Chapter Text
When he was ten and Jungkook sixteen, he had a tremendous crush on the alpha. It was easy to see in the way he’d follow the teenaged alpha around the neighborhood, or the way he’d always show up every time Jungkook left his house to go shoot hoops outside in the basketball net he had set up above his garage door.
Everyone in the neighborhood seemed to know and made fun of it in a kind way; they thought it was cute. Jungkook didn’t mind much, as long as he didn’t pester the alpha when one of his hook-ups or short time girlfriends were around, which he seemed to never be around for much longer, thankfully. His childish mooning might have put some of them off. It was that persistent.
Jungkook is not quite sure when it began; he doesn’t even know when the little omega and his family moved into the neighborhood, but Jungkook knew they were new in Seoul—they came from a village in Daegu. It seems like one day the little boy was just there, gaping at him with heart eyes.
At first, Jungkook paid him no mind; he was much older that the little pup after all and didn’t hang around with kids his age, but the little boy was so silent in his approach that it was hard to admonish him for existing.
Jungkook did notice after a while that the kid seemed to have a keen sense of where Jungkook would be and when, until it became more and more obvious that he had a constant watch on his house, which wasn’t that easy from his home which was down the street and around the corner, which meant he must’ve spent a considerable amount of time sitting on the sidewalk watching his front door and driveway for appearances of him from time to time.
Jungkook didn’t discourage or encourage the little crush he had on him. The kid didn’t go out of his way to be friendly or not. He guessed it wasn’t that important to him after all he learned to ignore his existence; the little boy was just there, just one of those things that happen in life. Jungkook did resent him just a little bit, though, when his friends started teasing him about his little boytoy.
Something Jungkook did not find in the least bit funny in this day and age, with grown-ass hurting or grooming kids in the name of love. So, as things progressed, he found himself having to bite back harsh retorts whenever he’d catch the little one shadowing him.
As his mom had said one day, when Jungkook brought it up to her in frustration, ‘He is just a lonely little single child, and there was no harm in it if he likes you. Its s harmless little crush.’ So Jungkook smiled instead of showing his mother the growing unease and sometimes building up anger.
It helped that the kid never really said anything much to him, and in all honesty, never really invaded his personal space as well. It’s just that he was always there, on the outskirts of his life, looking in, like a silent watcher.
It might’ve been borderline creepy if he wasn’t so adorable with those almond eyes and cute smile. After a while, Jungkook came to see the whole situation the way his mother had explained it, just a harmless little crush, and who doesn’t have those?
Funnily enough, it was only after Jungkook accepted things that way that the little pup opened up. He got closer and closer and sometimes would even run the ball back to Jungkook when he was shooting hoops by himself, and it rolled towards the street.
So far, though, his conversation consisted of hi’s and bye’s. Anything more, like asking the kid his name, and he’d take off running back towards his house.
Jungkook would watch him and laugh, shaking his head at how strange these omega species really were. They’re confused at every age.
As time went on, the little kid lost some of that timidity, not all but some. Sometimes Jungkook would notice the kid studying and observing him keenly in an odd way with his head tilted to the side and a faraway look on his face, a look that seemed way beyond his years. The alpha never asked him what he was thinking, choosing not to know. Obliviousness was kind of bliss for him.
After noticing the kid silently following him in school and the society for almost two years and a half, Jungkook decided he would talk to him and ask if he has any friends or maybe about his little harmless crush.
Then one day, the chance fell in his lap. The pup got bold enough to come right out and tell Jungkook how he felt. His cute little face was red as a sunburn, that pert straight nose of his wrinkled in the most adorable way as he said the words. “Alpha, I’m going to marry you one day.”
Jungkook stopped with the ball in his hand, ready to shoot, and looked down at him as he sat on the edge of his side lawn. Jungkook has always gone out of his way not to hurt his little heart and feelings. He was just a kid after all, and though he was still underfoot, Jungkook wouldn’t say he was intrusive.
