Touch Of The Poor

⑮How Pathetic Am I?

As he was sitting on a stool, he closed his eyes for a while since he didn't have any customers, feeling the burning sensation decrease as he kept them gently closed. But that short moment turned to minutes, and the next thing Taehyung knew, someone was poking his shoulder.

His eyes popped open as he flinched at the contact, and he would have fallen off the stool if he hadn't held onto the counter. In front of him stood a familiar young CEO with a blank face and idle but piercing eyes. Wordlessly, he jumped to his feet and rushed to the kitchen to call Inguk.

  
After Jeongguk placed his order, Inguk asked to talk to him, so they receded to the storage room.

"You need to do something," Inguk stated.

"What do you need?"

"I don't need anything. I'm talking about Taehyung."

Jeongguk released a deep sigh as he fixed his gaze on him. "What do you mean?"

"He isn't talking. He isn't even smiling that much. He wasn't that perky and outgoing anyway, but he was at least smiling almost all the time. Now I have to try really hard to get him to smile, let alone laugh."

"What do you want me to do? You said I shouldn't interact with him."

"And now you decided to listen to me? Do you want to not interact with him?"

"No, but—"

"Great! Then do something about it."

"You were right, hyung. It's better if he stays away."

"No, it's not. Maybe you guys bicker all the time, but at least Taehyung was happy before. He isn't anymore."

"I can't do anything, hyung. I told him everything. He knows, and he hates me. There is no turning back now." Jeongguk chuckled bitterly as he knew how bad he had screwed up everything.

"I'll talk to him first."

"Not today, though. Let him go home. He seems exhausted."

"Okay." With that, they walked out of the storage room.

As Jeongguk was sitting in front of the bar, Taehyung was nowhere to be found. But when a customer appeared, he leaped out from the kitchen in a heartbeat, something that made his brows bump together. So he's just staying there only to avoid me? He thought as he dragged his head down. There's really no turning back now.

 
After a while, Jeongguk took his package and left without talking to the black-haired boy at all. He arrived at his house fifteen minutes later and wilted on the couch. With everything, he didn't really have an appetite, but he had to eat something at least.

    

Taehyung finally finished his shift, and after saying goodbye to Inguk, he went to the bus stop, wanting nothing more than to go home as soon as possible so he could sleep.

Once the bus arrived, he got on and sat at the back. Two minutes into the ride and his eyes fluttered closed, his mind emptied of any thought, and just like that, he fell asleep. Maybe one of the biggest mistakes he could ever make.

He woke up when his head banged against the window and blinked in a daze, trying to understand what was happening. He felt his heartbeat hammer in his chest and an ocean of terror engulf him as he looked out the window.

He had no idea where he was.

He fumbled to get a hold of his phone and glanced at the time, his eyes enlarging in a split second. He was sleeping for over forty-five minutes.