»»————- 𝒂𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒂 ————-««
🎧 ʙɪɢ ʙᴀɴɢ - ɪғ ʏᴏᴜ 🎧
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"Were you lying then? About not wanting to trade a life with me to be with him? Were you lying?"
"It was true at that moment... It's not now."
ᴶᵁᴺᴱ
Kim Taehyung released a tired, yet relieved breath once he found Jungkook after walking into the bar; no one was seen except for him and a bored-looking barkeep standing behind the counter, repetitively whipping down a clean glass.
Approaching cautiously so as to not alert his presence, he stopped across the room and angled away towards the far end of the bar. The bartender's attention was drawn to him, continuing to polish the cup, not moving to serve the newcomer just yet.
Taehyung then slowly sat down on the last stool, looking intently over his friend. Despite the distance, he could see the fixed frown pretty clearly; the droppy dark eyes, steadily gazing down at the counter his elbows and forearms were heavily upon, bearing his weary weight.
Three empty and one half-filled shot glasses rested before him, holding a clear alcohol, which, knowing Jungkook's usual poison, had to be pure vodka. If his friend knew he was there, he gave no indication, not even glancing over to acknowledge the new companion or even so much as twitching an eyebrow.
Taehyung may as well have been a ghost.
But again, Jungkook seemed to like keeping company with his ghosts just fine lately.
A guttural sound made Taehyung flinch hard and look up to see the bartender staring down at him, a wrinkled frown on his face. He continued to stare as he put a shot glass down in front of him, punctuated by the sharp clink of glass. He then cautioned a glance over Jungkook before looking back warningly.
"We're not that kind of bar, son," the man said, very serious.
Taehyung's confusion shifted to amusement as he let out a chuckle. "He's my friend... I've been looking for him all day and tracked him into here."
Understanding filled the barkeep's old eyes and he curtly nodded. "I figured you two looked a little too young and too well-dressed to be some regular folk just stumbling onto an old bar like this."
Taehyung twisted his lips. Jungkook's choice of the bar made sense. It was far from downtown and far from the people he knew. It would be a lot more convenient to drown his sorrows in his father's establishment and not waste a single penny on the drinks, but the whole point was to be alone, he realized.
"How long has he been like that?"
"Since he showed up," the bartender said, nodding in Jungkook's direction. "He ordered one bottle of a half-decent brand, paid me, poured the shots until it was empty, and hasn't moved since then."
"Mm," Taehyung scratched his cheek absently. "Well... He's going through some stuff."
The barkeep, well studied in human idiosyncrasy, saw right through him the reason. "Women?"
"Always," he said under his breath and tapped twice on the surface. "We'll be out of here in a few minutes."
The man nodded and showed his back as Taehyung slid down along the row of stools closer to Jungkook. The dark-haired boy didn't look up once, not until his friend had seated himself on the adjacent chair. He glanced over briefly then looked straight ahead at the simple shelving filled with bottles.
"Great, I've died and gone to hell," he grumbled, taking the half-empty cup to his lips.
Taehyung laughed. "Accept that neither of us deserves to be in heaven, Jungkook."
"Who told you I was here so I can kill them later?" he asked, cutting right to the point.
"No one... We've known each other for a long time. It's no news to me where you look for the source of your anesthesia."
Jungkook said nothing in response to that and continued to take short lazily sips as if it was water. Taehyung sighed in both resignation and hopelessness.
"Man," he called quietly. "When are you going to get a hold on yourself? It's been a month."
"A month..." he mused indifferently. "That's it?"
"You know damn well it has."
Jungkook snapped his fingers at the bartender as if Taehyung hadn't said a word, holding up the empty bottle to indicate he was out. The man came back with the same one, replacing it with a full.
Taehyung watched in silence his friend pouring two shots at once, downing fast and grimace with the aftertaste.