For whatever reason that day, Jungkook decided to play along with him.
“Okay, when you grow up, I’ll marry you.” When the kid smiled, his lips curving into a heart shape, with those dimples in his cheeks, transformed him into a smashing beauty that Jungkook was sure would one day break many a heart.
“Really? When? How old do I have to be to be a grown-up?” See, that’s another thing about that kid, he’s about the most innocent kid Jungkook knows.
To be asking that question in this day and age, the days of computers and social media, where kids would be lucky to escape with their innocence intact after one foray through Instagram—it’s one of the reasons Jungkook never minded him too much.
“Eighteen.”
His innocence was confirmed when he pursed his little lips and looked crestfallen. His little fingers started computing as he looked at Jungkook, and his lips turned down, “That’s...forever away.” He flayed his hands in mock resign and Jungkook chuckled at his theatrics.
A heartbreaker perhaps.
“Naah, pup, life goes by really fast.” Jungkook tweaked his nose and went back to playing.
!!~~~~!!
Jungkook went on with his life, going away to college after six months, getting a job at the Jeon Infra, his family had started the architectural firm back in the eighteenth century, and no, he didn’t start at the top just because he bore the family surname.
Architecture isn’t something someone can play off—you either have the talents for it, or you don’t, unless you want to steal someone else’s ideas, which was a thought too foul for the alpha to even contemplate.
Jungkook started from the ground up when he turned twenty-one, working part time and gradually climbing the ladder. Every promotion, every bit of recognition, was earned not given and that knowledge meant everything to him. His success wasn’t handed down through connections or privilege but built through grit and talent.
Three years later, life moved fast. He married the omega he’d met at university, Park Jimin. The connection between them had been instant, the kind that didn’t need much explanation. Jungkook, once known for his carefree, flirtatious charm, found himself completely smitten with the sharp, focused law student who sat two rows behind him in the university library. Jimin had been studying law; Jungkook, architecture. Their courtship wasn’t long; maybe it wouldn’t have been anyway, but the decision was hurried once they found out Jimin was pregnant.
Jungkook had been a little shocked at first, but mostly he was overjoyed. Starting a family had always felt like something far off something he’d eventually do. But suddenly, it was here, and it felt right.
By then, Jungkook’s job was stable. He was working at his family’s architecture firm, learning the ropes, knowing that one day he’d take it over when his father retired. Jimin, meanwhile, was carving his own path as a real estate lawyer and doing well at it. Life felt like it was falling into place.
Things only got better when their twins were born seven months after the wedding. It was chaotic, beautiful, exhausting. But it was theirs. And when Jungkook’s parents decided to hand over the family home in Dong-gu, Busan, the house where Jungkook himself had grown up, things got even better.
Jimin and Jungkook were all too happy to switch their three-bedroom apartment in Seoul with their parents' mansion in Gangnam. They signed over ownership of their condo to his parents, and they gave the house free and clear since, as they said, it was going to be theirs one day anyway.
It was great to be back in the old neighborhood; Jungkook hadn’t really been back since he left home for college almost eight years ago, except for the odd trip home here and there. In all this time, he never once thought of the little pup with the big almond eyes and boxy smile. It’s been a month since he was back, and he didn’t interact much with the neighbors, but he could still feel them eyeing him and Jimin. He also heard whispered mumblings whenever he left for the office.
When the twins were about a year old, Jimin decided it was time for them to get into their romance life and date night again. And that they should find a babysitter for things they want to do. Jungkook wasn’t too sure about leaving his little angels with some stranger. And so far, Jaeha, his mother was the only one they’d left them with, and that was only for an hour or two.
“Oh, come on, Jungkook, it’ll be fine.”
“But they’re so little and helpless.”
“So? People leave their babies, some even younger, with a sitter all the time; it’s not a big deal.”
How was Jimin so nonchalant when Jungkook felt like it was a betrayal of the worst kind? He loved his daughters too much to leave them alone for even a second.
