Jikook - Bewitched

Chapter 4

The two were sitting on the cold floor, just outside of the entrance of the castle, knees touching as they sat cross-legged in front of each other. Taehyung played with the fringe of his old robe and Jungkook's fingers were just caressing the soft curve of the Hufflepuff's shin in an attempt to comfort him someway. They had been like this for almost ten minutes now, not a single word from Taehyung. Jungkook had lead them outside, when he noticed some students stopping in their tracks to listen to their conversation and now they were all alone outside, Taehyung pitifully sobbing to himself.

"At the beginning of my first year", Taehyung finally started, voice still a bit shaky, "Jimin and I were best friends."

Jungkook's brows arched in surprise, his hand stopping its' movement on Taehyung's shin, while his mind was too occupied in processing what just happened. Jimin and Taehyung? Best friends? After Taehyung hated the other boy so much, that seemed rather illogical. Unless, he supposed, Jimin had fucked up. A lot.

"We told each other about everything. Our darkest secrets and most embarrassing memories. Sometimes I think Jimin knew me better than I knew myself. We'd always be seen together, wherever we went, in the hallways, the classrooms, even the quidditch field. Before Hogwarts, we lived in the same village. He would stay at my house a lot of times, because he said he was lonely at home. Everyone called us the 95z and everyone envied our friendship."

Taehyung explained and strangely enough, Jungkook could perfectly imagine the two boys walking down the hallways next to each other, discussing whether the next D.A.D.A assignment was until tomorrow or next week. What shocked Jungkook the most though was that the beginning of Taehyung's first year was only a year and a half ago. There must've been a lot going on in that one year and Jungkook could only imagine how painful it probably was for the Hufflepuff to get through it.

"But one day Jimin didn't show up to class the whole day." the young boy sighed as if the memory was something that shouldn't have been awoken again, "I didn't think of it as a big deal and just brushed it off as nothing. But those days came more repeatedly and after a few times of just skipping one or two days, suddenly he was gone for a full week. I was worried, sending him owl after owl and asking if everything was all right. But no answer." he gulped and Jungkook took the other's hand to squeeze it as some sort of support, "As soon as Jimin was back, I decided to confront him and ask about everything."

Jungkook could only watch the Hufflepuff's hands ball into tight fists, "At that day, after I pushed him long enough, he was completely honest with me and told me something, I wish I hadn't gotten to know in the first place. I swore to keep it a secret and I still do." A shiver went through Jungkook's body, was he talking about the murder? Could it be true in the end? "Despite the terrible nature of the secret he had let me in on, I tried to help Jimin out with what was going on. But he suddenly started acting strange and distancing himself from me. And then", he looked up at Jungkook, tracks of tears glistening on his cheeks, "the rumours started."

A short silence fell and Jungkook felt the hair in his nape raise in a bad foreshadowing, "Well, to be exact one rumour started; One day I woke up and everybody in the whole school knew about my suicide attempt." Jungkook's eyes shot up to look at Taehyung, but he kept quiet, not wanting to interrupt Taehyung in his story, "It was the only true rumour ever spread and the only person I ever told about this was Jimin. Only him. Not even my parents knew, and of course no other student did."

The air around them felt heavy, "Out of that rumour, grew two, three, four. One more fucked up than the other. And the people loved it. They loved the thought of such a scandalous person going to their school and all of a sudden; I was an intruder. Someone that wasn't considered human anymore. I almost tried to kill myself a second time, if it hadn't been for Hoseok. I met him and he literally saved me, just by being there for me. For being a true friend."