A smug grin crossed his face as he shook his head. "It's sad to see you in this state... trying to turn impotent when there are many others waiting to have their hearts broken by a guy like you."
Jungkook snorted a chuckle as he took a drink, nearly getting the liquid up to his nose. "I don't break hearts."
"Okay, and I'm a famous singer."
Taehyung dragged one glass to serve himself a drink. If he was going to have to put up with a depressed friend again, the best would be to take advantage of that anesthesia a little as well.
Jungkook fell silent shortly after, returning to that serious mood from before. He blinked at the wooden counter, pushing his fingers through his hair as a sigh escaped him.
"She's not even the one I hate, you know..." he muttered and stared at his cup. "It's me... I waited for her. I left everything behind because of her, and I was ready to do as many times as needed," he looked up at his friend, grip tightening around the glass. "So she could do this to me."
"Jungkook."
"So she could let somebody else fuck her for money permanently," he downed another shot at once before the glass hit the counter loudly. "I'm such an idiot..."
"There must be other reasons for why she did it, like the one you said before... about her being under threats—"
"That's what I wanted to believe," he cut him off, taking out his phone from his jacket pocket. "I don't know about today."
He tossed the device on the counter and Taehyung slowly brought it to see it. The screen lit up and without the need for a password, he saw very clearly the image of Jieun, in a red long dress, during a public fashion event beaming brightly at Changwook at her side as if they were a true couple.
It could be all lies, though her expression showed nothing but happiness.
"You shouldn't be wasting your time with this," he sighed, placing the phone back on the surface.
"It was Jackson who sent me this crap."
Taehyung clicked his tongue and rubbed his forehead, muttering to himself, "Clueless dickhead..."
"She changed, Taehyung..." Jungkook mumbled between a sip. "We lived under the same roof for four months. Nobody needed to tell me. I saw it... I saw what that guy was doing to her. Filling her ass with gifts, taking her to fancy places, not treating her like what she truly was... — a whore," he sneered. "It happened to me once, it's no surprise it happened to her too."
"You don't need to keep bad memories if you don't want to," Taehyung answered quietly. "Me and her... We talked before the accident, she seemed to really like you."
His friend chuckled, grinning to himself. "Sometimes money speaks louder than any feelings involved. She chose to go with him, there's no doubt about that anymore," he mumbled, dismissing the shot glass to drink from the bottle itself. "I got all the signs that she wouldn't leave... I just didn't want to see it."
"What about your last night with her?"
Jungkook lowered his head, squeezing his eyes with his fingers. It wasn't, to put it mildly, a pleasurable memory.
"What Jieun wanted was time to make up her mind back then, and she got it because I fell for it... My accident wasn't going to change what she had already decided. Him being responsible for that or not."
He wobbled on his feet as he stood up from the stool suddenly, vodka sloshing over the sides of the counter. Taehyung quickly followed in alert before his friend could trip and fall.
"Maybe I should be grateful to her... if she hadn't dumped me, I wouldn't have had a very good reason to get this wassssted... whenever I want..." he chuckled at his own joke.
Taehyung held his friend's arm with one hand, the other one tucking inside his pocket to toss a few bills of money that would surely cover the other bottle Jungkook ordered. As much as he wanted to be falling down drunk right along with him someone had to be sober enough to be out of that bar.
"Come on. You've had enough for one night."
"I should... start living... here..." Jungkook said with a lop-sided grin, feeling his arm being guide around his friend's shoulder. "Or turn impotent like you said... for my own sake..."
Taehyung laughed as they staggered to the exit, taking the bottle from his hand after he ingested a good whole amount. His words were already turning into a slurring mess and he knew it was time to stop.
"You don't mean that. Alcohol isn't better than sex."
"But they both make you feel a lot... hic... better."
He nodded in agreement before giving a weary exhale of breath. Jungkook was giving him more trouble than the first time he and Hoseok had to drag him out of a bar. Getting over Jieun was perhaps one of the worst moments of his life because he looked, acted, and even smelled awful.
