BEHIND THE SCENES

chapter 86: life-changing decisions

Jungkook nodded.

"Jun-ie hyung told me to go ahead and prepare for that song in my own free time," Taehyung carried on. "And so I did. Every time, after we finished practice... I stayed on to practise that song. I thought that in your spare time, perhaps you were doing the same too. After all, at times you didn't show up for practice."

"I was always practising our duet song," Jungkook said bluntly. "I never prepared another song. I never thought of it - we weren't asked to do so, anyway."

"Yeah, I never had the intention of performing that song unless I was asked to during the audition." Taehyung pursed his lips. "And somehow... I was. During the audition, when 'Heartbeat' came on instead, for the first few seconds... I was stunned. I remember locking eyes with you at that very moment and seeing the same confusion in your eyes. You spoke into the mic, saying that it was the wrong song... but the music kept playing. I locked eyes with Jun-ie hyung at that moment and he mouthed 'dance' and so I danced. I remember seeing you in the corner of my eyes, standing there frozen for a few seconds... before you began to freestyle. The whole time, I was lost and confused.

"After the performance, I think we were both way too stunned to even speak. It's like both of us had the same questions in our heads - 'What was going on?' 'Why was that song played instead?' 'Why did they refuse to play our original song - the song we had originally decided on?' As we sat next together in our seats, waiting for the results... I was thinking to myself: there was no way I was going to debut without you.

"Then the results were finally announced. I made it, you didn't. As I saw the tears of disappointment and anger roll down your cheeks as you stormed out of the room, I wanted to run after you. But Jun-ie hyung held me back. He finally revealed to me the answer to all my questions - the company... was already planning on dropping you."

"You're not being serious right now."

"I am, actually-" Taehyung sighed. "Well... to be honest with you, the company... they didn't like you."

-•-•-

That night, no one had a good night's rest.

The rest were pretty self-explanatory but out of them all, Jungkook was the worst - he couldn't stop thinking about Taehyung's explanation... and Jieun's confession earlier that day. Plus, he already had sleep issues and Jieun, for some weird reason, had refused to help him sleep that night... so he lay in bed all night, his eyes feeling heavy but still unable to let him get any rest.

Jungkook didn't know what to believe anymore. For seven whole years, he thought that Taehyung had been the one who chose his fate. For seven whole years, he hated him. For seven whole years... his entire personality had been sculpted around the fact that he had been hurt before.

Then suddenly, all of a sudden, he's told that everything he had believed for the past seven years was a lie. Jungkook didn't get it. If what Taehyung was saying was the truth, why would he take so long to tell him? Text him, shove him a note, yell at him even when he was being pushed away - there were so many ways Taehyung could get the information across to him even if he refused to listen.

Even if he didn't want Jungkook to be hurt by the company, he should have known that out of everyone in his life at that person... Taehyung was the very last person Jungkook would have wanted to be hurt by. Company didn't like him, no problem. Company wanted him gone, sure. It was all the company's doing? Fine.