If You Were Honest | Jikook

Chapter 7

Sitting restlessly at a desk in a dimly lit room, unshaven and unwashed, was Jeon Jungkook; owner and lead investigator of his own firm at 21 years old. Spectators would see him as a hard-working, young man heading towards the pinnacle of his new career. But just one closer look and one would see the jittery legs, the bitten fingernails, the heavy bags under his eyes and hear his grinding teeth grating against each other stressfully.

He was holed up in this room for the past 4 days. Taehyung was worried about him; he knows Jungkook was busying himself with case 110, but this was almost neurotic. It was hard to see him like that. The brown-haired male tried to lure him out of his office, but to no avail.

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5 Days Earlier

Taehyung and Jimin stood together in the former male's kitchen; one convivial and excited and the other agitated and disgruntled, and a third party, hidden and heart-broken on the other side of the door.

God, enough Tae. I hate him.

Those were the last words Jungkook heard Jimin never speak. It was the last straw and enough to let his tears roll down his flushed cheeks. Jimin hated Jungkook secretly. The man that the black-haired boy had run after and pined after for years, was repelled by him.

The longer he stood in one place, in the dark, hearing his two friends converse light-heartedly the harder it was to breathe. He needed some air. He turned sharply on his heels, grabbed his coat and closed the front door behind him with a soft click.

His tears stopped and started repeatedly as his emotions rose and settled. The dried tears felt cool against his skin as the wind blew over his face in a sympathetic attempt to comfort him, drying them out. But it was no use, they rolled down again and again as the lump in his throat came back.

He trudged his feet along the pavement and found himself back at his own home. He never bothered to shower nor to wash up before bed. He laid on top of the covers with tired eyes and a shattered soul.

He woke up the next morning with the same pants and the same memories from the night before. He looked over at his phone and saw Taehyung's number light up on his phone, followed by the other 56 missed calls of him trying to call last night, presumably after Jimin left and Jungkook was nowhere in his apartment.

The brown-haired older already concluded that his friend overheard something he didn't want to, and left being riled up by emotions. The fact that he hasn't seen or heard from the boy since, worried him. He and Jimin were talking about him so loving in his opinion, what could Jimin have thought that was so hurtful? Taehyung couldn't even begin to imagine the truth.

'Knock knock'

'Knock knock'

'Knock knock'

The sound resonated through the whole apartment. On the inside, the black-haired hoped it was Jimin; hoping he was going to tell him he wanted to spend the night so they would sleep in the same bed, to which the older was going to run his fingers through Jungkook's hair until he fell asleep, and they were going to eat breakfast together the next morning after waking up with Jimin sprawled all over him, because there was no way his lovely Jimin would ever hate him.

Before he realised that he was already standing at the door, a deep voice came from the other side.

"Jungkook?" It was Taehyung. The younger knew just by hearing his own name being called, by the sobering tone of his friend's voice, that last night did indeed happen. That Jimin did indeed harbour a secret hate towards him. But Taehyung knew none of that yet.