Hayan Night [|✓Taekook✓|]

⑪You Never Did, Anyway

"What do you mean why? Fuck, why do even want to work here after everything?"

"I need the—"

"There are so many jobs, Jeongguk! There are so many normal jobs that won't make you feel disgusting."

"I can handle Solji, I can take it—"

"Are you kidding?" he asked with a derisive chuckle. "You're weak. You can't possibly handle this."

"I'm not weak."

"You're fucking crying!"

"I'm crying because I was worried about you!" Jeongguk snapped at him with a choked voice. "You were lying on the ground covered in blood, bleeding, groaning, hurting, and I didn't know what to do. Everything was so scary and—and terrifying, and when Yaesung came, he said you will die if you don't go to the hospital, and you just—just passed out and—"

His incoherent rant died down when he felt two hands clasp his shoulders. He was so lost and frantic he didn't perceive V inching closer to him. They stood there as Jeongguk's body shook with his muted sobs, his eyes squeezed shut, and his lower lip tucked between his teeth.

V couldn't remember a thing from yesterday. He could only remember Kang's sidekicks beating him up, but after blacking out the first time, the rest was just a blur. The next thing he could remember was waking up in a hospital bed alone.

"You found me?" he asked, voice subdued and delicate, his round eyes zoomed in on him nonstop.

"You talked to me. You don't remember?"

"I don't."

"But... But you even—" He forced his lips together and held the words he was about to blurt out inside.

"I what?" V questioned as he rucked his brows in confusion.

"Nothing, I was imagining things." He snorted and ventured to lift his head and fix his gaze on him.

Silence ticked on as they peered into each other. V's hands were still anchored on his shoulders, something that provided him with a strange blaze of warmth and comfort. Just when he distinguished V's gaze softening on him, he whisked his hands away, causing him to pout since he right away missed his touch.

"Jeongguk... About that day when we... when I, um—"

"When you almost choked me?"

"Fuck, don't say it like that," V trailed off as he jerked his head away from him.

"But that's what happened. And there's nothing wrong about it."

"Everything is wrong about it."

"I made you mad. I caused it."

"How can you be so... calm about it?"

"I don't know," he said with a sigh, but of course, he knew why. V just didn't have to know.

He observed him in silence as his mind floated back to the day he flinched when Hoseok tried to touch him. He wavered, unsure about unfolding his mouth, and glanced away. "Have you ever been abused before?"

V's question caught him off guard, his brows popping apart in agitation. "Why are y-you—"

"It's okay. It's okay to talk about it. And if you don't want to talk about it, it's okay too. I just want to know if it's happening now."

Silence rippled through the room once more as Jeongguk dropped his head, and V could only sigh because he knew something was definitely wrong with him.

"If I asked you who beat you up and why, would you tell me?"