SPACE ACADEMY | VKOOK

chapter 16

we heading towards the ending 🎉

***

Taehyung didn't return this evening.

Jungkook was stuck under his blanket, whimpering quietly to himself still trying to find an answer to why Taehyung react like that. Did he do something wrong? He really didn't know what got Taehyung so mad that he left him alone for hours.
The boy sighed, scrunching his nose because the smell of the dead body was by now taking over the whole room, drowning Taehyung's bedroom in a smelly, disgusting graveyard. Just that no one was buried yet.

During all of that Taehyung sat outside the bedroom, down the floor as he stared right ahead. He didn't know what to do. It was only a question of hours until someone would find out about Namjoon's absence and things would go down.
And that's when he'd lose Jungkook for sure. There was no excuse for what the boy did, he flat out proved that he was dangerous and indeed deadly. A risk to be kept on this spaceship.
And by tomorrow he'd probably be executed, gone from Taehyung's life as if he had never existed. Never breathed and never had his heart beating. All the boy's hard work for nothing.

And on top of all he felt incredibly bad for yelling at Jungkook, in the end all he tried was to make Taehyung happy. In his very own, odd ways, but he did not do it for any evil reason. Jungkook's only reasons lately seemed to be driven by emotions he wasn't yet ready to handle.
"Taehyung?", Seokjin had stopped beside him, looking down on him, "What are you doing here? It's bedtime. You should be in your room by now."

"Sorry", Taehyung said, getting up from the floor as he wiped off the tears that had stained his face. "You okay?", Seokjin lifted an eyebrow.
"No but that's okay", Taehyung laughed out weakly. How ironic all of this was, people asking if he was doing okay when he was responsible for their leader's death. The only person who could have saved all their lives. Who could have brought them back to earth.
"Alright", Seokjin didn't seem to expect any further explanation. It wasn't like he really cared, he just asked because he had to be polite as a teacher and the co-principal.
"Oh by the way", the man said as he already was about to walk off, "Any chance you saw Namjoon? He vanished this morning and I haven't seen him ever since."

Taehyung looked away as quickly as possible, trying to escape Seokjin's daring eyes. Each and every color left his face, lips going dry. "Taehyung?", he asked confused, "What's going on? You look pale-"

"I'm good", Taehyung hurried to say, "I haven't seen Namjoon."

Seokjin looked taken aback and not really as if he was believing the boy any word he just said. "Aha-"

"Really. I'll better get going", Taehyung turned away and then walked towards his room as quickly as possible.
Seokjin being Seokjin decided to follow the boy, just to make sure there was nothing going on.

But he was about to see a great scene that'd explain it all.
Seokjin stopped behind a wall, glancing around as he noticed Jungkook standing in front of their bedroom door, his clothes were still soaked in blood and he had tears streaming down his puffy cheeks. For a second, he was impressed. Seeing Jungkook cry was more than just a random achievement, it meant that so far everything was going the way it should.

"Taehyungie", Jungkook stuttered, lips trembling, "W-where have you been?"

"Get back in the room, Kook", Taehyung grumbled between gritted teeth, "You're soaked in blood."

"Listen to me first", Jungkook begged, wiping off the tears that kept coming.

"Inside", Taehyung said harshly but Jungkook remained stubborn, blocking the door so Taehyung could not enter without listening to him first.
The younger inhaled deeply and looked Taehyung straight in the eye, "I thought about what you said. And I understand now. You wanted a friend other than me. And friends have to be alive to be real friends."

Taehyung looked around anxiously, making sure no one was listening.

"I want to be your only friend"; Jungkook said, a hint of red glinting in his teary eyes, "That's why I brought you a dead friend."

"You're sick", Taehyung shook his head, "You're sick in the head."

"I don't understand why I'm not enough."

Taehyung had enough, he pushed Jungkook off and walked inside the room. Even though the smell made him almost throw up, he gulped the disgust down and sat down on the bed. Jungkook entered the room, his eyes now sparkling in a deep, bloody red.

Seokjin hurried over to the door, listening closely as he pressed his ear against the door.

"Tell me what I have to do to be enough. You don't need others, you have me", Jungkook started again, his voice now more demanding, frightening Taehyung a bit.
"You have to be human to be enough for me", Taehyung said calmly, knowing exactly this was the one thing Jungkook could never be. "I want someone who feels things. Someone who can keep me company without blindly following everything I say."

Jungkook gasped, "Why would you befriend a human?" Obvious disgust was written all over Jungkook's face, "They are a disease."

"Still better than a monster that's obsessed with me", Taehyung snapped, "Don't you get it? You just killed someone just to keep me to yourself. You sicko."
"I did this for your best", Jungkook argued, "I don't understand why you can't love me the way I love you."

Taehyung got up, biting his lips as he got closer to the boy and stared right into his eyes.
"The problem is, I do", he spat out, "And now I'm going to lose you because you're so fucking stupid."

"What?", Jungkook looked puzzled.

"You fucked up big time, Kook. There's no going back from here. They'll execute you and I'll be all alone."

But Jungkook just got more confused, "But they won't. Namjoon's dead, he can't execute me anymore-"

"But the one who's going to be in charge now can", Taehyung growled, thinking for a quick moment who was that person, "S-seokjin c-can."
All color vanished from his face as he realized something.
Just when Jungkook's eye color switched to pitch black, his grin getting wider, "But Seokjin's on our side."

They got interrupted by the door opening. Seokjin had enough of listening through the door, he walked in, shut the door and grinned at the two of them. "Oh well, well, well. Look who finally showed his true self"; he said, looking at Jungkook who stood there, eyes switching between pitch black and bloody red the whole time.

"S-seokjin", Taehyung stuttered, "Don't kill him-"

The older man looked at Taehyung, then started to laugh. "Why would I kill my most precious gift?"
After saying that, Seokjin's eyes switched to pitch black as well, an evil grin making its way on his face, "Thank you, Taehyung. You just helped Jungkook and me to finally get control over this ship. I've been waiting for this for a whole decade."

"W-what?"

"I was waiting for someone to open the gate", Seokjin explained, "Because I'm refrained from doing so."
Taehyung stepped back, looking to Jungkook who was standing there numbly, as if his thoughts were gone from his mind.

"And you totally fell for it."

"What?", Taehyung looked scared, turning to Jungkook who was not giving any reaction.

"You believed it all", Seokjin laughed, "You believed that it was an accident that Jungkook didn't feel emotions and you really thought you'd make him feel love. Truth is, the boy has not once operated to his own will, he's always been lead by me."

Taehyung looked startled, "What does that mean?"

"It means", Seokjin said, "That none of what you and Jungkook had was real. We just needed you to open the gate and once you did, we needed you to clear the way for us. You defended Jungkook in front of Namjoon so much that he gave up on trying to execute him, he trusted you and paid less attention. Which gave us the opportunity to kill him off, finally."

Taehyung turned to Jungkook, "J-jungkook, tell me that this isn't true-"

But Jungkook looked at Taehyung blankly, tilting his head a little, every expression vanished from his face, "But it is."

***