face was suddenly coated by dread and he put his hand over his forehead while looking to the side.

J: “What is it?”

T: “I just remembered tomorrow’s another road trip day… Do you think something else will happen?”

J: “I’m hoping a whole lot of somethings happen.” Jungkook said seriously and, after Taehyung turned towards him, he added: “It’s more fun like that, isn’t it?”

Taehyung laughed in disbelief at himself for having expected anything else from Jungkook.

Since it was going to be another road trip day tomorrow, they decided to go to sleep after cleaning up, dressing up and kissing a few more times.

When he woke up in the morning, Taehyung couldn’t see Jungkook in the room and he felt sadness, disappointment and regret among other things and there was a voice inside his head saying “I knew it! I knew it was going to be like this!”, but he tried to shoo all those thoughts and feelings away because he wanted to be okay with himself, this morning and what happened the night before with or without Jungkook there. Then the bathroom door opened and Jungkook came out.

J: “Oh, you’re awake. Good. I have a confession to make.” Jungkook started, kneeling beside the bed and looking at Taehyung who was still horizontal on it. “I was dazed and I ended up using your toothbrush.”

Taehyung felt anxiety building up when Jungkook said he had a confession to make, but when he revealed what it was, Taehyung felt his blood sugar drop to a level even lower than it was on most mornings from the unexpected relief. Seeing Taehyung’s strong reaction to his confession but not understanding it, Jungkook offered:

J: “Want me to go buy you a new one?”

T: “No. I think it’d be fair if you gave me yours to use so we’d be even.”

J: “Okay.” Jungkook agreed, getting up to go after it before Taehyung grabbed his hand to stop him.

T: “I was joking. Even if none of the things since Friday afternoon till now hadn’t happened, I still wouldn’t have a problem with it.” Taehyung said as he got up to go into the bathroom.

That’s right. The best thing to do was make himself feel and be okay regardless of the situation. Jungkook would most likely not be in the room anymore after Taehyung would leave the bathroom. Jungkook will go to his own room to get dressed and get prepared. That was only logical. Taehyung kept telling himself to be okay because he wanted to be okay with it and not feel abandoned if Jungkook were to disappear right now, tomorrow, in a week or whenever.

When Taehyung’s resolve was firm enough to start working on his feelings, he exited the bathroom, fully prepared to be greeted by an empty room. But Jungkook was still there and it looked like he had made the bed.

T: “I thought you’d already be in your room getting ready for the road trip today.”

J: “Well, yeah, that’s what I plan to do. But after this.”

Jungkook came up to Taehyung, put his palms on the sides of his face and kissed him sweetly. Taehyung wrapped his arms around Jungkook and the kiss went from sweet to unexpectedly intense and long.

J: “See you later.” Jungkook said with a smile after the kiss was over.

Watching Jungkook leave the room after that whole thing made Taehyung realize that Jungkook had given him a lot of good advice the night before. If he were to interact with people without pulling or expecting too much, he probably wouldn’t feel bad things that intensely and he might end up having pleasant surprises with the things that come naturally.

When Seokjin and Namjoon came to pick them up, both Taehyung and Jungkook were in a good mood and ready to go. Namjoon told them what they had planned for that day and Taehyung started a low-key maniacal laugh that no one understood the reason for. Even if Taehyung wanted to change his mindset and attitude, it was not going to be easy and he was still very far from okay with all the things that could go wrong that day, given what their plan for it was.

A.N. This is part of the terrace at the guest house. There's a coffee table and another chair where I took the photo from.