Jungkook wasn't the only one who couldn't focus all day long. It was obvious that he was out of it, and Taehyung was focused enough to tell, but all of his focus was set on Jungkook and he didn't get a single word out of the lectures from his professors. He was busy tapping his pencil against his desk and wondering how his best friend was doing. A little bit of his focus, admittedly, steered off to his boyfriend as he wondered how he was doing and how much time they would have to spend together after their classes, but he mostly thought about Jungkook and Jimin and hoped they were both okay.

Jimin's death, if it could be seen in that light, came out of nowhere. Taehyung remembered Seokjin's worried messages, asking Taehyung if anything was noticeably wrong with Jimin when he couldn't go and check on the robot himself. Taehyung's answer was always no; there was nothing wrong with Jimin. He was well-made and he functioned properly. He was the perfect boyfriend. Boyfriend? Taehyung wasn't sure how far Jungkook had gotten with Jimin. How far had they gotten since Christmas? Had they moved at all? Taehyung was so wrapped up in Hoseok-- and he shouldn't worry so much about someone else's relationship anyway.

By the time the day was over, Taehyung's brain was fried. Jungkook hadn't been at lunch, which made things a lot worse for Taehyung's mind, and he didn't answer any of the frantic messages Taehyung sent him while he was sitting there trying to make himself eat through the worry. Hoseok kissed at Taehyung's cheek and jaw the whole time, and he let Taehyung rant, which got a lot off of Taehyung's chest. But he continued to be short on oxygen up until the end of the day, when Jungkook finally sent him an I'm with Jin-hyung message, with a picture of Seokjin sent in the next moment. The picture showed Seokjin eating, with plates visible just in front of Jungkook. Good, Taehyung thought, relieved, Seokjin's got him.

"Is my little worry wart ready for our study date?" Hoseok asked, kind of scaring Taehyung-- the boy hadn't been paying much attention to his surrounding. Taehyung didn't answer right away, turned his phone around instead and said "Jungkook's okay! He's with Jin-hyung."

"Good!" Hoseok said, tapping on Taehyung's screen-- at the picture, "He's eating, too. Thank God-- I thought he was going to skip lunch completely."

"I did, too." Taehyung said. "Speaking of which. Will you take me out to eat, hyung? I just want pastries, but-- I need brain food before we go home."

"'Course. You left your wallet at home, right?" Hoseok asked, to which Taehyung nodded, his expression showing apology. Hoseok chuckled, "Good thing you have a hot, rich boyfriend like me to back you up."

"Good thing I do." Taehyung chuckled. The two of them walked out of the school hand-in-hand, past the gate and down the left path leading away from the building. Hoseok talked to Taehyung on the way there, already grabbing for his wallet. He told a funny story about his last class. Hoseok was always the class clown, but he was the worst in his last class, because he was rowdy and ready to go home and tired of sitting through lectures. He made the class fun-- the teacher didn't even hate him for it.

"You're going to get yourself killed one day. Or arrested. Or something." Taehyung said when Hoseok had finished telling his story. Hoseok had mentioned he really wasn't sure what he was trying to do, but his pencil had ended up halfway across the room and he wasn't sure |why| he had a water bottle but he almost had to pay for a new laptop. And they all had tests to re-take on Friday.

"I know. My whole class hates me right now, but when I get my professor to flat-out tell everyone the answers to at least three of the hardest questions, they'll love me again." Hoseok said. He opened the door of the cafe and let Taehyung in first, following him after another couple swooped in, and grabbed his hand again. "What would my little pumpkin like?"

"I would like to punch you for all of your stupid nicknames." Taehyung said, to which Hoseok stuck out his tongue and Taehyung would have leaned in to bite down on it softly if only they weren't in public. Taehyung almost didn't want to be holding hands, but why not? Hoseok's hand was warm, and neither of them had gloves.

"Will you surprise me, hyung?" Taehyung asked. Hoseok made a gesture to the coffee stand in the corner, "If you go and surprise me, too."

So Taehyung came back with Hoseok's favorite, of course, and Hoseok had picked out Taehyung's favorite, as well. Hoseok paid for both, thanking the woman at the counter. He took Taehyung's hand again-- and they held their warm little foods as they walked through cold winds, heading home. Taehyung had a brief idea of asking to stop by Seokjin's place so he could check up on Jungkook, maybe Jimin, but he thought it was best that he left the two of them alone. Seokjin was a hell of a lot better at bringing Jungkook up than Taehyung was-- especially in this situation. (For all Taehyung knew, Jimin was already okay.)

"You're over-thinking again pumpkin." Hoseok said, nuzzling his nose against Taehyung's temple to get his attention. Taehyung hummed his acknowledgment; of course he was over-thinking. This was his best friend-- in so much pain because he lost someone of so much importance. He was so worried. It was making him feel sick. He thought about Jungkook in pain and, suddenly, he didn't even want the pastry in his palm.

