The Tomorrow Of Us - Taekook

the first step

*trigger warning: description of panic attack*

There is this odd feeling of peace when waking up, the brain not quiet remembering where it is or what happened or what your problems are. Sadly, it usually doesn't last too long just like it does not for Jungkook.

His neck hurts when the alarm rings. The backpack serving him as a pillow didn't do its job very well and the cold during the night certainly didn't help to ease his aching muscle either. He was debating whether to leave the engine one so he can heat up the car but that would cost him too much money and so he only turned the heating system on for a couple of minutes, just until the warmth started to get him sleepy. But now, two hours later, the cold is back making him shiver.

He doesn't want to think about what had happened with his father, but clearly waking up in his car with no spare clothes has him remember it anyway. He internally curses himself for not haing more equipment in his car. Of course, he could have taken a room in a motel for the night, but he surely wouldn't spend his hard-earned money, now that really needs it. Now more than ever, he doesn't want to own his father anything anymore.

A small part of him wanted to dial Taehyung's number last night. Maybe it was thought of knowing he's got nowhere to go. Maybe it was the fact that finally, he was all on his own. Maybe just hearing the other's voice would have been enough, even though Jungkook knows that sounds creepy to say about someone he just met a few weeks ago. Someone he still doesn't know a lot about...

He now agrees with himself that calling would have been a bad idea. Still, not contacting the other means not seeing Taehyung until Friday which is still 5 days away. Jungkook shakes his head, emptying it of all his thought of his father and the beautiful violinist. Especially the last one, is the least of his worries right now. He should rather get himself something to eat, as he has class in an hour. Maybe if he'd get to campus early, he'd be able to shower in the gym's locker room before the lecture starts.

* * * * * *

He has texted Jungkook if he could pick him up half an hour earlier than the last two weeks. Practice has ended earlier than usual and even though Taehyung has managed to escape to the restroom right after the Professor has dismissed them, he cannot stay in there for another hour as the music academy would probably close soon. He has just unlocked his phone again, reloading his messages when he hears the door to the rest room open. Two voices, one more familiar than the other are talking to each other while probably relieving their bladders.

"Did you talk to Taehyung?" he can hear someone ask.

"No" Jimin's voice replies "Why would you ask that?"

Taehyung holds his breath, not wanting to make his presence unintentionally known.

"Dunno, you two were close in the first year, weren't you?" the other voice says over the splattering.

"Not really. We just knew each other from Middle School, that's all."

They are just words, but they hit Taehyung nonetheless as if they were daggers, pocking at his heart.

They didn't just know each other. Jimin was his closets friend back then. His only. How could he say that? But then again, what else could he expect? He probably didn't talk any differently about Taehyung when he got himself a new friend group back then, so why would he bother now?

"But he always hung around you back then..."

"Yeah, because he did not have anyone else." The sound of a sipper fills the room and soon after the water of the sink is being turned on.