"Welcome back, Jiminie, where's Taehyung?," a redheaded boy who was still eating and drinking happily asked as soon as his friend re-entered the cafeteria, no suspicions whatsoever.

"Don't ask about him." Now, Hoseok furrowed his eyebrows, wondering what the two of them had talked about. "Did you two have a fight? But you didn't have a fight in ages! I mean, you have that unseperable, friendship-goals-kinda platonic soulmate connection anyone could wish for--"

"Stop saying that all the time! He's not my friend, he can never be!" Now even more confused, the boy pushed his plate aside and set his almost empty glass of orange juice onto the table.
"Okay, now don't overdo it. One fight will never erase your friendship, alright?"

"You don't get it, do you? I don't see him as my friend, I never could! I love him. Way too much. More than a friend. Do you understand?" The redhead's jaw dropped, his breath hitching.
"S-So... This was what it's all about, god, I should've known it earlier... But I didn't think you would actually... Oh god. Where is he?"

The silver-headed boy scoffed. "Why is everything always about him? I'm the one who just got rejected! I'm the one who kept all these feelings bottled up inside for months, years and never said anything despite hurting like shit! Because I was scared of exactly this happening. You always take his side, you only worry about him and his feelings!"

"Hold the hell up, what are you saying? I'm not taking anyone's side here! But you're here and he isn't- he must be devastated right now. Do you even have any idea how guilty he must feel right now? He'll feel responsible for your pain. I'm sorry you're hurt but you can't put this on him, he didn't know anything! And neither did I. How... How could you never tell us? At least me, don't you trust me?," he asked quietly, his face turning into a sad frown.

"How could I? You were the one trying to set him up with Jeon all the time, didn't want to spoil your fun," the silverhead spoke unfazed.

"I wouldn't have done that if I had known about your feelings! If I had known you felt hurt by that... God... I was just trying to make Taehyung see what he truly felt for him. I had suspicions about your relationship to him but this? I would've never guessed... I-I..." All of a sudden, he looked like he was about to start crying.

"Whatever. I'm sorry but right now, I need to be by myself or I'll fuck this up even more. I'm not in my right mind. Bye, Hoseok-Hyung." The redhead widened his eyes and tried to hold him back but failed.
"No! We need to talk about this! Jimin!"

But it was too late, the younger had already made his way out of the cafeteria and Hoseok found himself to be in a painful dilemma.

Hoping to find either Taehyung or Jimin, he ran out of the cafeteria aswell and left all his food and school stuff there, distancing himself with loud stomps on the hardwood floor.

He felt like crying again, there was nothing worse than his two best friends not speaking to each other. And evidently, this was not an everyday argument, this was serious. Their whole friendship, all three of them targeted, was on the line.
And that exact thought devastated him. Friendship was the most precious thing to him.

Tears welled up inside his eyes as he still failed to find them, even at their favourite hangout places and literally every single room or corridor inside the whole school building. Where the hell could they be? Couldn't he find either one of them? Or would he lose both of them? What if Taehyung and Jimin would end their friendship with Hoseok because they felt pressured by him too? Because he was right in the middle...

As he was about to search the school toilets as his last resort and he sprinted towards the door to barge inside, he barely registered someone leaving it in just that moment, completely colliding with the person so harshly that the cellphone in their hand fell onto the floor with a loud thud. He gasped loudly, hearing a grunt out of pain from the person who was now rubbing their head which may or may not end up with a little bruise.

"Shit, I'm so, so sorry!," he exclaimed, picking up the phone from the ground and looking in his opposite's face nervously before he returned it. However, he didn't even get to that as he was extremely shocked to find out, just in that moment, that the person standing opposite to him was Min Yoongi.

He gasped, completely forgetting to return the phone as he felt too surprised. Why he felt so surprised, he did not know. Throwing a brief glance onto the phone as soon as he regained his conscience, he was just about to return it hastily when his eyes happened to catch a certain something on the display and...

