[[CONTENTID1] Fear [/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2] Chapter 21 [/CONTENTID2]

[CONTENTID3] [/CONTENTID3]

[CONTENTID4]

Jungkook was excited.

Yoongi and Namjoon were walking behind him, and Soobin and his... "friend" were walking in front of him. His name was Mir. He was a very shy and quiet person. And he had good manners. He addressed him formally. Even with Soobin, he used honorifics when they were not alone, even though he was only three months younger than him. Jungkook liked him. He began to understand the feeling parents had when they let their children go their way.

He chuckled. 

Soobin was still shy toward him, but sometimes he would touch his hand. Often Yoongi would get mad at them and grab Namjoon's hand, obviously running in front of them and showing them how it was done. Yoongi was not the sensitive type.

His uncle walked beside him, even his eyes twinkling.

"He'll like it, won't he?"

"To be honest, I'm a little scared. But I want to do it. We just have to be careful not to pressure him."

Namjoon waved at him. "I found the store!" he shouted.

Jungkook smiled as he saw an annoyed Yoongi who just grabbed Soobin's and Mir's hand and locked them, urging them to do it right.

"Hyung!" yelled Namjoon again.

Jungkook waved back.

He pulled out the piece of paper he used as a shopping list. And it was long.

His uncle pecked him on the cheek  "Try to be a little braver, okay?"

Jungkook nodded.

Taehyung played cards with the little boy who lived with the punks.

Slowly he started talking to him, his name was Dongho. He was twelve and had run away from home. His father had been violent. His mother drank all day. His older brother was still living with them and he worried about him a lot, but his brother just wanted to protect him as he said. This happened a lot, Taehyung thought. A lot of kids ran away but a lot were too scared. It was ed up.

Taehyung visited Dongho often.

His phone rang. At first, he hadn't even noticed it because it hadn't rang in two months.

Dongho looked at him. "Hyung, your phone is ringing."

Surprised, Taehyung picked up the phone and stared at the display. A message. From Jungkook. The first message in two months. Taehyung felt good. Jungkook had never approached him in the last two months. He always had just followed his pace. But today, he had sent him a message.

-Sorry for the message. Could you please come to the house? At 8 pm?-

Taehyung was grateful for two things.

The first was that he hadn't written to come home. It was still strange for him, and it felt good that Jungkook respected that and asked him to go to the house. The second thing was that he had.... had invited him. Had asked him for his company.

Taehyung knew that he was the one who kept the distance, but sometimes he had wished for his closeness. To feel the affection he had for him.

Taehyung sent a text message back.

Jungkook thought he was going to die.

They were six people, and it had still taken them almost ten minutes to get all the stuff into the house. He was nervous. Taehyung hadn't replied yet. He didn't even know if he would answer, and to make matters worse, he had no idea if he would even come. Yesterday, he hadn't come here yet.

His phone rang.

-Okay.-

Just that one word. Nothing else.

But it made Jungkook happier than anything else in this world.

Yoongi looked at him. Jungkook just nodded.

Yoongi sighed and smiled at him.

Jungkook turned around. "He said he would come."

Soobin almost throttled Mir as he suddenly burst with joy. His uncle just laughed, and Namjoon chuckled.

"I hope this works out ..." he whispered.

Taehyung walked toward the house.

He was surprised when the older man with the dog waved at him. He waved back, kind of glad he remembered him.

"Hyung!"

Taehyung turned around when he saw Yoongi coming down the street and walking toward him.

"What are you doing here?" Taehyung frowned.

"I thought I'd catch you halfway."

Taehyung stared at Yoongi. "Did you?"

"Yes."

Taehyung was still a little confused but said nothing.

"Jungkook asked me to come..." he whispered.

Yoongi smiled. "Did you like it?"

Taehyung blushed. "It was... nice."

Jungkook walked up and down the room, looking around, arranging things in different positions. Soobin and Mir were sitting on the couch, Soobin looked scared.

His uncle also had an edgy look, but Namjoon just smiled cheerfully enough for everyone.

"He'll like it." was all he said.

Jungkook nodded. His heart was beating so fast that he was afraid it would burst.

Taehyung walked toward the door.

He was pretty tired, but he was glad to be able to spend a few hours here with Jungkook and his friends. He had accepted it. The boys liked him. he liked them. They were his friends even if he was a street kid.

Jungkook heard him talking to Yoongi. He took a deep breath. He tensed up.

Taehyung opened the door.

And froze.

In front of him was a puzzling picture. Everything was decorated, the living room almost bursting with little things. A big tree stood in the corner of the room. Lights twinkled, and the whole thing was filled with Christmas balls. It smelled good, with a scent of oranges and cinnamon.

He saw his uncle sitting on the couch with Soobin and another guy. Jungkook was standing in front of the chair. He looked nervous.

He felt Yoongi push him forward a little and stumbled into the living room. Christmas music was playing in the background, loud enough to notice but not too loud to be bothered by.

"What's that...?" he whispered.

Jungkook took a step forward. He bit his lip. He often did that when he was nervous.

"Before we... had our fight, you said you wanted to stay here on Christmas Eve. But then ... well, things changed. We thought we'd repeat Christmas Eve... with you." he stammered.

Taehyung stared at him. The living room was decorated like a magazine. Many candles were burning. He saw presents under the tree. He started to tremble and felt Yoongi put a hand on his waist and hold him tight when got dizzy. So as not to embarrass him. "Thank you..." he whispered.

"We know you don't... want to spend much time with us. But we wanted to spend a nice Christmas Eve with you. It's already the end of February, but we thought you might like it a little." Taehyung was surprised. Even his uncle was tense, his voice trembling slightly.