accidental encore | taegyu

chapter twenty five

but then, yeonjun's phone vibrated loudly against the table. he glanced at the screen, immediately straightening up.

manager calling.

"oh, shit." he quickly answered, pressing the phone to his ear. "hello?"

on the other end, the manager's voice was already frazzled. "where are you guys? we have your luggage here! we were waiting at the departure area, but you're nowhere to be seen."

yeonjun winced. "uhh..." he glanced at the others, who were now looking at him curiously. "we just... stepped out for a bit."

"stepped out where?"

before yeonjun could scramble for a better excuse, the worst thing possible happened.

"soobin, try this," hueningkai said cheerfully, offering him a forkful of food.

"this is so good," soobin mumbled through a bite, oblivious.

yeonjun froze. so did taehyun. beomgyu almost choked on his drink.

the manager's voice on the other end turned suspicious. "who was that?"

"uh—"

"and why does that voice sound not like any of our members?"

yeonjun, at a loss for words, blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "we won't be home in a few hours. don't try to find us."

then, before the manager could say another word, he hung up.

the entire table went silent.

beomgyu was the first to speak, staring at yeonjun in disbelief. "did you just—"

"i panicked," yeonjun muttered, slowly lowering his phone.

taehyun groaned, running a hand down his face. "great. now they definitely think we got kidnapped or something."

hueningkai just laughed. "nice one, hyung."

"yeah, yeah, laugh it up," yeonjun sighed, rubbing his temples before looking at the group. "okay, uh... we should probably go before they actually track us down or something."

soobin sighed, already grabbing his car keys. "you guys are so much trouble."

they finished up quickly, stuffing the last few bites of food into their mouths before scrambling to leave. soobin led them out of the restaurant, and as soon as they stepped outside, they picked up the pace, practically jogging toward the parking lot.

"i swear to god, if we get scolded the moment we get back..." taehyun muttered as they climbed into soobin's car.

"just blame yeonjun," beomgyu said, sliding into the passenger seat.

"hey!" yeonjun protested, buckling in. "this is all of our faults, okay?"

"nope," beomgyu said, smirking. "just yours."

soobin rolled his eyes, starting the car. "if you guys don't shut up, i'm leaving you all on the side of the road."

taehyun grinned, leaning against beomgyu's shoulder as he got comfortable in his seat. "at least we'd still be together."

beomgyu tried not to react to that, but his face betrayed him. yeonjun, of course, noticed.

"ohhh," he drawled, grinning. "he liked that one."

"shut up," beomgyu grumbled, crossing his arms.

soobin sighed dramatically as he drove out of the parking lot. "i hate all of you."

but the fond smile on his face said otherwise.

—

as soon as they made it to beomgyu's apartment, they all piled inside, kicking off their shoes and releasing dramatic sighs of relief.

"god, i thought we were gonna get chased down," yeonjun muttered, collapsing onto the couch.

"yeah, yeah, thanks for the ride, soobin," beomgyu deadpanned, raising an eyebrow at the driver, who had casually driven them to his apartment without even asking.

soobin just shrugged, tossing his keys onto the counter like he owned the place. "what are you gonna do? make me leave?"

beomgyu scoffed, about to argue back when he was suddenly tackled onto the couch by a full-force taehyun.

"oof—!"

before he could even process it, taehyun had wrapped his arms around him tightly, pressing his cheek against beomgyu's shoulder like a satisfied cat.

"aren't we just the cutest besties?" taehyun said with a grin, still holding on.

the entire room collectively groaned.

"oh my god," soobin muttered, rolling his eyes.

"besties?" yeonjun snorted. "is that what we're calling it?"

hueningkai, watching from the side, just giggled. "you guys are so dramatic."

beomgyu, trapped under taehyun, only blinked, his face warm. he wanted to say something back, something witty—but all that came out was a weak, "...shut up."

taehyun only held on tighter.

—

after the chaos of the morning, they settled into beomgyu's apartment, completely making themselves at home. someone had put on a random movie in the background—though no one was actually paying attention—while they all fooled around, throwing pillows at each other, making dumb jokes, and raiding beomgyu's snack stash like it was a free buffet.

at some point, hueningkai found beomgyu's guitar and started strumming random notes while soobin and yeonjun sang horribly off-key on purpose. taehyun was curled up beside beomgyu on the couch, lazily scrolling through his phone, occasionally shoving his knee against beomgyu's just to annoy him.

"dude, it's, like, seven a.m." beomgyu groaned, rubbing his face. "why are we still awake?"

"you're the one who dragged me to the airport at five in the morning," soobin pointed out.

"yeah, and i'd do it again," beomgyu muttered, shooting a glance at taehyun. taehyun just smirked, nudging him again.

eventually, exhaustion got the best of them.

someone—probably yeonjun—had dragged out a couple of spare mattresses into the living room. soobin, yeonjun, and hueningkai ended up sprawled across them in the messiest positions, while beomgyu and taehyun somehow ended up tangled together on the couch.

not that beomgyu noticed until he groggily blinked awake hours later, his head pressed against taehyun's chest, an arm lazily draped over his waist.

it was warm. too warm.

his half-asleep brain barely processed the fact that taehyun's steady breathing was right by his ear before he realized—

oh.

they were really close.