“I know, but…” Jungkook looked at his little darlings in their playpen, smashing their toys one minute and trying to eat them the next, and there was no way he was letting them out of his sight until they were at least twenty-one. Or maybe never.
“No buts. I’ll just ask around the neighborhood who they hire, and we’ll interview some of the candidates until we find one you like, approve and trust fully.” Jimin pouted at Jungkook as the alpha looked at his little twins giggling and chewing on the teether.
“Jungkook please, it will be fine.” Jimin urged, and Jungkook nodded his head, okay, but he wasn’t sure where the omega was going to find a babysitter in this luxurious neighborhood.
Jungkook was pretty sure teens only do that stuff to make some extra cash, and the teens in this neighborhood will surely not be hurting in that department.
These were ten-million-dollar homes, owned by people with money to spare. Most of the teens around here were trust fund kids, just like he had been. So, he didn’t exactly have high hopes from huis wild hunt.
But Jimin was convinced they’d find someone reliable.
And sure enough, within a week, Jimin was already raving about some teenage prodigy that every housewife in the neighborhood couldn’t stop talking about.
“Everybody loves him, and the best part, he lives just down the street from us, isn’t that great?” Jimin took a sip from his coffee cup as he bubbled over with excitement. “Everyone around here uses him; he’s been sitting for two years, and there’s never been a problem. He is quite an expert in this. Kids love him. Moreover I heard he is studying child psychology so it would be a win-win if he says yes. He is quite reliable and talked about by the neighbors.”
“How old is he?” Jungkook was expecting Jimin to tell him fourteen or something like that, so he could reject the prospect. He still wasn’t on the same page as Jimin. He can’t trust a teenager around his little daughters.
What if he was a social media freak and would rather be on phone all the time than look after his angels.
“He’s nineteen.”
“What self-respecting nineteen-year-old is available to watch someone else’s kids on a Saturday night?”
Jimin’s face took on a sullen, half-compassionate look. “From what I’ve heard, he’s a stay-at-home, quite meritorious, proper-bred omega. He seems to spend most of his time studying and does very well in school, but there’s no boyfriend or anything like that as far as I’ve learned. Poor thing, he must be plain as milquetoast.”
That’s Jimin for you. Everything resorts back to looks and sexiness.
Jungkook guesses it’s understandable for someone who looks so pretty himself. Not to brag, but Jimin is a knockout omega. Half of the university was after him but he aimed only for Jungkook. How Jungkook got so lucky he will never understand.
He’s five foot seven, has ash blonde hair with a slight wave to it that frames his beautifully sculpted face, and hazel eyes that turn golden when they fuck with a slight spattering of freckles across the bridge of his nose that are only visible in the summer when he gets a light tan.
He’s fair enough but not too fair, which shows up nicely next to Jungkook’s own yellow undertone. Jungkook was five feet ten, jet-black hair that curls when it gets too long, which happens often, and silver-grey eyes that can sometimes glow an eerie silver as he had been told.
They have both worked hard to keep their bodies in shape, though, at twenty-six, there isn’t much work needed. Jimin had gained a fair bit of weight when he carried the twins, but a year later, he was back to looking better than before. With all the curves and fuller body he was sexier than before.
They were in love with each other, and it was plain for all the world to see.
After Jungkook let him talk into interviewing this babysitter, the day finally came, and as luck would have it, Jimin got called into work at the last minute.
“You see, it’s fate, we’re not supposed to do this.” Jungkook smirked as he tried to talk him out of it.
“Oh, sush, it makes perfect sense to me, since I’m already sold on him, and you’re the one having problems, why don’t you do the interview yourself? Since you’re the one who needs convincing and all. He is already me-approved.”
“Did you already meet him?”
“I don’t need meeting someone to approve. He is quite efficient in what he do and my girl deserves the best.”
There went his last hope that his husband would squelch the idea. Jimin hastily kissed his lips before heading out the door an hour before the babysitter wannabe was due to show up at the house.
