Boo || Kim Taehyung

28;

• Byul's POV •

I wasn't sure when Taehyung left the apartment, but when I returned home from work, he was nowhere to be found. For a horrible moment, I thought maybe he had moved on; though, I wasn't sure why that bothered me so much.

Maybe it was because he was the first friend I had made in a while, even if he was a pain in the ass most of the time. Or perhaps it was because then I wouldn't have anyone to rant to at the end of the day as I kicked off my shoes once he was gone. Whatever it was, I knew that if he ever left, it wasn't going to be an easy adjustment to make.

But he wasn't gone gone. If someone had asked me how I knew, I wouldn't have been able to put it into words how, but I knew that he was still somewhere– even if he wasn't in the same apartment as me.

There was something about Taehyung that made me start eating a bit better when he was around, probably because he judged with a raised eyebrow and a frown when I only ate a pop-tart for dinner. So seeing as he wasn't there, I pulled out a bag of popcorn from the pantry and threw it in the microwave before searching the freezer for ice cream. I found an empty container, and if I wasn't sure that Taehyung wasn't capable of consuming anything, I might have accused him of eating it.

I shook my head at myself– it was like I forgot that he was a ghost sometimes. It didn't help anything that he seemed so solid most of the time. As long as I didn't try to touch him, it was as though I was in the room with any other person.

I was pulled from my thoughts by a knock on the door, and I frowned as I tossed the empty carton of ice cream in the trash. Seokjin was out of town for a week, so it couldn't be him. The only other person I could think of that might want to talk to me in person at this time of night was Hoseok, but I told him the previous day that the exorcism was off, so there wasn't a reason for him to be there either.

I opened the door, ready to tell whoever it was to go away, and came face-to-face with a very obviously drunk Jungkook. I slammed the door before he had a chance to say anything, pressing my back against it. How did he know where I lived? And why was he there?

Another knock fell on the wood, but it didn't sound angry. "Taaaaaaaaehyuuuuung. I need to talk to you, d'you have a minute?" Jungkook's words were slurred, but not so much so that I couldn't figure out what he was saying.

"Uh. Taehyung isn't here right now." I called back after a second. Jungkook didn't remember that Taehyung was dead, that this wasn't his apartment anymore, I realised. He thought that his friend still lived there, and his visit had nothing to do with me.

"D'you know when he'll be back?" Jungkook asked politely, though still quite drunkenly.

"Not for a while." I didn't know what else to say. How could I tell him that one of his best friends, someone he idolised, was dead? I couldn't. I tried for a moment, and no sound came out of my mouth.

"I'll just wait here then, thank you."

I looked out the peephole (I wasn't sure why I didn't think of using it before) to see that he had taken a seat on the ground, legs outstretched in front of him. "Do you have someone you can call?" I asked, still not willing to open the door.

"I could call Taehyung again, but he hasn't been picking up his phone." Jungkook replied. That was it. I couldn't keep hiding behind a door and leave him sitting there. It wasn't right, and I knew it would probably be best if he wasn't there when Taehyung got back.

I opened the door slowly, peaking out at him before stepping into the hall. He looked up at me blearily, blinking as though to clear his head. "You." He said flatly. I had hoped that he wouldn't recognise me, because maybe then he wouldn't remember that Taehyung was gone. "So you even stole his apartment, huh?"

"What? No. Jungkook, what's going on?" I knelt down beside him. Something had changed. The last time I spoke to him, he had left smiling at me as though I was an old friend. Now he looked at me more like I was an old enemy than anything else.

"Why would you do that?" He asked, eyes brimming with tears. "Why would you steal Taehyung's music? He worked so hard on it, too hard for you to take it away."

"Jungkook, I can explain..." I started, though I really couldn't. I had no idea how he had even found out about it at first, but now that I was thinking about it, I supposed it was inevitable. He was in the music industry, of course he would hear every new artist's music and name, including "V," whose music had gotten quite popular despite the fact that there was no face to the name.

"Sure. I'd love to hear you explain why you'd lie to me about high school. Oh, and don't leave out the part where you never even knew Taehyung."

I reached a hand out to him, but dropped it before it got to his shoulder. "Jungkook..." I sighed. "I'm so sorry. For everything. But don't you think that Taehyung would have wanted his music to be heard? Or do you think he would have preferred it if the songs he worked so tirelessly on sat on his old laptop forever?"

There was a pause before Jungkook said anything in response. "I think I'm gonna puke." He announced.