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Taehyung doesn't remember the first time he and Jungkook met. One day he was sitting all alone at a table in the cafeteria, the next, a raven-haired boy was already seated at his regular table, poking at his mashed potatoes as though waiting for Taehyung to appear. It was certainly a surprise to the older, but he sat down nonetheless, shaking Jungkook out of his thoughts.
As though they'd already been friends for years, Jungkook waved to him and started talking about anything that came to mind. Not finding anything weird about it, Taehyung just smiled a bit and quietly ate his lunch while he listened to Jungkook ramble on and on. He couldn't recall seeing the boy anywhere around the school, but he attributed that to the fact that his observational skills sucked.
Pretty soon, Taehyung and Jungkook were walking together everywhere. Jungkook would always drop Taehyung off at his classes before walking away to his own, and no matter how many times the orange haired boy would ask, the younger refused to tell him his schedule. He didn't want the older to rush to his classes to come get him, he said. He'd rather come find Taehyung himself.
So Taehyung left it at that. After all, Jungkook was one of the best things that ever happened to him. They had the same taste in music, same sense of humour, same everything, really. It was definitely a bonus that Jungkook was hot too. Not that Taehyung was interested or anything.
Definitely not.
Taehyung was giggling about a joke that Jungkook just told him before going to the bathroom when his classmates came over. He could see the slightly confused but understanding looks on their faces as they slowly walked towards him.
"Hey, Tae, can we sit with you?" Namjoon, one of his friendlier classmates, asked while tapping one of the chairs at the table with his tray. Taehyung just nodded and motioned to the chairs, but quickly widened his eyes when one of them reached for Jungkook's chair.
"N-no, I'm sorry, Jimin, but Kookie's sitting there, so, if you could sit somewhere else..." Taehyung smiled sheepishly at the smaller but older boy, silently apologizing. Jimin, however, being the sweetheart he was, just nodded and sat on the opposite side of Yoongi.
Soon, Jungkook came back from the bathroom and he looked surprised at the number of other people suddenly sitting at the table with them. Taehyung, as if sensing the younger's presence, got up from his chair and waved.
"Kook! You're back! Look, Jin hyung and my other friends decided to sit with us! Come, sit down! I'm sure everybody's really excited to meet you! I only ever talk about you to them anyway."
"Yeah... Okay, hyung, sure." Jungkook looked at everybody rather uneasily and clung to the orange haired boy's arm. He bowed slightly and said hello to everyone before returning to his lunch. Seeing as though his hyungs didn't answer, Taehyung quickly apologized for the younger's greeting.
"I'm really sorry, it's just that Kookie is kinda shy, so he might not be very talkative."
The other people at the table all just nodded hesitantly before returning to their lunches as well. They all seemed to be talking and socializing as normal, but Taehyung noticed that no one seemed to be making an attempt to speak to his best friend. They didn't even seem to realize that he was here.
As a result, the orange haired boy just decided to be extra talkative to his best friend. He told so many more jokes than usual and laughed even harder than normal. He noticed the looks he was getting, but he didn't care because Jungkook was laughing right alongside with him, and the boy's melodious laughter made him soar higher than the clouds.
"Jin hyung... Don't you... Don't you think Taehyung's a bit weird?"
"Shh, Hoseok, don't say anything."
Soon, lunch ended, and all of Taehyung's friends got up and left, not forgetting to say goodbye to the boy and his best friend.
They were just looking in the opposite direction when they said it, though.
Taehyung and Jungkook were sitting under a tree in the courtyard of their school. Their eyes were closed as they let the wind gently rustle their hair. Taehyung was on the verge of falling asleep when he heard his name.
"Tae! C'mon, let's go play some basketball! We've only got five people, so you can come be on Yoongi's team!" Jimin yelled at him while he slowly jogged towards the two of them, the sleeve of his oversized tank top slowly falling down his shoulder.
Taehyung cracked open his left eye to take a peek at him before he fully opened both. He looked at the boy sitting next to him who was staring at Jimin intently. Furrowing his eyebrows together, the orange haired male pointed to his side and shot a look at Jimin.
