When Taehyung returned to school the following Wednesday and sat himself on his assigned desk quietly, he was immediately jumped by none other than his friend Jung Hoseok.

"Kim Taehyung! Where were you all this time?! Without a single text message or call? Do you know how worried I was? Jimin is acting super weird because of you, you know?," he exclaimed, the brunette listening to him with wide eyes, feeling a tad overwhelmed.

Wait a second... Jimin. Is he that awkward about the kiss? I hope he knows I'm not feeling weird about it!

All of a sudden, he remembered Jungkook's words.

"Jimin likes you."
"I saw the way he looked at you, he looks at you the exact same way I do. And when the bottle pointed at him, he looked excited. Relieved, even."

He started thinking.
Could this be true? Could his best friend really have a secret crush on him without him realizing? Was this even possible? Even Ruo said something like that. But he was just lying, right? To upset him.

No, no. That can't be true. Jungkook was probably seeing something wrong. Or he was exaggerating. I mean, why not? Wait...

He didn't know what to think. But he did have his suspicions...

So he just looked at his redheaded friend with a blank expression, clearing his throat. "I'm sorry, Hobi. I had a really bad cold and I stayed at Jungkook's house for a few days because he was sick too and I felt too weak to move. Also, my mom had loads of work and taking care of me would've been hard on her. My battery was empty, by the way."

Hoseok just gaped at him in utter confusion. "Wha-- Okay, hold up. You slept at Jungkook's house? You had a cold together? How does that happen?" Taehyung inhaled and exhaled slowly, telling his 'Jungkook-and-I-had-a-fight'-tale once again since it seemed that Hoseok did not know about his and his best friend's little session.

"He carried you to his house because you were scared?! That's so fucking sweet, no romance movie could ever!," the redhead gushed as expected, covering his mouth with his hands to calm himself.

The brunette giggled. "He did it even though he was mad at me. And he let me sleep in his bed with him, for three nights." Hoseok squealed, his eyes wide as saucers.

"The two of you shared a tent together and slept in the same bed three times? And absolutely nothing happened?," he asked with a teasing rise of his eyebrows.

"No! We did cuddle a lot, I had this really shitty headache and so did he, we had high temperature and all that but we felt a lot better feeling each other's warmth. I had a really good time actually, despite being sick. His cousin made us so amazing food and he was so sweet, even bought watermelons for our sore throats once." He smiled in awe, recalling the memories.

"Oooohh!" The older boy looked as happy as a little child who had just been gifted a bar of candy.
"Sweet! I love me some good romance and his cousin seems like a big supporter, we should start a ship club. I just love seeing my dear Taehyungie all happy and smiley," he cooed, ruffling the brunette's soft locks.

"Thank you, Hobi-Hyung." Taehyung hugged his friend, suddenly seeing a new person enter the classroom and turning his head towards said person.

"Jiminie! Guess what happened between--" Hoseok seemed to have spotted him too, but getting cut off abruptly.

"Later. See you at lunch," the silver-haired boy just said dismissively, not even sparing Taehyung a single glance and rushing towards his seat.

The brunette looked after him sadly, his suspicions rising even more. "Is he okay? Did something happen to him?" He turned back to Hoseok abruptly as he accidentally caught Lee Ruo's eye, his stomach turning and anger and hatred bubbling up inside of him as all of this was entirely his devil of an ex's fault.

"Honestly, no idea. Maybe you should talk to him in private, it seems to have something to do with you. When we're alone, he's normal. But when I ask him about it, he runs away again! This boy, I swear!," the redhead exclaimed with a shake of his head.

°○●○●○°

Taehyung took Hoseok's advice to heart and planned on seeing his best friend under four eyes. However, he appeared to be a bit nervous. Or was he scared?

But what should he be scared of?

A part of his subconsciousness knew that what Jungkook had told him could be true. But every part of his brain, body and mind was trying to deny that. Instead, he started coming to a different conclusion.

He cleared his throat after being forced to give dear Hoseok a detailed explanation on what exactly happened during those three days, forcing his gaze off the already cold tomato and olive pizza on his lunch tray and looking up to Jimin, who looked pretty unfazed as always, nervously.
"Jiminie, can we talk in private? For a second?"

Jimin widened his eyes, gulping down his cold piece of pizza and looking around helplessly, feeling himself to be in a terrible dilemma. "Uh... Okay. Sure." Hoseok giving them an encouraging nod while munching on his piece of pizza, giving the impression of a little squirrel nibbling on its acorns adorably.

When they reached a deserted corridor, the brunette halted in his step and laid his hand on his friend's shoulder. "Jiminie...," he started.
"Hobi-Hyung said you've been acting weird around me or about me lately. Do you really feel that awkward about the kiss? It's okay, Minnie. I wasn't uncomfortable at all, there's no need to worry."

