Jungkook barely lasted ten minutes before Taehyung summoned him. A single message on the office communicator appeared at the corner of his monitor. No greeting. No tone. Just a command.
Mr. Kim:Cabin. Now
Jungkook swallowed whatever frustration was still stuck in his throat from earlier. He stood, straightened his shirt, and made the walk toward Taehyung's glass-walled cabin, feeling the weight of every step. His mind kept replaying the coldness from yesterday, the sharp look this morning, the way Taehyung refused to meet his eyes as if Jungkook had done something truly unforgivable.
He knocked softly. His clipped voice answered. "Come in."
When he entered, Taehyung was seated with his sleeves rolled up, one hand on his temple, the other flipping through documents. He did not look up.
"Sit," he said.
Jungkook obeyed, sitting across from him, heart thumping for no logical reason. The silence stretched until Jungkook felt it digging under his skin.
Taehyung finally raised his eyes. There was irritation there. And something else Jungkook could not name.
"You are late with the finance sheet," Taehyung said. "You had one task this morning. One. And instead I saw you chatting like a child in a school hallway."
Jungkook stiffened. "I was asking Hannah something work related."
"You were smiling like you had nothing urgent to finish," Taehyung countered, voice low and sharp. "You are here to work. Not flirt."
Jungkook blinked. "Flirt? I was literally asking her about a file."
Taehyung closed the folder with more force than needed. "Everything with you requires an explanation. Everything with you requires patience. Do you know how tiring it is to handle someone who behaves as if he is still in school?"
There it was again. The same notion. The same jab. Jungkook felt heat rising in his chest.
"I am doing my job," Jungkook said, trying to keep calm. "You cannot treat me like I am five."
Taehyung leaned back in his chair. "Stop proving my point. Only a kid reacts like that."
Jungkook's jaw tightened. "Why do you keep calling me that?"
"Because that is what you are," Taehyung replied, eyes cold. "A kid who gets distracted. A kid who gets flustered. A kid who cannot control what he feels."
Something inside Jungkook snapped. It was not loud or messy. It was quiet, like a string breaking.
"Maybe I am a kid," Jungkook said, voice steady. "Because after all I am just twenty one. Not old like you."
Taehyung froze. The room suddenly felt colder and tighter. For a moment nothing existed except the tension crackling between them. Taehyung's gaze sharpened, almost dangerous. Jungkook felt a shiver, though not entirely from fear.
Taehyung stood up slowly, walked around his desk, and stopped right in front of Jungkook. The distance between them was barely a breath.
"Say that again," Taehyung said quietly.
Jungkook refused to look away. "Which part? That I am twenty one or that you are old?"
Taehyung exhaled through his nose, a harsh breath, something like disbelief coloring his face. His voice dropped, deep and controlled, the kind that made Jungkook's stomach twist for reasons he refused to acknowledge.
"You have no idea how childish you sound."
"You have no idea how unreasonable you are," Jungkook shot back.
Taehyung stepped closer. Too close. Close enough that Jungkook could smell the faint trace of his cologne and something warmer underneath. Jungkook's breath caught in his throat.
"If you cannot handle basic responsibility at this age," Taehyung said, "you should not be here. I do not have time to babysit you."
Jungkook felt the words like a punch. "Then why hire me?"
Taehyung's jaw clenched. "Because you were promising with all that defiant nature."
"Was?" Jungkook asked. "Are you saying I am not anymore?"
Taehyung pressed his lips together. "You are distracted. You think too much. You react too quickly. You let everything get under your skin. Most importantly, you're still defiant."
"That is rich coming from you," Jungkook muttered under his breath.
Taehyung heard it. He leaned down, placing one hand on the side of Jungkook's chair, boxing him in without touching him. Jungkook's heartbeat went wild.
"What did you just say?" Taehyung asked.
Jungkook swallowed. His throat felt tight. "Nothing."
"Lying as well," Taehyung said softly. "A kid's habit."
"Stop calling me that," Jungkook whispered.
"Then stop acting like one."
Jungkook opened his mouth, ready to argue again, but the words tangled in his throat. Taehyung's face was too close. His voice too low. His eyes too intense. Jungkook could not breathe properly.
Taehyung pulled back a little, but not completely. "Finish the finance sheet. After that, bring the updated contract to me. Until then, do not talk to anyone. Do not wander around. Focus."