"What about Jungkook? Why doesn't he play? He's better at basketball than me anyway, so let him be on Yoongi's team." Taehyung looked back at Jungkook who shook his head at him with a bittersweet smile. The tallest of the three glanced at the shortest one there and saw his eyes open wide before he slowly took a few steps back.
"A-actually, you know what? It's cool, Taehyung. We can just play with the five of us. After all, Yoongi hyung is pretty good at basketball... I have to go now, the game's starting soon. Bye."
Taehyung watched the older male run back to his friends. He saw him grab onto Seokjin's arm and subtly point towards them while glancing over every now and then. He stared Jungkook in the eyes with a confused look and the younger male just shrugged his shoulders before closing his eyes and laying on the ground. Taehyung did the same. They both slowly drifted off into sleep.
Taehyung lied on his bed and stared up at his ceiling. It was blotted with glow in the dark stars and Christmas lights dangling down close enough for him to touch with his fingertips. He let out a sigh as he turned to look at the cute boy sitting in the chair by his desk scrunch up his nose as he presumably died once again while playing Geometry Dash.
"Hey, Kookie?"
"Yes, hyung?"
Taehyung sat up and looked at him.
"Why doesn't anyone like you?"
Jungkook put down his phone and smiled at him sadly.
"That's because no one can see me like you can, hyung. You understand me better than anybody else, better than myself, if I were to be honest. Promise you'll always be by my side, hyung? Even if everyone thinks you're crazy, even if everyone turns against you, will you always be there for me?" Jungkook looked at him with the saddest eyes he had ever seen, but Taehyung couldn't think of that sentence as anything but a joke.
"What are you saying, Kookie? Of course I'll always stay by your side, as long as you promise to stay by mine. After all, you are my best friend!"
Jungkook smiled a teary eyed smile.
"Yeah, hyung. I promise I'll never leave you. I could never do it no matter how hard I tried."
Taehyung just smiled and walked over to give the boy a hug, kissing the top of his head as he did so.
"Taehyung!"
"Yes, mother!"
Taehyung sighed as his mother didn't reply to him. He let go of Jungkook and made his way downstairs. His mother was standing in front of the stove, a pot of boiling water in front of her. She looked very conflicted.
"Mom?"
The petite woman looked very startled but eased as she saw that it was only her son standing by the doorway.
"Oh, Taehyung, honey, what were you doing up there?"
"What else mom? I was with Jungkook, you should have known that. We came home together."
The woman in front of the stove flinched slightly, but not enough for her son to notice. She picked up a wooden spoon and mindlessly stirred the water, ignoring the bubbling feelings within her.
"Right, right, I guess I just forgot. Anyway, sweetheart, could you go to the store and buy some carrots? We've run out, and I can't make the vegetable soup without it."
Her son looked at her tiredly before eventually agreeing. Then he went upstairs and grabbed Jungkook and their coats before they slipped on their shoes, saying goodbye to Taehyung's mother and walked out the door.
"Hyung? What are we doing?" Jungkook stared at him as Taehyung swung their clasped hands back and forth in between them. He smiled a very rectangular smile at the younger boy and laughed.
"We're gonna buy mom some carrots, Kookie! She's making vegetable soup today and she can't make it without the carrots!" Taehyung giggled again after saying that and Jungkook just smiled at him. When they got into the store, the older male immediately ran over to the candy, and it took all of Jungkook's power to pull him away from there. In then end though, Taehyung had still convinced him to buy a lollipop.
They walked around the store mindlessly, not too sure where exactly the carrots were, but didn't really care.
"Kookie, do you think- whoa!"
Taehyung had been looking at the cereal when Jungkook decided to run into him at full speed, causing them to both tumble right to the ground. They laughed for a while and the older had to wipe his eyes for tears when he realized that the raven haired boy was no longer laughing. He turned around, and Jungkook was gone. He just disappeared. There wasn't any sign of him having gone anywhere. Taehyung didn't know where his best friend was, but he wanted him back. He slowly got up off the ground and looked around him, walking in circles. He called out numerous times, none of them receiving a reply. When he heard slight whispers come from behind him, he whipped around only to be met with a few girls looking at him with judgmental eyes, watching him closely.
