¢нαρтєя 17
«ωну αяє уσυ ѕσ ¢σℓ∂?»
❦

"I have to see jeon jungkook." taehyung stood near the malgeun pi gang gate doors, waiting for the guards to let him in.

"you don't seem to have an appointment." one of the men said.

"I don't, I told you, but this is urgent!" taehyung pleaded.

"we are not allowed to let any geomeun gang members in until the peace contract is signed."

"gosh, are you serious? I'm not even in charge of that contract, I came here to see jungkook, I must talk to him!" taehyung tried running through, but was immediately caught. he has been here for over two hours, but still no progress was made.

"no."

taehyung exhaled and turned around, walking down the stairs.

"yah, elevator boy!"
taehyung heard a familiar voice and turned around, only to see jimin exit the building.
he was wearing a simple white dress shirt with leather jeans and sunglasses. his ash blonde hair got slightly blown to the sides by the wind.
"what are you doing here?"

"my name is taehyung." he said. "I came here to see jungkook."

"oh-" jimin stopped. "how did you know he's alive?"

"he came to me yesterday... and told me everything." taehyung walked up to the elder. "jimin, please let me see jungkook. I must talk to him, where is he?"

"that's a good question to which I don't know the answer." jimin replied. "he hasn't been at work today."

"oh..."

"in any case, nobody would let you in the building... but if the peace contract is signed..."

"you know, you sound very suspicious." taehyung remarked. "you're so desperate for the contract to be signed... it's weird."

"listen, we are not desperate, we're frustrated." jimin explained. "we've been at it for a year, it's getting boring hearing yoongs deny every time."

"he has trust issues."

"figured so." jimin licked his lips before getting out the keys to his car. "anyways, I have places to be at. i suggest you leave before you get shot... accidentally or not. I'm surprised you're still alive after being so close to your rival gang for so long."

"I mean... we're not allowed to have any encounters according to the pre-contract signing agreements." taehyung gulped and looked around, trying to spot anybody suspicious.

"gosh, just leave." jimin got into his car and drove off.

taehyung exhaled loudly and sat down on the curb. he let his head fall into his arms as he closed his eyes thinking of ways to see jungkook once again.
it seemed that taehyung was the only one who knew about jungkook being alive... he wondered if this would be revealed to the rest of the geomeun gang after the peace contract is signed, and how will everyone react.
taehyung sensed a weird presence next to him and lifted his head. he looked up, but squinted immediately from the bright sunlight hitting his eyes. he couldn't see the stranger beside him.

"why are you here?"
taehyung instantly jumped to his feet, after hearing jungkook's voice.

"jungkook!" taehyung grabbed onto his shoulders. "I came here to talk to you, please hear me out i—"

"gosh, I don't wanna hear it." jungkook pushed taehyung's hands away and started walking towards the gang building.

"jungkook I beg you!" taehyung ran after the younger.

"get lost." jungkook stopped. "I am tired of you."

"jungkook, you can't just come out of nowhere, tell me you've been alive and well all this time, and disappear once again!"

"who said I've been well?" jungkook turned his head to taehyung. "do I look like I've been well? scratch that, I know I look good regardless, but I just hide my emotions, you know that."

"all I want to do is talk to you." taehyung begged. "I am not even asking you to forgive me... I just want to talk to you, jungkook, you have no idea how much I missed you."

"I don't want to know." he started walking again as taehyung felt tears prickle his eyes.
he wiped them away.

"you know what I regret the most!?" he yelled to the younger as he watched him move further away. "not telling you how I felt earlier. in fact, I regret everything... everything I have done was so wrong and stupid."
jungkook stopped.
"if only I could, I'd reset and start all over again. there are so many things I regret in my life that sometimes I wonder if I'm even worth living. I wonder if we were accidentally mixed up and I was the one who should've been stabbed... except I wouldn't have survived.
but I can't just reset. I can't undo the things I've already done. I want to fix them and make better choices instead."

"you failed making good choices a long time ago. you're gonna try again now?" jungkook said. "give up."

"give me a second chance." taehyung exhaled. "it's all I'm asking for."

jungkook locked eyes with taehyung for a moment and turned back around, walking away.

"goodness, jungkook, why are you so cold to me???" taehyung cried.

"what's left between us except coldness?" jungkook gave taehyung another glance and left.

taehyung watched jungkook walk away and stood there, not being able to move. jungkook wasn't that heartless... he used to hide it, but he was somebody who'd listen and forgive, give a second chance. taehyung thought it was all his fault – because of what he has done, jungkook changed.
of course... he's pretty much been traumatized.