"Will you take a bite of this for me? I-I don't want to eat anymore, but I think seeing you eat it will make me want to again." Taehyung said. Hoseok didn't even ask questions; he leaned forward and took a little bite out of Taehyung's sweet. Somehow it did calm Taehyung's stomach-- made him laugh when Hoseok asked, through a mouthful of cream-- "Feel better now, sweetie?"

"Yes." Taehyung chuckled. He took a little nibble himself, smiling halfway through the bite when Hoseok's sticky lips landed on his temple. Taehyung had the sweetest boyfriend in the world, sticky words spilling from the older's mouth into Taehyung's ear, "You're so beautiful, baby boy."

"Baby boy." Taehyung muttered, smiled, "I like that one. You should keep it."

"I have to throw away pumpkin?" Hoseok pouted. Taehyung chuckled, "You have to throw away pumpkin."

Taehyung just smiled again. Hoseok stared at him for a moment more-- which was dangerous, for he wasn't looking at the ground, looking to see if there was any ice painting the sidewalk. Taehyung watched for him for a few moments-- and then Hoseok's voice was distracting him, worry melting into his words, "Tae. I know you're still worried about Jungkook.... Do you want to go see him, maybe? He's with Seokjin-- hyung is just around the corner."

"I thought about it." Taehyung said. "I think we should leave them alone. I feel like... Jungkook's better off with Seokjin, you know? Like-- I'm not that great at comforting him. I'm actually kind of useless when it comes to that--"

"Taehyung." Hoseok said, stopping-- and, with Taehyung's hand wrapped up in Hoseok's, Taehyung was forced to stop too. Their eyes met for a serious few moments, "Don't tell me you're getting insecure about Jungkook's friendship again."

Taehyung broke their eye contact with a shrug and, yes, a voice of insecurity, "I don't know. I-- yeah, I feel like a ty friend. Seokjin-hyung is better at being a friend than I am. Jimin is better at being a friend than I am. I don't feel like a ty person or anything, but I think Jungkook's better made for other people, you know?"

"Taehyung. Babe-- look at me, listen to me." Hoseok said. Taehyung looked; he listened, "Jimin died, right? He stopped working."

"Yes," Taehyung answered, though he didn't think it was much of a question. Hoseok nodded, "And Jungkook called Seokjin, right? To come get Jimin? To fix him?"

"Yes," Taehyung answered again. Hoseok continued, "And after Jimin was gone, off with Seokjin to get fixed-- who do you think he wanted? He was all alone, dead boyfriend, brother trying to fix him. Who do you think he wanted? Lonely Jungkook with one best friend in the whole world. Who do you think he wanted?"

"Me?" Taehyung answered after a beat of silence. Hoseok smiled, "Exactly. Baby, I've told you before. Jungkook needs you in his life. You're his best friend, one of his only friends. Jimin is his boyfriend-- we all know it; it's so obvious. Seokjin, sure, might be a 'better friend' or whatever, but I guarantee Jungkook doesn't think like that. You two are just as close as him and Seokjin. It just so happens that Seokjin has more answers and better cooking."

Taehyung chuckled; Hoseok chuckled too. He took Taehyung's hand a littler firmer, steered him off in a different direction-- in Seokjin's direction, "So let's go see him. I'm sure he wants you a lot right now."

And Hoseok began walking, tugging Taehyung along, but the younger stopped him before they could get very far. "Wait--"

"Baby boy," Hoseok said, and he acted out on a random action that he always took when Taehyung was too insecure; he took the boy's face in his hands and smashed their lips together. Taehyung almost dropped his pastry, and Hoseok almost dropped his coffee, but Taehyung's pastry ended up bumping Hoseok's side and Hoseok's coffee ended up bumping Taehyung's cheek. It was funny, Taehyung thought, that Hoseok's palm against his cheek was as warm as the coffee against his other cheek.

"We're in public." Hoseok whispered after they broke apart. They were in public, and there was an oddly large crowd of people roaming around-- considering it was cold, it was winter, and school had let out long enough ago that most of them could have made it home. But-- hey, Taehyung thought, they were still out there, so.

"Do you care?" Taehyung asked, whispered. Hoseok gave a small tug of a smile before he let another kiss answer what might have been spoken as "Not really."

A/N: I HAVE NO WAY TO APOLOGIZE FOR HOW LONG YOU GUYS HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS. I'M AN AUTHOR I SHOULD BE BETTER AT WORDING THINGS BUT I CAN'T EVEN EXPRESS HOW SORRY I AM. omf-- so many people thought I was giving up on this story but I wILL NOT GIVE UP I have a really good plan for this story and I will power through everything I will I will. phew. okay. anyway; this is a really lame update, especially because it's focused in on vhope and it's so short?? I so much omg