Taehyung never really fell in love to get to this point where his friend was, and honestly, he preferred to stay that way. It was definitely a scary phase.
Just halfway to the exit, Jungkook unintentionally knocked a chair during a stumble, causing the man who was sitting on it to fall on the ground.
"YAH!"
Taehyung paused and cursed under his breath, "Shit."
They were so close to the door...
"Are you blind, kid?!" the large and muscular man shouted as he lifted from the floor. A few other patrons tried to stop him but he was already advancing on the boys. "Didn't you see me sitting here?!"
Taehyung quickly showed a hand, preventing him from getting any closer. "Hey, chill — don't need to throw down our throat. It was an accident, we're sorry—"
With a puzzled frown, Jungkook just made it worse by asking, "What happened to your nose, graybeard? It looks all... bent."
The scowl deepened along with his stare. "You don't want to know, but I bet I can make yours just the same! Would you like that?"
Jungkook started to chuckle to himself. "That was a hell of a sucker punch," he laughed harder. "Probably broke too much cartilage, huh?"
"Jungkook!" Taehyung hissed.
"Wait, wait, I can fix it for you."
Before Taehyung could stop him, Jungkook grabbed the man by the shirt collar, punching the opposite side of his crooked nose so hard it made the people around feel their skin crawl. The entire bar fell silent as blood flowed onto the floor from his ruined nose.
That damned sassy grin stayed in place. "See! I fixed it!"
"Crap," Taehyung cursed as four figures he had been watching emerged from the crowd, proving to be four very large men like the first. "Double crap," he breathed in exasperation. "Jungkook, what the hell did you do?"
Taehyung received his answer afterward after a meaty fist swung at Jungkook's face and whiffed. He scrambled out of the way and was knocked into a pair of tables, taking a while to understand what happened.
As the same figure marched to him again to repeat the act, Taehyung rushed to stop, trying to get in between. "No, wait!"
The man paused and surprisingly did wait.
"My friend's kinda drunk — Can't we just let it go? I promise I'll get him out of here as soon as possi—"
Jungkook didn't let his friend finish and used the opportunity to strike the man's nuts mercilessly with his knee before pushing himself up to stand.
Eyes wide and panicking, Taehyung grasped Jungkook's jacket with the strength he had in his body and flee from the bar, not waiting for the man to recover himself and for the rest to beat the shit out of them. He forced their feet to run until the old building was no longer seen.
A desert alley was where he decided to stop and Jungkook's back instantly hit on the wall as he tried to catch his breath.
Taehyung panted as well, releasing, "I know I said we don't belong in heaven but I'm not trying to go to hell just yet!"
Chuckling, Jungkook let his head fall back, biting his lower lip and hissing from the pain on his jaw. "Next time just leave me there. Maybe I'll be lucky."
"For christ's sake..." he shook his head, staring at him in stunned and utter disbelief. "She fucked you real bad, didn't she?"
Slowly, his smile began to fade. Jungkook blinked up at the starless night sky before closing his eyes again, his breathing already back to normal.
Taehyung scoffed. "Or the accident damaged your brain more than it already was."
"Yeah... Most likely."
"She's gone, Jungkook. Gone," he stated, leaning on the wall beside him. "If it was just for the money or under threats, the reason no longer matters... She's there and you're here. It's time to move on."
Taehyung could see his friend swallowing a very hard and difficult lump. Jungkook wasn't opening his eyes and he knew why. The tears were securely trapped inside and despite being drunk, he wouldn't allow himself to cry for her again.
He was immersing into his profound hatred towards Jieun and the sour grapes every day. It was almost a goner.
"I found your car down the street. Let's get you home," Taehyung touched his shoulder after minutes later in silence. "I think we managed to lose those guys by now."
Jungkook didn't technically agree but didn't protest either and only let the curled-haired boy drag him out of the alley. Not even two steps were taken outside and they both found the same men from before, standing right in front of them.