"Oh my god. Is that a Red Velvet song? You listen to Red Velvet?!" He widened his eyes in confusion, all his sadness forgotten, and simply stared at the other boy.
"D-Don't tell anyone!," he just said, his very pale cheeks slightly pink.

"Why would I. Oh my god, give me some earphones. I need this right now. Wait, never mind," he rambled, seeing earphones already attached to the device and plugging them inside his ears without any warning. He sat himself against the wall, closing his eyes, feeling the music and hugging the little phone as if it were something precious, leaving a very confused Yoongi.

"Wh... What--," he just whispered, watching him in shock. Hesitantly, he sat himself next to the redheaded boy, against the wall outside the school's bathroom.
"Hey. Jung." He slightly poked the other's shoulder, feeling him slightly tense.

"What?," the redhead asked sadly, completely immersed into 'Wish Tree' by Red Velvet. The soft, yet somehow sad Christmas song put him at ease and made him tear up at the same time.

Yoongi, who had originally planned on scolding him for taking his phone and listening to his music just like that, decided against it as he saw Hoseok's depressed state. Instead, he sighed, taking one of the earbuds and plugging it into his own ear. "Never mind. I wanna listen too," he just said, feeling the need for a little comfort himself. Though he most definetely didn't expect Jung Hoseok to be the one to share his own sorrows with.

°○●○●○°

Hoseok and Yoongi's collision wasn't the only collision that day.

After hearing Jimin's unintentional confession, Taehyung did not know what to feel or what to do. He felt lied to, oblivious, like a complete fool. More than ten years of friendship gone to waste simply because of this one little moment. Was there any way of fixing this? He did not know. He did not want to know, either.

All he knew was that he needed some fresh air to clear his mind. If there was any chance of clearing it, that was. He remembered the rooftop where he had told Jungkook all about his past with Ruo, that little rooftop would bring him more comfort than any other place he could think of.

So, as he walked up the stairs that led towards it with a heavy heart, glad that no one he knew accidentally crossed his path, he didn't expect anyone to already occupy it. However, as he desperately tried to push the door open, he was heavily astounded as he sensed someone open the door just open it in that exact moment, leading to the brunette falling right into the person's chest.

"Oh god, I am so-- Jungkook?!"
A pair of dark, surprisingly sad-looking eyes stared back at him, helping him to stand on his own feet.
"Taehyung?"

"What are you doing here?"
"What are you doing here?"
The two of them simply stared at each other, sensing the dejection in each other's eyes and sighing. And all of a sudden, Taehyung knew exactly where he wanted to be most.

Sniffling, he threw himself into Jungkook's arms all of a sudden, the other letting out a slight gasp and taking a few steps back out of the force the brunette boy brought with him. Wrapping his arms around the boy, he slightly nudged his head, which was buried in his neck, with his nose.

"Hey. What's wrong, beautiful? Did something happen?," he asked softly. Taehyung lifted his head in slight surprise, practically gaping at him.
"What did you just call me?," he asked quietly.

"Sorry, it slipped. But tell me, what's wrong? You look so sad." Leading him towards the rooftop, he sat himself on the hard asphalt, the older still clinging onto him and now straddling his lap, barely showing any activity.

"You go first. You look just as sad, what happened to you?" The ravenette shook his head and ruffled Taehyung's hair in attempt to ease him. "No, bub. You need this more than me. Just tell me, alright?"

The brunette sighed, nodding into his shoulder. "Fine. I just lost my best friend of eleven years, just like that. Because I'm so dumb and oblivious and my bare existence is harmful!," he ranted, now climbing off Jungkook's lap and just sitting there with his head hung low.

"What? Don't be stupid, Tae. Who are you even talking about? Jimin or Hoseok?" Taehyung sighed again.
"I've only known Hoseok for seven years, Jimin has been my best friend since my first day at elementary school. And now everything's ruined!," he exclaimed, feeling the all too familiar tears well up in his eyes.

