Chapter Text
The thing is—the two of them have considerably different jobs, and there are about a million and one reasons why this shouldn't have worked out.
But the opportunity presented itself dozens of times. If Seokjin didn’t take as many risks as he did, he wouldn’t be here, running out of the double doors to the crisp summer evening, wearing his infamous pink Crocs that weirdly pairs well with their blue scrubs. He learned to make decisions as soon as the problem presented itself. He was trained to understand as many instructions for multiple people at once, all the while giving his own.
Long story short, Seokjin knows how to balance work and life. That includes maintaining his relationship for over 3 years and still going strong.
But you asked for the story.
Seokjin meets the paramedics halfway and one of them explains how they found the patient.
“She called 911, barely got out two words to the operator. She wasn’t alone,” Sheena hesitates, and then adds quietly. “Her husband was shot. Close range, straight to the heart. She was still holding the gun when we arrived.”
Seokjin got the gist. Whatever happened there is not for him to speculate.
They rush inside one of the makeshift rooms in the ER.
Sterile air. Too-bright lights. Beeps and voices.
The patient's cries.
"I didn't mean to– I– He was–" She lifts an arm littered with bruises to cover her face. "It was too much. I had to stop it."
“What’s your name?” Seokjin asks.
“Melody. I– I had to do it. I had to.”
“It’s okay.” It will be. She will be. “Melody, it’s okay. I’m here to help.”
He takes a deep breath. This is where his concerns should be. He checks her vitals and examines her body for bruises. Too many. She's been beaten neck to waist. The area where he's most concerned about is the gash the size of a ruler on the patient’s head.
No questions asked. He does as all he could to treat her.
It’s been a couple of hours. Seokjin loses track of time while also keeping track of every second and every minute he spends with a patient.
Nurse Wright meets him outside the curtain after. She is a menace wrapped in soft scrubs, much like Seokjin is. Two peas from the same pod, the others call them. So just from that look on her face, all smug-looking, Seokjin already knows what news she brought with her.
"Detective Kim's out front. He has questions for the patient,” she says.
"Tell him he can come back later, Louise," Seokjin replies. He gets to the ER reception desk and sees Detective Kim standing there rigid and fierce as a post. He glares. "Come back later, detective."
"There's been a murder. Naturally, I have questions," Detective Kim insists.
"And you have plenty, I'm sure. But we've been doing this long enough to know you can't, not for another few hours."
“Just ten minutes, doc.”
This is the worst time to be calling Seokjin that and the detective knows it. Judging by the wide eyes and pursed lips the detective’s sporting, it wasn’t intentional. Seokjin will let it slide.
Nurse Louise Wright quietly slips away.
“Look, I have about twenty different pairs of ears to feed just a few lines from the suspect.”
“Patient,” Dr Kim corrects.
The detective ignores it. “I’ll be out of there before you even clock out, which I know you’re just about to.”
“That's a promise?”
“Scout’s honor.” Detective Kim lifts his hand as if to take an oath.
He was never a scout, but Seokjinn takes his word for it, anyway.
Dr Kim and Detective Kim both stand there, facing off each other like they're clad in armour instead of scrubs and a big coat. Detective Kim and his coats and suits always look like he's going to invite you to travel time with him in his blue police box.
Seokjin wouldn't need to think twice.
He relents, turning away from the detective when he nods. He doesn't have to be facing Detective Kim to know he lit up the moment he's given permission.
He knows, as deeply as he does his work, that Taehyung would say "Thanks, hyung!" with a deep laugh, and he would give Seokjin a kiss on his cheek despite the onlookers. He's quick to add, “Meet you outside in 30," lips against his skin, and then he walks away.
Seokjin whips his head to him. “You said 10!” he calls out.
Taehyung replies, equally loud in the sterile halls of the quiet hospital, “Sorry! And I mean that!”
There are two pairs of eyes from across the desk that are calling his name.
Just as he thought, with his face blazing red but expression impassive as if it isn't, he looks up to find Dr Ocampo and Dr Bishop, two of his most professional colleagues, smirking at him.
"Not a single word out of the two of you," Seokjin warns, walking out on them.
They're hot on their feet, though, determined to continue this line of teasing until they reach the vending machine. He didn’t have time to run to the bodega a few blocks from here to get Taehyung something to eat. So, soda and chips from the vending machine it is.
"We weren't even gonna say any thing. We were just admiring your love. Quietly," Dr Bishop comments, his Scottish accent thick like it usually is halfway through an evening shift. He leans his side on the vending machine glass, the red Coca-Cola light illuminating his pale face and bleached hair. His mentor's looking more and more exhausted each passing day. Seokjin expressed his worries to Dr Bishop but the surgeon reassured him he's fine, so Seokjin dropped the topic for now.
Valentine laughs on Seokjin’s other side, flicking her bangs with a manicured finger. "Speak for yourself, doc. I was gonna gush over how pogi Detective Kim is."
The Bellevue Emergency Room staff is a lovely bunch of varying personalities from all across the world. They all just happened to find each other and like each other. The latter is the biggest bonus Seokjin didn’t dare ask but is eternally grateful for. He could be civil if needed but he had no tolerance to spending time with people he didn’t like.
A lot of things happened to Seokjin that made him think he used all his luck in the world. But great things kept pouring in.
" Eireachdail, right?” Valentine continues, using one of the few Gaelic terms she learned from Dr Bishop.
"Super gwapo ,” the older man hums his ascent.
“You’ve inflated Taehyung’s ego enough, thanks. He keeps telling me he’s handsome in twenty different languages,” Seokjin says, reaching for the soda can and moving to the next vending machine to get the chips. “And it was endearing the first few times. Now it’s just—”
“Incredibly sexy? Multilinguistic king?” Valentine chuckles.
