BROMANCE | VKOOK - Chapter 16: Chapter 16

"Good Morning", Lyza hurried to shut her locker and rush over to Jungkook who was walking through the hallway, head low and his eyes fixed to the ground. "Hey", Kook hummed, "Have you seen Tae?", of course that was his first question.
The girl didn't reply, she just bit her lips anxiously, eyes darting around.
"Let's just go to class, shall we?"
"No, I need to see if he's alright." Jungkook grabbed his things from his locker and then kept looking around.
"Look, Koo. I think it's better if we just go to class", she quickly said and before he could say anything else, he saw Jimin coming towards him, "Dude-, let's go to class. Shall we?"
Jungkook was confused, "I'm done with you", he said, directed to Jimin but the boy only turned him around.
"Yeah-, well", Jimin said, softly pushing towards their classroom, along with Lyza.
"Something's going on", Jungkook commented, looking at the two of them in confusion, "And I'm not sure what it is."
"Mh", Lyza said and pulled the chair out for Jungkook, "Let's just work through the homework, shall we?"
She gave Jimin a look and the boy was about to go to his own seat, but Jungkook held him and pulled him around, "Where's your brother?", he asked coldly.
"Kook, just don't ask", Jimin sighed, "I'm sorry for what happened yesterday. I should have never come to your house, I-"
"Park fucking Jimin", Jungkook said sharply, "You have two seconds to tell me what you're not telling me right now. Or else I'm going to tell the whole damn school that you're gay and in love with Hoseok. At this point, I do not care about your feelings anymore, is that clear?"
"I care about yours tho", Jimin grumbled, "Which is why I'm not saying anything."
"Why?", Kook rolled his eyes. "It's not like Taehyung's actions would hurt me."
"Jungkook", Jimin groaned, "Taehyung didn't come home last night."
"W-what"
"He didn't come home last night. He's at Lia's place, Jungkook", Jimin sighed, "I know you guys had something going on, so I'm sorry that he ended up in her sheets again."
"Oh", Jungkook breathed out relieved, "Dude you scared me when you said he didn't come last night!"
"Why?"
"I thought something bad happened or something, what the fuck", Jungkook held his chest, inhaling deeply to calm down from his almost heart attack.
"He fucked his girlfriend after spending a whole day with you-, isn't that something bad?"
"That's just Taehyung being Taehyung", Jungkook shrugged, "I get why he does it-, so it's not bad. It's just dumb." The boy bit his lips and looked at Lyza for a while, "You guys should stop trying to protect me from the reality of the world. I'm good, really. I can handle things-"
Lyza nodded, "I know, Koo. I just-"
"It's fine", Kook pinched her puffy cheeks, "Not mad at my favorite girly."
Jimin however scrunched his nose, "Are you mad at me?"
"Being mad would require effort, which is something I'm not vibing with towards you lately", Jungkook gave the boy an innocent smile and then got up from his seat, "Now excuse me, I'll not hang out in an empty classroom twenty minutes before classes even start."
The boy rushed outside, hoping he'd catch Taehyung somewhere, he really just wanted to make sure the older was okay after yesterday.
And the boy really was there, he stood at his locker and was talking calmly to Lia while they were looking through his homework.
Jungkook's heart ached a little, they seemed so close and it made him jealous.
What he didn't care about was when Taehyung got touchy with others because that was just the way he handled things-, but seeing him smiling and peacefully talking to the girl without touching her, that was the one thing that got the boy jealous.
Lia saw Jungkook over there and softly pinched Taehyung's arm, nodding in Jungkook's direction. Taehyung followed her glance and saw Jungkook standing there in the middle of the hallway, looking like a mess because he had cried a lot last night. He wore a big hoodie and his lips looked glossy and pretty-, Taehyung's heart skipped a few beats.
Jungkook looked down when their eyes met but before he could look back up, he realized that Johnny walked in their way and stood in front of Jungkook, grinning at him brightly.
"Dude!", he smiled brightly.
Mark appeared behind him and smiled even brighter. "Bro!"
"What? You're blocking the view", Jungkook whined at the olders but they didn't move an inch.
