natural figure | taegi

chapter nine

•) Friday Early Afternoon

Jimin had asked Jeongguk to drop he and Taehyung back to his apartment. Taehyung wasn't given a say in the matter so he left with a quiet goodbye to Yoongi and apologised for their meeting having been cut short. Now it was just he and Jimin, alone in his apartment.

"You have some explaining to do." Jimin said as he shut his door behind him. Taehyung winced at the words before falling down onto the couch. Jimin didn't look pleased when he treaded over with his arms folded. "Care to shed light on why you were hanging out with my ex who I might add you haven't yet mentioned?"

"I..." Taehyung started and stopped. Fists balled and sitting on his knees while he chewed at his lip. "I was about to Jimin, I really was going to tell you, today even after my lesson if things hadn't gone the way they did. I just didn't know how to."

"You could always start by just saying it." Jimin didn't sit, his towering presence was only more intimidating and Taehyung would've liked to have melted into the floor well before now.

"Namjoon said the same thing." Taehyung muttered and Jimin stilled.

"What?" His voice was brittle like shards of ice. Taehyung recoiled, he deserved this the way he was getting it. He had had plenty of time to speak up yet he'd left it too late. Now Jimin was mad and Taehyung was a fool. "So you've been talking to Namjoon about it but not me?"

"No- Jimin I just- at first I didn't even remember Yoongi and his past with you, then Joon brought it up and he tried to help me figure out how to tell you." Taehyung knew that giving him excuses was the poorest form of an apology, but he wanted to clear the confusion at least. If that's all he could clear. Jimin looked ever so unconvinced.

"So why didn't you? Why didn't you tell me, Taehyung? Was it too much for me to know? Did you not trust me enough to know?" Jimin fired at him, Taehyung's heart ached with each shot. This was becoming more and more difficult to fix the longer he spoke nonsense. "I saw him holding your hand, and the way you looked at him, you were blushing Taehyung." Jimin rubbed his temple but it didn't ease the tension in his head. "You have a crush on him, don't you?"

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't realise you still liked him. I thought you were with Jeongguk." Taehyung said and Jimin's anger boiled across his face, he scoffed.

"Like him? Taehyung, we broke up two years ago. I'm not mad at the fact that you have feelings for him, I'm not mad that you're seeing my ex, I'm mad because you couldn't trust me enough to tell me." Jimin's voice lowered the more he spoke, but it hurt more to listen to. Taehyung was close to trembling. Jimin never used his full name to his face, so to hear it so often and so coldly was heartbreaking. "You of all people should know me, Taehyung."

"I'm sorry..." Taehyung's voice had crumpled to a whisper. Jimin stared, he stared and he didn't say a thing. When he did, Taehyung could've shattered.

"Go home."

"Jimin, please-"

"Leave. I don't want to see you right now." He turned away and Taehyung slowly stood from his seat. He could hardly make himself move, but he managed to get to the door. By now, his body had slightly started to shake and his lip was quivering under his teeth. Jimin's voice stung the back of his neck, the back of his eyes, the back of his chest. "Seven years, I thought we were well beyond keeping secrets from one another."

He got himself to leave, his lungs contracted and his throat hitched.
The night was cold when Jimin's door locked behind him. The walk home would be a slow one. Taehyung had nothing in him right now, if he didn't know better he would've just collapsed and slept right there on the footpath. The hair around his body stood on end as a shiver rolled over him. Pulling his hoodie closer to his body while he walked, sometime later he arrived home, nose stinging and his eyes red.