Fifty-Third
: Chapter Fifty-Three:

     "Jeongguk!" Taehyung called out, walking down the hall. He could see the aforementioned's back getting further from him.

He needed to catch up to him and tell him the great news. It still didn't feel too great but this is what needed to happen. This was the whole point; the whole plan.

     As he was heading down the hall, he had passed by Hoseok and Namjoon, not even realizing it was them he passed by. He had his focus on one person and that person was, "Jeongguk! Slow down!"

     "Taehyung?" Namjoon cocked a brow, lips curling down but in confusion. He watched his friend pass by him without a second glance, continuing his way down the hall.

"When— Wait, did I miss something?" Wondered Namjoon who slowly looked back towards Hoseok. He was a bit baffled to say the least. Taehyung's words didn't sound harsh nor cruel. He just sounded like he genuinely wanted to catch up with Jeongguk which was the confusing part of this all.

     "Uh," Hoseok parted his lips, beginning to shake his head. He met eyes with Namjoon, lamely shrugging. "Not that I know." He lied.

It must've been believable enough because Namjoon didn't say anything else. He just looked down the hall one last time before returning to what he was doing.

Taehyung caught up to Jeongguk, grabbing his arm and pulling to make him stop.

It took the younger by surprise, looking back at Taehyung. The moment his eyes met the elder, he hid away his surprise, turning his face flat. He didn't want to do this, not now. He was so bored and done with whatever was going on. At least for now until Taehyung could pick himself up.

"I did it," Said the older boy, no hesitation in his voice.

Jeongguk frowned, confusion now showing through his bland look. "What?" He asked, not sure he understood what Taehyung was talking about. That or he wanted the boy to say exactly what he meant instead of insinuating such.

     "I did it," Repeated Taehyung. "I broke up with her." He clarified, swallowing thickly. "So . . ."

"So? Are you proud of that?" Jeongguk cocked a brow, shaking off Taehyung's hand which was on his arm until now. "We'll talk about this later, Kim. I'm not in the mood." It wasn't mean but it definitely wasn't what Taehyung was expecting.

He was expecting a smile at the least. He thought Jeongguk would be happy but they both had pissed off one another and it only made sense Jeongguk still upset. A few words could only fix so much so many times.

     Taehyung tried to hide his disappointment with a nod, holding the eye contact with the boy in front of him.

Jeongguk just weakly shared a smile before he turned and walked away, not wanting to stand there for much longer. The smile was meant to be reassuring in the least but it felt way too frail to be considered such.

Taehyung knew he couldn't just waltz over to the younger and expect everything to be all great with just a few words. He wished it went that well but he knew better.

     "Hey," Taehyung jumped from his swarming thoughts, being startled by Hoseok who had his hand placed carefully on the younger's shoulder. "Good?" He asked vaguely but Taehyung knew what he was asking.

He just shrugged, sparing a glance over before looking at Jeongguk disappear down the hallway. "Don't know." He uttered after a moment of silence.

"Just give it a breather. You can talk to me about it if you need to vent but we need to head to class." Hoseok dropped his hand, his look of concern still standing.

"Sure," Taehyung said and turned with his friend to get going. Like Hoseok mentioned, they'll just give it a breather. Let it air out. The tension's just high.

***

     "Wow, you two are really over?" Hoseok asked after hearing the whole story. "I don't know why that surprises me. I knew you two were going to end, ya know, because of Jeongguk but I'm shocked you actually did it."

"Cause I have stupid feelings for the dude and . . . I don't know, they just grow." Taehyung felt guilt across the board. Jihyun was a sweetheart and she definitely deserved better than Taehyung.

He just lost his feelings for her and had his heart tugged away into Jeongguk's arms. He had his heart tangled in all types of strings.

"What exactly did he say? Just that you two were going to talk later?" Hoseok wondered, setting his bag on the bench. He began to search for his baseball equipment for practice.

"Yeah, just that." Taehyung nodded, having his pitcher's glove out and already on his hand. He needed a distraction to take his mind away from the entirety of what was called their situation.

Hoseok hummed in response, letting all of what Taehyung told him fall into place.

     "You know the drill, boys," Started the Coach. "Run your lap and get straight to your warmups. We don't have time to joke around." He added on, dismissing his team to start their lap.

Taehyung sighed to himself, looking down briefly before he began his lap. He trailed behind the rest of the team who weren't far ahead of him.

     "Man, where's Jeongguk? Isn't he usually here by now?" Minji wondered, capturing Taehyung's attention.

"Eh, he doesn't have to be here. Maybe he found better things to do with his life." Leehyun replied, smoothing his hair back. "I miss him though."

"Yeah, he's fun." Minji had said. It seemed a bit more passive than intended. It seemed like Minji didn't think Taehyung was fun but not many did. It wouldn't have surprised him.

Taehyung was just a bit more serious. Or, as Jeongguk would've said, uptight about it. So much for distracting.

     The team did their lap and jumped into their practice. They all did their typical starts, tossing the ball back and forth by just a flick before they would step back and use more of their arms.

Hoseok partnered up with Taehyung, working his glove over his left hand. Taehyung just held the ball, staring over at the school.

He noticed a figure and felt his heart skip a beat. The black-haired teen walking out of the doors while pushing earbuds into his ears.

Jeongguk didn't even bother looking down at the field, he just kept his eyes forward. He had his hair tossed in a few directions, looking effortless but styled perfectly. At least that's what Taehyung thought.

It was just a shame that he continued to go past the field, clearly avoiding contact as he went along. Taehyung understood as much as he didn't want to.