"Guess what."
"You're gay?", Jungkook lifted his brows and threw Johnny and Mark completely off with that. "What?!", Mark squeaked out, "Is it that obvious??!"
"No, I was kidding. But good luck", Kook smiled at them amused.
"Anyway!", Johnny cut off the uncovering of sexualities and then said, "Your view is single, Koo!"
"What?!", well now that got the boy a whole lot confused, he just saw them together, so-
Johnny and Mark shared a look, chuckling for a minute with each other before they finally turned back to Jungkook and decided to spill the tea,
"Taehyung and Lia broke up last night!"
*
What happened last night
It took Taehyung half a bottle of whiskey until he finally could get himself to walk to Lia's house instead constantly turning around to rush back into Jungkook's arms, the only place he really felt safe in. But he knew that he had to go there-, it was the easiest thing to do.
Lia would make him think of different things-, touch him and make it less painful not to be touched by Jungkook.
She would make him feel alright, she always did.
Through all the bad times, Taehyung had the habit of running to her and she would never let him down. Maybe that's what made it so hard to think of a life without her.
He ringed the bell of her apartment, she had gotten that from her parents for her 16th birthday and ever since then lived on her own-, which was good for Taehyung. He could always appear at all hours of the day and no one would hold him speeches about appropriate behavior.
Somehow it made his heart ache in pain when he stood there and waited for her to open the door, knowing it wouldn't be Mr or Mrs Jeon who would yell at him for doing literally anything close to their son.
Lia opened the door, saw Taehyung with the bottle and tears in his eyes. "Oh dear", she sighed and let the boy in, shutting the door behind them.
She led him inside the living room where she had been watching Netflix all day, enjoying some alone time.
"What happened?", she asked after she had sat him down and brought him a glass of water.
"Nothing, can we just make out", Taehyung blurted out, touching her waist to ask for her approval. But the girl shook her head, "Nah, I'm not in the mood", she hummed and looked at him worriedly. "We didn't talk about everything that happened with the cheating thing."
Taehyung nodded, feeling bad about himself because he had almost forgot that part where he was still fighting with her, still not having the guts to apologize properly.
"Lia, I-"
"It doesn't matter right now", she softly put her fingers under his chin, "What matters is what made the boy who never cries, cry so hard that he got drunk at 5pm."
Taehyung looked down, "I don't want to talk about it, Lia, I just want to forget about it."
"That's not how it works", she sighed, "You need to stop being so afraid of feeling things", she wrapped her arm around the boy's back and pulled him closer, hugging him from the side.
Taehyung looked away, "It's easier."
"You don't know that", she said, "Unless you tried the hard way."
"I tried", Taehyung argued, "I did."
"Did you?", Lia lifted her eyebrows. "Why are you here then?"
"Where else would I be?", Taehyung asked her quietly, she didn't know about anything with Jungkook, why would she even ask him such a thing.
"Where were you before you came back to my party and fucked two girls in my bedroom?", Lia asked him calmly. "You don't need to answer", she then quickly added. "But that's where you should be right now."
"So you know..", Taehyung looked down. "Who told you? Jimin? Hoseok?"
"What do you mean?", Lia lifted her eyebrow, "It's obvious that you're cheating with someone and then trying to cover it up with cheating with random people. I have no clue who it is, Taehyung, but I'm pretty sure you're running away from that person to avoid catching feelings."
"How are you so chill about this?", Taehyung asked her. "I'm cheating on you and you're still letting me in and talk to me."
"Because you mean the world to me and I know that you don't have as many people you can turn to", she ruffled his hair, "But I'm glad you have Jungkook now too", she then added with a soft smile.
"Jungkook", Taehyung spoke out the boy's name so softly, voice cracking halfway through when he broke back into tears again. "God, I fucked everything up with him", he wrapped his arms around Lia and started sobbing even heavier.
The girl gulped dryly, well there she got him.
"Is it him?"
Taehyung didn't say anything at first, but he looked up and made eye contact with her.
"It's not like you think it is", he tried to say. "It's-"
"Is it Jungkook you're cheating on me with?"