Jungkook played with his girls for the next hour or so, keeping them entertained on the living room floor and trying his best to keep them both from crawling into the huge fireplace that thankfully had a screen. That was their new favorite thing, trying to get around it to the fire that seemed to fascinate them.
The doorbell rang, startling all three of them for a second, as he had forgotten all about the interview. He grabbed both girls and tucked them under his arms, making them giggle as he called out to whoever was at the door that he was coming.
He had a hell of a time trying to open the gate and ended up having to put both girls down on the floor to get the job done while caging them both in with his feet as they tried to make a run for it back to the fireplace.
He opened the door expecting to see the homely bookish denizen of the babysitting world and instead was faced with what has got to be one of the most beautiful creatures on this green earth.
He was married, not dead, and though he had no interest in cheating on his husband, he could still appreciate a thing of beauty when he saw it. Still, he had to be sure that this was the boy his husband had told him about.
“Hello, can I help you?”
“Um, yes, this is the Jeon residence, isn’t it? I have an interview…”
“The Babysitter? Oh yes, sure, come on in.”
Yikes, Jungkook thinks he found a sure-fire way to change Jimin’s mind.
Jimin is one of the most confident people Jungkook knows, except in one department when it comes to other omegas anywhere near his husband. Not because of anything Jungkook had done to give him the idea that he would ever cheat on him, it’s just an innate thing.
Possessiveness was Jimin’s flaw. He’s been that way since college.
Once again, Jungkook scooped the girls up and headed back towards the living room. “Follow me…uh…I’m sorry, what was your name again?”
“It’s Kim Taehyung…sir.” Something about the name sounded familiar, but he knew for a fact that he’d never seen this omega before, or he would’ve remembered.
As an artist, he was trained to recognize unique things, and he had to say the young omega was very pretty and a sight to behold. He has wide, expressive green eyes that look like pools of the deepest ocean water with pinpoint black irises.
Light blonde hair that fell in fat ringlets on his forehead, and the cutest cupid bow lips that, although obviously unenhanced, were the color of crushed raspberries.
Jungkook took in all this not as a lascivious married man ogling the babysitter, but as a dad who was trying desperately to find reasons not to hire this omega so that he wouldn’t have to leave his innocent pups with a complete stranger.
He was almost giddy at the prospect of sharing all of this with Jimin, knowing that there’s no way his husband would agree to have this omega in their home. In fact, Jimin just might have a go at Jungkook for even letting the omega in the door.
The alpha set the girls in their playpen and showed Taehyung to the couch while he took a seat in one of the side chairs. “So, Taehyung, do you have a resume?”
Which teenage babysitter does? These things were usually just word of mouth, but someone could’ve blown him over with a feather when the beautiful omega reached into the bag he held on his lap and retrieved the manila envelope.
Very professional indeed!
“Yes, sir, it’s all in there, with phone numbers, references, and everything.”
“Okay, tell me about yourself…”
!!~~~~!!
‘He doesn’t remember me.’
Taehyung didn’t show the hurt he felt as he looked at the alpha, not square in the eye, of course, but in his general direction. His mouth felt like cotton wool, and the words were lodged in his throat as he tried to answer without breaking into tears.
“Well, I’m in my last year of graduation program. I’m an honor student, top of my class. I’d like to go on to be a child psychiatrist, so I’ve spent the last two years taking care of kids as part of my extracurricular activities and projects. If you call any of the numbers on that list, they’ll tell you my record, and of course, you may run a background check.”
“Have you ever babysat kids as young as these? That’s Haneul in the pink and Moonbyul in the blue, by the way.” Taehyung looked over at the two beautiful little girls and felt the same pang in his heart as he did the first time he found out about Jungkook and his happy family. He was starting to regret his decision to come here.
He had tried to think up an excuse to refuse the interview, but how could he when Mrs. Jang was trying to be helpful? She and her husband were taking their young preschool kids away for the winter and knew that Taehyung would be short one family. They were the one to suggest his name to the Jeons. Not because he needed the money, but because of the study he was conducting.
