❦ chapter ³⁵ ❦

jungkook sat in his bedroom on the soft bed, typing something in his phone. a wide smile was spread across his lips.

__________________○___________________
1:34p.m.
minseok

minseok
I told her about you
and she thought
you were my boyfriend 😂

jungkook
lol, you told her we're not
a thing right?

minseok
of course,
but she didnt believe me
and decided to bake you
some cakes and sweets to
show that she likes you being
with me and shit

you know how grandmothers are

jungkook
I'd never say no to cakes
and sweets!
when are you coming back?

minseok
in two days?
maybe tomorrow?

jungkook
okay, take your time
dont hurry.
you know, make sure you've packed
everything and stuff

minseok
awh and I thought
you'd say you miss me :")

jungkook
I miss you, buddy 🦔

minseok
is that a hedgehog-

______________________________________

"who are you typing to??"
jungkook jumped from the sudden surprisement and ended up falling off the bed.
taehyung walked up to the younger and helped him up.
"sorry for scaring you." he chuckled.

"uh. yeah. it's okay." jungkook panicked and searched for his phone that fell along with him and got lost somewhere on the floor.
jungkook sat on the floor and bent down to look under the bed.

"so who were you typing to?" jungkook looked up at taehyung and practically froze, seeing as taehyung was holding up jungkook's phone in his hand.

"no!! dont look! give it back!" jungkook jumped up and around taehyung trying to take his phone back.

"what? why?" taehyung stopped and furrowed his eyebrows as he looked sternly at jungkook.

"uh, privacy? ever heard of her?" jungkook replied, raising one of his eyebrows up.

taehyung was holding jungkook's phone up in the air as he stared into jungkook's eyes. even though taehyung was only a couple centimeters higher than jungkook, the younger still wasn't able to reach his gadget.

"I respect privacy, but not too much." taehyung said and jungkook scoffed at his words. "but I have the right to get jealous, you know. looks like you were typing to someone special to you. a boyfriend I dont know about?"

"he is not my boyfriend." jungkook mumbled.

"oh, not your boyfriend? then who? now i feel like I really must see who you were typing to..." taehyung brought the phone down and jungkook quickly covered the screen with his hand.

"no!! stop!!" he yelled.

"just tell me who it is! I swear to god, if it's that jackson guy... is it?? is it jackson or who else was there? yugyeom??"

"its nobody! taehyung just- can i- ugh!" jungkook shouted in frustration and threw his head back.

"I dont believe you." taehyung said calmly and turned on the screen on jungkook's phone. panic attacked jungkook, his insides were burning, heart was pounding out of his chest.
he cant find out about minseok, no matter what.

taehyung was about to click the notification button, but before he could -

"kim seokjin."

taehyung's playful smile faded away in seconds. he completely forgot about their little arguement and glanced over at jungkook, stunned and confused at the same time.

"did I just hear you correctly?" taehyung asked quietly.

"there is something you need to know, taehyung." jungkook stated firmly.

"yeah I bet I do." taehyung placed jungkook's phone on the nightstand and sat on the bed, gesturing jungkook to do the same.

a wave of relief hit jungkook, as he saw that his phone was safe from taehyung once again.
he exhaled and sat down next to the elder.

"seokjin he... he didnt die in the fire." jungkook spoke softly and slowly, trying to make the new intake of the information for taehyung settle as calm as possible.

"h-how do you know about jin? and the fire?"

"you see, that day - the day of the fire - seokjin was saved by one of our men and brought to our gang building. he didnt die in that fire, he is alive."

"so you knew all this time and didnt tell me?"

"not really. i found out about him not so long ago. just recently my boss introduced him to me as a secret employee that works for our gang and-"

"bastard."

"he is there against his will, taehyung." jungkook looked over at the elder sternly. "basically, that day we met, he begged me to tell namjoon that he is still alive. he can't leave our building, he is absolutely powerless in the hands of my boss.
and I am here, so that you can tell namjoon about his husband being alive, he must know this." jungkook remarked quietly. "I dont really know how things will be after this, though. I dont know how to save him and not end up betraying the people around us..."

a silence filled up the room and jungkook waited, knowing taehyung needed a minute to let all of that settle in.

"so you know now?" taehyung asked, averting his gaze away from jungkook.

"what exactly?"

"everything. about the fire, about me, about namjoon and jin."

"I do know that you started the fire-" taehyung visibly tensed and jungkook bit his lip nervously. " I know that jin and namjoon are married a-and I know that you and namjoon are ... brothers."

"fucking shit." taehyung mumbled.

"look, taehyung I am sorry if this is too personal, I.. I understand that we are gang members and we must keep any and all information about our lives a secret, but I'd really appreciate if you'd tell me why you started the fire... because, if namjoon is your brother and jin and him were trying to save namjoons father ... that means he was your father as well.
did you ... did you kill your own father?"

"shut up." taehyung's voice came out weaker than it had intended to. he looked down and tried blinking away the tears.

"do you at least regret it or-"

"I said-" taehyung's tear filled eyes glanced up into jungkook's. "s-shut .... up." his voice was muffled by the crying so much, the 'up' ended up coming out completely silent.

jungkook moved up to the crying boy, who had his head down in the pillows. he hugged the elder from the back, circling his arms around taehyung's waist that twitched from time to time from the sobs.

there must have been some fight between taehyung and namjoon. jungkook thought. if he did kill his father, it might have been done only to break namjoon. unless taehyung really is as heartless as he says he is.

"I hope you make the right decision." jungkook whispered while comforting the elder.

❦