rereaders might be shaking after this

***

three days later

"No way I'm going out there", Jungkook crossed his arms, hiding behind a curtain. Taehyung nodded, "Me neither-"
Bang PD literally facepalmed himself, let out an incredible deep sigh and then grabbed both boys by their wrists. "The reporters won't leave if y'all wont give a final statement to this whole shit."

"And what are we supposed to say?"

"That's your decision on what to say", their manager sighed and then looked at Taehyung. "C'mon boy. Do it, Jungkook won't move his introverted ass outside anyway-"
Kook nodded from behind, pouting his lips. "Yes, you do it Tae~"

"Dude-", Taehyung grumbled. "Should I confirm it or not?"
"I think it's pretty obvious isn't it-", Jungkook said in a small voice. "Goddamnit. Why did no one tell me it'd end up like this if I go home with him back then." With that being said the older grabbed a black hoodie and put it on, pushed the cap of it deep into his face and his hands down his pockets.

All he had to do was answer questions. That couldn't be that bad. "Just to make this clear, I'm going outside now and I'll confirm the rumors." He walked out of the door, a group of security guards following him to the front door. The boy got protection from them by all sides, the crowd unable to get to him.

It had been three days and there was still a huge amount of fans, reporters and interviewers camping outside to get to listen to the first public statements they'd give.
Which was about to happen right now.

"Taehyung!" "V!" "Kim Taehyung!"
"V V V V V!!"
Taehyung ducked his head, secruity men pushing the crowd away from the sides. A bunch of cameras got shoved into his face, making him unable to look into anyone's eyes. Blinking camera lights, the clicking sounds and zooming noises, that's all he heard for a moment.  "Taehyung is it true!" "V! Where is Jungkook???"

Taehyung held his mouth shut, reassuring his posture as he looked through the crowd. His eyes searched for interviewers that seemed to be from bigger sites so he wouldn't have to talk plenty of times. His attention got drawn to a Dispatch reporter quite a bit later, they smiled then walked closer because they knew Taehyung had no choice but answer to them.
After all, they saved his ass.

"May we ask some questions?", the guy asked, smirking slightly when his eyes met Taehyung's. For a second Taehyung's heart stopped beating, that face was way too well-known to him. "Sure-", he let out, trying hard not to look completely freaked out.

"There's rumors of your group disbanding soon, what's your opinion on this?", he asked softly, not mentioning the whole topic at all.

"No one's considering disbanding yet." Taehyung stared at the boy, eyes locked with his during the whole time. He grinned, "Oh, that's good to hear. What's true when it comes to the rumors about you and your band member?"

"Jungkook?", Taehyung chuckled. "Exactly", the boy winked from behind the camera. Taehyung bit his lips awkwardly, "I guess the rumors tell the story quite well", he replied quietly.

"So you are indeed dating?"
Taehyung nodded slowly, "Is that a problem?", he questioned back.

Thank god that this guy would never call it a problem. "No, actually that's not a problem. This country may finally open up", he chuckled.

"I'd love seeing that."

"So, tell us a bit about what's happening the past few days in your life. It seems quite hectic-"
"People are literally blocking our privacy which isn't that much fun, but besides from that everything's fine."

The interviewer nodded, "More time to yourselves, huh-. Maybe a break is what the band needs."

Taehyung laughed and then decided to provoke the country a bit, so he bit his lips once again, "Yeah. Sad thing is, I don't get the chance to take Jungkook out on dates. Good thing is, our bedroom has curtains", he winked and the boy literally blurted out in laughter, finally ending the recording.

"Holy fucking shit", Taehyung said quietly as the camera was shut down and he leaned over to the interviewer guy. "I fucking love you. Did you let the nudes disappear?"

"Let's just say-, Lisa called me just in the right second so I could make sure it doesn't get in the wrong hands. Jimin then called the police and officially reported the whole thing Yeona was doing." Junghyun smiled brightly.
The secruity guards came along and pushed him softly away to make him stop speaking. "Enough for now", one of them whispered as he shoved the boy back inside away from the screaming crowd.

Taehyung almost ran back upstairs, rushed into the room and slammed the door open, "Jungkook what the fucking hell your brother works for Dispatch?!"

"I don't know I usually don't talk to him-", Jungkook said with doey eyes. "How did it go?"

"Thanks to your amazing brother, our precious Lisa and our lovely Jimin the nudes are gone!!!!", Taehyung let out. "Your brother kept the questions lowkey-, everything is fine for now!"

Jungkook's mouth was slightly dropped, "Damn."
Taehyung nodded, hopping right onto Jungkook's lap and started showering him with kisses everywhere, on his cheeks and his lips and his chin, simply on every single free spot.

