solitude | ✓

xviii

chapter eighteen; I don't like him

Kim Taehyung did not expect to go home with his girlfriend after seeing Jungkook at the rehabilitation center to be yelled at by her. It seemed that she could tell that something happened between them, because as soon as they entered his apartment, the raging yelling started.

"What was that?" Lisa seethes, teeth grit as she paced back and forth in her living room, glancing towards a highly confused Taehyung on his black couch.

"What was what?" Taehyung asks, cocking his head to the left as he watches the woman in front of him pinch the bridge of her skinny nose, a long breath coming from her lips.

Taehyung knew from the movies, books, and an unfortunate turn of events before he came out in high school that women could be a little...much. They assumed things and accused their boyfriends of things, and were overall crazy.

But dang, Lisa was literally freaking out and losing her sanity over nothing. And Taehyung was more than confused, he was disconcerted.

"That, that, that hug." She yells, hand waving in the air as she stutters to get out the sentence. Her breathing was heavy and her flat chest was rising and falling like she had just ran a marathon.

Taehyung laughs. He laughs really hard that he was doubling over in laughter, clutching his stomach which clenched with every baritone cackle that left his pink lips.

Lisa was jealous over a hug? With Jungkook night he add? Now that, was funny. There's nothing going on with he and Jungkook, as much as he wishes so.

Women read too much into anything, but this was so next level crap.

"You-you're jealous over-over a h-hug?" Taehyung stutters through his loud cackles which were still flowing through every room in the apartment.

"It's not funny," she glares, grabbing one of the gray throw pillows that she happened to make him buy (claiming that his apartment was bland and boring and that it needed some spicing up) and threw it at his head.

"What bothers you about it?" Taehyung asks after he finally stops laughing. He pats the spot next to him on the couch, and after a loud and over dramatic sigh she sits next to him.

"I-I see the way he looks at you, Taehyung." Lisa sighs, pulling on a loose thread on the couch.

Taehyung places his large hand over her small ones, clutching onto her cold fingers, "what do you mean?"

Lisa laughs, god, was he really that dense?

"He looks at you like you can do no wrong, Taehyung. Like you're the only thing keeping him alive. Like you're his reason for living," She sighs exasperatedly, chuckling darkly.

"I used to sit in on his therapy sessions. Did you know that?" She asks, even though it wasn't really a question. Taehyung knew this, so he didn't answer. He let her continue. "And he would talk about you all the time."

Taehyung's face turns white. He can only imagine the things he said about him, good or bad. He doesn't know which one he was hoping for, because he can tell that if it was good, it'd be bad for him.

He wasn't ready for his girlfriend to know he was gay.

"He'd always talk about how nice you are, and how you took him out to the carnival," She says, and Taehyung's heart stops.

Jungkook told them about their date.

"He even called it a date." Lisa just confirms his suspicions, and then she laughs dryly. "He's so obsessed with you, Taehyung! He pretended that you guys hanging out as friends were a date!" Lisa exclaims, and Taehyung couldn't help the fact that his mouth dropped.

She didn't think that Taehyung was gay for Jungkook (even though he was. He really really was.), she thought that Jungkook had an obsessive crush on Taehyung.

Taehyung felt the need to correct her. No, that's not what happened. I begged him for an entire afternoon to go out with me, and was ecstatic when he finally agreed. It's me who has the obsession with Jungkook, with the way his eyes widen innocently when he's surprised.

But he couldn't.

"Wow..." Taehyung trails off.

"I don't like him," Lisa sniffles, grabbing Taehyung by his cheeks and pulling him so he faced him. "I don't like him at all, Taehyung."

Taehyung's heart broke. He was always soft for women who were crying.

"What do you want me to do about that?" Taehyung questions in a whisper, bringing one of his hands to rest on hers on his cheeks.

She cocks her head shyly, before sniffling. She takes her hand that wasn't being held by Taehyung and ran her slender and pale fingers through his soft blonde hair.

"Promise me you won't ever see him again," Lisa instructs. "Promise me you won't ever be alone with him. Promise me that you guys won't be in the same room together unless absolutely necessary." Lisa asks him, and Taehyung couldn't help the way his plump lips split in complete and utter shock.

What was he supposed to say? No? He couldn't, could he?

No, he couldn't.

So Taehyung swallowed his pride. Swallowed the thing in his heart yearned for the most.

"Okay," Taehyung promises in a whisper, letting his hand fall from hers and link with his own in his lap. "I promise I won't see him again."

"Thank you, it's means so much to me." Lisa thanks, before standing from the couch. She kisses Taehyung's lips softly, and it made him upset at the fact that he didn't feel anything.

"I'm going to shower, and then we can watch a movie or something, okay?" Lisa smiles, and Taehyung nods with a smile of his own.

A smile that's not in the shape of a box, but a smile that's of normal shape and no emotion. A smile that he didn't even want to smile, let alone mean.

"Okay, sounds good." Taehyung nods, watching as his girlfriend disappears into their shared bedroom.

Taehyung jumps from surprise when his phone starts to ring loudly.

"Hello?"

"Taehyung, it's me Yoongi. Jimin, Namjoon and I are on the way to pick up Jungkook from the hospital. You coming."

"Can't." Taehyung sadly sighs, eyes closing. "I refuse to ever see him again. Pass on the message or not. I don't care."

Taehyung hangs up the phone, throwing the object on the couch.

•
Dang children, I'm too tired.