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The rooftop was slick with rain, neon lights bleeding into streaks across the wet concrete. Thunder pressed down against the city, the wind howling through the railings. Taehyung stood at the edge, coat clutched to his chest, eyes fixed far away—away from him.
“Is he good to you?” Jungkook’s voice cut through the storm, raw and trembling.
Taehyung didn’t turn. His lips parted. “Yes.”
Jungkook’s fists clenched, nails carving crescents into his palms. “Does he make you laugh like I did?”
A flicker in Taehyung’s lashes, then a steady, practiced answer. “I’m happy.”
Rain streaked down Jungkook’s face, not all of it rain.
“I swear—” his voice cracked, then steadied, “I’ll kill him if he ever makes you cry the way I did.”
Taehyung flinched, shoulders stiff against the railing. His whisper nearly drowned in thunder. “Quiet.”
But Jungkook reached for him, fingers trembling, desperate.
“Does he know you can’t eat spicy food? That you love japchae? That you hate thunder?” A gust rattled the railing as he choked on breath. “Does he hold you all night the way you need—tight, like the world can’t touch you?”
Taehyung shut his eyes, rain clinging to his lashes. His answer was brittle. “He’s learning. He tries.”
Jungkook’s laugh rang hollow, broken. “I dropped the ball in this life, Taehyung. But in another life—I wouldn’t.”
At that, Taehyung turned. His face was streaked with rain and grief.
“I wish it was your name I whispered on his bed,” he rasped. “With him, I keep myself safe. With you—I had given it all.”
Jungkook staggered closer, thunder rolling through his chest.
“Do your parents call him son?”
Silence.
“Do your friends think he’s the one?”
Only the storm answered.
His shoulders sagged. “Can’t you forgive me? Just once?”
Taehyung’s gaze snapped to his, eyes raw, voice sharper than the lightning above. “It hurts too much, Jungkook. I can’t forget the lipstick on your shirt.”
The memory struck between them—the first crack in everything.
Jungkook’s lips trembled as he nodded, the fight dissolving into the rain.
Taehyung turned, shoulders rigid, each step pulling him further into the blur of thunder and neon.
Jungkook’s hand hovered in the empty air between them. His voice broke low, just loud enough to reach Taehyung’s back.
“I’ll be here… always waiting. The way I once held you—tight, like the world couldn’t touch you.”
Taehyung didn’t stop, didn’t look back—
but the storm caught the whisper, carrying it after him like a vow he could never unhear.