You can only push someone back for so long until they just feel fed up. Not that Jeongguk did feel as such but he probably needed some space. A few hours wasn't enough airing out.

But fuck that.

     Taehyung could hear Hoseok faintly, his attention locked on Jeongguk who was probably swiping away at songs on his phone.

He didn't even apply a thought to his actions, all he knew was he was taking his mitt off and tossing it down along with the baseball.

He cut through his teammates and started his journey to where Jeongguk was, seeing as the aforementioned was only getting further away.

So, that being in mind, his steady walk turned into a light jog, then into a mild run, and sooner or later, he was sprinting to catch up to the black-haired teenager who was clueless.

Taehyung could hear his Coach calling out to him but right now it felt like he needed to get to Jeongguk. He didn't even know why, he wouldn't know what to say, what to do, all he understood was getting to Jeongguk.

     Jeongguk must've felt someone creeping up on him because he had turned back to look, halting in his tracks. He did that just in time for Taehyung to run right into him, both teens falling onto the floor, each letting out a grunt.

     "Dude? What the fuck?" Jeongguk winced, his phone somewhere on the sidewalk. He did keep Taehyung on top of him though, holding onto him and not allowing him to touch the ground.

"Jeongguk, come on, stop." Taehyung pushed up, pulling the younger up into a sitting-position.

"Stop what? What am I stopping?" He asked, subconsciously keeping ahold of Taehyung's hands.

"Stop avoiding me. Let's talk about it all." Taehyung grumped, brows pulled together. "I don't like feeling like this."

"You want to talk about it right here? Right now? Don't you have practice to get to?" Jeongguk wondered, frowning a bit.

The elder looked down before he looked back at Jeongguk, shaking his head. "I really want this to work, Jeongguk. I like you, okay? I'm pretty sure you know that. I told you I broke up with her."

Jeongguk stared at Taehyung for a moment, the frown appearing to be never ending though lacking clear emotions.

The elder couldn't decipher what Jeongguk's face read, just that he utterly seemed unsure on what to say exactly.

Nevertheless, he blinked and began to speak, still configuring his thoughts into words.

     "Tae, I said we'll talk about it, okay?" He nodded, slowly releasing the boy and pushing up to his feet, dusting off his bottoms.

The blond-haired teen looked up at Jeongguk, still on the sidewalk. "I don't want to wait though." He said, shaking his head slightly.

"You can't just demand conversation." He said lamely, helping Taehyung to his feet before he looked for his phone and picked it off the ground.

"Sure I can, I'm doing it right now. Just talk to me." He felt like he was begging at this point. He probably was.

"And say what, Taehyung? Tell you I'm proud you broke up with your girlfriend? Reward you or something? What do you want from me?" Jeongguk only now started to sound annoyed.

The comments rubbed Taehyung the wrong way, creating a sense of embarrassment. This isn't how he imagined any of this going.

     Taehyung could hear his coach calling him in the distance, trying to get the pitcher back to practice where he should be.

     "Taehyung, I'm not trying to be an asshole beyond popular belief, I'm just asking you give it some sort of time. I mean, if you did break up with her, you just broke up with—"

"But that's what you wanted . . ." Taehyung argued.

"Yeah, dude, I did want that. Did you?" Jeongguk asked, pinching his lips together after inquiring. He had a brow cocked expectantly.

"If I didn't, I wouldn't have done it."

"If you did, you would've broke up with her way before now and not have cheated on her."

Taehyung took a step back, physically being taken aback by the statement. It felt thrown back at him. He wasn't sure what he was doing wrong, if anything, at this point.

     "Look, man, I promise we're going to talk about this. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy you did it and I'm happy that you did it for me. Just . . . I don't know, I kind of feel some type of way about everything if I'm being honest. With you, with us . . ." Jeongguk's tone softened but his words only sounded harsh to Taehyung.

"Why— What?" Taehyung frowned, his pride wanting to speak now. "First off, don't flatter yourself. Me breaking up with her had a lot more to do with just you. Secondly, if you don't want something out of this, why are we wasting our time?" He narrowed his brows, his anger only rising.

"I didn't say that—"

"You might as well have, Newbie." Taehyung shook his head. "How do you feel some type of way about it? What? You're unsure now?"

"Tae—" Jeongguk was cut off again.

"No, fuck that, dude." Said the angered boy, feeling overwhelming emotions all at once.

     "Taehyung!" Called Hoseok. "Come on, we have to practice, you're holding it up!" He added.

"Go practice," Jeongguk sighed. "I'm not going to talk to you if irrational and irritable is how you're going to respond. You adding words to my mouth and twisting the shit I say doesn't help anyone, not even you."

The captain wanted to reply with two words that would only add fuel to the fire. Part of him knew Jeongguk was right but his pride took a hit and his emotions were scattered.

     Taehyung turned away without sharing another word, not even the hateful ones he wanted to spew. He walked away, feeling a familiar pain in his chest as he got further away from Jeongguk.

The aforementioned also turned and went the opposite way, giving his phone a once over to make sure there wasn't any crack on his screen.

     It was like a dramatic scene out of those cheesy romcoms. Two hearts longing for one another but forced to walk the other way, feelings high and overwhelming to each other.

Taehyung just didn't understand and maybe that was the issue. He didn't get it and all he wanted to do was feel like he took all the right steps.

Jeongguk and Taehyung were constantly arguing over the simple fact that Taehyung was in a 'committed' relationship. Now he isn't and for some reason, it still wasn't good enough.

At least that's how he took it.

He just felt like he was stuck between a hard spot and a rock; like he was damned if he did and damned if he didn't.