"Lia", Taehyung whined, tears falling off his lashes, "Look. It's different. It's not like with the girls in your bedroom, that was rude and it didn't mean a thing-"
"But with him it means something?"
Taehyung couldn't say it out loud, he could feel his heartbeat up to his throat and suddenly got even more nervous and he didn't calm down until the girl took his hand and intertwined their fingers, leaning over to press a kiss to his cheek, "It's fine, Tae, it's fine, just breathe", she hummed and put her hand on the boy's chest that kept moving rapidly.
The boy was close to having a panic attack, but Lia wouldn't let it get that far.
"I don't wanna feel like this", Taehyung whispered, heart aching at that.
"Why?", Lia sighed, "There's nothing wrong with Jungkook? He's a nice guy, he treats you well, I don't see a problem.."
It would be a lie to say she was having it together right now, it broke her own heart knowing that her own boyfriend fell out of love with her and fell in love with a boy instead, but she wouldn't show that. Right now, Taehyung needed someone and she had to be that someone.
"He's a boy", Taehyung breathed out, "He's got a dick. I'm a boy too! I have a dick too! I-"
"So?", Lia looked at him confused, "I mean, I'm not an expert at that but there's other positions you can do and like-, you'll figure out a way to have sex I guess-"
"No", Taehyung whined, "I mean, I can't like a boy in that way. Jungkook is so.. I don't know. He's that weird kid at school and if I'm with him no one will like me and-"
Now, well, that was the minute she pulled her hand away and crossed her arms while eyeing the boy sternly, "That's the most stupid excuse ever. Jungkook's not weird, he's just-, he's never really got any friends besides Jimin. He's probably just lonely? Not weird, don't call him that. You sound like an asshole right now-"
"But I am an asshole. I'm friends with Yoongi and Hoseok and all the others who are so rude and mean and I should be like that too", Taehyung said, "I can't be with a guy like Jungkook and be friends with people like that."
"There's better people than them?", Lia bit her lips.
"I'll lose everything if I go for him. Everyone will hate me if they find out I'm into a boy."
"But you'll have him and isn't that what counts?", Lia hummed, "And no one will hate you. I won't. Jungkook's friends won't. Your brother is gay himself, so he won't. No one really cares who you're fucking, Tae."
The boy looked down, "I don't want to come out Lia. No matter what, I don't want anyone to know I like this boy. Can you keep that secret for me?"
"Sure", she shrugged, "But that doesn't mean I think that that's the right way to go."
They went silent for a while, looking at each other and then both eyes darting to the ceiling which they stared at for quite a while, "We're over, right?", Taehyung asked after a while.
"Yeah, it wouldn't be fair to me or Jungkook if we wouldn't be over", Lia chuckled.
"Will you stay in my life anyway?"
Lia turned her head and looked at the boy for a while who looked so broken in that very moment. His eyes were still full of tears and his lips trembling after he asked her that. He never had someone staying, which made him ask this question as the first thing that shot to his head.
There had never been someone he could have trusted without them leaving him in the end.
Countless scenarios came back to his head when he would have scratched his knee or someone at kindergarden said mean things to him-, his mother would only pat his shoulders and then be on a business trip for another week. Jimin and him grew up with a maid who would change with every month.
No one ever really stayed and now he just had to leave Jungkook even though he would have wanted to stay with him so, so bad.
"Of course I'm gonna stay", Lia shook her head in disbelief, poking his cheek, "I can be your best bro", she smiled wholeheartedly. "We'll figure everything out, okay?"
"We?"
"Yeah, you don't have to be alone with all of this. I'll be there until you're ready", she gave him a weak smile, knowing that in the end she'd be the one losing him. Maybe she was the one who could better cope a loss though out of the two of them.
"Until I'm ready?", Taehyung asked, confusion written all over his face.
She nodded.
"Ready to allow yourself to feel the things your heart wants to feel."
"I love you", Taehyung blurted out, "You're so cool!"
The girl chuckled, looking down, "I love you too, Tae"
She loved him,
He loved her.
Just not in the same way.