To his surprise, the slightly older boy scoffed. "Not everything's about you, Taehyung," he said quietly, making Taehyung knit his eyebrows in confusion.
"What do you mean? Were you uncomfortable? Well, then I'm sorry. Let's just forget about it, then."

Jimin let out another scoff. "What if I don't want to forget about it?" The brunette gasped, his suspicions rising above the horizon by now. "W-What? What do you mean?"
The silver-haired boy opened his mouth for a second and then closed it again with a shake of his head.

"No. It doesn't matter." He was just about to leave when Taehyung grabbed his sleeve.
"Of course it matters! What's going on with you, Park Jimin?!"

"Fine! You leave me with no other choice. I didn't want you to find out like this. I swear, you drive me insane." All of a sudden, the brunette had the terrifying doubt that Jungkook as well as his devil of an ex might have been not so wrong after all. However, he still came to a different conclusion.

"Jimin, tell me exactly. At the party, Ruo said you would get hurt if the bottle had chosen Jungkook. D-Does that mean that..." Feeling Jimin's expecting and slightly alarmed gaze on him, he took a deep breath.

"...Do you like Jungkook?"

It all added up to him. Jimin was acting weird because of Jungkook liking him but himself liking Jungkook, right? He didn't want to forget their kiss because he wanted to drive a wedge through their relationship. And that's why he couldn't remain a perfectly loyal best friend to Taehyung anymore. Right?

"What? How dense can you be to think that?" Jimin looked at him in utter disbelief, his hands slumped on either side of him.

"Why? Was I wrong?" Taehyung was confused and in complete oblivion, Jimin scoffing again and then cracking an evidently forced smile.
"You-- Why don't I just show you?"

And all of a sudden, Taehyung felt something on his lips again. Another pair of lips! Plump and soft... It took him so much by surprise that everything inside him just shut down. Not a single muscle twitched, he was pretty much paralyzed.
Jimin was kissing him. Again!

After about ten seconds of the silver-haired boy claiming his lips, all of his senses seemed to kick back again and his abrupt reflexes made him push his best friend away immediately, him gasping loudly and looking at him with his eyes widened, nothing but shock and maybe a little fear inside them.

"Y-You-- What?! Wh-Wha...," he squeaked. The brunette leaned himself against the wall for support, feeling a huge rush of nausea flow right through him. This didn't feel like reality, it felt like a dream. Like a lie. His legs went numb. His whole life felt like a literal lie!

"I don't know how it happened," the slightly older boy spoke. "Maybe I've been in love with you since the day I met you and I just didn't want to realize it. I've kept it a secret for how many months exactly? I don't even know, feels like centuries. You know, I really wanted to keep this from you and Hoseok until it's gone but seems like that doesn't work with both of you constantly pestering me about it! If anything, it got stronger."

"You-- You're so painfully oblivious all the time, it pains me. And you're so fucking beautiful, that hurts me even more. When I got to kiss you, it felt like everything I could've ever asked for, though you were obviously thinking about somebody else. You know, even Hoseok suspected that I liked you but of course I denied it. But you? God... Your innocence and obliviousness made me want to do things to you all the time. I literally could slam you against the fucking wall and kiss the shit out of you right now. But I won't. Because..." He took a deep breath.

"...I know I'm just your best friend, I'm not dumb. But you kept asking me about my feelings as if you wanted to rub salt into the bloody wound and just- god!- See what you're doing? You're destroying me. By simply just existing. Damn you, Kim Taehyung. Don't look so fucking sad now. What do you have to be sad about? Go back to your amazing Jungkook do whatever the fuck you want with him. And don't even try to come at me with that 'Oh, but Minnie, you're my best friend!'-shit. Because that shit hurts. Understand? Goodbye." The silverhead finally looked up from the ground, now walking away hurriedly.

For a few seconds, Taehyung didn't give any sort of reaction, simply staring at the floor with his mouth wide open.

Then, he sank onto the ground, fisting his hair with both hands as it hit him. All the memories he had ever made with Jimin, they were a lie. Nothing but a lie. The other boy had seen everything through much, much different eyes. And he never even realized.

Jimin is hurt because of me. I hurt Jimin! My existence is like venom to him. Poisonous, pain-inflicting, destructive. Fucking damn it. If I didn't exist, everything would be better. He wouldn't be in pain anymore. So why do I exist?

A tear slipped past his eye.
He had just lost his best friend, his platonic soulmate, his other half.

And it was entirely his fault.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

(A/N: poor babies :(

ashdjksk i hope you're doing well, school started for me and it's online and i have absolutely zero motivation but oh well, hope you enjoyed and ily thanks for reading 💜💜)