Logolepsy (Taekook/ Vkook)

27. Seventh Life

Read the Table Of Contents (Chapter 1) for description

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Taehyung's breath had seized somewhere in his throat.

His lungs felt heavy, laden with an unrepentant rage that left him not only breathless but with a heartburn.

The book was right there, ramshackled paper edges dog-eared in some odd sequential pattern, brown, old, torn and ugly. His heart pounded the more he stared at it.

'The Seven Lives Of Driving You Insane.'

He felt confused, betrayed, backstabbed, pained; but most of all nauseous.

The thrumming in his head was so prominent that he couldn't tell it apart from the sound of footsteps ascending on the stairs.

Until he sees Jungkook standing by the door.

The other, with a stiff smile frozen midway, stands gawking ahead at the table where the book lays. It's like the sand in the hourglass pauses its descent for a few seconds when their gazes lock. The unsaid words hang deafeningly loud in the air.

Paler than ever, he zeroes at Taehyung's hand hanging right above the dusty book, yet before the boy's mind and movement catch up for it, Jungkook is by him. In a flash.

Taehyung is left jaw dropped yet is quick to make a move. Both their hands reach for the book simultaneously, but it's Taehyung who manages to snatch it away first.

"Give it back, Tae."

"W-what, what is this Jungkook?" he didn't foresee his voice to come out this hoarse.

"Nothing that concerns youー give it back, I say!" Taehyung dodges another attempt for the book to be pulled away.

He opens the third page. Lets the previous shiver rebuild in the center of his spine and travel to his nape while he glances at the picture again.

"W-who else, if not me.." He turns the book to Jungkook.

On it, is a painting of Taehyung. Old and rustic on the edges, the painting has Taehyung smiling wide, characteristically himself, only with an attire he doesn't remember ever seeing, let alone adorn. An attire typical of only history books, the quality as senile.

Jungkook ducks his head, stealing eye.

The other flips the page. Now stapled is a decrepit colorless photograph of him. As unfamiliar and worn out as the last, the clothingー tall hat, black long dress coat with broad lapels, somewhere around The Victorian Era.

Taehyung's head spins.

Page after page after page. It's him. In different clothes but the same smile. And despite that being the most horrific compilation for Taehyung to ever lay eyes on, the actuality that has ground shifting beneath his feet is the single sentence below every page.

"P-please say something. Say this is an ugly prank and none of this is supposed to m-make sense." The tear that rolls out of his eye is liquified desperation. And fear. "Jungkook p-please.."

"None-" Jungkook bows his head further for a split second. Lifts it up the next. "None of this is a lie. Whatever you can make of it, is all the context you need."

The book drops from his hand as Taehyung backs away. "N-nonsense!" He fists his hair. "Jungkook this is- how is it- No!" He looks down at the page that the book has opened to. "N-no.."

Right under his painting it said. 'Killed your mother.'

He bends down to turn the page to the next painting again. 'Accused you of murder.'

He frantically turns the pages one after the other, only now watching the dreadful sentences. 'Locked you in the attic'

'Made love to a concubine with you tied up to witness.'

'Fed you dead remains.'

'Crippled you to immobility.'

His vision blurs and the room spins the moment he turns to the last page. A picture of him, smiling the same wide and radiant. A picture of him from this morning.

He looks up at Jungkook peering down at him with his lip curled atrociously.

"Revenge is best served in disguise,"

Taehyung benumbs, as he glances back at the line written beneath it.

"Broke your heart."

'The Seven Lives Of Driving You Insane.'

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I have no idea what this was and why have I taken the soul purpose of murdering romance for you all, but this was this month's flashfic that ya girl won! (Make sure to follow all the bomb writers of the flashfic that I hope by now you know who they are.)

Thank you for sparing your time even when I am so sparse in my posting! 🤍

Byeeee