"Here!" shouted one. "I found them!"
While Jungkook remained unfazed, Taehyung's body responded automatically by turning them around to run. But then, the broken-nose man grinned, stopping them before they could escape.
"Hey — Hold up!" he approached carefully, showing his hands. "We come in peace."
Taehyung saw himself surrounded by the others and winced, whispering to his friend, "If by some miracle, we make it alive today, I swear I'll kill you myself later."
The large figure with the bloody napkin laughed. "Relax. We're not here to fight," he explained calmly and turned his attention to Jungkook. "You, boy," he studied his figure. "Are you a boxer?"
For a moment, Jungkook seemed to be putting his words together. "I practice as a hobby. Why?"
His grin widened. "That punch you gave me... it was good."
"He means the technique you used," another one said quickly. "Not every person in a drunk state can get it perfectly the way you did."
"You got some talent, kid," the bloody-nose man continued. "Instead of wasting it on strangers in random bars, how about doing it professionally?"
Jungkook shook his head with a frown, having a hard time to keep steady on his feet as Taehyung still supported his weight. "Who the fuck are you?"
"Jung Kyuhwan," he offered his free hand and smiled. "Retired UFC fighter with the championship Best Knockouts of the Year in 2009, 2010, and 2011 respectively."
The information seemed to peck both young men's curiosity spontaneously, which made the others behind him chuckle quietly.
"And your new trainer starting today," Kyuhwan continued, raising an eyebrow. "Depending on your answer."
Jungkook glanced down at his hand still hanging in the air before adverting to Taehyung, who in return, opened his eyes wider than it already was. He looked back at the man again, withdrawing the arm around his friend's shoulders to accept the handshake.
A smirk slowly curled on his lips.
"Sounds about right."
✾
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┎┈┈┈┈┈┈┈୨♡୧┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┒
🎧 𝑩𝑶𝑶𝑲'𝑺 𝑷𝑳𝑨𝒀𝑳𝑰𝑺𝑻 🎧
┖┈┈┈┈┈┈┈୨♡୧┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┚
♪ Big Bang - If You
♪ IU - Empty Cup
♪ Bolbbalgan - To My Youth
♪ Taeyeon - Fine
♪ BTS - The Truth Untold
♪ IKON - Apology
♪ Hwasa - Orbit
♪ Baekhyun - Psycho
♪ Zior Park - Active Volcano
♪ We Are The Night - Summer Fiction
♪ Taeyeon - Gravity
♪ Yerin Baek - Point
♪ Chanyeol - Stay With Me
♪ Ten - Dream in a Dream
♪ Seventeen - Hug
♪ Taeyeon - Love You Like Crazy
♪ JB - Blind
♪ IU - Eight
⚠️ 𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 & 𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐑 ⚠️
The warnings of this book are the same as the first one; STRONG LANGUAGE, VIOLENCE, SMUT, ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION & CHEATING. Two very specific are PSYCHOLOGICAL TORTURE and RAPE, which many of you would possibly be uncomfortable reading, but hopefully, will be brief and not as detailed.
𝐃𝐎 𝐄𝐗𝐏𝐄𝐂𝐓 ✅
| tears and tissues |
| a well-deserved ending |
𝐌𝐀𝐈𝐍 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐀𝐆𝐄 💭
23 | 23
╔═══════════════════════╗
- STARTED: July 17, 2021
- ENDED: September 18, 2021
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~ ▣ ~
You guys asked and I complied! 🙇♀️
I'm back again for the second book of Unsated, now with a time skip where they are both living different lives. A few things have changed since then, and before you ask me and complain about it, yes, there will be a female second lead at the beginning.
I've also been planning on a very unholy Taehyung ff for all his lovers out there once one of my on progress books ends. No dates yet but will be posted this year.
That's that for the moment 😉
Enjoy ~ 💜
ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ
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