True, the twins were much younger than the Jang kids, but they would be perfect for the project, something Mrs. Jang knew firsthand.
So had Taehyung refused, there would’ve been questions in the community and not a little confusion. People who knew his childhood crush on the alpha son of Jeons would whisper about him. So, he manned himself up and agreed for the interview.
He’d dreaded having to see Jungkook once he’d heard that the alpha was back. It’s been a year and a half since Jungkook got married, and Taehyung still hasn’t gotten over it yet. It had been one of the hardest blows to him. Even worse than the time when he went away to college. Or announced that he was in love with...
.
.
.
Taehyung had spent the last decade with one thing on his mind—to make Jungkook fall in love with him, marry him and make a family with him. His world had always revolved around Jungkook and Jungkook alone.
Everything he did was to get to that moment. As he got older, Taehyung understood that Jungkook had probably meant it as a joke but that didn’t stop him from holding on to it, from dreaming a future with him anyway.
He’s the only one Taehyung has ever loved. The reason he didn’t date, never looked at anyone, brandished himself as the nerd, never tried to steal any unnecessary attention, always wore baggy clothes, never put on any effort to look attractive, never dated—the reason he tried to keep everyone away from himself so hard in school because he wanted to be worthy of the alpha, and in some way, wanted the alpha to be proud of him.
Taehyung had always followed Jungkook’s achievements—both in school and outside of it. So he made himself well-known as one of the top students in high school, and people often spoke highly of him. Everyone in the neighborhood knew him as SNU’s brightest, and it wasn’t hard to see why. The Jeon family still lived nearby back then and were on friendly terms with the Kims, so word about him always made its way around them as well. Taehyung remembered his mother’s talk with Jaehwa when she praised Taehyung for his consistent grades and ranks in the school. Taehyung felt proud and wanted to keep himself in their good graces.
And yet he had always stayed in the background, though, out of the way and carried himself a certain way lest his future in-laws should hear anything untoward about him. By the time he turned sixteen he waited for the alpha. It always seemed like Taehyung was never here when Jungkook came home to visit, since he was always away on vacation with his parents.
Instead what came to Taehyung was the news of him falling in love and getting married. That one time when Jungkook got married, in December, a few weeks before his birthday, was the time they both were in the same city but miles apart. Jungkook, getting married to his college sweetheart, whilst Taehyung carries a broken heart. Taehyung’s omega had been crushed to the point of not being able to get out of the hospital for days, missing the talk of the town wedding.
No one knew why everyone thought he was sick that he’d come down with some peculiar bug, no one remembered the silly crush he’d had on Jungkook as a child, and now it looked like Jungkook hadn’t remembered either. Taehyung died a thousand deaths as he sat there across from Jungkook in the home the alpha shared with his husband.
The home Taehyung dreamt to make a family with him.
Looking at the children, he’d…
Taehyung took a deep breath and collected his drifting thoughts as Jungkook asked him questions regarding his expertise. Taehyung tried not to, but he couldn’t help taking him in. Like actually looking at him with a grown-up’s mind. Jungkook had grown into as fine a man as Taehyung had always anticipated. Jungkook wasn’t just handsome or gorgeous; in Taehyung’s eyes, the alpha was angelic.
But it wasn’t just his face or his enigmatic smile or his picturesque body. There was an aura about him, that aura that Taehyung’s young heart had noticed all those years ago. Taehyung could never quite put a finger on it, but even then, he felt that Jungkook was a part of his soul.
The twin soul to his half.
The more Jungkook questioned him, the more he felt the need to run out of there before he started screaming like some crazed bitch. And then one of the little girls, Haneul, maybe, started fussing.
“Excuse me a minute.” Jungkook walked over to the playpen and lifted her in his arms.