Jungkook rose abruptly, chair scraping lightly. "Fine."
He headed for the door, irritation burning in every step. But before he could leave, Taehyung said quietly behind him:
"And Jungkook."
He paused, fingers on the door handle. Taehyung's expression had changed, barely. Something flickered there. Something not cold. Something not cruel.
"Do not speak to me like that again," Taehyung said.
Jungkook clenched his jaw. "Then stop acting like I am nothing."
Taehyung's eyes darkened, unreadable. Jungkook walked out before he said something worse. But the heat in his chest did not fade. Neither did the ghost of Taehyung's nearness. Neither did the sting of the word 'kid'. And neither did the strange, unsettling truth that Taehyung's anger affected him far more than it should.
Taehyung remained standing in the middle of his cabin long after Jungkook shut the door behind him. The faint click of it echoed in the quiet room, settling into a silence that felt heavier than it should. He pressed his palm flat against the desk, slowly exhaling as he tried to steady the pulse thudding at his neck. He replayed every second of their argument, every flicker of hurt in Jungkook's eyes, every sharp rise in the boy's voice, every moment he had stepped too close without meaning to.
Calling him a kid had been intentional, calculated even, the safest insult Taehyung could reach for. Anything else he wanted to say would have crossed lines he refused to acknowledge. It irritated him how the boy managed to dig under his calm so easily. It irritated him more that he had reacted at all.
He straightened and forced himself to sit, but his body did not relax. His fingers tapped restlessly, unable to find their usual stillness. The pen he picked up bent dangerously in his grip, and he finally tossed it aside.
His mind drifted back to the sight of Jungkook smiling at Hannah earlier that morning, leaning in with soft eyes, as if the world made sense when he looked at her. It had provoked something unpleasant in Taehyung, something sharp, something unwelcome. Why had it bothered him? Why did the idea of Jungkook giving anyone else attention feel wrong?
He shook the thought off immediately, refusing to entertain it. This was ridiculous. Jungkook was an rookie, barely twenty one, impulsive and emotional. Taehyung was his superior. That was all there was to it. At least, there should have been nothing more.
Meanwhile, Jungkook walked back to his desk with a tight jaw and a storm of confused emotions rolling through him. He sat down harder than intended, earning a curious glance from Hannah, but he did not look her way. His skin still felt warm, embarrassment twisting through him with every breath.
Why did Taehyung always know exactly how to make him feel stupid? Why did the man's cold tone sting more than it should? Why had his stupid heart raced when Taehyung leaned close enough for Jungkook to feel his breath? None of it made sense, and that only made him angrier.
Hannah's voice finally cut through the fog in his head. "You look… stressed," she said gently.
Jungkook forced a breath and kept his eyes on his screen. "Work stuff," he muttered. "Mr. Kim being… Mr. Kim."
She gave him a sympathetic smile before returning to her task, though he could tell she was still curious. Jungkook rubbed his palm against his forehead, trying to focus on the finance sheet Taehyung demanded. His fingers shook slightly as he typed. It was humiliating, how deeply the confrontation had affected him.
But no matter how he tried to concentrate, his mind drifted back to the cabin. He could still feel Taehyung's presence close to his skin, the faint heat of him, the sharpness of his gaze. He could still hear that low voice telling him to stop acting like a kid.
The worst part was that Jungkook didn't fully understand what he felt. Irritation? Yes. Embarrassment? Definitely. But underneath both, there was something else he could not remove, something unsettling that made his stomach twist in a way he didn't want to examine.
He glared at his computer screen, trying to shake the memory off, but the imprint of Taehyung's nearness lingered stubbornly in his mind. It left him tense, restless, and uncomfortably aware of how much power the man had over his mood without even trying. And as Jungkook finally forced himself to keep typing, he could not decide what terrified him more: Taehyung's anger… or the strange, unspoken pull that hid beneath it.
Taehyung's blood simmered long after Jungkook left his cabin. The nerve of that boy, talking back to him with those wide, furious eyes and that reckless little tongue.
Not old like you. The words replayed with an intensity that made Taehyung's jaw clench harder each time. If age was the insult Jungkook wanted to lean on, then fine. Taehyung would show him exactly what being older meant. Experience. Control. Power. Jungkook wanted to act grown, but Taehyung would remind him, slowly and deliberately, that he was nowhere near his league. If the boy thought he could challenge him, he was about to learn he couldn't.