Can't Be Without You | Jungkook

Part 7

**

Being best friends with Jungkook means that whenever he has a girlfriend, you're bumped down the priority list. It's more for your benefit, really, because his girlfriends tend to be petty and nasty when it comes to you. You suppose it's natural, given your closeness with the man in question, and you never really minded.

The same goes with Jungkook, who'd always sized up your suitors in the beginning, intimidated them to make sure they didn't hurt you, and gave you the space you needed. He gets bumped down the priority list and never really minds just the same.

Which is why he's suddenly confused as to why he feels like a pouty, jealous little kid whenever you move movie night because you'll be out with Jin, or when you're preoccupied with your phone when you're with Jungkook because you're texting with your "friend," or when he can't bug you as much when you're doing your grocery because another man is there with you. Yet you still claim that you aren't dating.

What hasn't changed, however, is that every time he knocks on your door with cuts on his face and bruises on his body, you're still on the other side, ready to treat all his wounds, the ones you can see and the ones you don't. He doesn't even seem to mind getting even more beat up; that way you get to spend more time treating him, being close to him, a reminder that nothing much has changed. At least, that's what he wants to believe.

You're still your usual exasperated self when he shows up after a match, but you're less somber, almost as if you'd just accepted that this is a staple part of your life and there's nothing you can do about it. Jungkook may be fighting less, but he still fights.

Somehow you doubt if he'd be able to give it up, but it's not something you let him know.

He's picked up another part time job at a commissary though, and has shortlisted the colleges he intends to apply to, so at least you know he's taking things seriously. You're just worried that he barely gets any rest but like always, he just waves you off and tells you he can rest when he's dead, earning him a smack from you, as he deserves because "you should never joke about things like that, Jungkook!"

Just as you've accepted this life of his, so has he accepted yours, more like the fact that he's now second to Jin, although you constantly deny it. He denies, too, that it's jealousy he feels, and he convinces himself that he just misses his best friend. That's all.

**

Thoughts of you plague Jungkook's mind. When you're apart - especially when you're with Jin - and even when you're together. But it's probably the first time it's happened when he's punching the living daylights out of someone on the mat.

Jungkook didn't expect Iseul, his ex-girlfriend, to show up at the fights again. She used to be a spectator - that's how they met; that's how they got together, too. She watched every single one of Jungkook's matches when they were dating, but was ironically too freaked out to treat his wounds; that was the only reason she didn't mind that you did it. But after she left him with a voicemail saying she didn't want to be with him anymore, there was no reason for her to come back and watch.

Except tonight, because apparently, she has a weakness for fighters, and there she was in her combat boots and red leather jacket, clutching the arm of the man Jungkook was scheduled to fight.

It was said he had been training in mixed martial arts and wanted to try underground fighting to "see what the fuss is about." He obviously has money based on his accessories and Iseul's as well, which she'd been shamelessly flaunting. That's also probably why he, a newcomer, got to match up with Jungkook, a seasoned fighter.

The man made a show for himself, pulling up moves right before the match to show off his skills. Jungkook chuckled, as he's used to these types of fighters. This should be fun, he thought to himself.

And it was, at least at the start. The man was quick but not as quick as Jungkook. He could throw a nasty punch for sure, but it's nothing Jungkook can't handle; he'd actually been enjoying himself.

He currently has the man on a leg lock when he catches sight of Iseul just a foot away, screaming and shouting that he could take Jungkook, spewing some more nonsense about how weak he actually is.

This spurs Jungkook on. "This is what you left me for, huh?" He says to her, the smirk on his face not faltering despite the constant movement of the man underneath him.

Iseul crosses her arms. "I left you because of your baggage, Jungkook, you and your directionless life and that damn best friend of yours who was so disgustingly in love with you, it was embarrassing."

Jungkook, who was never the type to continue hitting a losing opponent, sees red. He pulls the man and positions himself on top of him and keeps punching, the anger at what Iseul said about him, and you, manifesting in violence.

He punches hard, even if he misses. Despite the deafening cheers of the crowd, he hears the cracks of bones and Iseul's begging for him to stop. He sees teeth flying and blood, so much blood, that it takes the joint screams of his friends, Namjoon and Hoseok, for him to pause and absorb the scene before him.

This isn't how he fights.

The man could barely breathe, and Jungkook is immediately declared the winner. Everything is hazy but he sees Iseul slumped over the man, ear on his chest to make sure there's still a heartbeat somewhere there.

More people come in and assist the unmoving body on the mat. Namjoon and Hoseok run to Jungkook, saying things that don't register, then they start walking him to one of the benches to check his injuries.

He's still in a daze, doesn't even know he's being wiped down and dressed, but he has half a mind to tell his friends to drive him home.

"Not at ___'s?"

"No," is all he says. "Take me home."

**