Brighter Days || Taekook

Part 47

"Act natural," Jimin says. He's tapping his foot up and down, eyes nervously scanning the crowd for a familiar face in the coffee shop.

"Jimin," Taehyung counters and nudges his knee under the table with his own, "stop fidgeting. And if anything, you should be the one concerned with acting natural. Are you this antsy with her when Jungkook is around as well?"

The corners of Jimin's mouth drop. "No..."

Two days have passed since the concert, filled with uncertainty and anxiety, but now it's finally happening: they're moving along with their plan for good, ready to go from the defensive into the offensive to retrieve those tapes, before finally calling the police on the bastard to lock him up.

Step one is for Taehyung to meet Eun-Ji.

He's not nervous, but he can't deny that it's odd to know that he's about to meet face to face with the daughter of the man who had fucked him countless times. Taehyung doesn't know what to expect from meeting her. Jungkook had told him that she is a genuinely sweet person. When he had asked Jimin about it, the dancer had shut him down. As much as he doesn't want to believe it, Taehyung fears that just maybe, over the time they have spent with each other, Jimin has started to care about her.

And that would genuinely suck, because quite frankly Jimin is the downfall of her father, and if he has started to develop feelings for her, this must hurt Jimin as well. Add another point to the list of Taehyung's ever-growing guilty conscience..

"I'm just scared she'll notice..." Jimin worries as he takes a sip of his drink.

"That she'll notice what? That she's talking to the boy who got fucked by her father? I don't think you'll have to be concerned about that thought crossing her mind."

Jimin winces at Taehyung's explicit use of words and Taehyung quickly backs down. "I'm sorry. That was too harsh."

"No, you're right. She doesn't know who you are. And besides, you're the best actor I know. If anyone can pull off acting as if nothing's going on, it's you."

"I'm flattered that you acknowledge my skills like that," Taehyung jokes and rests a flat palm against his heart, prompting Jimin to stick out his tongue.

"I think I'm just struggling with the conscience of knowing that I'm going to hurt her," Jimin admits quietly and starts to play with the straw in his glass, twirling around the ice cubes. "She doesn't deserve that."

"If I ask you something, will you answer me seriously?"

Jimin shrugs.

"Do you like her? I mean, actually like her?"

Jimin doesn't have to answer for Taehyung to know that he's hit the spot. He's not looking up from his glass as he's chewing on his bottom lip. He looks like a kid that got caught with his hand in the forbidden candy jar, and Taehyung's heart breaks at the thought that it's going to be his fault that his friend's heart is soon going to bleed as well.

"I never meant to," Jimin stutters over his words, "and at first I was good at pretending. But then I took her out on dates, you know? I really wanted to make it up to you, so I went all out to sneak my way into her life. I didn't mean for us to get intimate, but somehow it happened. And now I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place, because in order to help someone I genuinely like, I'm forced to destroy the life of someone else I also genuinely like. I know that developing feelings for her was wrong, but I couldn't help it. By the time I was ready to admit to myself that I might actually like her, it was already too late."

"I don't blame you," Taehyung says, "you can't control who you catch feelings for."

Jimin snorts. "If you of all people would blame me for that, I'd actually kick your ass."