"It's not your fault, I'm sure of it. What happened exactly? Did you have a fight?" The brunette shook his head.
"No, he... confessed to me. He l-likes me. And he kissed me, again! And then I realized how sad he must've been all this time! I had no idea, none. And I kept provoking it, I cuddled him, held his hand, hugged him all the time. I didn't know I had that effect on him. God, I'm so stupid." Lifting his head to see the crystal clear blue sky, he let a tear slip by a blink of his eyelid.

"Tae, you-- you didn't provoke anything. It's not your fault. He likes you because you're sweet, adorable, funny, considerate but fierce... All that stuff that makes you you. Don't you dare blame yourself on this. And who knows, maybe there's a chance to fix your friendship, give it some time." The ravenette wiped the stray tear away from his face and smiled sadly, caressing his cheek.

"What's broken can't be fixed," Taehyung whispered. "It'll never be the same again. And Hoseok-Hyung is adorable and sweet too. And he's handsome! Why didn't Jiminie fall for him instead?" He stopped as he felt the ravenette stroke his hair gently, a little sigh leaving his mouth.

"We can't help who we're attracted to. It just happens, sometimes there is this one person who you see and just feel all your emotions, hormones and senses go insane. You wanna get close, you want their attention. That's what I felt when I first saw you and same probably goes for Jimin but only one of us got lucky enough to be liked back by you aswell." Taehyung remained silent for a while.

"You're the lucky one," he said with a little smile. "And have I told you? The first time I saw you, I thought you were super handsome. But you reminded me so much of my ex, I simply couldn't give in. Jimin hated you so much all the time, I never understood that. Until today."

"You might've told me that before. But wasn't it obvious? He didn't want another guy near you, especially after what happened with your shitpile of an ex. And at the same time, he didn't want to see you in love again, because it'd hurt him. Remember when he threatened me to stay away from you? He's more impulsive than you think. He kissed you again, right?" The brunette nodded sadly.

"By the way, I'm so sorry about that. I pushed him off at some point, I was just so startled and I didn't know what to do and--" Jungkook silenced him with a simple hand gesture. "It's fine, there's no need to be sorry. It's not like we're committed or anything...," he said, drifting off as he watched a little bird flap its tiny wings as it circled above the school building.

"Oh, yeah. You're right... What even are we at this point?" The ravenette smiled slightly, now looking over to Taehyung again and seeing a slight pout on his pretty lips. And without hesitation, he kissed the little pout away shortly.
"I don't know what we are, but let's take our time to figure it out. We both went through some stuff."

He pulled Taehyung into another warm hug which the brunette was extremely grateful for as he definetely needed it in that exact moment.
"Oh yeah, speaking of. What happened to you, Koo? Why did you look so sad before?"

Completely changing the topic, Jungkook just spoke: "So, I'm Koo now?", a slight bunny smile playing on his lips.
"It slipped. But don't change the topic, what happened to you?"

And in that exact moment, the bell rang.

Loosening the hug, the ravenette stood up from the floor and reached out a hand for the other to take and stand up aswell, which he did with slight confusion written over his face.
"Oops, the bell rang. I'll tell you some other time, I really need to go now. Goodbye, beautiful."

As he felt Jungkook let go of his hand and saw his retreating figure walk out of the door, Taehyung frowned as he now watched the little bird in the sky still flap around aswell, deep in thought.

What weren't you telling me, Jungkook?

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

(A/N: uwuwuwu hii i really don't know what to say but i just wanted to say i'm so sorry for jiminie but i think it'll get better for him i'm not super cruel😔😔

also this is random but i'm considering seeing a doctor when i'm older since my eating disorder's still very present (tho there have been slight improvements) and i don't think i'll get rid of it anytime soon, i just don't know if i should visit a therapist or like a regular doctor, or both...

anyways thank you for reading as always, i love and purple you lots💜💜)