ALL IN BLOOM || VMINKOOK ?

8

"Right after the ball. That's when I'll start being able to see the contestants one-on-one."

"I want to be there for that conversation."

Jungkook wasn't sure why tae was getting such a bee in his bonnet over it.

"Then you'll be there."

Taehyung sighed and reached his hand up, carding his fingers through Jungkook's hair.

"I wish I could dance with you tomorrow night. We've never got to dance, not like that, with the lights and the music and the people."

They'd danced in private, behind locked doors, hidden from view, with the music turned down.

It wasn't the same.

"I wish that was our life," he told him.

"I wish so many things were different." He laced his fingers with Taehyung's.

"But not this, I wouldn't want to change this for the world."

* * *

A ball wasn't exactly top of his list of things to do but it was tradition and a part of him liked tradition.

Naturally enough, the courtship team picked a nautical theme.

He was anticipating a sea of sailor hats but was pleasantly surprised instead with a more sedate array of blues, greens, and stripes.

Taehyung caught his attention immediately, wearing a dark blue jacket.

The other alphas were dressed similarly in formal jackets and pants.

The betas and omegas were in more unique outfits, in a variety of colors and fabrics, paired with some unique makeup.

A shimmer caught his eye and he found himself staring at Jimin.

Whoever had chosen his outfit had outdone themselves. He was wearing sand-colored trousers paired with a silk sky-blue shirt.

But it was his makeup that had caught his eye, a shimmer around his eyes that brought out their dark gaze.

He wasn't the only one who had noticed, he saw Taehyung do a double take too.

A beta sidled up to him, eying him hopefully, and Jungkook guessed he might as well get started.

He had a lot of people to dance with and a lot of tokens to hand out.

A quarter of the hopefuls would be going home the next day, and he'd had an hour of wrangling with his father to come to an agreement as to who was leaving.

He had to pull out the Joon card reminding his father that part of Joon's agreement to be his successor was that each of them would be able to marry who they chose to without interference.

His father had eventually conceded but had removed two names from his list.

promising Jungkook he could send them home later in the contest when their families would have less reason for complaint.

His dance partners started blurring together somewhere around the twelfth.

Despite memorizing all their names and pictures, he had to look to Tae and Ben once or twice for help identifying some one so they could get the correct token.

One of those being sent home had a meltdown on the middle of the dance floor, holding the blue token in the palm of his hand and all but wailing before bursting into tears.

Jungkook was shocked when, of all people, it was Jimin who pushed a pile of tissues into the beta's hand and patted him on the shoulder.

A hand on his arm distracted him and when he looked back, the beta was sitting at the side of the room, a glass of punch in his hand while Jimin hovered around beside him.