“Hey, my little dove, what’s the matter?” Jungkook touched her little chin and kissed her forehead while her little arms went around his neck, and Taehyung felt a pain so deep he almost doubled over.
‘No, I’m not a monster, I have no plans on harming his children or interfering with his marriage.’
As hard as it was, Taehyung had come to accept in the last few months, since Jungkook had moved back here with his family, that everything had been one-sided and dumb. But it was still hard, still unbearable to see him like this—so in love with his husband and pups.
Taehyung felt robbed somehow, which he knew was stupid. Jungkook never asked him to put his life on hold, to give up his teenage years for a dream that lived only in his head and in his heart. Taehyung knew all these things from the start, but knowing, being accepting didn’t stop the pain.
Sitting in front of him, here, in his living room felt all too real to ignore that the alpha truly slipped out of his hands.
“I’ll be right back; this one needs changing.” Jungkook looked at the omega before grabbing his other daughter as well and leaving the room.
Gutted! Jungkook didn’t even trust him to be alone with his kid, so why exactly was he even here?
Taehyung was tempted to get up and walk out, but some inane sense of propriety kept him rooted there.
Just then, the phone rang somewhere in the house and was answered on the third or fourth ring. Taehyung looked around the room that was strewn with family photos and little touches of class here and there that showed that the other owner of the house had good taste.
Someone might think that Taehyung was interested in getting a glimpse into their lives, that he would be curious enough to get up and walk around the room or go peek behind doors, but nothing could be further from the truth. He felt sicker the longer he sat there, like his insides were on a twisting rampage and suffocating.
‘Why didn’t I come up with an excuse good enough to get me out of this embarrassingly awkward situation?’
It’s bad enough that Jungkook didn’t remember his childish infatuation, something Taehyung was dreading. But now he dreads even more when Jungkook figures it out somewhere down the line.
‘Should I remind him?’ Taehyung had already rehearsed the speech he would give, the casual way to play it off as if he too had long outgrown his childish crush, but now, because Jungkook didn’t remember, didn’t bring it up, he was left to suffer through the worry of him recalling it at some later date.
‘How can I play it off then? Would he buy the story that I, too, had forgotten?’
Taehyung doesn’t see why not, since Jungkook himself had? But how easy would it be to convince him that Taehyung had forgotten all about the alpha he kept following like a puppy, his very existence?
It was too late now, too much time had passed between the time Jungkook opened the door and now. Taehyung can’t very well say, ‘Oh right, you’re that Alpha Jeon Jungkook I had a crush on when I was like ten,’ as if he was only just remembering. Taehyung was the one who used to hang around his house like a lovesick puppy after all.
Taehyung heard him coming back down the stairs and was ready to bolt. He doesn’t care what Jungkook has to say, but there’s no way he is staying here any longer. He opened his mouth with a ready excuse, but Jungkook beat him to it.
“That was my husband on the phone. He asked that you stay until he gets back. He should be here in ten minutes or less.” Jungkook smiled the toothy smile that made Taehyung hope in the past, but it felt sinister today somehow. Taehyung smiled but it felt forced.
Jungkook smiled again before turning away to put the little girls back into their playpen, before taking his seat again. Taehyung was so hopeless that he was still looking for that glimpse of recognition.
How awful that Jungkook didn’t even remember when he’d been such a big part of Taehyung’s whole childhood.
Had he really been that insignificant to the alpha? Sure, he was just a kid, but even to just remember him as the little nuisance who followed Jungkook around everywhere would’ve been enough.
But it was as if those years had never happened for Jungkook, as if that time that had meant so much to Taehyung was nothing to Jungkook and never was. Taehyung didn’t really look at the alpha as they spoke about how to take care of the pups but pretended a great interest in his daughters as they played together.
His husband, whom Taehyung had never seen, must be gorgeous as well since the little ones didn’t look a whole lot like Jungkook, though they had most of his attributes, but it was already obvious that they were going to grow into beautiful young girls someday; another rip in his already torn heart.
!!~~~~!!!!~~~~!!