Seokjin’s red ears speak for themselves.
Dr Bishop looks proud of this, like he raised Taehyung himself. Seokjin should be offended, given he was the mentee, but he finds it sweet that Taehyung had soothed them. It’s not just him who was affected by his charms.
But, well, not a single one of them fell in love like he did.
He checks the time. Technically, he was supposed to be home by now. His shift ended just before the recent patient arrived, the one with the clearly abusive husband. Dead husband now, Seokjin supposed. But he knew he had to do this one last thing, stay on duty. He had done his job. The wife would live to see another day. He openly hoped it wouldn’t be behind bars.
It’s Thursday. Well, it's Friday now. Friday, 2:45 AM. He’s leaving the hospital 3 hours later than he was supposed to. Only five minutes passed before Taehyung walked out, too. They nod at each other, silently communicating to each other to talk in the car. Seokjin got in his Lexus. The car right across from Seokjin’s in the parking lot flashes their headlights. Seokjin flashes his car’s lights back, too.
Before Taehyung could slide into the passenger side, somebody called out, “Off for a snog?”
“Close your eyes, Birdie.” Taehyung laughed at the finger Cassiopeia extended to him from inside her car. He closes the door, leans over the console, and—Seokjin wouldn’t call it a snog , but more like a lingering peck. He likes the softness of it better. “Hi again.”
“Is that all you have to say, detective?” Seokjin smirks. He shouldn’t but that pout is extremely hard to not tease.
“I’m sorry for rushing you like that.”
“Sometimes I wonder if you do that just to rile me up.”
“Maybe,” Taehyung laughs at the playful slap on the shoulder he received. “I kinda like it when we bicker, doc.”
Seokjin meant to kiss his temple but Taehyung turned his head and closed his lips against Seokjin’s. Forgetting where they were at the moment, and who they were for more than a few ticks, Taehyung gave what Seokjin sorely needed. A few minutes in the privacy behind tinted windows, hands tethered to his lover’s hair, and lips knowing each other’s shape and taste.
Seokjin’s gaze slips momentarily towards the window before meeting Taehyung’s. He bursts out laughing. He nods forward, gesturing.
There’s Taehyung’s partner, Detective Cassie Knight. Her face is plastered on the glass.
“That’s tinted, you idiot!” Taehyung calls through the glass. Seokjin rolls the window down for him but he gets a frown for his gesture.
Cassie seems unfazed. She’s probably immune to outbursts by now—or just Taehyung’s.
“Stop shouting,” she says as in a tone that makes her sound like she’s saying ‘yuck.’ “Jeez. It’s 3 AM and you’re disturbing the poor folks who could hear your yapping.” She gestures to the empty parking lot.
“I wouldn’t have to if you weren’t creeping on me.”
“I was checking up on you. I said five minutes, didn’t I? We have a report to file.” Cassie smiles at Seokjin sweetly, genuinely. “Hey, Doctor Kim. Sorry to steal him so soon.”
“It’s alright,” Seokjin assures.
Taehyung sputters. “It’s really not. You can go.”
He doesn’t mean that. Cassie wants to pretend he does, though, to keep up this fake argument. Seokjin doesn’t really know; this probably keeps them awake better than caffeine.
They exchange a few words that Seokjin does his best not to laugh at. They’re worse than siblings sometimes; Seokjin thinks it comes with spending hours upon hours beside each other’s desks and sitting in cars during stakeouts. Seokjin knows—-well, maybe not firsthand. He knows how badly Taehyung misses his younger siblings, too. Any chance to be the elder sibling, he takes and rather takes seriously. And when they’re in each other’s apartments, these days Taehyung stays more often at Seokjin’s, they can just be, well, yearning and forgetting about it together.
As soon as Cassie is placated and back in her car, Taehyung turns to him. “Big case after big case,” he mumbles as a way of explaining.
Seokjin nods empathetically. “This is on top of the serial murder case, right?”
“His body count’s up to 4 now. It’s pretty tense up at SVU at the moment. Might be wearing myself a little too thin. But crime never sleeps and all that.” This is weighing Taehyung down, Seokjin knows that, despite the cheerful facade he clings on to for dear life. Seokjin carries what he can for the both of them but he can admit to succumbing to the downsides of the job. When they’re both at the last ends of their straws, they have each other.
But even then, sometimes, it isn’t enough. They would lash out and pull away. They would come up with their own arguments but these are heated and serious albeit silly and petty. Seokjin and Taehyung have their weak moments, but they only come back out of it. Communicate and apologize. If not for that, Seokjin wouldn’t know if they would last this long.
Their souls mirror each other’s but they’re inherently two different people. They’re bound to clash sometimes. But they hold on tight.
“We’re still on for Valentine’s right? The only highlight to my month,” Taehyung asks, all bright despite the long hours and burden evident in his eyes.
“You bet. Can’t miss the holidays, remember?” Seokjin promises. They could miss Friday dates or lunches because of work but they promised to never miss important holidays—that includes birthdays. These past three Decembers have been the best Seokjin has ever had.
Taehyung leans in and mumbles an ‘ I love you ’ in French, a laugh bubbling out of his swollen lips when Seokjin chokes. Seokjin says it back, in their native language, and Taehyung softens.
He lets Taehyung go to finish shift, pushing the chips and soda to him before he steps out, and he drives straight to his empty apartment. He’d say home but Taehyung doesn’t live here.
Taehyung hasn’t expressed anything about living together and Seokjin doesn’t know how to poach the subject. He’ll ask on another date. He’ll ask when they’re both not burdened with their jobs.
And then he laughs bitterly at himself.
Seokjin will ask for something more with Taehyung when it feels right.