"Oh my god, look at him. He's so weird."
"Yeah, did you just see him fall to the ground and start laughing like a maniac? Who does that?"
"Do you... Do you maybe think he's crazy?"
"..."
"No way..."
Taehyung looked at them desperately, like they were his only hope. He ran over and grabbed the shortest one by the shoulders, staring into her eyes.
"Do you know where Jungkook is? He came with me, and, and, and he's about the same height as me and he has kinda red but kinda brown, umm, it's maroon-ish I guess? But that's what his hair is like and he has the prettiest brown eyes and he's just really pretty and cute in general, if you saw him you would know it's him because he just looks so precious and, have you seen him? Please, I really need to find him, he doesn't know how to get back home without me and he doesn't like crowds that much and oh my, oh he's going to have a panic attack... I really need to find Kookie, I need to find him right now..."
The girl stared at him, utterly frightened before she wrenched herself out of his solid grip and ran away with her friends, throwing a few frantic looks back at him. That didn't stop him though. Taehyung ran to the lady at the cash register and demanded if she saw him, which she did not. He forgot all about the carrots and ran outside the shop.
He needed to find Jungkook.
He had to.
He didn't know what would happen if he couldn't find him.
Maybe Jungkook would get hit by a car, or kidnapped because of how cute he looks, or he would try to call the police but they would just think he's some stupid kid trying to prank call him, or he would get arrested, or worse, he would be murdered-
"-hyung? Taehyung? You there?"
Taehyung whipped around and sure enough, Jungkook was standing there. Jeon Jungkook was very alive and still very not dead or arrested and standing in front of him. The older male almost burst into tears.
Jungkook, sensing as much, quickly hugged him.
"Shh, hyung, it's okay, I'm here now, so you don't need to worry. Come on, let's go buy the carrots and then we can go back home, okay? I would just bring you home myself, but uhh, I don't know how to get there..."
Taehyung nodded and just pulled him back into the store. He quietly bought the carrots and gave them to his mother when they got back inside. Then he dragged Jungkook into his room by their entwined fingers and they passed out on the bed.
When Taehyung was leaving school the next day to head home, he saw Yoongi and Jimin walking towards him, Hoseok not far behind them. Jimin waved to him and he waved back, before he noticed Namjoon and Seokjin walk out of the school together. Figuring the five of them were just meeting up, he didn't slow down and continued walking home.
"Whoa, Taehyung, wait up!"
The orange haired boy turned to look at Namjoon's direction. He had a smirk on his face as he walked closer to the younger boy. Slightly intimidated and very much confused, he glanced at all the others there and their faces reflected the tallest's.
"W-what do you want from me?"
Namjoon's smirk turned into a full-blown smile. He got right in Taehyung's face and spoke sinisterly.
"You may have gotten out of playing against us in basketball last time, but not this time. Come on, you'll be on Yoongi's team, so don't be afraid of losing. That doesn't mean we'll go easy on you, though. Come on, let's go."
It was like a weight was lifted off of his shoulders as he walked with them to the school gym. They weren't planning to beat him up or anything, just wanted to play basketball. But-
"What about Jungkookie?"
The five of them collectively groaned. Again with the Jungkook this, Jungkook that.
"Look, Tae, could we not talk about Jungkook? We wanna do this with just you, alright? Jungkook's not part of this."
Taehyung clenched his jaw and balled up his fists.
"...You guys... Don't like Kookie?"
Namjoon looked at the others for help, but none of them knew what to do. So, he stepped forward with his hands reaching towards the confused boy, trying to explain.
"L-look, Taehyung, it's not that we don't like Jungkook, it's just that, we don't know him well enough to like him, you know? Am I right, guys?"
Taehyung turned to look at the spot behind him. Namjoon didn't know what he was looking at.
"Y-yeah, Joon knows what he's sayin-"
"Did you hear that Kookie?"
The five boys shared a look.
"They don't like you, Kookie. That's not good, is it? We should do something about that, shouldn't we?"
Taehyung's head spun around ever so slowly until his eyes bore into Namjoon's skull, a wide smile plastered on his face.
"Yeah... We should do something about that..."