'give up'? taehyung didn't want to give up. out of all things, giving up on jungkook wasn't on his 'to do' list. no matter how emotionally burnt out taehyung felt, he took a deep breath and left for his own gang building, deciding to give the entire situation a deeper thought.

❦

"why are you putting yourself out here? you hurt my eyes. stay in the archives, whore." minseok told taehyung whom he accidentally met on the street, in the area near their gang building.

"I didn't ask you to make my day worse." taehyung mumbled, trying to walk away.

"bad day? don't sweat it, jungkook will come around one day." minseok chuckled darkly and tae abruptly stopped.

"wh-what...? how did you-" taehyung looked at minseok in pure confusion. "how on earth did you find out about him being alive? I thought I was the only one!"

"you're not special." minseok said. "I knew about it much earlier."

taehyung frowned thinking that minseok and jungkook still had something going on between them. did jungkook tell minseok first? why?

"why does he even talk to you... you betrayed him." taehyung remarked.

"we haven't talked ever since the day you stabbed him... I'm not even sure we talked that day, actually." minseok said. "sometimes I wish I could go back in time to see the look on yours and jungkook's face when you finally found out about everything."

"sometimes I wish jungkook would've killed you that day in the hotel." taehyung mumbled.
"what are doing here, being a part of a gang? you're an aspiring actor." tae rolled his eyes.

"and I'd like to know why you're here instead of the archives?"

"am I not allowed to walk on the streets? apart from that, I'm here trying to find out what shit you've been hiding." taehyung grabbed minseok by the collar and pushed him against some wall as they entered an alleyway.
minseok stumbled but regained his posture and gripped taehyung's arm, pushing him down onto the ground.

"if you stay out of my business, I just might spare you and not kill you today." minseok spat.

"I rather die than live on the same planet as you." he stood up and wiped the dirt off himself. he gave minseok a dirty look, but decided he wasn't worth his time. taehyung had things to do, so he silently turned around, going past minseok.
he barely walked two steps before he felt himself get dragged and thrown against the wall.
"listen up, kim." minseok looked taehyung dead in the eyes. "I don't know what you know about me, I don't want to know. but you better keep your mouth shut if you want to see jungkook alive."

"don't bring jungkook into this, and don't even think about laying your finger on him." taehyung spoke quietly. "I'm letting you bring me down, but not jungkook."

"oh but I don't think you decide on what I wanna do." he muttered. "but yours actions may influence mine."

"I don't know what's going on in your sick head, neither do I know what you're hiding, but like I've said before, I'm planning on finding that out." taehyung smirked. "things won't be easy for you once everyone finds out your true identity."

"actually, taehyungie, things won't be easy for you... and everyone else here."

"I can't believe yoongi believes you're an innocent angel, while you're actually a hypocritical sewer rat."

minseok's fingers traced taehyung's jaw before punching him in the face. taehyung stumbled, but decided that this time, he won't let himself get beaten up like all those times before.
taehyung smirked and kicked minseok in the stomach with his foot, using all his force. minseok fell onto the ground.
taehyung came up to him, after hearing weird sounds, he thought minseok was crying... but instead he was laughing.

"what the fuck is wrong with you?" taehyung watched minseok laugh hysterically before practically flying up back to his feet and slapping taehyung across the face out of nowhere.
by hitting the same place twice, a little blood was already trickling down taehyung's cheek.

"are you insane?"
and here it was again, the same devil-like voice that minseok had the day he beat up taehyung in the building.

"look at yourself, which one of us is the insane one?" taehyung whispered to himself, but minseok must've heard it.
he started kicking taehyung in the stomach and all over the place with his feet. taehyung was lying on the ground, trying to defend himself. his arms covered his head as he curled into a ball.
he tried escaping, but minseok grabbed his hair, pulling on it. he threw taehyung against the wall and taehyung felt the side of his head come into impact with the brick wall.
the sound it made wasn't a pleasant one and taehyung only hoped his skull didn't split open, as he slid down onto the cold ground beneath him.

"do you not learn?" minseok gritted through his teeth, his eye twitching from time to time. "this was the second time. I don't promise to keep you alive the third one."

he gave taehyung one last kick in the stomach before walking away. taehyung had no strength to cry out for help or to reach for his phone to call somebody. his vision slowly got blurrier and blurrier...

"oh my goodness... taehyung..."

taehyung felt arms wrap around his aching body.
he couldn't open his eyes, everything was slowly going black.
"j-jungkook...?"

❦