Once lunch rolled around, all he could think of was Jimin. It hurt him, knowing he had betrayed one of his only friends for people he didn't even know fully yet. He was sure Jimin would understand, but if he didn't, then he'd lose his best friend of, what, six years? In his head, it didn't feel worth it, but maybe he was just overreacting.
He sat down, yet could always see Jimin in his head. Half of him hated it - it was like Jimin was telling him not to forget about him, but Taehyung really wanted to make new friends, and who was Jimin to stop him? Sure, he might forget Jimin, but he was 99% sure he'd have time to hang out with Jimin, also. He wasn't sure why Jimin was the only one who was in his head, either. He hadn't hung around with Viian in a while, but maybe that was her fault for always saying she was busy with Yves, he couldn't decide. But with Jimin, it was a different situation. They used to be friends, and now that Daehwi wanted to hang out with him, Jimin acted as if he had just named Daehwi was the best person of 2017.
Either way, it affected Taehyung in negative ways. He wishes it would stop.
"Hey, Tae! Sit here!" Daehwi told him in a sweet tone, it made him smile, despite the feeling in his stomach eating him away, and the guilt always there - almost mocking him for not choosing to hang out with Jimin that day, it was like karma, except Taehyung didn't really do anything wrong. He didn't hate Jimin, not at all, he was just angry. He wanted to hang out with Daehwi and his friends, and he'd do just that, but with Jimin always in his mind, he found that quite hard to do.
"Where are the others?"
Daehwi laughed. "Well, they're usually late, so maybe five minutes? Jihoon is usually the first to come, whilst Jisung and Guanlin are usually last, it's quite odd how it's always those three."
"Right." He sighs, getting out the book Jimin had gotten him, which only brought back negative thoughts he'd rather not have. Just as he was about to look over at Jimin's direction, Jihoon sat down next to them.
"Oh, hey, Taehyung," Jihoon said, smiling although Taehyung could feel the sense of awkwardness.
"Hey." He said back, "Wait, are you the jeojang guy?"
Jihoon's face lit up, and he stood up and positioned his hands to do it, but Daehwi looked at him, and he sat down again and frowned.
"I am, but Daehwi's being rude."
"I'm not rude, you do it every lunch and it's annoying is all."
"Someone's jealous."
"Whatever."
------
At the end of the day, Daehwi had added Taehyung to new group chat with them all, and just as Taehyung was about to reply to their question, Jimin walked in and wiped his eyes.
"Tae, do you have a minute?"
Normally, he would have said yes. But, he had these new friends, and he wanted to see who he was missing out on - he wanted to see why they were popular, even though they were his bullies for a while. He felt like he was being extremely disrespectful to Jimin, but he wanted to hang out with these people because, really, they seemed nice despite what they had said in the past.
However, since he had known Jimin for a long time, he couldn't say no. "Sure, what's up?"
"Am...Am I getting replaced by Daehwi?"
Taehyung didn't want to say yes, but he didn't want to say no, either. It hurt him, because he didn't want to replace his best friend, but half of him was telling him he wasn't doing anything wrong.
"N..." He didn't want to assume. He wasn't going to assume. He wasn't going to - "I don't know."
Jimin looked hurt, and rightfully so. He had known Taehyung and been with him through thick and thin, yet when his bully starts being nice to him, he's being replaced as if he never meant anything to him.
"Tae, please..." Jimin looked at Taehyung, and Taehyung felt like he was going to cry, and he hated it. He wiped his eye, and Jimin gasped. "Tae, I-"
"Jimin," He called softly, the only thing he could do was smile weakly, despite how weak he was inside. "You know I love you."
Jimin, to this, nearly cracked his neck at the speed he spun around and he furrowed his eyebrows. "Really? Do you, Tae? I definitely love you, but I doubt you feel that way anymore. I really, really like you, and I'd love to be your friend forever. But I have a feeling that I'll be replaced by Daehwi and that lot."
Taehyung frowned. "No! Never." Instead of responding, Jimin sighed. He didn't know what to say, even if he wanted to respond. It hurt him, knowing what he might be replaced by people Taehyung barely knew.
----------
The next day came, and lunch rolled around relatively quickly. Taehyung got excited because he was looking forward to seeing Jimin, but then his stomach sank again when he realised that if he hadn't seem him so far, that meant he was sulking somewhere - and it was because of himself, and it hurt him even more. Why couldn't Jimin let him have friends? Who was really at fault here? Taehyung, or Jimin? He couldn't tell; he didn't want to know.
"Tae, you don't look too good, is everything okay?"
Taehyung wanted to reply that he was okay, he really did, but if he was going to respond to one of Daehwi's friends - Taehyung likes to think his name's Guanlin - he has to tell the truth. "Not really," Is all he replies with.
"Why not? We're your friends now, we'll help you with your problems." Guanlin(?) replies with, and Taehyung smiles back at him, but he can't help but think that it was all happening too quickly. Last month, they wanted him dead, now - they're helping him to not die.
"Thanks, but...I miss Jimin."
Daehwi places a hand on Taehyung's shoulder, "You don't need Jimin anymore, we're your friends now."
Taehyung almost cried.
