Red Revenge ✓ tk

But when my knees were getting weak

The day had gone relatively smoothly for Jeongguk. The bell had rung signalizing it was lunch when he left the biology classroom, one of his most hated classes. The students around him moved slowly, all heading towards one direction. Jeongguk figured it was because of the lunch of the day which was some kind of cold noodles, which had no one running for the cafeteria.

As he followed the stream towards the cafeteria, the door to the principal's office slammed open and a total of seven jocks left the room, all displaying an equal amount of annoyance on their faces.

Jeongguk felt his heart thud in his chest when one of the jocks spotted him in the crowd. With a low grunt he alarmed the others around him and soon seven guys were crowding around him, each and every one flowing with anger.

"You fucking snitch." One of them growled and pushed him backwards, his back hitting a locker behind him. He winced at the way the students around them all halted to view the spectacle now happening in the hallway.

His body seemed to remember these hands that previously inflicted damage on him. The voices too were very familiar to his ears. These were the guys that had made him end up in the hospital. Another boy stepped closer. "Needed your boyfriend to come to your aid, huh? Fucking fag."

With the meanest face he could muster, he pushed back. The jock stumbled a bit, apparently not having expected anything back from Jeongguk. The boy balled his fists and snapped back. "What the fuck is your problem? I don't know what you're babbling about."

"Your fucking boyfriend showed the video to the dean and now we're expelled." One of the jocks pointed at the doorway to the principal's office, everyone's eyes following the direction and landing on a newcomer who had appeared.

Taehyung.

His face displayed utter displeasure as he gazed upon the scene happening in front of him. His boyfriend, pushed into a corner while the other students just watched on, no one doing anything to stop it from happening. Taehyung slowly closed the door behind him and stepped out into the hallway.

"I'd shut your mouth if I were you", he spoke lowly, his dark eyes sharp and menacing as he stared at the group. "If your principal's orders won't kick you out of school, I'll gladly do so." He rolled up his sleeves, his muscles once hidden by the wooly sweater, appeared from their confinements.

Some girls started whispering. They knew who this man was, damn who wouldn't when you knew that the former boxing champion was also a true hottie. It wasn't a secret why Taehyung's gym had more female members after winning all those tournaments when he was younger.

He had quite some admirers, many of them being still in highschool which was unfortunate for Jeongguk because this way he couldn't hang out with Taehyung too much at the gym.

"He's not my boyfriend." Jeongguk blurted out, panicked. He couldn't let the school believe that this man was his boyfriend.

One of the jocks laughed sarcastically. "Sure."

Jeongguk ignored him and pushed past the jocks so he could reach Taehyung while carefully choosing his words. "What are you doing here? I don't need my big brother to come to my rescue."

"Brother?" A random student close to them had said this but Taehyung had mouthed the exact word too.

Jeongguk sneered at the random girl as he ignored the crack in his heart. "Step brother actually. Why?"

A jock pointed his finger at them. "Since when- You've never had siblings before."

Jeongguk shrugged, wondering why the hell everyone was so interested in his life when all they did was hate his guts. "What does it matter? My mom married some guy and it made me end up with this dude here."

"Dude?" Taehyung repeated, his voice low and filled with something unknown. Jeongguk felt a certain pain spread in his chest because he knew he was hurting Taehyung by lying like this. He was aware that his boyfriend was upset because of him.

Jeongguk didn't want to glance over his shoulder, he could already imagine the look on Taehyung's face and the image enough left him feeling guilty deep into the pit of his stomach. Jeongguk left the scene when no one else seemed to have another comment ready for him and the silence had gotten too heavy.

He knew he couldn't outrun this guilt because the second he'd enter the apartment Taehyung would be waiting for him and things wouldn't be pretty after that.

⭒❃.✮:▹　🥊　◃:✮.❃⭒

The apartment was so quiet you could hear a needle drop from three rooms away. Usually the radio would be on and Taehyung would be half dancing half cooking in the kitchen, showing the most ridiculous dance moves in the sweatpants that made his ass pop.

The kitchen was dark and there was no pot bubbling on the stove or meat sizzling in a pan. Even the television wasn't on which wasn't normal either. All these things made Jeongguk's stomach churn even more than it had already been doing in the bus ride home.

Jeongguk slowly dropped his backpack by the door where he had left his shoes as well. With soft steps he padded across the kitchen to the bedroom, a stripe of light evident underneath the door. The boy lifted his fist and gently knocked on the door, expecting to be ignored.

The low baritone voice of his boyfriend granted him permission to come inside and with a tremble in his hand he pushed the door open, peeking into the room.

Taehyung was sitting up in bed, a book in his lap and a pair of reading glasses on the top of his nose, the round frames cutely accentuating his face. Taehyung didn't glance up from his book and merely listened to the steps getting closer to the bed, the feet stopping in front of the bed.

"Taehyung?"

The said man hummed, acknowledging the other's presence but still refusing to look up from the words he had been repeatedly reading ever since Jeongguk had entered the apartment. It's not like he could even try imaging focusing after what happened at school. He had lost his focus after that and nothing had worked to keep his mind off the scene that happened.

Jeongguk slowly got on the bed, shuffling closer to his boyfriend. The said man finally looked him in the eye and the deadly stare made him freeze in place. "Are you sure you should get so close to your brother?"

Jeongguk's face dropped, together with his stomach. Taehyung watched the boy's face pale and guilt spread through the boy's eyes. "Taehyung- I- I can explain."

"You don't have to", the man spoke as he placed the book down on the window sill next to him. "I understand you don't want others to know about us, especially the whole school." He got up from the bed while speaking. "Just hadn't expected to be crowned as your new step brother."

"I didn't mean to-"

The deep sigh that left Taehyung's lips make him halt in his next words. "I know you didn't", Taehyung spoke. "It just hurt a little more than I had expected it to hurt."

With a heavy heart and a saddened look he watched Taehyung walk out of the room, the man's spirit low and his feet barely dragging him into the kitchen.

Jeongguk sniffled. He had to do something about this. He couldn't go on like this.

For the people who don't know wtf is going with the chapter titles: pls look it up, it's not some sort of cryptic message it's just me being into good ass music (and songs that fit the story)