Coco regretted opening her eyes to find that Taehyung had disappeared, but when she felt around, the space he had occupied was still warm and fresh with his scent.
Sitting up, she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and a soft yawn escaped her mouth. The smacking of her lips echoed the room before it fell silent and she could hear muffled voices.
Sliding out of the duvet, her feet were light against the floor as she made her way out of Taehyung's room. The closer she approached the room, the louder and clearer the voice got.
"That still doesn't answer my question," Coco identified Taehyung's voice, faltering in attempts to sound rough.
"I don't know," She made out the voice of a woman, sounding defeated and shaky. "Taehyung, I—I wanted to see you."
"Why?"
"I—I miss you."
"Kali," Taehyung sighed.
Coco stopped in her tracks before turning the corner to the living room. Kali. The name instantly clicked in her mind as Taehyung's ex.
"Taehyung—"
Two voices harmonized together from distant corners of the living room. Taehyung was pulled in two different directions. First, landing his eyes on Kali who stood a foot away from him before his body turned toward the corner where Coco stepped out of the shadow of the hallway in her oversized shirt.
Taehyung's heart sank, lips falling apart to speak and relieve the worry swirling in the ocean of her eyes, but his words were swallowed by his conflicting thoughts.
Coco noticed the hesitance in him as his arms were reached out toward Kali, holding her forearms as she held his.
Coco glanced across the room, noticing the company they had standing at one end of the room in a defensive stance toward Kali's direction. Their chests softly deflated, cold eyes turning soft when their eyes met her.
Jungkook softly smiled her way, parting from the boys to take her side. Jungkook stood in front of her as if shielding her from the pair spotlighted at the center of the living room, arm snaking around her waist as he tried guiding her away from the scene.
"Come on, Coco," he whispered, but she ignored his attempts.
She softly pushed his chest, looking over his shoulder to find Taehyung watching with a clenched jaw.
Jungkook sighed, letting her go without leaving her side. Coco's eyes met Kali's whose held no anger, only curiosity.
"I'm sorry," she told Coco, sighing in defeat or disappointment— Coco couldn't tell. All she knew, was that Kali herself was defeated by her own feelings toward Taehyung and the disappointment was for what she was about to say next. Kali turned her eyes back to Taehyung whose gaze was on the floor. "But it hurt when I saw those pictures of you and her."
Oh, Coco thought. The disappointment was in herself for going after a man who may have been taken.
That part was clear, but Coco's brows furrowed, wondering what pictures she was talking about, but the thought soon dissipated when Kali took a step closer, closing the gap between her and Taehyung.
It hurt to breathe. The heaving chests and the shaky breathes were clear signs of three hurting people drowning in their emotions and empty promises.
Coco's heart was paralyzed in fear when she watched Taehyung's body relax in response to Kali's presence. At the end of the day, Coco wasn't the one holding his heart.
She was in love with an illusion of him.
In love. It made her laugh on the inside, showing only a small, incredulous smile on her lips at the thought. She was stupid for thinking that they were falling in love.
He wasn't ready— at leaste not ready to fall in love with her. But when it came to Kali, it was so easy.
The canvas Coco painted in her mind was so flawlessly painted that she felt it close to her heart. And when the shield, the beautiful lie that hid the truth of Taehyung's feeling, came crashing down, her heart sank to the floor.
But she shouldn't be mad at him for choosing to ignore the signs, the red flags he waved so obviously. It was her fault for hoping that maybe she could make him hers and that they could connect not only physically, but mentally and emotionally too.
She couldn't blame him. It was her fault for falling, for thinking that he could choose her instead of the one he loves.
Coco held back the urge to cry and allowed Jungkook to guide her to his bedroom.
She softly walked in, standing by his desk shyly because she couldn't stand the silence.
"Um," she spoke, swallowing back her shaky voice. "You hungry?"
Jungkook smiles, nodding his head a bit so his wavy locks bounce on top of his head. "Fried chicken?"
Coco smiled through her tears when Jungkook took her hand and guided her out the bedroom. His grip tightened around her hand as they crossed the living room, and his body blocked the view from everyone. She could still feel their eyes on her because the silence rose goosebumps on her skin.
*
It was a bad idea stepping out in public with the boys when the pictures of Coco and Taehyung were swirling the internet.
Thankfully, the boys acted like walls around her, guarding her from prying eyes and not-so-secret cameras being pointed at her. Ordering take-out, they found themselves at Coco's place, eating in a circle in her living room floor because they were more comfortable that way than eating in the dinning room.
It wasn't awkward, thankfully, but Coco felt the look of concern and sympathy twinkling in their eyes when they looked at her in secret every so often in wonder of when she would break down and cry so they could prepare to take her in with open arms and speak encouragement and comfort to her.
Fortunately, for Coco, the moment she did break down into tears and sobs, only Jungkook was left to comfort her because the others had returned home.
She couldn't translate the burning pain at her chest, robbing her of words with the sensation of falling deep into an abyss of love without anyone saving her. She was breathless, sinking further and further.
She loves him, and he loves someone else.
*
:(