"Guys, guys guys", Bang PD sighed, "That's all good and stuff but all I receive is mails of harassment, I had to shut down Twitter for a while and my phone does not stop ringing. The nudes may be saved but this band is probably not going to get through is."

Jungkook and Taehyung were quiet for a while, looking down to the floor. "That can't be", Taehyung hummed. "We worked so hard for it."

"And you blew it up."
All of the boys inside the room gulped dryly, searching for the right words to say. "I'd recommend you take a break for a while, we'll see if it calms down and maybe we'll have a comeback in a year or two."

"No fucking way", Jungkook squeaked. "We have nothing else-"

"None of this is my fault, Kookie", Bang PD coughed and then walked up and down the room. "No one will give us a job or anything in this country-", Taehyung tried to say but Bang PD kept quiet.

"PD-nim", Jungkook hummed. "Please give us one more chance!"

"It's not up to me, Jungkook!"
The manager was almost yelling when he said that, grabbing his bags. "I will held a meeting with the rest and tell them about the hiatus. I'll set it up for two years. Until then, I hope you won't get yourselves into any more trouble."

"So this is it?", Taehyung asked bluntly. "You're simply leaving us alone in this."

Bang PD sighed, "I'll spend those two years cleaning up your names, Taehyung. For now there's nothing I can do. See your parents or something, I don't mind. I'm leaving now."
And not a minute later the man was gone and Jungkook, Taehyung and Jimin were left behind.

"Well, fuck."

-

24th of December one year later

"You seem as if you could use a place to sleep", a well-known voice appeared behind Taehyung back. He sat on a bench, his legs pulled close to his body and his arms hugging them. Actually it was freezing, which was no surprise because it was Christmas Eve. Usually that was the time of the year when families got together in cozy apartments and celebrated their reunions. Meanwhile probably everyone sat in front of their fireplaces in heated rooms with blankets pulled over their already warmed bodies, Tae was out there- all by himself. Being around people sounded like a dream for Taehyung at this very moment.

Taehyung turned around and his eyes met the eyes of the one person he didn't expect to show up - Lisa.
"Would be great-", he mumbled while he slowly looked up into the girl's eyes. "What are you doing out here on Christmas Eve?", he then asked a bit confused. "Don't even ask", she answered and looked through the whole area where Jungkook was sitting.
"Where's Jungkook?", she asked but Taehyung didn't answer.
Instead his eyes got all teary and he got up from the bench.

"Don't even  ask", he replied and started walking.
They walked in silence over to Lisa's small apartment, "Don't you live in the company's building anymore?", Taehyung asked slowly while his lips were trembling, it was so cold out here and he's been out here for days by now.
"A lot happened since you two left that day", Lisa smiled sadly and ruffled Taehyung hair.
Yes- a lot happened, indeed. Not only to Lisa.

"Did you two break up? Sorry for asking", the girl asked slowly but Taehyung quickly nodded, "Yes, around three months ago." But he didn't give any further explanation so Lisa left the topic, the boy clearly wasn't ready to talk about it.
"How long have you been out there?", she asked but Taehyung didn't answer again.
So she gave it up with her questions and sighed heavily.

"Fine then, if you're not talking then I will. I've got kicked out of the company because they found out I was sleeping with Junghyun. Well, so my parents didn't invite me for Christmas this year, now that I turned 20 they say I'm old enough to have my own Christmas. They expect me to already have an almost husband and whole stable life figured out, but I have not. So I wanted to celebrate with Junghyun but he cancelled last minute. That's why I went for a walk and there you were."

Taehyung was speechless for a bit but then he nodded, "Sounds messed up", he only replied and shrugged.

Those months really changed it all.
They changed obviously everything between the band members, even the feelings for each other.
And they changed especially Taehyung, there wasn't  much left of him after being on his own for so long.

"Why didn't you call Tae? We would have found a place for you", she mumbled suddenly.
"Do I look like I'd still have my phone? Lisa, did you even look at me? I don't even have my bag or anything!", Taehyung crossed his arms and suddenly the tears started streaming.

"I don't have anything except myself. Life took it all from me", he whispered when he started wiping his tears away which almost made Lisa cry as well.

"God, what happend to you", she asked while she hugged the sobbing boy tightly. "I'm so sorry?", she added and cuddled him for quite a while until he pulled back and tried to get himself back together.
"It's okay, just don't leave me alone again, I can't take it any longer if you wouldn't have shown up I would have ended it tonight", he said and Lisa nodded immediately.

"Oh lord, you'll never be alone again Tae. We'll figure it out, okay?"

"I doubt so."

***

quite short chapter ik but this chapter is meant as a transition between the first part of this book (nonstop) and the (original) sequel (fullstop). i decided to put both in one book (: