As if the skies shared the same blackness that had flooded Taehyung’s chest, dark-gray, tempestuous clouds ranged over the sky, swallowing up every glimmer of sunlight. 

The heartache was too crushing to withstand. The moment Jungkook gave over to tears kept coming back, eddying and leaping, like leaves blown by gusts of air. It barred the heart-wrenching slew of emotions from wearing off even by a fraction. 

God, he hated himself so much. Not only he lied to Jungkook about everything and played him, but he also hurt him, made him cry. What he wanted to avoid happened, and he couldn’t do anything about it. He would hurt him either way since Jungkook apparently cared like Taehyung did for him. 

It was a scenario he never thought it would transpire. He didn’t even have the tiniest of suspicion that it could occur. Sure, he could feel that Jungkook cared for him, but enough for him to sob? Enough for him to beg Taehyung to retract his words and strive to make him stay? It was excruciatingly unexpected. 

The thought that maybe he should tell him the truth often breached from the depths of his desperation to explain himself, but it drowned just as quickly. He couldn’t do that. At best, Jin Mo would beat him to a pulp if he didn’t kill him instantly. Although, it wouldn’t make that much of a difference. He already felt dead inside. 

Through his complete wretchedness, Sa Rang suddenly emerged. He was still clueless about why she hadn’t revealed his real identity to Jungkook, but he had to let her know that whatever business he had with her son ended. It was the only way to protect her from Jin Mo, because if she told Jungkook about him, he would kill her without a second thought. 

The least he could do was keep Jungkook’s family safe. 

. . .

It was late in the afternoon when Taehyung rallied any dreg of his fortitude to arise from his nest of torment and hopelessness. A perpetual fog of grimness hung over his face, that tugged at the tips of his mouth, making them droop. His once lurid eyes were now hollow, sunken into their sockets and cushioned by thick, dark pouches. They manifested the little sleep he got last night and seemed always at the ready to brim with tears. 

He dragged his frail body, along with his ponderous heart, out of his apartment. He drove to Sa Rang’s house slowly and carefully, as his unfocused condition was too dangerous for him to go faster. 

He spotted her car outside of the house and parked next to it. He took off his helmet and hung it on the wheel, then plodded towards the entrance. He stuttered to an abrupt halt as the door flung open and Sa Rang came out, holding a bag in one hand. 

Sa Rang’s eyes went wide with surprise that locked her muscles. 

“Before you yell at me and kick me out of here, I’m here because I have something to tell you about Jungkook,” Taehyung was quick to say. He discerned a crease of worry blooming between her brows that puzzled him. He thought she’d be furious by his presence again, but she seemed strangely calm instead. 

Sa Rang pulled herself out of her stillness and shut the door behind her. She neared him slowly, and the crease between her brows deepened as she took in the weariness that waltzed around his face and his haggard eyes. 

“You were right. Jin Mo had given me a mission. That’s why I approached Jungkook. But I finished my mission and cut contact with him. You don’t have to worry anymore.” While he expected to see relief break out on her face, she seemed even more agitated and thoughtful. Her reactions kept baffling him, and he was too exhausted to delve into them. 

“When... did you cut contact with him?” 

“Yesterday.”

Her downcast eyes roamed all over the ground as her shoulders curled inwards. “Is that why my Jungkookie...” 

“What?” Taehyung prompted when she hesitated. 

Sa Rang cast him a faltering look. “His father called me. He told me he’s... weird. Like he’s sad. He’s not talking to anyone. He even refused to go to a crime scene. I was about to visit him, actually.”

“He’s sad?” Taehyung breathed out, feeling his stomach flip with sickening agony. 

Sa Rang nodded. “He hasn’t eaten anything all day. That’s why I cooked for him, hoping he would eat at least something.”

Taehyung turned sideways and looked heavenwards in his attempt to restrain his tears, but he failed miserably, as they had been ready all day to fall. And they did often at the stinging, persistent remembrance of Jungkook. They flowed out of his eyes once again, feeling the bruising stranglehold around his heart tighten. He swiftly wiped his cheeks as he sniffed. “I gotta go.” 

“You seem sad too, Taehyung.”

Her words froze him in his spot, and he stood rigid as if he turned to a stone. “I don’t have the right to be sad.” He choked back the sob that crawled up his throat and caused his voice to crack. “I played him. Although falling for him wasn’t in my plans... I still played him. He will never forgive me if he finds out who I am.”

Sa Rang’s lips parted in startle as her brows set in two high bows. “You’re in love with him?” She perceived his shoulders curve forward and shake as he tucked his face into his hands. She didn’t need an answer; his intensified crying spoke volumes. She approached him and ventured to squeeze his quaky shoulder. “You’re a good man, Taehyung. I now know you’re nothing like Jin Mo. You pushed Jungkook away because you feel guilty, right?” She received jerky nods. “Someone who feels guilty about their actions is a good person in my eyes.”

Taehyung tried to mellow the spate of his cries with a series of deep breaths. He took a tissue out of his pocket and blew his nose, then stuffed it back. “I’m a scumbag who played your son because of a mission. I’m a horrible person.”

“Have you killed anyone?” 

Taehyung didn’t expect the question, but still answered sincerely. “No. Never.”

“So you’re not working for Jin Mo because you enjoy killing people.”

“Of course not.” His face warped into a suspicious frown as he swiveled to face her. He dabbed at his eyes with his sleeves to dry the remains of his tears. “Did Chae Yeon tell you this?”

At the mention of her name, Sa Rang flew into another surprised frenzy as she stared at him moon-eyed. “How do you know about her?”

“It’s a long story. And you should take the food to Jungkook now. Force him to eat, I don’t care. I just want him to eat something.” 

“You’re right. But can we meet again? To be honest, I have my doubts about her lately.”

“You’re working for her, right?”

“I’m her informant, in a way.” 

“I see,” Taehyung uttered. His guess about their relationship was right, thankfully. At least she was just her informant. Although it still didn’t make sense to him how the wife of the chief of police could work for someone like Chae Yeon. “Don’t trust her blindly, Sa Rang-ssi. She’s more dangerous than you think. Give me your phone.” 

She did as she was told, and Taehyung saved his number, then passed the phone back. “Can I call you later today?”

“I’ll be busy. Call me tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

Taehyung sucked his bottom lip between his teeth as he contemplated something, hesitating. He peeked at her, tracing her curious look at once. “Can you let me know if Jungkook ate the food you prepared?”

Sa Rang maintained her silence as she simply observed him. A semblance of a smile lifted the corner of her lips. “You really care about my son.”

He indeed cared more than he thought he would and more than Jungkook would ever know. “I wish I didn’t. But I care more than I can handle. Please take care of him. Because I can’t do that anymore.”

Sa Rang’s eyes saddened at his pain-filled words. How could she ever think that this man was a ruthless killer like Jin Mo? Why did Chae Yeon lie? What else had she lied about? “I will. But someone should take care of you too.”

Taehyung’s features gloomed even more with a mixture of confusion and fond surprise. “Why aren’t you mad at me? I played your son. I lied to him. He’s hurting because of me.”

“Because I know how it is to do things you don’t want because of a mission. You hid your identity from him because you didn’t have a choice. Because you were given these instructions. And you’re hurting too, Taehyung. You’re not proud of what you did. You don’t enjoy knowing that Jungkook is hurting. You hurt twice as much knowing that Jungkook is hurting. Right?”

Taehyung covered his face with his hand to hide the frown of pure devastation that ripped across it. He patted his watery eyes with his sleeve as he nodded. 

“What you did was wrong, but you already know that. That’s why you’re crying so much. Your guilt is too overwhelming. There’s no reason for me to be mad at you because you’re already mad at yourself. You already beat yourself enough. And I’ve also hidden things from him. So I understand how you feel. I understand your guilt. Because I feel it too.”

Just at the thought of how much more devastated Jungkook would be when Sa Rang would reveal her relationship with Chae Yeon to him, Taehyung’s stomach lurched and knotted and dropped fiercer. That man didn’t deserve such betrayal, such pain, and he had already gone through unbearable misery with his hyung’s loss. 

“It’ll break him if he finds out about you and Chae Yeon. So please don’t tell him. He needs you now.”

Sa Rang matched the veil of utter grief that carpeted Taehyung’s features. “I don’t want to tell him that either. But I can’t keep it a secret forever. At some point, I’ll have to tell him the truth. And you should too.” 

Taehyung simply nodded. He knew she was right. It was inevitable. Nothing could stay hidden forever. “We’ll talk again. Don’t forget to text me.”

“Okay. Bye, Taehyung.”

🥀

A mask of lifeless serenity overlay Jungkook’s face since the moment he went to work that disguised the churning of poignancy, bemusement, and mayhem that was rushing all through his blood and bones like a ruinous torrent. 

His mind was a vacant pitfall that couldn’t retain any information. It could only dredge up the image of Taehyung and the inflictive words he hurled at him.

It felt like he were steeped in a cesspool of incomprehension, and maybe that was what pained him the most. What happened so suddenly? Except for the awkward moment they had in Daegu, everything was fine between them. And Taehyung seemed normal when he came to the station. What the hell changed overnight? How could Taehyung’s feelings and behavior towards him change overnight?

A dreadful realization had bolted to settle over his existence when Taehyung left him all alone yesterday. It struck him like a scalding knife, wringing his consciousness savagely. 

His heart craved Taehyung in a way it never craved anything before. Not just his company, not just the sex. It simply, achingly, longed for him. 

That realization gradually brought more and more long-buried awakenings. That was the reason he couldn’t banish him from his mind when he had broken off their deal. The reason he became so livid when that disgusting man had groped him at the bar. The reason he couldn’t let himself surrender to Taehyung’s offer to have sex with him again. If he had, all the feelings would have bulldozed their way out of their confinements and drowned him. 

He constantly, cruelly denied his feelings because they were so unfamiliar to him. But they eventually broke loose all on their own and he was incapable of leasing them again. 

He liked Taehyung. And Taehyung had crushed his feelings before he could even know about them. 

The remembrance of the footage, which he still hadn’t deleted, penetrated his misery. With his team members absent from the office because of a report, he lifted his burdened body from his seat, but his mother’s presence at the door held him immobile. He identified the worry swirling in her eyes and looked away from it. “How long have you been there?”

Sa Rang had iced up upon detecting her son’s sunken expression, despite the facade of apathy he wore. “Jungkookie...” she uttered as she finally found the courage to near him. “I brought you something to eat. It’s your favorite. Samgyeopsal.”

Jungkook caught with the corner of his eye his mother placing a bag on the desk. The thought of eating roused a nauseating tangle in his stomach since he woke up and it hadn’t abated in the slightest. “I’m not hungry. Take that away.”

Dejection toppled over Sa Rang like a tide, but a branch of hope managed to survive. “Come on, Jungkookie. Just a bite is enough. Please? You’ll collapse if you continue like this.”

“I can’t eat,” he stressed on every word as exasperation crinkled his forehead. His cruel eyes sliced through her, his jaw impossibly clenched in his effort to constrain the lurking wave of tears. “I can’t. I’m not doing this for attention. I’m not a fucking kid. I really can’t eat. So if you don’t want me to puke, take that away.”

His words obliterated any last trace of hope, leaving Sa Rang at a loss about what to do. She reluctantly grabbed the bag as she gazed at him through crestfallen eyes. “Whatever is going on won’t last forever. You just have to be strong until it ends. I respect you don’t want to eat. But tomorrow I won’t. Even when you’re in pain, you have to take care of yourself.”

Jungkook saw her close the gap between them and jerked back, raising an obstructive hand. He couldn’t accept her hug. He would melt down in an instant and the tears wouldn’t stop. “Just leave,” he muttered and wilted on his chair. 

Sa Rang’s chest ached again hard enough for her vision to blur with stinging tears. “I love you, Jungkook. Don’t ever forget that.”

Jungkook angled his head away as the wetness in his eyes leaked out immediately at her words. When he heard her steps becoming more distant, he threw a hand over his eyes and shook with suppressed sobs. 

God, it was ridiculous, he thought. He was crying over a man. He never imagined he would find himself in such a misery because of a man. 

The attempts of his friends to comfort him or make him tell them what exactly happened were futile. He could only tell them he fought with Taehyung, because to be honest, he didn’t know how else to explain this. He didn’t know what was wrong, why this happened, why Taehyung acted this way. So how could he explain it to them? 

At the end of his work, he resulted in what always alleviated his distress; alcohol. Derin — the bartender — could perceive he wasn’t in a good mood at first glance, so he didn’t deny him his request for fifteen tequila shots. 

With the shots lined up in front of him, Jungkook pulled his phone out of his pocket and placed it on the counter. He tapped on his messages and opened his conversation with Taehyung. 

Jungkook: Can we talk?

And he began drinking. For every two minutes that passed and he didn’t receive an answer, he drank a shot. At his seventh shot, though, a mild dizziness perforated his clarity already. Drinking on an empty stomach was a terrible idea, but he didn’t really care. He needed it. Needed to forget even for a few seconds. 

