Stupid, Spoiled Rich Kids (t.g.kook)

35- Make Us Never Happen

Hoseok's back prickled with the weight of Seokjin's gaze. Even as he wiped his face with tissues, he could feel it penetrating his skin, seeping deeply into the rotten core Hoseok hid behind his blinding smiles.

It's invasive, Hoseok felt exposed, he wanted to run away.

But that gaze pinned him like a butterfly under deliberate fingers. They held questions that Hoseok spent too long trying to evade.

Putting on a brave face, Hoseok turned to Seokjin with carefully crafted surprise.

"What are you doing here?" Seokjin asked, voice laced with such venom, Hoseok had to suppress a wince.

"It's been a while," Hoseok smiled tentatively. "Hello to you too."

"Don't give me that shit," the older male glared. "Why are you here, of all places?"

"I didn't come to stir trouble. I just passed by and decided to eat here." Hoseok said placatingly, but it's a futile attempt for a genuine conversation. Not with Seokjin's apparent grudge permeating the thick air inside the restroom. "I didn't expect to bump into you."

Even the silence that followed felt too loud. No words were required for Hoseok to feel shame and discomfort to settle in his guts, elicited from Seokjin's dark aura alone.

"Hyung?" Namjoon asked from his occupied stall, but it fell on deaf ears.

Seokjin levelled Hoseok with a piercing gaze. "I hate you, I hope you know that."

Hate is a strong word, but Hoseok didn't dare doubt the conviction behind the other's statement. Seokjin had always been honest and straightforward.

"I know this isn't a proper greeting after, what, a year? But to be fucking honest, I don't care. I just need to get it out of my chest. I really do hate you.

"You hurt him so much, it's insane. If you showed your face to me back then, I would've socked you in the jaw."

I'm sorry.

The words hung on the tip of his tongue, just barely latching on.

I didn't want to hurt him any more than I already did.

Hoseok didn't know what to say, but it felt wrong to leave those words unanswered. "It would be deserved."

"It still is," Seokjin's voice held an undertone akin to desperation. "He was... I was so fucking scared. He loved you so much."

Those words hit him like a train, breaking open a certain door in his mind that he forced himself to lock up and forget. Memories from the past year spilled in the wreck—private smiles, empty promises, whispered secrets, shallow dreams. He knew, he was stupid. He knew he was loved, but he was stupid to not recognize it.

"I didn't know what to do, because you were both my friends, and I wanted to understand, then you just fucking disappeared. You cut us off, cut me off, Namjoon, Yoongi. So forgive me for not being the most pleasant but one year of radio silence really does things to you."

Looking back, Hoseok really wasn't the brightest in deciding for himself. He was a coward, in all sense of the word. He wants to say he's grown now, he's not the same person he was a year ago, but what changed, really? He's still avoiding what happened like the plague. Everything blew up in his face and instead of cleaning up the mess he made, he chose to walk away from the crime scene and never look back. He ignored the pain left in the aftermath, and the wounds from the past year festered silently—a thorn in his side that he didn't pluck out, hoping that if he tried hard enough, it would just disappear on its own. But now, Seokjin prodded at it—angry, insistent—forcing him to actually acknowledge it, and Hoseok realized the wound never really healed.