It was as if there something was holding them down, not letting them move as Taehyung took his sweet time, one step after the other, the sound of his steps reverberating throughout the entire room.
Then he ran.
Before he could even blink, the orange haired boy was right in the tallest's face. His dark brown eyes wide open, as if he was trying to suck his soul right out.
Namjoon fell back on the ground as his friends behind him stood rigid with fear. Then he got up and scrambled away, tugging Seokjin's arm to pull him out of his reverie and they all sprinted the opposite direction.
As Taehyung watched them run, his smile didn't falter. No, instead, it just grew bigger as he snapped his neck to face behind him.
"Aww, Kookie, they ran away. Guess we'll just have to try again later."
"Taehyung, I think we need to talk."
The boy looked at his concerned mother, confused.
"Yeah mom, what is it?"
His mom, bit her bottom lip, not looking at him.
"Tae... I think you need to get help."
The orange haired boy looked even more perplexed by this, and it was evident. Confusion was written all over his face as his mom walked closer to him.
"Look, I know you love Jungkook, but this has gone on far too long-"
"Mom! Don't. Being gay is not a disease, I don't need help-"
"Stop! Taehyung, stop. I'm not talking about that. I don't care if you're straight, gay, bisexual, asexual or whatever. I don't care about that. I'm talking about the fact that Jungkook isn't real-"
Taehyung slapped his mother.
"What are you talking about? Jungkook is real. He's my best friend, he can't just not be real. I think you're the one that needs help, mom. He's right here, can't you see hi- Jungkook? Jungkook, where'd you go? You were right here, what? Kook! Kookie, where are you?"
Taehyung's eyes were wide as he stared at his mom. He lunged at her, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her like a ragdoll.
"Mom! What did you do with him? Where did you take him? He was right there! Where did he go? What did you do with him?"
"Taehyung, please, you need to get help!"
"No! I don't want help! I want Jungkook! Please, let me see Jungkook again!"
"Taehyung, honey, please, please just get help!"
"No, mom! I don't need help! I just need Jungkook, please, he's so important to me, I just need to see him, please mom, please."
"Taehyung... Taehyung, you have to realize that Jungkook, the Jungkook that you love so much just isn't real!"
"W-what are you saying, mom?"
"T-Taehyung, please, Tae. Please get help. Everybody's come to talk to me. Namjoon, Jimin, your teachers, your principal! Everybody's come talk to me. Please, sweetheart, get some help. You need to. If not for me, then for yourself."
"M-mom, I wanna see Jungkook."
"Taehyung! Please..."
"I wanna see him. I want Jungkook. There's no way he'd just leave me here! He said he'd always stay by my side! He promised! He promised mom! He pr-promised!" Taehyung broke down into sobbing tears, crashing down onto his knees as his mother cradled his head, letting the tears soak into her sweater as her tears landed atop his orange head of hair.
"P-please... I want Jungkook... I want my Kookie..."
Taehyung opened his eyes to a white room with white walls. He didn't know how long it'd been since he came here. Long enough, that was for sure. Doctors came in and out of his door, giving him medicine and checking to make sure that everything was alright with him. Every time they'd ask, he'd just nod.
One time, a doctor asked him if he missed Jungkook.
Who was Jungkook, he asked.
The doctor just smiled and shook his head, saying that it was no one special. No one in particular. He checked something off of his clipboard before he ruffled Taehyung's now black hair. Then he got up and walked out of the room.
Taehyung grabbed the pills that he'd been saving up out from under his pillow. He then turned and looked at the figure in the corner of the room as he sat on his bed and smiled a bit. Then he swallowed all the pills with a bit of water that he'd been given. He coughed for a few seconds afterwards, but shakily turned the corners of his lips up at the raven haired boy.
"Did I do it right, Kookie? Is that what you wanted me to do?"
Jungkook smiled a smile that made his eyes disappear. He walked over and lightly held Taehyung's face, gently stroking his cheek with his thumb.
"Yeah, hyung. That's exactly what you were supposed to do. I'm really proud of you."
Taehyung just smiled again before he looked at the wall. Jungkook entwined their hands and laid on the bed with the older male. Then, they both passed out.
They didn't wake up this time.