For a moment, Taehyung stops in his tracks. His gaze slides over Jungkook's profile, his long eyelashes, the slender fingers fiddling with the radio dial. He wonders if he's ever seen a man so beautiful, but it's a silly, unnecessary question, because the answer can only be one, and only one.

Jungkook is both delight and disaster.

Taehyung cautiously approaches the car, as if afraid that with one wrong step, he could make it disappear, dissolving under his touch like mist. However, when he grabs the door handle and pulls it to open, it doesn't vanish at all. He throws his duffel bag onto the back seat of Jungkook's car, then sits in the passenger seat. For a while, neither says a word. Taehyung makes small, mechanical movements because they help him keep calm. He grabs the seatbelt, buckles it, then avoids Jungkook's gaze to suppress the overwhelming urge to hug him and nothing else. He doesn't know if he's allowed to, doesn't know if it would be too much. He doesn't know what memories it might stir in him, and even though it's Taehyung who's been stabbed in the chest, he can't help but worry about Jungkook and the trauma that moment might have caused him.

"You’re here..." he says simply, when the silence becomes heavy, embarrassed.

Jungkook rubs the steering wheel with his thumb. Taehyung watches the boy's perfect incisors grasp the piercing on his lower lip, tugging it for a moment before letting it go. "I'm here."

Taehyung looks down. Suddenly, the weave of his jeans' fabric seems irresistibly interesting. "You didn't reply to my messages, I thought you didn’t want to hear from me and—"

"I'm glad you're okay," Jungkook interrupts, his hand tightening on the steering wheel. "You were in a coma for so many days, I seriously thought I’d never..." Jungkook can't finish the sentence. Something tightens in his throat, a painful knot, an emotion he can't name. Instead of explaining, he starts the car. The engine roars beneath their feet, and Taehyung blinks a bit. He feels strange. A warmth emanates directly from his heart and spreads everywhere.

"My parents' place is in the Q neighborhood..."

"We're not going to your parents' place."

"Uh?"

"Miguk is... a crazy maniac. There's no way you’re going there. They couldn’t protect you. They could end up getting hurt too. That’s not what you want, right?"

"What? No... of course not," Taehyung almost stutters, surprised. "But... I can't. You've already done so much for me - too much. Definitely too much. I don’t want you to—"

Jungkook accelerates just a little. He's tense, but Taehyung doesn’t understand where that tension comes from, what triggered it. He only knows he feels it, it permeates the air like electricity, and Taehyung has no idea how to handle it, how to mark that fuse. "You’ll stay with me, period. I don’t want to hear about you being underground. I don’t want you to die because I didn’t take that bastard out when I had the chance."

Taehyung stays quiet. He lowers his gaze, the city blurs quickly outside the window. He doesn’t want to argue any further. In the end, Jungkook is right — his place is the safest place to be. Jungkook is an alpha, and he's strong, but apart from his physical strength, the building Jungkook lives in is luxurious, secure, an impenetrable fortress. His parents' place isn’t that safe, not if someone’s specifically out to hurt you. This isn’t about preventing a burglar; it’s about keeping away from a madman who’s still free, even though he’s already tried to kill him more than once, almost succeeding. The thought is enough to make Taehyung’s heart shake in his chest.

Soon after, Jungkook’s car drives down the garage ramp. Taehyung nervously tightens his grip around the seatbelt. The further they go down, the more they’ll have to climb up.

If Jungkook notices Taehyung's sudden silence, he doesn’t show it. They get out of the car without a word and stay silent until they reach the elevator doors that will take them up twenty floors. Taehyung feels awful. It’s like a monster has plunged an arm into his throat, enjoying stirring his insides. Nausea, fear, anxiety. Everything tightens in his throat when the doors open. Jungkook steps in first, and Taehyung has to call on all the strength he has left to move his legs and enter too. If he manages to do it, it's only because he won’t be alone in there, because Jungkook is with him. But when the doors close, it’s still a nightmare.

Taehyung has the feeling of feeling his own blood's warmth on his skin. Against his face, his nostrils, down his mouth and neck. Blood soaking into his clothes, blood staining his skin. His heart speeds up and then slows down. It’s all so cold. It’s all so pathetic. To die like that is...

"Tae?"

"I'm fine."

Jungkook takes his hand and squeezes it. "You’re as white as a ghost."

"I'm fine," Taehyung repeats, more sharply. Then the doors open, and he steps out as if a spring had been released behind his back. Jungkook reaches him right away, slipping an arm around Taehyung's shoulders while Taehyung gasps for air, as if he’d been holding his breath until that moment. "Breathe. Slowly. Breathe. It’s okay. It’s okay—"

"Yeah—" Taehyung mumbles, gasping for air. "Yeah. I know. I'm... I’m fine. Let’s just get inside. Let’s just get inside..."

Entering Jungkook’s apartment is strange. The coma has left a gap in his perception of things — it feels as though he’s never truly left, except for the days spent in the hospital. There’s more mess, sure, and a lot of gym equipment scattered across the floor, but other than that, everything seems the same. Taehyung wants to crack a joke to ease the accumulated tension — something like "you’re going all out for a bodybuilding contest?" — but then he remembers that someone like Jungkook probably sees physical training as an outlet, and teasing him about it would be... insensitive. Especially since Taehyung, having just had some sort of panic attack about entering an elevator, is in no position to play the joker.

He lets the duffel bag slide to the floor. Jungkook turns his back to him. He takes off his jacket, his muscular, toned back visible under a thin, black shirt. Taehyung feels like Jungkook is about to slip away from him. A sort of sixth sense from an omega. Or maybe he’s just realized that Jungkook wants to help him just as much as he wants to escape him. While he feels responsible for him, the alpha has his own demons to face.

Taehyung grabs Jungkook by the sleeve of his shirt before he can walk away.

Jungkook flinches slightly. It’s a small thing, an almost imperceptible shrug of the shoulders. Then he turns his head to look at him, and Taehyung pulls his sleeve with more determination until they’re looking each other in the eye.

"I'm alive," he says.

Jungkook’s eyes widen slightly, surprised.

"I'm alive. I won’t die. You won’t see me die. I—I won’t ever put myself in danger again. Never. Not that I did it on purpose, but... I promise you it won’t happen. You won’t have to see me buried, so... don’t be afraid. Not of me. Don’t stay near me."

Taehyung says all these words in one breath, keeping his head lowered, raising it only toward the end, showing the determination in his eyes. Jungkook is surprised, although his expression has remained almost unchanged. He mutters something, a curse of sorts. Taehyung is almost ready to see him turn and leave him there, in the middle of the hallway, with his duffel bag and his pathetic speeches, but Jungkook doesn’t do that.

"You’re alive... yeah," he says instead. He closes the distance between them and places a hand on Taehyung’s side. Their noses brush, and it feels like the world stops.

A moment later, their lips touch.