Stigma Love's Algorithm [ A BTS x Reader Poly ]

Chapter 90: A Lantern in the Dark

God, he was beautiful.

Tall, broad-shouldered and muscular with that quietly devastating aura. His hair was dark, tousled, and fell slightly into his eyes. Tattoos peeked from the sleeves of his jacket, one silver ring glinting on his thumb.

His lips parted, unsure, like he was scared I might vanish if he got too close.

My heart stumbled.

I nodded, barely trusting my voice.

"Yeah," I said. "That's me."

He let out a breath-like he'd been holding it for days.

When he reached me, we just stared for a second. The silence between us wasn't awkward-it was weighty, heavy with every word we hadn't said, every feeling that had passed through the others.

Every bond stretched, bent, and bruised.

I gestured to the seat across from mine.

"Sit?"

He nodded and lowered himself into the chair. And I watched as he folded his hands in front of him on the table-tattooed fingers tapping nervously against the wood.

"You okay?" I asked.

He didn't answer.

Instead, his eyes flicked up to mine.

"How's Tae hyung?"

I blinked.

That was the last thing I expected him to say first.

I sat back slowly.

"He's... not okay. But he will be."

Jungkook looked away, jaw clenching as he nodded. His eyes were glassy.

"I figured."

He took a deep breath, like the next words physically hurt to say.

"I'm sorry. For how everything happened. For how I left him-how I left all of you. I never meant for any of this to happen. I never meant to be the reason he shattered."

There was such sincerity in his voice.
Not just regret-but ache.
I could feel it bleeding through every syllable.

I swallowed the knot rising in my throat.

"I know," I said gently. "I see that now."

He looked surprised. Like he hadn't expected forgiveness from me. Not so soon. Maybe not ever.

"I don't hate you," I whispered.

"None of us do."

He blinked fast, his eyes burning.

"But I hurt him. I chose someone else. I turned my back on the bond."

I leaned forward, heart aching.

"You didn't turn your back, Jungkook. You panicked. You were already in something and didn't know how to leave without breaking another heart. You were just... trying to protect someone."

He didn't respond at first.
But I saw it.

In the way his shoulders slumped.
In the way his fingers curled in on themselves.

"I thought I could control it," he murmured.

"Thought if I ignored the bond, it wouldn't matter. That I could stay with the person I'd built a life with. But then..."

His eyes lifted to mine again.

"Then I met Tae. And I knew. I felt it. It was real. It was everything. And I still ran."