He rested his forehead against the cold counter. His lethargic arms that were hanging between his legs only regained life when he reached for his eighth shot. 

Derin’s eyes fell on him as he finished serving a customer and his brows bumped together. “Yah.” He nudged his shoulder. “Are you drunk already?”

“I’m fine.”

“You don’t sound fine.”

With a spurt of aggression, Jungkook pounded his fist against the side of the counter, earning bewildered looks from the people close to him. “I’m fine.”

Derin stared, taken aback. He had seen Jungkook’s awful mood countless times over the last three years, but it was the first time to see him so wrecked. “Okay. Just... don’t break my counter.”

Jungkook guzzled another shot. He peeked at his phone as he was about to lay his head on the counter again, but he glaciated. Taehyung had answered. And upon reading his text, he gulped down the remaining shots one after the other. 

Taehyung: I’m busy

A fog of giddiness cloaked his senses soon that caused the room to spin. He dropped his forehead on the counter and shut his eyes, instantly feeling a hot dampness dribble down his cheeks. 

Incoherent words just gushed and tumbled from his lips, random bursts of bitter fury impelled him to bang the counter, and his inebriated condition led him to send drunk texts to Taehyung that made absolutely no sense. 

That was until Derin couldn’t watch him anymore. He often heard Jungkook murmur ‘hyung’ and called Namjoon, as he knew he was his partner and the closest to him. 

 
It wasn’t long before Namjoon slammed into the bar and frantically searched for his dongsaeng. He noticed Derin signal him to near him, and he did as he also spotted Jungkook. “Thanks for calling.”

“He keeps saying ‘hyung’ and I figured he means you.”

Namjoon released a deep sigh as he observed Jungkook’s miserable status. “He didn’t cause you any trouble, right?”

“Well, he bangs the counter every now and then and scares the shit out of me, but other than that, he’s behaving tonight.”

Namjoon closed his eyes for a moment in frustration, another sigh escaping him. “Kook? Let’s go. Hyung is here.” He curled an arm around his torso to lift him, but wrinkles of utter confusion bombarded his forehead when Jungkook tamely jostled him. 

“You’re not hyung.”

“Of course I am. Let’s go.” 

“No. You’re not Taehyung hyung.”

Namjoon regarded him with the same, if not more intense, bafflement as before. “W-What?” 

“I want to see Taehyungie hyung. I want a fucking explanation!” He suddenly roared as he smacked his palm on the counter. “That fucker. How can he throw me away like this? After everything...”

Namjoon rubbed his back in soothing circles. “You can talk to him again tomorrow, Kook. I’m sure things will return to normal. You can’t stay away from each other, anyway.”

A bitterness-filled chuckle leaped from Jungkook’s lungs. “He can, apparently. He doesn’t care, apparently. We mean nothing to each other, apparently. He’s a fucking liar.”

“Don’t say that. I’m sure even if you text him now to meet you, he’ll come.”

“Oh, yeah?” Jungkook slurred, letting out another crazed snicker. “Why don’t we try, hmm?” He straightened his posture and reached for his phone. 

Namjoon inspected him as he squinted at the screen and blinked, clearly struggling to do what he wanted. With a throaty exhalation, he snatched the phone out of his hold. “Let me text him.” It was easy to locate his conversation with Taehyung, and the moment he tapped it, his eyes bulged. “What the fuck, Jungkook?” He slid his finger down the screen, reviewing the bunch of messages he had already sent him over the last two hours. As he scrolled further up, his messages became more coherent and complete, until he spotted the first message he had sent him. 

Namjoon locked the phone and left it on the counter. “That’s why you got hammered? Because he said he was busy? What if he really is?”

“Bullshit,” he spat out with an edge of sourness. “I bet he’s home right now, doing fucking nothing.”

Namjoon felt a bubble of annoyance braise in his gut at the thought of Taehyung ignoring him suddenly. Although he knew it wasn’t his business — Taehyung must have his reasons — he couldn’t rid himself of that gnawing itch. And so he took out his phone and called him as he slunk away so he wouldn’t be heard by Jungkook. 

It rang for a while, making him think he wouldn’t pick up. But he did.

“Yes?”

“Taehyung. Where are you?”

“Why?”

“Can you come check on Jungkook? He’s not talking to me and he’s wasted.”

Taehyung didn’t reply for a spell. “I can’t.”

“What? Tae, he needs you.” Namjoon heard cackles through the phone and distant voices that quieted seconds later. “Are you out?”

“Yes. I can’t come.”

Namjoon pressed his lips into a thin line, letting silence overtake them for a while. “After everything he did for you... you can’t spare a few minutes to check on him?” It was wrong of him to say that, and he knew it. It was wrong to try to make Taehyung feel guilty so he would agree to check on him. But he couldn’t see his dongsaeng like that. 

“I’m sorry,” Taehyung breathed out and hung up. He swallowed the stifling lump in his throat as he watched Namjoon drop his hand and head dejectedly through the window of the bar. And the tears he so much strove to hold back flooded out of his eyes when Namjoon returned to Jungkook and embraced him tightly to comfort him for the pain he had caused.

Namjoon drew back from the hug and passed him a napkin, knowing he was silently crying. 

Jungkook dried his wet cheeks and blew his nose. He fixed his slumped posture and dumped the used napkin into an ashtray. He twisted his head to look at Namjoon, but his eyes traveled behind him and popped at once. 

“Tae? Tae. It’s Taehyung,” he babbled as he hopped off the stool. 

“Jungkook? Where are you going?” Namjoon gripped his biceps, but he yanked his hand away. 

Jungkook discerned his figure sliding out of his sight, and he started running clumsily, almost tripping over his feet. He chanted his name as he burst out of the bar and continued dashing to the right, where he located Taehyung scurrying away. “Tae! Taehyung.”

The said man slowed to a stop. He swiftly brushed his cheeks and sniffled. He didn’t dare to face him. Why the hell was he even there? He had ended it as he should. But why was his heart sobbing and howling for Jungkook continuously?

“Tae.” Jungkook watched him anxiously. For a moment, he thought he was dreaming or seeing things because of his inebriated state. But Taehyung was indeed in front of him. He could still recognize his back, even when his mind was reeling with the alcohol. “You came.”

Taehyung swallowed — a failed attempt to disperse the new burning constriction in his throat. “I was just passing by. I didn’t know you were here.”

Jungkook’s body twitched and jolted forward in need to embrace him. He stopped himself before he could touch him, as the thought of Taehyung pushing him away again was too harrowing to bear. “Can we... I don’t know. Something. Talk? Just sit somewhere together?”

Taehyung sniffled again. His features were tight in their exertion to conceal his devastation. “Let’s go eat something. But I can’t stay long.”

“I don’t want to eat, Tae. I want...” You. “I want to see you. Hug you. Can I?” 

Taehyung knew the moment he would look at him, the crumbling floodgates fencing in the deluge of his tears would shatter. So he kept his back turned to him, his shoulders slouching with despair. “No. Either we eat something or I’m leaving.”

Jungkook detected that the harshness coiling his words was shaky by a tinge of sorrow. He couldn’t understand why Taehyung was acting like this. Clearly, it pained him too. Then why did he try so hard to throw him away? “Why are you doing this to me, Tae? Did I do something? Are you mad at me? Tell me what I did wrong and I promise I’ll make it right. Just don’t be so cruel. I don’t know what I did so I can’t fix it.”

“You didn’t do anything,” Taehyung uttered, voice wrecked and hushed with agony. He cleared his throat in his attempt to restore its strength. “I told you, things just change. I gotta go.” 

“Wait,” Jungkook rushed to say as he reached out to stop him. His hand lingered in the air when Taehyung halted, inches away from his shoulder. He curled his fingers into a fist and lowered it. “Fine. Let’s go eat.”

Taehyung eyed the options in his range of vision and headed off to a small restaurant that was a few meters away. He didn’t glance back to check if Jungkook was following him. He entered the restaurant soon and located several empty tables. He shuffled towards the one at the back and sat, keeping his head bowed. 

Jungkook sank down on the chair across from him. He could easily espy the forced sharpness on his traits and a mist of gloom in his eyes, even if Taehyung still didn’t meet his gaze. So many things to say flitted through his head and hovered on the tip of his tongue, but nothing could come out. He was too afraid of his responses, like his heart would tear to shreds if Taehyung said something harsh again. 

Jungkook only removed his gaze from him when the server stopped by their table to take their order. “I would like japchae.”

“Same. And a serving of jjajangmyeon,” Taehyung added. 

“Anything to drink?”

“A soj—” 

“Just water, thank you,” Taehyung cut in and sent a smile to the server that dropped the moment he left. 

Silence fell like piled-up snow over them again. But Jungkook didn’t allow it to last for long. “Tae. Why are you sad?”

“I’m not.”

“Why can’t you look at me?”

“Just...” Taehyung faltered, downcast eyes swimming all over the table. “There’s no reason to do it.”

Jungkook’s wrenching frustration tugged a sigh out of him. “Can you please tell me why we are like this? Help me understand because I really... I can’t take this anymore.”

There it was again. That desperation in his voice that clawed at Taehyung’s heart pitilessly. “I just don’t feel that close to you anymore. I don’t know what changed either. But it’s not your fault, okay?”

Jungkook’s features twisted with bursts of sadness. “How can I—” His need to swallow overtook him as a suffocating heaviness rose up his throat. “How can I fix it? How can I make you feel close to me again? I’ll do anything.”

“Jungkook. Think for a moment what I was to you. I was a stranger. I became your informant. Then your friend. I was just a mere friend to you. Is there really a reason for you to try so hard to fix something that’s not even in your hands?”

Jungkook withdrew behind a wall of silence for so long their food even came. No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t pinpoint what Taehyung was to him, but he was definitely much more than just a mere friend. His heart ached for him. He couldn’t be just a mere friend. 

“Eat now,” Taehyung said as he grabbed his chopsticks. He slid the serving of jjajangmyeon to Jungkook, still not making eye contact. 

Jungkook’s eyes seesawed listlessly between his face and the plate he just pushed to him. “You ordered this for me?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t even want to eat my japchae, Taehyung. I can’t eat this.”

“You can. And you will.” Taehyung stirred his food and forcibly took a bite. His stomach felt too heavy, even though he barely ate anything all day. 

“Why do you want to make me eat this? Why did you even suggest eating together when you can’t even look at me?”

Taehyung’s hand twitched to a stop as he was about to eat another bite, but only for a second. He stuffed his mouth and chewed slowly, hoping he wouldn’t vomit. “Eat. Even if you don’t want to. Just eat.”

Jungkook could see his struggle to swallow his food. As if he were there eating just because he wanted Jungkook to eat. “Are you doing this because you know I haven’t eaten anything all day?”

Taehyung guzzled half of his water. “How would I know that?”

“Yeah,” Jungkook whispered, scrutinizing his impassive countenance. “How do you know that?”

“I don’t.” 

“Then why—” Jungkook piped down at once as Taehyung slammed his chopsticks on the table. 

“Can you shut up and let me eat in peace?” he spat out in a low growl. “Just eat your damn food.”

Jungkook gazed at him with an incremental sorrow that festered and burned in bitter exasperation. “Fuck it. Fuck you. I prefer drinking than having you talking to me like this.” He jerked up and turned to the exit. 

“Then drink here,” Taehyung said before he could leave. “Drink all you fucking want. But eat first.”

“Why are you pretending to care about me now?” Jungkook snarled, spinning around to face him. “I’m nothing to you, anyway, right?”

“That doesn’t mean I want you to starve yourself or I want something bad to happen to you.” Taehyung’s voice floated in a quiet timbre, his eyes now fighting to stay away from Jungkook’s face. 

“You’re the reason I can’t fucking eat, though. You’re the reason I want to drink until I don’t know who I am anymore.” 

“Yeah, I am. And you can hate me all you want. After you eat.”

“I can’t because I feel like puking,” Jungkook gritted out as he leaned over the table and crouched in search of his gaze.

And Taehyung made the mistake of letting his vision rise. The aching sheen varnishing Jungkook’s eyes caused his own to prickle with tears. But Jungkook’s were the first to fall. 

“You made me care and now you act like you don’t want to see me anymore. It fucking hurts. It hurts so sickeningly I can’t even eat.” Jungkook pulled back, pinning Taehyung with his vicious gaze. His face was contorted and savage beneath the trickling tears, which he didn’t bother to wipe away. “And I know it hurts you just as much. You’re forcing yourself to eat. You were crying, and you’re about to cry again. When you’re ready to tell me what the hell is going on, come find me.”

Taehyung’s cheeks got drenched as he regarded Jungkook trudge out of the restaurant. He had caused him such immense agony with his lies. He made him cry again. And the most devastating part of all this, what truly slashed through Taehyung’s chest and wrung his heart, was that Jungkook didn’t even eat a bite of his food. 

───⭒───༺🌑༻───⭒───